ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So, I beat the game with a skeleton/cold mage… my most powerful defensive mage yet. I'd previously underestimated cold but combining the light sustains, the staff mastery defensive skill, etc., all made for a mage that proved very hard to kill… until Atamathon.

How the hell is it even possible to kill him? I literally went through all of my lives and never survived more than five rounds.

I've had mages that did more damage but he was essentially one-shotting me, even with my highest damage shield and biggest buffs. What am I missing? I know my fire defense wasn't high enough but still…

I don't think that a straight up battle against Atamathon is winnable. You need to "hit and run." Unload the most damage you can, then teleport out of his sight, recover you resources and wait for your cooldowns as long as you can, before he finds you again. Repeat it till he dies. I got him twice on normal(roguelike), the first time as a halfling brawler(before the rework) and as a necromancer. Both times I used the hit and run tactic. In a straight up battle you simply get oblitirated, he reflects damage and on top of that his damage output(without counting the reflected damage back) is enough to kill you on its own.

Straight up battles against Atamathon are possible, and entirely real, just not on mage classes. If you have a source of stunning, use it against Atamathon. He has ~50% stun resist. An endgame character should easily be able to shave off 70% of his health in 4 or 5 turns.

amuletofyendor wrote:Straight up battles against Atamathon are possible, and entirely real, just not on mage classes. If you have a source of stunning, use it against Atamathon. He has ~50% stun resist. An endgame character should easily be able to shave off 70% of his health in 4 or 5 turns.

i rarely have to run from him with solipsists. you have to be able to withstand the dmg, and impart to him a negative effect, be it stun, sleep, etc. and to do that, you need a talent that can beat his saves, or reduces his saves first, or a talent that ignores saves.

so, choose your line of attack and defend against his high dmg.

amuletofyendor wrote:Straight up battles against Atamathon are possible, and entirely real, just not on mage classes.

It's possible even on mage classes, at least on normal difficulty. I beat Ata toe-to-toe with an earth/stone ghoul mage a while ago, and he didn't even kill me once.