Geyser spam from enemy hero - Any way to prevent it?

[Akimbo]

It's somewhat annoying, since if you're going for no losses you basically can't have any undead or demons in your army if the hero spams this spell every turn. I know sometimes doing something different will cause them to cast a different spell, but that's rarely the case. Is there a guarenteed way to avoid them casting this every turn?

Edit: I got past the battle that was annoying me, it actually went exactly the same except I attacked with one unit from a different angle, which seemed to make the Orc hero cast Bless (mass) instead of Geyser. Still, my question remains, how do you deal with Geyser in no loss games? Does it really boil down to having to use the same old boring Paladin based army?

[TemjinGold]

Use 1 troll and hit at night. As long as the Geyser doesn't do enough to kill your troll in 1 shot and you have a way of summoning loads of units to do the dirty work, you're good.

Btw, using a 1 troll army, my impossible mage's dragon levels WAY faster than any warrior's and I don't even have the dragon +exp skills!

[Metathron]

Btw, using a 1 troll army, my impossible mage's dragon levels WAY faster than any warrior's

Why's that?

In one of my games I used dragons only, or black dragons only, to fight Zag Zag. The poor bastard kept casting geyser anyway.

[Elwin]

Its obvious .. .u have to use it hell a lot if u have just one unit to kill all those impossible stacks ...
U cant realy prevent geyser .. just resssurect with paladins after caster mana is out .. geyser is just nothing compared to fire rain or armageddon :P Beating samman with 360 mana armegodfing and fireraining you on harder diffculites with no loss is rrealy a challenge ( on normal i kiled him in 4 round with power of mage spells but on har dor impossible it wont work)

[Ryastar]

Zag-Zag was easy for me (normal warrior). His army consisted mostly of peasants, and I had evil beholders. He got off a geyser on the first round, but I made sure to kill everything except his biggest stack of peasants. Evil beholders' ability triggers 100% of the time vs level one units, so he had no ability to cast spells, since I hit the peasants every turn from then on. I used the time to have my paladins res everything with one prayer, dig up chests, and get some points towards some medals.

[DGDobrev]

That would work on normal, but harder difficulties... that's another matter :) Besides, Zag-Zag is not the only one to spam geysers... Try Elenhel and his 40 intellect max lvl geyser :)

[Elwin]

zagzag with peasent?? new to me .. u had to be lucky a bit ;p But as dobrev said .. zagzag is nothing compared to elenhel .

[Urbz]

Its obvious .. .u have to use it hell a lot if u have just one unit to kill all those impossible stacks ...
U cant realy prevent geyser .. just resssurect with paladins after caster mana is out .. geyser is just nothing compared to fire rain or armageddon :P Beating samman with 360 mana armegodfing and fireraining you on harder diffculites with no loss is rrealy a challenge ( on normal i kiled him in 4 round with power of mage spells but on har dor impossible it wont work)

Not only that but I think it's mainly a leadership issue, you use less leadership so your dragon gets alot more exp isn't it?

[Elwin]

Probably you are right

[vicheron]

Geyser does physical damage so you could get some units with physical resistance like Guardsmen, Paladins, Ghosts, Black Knights, etc. You can also equip Slippery Cuirass, Twinkling Boots, and Leather Dress for 30% physical resistance. If you're lucky, you can get two copies of those artifacts and equip them on your companion for 60% physical resistance.

[Akimbo]

Geyser does physical damage so you could get some units with physical resistance like Guardsmen, Paladins, Ghosts, Black Knights, etc. You can also equip Slippery Cuirass, Twinkling Boots, and Leather Dress for 30% physical resistance. If you're lucky, you can get two copies of those artifacts and equip them on your companion for 60% physical resistance.

Trying to avoid Paladins. Like the plague. Too cheesy for me. As for ghosts and black knights, same problem as always. No ressing them.

[Elwin]

They cna be ressed by evlin spell .. i killed ktahu and baal on hard without even one black lost

[Akimbo]

They cna be ressed by evlin spell .. i killed ktahu and baal on hard without even one black lost

Only problem being you need a full undead army for that I think, otherwise it will hit your own (living) troops as well.

[Elwin]

Well not at all., it attracts for a nearby unit so just dont spawn evlin next to your living trooops.

[Zechnophobe]

Geyser does physical damage so you could get some units with physical resistance like Guardsmen, Paladins, Ghosts, Black Knights, etc. You can also equip Slippery Cuirass, Twinkling Boots, and Leather Dress for 30% physical resistance. If you're lucky, you can get two copies of those artifacts and equip them on your companion for 60% physical resistance.

Or just cast Stone Skin on especially vulnerable units. That can easily halve the damage they take.

[Elwin]

Well Slippery cuiras seems as exclusive rare item to me i played several games and looked several scansaves and i never had even one ...
stoneskin help but if you have more units without ph resistance you wont protect them all .. and for example against ktahu he starts first so first damage will be always very high without items

[TemjinGold]

Not only that but I think it's mainly a leadership issue, you use less leadership so your dragon gets alot more exp isn't it?

That's right. The last part of the dragon exp formula is enemy total leadership divided by your total leadership. Zag-Zag's total leadership (sum of all stacks) is well above 50k while my total leadership is 1100. My mage's dragon is always several levels ahead of Amelie because of all the 1-troll fights I did.

[Zhuangzi]

In terms of Zag-zag, I generally find on Impossible that there are about 4-5 fights on Rusty Anchor that are too difficult to do with zero losses until you have spent some time in Verona/Montero etc. I just kicked Zag-zag's ass at level 25, even though he cast Geyser four times. I play a very 'vanilla' gamestyle involving Paladins and Inquisitors for resurrection. Works well here.

[vicheron]

Well Slippery cuiras seems as exclusive rare item to me i played several games and looked several scansaves and i never had even one ...
stoneskin help but if you have more units without ph resistance you wont protect them all .. and for example against ktahu he starts first so first damage will be always very high without items

It's all luck. I've gotten the slippery cuirass on every playthrough in KB:L and I have it in my current AP playthrough.

However, there is also the scale set with scale armor, scale shield, and scale bracelet that gives 20% physical resistance. You can get up to 45% resistance without any repeated items. 60% if you can get another twinkling boot.

[Elwin]

yes there is .. but gwtting set is even more luck ...