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Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ |
| Buff Cycles and Strategies... |
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Well, tonight Im hoping to join the 'Wiz8 Finishers' club, but as I was reading some ong Tf the postings and walkthroughs, I see alot of places where they warn of near instant-death battles for the 1st time party. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, the hardest part of this game is making it to Arnika your 1st time alive.
Anyway, enough of the re-hash, basically the reason why I thought this game was ridiculously hard the 1st time around was because I slept on it and thought it would just be another cake walk through another cake RPG (hence my 4 restarts my 1st two days after buying it)
Then I decided to take play this game like I would an MMORPG, what that means is that each and every step I took after hitting the Monastery beach, I was buffed like I was about to fight the devil himself.
Everytime I woke up after waking up from a camp:
Enchanted Blade
ArmorPlate
Magic Screen
Missle Shield
Like clockwork. And I made sure to push each spell to its max (even when the spell fails I still learned/earned from it) until I had the last circle big and green. And sure enough, all of a sudden, things that used to wipe the floor with me were looking at me differently, and all of the dreaded area effect spells that used to obliterate my entire party in 3 sweeps were now hitting for less than half of what they used to.
The mage and the priest are (like in all RPGs) the lifeblood and main gun of most of the battles towards the end. Main boss characters and the harder tank monsters (Titanium/ Adamantium slimes) drop like melting snowmen when you cast an elemental next to them, Guardian Angel is a lifesaver for the mid levels.
Next time around Im going to add a priest and have him/her to do pre-buffs to save more mana for the mage and priest for the real fight (ie have the priest cast bless, armorplate, ench blade etc)
ok this thread went a lil off track, but thats ok, its Friday |
Fri May 30, 2003 3:54 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
I agree that defensive magic is critical to safe butt-kicking.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Fri May 30, 2003 10:11 pm |
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Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ |
Ok so I've been playng from the alliance to the end since I got home (btw both sides have a letter of alliance, thats the way to talk to them no matter how mad they are) got the 2 sides allied, disarmed the bomb, now Im in AP and it really sucks...massive wide open areas, with mobs 3,4x my hp and high enough magic to penetrate all my defenses and resist all my offense. Did I mention I've been at this for like 3 hrs? Forget about re-doing this with a 2nd party, Im about *this* close from taking the CD out of the PC.
How do you go from easy to very easy enemies to...this?
Been playing this game for 2 weeks, the entire AP is filled with stuff I've never once seen, even as boss monsters. Think I'll take a break and force myself to finish this tomorrow, highly doubt that replay will be anytime soon 
Either that or my guys are too low? Cant be when they can tank 20+ rapax and the only defensive magic I cast is my buffs, from start to end of battles both my magic users are offensively attacking. I dunno maybe I need to refit them with all the crap I found in the later levels, maybe I need a new strategy, but what? Not too much strategy can be used when its you vs them on a wide open flat land area...I need a break
What level has everyone finished the game on avg? My melees are 24 my ranged chars are 24,22 (ranger kept dying so I stopped bothering to res her) and my casters are 23...is this too low?
And if it is, all my magics are maxed, so what real difference is a few more levels gonna make ( and levels cost in the 10s of millions now, dont feel like powerleveling in the AP)...bah |
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Sat May 31, 2003 3:24 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Your party is plenty strong to handle AP. It will require some patience as well as the rare reload.
First off, you should have two characters capable of portals by now. Clear an area in AP and then portal back to home base (I assume you've set one up by now- I always use the upstairs room at Heli's, otter uses the bank vault (IIRC)). Feel free to bounce back and forth.
Second, at AP the enemy casters are very strong and most critters are very resistant. With my last winning party, I ended up using all 6 characters for melee. The casters would put up buffs and cast the occasional "rest all" or "heal all", but the rest of the time they were swinging for the fences just like the tanks.
Third, I wouldn't give up after 3 hours. I've always considered the AP gauntlet to be nearly 1/4 of the total length of the game. The battles can get a little tedious, but I thought meeting new kinds of critters forced me to create new strategies which kept the experience from getting annoying, at least for me.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sat May 31, 2003 3:59 pm |
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Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ |
Well there isnt anything I need back at my base, I've been moving at such a fast pace since I got past the that rapax initiation, and all my guys are pretty much maxed out in armor/equipment that I havent bothered stopping at a shop in the longest time, Im carrying hundreds (literally) of unused potions and items.
Im gonna have to try fighting this last group from behind a bend or something |
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Sat May 31, 2003 10:38 pm |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
One possible strategy that may help you:
Keep track of where crevices are so you can't be surrounded. When you first sight the enemy, click the sword to engage them in combat from a distance. Then run back to one of these crevices to fight them there.
I never had the need in either of my winning parties to incrementally explore AP with two casters using set / return portal. It works well anyway. My "home" set portal was by Braffit, as it gave me easy access to the healing pool if I was diseased or level drained. I just cleared an area and then rested if I was tired out.
If you've got that much unused stuff you're carrying, maybe it's time to sell some of it off? If you're overloaded, you're weakening your melee types.
Key to AP first time through: party redundancy. You will be using element and soul shield a lot. If you have multiple people to cast these spells, you'll get farther before you have to rest.
_________________
The world itself shifts and changes and fades to mist like the strings of a minstrel's harp, and mayhap the dreams we forge are more enduring than the works of kings and gods.-Robert E. Howard
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows, The Nonflamers' Guild, and The Alliance of Middle Earth= |
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Mon Jun 02, 2003 2:00 am |
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Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ |
Yes, I think I was seriously overburdened, although there is no real audio/visual alert except for the occasional ugh! from a char when you've handed him the piece that broke his back.
The whole party splits the weight so its hard to know how/when to say when.
Usually (since my mage is always the 6th char) I just fill her slots with potions/ scrolls then hand her everything else after that (rest goes directly to party weight)
I was sure I was going to find time to make a whole lot of gadget stuff, but then I thought (with the way his weap is now, and Im so close to the end, how much more powerful is it really gonna get by make 6-7 gadgets)
Also, he was starting to piss me off at the end cause everytime he's let off a burst of 3 shots, he's lose like 50 stam then pass out, grrrrrrr, why is that?
And I was going to take all those potions and try and raise the alch on my ranger, but it turned into a pain looking for the 'b' potion to match to the 'a' potion I had in inventory...chalk it all up to exp |
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Mon Jun 02, 2003 2:11 pm |
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otter
One of Us
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 1337
Location: Portland, OR |
if you look at your weight capacity in the inventory screen, up there by your HP and stuff: White is unburdened, Blue is somewhat affected (Attack Rate, AC, etc. can all be reduced) Green, fairly affected, Yellow, Quite a bit affected, and Red, you can't move without passing out.
You gotta drop the heavy stuff that isn't worth much!! (rocks, Shuriken, Leather Pants, etc.)
_________________
If thousand-year-old family traditions are so important to you, why do you have indoor plumbing and electricity in your family's house? |
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Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:36 am |
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Shrapnel
Rocket Scientist
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 1325
Location: Newark, NJ |
lol omg I thought those were warning colors or buffed colors
Like, I thought blue meant I had spells on me
ANd I thought yellow meant I was close to being burdened LOL |
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Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:42 pm |
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