Fri Jun 18, 2004 1:44 am
bgryph wrote:I recently beat Gebarn II at 34 on Insane and it was a cakewalk. (I'm always fairly conservative and more so on Insane.) So I think more than that is going to be overkill if you're playing normal or evil.
I'm more conservative than you! I'm level 33 (almost 34), and I'm still heading toward the first temple place int the Lost Desert. (I'm going really slow here: once a single monster gets me 55 or less xp, then I'll move on.)
Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:16 am
philodice wrote:But Velm has enough skill points to get all those skills. You don't have to choose. Don't be silly.
Velm does? That's six skills with 59 points. You'd end up spending around 10 points on each (9 on one), if you were to evenly distribute. 10 points on shield and heal won't get you too much. You want the full 90 HP heal when going up against Terask II. Terask II can shield himself 30, it would be wise to match his 30 with 30 for your group. I would lose the useless mezmerisation (they may be slowed, but you can't hit them or they go back to normal, how pointless) and just concentrate on the other skills. I've found the hard way that you want Velm to be as fast and resistant as possible.
Fizzy wrote:bgryph wrote:I recently beat Gebarn II at 34 on Insane and it was a cakewalk. (I'm always fairly conservative and more so on Insane.) So I think more than that is going to be overkill if you're playing normal or evil.
I'm more conservative than you! I'm level 33 (almost 34), and I'm still heading toward the first temple place int the Lost Desert. (I'm going really slow here: once a single monster gets me 55 or less xp, then I'll move on.)
I tend to over level, unintentionally. I think I fought him at 35 or 36 on insane. The cake couldn't hold up against the trampling.
Fri Jun 18, 2004 5:00 pm
Woohoo! Beat the faeries first time on level 46! I was so nervous because I've made some really lousy skill choices what with this being my first time playing.
Did it Fire, Water, Dark then Earth though I was so tempted to take out the dark one early - Pesky little spell caster.
With skills I've just learn that making your mind up early is important. If you try and combine other peoples methods you end up in a huge mess - I have so many skill points lying wasted in skills I'll never use again, I can't wait to start on evil mode so I can do it properly this time.
Edit:
What does it mean when a monster does this:
A Heart of Nox focuses its energies!
Did it Fire, Water, Dark then Earth though I was so tempted to take out the dark one early - Pesky little spell caster.
With skills I've just learn that making your mind up early is important. If you try and combine other peoples methods you end up in a huge mess - I have so many skill points lying wasted in skills I'll never use again, I can't wait to start on evil mode so I can do it properly this time.
Edit:
What does it mean when a monster does this:
A Heart of Nox focuses its energies!
Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:26 pm
they're using focus energy, a skill rohane has. All it does is reduce the damage the enemy does and makes the enemy a lot harder to kill. A worthless skill imo.
Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:44 pm
Ah thanks, I never trained that one myself so I never got to see what the individual names were for it. Cheers
Sat Jun 19, 2004 3:34 pm
It seems that the basic principles layed out in my guide are the most popular. Everyone here agrees that innate speed and resistance need 11 points each, everyone agrees that Velm gets group heal, Group shield. Rohane gets Critical attacks and damage increase. Mipsy gets Group direct and /or direct damage, Talinia gets shockwave and damage increase.
The other skills are debatable. So about 4 skills on each character are VITAL and the others are options. Most of us agree on what is vital and dissagree on the options. Some people swear by mesmerize, some don't. I liked mesmerize but it doesn't kill Terask any faster.
We also agree that maxing out innates is a waste of 8 pts per character, given the weapons bonuses at the end of the game.
Isn't that about right?
(points to siggy for b/c advert...)
The other skills are debatable. So about 4 skills on each character are VITAL and the others are options. Most of us agree on what is vital and dissagree on the options. Some people swear by mesmerize, some don't. I liked mesmerize but it doesn't kill Terask any faster.
We also agree that maxing out innates is a waste of 8 pts per character, given the weapons bonuses at the end of the game.
Isn't that about right?
(points to siggy for b/c advert...)
Last edited by philodice on Sun Jun 20, 2004 4:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Sat Jun 19, 2004 5:46 pm
I'd agree with all those Vitals that you laid out except one - Group Direct Damage. I put 5 into it early on but hated two things about it:
1. It doesn't take out a singe monster as fast as DD and I like to prioritise my monsters by which one I need to wipe out first. Some that heal or mesmerise for example I often try to wipe out before they get a chance to move.
2. It leaves Mipsy vulnerable for far too long as it takes longer to recharge.
It's why I choose DD over GDD.
Also I like Rohane to have Stunning strikes over critical attacks (in the end you have enough for both) - Those few seconds he stuns can bring a whole barrage of strikes from the rest or give them time to haste, slow, heal, shield etc
Edit
I dunno if this is significant but people were referring to weapons that did +4 skills, I just got one with 5 from the faerie thief:
Bow of Light (dmg 52)
- Shockwave: +5
- Increased Bow Damage: +5
- Ranged Attacks: -2
- Slowing Strike: -1
Just thought I'd leave it on the record in case it's not generally known
1. It doesn't take out a singe monster as fast as DD and I like to prioritise my monsters by which one I need to wipe out first. Some that heal or mesmerise for example I often try to wipe out before they get a chance to move.
2. It leaves Mipsy vulnerable for far too long as it takes longer to recharge.
It's why I choose DD over GDD.
Also I like Rohane to have Stunning strikes over critical attacks (in the end you have enough for both) - Those few seconds he stuns can bring a whole barrage of strikes from the rest or give them time to haste, slow, heal, shield etc
Edit
I dunno if this is significant but people were referring to weapons that did +4 skills, I just got one with 5 from the faerie thief:
Bow of Light (dmg 52)
- Shockwave: +5
- Increased Bow Damage: +5
- Ranged Attacks: -2
- Slowing Strike: -1
Just thought I'd leave it on the record in case it's not generally known
Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:50 am
Aesir wrote:Also I like Rohane to have Stunning strikes over critical attacks (in the end you have enough for both) - Those few seconds he stuns can bring a whole barrage of strikes from the rest or give them time to haste, slow, heal, shield etc
As much as I love stun, I would never put all my points into it because it doesn't work on Terask II. Critical attacks, on the other hand, works on everyone.
Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:19 am
Dunno. I think there's general agreement on Rohane: Most people like Critial Hits, Damage Increase, Stunning Strikes, and the innates.
Mispy is less straightforward. There's the great Mipsy DD vs GDD debate. If you only get one of them, then you can move on to the great Damage Shield vs Group Haste debate. (Really, her only skill that most people agree is a bad choice is Slow).
Pretty much everyone agrees that Talinia needs Damage Increase and her innates, but from there you get some disagreement, maybe because none of her abilities is outright useless. Most people seem to train up to Fourth Arrow in Multiple Targets. Personally I think three arrows is probably sufficient -- even if you started with 4 enemies, by the time your second multiple target rolls around at least one of them is undoubtedly toast. Most people also like Shockwave but I think Slowing Strikes has its proponents as well. (It does one adventage over Shockwave -- Slowing Strikes sometimes works on Terask II and Shockwave doesn't. The disadvantage is that it doesn't work on all enemies at once, and if you focus on one enemy at a time the effects rarely build much.)
Velm is easier because everyone gets Group Heal, and anyone who doesn't get Group Shield should :-). With the innates that leaves extra points going to Celestial Hammer -- even people who like Mesmerize seem to agree that you don't need a whole lot of points in it.
My only suggestion is not to neglect the Innates. It's easy to do because their effects are harder to see, but fundamentally all the damage-dealing in the world won't help your party if they're dead. :-)
Mispy is less straightforward. There's the great Mipsy DD vs GDD debate. If you only get one of them, then you can move on to the great Damage Shield vs Group Haste debate. (Really, her only skill that most people agree is a bad choice is Slow).
Pretty much everyone agrees that Talinia needs Damage Increase and her innates, but from there you get some disagreement, maybe because none of her abilities is outright useless. Most people seem to train up to Fourth Arrow in Multiple Targets. Personally I think three arrows is probably sufficient -- even if you started with 4 enemies, by the time your second multiple target rolls around at least one of them is undoubtedly toast. Most people also like Shockwave but I think Slowing Strikes has its proponents as well. (It does one adventage over Shockwave -- Slowing Strikes sometimes works on Terask II and Shockwave doesn't. The disadvantage is that it doesn't work on all enemies at once, and if you focus on one enemy at a time the effects rarely build much.)
Velm is easier because everyone gets Group Heal, and anyone who doesn't get Group Shield should :-). With the innates that leaves extra points going to Celestial Hammer -- even people who like Mesmerize seem to agree that you don't need a whole lot of points in it.
My only suggestion is not to neglect the Innates. It's easy to do because their effects are harder to see, but fundamentally all the damage-dealing in the world won't help your party if they're dead. :-)
Sun Jun 20, 2004 10:10 pm
I have to say Slowing Strikes, stunning strikes and shockwave all work on TeraskII - I just beat him about 5 minutes ago! 
I got one stun outta rohane and quite a few shockwaves and slowing strikes and that was with only one point in slowing strikes. Next game I'll concetrate on stun last - It did work and come in handy but only once out of a game that last 240.5 seconds.
Bring on Evil!
I got one stun outta rohane and quite a few shockwaves and slowing strikes and that was with only one point in slowing strikes. Next game I'll concetrate on stun last - It did work and come in handy but only once out of a game that last 240.5 seconds.
Bring on Evil!
Sun Jun 20, 2004 10:54 pm
what level should i be at to fight nox. its evil difficulty. i barely beat the faeries at level 43 and i know that nox heals like crazy.
Mon Jun 21, 2004 12:03 am
skoolisbad wrote:what level should i be at to fight nox. its evil difficulty. i barely beat the faeries at level 43 and i know that nox heals like crazy.
Wow, faeries at 43? Usually that's too low even in normal mode. What level did you fight Nox at in normal? Most people would skip him at evil, or fight him at around level 50, but 7 levels is a lot to train, so...
Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:52 am
Bah! This is going so slowly! Does anybody have any tips on how to level up faster in chapter one of the insane game? I'm at level 11, and still haven't gotten to Zombom yet because those stupid skeletons beat me down every time I get near the stairs up. I don't want to use too many healing potions, so usually I beat a hasty retreat back to the village, but it's taking forever to get experience that way! Do I just need to keep slogging through, or is there a better way?
Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:46 am
Nope, that's about the size of it; the pre-Zombom phase in NQ2 is pure hell.
Stunning Strikes DOES work on Terask 2, just not very often; if he were immune, you'd get a 'XXX skill does not work on this NPC' message with every attack Rohane makes; but as said, it's not like you'd ever waste points in taunt/combat focus anyhow, so you'll have both of them in the end.
The only real choice for Rohane is WHEN you put points into whatever skills =p
Mipsy, I think if I decide to run through insane a second time (halfway through act 3 in my first), I'm going to try going DD before group DD and see which one helps me more; group DD does have its annoying more-than-twice the recharge time of single DD, which gets tiring.
The one skill I've always been curious on is Talinia's Ranged attacks; about how many seconds does an 11 in that add to a monster that tries to hit her? After all, if it's halfway decent, then come Terask every time he goes after her, it gives you extra breathing space.
Also, does it work on single/party spells?
Stunning Strikes DOES work on Terask 2, just not very often; if he were immune, you'd get a 'XXX skill does not work on this NPC' message with every attack Rohane makes; but as said, it's not like you'd ever waste points in taunt/combat focus anyhow, so you'll have both of them in the end.
The only real choice for Rohane is WHEN you put points into whatever skills =p
Mipsy, I think if I decide to run through insane a second time (halfway through act 3 in my first), I'm going to try going DD before group DD and see which one helps me more; group DD does have its annoying more-than-twice the recharge time of single DD, which gets tiring.
The one skill I've always been curious on is Talinia's Ranged attacks; about how many seconds does an 11 in that add to a monster that tries to hit her? After all, if it's halfway decent, then come Terask every time he goes after her, it gives you extra breathing space.
Also, does it work on single/party spells?
Mon Jun 21, 2004 4:57 am
lotusgenie wrote:Bah! This is going so slowly! Does anybody have any tips on how to level up faster in chapter one of the insane game? I'm at level 11, and still haven't gotten to Zombom yet because those stupid skeletons beat me down every time I get near the stairs up. I don't want to use too many healing potions, so usually I beat a hasty retreat back to the village, but it's taking forever to get experience that way! Do I just need to keep slogging through, or is there a better way?
Ugh, it IS torture, isn't it? But actually, I beat Zombom at level 10 in InSaNe (using blast potions), so you should be fine too. Just max out your healing flasks (and have some vials to recover your health during and after walking to him), and you should be able to put that icky part behind you.
For the ranged attacks... I know the maximum it will slow an ememy per hit is 5%, so 11 points will likely be 4%. Of course, I've never used the skill myself so you might want confirmation.