Slime Squisher
Posts: 392
Joined: Wednesday, 7th December 2011, 20:06
Dealing with Hell Sentinels
Say you've got a nice post-endgame character going. He's got Firestorm, rF+++, 50mp, some means of mass-channeling mana, and 150-200 hp. Nice guy, right? Can kill most Pan-lords in 4-7 firestorms. Most fiends in 2-3. Most any enemy in the game in 2 or less. Strong stuff. He switches off to his low-powered Iron Shot when there's just not enough badguys to justify a firestorm. Blink/cBlink away from adjacent baddies.
Then along comes a Hell Sentinel and now you suddenly need 7-10 firestorms! You *could* Iron-shot him, but then you're putting yourself in closer range and he suddenly has a clear shot at you. And that rF+++ you have? Useless. Completely useless.
Needless to say, I'm sick of it. I've never died to a Hell Sentinel, but in the post-endgame they are responsible for more emergency "shit, low/no mana and they're still on me!" moments than any other enemy. Except maybe the occasional pan lord if i engage poorly. I want a nice, reliable, efficient way to 2-shot Hell Sentinels without facing their retribution (or, at absolute most, taking one hellfire to the face).
Options I'm considering trying out in my current run include:
1.) A fully-powered Iron Shot (i had 0.0 in Earth Magic thusfar, but 27 conj and spc))
2.) Bolt of Inaccuracy (sp?) -- i hear their EV is absolute shit.
3.) Polymorph Other. -- Unless demon's are immune to such gimmickry (rats!) I can think of no other fiend I'd rather deal with less. Even the brimstone fiend -- a close 2nd to my hate for this sucker -- still has gone down reliably to two iron shots or one iron shot and two firestorms (if I wanted to do it without getting hit at all.) Also? Having the Polymorph other spell in my spell list would allow for all sorts of fun humiliating kills and ally-morphing shenanigans .
4.) * Lehudib's Crystal Spear. This spell misses its target far too often for me to be considering it. Especially since it deals 10d22 damage -- and thus far from guaranteeing a one-turn kills means that I need to land this sucker twice! But if the 'miss' effect is being calculated vs an enemy's evade? Well then maybe this is the answer to Hell Sentinels that I need.
Options I consider inadequate:
* Haunt/Dragonspam. Yes, it works, but really it's just skirting around the issue of not being able to blow up a goddamn hell sentinel efficiently. Also, mass-abjure can totally undo the value of all my hard work far too often -- and in hihg-stakes situatiosn no less.
* Summon Butterflies. Thusfar in all my trials, hundreds and hundreds of butterflies are not enough to drain the Hell Sentinel's HP. Also, he still seems to catch up with me. Perhaps the butterflies are not as deadly as I thought, but let it not be said that nobody ever suspects the butterfly .
* Abjure/Mass Abjure. These guys are 'real' often enough that this band-aid is not an answer.
*Run from it/Kite it. This solution - though I use it a lot and it does indeed work - skirts around the real issue of being unable to kill them outright. Also, Zigs/certain hell floors can make this a non-option.
Anyway - thoughts?
-AHMAD
15-runer: OPWz, DECj, DEWz x2, VpWz
Other: DEWz, DrWz, DjWz, GnIE, KeCj, SpEn, SpWz, SpCj, MuWz, FeWzx2, MiBe x7.
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