Can't Beat Ascension Final Battle: HELP!

[NeoTiamat]

As the title says, I'm having serious problems beating the Five in the last battle of Ascension.

Now, I'm playing on core rules, and quite frankly, think that I've had a very good runthrough the game, (my first complete one). The only seriously difficult battle I've had all game was Kangaxx, every other battle took no more then two-three reloads at the most. Irenicus fell rather easily, Balthazar died so quickly I didn't even KNOW how I killed him, and Demogorgon turned out to be a profound disappointment considering how everyone called him the most powerful fight of the game. However, right now in Ascension, I'm at the final battle where Mellisan summons all of the Five, and quite frankly, I'm getting the floor mopped with me.

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My Party is pretty powerful, or so I thought. The only mod's I use other then Ascension is the Weidu Item Upgrade Mod, from which several of my weapons come from. (HP are rounded).

Damien (PC) Lvl 27 Sorceror. AC -7, 100 Hp. Lots of Abidalzims, lots of Dragonbreat, Spellstrikes.

Sarevok: Level 34 Fighter, Soulreaver +6 (Basically Soulreaver +Carsomyr), Shuruppaks Plate. Thac0 -14, AC -10, 200 hp. Greater Whirly and Hardiness main HLAs. Four Attacks.

Korgan: Lvl 35 Berserker. Axe of Undying +5 & Water's Talon +4(Fancy Scimitar upgrade of Adjatha basically). White Dragon Armor. Thac0 -11 & -10, AC -13, 200 hp, greater Whirly and Hardiness, 9/2 attacks.

Viconia: Lvl 38 Cleric. FoA +5, Enkidu's Plate. Thac0 -11, -13 AC, 120 hp, one attack. 100 Magic Resistance.

Edwin: Conjuror 27, 8 lvl nine spells, AC -2, Hp 70.

Jan: Illusionist 18, thief 25. 2 lvl nine spells. Firetooth +5, Ac -7, hp 70.

For assisstance, I also Have Bodhi, Juggernaught Golem, Improved Kitthix, and all the fallen Planetars and Mordy Swords my sorceror and Edwin can summons.

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Right now, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to beat the Five. The sheer chaos of the battle is making controlling my guys to the max difficult. Sendai with her timestops, super teleportation, and numerous invises is the most dangerous, since whenever she timestops, Balthazar is also immune and promptly kills either all of my summons or takes Sarevok out like a light. I've tried using Harm and viconia, but she either doesn't cast it, (don't know why) and then gets killed by abazigal.

Help please?

[NeoTiamat]

Well, this is nice...

I actually had a decent battle going, managed to kill Illasera, Balthazar and Sendai, and was about to kill Abazigal when my game crashes on me. I don't feel happy.

[Luis Antonio]

@NeoTiamat, congrats for reaching this place in the game. It is very hard, very hard, and very frustrating to win this battle. I have reloaded more than fifteen times with my first party (without cheating) and I had to leave the game for weeks before actually ending it.

Ok, your party is pretty strong. What you need to kill them is massive cheese with your sorcerer, IMO - which will help you to destroy one or two characters - and then massive party cooperation (specially from Sarevok and Korgan) to slay the enemies. I particulary think the evil aligned party has more advantages than the good aligned one, because of these two characters. Savvy can deal that wonderfull 200 damage at times, and Korgan can use Rage, which are very good habilities, not mentioning Sarevok stats and Korgan saves, which are really helpfull in this battle. Edwin is cheesy too, and Viconia can deal plenty of healing and damage to the enemies with her spells. Jan is a good one too, the problem is that I rely too much on ilusion spells when using him effectively (backstab and stuff) and he is, IMO, the weak point of your army. Anyway you can try the following:

Using your four spellcasters combined with cheese for knocking out three, maybe four members of the ascension crew. Ilaseera is one of my favourite targest, since she is weaker, and she also disrupts spellcasting a lot. After Ilaseera, comes Abazigal (who's weaker than the others IMO, and will be the victim of the fighters). The problem here is to avoid Yaga Shura (which can deal loads of damage and is highly invulnerable).

When you kill three, Amelissan comes down (this battle is rather bugged for me too) to business. Dont fight her yet, and take care. If you can make each of your party members drink spells to raise saves, this is a good time, cause she will time stop eventually and cast a swarm of spells at your party, scripted, no disruption. While she do that, concentrate on Yaga Shura with your fighters and into Sendai with your casters. Sendai shall give you no trouble. Once she's dead, you can imprision Balthazar (I havent seen Amelissan the Blackhearted releasing him) and then whack Amelissan to death.

It is harder than it seems, though - you'll need to have luck on your spells, and to be quick. I recommend pausing each turn and after each spellcasting, or you'll lose time and die. Time stop is not really the best here, but it is decent before Amelissan comes if you can take the damage you'll receive from Balthazar.

[snoopyofour]

I've heard that a strategy that works is to avoid killing anyone at first. Take all of the five down to "near dead" before you actually kill them. This way, when Melissan shows up, it will be a simple matter to take out her remaining cronies in a couple of rounds and focus on her.

[Luis Antonio]

[QUOTE=snoopyofour]I've heard that a strategy that works is to avoid killing anyone at first. Take all of the five down to "near dead" before you actually kill them. This way, when Melissan shows up, it will be a simple matter to take out her remaining cronies in a couple of rounds and focus on her.[/QUOTE]

The thing is: It is hard to do that specially with Balthazar and Yaga Shura on your feet. Amelissan never appears before three are down - and with the first spell waves they are considerably weakened from the lack of support by Ilaseera (which can dispell you) and the attacks from Abazigal or Balthazar or Yaga Shura.

I dislike this battle, since I think they're too overpowered, it took me literally ages to do it, and I still think about installing it or not when starting a new game because it is really ubber. The battle with Irenicus is a piece of cake when compared to this one.

[NeoTiamat]

I've started to have some luck with the fight, but two things:

One: Melissan comes when ONE person dies. Not three. This makes it difficult.

Secondly: My game seems to crash a fair bit into the battle. It's only happened twice so far, but it's always when I've finally managed to get rid of three or so opponnents, at which point my game crashes. Second time that happened, I just reloaded and ctrl-Yed my way just so I could actually see the ending. I'd still like to see if I can beat them, but the crash is getting on my nerves. (I've had a small number of crashes over the game, but never this persistent.)
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Still, what I've found to work fairly well at least for the start of the battle is to sic Sarevok, Korgan, and the Fallen Planetar on Balthazar immediatly, and sic Bodhi and some Mordy Swords on Yaga Shura.

With three excellent meleers on him (Plus Jan with energy blades, He's actually GOOD with those things, too bad he took so long to get them), Balthazar tends to die before he can cause too much trouble, while Bodhi seems to be able to solo yaga Shura, (It's the level drains I think, he has a load of hitpoints but is easy to hit, so when she hits him, she drains five levels or so. after six-seven hits, he's down to level 0 and kaput.0

Abazigal usually spends his early battle fighting my Jugg Golem, then I try and swamp him with the fighters after balthazar is down. Illasera is weak and I honestly ignore her.

The catch is, HOW THE &$*#& DO YOU KILL SENDAI?! She's the wild card that seems to be wrecking my strategy. She timestops, and both she and balthazar and sometimes melissan are all tearing apart my team. Sendai uses the timestop+harm to incredible effect, and If I don't get balthazar out quickly, he can take out sarevok during the timestop with a bit of luck. Likewise, between her contingencies, timestops, and endless invisibilities, I just can't pin her down long enough to really do anything to her. My sorceror, edwin and viconia are the only people available to kill her, and I tend to use Viconia for distractions. Any ideas on getting her out quickly?

Oh, and to stop that bloody CTD?

[Luis Antonio]

I'd focus on Balthazar first, but in my experience he never falls in the first wave of spellcasting/whacking, and his lunar stances and special habilities really can make someone mad. And that battle isnt fair, of course. But I start with Ilaseera because she cast spells, she dispells you with arrows, and if I fend her off quickly I'll be enabling better spellcasting from my crew, and safer buffs, which help in the long term in the battle.

Sendai will drive you mad, and she is the queen of the chessboard. I mean she's really worst than Amelissan. Maybe imprisioning her will help, have you tried it? She may return in a turn or two, but during that time you may have put down someone else.

Also, are you using insane ammounts of cheese or just normal spellcasting? Which are your mage spellcasting techniques?

[Thrifalas]

Are you into cheese or not? If you are, summoning clones of your casters will make them able to summon more monsters since summoned monster's monster doesn't count in the monster count xD. Well, if you're into cheese this battle can be over in an instant. If you're not into cheese, here's some advice:

Balthazar is *only* immune to Time Stop after having cast Lunar Stance. Proceeding him in this matter and laying either time traps or casting well-placed time stops will stop him as well. With enough stopping on can take out both Balthazar and Illasera before the battle has even started. Maybe more, but this is the best I could do.

Those scrolls of pro-magic that you bought in Adventurer's Mart at the start of your adventure finally comes into use here. One on Sendai right at the start and one later for Melissan makes things a *lot* easier.

Yaga-Shura is best to take out fast with a harm spell and a bonk of various weapon.

If your caster has Planetar and Robe of Vecna you can keep Melissan occupied a long time with instant summoning big guys.

Still got that Rod of Ressurection? If you do, use it. Besides ressurecting it works as a ranged "Heal" and will heal your members to 100% even if you're halfway across the map, in an instant.

Water's Talon is *the* most imbalanced weapon ever. I hope you have it in mainhand, since the 2dmg/s stacks and can easily make an enemy take 40dmg/s after a whirlwind.

I dont think Imprisonment works, though. I use it frequently and if it works on some of the Five, then I've greatly missed out on something.

Anyway; Balthasar out before the battle start (might be hard for you since you're short on rogues), Sendai out with a pro-magic, Illasera dies quick and Yaga-Shura goes down to a harm+hit. Abazigal isn't much to care about, and Melissan with a pro-magic is in fact not that hard

[Ian Kognitow]

Here's one of the big tricks I've used on the Ascension battle: Simulacrums or thieves (with UAI, of course) with power-word kill scrolls. Assuming you can get the five below 60 hit points, the PWK will finish them off. I've found it's almost essential for Yaga-Shura, barring availability of Harm, which it appears you wouldn't have.

It's somewhat cheesy, but if you have a thief throw down some time traps up front before the big spawn, you should have time to take down at least one of the five. I recommend going after Illasera since she doesn't start with protection and can get quite annoying if not taken out early. When the time trap goes off, run over, hit assassinate, and stab the crap out of her. Even without the time trap, Jan should pack on the stoneskins and go try to assassinate her immediately. Illasera is also the most vulnerable to getting immediately bombed by your sorcerer.

Send Bodhi after Sendai immediately. Bodhi's already in the area. If you're lucky she'll kill her outright or weaken her enough that a Carsomyr/Soul Reaver wielding-type can cut the rest of her defenses and finish her off. If you still have your Protection from Magic Scrolls, you can throw one on Sendai as well.

Without Sendai/Illasera causing problems, you should be able to get your tanks to beat up in succession Balthazar, Abizagal, and Yaga at least enough to get off the PWKs. Defintiely have someone standing by with rod of resurrection to heal your tanks if they start getting beat up themselves.

Potions! Of Invulnerability or defense.

Dump the spellstrikes for chain contingencies.