locust swarm gray garrison

[Leto]

What went wrong, please ?
how can it be that such nonsense is still in a game that has been out for years ?
These 3 swarms simply destroy everyone in 1-2 seconds, from 100% hp to 0 in 1-2 seconds, that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Killing the summoner first doesn't work either, too many other enemies in the room, typical example of developers not playing their own game.

how have others managed this, suggestions are welcome.

[pelias117]

I play on the slightly weaker difficulty level with higher enemy numbers. I know that not everybody likes it that way, but everything's stats are so bloated in this game that I feel no shame. One Sabertooth tiger in the middle of this game could kill twenty or thirty demons without the weird adjectives added to them...

[Bystander36]

I've fought this fight many times, and not had any issues. I've played up to Hard, unfair doesn't seem fun to me, so I can't give experience for that.

Anyway, you need to be tactical. You can focus on the one who summons them, kill him fast, and the swarms disappear or never get summoned.

As far as killing your party in 1-2 seconds, I have no idea what you are talking about. I've never seen that. You might want to play in turn based mode, at least for that fight, as I've never seen that in turn based mode.

[Deo]

Originally posted by Leto:

Killing the summoner first doesn't work either

Except it does. You rush in, you kill her before she summons swarms. She summons swarms - you might as well reload.

She has low Reflex save - Conjuration specialized caster with Selective Grease or Conjuration specialized Witch with Selective Winter's Grasp can disable Jeslyn for good even on Unfair.

Reduce difficulty to Story. Seems you got a first reminder, that difficulty is too hard for you. Next reminder will be "By Hell's Ordinance" in Act 2.

Developers for sure played their own game, and probably had a good chuckle while designing some encounters.

[Outlaw]

Summon skeletons and other summons right before fight start, kill the enemy summoner first, while the other enemies are busy fighting with your summoned creatures

[Leto]

round mode was the right tip, they didn't do such ridiculous damage, but it's really bad that they do such ridiculous damage in realtime mode and you're forced to switch to round mode.

[EQFL_Sapare]

Thankyou for reminding me of this, maybe it helps:
https://youtu.be/zYlT-Lyodn0?t=998

(should be timestamp, 16:40)

[Razer]

This is probably one of the tougher fights in the game. It's made so you can't reach the summoner unless:
1. You sided with the Inquisitors (Hulrun) during Feud of the Faithful. The inquisitors will join the attack here and distract all enemies near the door allowing you to walk to the wizard in the back.
2. You have pets, preferably 2, with trip. Like a dog, wolf or leopard. They move really fast and can get to the wizard before he summons the swarms. Very likely trip him before he casts the spell.
3. You have high initiative and your charge works or you can cast grease.

The encounter is very poorly designed due to the layout. The door is tiny and all your characters will get stuck there if you're unlucky. It's very likely that friendly NPCs actually block the door entirely. This happened to me very often. This is one of the reasons I have Toybox "pass through friendly units" enabled.

If you have no pets and are very low level, poorly optimized and didn't join the inquisitors (which most people don't) then this encounter is near impossible I think. I tend to be level 6 before going to Gray Garrisson.

[Dave]

Here's the detailed strategy on how to do that fight on UNFAIR. I've done it...A LOT of times

Problems
1. They are the deadliest swarm in game, especially at lvl 5-6
2. She spawn 3 of them

This fight is an example on how this game was build with RTWP in mind and some fights (this included), have never been tested in turn based. So you MUST play it in RTWP.

Why?

In RTWP she takes AGES to cast the summoning spell, and you can kill her during that time. In Turn-Based if you fail initiative and she goes before you, you're dead

Strategy
1. Hulrun crusaders will engage the demons. I usually leave Ember there and cast Protective luck on the NPC so they will remain alive and keep ALL the demons focused on them
2. All your group must rush the summoner. You need to use EVERYTHING, from Seelah Smite, Nenio Arc MIssiles, MC whatever, pets and so on. She will do NOTHING until the swarm is summoned so you simply ned to kill her before she finishes her LONG cast

This takes into account you have Hulrun crusaders (MANDATORY!!!) and the 1h Haste buff (replaceable by your own spell)

If the crusaders get killed before the boss...demons will come to you and, except for very rare cases, is a wipe
If she summons the swarm and you can't kill her before the swams reach you, is a wipe

If you are on any dificulty less than Unfair this fight will be easier (Hard) or ♥♥♥♥ easy (Core or lower)

[Razer]

Originally posted by Deo:

Originally posted by Leto:

Killing the summoner first doesn't work either

Except it does. You rush in, you kill her before she summons swarms. She summons swarms - you might as well reload.

She has low Reflex save - Conjuration specialized caster with Selective Grease or Conjuration specialized Witch with Selective Winter's Grasp can disable Jeslyn for good even on Unfair.

Reduce difficulty to Story. Seems you got a first reminder, that difficulty is too hard for you. Next reminder will be "By Hell's Ordinance" in Act 2.

Developers for sure played their own game, and probably had a good chuckle while designing some encounters.

I think most people that play this game for the first time don't know all the tricks. Doesn't mean the game is too hard for them, but they didn't select the perfect things to deal with encounters. Remember the game throws deadly encounters at you at every turn. If you play the game as you would in table top, even if you know all the rules, you're looking at TPKs a lot even on normal mode. The game is very aggressive with its encounters and this is a really tough one unless you know how to cheese it. Which means foresight and having prior game knowledge. That's not a fair way to judge "skill" at all.

[mk11]

Killing her after the summons will get rid of the summons. She only casts the summons as her second spell and they don't act for another round. So that is three rounds to kill her in.

It is easier if you went with Hulrun's crusaders because they turn up and will distract most of the enemies.

[Dave]

Originally posted by mk11:

It is easier if you went with Hulrun's crusaders because they turn up and will distract most of the enemies.

Wrong

They will distract ALL enemies in the room not most of them :)

[Deo]

Originally posted by Razer:

I think most people that play this game for the first time don't know all the tricks.

He did beat her tho - in turn based mode. While Dave saying real time is the way to go.

As you can see, there are as much tricks as there are players.

As to knowing what to expect/foresight - that's what saving game is for. A manual save before Gray Garrison (or before entering any zone, honestly) should be a habit, imo.

[Razer]

Originally posted by Deo:

Originally posted by Razer:

I think most people that play this game for the first time don't know all the tricks.

He did beat her tho - in turn based mode. While Dave saying real time is the way to go.

As you can see, there are as much tricks as there are players.

As to knowing what to expect/foresight - that's what saving game is for. A manual save before Gray Garrison (or before entering any zone, honestly) should be a habit, imo.

Yea that's why this game has 0 connection to table top. I just beat Playful Darkness on Core in my run (2nd try was the winner) and that's not an enemy ANY DM would throw at a party unless they hated them and wanted a TPK.

[Razer]

Originally posted by Dave:

Originally posted by mk11:

It is easier if you went with Hulrun's crusaders because they turn up and will distract most of the enemies.

Wrong

They will distract ALL enemies in the room not most of them :)

Yea, could be. I think they round up all enemies too, so they all attack them. Makes the fight super easy. I mean the Desna mages are useful, but they only help in fights where it's not necessary. The inquisitors aren't there when you enter the Gray Garrison, but they show up when it's 100% useful. This is my first run where I chose them over the Desnans, and I can tell you, it seriously makes me think to bring them along for every future endeavour. I mean, if you play it correctly you can save both Hulrun and Ramien and go Azata path if you wish while having the Inquisitors along for the ride.

[Outlaw]

Originally posted by Dave:

In RTWP she takes AGES to cast the summoning spell, and you can kill her during that time. In Turn-Based if you fail initiative and she goes before you, you're dead

Not true. In 1st round she always cast Divine Favor, summon locust in 2nd, and locust can act only in the end of the 3rd. You have 3 rounds to kill her.