To everyone stuck on last Imperial Guard fight (antidas fight)

[Boss of this gym]

I have given up on winning that battle with poor trained imperial guards as my teammates. At least until I figure out something better or this particular part changes in the game.

Solution to everyone stuck here: Impress Carrinas to make him give you highly skilled soldiers to fight alongside you instead of the bad grunts you get. You impress him in the tower mission by making up a better plan than just charging the tower facing the rain of arrows. To do this there is no other way but to make a character with 6 intelligence.

Having less than 6 intelligence will make your character charge into the tower like an idiot, facing the rain of arrows. I'm sorry but there is no other way around it, at least that I'm aware of, but spending 2 points on intelligence to raise it to 6.

I suggest making a combat character with the following build:

-10 strength for maximum damage and carry weight (good for looting all the crap in the imperial guards missions and making a lot of money, but you want it mostly because of the damage)

-6 dexterity only, with this you will only have 8 AP, which is enough for 2 fast attacks on every weapon that is not dual wield, and also enough for 2 normal attacks on most of them as well.

With this build, the main reason you lower your ap to 8 is to wear heavy armor, the best one available gives you 9 damage reduction, 10 if you have level 5 crafting (find it in the imperial guard barracks, shorty sells it). If you go block and have this armor, you can block 10 damage from the armor alone, plus 5 points or more depending on the shield you wear if you block attacks, most of the times you will COMPLETELY negate all damage unless your enemies carry a steel weapon or double handed weapon, and the hits that do damage you will only do so by 1 or 2 or 3 hit points unless they do a critical. Not to mention Ranged enemies are not a problem at all if you carry a large shield (carry the smallest shield when a fight does not have ranged enemies, so your THC is not lowered as much).

-8 constitution, that will be 50 HP.

-6 perception. This is the most prominent problem of this build. With 6 perception you have a 0% increase of chances to hit. You have to make up for it somehow by raising your weapon of choice to level 5 at least as fast as you can, that is your priority. You will land most of the hits on mercenaries who also, like you, wear heavy armor and shields. But you will fail hard when landing hits on opponents like assasins with high dodge. Reloading is going to be your best friend at the beggining of the game if you choose this build. But once you get past the annoying assasings, you won't have as much problems landing hits on other mercenaries.
You can raise your weapon of choice to level 5 right at the start with this build, but your block skill will be at level 2.

-6 Intelligence. 15% more Skill Points rewards. which is not bad, although I would rather spend these points on something else if I could. With this your character will be able to come up with a better plan to storm the tower, thus impressing Carrinas, and he will grant you an escort of elite soldiers for the last mission, which will require very little effort on your part to win, these soldiers are vastly superior to Antidas men. Dellar is the only one who puts up a good fight against them.

-4 charisma, for obvious reasons.

Note: I won the last fight a lot of times with this build. I tried really hard but I can't seem to find a way to win the last fight without 6 intelligence. The men that go with you are just crap compared to them. If someone finds a better build to win that fight without having to spend two points on intelligence please do post it.

[LT. Charon]

Even with the elite guards the last fight is a crapshoot. Praying to the RNG god had the IG win about 1/3 of the time.

My question is wtf do you do after it, since i specced Block and Axe. It's sorta ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up that you have to hyper specialize to be at all combat-worthy in this game, and then they throw you into a fight where odds you're out of your element entirely.

What's the deal VD? A place to save in between would be nice too (it's possible this exists and I just click through the dialouges too fast to notice).

Edit: I do want to add that the advice this guy is giving is sound and good, but sometimes the RNG just doesn't care about your min/maxed build.

[urartu]

Actually, you don't have to be hyper specialized in combat. If you have low dexterity or want to have extra sturdiness you could try to wear heavy armor such as Ordu Lamellar Armor (Aemolas sells one). Or even those nifty Imperial Armor... I got my hands on a steel Imperial Armor(DR 10) during Assassin Questline at Teron...it gives me the edge necessary in some battles and anytime I need my extra 2 AP(played through 8 dexterity)...I can switch to a steel lorica or for extra 1 AP Ordu Lamellar Armor.

Alternative is to broker a deal between Carrinas and Antidas, but I guess it requires you to be working for Linos or Antidas first. (I got it at my Mercenary Merchant who turned up to join Imperial Guard)

Also 8 Con protects you from certain kinds of poisons. And 50 health is really good.

Different then the OP's advices, 8 or more Perception would benefit you more overally. There is no very large SP difference between 5% bonus(4 int) and 15% bonus(6 int).

And true, sometimes you can get extremely unlucky....but most of the time you will prevail with a solid build. Consider it like your enemy rolled a double 20.

[Boss of this gym]

Originally posted by LT. Charon:

Even with the elite guards the last fight is a crapshoot. Praying to the RNG god had the IG win about 1/3 of the time.

My question is wtf do you do after it, since i specced Block and Axe. It's sorta ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up that you have to hyper specialize to be at all combat-worthy in this game, and then they throw you into a fight where odds you're out of your element entirely.

What's the deal VD? A place to save in between would be nice too (it's possible this exists and I just click through the dialouges too fast to notice).

Edit: I do want to add that the advice this guy is giving is sound and good, but sometimes the RNG just doesn't care about your min/maxed build.

I made another post about this problem, it was called bad mission design and in that post the developer confirmed that this part will be changed, you will be allowed to save the game and spend the points you earned with the fight against Antidas, and he also confirmed you will be given a shield and a weapon of your choice.

As it is right now people who went block and not dodge stand no chance to survive after the fight with Antidas.

Originally posted by urartu:

Different then the OP's advices, 8 or more Perception would benefit you more overally. There is no very large SP difference between 5% bonus(4 int) and 15% bonus(6 int).

And true, sometimes you can get extremely unlucky....but most of the time you will prevail with a solid build. Consider it like your enemy rolled a double 20.

Sorry but I extremely disagree, and trust me, I tried a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of times to win that battle without the elite soldiers, and there is just no way. Of course, I tried it with 4 intelligence and instead I gave those two points to perception like you suggested, I also went 10 constitution to have 60 hp. But if you do that there is no way to survive that battle, not because of your build, but because your allies are really really bad and you find yourself ina 4v1 situation really fast. That doesn't happen with the elite soldiers.

And this post is intended as a solution to actually win the battle, not to use the workaround that is using points on persuasion so that Carrinas and Antidas agree to work together.
Of course, I would love to use those two points on something combat oriented like constitution or perception, but if you dont have 6 intelligence, you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥. (once again I repeat this post is for players who want to fight the battle and not talk their way out of it)

[LT. Charon]

You don't have to focus combat to beat the game, there's many solutions don't walk into fights yada yada I know, I've been following this project for probably 6-7 years. But it's absolutely true (sans putting spare points into 1 or 2 civil skills) to complete the IG questline. That much has been attested to here, on the Codex, on ITS forums, etc.

Anyway, what's your advice on what to do after the Antidas fight? I'm specced Axe and Block and wear haevy armor. I got to Maadoran once by blowing the ~40 odd skill points I had into Dodge and Daggers to beat the two guards, but that's a waste of skill points.

I tried talking my way out, ended up in the trial by combat fight, which bugged, and I don't feel like sitting though multiple Antidas fights (since odds are the IG will lose the first two or three) to have it bug out again, or end up in rags with a dagger in an even tougher fight.

[LT. Charon]

Originally posted by Ketzal:

Originally posted by LT. Charon:

Even with the elite guards the last fight is a crapshoot. Praying to the RNG god had the IG win about 1/3 of the time.

My question is wtf do you do after it, since i specced Block and Axe. It's sorta ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up that you have to hyper specialize to be at all combat-worthy in this game, and then they throw you into a fight where odds you're out of your element entirely.

What's the deal VD? A place to save in between would be nice too (it's possible this exists and I just click through the dialouges too fast to notice).

Edit: I do want to add that the advice this guy is giving is sound and good, but sometimes the RNG just doesn't care about your min/maxed build.

I made another post about this problem, it was called bad mission design and in that post the developer confirmed that this part will be changed, you will be allowed to save the game and spend the points you earned with the fight against Antidas, and he also confirmed you will be given a shield and a weapon of your choice.

As it is right now people who went block and not dodge stand no chance to survive after the fight with Antidas.

Oh.

Well, so much for my other post. Well played VD, well played. >.>

[Boss of this gym]

Originally posted by LT. Charon:

You don't have to focus combat to beat the game, there's many solutions don't walk into fights yada yada I know, I've been following this project for probably 6-7 years. But it's absolutely true (sans putting spare points into 1 or 2 civil skills) to complete the IG questline. That much has been attested to here, on the Codex, on ITS forums, etc.

Anyway, what's your advice on what to do after the Antidas fight? I'm specced Axe and Block and wear haevy armor. I got to Maadoran once by blowing the ~40 odd skill points I had into Dodge and Daggers to beat the two guards, but that's a waste of skill points.

I tried talking my way out, ended up in the trial by combat fight, which bugged, and I don't feel like sitting though multiple Antidas fights (since odds are the IG will lose the first two or three) to have it bug out again, or end up in rags with a dagger in an even tougher fight.

Can't help you there because I have chosen not to continue playing the game past that part because of the reasons you mentioned. I don't want to throw all my points to dodge when I have been upgrading my block because like you said, those are wasted points.

I have a saved game before the Antidas fight and when this gets fixed in the update I will continue the game so I don't waste those 40 points. Also I don't feel like reloading a million times to beat the second fight mostly because I have to repeat the first fight over and over and over if I die, and it's way too time consuming and boring honestly. I would rather wait for the next update.

[urartu]

Originally posted by Ketzal:

Sorry but I extremely disagree, and trust me, I tried a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of times to win that battle without the elite soldiers, and there is just no way. Of course, I tried it with 4 intelligence and instead I gave those two points to perception like you suggested, I also went 10 constitution to have 60 hp. But if you do that there is no way to survive that battle, not because of your build, but because your allies are really really bad and you find yourself ina 4v1 situation really fast. That doesn't happen with the elite soldiers.

And this post is intended as a solution to actually win the battle, not to use the workaround that is using points on persuasion so that Carrinas and Antidas agree to work together.
Of course, I would love to use those two points on something combat oriented like constitution or perception, but if you dont have 6 intelligence, you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥. (once again I repeat this post is for players who want to fight the battle and not talk their way out of it)

Well I know what is the point of the thread. And trust me,10% difference in SP is not a huge deal, but yeah elite soldiers can be difference true. I captured the tower without elite soldiers as Mercenary Merchant Traitor. There are a ton of ways to accumulate SP and put them in good use without spreading thin.

In a battle, your approach matters more then the quality of your company. With inexperienced teammates, it is true odds are against you but it is not impossible. (As someone who won the battle)

The logical approach to start in tower against archers, generally guys down the ground take care of themselves. Move one square towards the closer archer and hit him, he generally ignores you and moves behind you(blocking the sight of other archer) to concentrate upon the Soldier with Imperial Armor. Then you have to choose your attacks carefully.

When I won the battle, I was the lone survivor of assault. It was quite satisfying.

[Blackdragon]

Did you try using upgraded weapons? E.g. Aemolas' hammer is pretty powerful at this stage.

Tbh though, when I did this fight back in the day, my char had 6 int. Metagaming, yeah.

[Boss of this gym]

Originally posted by urartu:

Originally posted by Ketzal:

Sorry but I extremely disagree, and trust me, I tried a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of times to win that battle without the elite soldiers, and there is just no way. Of course, I tried it with 4 intelligence and instead I gave those two points to perception like you suggested, I also went 10 constitution to have 60 hp. But if you do that there is no way to survive that battle, not because of your build, but because your allies are really really bad and you find yourself ina 4v1 situation really fast. That doesn't happen with the elite soldiers.

And this post is intended as a solution to actually win the battle, not to use the workaround that is using points on persuasion so that Carrinas and Antidas agree to work together.
Of course, I would love to use those two points on something combat oriented like constitution or perception, but if you dont have 6 intelligence, you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥. (once again I repeat this post is for players who want to fight the battle and not talk their way out of it)

Well I know what is the point of the thread. And trust me,10% difference in SP is not a huge deal, but yeah elite soldiers can be difference true. I captured the tower without elite soldiers as Mercenary Merchant Traitor. There are a ton of ways to accumulate SP and put them in good use without spreading thin.

In a battle, your approach matters more then the quality of your company. With inexperienced teammates, it is true odds are against you but it is not impossible. (As someone who won the battle)

The logical approach to start in tower against archers, generally guys down the ground take care of themselves. Move one square towards the closer archer and hit him, he generally ignores you and moves behind you(blocking the sight of other archer) to concentrate upon the Soldier with Imperial Armor. Then you have to choose your attacks carefully.

When I won the battle, I was the lone survivor of assault. It was quite satisfying.

That's not the fight I'm talking about. It's not the assault to the tower, it's the one after that, when you enter the palace and are surrounded by Antidas men.

You can go with poorly equiped and trained grunts, or with good soldiers, depending on your intelligence.

[Boss of this gym]

Originally posted by Blackdragon:

Did you try using upgraded weapons? E.g. Aemolas' hammer is pretty powerful at this stage.

Tbh though, when I did this fight back in the day, my char had 6 int. Metagaming, yeah.

Yeah...I pretty much tried all sort of weapons and a lot of builds trying to win this fight without intelligence...it's nearly impossible man...try it for yourself if you doubt me, but there is a huge difference with the teammates you get if you have 6 intelligence and the others they give you if you have 4 int...

Did try aemola's hammer and got pwned.

[urartu]

Well during my playthrough(Merc, Merch, Traitor), Carrinas assured me he was sending his best men...maybe he lies. I do not have patience to backtrack to that game. (deleted the saves even)

[Blackdragon]

Originally posted by urartu:

Well during my playthrough(Merc, Merch, Traitor), Carrinas assured me he was sending his best men...maybe he lies. I do not have patience to backtrack to that game. (deleted the saves even)

I think when he says he's sending the best, it's true. Did it last night as a traitor assassin, he said this and I got the Elite guys who basically wiped the floor with Daratans (I still killed Dellar and Antidas, for pleasure's sake).

The game still doesn't let us loot after the fight. A very regrettable restriction.

[Yeizinho]

As a Mercenary with block focus the aftermath is insane to pull off..Trying to see if I can beat it again and just see if there is an alternative option.

[Blackdragon]

One of those places where AoD is really pigeonholing you into a particular build. Especially nasty is the fact that it depends on an attribute score, which you can't change in any way.

And this is not limited to the Mercenary. As an Assassin I'm feeling severely limited by not having 8 perception (complete or partial failure of several quests, can't find Darius' Tomb etc).

With the heavy requirements this game presses on non-combat attribute scores, such as Perception and Intelligence, occasionally makes it either infeasible or severely disappointing for full fighter builds.

Regarding this particular fight, I don't remember whether if it's possible to have heavy steel crafted armor by this point? Should help take the edge off facing a bunch of tough enemies at once.

[Yeizinho]

I mean when u have to fight 2 guard with a dagger, that part is insane for a merc xD