Ultimus

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Ultimus, are you going to try to kill any of the GMs/Monsters with this build, or just AVs?

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Possibly, the problem with GM's is the fact that you have to immobilize them. GM's always run from Masterminds due to the game code so that makes it very difficult to defeat them and keep them in a -Regen state. However, I do plan to try and find a work around.

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Ugh, I hate choosing (Talking about Patrons) Ultimus could you plz put down your next AV fight using your Patrons because I did have my mind set on Black Scorpion but after all this arguing I'm starting to want Mu for the -kb, extra damage, the resistance, and the cool looking hold.

I hate choosing...

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Sorry could you clarify your question? I am not understanding what you mean. Anyways, here's why I went Mu Mastery:

1) Mu Mastery shield gives 27.5% resistance to Smashing/Lethal/Energy. (Approximately 41% Enhanced... maybe more depending on slotting)

2) Bodyguard is a 75% damage reduction. You take 2 shares and your robots take 1. If an attack deals 100 damage, you take 25, and your robots take 12.5. With resistance, the numbers become:

41% Resistance -- 59 damage.

59 reduced by 75% = 14.75 damage is what you take, and pets take 7.3525 damage. You've almost halved the damage you and your pets take.

Tecnically, your resistance went from 75% (With just body guard) to 86% resistance. You've nearly "capped" your resistance.

And for something fun (That isn't practical)

Mastermind Resistance Cap = 75%.

75% of 100 is 25.

With bodyguard, 75% of 25 is 6.25.

Essentially, a Mastermind has 93.75% resistance at this point.

3) As a Mastermind, -Def hurts. You do NOT resist defense debuffs and even if you did they still hurt. (Earth Thorns were a pain) Attacks that reduce Defense are Lethal or Energy (Radiation). Mu's shield covers this so that when your defense fails you can resist it.

There are also attackers that have near auto-hit capabilities. (Quartz in Devouring Earth) Once they drop that, you have no defense. I've had a character with Moment of Glory, I've had Moment of Glory MAXED defense slotting. (MOG is like a 75% base defense, it is over 110% enhanced) -- DE still hit me with ease (In fact I don't think they missed). DE also deal the majority of smashing and lethal so you are protected here again.

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Thugs do a massive amount of AE to and not just lethal. It was a post a few weeks back with a spreadsheet showing damage comparably.

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I know what post your referring to and well that should not be looked at as gospel. It didn't include Burn patches and it didn't include resistance.

If I pull out my enemy resistance spreadsheet A LOT of enemies have 50% resistance to lethal.

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Thugs have already been proven even with burn patches, to do more damage than bots

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I've never seen any proof. I could also pull out my enemy resist spread sheet and compare that way too. Lethal is pretty heavily resisted.

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what Ult is saying though is that he gets the def from IO set bonuses that he would get from scorp shield. But he misses the point of MM's entirely with that

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but does he get's the same defense bonus from IO's slotted in the Mu patron pool powers as a mace shield??? if not...then he's not getting the same defense he would have from mace because his defense would be much more if he tooken mace.

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Incorrect. Mace is typed defense. It will not stack with Range/Melee/AOE defense. Most IO defense bonuses are Range/Melee/AOE defense. Look at Blood Mandate, it gives 3.5 (3.75?) range defense. That will not stack with Scorpion shield. Look at the Immobilize set, it gives 3.75% melee defense. That will not stack with Scorpion shield.

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Scorpions shield doesn't protect from everything Ultimus. It protects from smashing, lethal, little energy and toxic.Most of the enemies you will be facing in your level range will be doing ice and fire damage as well as some other attack types.

And if your pets are down for the count, then you are two shots away from death except from a minion.

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I know... thats why I said I can reproduce Scorpion's Shield effects BETTER when I stack Range and Melee defense which protects against nearly everything. I have IO sets built to do this. If I went with SS, it doesn't stack.

I have just as much defense as you do only mine is Range and Melee. I also got 42% Res smash/lethal/energy.

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I disagree, Resistance fills holes. There will be times when your Defense is bypassed. There are opponents with high accuracy, to-hit buffs, and -Defense debuffs. When your defense fails, having 42% resistance to smash/lethal/energy is nice. Especially since most things that do -Def are Energy or Lethal.

Additionally, it reduces the damage your henchmen take when you get hit while in Bodyguard mode.

Finally, resistance sets allow you to slot Steadfast protection for a global +3% defense.

I dislike Scorpion's shield since it will not stack with +Range and +Melee defense which you find in a lot of IO sets.

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in proper context, you're more of a soloist. For large teams, scorpion's added defense stacked on your probots and FFG makes for better tanking. Also, if you take the medicine pool (you should), defense>resists when it comes to interrupts. same applies to trip mine toe bombing. Your usage of MM's is more of a specialized solo nature against specific opponents. But you could have accomplished what you're doing right now with scorpion anyway. I have, and so have many others.

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Thats where Stealth IO and Super speed come in. I tanked for an 8 man group yesterday and I was taking all the alphas. Never lost a single pet.

I simply go in and drop Poison Gas trap then trip mine and the spawn is nearly dead.

Like I said, its because Positron does -Def. Positron gave me no trouble at all. In fact, I just beat a second version of him that was +1 to me. (Most AV's are even level when on Relentless)

I tank AV's too and sometimes I don't even use Bodyguard because I don't need it.

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Resistance matters little to a mastermind. That's what bodyguard is for.

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I disagree, Resistance fills holes. There will be times when your Defense is bypassed. There are opponents with high accuracy, to-hit buffs, and -Defense debuffs. When your defense fails, having 42% resistance to smash/lethal/energy is nice. Especially since most things that do -Def are Energy or Lethal.

Additionally, it reduces the damage your henchmen take when you get hit while in Bodyguard mode.

Finally, resistance sets allow you to slot Steadfast protection for a global +3% defense.

I dislike Scorpion's shield since it will not stack with +Range and +Melee defense which you find in a lot of IO sets.

[/ QUOTE ]Well disagree all you want, but if your bodyguard defense is being bypassed, the piddly patron shield isn't going to save you as your most likely dead to begin with.

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Sorry Silver, but I can stack enough range and melee defense from IO sets to equal Scorpion shield. Those also protect against nearly all attacks. Not to mention I get a global 3% from Steadfast. You cannot do the same with resistance and IO's.

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I got a question for ya Ultimus; Do AVs run away from your burn-patch, or do they just sit and fry?

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They fry because I web grenade them to stay.

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Huh? I thought they had mega-mez-protection? Or does that not count immob?

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you can stack immob spamming WG. It takes a lot to immob an AV but they'll still get slowed. if you have the mace PPP web, they will stack faster.

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AV's only have boss level Immobilize protection. It takes two grenades to immobilize them.

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Resistance matters little to a mastermind. That's what bodyguard is for.

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I disagree, Resistance fills holes. There will be times when your Defense is bypassed. There are opponents with high accuracy, to-hit buffs, and -Defense debuffs. When your defense fails, having 42% resistance to smash/lethal/energy is nice. Especially since most things that do -Def are Energy or Lethal.

Additionally, it reduces the damage your henchmen take when you get hit while in Bodyguard mode.

Finally, resistance sets allow you to slot Steadfast protection for a global +3% defense.

I dislike Scorpion's shield since it will not stack with +Range and +Melee defense which you find in a lot of IO sets.

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I got a question for ya Ultimus; Do AVs run away from your burn-patch, or do they just sit and fry?

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They fry because I web grenade them to stay.

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What patron set did you take(if any)?

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Scirocco. By the way, I have to post Valk's screenshots which I will do in a bit.

Why do you ask?

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Very nice post, Brad. Thanks a ton!

I've played a ton of MMOs. I've yet to play one I couldn't take some ideas from. I think you short change the concept of street sweeping in other games a bit -- if all you do is instance missions, an MMO can begin to feel awfully empty and lonely! I like seeing other player wander by doing whatever it is they are doing while I'm gathering the whatsits for my collection quest. I even like competing for resource nodes despite the fact that it often makes me want to slap my fellow players. I definitely get where you are coming from; but I do think there is room for this style of play.

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Actually I say too much instancing is City of Heroes/Villains weakness. I completely agree with you Castle. I miss street sweeping and seeing other players. Sometimes it feels like Diablo II where the "world" is just a visual representation of a chat room and then you "login" to the game either by yourself or up to 7 others.

Since I come from old school MMORPGs (Ultima Online, Everquest up until Planes of Power), I always liked competition and the feeling of a shared world. I even dislike having instances in World of Warcraft.

I liked how in Everquest you had dungeons that were camped. It gave them life in my personal opinion. I also like the outdoor world of Everquest/World of Warcraft (See: Non - Instanced) since you can run into other people and interact.

I wouldn't mind if the developers (If it is even possible with this engine) to somehow create a co-op zone where there is no instance missions. All of the content and story arcs take place in the "real" zone. There could be certain spawns and NPCs you might have to hunt. (Destroy the Nemesis Horse Automation) Yes it would be similar to World of Warcraft but there should be a balance.

Been about a day or two since I last updated. This will be my last update for probably the next few days. I have successfully DESTROYED every Arch Villain and Hero up until level 45. I am currently level 43 on my Mastermind so now I must grind 43-45 so I can unlock more contacts. None of these Arch Villains were even remotely difficult for me. This character is a true Tank-Mage probably stronger then Illusion/Rad.

Swan gets some plucking

Look who decided to ambush me?

KABOOM! Need I say more?

High Five! Up high! Down Low! Too Slow!

Pummeling her with my Dark Melee

Looks like I got a holiday feast to cook

Manticore gets tamed

He's hiding around the corner

Uppercut straight to the head

Placing a Triage Beacon -- AWESOME power, Why skip it?

And the beast goes down

Citadel gets TERMINATED

Something interesting I want to note: Citadel ambushed me. I am suppose to lead a scientist to a computer in the mission to spawn him yet once I killed the Longbow Warden he came flying at me, I didn't even pick up the Scientist to escort. It made things kind of funny with the Scientist shouting remarks during the fight. So look at the combat log for some of the remarks the Scientist made.

I wish my Energy Melee was Blue

If only robots could know fear

Deflecting an energy blast

An explosion sends us flying!

His tier 9 deflects my attacks

And the robot lies broken.

This next guy is not an AV, but he was so cool I just wanted to post screenshots of him. He had an awesome move too.

Awesome NPC

Take a look

One AWESOME attack, summons tons of swords to attack you.

I sent Lilitu so far down that she came out the other side and landed back on Earth!

Infernal's mom again?

She's even easier then the last time

Uh oh, I'm confused!

My robot attacks

MORTAL COMBAT! FINISH HER! FATALITY!

Silver Mantis is squashed again

She never learns

Being blown away by my MagiTek

My time moves are too fast

Eeww! Dead bug! Get a tissue!

And now Ladies and Gentlemen, I present one of CoH's signature heroes. Many people said I would fail against him with the build I had, they were wrong. I totally wiped the floor with him.

Let me be honest, this fight was NOT difficult at all. It just requires placement of your Bots. You want them simply out of range of his Area of Effects. So without further delay:

Positron gets split

The man himself and Lead Designer

I keep him Immobilized so I can direct his AOE. My bots are out of his range.

My forcefield Generator got slammed at some points

Shortly before this, he did some weird attack (no visuals?) that wiped out 3 of my bots

Nearly dead.... time for the FINAL FINISH

Positron, I call this TRIP MINE and now for a Duke Nukem line...

HAIL TO THE KING BABY! BOOOOOOOM

Pretty good (I was soloing AV's there too) -- I built the Mastermind itself as a source of damage using Veteran attacks. Poison trap helped too with procs.

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Heh, i wonder just how good Bots/Traps, specifically your build Ultimus, is for general missions. Even just how fast it can run a paper.

I say this because you basically (from what I assume and understand), neuter AV regen down to 0%, or very low- hence its like a normal mob. And then you have enough def and bodyguard to tank without taking much damage, leaving your bots to take the AVs health down. So perhaps you are specialized for AVs then, and could not do bigger groups as fast.
Just my thinking.

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Big groups go down really fast -- I did a respec the other day (For fun and to help some people) and I was wiping out groups left and right.

1) Burn Patches are extremely strong, this is no surprise.

2) Trip Mines deal a TON of damage in groups.

3) Double proc Poison Gas. This here is like a trip mine in itself. You have two psionic procs in Poison gas which can go off 4 times in a single session. It can keep procing each time for the duration (I think up to 3 procs) -- Its AOE is huge.

If all 4 procs go off it can one shot orange con minions.

Most villains seek to further themselves. Mine is no different. I took an awesome screenshot of killing my patron in battle. I had to use the Star Wars quote because it fits so well. Here's how I imagine what is going on:

My character is laughing in a twisted sense. (Think Kefka)

There is a burning fire in his eyes that shows nothing but pure evil.

The energy swirls around him.

The Patron lies battered and broken about to be slain. (Or puking in this case)

The shot I wanted to share

Here's another large update: Some of these I've killed before, I post them because I like to show just how powerful I am. I make short work of ANY arch villain. This build is a true tankmage build. If you have any questions please ask.

Luminary goes back to the junkyard again

Now she's protecting this little school teacher.

Hasn't she learned? She can never defeat me.

Web grenade holds her in place

My MagiTek army is superior to her design

My final attack sends me flying back!

Mirror Spirit gets shattered

This was a fairly easy fight. I had the assistance of Ice Mistral in it. However, this Hero never stood a chance either way. She did have some interesting signature powers and moves. One was a toggle I believe that created all these rotating shields around her. The other was a smoke flash that allowed her to teleport around the map.

I wonder what she can do?

As soon as I engage her, she teleports!

My force field generator gets smashed

She is entangled and cannot move

Read what she says in the combat log in relation to my poison trap..

I Foreshadow another Hero dying

Another one of these WISDOM weaklings.

I land a direct hit

Foreshadow does a flying kick through the flames

His life force dwindles

And he falls before Ultimus

Malaise -- The wielder of the Dark Illusion set

This was an awesome fight. I never did the Issue 3 task force (Calvin Scott) so this was a great chance to kill him outside of the Praetorian arcs. I am convinced no melee character outside of Willpower could kill him due to the amount of fear he spams.

He is labeled a hero? And his description is a hero one too

He summons his army to attack me.

He uses a combination of Dark, Mind Control, and Illusion power

He powers enstill fear.. except to my robots -- Look how many are stacked on me

He tries creating more dark illusions

Maybe he should have picked Rad as a secondary?

Making a snow cone out of Ice Mistral

She doesn't learn, she's back for more.

Time to kill her again

Doesn't she understand my bots resist cold?

Is it chilly in here?

Only I can create a new world

Thanks for the exp

Ice Mistral? AGAIN?

In an effort to protect her Patron, she attacks me again in the Spirit World.

She makes quite the entrance

She's like that ex-girlfriend you cannot get rid of

I lay her to rest in an icy grave

And now the special feature of this post! Without further delay I present:

Scirocco: The apprentice will now become the Master

I will show I am greater then Scirocco

His artifacts will be no match for my magic and technology

OMG he killed Battle Drone! You Southpark line!!

Can the desert winds put out my flames?

Never trust a villain

Cackling maniacally -- I love this screenshot, I could just see my character laughing

I enjoy his honor, he wanted to make a new world, even if he couldn't live there due to the taint of his soul

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What level are you when fighting these AVs -- e.g., in the pics they show as lvl 40 ... are you also lvl 40 or what?

Also, what is your mission difficulty setting during the fights?

Thx.

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1) Arch Villains only spawn on Relentless. When they spawn, they are always the same level as you.

2) Thus, I am always the same level, if the AV is 40, I am 40, if the AV is 41, I am 41.

I know people have been excited about me reaching Grandville. Well, I've made it and here is the Arch Villains (And Heroes!) I've ran into so far and defeated.

Countess Crey makes a bad deal

She's been stealing from the Rogue Isles

Her psychic attacks are weak and my robots repair easily

Poison Gas makes her puke and choke

Hey look! I can do Kheldian moves!

Throwing up her lunch

Time to rip her soul with the black wand

I become distracted by the bosses she summons to her aid! Crey Power Tanks

After a chase she dies... into an interesting give it to me position *cough*

Working with my Patron, I was charged some new tasks of taking down the other Patrons' minions. Two of these I killed in my 20's, but I wanted to give them a chance again maybe they were stronger... I was wrong.

Silver Mantis, still as weak as ever

One funny thing I should note, Seeker Drones OWN. I didn't have my pets in body guard mode at one point and she's tossing her range attacks at me. I was wondering why the attacks were dealing such little damage (Because I had no damage resistance) and then I figured it out my Seeker Drones do one serious -DMG debuff.

Time to squash the bug... AGAIN

Shooting negative energy at her!

Taking a Respite to repair damage, the Caltrops prevented aid self

Spikes litter the ground

A well placed punch to the face

Lightning discharges once I finally claim her

Barracuda sleeps with the fishes, AGAIN

Man I want some new arch villains, I already beat down these guys!

Time to send you to the Pepperidge farm

Since there is a burn patch, I won't be having sushi

Making her puke

Negative energy blinds her

And I defeat the poor fish again

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for! The centerfold of today's update!

Serafina gets put back in the bottle!

If you've played COH, you know this girl is the little vixen genie that sells magic enhancements in Brickstown. Well it was time to destroy her and the fight was ANNOYING! Her damage wasn't extremely high and she was mostly psychic attacks. The annoying part was her surplus of knockbacks and pet entities that tossed me and my robots around.

Isn't she lovely?

Hurricane makes it hard to toe bomb

Until she forgets to use it

Yawn -- Time to take a nap

My pets are tossed and destroyed like rag dolls

With my upside down handstand attack, I defeat her though! Mission complete

TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE!

Earlier I had killed Aurora again, I didn't make a post when I did so I am adding it here. She is fairly easy and weak and I killed her once before but here was another encounter with her.

Aurora fades again

She just doesn't give up

Here I am slapping her

The flames burn!

Here have some caltrops!

Like she could stop me

And now for TODAY'S update!

ULTIMUS DESTROYS THE RIKTI LORD OF WAR

Special Note: In this map you can pick up three allies, Fusionette, Faultline, and a Rikti Boss. Yes I used them to beat this guy.

Special Note 2: This Arch Villain summons elite bosses, minions, Rikti Communicators (Which make portals), and more during the battle. It becomes a pretty large free for all.

The Lord of War himself

Here comes the towering giant

He attempts to escape through a tunnel...

But me and Faultline stop him in his tracks

Hey look! I am upside down!

Driving my Black Wand into him

It is hard to see, but there is tons of Rikti

A lot of those Elite Boss ships spawned too. Pictured here. Wonder if they count toward badge?

And here I deliver the death blow and my opponent teleports away. Mission Complete!

And I have another update tonight!

Infernal... AGAIN?

Not many screenshots since I already beat him

Tase of his own medicine

I beat Infernal so hard...

That his mom Lilitu came after me! And surprise twist!

Here comes Lilitu demoness from hell

I throw my deadly caltrops at her!

Then look who comes to join the PARTY! INFERNAL!!!!!!

ULTIMUS TAKES DOWN TWO ARCH VILLAINS AT ONCE!

With Lilitu in the background Infernal tries to attack me!

I'm being tag teamed by mother and son! Frozen Longbow by the way?

I begin punching Infernal! This guy just won't die!

Flames are everywhere!

While tanking Lilitu AND Infernal, I manage to slay Infernal

And now to destroy this demoness!

Lasers blast her from all directions

In her rage, ice spews all over the ground

Seeker drones explode everywhere!

Her life force grows thinner

Here I am placated and cannot attack her

But my pets still can!

Dodging her last ditch effort fireball

And then she joins her son

Baphomet, the Lord of Behemoths!

I stand toe to toe with the towering demon!

He goes down quickly but he has a trick up his sleeve

Healing Flames restores his health quite a bit

Seeker Drone attacks!

My sustained damage is too much as lasers pierce his body

The only person that will reign over this world is me

And here's one more!

Melting Ice Mistral's Heart

There lies the frozen beauty

Now to melt her ice armor

Her knockbacks and constant ice storm was annoying

Triage beacon could keep me and all my minions healed though

You can see her eyes shine through the gas trap

Missles fly over my shoulders and destroy Ice Mistral -- One of my favorite screenshots

And my final attack kills her CALTROPS WITH PROCS!

The proof is in the UI!

Wretch wants to fight? Didn't I save him?

His loyalty to Ghost Widow is foolish

Through time travel I've seen the future and he isn't in it

Look at his ugly face

Choke Wretch Choke!

A massive explosion erupts

Where's Wretch? (Where's Waldo?)

The fight draws nearly to the end! He defeats some of my minions..

Then I get careless, and with his Footstomp and his AOE Wail power, he destroys nearly everyone but my MagiTek Armor

However, my MagiTek armor is the sword of my army and quickly dispatched Wretch

Time for another update all!

Johnny Sonata's soul sings its last tune

One of the most annoying villains for a Mastermind

He flies around at super speed

I didn't clear the wailers so they all start aggroing for more fun

But they find my cleverly placed trip mines

Johnny's soul is still moving around like it is on exstacy

Until he gets stuck in the ceiling

He finally gets unstuck and goes flying around again luckily I webnade him

And more wailers find my traps!

And finally I destroy that poor soul

Indigo finds a surprise!

Time to give Indigo her present... Look at my buff icons and feet... TONS of mines and poison traps!

The explosion is so big it lights the screen up! Look at all those orange numbers too!

Look at her life, thats how much damage it caused

Now we begin throwing Caltrops at one another!

I block her attacks with my forearm guard

And I kill our purple friend.

And here's one more!

Melting Ice Mistral's Heart

There lies the frozen beauty

Now to melt her ice armor

Her knockbacks and constant ice storm was annoying

Triage beacon could keep me and all my minions healed though

You can see her eyes shine through the gas trap

Missles fly over my shoulders and destroy Ice Mistral -- One of my favorite screenshots

And my final attack kills her CALTROPS WITH PROCS!

The proof is in the UI!

Wretch wants to fight? Didn't I save him?

His loyalty to Ghost Widow is foolish

Through time travel I've seen the future and he isn't in it

Look at his ugly face

Choke Wretch Choke!

A massive explosion erupts

Where's Wretch? (Where's Waldo?)

The fight draws nearly to the end! He defeats some of my minions..

Then I get careless, and with his Footstomp and his AOE Wail power, he destroys nearly everyone but my MagiTek Armor

However, my MagiTek armor is the sword of my army and quickly dispatched Wretch


Edit: Added the above

Edit: Adding this in now

And I have another update tonight!

Infernal... AGAIN?

Not many screenshots since I already beat him

Tase of his own medicine

I beat Infernal so hard...

That his mom Lilitu came after me! And surprise twist!

Here comes Lilitu demoness from hell

I throw my deadly caltrops at her!

Then look who comes to join the PARTY! INFERNAL!!!!!!

ULTIMUS TAKES DOWN TWO ARCH VILLAINS AT ONCE!

With Lilitu in the background Infernal tries to attack me!

I'm being tag teamed by mother and son! Frozen Longbow by the way?

I begin punching Infernal! This guy just won't die!

Flames are everywhere!

While tanking Lilitu AND Infernal, I manage to slay Infernal

And now to destroy this demoness!

Lasers blast her from all directions

In her rage, ice spews all over the ground

Seeker drones explode everywhere!

Her life force grows thinner

Here I am placated and cannot attack her

But my pets still can!

Dodging her last ditch effort fireball

And then she joins her son

Baphomet, the Lord of Behemoths!

I stand toe to toe with the towering demon!

He goes down quickly but he has a trick up his sleeve

Healing Flames restores his health quite a bit

Seeker Drone attacks!

My sustained damage is too much as lasers pierce his body

The only person that will reign over this world is me