Got'a ask...

What's the best way to kill a Ghost?

I'm in the "Crypt of the Avatar" and these ghosts are impossible to kill... I used to kill'm pretty easy with my Hali, but now they heal faster than I can take them down... I think it's "Life drain" they're using, but not sure...

What's the best defense to this sort of Magic attack? I've also tried Archery with similar effect, they just keep draining my life, my pets life and the spirit talkers life always staying at 100% health...

@Chris seems pretty unfair to me... I have to be nearly dead for my life drain to even have any effect at all...

 

Death magic resistance. Train up Celestial Blessing and Purify a bit to buff your death resistance. Also, you can train up death magic, Death Warding (life tree) and socket your gear with necromancy warding gems.

They are pretty OP though.

 

Archery works well if its 1 or 2 ghosts ( piercing shot at lvl 100 can crit for 200 dmg on ghosts)..if more then 2 spam banish undead and watch them fall ...i reccommend ring and necklace with extra banish dmg enchant .

 

Thanks for these tips! Already have some necromancy warded equipment though I'll probably have to make more. Already have Celestial blessing though it looks like I need to go deeper into the Life tree to get Death warding.

Is there any way to improve a pet's death resistance? Use pets quite a lot but not if they're going to serve as a ghost's reserve fuel tank

 

For summons, there's Train Summon Pet Resistance. For tamed pets, I have no idea.

 

I *think* they are vulnerable to melee? I can just plow through them. I also have around 80 death resistance too.

 

Searing ray and solar flare take them down really fast too.

It also helps too stun them if you can't kill them quickly. That way they can't drain your health. Try using a shield with a spear and put the bonus to shield bash duration masterwork on the shield.

 

I feel your pain. In Ravensmoor ruins there is an abandoned ghost, with around 35000 hp. I made a full necromancy warding set, was totally immune to his life drain, and we sat looking at each other. Yes I was taking points off him, and yes I did win in the end - took about half an hour. And got some crap loot for my troubles. Now I just ignore him.
(archery btw)

 

That's just because ghosts don't have pockets.

 

Ghosts got stronger, unfortunately.

Besides what Barugon said for defense, I also recommend
- Elysian Illumination (heals us and damages undead)
- Combo of Soothing Rain and Banish undead

For attack:
- Banish Undead
- Searing ray
- other fire attacks

Without Ignite Weapon it takes alot more time to defeat them.

AND keep care about what pet you are using!
Suddenly it's really crazy: if I use an Ice Elemental, the ghost(s) drains life from it and stays alive.
Without using my pet I can defeat them very fast.

@Chris: was this intended? My Ice Elemental with Skill at 96, and trained summoned pet skills all over 80 is no help against life draining undead anymore

 

The ghosts will always drain life from summons. Doesn’t matter which ones. If I am fighting ghosts I unsummon any creatures if they are out immediately.

 

Also from Death Summons?

 

That I never tried actually heh (just with Earth Elemental and Wisp and Fire Elemental). It probably does?

 

I was having trouble with ghost also until I realized that they have a limited range with their life drain. I've since been keeping my distance and blasting them with spells from range and have been killing them without much difficulty. They can't damage me or heal that way. In close quarters they are nearly impossible.

Although it's possible that some have greater range on their life drain than I've encountered so far.

 

Ghost death ray does more damage and heals more at lower life, just like player death magic, so if it's a long fight for you, sometimes it's better to wait until the ghost gets under a certain amount of life before stunning it so that it won't already have resist crowd control buffs.

 

I hear ya, @Asclepius
My guild spends most of our time (daily) fighting/killing the toughest mobs in the game, and it seems the tougher the mob gets - the crappier the loot.

 

My thanks to everyone who responded, I think since I play "Casually", it will take me awhile to build my skills... I'm still just level 73...

Some more questions, I believe I understand "attunement", but at one point there was penalties for having skills of Opposing trees, such as Death v Life: Is that still true?

 

The game manual now says, "High attunement to an element has no penalties." Also you can click the question mark in the top right HUD on the screen and select 'Attunement' in the table of contents to read how it works currently.

 

Just to add to this, any warding, from gems or skills, lowers the attunement in that skill. For instance, I have 80 Fire Warding from the skill in the water tree and that lowers my fire attunement by 80.

 

Sometimes the "Manual" is unclear to me, so if I have high attunement in a given skill tree, then I'm more proficient in that skill correct?

The "Warding" is difficult to understand, So if I have high Attunement in Life magic and I wear gear with High Warding to Death magic, then my opponent is Less proficient when they use Death magic against me, correct? And I am more proficient using Life magic against them, correct? So, if I understand you correctly, then the Warding gear I'm wearing will also penalize my Death magic for me, correct? I don't think that's Fair: I should be able to have high attunement in both Life & Death magic if I chose to, and the Warding gear I wear should be for defensive purposes against my opponents skills, does that make sense? If I chose to have better attunement gear for myself, then I would forgo the Warding effects on my opponent, through gear...

As you can see, I'm confused about this Warding v Attunement and skills which then negates them in opposing fashion... The Manual is also not clear to the actual mouse over description of the skills, IMO...