Need some advice on how to defeat the Blackhearted

Rarayn · Post by **Rarayn** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:05 am

Hello,

I've been stuck on the third part of the final bossfight for some time now. The first two battles were handled easily enough by just ignoring the summonings and focusing on the Blackhearted, but I've ran into a wall - both physically and proverbially - in the third battle.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to get down her Blade Barrier - or whatever it's called again. I don't know if it's a high resistance to magic doing it, or something else entirely; but Dispel doesn't seem to have any effect on her. To make matters worse, the Slayer Shadows combined with all the other summonings, as well as her use of Timestop and offensive spells makes it hard to keep my casters alive long enough to help much.

In any case, from what I've read; this is a fairly common problem for many in the final bossfight, but none of the strategies I found around the web worked for me.

I have my suspicions that my party is simply far too weak for this, but here is a list; hopefully there is still a chance to salvage this.

Main character: Level 18 Fighter/ Level 19 Cleric
Sarevok: Level 29 Fighter
Minsc: Level 25 Ranger
Viconia: Level 31 Cleric
Imoen: Level 23 Mage/Level 7 Thief

(Yes; there are only five, the sixth was splattered by Balthazar, and he didn't seem worth keeping anyway.)

If you need any other information to help with this, I will - of course - be glad to provide it.

~Rarayn

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:06 am

It's cheesy but it works - spam summons to keep her summons busy and have your PC try for Harm + Critical Strike. If her blade barrier gets to you just use the Defender of Easthaven + Armor of Faith + Hardiness and you should be fine.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:20 am

You might want to tank all the summons with Imoen. I hardly remember the unmodded fight, but mage (immy) will just yawn in their ugly faces while beign an immovable object (with "protection from magical weapons" spell ofcourse! followed by stoneskins and mirror images when you run out of PFMW)

Mordenkeinen sword summons are also great tanks, cause of their immunity to physical damage.

As for the blade barrier, keep in mind that this spell does not bypass Magic Resistance. If you have.. (hopefully you do).. potions that increase mentioned above MR by 50%, use them. (the yellow ones, 'magic protection' i believe)

If you have trouble with the summons, and tanking them does not help too much, try using "Death Fog" spell

She has truckloads of magic resistance, so a spell trigger with 3 "lower resistance" is a must have if you want your spells to have any effect.

Dispel magic is based on your and enemy level, which means it may not work at all if the foe outlevels you greatly. If she has any spell protections, use Ruby Ray (or something alike) and follow it up with Breach.

Protect everyone from the spell damage that she uses the most. I assume its fire.

This will leave her only with her physical, melee damage. Which, as Ode mentioned above, will be greatly lowered by Armor of faith + Hardiness + Defender of Easthaven

That's a lot of work for Imoen - buffing, tanking, dispelling - but if you'll pause often, you shall win. Remember that before activating phase 3 you are allowed to rest. And "wish" spell may provide you with another full rest in the middle of the battle! (just remember that Immy will have to drink few +wisdom potions, to get it up to 16!)

Regards!

Edit :

Haste everyone at all times, improved haste if possible!

Ode to a Grasshopper · Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:16 pm

Stworca wrote:Remember that before activating phase 3 you are allowed to rest.

What?! Wish I'd known THAT before...

Rarayn · Post by **Rarayn** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:06 pm

Well, victory is mine; at last. Thanks a lot for helping out!

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:42 pm

Rarayn wrote:Well, victory is mine; at last. Thanks a lot for helping out!

Tell us more about that!

Someone in future might need it

Rarayn · Post by **Rarayn** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:07 pm

Okay, but I'm not sure how valid what I did was, considering I put the difficulty down to the easiest level in the latter half of the battle. (I'll make up for that in my next game, where I plan to use the Ascension mod. XD)

However, what I did - after the two first battles - was basically first summoning five blades, using as many buffs as I could - both offensive and defensive - before focusing everyone on dealing damage to Blackie. I used what shield-breakers I had when needed, and I eventually brought her down.

But again; I did this on the easiest difficulty level. I very much doubt the straight-on approach would work equally well in a Core difficulty battle, heh.

Darth Malignus · Post by **Darth Malignus** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 4:04 pm

Rarayn wrote:Okay, but I'm not sure how valid what I did was, considering I put the difficulty down to the easiest level in the latter half of the battle. (I'll make up for that in my next game, where I plan to use the Ascension mod. XD)

However, what I did - after the two first battles - was basically first summoning five blades, using as many buffs as I could - both offensive and defensive - before focusing everyone on dealing damage to Blackie. I used what shield-breakers I had when needed, and I eventually brought her down.

But again; I did this on the easiest difficulty level. I very much doubt the straight-on approach would work equally well in a Core difficulty battle, heh.

Ripping down her defences and Whirlwind Attacking her to shreds usually does the trick for me. Of course with the usual buffs, chants, blessings and whatnots. The Wands of Spell Striking are especially handy, since they launch a Breach and Pierce Magic in one zap, letting mages free up some room for other spells than those. The cheesy way with laying down some snares and traps where she spawns works equally well, too. But that becomes trivial after a couple of tries.