17 réponses à ce sujet

[AlanC9]

 I'm revisiting my first character -- he went US and I decided I'd like to have an alternate version of him where he made different choices. So while replaying from a late-game save, and playing on Nightmare to keep me awake, I've run into a fight I can't seem to beat thanks to the bad builds.

It's the Anvil fight, siding with Caridin. Party is a mage PC, Morrigan, Leiliana, and Oghren. Levels 16/17. Leiliana's an archer, but doesn't have Arrow of Slaying, Scattershot, or Suppressive Fire yet. Oghren's got his default abilities, natch. My PC has mostly Primal stuff, plus a couple of things like Horror that won't work on golems. Morrigan's split between Entropy and Primal.

The two issues are that I've got no real tank and no effective CC. Except Fireball, but if I unload that at the start my PC pulls all the aggro and he can't take it.

Obviously, I can win this fight by dialing the difficulty down. But it bugs me that I can't find a way past this. What would you try?

[Elhanan]

If available, start off by placing Braka in a Force Shield in order to reposition. Try taking out the lesser golems first, then work your way up to Branka last. Have your mages use the Lyrium crystals so Braka cannot. Use Mind Blast to reset crowd anger if it is all on you. And Glyph paralyze combo can be helpful to gain your breath.

[AlanC9]

Don't have any of the Force line or Glyphs. And AFAIK Mind Blast isn't effective on Golems.



One more thing: I've got Combat Tweaks installed, so all health poultice cooldowns are on the same timer. This means that I can't just have Oghren spam different kinds of poultice.

[Elhanan]

Mind Blast may not have to work, but you are probably correct.
You could try the Respec mod to enable a better build with each character. After all, you are playing a character that decided to make different choices, so why stick with the same build?

BTW - Anyone have Cone of Cold; also a good breather spell? Also, golems are subject to Knockdown which is a great rest tactic. I believe Fireball, Shattershot, Pummel Strike and Sweep, and maybe afew others have this.

Modifié par Elhanan, 18 juin 2010 - 07:55 .

[MindYerBeak]

What's needed is for Oghren to tank Branka. Have Leliana to use Song of Courage and use her to backstab and stun the Golems. Leave Morrigan to cast heal spells, plus cast a few spells she can use. Heal the friendly Golems on your side, try and keep them alive while they tank the other Golems. Get rid of the Golems first, then concentrate on Branka. Use health poultices whenever possible. Make lesser poultices to assist with cooldown. You could possibly use Fireball and then kite the Golems while Leliana helps out with stuns and backstabbing. When the nasty Golems are near death do a runabout nuking every lyrium point you can lay eyes on, especially those near the Barmy Branka. That's the way I'd play it, gotta be worth a try.

You also have yourself as a  Mage, and can assist in healing and dishing out spells as needed.

Morrigan also has the Electric spell which dishes out some good damage.

Modifié par MindYerBeak, 18 juin 2010 - 10:01 .

[Kalcalan]

If you have enough healing you can try to focus the attention of the golems on the dwarf, have him pull a Benny Hill (running in circles with a bunch of golems on his tail) while the others take the enemy down one by one (you may have to stop Oghren and have him hit golems if they start losing interest). It should be hard but doable (I didn't know Combat Tweaks did that, interesting).

Modifié par Kalcalan, 18 juin 2010 - 12:17 .

[AlanC9]

Both mages have Cone of Cold. Golems seem to resist the freeze effect about half the time, and Branka always. I have been overlooking Leiliana's Dirty Fighting ability -- and indeed most of her melee since she's spec'd as an archer.



MindYerBeak -- can't do the poultice thing thanks to Combat Tweaks putting everything on the same cooldown. That's the problem with Oghren tanking Branka -- I don't think there's enough healing capacity to make it work. It's a small change that has radical effect on the gameplay. Kiting's probably the most promising approach.

[CallumMcManus]

AlanC9 wrote...

Both mages have Cone of Cold. Golems seem to resist the freeze effect about half the time, and Branka always. I have been overlooking Leiliana's Dirty Fighting ability -- and indeed most of her melee since she's spec'd as an archer.

MindYerBeak -- can't do the poultice thing thanks to Combat Tweaks putting everything on the same cooldown. That's the problem with Oghren tanking Branka -- I don't think there's enough healing capacity to make it work. It's a small change that has radical effect on the gameplay. Kiting's probably the most promising approach.

I found it easier to fight against branka and imo i would get all your party to focus on who you want then you take em down quicker plus it gets you through quicker it can be good depends on your party though really

Callum McM-_-

[MindYerBeak]

You have to be careful of Barmy Branka. If she makes a beeline for a lyrium post you're dead meat. Far better to keep her occupied with Oghren. She'll go after Oghren if he tries to kite and you're missing out on him doing good damage. If his health drops get him to kite until your health spell recharges. If you can defeat the Golems and have a Golem left standing it'll mean curtains for Branka. Just make sure you get both Mages to nuetralise those lyrium posts, healing as you go. Morrigan's damage is good with the fireball and should keep aggro on them whilst kiting. Send the others to attack Branka, then fireball the Golems again if you can, sending the others back when done to continue the Golem damage. Sacrificing a member of the party in favour of saving a Golem might be a good strategy.

Cone of Cold, though it may only work 50% of the time, means reduced aggro.

Use Mind Blast on Branka whenever possible.

Modifié par MindYerBeak, 19 juin 2010 - 04:28 .

[TBastian]

If you took Shapeshifting this fight would be easy. Just have Morrigan shift into a Bear, use Slam on Branka, shift into Swarm and kite her while everyone else kills the golems. If the Flying Swarm's mana goes down low enough just touch one of the crystals. Everybody else should have no trouble killing the golems, without Branka hanging about.
The Shapeshifter is a master of versatility and as long as your spells focus on something (nuking, disabling, support, etc) instead of the "classic" selection (ie, everything-under-the-sun kind of list that effectively renders the Shapeshifter's versatility obsolete) then your forms will take care of everything else for you.

I've killed Dragons with the Swarm Form. It takes practice, but it can be done. I had the option to nuke it to death if I wished, but that particular mage focused on getting all the Creation spells.

Modifié par TBastian, 19 juin 2010 - 05:14 .

[CallumMcManus]

shape shifting is only good imo when you have unlocked master form of it since you don't do as much damage less health mana and other really important stuff which you want to have to destroy

Callum McM-_-

[Elhanan]

My problem with this encounter is not just the battle itself, but making certain the rewards fit the invested time. Braka had better drop some good gear, or at least add a lot to the total. And not just here, but it makes me rather surly to discover Bhelen with only a couple of poultices.

[CallumMcManus]

side with Harrowment You get his staff side with the prince you get trian maul plus i like branka's stuff suits dwarves and juggernaut armor



Callum McM

[swk3000]

Harrowmont's Staff is a rather poor reward. It's a Steel staff with +1 Magic and +4 Constitution. Trian's Maul isn't really any better. In fact, it's actually unenchanted. In terms of sell value, Trian's Maul has a better price.



As for drops from Caridin and Branka, killing Branka gets you the Vanguard (Silverite Mace with +3 Strength, +3 Constitution, and +1 Combat Stamina Regen) and Branka's Shield (+1 damage to Darkspawn, +1 damage to Beasts). Killing Caridin, on the other hand, gets you Caridin's Cage (Amulet, +20% Electricity Resistance, -1 Cunning) and Caridin's Shield (+10 Cold, Spirit, and Electricity resistance). Branka's stuff sells for more.



The most profitable course of action would be to side with Caridin, then make Bhelen king.

[CallumMcManus]

That is true but i think it also depends on your class



Callum McM

[TBastian]

shape shifting is only good imo when you have unlocked master form of it since you don't do as much damage less health mana and other really important stuff which you want to have to destroy

No. How then, in this battle, would you use Morrigan's spells? The point to Shapeshifting is that when your spells are inappropriate for the situation, you change forms. Obviously if you're a generalist mage who has taken spells from all schools then the Shapeshifter's versatility is redundant, since you already have spells for every eventuality. You're better off taking some other specialization like Blood Mage. But what if you're a pure nuker, or a damager like Morrigan? You can dish out enough DPS to rival an Awakenings character, but what if something resists your critical spells? What do you do when you're being chased down by a survivor that does 200 damage per hit? What do you do when you're forced to fight multiple monsters with grab/knockdown skills, or a scattered group of archers spamming bow skills? A generalist mage would simply switch to a CC-ing/supporting role, but normally the nuker would be helpless. With Shapeshifting, he will not be.

No specialization can ever replace spellcasting completely - even Arcane Warriors know this for fact - the specializations are only supposed to add something to your character. The AW introduces a magic-for-might aspect, the SH grants support skills, the BM introduces a power-at the-cost-of-self aspect and the Shapeshifter gives you versatility.

Any level 10 mage who took Flying Swarm should have no trouble with this battle, distracting Branka with the Swarm while everyone else clears out the golems. The mage can be a nuke/disable/support-oriented or even just some random guy's character who ran out of lyrium potions before this battle, whatever. That's Shapeshifter versatility for you.

Modifié par TBastian, 19 juin 2010 - 10:04 .

[beancounter501]

A lot of people have a tough time in that fight. All the monsters have tons of health and fairly high armor scores. If you have telekinetic weapons then turn that on. Also, you should have your opening attacks be Sunder Armor from Oghren and Shattering Shot from Leliana. Both will debuff their targets armor which makes the mobs much easier to kill.



I found a melee heavy party has much less trouble with this fight. You may want to switch out a few characters.

[soteria]

Telekenetic weapons would be a good idea, but he doesn't have it if he doesn't have forcefield. Switching characters out is probably a painful answer as well. First, I'll just mention that the link in my signature has two videos of this fight, one with a typical group and one where I was down Shale, leaving Oghren, Morrigan, and a PC mage. One of those might give you some ideas.
Kiting is a good idea, but don't do it with Oghren. Leliana is probably almost useful in this fight, so I would have her kite Branka. Keep the friendly golems healed and let them tank as long as possible, and liberally use the lyrium veins to your own advantage. One more reason not to let Oghren tank early on: he can't use the lyrium. Leliana can. Once all the enemy golems are down, the friendly golems will move to branka. Let Leliana stick with ranged; she can't backstab Branka. Station your mages near active lyrium veins and use them if Branka runs toward them. If you need to, you can kite her--I had to kite her to death with a single mage, one game. Once you get the golems down, though, the fight is really not hard.
Just use Cone of Cold liberally, shatter all the weak golems quickly, and don't be shy about the lyrium veins and I think you'll be fine. Honestly, just using the mages plus Oghren to set up shatter combos on the normal golems plus Leliana kiting should be the ticket for you.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure you know this, but make sure your PC is using flaming weapons and Morrigan is using frost weapons, because despite the graphic, they do both work simultaneously.

Modifié par soteria, 20 juin 2010 - 09:19 .