I’ve just begun Trial of Ancient Elders and have Beaten Elder Kyusho(1 hr, I wanted the points ); what is the best strategy for going after the gems for the cage, the minute I start down the stairs I get hammered, sometimes I don’t make it past the door at the bottom and sometimes I make it to the cage area and if I’m lucky I can get one chest open before they line up and just start wailing on me to the point I can’t get out of the alcove the chest is in. I used the points form killing the old geezer to up all my stats and I’m at level 9 and I also tried the cowards way of turning down the spawn and difficulty levels.
Why do I get the feeling that it was a good idea for me to have save before I accused the house of Fathien of stealing the Argalia.
In my games, I don't think I ever had to face more than 2-3 spirits at once, and I always moved much faster than they did. So if you get swarmed in one part of the challenge, try running to another part. And if you're playing a version prior to 1.4, then loading your game will stop the spirits from spawning.
SWC
Sir Edmund:"Should you obey the lord who asks you to put a village of innocents to the torch? Is that chivalrous? Is it noble?" Me:"It's a great way to get promoted, I know that much."
meuric wrote:Why do I get the feeling that it was a good idea for me to have save before I accused the house of Fathien of stealing the Argalia.
That has nothing to do with it. Also, instead of accusing, you could have requested help of house fathien, which would have given you a big bonus after returning from ulm. It would make your trials much simpler if you had loaded up on blast nova spells.
I know your problem, those knights with their spellcasting and big hits are bad opponents if your still at a low level. Level 9 may be a bit low if you are trying to kill everything and not just avoiding the battles.
Killing that Banshee was the hardest kill of the game (particularly for me as I play a magic caster and she is immune to magic). However, if I lured her back to the starting area stairs, she sometimes got to a spot at the bottom of the stairs where she seemed to get stuck with all the spirits lining up behind her.
I retreated to the top of the stairs and eventually killed her with my bow (it took ages!)
For some reason she got free a couple of times and came after me, so I ran around and tried different places till I could corner her again.
Once she was gone, I just ran around randomly and opened the chests avoiding the spirits and blasting those that came too near. I agree Blast Nova is very helpful here as it goes through walls and you don't have to see the opponent.
I use Zap a lot as it has multiple hits, can initially just get fired off randomly, then if you turn around it will latch onto the closest opponent (handy if you don't know where they are coming from). Also once one opponent dies, if there is any charge left, it latches onto the next one automatically. You can also move while casting it and it seems to stop them in their tracks.
Easiest way to beat some of the Elders, is to get an Ice Dagger (L 8 chest in northern section of Northlands) or a Winter Axe (L 8 chest in the upper section of the inn in Skuldoon -- you'll have to reload for this one!) --- those "quests" are not easy for a level 8 Character, but possible.
Ask for the "help of house Fathien" --- you will be granted the "noble" heraldry after the quest.
Keep the Argalia for a while and explore to build up your char. ---- ALL sections of the game are accessible via the mountains. (--- you might consider getting a Moonstone first, it makes getting around easier)
Thanks for the tips and advice. I decided to restart the quest at the inn while loading up on blast nova spells and then saved before going into the hall of the lords, I don’t mind going after Elder Kyusho again, I usually walk between the base of two pillars at the back of the room using them as shields while pinging away, it’s a little less boring that way.
BTW I gave it one last shot before starting over and I counted a total of seven entities in the room with the cage before dieing a horrible death.
It may not help, but if you're a celestial class and gained the Crystal of Diamond Light, it allows you to charge head-on into a swarm of spirits and even the Banshee usually without taking damage because it's a holy weapon, adding extra damage to and stunning undead/spirits.
I went through the trial with my brother on a LAN, and his mage char did about 20-30 dmg consistently to the banshee without combo strikes(and we were lvl 8!). It was also stunned constantly, so it never attacked or even screamed at us. In fact, it only took us about 5 minutes to kill a banshee that way
The Trial of Elders can definitely be some easy exp if you have that Crystal. You still have to use a bow for Elder Kyusho and the mage Elder at the end, though, since they disappear if you get near them.
My suggestion would have been to go up to the Lost Lake Island where the Moonbeasts were, and beat about 30-40 of them to get a crap load of experience and ADV points. This is what I always do before attempting the Trial quest and the House of Fathien quest. As you also get a moonstone and when you go back to Arindale you can activate the Arindale Moonbridge. I usually before going back to Arindale go to Talendor's Moonbridge just east of the Island in Lost Lake to activate it as well. Then I go thru the Marshes to fight that Devil guy to complete that quest that old geezer from Venturean Forest gave me. Then I go steal the dragon egg if I haven't done already to get the Dragon Heraldry (+10%Fire, even though it registers as 20%Fire on the character stat screen). And then I get, if I can, 2nd tiers activated for my character. If your character is wanting to get Rogue 2nd tier classes, it's too late...as you can't go back to Fargrove now, it's closed.
And then I may go back to fight more Moonbeasts by using the Moonbridge in Arindale to go to the Moonbridge in Talendor to saving myself from some more agonizing swimming lessons. And I'll fight Moonbeasts for some good time...until I'm ready and willing to go do the Trial Quest and the House of Fathien Quest. At the earliest, I'll stop fighting Moonbeast around level 12...just so that when I go into the Trial Quest, my character can kill and defend and survive(health) fairly well. If you're a melee character, it helps to boosts Strength and Dexterity and Agility really high. When using an Urgoth, I'll get Strength up to about 80-90 by level 12, so as to really murder anything in my path. I've played the Female Elf, Female Human, Wyvlan, and Thrall as mage characters or rogue characters...and it is in my opinion to still get Strength up as fast as you can to about 50-60 and you can stop there as you get about a nice 25%-30% extra damage bonus to your weapon. As in the beginning your magic is crap...and you are limited in the amount of spells you have...(if you're playing singleplayer)...(multiplayer...I suppose you could play unlegit as its your choice to make your character into a god...I of course discourage myself against that). And it is very hard to beat Moonbeasts with low Arcane/Celestial magic skill and with low spell levels and with very few spells to cast. STrenGtH is needed badly.
Those 2 characters in the Trial Quest are a pain in the arse as even with strong characters and weapons they kill my index finger having to keep on clicking on them. *sigh*
But, my first character I played thru the game, a long time ago endured the privilage of being underpowered...as I just kept pushing thru each quest at low levels. Now I know about all this...and sometimes I get lost playing for hours beating up Moonbeasts cause I'd rather kill a 1000 Moonbeasts than kill 100,000+ (Thiefs, snakes, rats, goblins...and all the other enemies with 200 or less Experience Pts. per kill).
); what is the best strategy for going after the gems for the cage, the minute I start down the stairs I get hammered, sometimes I don’t make it past the door at the bottom and sometimes I make it to the cage area and if I’m lucky I can get one chest open before they line up and just start wailing on me to the point I can’t get out of the alcove the chest is in. I used the points form killing the old geezer to up all my stats and I’m at level 9 and I also tried the cowards way of turning down the spawn and difficulty levels.
