How to beat Mara?

[spindart]

Hello everyone, Spindart with another Ogre berserker run here.

Just got completely annihilated by a unique mob named Mara. I tried wand of hasting myself to run away but the replica of me was always on my tail, and ended me

What is the best way to approach this unique boss?

[mopl]

What is the best way to approach this unique boss?

Run away, escape, teleport, flee,...
I think that's part of the options you have when facing Mara...

[Mattchew]

You can beat him if you hit him hard and fast, but I always run if he summons a dupe, and if I don't wake him up I just exclude him and stay away. He's one of the few on that list.

[TheDefiniteArticle]

How to play Crawl under normal circumstances:

1 When in doubt run away.
2 When not in doubt, running away is probably still the best move.
3 If, (and only IF) killing Mara is your best choice (it probably is not), hit him hard and fast, the summons disappear when the summoner dies.
4 If you aren't killing Mara fast enough, and you find yourself having any doubts about the outcome, refer to step 1

How to play Crawl when worshipping Trog:

1 When in doubt call bros.
2 Equip the big antimagic thing and hit orbs of fire with it.

[dck]

  Code:

Mara draws your stone giant out of itself!

[1010011010]

For big Troglydites: big anti-magic weapon, have an escape plan and use it early (Better earlier than too late).

[sgrunt]

To kill Mara, hit him until he dies.

[Klown]

I'm undefeated against Mara, despite being a bad player. Fought Mara around 6 times.
Duck around the corner once (s)he comes into view. Spam brothers in arms. Trog's hand, Berserk, smash.

[wheals]

I wouldn't recommend berserk (he blinks!) but that sounds good. Also, if you have rings of rF you can swap to put 'em on: his bolt of fire hurts a lot when it's casted thrice simultaneously.

[Azrael]

I usually beat him to death with a loaf of bread.

[diviton]

Mara is the hardest non-Pan/Hell unique.

The only time I found him easy was when I had Firestorm. I just nuked him from out of LOS and he died pretty fast.

[njvack]

Mara is nice in that he generally won't kill you the turn you see him. Nikola, on the other hand...

[diviton]

Mara is nice in that he generally won't kill you the turn you see him. Nikola, on the other hand...

This is true. Mara is very difficult to kill, but unlike Nikola or Mennas, Mara isn't terribly difficult to escape.

[dck]

Mara is really easy to kill and normally very worth killing since he tends to have great weapons.

[Blink]

Beating Mara with a Berserker:

1. Slap on some rF.
2. Wield one of the anti-magic weapons that Trog should have dropped on you by now. Failing that, try Holy or Freezing.
3. Call up a Bro if you want.
4. Bash. The anti-magic weapon should disrupt some of his actions. Enough to hopefully give you the edge.
5. If he ghosts you or call up his bros, and he's still not seriously harmed, consider Teleporting. Now.
6. If he's ghosted you, and he is seriously hurt, consider buffing with Hand or a Speed/Might/Agility pot and keep bashing.
7. Don't use a Silence scroll.

[dck]

You should haste beforehand and yes, you shouldn't silence yourself fighting a demon.

[pratamawirya]

Beating Mara with a Berserker:

7. Don't use a Silence scroll.

yes, you shouldn't silence yourself fighting a demon.

why??"

Because demons can't be silenced.

[dck]

Similarly you shouldn't silence yourself while fighting an oklob.

[daggaz]

Heh, I used to wonder why people complained so much about Mennas. Then I started playing some casters

[Alarkh]

Try to play mummy casters.

[Lasty]

You don't have to be a caster for Mennas to be trouble. He's faster than you and silences scrolls of blinking/teleport. If you aren't strong enough to take him on for whatever reason, he has a decent chance to prevent you from escaping him. He is alone in that among uniques -- or even monsters in general.

Though on the topic of not being able to escape uniques, I had a weird, probably-coincidental experience with Jory at one point in Vaults, where a convoker summoned him and a few other buddies, and I took a crystal spear to the face. I was also sealed in by a vault warden, so I escaped with a random teleport, which took me to a safe room halfway across the level. I pressed 5 to heal and . . . WTF? Jory suddenly comes into view after almost no time has passed. I tried silence + beatings to kill him, since he was now on his own, but silence expired before he did and I was forced to burn most of my resources to escape again. The character ended up surviving, but it seemed quite odd to me. I didn't think monsters could track you after a teleport . . . I suppose it's possible that he wandered into a teleport trap and happened to get placed near me.

[Sar]

I didn't think monsters could track you after a teleport

Cacos and TrEEs will sometimes dig across half of the level to get you.

[Yermak]

I usually beat him to death with a loaf of bread.

This isn't a joke. If you have melee character, wield a banana (scroll, potion) and wait until he replicates you. Now your illusion is harmless. Then feel free to use all of the previous advice.

[1010011010]

wait until he replicates you.

Here's your problem. While your waiting he's duplicating and shooting bolts of fire at you.

[Lasty]

And, as has been mentioned each time this comes up before, the illusion still isn't actually harmless. Monster damage works differently from player damage.

[diviton]

Especially assuming you can make yourself harmless simply by wielding bread. If you're a nasty conjurer, that isn't going to help you against the summoned illusion.

[Klown]

Mennas is a scary dude. Even against MiBe's of mine that tab through most enemies, Mennas puts up a huge fight, with me barely teleporting away before getting hit with silence. Always took him down but lots of close calls. BIA again awesome.

[ackack]

Mara is really easy to kill and normally very worth killing since he tends to have great weapons.

Demon weapons are pretty common these days and if you're seeing Mara you don't have that much further to go before they'll start showing up. I still usually neglect Mara unless I'm pretty high level or have nice tools for killing him.

[mopl]

About Mennas :

Results vs the unique &s and Cs in !fight: 0-50 cerebov, 1-49 antaeus, 1-49 asmodeus, 5-45 mnoleg, 6-44 dispater, 8-42 the iron giant, 12-38 ereshkigal, 32-18 lom lobon, 45-5 gloorx vloq, 50-0 geryon, 50-0 polyphemus.

That should be enough to say that he's dangerous !

[Azrael]

I usually beat him to death with a loaf of bread.

This isn't a joke. If you have melee character, wield a banana (scroll, potion) and wait until he replicates you. Now your illusion is harmless. Then feel free to use all of the previous advice.

It was a joke
Don't actually do this. Kill him as fast as possible.

[dck]

Demon weapons are pretty common these days and if you're seeing Mara you don't have that much further to go before they'll start showing up. I still usually neglect Mara unless I'm pretty high level or have nice tools for killing him.

Nice tools to kill him often means decent offense, rF and a source of haste which by the time he shows up isn't that much to ask for.

[spindart]

Got him this time around Spamming brother in arms and the antimagic weapon was a great idea. Thanks