Ascension Advice and Turnabout Question
ZaramMaldovar
Member Posts: 2,309
I recently installed Ascension (without Improved Bhaalspawn Fights) and I need advice because I am no expert when it comes to combat.
I would also like to know if Turnabout is EE compatible.
I would also like to know if Turnabout is EE compatible.
1
Comments
Yes. I need help with that.
Too much going on.
Irenicus? Bodhi? The Five?
I know it's not all at once, but I've had difficulty with regular TOB.
1. What is your alignment/party?
2. Are you using SCS?
3. How many spoilers/ if any do you want for the fight?
Some general tips for now:
1. You won't necessarily have to fight everything depending on choices you've made in your alignment and (in ToB) dialogue. You can get some extra allies for the final battle, a couple allies for good or a couple for evil.
2. The special powers you get from the pools of essence are incredibly helpful. They are designed specifically to help make this fight more manageable, learn what they do and experiment on when to use them.
3. Crowd control is essential, make the enemy spellcasters your top priority, or at least keep them distracted. Maze is very helpful for breaking up the enemies as well. Learn who you can drop quickly, and who have just too much hp to focus first.
2. NEVER!
3. Spoil Away
1. Balthazar can be made an ally if you aren't evil. Its much easier when you are good, but I think neutral can pull it off. Since you aren't good, I think you will need either a high CHA or a high WIS. I don't recall how high, but well above dump stat territory. You also need to make the right dialogue choices. You will need to reinforce how you've fought against Bhaal's taint, and how killing himself will just usher in Bhall's return.
2. The first part of the fight has Amelyssan summon Irenicus and Bohdi. If you have Sarevok in your party, she will attempt to turn him against you. If you turned him chaotic good, he will stick by you, reducing the number of enemies by 1. I don't know if you can keep him as evil.
3. Imoen will be forced to transform into the slayer. After a few rounds, she will turn back and stop trying to kill you. If you don't want to kill her, I recommend kiting her to the far side of the arena and leaving her in the fog of war. If she can't see you, she won't attack.
4. If you are evil, you can turn Bohdi to your side. Take all the allies you qualify for, they help quite a bit. Bohdi will act on her own ai, while you can give her orders, she tends to change back to her ai after a round or two anyway.
5. You will have to fight Irenicus again (also Bohdi if she won't join you). Its actually not that difficult, as you are much higher level now and they don't have any new tricks. Well, except for the Fallen Solar Irenicus summons at the start. This thing has a vorpal weapon will merrily one hit kill whoever it hits. Take this thing down first and fasr.
6. Next you will need to go to the pools of essence and use them. Each pool has an assortment of high level fiends guarding it and are tough enough to count as boss encounters on their own. Be cautioous of charms and confusuion and they pretty manageable.
7. Each pool gives you a new Bhall power. Make note of what they are and what they can do. They are designed specifically to help with the upcoming fight. THe most important are the dominate demon and focus abilities. I'll address those when they become important.
8. If you have Turnabout, you can summon a new ally to help at each pool of essence. I forget the full list but Gorion, Khalid, and charname's mother are some of the options.
9. Okay, heres the big one. This fight is chaotic and crazy, but doable. You will fight all of the 5 at once. If Balthazar joined you, he is replaced by Gromnir, who is less dangerous than just about everyone else. I personally use a divide and conquer strategy.
A. The spellcasters are you biggest priority. Sendai will buff the five and hit you with spells, she needs to be either the first or second you take down.
B. Abazigal also has spells and hits like a truck, but if you have someone super tanky occupy him in melee, he won't cast a single spell.
C. Illasera is fast and does a good job at staying at range, she is less immenintly deadly if you can keep her away from your squishies.
D. I don't know how bad Balthazar is, as he is always on my side. He is an epic level monk with special abilities though (like being immune to time stop) so good luck with, I suspect he will be a monster threat.
E. Yaga Shura hits like a mountain and has gobs and gobs of hp. I recommend being well protected from melee combat and leave him for near last. He will take long enough to wear down that everyone else will have plenty of time to kill you.
10. Okay, now it gets really dangerous. After 2 or 3 of the FIve are down, Amelyssan will join the fray. She is fast, damaging, summons demons, and can cast timestop basically at will. Balthazar is great to have here because of his immunity to it. When she comes out, Maze Yaga Shura, the less you have to deal with all at once, the better. You want to make sure Sendai is dead for sure before Amelyssan comes to play. I also personally recommend Abazigal beign dead as well, as he is dangerous in two different ways. If I'm fast enough, I can also either take out Illasera or Gromnir.
A. Alright, Amelyssan will spam summon demons in between melee attakcs. This is where your shiny new dominate demon ability comes in. You can wrest control of demons from her. You don't want to try and dominate every demon she summons, she will outpace you and your charname needs to be fhelping reduce hostile targets. But don't ignore them either. Dominate intelligently. Every demon is another target the enemy can focus on other than you, as well as contribut damage.
B. Here's the big threat. Amelyssan will cast timestop, teleport to you, and use greater whirlwind to kill your charname. If you get hit by timestop, you lose. THere is no way to have enough hp to survive this, and she will target your charname every time. Now is when you use "Focus". It makes you immune to timestop for a few rounds. Learn the incantation for timestop, and when you hear Amelyssan begin casting it, pop focus immediately. Aside from this, the rest is just a big brawl. Try to take targets out quickly and prioritize the ones giving you the most trouble. THere's a lot to keep track of, but taking things one at a time and managing prorities makes the fight less chaotic than it looks.
One last thing. Ascension has difficulty scaling ai (kinda like SCS, but less bull). This fight is significantly tougher than anything else (without SCS). So don't feel bad to bump the difficulty down a level. One level down from where you played the rest of the game actually scales pretty well.
Human-Form Abazigal or Dragon-Form Abazigal?