Hey, hold your horses. The hobbits, I accept, but with Gimli, its more than probable. Its possible. Just takes a couple more tries coupled with patience and flawless Banes, you have the deal done right. I did Gandalf first so I posted that but if I had posted all the characters, I would have more hate mails than views.
Nick Barrie i have done every stages in the game with all of the characters with not cheat and they are all lvl 20 and they have every upgrades to. It's not that hard :) litle tactik, and you'll be fine.
+G. Aaditya From doing the Palantir of Saruman I found the hobbits were pretty good at the higher levels, and they were very good at attacking the trolls. The problem in Palantir of Sauron is getting to level 17, I have not gotten past level 12. Thats on easy mode as well.The problem seems to be one hit and they do this big stutter, and then get smashed. Their ranged attack is very weak as well. Gimli is totally the reverse, I can get to Level 17 on easy with full health. Level 17 his fierce attack cannot connect with the combo ever and he gets knocked down when you fierce attack in a crowd. I only manage to do it with using the fourth swing of the Swift Justice combo. Then the trolls unlike the hobbits cannot seem to get under their guard. I have made it to Level 20 and managed to get rid of the two trolls but just killed off because I had hardly an health left just as I had a few of the creatures on red and about to get more health. So it is possible. The biggest suprise is I thought I wonder how Pippin who has does a lot of damage on his quick attack can go through those last levels on easy. SO I restored health using the cheats to get through levels up till 15. The suprising thing from then on it was a breeze. I basically was prety much near full health the remaining part of the way. The Banes have never worked reliably for me, they seem to work heaps better on easy though, if you can work the banes with Pippin to get him to Level 17, then Level 17 onwards is a cinch.
I have a different approach, but it only works with faranir and Aragorn. I mainly use the swift justice combo. The last bit of combo your invulnerable,and it can even go throughs a trolls swing. So generally I try to swing into open space and then turn back with the finals wing, I use the range fury style of attack at the start of a level and then follow it wiith just quick attack leading to swift justice combos. That works well enough on easy but on hard you have to parry a lot.
+Nicholas Karadimas You are absolutely right in all your views and you buddy, have gone 1 level farther than me with the hobbits. Hats off there! But the only wrinkle with the hobbits are as you have said in reply to Nick Barrie's comments - their ranged attacks suck big time. Also, the damage of the attacks alone do not determine the progress a character can make. It depends on how well they can hit without getting hit much... especially during combos and their aftermath. A major downside in the game engine is that EVERY character has a downtime after a combo when he is quite unresponsive to your commands. The duration of that "dead-time" and the damage recieved during such a time depends upon the complexity of the enemies of the level. Another point is the one about Aragorn and Faramir. They both have kinda OK combos and their ranged attacks also deal quite an amount of damage. But then, they cannot still snuff a troll with a single shot. So, one can opt for Legolas but still, that moron's ranged hits do off 2 arrows per blow leaving you in the state thats exactly the reverse of whatyou find yourself with Gandalf 'coz he can snuff two or three with per blow if you angle them in correctly. The next issue you have addressed is Gimli. He's got a lot of power packed in his punch for a little guy and his ranged attacks are I daresay, of comparable damage to Gandalf's and I have got him to take out the smaller trolls with one axe to their skulls. But of course, the others become a problem and when you get into waves with the goons with life bars and armors. His Helm's Hammer sucks more than words can describe so thats a dead end there again when you do without cheats. Also, I emphasize on Banes simply because its a one-off kill move that leaves you with no damage from the guy you're sticking your blade into as long as you parry properly. Moreover, parrying is a painstaking process that needs to be coupled with patience to get through to the final infernal waves with trolls. Another thing I noticed in you comment was that you ran out of life in the 17th wave with Pippin. As I have mentioned before - Dude, you rock on that one! You just need perfect little Banes, projectiles with unerring aim and of course, very little damage over the course of the Palantir so you have enough health potions left to take out the life-bar goons and the trolls. On the upside, for every life-bar dumbass you whack, you get a health potion so its the trolls we have to take out first, with minimal or no wastage of projectiles as you are bound to run out if you hit a few projectiles on the life-bars. So, summing up, you have made good progress and you need just a little more of luck, health and tactics to make through the Palantir with the Hobbits and Gimli. Best of luck there and I hope to use your updates to finish it off before you do... No offense meant there!
+G. Aaditya I have managed to do it with Pippin. My big new tactic was to use the invisibility on Level 12 , then I went to one of the outlying pairs of archers so I was right on top of them, and hit them just as I turned visible. By getting rid of those two archers you have a region on one side where only a few archers can fire at you and its easier . By the way I think you can have missed that on Level 11 you can simply run around to the opposite side and there are no archers there and its one of the easiest levels to do. Levels 12-15 the invisibility and kill a set of archers tactic makes those levels much easier. The hobbits seem to have a special ability to get close into the big trolls and hit them, in fact running away is worse. The smaller trolls on Level 18 in palantir of Saruman are the only ones I actually get to shoot with the hobbits. Hobbits can't run away so easily so turning toward the trolls especially on a combo swing , works well and you seem tobe able to keep hitting them . The weak range attack of the hobbits is more a pain than an obstruction, I have a way of killing the archers by circling them and hitting them as I run past the outside of them. It can be long winded but Its works better with PIppin because he takes three shots to kill an archer instead of one quick attack. With Aragorn and Faramir the biggest advantage they have is the range of their swords. you don;t have to be so close and the last swing of the Swift Justice has a big range and I use to hit the trolls. I found if you block straight after the combo its very rare to get hit with them. Its much easier and simpler to do the Palantir of Sauron with them and the only ones I have done it on hard with.
I have finally managed to do it with all the characters on easy. Frodo is the worst character by far. His biggest issue is he takes the most amount of time to be able to launch a shot. With the multiple archers you can only fit a shot in between enemy shots provided they all shoot at the same time. Once they shoot at different times then he is too slow. Also he moves slowly so its tough to hit the archers on foot. I use the invisibility for him to get close to the archers. On some levels I have to use the invisibility multiple times and wait while blocking for it to recharge. Sam is slow but he can shoot fast, while Merry seems to be the quickest moving of the hobbits. Pippin is definelty the best and I have done the level on normal with him. I tried using all the characters on the hard setting. Hard makes it really tough for the hobbits, levels 4-6 its so much harder to hit the archers on foot whereas the other characters can shoot them. Frodo I think cannot get past the archer levels. However using the invisibility with Pippin I was able to make it to Level 17. While on easy Pippin can breeze through the later levels, even on normal its not difficult, but I find on the hard setting then its like a bricj wall. I did use invisibility to be able to get out of their killer huddles on 17 and got to 18 once. Legolas and Gandalf find it really tough on hard and get damaged easily. I have finished it on hard using Gandalf but only by using the invicibility special powers. WHile their shooting helps with earlier levels and getting rid of trolls, they just struggle against the others. EVen by using invicibility at the start of 17,19 and 20 it was a real struggle. Without the invicibility I think there is no chance at the hard steting. Legolas has only get the piffly red mist thing so don't think he is a chance. Aragorn and Faramir on easy you can do it with your eyes closed with just the quick attack and swift justice. Normal is not much harder. Hard is quite difficult but I can do it without even using any banes. The range of their swords is the big factor. Gimli seems to be the odd one out, while struggles on easy its not that much harder on hard, and I have gotten to Level 18, with 17 a real struggle, but his weakness on the final levels with the trolls is a complete obstacle. The previous game the two towers Gimli was actually the character I did the tower of orthanc on expert first. He was very hardy in that game and could go toe to toe with the trolls better than anyone, now in this game he is like the troll weakling.
+Nicholas Karadimas, you need to note one huge difference in our strategies. I tried with all the characters WITHOUT using special ability like invisibility or invincible sphere thingy and hence gave my opinion on each character based on that tactic. As this escaped my memory in my previous comments, your gameplay and mine gave rise to different results for each character. I really appreciate your efforts to breakdown the characters' success rates in all difficulties but honestly, I have long since moved on to other games and so am in no mood to play this one anytime soon. Again, congratulations on your thorough research of each character. It will serve as an excellent walkthrough for the others who seek help from this video. Also, in my opinion, you should publish your video of this Palantir in hard difficulty using a character of your choice, with/without special ability. Ciao!
i used special abilities for Gandalf on hard and the hobbits from easy to normal. If you can do it with Gandalf on hard without invicibility your way beyond what I am capable of. I have done it on easy with Gandalf without the invicibility and that was really tough for me. FAramir and Aragorn , their special abilities do not make any difference, and I use only one move below hard. They are the easiest characters to do it with by a mile. The only characters I have done it on hard are them plus Gandalf with invincibility, and even then in my opinion its harder to do it with Gandalf using the invicibility and for the later levels I waste time deliberately to have the incibility for the next level. I have also moved on to other games which I am currently busy with . If I get back to I will try to record a video of me doing it with Faramir or Aragorn on easy without using a single shot or block and just the one combo.
:) That one does take a while without cheats but its a walk in the park actually. Try and replicate what I have done in this video - just keep parrying and doing all the "banes". Gives you a perfect everytime and makes sure you dont get hit even once. But Palantir of Sauron, without cheats.......... thats the real pain. Cheers!
And by Uruk Hai beserkers, u mean the ones with T-shaped kind swords wearing helmets and with a life-bar right? The ones without life-bar u can a lot while those with them appear in plentiful in Black Gate level.
