Progression Questions

[Brewing]

So I just got the game about a week ago and I've managed to level up several characters to 74, and a few to almost 80. But I seem to be hitting a wall now.

I'm using a squire as my builder with ~1000/1000/850/1000. I've got a set of mythics for the bonus, and i've started to upgrade it a bit, but I'm just not able to bite the mana cost of the upgrades, or make enough to buy new gear. Currently I'm wobbling between 250 million mana and 200, depending on my upgradin'.

So my question:

What should I be doing? Trying to grind for gear on a NMHC Survival (I think I only last to wave 8 on ES) or farming mana somewhere? Which ever it is, what map should I be doing it on? I've gotten a few nightmare levels unlocked, ones that guides had said are good ( Endless Spires, Ramps, Alch)

I've tried following a few guides, and testing levels out for myself, but it's getting me nowhere very slowly. I'm fine with a grind, but I feel rather stuck and just need to be assured I'm following the right path to get decent gear and mana.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

[imported_some_guy]

What kind of pet do you have? If you don't have a very good one, you can get a good trans one off Aquanos insane survival that can give +250 or more to 3 tower stats.

[davidnj7]

insane shard maps are good transition maps in between insane and nightmare. Fairly decent drops and not terribly difficult. Might be worth looking into

[Brewing]

What kind of pet do you have? If you don't have a very good one, you can get a good trans one off Aquanos insane survival that can give +250 or more to 3 tower stats.

A junky bird that "hurls" arrows. Gives me -34/0/150/240 for my tower stats.

I'll have to look into that pet! Sounds lots better than mine.

[Fatfats]

I'd suggest just 'grinding' eternia shard maps on insane if you're stuck on progression. Especially the Aquanos map. You'll find plenty of low/mid level mythics post wave 10/15 and the chance for high (?) level mythics post wave 20. I've heard that you can even earn a trans pet from getting to wave 20, though I wouldn't hedge any bets on that possibility.

[CrzyRndm]

I'd suggest just 'grinding' eternia shard maps on insane if you're stuck on progression. Especially the Aquanos map. You'll find plenty of low/mid level mythics post wave 10/15 and the chance for high (?) level mythics post wave 20. I've heard that you can even earn a trans pet from getting to wave 20, though I wouldn't hedge any bets on that possibility.

Dont know if he's going to be finding many upgrades for nearly all 1k stats on insane. He could definitely use the pet (Insane HC aqua pets I would say are only slightly worse than most NMHC maps), but hes going to be needing to be running misty/OMF/SWMF or a NM survival for a real chance at upgrades.

@OP

Ignore survival until you cant get what you need in campaign/challenges.

Run insane aqua or NM magus for a few decent pets (during campaign, anything with 50^ will be fine for damage. More and the cost gets horrendous).
NOTE: Seahorses are rewarded from W20, not the normal 15. Maximum starting wave is 18.

Once you obtain a reasonable pet, move to misty campaign, or alternatively, either of the two new uberfests. First wave of the uberfests is much harder, but after that should be relatively easy, compared to misty with a steady ramp in difficulty from relatively easy (some people break into NM farming the first wave here) to the rediculously annoying boss (not to be worried about at this stage).

Next is NM aqua campaign. Skip morrago for now due to the awkwardness of the map. Work on it till you can comfortably reach the kracken. I have no idea how good the camapign loot will be over misty, but in survival its atleast 2-3 waves ahead, so you should find some decent upgrades.

If you ever really need mana, return to running OMF (or maybe SWMF, but I havent done this much, so I have no idea). A complete run should take ~30 minutes, and net about 200M mana. Plus you have the chance of getting amazing pets. Having a damage dealing pet equipped is a good idea for these as mobs get stuck regularly.

After you've done all this and upgrades are no longer dropping every run, only then would I start thinking about beating the shards bosses to unlock survivals.
NOTE: Only the morrago boss is properly soloable. Aqua and misty are really annoying fights which should always be taken as a team with HC off.

EDIT

All maps should be done with HC enabled, unless attempting bosses. The difference in loot quality hugely outweighs the slight increase in difficulty.
NM is much easier built using all classes defenses. Make sure you keep upgrading your alts too.
I just noticed you said your gear is largely unupgraded. Put all further upgrades into resists or TD. You want TD to be ~50% higher than rate of fire (health and range are perfect right where they are for the forseeable future)

[bigjeey]

I wouldn't say misty boss needs hardcore off, it's actually a pretty easy boss once you realize you should bring: a squire with a good DPS pet (monkey or seahorse comes to mind) en then just block/circular slice or have a ranged dps hit her. (Preferably something fast with a LOT of projectiles, retribution and mage staffs rock at this.

Make sure you fight the queen in the radius of a proxy trap. Makes killing those small spiders that much easier.

Anyway, my suggestions;

Mana: shipwreck cove monster fest, OR farm seahorses, they sell pretty good.

XP: insane aquanos gives out great XP

Loot: You might find some while farming UMF, but i'm afraid the good stuff is on NMHC shards maps.

[imported_some_guy]

If you ever really need mana, return to running OMF (or maybe SWMF, but I havent done this much, so I have no idea). A complete run should take ~30 minutes, and net about 200M mana. Plus you have the chance of getting amazing pets. Having a damage dealing pet equipped is a good idea for these as mobs get stuck regularly.

I would suggest Shipwreck Monsterfest just because of how easy it is to build for. Also, with a second controller plugged in I'll get roughly 400m per run (and that's not counting the items that I pick out).

I've also had some good luck with it dropping rare accessories and frost blades (with a squire/countess duo).

[Brewing]

Thanks for all the help thus far guys!

I haven't made much progress, even with a few attempts, but I get that doing builds takes a while to get right, so I'll keep trying what everyones saying.

I tried to do OMF, but my squire's not really able to handle it on insane, perhaps it's due to my builds, I don't know. I haven't found a guide for squire only, and sadly, my other characters aren't really up in stats yet. I did try a guide I found in the forum for it, but past wave 2 I just get crushed.

I was sorta hoping to have a slingshot effect with my characters, and get one character somewhat high and bring the others up after. Is that not realistic?

Either way, I'm still having a blast playing around with the characters and builds, so at least there's that if nothing else!

[bigjeey]

Thanks for all the help thus far guys!

I haven't made much progress, even with a few attempts, but I get that doing builds takes a while to get right, so I'll keep trying what everyones saying.

I tried to do OMF, but my squire's not really able to handle it on insane, perhaps it's due to my builds, I don't know. I haven't found a guide for squire only, and sadly, my other characters aren't really up in stats yet. I did try a guide I found in the forum for it, but past wave 2 I just get crushed.

I was sorta hoping to have a slingshot effect with my characters, and get one character somewhat high and bring the others up after. Is that not realistic?

Either way, I'm still having a blast playing around with the characters and builds, so at least there's that if nothing else!

Yes, that is usually the case. Your builder gets a significant new piece of gear, and you can let the rest follow. It's always been like that for me.

Try shipwreck, it really is much easier. Build in the lower left section of the map, have harpoons overlooking the two splits and the others at the end of that small hallway, then put some defenses against fish wyvern and done. I did it like this with 1k tower attack and inactive builder. Don't even need walls.