Duskruin Arena - Strategies?

[LivderaDeralleur]

With Duskruin on the horizon, I'm curious as to the strategies everyone else employs in the arena for different level/class combos. I realize it's very subjective, though it'd be interesting to see how everyone else handles things - perhaps it'll spark some ideas for others to try during the next run.

The character I usually take in is only L45, but he is a THW Berserking Warrior with a fully bonded 6x perfect maul and 7x mist armor full plate.

I've sort of been going into the habit of doing the 'WATCH' command immediately, doing what ever action and then open swinging 2-3 times - usually kills them by then, if they're squishy. When golems used to be a thing that showed up, I'd use 'BERSERK' on them, but otherwise saved stamina for 'BERSERK'ing the champions. I don't have any Ambush training on this guy and am not sure how successful opening aiming may be - might try this instead of just open swings, as his 2x CM may be enough.

With this strategy I was usually good to get to 20 creatures killed and at least once I got all 25. Had a bit of a score dip, I think, when the score formula got tweaked a bit last run, though.

I've yet to use the command that gives you some stamina/mana back - would be interesting to know if anyone uses that successfully without gimping their score.

What strategies does everyone else use?

[Aganii]

For a warrior the basic strategy is to focus mstrike or open ambush the normal critters and berserk the champions. However, you can crit kill the champions too if you dont want to berserk unless they changed them. It requires 2 death crits(ie left eye and right eye) instead of one. This should work with mauls as well (head then neck). Quickstrike and stamina burst are great tools to use as well to further your success.

[beldannon5]

I can kill majority of non champs without one swing but usually berserk champs. If lucky i can get berserk to last through like 4 or more creatures. Level 90 now so not sure how it will go we shall see

[Archigeek]

I find that TWC is the most effective method. One of the challenges is that you are on a timer, and misses that take full RT are a problem when time is important. TWC gives you more strikes per attack, so if you miss with one, odds are that the other one will hit. It doesn't hurt that I'm TWC hurling, but even without the hurling the premise is still the same: more strikes per attack. Mstrike the champs and one strike is usually enough.

[LivderaDeralleur]

Hm. Good thoughts.

I've actually not tried AIMing anything with my Warrior as of yet - no Ambush training and 'BERSERK' usually slaughters anything pretty quickly.

I do sometimes get lucky/unlucky with the BERSERK in the Arena where it keeps going even after killing one of the creatures and will kill 3-4 in a row. Though then there is the issue of it running out right before the champion and then I have no stamina left to re-start the Berserk. (Or I run into a harder to kill creature and the trap goes off before I can kill the thing while berserking.)

Had no idea 2 crits would kill a champion - may have to try that this run.

Has anyone made a Sniper build work in the Arena? My Sniper Ranger seemed to fail hard there, especially at the champions. She'd 1-shot kill most of the other creatures and then take too long plinking at the champions.

[Ososis]

My anecdotal experience is that if you kill a critter on the EVEN rounds of your berserk, it will carry over to the next combatant. So if it takes 2 rounds to kill each critter your berserk will just keep on keeping on. If I continue on to a new combatant and kill them the first round, berserk almost always ends.

Know your enemy. Once you get them figured out a bit you will know how to deal with each specifically, be it feint, ambush, mstrike, or berserk. This also is a big deciding factor in the arena, what lineup you get. If all my champions are brawlers, I stroll through it like nothing, get me caught berserking on a turtle for 9 rounds and I'm boned.

Also, if it wasn't mentioned. HAVE DEEDS! They will prevent spell loss from death in the arena.

[LivderaDeralleur]

Ambushing may be too much for my Warrior at this point - tried it a bit and it's an 8 sec RT when ambushing with his maul. And he doesn't hit his mark all the time. Seems a better gamble to just swing open twice and rely on the high damage. His RT swinging open is only 5 secs. I can do qstrike -3 to get the Ambush RT down to 5, but it's a big stamina hit.

Might be able to do Ambush when he's a higher level and has some Ambush ranks under his belt.

[Ososis]

The important thing about ambushing is it combines cman AND ambush. At a certain point, your cman skill will be enough to make up weak ambush. I had 30 ambush most of my life and that was plenty, though i also 3x cman. The point being that to be good at open ambushing, you don't need to have even 1x to do it, though it's probably not super viable to get set up before this arena. Yeah, that RT hit is rough, though the magic of the maul is it's ALWAYS crush, making targeting the head a pretty solid kill shot maneuver. Not sure if you have looked into your AGI/DEX thresholds, if you are close to one you may be able to take 1RT off ambushes and mstrikes with some junker enhancives.

[SHAFT]

I just did the arena for the 1st time and only got through the 3rd champion before time ran out.

Any suggestions for pure wizards?

[Warriorbird]

24 ranks of ambush gets you there, RE: Warrior aiming.

[Wowfool]

I just did the arena for the 1st time and only got through the 3rd champion before time ran out.

Any suggestions for pure wizards?

Bring lots of wands. Wands + rapid fire = win. Otherwise I don't think a mid level wiz can consistently get past 4-5 bosses. I win maybe 1 in 4, but almost always get past 4 bosses so perhaps i'm missing something.

My strategy: Rapid fire / bolt. Wait for RF cooldowns on first 3 bosses. Keep mana up with leech. After 3rd boss rapid fire stays up and I use wands. Mana is reserved for RF and e-wave. This always gets boss 4, but sometimes a high DS fucker will burn my wands before I get to the last boss.

-Zoliar

[Warriorbird]

Sometimes I open swing, before aim, then follow up with an aimed shot to save roundtime with my warrior. It'd be better if I was running spears or bastard swords so I could aim with a lighter weapon or one handed. I'd absolutely do UAC if there was a UAC berserk available.

[Ghost]

Sometimes I open swing, before aim, then follow up with an aimed shot to save roundtime with my warrior. It'd be better if I was running spears or bastard swords so I could aim with a lighter weapon or one handed. I'd absolutely do UAC if there was a UAC berserk available.

Think Warriors and melee types do much better in the arena, at least at levels 80 on down.

[LivderaDeralleur]

My strategy does seem to be to do an open swing first and, as I'm unable to reliably aim yet, either start a Berserk or continue swinging. A lot of the time I got lucky and got a kill crit on the first swing. My Stance of the Mongoose rank 3 really kicked in on this end, too - several times I was able to parry/retaliate on the creature's first swing at me and killed them. Other times it was a free extra 3s swing that helped stun/leg them - saved a lot of time!

I only died once due to being stuck in Berserk on a champion and they managed to crit kill me with a trap. Though I've had that happen loads of time without being crit killed - was just bad luck, I suppose.

I actually got the full 250 BS payout 3-4 times this run - first time for me! I seemed to average 225 with 184 being a rare low payout if I got slowed down at an inopportune time. But 90% of the time I got 200 or above. I also managed to kill all 25 creatures a good amount of the time. It was very rare for me not to get past the 4th champion - a lot of times I'd run out of time trying to kill the 5th champion.

I imagine I'll have enough Ambush ranks by the next DR run this year and I may be able to add Ambush/aimed swings into my strategies. Only issue is, as a Dwarf, I think the lowest aimed swing for a maul seems to be 7 seconds. I am at 8 seconds right now and need +5 more to my Agi/Dex to hit that threshold.

I still have another 50-count booklet, but I think I'm going to use that on the Sewers. I'm all Arena'd out. Sad I didn't get a pendant, though.

[LivderaDeralleur]

What do other GOS members use for sigils in the Arena, I wonder?

I've just been using Sigil of Defense and Sigil of Offense due to their lower cost and longer duration. I've been conserving stamina for Berserk. But perhaps adding in one of the other sigils at an opportune time would be a good use of stamina.

I do have an ensorcelled weapon (T2), so I didn't fry my nerves at all this time around like I did my first run through the Arena and trying to keep sigils up.

[rolfard]

I put up mending and concentration along with defense and offense for all hunts.

[beldannon5]

I have done the arena about 80 times this time around. I have beat it everytime but 3. once I dind't have arenawatch on and my head got pushed into a spike by at champion and i died. Twice i got a level 3 wound on arm or hand off a major hit and had to surrender. I woudl say I get close to 250 everytime. I still have not found a single good thing but I am having fun and selling bloodscrip

[Wowfool]

Lots or creatures are affected by bane. I keep major bane up 100%.

[Erous]

I'm a blunt and board paladin and each day I've been able to get a perfect run at least once, but not consistent. More frequently I finish all critters within the time window. I'm also not capped yet, so I'm not pushing any training caps. Here's my strat:

Full offensive
Bonded weapon with infused 1615
1617
Sigils running for GoS - Offense, defense, Major Bane and Major protect
Arenwatch running
Ambush head for all critters except Grahnks, Mammoths, champs and Trolls (I'm a dwarf)
If I miss a head shot, target 3x mstrike and repeat
Troll/Grahnk/mamm take an ambush leg, then ambush neck
1st champ gets a self cast 1615 then mstrike, sometimes I'll mstrike again within the cooldown
Other champs get a beseech spikestar with focused mstrike

The only time I typically don't make it is if somehow I get a turtling critter. I've seen a few that sit in defensive where their DS is just below my AS, it's pretty f'ing annoying, but it hasn't been frequent.

[Maerit]

I just did the arena for the 1st time and only got through the 3rd champion before time ran out.

Any suggestions for pure wizards?

What level wizard and what society? Many pures do a fixskill for the arena.

[Tenser]

I did the arena 7 times with my level 51 ranger. The bloodscript varied from 110 to 249, with the average coming in around 180. I made some mistakes, so I probably can get my average up to 200 with more practice.

Tenser is level 86 now and pure trained in COL society. I have a fixskill sitting there at this point, so I could try retraining for the arena. What would be more effective? THW/Pole Arms or Ranged?

[BriarFox]

Not much strategy to it for me: I just incant 140 and fire, fire, fire. I'll 615 the champions as well, but that's about it.

[LivderaDeralleur]

What build are your guy's Rangers?

My L51 Sniper Ranger seemed to have a horrid time in the Arena when I tried her there initially. She was good at eye shotting the regular creatures, but the champions were annoying. That and losing the arrows at the end if you didn't gather fast enough was a PITA.

I also had issues with the traps pulling her out of hiding - perhaps I should try her there again at some point since I think there were some improvements since then for ambush/hiding builds.

[Tisket]

Is it possible to get someone to post an actual log of a Duskruin champion fight please? Or is there another thread where logs are posted?

[Aganii]

Is it possible to get someone to post an actual log of a Duskruin champion fight please? Or is there another thread where logs are posted?

This is a fight showing a crit kill on a champion instead of the usual berserk or mstrike. I usually ony try for crit kills on champions when I am low on stamina or happen to have a haste effect to minimize the risk of missing my target. As for GOS sigils I use offense, defense and major bane.


R>am
You are now in an offensive stance.
>
You swing an eahnor-edged sleek ebon katana at an imposing minotaur champion!
The minotaur champion moves at the last moment to evade the attack!
You swing a curved sleek ebon warblade at an imposing minotaur champion!
AS: +643 vs DS: +397 with AvD: +32 + d100 roll: +13 = +291
... and hit for 88 points of damage!
Slash to the minotaur champion's left eye!
Vitreous fluid spews forth!
Seeya!
Roundtime: 6 sec.
Roundtime changed to 3 seconds.
R>eye2
You're now aiming at the right eye of your target when using a ranged weapon, or while ambushing.
R>am
You are now in an offensive stance.
>
You swing an eahnor-edged sleek ebon katana at an imposing minotaur champion!
AS: +679 vs DS: +319 with AvD: +30 + d100 roll: +62 = +452
... and hit for 127 points of damage!
Slash to head destroys the minotaur champion's right eye!
Doesn't do his brain any good either.
[You have earned 50 prestige points.]
A low gurgling sound comes from deep within the chest of the minotaur champion as he falls slack against the floor.
Roundtime: 6 sec.
Roundtime changed to 3 seconds.
R>
An announcer boasts, "Combatant Sasathi vanquished the minotaur champion!" A gornar-shackled ogre lumbers in and drags the champion out of the arena, ridding him of any lodged projectiles or equipment!
R>
An announcer shouts, "Send in another one!" An iron portcullis is raised and a flat-nosed hobgoblin shaman enters the arena!
>

[cwolff]

I can't seem to get past the third champion. Sword and Board rogue seems to be too slow and periodically I get killed by some spike or steam or weird maneuver. The good news, if any, is that I'm finally setting up macros for qstrikes.


You leap from hiding to attack!
You swing a dark vultite braquemar at an imposing minotaur champion!
AS: +361 vs DS: +294 with AvD: +24 + d100 roll: +67 = +158
... and hit for 37 points of damage!
Solid strike caves the minotaur champion's skull in, resulting in instant death!
Roundtime: 5 sec.
R>
The minotaur champion stomps his hooves in the dirt, lowers his head, and charges in your direction! You leap to the side but stumble, failing to get out of the way, and are crushed under the full brunt of the champion!
... 70 points of damage!
Blow to your back removes the spinal column!
* Stupid Slow Rogue was just defeated in Duskruin Arena!

You've been defeated. You'll be dragged out of the arena in a moment! The wards around the arena protect your magic.
Roundtime: 20 sec.

[Whirlin]

Is it possible to get someone to post an actual log of a Duskruin champion fight please? Or is there another thread where logs are posted?
https://pastebin.com/6tNwT3ir

Here's one super slow run of mine.

[Maerit]

I can't seem to get past the third champion. Sword and Board rogue seems to be too slow and periodically I get killed by some spike or steam or weird maneuver. The good news, if any, is that I'm finally setting up macros for qstrikes.

Solid strike caves the minotaur champion's skull in, resulting in instant death!



Champions can't be crit killed with a single attack. Expect to spend a little time with them. Leg them first, they can be knocked over with crits to legs. Then if you ambush both eyes, it will kill them. Two crit kills, from what I've been told, is the requirement to actually kill a champion.

Many people fixskill for the arena, and get as many outside spells as you can possibly obtain. I'm talking like 211, 215, 1606, 509, 606, 1109, and anything else you can to boost your AS, and dreavenings + additional consumables to bolster your DS. These are all available as consumables for sale at duskruin. You can find many of them in the Under the Counter shop. I recommend boosting your MIU skill up as much as you're able to maximize the duration of consumables.

Consider UAC rogue instead of sword/board with 3x evasion. Remember you get a free fixskill in about a month after this event ends.

Once I did this on my UAC warmage, I was able to get 250 BS around 75% of the time.

The strategy I've been using is employing a sorcerer (which I fortunately also play) to infuse scrolls, then cast to 4 hours of all my spells from scrolls, then have the sorcerer infuse them back to max charges. Getting 4 hours of spells for the arena can allow you to go through around 40-50 tokens (with a couple trips to the pawnshop).

[Tenser]

Someone asked about how our rangers are specced. I had mentioned before that I ran my ranger through 10 runs, where my bloodscrip varied from 116 to 249 with an average of around 180.

My ranger, level 51 is a halfling and uses one of the mechanical crossbows. He is a sniper spec with 2x hiding, 70 ranks ambush, and 106 ranks perception. However, in the arena using 608 slows me down too much so I was mostly was just firing from the open, mixing in kneeling when I had a chance and it made sense (like right after reacting to a trap). Also, the kneeling + camo combination was a problem when it came time to react to the trap watch as either it pulls you out of hiding or you get caught in the trap. When I ran into opponents with good ranged DS, then I would spike thorn and cock the crossbow during the soft RT of the spike thorn cast. His AS is 388 standing, 418 kneeling, 448 when kneeling with camo.

Mostly I only had problems with some champions and the grahnks(? is that how it's spelled?). The non-champion grahnks gave me fits as my bolts weren't doing much to them and spikethorn wasn't either. Upon reflection, maybe tangleweed, then kneeling 608 would work better against the high ranged DS foes going for a real high AS shot. The problem is still the champions that do have a high ranged DS, since most of the time they don't die to critical hits so one big AS shot isn't really worth the time it takes to set up.

Also, I didn't think to try 607 against the tough foes, but again it's questionable whether casting a spell that gives a -20 to DS is worth the time it takes to cast it. If it means the next shot is a critical kill insted of just damage, then it is..but how often will that be the case?

[Tenser]

Champions can't be crit killed with a single attack. Expect to spend a little time with them. Leg them first, they can be knocked over with crits to legs. Then if you ambush both eyes, it will kill them. Two crit kills, from what I've been told, is the requirement to actually kill a champion.

Love that advice. So, with my ranger I could leg them first, then kneel + camo and hope for 2 crit kill eye shots. Still seems tricky, but better than shooting the darn thing 20+ times. For champions with lower ranged DS I can probably just 607, kneel, and fire 2 eye shots for the kill.

[Luxelle]

I know it is a few days later than new folks might have needed it, but Mister Goat and I just finished up a Primer for Duskruin.

If anyone has additions or corrections, feel free to PM them to me if you don't want to fuss with the wiki.

https://gswiki.play.net/Duskruin_Arena_primer

It isn't meant to be all things to all people, so it doesn't go into huge details. We left the links to the wiki for people to find out more of the specialized info about things.

ESPECIALLY if you are new to Duskruin, let us know what we left out!

~L

[nocturnix]

I'm getting better at it with my Bard pure. I'm 51, with 160 mana. My only problem is running out of mana. Thats 3 bars of mana (COL) + max spirit/max aura/wis.

I managed to finish all 5 bosses but only when unraveling blue wands early on. I am spelled with wizard and sorc spells in addition to my own. Statues and Heavy orbs help too. One suggestion was to use 418 before entering, not sure how much it helps though.

Any other mana management ideas? I think it could just be my level being lower and having a smaller mana pool. If i were 75 with max manip lore and more mana, i'd probably kill all 5 90% of the time.

[Viekn]

Any other mana management ideas? I think it could just be my level being lower and having a smaller mana pool. If i were 75 with max manip lore and more mana, i'd probably kill all 5 90% of the time.

Are you also running short on time? Cause if not, remember you can PRAY and trade some time for mana.

[Whirlin]

I'm getting better at it with my Bard pure. I'm 51, with 160 mana. My only problem is running out of mana. Thats 3 bars of mana (COL) + max spirit/max aura/wis.

I managed to finish all 5 bosses but only when unraveling blue wands early on. I am spelled with wizard and sorc spells in addition to my own. Statues and Heavy orbs help too. One suggestion was to use 418 before entering, not sure how much it helps though.

Any other mana management ideas? I think it could just be my level being lower and having a smaller mana pool. If i were 75 with max manip lore and more mana, i'd probably kill all 5 90% of the time.
418 with bard may be a little rough, success chance is:
25 + (MnE spell ranks/4) + (Elemental Mana Control ranks/2) + Aura stat bonus

With typical bard training, you're probably not that heavy into either EMC or MnE, so you're probably sitting at a 50% success rate or so. Given that 418 failures can result in instant death, or incapacitate you through being unable to cast anymore, it may be too risky to do.

Song of Power would be a better option than 418 in this instance.

Other mana things you can do are to ensure that if you're getting the multi-song penalty to run either song manager or a 1003 script to remove/recast 103 rather than be subjected to the high renewal cycle, and other typical bard mana management stuff. Depending on your DS with all of the outside spells, maybe use a physical shield rather than your sonic for renewal cycles.

But yeah, mostly unraveling... probably between each wave would be a good opportunity to unravel once.

[nocturnix]

418 with bard may be a little rough, success chance is:
25 + (MnE spell ranks/4) + (Elemental Mana Control ranks/2) + Aura stat bonus

With typical bard training, you're probably not that heavy into either EMC or MnE, so you're probably sitting at a 50% success rate or so. Given that 418 failures can result in instant death, or incapacitate you through being unable to cast anymore, it may be too risky to do.

Song of Power would be a better option than 418 in this instance.

Other mana things you can do are to ensure that if you're getting the multi-song penalty to run either song manager or a 1003 script to remove/recast 103 rather than be subjected to the high renewal cycle, and other typical bard mana management stuff. Depending on your DS with all of the outside spells, maybe use a physical shield rather than your sonic for renewal cycles.

But yeah, mostly unraveling... probably between each wave would be a good opportunity to unravel once.

I'm definately not familiar with what sounds like "advanced bard song management" terms you described. I will look into a 1003 script, any other song renewal tips?

[Maerit]

Any other mana management ideas? I think it could just be my level being lower and having a smaller mana pool. If i were 75 with max manip lore and more mana, i'd probably kill all 5 90% of the time.

Depending on your mana control training, "Mana Pulse" is a very useful tool in the arena.

Also, if you're past the 4th champion in under 5 minutes, you can use PRAY at least one time, and still cap out at 250BS. PRAY restores mana and stamina (a fairly good chunk also) while in the arena.

[ArchSenex]

Depending on your mana control training, "Mana Pulse" is a very useful tool in the arena.

Also, if you're past the 4th champion in under 5 minutes, you can use PRAY at least one time, and still cap out at 250BS. PRAY restores mana and stamina (a fairly good chunk also) while in the arena.

+1, I use Mana Pulse extensively and it really helped my times to start using it.

[Aluvius]

I think the Arena creatures might have some bonuses built into them or maybe the Arena itself. Either that or I've just had an incredibly bad run of luck somehow.

In 10 levels from 25 to 35 I've had 1 instance of "unable to find an opening" but somehow I've had 3 of them in 40 runs of the Arena. This is with a hurling paladin build with 30 ranks of ambush.

I've also noticed that their ebp seems supercharged as well (though this is more anecdotal, I don't have hard numbers to back it up).

[Roblar]

You're right on both counts - because they're higher level than you! ;)

It gets progressively harder. I haven't checked in awhile but will appraise them some today to see how high.

[Aluvius]

I assumed they wouldn't be more than 10 over level and I hunt 5-10 over regularly while leveling. You're right, it would explain the ebp, but the aiming itself I haven't seen affected by overhunting. Its just interesting more than anything else, this build does really well in the Arena!

[Aluvius]

Well I appraised the champions and a selection of critters in every round for a few runs and most were at level to +5, only a few appraised as +5 to +10. It also wasn't a steady progression for each round. Maybe there's a chance for super over level creatures to spawn against you and those were the ones where I got the failed opening messages. I suppose its the most logical answer, but I dunno.