How to beat Madness in the Mountains

Discussion in 'Training Grounds and Game Guides' started by darklord48, Aug 16, 2016.

  1. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    For the first stage, you must keep the NPCs alive, and on hard and legendary difficulties, they cannot kill the enemies surrounding them on their own. Instead you must figure out a way to keep them alive. Not all the enemies surrounding the NPCs are the same. Make sure you analyze them to determine which one to attack.

    Load your BG with flyers and immediately send them up to aid the NPCs. Equipping them with Hate Leech will keep them alive. I found it best to attack the two that are NE to the NPCs. As the Theodore has more range, have him attack the same target as Bron. That one has Protective, which won't trigger from the attacks against it. The Hate Leech will be enough to keep the NPCs alive. Work your way to the left to the font, then down to the bridge. You can hold the bridge with the two NPCs. Ankh of Valdac between them will increase your healing, and Taint can give Fury to the Bron. Havoc's Touch will ensure you have nora to cast your spells.

    For the second stage, you must kill Commander Nisk while defending your shrine against hordes of Valdaci Sweepers. Unfortunately there are numerous ballistae in between your shrine and the Commander.

    Theodore can do all the work clearing the ballistae and Commander Nisk. With Molten Cloak, you could just bypass all the ballistae and go straight for Nisk, but I found it better to kill all the valdaci bolters to proc Fury and increase your damage before facing Nisk. Back at your shrine, you need to surround it with Magma Bunnies and other fire immune/eaters. Again Havoc's Touch can generate enough nora for you. If you deploy a tome of hate away from your SDZ, you can have your shrine heal while you build your defenses. The AI won't attack it. Eventually your shrine and Bron will be completely surrounded by fire immune/eaters, and you can ignore this portion of the battlefield. Righteous Deflection and Impervious are useful for Theodore on the offense.

    For the third stage, you must kill the honor guard, then stay alive for 5 rounds while a new enemy attacks. Don't over extend yourself or you'll be surrounded and fall quickly.

    Retreat the NPCs to start, and have Vothsair Ireguard kill the Needlewings. Any Needlewings you don't kill will join you once the Arroyo arrive, but I found it easier to kill them and get the added Fury damage. Once they're dead, move on to the Sentries. Go slow and take your time. Bloodthirsty Blade on the Ireguard will keep it alive, provided you're killing enemies fast enough. Once the sentries are dead, you'll get a message to run. Move Theodore as far from your shrine and champs as you can, he will become an enemy. An earthquake will damage all champs and relics, so don't deploy too much before this point. Bron remains on your team and should be held back in the SDZ, or even behind it. Deploy magma bunnies and replicate them to both sides of the shrine. Have your Irreguard keep killing flamewisps to keep it alive. Grintmaw Shamans with Magma Cloak will be immune to all types of damage when built with magic immunity. They're good healers and with Starshine can grant Magestic to Bron to keep any enemies that get close from doing too much damage. As you only need to survive 5 rounds, Impervious and Righteous Deflection are very useful. All you need to do is stall so your shrine and Bron survive.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2016
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  2. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Vampirism + Festering Wounds works just fine for stage 1 if any FW players were looking for a combo. As they are global spells you can just leave the Purgers to their business up there too.
     
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  3. Ralphen

    Ralphen I need me some PIE!

    How I do it...

    STAGE 1: Loads of jakeis champions with initiative/fly, 2x Rockeaters and 2x Crystal Golem. Then 2x of Majestic spells, vindrax shield and mirrored shield to make the purgers super-op and farm everything in their way.

    STAGE 2: Lavaspout to surround my shrine, peak efreet to destroy the bad guys with the ballista, deep leviatan to clean everything else gaining charges from the guys that rush the shrine.

    STAGE 3: 2x earthshake braclet, Reflection, Impervious for the purgers. Peak Efreet and Rockeaters to help deal with stuff, Crystal golem with force field and 2x Crack the Earth to help in the final stage. Add Tome of Hate and Blackmarsh staff to help with damage to shrine and give 3 immunities to the efreets for the lulz.

    The Unholy Tomb helps a lot... so carry it in any match.
     
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  4. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    IDK if this would work on legendary difficulty, but the absolutely hilarious way I ended up beating commander nisk is by using flaming leviathens equipped with spiked chestplates (or whatever the UD/IS CHestplate charge equip is). With this, the sweepers kept attacking them, and due to their flame apocalypse ability I technically didn't even need to leave my shrine deployment zone to beat the encounter! Just have a bunch of other fire eater champs around your shrine, and you pretty much just have to wait it out. I mean, theoretically you wouldn't even need actually fight Nisk- though that could take a *really* long time.
    Perhaps this wouldn't do too well on legendary difficulty though.
     
  5. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    It should still work, but Nisk has 500 hp.
     
  6. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    Yeah, thats why I said it would take a *really* long time done purely like that :p. This would, however, take out pretty much everything but nisk, at which point you can just build up a ridiculous amount of champs and swarm him.
     
  7. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    I did the same thing @DrakeArron but mainly just to protect my shrine and clear the sweepers so turns didn't take so long.

    How exactly did you guys kill Nisk? I had to keep running back and forth to get more nora globes for Theodore to reload, it took forever.
     
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  8. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    Well, Nisk has physical attacks right? Surely theirs something in UD or IS that makes a champ immune to physical/closecombat attacks? I'd be really surprised if there wasn't at least one, and its far more likely there would be at least two- more then enough to not have to worry about drawing them by the time you get around to fighting him. (I don't actually know all of the cards hehe ;>.<)
    EDIT: In case it isn't obvious, this way you could put it on your purgers and just have them fight nisk point- blank. Then you don't have to worry about collecting globes for range.
     
  9. Markoth

    Markoth Lord Inquisitor

    The version you win from completing has Attack: Fire. The only rune I know of that grants Immunity: Physical is Earthshaker Bracelet which is SP
     
  10. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    Oh he has attack fire? Even *easier* then! Your playing UD,l it has access to three different fire immunity equips, and thats off the top of *my* head of all people's.
    As far as close combat immunity, doesn't just have to be physical immunity, could also be anything that grants immunty to range 1 attacks (like the opposite of arrow eater). Though IDK if that exists.
     
  11. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    Yeah, I use molten cloak, it protects against the ballistae too.
     
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  12. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    TBH I feel like they made the hard counter to that scenario a little to easy. Oh, your entire bg is immune to fire? Gratz, here's a win.
     
  13. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Well I don't know about you guys but Nisk just sat behind the shrine the entire game so the problem I had was that the Guardians with acid damage would have killed my guy if i went into melee so i had to keep grabbing nora globes and poking him from range. The Guardians also stayed impregnable the entire game so not sure if that was WAI.
     
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  14. DrakeArron

    DrakeArron I need me some PIE!

    Well, one solution is to use the tactics we've mentioned to eliminate everything, then build up a swarm of champs to send in along with the purgers. Then the enemy would target other champs with their range far more often, essentially massively boosting your survivability.
    Unless legendary ai is actually intelligent and targets the purgers :p
     
  15. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    Righteous Deflection works wonders there.
     
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  16. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    I ended up just using Vertical Push on the one that was in range to go in for the kill.
     
  17. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    Just surround with fire immunity, then you can ignore that part of the map.
     
  18. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    No, the AI will keep attacking your fire eater/immune champs, but since they can't do any damage, the sweepers will just keep growing in number. If you don't surround your shrine, the AI will ignore them and attack the shrine. Magma Bunnies work wonders. Magma Cloak is helpful to keep the NCPs alive.
     
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  19. darklord48

    darklord48 Forum Royalty

    I never managed to kill it.
     
  20. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Now you say it I don't remember anything happening either.
     

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