Am I supposed to pick the Skull lock under Mordus's house before fighting him?

[The.Spaz.]

I initially decided to just grab the key from Mordus but the fight was very challenging. I eventually won after a few tries but entire team got decimated and I am severely low on money, components and scrolls to res any of them. I would restart but decided to see what the jewel unlocked. Well what it unlocks is another quest that supposedly allows you to disable some of the challenge from Mordus... is it me or does this seem like a fairly critical quest that should have been designed better?

[Yojo0o]

It doesn't impact the Mordus difficulty at all, it just provides background lore on him. Either order is fine.

I'd recommend using the Lady Vengeance respec mirror to get some money-making civic skills if you don't already have them, being too low on money to afford res scrolls is a serious problem.

[The.Spaz.]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

It doesn't impact the Mordus difficulty at all, it just provides background lore on him. Either order is fine.

I'd recommend using the Lady Vengeance respec mirror to get some money-making civic skills if you don't already have them, being too low on money to afford res scrolls is a serious problem.

Are you telling me doing this quest prior to Mordus does nothing? Not even slow down the transformation? This is rather disappointing. I would have thought this would be a neat little option to do before hand if you have the skills. Thats a real obvious missed opportunity...

I think barter skills are okay but the problem is prior to fighting Mordus I used the waypoint back to the square and traded the loot for much needed skill books for my rogue and my two handed warrior. I also started collecting replacement armors for the sets I found at Fort Joy (Captain's armor set and Tyrant set). The tyrant set is particularly challenging since I have to take it all off at once lest the Red Prince gets cursed. That means I need to have a full set of armor replacement ready before I swap. So all of this cost me a pretty penny...

I got questions about the Lone Wolf perk, can it kick in mid combat if you only have one companion standing and rest are KIA? Or it only kicks in at the start of the fight with a single companion in tow?

How do I use the soul devour skill with the purging wands from fort Joy. Still carrying one around with a couple of charges left. I am wondering if I can beat Mordus to consuming a soul when an enemy or companion gets downed. I have not been able to use it beyond the shriekers quest in act 1.

I just realized I have not been using a pretty fantastic skill with a source orb. It might just give me the edge to survive the initial onslaught from mordus's thralls long enough to dispatch him without allowing him to transform. Damn, I am seriously bummed Taste of Freedom Quest has no bearing on the Mordus fight...

[The.Spaz.]

So... after dispatching Mordus once more

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

It doesn't impact the Mordus difficulty at all, it just provides background lore on him. Either order is fine.

I'd recommend using the Lady Vengeance respec mirror to get some money-making civic skills if you don't already have them, being too low on money to afford res scrolls is a serious problem.

After dispatching Mordus the second time I have to say you might be incorrect about the difficulty not being affected. It took far less effort to beat Mordus the second time after freeing the Lich and I didn't lose any team members or managed to pick up some res scrolls let alone use. I almost want to redo the combat just because I sort feel like I gaffed up the conversation that happens after but have covered some ground since. Hmmm...

The thing is I am slowly trying to ween my self off of depending on res scrolls. Reloads and saves aside, I have done quite well throughout the entire wreckers cave encounters starting just a 1v1 with my main character (Ifan) and have not bothered trading or crafting anything till I hit a challenge spike with Mordus. Hence, lack of those particular scrolls.

There was however an additional benfit to solving the event past the skull door in the basement. You find another source sphere which can grant some pretty powerful defensive skills (Aura of Evasion) that came very handy for the second run.