Surviving Vor Armory as a Mage?

[DaveStall]

So I have been playing a lot of mages recently, and I have got to the point of being able to make it to the East consistently with most of my lives intact. My problems always seem to come in the Vor Armory, which I would guess I tend to enter somewhere around level 30 or so from the natural game progression.

The two bosses there have a nasty habit of draining my mana and putting all of my sustains on cooldown with their first wave of attacks. I can teleport away and rest, but every time the boss appears it is simply a repeat ... no mana, all sustains on cooldown. This last time I went in with >50% silence immunity but that doesn't seem to be what I need.

What resistances or tactics should I be using here? I am at a bit of a loss.

[kyuubee]

that manaclashing zerker?
try disruption shield

actually manasurge may be enough but it's risky

wild + relentless pursuit is usually enough to remove debuffs

[anp]

I always walk in, then do shield+some aoe, the next turn I'm rune/skill teleporting (no phase door), then just go and kill one by one. The thing is that mages will randomly teleport all over location and they're easy to handle with a bit kiting.

[DaveStall]

Ahhh .... Relentless Pursuit. I completely overlooked that. Too bad it took me 4 lives to learn that lesson!

[Faeryan]

Funny that on NM I always lose my chars there except mages, who tend to do it considerably easier. First, I remember only one boss there, not two. Second, he goes down pretty fast before he can even touch me.
Usually I nuke him from afar and whenever he rushes next to me I phase farther to nuke him down, always staying away from him. Can't remember Mana Clash range from the top of my head but I don't think I've ever been manaclashed there.

[DaveStall]

Manaclash is range 10 which I believe means you will be in range of it must of the time. Maybe there is only one boss. I swear this last time there were two but one might have been unique. I have a hard time making out the colors and sometimes assume the wrong things!

[Orangeflame]

There is a unique antimagic melee enemy that can spawn in the prides: Krator the Gluttonous (IIRC).
He notably has manaclash, battle call, aura of silence, and spell feedback. He also often spawns with 'The Gaping Maw' (T5 artifact 2h).

Yeah, for a mage, he's bad news.
Your best strategy is to use a low cooldown spell on him first to trigger spell feedback. The negative effect can then be dispelled via a mental wild infusion, Relentless Pursuit, or a frozen spear rune (not recommended). If you need to use hit-and-run tactics (you probably will), do not let your mana be at full when going to fight him again - it just gives him more damage for his manaclashes. Instead, have a manasurge rune ready to go once your mana reaches 0. If you get pulled towards him by his Battle Call, getting away is pretty important, but you can tank a few hits (on normal) if you use a shield rune and focus on dealing pain. Note: if you can kill him before he drains your mana dry or silences you, he is so much easier.

[Mankeli]

There is a unique antimagic melee enemy that can spawn in the prides: Krator the Gluttonous (IIRC).
He notably has manaclash, battle call, aura of silence, and spell feedback. He also often spawns with 'The Gaping Maw' (T5 artifact 2h).

Yeah, that's the guy. It's seems to be pretty rare he is in there but I remember seeing him at least once in Vor Armoury. Was a much tougher fight at that point than the guaranteed boss.

[DaveStall]

Thanks OrangeFlame, that was the guy for sure.

I actually lured him into the water and he drowned. Cheap victory I guess but desperate times and all ...