Failed LOLwark insane run

[Mankeli]

http://te4.org/characters/121593/tome/7 ... 4cfb933602

*sigh*
So, this sack of shit isn't going to win after all. I'm going to post this anyways because this is an educational moment on how many ways the final bosses can screw your character over on higher diffs. My char isn't dead yet, but it will most likely die in 1-3 turns.

I've been playing an ogre bulwark on insane and managed to get to High Peak before the real trouble started. First my bulwark was slaughtered from full respectable health of about 1950 while digging. I was trying to dig so I could face that sun paladin/cursed high pyromancer boss but it entered line of sight and instantly killed my poor LOLwark in one wave of power I think. Well, on one turn regardless. Since it was a pretty BS death I wasn't too disheartened by that and kept on going...

...and then the final battle started. Right away I noticed that Elandar had more mag sustains that I can disperse so Essence of Speed will be problematic. But it wasn't even the whole truth because it turned out Elandar had even more mag sustains that weren't active right away. The total was eight which makes effective dispersion extremely difficult especially since he seemed to active Essence of Speed like right away again (cooldown said 21/30 depending on quicken spells turns but it felt even faster).

Anyways, after dispersing once, I closed the portals first which was very fast with blinding speed + two movement infusions + step up (kill one portal trash monsters and gain a movement infusion). However, to my surprise, Aeryn was already dead when I was done with the portals. I've had Aeryn die before like this at least once but this time I really didn't take that long. So the beating must have been extremely brutal.

Looks bad doesn't it? Well, the disappointments do not end here, not at all. My ogre had a phys power of 98 which meant that even Elandar was eating status effects for lunch...too bad he had switch place which gave him 50 % evasion. That's -50 % damage output right there. And for 10 turns in a row. And since talents like assault need the first hit to actually hit for the two weapon hits to follow...well, you know where this is going. But that's not all, Elandar also had True Grit and Vitaly! So even if my LOLwark did some damage, Elandar's resists just got stronger. The evasion was the real problem, the healing could have been dealt with but I'm not sure I even got Elandar to 50 % HP.

Ok, so, at this point I have on Elandar that has (perma) evasion + heals + resists + Essence of Speed that can't be dispersed effectively. But wait, the few xorns that came from the elemental portal also digged out the whole level (excluding two single tiles) so now there is nowhere to hide either. Yeah.

So, this is the end of the road for my poor ogre. On this run I learned that LOLwark really isn't the worst class in the game on insane, just the second worst. Well, probably the worst if Elandar get's evasion. Also the final battle is still a coin flipon higher diffs: If you can disable Essence of Speed and keep it down most of the time then you probably will kill the bosses. If you can't and aren't playing like an archmage, necro or arcane blade or something like that, then you are in trouble. If you can't even hit Elandar in addition to him having Essence of Speed up, then RIP your LOLwark.

On Eidolon plane I switched equipment and inscriptions around etc. but was never even close to winning. The only thing I could have maybe done differently was to try that purging great maul (assuming it destroys magical sustains too) and try to hit Elandar. It's damage sucks though so trying to disable sustains by hitting Elanar who has potential for perma evasion because the cooldown of switch place is the same as it's duration AND has crazy heals and resists and noticeable armour too would have been extremely difficult.

Also, the xorns should have been killed right away too I guess.

So yeah, bulwarks suck but certain Elandar's talents, namely Essence of Speed, Switch Place (evasion) and Vitality sucked even more.