Took an hour beating The Deposed King, now can't beat Archon

[mbutton15]

I know the combat shouldn't be easy, but all through this playthrough I feel like I'm really up against it. Defeating The Deposed King I was (and still am) level 20, so can't believe how tough it all still is.

I keep having to resort to my Axe of Rending (?) as it gives me 10% health on hit. I have a feeling I did decide to go on Apocalyptic as it's not the first time I've played this game, but just feel my character is always a level behind. I certainly know I was when I reached the Upper Level of the City of the Dead. The undead tyrant creature was level 17 and I was only level 16 about 25% of my way towards level 17. So I backed out and levelled up, but it still was skin-of-my-teeth getting by him. Only to get killed on the next stage and have to do it all again !!

I've done most of the side quests so can't have missed much opportunity to develop the character. The only big thing I haven't done is the Soul Arbitors Maze. I've also got the first extra mission to do. I do remember they just chuck weapons at you so I guess it will give me chance to boost some possessed weapons if I do that. Hopefully get some health steel weapons I can use.

That's it really, no real question (apart from how to know I'm at the right character level) just some frustration vented !!

[sebo]

sounds like you perhaps should lower the difficulty. i beat them fairly easy on my first playthrough on Deathinitive difficulty, then again i am not new to these kind of games and been playing them since early 2000.. the idea is to build a character that generates a lot of wrath. i beat both of these bosses without much use of potions because i get all my wrath from attacks, whether by my minions or direct damage from my weapons. with my build i can also fill my entire reaper bar in about a minute or less using the skill tree. i use mostly Necromancer.. each crow hit restores almost 40 points of my health, 7 reaper points and 4 wrath points per hit. it might not seem like much, but when they are striking many times a second, it adds up to a boat load..

this is what my build looks like http://i.imgur.com/u9DTb0x.jpg
maybe find a scythe that generates both health and wrath.. mine generates 7% health and 7% wrath.. in a few hits my health/wrath bar fills completely..

[mbutton15]

My Necromancer tree on those two right hand columns is maxed out, except for the ice effects of the crows.

I haven't used any of the stones yet, so guess I should go trade them in. Remind me what Arcane Critical Chance/Damage do ?

But I don't have any health/wrath generating scythes so maybe it is time I do either or both of the Soul Arbitors Maze and that first DLC dungeon in the hope of finding some.

[sebo]

sell whatever you can, many of the items give skill points, there are also skill point chests in the world, about 4-5 of them. i am level 22 (the max for first play through) but i have a total of close to 40 skill points.
on a Necro build you want Arcane/damage/crit as that applies to basically everything such as Ice damage, lightning, fire, etc.. so things like crows will do more damage. my Arcane is around 250 iirc using mostly gear that boost that stats which will basically increase the damage of all Arcane damage i noted above. arcane build do tons of damage, but you have to keep somewhat of a distance and sweep in to make hits using forward/dash with the scythe because you are vulnerable to damage in heavy crowds. on Arcane builds you sacrifice defense for high damage.

crows/ice from skill tree is must have.. there is chance that enemies will be frozen by the crows and this is where you come in and do major damage.

from the harbinger skill tree i find that Harvester/Trauma goes good with Arcane, because you use it, then it will boost all damage by 20% for a bit. http://i.imgur.com/Fr3NIol.jpg

[mbutton15]

Well that took some doing. Had to complete a few side missions to get to level 21.

It still took a bit of juggling. For the first phase (before the first 'E' prompt) I was general attacking with my Skeletal Axe of Rending (for it's helath steal) and then switching to some high-powered blabes for some quick high value hits when I got to attack him in the air. Then switched back to my Skeletal Axe for the rest of the fight.

Next phase he still killed me 2 or 3 times as I got my fingers in a mess and missed some jump evades. Then when I got him on the ground I made it through without too much trouble. Think I only used two health potions and even chucked in some Crow attacks for additional health gains.

[MAXX]

If u going for a game+ lvl 30 Necro Arcane Crit
I would recomend:
Scythe:
Heatlh Steal
Wrath Steal
Execution Chance
Arcane Crit Dmg

Secondary Weapond
Arcane Crit Chance
Arcane Crit Dmg
Arcane
Wrath

[Bak]

Archon is a swift boss. But once you learn his move, you can beat him within 3 health potions (Apocalypse difficulty).

He has two phases, Winged or Wingless. The most important skill for you is “Deathgrip”.

Phase 1: whenever he is landed, watch out for his “slash” attack. Dodge it then do your normal combo. He will eventually block out your attack, which is fine.

When he flies, he will always shoot some corruption lasers. Dodge at ease. When he holds up his sword, GRAB him. You will be pulled toward him then do a full aerial combo.

Phase 1 is short if you do it right (no or 1 health potion needed).

Phase 2 is tenser. He slashes three times in a row instead of two. And the most damaging skill is a Corruption Tide.

Dodge the slash as usual. You may use Teleport if you know consecutive dodge is not possible. When you see him jumps to mid-air, it is the Corruption Tide. GRAB him immediately and slam dunk him to ground.

Finally he will charge in air. Walk away and do a normal combo when he lands.

Drop your Axe of Rending. Take a scythe with high Str, Crt %, Crit dmg.

I am a hybrid build. Take point in Teleport Dash, Harvest and Exhume.

(P.S. Archon is far easier the Credo or Dante in DMC4.)

[masaki]

you can buy level 40 tailsman sell by Vulgrim to upgrade your possessed weapon,It give you some random weapon attribute,If you don't want that weapon attribute,you can use your mouse click on map icon which can reset weapon attribute,Just keep repeating those steps and you can get a Invincible weapon

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by Bak:

...GRAB him immediately and slam dunk him to ground.

Maybe I'm lacking a few special moves as I don't know how to slam dunk - I deliberatley haven't 'trained up' in many different moves. That's because the combo's are all too similar and I remember from a previous playthrough that I struggled to execute the moves I wanted. I'd be trying a combo and it would give me some other move instead. So I thought if I don't train many options I have more chance I can execute the moves I want, when I want !!

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by M_K:

you can buy level 40 tailsman sell by Vulgrim to upgrade your possessed weapon,It give you some random weapon attribute,If you don't want that weapon attribute,you can use your mouse click on map icon which can reset weapon attribute,Just keep repeating those steps and you can get a Invincible weapon

I didn't know you can back out of an upgrade, unless you force quit and reload an old save !!
What/where exactly is this 'map icon' I need to click ?

[masaki]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Originally posted by M_K:

you can buy level 40 tailsman sell by Vulgrim to upgrade your possessed weapon,It give you some random weapon attribute,If you don't want that weapon attribute,you can use your mouse click on map icon which can reset weapon attribute,Just keep repeating those steps and you can get a Invincible weapon

I didn't know you can back out of an upgrade, unless you force quit and reload an old save !!
What/where exactly is this 'map icon' I need to click ?

It's looks like round corner with a cross, sorry for my poor english,I probably misguided you the word meaning,What I mean is that you can cancel a random attribute by click on map icon and you don't need to force quit reload an old save

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by M_K:

It's looks like round corner with a cross, sorry for my poor english,I probably misguided you the word meaning,What I mean is that you can cancel a random attribute by click on map icon and you don't need to force quit reload an old save

Don't worry about the English as it was good enough - I thought it was that icon with the cross but I'd just never noticed it could be clicked on at that point. I look forward to giving it a go.

[masaki]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Originally posted by M_K:

It's looks like round corner with a cross, sorry for my poor english,I probably misguided you the word meaning,What I mean is that you can cancel a random attribute by click on map icon and you don't need to force quit reload an old save

Don't worry about the English as it was good enough - I thought it was that icon with the cross but I'd just never noticed it could be clicked on at that point. I look forward to giving it a go.

That surprised me as well,I used to found out about that by chance.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by M_K:

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Don't worry about the English as it was good enough - I thought it was that icon with the cross but I'd just never noticed it could be clicked on at that point. I look forward to giving it a go.

That surprised me as well,I used to found out about that by chance.

Is there a similar thing when using the boatman coins to buy items from Vulgrim ? It gives you the option to 'accept the item' (#). I always thought that pointless as there seemed to be no way to reject the item... unless doing a quit/reload.

(#) Maybe it should be labelled 'continue' instead ?

[masaki]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Originally posted by M_K:

That surprised me as well,I used to found out about that by chance.

Is there a similar thing when using the boatman coins to buy items from Vulgrim ? It gives you the option to 'accept the item' (#). I always thought that pointless as there seemed to be no way to reject the item... unless doing a quit/reload.

(#) Maybe it should be labelled 'continue' instead ?

Sorry,I don't know about that,I never use boatman coin buy any item from Vulgrim,but if you want possessed weapon you can collect 20 pages of book of dead and sell it to Vulgrim, He'll give you two keys,In the lair of deposes king bottom have a tomb you can use key to open it,And in there it have a talisman can increase the possessed weapon drop probability.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by M_K:

Sorry,I don't know about that,I never use boatman coin buy any item from Vulgrim,but if you want possessed weapon you can collect 20 pages of book of dead and sell it to Vulgrim, He'll give you two keys,In the lair of deposes king bottom have a tomb you can use key to open it,And in there it have a talisman can increase the possessed weapon drop probability.

Yeap, I've raided 3 tombs so far. One page left to find for the final tomb.
What do you spend your Boatman coins on ? Or do they all go on level 40 talismans ?