Is there a Trick to Caed Nua Keep?

[SerWind]

Playing on PotD, Expert, Trial of Iron, and this is just a hard stuck for me. Every other fight in the game ranges from a walk in the park to very scrappy, so I even went one step further and hired a "mercenary", did everything I could do before that except Raedric's stuff, went in at level 4 and then...

Got absolutely massacred by the first group of spirits. Tank and priest stunned by the ghosts who also just waltz passed Edyr to slaughter my back line like it's nothing. Out of the 6 ghosts in the first pod I killed 1 and they wiped my party. This is a massive jump in difficulty that I don't really understand.

[Gilmoy]

And later you'll meet Od Nua 2's entrance room, and Od Nua 6's entrance hallway

The general trick is to run backward, and never let the AI swarm you.
Act II means you're in the big leagues now, and monster Health is scaled to take 5-20 hits.
You can't one-shot them. Therefore, you can't stand still and let them outnumber you.

Cheesy trick: On first entering Great Hall (i.e. on first loading the map), look due left.
There's a niche in the wall, like a sardine can.
By clever construction, it admits exactly 6 sardines.

Now you're not running backward, you're running toward

Shades and such are a deadly threat in the open, even when you're L10+.
That free Stun on every hit is a killer.
Ergo, never* give them 2 targets in an open field to Stun.
It's OK to let them stun 1 guy, as long as he's blocking 2 lanes and your other 5 are safe.

~~~~

After you own the Keep, occasionally you'll get stronghold attack events.
These "ambush" you by new-map load in the center of the Great Hall all over again.
Pause fast, issue orders. The same solution keeps working.

Throughout PoE1, change the battlefield to the one you choose yourself.

[SerWind]

I am so completely fine with a cheesy solution at this point. I'll let you know how things go when I eventually get back there. But yeah those stuns are murder.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

The fight in the main hall is an opportunity to prepare with food, to enhance a few weapons with Burn damage, to give all your casters heavy armor, to put some potions in your quick item slots, to set up a seal with Durance or a trap, too, and to prefer offense over defense as to hit well. Position Aloth next to Eder, so you can cast Fan of Flames without causing friendly fire. Whether you've acquired the rather expensive summoning figurine in Gilded Vale's shop, I can't tell. Whether you can summon help with Kana, I can't tell either.

[SerWind]

Doesn't putting heavy armor on your casters slow down the time between their casts? Yes Kana can summon.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Recovery time will increase, sure, but you do want to survive, don't you?

--> https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Action
--> https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_Speed
--> https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/

[SerWind]

So is it worth just always having my casters in heavy armor or just the early game because it's such a pain?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Depends on what enemies you're facing. Increased DR and even a shield can be a good idea against spirits. Just like it can be a good idea to position your guys with the back against a wall and close to eachother. Some types of spirits teleport between your characters or teleport individual characters far away as to fight them there, isolated from the party.

[SerWind]

I am now the proud owner of one keep. Delivered to me via means of extreme cheese.