So does it ever end? I was able to counter the Insect Plague because I had a Paladin my PC with Liberating Exhortation and a Durance with Suppress Affliction so we are able to stave it off and dps the ogres before the swarm killed us but man I wish my druids insect plague lasted like that! Is this a bug or intended for the encounter?

Wasnt this fixed? Last time i fought them it went much easier than normally (still one of the hardest battles in the game)

Well it didn't damage my attributes permanently like the old bug. It did last a long time but maybe that's just the 2 druids casting it separately. Is the AI limited to spell use per encounter like we are? I also kept suspending it with Liberating Exhortation and suppress Affliction.

I think it lasted normal duration last time i killed them.

 

Yeah you probably kept it from running its course though

So whats better hah? eat the damage later by suspending it or later? I guess it really doesn't matter.

 

Suspending it did let me ignore the effect through most of the fight and when I did finally run out of those buffs there was 2 ogres left and it was over....Liberating Exhortation and Supress Aff really made the worst of the fight a non factor.

Edited June 3, 201510 yr by Torm51

I send in some summoned units to eat the spell.  It's basically a death sentence from what I have experienced.  But perhaps that has been fixed more recently than I have done this fight.

It is a death sentence for non high hp chars or if you dont save. It eats a ton of hp

The best way to deal with ogre druids and their insect plague to heavily spam spells like Confusion, and prevent them from getting those spells off, or at least get them attacking each other.  Confusion is one of the most potent spells in the game, but it seems particularly useful against Ogres because their Will saves are nothing special and they have so much END that they don't die easily.  So getting them to attack each other is a great way to turn their strength against themselves.

The best way to deal with ogre druids and their insect plague to heavily spam spells like Confusion, and prevent them from getting those spells off, or at least get them attacking each other. Confusion is one of the most potent spells in the game, but it seems particularly useful against Ogres because their Will saves are nothing special and they have so much END that they don't die easily. So getting them to attack each other is a great way to turn their strength against themselves.

A good tip for what imo is the hardest bounty. I often go with heavy dps, summons, ranged interrupt, Aoe druid,mage etc

Yeah I also had that bug yesterday. The damage stopped and the visual SFX vanished, but the debuff remained. But only on the PC.

 

Seems like this bug is not 100% fixed yet or got re-introduced.

Edited June 4, 201510 yr by Zwiebelchen

Ya again I still won by just suspending the effect for 95% of the fight but ya some guys in here gave some other ideas that were very good.

 

The best way to deal with ogre druids and their insect plague to heavily spam spells like Confusion, and prevent them from getting those spells off, or at least get them attacking each other. Confusion is one of the most potent spells in the game, but it seems particularly useful against Ogres because their Will saves are nothing special and they have so much END that they don't die easily. So getting them to attack each other is a great way to turn their strength against themselves.

A good tip for what imo is the hardest bounty. I often go with heavy dps, summons, ranged interrupt, Aoe druid,mage etc

 

 

I wouldn't discount the final bounty mission, a group of Vithracks.  They can be brutally tough if you let them get off their paralyzing spells.  They're another group that's worth Confusing, etc.   The thing is with the Viths, Durance has a buffing spell that he can cast to give your entire party protection against the Vith paralyzing spell.  So as long as your party is high enough level for him to have it, I'd make getting that spell cast a priest's highest priority, cuz nothing is worse than letting those Vith jerks paralyze your entire party.

 

One thing that I like about this game, and was true with the IE games as well, is that you can get totally owned by an enemy in a battle, and with some tweaks in your plan, you can come back and completely turn the tables on them and massacre them just as badly the next time as they massacred you the time before.

 

 

And regarding your described strat, that's sorta what I was doing when I was having trouble with the ogre bounty, i.e. trying to take'em down with brute force and nuking.  If it was just the regular ogres themselves, that strat might work out OK.  But those ogre druids are a game changer for them, and seem to require a different way of approaching the problem.

Edited June 4, 201510 yr by Crucis

plague of insects has been altered in some way.   we got a save from endless paths wherein we has just cleared level 4, but am returning to clean-up two rooms o' level 3.  had already beaten zolla and her attendants, but we were down to single camping supplies so we figured we would acquire the hunting bow and sabre from level 4 before finishing off level 3.  got through the entirety o' level 4 without need to burn camping supplies.  anyways, the save we got is having our little party, now better armed and fully rested, attempting to clear the two groups o' ogres immediate to the relative west o' the room where zolla is found.  following 1.06, we has attempted to finish off the ogres at least a half dozen times.  has used traps and priestly suppress affliction and have 'course, done everything we could to disable the ogre druids.  our attempts has been ugly little massacres... and not in a good way.  the ogre druids eventual manage to cast plague and we die.

 

sure, we got the most extreme unfortunate encounter possible for plague of insects wherein we must fight pairs of high might druids with a lowish level party, but before 1.06 (or perhaps before 1.05... dunno, didn't play much for a few weeks), with the same party, we were having manageable difficulty with the level 3 endless path ogres.   and heck, this is likely the 5th or 6th time we has cleared this level with different characters, always at approximate the same character level. something changed w/i the last patch or two that has made the difficult ogre battles impossible... and the most obvious change we noticed were the rate o' Gromnir death via plague o' insects.

 

as far as we can tell, an ogre druid's plague o' insects should tick at ~6 damage per sec, but it is hitting us for 10.

 

HA! Good Fun! 

 

ps  edit to correct damage... gonna need double-check 'cause am working from memory.  am certain am getting ticks of ten for a hit (non-crit), but am honestly not 100% certain what it should be.  

Edited June 4, 201510 yr by Gromnir

Gromnir, I cleared the ogre Bounty after 1.6 at level 9 and can confirm that plague of insects is ticking for 10 damage. Like I said I beat the encounter by using Liberating Exhortation and Suppress Affliction. I had solid dps cause I'm level 9...so it was manageable. At your lvl I would of definitely wiped.

On a high int/might druid it deals 400+ damage over its duration. I don't think ogres have very high int, but it should hit pretty hard for them anyway. Also, mobs have unlimited spell casts. Confusion is indeed one of the best options for dealing with enemies like these in my experience.

On a high int/might druid it deals 400+ damage over its duration. I don't think ogres have very high int, but it should hit pretty hard for them anyway. Also, mobs have unlimited spell casts. Confusion is indeed one of the best options for dealing with enemies like these in my experience.

 

It's also made worse because as I recall, those ogre encounters where you find an ogre druid usually seem to have 2 or 3 ogre druids and all of them cast insect Plague at once.

 

If one is doing the Ogre bounty fairly late and you have a high level cipher, the level 6 power that knocks every enemy on their butts and stuns them (or whatever it does) is probably also a good thing as well as it should almost certainly interrupt any casting by those darned Ogre Druids.

Edited June 4, 201510 yr by Crucis

It shouldn't stack, so multiple druids mostly ensure that it will hit everyone and are more likely to refresh it.

 

Will powers are generally more effective vs ogres so I'd probably use mind plague on them with a level 11+ cipher. It has much longer duration than amplified wave prone as well.

 

The main options to tank it is to either have extremely high fort, use suppress affliction/liberation exhortation, use arcane reflection or have huge health pool and a lot of heals.

moral of the story - constitution isn't really a dump stat ?

moral of the story - constitution isn't really a dump stat ?

 

More like: moral of the story - enemies having endless spells is bull****.

The best way to deal with ogre druids and their insect plague to heavily spam spells like Confusion, and prevent them from getting those spells off, or at least get them attacking each other.  Confusion is one of the most potent spells in the game, but it seems particularly useful against Ogres because their Will saves are nothing special and they have so much END that they don't die easily.  So getting them to attack each other is a great way to turn their strength against themselves.

Let me second this suggestion for Confusion, strongly!

 

Another option with a Cipher would be Mind Plague which will last you a while into the fight (or Tenuous Grasp if you don't have Mind Plague). Ringleader, Puppet Master and Whisper of Treason are not really great options because you need to be in combat first and the casting range is extremely short (walking right up to ogres and then spending an "eternity" just waving your hands at them is not a good idea). Yep the time which is needed for them to pull off said spells is longer than the time it takes to make a sandwich and coffee and get back to the game.   For the Elder Bears, I let them come nearer and then hit them both with Hiravias's Charm Beast. So yea those irritating Ogre Druids still casted Insect Swarm and Stag Horn, only thing is this time they casted it on their own folks. Maybe its just me, but there's something uniquely gratifying seeing them bash each other over the heads... yea I know, I'm quite easily amused sometimes

 

Had to expend quite a few spells here, the ogres are very sturdy. But between them bashing their own people, using Call to Slumber and Mental Binding when things got out of hand and lots of AoE dps on disabled mobs, its possible to get through without too much trauma.

Edited June 11, 201510 yr by Drath

They should have been a last tier bounty imo

Did another playthrough (always path of iron) and last time it was abit close with the ogres so this time i did all side quests except endless paths (not a single level yet) and went in there at level 11.

 

Capriocous hex from aloth and insect plague from hiravias and heals from hiravias (moonwell etc)

 

It was absolute cake.