Act 3 combat thread

[fabulaparva]

Squished Deceit on second try at NM-level, yeah. Haven't tried Jul yet. He's harder to beat now, sure, but the difficulty seems to depend a lot on how he starts the fight. I have only one "real" dmg-spellcaster in the party = Rowinda. Riley's magic cripples enemies, Rowinda's destroys... Considering this: on my second try Deceit started up with "Ward" as his first skill. Ummm. No. No sense, my dear demon sir. On my first try, he started by paralyzing my backrow. I thought I'd have to do multiple trials like I did with Yeldin to find a strategy, but no, thanks to his "Ward"

I'd still say that the difficulty is fine for NM-level in general. But that's in general....if he's supposed to be the most difficult fight in the game, almost verging to impossible...then no. If he doesn't start aggressive with my build and especially if I'd leveled up a bit more before I went to see him, then I'd say that so far Yeldin has clearly been more trouble. (= it means that it took longer to finally find a strategy against him that I could beat him with. Plus, I can't grind up levels in act 2 like I can in act 3.) When compared to other bosses in Act3, I'd say that he's definitely the hardest, but...one has to remember that the other bosses have helpers and unless you take shortcuts, or regendance yourself dizzy, you don't have full health when you start the fight with some of them. To this guy you can go totally rested up.

You could save yourself from some "balancing headache, and very well turn him into "an impossible" enemy. *)Then you wouldn't have to care about balancing this guy between easy/normal <=> hard/difficult levels. Just "balance him" to be nightmare on normal, lol, to heck with HARD/NM. He's actually not needed to complete the game, he just gives "an extra ending." So he's not like, eg Yeldin whom you really need to squish to be able to progress. How much would it hurt the sales, really, to make him "impossible" for HARD/NM levels**) and "nightmare but barely doable" for EASY/NORMAL? Just point out more clearly in the quest description that it's not needed to succeed in this to be able to finish the game, this is just for a different ending.

*)Or would you be emailed to death with complaints if you did that?...then maybe not...
**)NM-players are crazy enough to find a way to beat him in the end, anyway.

Anyway, off to squish the other one.


EDIT: Dead quicker than Deceit, Althea finished her off with 288 hit.

[jack1974]

Yes some good points in particular:
- he's alone while Yeldin summons his mirror images
- you can be fully rested against him
- always using mass paralyze on first run is possible, will do that now

[jack1974]

Chatting with fabula by email, we agreed the main problem are the potions. If you stock up in potions, in particular bombs, you can defeat almost any enemy. It's OK, but when the enemy paralyzes you, and you're still able to throw a bomb...
So I'm experimenting with allowing only the healing potions to be usable while you're paralyzed. So the bombs or manticore poison wouldn't work. I think is OK, since is not really common to be paralyzed (except in Deceit fight but you still have moments in which you can act).

[yayswords]

I already have him roflstomped in my head. Just wait till I get there.

[jack1974]

Will upload an update shortly. Both Deceit/Jul fights were "approved by fabula" (tm) it means is possible to win of course but is a very tough fight!

[Troyen]

I'd still say that the difficulty is fine for NM-level in general. But that's in general....if he's supposed to be the most difficult fight in the game, almost verging to impossible...then no. If he doesn't start aggressive with my build and especially if I'd leveled up a bit more before I went to see him, then I'd say that so far Yeldin has clearly been more trouble. (= it means that it took longer to finally find a strategy against him that I could beat him with. Plus, I can't grind up levels in act 2 like I can in act 3.) When compared to other bosses in Act3, I'd say that he's definitely the hardest, but...one has to remember that the other bosses have helpers and unless you take shortcuts, or regendance yourself dizzy, you don't have full health when you start the fight with some of them. To this guy you can go totally rested up.

EDIT: Dead quicker than Deceit, Althea finished her off with 288 hit.

Out of curiosity, what class is Althea? From earlier comments, I'm guessing hunter.

[fabulaparva]

Out of curiosity, what class is Althea? From earlier comments, I'm guessing hunter.

You guessed right. My Althea is almost always Hunter. Unless I play without a Hunter (doesn't happen often ), then she's most likely a Druid. Since the twins have equal capabilities fighting-wise, I'm so shallow that I choose these classes based on how I like the outfits:
Althea Hunter >>>>>>>>>>> Shea Hunter
Shea Ranger >>> Althea Ranger
Althea Druid ≈ Shea Druid

[jack1974]

Now I want to see opinions of people trying to defeat Deceit/Jul with Ranger/Druid or Druid/Thief...

[fabulaparva]

I left my Ranger out of that fight altogether.

[Troyen]

I was asking so we see how a non-Hunter combo stacks up. My party is Ranger/Druid, and I should be approaching her sometime, but since I haven't beaten the act yet, I don't know exactly when.