How to deal with air elemntals? - "storming the city" quest

[Postman]

I got two chars killed by air elementals already. I was playing halfling shadowblade. Around char lvl 10, then I'm returning from the loot run form the Old Forest I'm stumbling onto air elemental quest and getting killed fast. Second time I've tried slow approach killing them one-by-one, but was not successful. Got swarmed and killed anyway. I have no idea what approach to use - try stealth (which talent should I develop - stealth itself?) Try Rush talent? Try to use lvl 5 Phase door?

[Frumple]

I'll give a better breakdown in the morning (gotta'sleepgotta'sleepgotta'sleep), but the short answer right now is that shadowblades -- any dual-weapon user, but especially the knifers -- are going to have a great deal of trouble against the elementals, especially if you're not resting after every (2 on one at most) fight and making good use of either shielding runes or regeneration infusions. The primary cause of damage isn't their attacks. Taking care to lure them 1 by 1 around corners and such mitigates most of their ranged damage, which is their biggest offensive threat. What you're probably running into is their damage aura, which will tear a two-knife user to shreds -- we're talking 5-6 damage every time you attack them for a character with ~80% resistance... and you're likely to hit them at least 8 times before killing them, so that's a good 40 damage a pop before you factor in the elemental's actual attacks.

If you're going to insist trying with SB, wait until level 12-15, open up the mage town, and scum the ring shop for a couple of lightning res rings, hopefully an amulet as well. Also collect as many lightning res items as you can manage for other slots. Do not try to take them down unless you've got at least 50% lightning resistance, or are level 15+ with plenty of Con. No hard numbers right now (i.e. minimum HP, etc), but that, at least, will help.

If you're fighting more than one -- two, at most -- at a time (i.e. getting swarmed), you need to slow down and make better use of your terrain. If you're having trouble not knowing where they are, and turning an unfortunate corner or whathaveyou, level up a couple times and put a point in arcane eye, then walk around the town's perimeter dropping eyes on the other side of the surrounding tree-line. Note where the elementals are, then approach as needed. You're fighting in a semi-urban environment, do so appropriately.

As for the actual fighting, you should have maxed out dirty fighting by now, and have at least a point in flurry. Hit with DF, hit with flurry. If you've got at least d-steel or high end steel daggers, that will kill any of the elementals, even the ultimate one, in two rounds. If it doesn't, you've still got them stunned for a good 8-9 turns. Killing them won't be a problem. Rest, then repeat.

[greycat]

The first thing to note is that the Derth air elemental quest doesn't happen until you are character level 12. But as soon as you are 12 or higher and step into Derth, it will happen. So, you shouldn't ever be caught unprepared. (That said, I do exactly the same thing, frequently -- I come back to shop after Old Forest when I'm level 13, and... oh, right, air elementals.)

Shadowblades aren't eligible for antimagic, so as Frumple says, there's no reason to delay opening Angolwen. (Some other classes, such as Rogue, are probably still waiting to unlock antimagic before unlocking Angolwen, so they don't have that luxury.)

With my recent Shadowblade, I didn't need Flurry to kill the air elementals by the time I faced them. But then, I had a whole bunch of elemental damage stuff on (including a +30 cold damage robe that I later sold) at that point. (No need for stun resist there, so might as well swap in the killin' gear.) So, I wasn't hitting each elemental 8 times like Frumple says -- I wasn't using Flurry, but rather, Dual Strike followed by a regular attack. So I was hitting them more like 4 times, or 6 at most. I lured them one at a time, and used the regen infusion after (or during) each fight.

You typically won't have a problem here unless you get really unlucky and all the elementals have decided to bunch together in the middle of town. That happens sometimes, and it's a big danger, with not much you can do about it except to have a means of escape available (teleport spell, teleport amulet, teleport rune -- NOT phase door). Shadowblades get the teleport spell, so you should have that one covered.

Finally, you should have at least one point in Health by then. With the Con boost you had to buy to unlock it, plus the HP from Health itself, this should put you well past 300 HP. If you don't have that much HP, you're probably not ready.

[Postman]

Would Rush help, to close with E fast? Or E timeout between discharges long enough to make Rush useless?

[paboperfecto]

You shouldn't be dealing with them from a distance in the first place. Try this, poke your head around a corner, let them see you, back up two steps...they will come to you. In the following situation (hard to see the way I wrote it but the E is at the corner and the @ two steps away against the wall):

Code: Select all

    E|
      ----
       @

The Elemental cannot see the @, but the @ can see the E. The E will diagonal step around the corner right next to you and never gets off a long distance attack without you being able to respond.

[Sirrocco]

Worth noting here that flurry will attack them the full 6 times even if they die in the middle - and thus trigger the damage shield effect all 6 times if your hit rate is where it should be. This is pertinent on icy orc wyrmics and some dragons as well. Getting high-damage weapons helps a lot here - if you can kill them in two or four blows, you're taking a lot less damage back than if it takes six or eight. Also, as noted, shielding runes and healing and regen infusions help a lot, particularly if you've been keeping your eyes open in the stores for upgrades (and nice, high-percentage wild infusions sure don't hurt.)