Ugh, Snake Cult Shrine at higher levels

I am level 43 on my char right now on Normal/Normal/Good/Good/Normal difficulty and am trying to kill this Snake Cult Shrine off but finding it very hard. All my troops just get obliterated by these guys no matter what I do. After 15 - 20 attempts I am getting closer but they just keep coming, 50+ of them at least.

I almost had it with all Ravenstern Rangers which I keep back near entrance behind hill then lure the guys up so they get shot full of arrows. Allows me to pick up extra arrows off the ground to kill more of them with when the Rangers miss. This is tremendously tough to do and begs the question: I have 300+ troops outside, why can I not get reinforcements nor bring more into the fray as I am going against 50+ level 40+ chars?

I love a challenge but this seems like a scenario where the only way you can win this is straight abusing tactics and game mechanics and even then only after 20+ quit/restarts. Am I missing something here or is it unbalanced or meant to just force the player to quit/restart the game over and over til they get it?

Place your top tier units at the top of your list and keep them together. as you move from mob to mob. May be better to get ranged heavy units in your squad as well, just place them at the top of your list. The Key though is to stay in a group.

Whitestrake said:

Place your top tier units at the top of your list and keep them together. as you move from mob to mob. May be better to get ranged heavy units in your squad as well, just place them at the top of your list. The Key though is to stay in a group.

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Yea, Huscarls get chopped down in no time. Main problem is when you are finishing off a group another spawns behind you with their xbows out and ready, they shoot and drop a few of your guys before you even have a chance to turn. Go back on an old save game and try this at level 43+ you will see what I am talking about, pretty crazy.

I did manage to finish this though by dragging groups back over hills where my Ravenstern Rangers were waiting to pew pew them. Then I would go collect arrows, move up again, shoot what I could then back them up toward the rangers. Rinse repeat. Took me literally 25 tries until I finally got it done without being dropped. They hit for 25-70 per xbow hit with my top of the line armor so there is little room for error.

I've gotten where after the first 20 levels or so I just attack the bandit camps then turn and "leave area" so they disappear from the map.  And I just refuse or agree to fail the quests for them.

I stop doing bandit hideout quests after a certain point exactly because of the ridiculous spawns quantities you face at higher levels. Even if you keep your guys together, many bandit types will still wear down your troops to the point that you are basically soloing everything.

And even if you win it's horrifically annoying due to having to walk back and forth with enemies spawning a little at a time.

Arcon said:

I am level 43 on my char right now on Normal/Normal/Good/Good/Normal difficulty and am trying to kill this Snake Cult Shrine off but finding it very hard. All my troops just get obliterated by these guys no matter what I do. After 15 - 20 attempts I am getting closer but they just keep coming, 50+ of them at least.

I almost had it with all Ravenstern Rangers which I keep back near entrance behind hill then lure the guys up so they get shot full of arrows. Allows me to pick up extra arrows off the ground to kill more of them with when the Rangers miss. This is tremendously tough to do and begs the question: I have 300+ troops outside, why can I not get reinforcements nor bring more into the fray as I am going against 50+ level 40+ chars?

I love a challenge but this seems like a scenario where the only way you can win this is straight abusing tactics and game mechanics and even then only after 20+ quit/restarts. Am I missing something here or is it unbalanced or meant to just force the player to quit/restart the game over and over til they get it?

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I had the same problem
I solved it by leaving only my knights and companions in my troop and left the rest at the castle, then DONT LET THEM CHARGE
the troops are set on auto-charge and that's deadly against those hideouts, just tell them to follow you and move from spawn to spawn

The SNC shrine is the worst - the amount of enemies scales with the player level and it´s capped too high. Since all those cultists spawn with 2h weapons and crossbows they deal quite some damage and it´s fiendishly difficult to finish it at later levels. A slight oversight upon implementation and a great late game challenge.

I usally avoid them as they´re doing nothing at all but make me foam with rage.

If you´re lategame, get your best companions on top of the party roster and attack them. You can´t lead more men into the fray as it´s an ambush, otherwise they´d dissapear.

IlluminaZer0 said:

I stop doing bandit hideout quests after a certain point exactly because of the ridiculous spawns quantities you face at higher levels. Even if you keep your guys together, many bandit types will still wear down your troops to the point that you are basically soloing everything.

And even if you win it's horrifically annoying due to having to walk back and forth with enemies spawning a little at a time.

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It's possible and feasible, if you train 7 companions into archers....with 2 quivers, noldor bow and PD 7+, and rising proficiencies, it's quite doable.

Just make sure you tell your archer companions to follow you, then keep the distance and pick off all enemies from the distance, where the superior accuracy of noldor bows will make sure you hit, they don't.

I do kinda agree though, that it's ridiculously hard with any other setup...40+ spawns of high tier troops...spawning randomly from ALL sides?

I shudder at the thought of taking them on with melee.
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SNC shrine is really hard, I agree. I enlisted immortals, huscarls and some berserkers though, and it worked after a bloody fight. Forget bringing archers, even noldors. Shields are a must against hundreds of jarid throwing Anaconda Knights & Serpent Priestesses. The few Silvermists I had did surprisingly well.

Don't know if it was pivotal, but me and my archer compansies strafed right left after we cleared the 1st group at the gates. The spawning forces went into melee with my charging infantry, leaving me and some of my surviving companions to shoot from the sides into the fray. Didn't last long however, after a time they attacked us as well (reinforcement spawn point is really far).

zykox said:

SNC shrine is really hard, I agree. I enlisted immortals, huscarls and some berserkers though, and it worked after a bloody fight. Forget bringing archers, even noldors. Shields are a must against hundreds of jarid throwing Anaconda Knights & Serpent Priestesses. The few Silvermists I had did surprisingly well.

Don't know if it was pivotal, but me and my archer compansies strafed right left after we cleared the 1st group at the gates. The spawning forces went into melee with my charging infantry, leaving me and some of my surviving companions to shoot from the sides into the fray. Didn't last long however, after a time they attacked us as well (reinforcement spawn point is really far).

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I think you're talking about a different shrine (GM maybe?) if you're getting an army to assist you.

oldark said:

zykox said:

SNC shrine is really hard, I agree. I enlisted immortals, huscarls and some berserkers though, and it worked after a bloody fight. Forget bringing archers, even noldors. Shields are a must against hundreds of jarid throwing Anaconda Knights & Serpent Priestesses. The few Silvermists I had did surprisingly well.

Don't know if it was pivotal, but me and my archer compansies strafed right left after we cleared the 1st group at the gates. The spawning forces went into melee with my charging infantry, leaving me and some of my surviving companions to shoot from the sides into the fray. Didn't last long however, after a time they attacked us as well (reinforcement spawn point is really far).

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I think you're talking about a different shrine (GM maybe?) if you're getting an army to assist you.

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Oh right, haha, my bad. Made a mistake with this statement...

I have done several of these now at Normal, Normal, Good, Good, Normal (102% difficulty) and here is what I do:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Equip armor that lets you move decently fast while sacrificing as little protection as possible(noldor archer 14 weight is a good choice). Equip a very accurate bow(make sure Power Draw requirement several levels below your Power Draw so reticle is small as you will want to shoot from long ranges often. 2 quivers of arrows and a shield for other 3 weapon slots.
[*]Get 20 or so top line archers, Ravenstern or Silvermist Rangers preferable.
[*]Put them right below you on the party so they are chosen first. Helps to drop off all other guys except companions first in town/castle you own.
[*]As soon as you load in, order your guys to follow you (F1 > F2) then stop firing (F3 > F1) so they move faster and bring out their shields to block any shots. Once in position don't forget to F3 > F2 so they fire at will again.
[*]Move them behind a hill near where you spawned in so they are blocked from enemy spawn line of sights
[*]IMPORTANT: Try and position them so when enemies do appear to them, their missed shots hit a hillside behind them
[*]Using shield, move down behind a tree within shootable range of nearest Snake Cult spawn. Pop out and shoot what you can, using tree to duck behind. Play it safe if you have any doubts they are still holding their xbows up pointing at you as you can literally be insta killed if you mess up. Shoot as much as you can and check tacitcal map to see if any are moving up which you did not see.
[*]Once they start moving up toward you, take out your shield(enchanted noldor is great for this if you have one) and back away toward your waiting archers ziz-zagging the entire time so their shots miss as much as possible to save your shield.
[*]I like to fall back to a tree which forces their path into my archers line of sight. Hopefully you dragged them to a spot where your archers's missed shots are hitting the ground nearby which afterwards you can go collect and replenish your arrows. This is the main trick to fighting snake cultists as they all use crossbows so replenishing your bow ammo any other way is not an option.
[*]Rinse & repeat. It will take a bit of practice and even if you get good you will fail sometimes as there is almost no margin for error. The trick is to use terrain and mainly trees to approach, shoot as many as you can. Then approach even farther to within a certain range of them so they will start moving toward you at which point you can drag them back to your waiting archers then reload your ammo when the archers are finished.

[/list]

Hope this helps.

My opinion: the spawns should not be within Line of Sight of each other so you could bring in melee troops and do this(melee more fun, archery more efficient) without losing most your troops to being shot in back by respawns right near you. Honestly the Snake Cultists hit like trucks and I would be interested to see if they could finish off the 50-60 SC's before they dropped.

I was determined to finish the game, and the overpowered Snake Cult Shrines almost made me quit. Then I remembered the difficulty sliders.

Ive beaten this game but i never saw any snake cult shrines, except if you mean the stronghold which i assume you dont. Where is this snake cult shrine?

usually somewhere between oregar and cez. it's just like any other hideout, except the snakes are pretty powerful.

mniezo said:

usually somewhere between oregar and cez. it's just like any other hideout, except the snakes are pretty powerful.

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ohhh that hideout -- yeah that hideout was a pain in the butt to take down lol. So hard.