I am glad I got all the way to the last bosses and died

[roguefrog]

They destroyed me. I think in hindsight you need to ultimately gear up and learn how to tackle the two♥♥♥♥♥holes at the end of the game, but in a virgin run you will die. They are just more powerful than anything before. Especially the mage. What a♥♥♥♥♥♥

RIP https://te4.org/characters/195387/tome/17e5a5e0-1db2-442f-a1f7-4e3268c69649

[Berenthas]

I see you died 7 times before reaching the bosses though, it's not like they were the only thing that gave you trouble.

The final fight is different than the rest of the game but I wouldn't say it's harder, it depends on playstyle though. I know some people cleared them the first time they reached them and almost never died there, and some other still struggle in that fight after 1k hours of play even when they find OP artifacts and play a good class.

Things to know that'll make it easier :
- you can close the 4 portals, go on top of them and use the corresponding orbs. Top left and bottom right are the most important to close. The lower your dpt, the more important it is to close them, though it's perfectly possible to close none.
- Argoniel has spine of the world and so is immune to physical debuff (same as gorbat who you encountered earlier).
- Killing Elandar first is easier as Argoniel can be kited.
- You will NOT be able to rest for extended periods of time.
- Gloves of dispersion helps against Elandar as he has several strong magical sustains.

Specific to your char :
- it's best to play archmage after unlocking their hidden trees (specifically wildfire).
- Primal infusion and rune of the rift are both bad. Check one of the insc guide on the forums ;)
- Bloodspring is NOT a good prodigy for AM (or in general)
- Aether Permeation is absolutely awful, you ensured you'd have very low resistance by picking it. You only had 21% arcane res, too! It doesn't add to your other res, it replaces them by a portion of your arcane res (even all res!) It's widely agreed as the worst prodigy in the game as it is the only one to make your char actually worse.

Good luck on your next try!

[roguefrog]

Well I never said I was super min-max maiar arch pro elite wizard master elder god emperor (of roguelikes)

I used what I thought would be good. Thanks for your advice.

[Berenthas]

Archmage is very special.

Optimally played, it has the most defense of any char.
The balance is that if you play it optimally you'll want to die IRL because it is SO tedious (only necro has it worse)
It has one of the lowest dpt in the game. It shouldn't auto explore because you want disruption shield to be always on so you want your mana to stay as low as possible.

I advise playing any other class and only coming back to them if you genuinely enjoy their playstyle more but few people do.

[roguefrog]

Well I did get through most of the game with Archmage! My deaths were local one-offs until the last boss. I felt secure in my magical shields and projectiles for the majority of the game.

[IdealPoint]

Congrats on making it to the final bosses! They are a significant challenge, but not impossible.

By far the most important thing I learned to beat the final bosses is to target Elandar first. He has insane speed and very high damage spells. Argoniel will mostly just melee the sun paladin for the first 8-15 turns. But Elandar will be actively killing you very quickly. Elandar is also very hard to lock down and very evasive. Most classes have some ability to control him (see "breach", "hope wanes", etc.) which you should try to take advantage of. He also may use the staff of absorption, which can really suck. After he's finished off the fight is much much easier.

[Ghaleon]

I don't think I died to them before. Honestly I think the master is the biggest wall. he himself isn't THAT hard, but the fact that you don't know where he is in the floor and he teleports all over and basically you have to deal w ith him simultaneously as all the floor is what makes him the worst for me. I think I only game over'd once after him, and that was with an orc champion who isn't bad but was kinda built specifically against my build's weakness.

[Samseng Yik]

Everytime I reach the final boss, I win and never die by their hands.
The harder parts is some where level 30+ before you assemble up all the needed gear.

Once all your gears are optimized and talents are complementing each other.
Most encounters end pretty fast. Though some bosses are harder than normal.

[Savant]

I've died a couple times on the final bosses, they have specific enough difficulties that you do want to prepare for them ahead of time. You'll want to know what you'll do about the portals based on your damage and durability ahead of time, and sustain stripping is a big deal on elandar. If nothing else you can use gloves of dispersal (a greater random ego) to cast dispel magic and remove 3 magic ones.
Also, really watch out for burning hex, argoniel has it, and the undead portal can give you dreads and dreadmasters with it too. That can be a run ender if you are unprepared.
It's a bit like the final fight in FTL if you've played that, you'll have to be prepare for some specific challenges, but there are multiple ways to succeed.

[Ghaleon]

I remember my first final boss kill... Was using a bulwark, and no I didn't really know about the portals. It got pretty hairy but it was still a win with no deaths.

Actually come to think of it after the master one part that is always dicey for me is the start of the orc camps, each one has a big ambush in the very beginning. I generally find those more rough than the optional orc ambush thing.

[Shaidyn]

The last boss fight of the game is significantly harder than most other fights. It's one of my big gripes, honestly, because you can go into the fight thinking you're playing a super strong character and get smashed.

That said, as everyone above has explained, they're beatable on all difficulties. I find the best thing to do is just over prepare.

[Leram]

I think it is less apparent for those playing with multiple lives where your character stands. As a roguelike mode player I have never had a character reach the final encounter that didn't have the tools to completely trivialize the fight.

Basically as long as you've hit the main checkboxes on what makes a good character you shouldn't have any issues on the final fight unless you skipped a lot of optional zones and were aiming for some kind of speedrun playthrough.

On the higher difficulties (which are admittedly pretty unfair and mostly revolve around LoS abuse) it's trickier as a stray crit can just end a lot of characters outright if you make a mistake.

[mjkittredge]

That's how I felt when I first faced them. My Ghoul Doombringer had stomped everything that came before with relative ease, but Elandar had so much offense and so many sustains. I kept getting a long list of debuffs I couldn't keep up with removing, and my best attempt at him only got him to about 70% health.

Now with my newer characters, I'm much more knowledgeable about the game so I think they'll do better. Also they're ranged classes with lots of mobility.