Mel's summons are unbelievable.

[anca]

I consider myself a pretty good BG2 player, for someone who plays on Core difficulty. I have all the difficulty-upgrade Tactics components installed, all the Improved Five, etc., etc. Imp Ilasera was easy, I didn't even reload once on Gromnir or Sendai, and Abazigal was no big deal once I realized that the purple dragon somehow darts away before my timestopped horrid wiltings hit him. Balthazar dies so fast I wasn't sure what happened.

Even the first part of the final battle is doable, though tough. I rush Zombie Balthazar (I have the Longer Road mod installed, which adds Irenicus to your party, and he steals a soul from one of the Five, turning one of them into a zombie--no changes really, just the name) and kill him in one round.

Fine.

Ilasera is ethereal already and running to some weird place and planning to unload some Dispell/Miscast arrows on poor Edwin. Irenicus and Edwin have Ruby Rayed Abazigal, and Mel pops out. Irenicus Breaches Abazigal so Sarevok, Korgan, Viconia, and PC can wail on him. He starts to run around the entire map like a pansy, but hopefully he dies soon. Maybe another Breach is needed after he Prot:MW, but whatever. Ilasera is dispatched next, if I'm lucky enough for her to not go ethereal after Badly Injured.

Fine.

Sendai is brought out by True Sight and Breached sometime during the previous two. Everybody wails on her, she twists her retarded onyx ring and forces everyone to chase her around the map for like ten rounds. Finally, hopefully she dies. But not before Mel starts doing the most annoying thing in the entire fight: Gate.

She gates in four enemies at a time, and there is no way I can prevent all of them, including the Cambion archers, from hitting Edwin or Irenicus. If I divert my attention to taking them down, Yaga Shura will wtfpwn my characters. I have to keep taking Viconia out to Greater Restoration everybody. I just realized I could Harm Yaga Shura, so I'll try that next battle, but so far, it takes forever to finally kill him.

Now Mel goes nuts. With the Five out, she starts Gating like CRAZY. She doesn't even melee. She just Gates and puts up Divine Shield/Absolute Immunity. And then Gates. I can't take all of them out. The Succubi all charm Sarevok, the Balors all Vorpal hit Edwin, and the Cambions are just raining arrows on everybody. I simply do not have a Ruby Ray handy at all times to bust on Mel because my mages are always using up their round doing something else, like using Rod of Ressurection on a 30HP Korgan or something. The only thing that can possibly save me is turning my Kensai->Thief into the Ravager, but even that doesn't help because between Gates, Mel RUNS AROUND THE ENTIRE MAP. What the hell. While I'm chasing her, the archers just rape me. And if I kill off her summons, she Gates more in the meantime. This is just a lose-lose situation. I've even tried to TS+IA+delayed blast fireball etc., but what does she do? Dimension door before the TS runs out. And then proceed to Gate in more homos.

Next time I try this, I'm going to cheese the hell out of this. I'm going to use every piece of Userunfriendly's cheese guide I can, because this calls for it. I'll Mindflayer circlet somebody useful, like Yaga Shura, I'll Project Image summon an army of Planetars, whatever. This is just silly.

P.S. Anyone else feel that Tactics actually makes SOA harder than TOB, because TOB doesn't have any enemies that close the debuffing loop and force you to Chain Contingency Ruby Rays?

[MoonElf]

There are lots of different ways of going about this battle but one spell which you might find usefull is implosion since it seems to stun for a few seconds no matter what, if you have several characters that can use it you can even stunlock with it while your fighters and their +6 two handed weapons tear the stunned unit apart.

[anca]

Beat it finally. Project Image > Planetar army doesn't work for me. Epic spells simply not available to cast for images. And mindflayer circlets "work"--that is, they say "Yaga Shura: Charmed"--but I gain no control over the charmed monsters; they're still red.

But four things did save me. First of all, Harm on Yaga Shura is AMAZING. He is no longer even part of the battle. Saves a lot of time, which Mel would have used to summon. Secondly, setting my best DPSer (who also happens to be the best tank vs. missile damage) after Ilasera finishes her off really fast. (For some reason, Fallen Planetars who can see invisible don't go after her. They change targets when she goes ethereal and will not reacquire her.) Third, Time stops were not just unnecessary, but bad--I just cast all the spells with a real-time Imp Alacrity, and Melissan has no time to DDoor or Gate. Plus the slots could now be used for the fourth trick, Dragons' Breath, which rapes Melissan hard. Edwin and Irenicus each had 5 or 6, and unloaded them all with a real-time Imp. Alacrity.

With the Harm, the aggro management against Ilasera, and the Dragon's Breaths, this battle all of a sudden became much easier.

Now I re-crown the final 3-part battle with Improved Irenicus at the end of SOA as the hardest battle in the BG/BGII franchise.

[who_is_daniel]

Yesterday I beat the Ascencion battle on Insane for part of it then had to turn it down to Hard when she summond the 5 and kept summoning 10+ horribly tough deamons avery few seconds   The fight took me about 2 hours, with every auto pause option enabled.

my groups way:

Barbarion/Mage/Cleric
Kelsey
Solaufin
Arie
Minsk
Saravok (yeah I was suprised at the end with him)

I think this fight is harder then the end of BG2, but perhaps my characters were not as high of levels this time and I did not do watcher keep.

Great mod!