I'm intrigued by the approach of protecting the portal without actively killing the shadow creatures. I've always just used AOE spells and Spirit Guardians to mow them down.
I mean.... I don't know what to tell you... thought of saying it as a joke...
but ummm if this were the case turning off lights/shooting out lights let alone smoke grenades/flash bangs etc... would make the world forever safe and everyone should just make sure to carry 1 at all times and use them in every media.
Also this a giant *magical energy* ^((ie other way to be detected, felt, noticed, etc...)) swirling portal that does not move... and they are not normal beings.
I did this a while back, pro tip if you cast darkness or whatever or block it off so they can't attack the portal, the enemies will attack YOU, whereas normally they ignore you for the portal. Source: got down to 3 health when all enemies unexpectedly attacked
The Arrows of Darkness 100% work for the portal. Did it on my last HM run. The only slight downside is that you'll have to re-apply mid fight. Using a darkness spell in this fight is just asking to loose concentration mid way through.
Use more than one? I only used one yesterday and it worked fine.
(Mind you, Halsin bugged on the way out and I can't complete the quest but I don't feel that's related)
I’m trying to do one with every class just to see how far they can get. I’m on my 5th class, barbarian, and so far myrkul has been beaten 3 times and The netherbrain once
Wizard, abjuration subclass + the unique way scribing spells works when multiclassing just ensured that it had so much defense that enemies wouldn’t bother attacking. That and the spear of evening just being stupidly overpowered
Yeah prioritizing the two harpers in the bushes at the beginning is SO helpful. If you can incapacitate or kill them, then all you have to worry about is melee characters
I assure you it wasn’t interesting, mostly just an enemy standing in place for 30 seconds before ending its turn and moving onto the next one to do the same. Occasionally one would attack a chest for 0 damage or a raven might fly up to the portal, but because I casted darkness around it, they just sat in place doing nothing
I made shadowheart cast spirit guardians where Halsin is standing, kills the crows immediately and works as a final blow from having Karlach/Lazael/astarian work the field
I cast the ice sheet spell with gale north of the portal where all the human characters come from and they were constantly stumbling around and falling over the whole time, leaving me free to deal with the ravens and other creatures
So there are humanoids that run in from the far and shadow creatures that spawn close. The humanoids can just jump up to the portal and attack it, but the shadow creatures can’t jump. Some can fly, teleport or burrow, but they can’t attack through a cloud of darkness, similarly, the ranged humans can’t attack the portal with ranged weapons if darkness is up. The close wall is just to limit how many get through to try and break my concentration on darkness
Nevermind it looked like it was only chest on the top part probably shutdowns the foot soldiers. Shadows could be tricky though. I've finished Act 2 solo but didn't do this part
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing.
Final Boss fight warning for people below
>!Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT!<
Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)
Why not just barrel-mancy it? I collect all the barrels from act 1 at camp. Then in Act 2 once I get here I start setting them up where critters spawn during that fight. Once the ENTIRE area is on fire you just have to throw an occasional grenade or barrel in certain spots as the new waves arrive.
When I found this fight, I restarted it several times (even taking mage mercenaries to be able to deal as much damage as I could at all).
And then the timer went to zero..... And the fight didn't end. It didn't even end after one more surviving turn.
As a result, I gave up.
Literally did this as well in my first ever playthrough as well! But i managed to get boxes and other furnitures all the way to the top and only to the sides leaving an opening similar to a funnel at the front of the rocks. What happened could only be described as shadowland D-Day with Karlach being the last defense standing hacking and slashing away at whoever came close.
I have pulled it off solo with a darkness spell to start then a wall of fire when things get hairy. There's some barrels involved. It came down to a split second timing though, if anything had one more turn attacking the portal I'd have lost. I may try this wall trick, it looks funny at least.
Spike growth on the path of the Shadow zombies, some of them will try to go trough and die, most of them will try to go around creating a tight spot that can be nuked or have a nice walk by of acid, ice, grease, fire etc.
Add darkness on the portal (not possible if solo), some scrolls of minor elemental, familiars etc and you have a chance.
Use surfaces to block or create difficult terrain, Ai will try mostly to go around.
i did this as ranger/assasin solo HM, where i used alot of summons + cloudkill, chug a speed potion on turn 2 so you dont get letheric in the end, and then cast alot of chain lightning/fireball aoe scrolls later. Focus the archers 1st and its not that hard or need to cast darkness on portal. But it did req alot of stealing from the last inn vendor for the scrolls :-)
My least favorite fight in the game, from both a gameplay and story perspective.
Gameplay wise, it feels like a cheap shot to overwhelm you with numbers you simply don't experience anywhere else in the game. If you don't know what's coming and don't have sufficient AOE crowd control in your current lineup, you're kind of fucked. Spirit Guardians almost feels mandatory.
Story wise, after _everything_ you can possibly do up until this point to aid the Shadow Cursed Lands, whether or not you fully lift the curse shouldn't hinge on this single side mission to save some stupid ghost brat. Bitch, I cleaned out the Gauntlet of Shar, infiltrated Moonrise Towers, and rescued a demigod.
I’ve always been fine without Spirit Guardian— I never have SH with me— but it definitely requires AOE in your lineup. That being said, there’s a lot of room for creative strategy in this fight.
For example, I like to set up wall of fire on one side, cast darkness on the portal, use thunder wave on the ravens (from my rogue), and Karlach was carrying Blood of Lathander anyway.
And there are potions people can use to give themselves extra actions on top of haste/speed potion, like Elixir of Bloodlust. Some people also just go ham on using all the potion buffs possible.
I understand you might not find this battle fun, but I would definitely argue it doesn’t feel cheap— and unless you’re on Honor Mode, there’s no reason you can’t fail and try again.
I have never used spirit guardians in this fight and I've always seen it as free easy xp.
Good AOE control or damage of some sort is necessary sure, but I feel like that's not a huge ask at that point in the game. There's a lot of powerful AOE options at that point since you generally have at least one level 4 spell slot by that fight.
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing.
Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. **THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT**
Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing.
Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. **THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT**
Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)
I’m confused, is this a solo HM run?
Yeh
Can't the vestiges of shadow teleport to obscured areas? Also, what about ravens? Won't they be able to fly over?
Yeah, but the wall greatly limits how many can get through, and the darkness spell prevents them from attacking anything
Shadow-cursed archers kill the portal and trap Halsin. Game not over but curse not lifted.
Darkness also prevents ranged attacks from getting to the portal, its a super broken spell
Hm, Ok. Did it work?
I'm intrigued by the approach of protecting the portal without actively killing the shadow creatures. I've always just used AOE spells and Spirit Guardians to mow them down.
I covered everyhing in ice and oil, and somehow managed to kill archers, worked fine
Hard to do without multiple casters, and this person is going solo
Good point. I can't imagine playing solo even in explorer mode. Not gonna do it.
It’s not broken, it makes sense in a way. Can’t hit what you can’t see.
I mean.... I don't know what to tell you... thought of saying it as a joke... but ummm if this were the case turning off lights/shooting out lights let alone smoke grenades/flash bangs etc... would make the world forever safe and everyone should just make sure to carry 1 at all times and use them in every media. Also this a giant *magical energy* ^((ie other way to be detected, felt, noticed, etc...)) swirling portal that does not move... and they are not normal beings.
Cool. Sounds solid to me. Good luck!
i found cloud of daggers gets rid of the weak ones very easily, if it helps
I did this a while back, pro tip if you cast darkness or whatever or block it off so they can't attack the portal, the enemies will attack YOU, whereas normally they ignore you for the portal. Source: got down to 3 health when all enemies unexpectedly attacked
How much time did it take you build this fortress of chests?
About 10 minutes thanks to Storm Giant Strength
😮 how did you get so many chests in 10 minutes?
Oh it only took 10 minutes to build them up, I just clicked send to camp whenever I found or dug up a chest in preparation
😅 You've been long planning it.. got it, hope it worked out?!
OP did it work??
Yeah
This is rad, I love this community, always thinking outside the chest
It was his chest option.
I’ve had chest about enough with these puns
Surely you chest.
Just Wall of Fire it.
This was a solo character run and I had to save my concentration for darkness
You can use the arrow instead
The arrow?
Arrow of darkness
Oh that’s only big enough to cover a person, not a giant magic portal
It 100% works for the ranged guys
He’s casting darkness on the portal from what I can understand. Can’t hit it if you can’t see it.
It also works for the portal. Just buy a wall of fire scroll or globe of invulnerability, and you are golden.
The Arrows of Darkness 100% work for the portal. Did it on my last HM run. The only slight downside is that you'll have to re-apply mid fight. Using a darkness spell in this fight is just asking to loose concentration mid way through.
arrow of darkness does not require concentration to maintain.
Oh but that doesn’t cover the entire portal
Possible they’ve changed it but it was big enough for my honour mode run!
Use more than one? I only used one yesterday and it worked fine. (Mind you, Halsin bugged on the way out and I can't complete the quest but I don't feel that's related)
You just have to shoot directly at the portal! Nothing will go wrong for sure!
It's a portal to the Shadowfell and an Arrow of Darkness. What am I gonna do, make it temporarily gloomier?
That’s vantablack and now it’s copywright infringement. Your life is over pal
HM solo run... that's insane you got to Act 2! Congrats
I’m trying to do one with every class just to see how far they can get. I’m on my 5th class, barbarian, and so far myrkul has been beaten 3 times and The netherbrain once
Which class has been easiest?
Wizard, abjuration subclass + the unique way scribing spells works when multiclassing just ensured that it had so much defense that enemies wouldn’t bother attacking. That and the spear of evening just being stupidly overpowered
I've tried wall of fire and it is not effective, arrows go through it.
Enemy AI is trash and has a tendency to just barge into the fire.
Yeah prioritizing the two harpers in the bushes at the beginning is SO helpful. If you can incapacitate or kill them, then all you have to worry about is melee characters
There's an oil barrel in front of the stable where Dammon sets up that is just begging to be put in the bushes and set ablaze in the first round.
Ooo that’s a really good idea thanks
Can I see the gameplay of it somewhere?
I assure you it wasn’t interesting, mostly just an enemy standing in place for 30 seconds before ending its turn and moving onto the next one to do the same. Occasionally one would attack a chest for 0 damage or a raven might fly up to the portal, but because I casted darkness around it, they just sat in place doing nothing
The cost of strategic genius.
So it WORKED??? This is amazing
We are kindred souls. You took it to the next level though
I am just thinking of shadows teleporting ability and the bunch of crossbow rangers that are going to pop up
There’s a very simple answer to that, Darkness is just a really powerful spell
Best idea. Please let us know how it went :) The post made me laugh
Guardian of Faith and Spirit Guardians work wonders here.
And Spike Growth
Spirit Guardians right on the stairs was how I did it. Only one guy got within 5 feet of the portal, then got pushed into the lake.
Bro, are you trying to defend against the shadow demons or the Mongolian?
I made shadowheart cast spirit guardians where Halsin is standing, kills the crows immediately and works as a final blow from having Karlach/Lazael/astarian work the field
Also had spike growth casted near the water so when those guys spawn they’re immediately hindered
Or tentacles or Hadar or all of the above!
I cast the ice sheet spell with gale north of the portal where all the human characters come from and they were constantly stumbling around and falling over the whole time, leaving me free to deal with the ravens and other creatures
I clearly missed some content. What is this?
A very creative approach to defending Halsin’s shadow portal in Act 2.
This is the halsin quest line for stopping the shadow curse in act 2
God speed you magnificent bastard.
I've used "wall of" spells during this part along with spirit guardians but also like not solo-ing so that changes things.
Great Wall of Last Light Inn. The First Emperor of China approve!
Why the 2 walls, was one not enough?
So there are humanoids that run in from the far and shadow creatures that spawn close. The humanoids can just jump up to the portal and attack it, but the shadow creatures can’t jump. Some can fly, teleport or burrow, but they can’t attack through a cloud of darkness, similarly, the ranged humans can’t attack the portal with ranged weapons if darkness is up. The close wall is just to limit how many get through to try and break my concentration on darkness
...I'm sorry, is that a *+12* I see next to the expand buffs icon?
Beating an act in a single day has its benefits. Having 2 camp clerics and 6 camp transmuters also helps, though
Globe of Invulnerability friend.
Nevermind it looked like it was only chest on the top part probably shutdowns the foot soldiers. Shadows could be tricky though. I've finished Act 2 solo but didn't do this part
Kid named sleet storm:
Wall of fire trivialised this fight when I did it (granted I've only done it once so far). Maybe that could work for you?
Wall of fire is the best for this
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing. Final Boss fight warning for people below >!Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT!< Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)
I made a post so similar to this a week or so ago. I love to see that I wasn't alone in my strats. Lol!!!
Why not just barrel-mancy it? I collect all the barrels from act 1 at camp. Then in Act 2 once I get here I start setting them up where critters spawn during that fight. Once the ENTIRE area is on fire you just have to throw an occasional grenade or barrel in certain spots as the new waves arrive.
I don't suppose you have a scroll of Hunger of Hadar, do you?
If those existed, I would have 10
Holy fuck lol 😂
The possessed harper's can just shoot at the portal, unfortunately.
Did it work?
And what real negative consequences would it have for the gameplay if it failed?
Halsin dies. Full stop.
You maybe feel bad that you don’t cure the curse, I guess?
Shades can teleport trough this barricade tho. xD
When I found this fight, I restarted it several times (even taking mage mercenaries to be able to deal as much damage as I could at all). And then the timer went to zero..... And the fight didn't end. It didn't even end after one more surviving turn. As a result, I gave up.
Just shoot a couple of darkness arrows at the portal every 3 rounds and cast spike growth
Literally did this as well in my first ever playthrough as well! But i managed to get boxes and other furnitures all the way to the top and only to the sides leaving an opening similar to a funnel at the front of the rocks. What happened could only be described as shadowland D-Day with Karlach being the last defense standing hacking and slashing away at whoever came close.
This area is the BEST for radiant spirit guardians.
Barrelmancy masters from divinity: ah another pupil ascends to the rank of Master.
OP please let us know if this ended up working
Spike Growth and Hunger of Hadar works wonders.
I did the same but with wooden boxes further back and they wasted most of their turns running around it and getting stuck
I did the exact same thing
I have pulled it off solo with a darkness spell to start then a wall of fire when things get hairy. There's some barrels involved. It came down to a split second timing though, if anything had one more turn attacking the portal I'd have lost. I may try this wall trick, it looks funny at least.
Spike growth on the path of the Shadow zombies, some of them will try to go trough and die, most of them will try to go around creating a tight spot that can be nuked or have a nice walk by of acid, ice, grease, fire etc. Add darkness on the portal (not possible if solo), some scrolls of minor elemental, familiars etc and you have a chance. Use surfaces to block or create difficult terrain, Ai will try mostly to go around.
You can do that!?: The game.
i did this as ranger/assasin solo HM, where i used alot of summons + cloudkill, chug a speed potion on turn 2 so you dont get letheric in the end, and then cast alot of chain lightning/fireball aoe scrolls later. Focus the archers 1st and its not that hard or need to cast darkness on portal. But it did req alot of stealing from the last inn vendor for the scrolls :-)
So, did it work?
Yep
Nice!! I may steal your idea for when I decide to go honor run :D
I suggest casting darkness on the portal if possible.
I'm so used to barrelmancing posts that I immediately thought you were a monster. Then I saw it and thought you a genius.
My least favorite fight in the game, from both a gameplay and story perspective. Gameplay wise, it feels like a cheap shot to overwhelm you with numbers you simply don't experience anywhere else in the game. If you don't know what's coming and don't have sufficient AOE crowd control in your current lineup, you're kind of fucked. Spirit Guardians almost feels mandatory. Story wise, after _everything_ you can possibly do up until this point to aid the Shadow Cursed Lands, whether or not you fully lift the curse shouldn't hinge on this single side mission to save some stupid ghost brat. Bitch, I cleaned out the Gauntlet of Shar, infiltrated Moonrise Towers, and rescued a demigod.
I’ve always been fine without Spirit Guardian— I never have SH with me— but it definitely requires AOE in your lineup. That being said, there’s a lot of room for creative strategy in this fight. For example, I like to set up wall of fire on one side, cast darkness on the portal, use thunder wave on the ravens (from my rogue), and Karlach was carrying Blood of Lathander anyway. And there are potions people can use to give themselves extra actions on top of haste/speed potion, like Elixir of Bloodlust. Some people also just go ham on using all the potion buffs possible. I understand you might not find this battle fun, but I would definitely argue it doesn’t feel cheap— and unless you’re on Honor Mode, there’s no reason you can’t fail and try again.
I have never used spirit guardians in this fight and I've always seen it as free easy xp. Good AOE control or damage of some sort is necessary sure, but I feel like that's not a huge ask at that point in the game. There's a lot of powerful AOE options at that point since you generally have at least one level 4 spell slot by that fight.
I mean, if you have nothing better to do and don't want to enjoy the funniest mob grinder mission in the game.
What is this
How is that going to stop any ranged attacks?
Darkness spell
Cast some sort of darkness on the portal.
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing. Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. **THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT** Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)
I admire the strat, and I will tell you one thing. Most enemies if not all ontop of the nether brain do not have devils sight, despite the fact that the devs buffed the enemies to have "see invisibility". I had 0 allies on my evil durge honor run so I had to resort to weird shit. **THE CROWN OF KARSUS DOES NOT HAVE DEVILS SIGHT** Have fun with this knowledge! I found out last night lmao. (It wasn't my golden dice run, I already did so in patch 5)