Looking for some NM Advice

[Aerelle]

There are several maps that are easier because lack of copters, such as deeper wells, foundries&forges, castle armory and servants' quarters.

Deeper well was the first NM map I tried, and I managed to beat it on my first try, but the drops were just terrible, so I didn't try again lol. But I will definitely try the others. No copters is definitely a plus in my book.

Grats on Magus I found survival on that map difficult when I tried it with similar stats to yours, but I didn't have a Summoner at the time. Once I got a Summoner, though, I found Throne Room to be a much simpler setup and very lucrative in survival mode. I share your anxiety with the build timers on campaign levels, so Throne Room is nice because you build everything a few steps from the start =P. Here's the build I use for campaign, survival, and mixed-mode survival; the map is so simple that this build covers everything.
http://www.ddplanner.com/?l=11409,th...l-800-1k-stats
The only stumbling block is beating the boss to unlock survival, you'll have to DPS him directly, but you can just run around him hitting him in the back and he'll just spin in place.

Thanks. I do have a summoner but it's gear is pretty aweful, so I guess I will work on that. Is it true you can use overlord mode to upgrade and repair everything?

I'm not sure how successful I'd be during the boss wave, especially since goblin mech can move your defenses (so I hear, on lower difficulties he dies too fast to test that). Do you happen to know how much HP he has solo?

Now that I think of it, it probably isn't a bad idea to try and beat various campaign levels before I start into survival on any of them. Getting through endless spires especially would be nice. I haven't bought anything from afk shops, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

[MadeInLondon]

Thanks. I do have a summoner but it's gear is pretty aweful, so I guess I will work on that. Is it true you can use overlord mode to upgrade and repair everything?

Yes this is true. You can even use flash heal! It will originate from whereever you have your mouse-pointer located!
Bear in mind though, if you run out of mana you will have to phase out in order to collect more.
A geenie and a dps pet can do wonders in safe mana collection! (geenie grants mana to you if you attack mobs. Since dps pet attack counts towards hero damage, the geenie grants you mana if your pet attacks enemies.)

[paintolar]

I know you said you wanted to stay away from shards maps, but if you can beat the kracken in aquanos on insane, a good seahorse from survival is invaluable on nightmare levels.

As a plus, insane aqua survival really isnt very dificult to get to wave 20, and you will get good starter myths out of it too.

[Chumm]

I'm not sure how successful I'd be during the boss wave, especially since goblin mech can move your defenses (so I hear, on lower difficulties he dies too fast to test that). Do you happen to know how much HP he has solo?

He has like 15mil HP, but if you hit him in the back he'll turn around to face you instead of just marching through your defenses. So, you just spin around him hitting him in the back and he'll stand in place. Even with fairly low DPS it's just an endurance fight, the defenses should hold fine. With that build the buffed harpoon should be able to hit him way back at his spawn, so that will contribute some extra DPS as well. As always, make sure you've upgraded resists on your DPS character so you don't get beat up by random mobs that'll be coming through; if you die the 10sec respawn will leave him time to get a little too close and start moving your stuff.

[Aerelle]

I know you said you wanted to stay away from shards maps, but if you can beat the kracken in aquanos on insane, a good seahorse from survival is invaluable on nightmare levels.

As a plus, insane aqua survival really isnt very dificult to get to wave 20, and you will get good starter myths out of it too.

I really didn't want to do the shards maps, but I gave in and did aqua, and after having done it, I really really dont want to do the others. The kraken fight was extremely difficult on insane. I think I died at least 10 times lol >.< Are the drops on insane at least helpful for my current stats? (besides the seahorse)

Also I have another question. I tried out NMHC survival in magus quarters with a friend who has similar stats to mine. we got to about wave 6-7 and there were 15 ogres and a bunch of djinn. Does the amount of people affect the amount of monsters that spawn in? 15 ogres at wave 6 seems ridiculous. And they all spawn in at the same time, that can't be right...

He has like 15mil HP, but if you hit him in the back he'll turn around to face you instead of just marching through your defenses. So, you just spin around him hitting him in the back and he'll stand in place. Even with fairly low DPS it's just an endurance fight, the defenses should hold fine. With that build the buffed harpoon should be able to hit him way back at his spawn, so that will contribute some extra DPS as well. As always, make sure you've upgraded resists on your DPS character so you don't get beat up by random mobs that'll be coming through; if you die the 10sec respawn will leave him time to get a little too close and start moving your stuff.

Thanks for this. Guess I should hold off on trying it for a whie. Whatever about junk mobs, I dont think my defs could hold up against ogres and djinn while I distract a boss.

[Chumm]

I really didn't want to do the shards maps, but I gave in and did aqua, and after having done it, I really really dont want to do the others. The kraken fight was extremely difficult on insane. I think I died at least 10 times lol >.< Are the drops on insane at least helpful for my current stats? (besides the seahorse)

The weapons you get for beating the boss are pretty nice, I'm still using an Insane Lemurian Halberd on monk, doing 5mil tavern dps without pet. It's also the best map for xp/hour, once you practice it you can clear Insane HC in like 20min for 8-9mil xp. You won't get any drops worth anything in survival, but you can easily get seahorses with +250-300 in several tower stats, and they also do great damage on their own. And yes, I think we all died 20x on that damn Kraken the first time =P

Also I have another question. I tried out NMHC survival in magus quarters with a friend who has similar stats to mine. we got to about wave 6-7 and there were 15 ogres and a bunch of djinn. Does the amount of people affect the amount of monsters that spawn in? 15 ogres at wave 6 seems ridiculous. And they all spawn in at the same time, that can't be right...

Yeah the monsters don't get more difficult, but the amount of them that spawn is increased dramatically with each player added.

Thanks for this. Guess I should hold off on trying it for a whie. Whatever about junk mobs, I dont think my defs could hold up against ogres and djinn while I distract a boss.

Make sure you give Summoner and minion walls a chance. I was using mostly blocker blockades and finding that ogres were wrecking my walls once I started NM survivals, but minion walls have 2 benefits: 1. You include mages with the archers and the mages heal the minions, effectively creating a self-healing wall. 2. The minions all stand on a Series EV tower buff beam, which cuts the damage they take by half or more. The result is extremely resilient walls that ALSO happen to do lots of damage. It will really change the way you think about the survivability of your defenses. And of course you always cover them with strength drain auras, further reducing mob damage by a ton. That Throne Room build I posted will pretty much hold forever as long as the auras are repaired periodically.

[Xengre]

As someone else here said.. ensare aura for copter ogre. Summoner is critical if you want to make your life in NM much easier. Focus on Tower HP and Tower DMG. You can virtually neglect range (but if you had to choose between range/attack rate for a third stat on a item go with range) and you can 100% ignore tower attack rate on summoner because it won't do squat.

I suggest Alchemical Labratory since it has no copter ogre and has pretty good loot that can allow you to jump into misty/aquanos/sky city quite effectively after clearing it a few times. Throne room is another good one (you could transition after a few Alch Labs into Throne Room, then Aquanos survival). Magnus is a good one because of the lava and rather straightforward setup you can build there as others have suggested (tho I suggest Alch Lab and Throne Rooms over it). If you wish I can help you with the bosses on both stages unless you want to do this 100% on your own.

I also suggest farming Insane Aquanos HC for a good DPS seahorse. Pets are your key dmg in nightmare by a very large margin since your hero dmg drops substantially and pet damage scales up, especially on a monk.

[Aerelle]

Okay, I'm kinda glad I listened and gave aquanos a chance. My first seahorse was crappy, but I got a really nice trans one on my second try (doing so also leveled my DPS hero to 78, amazing exp even in survival). The map is really manageable, so I might just farm seahorses for a while. 200-300 tower stats boost seems totally worth it 10 times over, and survival is ridiculously easy compared to the campaign.

Summoner walls sound really awesome, I will definitely try that. =D

And Xengre, thank you for the offer, that's really nice, but I'd like to do it myself.

[Xengre]

Okay, I'm kinda glad I listened and gave aquanos a chance. My first seahorse was crappy, but I got a really nice trans one on my second try (doing so also leveled my DPS hero to 78, amazing exp even in survival). The map is really manageable, so I might just farm seahorses for a while. 200-300 tower stats boost seems totally worth it 10 times over, and survival is ridiculously easy compared to the campaign.

Summoner walls sound really awesome, I will definitely try that. =D

And Xengre, thank you for the offer, that's really nice, but I'd like to do it myself.

Indeed, seahorses are like a shortcut to giraffe that do not suck for tower builders. Not only that, but with the dps seahorse you found you may likely find Alch Labs boss/Throne Room boss a push over (make sure you have a set of gear with high fire resistance for Alch Lab final wave/boss). This is even more so if you have a countess/monk to boost your pet dmg (which is as I stated before, the majority of your non-tower dmg). Jump around and don't stay in one spot or the fire will own you. Heal/Str Drain auras in middle.

Summoner walls are indeed awesome! Make sure to focus on tower hp for summoner since mage heals are based on a pct of max hp. More minion hp => stronger heals => superior walls. Avoid sticking mages on buff beam with archer walls when possible. Instead have them far enough back from wall to avoid ALL ogre dmg but close enough to heal your minions. They have a rather decent heal range. This is due to mages having much lower max HP compared to all other minions thus making them heal themselves... rather poorly. If they die you loose your buff beam they are standing on. Mage walls (any walls really) are vulnerable to copter if you are not careful. This is because copters tend to fly outside your str drain and snipe them. Use reflects in such spots if this is an issue preferably in front of the wall. A snot ball from ogre is no big deal, but reflecting copter missles + webbing (if your wall gets webbed it takes double dmg while webbed) is why you need the reflect in front of the wall.

Another issue to consider is that minion walls are great... if they have the tower hp to tank the opposition. If they do not then use normal walls in harder levels and use minions/harps/fb towers behind the walls to draw aggro and keep it off the walls. If you don't already know about this then I (or whoever else wishes too) can elaborate.

Aquanos/King's game are only two survivals I feel give worthwhile exp. At least this is in my experience since I have not done any real testing to confirm the accuracy of this fact. I can tell you now that running campaign maps multiple times generally results in far greater exp for your time then survival runs (with exception of Aquanos/King's Game... maybe a few others - City in the Cliffs?). Campaign aquanos/kings game give great exp too and aquanos is particularly easy to set up with just bouncers/harpoons (may require a few traps or auras with your current stats).

Also consider Talay survival for pet rocks on insane. They can give up to 400+ in overcapped stats if lucky (and usually at least 200-400 range pretty often) once you complete wave 30. It really isn't that difficult and you can start 2 waves before the round you earn a pet in survival to get it (start any later and you don't get pet... example: start wave 18 on aquanos for seahorse, if you start at 19 you won't get it). Trick to Talay is dpsing ogres during the first 1/3rd of each wave. After that the rest of each wave no more ogres spawn at all. So just run around with seahorse repairing/ogre killing. THEN focus on upgrading once ogres stop spawning.

Also consider that hero boost on more difficult levels is a great way of drastically raising your tower damage for aura/traps/harpoons/fbs/minions (artificially) for brief periods when ogres flood in. More monks you have with you to do this the better as you can take alternate.

[Mr Colour]

xengre did you ever though of making a guide yourself? the tips you gave up here are usefull for everybody old and new players