Path of the Damned Shades

[superluccix]

So Im currently in the temple of Eothas. Party is 4 members of me(Paladin Tank), Aloth, Eder, Durance. Level 4 each.

 

First floor was okay.

 

2nd floor. I thought the Shadows were going to be a huge pain, but once I cleared that bottom room with 6 shadows, I figured it wasnt that bad.

 

Then I got to the middle-ish room with 4 Shadows and 2 Shades.

 

Killed the Shadows, thinking that I was about to wrap that battle up, until I started to try and kill the Shades.

 

I couldnt hit them no matter how long I tried, and then they resummoned the Shadows. Got raped.

 

Question. How exactly do I deal with these Shades?

 

I know Aloth Fan of flames or w/e its called, the cone fire thing, is very effective against the Shadows, and Im guessing the Shades, however I only have limited use, so I need to make sure my hits count against the Shades. I also know Durance can buff accuracy, which I guess helps, but I still cant get rid of the final 2 shades.

 

I also used the positioning of having 2 melee guys in front, and 2 casters in back, right in front of a closed door, so that the Shadows teleport outside the room (But I dont think that is helping as much as I thought it would, since they open the door)

 

My best attempt was killing all the Shadows except for 1, (thought that maybe they only rez Shadows if all of them were gone, which Im pretty sure Im wrong on) and then killing 1 Shade. But the fight went on for too long and died.

 

How do you deal with this?

[NegativeEdge]

You have the right idea with fan of flames and any fire damage but fire isn't the only thing shades are weak to, The have low fortitude and so anything that targets that defense should be considered. Durance can be useful here as I believe barbs of condemnation targets fortitude. Consider giving Aloth a shield in his 2nd weapon set off hand so that when they teleport all up in his grill (and they always do) you can switch and give his deflection a boost.

 

Don't rule out Chill Fog either as although the Shades and shadows are resistant to the cold damage that isn't what makes the spell good, it targets fortitude and will still inflict the blinded status which should level the playing field a bit. See if you can bait out their teleport before dropping it though.

 

For high risk/high reward lols just have Aloth toss as many rolling flames around as possible and cross your fingers.

[Vasya]

Position your party in corner, so that there is no free space near your casters. Wait until shades come to melee range. Destroy everything with aoe control and damage. Do not waste spells until at least one shade comes close (except for chill fog). Trying to kill shadows before shades is pointless. Each shade summon two shadows, even if you kill 4 real shadows, 4 summoned will take their place.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Vasya

[Zwiebelchen]

From my experience, it helps a lot to equip your folks with some heavier armor before the fight. Shadows deal pretty low per-hit damage and a healthy DR of 8-9 on every character will make sure that your squishies won't die instantly from teleporting shadows. Check your stash for medium armors that give extra frost DR (fur hides mostly), as all attacks from Shadows and Shades are frost-based,

Use Blessing from Durance to get extra DR at the beginning of the fight. Make sure to not spread your guys too much; keep them all within healing range of the AoE ground-based heal (the one that heals your guys constantly over time).

Aloth can cast Bullwark against Elements (a level 2 spell) to protect himself from the Shadows almost entirely. Definitely keep this spell memorized for the Shadow fights.

 

When prepared like this, it's pretty much all about getting through the nasty Damage resistance of Shades. Equip Eder and your PC with twohanders. There's no much to gain from using a shield against shadows and shades. You need high DPS to bring the Shades down before they can summon new Shadows. But yes, Fan of Flames is very effective against Shades.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[b0rsuk]

Do you know killing Shades make their summoned Shadows disappear ? You seemingly started with killing Shadows.

[Vadász]

So Im currently in the temple of Eothas. Party is 4 members of me(Paladin Tank), Aloth, Eder, Durance. Level 4 each.

 

First floor was okay.

 

2nd floor. I thought the Shadows were going to be a huge pain, but once I cleared that bottom room with 6 shadows, I figured it wasnt that bad.

 

Then I got to the middle-ish room with 4 Shadows and 2 Shades.

 

Killed the Shadows, thinking that I was about to wrap that battle up, until I started to try and kill the Shades.

 

I couldnt hit them no matter how long I tried, and then they resummoned the Shadows. Got raped.

 

Question. How exactly do I deal with these Shades?

 

I know Aloth Fan of flames or w/e its called, the cone fire thing, is very effective against the Shadows, and Im guessing the Shades, however I only have limited use, so I need to make sure my hits count against the Shades. I also know Durance can buff accuracy, which I guess helps, but I still cant get rid of the final 2 shades.

 

I also used the positioning of having 2 melee guys in front, and 2 casters in back, right in front of a closed door, so that the Shadows teleport outside the room (But I dont think that is helping as much as I thought it would, since they open the door)

 

My best attempt was killing all the Shadows except for 1, (thought that maybe they only rez Shadows if all of them were gone, which Im pretty sure Im wrong on) and then killing 1 Shade. But the fight went on for too long and died.

 

How do you deal with this?

 

I actually did the temple of Eothas after Caed Nua, the extra levels help a lot.

 

If you still want to do it now, you should try to doorcheese + chillfog, Also if you are the one who is tanking just give Edér a great weapon turn on barrage and knock the shades down, Flank+Prone has to make them go down faster. And btw you should recruit a rogue and give him the Anslog arabalest, the sneak attack opening will get one shade to low endurance or kill it outright in a lucky crit.

[Kelstrom]

The best way to deal with the Shades early is to use Durance second level spell Divine Mark - doing good fire damage and reducing the deflection - then focus one shade at a time.

[b0rsuk]

Vadasz has a point. There are very few shades and shadows you must fight in early game. Perhaps less than 10 on the way to Maerwald. Late game, there is a HARD counter to shadows - Fire Shield, level4 Wizard spell. +10 Freeze DR and fire damage dealt to attackers ? Base duration 60 seconds ? Can you ask for more ?

Edited April 17, 2015 by b0rsuk

[Vadász]

There are actually no shades in the way to Maerwald, only phantoms and shadows, also getting Kana and an early botanical is are good reasons to do caed nua first.

[Zwiebelchen]

There are actually no shades in the way to Maerwald, only phantoms and shadows, also getting Kana and an early botanical is are good reasons to do caed nua first.

 

This is actually what I do in almost every new game:

Ignore all quests in Gilded Vale, stealth towards Caed Nua (don't forget to pick up Durance along the road); fight the two Shadow/Phantom packs you can't skip (good thing you get that anti-ghost sword in the first room) and defeat Maerwald.

Then stealth straight towards the southern maps and Dyrford to pick up Sagani, Hiravius and Grieving Mother at level 3.

 

I haven't managed yet to pick up Pallegina at level 3, though.

[superluccix]

At first I kinda regretted making this topic, because immediately afterwards I was able to beat the encounter. Then took a soda break. Then went back to this topic and I see all sorts of strategies I didnt even think of using. Though Im sure this will help for future encounters.

 

 

But basically here is how I did it, though I do think I got lucky.

 

1. Still had my party positioned right in front of the door as usual (I see now that I should have positioned them in the corner as Vasya said)

 

2. Had my pally tank run in and aggro, run back in place. During this time, Durance casted the Damage Reduction buff.

 

3. Eder (Who was already equipped with a 2 hander to begin with, as soon as I recruited him, immediately made him the melee dps role) would tank a group near him, and my pally would next to him. During this time, Durance is casting the aoe heal spell (Which I pretty much always used up until that point, love healing that I dont have to micromanage)

 

4. Waited for all the Shades and Shadows to be in position, so I could angle Aloths Fan of Flames them. However I mostly hit the Shadows, since the Shades were on the other side. But I was still aiming for the Shadows anyway, to reduce damage, and to also eventually use my single target spells. Would also have him use his Arcane Assault for some more aoe.

 

5. Once the Shadows were down to a much smaller size, I had Durance start using his DIvine Mark and Barbs on 1 of the Shades, and Aloth use his Necrotic Lance as well. I was taking a mental gambit on Durance however, because if I used an offensive spell, it would be 1 less aoe healing, but figured it was worth it (Which is was holy **** that damage) since my melee guys could barely do jack ****

 

6. Pray to the heavens

 

(Also I think it should be noted that I still tried to dps the Shadows down first, not ll of them, but all but 1, because I still kept thinking maybe the Shades wouldnt respawn more Shadows as quickly, eventually killed the final Shadow before the 1st shade, which put me into a panic mode, but luckily was able to down the first Shade, and then pray to God the 2nd shade didnt resummon a Shadow. Actually had no members get knocked out/die this time, was very happy)

 

 

 

Also, to NegativeEdge. Funny you say that about the Rolling Flames, because I tried that in an earlier attempt. I thought it would go like this (First picture), but then it went like this (Second picture) Failed miserably

[Jojobobo]

For me and the tougher encounters there, I used traps. Both Durance and my main character could lay them, set one a piece and start slapping down Fan of Flames. With a bit of luck you take a few out that way making the fight a bit more manageable - but yeah I know the feeling of finding them a bit overwhelming of PotD.

[Exoduss]

Go to temple with 6 people after you finished everything availale before Caed Nua ( No point to fight harder shades in caed nua before doing easier temple of eothas ) and you will see that its kinda easy 

[knownastherat]

I got creamed in the temple on Hard first time I played. Its tough.

 

 

There are actually no shades in the way to Maerwald, only phantoms and shadows, also getting Kana and an early botanical is are good reasons to do caed nua first.

 

This is actually what I do in almost every new game:

Ignore all quests in Gilded Vale, stealth towards Caed Nua (don't forget to pick up Durance along the road); fight the two Shadow/Phantom packs you can't skip (good thing you get that anti-ghost sword in the first room) and defeat Maerwald.

Then stealth straight towards the southern maps and Dyrford to pick up Sagani, Hiravius and Grieving Mother at level 3.

 

I haven't managed yet to pick up Pallegina at level 3, though.

 

 

Its possible to skip them. Maybe even with full party but I have not tried that.

 

The temple is lesson or trial. The rewards are decent but hardly worth the effort when not powerful enough. New players cannot know this and need to make choice: do it now the hard way for exp, loot and curiosity or come back later. And since its available early it gives good sense of what the game aspires to be: old school RPG

 

I believe its not worth to clear everything there. Going straight for the quest, avoiding some rooms, having Stealth specialist to scout and loot is the way to go. Not much dealing with Shades and Phantoms this way.

[Exoduss]

Well honestly , every room with shades has a door where you can block them .. wait for Lighthouse in Defiance Bay , gona get rekt so hard if Eothas is a problem already

[Vadász]

Lighthouse still has doors in both levels, i'm starting to think developers intended doorblock to be a feature for those that like to use it.

[knownastherat]

The top room, the boss, has no doors.

Edited April 18, 2015 by knownastherat

[Exoduss]

Lighthouse still has doors in both levels, i'm starting to think developers intended doorblock to be a feature for those that like to use it.

But final level is the one that wrecks me hard tho all those shades just spawn everywhere alrdy lost an Ironman Potd there , 

[Vadász]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you try and avoid pointless battles in Ironman? You can complete this quest without having to fight at all in the last level.

[knownastherat]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't you try to use the most efficient tactic available, doorways included?

[Vadász]

Ain't actually not fighting mobs that don't give significant loot the best strategy of them all?

[knownastherat]

I am not sure if its best .. but that is what I do.

 

But the question was for you since you were questioning motives and actions of someone else. So I am questioning you who seem to have some mental block with doorways. Others might have irresistible urge to fight lost or risky battles.

 

Why do we question each other?

Edited April 18, 2015 by knownastherat

[Vadász]

No, you got me all wrong, i was actually being sincere and trying to justify my own use of that strategy for tough fights.

[knownastherat]

Any strategy is justified as long as it works. Or rather the other way around, strategy is justified only if it works.

 

What if I told you that the developers "meant" .. the Lighthouse to be done without spells and abilities? Just Raw like real men and well women? What bearing does it have on your or general strategy?

[luzarius]

I just fought against the 5 shadows & 2 shade in the temple of eothas 2nd level room on POTD. None of my companions could hit the one shade, Aloth missed all his fire attacks (fan of flames), Durance missed his Divine Marks (fire dmg). After about three minutes I got the Shade down to 2 red bars. My tank was easily tanking, but eventually died to low health.

 

Not sure why every single Fan of Flames attack missed, they had no problem hitting the shadows though.

 

Basically I can't land any fire spells on the shade for some reason.

 

I had five companions:

Eder

Aloth
Durance

Kana

Me (insanely good tank)

 

We were all level 4.

 

UPDATE

 

Ok I use the corner strategy and completely destroyed them.

 

My god, I don't know if this is a brilliant strategy or extremely cheesy, but it worked incredibly well on Path of the Damned difficulty.   Chill Fog surprisingly did good damage against the shadows and kept them at bay while I focused the shades with ranged attacks.

 

 

Basically I just had Aloth use his necrotic lance on the 1st shade and Kana using his Gun to shoot it until it died.  I did the same thing for the second one.

 

I didn't have to rely on missing with aloth's fan of flames, even though his necrotic lance missed.

Edited April 21, 2015 by luzarius