Toe-to-Toe With Umbra

[Guest Tessera]

I figured this question might belong in "Spoilers..."

 

I was just curious and wanted to ask if anyone has tried fighting toe-to-toe with Umbra, on the game's highest difficulty settings. By "toe-to-toe," what I mean is actually trading shots with her for the entire fight... up close and personal.

 

I know lots of people use clever tricks, such as getting up on top of a broken pillar or up on an unreachable ledge (as I usually do) and then just wearing her down with ranged attacks. But today, I decided to take her on at level 26 and on the hardest setting. This time, I wanted to actually get up in her face and try to stay there.

 

Well, I got seriously destroyed. I used a sneak attack with a poisoned and enchanted blade as an opener. It hurt her plenty, but nowhere near what I expected. I said "Oh crap..!" and switched to casting a chain of Daedroths at her as we fought... which helped a lot, but she still tore my well-developed main character to pieces in the end. It didn;t take long, either... despite my use of a bunch of potions and healing spells on myself.

 

I was just wondering if any of the "pros" out there had any interesting advice for a straight-up melee fight with the ultra-tough Umbra. I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and go back to hitting her from range. Sheesh... just *once* I'd like to actually melee that hyper elf to death. :unsure:

[Abramul]

Haven't fought her myself, although I might have attacked her once because I thought she was a critter...but have you tried:

(The below could be via either spell, poison or enchantment)

--- Paralyze

--- Damage Strength

--- Calm

[Povuholo]

Desintegrate weapon/armor also works nicely. There is some kind of katana for sale in the imperial city (Sunderblade I think, or the other one) that does 100 pts desintegrate armor. Or weapon, I'm not sure. Still, it's useful.

[Jollepoker]

I also had problem with Umbra the first times I took her... But after some reserch I found that she didn't like two-handed swords that much. This wasn't on the hardest settings, but I hope it will help anyway.

 

Also, I would recomand a very fast weapon, to make here unable to attack.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Did you max out your armor by enchanting them with various shield spells? Having 85 Armor that cannot be disintegrated or worn down should be of some help.

[Guest Tessera]

Did you max out your armor by enchanting them with various shield spells? Having 85 Armor that cannot be disintegrated or worn down should be of some help.

 

Yep, I equipped my character with heavy armor, each piece of which has a shield enchant on it.

 

It's just that, at that difficulty, she hits 6 times harder than normally... and she hits hard as hell even on the "gimp" setting.

 

I appreciate the ideas and I tried a few things last night that you folks have suggested:

 

(1) I used a Daedric dagger for speed, enchanted with Disintegrate Armor charges.

(2) I took turns hitting Umbra with Paralyze and weaken strength spells.

(3) I then hit her with an Encumbrance spell when I needed to get some distance to heal up. This was nice, because she usually runs after you at damned near warp speed.

(4) I opened with a sneak attack again (for the 6x dmg boost), wearing the unique Khajiiti ring for added stealth.

 

I managed to win this time... it took me about 7 or 8 minutes (and about 20 potions). She's still a major pain in the buttskie on that difficulty, but the suggestions worked..!!! :D

 

Many thanks..!!! Raven looks hawt now, in her Umbra armor and sword. I'll be enchanting it with some Sigil Stones.

 

Man, that was one helluva fight... easily the hardest in the entire game.

[cryocry]

I won against Umbra with an Iron Shortsword on the hardest difficulty!

[Sypron]

Two little things i find very handy against any enemy:

1) A very good block skill. I think block can benifit anyone, granted that they use it at the right time. If you ever find yourself with a shield up against an enemies shield, they will always give in first, and attack, and stagger, and die.

2) Theres a mod called "bullet time" (forgot where it is) that allows you (with OBSE) to slow down time at the press of a button. At the cost of your vision (it gets blurred) you can anticipate every attack. It always gives you the edge in battles. Like if a rat jumps at you you can time your attack so you hit it just before it hits you.

[dreth]

One thing that I always do when facing her is the dodge roll. When she charges at you dive to the side and hit her before shes ready for another hit. Another way is to use lots of reflect damage enchantments. I enchanted all my armor so every time Umbra got a hit in she hurt herself :D . The final piece of advice I have is that when you sneak attack her have your weapon heavily enchanted and then poison it with the best mixure you have or can make.

[Guest Tessera]

One thing that I always do when facing her is the dodge roll. When she charges at you dive to the side and hit her before shes ready for another hit.

 

I gotta practice that move some more... I've always been a spastic when it comes to that combo. Maybe I need to drink more caffeine for Umbra... she moves awfully fast and my fingers sometimes just aren't quick enough. :(

 

Ahh, well... at least I finally beat her on the uber setting. That woman hits like a freight train.