Mage's Tower Fight - Impossible

[Styger]

I'm inside the tower, buffed and ready to go. My sword has the spectre oil for the fire bug thing, and I know how to kill stuff fairly effectively. But no matter what I do, I am always dying. If the damn bug doesn't stun me once and eat my health away, it's 3 hits from Azar afterwards. Is there any way to win this fight that I'm missing? None of the signs seem to make a lick of difference either. Is he immune to Aard?

[Gramarye]

I did this fight for the first time this past weekend (on normal difficulty) and I beat it on the first try, almost anticlimactically. I'm level 15.

I think I fought the fire bug basically straight up; I've put a number of silver talents into Strength so I might have gotten more benefit from increased resistances than I appreciated.

I used the Axii sign on the Professor and converted him to my side, then concentrated on Javed.

I think my only active potion was a rubedo Tawny Owl. I didn't use any oils on my sword.

I also know that I timed the fight to be at moonrise and I'd gotten the golem-heart potion, so I had the +100% sign intensity from that; don't know if Axii would have worked without that.

[pedantic_roc]

I just swallow, ugh.. start again, I just drink a swallow, and then go straight for the Prof with Fast Style using my steel runesword @ +40% damage and a bit of Aard to 'wedge' him into the space opposite the doorway to the tower. Game over as soon as he's weakened. I Ignore the Ifrid and Jav and, even though I almost perish, I've only lost one out of four fights. The first time I forgot to 'Swallow'.

Edit: ha ha, just noticed I called my Meteorite sword a runesword. Dumbo.

[zacharyb]

You're supposed to Axii sign the professor. If you don't do that you are in for a hard fight.

[pedantic_roc]

Originally posted by zacharyb:

You're supposed to Axii sign the professor. If you don't do that you are in for a hard fight.

I'm still learning about signs as I go, Zacharyb. I'll try your suggestion next time I play through. Thanks for the tip. :-)

[Styger]

I'll try that Pedantic, hadn't occured to me to go through the fire and get the damn professor straight on. As for Axii, I can't seem to recall that sign. Either means I have it, or I've never used it, heh. I'll check it out too.

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by EcG Styger:

I'll try that Pedantic, hadn't occured to me to go through the fire and get the damn professor straight on. As for Axii, I can't seem to recall that sign. Either means I have it, or I've never used it, heh. I'll check it out too.

You get the axii sign from the stone in the middle of the tower. But I honestly never use it, on both play throughs I only used it for the tower fight and maybe if I was messing around.

[Stonechat]

Make potions with rubedo + Albedo (to drink more potions), sharpen your sword with diamond dust. I used so many potions if i took one more i would have died. And the fight lasted less than 1 min on hardest difficulty.

you don't need Axii...ever. You should also do every quest possible to get better skills.

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by Stonechat:

Make potions with rubedo + Albedo (to drink more potions), sharpen your sword with diamond dust. I used so many potions if i took one more i would have died. And the fight lasted less than 1 min on hardest difficulty.

you don't need Axii...ever. You should also do every quest possible to get better skills.

Newer players or people that are having trouble with that fight should use Axii.

[pedantic_roc]

Originally posted by zacharyb:

Newer players or people that are having trouble with that fight should use Axii.

I'll let you know - probably sometime over the weekend - if it helped/helps because I'm starting over, yet again, after running into undefeatable gangs of wraiths (Chapter IV) with my then build. I don't have enough hours in this game, yet, to even come up with a build that works yet alone argue about the best way to batter enemies. :-)

God - I hate this game. Grrr... I keep running into Difficulty Spikes that crop up without any inplied gameplay warnings. I mean, just "exactly" WHAT damage do Wraiths do. Is it pain? And, if so, why doesn't my inate 10% pain resistance coupled with my 50% talent resistance count for jack? Stupid, stupid, just stupid - lol, which might just be aimed at me for missing a trick.

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by pedantic_roc:

Originally posted by zacharyb:

Newer players or people that are having trouble with that fight should use Axii.

I'll let you know - probably sometime over the weekend - if it helped/helps because I'm starting over, yet again, after running into undefeatable gangs of wraiths (Chapter IV) with my then build. I don't have enough hours in this game, yet, to even come up with a build that works yet alone argue about the best way to batter enemies. :-)

God - I hate this game. Grrr... I keep running into Difficulty Spikes that crop up without any inplied gameplay warnings. I mean, just "exactly" WHAT damage do Wraiths do. Is it pain? And, if so, why doesn't my inate 10% pain resistance coupled with my 50% talent resistance count for jack? Stupid, stupid, just stupid - lol, which might just be aimed at me for missing a trick.

Are you talking about the wraiths at the druids lantern shrine thing? If so ya those wraiths hit really hard. Just do a bunch of side quests and lvl up that way you stand a better chance. Also useful to use Quen and Aard.

[Agent Seamoose]

I took a Swallow and Tawny Owl potion before the fight, put some Diamond Dust on my blade, a level 3 Igni Sign (the Fire one) and Grouped Style the hell out of them, lighting them up with Igni every time I was able to.

[Valtiel]

For the wraith fight, there is an herb you can put in the altar to severely weaken them. The hermit will tell you of this prior to the fight so that you can prepare. Makes the fight much, MUCH easier and more manageable.

Also Quen and Igni signs are really effective with most enemies, so don't be afraid to use them and invest points into them. In fact, those are the only signs I ever really used (except for aard when I needed to break down a wall or barricade). In fact, I put a ton of points into Igni as it becomes really strong with some point investment. One of the best signs IMO.

[pedantic_roc]

Ah well, Axii failed to work. I didn't have any bronze credits to put into it, so that might have jiggered it up. Anyway, this time, I went for the Ifrit (Silver, Fast) and when reinforcements arrived, again, I just went at the prof with Aard and Steel, Fast. There might have been some particularly nasty oil on my blade, heh heh.

@Valtiel - during the Wraith Fight.
Yup - I used the Mandrake, used the relevant 'Sign' power ups (much to the horror of the Wyvern) etcetera. I stopped short of trying it blind drunk (for the supposed pain immunity) and I honestly could not kill more than the first wave of three Wraiths. Of course I used Ignii. Each time I was reborn, and I returned to the altar, the 'new' wraiths magically hemmed me in with either the altar or a wraith at each point of the compass. I was unable to use Ignii, unable to swing a sword, unable to vault backwards to escape. I 'was' able to die, though.

Anyway, as I'm all for trying other peeps suggestions (apart from the one that suggested I skip this fight) I'm going to beef up Intelligence and Ignii, more than usual, for this playthrough.
In Chapter I - I sold Abigail well over 200 Barghest skulls where I would do a quest and then spend the night levelling up on those, and the drowners, and the odd Ghoul.
In Chapter II - I would do a quest and then spend each night clearing the Sewers followed by a complete circuit of the Swamp. I'm doing what the Draugr do in Skyrim, I'm levelling up while NPC's are sleeping - lol.

I saved at the start of Chapter III late last night, um.. okay, honestly? in the early hours, so it'll be a while until I get to try out my bigger, badder, better Ignii on those troublesome Wraiths. Meanwhile, as I recall, there will be some new critters to play with in the Swamp each night, as well as in the street, and I intend to train. :-)

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by pedantic_roc:

Ah well, Axii failed to work. I didn't have any bronze credits to put into it, so that might have jiggered it up. Anyway, this time, I went for the Ifrit (Silver, Fast) and when reinforcements arrived, again, I just went at the prof with Aard and Steel, Fast. There might have been some particularly nasty oil on my blade, heh heh.

@Valtiel - during the Wraith Fight.
Yup - I used the Mandrake, used the relevant 'Sign' power ups (much to the horror of the Wyvern) etcetera. I stopped short of trying it blind drunk (for the supposed pain immunity) and I honestly could not kill more than the first wave of three Wraiths. Of course I used Ignii. Each time I was reborn, and I returned to the altar, the 'new' wraiths magically hemmed me in with either the altar or a wraith at each point of the compass. I was unable to use Ignii, unable to swing a sword, unable to vault backwards to escape. I 'was' able to die, though.

Anyway, as I'm all for trying other peeps suggestions (apart from the one that suggested I skip this fight) I'm going to beef up Intelligence and Ignii, more than usual, for this playthrough.
In Chapter I - I sold Abigail well over 200 Barghest skulls where I would do a quest and then spend the night levelling up on those, and the drowners, and the odd Ghoul.
In Chapter II - I would do a quest and then spend each night clearing the Sewers followed by a complete circuit of the Swamp. I'm doing what the Draugr do in Skyrim, I'm levelling up while NPC's are sleeping - lol.

I saved at the start of Chapter III late last night, um.. okay, honestly? in the early hours, so it'll be a while until I get to try out my bigger, badder, better Ignii on those troublesome Wraiths. Meanwhile, as I recall, there will be some new critters to play with in the Swamp each night, as well as in the street, and I intend to train. :-)

You are supposed to use Axii on the professor during the tower fight. No points needed to be specced into it. Though maybe you needed to get the buff from the stone too.

[pedantic_roc]

Originally posted by zacharyb:

You are supposed to use Axii on the professor during the tower fight. No points needed to be specced into it. Though maybe you needed to get the buff from the stone too.

Oh, okay then, well - It didn't make Javed attack his own Ifrid and Javed doesn't really appear to do much if you keep away from him anyway. The professor is useless with a sword so I don't see the point in trying to Hex him at all because, like I said earlier (somewhere), as soon as the Professor gets hurt he wimps out and drops his magically scripted bomb - End of Chapter.