Back from 74, NM even harder now ?

hey guys,

i am back to dungeon defenders after spending some time playing other games. ive got a app lvl 75 builder (stats between 350 and nearly 500) and i managed to finish the first 3 levels of the campaing on nightmare. but i am not able to beat other levels on nightmare, cause the new mobs (especially the sharkens) are just killing my defence. ive read some ppl say "try to do endless spires" but i am not able to handle those defence kicking fish-guys. i think the guides like this http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?36080-Loot-progress-path-for-dummies are great, but do not really work anymore :-( ... what do you think i should do now, to improve my stats ? i do not feal ready for the other dlc maps cause i got no good dps. should i play app ? should i swap to warrior ? should i gear up a dps ? do i have to farm survival ?

greetings sajidh

hey guys,

i am back to dungeon defenders after spending some time playing other games. ive got a app lvl 75 builder (stats between 350 and nearly 500) and i managed to finish the first 3 levels of the campaing on nightmare. but i am not able to beat other levels on nightmare, cause the new mobs (especially the sharkens) are just killing my defence. ive read some ppl say "try to do endless spires" but i am not able to handle those defence kicking fish-guys. i think the guides like this http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?36080-Loot-progress-path-for-dummies are great, but do not really work anymore :-( ... what do you think i should do now, to improve my stats ? i do not feal ready for the other dlc maps cause i got no good dps. should i play app ? should i swap to warrior ? should i gear up a dps ? do i have to farm survival ?

greetings sajidh

Try Aquanos survival on insane. The pet rewards are decent (though you have to goto 20 not 15), the XP is good, and in the later waves you will start to see decent myth drops. Also completing the new content on insane (monster fests and challenges) can yield decent rewards. Ideally you would want to get your stats closer to the 1K range, then start working on either original maps on survival NM or shards on NM campaign/survival.

Also for most successful builds on nightmare you will require both an aura and trap builder to provide support. You will also need either a good app/hunt guardian, a monk with tower boost, or an EV to build buff beams (or 2 of the 3) for later wave nightmare games. If you choose to the summoner provides a new pool of building units you can use to provide support as well.

Also, if spires is too hard, try ramparts. I've always found that map to be easier.

Gas traps are crucial around now. It's going to be nearly impossible to beat maps with just an apprentice. Both auras and traps are vital, like Lordofthebong already stated.

But yeah, nightmare mode is quite hard, with the djinn and the sharken. There's been a whole lot of changes since you left, but most of those have made it easier to play NM, such as an overall mob damage decrease, or the huge buff to monks.

people said do endless spires? o.O That's the map i had the MOST trouble with sharken on <.< (excluding shards maps)

Personally I find you just have to place things smartly, sharken actually take quite a while winding up before they charge, and they're not ~THAT~ beefy, so make sure that they're caught charging up in range of w/e dps tower you're using =]

I've managed to solo every campaign map on NMHC except summit with just the squire (i don't have any other well geared heroes that i use)

hey guys,

i am back to dungeon defenders after spending some time playing other games. ive got a app lvl 75 builder (stats between 350 and nearly 500) and i managed to finish the first 3 levels of the campaing on nightmare. but i am not able to beat other levels on nightmare, cause the new mobs (especially the sharkens) are just killing my defence. ive read some ppl say "try to do endless spires" but i am not able to handle those defence kicking fish-guys. i think the guides like this http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?36080-Loot-progress-path-for-dummies are great, but do not really work anymore :-( ... what do you think i should do now, to improve my stats ? i do not feal ready for the other dlc maps cause i got no good dps. should i play app ? should i swap to warrior ? should i gear up a dps ? do i have to farm survival ?

greetings sajidh

I posted a help thread like this not that long ago. I was having troubles with Nightmare even BEFORE the Sharken were added.

You'll NEED more characters. A level 75 Apprentice just isn't going to cut it. You say Sharken are giving you issues? You NEED gas traps or ensnare auras... at least one of the two. Thankfully, he should be able to get through Glitterhelm Insane (or Hard) Hardcore, which will get you a good amount of XP for another character (a Squire and then a Monk or Huntress, but ideally all 3). Bring in the Apprentice, build for 2 waves, then switch to another character and sit back upgrading (trying to avoid damage) and suck in all that XP. You'll want all those characters up to level 74 so you can equip matching sets of Mythical stuff.

But it essentially boils down to needing Squire crossbow turrets, and then Huntress gas traps and/or Monk ensnare auras. If you feel like trying to skip steps, a Monk ensnare combined with a strength drain might allow you to use fireball towers to avoid having to level up a Squire for crossbow turrets, but you'll probably still need the Huntress for traps to help with spiders. I haven't tried it, though.

Getting mythical armor... a lot of people say Endless Spires. You don't have to BEAT levels to get mythical armor. Beat the first wave or two and keep looting chests for the decent armor. It'll be a rare thing to find drops from enemies that are useful for anything other than cash, but after a few hours of grinding mythical stuff you should have a complete set.

Now, I didn't do that. I did Endless Spires for a while, but then moved to Glitterhelm. I'm not saying that's the way to go, but I had a Huntress for a main and so all I had to do was run around managing Ogres and Djinni while a gas+proximity+inferno combo outside each door held off nearly all the monsters while a couple Apprentice towers tried to fight off Wyverns. The plus side is more treasure chests, Djinni that don't cut across the level however they please, and (I was hoping) better loot. The down side is WAAAAAAY more running. A Huntress is fast, though... an Apprentice is not.

So, let's warp ahead 10-15 hours of gameplay for you and assume you've got a full set of mythical stuff for a Squire, Monk and Apprentice. There's a layout for Magus Quarters Nightmare Hardcore Survival that you might be able to tweak enough that you can farm IT for mana and gear. If your tower stats are above 300 you should be able to at least hang on long enough to make good money, even if you didn't find good gear that time around.

http://ddplanner.com/?l=5560,magus-quarters-very-low-stats-up-to-15

This was the big next step I needed and couldn't figure out on my own. Once you can start getting to wave 15 or so regularly, you'll hopefully start having actual options for equipment and you'll definitely have the money to start maxing it. If I could only give you one piece of advice, it would be do whatever it takes to start running a setup very similar to this.

Eventually, you'll want to fill out that full roster of Squire, Monk, Huntress, and add an EV. Most likely, these four should get you through any Nightmare map once you're equipping them with gear you find farming Magus Quarters. Once you've gotten to the point where you can actually be picky about your mythical stuff, you should start knocking out more Nightmare Campaign levels and get back on a track to some sort of progress.

Hey,

u guys are amazing ;-) ... thank you for helping me!

farming glitter xp for those 4 chars (monk, huntress, squire and later ev) -> getting myths for them -> farming survival -> completing campaing

so if i got it right, i do not really need a dps character ? and i do not need a summoner ? last question is: when i skill the ev do i need something else than hp and attack ? the other skills are for defence i do not really need, do i ? same question for huntress: do i need dmg, when i only use her for gas trap ?

thank you for helping me! those texts really made my day :-)

greetings sajidh

Your stats are very low. The easiest thing to do is check player shops to try to buy your way to around 800-1000 stats. The area of progression you're in is quite broken to the point where buying your way out of it is probably worth it.

Hey,

u guys are amazing ;-) ... thank you for helping me!

farming glitter xp for those 4 chars (monk, huntress, squire and later ev) -> getting myths for them -> farming survival -> completing campaing

so if i got it right, i do not really need a dps character ? and i do not need a summoner ? last question is: when i skill the ev do i need something else than hp and attack ? the other skills are for defence i do not really need, do i ? same question for huntress: do i need dmg, when i only use her for gas trap ?

thank you for helping me! those texts really made my day :-)

greetings sajidh

You'll still want a DPS character. The key to MY early farming for mythical equipment was being able to take out a djinn or two early in the wave and as fast as possible before an ogre shows up, which you'll then have to do on your own as well. A mythical retribution from the Assault Challenge Pack (even just on hard) worked pretty well for me, but a lot of people say DPS with a Monk, and I don't know what the cool kids are using as a weapon with him.

The Assault Pack also gives a decent Apprentice weapon, so you may find something useful for your Apprentice, too.

Your EV will be used for boost beams as well as walls, so you'll want to spread the points out a little more than just tower health. If I've read correctly, boost beams work their magic according to how your EV has his stats distributed. So if he's defense health-heavy, the boost beams will boost defense health more than the other stats. If you're just planning to use your Huntress for gas, then probably split priority on health and attack rate for the traps, because traps with high health and low rate aren't effective, and if they have low health and high rate then you have to maintain too much. I actually have damage and health on my Huntress, but I use her for more than just gas traps.

http://dungeondefenders.wikia.com/wiki/Stat_Progression_Graphs

If you look at these graphs, you see that a lot of the stats start to get a reduced return on investment at pretty low numbers, so after, say, 150 on your tower speed, the next 150 won't be NEARLY as helpful. Defense health and damage tail off much less severely, so I tend to throw points into there when I level up, especially when I get mythical stuff, because your range and rate should be in that range where points start to matter less, so may as well go for health or something unless you REALLY are going for something special. But maybe I rely on those graphs too much as well.

A dps hero is quite helpful, as it allows you to interrupt djinn, or kill big mob buildups. Things will become ugly if you let a big group stay put for a while with a djinn buffing everything. Most important part of a dps hero is his resistance. Max those out as often as you can. Remember that you can upgrade past the cap at each ten levels. You may want to find a decent dps pet too, as pet damage is going to rise above your hero damage quite easily.

Depending on your play style, you may just equip one of your builders with a dps pet though. You don't actually need a dps hero that badly to beat campaign mode.

Summoner makes things easier, as you get a lot more defenses out on one map, but again not that necessary for campaign mode.

Damage increases the gas trap active time. It's a good thing to have, but attack rate is a bit more crucial if you're just going for gas traps. Short reset time may prevent the sharken charge.

Oh and I would recommend moving onto the shards campaign once you got your basic set of myths and you get to about 400-600 on your one or two main stats. Of the three, I recommend Misty, as it's easiest to setup. Not sure how different the loot quality is from Moraggol/Aquanos though. You don't have to beat the boss, it's mostly about seeing how far you can get and finding upgrades on those waves.

Oh and make sure to always play hardcore mode. You get much better loot that way.

I can definitely say its worth it to invest in the Series EV and Summoner DLC heroes, EV is practically mandatory in nightmare for survival runs, and summoner offers loads of support that allows you to be more flexible with your DU when you otherwise wouldnt be able to be. Ramparts on Nightmare/hardcore/mixed mode is a pretty good map for getting mythics and transcendent items. With EV and Summoner its a very easy map to farm on and low stress :) However with your low stats, i would definitely farm Magus quarters for a while until you get your stats in the 800's at the very least, preferably 1k's.

hey its me again,

i need some more helpful advices again ;-) ...

i played some hours during the last 2 weeks and geared up my squire now instead of my app and lvled a lot of chars. so at the moment i got a lvl 76 squire with 1100/1400/600/800, a 74 monk builder, a 74 hunter bilder, a 74 ev waller/buffer, a 74 summoner, a 74 "dps" monk with bad gear. all of those other chars got around 500 in every stat and i finished nm campaing execpt the last map and made it to wave 24 in survival nmhc on magus, using my squire in combar phase.

most of the gear i am wearing on my squire i bought from other players, but i d like to farm my own gear from now on. do i have to go on farming survival? my problem bout the dlc maps is: u need a dps char to kill the boss, don t u? my monk is about 140.000 dps wich is really poor ...

some advices to progress from now on? my last few ours felt a bit wasted, trying to beat a map survival nmhc or doing the campaign maps, failing moster fest, etc ...

greeting sajidh

Play misty campaign and gear your alts up a bit more (and with luck your squire too). You could also work on aquanos campaign, which could get your squire a bit higher too (but that will be hard with undergeared alts)

Once the misty build is solid enough to not get sharked with any regularity, get a 100% block weapon and a melee pet on your squire and sit in front of the queen. You can also use the summoners minions to kill the shards bosses

It sounds like you're close to where I'm at right now.

Do another survival run and spend all that mana on your Monk's weapon. Alternatively, if your Monk's weapon is terrible, try the "Unlikely Allies" challenge on Nightmare a few times to get a selection of Monk weapons and then level them up. About 200-300 million mana should get you over that 140k DPS. I play with a hybrid Monk that's getting over 600k. My friend loves his Hero Boost a lot, too, so I could suggest putting spare points from leveling up into that. A DPS hero should be over 500k to really even be useful in Nightmare.

Pets may help a lot, too. I find that those Imp or Bael pets that heal towers that you stand near helped us a lot doing Magus Quarters because we had Ogres summoned in front of all the walls that took a lot of damage. Or a genie pet that'll let you run your tower boost and hero boost simultaneously for a decent amount of time to heal walls and wreck ogres at the same time.

We farmed nearly all the gear we're using doing Magus Quarters survival. Try turning on Mix Mode? The loot will get good faster, but you'll be in mortal danger a lot faster thanks to those damn ninjas. Making it to 20 on Mix Mode might give you some better gear if you can pull it off. I haven't tried any of the Eternia Shards maps, but I hear the loot there gets better. Moving up to Endless Spires or Hall of Court for NMHC Survival might be worth it too, I suspect the loot will be better there as well.

These are all just guesses at this point... my crew is about where you are, but I have the benefit of friends to help me.

If sharken is all that's hard: get an aura initiate and build an lightning,ensnare and strenght drain aura in 1 spot. (maybe even add a gas trap). This will stop lots of mobs from attacking anything. Build an app/squire wall in the aura and everything will die