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I've been stuck here for hours and I really need help.
I was reading through the posts in the forum and I decided to try dualling late as per Crenshinibon suggested on numerous occasions.
I made an evil Kensage withi Kensai 21/Mage 22, specializing in flails and scimitars.

This is the first time I've played the game solo, and the long dualing period was challenging but still fun. Once my first class got reactivated, I was curbstomping just about everything in SoA/ToB in insane mode, even Tougher Demogorgon.

But I'm really stuck with the final battle in Ascension. The strategy I've been using so far involves chaining Time Stops from scrolls to get everyone except Yaga Shura to near death, then finishing off as many as I can before Melissan shows up.

I really don't know what to do against Yaga Shura -- I can imprison him but doing so before both Sendai and Abazigal are dead means that they'll just free him using the Freedom scroll. When I managed to imprison him after all the others died, it made Melissan mortal, but she still freed him afterwards (I checked her data through Shadowkeeper and she doesn't have freedom scrolls and doesn't have freedom memorized either. Is this scripted?). I don't know if the battle's script allows me to beat her even though Yaga Shura's not dead yet.

Another big problem for me are dispelling arrows from Illasera or the Fallen Solars. I don't know how to block those other than using PfMW. Once I get hit by one of those arrows, most of my buffs are dispelled, and everything starts to unravel, since I start to take damage. Heck, even Abazigal's breach hits me. What gives? Doesn't Spell Trap absorb breach?

The one time I managed to get rid of the five, Melissan summoned a giant horde of demons. By that point, I was out of spells, lost most of my buffs. I have relatively few casts of spells anyway, given my mage level.

Any help would be appreciated.

For what it's worth, I managed to beat the battle on Core.
Using a Simmy and my main char, I took out Illasera and Sendai during the Time Stop, while leaving Abizagal and Balthazar near death and mazed Yaga-Shura. It seems like imprisoning Yaga Shura last does make Melissan actually vulnerable, even though he'll continue to stomp around when Melissan frees him. I mazed him a second time and Melissan didn't bother freeing him.

I'm still not sure how to deal with the demon horde that Melissan summons in Insane mode.

А Kensai-mage is extremely powerful and you should have no trouble winning this fight on Insane. Some tips:

Yaga Shura's resistance to cold is 0. He's also vulnerable to Poison, although his save vs Death is pretty good, so I wouldn't rely on poison darts. You may wanna try the darts after a Greater Malison cast on him. Also spells like Magic Missile or Melf's Acid Arrow are most effective, due to their multiple damage source. Best, of course, use Ice Storm or Cone of Cold, as well as Ice wand charges. Best possible weapon for your character against him is either the Flail of Ages +5 (multiple sources of elemental damage, he takes 5 dmg per strike), the Spectral Brand +5 or the Ice Star +4. Another way to kill Yaga is to rely on multiple Contagions, which to drain his stats, but Yaga has Cure Disease spell, so little chance of working.

You may first want to leave all enemies at near-death, and afterwards kill them extremely quickly before mel appears. Be advised, however, that Sendai will read a Greater Restoration scroll when she sees that several of her companions are badly wounded. There is nothing you can do to prevent this, except for killing her very quickly.

If you are temporarily unprotected from magical weapons and you see Illasera shooting at her, equip the Reflection shield. You can lure Illasera killing herself from her own arrows by unequipping/reequipping the shield.

Time stopping is not that necessary at first. Counter enemy Breaches with Spell Shields (this works until Mel is not yet released and Baalors are not that many, since they Breach as well). Counter enemy melee attacks via ProMW. Counter enemy Timestops via Focus (Sendai opens the fight with a TS, so use Focus, it refreshes over time, to get a free TS). You'll be unable to use Dispellation arrows, but use Breaching charges from wands to get rid of enemy protections. Time Stops are better left for last, when you want to be free of the demon horde which Mel summons and take her 1/1. Watch out for her own Timestops though! Use Focus.

Use simulacra. Although they will not be very effective, you can still use them as decoys, and with quickslot items, they are always formidable allies. Also, they have all of PC's HLAs and abilities, meaning you can use them to Control demons.

In that connection - use a Simulacrum to try and dominate the Fallen Solars which Mel summons. Even one Solar on your side can help immensely. They can do eliminate a lot of enemies for you.

Use the last Green Globe from Simmy's inventory. It summons a long-lasting Shambling Mound, which is extremely powerful, and if you Protect it from Magic via a scroll, becomes nigh unstoppable.

Buff well with potions before and during the fight. This is the last fight! Use Magic Protection, Magic Shielding, Storm Giant Str, etc. etc.

Take Mel out with a Black Blade of Disaster and Kai finally (use ProMW for protection).

Adeth could you maybe link me to this post? I reckon it could help me with my kensai/mage. GL with the fight.

Ups I seem to have forgotten that a kensai cannot use Shields, so that Reflection shield is off as protection.

However, I DO remember that proMagic scroll negates the negative stunning effect of the Control demon ability. You may use a Simulacrum which is Protected from Magic to control demons and still run freely.

You may save some spell slots by using Project Image + Wish for total spell book refreshment after extensively buffing.

Spell Trap doesn't stop Breach. Spell turning stops Breach, if the Breach is shot from the Wand of Spell Striking. The only sure protection vs Breach spell is Spell Shield. However, watch out, as Spell Shield is removed also by Lower Resistance(used by Sendai), Pierce shield(used by Mel) and Secret Word(used by Alu Fiends which Mel summons). Time Stop is the surest defense of your buffs, since spells are frozen in time.

For this battle, I usually preserve ALL proMW and Absolute Immunity scrolls which can be found (7 ProMW and 6 AI). Also, I tend to use green protection scrolls to buff vs elemental damage. Green protection scrolls, unlike protective spells (like proFire, proAcid, etc) cannot be dispelled by Breach! Same is valid for potion buffs. Use Potions of magic Protection and magic Shielding, and the only thing which will be eventually Breached is your Stoneskin, Protection from Magical Energy(it's good if you have Inertial barrier belt equipped since with Magic shielding potion your magical damage res will be 100% after Breach), and protection from magical weapons.

On top of your preserved resistances, if you use Hardiness + Roranarch's Horn + Gargoyle Boots + Defender of Easthaven off, then even when Breached, your character will have amazing physical resistances, which will make him extremely hard to kill.

Remove Magic can remove potion/scroll buffs, but I'm sure that Mel doesn't use it. Watch out for Sendai, Azi and Yaga though, since I don't remember if any of them uses Remove or Dispel magic.

Dispellation arrows are indeed your biggest problem. Illasera is quite annoying as at near-death she usually becomes Ethereal and runs away. Use Detect Invisibility spell or scroll to locate and kill her. Use powerful melee hits and she'll quickly die.

Fallen solars: again: use Control Demon with a simmy or quickly slay them, best under Timestop. I think that one TS will be sufficient to kill both with your amazing damage bonus.

Thanks for the tips Saros. And Magroth, I'm not sure how linking works in this forum. Can someone elaborate?

As for the battle, I forgot to load up on potions and scrolls. That bit helped a lot.

I actually did manage to beat the battle few times on insane before Saros posted, but I still don't have a strategy that works consistently. It usually takes a dozen reload or more to even score one victory. I don't know how you vets manage in 2 or 3 tries, or even no reload.

I've tried using fewer time stops at the beginning and it seems to work out alright. I used a lot of time stops before to ensure that Illasera and Balthazar die cleanly, and hopefully get Abazigal and Sendai to critical. I find that using fewer time stops tends to result in the survival of some of the five, especially Balthazar. On that note, I hate Balthazar and his scripted abilities. Is there anyway to get past flip resistances?

I realize now that Sendai is basically a non-issue if I cast Protection from Magic scroll on her. A bit cheesy, but I'm looking for a stable strategy. I've tried doing the same thing with a Simmy on Abazigal to prevent his breaches, since the scroll doesn't work on Melissan and there's too many demons later for the scroll to be worthwhile. I think I'm wasting the scroll. I'll try the Demon Charming thing that you mentioned, Saros.

Illasera is also not a problem if I can kill her in a time stop, so that she doesn't get a single shot out. I don't want to fight without time stop since I would waste PfMw so early in the battle and she keeps turning invisible when I hit her. But my current choice wastes Time Stops instead. I think it's worth it insofar as getting rid of her quick and dirty, without risking dispels or having her hide in a corner.

I usually just ignore Yaga Shura until I kill all the other Bhaalspawn, then just Imprison him. I see no point in killing him - the acid arrows and cold spells would just take up more space in my already sparse spell memorization. Even though he's freed by Melissan, he can't hurt me if I have PfMW on.

I charm Sarevok to use as a meatshield. It's also hilarious when Melissan takes out Sarevok and collapses from the feedback! Sometimes he dies too fast, and sometimes he glitches and never seems to die. He's also a non-issue except for the glitch.

The part where I make the most mistakes is later on in the battle when I've got Melissan and the horde to deal with. When Melissan summons the demons, I usually cast time stop + improved alacrity to buy myself some buffing and nuking time. As long as I can get keep my time stop and pfmw up, I win. But it seems like a single mistake can wtfpwn me in seconds.

If I time stop, and Melissan counter time stops, I'm screwed, unless I focus on time or had pfmw on just the previous round. Since scroll casting time isn't reduced by Vecna, and I can't cast another scroll or spell during the same round, if I cast the wrong scroll the previous round (i.e. not pfmw) then Melissan has a free shot at time stopping me. Is there a way to tell if she's gonna cast time stop? I know that when she has a blue magic orb while casting, it's usually time stop, but in the thick of battle and especially during my own time stops, I can't see that orb.

The arrows of dispellation by the fallen solars are still killing me. Does it dispel hardiness? I can get 85% physical resistance with hardiness + DoE + evil ascension bonuses. Horn of Roranach's out of the question, since Kensages can't wear helmets... I never saw the point of Gargoyle's boots - isn't that just 4 stoneskins? Since it's a daily charged item, it takes longer for me to use it than casting my own stoneskin.

Just a general question about APR. I got ten APR when using FoA + DoE under imp haste. Time stop lasts 3 rounds. I've set my game to autopause at the end of round, but it sure doesn't look like I'm hitting 10 times a round, or 30 times a time stop. I realize movement detracts from the APR, but even then it still seems like I'm not getting all the hits in.

Also, is Spell Immunity useful in this battle? Neutralizing Sendai with the Protection from Magic scroll means that SI is useless. Only Abazigal can see me of the five when I'm invisible, and in the final phase of the battle, Melissan can see everything anyway. As for SI:A, imprisonment is not an issue, and Spell Trap seems to take care of the enemy spells to a large extent. SI:C is useful for the Creeping Doom that the Fallen Solars just love to cast (4 damage per second? That's just broken.)

Anyway, thanks for the tips and I'm interested in hearing more ideas.

Well, it's bad to forget about limited charge items like protective spells and scrolls. They usually win you the battle. Example: Protection from Magic Energy scroll will last enough for the last battle, and in the same time will free you a 6th level spell slot. True sight scrolls can be used so that you free more 6th level slots (more ProMW). Other protective scrolls (from Fire, Acid, Elec and other) can be carried to free some 3rd and 5th level slots. I suppose you see the picture.

Again, I remind you, that Green protection scrolls last 12 hours and are unBreachable, which makes them so valuable in this last battle.

SI:Abjuration is important, because, as far as I remember, some enemies use Remove magic. Don't remember if Baalors had this spell in addition to Breach. Remove Magic will remove potion/green protection scroll buffs.

Mel is vulnerable to fire. I usually add a lot of damage with several Incendiary clouds after lowering her magic resistance. Some of her demons are not immune to fire as well.

Gargoyle boots are helpful versus Babau backstab. These are nasty, because they also tend to disarm you 50% of the times they hit.

You can (and should) use Staff of the Magi for a couple of hits on enemy mages (protected by Stoneskin and illusion buffs) - just so that you don't have to cut through the Stoneskins or use breach. In this connection, Spellstrike scroll is valuable if cast on Azi in the start of combat, because afterwards his buffs can be Breached via a Wand of Spell Striking.

You can start the fight with 5 tougher (or longer-lasting) summons. Your options are Mordy Swords or Skeleton Warriors. Skellies last 8 hours, but will die quickly. Mordy swords last very little, but will hold out the enemies for quite a long time.

As far as I remember, Flip Resistances switches Balthy's magic and physical resistances. So when he flips the resistances, focus on him with magical attacks or weapons which deal significant amount of elemental damage. You may also consider eliminating him first and fast.

I think that arrows of dispelling do not dispel Hardiness, but will dispel your potion and scroll buffs. You can break Mel's gating of the 2 Fallen solars if you kill 2-3 of the Five quickly after she appears (her first move is to gate in those 2 Solars). Only Feedback can interrupt her Gate. Relying on this is somewhat hollow.

I usually, when I play any kind of mage character, use the initial summons to buy me some seconds while PC is running to the lower left essence pool, where PC summons a Projected Image. PC has Chain Contingency and Contingency set on Helpless, and they now trigger. Chain contingency is loaded with Simulacrum, Protection from Magical Weapons and Mislead. I cannot remember what spell do I put in Contingency, but it's something protective as well. So, in short, when PC casts project Image, he's far outside enemy True Sights, enemies are busy with the summons (a couple of mordy swords are good to have), and PC has three clones: a Mislead clone which is expendable, a Simulacrum which is a powerful ally, and the main clone is Projected Image, which quickly casts SI and SI:A under Alacrity (vulnerable to both dispel AND True Sight), afterwards activates all other protective buffs (ProFire, Cold, proMW, proME, etc), if Sendai tries to cast True Sight may activate Focus, as well as the Simulacrum btw, and both can act freely, and literally can kill tons of enemies with proper spell selection under Alacrity (and if first wanes, be ready to cast a second one. Simmy can always control the projected image by dealing 1 hit on the protagonist when the useful spells of the Image end.

You should also use the Projected Image to cast several Farsight spells under the 1st Alacrity. Farsight + Projected image is invaluable, since this is the only nice way to control the actions of your clones in the fog of war. I usually have 3 Farsight spells memorized. Wizard Eye, which all seem to love so much, is crap compared to Farsight in this last fight.

You can buff (under that same first Alacrity) your Simmy and Projected Image with Haste, or better for Simmy to be under Improved haste. You can even (if you can spare) spend some spell buffs on Simmy instead on the projected image. Test until you find the satisfactory combo.

After this all, you should have severely weakened enemy force, and PC has yet to enter combat! This is how you kill Yaga btw, by using the spells of the Projected Image.

Simmy is also invaluable with Time Stop scrolls and Wish scrolls on a quick-slot.

There are so many combinations (even with your current limited resources) that I'm positive that you'll have a lot of time exploring. My current install is not Ascension, however, so I myself cannot test this battle right now.