Shades, spectres and other ethereal douchbags

[Whipstitch]

One of my favorite tricks so far is to build a high might tank character and pick up Lore 4 so you can cast Fan of Flames via scrolls while cowering behind your shield. When you have 16+ Might it becomes pretty easy to roast spirits, and the fighter/paladin/monk group of classes do a much better job than Aloth when it comes to coping with Fan's limited range.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Whipstitch

[Sensuki]

The thing that hurts in those Shade battles in that south west room is the respawning shadows that jump behind you as well. I thought I'd nearly won it with 3 characters on hard and then the shadows respawned.

[nerevar]

Well, I went down that underground temple in gilded vale with 3 chars and it is quite challenging. Aloth dies way too quickly as these shadow and shades teleport and jump on him.

On hard, I only could manage 2-3 group fights by resting twice.

 

Using fast weapons with DR by pass is effective. Using my cipher's whisper of treason is a must. Use Aloth's flame spell before its too late.

also, these shadow guys fire DR is 4, so i gave Edear a torch as a off hand weapon to het the advantage of fire damage.

 

Anyway, it seems your party should have at least 4 people to dive into these ruined temple.

[Sensuki]

I haven't found shadows a problem. Their AI is really dumb and they will always go for Aloth no matter what, so I just sit my Rogue right next to him to Blinding Strike them as soon as they appear. -29 Deflection or whatever, see ya later.

Shades have defenses in the 60s and ~15 DR though. Very difficult to take down with 3 level 3 characters with 20-38 Accuracy.

[Kingsy]

Just wait until you guys get to the lighthouse,

15+ shades in close quarters

Only thing that saved me was a scroll of paralysis (big AoE) and my super tank, moved my riflemen out of harm's way and managed. Probably one of the hardest fights so far even compared to the bounties.

[Yosharian]

One small tip for fighting Shades/Shadows, make sure everyone is wearing Scale Armour or a similar armour that gives you Freeze DR.  In addition you can use the Bulwark Against The Elements spell to make your Mage beefy against their attacks.

[Emerwyn]

The Level 1 Wizard Fire Cone spell (can't remember the name) is a winner against these. I cleared out Eothas temple in Path of the Damned difficulty with Level 3 Fighter (main), level 2 Wizard (scripted NPC), level 2 priest (inn recruit). Engage, block doorway, hide your back members so the phantoms/shades/etc won't teleport to them, and force only one or two of them to be able to attack the fighter, then use some quick in-and-out positioning with the Wizard the light them up. 

 

If the Fighter's defence is crumbling and she's dying, just use the level 1 priest bubble spell (again, I forget the name, but it makes a party member invulnerable and regenerates full health over a period of time). The doorway will still be blocked and you can keep fighting flaming the shades from behind. Watch closely for the shade teleports, you'll see the spell casting icon on their healthbars before they do it, and you'll be able to break line of sight with them before they complete the cast (thus, denying the teleport).

 

By the way, this tactic works with about everything, not just shades, and it's so far the only reliable way I've found to get through hard encounters in Path of the Damned difficulty at low level.

 

For obvious reasons it doesn't work in open/wilderness areas though.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Emerwyn

[STiAT]

Temple was pretty "ok" to me, Lighthouse is a nightmare though, almost every fight someone gets knocked out. But it probably wasn't designed for lvl4&5 ;-).

[IcosahedronXIII]

Just wait until you guys get to the lighthouse,

15+ shades in close quarters

Only thing that saved me was a scroll of paralysis (big AoE) and my super tank, moved my riflemen out of harm's way and managed. Probably one of the hardest fights so far even compared to the bounties.

 

Temple was pretty "ok" to me, Lighthouse is a nightmare though, almost every fight someone gets knocked out. But it probably wasn't designed for lvl4&5 ;-).

Oh, I'm at the lighthouse, this post was originally about it but it somehow focused on the initial encounter with shades.

The teleporting skill on spectres and shades is still there, at least on GoG, since on my last run a single spectre managed to kill Aloth while casting and almost downed my main.

The stun-per hit is not as frequent, but I think that's due to so much Constitution and Resolve foods.

Will keep you posted.

 

icosahedronXIII.

[Phyriel]

Im playing on Path of the Damned and they are hard but all it takes is some smarts. Can't take them regular approach fine... using aoe but it hurts your tanks too much? fine... flank with mage and use aoe then but it takes too much time and if mage gets jumped he's dead meat? fine... lets just give some basic lore lessons to your tanks and craft some aoe scrolls, mission complete. Hard and forcing you to really explore all your options? yes. Frustrating at first? Yes. Satisfying after find a way?  OH YES. 

[Ink Blot]

Funny how this game can make you feel like you're doing really well one moment and the next you feel like you totally suck. I've been getting repeatedly waxed by these damned shades (shadows I find no big hassle) with a party of 6 (levels 3 and one at level 2). Tried various different tactics to no avail and finally googled and found this thread. Still getting stomped. I guess I'm not leveled enough for my playing skills (I admire you guys that can get through these buggers with a party of 3). Going to have to withdraw from these ruins and try a few other quests before I return, I guess.

[Fen(rir)tastic]

My level 7 party doesn't have an issue with shadows, shades or phantoms lol. Bounties and random encounters in older areas though...GG

 

Ghostie guide

Fan of flames spell + Bulwark of elements

Or

Mental binding + anything

[eujer]

Funny how this game can make you feel like you're doing really well one moment and the next you feel like you totally suck. I've been getting repeatedly waxed by these damned shades (shadows I find no big hassle) with a party of 6 (levels 3 and one at level 2). Tried various different tactics to no avail and finally googled and found this thread. Still getting stomped. I guess I'm not leveled enough for my playing skills (I admire you guys that can get through these buggers with a party of 3). Going to have to withdraw from these ruins and try a few other quests before I return, I guess.

 

Its a mixture of things, not all content is made with the same level in mind and also different compositions work well against different things, my priest party had no trouble with any vassels since his upgraded holy radiance + a few aoes would just wipe a whole pull in seconds.

[kmbogd]

What worked for me on hard (level 4, temple area) was to refocus my approach by going first for the shadows (weaker opponent). I quickly kill all the shadows (they go down pretty fast) and then refocus on the shades. Shades can summon other shadows (I think there is a limit though), but with this approach my caster did not get overwhelmed. The first shadow falls down almost instantly.

 

Other things:

- they do freeze damage, so make sure to equip the cape that provides protection against freezing and transforms 20% percent of the freeze damage in stamina to the appropriate party member

- they have weak DR against fire, so enchant your weapon(s) with fire

- use crafting level 2 speed potion on your DPS guy, it helped to kill shadows faster in the beggining

[endolex]

In the lighthouse (normal) for each encounter I focused the Spectre first, keeping my party alive until the Spectre was down. After that, mopping up the Shadows was easy. When I did it the other way around (trying to deal with the Shadows first), I always wiped.

[SeanDrake]

The Barbarian skill that changes hits from against deflection to endurance works well, failing that I found volley fire from pistols and rifles works best.