The fight at the end of midnight Oil is the most CANCEROUS fight in a video game.

[Gilgamesh]

The programming on this fight is just awful. Completely awful. The AI has unlimited AP pretty much and hits like a train. Even at an equal level to the mobs its complete aids. Very poor design that takes all the fun out of a game by making it so you can't move and there's constantly enemies going before you.

[Patch]

Yea that is a tough one. I found armoring up with the dome of protection (if youre using custom character) and maybe some resist pots to tank out the first turn or two then I teleport her down and try to root/cripple her and just melt her after that but even then its still pretty tough. You can try spreading out before the fight as well to minimize the damage from the hailstorm attack. Also try to use your source points early or they will probably get stolen

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Patch:

Yea that is a tough one. I found armoring up with the dome of protection (if youre using custom character) and maybe some resist pots to tank out the first turn or two then I teleport her down and try to root/cripple her and just melt her after that but even then its still pretty tough. You can try spreading out before the fight as well to minimize the damage from the hailstorm attack. Also try to use your source points early or they will probably get stolen

She goes first so my source points are pretty much gone from 2 characters. Pretty much just reloaded the fight until the rolls finally went my way. Such a not fun experience.

[BenSt88]

Resist potions + Evasive Aura+spread out the 4 PCs; I only had my main PC open up the crypt down below to summon her, w/ 2 others at the edges of the podium. Also, those hounds have weak magic armor. Burn through that quickly + charm them...they will rip through her or at least soften her up.

[Patch]

you can save your source points if you keep you magic armor up too but you gotta pre buff to do that i think

[Foolwolf]

This is the fight that made me stop playing. All the fights in the updated version is the same once you're out of act 2 - Teleport into dangerous area, spam armour and fortify to not be counter teleported and eat away one character at a time. Used to like the combat in DOs2 but high level combat is no fun IMHO. I find it tedious and provacative that the difficulty is enemies spamming abilities and always having better equipment than you while you ahve to grind for gold/books/armour. Nah - I tired of it all with this fight. Had it.

[CalaisianMindthief]

I have reached this fight right now as well and I share the same opinion, it's really annoying and makes no role-playing sense. This is her prison, how the hell does she start with an advantage?! Summoning 4 hounds in less than one turn, hilarious.

Oh well, I'll try again. Three of my characters died in the first 2-3 rounds I think, and then my last standing party member killed 3 of the dogs in a long-drawn battle mainly because they could only come one at a time in the place I was in, but alas it was not meant to be.

[Martial.Lore]

It is such an easy fight. Examine the hounds: they are immensely vulnerable to something that is easy to acquire or craft. You need to take advantage of your enemies' weaknesses in this game.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Martial.Lore:

It is such an easy fight. Examine the hounds: they are immensely vulnerable to something that is easy to acquire or craft. You need to take advantage of your enemies' weaknesses in this game.

She summons 2 per turn. So unless you can wipe 3 per turn you're always behind. And a chain lightning rain will stunlock your whole party. Obviously if you know of the battle before hand you can prep for it but this isn't good gameplay. It's 100% not a fun battle.

[Martial.Lore]

You should already have love grenades or charm arrows for those enemies that carry little magic armor. I understand what you're saying, don't get me wrong. My first all-magic-damage party nearly got wiped by this fight until I realized, with my last character standing, that I could turn enemies into allies and save the day. Until then I had not been in the habit of properly considering all of the tools in the chest rather than focus on weapons and skills.

[rasmasyean]

I didn't even remember this fight until I looked it up just now.

But I didn't have a big problem from this fight and fought them from low ground at the coffin thing. I had a Leadership "tank" who might have got frozen iirc, but I got him out of it and won. I used Teleport and Love Grenades a lot. And most of the spells from that girl I just took all the hits with high resists. It was in Tactician Honour and I built and equipped primarily for Defense so manybe that helped. If you don't have the initiative, then the enemy can start bombarding you to death and the first move can make the whole difference.

Unless you're like expecting to know that fight and split your team and pre-buff and whatever (aka cheese), you have to have reasonable Defense I think. I think a lot of players just like the juiciness of explosive damage and crits and all out killing the enemy in the 2nd turn or something, but when it doesn't work out, having Defense will save you for another round. ;)

[Syrris]

By the time you get to that fight you should have already learned that when you find an ominous locations where Something Bad Is Probably Lurking, it's a good time to unlink, position, and prep your characters accordingly before sending *one* of them in.

You will have trouble if you just casually stroll into any similar situation, not just this one.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Syrris:

By the time you get to that fight you should have already learned that when you find an ominous locations where Something Bad Is Probably Lurking, it's a good time to unlink, position, and prep your characters accordingly before sending *one* of them in.

You will have trouble if you just casually stroll into any similar situation, not just this one.

Because you already know where your characters should be standing the first time this fight loads right?

Even spreading your characters out to avoid a FIRST ROUND KO. The fight is not fun.

[SLAIN]

Originally posted by Ysil69:

The programming on this fight is just awful. Completely awful. The AI has unlimited AP pretty much and hits like a train. Even at an equal level to the mobs its complete aids. Very poor design that takes all the fun out of a game by making it so you can't move and there's constantly enemies going before you.

Imagine playing on tactition mode where the real fun is. :) Gotta use your brain unlike the lower difficulties where its a breeze through the entire game and not fun

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by SLAIN:

Originally posted by Ysil69:

The programming on this fight is just awful. Completely awful. The AI has unlimited AP pretty much and hits like a train. Even at an equal level to the mobs its complete aids. Very poor design that takes all the fun out of a game by making it so you can't move and there's constantly enemies going before you.

Imagine playing on tactition mode where the real fun is. :) Gotta use your brain unlike the lower difficulties where its a breeze through the entire game and not fun

You mean save scumming until you figure out the strategy or looking it up online? Sounds like a blast...

[rasmasyean]

Originally posted by Ysil69:

Originally posted by SLAIN:

Imagine playing on tactition mode where the real fun is. :) Gotta use your brain unlike the lower difficulties where its a breeze through the entire game and not fun

You mean save scumming until you figure out the strategy or looking it up online? Sounds like a blast...

Some of the fights are favorable to certain "builds" and unfavorable to others. But in general, if you knew what you were doing with the mechanics (not cheesing) and used resources that you gather (information + extra items), it's very doable to most party setups without save scumming too often. Most of the "required" save scumming is from stuff like clicking on red items and causing NPC's to hostile, wrong dialog choice, and running into enemies a couple of levels above you. Also, fighting the clunky controls and running into the enemy while you're trying to view the scene, etc.

That's my experience anyway. I went through to the Tactician Honour end without a combat wipe so that's pretty much proof, I think. And I never played DOS1 and only looked up puzzle hints where I lost patience. I did however take like 10 - 20 turns to fight some encounters, however...which some players may call that crappy, but it was fun and I got to learn how to use a lot of the stuff without several runs it normally takes I guess. Of course that would have shortened if I knew what I know now and use more of the items (like "powerups" the game spawns) instead of hoarding everything because I didn't know what it really did.