Mega Boss Belranga question

[Tadas]

I killed her on Potd upscaled by positioning my party near entrance, she blocked new spiders coming so I could manage how many stacks she would get. Everyone before the fight ate shark soup, except my seer - I put on her armor that made her immune to dex afflictions. I gave her 2 weapon pen food. I stacked all ranged accuracy items on my seer -  helm with +10 acc against beasts, ring with + 4, gloves with 25% missed to grazes, potions, weapon with -20% reload time, but with +2 pen and +10% dmg etc. I managed to get exactly 17  pen - as much as boss needs to break even. The setup was - chanter was singing +30 acc and +30% dmg against beasts song, and +50% healing. Tank well.. tanked and healer healed. Seer would use borrowed instinct on nearby spider for another +20 acc. I choose seer because she can get most accuracy in game with hunters mark and her passives. Used ghost heart subclass for ranger, because I doubt I could keep pet alive and didn't want the penalty. So basically all I did was - refreshed borrowed instinct on spiders, kept my priest stocked up on heals with ancient memory, kept drinking potions and just shooting. I limited spider kills to about 20, so I had 20% chance to hit with seer. I was afraid that I could not keep my tank alive if I killed more. It took me a long time (after the fight seer done over 10k dmg, but that included some from killing spiders).

 

Towards the end of figtht I discovered an extermely cheesy tactic - salvation of time extends duration of ancient memory too - meaning you can spam it. I put y pallies lay on hand on everyone for heals and setup ai so all my priest would do - just spam ancient memory. For some reason it did not extend time for borrowed instinct, but it made the fight  much faster. The extra cheesy part is (I didn't use it) - I think if it extends barring from deaths door duration - you could make party invulnerable.

[Waski]

First shot . "Say cheese Belranga" 

[Tadas]

Some more thoughts with more testing. Borrowed instinct does not stack with the chant both get same acc bonus, though only borrowed instinct shows up with moseover, (however same amount on the roll). Also doesn't stack with devotions of faithful. Marked prey does stack. She has low crush armor 11 vs everything else at 17. I think I bugged her out on my first kill (or maybe I was standing just out of range with my tank), because he didn't get wounds. Or maybe chance to wound is related with her accuracy. Positioning is not that important, it seems they spawn random number of melee and ranged spiders. Melee gets crushed by boss, but after you achieve a limit no new spiders spawn (unless you kill some of them yourself). It seems best way to tank her is either with summons or just position where she can't reach you with melee attacks, not because of damage, but her consume has a chance of additional effect that causes you a wound (though you can clear those with luminous adra potions). Getting 16 armor vs piercing is great on tank, her normal attacks have 15 penetration. And 9 vs piercing on rest for crystal-eater spiders (they have 8 pen).

[DozingDragon]

Here is a ridiculous strategy: taking down Belranga by primarily using Minoletta's Minor Missiles.  

 

Minoletta's Minor Missiles hits automatically and does crushing and corrode damage.  The problem is getting a high enough penetration to overcome Belranga's armor.  Boosting your power level (Prestige, Potions of Ascension, Firethrower's Gloves, Stones of Power, and the Nature Godlike passive) still brings you short of hitting 11 penetration.  However, the level 9 chanter phrase, The Arrow Sings Between the Dragon's Scales, will get you to 11 penetration.  

 

So grab a single class chanter, and four nature godlike evokers that have the Minoletta spells, Infuse with Vital Essence, Prestige, Farcasting, and maxed out might and intellect. Get the "Private Dance Room" resting bonus from the Wild Mare, the Adratic Glow bonus from the Luminous Bathhouse, and I equipped Nemnok as a pet.  This combination provides a minimum of five level 1 spell casts per encounter, and you can get a sixth cast by equipping the Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry.  Make sure everyone has a Potion of Ascension, any Stones of Power that are on hand, and any summoning items.  In particular, the Wise Teeth Necklace is very useful in this fight, because Belranga and the spiders have a very difficult time with some of the undead summons it can generate.  

 

Start combat from stealth by using a ranged weapon to attack one of the spider mounds.  Sneak back to the entrance, using all of your power level boosting buffs, and then have each character summon some distractions.  Hang back, and watch as Belranga's health rapidly decreases under an onslaught of Minoletta's Minor Missiles.  Replace your summons as they go down, and do not hesitate to pull back if Belranga starts targeting your party with ranged attacks.  Replenish your spells with His Heart Did Fill with the Light of the Dawn.  Once you run out of level 1 casts, start killing spiders with whatever other spells are on hand to make Belranga more vulnerable to other spells like Wall of Many Colors, Minoletta's Concussive Missiles, and Minoletta's Missile Salvo.  Replenish your spells with an empower point, and then throw everything at Belranga.  

 

I am positive this strategy could be refined some more, but the basic concept works.  Even just having one character relying on Minoletta's Minor Missiles in a party with a high enough power level, penetration, and a reliable source of the brilliant inspiration might make a big difference in tackling this battle a bit more conventionally.  

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

^ If Belranga is not hitting you, it sounds like you might get a bit more value with Crusted Swordfish for another +2 pen on all your spells... 

 

Does Stone of Power stack with Potion of Ascention? 

 

You might find some other items to buff Minoletta's Minors' power levels some more.  

[Boeroer]

Or you only bring one Evoker with da missiles, a Cipher who makes you brilliant and a Priest who casts Salvation of Time?

[AndreaColombo]

Why are you drawing more attention to that? The patching cycle isn’t over yet, Boeroer

[Boeroer]

I thought it might look better than having 4 Nature Godlike Evokers on the catwalk.

[InsaneCommander]

Or you only bring one Evoker with da missiles, a Cipher who makes you brilliant and a Priest who casts Salvation of Time?

 

The only thing better than that is if your cipher is Serafen and when he cast Ancestor's Memory his wild mind gives him 220 focus.

 

Then you can make almost the whole party Brilliant.

Edited October 8, 2018 by InsaneCommander

[Flucas]

Jesus I finally got to the 75% point (cleared all the burrows, left Belrange with ~50 stacks) and now he just spams wounds on my tank... lamest sht ever.

 

/rant so how to deal with wounds? yes i brought potions but i get a wound every 10 seconds

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Maybe bring more Adra Potions? 

[Flucas]

Maybe bring more Adra Potions? 

 

I had 10 on my tank lol he went through em real fast.

 

Anyone know for how long Belly will spam the wounds? If its infinite i'm gonna cheese him (after days of figuring out a working non-cheese tactic lol).

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

I think by now it has become sort of clear that you just let the small fries get in between her and yourself xD. 

 

I think it's intended and not cheesing. 

[Flucas]

I think by now it has become sort of clear that you just let the small fries get in between her and yourself xD.

 

I think it's intended and not cheesing.

It makes me feel that way

[Tadas]

I might be mistaken, but I think wounds is some kind of chance on crit, so more stacks of spiders you kill - higher the chance. Maximizing deflection and minimizing spider kills is really important. I can be wrong, but I think I only saw wounds when she crited.

[Kaylon]

If you move out of her range when she starts the attack you can avoid it.

[Tadas]

Oh that's cool, thanks for the tip.

[Flucas]

I might be mistaken, but I think wounds is some kind of chance on crit, so more stacks of spiders you kill - higher the chance. Maximizing deflection and minimizing spider kills is really important. I can be wrong, but I think I only saw wounds when she crited.

No, its a kind of special attack she does.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Do you die with BDD when you get enough wounds?

[Boeroer]

I I remember correctly nothing can kill you when under the effect of BDD - not even a kill command from console.

[Flucas]

The problem is the -25% healing you get from the first wound, makes it that much harder to keep my tank up.

 

Im thinking this boils down to 20-30 adra potions in tanks inventory and needing to nuke Belly down in the time that it gives me.

 

And the deflection/AR gives me a headache in itself lol @.@

[baldurs_gate_2]

I I remember correctly nothing can kill you when under the effect of BDD - not even a kill command from console.

Then you just have to regain your focus with a cipher and have a priest in your party for BDD and Buffs and you are invincible, at least with your tank that aggros Belranga.

[Tadas]

If attack is avoidable, all you need to do is watch for animation start and move out till it ends. Sounds really simple and possible to do with story characters only without any potions.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Tadas

[Tadas]

I killed her with Pallegina as paladin tank, Konstanten as chanter, Tekehu as druid and Serafen as cipher. Didn't use summons, actually tanked the boss. Watcher took a nap

 

So her consume attack is dodgeable and indicated by "explosion" icon. She will start using it at hurt or below.

 

Couple tricks I learned the hard way - you have to wait till she starts actually casting it before moving out, if you start runing early she will follow you, I got cornered, but if you time it right she won't move an inch. You can come back in as soon as the animation of first jump plays, she will do second one and the icon will stay, but she won't do any damage.  Usually she will do and attack or screech - recovery time - another attack or screech or consume. The dodgy part is that she sometimes play out her recovery time and won't do anything for couple seconds and afterwards her new action will be instant - giving you little time to react. You can still dodge her consume, but at least I needed to slow my combat time. I ended up binding combat speed up and down so I could go max speed when she is just going trough her normal rotation and slow down when I needed to dodge. I scripted druid to heal, seraphen to attack and feed ancestor's memory, konstanten just auto attacked and provided heal and acc vs beasts buffs. So the only thing I needed to do is watch her actions and dodge consume.

 

Oh and resistance to dexterity afflictions is not enough, without immunity you will still get paralysed.

And if you try to use auto pause when enemy cast spell - pause will come too late, your tank will already be mauled by a spider.

 

How do I upload an image? 

Edited October 12, 2018 by Tadas

[Kaylon]

You need immunity to dexterity afflictions or immunity to poison (paladin or antidote potions) to avoid being petrified/paralyzed. Resistance to dexterity afflictions just downgrades her petrify to paralyze. Resistance to resolve affictions is also good to have to avoid being shaken by her screech.