Thaos Fight

[NorthernSquirrel]

Hi, playing on hard + expert and my party is at lvl 8.

 

I've mostly followed the critical path and haven't had problems so far, but now I'm at the Thaos fight and the difficulty jumped up like crazy; my entire party gets wiped in a matter of seconds by the AoE. I can't rush Thaos since he has 150+ deflection, and I can't kill one of the giants fast enough; I can barely get them to injured before I get absolutely rekt.

 

Am I missing a gimmick or something? Or is the last fight just completely different from everything before it?

[NorthernSquirrel]

Anybody?

[eujer]

Would also like to know if there is an answer to this. Did a fairly minimal play through, but had absolutely no trouble reaching the fight. Even cheesing with priest traps and such i just cant get out of the initial terrible engage position without getting my squishies wiped out buy either his AoE DOTs or the knockdown from the minions.

[NorthernSquirrel]

Would also like to know if there is an answer to this. Did a fairly minimal play through, but had absolutely no trouble reaching the fight. Even cheesing with priest traps and such i just cant get out of the initial terrible engage position without getting my squishies wiped out buy either his AoE DOTs or the knockdown from the minions.

 

I tried to drop difficulty down to easy, still got instantly wiped.

 

After a dozen tries I just forfeited and bumped my MC to 99 attributes and had him kill them. Even then, it was far closer than you would assume it would be.

[Jongel]

Hi!

I just killed him on hard today. 

And to be honest, it was not a walk in the park. Same as you I thought the way to him was very easy (I did not even think it was the end of the game since there are content in the master dungeon that is way harder). But man, that guy was rough. The thing that helped me to get into a good position was to have Edér Grab him instantly into melee and stun him, so my "squishy" guys could get into a good position. But when the fight was over I had 0 spells left and Edér was down to his last few health points. 

 

But he does the big AOE a few more times in the battle aswell, so remember to keep your guys fairly high. 

 

Hope this helped! 

[Empyron]

Can people really tell me what Thaos is capable of? Because when I killed him, most of the fighting getting done was from his Statues. I don't know what weapons he was harming us with in my party, although I do know he casts Priestly fire spells and can cast support spells. Also, he can cast strong Endurance recovery spells? 

[Climhazzard]

He super buffs himself right at the start unless you can paralyze or petrify him, after that he uses priest spells on himself, your team, and the statues.

 

You seem to take a lot of damage in that fight even when he's not casting stuff at you, illustrated in the following screenshot.  None of the damage causing wounds to VeraBlade is even recorded in the combat log so I don't even know what was going on there.

 

My strategy... when he doesn't get killed in one hit...  is to send a tank to each statue then spread the rest of the team out to attack Thaos until he transfers into one of the statues, then kill one of the statues.  If you can get that far then the fight gets a lot easier.

 

Level 8 is honestly to low for it though, even with devotions of the faithful your accuracy will be to low to do anything to him.  I'm sure there are people who've beat him with a level 8 party, but you'll have to know the fight well.

 

Edited May 3, 2015 by Climhazzard

[Empyron]

I maxed out at level 12 before even making it to Burial Isle. The first few times I fought him I died. By number four though, I realized I was just using crappy team formations, because I took down Woedica's Judge and Thaos Arkannon with only Eder and my main character Wizard. We wiped the floor with him without needing four other party members. 

[Crucis]

I just did the final battle with my second party, and won it the first time.  Come to think of it, I beat Thaos with my first party the first time as well.  Both parties were maxed out on their levels, and the game was on Normal difficulty.

 

The first time (first party) I won this battle, I had 3 of the 6 in my party down for the count, and finished him off with my Ranger PC, Aloth, and one other whom I don't recall (probably Durance or Eder). 

 

In my second party, Durance was the only one knocked out and that was early in the battle, but Grieving Mother has a couple of Revival scrolls and used one of them to get Durance back on his feet and in the battle.  This time, What I did that worked out surprisingly well was to have Eder engage the statues in melee (with saber and shield to get max DEFL), while everyone else was pounding on the statues at long range with ranged weapons or spells.  And when Thaos pulled himself back into his body, I had my ranged force turn and focus on him, while Eder kept the statues busy.  Eder got a little banged up, but it wasn't anything that some major healing potions and spells couldn't patch up real quick. 

 

I made a number of equipment shifts before triggering the final battle.  For a while, I'd had some speed enhancing items on Eder and my monk PC.  But I switched these speed enhancing items off of my tanks and onto my squishiest characters, so that they could get away from the statues ASAP.  I wasn't worrying about Eder running away or running to anything.  He was going to stay there and hold his ground.  But I desperately needed to get Grieving Mother and my custom (ranged) Rogue out of Melee range ASAP.  And in the battle, that tweak worked out quite well.  They got well away from the statues and out of the area of effect of those hammers. 

 

 

Regarding the OP's problems taking a level 8 party into the final battle, it shows why you need to do some of the side quests to build up your party for the eventual encounter with Thaos.  Going in under-tiered will be rather painful.

[Racker]

I haven't played on hard but when I fought him, I had Aloth cast Dragon's Gaze on him; paralyzed him and he went down like a bag of potatoes.  I used the same spell on a certain other really mean bad guy and he, too, died within a few seconds (though I used a Gaze trap instead of the spell on him).  That spell may be OP. 

[Climhazzard]

It's duration is significantly nerfed in the 1.05 beta, from like 28 seconds to 14 seconds, though 14 is still long enough to kill a certain other really mean bad guy if you can get it to hit.  

[Hassat Hunter]

I tried to drop difficulty down to easy, still got instantly wiped.

I tried that with the Adra Dragon, but 'obviously' that doesn't work.

 

I say obviously since difficulty works differently in PoE, it affects the seed of a map rather than just add damage and HP as stuff like other games.

So changing it wont change a pre-seeded map, you could've tried going easy on an older save before loading Thaos' map though.

 

But yeah, he's the endboss, he's not expected to be a pushover.

[Climhazzard]

You can still reset the difficulty of the map, simply change it to easy, exit the map then reenter.  As long as you saved the game somewhere before the fight starts you should be able to do it, I'm not sure how much easier he actually gets though.

[Concordance]

Can people really tell me what Thaos is capable of? Because when I killed him, most of the fighting getting done was from his Statues. I don't know what weapons he was harming us with in my party, although I do know he casts Priestly fire spells and can cast support spells. Also, he can cast strong Endurance recovery spells? 

 

Thaos is basically a level 12 Priest with really high Attributes. He starts the fight by buffing himself, then his statues, then continuously cycles through level 7-8 Priest nukes, stopping only to heal or reapply buffs whenever they wear off. At least one of the nukes is an area DoT that does not show up in the combat log (probably level 8 "Spark the Souls of the Righteous"). If you neither disable him nor force him to heal/rebuff, he has more than enough nukes to wipe a level 12 party on Hard (e.g. by casting Cleansing Flame on all of your party members in turn, repeatedly).

 

It's worth noting that without his buffs, neither Thaos nor his statues are very durable. Arcane Dampener and Cleansing Flame really shine here.

[Crucis]

 

Can people really tell me what Thaos is capable of? Because when I killed him, most of the fighting getting done was from his Statues. I don't know what weapons he was harming us with in my party, although I do know he casts Priestly fire spells and can cast support spells. Also, he can cast strong Endurance recovery spells? 

 

Thaos is basically a level 12 Priest with really high Attributes. He starts the fight by buffing himself, then his statues, then continuously cycles through level 7-8 Priest nukes, stopping only to heal or reapply buffs whenever they wear off. At least one of the nukes is an area DoT that does not show up in the combat log (probably level 8 "Spark the Souls of the Righteous"). If you neither disable him nor force him to heal/rebuff, he has more than enough nukes to wipe a level 12 party on Hard (e.g. by casting Cleansing Flame on all of your party members in turn, repeatedly).

 

It's worth noting that without his buffs, neither Thaos nor his statues are very durable. Arcane Dampener and Cleansing Flame really shine here.

 

 

 

In the two times I've fought this battle, Thaos doesn't hang around for very long. I nail him with everything I've got and he almost immediately transfers himself into one of the statues.  I don't see what advantage he gains by doing this, other than his normal body becomes untouchable and appears to heal up for when he jumps back into his body.  The statue his soul is in doesn't seem any more powerful for his presence (though I could be wrong about that).

 

Regardless, even though it wasn't intentional (at least the very first time I fought this battle), if you hit Thaos hard and fast and get him down to "Near Death", you can force him out of his body and stop him from casting spells ... which seems like the best strategy for a party, since as powerful as the statues can seem, a really high DEFL tank can avoid taking a lot of hits from them, while the rest of the party can focus on Thaos.  And keeping Thaos from casting a lot of spells in this battle is a GOOD THING. 

 

 

[Eos]

Return to the fight when you're level 12 and you're good to go. Accuracy and Deflection play a huge role in PoE's fights and those values scale with levels.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Eos

[Panda Baby]

levle 12 aint necassary, but for a levle 9 party or so, i suggest druids.

 

when passing it on hard, i had a 4 druid party. the knockback and petrify are doign wonders.

 

 

kileld it at path of damned with 2 mage 2 priest 2 tank. equip oen tank vs crush weapo nand 1 tank vs slashing, tank the repsective statues.

 

ball up, buff up, his aoe wont do any damage.

[Venatio]

Why wouldn't you be level 12 before this fight? There are so many sidequests that your main group will hit the max level with another 10 or more sidequests to go. 

[Hassat Hunter]

You can still reset the difficulty of the map, simply change it to easy, exit the map then reenter.  As long as you saved the game somewhere before the fight starts you should be able to do it, I'm not sure how much easier he actually gets though.

 

Not quite sure if that works... I tried it for the Adra Dragon, but I really didn't notice any difference... same power of the Dragon, same amount of adds.

 

And yeah, my sollution to the boss was basically:

* Beat Thaos to pulp.

* Kill statue he's not in.

* Kill statue he's in.

* Finish the job.

[dekergus]

was an easy fight for me, on normal mode. no buff like food or potions were needed.

 

maxed lvl 12 party :

fighter tank

eder tankish melee dps

pc priest

aloth

hiravias

rogue

 

sent the two wariors tanking one statue each

 

simultaneously, unleashed hell on thaos:

blinding strike from rogue

drood's sunlance did hit for 200

aloth sent paralyzing spell

pc priest cleansing flame

 

and he died, without casting a single spell

 

pc priest went between the two tanks with a consecrated ground

 

then paralyzing one statue, sunlance , rogue from behind, aloth chain lightning , and it was down

then the second statue was bringed down quickly.

 

the aoe went twice, with little to no effect on my party... 

 

this fight was rather disapointing, i did prepare tons of scrolls and potions, had drake meat ready for all caster and rogue... and it lasted 3 minutes with no effort.

in my humble opinion, it should be harder than adra dragon, who is just fine as it is, just up that final fight !

 

i see here some people had difficulty with it , maybe they went there too early ( lvl 8,9... ), but really it seems that a lvl 12 non-min/maxed party can do it one one leg ^^

 

please make that final fight more... i dunno... epic maybe ?

Edited May 15, 2015 by dekergus

[JONNIN]

goodness... you can't do this at level 8 easily.   That is a significantly low level party which means two things.... you did not do a lot of stuff so you may be using sub-par gear because you did not go looking for cool items, and you have reduced power in every category from being lower level...  less hit points, I think your resists are bumped a little every level,  you won't have the rank 6 spells,  you don't have a couple of talents on each character, .... the list goes on and on but you are facing the level 12 endgame fight with too much weakness to beat it easily.   And, you are stuck down there if you did not save somewhere before you went to the fight.

 

Seriously though you missed half the game or something to be this low.  

 

Lowering the difficulty (or raising it) does NOT CHANGE the enemy's stats.  It just changes the number of enemy.  That has no real effect on the boss fight...   easy might drop to 1 statue, not sure as I never tried it (?).    But if you face 2 statues on easy, its the same fight as normal and hard.   The dragon should lose a couple of additional enemy on lower difficulty but that will also not significantly reduce the difficulty.   You *can* talk your way out of the dragon fights (both of them) which means you can come back on your own terms or just allow a peaceful resolution.

Edited May 15, 2015 by JONNIN

[radscorpion9]

I did this with level 12 characters on hard mode, it was actually surprisingly easy because Thaos doesn't really do that much? Like other people are saying he does do some buffs initially, but the thing is, if you have two druids and a mage in your party (I was one of the druids), its just so trivial because you can basically keep them stun-locked to the point where they can't do anything.

 

Even if you only have the sorcerer. Just use that spell that casts oil on the floor (give Aloth some gear that boosts his intelligence, then might if possible)...you can put your fighter, the super-tank Eder, in the front and both of the giant ogres will walk towards him and your party generally. The oil will catch all of them. If it doesn't, use "maw of the void" from the druid, it knocks them all down. If that doesn't work, then use Aloth's level 5 (or is it level 6?) spell that makes them all go to sleep. Keep him casting oil. Or use your druids special petrifying claw spell (I think level 5)...there are SO many options.

 

Then just assault them with a barrage of nukes from your most powerful spells...its actually quite easy . I can understand the difficulty if you chose the harder path by playing with a rogue or any other character without spells...but I think if you have at least one druid and one mage it should be okay.

 

I will tell you what wasn't easy...the Adra dragon at the bottom of Caed Nua. JESUS. That was rough, because a single breath will knock out your entire party, not like Thaos who wastes his time casting ineffectual buffs. You basically have to use all of your spellpower to keep him prone. Near the end of the fight I forgot that dragon hunter lady gave me a spell, I used it, he seemed to die pretty quick after that .

 

After finishing this game I am just very impressed with the power of AOE. The priest Durance is also pretty handy...I like his falling pillars of flame.

[Panda Baby]

i always start by killing both judges adn totally ignoring thaos.

 

first he only kepe buff himself. then cast FIRE based spells on your team/dispells.

 

gear your tanks vs fire, spread so his aoe dont hit  you all, enjoy...

 

i did it on triple crown, i basicly ignored the **** out of him,  kileld both jduges withotu petrify then gone on him... my chars was low health but all alive.

 

 pc paladin, 2 priests 2 mages....never understimate a priest damage

[Evange]

Are you using hirelings or story companions? The fight will be almost impossible for a low level story companions party.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Evange

[peddroelm]

Will paladin's talent "deprive the unworhty" drop Thaos pants  (his cheat buff spells) ? BG2  Inquisitor kit dispel style .

 

EDIT : apparently so   - found an youtube video confirming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BedoTsLMzQE

 

There is also this ring  Sigil of the arcane ( arcane dampener spell) that should have similar effects for non-paladin soloists  ..

Edited May 18, 2015 by peddroelm