Is it possible to defeat spirit bear in nightmare?

It better be, as defeating him unlocks one of the possible Act 4 finales.

In Nightmare should be very tough (like most boss battles) but definitely is possible, I know at least two people who did it here

Actually I know it is possible. Just wondering about the how.

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Initially, I wanted to use the same tactic that I used on the Minotaur Boss but it doesn't work

because the Minotaur is a melee fighter while the Spirit Bear is a spell caster. But I think I

can probably use similar tactics with a bit of difference.



The Minotaur Boss is extremely tough. It is extremely fast (almost twice as fast as my characters,

hit very hard, strike through and also use Life Leeching. All my 6 characters got slaughtered

within a few rounds and the Minotaur Boss is still at full life because of life leeching.



So I decided to try a different tactic. I only use 3 characters, Shea (ranger) in the front,

Riley and Althea (druid) at the back.



Riley cast Mirror on Shea. Shea cast Bramblecoat on himself and heal himself when necessary.

Basically, I let the Minotaur kill himself when he strikes Shea.



Althea also help with damaging the Minotaur and heal when necessary.



The Bear is somewhat similar to the Minotaur, also casting life leeching. But this time round,

it is a spell caster so it hit the character at the back as well, which means it leech more life

than it loses.



I guess it is impossible to defeat the bear with my current build.

I am thinking of using a different build for second playthrough it order to defeat the Bear

at nightmare.



For first playthrough, I build Shea as a 2 handed weapon attacker. I think that is not the

best build because Ranger is not really a good damage dealer anyway. Most of his skills

require Stagger.



So, I am thinking of building a tank, with guard.



So Shea will guard Riley at the back, with Bramblecoat on.

He will also equipped ring and necklace with high Water Resistance since that is the main

spell of Spirit Bear.



Same thing, Riley will cast Mirror on Shea.

Basically, just 2 people vs the Spirit Bear.

Just wondering whether this tactic will work.

Also, how is resistance calculated?



So let say the resistance is 100, apparently it is not immune?

Does it mean minus 100 damage points?

No because otherwise making an enemy immune to a specific damage would have been bad. The highest it is the less damage it takes.

On the tactics:

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I think tactics with less than 6 party members + dmg reflection in general work against him. However, the Spirit Bear has also a decent physical attack (both front row and single dmg) and is relatively fast + 25HP regen, so I'm not sure if you'll have enough hit power with just a defensive Ranger and Riley to take him down, despite the Mirror dmg. I can't recall exactly how I took him down the first time on Nightmare, but in the most recent trial I used 4 members against him. Since the fight on the first time was so hard, I deliberately saved this time one Manticore poison from act 2 just for him.



Team:

Hunter, Ranger, Vaelis, Riley.



Hunter & Vaelis have the Elementalist Trait, Vaelis has also Archwizard. Truckload of skills and traits that boost attack on both.

Ranger has Ward, Cripple, Invincible-skills and the Archwizard trait. Riley: Archwizard.

Riley is used for inflicting Scared, Slow (slow can also be inflicted by the ranger), (Confusion) & Slumber on the bear in any order that makes sense. Mirror damage on Vaelis early on..who'll cast protect on Hunter. Once Spirit Bear launches his multi, Shea takes minimal dmg, because of Ward, Vaelis mirrors 2 of the 4 attacks back on the Bear but has enough magic + elemental resist to survive one round of this and can get throwing axes with either dirty tricks or study opponent in (which'll inflict Bleed on bear + some dmg) and can boost hunter with rally.

Bull's Strength-potion you get from the minotaur's horns on Hunter. Hide In Shadows will also minimize the dmg she'll take while abiding her time. If she gets to launch her hit on the bear with Vaelis' Protection still on her*), she'll have attack boosts from

Take Aim + HiS + Protect + Bull's Strength + Rally

and Spirit Bear's defenses have been lowered with

Manticore Poison + Scared and /or Slumber

=>=>=>=>=>=> Hit in in the range of 500-600 HP (The double attack prediction is wrong, so it showed over 700 HP, dmg, but the actual dmg was in that aforementioned range)

After that, he had <30HP left and Riley and the ranger finished him off with one strike from each.



*)The attack bonus from Protect will remain on her as long as she stays in the backrow, even if Vaelis is Knocked out before the hit.

Now do it with Druid/Ranger.

Now do it with Druid/Ranger.

Taking a wild guess here and reading that as "do it without Hunter"



Well, here's Vaelis, Riley, Chas and Shea = Ranger taking care of him. Chalassa delivers the final blow with heavy bomb. No Hunter used. Why do I feel like I just got trolled and fell for it...hmmm

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Achievement unlocked: Master Of SOTW!

That's amazing. So you are playing Hunter and Ranger in nightmare.



Isn't that a very difficult game in nightmare without the healing power of druid?

Do you have to use lots of potions in the game?

why do you even want to hurth this fluffyFurryTalkingSnowball ?! he just want your limbs ! you have 4 of 'em.

That's amazing. So you are playing Hunter and Ranger in nightmare.



Isn't that a very difficult game in nightmare without the healing power of druid?

Do you have to use lots of potions in the game?

Well, I like the challenge. Hunter + Ranger is my favourite combo, although Hunter + Druid is a far easier combo overall, especially since you'll need a lot of purifying at Nightmare level. Unlike those two combos, I''ve never played Druid + Ranger in a full playthrorugh... only up to beating up Yeldin (I had 2 savefiles with that combo from the end of act 2, but those got borked in a RenPy update months ago and there were other people testing with D+R...), so take this with a grain of salt: regarding the overall difficulty and based on the mechanics I observed during first two acts,I'd say that H/R is the most difficult one, H/D the easiest one and D/R is somewhere in between those. Of course, this depends a LOT on your particular build. Ranger has one good healing skill, but I don't use it. And that one skill really does not compare with Druid's purification, anyway, especially the longer the game progresses. Hunter can heal only her/himself using the bandage skill and scrolls usable by mages only are far more powerful healing items than potions.



Especially in acts 3 and 4 there are a number of specific fights where H/R combo isn't particularly difficult. You'll have enough HPregen to cope with the help of Jariel, plus that single person purification-skill....But then there are those fights where you really wish you had picked up Druid: Done the Mysterious Assassin fight yet without a druid and party already beaten to pulp when he shows up? Dark wizards casting madness on everybody? Deceit paralyzing and driving people insane and swiping Jariel's buffs off all the time? Oh, how much fun those are without purification or tree of life....



Yea, I use a lot of potions, but that's just one fun aspect to play with, I think, since the hunter (as well as JAriel and Chas) can also use those offensive potions, and not only the healing stuff. That's just more versatility to the hunter. The potion of paralysis thrown by a high attack (so that she/he is less likely to miss) hunter gives several turns of guaranteed paralysis (as long as we're not talking about bosses) to a selected enemy..backrow, frontrow... and it doesn't require stagger like some other paralysis skills.



In short, hunter is just way too much fun to not have around. Ranger is also versatile as you can go offensive or defensive with it. Variatio delectat. Druid is a powerful class, but more so on the healing side. Rowinda is more destructive once she joins and I've played the healer-part already way too many times in other games...

I think it swaps. Druid/Ranger is powerful and has great survivability in the first two acts. But when you get to Acts 3 and 4, just being survivable no longer matters since most bosses gain healing and infinite SP regeneration. The damage and flexibility of the Hunter outshines both in the second half of the game.



Plus, the Ranger doesn't really have any special consumables to use or throw around and less synergy among her skills (with separate skills for dual-weild, one hand+shield, and two-hand). Sure, you have some options, but nothing like the combo-stacking potential of the Hunter.



I also found my Druid spending more and more time healing and purifying in the late game, which makes most of the offensive skills go to waste. (In fact, I don't think I ever found a situation where you'd want to take one of the Druid's AoE skills on Nightmare.) In contrast, the first half of the game my Druid was the most powerful offensive nuker on the team.