The Tavern

I just lost all of my elite named and leveled up orc warriors and spell casters, as well as all of my lesser orc minions to an elf named Nikola on level two of the Elf Mines. I'm afraid I've tapped out all of the orcs that could have been recruited from the Orc Mines.

Fortunately I have boots of running,

I'M WEARING BOOTS OF ESCAPING!
I'M WEARING BOOTS OF ESCAPING!!

As I was saying, I have elven boots of running, and my Orc Priest got away alive, sans army.

Nikola's arc electricity attack decimated my elite forces and nearly did me in. Any suggestions on how to tackle him once I've recruited a new and better army?

I don't think Nikola is an Elf, just a unique who specializes in electric-based attacks.

Since when is Nikola an elf?

I'd recommend coming back later with rElec. And without your army. He throws around lightning bolts (penetrating beams that bounce off walls) and chain lightning (which literally jumps from character to character). There is no way to protect your minions from him reliably, short of extremely strong orc warlords or luck with rElec randart armours (and then it's very tedious to herd just the orcs you want to the battle). It's much easier (and less costly) to just take him on mano a mano once you're able.

Perhaps I assumed he was an elf by association, being in the Elf Mines when I met him.

I'll take him on once I have resist electricity, and without the army as you suggest.

That A/C arc is deadly.

Nikola is one of the more infamous uniques, and he can appear almost anywhere at certain depths. His spells can take serious chunks off your health, and even rElec can only help you so much. Some good strategies are poisoning and running (this would be a good time to use curare), or silence + levitation (the levitation protects you from the electric brand on his sabre). Either way, he's one of those uniques you avoid until you're well prepared.

The easiest way to deal with him is to just not bother with elf, or at least not bother with the floor where he is.

Well I do have flight spell, but no resist electricity yet.

Any suggestion what level to be before tackling him?

Currently Bicycle Repairman is level 12.

An xl12 character has no business being in Elf in the first place. You're lucky Nikolai didn't one-shot you from full health the moment you saw him at the edge of your line-of-sight. The low-level elf casters are perfectly capable of lobbing Crystal Spears at you, or sending you on a trip to the Abyss. They are not like low-level orc casters.

Come back much, much later, probably around the time you're ready to start collecting Runes in earnest. If you still don't have rElec, a potion of resistance will last plenty long to last through the whole fight with Nikolai, although he will still do plenty of damage right through your resistance.

A rather fitting name for a saviour of humanity (or orcs in this case). Monty Python ftw.

My last Orc Priest had a problem with Donald killing three knights, several warriors, and three priests. I've never thought of Donald as much of a threat, aside from the pesky shield.

Yeah, I personally wouldn't be in Elf until around level 17 or 18 maybe. And Nikola you shouldn't really take on until you're around the 20's. Note that this is simply me giving my own opinion to give you a general idea, and should not be taken as solid advice.

you can also just not do elf.
you often do it for the loot, but the loot is on the last floor, which is a death trap.

I was roleplaying an Orc Invasion of Elf.
Since I am an Orc and my army is all Orcs and Orc familiars.

We wear Orc gear.
We eat Orc food.
We fight as Orcs.
We die as Orcs.
Viva l'Orcs!

Oh, and Bicyclerepairman is the name of my Orc Defiler in Lotro.

That's a cool idea Lobber. Other than tedious, HOPr can be lots of fun. The walk on water ability is awesome for Swamp/Shoals.

Is my ability to walk on water innate to a Hill Orc Priest? It's pretty damn cool if it is.

You get it at ****** beogh piety, so watch out whenever you're using up piety and over deep water!

If he's in the Elven Halls, you could wait until you get rElec, then go into Elf:3 solo and lure Nikola down where the treasure loot is. Then as all the Deep Elf Sorcerers/High Priests/Demonologists/Blade Masters/Master Archers are swarming out, turn Invisible. Nikola will fire off Chain Lightnings in attempts to hit you, and in the process he'll be obliterating all those freakishly powerful elves as well, providing you with powerful covering fire on accident.

It is a risky gambit but definitely viable. If Nikola was on Elf:3 in one of my games, I'd definitely try it. But not without the Elf:3 equipment/spell essentials, of course, and not without rElec, because Nikola's Chain Lightning spell can literally kill you in one turn with it if he ever gets to cast it while adjacent to you and you can't resist it, burning through hundreds of HP instantaneously. There's not a lot more magnificent and beautiful ways to go than to be vaporized by an electric death ray, I'll admit, but since the idea is to not die at all... mmmyyeeaaahhh...

Edit: Nikola's not an elf, but since you are an orc, it's understandable and in fact encouraged to call anything you hate an elf. And boy howdy that Nikola can be one son-of-an-elf-bastard.

Uhh, wtf? The last post in this thread was over a year ago.

Rise! Rise my undead thread minions!! With an army of moldy threads, no branch is safe! We will take the Corner, we will take the DCA, we will take the entire tavern!!!

What a horrible act of necromancy

Haha! I was just about to tell the OP to RTFA.

I had to re-visit nikola 3 times in my MiBe game because he kept almost killing me. What a bloody pain that guy is!

Once I ran into Nikola and he promptly began blasting me. At some point he hit me with chain lightning and I got disconnected from the server. I assumed that I'd splatted. To my surprise, the game had crashed returning me to the start of the level.


Next time, try casting summon butterflies. It does a good job of soaking up chain lightning.