IA v6 Final

[Saros]

Not entirely, no. I think monsters that need specifically +5 weapons to be hit are some vanilla ones, like the Lesser Demon Lord from the Drow Summoning Ritual (provided you choose to fight him) and the Devil Shade from the Deck of Many Things. I don't think there is even a single IA-created monster that requires specifically +5 weapons to hit. The more powerful ones require +4 or higher, or are immune to all weapons until the "requirements" for their invulnerability are removed.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

How about this.

 

If you are Necromancer protagonist. Do you get any of the expanded ranger stronghold quests? Especially the one where the spirit gives you potions every week? Not sure when that happens.

 

 

- New friend at your cabin

- The mystery of the Shimmering Light (a big quest for all rangers)

[Saros]

No, these quests are available only to Ranger protagonists. Not sure if a R-C PC can get them, probably yes.

[mikel123]

Sendai's lair is not too bad so far.

 

Odamaron has infinite spawns of Bone Devil & Greater Bone Devil, or Skeleton Lord and Skeleton Grandlord. If you can deal with Imprisonment, it's possible to get a ton of experience and gold from this fight.

 

Sendai's Lair thus far has been pretty easy, up through and including Odamaron.

 

Not going to forge Cernd's upgraded circlet (already have 12 spell slots at all spell levels). Forged all Boots of Speed I could, and will return to hoarding in the near future. I think I'll end up using the rest of my cash for the rest of the game to put everyone in +2 rings and cloaks. And if I still have some cash left, will do Warblade, Belt of 23 STR, and Staff of Fire, in that order.

[mikel123]

Sendai was pretty tough. Mostly vanilla up until you kill the last clone, then she appears with her "pet", two Web Golems, and a Ghost Spider. It was easy enough to set myself up for this before killing the seventh clone, so that was nice. I had 4 swanmays, 3 trolls, and a djinn when this happened. I set my four fighters onto Sendai's "pet", and all of the summons onto the Ghost Spider. Both fell at about the same time.

 

So now it's Sendai and two Web Golems. The Web Golems have 95% resistance to slashing and 250 HP. 100% resistance to everything else. Their name is kind of a misnomer, because they have nothing to do with webs. They cast Miscast Magic on hit.

 

Sendai is causing problems with her Breach spells. I load all four fighters onto one golem, and the remaining summons onto the other for distraction. I thought Breach was problematic, but then she starts casting Remove Magic, which just decimates my defenses. Luckily the golems will only go for the Riskbreaker or Vagrant since I keep PFMW up on the Fighter Mages. And a simple Hardiness in response to her debuff keeps the damage manageable.

 

Summons are quickly killed, so I use a Spell Trigger to summon three Skeleton Warriors as fodder... and Sendai turns them! Did not see that coming. Quick pause to kill my own summons, then back to beating on the golem, who finally falls. Repeat for second golem.

 

By the time the second golem falls, Sendai is targetable thanks to Immunity: Divination and Invisibility running out. A couple of breaches and she's quickly dead.

[Saros]

Another fight where party levels are extremely important in terms of keeping things under control. If you had a high-enough level, then you could dispel Sendai's buffs, making her visible, targetable by Breach and focused on erecting her defences rather than casting offensive spells. It's strange that the golems didn't pick on your Fighter-Mages since PFMW alone is no protection vs them. I think their off-hand (the one applying Miscast Magic) is a normal weapon, much like the Hardwood golems. The damage may be manageable by Hardiness on Core, however on Insane it's definitely not enough, not to mention that you need Improved Haste up and running the whole time as well.

[mikel123]

I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I'm really tired of it at this point. Either you're a poor player, or you're just lying to yourself. Vagrant has 95% physical resist when buffed. If stripped of buffs, a mere 85% once Hardiness is re-cast instantly. If they target the Riskbreaker, she'll have 60% resist after hardiness, and either 85% or instant full health a round later. Cernd has three insta-heals, of which I used zero. Plus the Cat figurine to heal everyone after Sendai's Dragon Breath lands. Yes, on Insane, it is more than enough. It may not be enough for you, but it's enough for me.

 

This game is not hard, it simply takes some acclimating to, since it has new enemies and new spells and requires new strategies. The sooner you come to grips with the fact that you're nothing special at this game, the sooner you'll be on your way to not coming off as a complete d-bag. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I eagerly await this.

[Saros]

Plus the Cat figurine to heal everyone after Sendai's Dragon Breath lands. Yes, on Insane, it is more than enough. It may not be enough for you, but it's enough for me.

 

 

That alone tells me you actually never took a Dragon Breath on Insane. You cannot play with stuff like Comets or Dragon Breaths on Insane unprotected, since they alone are enough to chunk a powerful character on full health.

 

As for tactics and strategies - it's really easy to beat any battle on Core, with reloads and especially if given valuable hints and tips. It's, however, not as easy to win it in an Insane game, with a tactic that has >95% chance of success, and without actually seeking help but rather trying to think of a successful solution yourself. As I've stated many times, winning IA in a Core multiple reload fasion is not something noteworthy IMO. If you refer to that game, then I concur that it's very easy once you've played an IA game just a bit.

 

For me, the strategies you (and almost all other IA players) describe for many of the fights are no strategies at all, since they have no chance of consistently succeeding in a serious game. Strategies that depict resisting Comet or DB damage, charming certain opponents in a key moment of the fight, saving successfully vs enemy incapacitating spell/ability, or lucky Wishing for Rest are just lame.

 

Example: Winning the Suna Seni fight by charming the enemy cleric while in the middle of casting his Greater Command is not a strategy. It's just a lucky reload.

 

Edit: I know that it can be really frustrating when a new IA player wins his first run of the mod and then comes someone like me stating "no that will never work", but unfortunately we have to face the facts. If you don't believe me, try for yourself to win all the tough fights so far on Insane with your Core strategies - you'll either not succeed or succeed on very few occasions. BTW I often wondered why people try a difficulty-enhancing mod if they choose to play it not on the hardest difficulty level possible, and with multiple reloads. Sure, this is nice for a test-run, but I don't understand the screams after such a victory stating "This is a very easy mod, nothing special, blah blah". Sure it is, turn the difficulty bar to "Easy" once you're at it. Then you can even take 3*ADHW CC without losing a character.

[isleepwithfucking goats]

^ Insane is dumb. Yes I've played v5 on it.

 

When I can bring a Golem in one hit to Badly Injured or Near Death, then I will consider "Insane" again, lmao

[coaster]

BTW I often wondered why people try a difficulty-enhancing mod if they choose to play it not on the hardest difficulty level possible' date=' and with multiple reloads[/quote']

 

Can I intercede at this point and say "because I like a challenge, because I want to try the new content, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by the difficulty?"

 

As I mentioned to you in PM, I'd quite like to retry IA but probably on easy given how the difficulty has ramped up in the more recent iterations.

[Saros]

Yeah naturally I can imagine people trying a difficulty mod just for the new content or for the fun of it or for testing purposes on a lower difficulty setting that wasn't my point. Rather it was concerning players who would not set themselves for the real challenge and in the end will still claim that it was no big deal winning

 

@coaster

BTW as far as I remember, setting the difficulty bar on Easy also grants you a +6 bonus to all your actions, so I wouldn't recommend it. The game is really easy enough on Core with reloads.

[mikel123]

FWIW, I have done a couple of the battles you've said "can never be won like that on insane", on Insane, because many of them ended with me never going below 75% health on any character. So I decided to reload on Insane and, unsurprisingly, you're completely wrong. Both times, I had a post worked up in which I called you out on it, but deleted it before posting because I still thought it better to just ignore you. I've made it this far, two months, ignoring your BS and social ineptitude because I feel bad for you, but I guess you finally got me to crack.

 

And "unprotected" from Dragon Breath? You told me it was dumb to forge the Darksteel Shield and Dragon Helm upgrades, both of which give massive fire resistance, and you think I'd be "unprotected" from fire? Do you think they're just sitting in my pack? Seriously, just stop.

 

The difference between you and everyone else here is that part of your own self-worth (a big part, it seems) is tied to your performance in this game. That's not the case for me, and based on the behavior of others, not the case with them either. So yeah, you're quite invested in maintaining your self-image of superiority, to the extent of PMing every single person the moment they arrive with a slew of spoilers, and incessantly making the same (BS and pathetic) points, over and over. Seriously, count how many times you said "you can't do that on insane", in the last month. At some point, a sane person would realize at best that I don't give a shit and at worst that I'd call you out on it.

 

I've been pretty candid about what's hard for me and what's not hard for me, throughout this thread. But because you have such a fragile self-esteem, you blow a gasket whenever I say something is "easy" for me, because you think it digs into your self-proclaimed superiority. And you immediately resort to telling me why you think my strategies are poor and why they'd "never work" in other settings. My statements about difficulty have nothing to do with my abilities; it's entirely for people reading to compare to their experiences with their party and their tactics and figure out what might be easy or hard for them. Do yourself a favor and stop assuming that these statements are a direct assault on you; they're not, they have nothing to do with you, and certainly nothing to do with the abilities of me or anyone else.

 

 

Yeah, I hit a lucky roll two months ago and something weird happened that allowed me to win a battle. So I moved on. You, however, have not moved on. You're still referencing a lucky roll I had in a computer game two months ago. Seriously. Two. Months. Ago.

[Saros]

FWIW, I have done a couple of the battles you've said "can never be won like that on insane", on Insane, because many of them ended with me never going below 75% health on any character. So I decided to reload on Insane and, unsurprisingly, you're completely wrong.

 

A couple of Insane battles won with reloads has nothing to do with sound Insane no-reload strategies. BTW a couple doesn't mean each battle.

 

And "unprotected" from Dragon Breath? You told me it was dumb to forge the Darksteel Shield and Dragon Helm upgrades, both of which give massive fire resistance, and you think I'd be "unprotected" from fire? Do you think they're just sitting in my pack? Seriously, just stop.

 

 

When beaten by Web Golems on Insane, and with just dispelled Protection from Fire, your Riskbreaker being unable to equip both of these items...need I continue? Moreover, you don't have enough fire-protective gear even at this point to ensure entire party's safety. On Insane one chunk is endgame, consider that.

 

And you immediately resort to telling me why you think my strategies are poor and why they'd "never work" in other settings.

 

Yeah, I hit a lucky roll two months ago and something weird happened that allowed me to win a battle. So I moved on. You, however, have not moved on. You're still referencing a lucky roll I had in a computer game two months ago. Seriously. Two. Months. Ago.

 

Most of your strategies have no chance of working in a serious (i.e. no-reload insane) run. Of course they can be tweaked seriously (by you as well, no doubt about that) to work in, say, 75% of the cases, which IMO is still far from perfect.

 

I am not referring to lucky rolls. Just referring to strategies. The one that relies on a lucky roll in terms of total win/loss I cannot accept as a strategy. Unless you play on easy.

 

Edit: I would be really glad if you show me wrong by posting, for example, some sound strategies for the tougher fights that would be of great help to anyone attempting those same fights. That would be some useful info in this thread, unlike for example your totally corrupted Twisted Rune fight.

[mikel123]

Seriously, stop it. Riskbreaker has well over 200 HP. Ring of Fire Control and Ring of Fire Resistance give 65% resistance, though riskbreaker's save vs. breath is then "only" -2. Even under malaison, in the 10% chance I fail a breath save and take 20d10, AND the 1 in 10,000,000,000 (yes, one-in-ten-billion) chance that Sendai rolls perfect ten's, we're looking at 400 damage, reduced to 140 because of those two rings.

 

Here's my "sound strategies" for every single fight, straight out of your playbook: spend 10 hours abusing a bug to get infinite experience and gold, buy up every weapon upgrade as soon as possible, and just breeze through the game with level 40 characters.

 

Now that I got that cleared up, I'll continue simply posting my experiences - and yes, that includes a weird bug in the Twisted Rune fight, a favorable roll in the Suna Seni fight, and on the other end, plowing through Orcus without Scrolls of Protection that everyone else relies on, and basically instakilling the green wyrm that's supposedly a tough fight.

 

There's a big wide world beyond my computer screen, and my interest in it falls somewhere between "checking out this cool mod of a game I enjoy" and "replaying specific fights over and over again until I earn street cred from some guy on the internet". Your biggest mistake is assuming that I actually care what you can "accept as a strategy". It should be pretty obvious that I don't.

[mikel123]

Sorry, minor mistake there. If we're assuming I am under malaison, and fail the save (1 in 10 chance), then we're talking 20d10's, so it's actually a 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 of Sendai nailing the dice rolls, times the 1 in 10 that I fail the save, so in the 1-in-a-sextillion chance that this happens, my 200+ HP Riskbreaker is still taking just 140 damage.