So... Sigilmaster Auranic

[AndreaColombo]

What is considered by most as arguably the easiest of the megabosses—Sigilmaster Auranic—is positively kicking my butt.

My party comp is:

- Watcher (Ghost Heart / Ascendant  melee build)
- Pallegina (SC Paladin)
- Xoti (SC Priest)
- Aloth (SC Wizard)
- Maia (SC Ranger with Spearcaster)

All level 20 with all the equipment bells and whistles (and all the temporary resting bonuses, since I use my mod to make them permanent.)

I used Captain's Banquet to make the crew immune to the sigil that terrifies, which is what Auranic starts combat with. In that time, I try to take out her two goons, though I don't always manage to kill both.

Then comes the sigil that shots lightning and that's when sh!t hits the fan: Even if I manage to destroy the sigil with a Missile Salvo + Storm of Holy Fire, and even if I protect all my party members with potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, it downs at least two party members if not three (including Xoti so I can't resurrect the others, of course.)

If I miraculously survive that sigil, the one that shoots missiles like they rained from the sky follows and we all board the TPK train.

How do I handle this?

[thelee]

34 minutes ago, AndreaColombo said:

Then comes the sigil that shots lightning and that's when sh!t hits the fan: Even if I manage to destroy the sigil with a Missile Salvo + Storm of Holy Fire, and even if I protect all my party members with potions of Improved Arcane Reflection, it downs at least two party members if not three (including Xoti so I can't resurrect the others, of course.)

If I miraculously survive that sigil, the one that shoots missiles like they rained from the sky follows and we all board the TPK train.

are you able to pick up konstanten's resting room bonus? between 30% spell reflection from konstanten's room and 50% from improved arcane reflection, i just stay back near the entrance and the lightning sigil will literally kill itself in about two reveals; i don't need to do anything. the tayn's chaotic orb, similar (though more like four or so reveals). I might need to top up an unlucky party member who doesn't proc many reflections with a heal, but nothing much. remember that most arcane reflection wears off from spell levels, so you should make sure to refresh (konstanten's is good because it won't go away or get suppressed). aloth can just use a grimoire that has tons of spell reflection to spread more arcane reflection potions around to other party members. even imperfect arcane reflection is good, if you're short on the improved ones.

unless your mod lets you stack resting bonuses, you'll give up captain's banquet. but you can use svef instead for everyone. you'll want to bring a stack for each party member, since if the fight drags on, you'll need to refresh your svef after time the cleansing sigil goes away.

the missile salvo one won't kill itself from reflections due to underpenetration, but it also typically doesn't do too much to me either. what armor do you have for your party? if everyone is wearing light armor or cloth, you might get overpenetrated into submission even despite passive reflections.

Edited December 9, 2020 by thelee

[thelee]

I think mechanically what’s important to note is that iirc chain lightning and chaotic orb still bounces even after being reflected. So the difference between 50% and 50%x30% can be huge in terms of compounding reflections and damage prevention.

Edited December 9, 2020 by thelee

[mjo2138]

I remember this fight! In addition to what thelee mentioned, you can use potions of arcane reflection on your characters to reflect the lightening back at the sigil. This will destroy it in 1 or 2 reveals. For the rest of the sigils, take a loot at the combat log to look at the penetration and attack values (hold shift), and adjust your equipment and skills to ensure you have high enough defenses to not get wiped by them. 

 

Make sure you kill the goons right away, because once they starting buffing, they are hard to kill. By the way, you can use arcane dampener (wizard skill)  to negate the buffs on the goons. Also, arcane dampener can disable the sigils, so test it out. 

[thelee]

17 minutes ago, mjo2138 said:

Also, arcane dampener can disable the sigils, so test it out. 

also cleansing effects like street sweeper or tranquilizer shot.

i think arcane dampener might be worse, because once the suppression wears off, the sigil will come back IIRC.

 

in practice though, i rarely ever needed this. it might be useful if you are able to shut down the cleansing sigil before it procs, because then you can force auranic to move onto another sigil without needing to rebuff.

[AndreaColombo]

Thank you, both.

I got Konstanten's Room bonus for the extra 30% reflection, and changed most of my party members' armor to try and increase AR against Shock. I could only improve it by 1-2 points; the sigil has pretty good Pen vs the amount of AR I can get. The heavier armor made my main slower, which made killing the goons slower still so I couldn't down them. Reflection against the lightning sigil was better, but it still downed at least two party members.

LOL, I don't know if I can beat this fight. Belranga was so much easier!

I'd love to share my save just to see a video of @theleeROFLStomping the encounter with my party, but I'm using so many mods I'm not sure the save would even work in an unmodded game.

[Haplok]

Druid buffs: Woodskin and Form of the Delemgan offer respectively +5/+6 Shock AR (aoe). If you don't have a druid, maybe you can use a scroll?

[Boeroer]

Besides shock-AR buffs (Tekehu has access to Weather the Storm as Stormspeaker by the way) and spell reflection or resistance (Xoti's Lantern can give a party-wide buff) you can completely protect a party member with Deltro's Cage: Shock Shield lasts for the whole encounter (no duration) and turns all lightning damage into 50% healing which can make sure that one party member is safe (e.g. Xoti who must revive others from time to time - or whoever).



 

[thelee]

8 hours ago, AndreaColombo said:

changed most of my party members' armor to try and increase AR against Shock. I could only improve it by 1-2 points; the sigil has pretty good Pen vs the amount of AR I can get.

the intent was actually to avoid overpenetration against the missile salvo - since you can't kill it via reflection, it takes longer (at least for my typical parties) so you end up getting exposed to it a lot more.

 

what mods do you have? you don't have a difficulty-increasing mod by any chance?  if you're able to post a video we might be able to point out improvements. it might be something simple that we're missing for you.

[AndreaColombo]

All the mods I have actually make the game easier

I'm playing PotD with a couple god challenges, neither of which should have any impact on this particular encounter. Everything else is either neutral or in my favor.

I'll try my hand at it once more and I'll see if I can use nVidia Shadowthing to record a video and upload it, so you can all see how sloppy I am at this game

Edited December 10, 2020 by AndreaColombo

[thelee]

i guess the one big thing i can think of is - are you pulling back to the entrance to let the sigils do their thing? i can see trying to tank the sigils while auranic attacks you is pretty brutal, but the entrance is out of range of auranic. this is part of why auranic is simulatenously easy and also extremely tedious for me, because most of it is just waiting for things to happen, in a pretty fixed order.

Edited December 10, 2020 by thelee

[AndreaColombo]

Yeah, I believe that was my chief mistake—I was always in range of her spells the whole time. I'll try to stay at the entrance next time to kill the goons and let the lightning sigil kill itself.