9 réponses à ce sujet

[Alan Drifter13]

Hi everyone,

 

So I had totally missed the "Exorcist" achievement in my first gameplay, and I decided to go for it now. The guide said to do it at the beginning of act 2, and I followed that indication, so I'm level 13.

 

My team is: a mage Hawke (full elemental, only a basic healing spell), Merrill (I usually take Anders for the healing, but here I want the rivalry points since I decided to be Merril's rival this time), Aveline for tanking and Isabella for damage.

 

The first 4 tomes were a piece of cake, but the fight in the Abandoned Thaig before I even reach the 5th tome killed me like 4 times last night. I wanted to try again tonight, but it looks like I'm going to need some help. So, I have some questions (note: this is just "normal" difficulty and I have the dog from Black Market emporium to help).

 

1) I tried to put Aveline at the door and my mages in the stairs. It didn't work good enough. Will it be better if she and Isabella stay at the beginning of the stairs and I take the mages further back, almost where the door is? I think this way no character will be inside the room during the fight and I might get a break between some waves to recover. Is this correct?

 

2) There's a boss (I think it's in the last wave) that has an AOE spell (some green smoke) that always kills at least 2 of my character in one go. After that the remaining ones can't do much more. How do I stop this guy from killing me. Do you know what to do to escape from this?

 

3) I'm thinking about controlling Isabella during this fight, since she's the only one that hardly ever goes where I tell her to. Would you recommend a particular set of tactics for my elemental mage to make the most of her skills during this fight?

 

 

And finally, as a general question to the forum: do you think this is the hardest fight of the whole game? In "normal" difficulty the high dragon only killed me once before I figured out how to deal with it, but this room is a huge pain and I don't seem to be doing much better each time I play it. But it seems odd that they put the hardest fight in a quest that's so easy to miss.

[Ferretinabun]

Here are a few tips:

 

1) Isabella is the least efficient companion for combat. She's not so bad that you're completely gimping your party by taking her, but from an ideal party POV, you'll have an easier time of it if you swap her out for literally anyone else.

 

2) The fight consists of 5 waves. The first three waves consists of a boss and several regular 'grunts', while the last two waves have 2 bosses. The thing to remember is the next wave is triggered when the boss dies! So it's actually best to take out the critters first, or they'll just keep adding up and up. Which is tricky because the bosses are the most dangerous. But there are things you can do. If you have any lockdown spells or abilities, such as Petrify, Crushing Prison, Horror, Sleep, Misdirection Hex, Miasmic Flask or Pinning Shot, these are good to keep the bosses occupied.

 

3) Two of the wave's bosses will be Rage demons. These are only dangerous when they do their backstabs. And those can be interrupted. When they dive into the ground, certain AOE spells and abilities will make them visible and abort the strike. But I can't quite remember which ones will and won't. Bursting Arrow will, as will Cone of Cold (though that one's difficult to time right as it's got a short range). I'm pretty sure Fireball will too. Maybe a few others. The point is that if you can pull a stealthed Rage Demon out of stealth, you cancel the hideously powerful backstab attack, and they become regular enemies.

 

4) The best staves for mages to have for this fight are ones that do Electricity damage, since Shades, the Desire demon, the Arcane Horror AND the Revenant are vulnerable to Electricity damage. This is especially good if you or Merrill have Elemental Weapons. The worst staves to have are Fire (since none of the enemies here are vulnerable to Fire damage, and the Rage demon is immune) and Spirit (Shades, the Desire demon and Arcane Horror are all immune). Here is a handy chart to help keep track of enemy resistances:  http://dragonage.wik...(Dragon_Age_II)

 

5) It certainly is one of the harder fights. But I do think there are even tougher ones. Wait until you have done the last fight in this quest line - the one with Xebenbeck... She's TOUGH. :-(

 

6) If you're still having trouble, post your builds. It's possible your characters can be built more efficiently.

[Elhanan]

I usually have Varric for ranged attacks, and withdraw back down the hallway in order to draw them out and lessen their numbers. Also use the small door as a choke-point. As I recall, I withdraw to a corner, then back as far as a small room.

You may wish to keep the party on Hold for better positioning, and double check Tactics to see if there is a reason for them to rush into danger.

And while this may not be the hardest fight, it ranks near the top of my list.

[Hydwn]

 

2) There's a boss (I think it's in the last wave) that has an AOE spell (some green smoke) that always kills at least 2 of my character in one go. After that the remaining ones can't do much more. How do I stop this guy from killing me. Do you know what to do to escape from this?

 

 

Others have given good advice for most of it.  This boss you're talking about is the Arcane Horror, and that ability is called Exhaustion - there have been two threads on it this year, nastiest ability in all of Dragon Age I think

 

Anyway, I understand spirit warding provides some defence for it.  My only advice is to tackle it like you'd tackle the nastiest mages - arcane horrors have poor physical defence and surprisingly few hit points.  Stun-locking him with Aveline's various abilities (shield bash, pommel strike, etc) might be your key to survival with this thing.

 

It is also highly vulnerable to brittle - available to Merrill through her primal tree - but there's no one in your party configuration that can take advantage of that unless you've given Aveline Claymore.  It's mostly Archery and Two-Handed (Varric and Fenris and Sebastian can have it easily).

[caradoc2000]

The final fight in this quest (Xebenkeck) is more difficult than the abandoned thaig one. The hidden boss in Legacy is also pretty tough.

[Alan Drifter13]

Thanks everyone! I finally did it. This is what worked for me (I didn't want to load a previous save, so I kept Isabella although she certainly died a lot):

 

1) The first 3 waves I stayed in the narrow hallway, with Isabella tanking at the door. This worked ok. Hawke's tactics were configured to use AOE elemental spells (extremely useful here) so I controlled Isabella whenever it looked like she was in trouble.

2) I was far enough from the main room, so the final waves didn't start immediately after wave 3. This gave me a full break for my characters to heal and recover mana/stamina -> this made things much easier for the end.

3) To avoid the "exhaustion" from the Arcane Horror I went inside the main room for the final wave. I changed from "hold" to "move freely" and made sure my characters were far from each other. At some point it killed Merril, but it was too late, I was already about to win the fight.

 

I think I died 7 times in this fight before winning it once ("normal" difficulty). Against Xebenkeck I only died once, so in my personal experience this has been the hardest fight in the game.

[Alan Drifter13]

 

6) If you're still having trouble, post your builds. It's possible your characters can be built more efficiently.

 

I'm pretty sure my Merril build wasn't great. Since I'm a wizard and I take Anders with me, she's hardly ever in my team and I didn't work much on her build. This probably made things harder.

 

 

Others have given good advice for most of it.  This boss you're talking about is the Arcane Horror, and that ability is called Exhaustion - there have been two threads on it this year, nastiest ability in all of Dragon Age I think

 

Absolutely. It's ridiculous how easy it kills you.

 

 

The final fight in this quest (Xebenkeck) is more difficult than the abandoned thaig one. The hidden boss in Legacy is also pretty tough.

 

Xebenkeck wasn't so hard for me, but I'm not saying anything about Legacy since I didn't play it yet.

[Jaison1986]

Thanks everyone! I finally did it. This is what worked for me (I didn't want to load a previous save, so I kept Isabella although she certainly died a lot):

 

1) The first 3 waves I stayed in the narrow hallway, with Isabella tanking at the door. This worked ok. Hawke's tactics were configured to use AOE elemental spells (extremely useful here) so I controlled Isabella whenever it looked like she was in trouble.

2) I was far enough from the main room, so the final waves didn't start immediately after wave 3. This gave me a full break for my characters to heal and recover mana/stamina -> this made things much easier for the end.

3) To avoid the "exhaustion" from the Arcane Horror I went inside the main room for the final wave. I changed from "hold" to "move freely" and made sure my characters were far from each other. At some point it killed Merril, but it was too late, I was already about to win the fight.

 

I think I died 7 times in this fight before winning it once ("normal" difficulty). Against Xebenkeck I only died once, so in my personal experience this has been the hardest fight in the game.

 

That's just about it. Retreat to the back of the map and wipe out the first wave, once you're fully recovered go back to the battle.

 

Not sure if the hardest fight in the game, the sky horror and the double revenants in act 3 were an absolute nightmare for me.

[caradoc2000]

There is a break between the waves in the Thaig fight, allowing you to recover health/mana/stamina. Using the dog is also handy to tie up enemies.

 

The double revenants (Beacon and Gifre) in act 3 can indeed be nasty. Their Mass Pull puts the "no" in "annoying".

[Jester]

Not sure if the hardest fight in the game, the sky horror and the double revenants in act 3 were an absolute nightmare for me.

Sky Horror was terrible. When I first tried it by doing this DLC mid Act II, I just couldn't do it. 

Only my DW Assassin/Shadow Rogue in Act III was able to nail him (but to be honest, that was Hawke who dealt with Arishok in about a minute).

 

Double Revenants were absolutely disgusting. I managed to kill the third guy first, without attracting that pair, and then still died about 3 times.

 

3) To avoid the "exhaustion" from the Arcane Horror I went inside the main room for the final wave. I changed from "hold" to "move freely" and made sure my characters were far from each other. At some point it killed Merril, but it was too late, I was already about to win the fight.

 

I strongly advise, to give all your companions Spirit Protection runes. In combination with their leveled armor, it ensures that they have 90-95% damage resistance vs. Spirit - which means that both Arcane Horror attack and Blood Mage's 'Hemmorrhage' deal negligible damage.