Countmeasures To Hopelessness?

[Dundee Slaytern]

I have reached the Burial Isle on HoF Mode, and everything seemed okey-dokey... until I met the Wailing Virgins.

Now. I have fought against them before on Core Difficulty, but HoF Mode has apparently made the Wailing Virgins into something that causes players to wail as well.

The unlimited UBER AoE Magic Damage attacks (NOT SPELLS, RANGED ATTACKS!), fine... I can deal with it, even though it means my summons get fried extra fast. Did I mention that I only had ONE Potion of Magic Shielding? I cannot seem to recall any item that grants resistance to Magic Damage besides that, so it is bite the bullet time, all the time.

I had my Bard sing The Song of Kaudies, but it is NOT 100% effective.

They can haste the Barrow Wights and the Drowned Dead, who have a base ApR of 8 and 7 respectively. That is not a problem. My Paladin has an AC well into the -20 and more range.

WHAT really irks me is their Hopelessness attacks. To date, I cannot seem to find ANY form of protection against it other than pray for a successful SaveVsSpell throw. My Paladin, who had a SaveVsSpell of -23, can still fall to the Hopelessness attack and be torn limb from limb as a result.

IT'S UTTERLY INSANE! NO WAIT! IT'S NOT INSANE! IT'S UTTERLY HEART OF FURY!

And I say that quite bitterly.

So far... I have been forced to send in a wave of summons to occupy the Wailing Virgins while I lure the Barrow Wights and the Drowned Dead to another location to beat them up, then go back to the Wailing Virgins and attack them with range. Melee combat with the Wailing Virgins is too painful.

There has to be a better way to do this... ...

[pritchke]

I believe there is a priest spell that renders hoplessness ineffective. I am trying to remember the name.

I think it is "Exaltation".

I believe "Mind Blank" will also counter it but that is a really high level mage spell.

[ 01-19-2004, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[NobleNick]

Dundee,

Har, har, har! It warms my heart to see you in a pickle, old pal. (grin)

Yes, I cried crocodile tears, too, in this section.

Though it is not as clean an answer as I know you want, I muddled through with the below formulas. I always used Plan B; but prefaced it with Plan A wherever I had the luxury. (BTW, this is on "Normal" difficulty; but may give you some ideas.)

Plan A ("Cat and Mouse"):

1.) Have a party member go invisible / hide in shadows and move forward just beyond the main party's sight range to find the girl; before the fight starts, if possible (sometimes they do not appear until after the fight starts).

2.) Have hidden party member watch, while the main party engages the enemy in melee. When the virgin appears, the hidden member should see her first. Disengage the main party and retreat.

3.) Repeat 1 and 2. until all the muscle guys are gone. When the virgin has no front line left, go to Plan B.

Plan B: ("Blitzkreig")

1.) Arm everyone with the deadliest thing they've got, buff them all, and cast invisibility / hide in shadows on EVERY combatant.

2.) Get up nice and close: surround her at hand-to-hand range. Hopefully you have at least 4 guys for this part, or 5 if you have no Bard.

3.) Everything in this step happens simultaneously --> Bard starts singing protection song or War Chant. Mage throws a quick spell then goes to ranged attack. Everyone else beats the snot out of her, up close and personal. Typically, (for me, anyway) she goes down in 2 rounds with 1 or 2 of your party still in their right mind. It might be a good idea to start out with thief doing a backstab; but I did not do this, becuase my thief was MCed with mage.

Did I mention that I reloaded a lot in this area?

Hope this helps.

--------------------
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by pritchke: I believe there is a priest spell that renders hoplessness ineffective. I am trying to remember the name. I think it is "Exaltation". I believe "Mind Blank" will also counter it but that is a really high level mage spell.

Exaltation will not protect against Hopelessness. It was one of the first few spells that I tried.

Mind Blank will only protect the caster, and still leave the Tanks, Archers and Bards vulnerable.

Impervious Sanctity of the Mind will protect against it though, and it helped my Cleric/Ranger a lot. Wish I could say the same of my Paladin though.

Hmmmm... now that I think about it. I wonder whether Chaotic Commands will protect against Hopelessness? Oh well... there is always the Greater Mummies in Lower Dorn's Deep afterwards to test it out. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

----

NobleNick, your suggestions would work save for one teeny-weeny problem. There is always more than 1 Wailing Virgin. The minimum I saw at any one group was 4. The most was 8 (first time I chose to let the Paladin die and not reload, because there were still some summons left to distract them, most of the Barrow Wights and Drowned Dead were gone, and I really, really did not want to reload again).

ADD] Besides, HoF Mode boosts their HP tremendously. Their base HP is 70. HoF makes it like 400+. [img]graemlins/crazyeyes.gif[/img] Thank goodness for The Three White Doves... ...

----

Regardless, I have succeeded in clearing out that Godforsaken isle, though with much pain and frustration.

I am now doing the Trials of the Luremaster for the first time, and my Paladin is back to the business of shining in glory again, because he is immuned to Disease and Fear (and just about immuned to Poison too, because of the negative saves).

Hmmmm... I wonder how I would fare against the Boss of Heart of Winter.

[ 01-19-2004, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[NobleNick]

Dundee,

Well, if you'd just play on normal mode, like the rest of us mere mortals, you wouldn't have so many of those wailing women around! I typically got to take them out in groups of ONE.

From another (later) post from you, I take it that chaotic commands will stifle these nags. (I am writing this down for myself, since I am already through B.I. with my current party; and I will have certainly forgotten what to use by the time my next party pulls through those parts, and need to look it up.)

--------------------
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!