Killing the Ancient Troll

[Papini]

I've been playing since the game released and never slayed the troll, I switched to playing Permadeath recently and I was wondering what level do you usually go after the troll and what armor is needed, is 8 protection enough ?

This run I'm trying out a Staves/ Electromancy build.

[brown29knight]

Protection is not very important. (honestly, at least for a mage or ranged) beating the troll is about learning it's pattern of movement and attacks, and maximizing the times you can hit it vs. when it can hit you. As it can do HUGE damage per attack, protection is only likely to buy you an extra hit or two, which will not be enough to kill it.

Since you are playing permadeath, I would not go against the troll without watching some of the youtube videos that show how to use the troll's patterns against him.

Dash, or other movement skill is essential to avoid the boulder toss. If you are not permadeath, you could just take the deaths, and reload until the boulder is dodgable in a single step, but you cannot risk that with permadeath. (I have heard that you could use a smoke bomb to keep him from throwing the boulder, but timing and placement have to be perfect, or it won't help.) High control resist is needed to keep his roar from stunning you. Bandages and splints are a must, as well as healing potions, Gwen's elxirs, or Vivication potions. (basically something that can instant-heal you)

You need to stay close to him, but out of melee, so that he cannot hit you with the boulder or his melee swing. meanwhile you need to position so that his earth rend leaves a spot for you to step away from, without going too far from him. it is a dance, and done well, you get to hit him every 3rd action, and he never gets to hit you.

When he starts to regenerate, hit him with your staff (use your dash-strike) then back up and resume the dance. repeat till he dies.

It is actually quite easy and almost risk free done that way, but like any dance, it is easy to mess up the pattern, and then he will kill you.

[streetsweeper]

One thing to mention is that if you do the "dance" in such a way that you and the troll move south, at some point the troll will start walking back to the tower. If you are able to be adjacent to the troll every turn the troll is walking back (basically you are following him in melee distance), you get sth like 10-20 turns of attacks of opportunity.

[brown29knight]

Originally posted by streetsweeper:

One thing to mention is that if you do the "dance" in such a way that you and the troll move south, at some point the troll will start walking back to the tower. If you are able to be adjacent to the troll every turn the troll is walking back (basically you are following him in melee distance), you get sth like 10-20 turns of attacks of opportunity.

Thank you. I didn't know that. I mostly play mages, and when I have done melee to kill the troll, it was rarely all in one direction.

[Leeroy]

I remember troll to always have a 2-turn cd on his ground slam ability, which means 1 slam charge 2 slam 3 move/different ability - repeat. However in my most new run, his cooldown is 1 turn more, meaning among other things, that after interrupting his regeneration, his GS in on cooldown, and he instead uses his melee attack, which makes it unkillable for my character, unless i overgear.
So the question is: 1 did i remember things wrong, in that case, how did i kill the troll before?
2 did something change in the patchnotes, in that case, how the ♥♥♥♥ are we supposed to deal with troll now, especially mages who cant survive an attack from him
3 maybe i have encountered a rare bug, in that case, whatever, the game is in beta

[Leeroy]

Update: killed it after like 5 attempts, this time the random was better, and after interrupting regeneration, his GS was off cooldown, cause he used another ability before regen. Still, the fight seems very RNG-dependent, and i think that mages will have especially hard time with regeneration followed by melee attack. Still cant remember whether his GS was always 3 turn cooldown.

[Rhapsody]

Consuming bear fat, coffee (if you lack vigor), elven wine, and a drug of your choosing (Paregoric?) should help in enduring a few blows. Pumping up health restoration can be very useful since there should be many turns before the troll is able to damage you again.

The timing of GS becoming available should depend on the first time troll begun regenerating, but I don't remember the cooldowns myself anymore despite just completing that fight last night...

[Sir Gura]

Originally posted by Leeroy:

I remember troll to always have a 2-turn cd on his ground slam ability, which means 1 slam charge 2 slam 3 move/different ability - repeat. However in my most new run, his cooldown is 1 turn more, meaning among other things, that after interrupting his regeneration, his GS in on cooldown, and he instead uses his melee attack, which makes it unkillable for my character, unless i overgear.
So the question is: 1 did i remember things wrong, in that case, how did i kill the troll before?
2 did something change in the patchnotes, in that case, how the ♥♥♥♥ are we supposed to deal with troll now, especially mages who cant survive an attack from him
3 maybe i have encountered a rare bug, in that case, whatever, the game is in beta

Yeah, they fixed a bug that made every enemy skill have 1 less turn of cooldown, so the troll is slight different now.

[Leeroy]

Originally posted by Darlanluck:

Yeah, they fixed a bug that made every enemy skill have 1 less turn of cooldown, so the troll is slight different now.

Interesting, so now the troll fight has become gear-check as well, that works too, but definitely too early for level 10, for most builds. As a 2h sword build it took 14-armor gear, 26 damage sword at level 16, and a lot of potion buffs, and several attempts due to bad random.

[Sir Gura]

Sadly yes, even more reliant on gear and/or having elusiveness for the fight.
Troll was always not the best designed boss, even more clear now that we have another one to compare to.

[Rhapsody]

Level 15, footman twohander, visored cervelliere, heirloom cuirass, splint on arms and legs, Hand Amulet and blocking related and control resistance enchantments on each piece.

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Consuming bear fat, coffee (if you lack vigor), elven wine, and a drug of your choosing (Paregoric?) should help in enduring a few blows. Pumping up health restoration can be very useful since there should be many turns before the troll is able to damage you again.

Abasa is good for any melee build, it lasts very long time and carries no negative effects for its duration. Also popped a life drain for the earlier phase but it was kinda wasted. Elusiveness potion lasts too little time to be useful IMO.

Originally posted by streetsweeper:

One thing to mention is that if you do the "dance" in such a way that you and the troll move south, at some point the troll will start walking back to the tower. If you are able to be adjacent to the troll every turn the troll is walking back (basically you are following him in melee distance), you get sth like 10-20 turns of attacks of opportunity.

This is what you should do as melee, but it's obviously going to be different for ranged builds. Perhaps you could deploy smoke and use the time for recuperation instead.

Overall I found the troll to be exactly same if not easier than previously, using same build, but being couple levels higher since I didn't minmax and rush directly into Heroic Charge.

It's not required to defeat him at level 10 or even take the quest since it's not been part of the beta game story for a long time now.

[Freeman]

Any tips on how to kill it with staff electromancer?

I managed but it was way, way more painful than it should have been. Electro is great against many weak enemies that you can paralyze and push around but against one massive monster it was a different story...

[Not a Beaver]

Originally posted by Freeman:

Any tips on how to kill it with staff electromancer?

I managed but it was way, way more painful than it should have been. Electro is great against many weak enemies that you can paralyze and push around but against one massive monster it was a different story...

In general, it's good to pack some throwables that deal damage over time (Acid bottles, Nistrian Flame) and couple deathstinger in a bottle. They will stop troll from regenerating, without needing you to rush into melee as a crunchy mage/ranger. And as deathsingers stop troll from regenerating, it'll take MASSIVE damage from fire and acid. Just be carefull not set your own bees on fire.

[Freeman]

Huh good tips, cheers. Stingers sound like a great idea. I remember murdering trolly with pyro, admittedly long time ago, and I didn't recall he needed that level of prepping.

With that setup I guess you don't need your staff at all. Wasted some points there maybe. Oh well...

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Not a Beaver:

In general, it's good to pack some throwables that deal damage over time (Acid bottles, Nistrian Flame) and couple deathstinger in a bottle. They will stop troll from regenerating,

Thanks for mentioning that. I was pretty sure those would do the trick as well but didn't want to assume things I have not tried my self.

You can buy some of those fancy fire or acid bottles from Brynn docks or alchemy shop if you'd like that sort of "traditional" troll-hunting equipment. 8)

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by streetsweeper:

One thing to mention is that if you do the "dance" in such a way that you and the troll move south, at some point the troll will start walking back to the tower. If you are able to be adjacent to the troll every turn the troll is walking back (basically you are following him in melee distance), you get sth like 10-20 turns of attacks of opportunity.

Seems like this was patched out today/yesterday. :]