The best strategy to defeat Uriel

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I've made it to the end of the Necropolis campaign without any major problems. Unfortunately, the end of the campaign is a boss battle against an extremely overpowering Angel and his retinue. In my first attempt, my army was quickly wiped out.

Is there any strategy that will make this boss battle easier? You have to deal a ton of damage to Uriel before he defeats your entire army, and he is immune to almost all non-damage spells, so it seems like the only viable strategy is a slugfest (waiting months and months to generate a large enough army to deal the damage required before I get defeated).

With regards to my hero, I used the default Anastasya Necromancer (Magic hero). She is level 30 and at the second level of Blood reputation. For skills, I have primarily chosen from Air and Earth magic, so she has almost all the skills / spells in those two branches.

My army is a bit on the small side, as I never bothered to convert any of the Inferno towns into Necropolis towns. Obviously if a larger army is required, I can convert those towns and spend the time to obtain a larger army, but I would still be interested in any tactics for the battle.

Best Answer

Key to this fight seems to avoid Uriel's Holy Rage.

Holy Rage: If Uriel cannot resurrect any of his minions then he will enrage and acts one additional time each turn for the rest of the combat. Cannot be dispelled.

I don't know whether it will stack multiple times.

This would be my approach when I replay the map:

  1. In turn 1, use a direct damage spell to kill one stack ASAP. This avoids Holy Rage to trigger even once, limiting Uriel to one action per turn (which he usually uses to move). Another option is a Haste spell (+19 initiative with my Anastasya) to have your Archliches (initiative 30, +5 from Ambush) to act before Uriel (initiative 50).
  2. When Uriel uses Mass Resurrect, kill one stack ASAP again. Redirecting one of your ranged stacks for one turn might be called for.
  3. Except when called for by #1 or #2, ranged units should focus on Uriel. They will be your main source of damage on Uriel!
  4. Use some melee unit, I guess the slow Lamasu, to block Uriel so he cannot engage the ranged units. Do not engage unless forced to.
  5. The rest of the melee concentrates on killing units, again to avoid Holy Rage.
  6. Use Necromancy each turn. It's a free resurrect and will fill up fast.
  7. Due to the huge stack sizes, your hero will be limited to a support role. Turn 1: Kill a stack ASAP. Turn 2: Storm Arrows. Turn 3: Whatever you prefer.

Required Abilities: Ambush and either Haste (for at least +15) or a huge nuke.

I have fought Uriel just once, and that was mostly a walk-over. So the above might not be optimal. I will describe my fight against Uriel so you can draw your own conclusions.

Between the combined power of Necromancy (Necropolis' faction ability), the ghost's heal, Reinforcements, and Drain Life, it's usually possible to end a fight without losses. The earlier steps of the Necropolis' campaign seem focussed on teaching that lesson...

It is harder to heal all stacks for a little than one stack for a huge amount, so I prefer to take out ranged and small stacks first, killing the one big stack last. A blindness or other immobilizing spell helps a lot as well.

My melee movement range is almost the whole map, but not enough to engage in turn 1. So usually I have them wait till the enemy moves forward, in order to get 'first strike'. All with the goal to minimize incoming damage.

I was playing at 4 am after a long session and wanted to sleep. So I just went in without checking Uriel's stats. I figured I could always click the 'Replay' button when I made a terrible mistake.

Uriel's initiative is 50, equal to Vampire Lords. As I had the Ambush ability (increased initiative at start of combat), I must have been able to act before Uriel was even able to enrage.

It was quickly clear that I couldn't cast blindness on Uriel, but I forgot what I casted instead. I guess it was some damage spell on one of his allies. (Note: I hadn't realized the power of Storm Arrows at that point yet) As a result, I must have killed the first stack before Uriel even gained initiative!

As described above, my archers and liches started on the small stacks, while my melee waited for him to move forward. In turn 1, I must have killed a stack or two with my ranged and direct damage spell.

His stacks moved forward, so the smaller stacks came within range of my melee. During round two, it became clear that my melee units would kill his allies pretty fast. So I used my ranged units to soften up Uriel.

Note that Uriel did not resurrect a stack each turn: it's just one of the options he has. Only when he is not able to resurrect, Holy Rage comes into effect. So at first, I didn't noticed his resurrect ability at all! Accidently, I had limited him to one action each turn, which he mostly used to fight.

After a couple of rounds, when almost all his allies were dead, Uriel suddenly used Mass Resurrect. Bummer :(. Only then I checked his stats.

Thereafter it was easy: all ranged on Uriel, one stack to block him, and the other melee units kept killing his allies to avoid the enrage. With just one action by Uriel each turn, it was easy to control the fight.

I even scored the Divine Absense achievement; I guess Uriel never used the Divine Presence ability.

My Anastasya has chosen the Blood Magic path, but strangely she has chosen only 15 Magic abilities, and 15 Might abilities.

  • Magic: 9 Dark, 5 Prime, 1 Earth. (None in Air or Water)
  • Might: 6 Paragon, 4 Tactics, 2 Realm, 2 Warfare, 1 Warcries.

As it was my first major campaign, some points turned out to be wasted, so I will make different choices next time.

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