GameBanshee Forums

Man, yesterday was only the first try......

I've done it!
The Improved Abazigal, without pre-buffing!!!
After so much time playing this game, this was maybe the best moment!!
This game is unbelievable!!

I wish I had the time to detail the battle...
Unfortunately I'll go away from home for a couple of days...
Maybe after, if I'll remember everything...

Basically it was a huge simmie battle (party: me, Immie, Sarevok),
my own simmie is a kensai/mage with three or four 9th level spells, so, not so far from the original in power...

What a satisfaction, when both the dragons were finally down!!

Of course Sarevok was dead, this was almost unavoidable..
But at least I was able to resurrect him....

Is the final battle of Ascension really much harder than this one??

Congrats!
Yeah the final battle is way harder imo.
I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences with the final battle.

Well done, my friend.

Feel free to write about your exploits in detail when you come back.

Thanx, fan!
Well, I'll try to keep it short....
but one can always skip it all of course!!
Oh, probably SPOILERS somewhere.

As you know, without preparations..
I entered the lair and all of the wyverns and the purple dragon
closed in, so immediatly casted Simulacrum (mine, Immie's, and
for Sarevok I used the helm of course)
Then the 2 SarevokS immediatly went ahead to protect the others,
but they were too slow, so my main char protected her own simmie
while this one was casting time stop... the "main" simmie was able
to cast Imp. Alacrity and the whole load of buffing spells, including
Spell Trap (but not Black Blade of disaster, not enough 9th level
spells survived the cloning process!! ), and started the slaughter.
But not as I thought... the enemies were fast and kept damaging
everyone with *something*.......
My main char was disrupted while casting some basic protections,
Immie was disrupted while casting time stop, and BOTH SarevokS got panicked!!!!
Immie moved, don't remember what happened to her clone...
Main simmie anyway did a lot of damage to the purple dragon!
You can't imagine my delusion when the purple dragon went away to heal
COMPLETELY!!! Such a waste of efforts...
So after a while my real kensai/mage was badly wounded, and her contingencies
triggered.
Again time-stop, and buffing, this time with black blade of disaster!
Casted also Draw Upon Holy Might (gained from the second Solar test,
baldurdash add-on, you know ) and Tenser, I reached 380 HPs (!!)
(Count the familiar, the hit points gained from the Deck...)
Abazigal was near, I attacked him and killed quickly his human form,
then turned to the purple dragon.
The best part was here, when I attacked the purple dragon with
TWO "purple balls" from both sides!!!
Too fun to watch!!
And BOTH resisted to maze thanx to Spell Trap!! eheheheh

For a moment my kensai/mage was literally sorrounded by dragons!
Two huge ones, and all the wyverns...
In the meanwhile the SarevokS (out of my control) were slain...
Immie managed to cast Imp. Alacrity and started casting Dragon Breaths
and the like, gettin' rid of the wyverns; at last, the simmie expired
(TOO BAD that while in time stop the time keeps running for spell
durations, even for other characters... )
and my PC kept pounding on abazigal, gettin' wounded by his tricks now
and then, but she healed back thanx to the black blade, plus draining
a LOT of levels from the big boy!!
I don't how much this affects the power of a dragon, but without 16 levels
or so he seemed to relay more on his melee capabilities, which was an
error........ ehehehehehe

maybe nothing really new, but playing it I had a real blast!!!
And it took me about 40 minutes!!
Oh, then I made the Imp. Image trick to cast multiple wishes
(main PC has FIVE 9th level spells, Wish was still there...),
and got the resurrection option for Sarevok, though I was
hopin' for a rest option.. ehehhe, Immie had lost her Planetar,
too........
the real problem with this battle were disrupted spells !!!


@Bruce: I started the final too, with Balthazar at my side
(I'm too goody goody to avoid this!! ), and did (don't ask
me how!) the first part I think...
I ignored Immie of course, Sarevok was immediatly dominated by Bodhi,
(then killed) Balthazar was mazed, and did everything all
alone (with abuse of healing potions!), but I have to retry from start,
since I told Imoen (when she changed back from slayer form)
to go away to stay safe, and she did!!!!!!
I expected some "No, I will stay with you 'till the end!!"

My God...
I passed the the battle with Irenicus, Bodhi and the Fallen Planetars...
I thought this was though...
Then TRIED the last one.

I'll keep trying, but I think this one is really IMPOSSIBLE.
I mean, they CHEAT too!!!!!

Ctrl-Qed Sendai, she has 215 HPs... well then tried to kill her...
I've done to her continuative damage, I checked, she never healed, and died only after 700 points of damage or so....
The same with the others...
They go to "near death" pretty quickly, but from here you have
to do a nearly infinite amount of damage!!!!

How can you do that with ALL of the five?!?!?!?
Only the sheer time to deliver that damage to ONE of them is enough to have all the protections expired.....

tried crtl-y................

over 10.000 points of damage...
Nothing...

So, I suppose there's some event that triggers their "mortality" ?
Maybe they can be killed only after a LOT of time...

Where's the fun in a battle of this kind?
I managed in (two hours of playing) to discover a good strategy to actually deliver massive damage without being killed IMMEDIATELY, only to find out that they're immune to damage?!?!?

They surely could do better than this to make a battle hard...
Maybe I'll remove Ascension

I had the same problem, with the "endless" Near Deaths in the final battle. Almost 30 reloads before I found out, just yesterday, how to overcome it: Power Word Kill. I did it to finish Abazigal, Sendai and Sarevok in the final battle, Illasera and Balthazar fell to pure melee damage, and Yaga Shura was downed by Edwin damage spells. On my previous tries, Sarevok and Sendai were Near Death for several minutes, I think there's a bug in the final battle (as if it weren´t hard already).
Keep Melissan out of the way while you deal with the others by using Bigby Crushing Hand. It does hold her for 3 rounds. Also, when I left the pocket plane, my Evil 5 member party (Fighter/Thief; Korgan; Viconia; Edwin; Jaheira - Sarevok was too low level when I met him) brought a sacrificial lamb with it. Just picked Aerie and let her suffer the mighty of Irenicus/Melissan while the REAL party members regroup and win the day. What´s even more impressive, she survived the whole process!

I keep saying

Make the battles smarter, not just harder

No one wants impossible battles, we want exciting ones

@GNGspam: reported bug, they tell me

I never managed to finsish the Ascension battle. I had a solo Sorceror but took Balthazar with me and he was useful there... cool part was that he could act during my timestops!!!

@Bruce: I had a strategy masterpiece, here!!!
In the last battle, you have just gained the "focus" special
ability (immunity to time stop and other stuff...)
So, battle starts, I have my Simulacrum and Immie cast Time
Stop, at the same time, while original PC casts True sight and
reveals Sendai.
The Simmie has Vecna, so ends Time Stop first...
Usual TOTAL buffing, plus remove protections to Sendai, plus Focus!
Time flows again, just the time to have her protection effectively
dispelled, and Immie stops time again!!
But my simmie is immune, so she can kill Sendai in almost
NO EXTERNAL TIME!!!

*APPLAUSES*
*STANDING OVATION*


If the thing wasn't bugged, I mean

(for the last battle I allowed myself to prepare casting Simulacrum...
makes sense after all... I'm waiting for Mel...)

Unfortunately, you can`t do this if you don`t have Balthazar as an ally... he would slaughter any non immune character!
The pseudo-rest at the pools is great, it allows you to choose your spells correctly before the final battle. I tried Time Stop and Balthazar crushed the party, Imprisionment seemed to work, but Melissan cast Freedom after Sarevok, Yaga Shura and Abazigal were gone, Comet and Dragon`s Breath were useless due to the Near Death bug, so I settled for the Power Word Kill, which bypassed the bug.

Balthazar could even be dead before the battle...

Anyway.
Just installed the new version of Ascension.
They claim that this bug is corrected.
Not entirely true, but they DO die a little more often....

I managed to kill all the 5, except Yaga-Shura, and Melissan was badly wounded...
I simply could do no more!
Yaga shura takes no more than 1 point of damage per hit, he's simply unkillable that way!
Maybe Melissan is unkillable if Yaga Shura is still alive?

Any suggestions?
How do I kill Yaga Shura?

It's getting personal, you know........

Come on guys, anyone?
I've tried to shapechange in a mindfyler, hasted...
10 attacks round...

I devoured Yaga Shura's brain for about 30 points of intelligence,
and... guess it?
He's immune.
CTRL-Qed him in my party, he has the icon (brain devoured) but his intelligence is still there.
The same for the others.

Yaga Shura has also 99 resistence to everything, or more......

Has someone a legal way to beat this battle?

No, let me guess!
Now I understand!!
It was a joke!!
All this Ascension thing, must surely be a joke!!!!

Yes, she`s unkillable before all the five are dealt with. It was the first thing I tried (ignore-the-minions-go-for-the-boss tactic), but naught.
When you kill the last of the five + Sarevok (I heard that if Sarevok don`t betray you you fight Gronmir instead) she pauses the game to say some lines like "it can`t be, yadda, yadda, I`m invincible". Then she calls forth some demons (succubus, babau, cambions), which I killed and she didn`t summon more.
Yaga-Shura seems to be highly resistant to weapons. I took him out with Edwin`s barrage of Melf`s Acid Arrows, Magic Missiles and Fingers of Death while Improved Alacrity`ed.
Melissan seems to have an obscene amount of hitpoints. It took 4 Bigby Crushing Hands, 2 Abu Dazim`s, 5 Implosions, 2 Creeping Dooms, and 6 Greater Whirlwinds from Korgan (Foebane + Crom Faeyr) and my PC F\T (The Answerer) and his simulacrum (via Vhailor`s Helm) to down her.

Yeah, I have Gronmir to fight, too.
Anyway. Discovered that cone of cold does *some* damage to Yaga Shura. You still need like 20 of them...
And weapons-spells with multiple damages, each will do always one point.... so you're right Leonardo, Magic Missile will do 5 points, also the halberd Dragon Breath will do 5 points per hit...
You have to plan each attack carefully....

Been perfectioning my strategy.... now I have multiple Simmies and Project Images who cross their Time Stop,
using Time Stop immunity..

Today's Results:

- Promising battle, Abazigal still alive. PC crushed.
(Yaga Shura dead for the first time)

- Promising battle, Immie killed, no resurrection possible.
Discontinued....

- Promising battle, PC stuck without a reason. Dead shortly after

- Promising battle, hit wrongly a button while casting Imp. Alacrity.
Discontinued....

- Almost done!! All the five dead for the first time!!!
A friend of mine knocks at the door.... I have to go...
No save possible.......

This thing wasn't planned to be beatable.
Maybe some rude tactic could be more effective, I don't know.
My "elegant" (from my PoV.... ) and elaborate tactics don't work, 'cause the thing is completely cheesy and bugged....

I have only three chars, so everyone has to give the hell out of him/her....
Planned carefully a complicated fight with Simulacra and Project Images, all crossing their Time Stop with time stop immunity, to be able to do incredible things in a single round of "real" time.

Well, two things may happen, from my experience:

1)You do and incredible and perfect work, such as to deliver an obscene damage to the five.
Possibly killing two or three of them before the battle even starts.
At this point the "near death" bug shows up and you can only
smash the table with your head.

2)They DO die when they should. Worse than ever, Melissan appearence is scripted at the first death, and BREAKS without reason ALL your active Time Stops, breaks spell casting and the like, breaks ALL that you have slowly and painfully built.

The following so, is simply impossible.

ONCE all went well.
Don't know how, yet.
SO well that at a certain point all the five were dead, I had yet a FULLY buffed simmie, Sarevok and Immie still alive!
And I even got the "rest option" from wish!!!!!!
Only Melissan remained, and I was stronger than in the beginning!
I started pounding her, I had TWO kensai/mages in FULL-FURY and protected mode, the "real" one even shapechanged in golem to do maximum damage!
Sarevok too got his new clone, whirlwinds and all, Immie was taking down her protections constantly...
I thought this over...
At (I assume) 50% HPs or so Melissan (scripted event) teleports away, summons immediatly an HORDE of uberpowerful demons and in the blink of an eye I had Imoen and Sarevok torn to pieces, my main char alive, but as you imagine little could be done... you can't do with one char, she raises constantly Divine Spell Trap, while you take the time to remove just ONE of them, Melissan AND the demons (casters) remove all of YOUR protections and you're dead meat.

I know, there's a way maybe.
But if an experienced player (though NOT the BEST player, of course) could not do it in 5 days of incessant reloads and plannings, something is wrong.
Maybe you have to do with a full party, or make a more "summon oriented" battle (which I don't like).
BUT, I don't like the fact that you can't use creative ways to win, and that they all are basically immune to everything, even to stats
drain!!!!!
They die only when they want to, Melissan has all scripted and unavoidable moves...
Hmpf.

I do not suggest to install this Mod. Really frustrating.
(And it's a real shame, as the story was REALLY improved by it...)
But, if you want to try...good luck....

2)They DO die when they should. Worse than ever, Melissan appearence is scripted at the first death, and BREAKS without reason ALL your active Time Stops, breaks spell casting and the like, breaks ALL that you have slowly and painfully built.

I stopped using time stop after Balthazar slaughtered my party thrice, so I can`t confirm it, but at least for me it was not true that Melissan breaks spell casting when she appears. In fact, it was part of my strategy begin casting Improved Alacrity after Illasera was down, and Edwin's Projected Image completes the casting while Melissan says her line, beggining imediately after that to pound Yaga Shura.

At (I assume) 50% HPs or so Melissan (scripted event) teleports away, summons immediatly an HORDE of uberpowerful demons and in the blink of an eye I had Imoen and Sarevok torn to pieces, my main char alive, but as you imagine little could be done... you can't do with one char, she raises constantly Divine Spell Trap, while you take the time to remove just ONE of them, Melissan AND the demons (casters) remove all of YOUR protections and you're dead meat.

Strangely, it did not happen to me. Maybe because I kept her held all the time (via Bigby Crushing Hand), she just summoned the first wave (Babau, Succubus, 2 Cambions), and never teleported

Maybe you have to do with a full party

True, I can't imagine that battle with less than 5 members. Nobody at my 5 member + sacrificial lamb party was idle until the end.

or make a more "summon oriented" battle

I only used a Deva and an Elemental Prince to keep the left side of the screen occupied while I cleaned the right side.

Maybe some rude tactic could be more effective, I don't know. My "elegant" (from my PoV.... ) and elaborate tactics don't work, 'cause the thing is completely cheesy and bugged....

I think I used a cheesy tactic to win that battle, but it is one approved by the game: Project Image. All of the 11(!) 7th level slots Edwin had were filled with Project Images. I casted it, the Image casted Improved Alacrity, fired all it's Lower Resistances, Pierce Magics, Spellstrikes, Magic Missiles, Acid Arrows and Skull Traps; then one nearby fighter (Korgan or Jaheira) KILLED the image, so Edwin could cast another and start it over again.

But if an experienced player (though NOT the BEST player, of course) could not do it in 5 days of incessant reloads and plannings, something is wrong.

Only 5 days? You are impatient .
I took at least a week to bypass Irenicus! I had more than 30 reloads on the final battle, which at a rate of 3 per day amounts to more than 10 days.
And I tried to replay the battle yesterday thrice and had no sucess.
It's true, it's extremely challenging (more if you played on Insane like me). But I recommend it to any player who tought the game was easy the first time.

I played through the Ascension MOD with a Solo Soreceror(cap removed) and I breezed through ToB... until the final battle which I never won
I actually managed to kill the five but I never managed to injure Melissan at all... dnt know what I did wrong and now I have re-installed the game without Ascension... maybe I'll try again later, this time with a Wildmage solo.

@Leonardo: Do you have an old version? I have the last (weidu).
I assure you that she breaks spellcasting when she appears, as well as all the "active" Time Stops and Imp. Alac.
Today something more happened, as I was trying to avoid casting spells before her arrival... she appeared and I got all the
"unsummoned" messages for my newly casted simmies and project images!!
No true sight, nothing, only her arrival....
This made me close the game again with rage!

Also TWO of my today's tries got devastated by the Near Death bug.. you can only reload (I don't feel like memorizing 5 Power Word: Kill... )

Anyway, my party is really too small I fear....
Plus I've only a save, after the last pool, even if I wanted I couldn't
pre-buff, I've only the time to cast some Simulacra..

Man, 11 proj. images, that's cheese!!!!!
The problem in this battle is here, I think you can't do without it!
That's why maybe Bruce will be able to do it, as the Wild Mage has the highest potential in cheese!!

I won't ever do it........