How can I deal with the assassin lord as an archmage?

[Vanigo]

I just got to the assassin lord with my archmage, and it was ugly. Over a thousand life, 30-something resist all, and he was dishing out 150-200 damage a round. What really made him unmanageable, though, was shadowstep, which made it totally impossible to keep him out of melee. Last time I fought him I was running a bulwark, who didn't have too much trouble by virtue of shrugging off most of his attacks, but I can't figure out how a non-melee character is supposed to survive. How is this even possible?

[Huzzy]

Dont even let them see you before you start fireflashing them from a corner. Keep a shield or something up in case you get nuked. Keep track of his and the shadowblade positions with Arcane Eye or just spam right click on all tiles.

[slugmadic]

Use 4/5 phase door get away from him and stone wall when he is at least 1 space away to buy you time for heals, cds, or whatever you might need. Also kill as many of the adds as you can before the fight and start the fight with whatever your longest range damage spell is. Having a speed infusion or blink rune also helps.

[Vanigo]

How is phase door supposed to help? He just counters with shadowstep and he's right back into melee, and shadowstep's cooldown is way quicker than phase door's.

[IdealPoint]

Use a toque to get armor, let him shadowstrike you, then phase door away. If you can't kill him by the time he's ready to shadow strike you again then teleport or stonewall or something. Mage is about being really annoying and sneaky.

[voronin_mike]

It is generally advisable to begin this level with killing his retinue one by one despit their neutral status. ;) Melee classes may skip this phase and just maul everyone, for mages it's more difficult. Archmage should get a number of shields by this time and shouldn't be afraid to use them. Then it depends on what offense you got. You have means to freeze him, flameshock him, blind him, probably daze him. If you have shivgoroth form, you are immune to most status effects in it. From his 1000 hp I conclude that you were relatively high level so could have Hurricane, etc.
All in all, it heavily depends on your build.

[[deleted]]

My Story Beginning: IMPORTANT GAME ADVICE IN THIS STORY AND BELOW IT :)

I found if you don't have attacks/spells/abilities that are also powerful that have a 1 target, 1 radius or 1 direction it can be hard to 1. kill the assassin lord and 2. keep the merchant alive in the same playthough. However I hadn't killed the other enemies first before aggroing the assassin lord so not only was the merchant very close but all the other bandits turned hostile at the same time and were attacking me along with the assassin lord.

Also, if you have Retaliation damage and the merchant has been aggroed it can be impossible to do those two things because the only thing the merchant has going for him is that:

- He doesn't usually get directly attacked by the enemies (even if he is aggroed).


If you, the player have Retaliation or pets it is normally enough to finish an aggroed merchant. An "aggroed" merchant was friendly but has become hostile to your side because of the damage he has taken - he has a red border and right-clicking will show his reaction which in this case is hostile.

(GENERAL TIP: Right-clicking on any creature including your player will give you more information. It is good to do often, especially as you gain more knowledge of different abilities and effects by playing more classes and taking part in the community.)

Either remove any items/effects that grant Retaliation or be very careful not to let any damage happen to the merchant. Pets/servants/summoned creatures will not attack the merchant if he is friendly, however will quickly finish him off if he becomes hostile to you - including if they "accidentally" damage him or he is already hostile and he attacks creatures on your side which have Retaliation. Don't rely on pets not attacking the aggroed merchant - best not to turn the merchant hostile in the first place. :)

In my Higher (Higher is a Subrace of Race: Human) Writhing One (note: Writhing One is a Forbidden Cults DLC only Class) most of my talents and abilities were for 2 or 3 radius and I only aggroed the assassin lord by talking to him - which meant the merchant was close and would have got killed easily if I had used them. Also I hadn't killed off the other enemies beforehand.

In the end I managed to kill the assassin lord after losing one life by confusing him with one of my class abilities and finishing him off. Then I killed off the other enemies and went to one of the chests and opened it - bad idea (TM). ;) :)

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES:

Definitions:

1. a) "Chests": if can walk onto its tile without using a turn to open it first and THEN it asks you whether you want to open it it is a "chest" even if it looks different;

b) "Vault Doors": Doors that ask for confirmation are always Vault Doors, although there are different types of "Vault Doors" that are functionally identical but look different, such as rocks;

FOCUS: Saying Yes to Opening a Chest or Door - anything that asks for confirmation whether you want to open it - is a Bad Idea!!!

READ!!! CAN END YOUR RUN!!!

(there MAY be some exceptions that are required to win a campaign, but it is an excellent idea to ask in the in-game chat (usually quickest) or on this Steam forum or the main "forums.te4.org" web-site beforehand (remember the game is turn-based - enemies don't move or act until you do :) )

If you state in in-game chat your area or dungeon name and game difficulty including permadeath setting (and lives left if on Adventure) you can get an idea whether it is worth risking it. Generally though if you don't have any lives left it's not a good idea to risk super powerful monsters appearing. Your race/class and your level is accessible by mousing over your player name in-game - (if asking on a forum mention these too) - just be aware that any enemies that were still alive when you died will have full health and no statuses or effects. However the final decision is always up to you. :)


REASONS YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER OPENING A CHEST OR VAULT DOOR:

2. a) You have a fair number of games under your belt, and being a tough melee class certainly helps (Rogues are not a good idea at low levels because they start out squishy due especially due to low relative HP);

b) You're in a Location/Dungeon you CAN revisit and CURRENTLY NOT ON ROGUELIKE PERMADEATH MODE and You Are NOT On Your Last Life:

(i) You CANNOT revisit One-off locations (for info on these see below - the story in this post already talks about the first one :) ) - if you die on Adventure mode with lives left and you choose be sent somewhere else you can't ever get back to the One-off locations, so getting sent back to the same location is your only option to possibly complete the quest, just be aware that any enemies that were still alive when you died will have full health and no statuses or effects. -
- You will need to weigh your chances of doing so (including how many lives you have left if any) and whether risk/reward is a good tradeoff;

c) And even then certain zones such as Dreadfall are not worth the risk/reward to open chests or vaults for experienced players and even more so for newer players because their regular enemies are so tough!

NEW AND EARLY PLAYERS:

If you are a new player or a squishy class (generally all ranged and magic classes are relatively squishy compared to melee classes, but you will found out any exceptions from play and interaction with the community via in-game chat or forums):

WHAT MAKES CHESTS AND VAULTS SO DANGEROUS:

3. What makes chests, or any other tile or door that asks for confirmation before you open them, so dangerous is:

a) if/WHEN they generate an enemy or enemies or allow enemies out;

b) (i) Chests and other 1-tile non-doors that ask for confirmation are "if" but it only takes one bad chest result to end a run!;

(ii) Vaults are practically guaranteed to have powerful enemies and lots of them too;

(iii) Chests and vault enemies are always a lot tougher due to higher level than the regular enemies in the zone and higher chances of being rare or unique with one or more classes;

(iv) Chests, although they don't generally have as many (and sometimes no) enemies, they have the added lethality that any monsters start out next to or around you when you open the chest (they "appear" or "pop out").

Special one-off locations in Age of Ascendancy, the default campaign. These come up as a dialog - one chance to visit them only - when travelling on the world AKA overmap at level 6 or higher [Level 6+] /level 24 or higher [Level 24+] respectively:

"You find a hidden trap door, and hear cries for help from within..."
Unknown tunnels/Trapped! - [Level 6+] - this is the location/quest that my story is about in this post.
https://te4.org/wiki/Unknown_tunnels
https://te4.org/wiki/Trapped!

Dark Crypt/Crypt of Kryl'Feijan - [Level 24+]
https://te4.org/wiki/Dark_crypt

My Story Concluded: (FINALLY! :) )

After I foolishly opened the chest and a large number of enemies popped out, I couldn't exit the exit (which appears on the tile the Assassin Lord dies on) because of negative statuses. Luckily I was able to survive until I could successfully exit with the Lost Merchant still alive. :) I wisely chose to not worry about the other enemies - but generally a better idea is not to open chests (or vaults) unless you are a tough melee character or have a good escape method handy (open vault monsters may not be easy to escape from though - but monsters in opened vaults are inactive and can't harm you :) ).

Normally chests won't spawn more than one monster (even though one monster can be enough to kill you ;) ) however in certain cases like in the Unknown tunnels/Trapped! quest level 2 you can get lots of them.

[voronin_mike]

Originally posted by Steven:

I found if you don't have attacks/spells/abilities that are also powerful that have a 1 target, 1 radius or 1 direction it can be hard to 1. kill the assassin lord and 2. keep the merchant alive in the same playthough.
Etc. ad n.

You certainly have found a semi-plausible reason for going offtopic for a specific question post. :)
As I've already said, it is generally advisable to clear out lesser rogues beforehand, but melee fighters (and Writhing One is such) can skip this stage. When I played this quest as one, I spit into the Lord's face and when used my worm-jump to reposition to a side of one of the side-rooms, so these guys couldn't rush me all at once and - important! - so that as they go for me, my attacks won't affect the merchant. After this, it was all just a technical problem, and not for long.
On the other hand, I once had met a chest guardian in this quest which was very hard. But this was once among some dozens of playthroughs ( played Rogue that time iirc). So chests are generally advisable - they often provide you with important gear and allow you to train fighting with tough enemies in controllable situation. Vaults are more subject to discussion, but generally it is recommended for a player to at least try some to know whether or not he is comfortable with this risk.
One rule of the thumb I may recommend, though: clear the level before opening chests and open chests before vaults. Anything else is up to individual tastes.

[[deleted]]

Good points. :)

[Fenix-Venix]

Carefully, and with maxed out shields f all kind lol.
I used all shields except shield rune, charged them, and asslord just shred them off with one Sgadow Veil alone, and then when I moved few tiles just did 1K damage to me with Venomous Strike from stealth. So, deal with him CAREFULLY.

[voronin_mike]

Originally posted by Fenix-Venix:

CAREFULLY. :lunar2019grinningpig:

Yep. :)
Also, it strongly depends on A-mage's build. For some builds it may be advisable to just outdamage the guy. After all, mage is one of the strongest damage dealers in the game. Plus, status-status-status. The guy is much less scary when he is blind, entombed in an ice block, or flameshocked.
Shadowdance may be a problem, so - yes, carefully.