How do you deal with spiders on NM modes? SOLO

[Mookies75]

I use mainly squire towers 1600/1200/500/1500. I sometimes use apprentice missile turrets for spider defense since they are cheaper 300/1300/800/700.

For starters, if you have 1 tower defending a tower group against spiders, they can web that tower and kill it EASILY, and then kill that tower group.

Secondly, they like to come down and web the hell out of my turret groups essentially killing me in later survival waves. Mainly because the turrets cant kill off the mobs before they destroy a barrier, and I cant repair everything in time with being CONSTANTLY interrupted from every angle. It happens quick, one or two webbings on a turret group can kill me if its during the ogre spawns.

I don't understand how many resources should be devoted to spiders alone... I go on a dps char and kill them as I can but they still web towers and get me killed later in survival waves.

I'm tired of people saying they are no big deal. I've tried all kinds of tower setups to deal with them. Clearly you have to out gear the content to such a degree that it's trivial, but at that point why would you do it? You either devote a crazy amount of resources to try and deal with this in base threat, suffering on the mob killing front. Or you hope and pray they dont essentially instagib you by webbing everything under the sun...

I'm really frustrated. Tired of getting a 15-20 in base spider spawn and having them essentially wipe me out even if I kill them off relatively quickly. I'm also tired of people saying they are no big deal. I've used all kinds of up to date NM spider strats and I still have major issues with them. I'm not skill capped, I have decent stats, I don't suck at this game, there is nothing you can do when you get webbed from across the room, constantly interrupted no matter where you stand, and get instagibbed by spiders spamming web on towers all over the place.

Seriously... how do you deal with them? I'm just really tired of getting cheesed by something I feel is out of my control.

I mainly do spires, magus quarters, and hall of court NM HC Survival Mixed.

[CrzyRndm]

Good methods of spider control
- Proxy + mage cade. Placed under spider spawns, with the cade acting as bait to stop them running off.
- Bouncer. Not as effective as the prox/cade combo b/c it can be webbed, but is much simpler for campaign setups
- Placing harpoons behind the spawn point. With their current level of target tracking, they very rarely get overwhelmed and are very useful for spawns that are near lanes (eg. east misty where the queen spawns).

Basicly, to efficently control spiders you have to know where they drop. And if spiders arent under control, you might as well sell lane defenses. These guys can be far more dangerous than ogres and should be treated as such. There is no such thing as overkill on spider control

[Mookies75]

Only problem I have is if you sacrifice so much DU to control spiders you'll suffer on the actual killing front no?

Also thank you for the response and the advice. First time I have heard of that, I will try it.

[Mookies75]

This is the layout I've had the most success with in magus quarters NM HC SURV MIXED. There is an EV tower buff beam on right and left side covering those 4 towers on each side as well as the blockade and ensnare. I was testing the resistance buff.

I've cleared Insane HC Survival Mixed easily with this at around 1000/1000/400/700 if anyone wanted something for that.

http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28212

[Mookies75]

Good methods of spider control
- Proxy + mage cade. Placed under spider spawns, with the cade acting as bait to stop them running off.
- Bouncer. Not as effective as the prox/cade combo b/c it can be webbed, but is much simpler for campaign setups
- Placing harpoons behind the spawn point. With their current level of target tracking, they very rarely get overwhelmed and are very useful for spawns that are near lanes (eg. east misty where the queen spawns).

Basicly, to efficently control spiders you have to know where they drop. And if spiders arent under control, you might as well sell lane defenses. These guys can be far more dangerous than ogres and should be treated as such. There is no such thing as overkill on spider control

Do you think something like this would work?

http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28219



or

http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28218

[CrzyRndm]

You only really need 2 harpoons/lane 99% of the time. B/c they draw no aggro, reversed spike cades/EV walls/mage cades wont get attacked by ogres for a good minute or so as long as a tower is damaging them. Remeber your towers have a significant buff in NM so you can do more with less compared to insane.

Only problem I have is if you sacrifice so much DU to control spiders you'll suffer on the actual killing front no?

Also thank you for the response and the advice. First time I have heard of that, I will try it.

Try putting one of the harps on each side right up against the crystal. Spider drops infront of it and gets shot, no extra DU needed on 3/4 sides.
http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28221
With good trap damage you can get away without the mage cade on the first tier maps (even 20+ they have <100K hp)

Put the rest of the harps near those 3 and a 4DU buff beams on lanes (they still help with the birds unless you rotate them oddly)
http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28222 (shows front completed -beam)

[Warmonger]

So, how did you get that kind of gear if you can't deal with spiders properly? It's just unfair

[Mookies75]

So, how did you get that kind of gear if you can't deal with spiders properly? It's just unfair

Going to have to post a video of some of the dumb **** that happens because of spiders or ninja's just to shut people like you up.

Also learn to farm maybe? I had to buy my gear.

[Mookies75]

You only really need 2 harpoons/lane 99% of the time. B/c they draw no aggro, reversed spike cades/EV walls/mage cades wont get attacked by ogres for a good minute or so as long as a tower is damaging them. Remeber your towers have a significant buff in NM so you can do more with less compared to insane.

Try putting one of the harps on each side right up against the crystal. Spider drops infront of it and gets shot, no extra DU needed on 3/4 sides.
http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28221
With good trap damage you can get away without the mage cade on the first tier maps (even 20+ they have <100K hp)

Put the rest of the harps near those 3 and a 4DU buff beams on lanes (they still help with the birds unless you rotate them oddly)
http://html5.cubicleninja.com/dd/index.htm?layout=28222 (shows front completed -beam)

Thanks for the advice.

I tried using traps this time around and the spiders were more managable. I ended up selling the 3 mage barricades and putting a 4th trap down. They weren't drawing aggro because I had put the harpoons underneath their drop in point.

I liked how the strength drain aura's worked but I was over-run by a heavy ninja spawn wave and killed (and eventually barriers went down). I wouldnt even bother putting slow aura's up as they do nothing to ninja's... I guess I just need a better weapon to deal with them.

[senz54]

Spiders are anti-tower mobs. Using towers to deal with them is a little backwards don't you think? However, if you do use a MM tower to deal with spiders, place it in the effective cone of the towers it defends. That way the MM defends your lane towers and your lane towers defend your spider MM.

However, since Spiders are anti-tower mobs, it's better to use traps to deal with them. A boosted proximity mine trap will obliterate spiders. Here's the build I use for Mistymire HCMM to wave 30, I have no trouble with spiders whatsoever:

http://ddplanner.com/?l=2430,kandar-...senzation-edit