I know the final Ascension battle has been discussed a million times over on these boards but I just beat it and wanted to share my experience/tactics. Also, I had a few questions pertaining to certain aspects of the mod. This is a long post, so prepare yourself...

*Spoilers*

Wow. This battle rocked me the first time I tried it. My party (partly multi-player created) consisted of:

PC: ranger/cleric dual wielding standard FoA and crom faeyr
Solaufein dual wielding his moon blade and Sanchodooku +4
Sarevok with Gram the Sword of Grief/ Ravager
Kelsey
mp created f/t with dagger of the star and hindo's doom
mp created sorcerer.

I got completely wasted by the Five. Dead within a few minutes. So I reloaded and took another crack at it. No luck. After a very frustrating hour and a half I gave up. The next day I came back and tried again. I still couldn't get anywhere. Finally i came up with a winning tactic...

After the last Demon pool I cast every scroll of Wish I had until I got the Rest option.

Both Kelsey and my sorcerer cast a chain contingency with 3 PIs set to see enemy. Then Sola cast a CC with three mordy swords in it and after that his usual buffs. My R/C buffed up with the usual ironskins, righteous magic, DUHM bhaalspawn power, summoned a couple fire elementals. After I'd summoned everything I could I clicked on the last pool.

BAM! Here they come, and my CCs are set off. Sola's CCs failed for some reason but my sorcerers' didn't. I had six (six!) full power sorcerers at my command! My primary concern was Illasera and Sendai so I had Sola, R/C and Sarevok go to work on 'em. Sendai fell first, bringing Melissan into the fight (big mistake on my part) but Illasera, Abazigal, and Balthazar were quick to follow. I kept imprisoning Yaga-shura rather than deal with his monstrous damage reduction but melly kept freeing him. So I ignored him the best I could.

On a few occasions I had a sorcerer cast time stop and my R/C activated focus. Then while I GWWed Mellisan my sorcerer cast energy blades and tossed 'em at her.

After a combined GWW attack with R/C, Sola (Sarevok and my F/T were kaput) Mellisan fell.

So, now that I've played tactics and ascension, what's left? Tactics and Ascension are arguably the hardest mods out there and I've no clue what to do next with BG2.

Also, I understand that playing on insane considerably raises the level of frustration (I played on core) but what exactly does insane difficulty level entail?

And what strategies did YOU use?

Is it possible to solo this? I've never done a solo, modded or unmodded so it might be something to look into.

[ March 15, 2006, 03:52: Message edited by: Lutheo ]

Ah, good old PI cheese. That last battle's a lot more challenging if you don't try to break the game engine/cheese out hard before you do it. If you want a challenge, try doing it without abusing PI.

Just out of curiosity - if you use Imprisonment on one of the Five, does it bring Melissan into the fray immediately? I'm guessing so, since the game generally counts Imprisonment as death.

Yeah, PI is pretty cheesey, although I'm not sure how to do it otherwise. Maybe I'll take another crack at it someday.

I'm not sure about Imprisonment bringing in Melissan because I used it after she joined. I remember reading somewhere that if you do use it Sendai just casts Freedom.

@ Lutheo


Congratulations for beating the Ascension final battle.This fight is insane enough to justify the use of PIs, so you don't have to worry about it.
Although it can be done in other ways too.



Is it possible to solo this? Playing on core I think it's possible for almost all classes.
I have done it with a fighter although some battles were extremely difficult.Look at this thread (http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/10/4058.html#000000) for more info.


but what exactly does insane difficulty level entail?
On insane it's a totally different battle.Look at this other thread (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/10/4574.html) .


So, now that I've played tactics and ascension, what's left? Well if you like the Tactics-Ascension style, there are some other mods that add difficulty to the game like : Improved Battles, Improved Asylum, Deeper Shadows of Amn, Planar Sphere mod, Improved Sendai (from Oversight mod).
Or you can go solo with your favourite class ;)

Hehe I feel so honored, the mighty and brave thetruth has given a link of my experience about the Ascension!

Well I used really cheesy non-stop Time-stops and wasted the whole five before even Melly got a chance to appear, the five all died consequently and instantly when TS ended.

Melly was easy enough, thanks to Eagle Eye bow's feather arrows, stun without a save, Immy stunned big bad Melly, my PC lowered her Magiv resistance and used a HARM spell while everybody, my buffed up to the max fighters in GWW frenzy and lots and lots of summons were pounding on her, poor Melly became MORALE FAILURE:PANIC! :shake: I can never forget the moment! Then when she regained her councisness her death script came and I finished the game, beat the Ascension battle, with narry a single scratch on my party! :p Kinda weird huh?

Though as thetruth kindly said that on insane difficulty it is entirely a different battle, Melly uses new tactics, keeps teleproting and summoning nasty demons! I will try this fight on insane, without 4 PI cheese. Oh you thought 3 PI was cheese? My version of 4 PIs is even worse! :evil: Look at my topic for details!

Ok, this is cheesy, but the one way I was able to beat Ascension without too much cheating was to go into good old SK and raise my parties hit points by about 100. I made no other modifications.

:lol: Heh heh I see everybody has little dirty secrets. :good: But we really wanted to finish the game after playing for such a looong time eh? :shake: