Road to Arnika is hard.

[hayaku]

Hi. I'm a first time player......

Anyway, been playing for a little while, have been really enjoying it. On road to Arnika, I just hit level 7, and here my problems begin. I have started encountering packs of Piercer Modai, usually around 5-8. As much as I have tried, I can never defeat them, despite numerous tries... they are just too strong and fast. My tactic so far has just been avoiding them...

Anyway, I know the enemies in this game are leveled, but thruought the monastery I had no problems and found that the scale of leveled enemies was quite fair. Now I hit lv.7 and all of a sudden I am totally out of my league with those damn Piercer Modai. Is this just a rare instance, or is my party exceptionally weak?
thanks...

[ 03-23-2005, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: hayaku ]

[Dorkus]

The road to arnika is incredibly difficult for novice players. Suggestions:

1. Get through the monastery at lower level (less than 5) -- the spawned enemies are significantly weaker .

2. Get more meat (fighters especially), and buff the meat.

3. Try to back up into a tight v-shaped corner, so that only 1 or two of the enemies can attack at once.

This can be a really punishing game. But it's also INCREDIBLY rewarding.

[Loudhy]

Originally posted by Dorkus: 1. Get through the monastery at lower level (less than 5) -- the spawned enemies are significantly weaker .

I often asked in ealier topics before : How do you defeat Gregor then ( without luck, numerous reloadings and an easy difficulty level ) ?

@hayaku
I prefer to move the arnika road with a balanced party. I always killed groups of piercer modais with magic ( with help from the fighting professions ).

Like Dorkus said, always hide in a corner. With magic you can kill them easily all at once and only the front guy can hit you.

I finish the Monastery at Lvl 6 , short before Lvl 7. At this time, I think, the magicians have enough power to kill a group of bad guys and the fighters have a chance to help the magicians ( sometimes )

But, of course, these are only suggestions.

Greetings

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

[ 03-23-2005, 07:06 AM: Message edited by: Loudhy ]

[SpitBall]

Monsters spawn based on average lvl of party. Also note TWO things: 1) you gain experience and increase skills as you complete encounters, and 2) you can choose NOT to click on the big white cross and accept the next level. That is: you can "hold levels", yet gain experience and skill. With books, you can even learn new spells without increasing your level.

I took our Gregor (fairly easily, i.e. no one died) at lvl 4.

[Loudhy]

Welcome SpitBall.

That's possible, but then you cannot leave the monastery with a level less than 5.
I forgot the way to ignore a new level. But I never made it because IMO it's possible to finish Arnika Road at lvl 6 without tricks.

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

[SpitBall]

Whether it is possible or not - I made it to Arnika at lvl 4, hung out there for Experience - thank you Higardi Patrols! - and moved to lvl 6 just before rescuing Vi. I admit, it was not easy, but my earlier parties had already taught me where the "sweet-spots" for fighting were, so I could make it.

[Wereboar]

With most of my parties (usually 4 or 5 characters, expert difficulty, ironman mode), i take level 5 after i enter upper monastary. I don't think i couldn't make it on level 4. It's mainly for my casters to get their next (two) spells, usually in realms (? fire and the like) where they didn't have spells before.

I'm usually level 4 when fighting Gregor (expert ironman). On average, he gets one kill in, but thats what ressurrcetion powders are for. Attack spells work good, blinding flesh and razor cloak work well; if possible, i buy a stoneskin potion from burz.

I (normally) didn't hold back levels in earlier games. But since i play ironman, i prefer to stay at level 5 until the house on arnika road; from there on, there are enough niches at the roadside. And i take level 5 after entering upper monastary, to reduce the chance to meet those pestilance rats.

[hayaku]

thanks for help everyone...

As it turns out, I eventually did end up defeating the piercer modai... it took a very tight position, alot of guardian angel, even more luck, and a few useable items.

In retrospect it probably wasn't all that hard; walking around the streets of Arnika has taught me alot about fighting large groups [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, my party is hovering around level 9 at the moment, I have pretty much cleaned arnika out for all its worth at this stage of the game, and about to head back out. we'll see how difficult I find it this time...

[SpitBall]

Wearboar: We may be comparing apples to oranges. I 'm playing normal mode and it is my fighter/sam/Vi front-line that did most of the killing on the way to Arnika. The weak (low HP) magickers were safely tucked into the crevices at the back of the party.

[SpitBall]

Yeah - Pestilent Rats were what taught me about holding levels!! First time through I was training poorly and, after getting toasted by huge crowds of venom and hard-shell crabs on the beach, i figured I should level up in the monastery, but somewhere around lvl 7 the slimes were killing me off.

Holding at lvl 3 made it too difficult to get passed the Higardi Spirits and did not reduce the crab encounters. I tried (multiple times) to rescue Vi with level 4 party, but without the help of the Higardi Patrols, I couldn't beat up the Savant Troopers and I was unable to lure them out into the street for the fight.

The mutiple ways of approaching this game are PHENOMENAL, are they not? Each of us has a slightly different approach, but all have been successful (at least, so far).