ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I rolled a Rogue with the intention of trying for a few unlocks, including Doom Elf. I cleared Reknor without finding the Elven Cultists, so before going to the Far East I checked the Elven Crypts. Sure enough, there they were on the last level. So I cleared the level and got to cultist murdering.

Now, I should explain that I'd never seen Shasshhiy'Kaish before, but I'd seen someone with an achievement at level 27 for killing her after letting her fully power up. I was level 33 with my fancy Giant Leap cockily in hand, so I figured it would be no problem.

I got the "You should run away now" message and happily ignored it. Searched her out, hit my shielding rune…

…and got 10 meteors dropped on my head. I died messily.

So! Lesson learned. But, I'm still curious as to how I could get so thoroughly owned when it looks like she's doable at a lower level. I can come up a few possibilities:

1) She's higher level if you find her in a higher level zone, as opposed to, say, Daikara.
2) That guy was really good.
3) She's been powered up with the new expansion.
4) Rogues are squishy/that other class (I don't remember what it was) could tank her meteor swarm fine.
5) You can set her level on spawning lower by entering the dungeon early and then leaving.
6) I got unlucky.

Could anyone help me put together what happened and why? I'd like to avoid a repeat if possible.

I also realize I should have just played it safe and come back after Walrog (if I made it that far). So that'll be the plan next time.

If I recall my encounter with her correctly (didn't find about 3 portals, had no idea what this thing is about), she has extremely high damage output but also dies extermely quickly. If you have a way to get an upper hand on her and lay down a disable, you've won the battle.

That would make sense. Pretty much the first thing she did was hit a Lightning Rune, so I couldn't start laying in or stunning/crippling her before she roflstomped me. Also I only found like 2 of the cultists after killing the first before she spawned since Elven Crypt 3 is so huge and twisty, so that probably didn't help.

Her meteors also have a cd so if you can make her use them against summons or a lure, she becomes a pretty easy target.

Good advice, thanks.

I actually got to her a few days ago on a level 38 Skeleton Archmage and killed her without taking a hit. She used her meteors, but every one of them missed me. I hadn't realized they were scattershot like that, so maybe I also got unlucky in that all 5 of them hit. Granted their AoE makes that more likely since they don't need to hit your actual tile, but it still seems pretty unlikely to get hit by all of them.

Lyoncet wrote:I actually got to her a few days ago on a level 38 Skeleton Archmage and killed her without taking a hit. She used her meteors, but every one of them missed me. I hadn't realized they were scattershot like that, so maybe I also got unlucky in that all 5 of them hit. Granted their AoE makes that more likely since they don't need to hit your actual tile, but it still seems pretty unlikely to get hit by all of them.

Each one will target an open tile, so if you're in a short, narrow corridor you can easily get hit by several, maybe all.

I guess this means one should fight her out in the open.

Not sure if that advice is in any guide, but it seems obvious when you look at how her meteors work. Sounds like you were doing that anyway, since all 5 missed you.

So clear the level, then dig out all the terrain (or at least a lot of it) around your chosen monolith, then murder the cultist for a full-powered Sassy fight?

How does she power up and how can you tell if she's full powered? Also, are you intended to be able to kill her twice in one game? I did just the other night.

OrionJAnderson wrote:How does she power up and how can you tell if she's full powered? Also, are you intended to be able to kill her twice in one game? I did just the other night.

Her summoning starts when one of her cultists dies. Killing more cultists makes her less powerful. It's very possible to kill her twice in one game, and relatively common. I think the odds of finding her at all are around 70%, which puts the odds of finding her twice at around 50%, unless she can't generate twice in the same zone (which wouldn't be surprising, so it's probably lower). I'm not sure if there's a fluff explanation or anything, but it seems like a fine quality of life feature, giving people more options about when to confront her.