Archon king... Wow...

[Farrel]

So... the viper king didn't give me too much trouble... On a friend's advice I left the mission alone until I had magnetic weapons and with a little trouble I managed to kill him at Dr. Vahlen's camp. (Read: utter confusion the first time and two men down before rage quit and restart)

I was a little surprised by the berserker queen appearing on the very next mission, but I had a good position and managed to chase her off and then kill her in the following mission.

So, I was ready and expecting the last of the rulers when it came... I managed to clear the whole map without finding it, achieved the objective, and realised that I wasn't going to be allowed to leave without finding the last enemy.

Then he came crashing through the wall like the kool-aid man, grabbed my squad leader and took off, busting through the roof and out of everyone's line of sight.

In the end, I utterly cheesed it with what can only be said to be an exploit... But sheesh, is it possible to beat it without taking losses in normal play? (I understand they're a little toned down in war of the chosen, but I'm saving that for another playthrough)

[discodog]

It's possible, but he is the most difficult of the three. His AOE means you will probably take damage.

For Archon and all of the bosses its the same principle. Shred armor, use the weapons they give you to fight them (they have stuns and free attacks) (infact the ice grenade is one of the best weapons in the game), and damage over time (like fire or poison). Also any free attacks. Sometimes you get lucky with bladestorm.

Try and keep your characters close enough so they can shoot without moving, but not to close because you don't want them all caught in the AOE attack.

A suport class with good healing can go a long way also.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by discodog:

A suport class with good healing can go a long way also.

Except every time they heal someone the archon king will get another action. Which will probably be a lot more damaging than that medical protocol healed.

[Farrel]

Originally posted by discodog:

It's possible, but he is the most difficult of the three. His AOE means you will probably take damage.

For Archon and all of the bosses its the same principle. Shred armor, use the weapons they give you to fight them (they have stuns and free attacks) (infact the ice grenade is one of the best weapons in the game), and damage over time (like fire or poison). Also any free attacks. Sometimes you get lucky with bladestorm.

Try and keep your characters close enough so they can shoot without moving, but not to close because you don't want them all caught in the AOE attack.

A suport class with good healing can go a long way also.

I was missing the damage over time... I'm not sure if that'd be enough to have turned that fight around, but maybe to the point of driving the thing off.

The ice grenade (and viper suit freeze) have saved my butt more times than I can count already... I think losing it would be pretty much a campaign ending moment if there is anything remotely as tough as the rulers left in the game :)

[Tamiore]

Even in vanilla rulers are pretty vulnerable to good scouting.
Set up an overwatch trap with snipers, open with a shredstorm canon from out of sight.
Ruler will spend a few actions just getting in range.

Also, stasis from psi op.
Stasis the sucker whenever you feel like, heal and reposition for free.

Stasis is THE answer, to be honest.

[Farrel]

Originally posted by Tamiore:

Even in vanilla rulers are pretty vulnerable to good scouting.
Set up an overwatch trap with snipers, open with a shredstorm canon from out of sight.
Ruler will spend a few actions just getting in range.

Also, stasis from psi op.
Stasis the sucker whenever you feel like, heal and reposition for free.

Stasis is THE answer, to be honest.

That's worth knowing :) I didn't have any kind of psionics by the time I fought it... Next time though.

Come to think of it, I'm near the end of the run and I still don't.

[zeeter]

Archon is easy. Just score a repeater execution using a 37% chance to hit shot on him. :)

I hate the Archon. He was about to kill one of my guys and I took a last desperation shot at him to save the soldier. This was on the first and only encounter with him. Boom! Executed. If I could only have that kind of luck when I play the powerball.

[Farrel]

Yeah... I've had terrible luck with FINDING a repeater, I've only got one 5% one.

But when I got bored of trying, I did have the fall back of lightning hands and a LOT of turn ending.

[zeeter]

Obviously I was being tongue in cheek in my response. In previous games I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had to save scum on the Archon.

[Farrel]

Ahh, my bad :) It's more difficult to spot that kind of sillyness without caffeine ;)

[zeeter]

I'm torn on using them in my next game. The archon is a pain, but they all provide pretty decent armor. I didn't mean for them t show up in this game, but I guess using the weapons makes them randomly appear.

[Farrel]

Well, as I understand it, if you enable the DLC but never do the mission to find Vahlen, you'll never be able to upgrade the weapons or get the armors, but the rulers will never show.

Not sure how it works if you disable the DLC quest though.

[zeeter]

I had disabled them, but I read somewhere that you get the weapons if you disable it, and if you use them they show up.

[Farrel]

Oooh, bummer... So really you're better off enabling it, getting the weapons and then not doing the mission to activate the rulers.

Although, that way, the only weapon that's still viable after you go magnetic is the frost grenade.

[zeeter]

No - the way I understand it is that if you disable it you still get the weapons, but if you don't use them the alien hunters won't show up. If you do then they will.

Maybe someone with more experience can explain it better than I can, or correct me if I'm wrong.