Dungeon Advice, Please?

[Keslen]

I'm finding myself occupying that in-between zone where I'm just about to start breaking into depth 3 in dungeons. However, seeing some of the things others have been talking about along those lines makes me think I should be significantly further ahead than I am. Could someone please help me out by telling me what I'm missing?

I'm currently running three dungeon teams.

First: Mountain 10/8/0
Valkyrie - Wind Defender - Level 95/23
Dog - Neutral Defender - Level 100/24
Penguin - Water Assassin - Level 97/23
Chameleon - Fire Mage - Level 100/24
Squirrel - Fire Rogue - Level 107/26
Fairy - Wind Supporter - Level 104/26

Second: Forest 10/8/null
Turtle - Earth Defender - Level 94/23
Cat - Neutral Assassin - Level 95/23
Chicken - Wind Assassin - Level 93/23
Wizard - Wind Mage - Level 94/22
Undine - Water Rogue - Level 96/18
Mouse - Earth Supporter - Level 109/27

Third: Scrapyard 10/6/null
Whale - Water Defender - Level 99/23
Goat - Earth Rogue - Level 92/22
Coin - Earth Assassin - Level 88/14
Slime - Water Mage - Level 81/19
Octopus - Water Blacksmith - Level 72/32
Panda - Earth Supporter - Level 90/22

All three teams have the required items to pass all events/traps except Wounded Pet and also take Phoenix Feathers with them just in case (I tend to use a couple dozen a day). Also, all of these pets are equipped with full T2 S+10 equipment matching their element with the exception of Defenders with T3 SSS+20 defense reducing weapons, Blacksmiths with T3 SSS+20 Hammers and the Slime with a T3 SSS+20 experience weapon (getting all my mages to class level 20). None of my gear is enchanted or gemmed at all yet (going for full T3 SSS+20 before I start down that road).

I recently saw a screenshot of a 10/10/10 dungeon completion where a pet leveled to 130, so it seems like I should be comfortable in much deeper dungeons than I currently am. Are 35ish pet levels really that big a deal or am I missing something? If the latter, what is it?

[Fel]

That screenshot is probably the one Ryu posted recently:
https://prnt.sc/u71pd7
If you look, his supporter got to class level 50, which is nearly double of what you have and class levels have a pretty big impact on results.
I'm also pretty sure he has a full set of tier 3 equipment on most of them is not all and it's likely that he has gems slotted in as well (not sure about enchanting but probably as well).

Quite a while ago I think the rule of thumb was difficulty 10 of depth 1 more or less equal to difficulty 0 depth 2 and difficulty 5 depth 2 more or less equal to difficulty 0 depth 3.
Another rule of thumb was full T2 gear (S+10 I think it was) and about dungeon level 90 should be enough for depth 3.

I am currently not high enough to go to depth 3 so I can only give you those rule of thumbs that were discussed around the launch of the dungeons and the difficulties for them being introduced.

[Keslen]

I can state that those rules of thumbs are not accurate (at least not in my case) as I recently sent my forest team to 10/8/0 and it got wiped out. That being said, the community at large is inherently wise - so that makes me even more certain that I'm missing something.

Maybe it's just the class levels and/or equipment tiers you mentioned. But then how can I get those faster? Others obviously have done so...

[Fel]

Out of curiosity, how long did you send them to depth 3?

[Keslen]

Until boss (six hours). They sailed through 10/8/null as they usually do, but got mutilated in the depth 3 boss room - didn't even survive to turn 50 for room collapse.

[Fel]

This sounds consistent with what happens if you follow those rules of thumb for depth 2, it lets you survive the normal enemies but the boss can be a bit too strong.
That being said, if you set it to 1 room lower than that you can maximize exp while also having high chances of getting item drops.

[Keslen]

I'm a little embarrassed that I never thought of that possibility myself. It makes me even wonder if I should try it with my (relatively weaker) Scrapyard team as well...

Thank you for pointing that out to me.

[Ryu82]

Forest D3 is the hardest D3 dungeon and Mountain the easiest one. Your mountain team should easily be able to do D3 and maybe even a higher difficulty (depends on equip, though).

For the difficulty in D3, going from easiest to hardest it is like this: Mountain > Volcano > Scrapyard > Water Temple > Forest. Some say Scrapyard is harder than Water Temple but I myself need less feathers in Scrapyard.

Also events, traps and elemental advantage in D3 is huge. So a wrong team can be wiped out with level 120 while the right team might be able to beat it with level 90. You need to always make sure to avoid traps with the right items and at best also succeed all events. So your mountain D3 team needs at least one more neutral pet. So you could trade squirrel for ghost or make chameleon neutral. I think I started being able to beat Mountain D3 when my team was around level 80-85 at average.
Having T2-S+10 is really low for D3, though.

Why did you gave defenders your best equip? Defenders are basically the ones who can live with bad equip, they don't die much anyway. Your mages should get your best equip first, after that your supporters.

That is my volcano D3 team from the screen above btw.:
https://prnt.sc/u9w33v
I was able to beat Volcano D3-10 even with a class level 30 santa, but after that I gave her an ego sword so she got to class level 50 to lower the usage in feathers and pots, and most importantly for UBV4s. 50% damage reduction is huge after all, so you want 3 supporter pets at class level 50 to half the damage you get in UBV4 battles.

[Keslen]

Chameleon should count as neutral element on account of its evolution bonus (I'd absolutely have Ghost instead of Squirrel there otherwise). It seems to do so - am I missing something regarding that?

I didn't really give Defenders the best equip as much as I prioritized bringing the non-standard equipment (alchemist pots, experience leechers, blacksmith hammers, defense reducing weapons and adventurer sticks) to T3 SSS+20 from T2 S+10 before the standard ones (all the other equipment). My Pegasus has started to work on a standard T3 SSS+20 weapon and, when it's completed, it'll go to Wizard.

Okay. Supporter class levels seem to be where it's at. I'll start focusing on those after I get all my Mages to class level 20.

Much gratitude for giving feedback and even more for how detailed it was.

[Ryu82]

Oh right I forgot about the chameleon boost. You are right it counts as right element regardless of what it is set to. Supporter Class levels are a huge reduction in damage and increase in healing power so you want them up yes. But getting class level 20 for mages first is even more important.
Gems can also help a lot, so give 1-2 hp gems to each of your mages and assassins for example, even if they are only Level 9 or 10. Not sure why you don't use dragon as fire mage, though. Dragon mage is the third best one after black hole chan and balrog.

[TanisX]

Ryu82 could you give us screenshots of your other d3 pet teams?

[Ryu82]

https://prnt.sc/u9xrdu (Scrapyard)
https://prnt.sc/u9xrj1 (Mountain)
https://prnt.sc/u9xro8 (Water Temple, Forest. For forest I use cat + dragon instead of bunny and tanuki. Bunny will be scrapyard then instead)

All teams can do D3-10 but I only do D3-10 for Mountain and Volcano. I only use 0-3 feathers there. My Scrapyard team would use 15-20 feathers in D3-10 and my Water Temple team would use 30-40 feathers in D3-10, so I do them only in D3-7, where I only use 0-3 feathers, too. On forest I only did D3-5 when I did this, but currently I switched to WT because I was out of magic ice.

Currently I need 5-10 feathers in mountain D3 but that is only because I farm mimics there. Also a reason why this team is my strongest. They get lots of extra exp from mimics. Without mimics my mountain team wouldn't use any of them.
Exp in mountain D3-10 with 5 mimics: https://prnt.sc/u9xxr1

[TanisX]

Thanks Ryu82, this is very informative.

[Ouroborous]

What is a good team setup now that there is a 5th team slot?

[Ryu82]

In general it doesn't matter too much which pet is in which dungeons as long as you keep some basics in mind.
Every team needs 1 supporter, 1 defender, 1 rogue and the rest to fill up event requirements and damage dealers. Mages are more preferable than Assassins if the D3 boss can summon.
Damage dealers should not be the same element as the dungeon. F.e. a water damage dealer should not go into water temple.
Supporters and damage dealers need the highest levels and supporters should aim for CL 50 as soon as you can do D3-0 (makes it much easier to go from D3-0 to D3-10). The levels of the others can be lower, although high level rogues help a lot with drops.

For equip there is more room but a general advice is: defenders should use neutral equip, damage dealers their own element + inferno sword, rogues bursting knives, supporters inferno sword or bursting knives with either wind or fire equip. And don't forget to gem and enchant equip.

[Ouroborous]

Thanks, I've got 3 teams doing D3 and the fourth just about there. I just need to gem and enchant more of my equipment. Thank you for the advice, as always prompt and helpful.