Alch Labs survival for high damage builders

[Kandar]

Don't try this if your builders don't have at least 2000 damage. This is an easy going build with very little repair needed but requires good builders.

NO JAMS!! you will get 0 mob jamming with this build. Waves go very fast which is nice and actually hard to pull off~ no jams to clear no where to run to. simply stay in camp and wait for the wave to be over.

http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=18573

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1: In the east, pull the snares back far enough that they do not cover the steps in the far east. This keeps traffic moving also makes it so you don't have to repair the east snare.
2: The harpoons don't do all that much but pull ogres to the bumpers. sometimes you have to manually tag the ogres in the west but its not a big deal.
3: Use an app guardian. buffing fire traps or electric auras can be entertaining.
4: No trash (almost none) will make it to the bumpers. it's all DOA
5: near the end of the waves, make sure your traps stay lit. sometimes when there is only a few trash mobs

WARNING: haven't had the opportunity to try this past wave 20 because steam punted me. Oh the joy. but up till that point it was a real snooze fest.

this build is in light of the new huntard trap changes.
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Updated with fixes for ogres running to harpoons when the harpoon was buffed but the bumper wasn't in later waves.

Still looking for an answer to the traps in north / south not lighting properly

[Highborne]

Are the north/south traps placed near the wall or more near the spawns?

If placed near the wall, is it to try to cover spider spawns?

[Kandar]

They're actually up on top of the wall not far from the chest is where the 2 traps and 2 auras are centered~ My traps were too big to even be placed below so rather then resizing it, i took advantage. Yes they do cover the north / south spider spawn.

if you attempt it, you'll see soon as you try to put traps there.

[Highborne]

Awesome thanks for the feedback.

Looks pretty easymode, what kinda stats for each char, something like 1400/2200-2500/900/1000 or so for each?

[Kandar]

actually less

2000 damage on monk / trapper

2440 on my squire now.

[Highborne]

One last question, which character do you keep out? Squire to eliminate spiders, or hunter (I assume Inferno does better DPS than the electric auras, but I dunno).

[Bix]

Can you clarify "waves go very fast?" I'd like to run survivals other than Misty, but I've always found the time commitment to run anything else on survival completely intolerable. Especially when either Steam or Trendy Net tends to go down every few hours. Honestly, this still seems like it would be a 4-5 hour grind to wave 20.

[Kandar]

i go with squire. no reason to have the huntard out. Once in a while you have to go tag an ogre to get it to move to the bumper properly but nothing really to shoot unless your trapper is a hybrid. Even then, i'd probably still go with the squire. Keeping bumper DPS up is good when an ogre is on it.

Shouldn't be much in the way of spiders to kill. most die when they hit the ground. and nothing to shoot on a hunter. almost every mob dies long before it ever gets close to a bumper.

Late wave ninjas will get close if not to the bumper but the bumpers hit so hard that they'll make short work of them.

[Kandar]

Can you clarify "waves go very fast?" I'd like to run survivals other than Misty, but I've always found the time commitment to run anything else on survival completely intolerable. Especially when either Steam or Trendy Net tends to go down every few hours. Honestly, this still seems like it would be a 4-5 hour grind to wave 20.

Labs has issues with mobs jamming allll over hell. So much so that 45 minutes per wave isn't out of the question. With my build, there are no jams all mobs die as fast as they spawn except ogres which makes them fast.

[Bix]

Yeah, I dunno about this one. The large ogre spawn at the beginning of waves is a major problem. Quite a lot of them melee the bumpers out of range and have to be pulled onto them. Was definitely doing a lot of bumper repair. Haven't noticed waves being much shorter than other builds either. Sill have to wait for huge numbers of trash mobs to spawn and kill themselves.

Edit: And of course the old Alch Labs problem of ogres walking right over your blockades when only using one.

Thanks for the build though.

[Kandar]

what are your stats?

I repaired almost nothing except north / south snares during combat. The front load of ogres was a non issue since they simply don't have enough health. and there are no mobs (aside from spiders) that reach the bumpers.

You mean you had more then 1 ogre at your bumper waiting to die? Something must have been wrong. With enough damage, the ogres hardly even get to the bumpers let alone pile up at them.

[Bix]

Bout 2k damage on the squire and traptress, little less on the monk, 900 range on the squire. It's the same issue this map has always had around the stairs. They'll attack from out of range of the bumper and have to be pulled onto it. They'll walk around or through the wall, the bumper will get confused and not attack even if the ogre is right on top of it. It's why so many builds would overkill with the walls and use turrets to kill. In this, the wall is also the primary damage dealer so the problem is compounded.

It's a long standing problem with the map more so than using bumpers. And yes I had more than one ogre at the bumpers. I don't know how that could be avoided with 20+ spawning nearly simultaneously, and nothing killing them before reaching the bumpers.

[Highborne]

I tried this, I noticed my traps didn't trigger North/South from anything besides spiders, and that the darkness trap doesn't seem to come into effect for ogres, thus they always make it to the West bouncers and yes, do stand outside of range of them...

I am thinking maybe moving the bouncers more West, traps cannot be placed on the ground near portal, just on the ledge which seems to diminish their usefulness greatly.

[Kandar]

currently retesting this. am on wave 15. ogres are yet to even make it to the bouncers in the east. and in the west i tag them just to make it fast.

You're right about north / south traps not lighting all the time. having to keep an eye on them or manually relight once in a while.

[Bix]

Well, finished at 19. Thanks for the 5 second disconnect Steam! Yeah, I had issues with ogres on the east side. They would often be piling up right on top of the bouncers and the bouncers would not attack. Then they'd walk around and cleave the harpoons and crystal in classic alch labs fashion. How could east ogres not make it to the bouncers? There's nothing killing them before that.

Nothing got through west side, but I did regularly have to pull ogres onto the bouncers to stop them from meleeing out of range.

[Kandar]

Yeah, thats expected for the west.... but im on 16 and no, nothing has even reached the bouncers yet in the east.. Last wave one got to attack an ogre but the ogre didn't attack it.

my harpoon is doing an awesome job and just unloading on them. Wave 16 and they only have 4m hp... thats nothing when your harpoon does a million damage per second. (close to) anyway.. Wave 16 ogre rush is over and between all of them, my bumpers took no repairable damage.

Your Harpoons may be out of position. They seriously rock the ogres.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/505764150484851017/7DF42051ACA40F6E5BD56DBB292F1E761784EA4D/

[Bix]

That's pretty much exactly where I had them, within inches. They wouldn't hit the ogres at all until the ogres stopped, thanks to their projectile speed. I don't know why yours would hit them before stopping and mine didn't, they are quite literally in exactly the same position. Weird.

Anyway, didn't make a bit of difference since my game ended thanks to a disconnect. Was about 3-3.5 hours midway through wave 19 I think. And this is the main reason I've pretty much given up on non Misty survivals.

[Kandar]

im a good bit way through 17 at the moment and all is fine.

And my harpoons didn't hit the ogre it was targeting either but it did hit all the ones behind it which was perfect. Difference being my bumper is beating face when they do reach it. They bend over before they get the chance to attack and die while bent over.

[ChaChaCha]

Very good. Wave 23 then died in the first 7 seconds... Will try again tonight :ogre:

[Kandar]

Very good. Wave 23 then died in the first 7 seconds... Will try again tonight :ogre:

you died in the first 7 sec? guessing a ninja jumped you? I found it does help to manually light the traps at the start of a wave. I'd like to do something about them not always lighting.

[ChaChaCha]

Deleted one of my traps and went to my huntress to place another one and hit "C" by mistake.. Not fun but meh, o well.

[Kandar]

Fixed some of the issues. posted the updated build.

I did run into the issue where ogres ran past the bumper but not until later. Probably because i have my damage is a little higher. Added two mage walls which keep the ogres from going anywhere but to the bumper. Reduced number of east snares to 1.

Still looking for an answer for the traps not lighting properly in north / south.

On wave 23 at the moment. still a few waves left to figure it out.

[vyzeen]

Tested through wave 16, got bored and sleepy. Balistas ripped through ogres on the east, no problems there. Manual pull for ogres attacking out of range on the west, same as everyone else. Spent more time repairing auras than anything else. I'll try to push it to 25 tomorrow when I have more time/energy.