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Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby FDru on Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:15 am

Well it is obvious you prepped a Garlic Laden Trisword
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Sidestepper on Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:47 am

Just posted it to the wiki. Check the playthrough thread for details.
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Blovski on Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:39 am

Novel low-prep strat for fluffy dungeons.

Human Fighter, Prepped TT and backpacked Fake Beard (+5XP when placed in inventory, comes from a subdungeon, Unconvertible) for insta-level 2.

Basically, you get TT piety from the very start without the ridiculous investment that Yendor'd be, you skip a vulnerable level 1, and with learning and instant Tikki's edge, you're getting 3 XP from level 1s at level 2 (so, killing 3 level 1s will get you to level 3). With Weytwut or Wonafyt, you start getting 3+levelXP from lower levels. Then you just play a solid, fast-levelling TT, largely neglecting next and same level enemies until you get to the point where you can get a couple of 2-3 level higher kills.

Ideally you hit the boss fight and you can ding 2-3 times during, use 2xreflex and quicksilver potions and generally entertain yourself. Could stick on poison for novelty I guess (does TT poison count when you kill with the poisoning blow? if so, piety might be more or less positive for getting it early and tributing back).

Not a munchkin's dream but quite fun.
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby q 3 on Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:28 am

That sounds pretty fun. It's basically a "light" version of the Goblin Assassin, who can curbstomp anything short of Vicious Gaan-Telet. :D
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Lujo on Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:07 am

There's also a cracked amulet of Yendor which provides +5 XP upon consumption. You can find it in a subdungeon, not sure if it's lockerable, but would be better than Fake Beard.

And, err, that strat works in many places, it's practicaly worshiping TT with a prefferable class. With other guys what you do is inves in an easy level with a potion or something, and then simply join TT. It's how you do it. Tiki's Edge first, Dodging second (for random dodge piety for killing first strike popcorn). Poison, sadly, doesn't count on the killing blow.
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Sidestepper on Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:41 am

Blovski: That's hilarious! I wouldn't have even thought of backpacking that thing.

I just tried a new strat. Maybe it's just a novelty, or maybe it's the break that Earthmother needed. We'll see. I was able to beat Slime Pits using only fireballs, except for a bit of popcorn cleaning. Here's what I did:

Locker: Battlemage Ring
Thief: Blackmarket
Church: Earthmother
Mage: Extra Mana
Blacksmith: Sword
Alchemist: Transmutation
Potions: Burn Salve, Mana, Schadenfreude, two junk potions

The idea is to get as many levels of Greenblood as quickly as possible, while converting as hard so possible. Your fireballs will be incredibly strong, and you will be able to actually fireball Super Meat Man to death. I think you actually get more damage potential from this than you do with the Crystal Ball. It's cool to see all of the janky preps and boons put together and actually working.

Opening: Venerate Earthmother and start hitting Greenblood right away. Beeline for your glyphs. Get them all at first level. As a Wizard, you will almost certainly find either ENDISWAL, WEYTWUT, or PISORF, so this should be doable. Piety is more important than plants, so brick every plant that you see that isn't horribly in the way, even if you already have the xp bonus. You may need to brick a few popcorn to get started if you have unlucky plant spawns. Aim for Acid Blobs and Meat Men, since Acid Blobs don't leave bloodpools for Plantation and after a while, neither will Meat Men. I try to get 3-4 Greenbloods by 1st level.

Once you have all of your glyphs, use your Transmutation seal on the sword and convert your least favorite glyph. This will give you about 1 1/2 conversions and give you tons of gold. Then convert all of your potions except for Mana, Burn Salve, and Schadenfreude. Aggressively buy and convert shop junk. We are trying to drain the conversion potential out of our glyphs. We want ~20 mana at 1st level and 25-30 by the end. The only shop items you actually want to keep are the Mana Pendant and the Elven Boots.

Your fireballs should be doing about 8-10 damage, which is pretty good for a 1st level character. Find a nice level 3 monster, or maybe a level 4, and nuke it. Make sure you have the learning bonus from ENDISWAL when you do this!

Midgame: Keep bricking plants and keep spamming Greenblood. Don't be afraid to brick a few popcorn monsters, but remember to drop an Entanglement before doing so. Remember that you can desecrate Binlor, Dracul, Taurog and Tikki Tooki with almost no consequences.

Fight from at least 2 levels below every time. You need a "string of ding" to maintain your mana pool. Never waste mana. Brick a plant if you have spare magic, or rearrange the board with your utility glyphs. If you have PISORF, remember that it benefits from Corrosion, is cheaper than Fireball, and can be used to kill Gelatinous Blobs (the green ones with the Retaliate: Fireball trait).

Use your utility glyphs to manage plant spam. WEYTWUT is great for transplanting plants to the edges of the screen for later petrification, PISORF can push plants around in a pinch(but remember that they can die if they crash into something), and ENDISWAL basically makes all navigation problems go away. If you see something on the ground that you want, grab it right away, because there might be a plant growing on that square later.

If a specific plant is blocking a critical resource and you can't get around it, spend down all of your piety and then chop it down. While you're on Earthmothers hit list, go ahead and chop down any other potentially irritating plants. You can cure the resulting corrosion with Burn Salve, or just decide that you don't care. It's probably worth curing because Schadenfreude requires that you make a physical attack.

Endgame: Attack Tower of Goo near the end of 6th level and finish him with a ding. You won't even need Clearance or your potions. Now to set things up for Super Meat Man.

Explore the entire map. You aren't a Monk, you aren't going to regen fight. There are two ways to execute your attack.

The Professional: Knock out the remaining high level monsters as you explore and get yourself a hair below 10th level. Try to spend down all of your piety if you can. If possible, use your utility glyphs to position SMM near the altar. Empty your mana into SMM and then ding. Kill popcorn until there are 20 bloodpools on the screen, and then pop Plantation. Take as many hits of Greenblood as you dare, but leave some piety behind for Clearance. Nuke SMM again and then level up yet again (yes, you should have enough xp on the board to reach level 11). You can win this way without needing any of your potions or Clearance.

The Fun Way: Explore the dungeon and get to level 10. Don't even bother with midlevel tricks. Kill enough additional monsters to make Plantation worthwhile. Try to get your Greenblood total up to 10 or higher while still having enough piety for a few Clearances. Now blast SMM with one super spike, using potions and Clearance to create a single unbroken chain. What's awesome about this is that you never lose the burning effect because you never attack any popcorn. Your fireballs will be doing over 80 damage apiece and you should have enough firepower that you could kill him twice.
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Blovski on Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:02 pm

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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Lujo on Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:07 pm

[quote="Blovski"]@Lujo, you don't have to replace the fake beard every run, though. If you wanted to go for an ideal run with this kinda strat I guess I'd just prep Yendor along with convertible sword and all that jazz.

Well, true, the beard's a novelty :D It never occured to me that you actually need it for the awesome strategem of... worshiping TT with a class which obviously sinergizes? :) I just though to suggest the cracked amulet so more people would try, since it's doable without either, and the beard has a big aversion factor for the average powermonger...

Incidentaly, did anyone ever walk into a dungeon with a blue bead on a Bloodmage (hint, it's broken and also amazing to see)...
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Sidestepper on Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:13 pm

Successful acid caster run on all of the HARD side dungeons (eg Cursed Oasis, Berserker Camp, Slime Pits, Magma Mines). You really want ENDISWAL for Magma Mine and Cursed Oasis, to the point where I would consider More Glyphs over Extra Mana. You cannot win Cursed Oasis without PISORF.

Cursed Oasis really doesn't suit this approach well. Your plants and corrosions get split across two screens, and the boss has fireball retaliation. The AAs are miserable, although I found that a good way to deal with them is to spend down all of my piety and use the plants as burning triggers. Beat an AA-9 at 3rd level that way. PISORFing the boss is a pain because it very position specific and you will swear that Earthmother is trolling you with her plant placement every time you ask for Clearance. If you need a Wizard win here, send a punchomancer instead.

I wish it was possible to use this strat in VICIOUS settings, but those dungeons punish Earthmother a lot and Greenblood specifically. The only one it might work in is VHoS, but even then it doesn't sound all that hot. Cramped hallways and tons of Death protection monsters that could care less how much your fireballs do per shot.
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Re: Strategy Thread for talking about Strategies

Postby Naoya on Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:55 pm

Since the magefist doesn't get any love:

Halfling Wizard of Mystera Annur with Magefist, Mana Booster, Schadenfreude and Questitems. (Eliteitems if there is no Manaburn)

Basically what happens when Rogue and Monk get a Child, just Manabased.

First off, Magefists doubles the strength of your Fireballs, but also gives everything Retaliate:Fireball.
Double Fireball Dmgeffectively means half the manacosts. Things that formerly needed 4 fireballs to go down will now need 2, and so on. In fact, you'll probably need even less because you achieve MAX-burn with every fireball.
This is quite helpfull as you can now take down stronger Monsters without filling up your Manapool, which saves resources and makes leveling easier.

Actual Strategy: Join Mystera with level 1, get refreshment and farm piety with her while you level. Refreshment turns your glyphs into splendid Fuel - youll get both Mana and Healthpotions from it. Only convert them for bosses though -
your enhanced fireballs will kill most other things rather fast. You don't care that much about RTF because of 2 things - Firstoff, you only need half the fireballs due to double damage - which means you'll get less hit by RTF.
Chances are, without B2P, you're not going to spend those Hp meaningfull anway, so yeah.
Also, RTF is either the last or second-to-last thing on the hitorder, and Fireball goes first, which is basically first strike for free. Also, the dmg allows you to regenfight somewhat.

Schadenfreude can be optimaly used since youre going to get hit anyway, and while its not really needed, you can also Use Whupaz via Reflex to soften up a boss .

Questitems simply because of Manaburn/Soul Orb. The only real downside of Magefist is that you also get hit with effects, and Manaburn is pretty much the only thing that will stop you in your Tracks. If there is no manaburn, prep Elite for the Battlemagering and take flames - your dmg should ideally come from Fireballs only anyway, and this really makes

Granted, this strategy is Fireballonly and only works with dedicated Casters - but its something differend, and as long as the dungeon isn't loaded with M-res-monsters, it works quite good. Defeated both Naga City and Dragon Isles with it .(Perfect for those RTF bosses.)


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