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Good day to all of you!

First time when I played BW, it was on Mercenary mode with Alanna (main), my beloved Princess Eva (melee), Vix (archer) and Taar (Nature Mage). It was pretty easy to kill Despulan (1st Surgeon) with:

1. Eva - War Cry - you have a couple of critical hits when activated
2. Vix - Rune of Blood
3. Alanna (Cobat Mage) - Detonation
4. Taar - Invulnerability - I didn't use the magical +drlife
It worked pretty easy, even I asked myself if it wasn't too easy to kill.
For the last, the OverMage, it was simply crazy. I don't know what they thought when they created Zaramoth, I would like to have one of their testers to show me HOW I could kill the OverMage WITHOUT +drlife.

So...when I came back in Elite Mode it was a nightmare. Despulan is a 98 level caracter and heals itself very fast (nothing new, heh? ).
My party (for the first try) it was:
1. My beloved Princess - Melee 88
2. Vix - Melee 88 (yeah, it's a good fighter!)
3. My beloved always having conscience problems Taar - Melee 88 (She took
her Nightmare on Mercenary in Vai'kesh forest)
4. My beloved beautiful main character Alexia - a fine Archer 88
5. Finala - Combat Mage 88
6. Deru - Nature Mage 88

Unfortunately, it seems that you cannot kill that 98 character with your much lower 88 party. They strike in vain.

So, to come back to our subject:

1. I think (it applies on Elite Mode, I didn't played on Veteran) you should have, AT LEAST, 3 melee characters and 1 archer.
2. You should have, AT LEAST, 1 character close to Despulan (Yoren works fine).
3. I replaced Vix with Yoren (too bad for him, I didn't want to but I was forced)
4. I reset the skill points for melee (remember, that includes Yoren's) and for my beloved archer Alexia.
5. I put War Cry, Waves of Forces and Whirling Strike at their best for all my melee characters (you should disregard the other skills at this time). The unused skill points you should use them to increase the damage of your weapons (be dual weapons or archer)
6. I made RUNES OF SACRIFICE (this skill is extremely important) for my beloved archer at its best. When activated, you'll have 90% percent more normal and powered damage (sorry for percentage, if I am wrong).
7. Use Icicle Blast for you Nature Mage at its best.
8. Use Corrosive Eruption at its best (your Combat Mage).
9. I strongly recommend the invulnerability cheat +drlife - even if I am reluctant to use it. I was forced to but, at least, I killed pretty fast that blasted Despulan.
10. DO NOT USE double handed weapon like Rahvan's SunSword (even if you put it on right hand and the shield on left hand). For your melee, use ONLY dual weapons. They inflict a lot of damage. For example, I had my beloved Eva with two Vai'kesh legendary cleavers enchanted, Yoren and Taar with Blood Letter sword on right hand (if you have it, I have the sword for both) and Desert Fire on left hand (for both, Yoren and Taar again).

Tactics (it worked for me, I killed that blasted Despulan in about 15 min, so you'll have a "pretty" long fight).

1. Activate +drlife. You'll become invulnerable but, at least, the DEAD Despulan is ALL that matters.
2. Stay close to Despulan.
3. DO NOT USE Rampage mode.
4. As soon as you got close to Despulan, activate Runes of Sacrifice. Pay attention to have ALL your characters in the circle.
5. Use Waves of Force for one of your melee (preferable for Yoren for example, which is closer as strength to Despulan) and War Cry for the others.
6. Pay attention to have ALL THE TIME Runes of Sacrifice activated (my beloved, beautiful archer Alexia again).
7. Use Corrosive Eruption from your Combat Mage. It inflicts A LOT OF DAMAGE even if it is a bit latent.
8. Use Icicle Blast as much as you can. It applies also for all of your powers.
9. Deactivate DS1 behaviour, put OFF both of them.
10. Keep striking on that blasted Despulan. As soon as you have a power recharged, USE IT (pay attention again to have ALL the time Runes of Sacrifice activated, even if it still active, activate it again).
11. Again, keep your characters ALWAYS in the circle of Runes. You'll inflict A LOT OF DAMAGE to that cursed creature.

PS: It worked for me, I killed Despulan in about 15-20 min of continuous fight.
I didn't kill the other yet beause I am still working on Vault of Therayne.

Another PS, philosophical this time: I would like to have one of their testers to show me HOW to kill that blasted creature. It applies also for all the Rogue Mages. On Elite Mode I killed only Kanred WITHOUT cheats. The other one (from Kelvaran waste) and Celeb'hel are simply...I don't know how to define them. I simply cannot kill them without cheats. This I consider a bit frustrating and, TO NOT BE harsh, with those Rogue Mages, you couldn't have FUN (which is EXPECTED from a game). It is a kind of mockery. To not specify that it is also CRAZY.

I do not know how you ended there with such low lvl. I had a battle with despulan with a team Grand Magus (Soul Lance, Energy Orb)/Master Assasin (Take Aim)/Champion (Brutal attack/Provoke) and he went down in no time. I've launched few take aim's in him (about 50 - 60 k each), enrgy orb took care of little summon things etc. But, he was 95 and I was 94. NOT 88.

Abour rogue mages: you have combat mage with corrosive eruption in your party, which menas he has some points in curse upgrade skill. On rogue mage juest put steal magic curse (with curse upgrade skill lvl 30, steal magic can reduce his magic damage for 92%). And voila, he does 8%, from whichc about 50% is reduced by resistanes, mages absorb it via nature magic skill and wat is left is clicking on him.

Killing the Surgeons

AVE CAESAR, MORITVURI TE SALVTANT !

Thanks a lot for your tips.
I imported my Elite party from the original DS2 and the starting formation was (as you start in BW for the first time):

1. Eva, Vix, Taar - Champions 86 Melee all, 14, 23 and 27 Nature, 0 Combat all
2. Alexia (main character) - 86 Arch Warder with 86 Range, 45 Nature and 27 Combat
3. Finala - 86 Grand Sorceress - 37 Melee, 37 Range, 0 Nature and 85 Combat Mage
4. Deru - Grand Preserver - 51 Melee, 85 Nature and 3 Combat Mage

The problem was that I put in their auto-cast spells the Defender for Champions and Nature Mage (at that time I hadn't figured it out why I was having all the time my armor decreased, I mean in red, with lower hit points, for know I found out it was because the Wrath of the Fallen) to gain some extra armor points and Repulsion (same reason, gaining armor points) for my beautiful archer.
Till I arrived at Despulan (1st Surgeon) I "cleaned up" the terrain (I mean all, Vai'lutra, Calennor and Vai'kesh, needless to specify the path till Aman'lu) and something WEIRD happened. My party seemed to fight in vain as they increased dramatically in Nature Mage points till 65, Finala took only 2 (two!!!)
Combat Mage points and Deru the same (only 2), so that when they first entered in Western Vai'kesh entrance to kill the first Surgeon they were only 88 level characters. Even though they had such a low level, they killed everthing (other creatures) without so much worry. But that blasted Despulan shocked me effectively for the first time, because I stayed nearly 1 hour (ONE HOUR!!!!) right clicking like a stupid with +drlife activated and nothing was happening!!!
I arrived at a point when it had only half of its life when it summoned some cursed crawlers (alas, I HATE those creatures, when I came back, I killed them ON SIGHT) and it healed 100% !!!! Not so hard to imagine, I was on the point of smashing my game disk and my computer...Only that procedure expressed with so much pain solved the puzzle.
With the second Surgeon it was far more easier. That time I had Yoren as only 93 level and my beautiful, grace in the night, the sweetest perfume of water lily and the shining star on the night sky (wow!) Master Assassin 94 Ressa (I love my Ressa, now she is 100 level character after paying a visit to Valdis temple, from the Agallans till the temple of Valdis) in the party (I replaced Vix with Yoren and Finala with Ressa). You were right, that time I put in her auto-cast slot that magical spell STEAL MAGIC. In that way, WITHOUT USING CHEATS, with Ressa's Corrosive Eruption, Soul Lance and Alexia's Runes of Sacrifice (Yoren,Waves of Force, Eva and Taar, War Cry) I killed Baelusar (2nd surgeon) in less than 1 min.

Anyway, I think something strange happens with this game.To be more concise:

1. My party experience seems TO NOT INCREASE in BW even though I paid a little visit in the hardest parts of the game (if there is one ).
2. I took off all spells splitting the experience between melee and nature and range and combat and I had the same result (maybe their experience advanced only 10%)
3. Only when I revisited the Zaramoth Horns (so I loaded the original DS2 from BW) from Agallans Peaks to Temple of Valdis they gained points in A VISIBLE WAY so that Eva and Taar advanced from 88 melee to 92 (!), Yoren 93->96, Alexia (main) 88 Range->92 and my grace in the night, the shining light of my eyes Ressa 92->96 Range and 100 level character (in the mean time she took bare-handed 42 melee, only for fun )
4. Conclusion: Cleaning up the BW from the beginning to Dwarven Mine they took ONLY 2 points in skills (be it melee, range or nature), cleaning up the Zaramoth Horns from Agallan Peaks to Temple of Valdis they took 4 points and the experience increased dramatically (88->92 and my etc, etc, etc, Ressa some 95->100). Something which I found very weird.

PS1: To not specify that I took on sight Coral Encrusted Shield Recipe in the original DS2 at the northern gate of Aman'lu after killing the FIRST Kurgan (believe me, I even didn't take the first breath of fight and BANG, the recipe!!!) and the Elven Battle Mage Armor (from set) after killing the Morden-Graal Mage Commander in Razka Ruins !!!! So, they fought like stupids all the BW world and took only few recipes, Ravager Skin Helm, Elven Battle Mage Gloves and Boots (only!) then they went to the Aman'lu North Gate, killed the first (!) Kurgan, took the recipe then they teleported directly to Southern Greilyn Jungle, went to Razka's Ruins and took the Elven Armor. A kinda very strange, bizarre and all the weird in the world random mode of granting magical and set items.
PS2: I will also try to kill the Rogue Mages with Stealing Magic as you say, WITHOUT cheats because I hate them. There is another original DS2 party which awaits ( ) but they are only Veterans unfortunately.

that surgeon ...

hello everybody

i had the same problem: hitting in vain with my party that horrible creature
i gaved up after half an hour of fighting with a very good team, good support on each other and good damage as sum of their hits ... and nothing happened ...i did try those option on automatically hit or manually focus on the creature you want to kill etc still nothing ...

on 2/3 health the creature did steal all it's health back and i had to start over slashing
so i went on forums and i found a clue: differewnt party combination with different powers or spells; so i did it, i tried 3 new combination of parties and eventually that creature stopped to regain all the health back and i did little by little damage until it died in less then 2 or 3 minutes

i find it weared cuase those parties i created as test parties were far worse from my initial army especially on damage

my oppion is that those so call bosses are kind of bugged, sometimes they are invulnerable and sometimes you reload the game they die in a couple of minutes ...
it definitly happened on me

u need lvl boost dude...

duuuuude of course u gona fight them for hours, ur lvl is TOOOOO LOW...ill give u example, do u remember on merc 1st ACT when u goin in the underground shelter for secondary quest of that guy whos asking for his hamer and shyt... sooo HE WARN U that the creatures are too strong and u better come back after u gain some exp... i think its made with purpose just to show u that BIG lvl difference between u and monsters leads to LESS DMG caused by u ... doesnt matter in the bar shows 10k dmg, if u have big lvl difference u CANT cause that dmg to the freak...go there atleast on 92-93 lvl ... than with proper powers (the way u play it should be fine) ... u will bring the sucker down in no time ...good luck to ya ..