solo kensai vs melissan

ymar · Post by **ymar** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:29 am

Hi. Could you please give me any advice on how to beat Melissan with a lone Kensai? I went through both of the games in a party of five, but would like to beat Melissan without their help.

The biggest problem is that I just can't hit her. My character is a 40-level kensai with improved grandmastery in katanas, wielding Hindo's Doom +4 and Celestial Fury. THAC0 is -27 and -24 respectively. In the first fight, I hit her once before she casts Barkskin. After that I just can't do anything to her and she eventually whacks me to death with this long stick she's holding. Her minions aren't much of a trouble -- I'm (near-)immune to most of what they can do.

Rancid Sushi · Post by **Rancid Sushi** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:05 pm

She casts Stoneskin, which absorbs one hit per level of the caster. For Melissan, it should be 20 skins (the cap). Use Hardiness to better absorb her damage and bring plenty of Potions of Superior Healing. If you have Ring of Gaxx, you can use Improved Haste after your whirlwinds run out. If you have Ilbratha, you can use Mirror Image to further reduce damage to yourself. Do you also have Defender of Easthaven +2? Since you can't hit Melissan with Celestial Fury anyway, try equipping DoE for further damage reduction when facing Melissan herself. Bring Oils of Speed if you still need extra attacks too. Flail of Ages +4/+5 is good too for the slowing effect (no save). Crom Faeyr is also a good choice for an offhand weapon for maximum damage.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Sat Jan 14, 2012 4:30 pm

Wasn't Melissan's damage type "Crushing"?

Roranach's Horn + DoE and You're already 70% protected from it. In general i'd recommend going into Flails instead of Katanas. FoAges and DoEasthaven are the winning combo for the end fight.

@up. I'm positive that the stoneskin/ironskin cap is 10, unless Meli uses unique rules.

ymar · Post by **ymar** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:53 am

Thanks. Is DoE a flail? I don't think I have it and I certainly don't have the horn. I don't remember what it is, but I did make the staff of ram out of it. Anyway, I have no skill at flails at all, so is it really a good idea? I have some points in long swords so I took Angurvadal +5 instead of Fury. I managed through the first fight, but the second seems tougher for some reason (even though she does exactly the same things). I think she might might be casting a second stoneskin in the middle of the fight because after hitting her three times, I was unable to again. But I didn't see her do it.

Does she heal herself in the third fight? If so, it may impossible for me to win the fight...

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:09 am

Rora's Horn was a helmet with 50% blunt resistance. (found in ToB)
DoE was a flail with 20% physical damage resistance (found in SoA)

Now, since you don't have either, nor points in flails, then just go with whatever weapon you have with +5 enchantment. +2 simply does not affect Melissan.
If you're still unsure why aren't you hitting her, i believe there is a way for the combat log to show ALL "To-hit" rolls.

She comes out in each phase with full health, and i believe she may be healing herself during the fight.

The trick may be preserving Greater Whirlwinds till the more difficult phases.

Note, that nothing is forcing you to rush to the "beacons" and activating them. You can wait until your ring of Gaxx (you have it, right?) heals you completely before doing so. I may be wrong, but i believe it's also possible to rest between the phases. It's been a while since i fought the vanilla Melissan though.

Lastly : Potions of Power are a great tool for soloing warriors. HP increase, Thac0 improvement and so on.

ymar · Post by **ymar** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:21 am

Well, Niunia is a kensai so she couldn't wear a helmet anyway. The problem with potions and whirlwinds is that I don't have time to use them! I have to drink superior healing potions all the time. I used more than ten in the first encounter. The fight lasted for some 10 or 15 minutes and my character barely survived. Melissan's weapon can also throw some kind of bullets, so it's difficult not to take a hit every now and then. And getting stunned by the earthquake from time to time doesn't help either.

Yes, I do have the Ring of Gaxx. (It's impossible to rest there.)

If you're still unsure why aren't you hitting her, i believe there is a way for the combat log to show ALL "To-hit" rolls.

I don't understand what this means. Could you explain? What are the combat log and the "to-hit" rolls? And how do I do that?

Daynov · Post by **Daynov** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:14 pm

The combat log shows who you attack, damage, experience gained etc. It's located above your abilities bar. You can turn on "show to hit rolls" or something along those lines in the gameplay options, just look for it.

QuenGalad · Post by **QuenGalad** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:41 am

ymar wrote:Well, Niunia is a kensai (...)

Niunia.

Your kensai's name is Niunia. Well, maybe she's just not motivated enough to fight a bloody avatar of a god for you, since you named such a high-strung and inhibited class in such a disrespectful way

Back on track, I think it's a good idea to see the actual rolls - go to game options and look for feedback settings. That way you will see (in the window where all the conversation is stored and you get messages such as "5000 exp gained" and stuff) how exactly is the combat going for your character. Each attack will be explained, showing how much was the actual roll, then how was the result once your thac0 was applied and whether it hit or not.

I'm sure M heals - completely - at least once each fight, usually while teleporting to the other side of the ring. She also uses some protection spells, don't really know which exactly, but there's a wand in the smuggler's shop in amkethran that's useable by fighters and it's got some sort of dispel on it. Might be useful, maybe?

Edit: just remembered, people say the colored globes from the machine in Watcher's Keep can be useful in that battle, I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of them can summon something good and one of the blue globes can cast Heal on you, unfortunately they're one-shots and you have no way of determining which does what unless you save, use them and reload.

ymar · Post by **ymar** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:19 pm

QuenGalad wrote:Niunia.

Your kensai's name is Niunia. Well, maybe she's just not motivated enough to fight a bloody avatar of a god for you, since you named such a high-strung and inhibited class in such a disrespectful way

If she wants to become the goddess of unassumingness, she has to find motivation!

I'll say this: when I came up with this name for my previous character (a wizard), I was just so happy. I thought it was exactly what I wanted my character to be -- a niunia, although I'm quite sure it doesn't mean the same to me as it does to you. Anyway, I knew she would make it more fearsome than any!

Back on track, I think it's a good idea to see the actual rolls - go to game options and look for feedback settings. That way you will see (in the window where all the conversation is stored and you get messages such as "5000 exp gained" and stuff) how exactly is the combat going for your character. Each attack will be explained, showing how much was the actual roll, then how was the result once your thac0 was applied and whether it hit or not.

I'm sure M heals - completely - at least once each fight, usually while teleporting to the other side of the ring. She also uses some protection spells, don't really know which exactly, but there's a wand in the smuggler's shop in amkethran that's useable by fighters and it's got some sort of dispel on it. Might be useful, maybe?

Edit: just remembered, people say the colored globes from the machine in Watcher's Keep can be useful in that battle, I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of them can summon something good and one of the blue globes can cast Heal on you, unfortunately they're one-shots and you have no way of determining which does what unless you save, use them and reload.

I have no idea where to look for those globes. I dropped them somewhere, surely not in Watcher's Keep. And I don't know what happened but I didn't get to see the smuggler's shop in this run. I didn't go there before beating Sendai and the dragon guy, and when I got in there, I just saw Saemon and no one else.

OK, I'll take a look at the rolls and see how it goes.

MasterDarkNinja · Post by **MasterDarkNinja** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:12 pm

I'd go with Celestial Fury & Flair of the Ages. Also Hardiness is better then Whirlwind for HLA's, there's a 'bug' where you can use 3 Hardiness, and then get healed by physical blows for a while thanks to your 120% resistance.

Against Stone Skin the Celestial Fury & Flair of the Ages are really your best bets. Both have some type of elemental damage that ignores stoneskin, and the flair can slow enemies, the fury can stun them.

Also, it may be worthwhile at times just running away from a buffed up wizard and heal for a moment while you wait for their protections to wear off.