Agony V Ice Cave Archer/Sorceress Build

[trephoenix]

Archer

Mark of Sorcery

Wind Crown
Duellist Spark (only upgrade found during run)
Multistrike Gloves
Hunter's Garb
Berserker's Boots
Guidance Ring
Ring of Thunder

Banishes:
Defense
Block
Block&Def% combo
Health
Regen
Exp. Pickup

Weapon Proficiency
10 Attack Speed x3
0.15 Base Attack Speed (x2 potion)
Electrify on Lightning Critical (x2 potion)
20% Damage 30% Critical Bonus

Proficient Stance
15% Multiattack x3
0.3 Base Multiattack x2
0.1 Base Lightning Base Critical Chance x3
15% Lightning Attack Speed (x2 potion)

Mostly stationary along bottom wall in room adjacent to Well (up and right)
Did not pick up the starting ability scrolls to far left and far right of map

Finished at Level 124
Lionshare of damage was split between Bow and Electrify
Kugelblitz was first ability pick (also opens Area Trait which helps bow)
RNG didn't give Transfixion, so took Ringblades to open up Range Trait (helps bow some)

Agony level hit at these minute marks:
I - 26m
II - 23.5m
III - 20m
IV - 14m
V - 1m 30s

Prior to patch, I was only hitting 4.5 Agony on a variety of builds and with much better gear RNG so the above is not the be all end all for how you can achieve it.

[Quokka]

nice

[Ulyaoth]

Hi,

probably the general direction of a Lightning Archer seems to be the way to go.
The Range and the amount of Off-Screen-Killing is unmatched.

Mark of Sorcery
Wind Crown
Gatherer's Charm
Ring of Thunder + Copper Ring
Shadow Cloak
Berserker Boots
Hunting Gloves
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3039436233

Weapon Proficiency
- Archer - Quickdraw I-IV / IV x2
- Sorceress - Voltage I-IV / IV x2
Proficient Stance
- Archer - Barrage I-IV
- Sorceress - Stability I-IV / IV x2
Dedication
- Sorceress - Nimble I+II
- Archer - Agility III-IV (OR Sorceress - Nimble IV)

Banish
Parry, Vitality, Metabolism, Thick Hide
- Weapon Proficiency - Pierce (Arc) / Strength (Sor)
- Proficient Stance - Pinpoint (Arc) / Strikes (Sor)

Kugelblitz
- Peak (III, VI, X) > Voltage (I, V, VII, IX) > Capacity (II, IV, VIII)
Lightning Strike
- Repercussion (III, VI, X) > Conversion (II, V, VIII, IX) > Conductivity (I, VII) > Charges (IV)
Transfixion
- Deadliness (III, VI, X) > Cadence (II, V, IX) > Spread (I, VII) > Accuracy (IV, VIII)
Arcane Splinters
- Split (III, VI, X) > Piercing (II, IV, VIII) > Charging (I, V, VII) > Power (IX)

Agony V at 02.17
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3039436409

Still trying to figure out other Builds, especially with other Chars.

Cheers!

[mintymind]

do you move around a lot or just stand still? I m trying to figure out how to spawn more mobs. I v had a 4.95, 4.96 and 4.97.

on all of them btw, my lightning dmg is about half yours. But the main issue is a lot of time nothing is happening on my screen.

[Ulyaoth]

Originally posted by mintymind:

From the Well I make my way to the bottom right.
There is a large opening, where mobs dont get stuck.
Realtive in the center of this large area, I make tiny steps to the left and right (to keep Berserker Boots up).
But from there, no more huge movement, only to collect xp crystals.

After picking all Tier IV Character Traits, I pick my first scroll and fish for the first Ability.
If no other wanted Ability shows up on upgrading (Tier III, VI) I pick the Ability Tome for the second.

The less you move, the more spawns you get.
Tiny steps on one spot may reduce the spawn rate a bit, but its better than move around alot.

[mintymind]

i made it, on 4th try. With like 45 sec left.

Picked up both extra abilities then stood to the right of the well, about half a screen from it, "above" a wall.

I focused more on getting ranged upgrades early, and took more range focused ability upgrades to try to off-screen as much as possible. Also took force upgrades once i had kugelblitz to make the balls last longer for more range.

abilties were transfiction, lighting strike, blades, kugelblitz and phantom arrows. In that order, i fully upgraded all except transfiction and phantom (left both at upgrade 2). Since phantom was picked past lvl 100, and stuff wasnt that close, i took all the ranged stuff on it over dmg.

I got an upgraded necklace halfway through that gave dmg on low life, and later the upgraded necklace that gives dmg for not having mobs nearby, so i was sitting at +100% dmg from neck slot most of game.

I sorta wonder if low life strategy isnt best actually. One could use 1 less ability to free up levelups to take the +health stuff, and probably get +75% dmg easy (150% from the upgraded one if you luck out). With how far away this build kills stuff that would probably be safe enough.

[Ulyaoth]

Problem is, you will never push Archers HP that high.
Since she only has the Vitality (Weak) +30 upgrade.
You then have to use Hood + Chainmail to boost HP, but Wind Crown is just to valuable.

Ability wise, I think best ones are:
Kugleblitz
- since you focus already in Electrify
Lightning Strike
- since you focus already in Electrify
Transficion
- to unlock Vanguard, what helps to kill more off.screen
- they do alot of damage with crit
- (although I hope they change it, that all Chars get all basic traits)
Arcane Splinters
- build on crit and amount they cover the screen and beyond, doing alot of damage
Ring Blades
- build around crit and area, they cover alot of space and go beyond the screen
Meteor Strike
- with multihit and crit, it could be a potential offscreen killer

[mintymind]

wind crown rarely stays maxed out for me. The % actually often dropped sub 10%. I think stuff has to die close, or maybe not die from a dot for it to trigger?

I switch a bit between lighting strike and transfiction as my first pick. Both are great for early kills. Lightning strike is probably better right at the start. Ring blades do so little dmg.. even fully upgraded since stuff is just dead most of the time. They do however shoot really really far and often get you a few free magnets.

i ll look into meteor strike...

[Ulyaoth]

Dont know.
There is a bug related to Summon Kills, but everything else seems to work.
Had almost always upkeep, except some waves, were enemy density is low, even on high Agony.

[trephoenix]

Gratz Minty on your Ag5. 1 important point I didn't mention is to make sure you're autoaim is enabled since the AI aims at the closest offscreen targets you can't see. Even if you take all 3 of the 20% electrify traits, 2/3 of your electrify damage is coming for the 100% electrify on criticals. Since the Sorceress is stacked with other high damage picks, I found it better to load up on those so the base damage bow max dps on the bow damage is closer to 100K. This is where standing stationary with Hunter's Garb and Guidance Ring excel. I wear the Berserker's Boots for the small amount of time grabbing exp.

Bow + Electrify Crits is such a reliable S Tier combo the abilities don't matter much, but Ulyaoth's Kugelblitz damage is higher than what I get with Area/Attack/Shockwave so I plan to copy his overcrit strat by stacking the 100% crit choices.

As an aside, on paper, the highest damage build in this game is an Archer/Norseman with 2K+ max HP but you need too much luck to get the right drops and it's actually hard to keep your health low enough sometimes. (every single damage item and STR contributes to physical DPS but doesn't apply to electrify). I've gotten each physical arrow up to 4K each but with better luck l think you can get them up to 8K each. For a physical archer, a 235 Max HP Archer/Warlock with 12 multiattack is not as powerful but more fun.

[Quokka]

has anyone hit agony 5 [Ice Cave] with anything other than Archer(Sorc)?

[mintymind]

best run i v had went frostwave at the end due to bad rng. Seemed to somehow actually increase kill distance. Only item upgrade was hunters garb.

transfix (anything but effect chance) -> kugel (crit and aoe focus) -> lightning strike (aoe and extra area/strikes) - > frostwave.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2125192557774343575/20A88490326DDF6BC8DA5FF1538F1E6E0E167623/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[Ulyaoth]

So Warlock is working great, but Archer is still much easier.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3041067821

Exterminator was 4.98 and i had terrible RNG in 4 runs.

[failsafe]

archer seems to be the easiest one to run... but I must admit that I have never went that far with him. I easily reach Agony 3,6 - 3,9 with totally random builds (i pick traits, skills ect as they show up, sometimes I do memo them, but mostly don try to force particular ones, I also dont care about building complementary build, so I end like with transfixtion, orbs and meteor strikes). I always thought that it would be fun to try really strong build on this character... and well... the time has come ;-P

[failsafe]

Electro archer build is great... but too strong for me ;-P. I died like 5 minutes to end... my char was walking too fast, and things were happening too fast... too many lags to even see what was going on ;-P. I was bit over 4... I guess I wouldnt make it to 5 anyway.

[failsafe]

Originally posted by Ulyaoth:

- Archer - Quickdraw I-IV / IV x2
- Sorceress - Voltage I-IV / IV x2

Just one question regarding this - Voltage IV adds: crit hits apply electrify.

Does it make sense to do it x2?