Arena Build - 150 Challenges and rocking it! (Currently at Wave 800 as of 11/12/203)

[Universal Gamer]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2763363479

The first several levels were touch and go scary, but when the momentum built up they got nasty.
What helped was a huge bank account before I started rolling for specific items.

If your interested in the builds, just ask.

-Universal Gamer

Just reached wave 300 and still hammering it!

-Universal Gamer

[Kosiciel]

Share the builds, that's the main dish in arena after all :)

[Universal Gamer]

Arena Build:
Races used; (Need to be LG for PALADIN levels, LAWFUL for the MONK levels)
Teifling (Resistance 5 to cold, elec, fire)
Aasimar (Resistance 5 to acid, cold, elec)
Troll (+1 Natural Armour, Regeneration 5, Natural Weapons (multi-attack))
Drow (Spell Resistance, Poison attacks (render opponent unconscious))
Duergar (Immunity to paralysis, phantasms, poison, Spell-Like Abilities)
Svirfneblin (Spell Resistance, +2 to saving throws, Spell-Like Abilities)

Classes and progression:
Monk (90)
Rogue (20)
Paladin (20)
Cleric (20)
Rogue(>21 and continuing)

Core items;
Higher Counterstrike Bracers (Extraordinary version if you can)
Magnificent Belt
Boots of striding and springing (Boots of levitation if you can)
Crystal of Trolls blood (Hydra Statue if you can)... or... Ring of Troll (Ring of Hydra if you can)
Higher Ring of Energy Resistance...
Optional... Ring of Protection
Amulet of the Unicorn / Amulet of the Clover / Higher Amulet of Natural Armour
Ioun Stones - Deflection and/or saves
------
2x Disruption Nunchaku (Disrupt Undead + Elemental Damage)
2x Destruction Nunchaku (Multiple Elemental Damage)
2x Wounding Nunchaku (Wounding [Bleed Damage] + Elemental Damage)
...Optional...
Destruction/Disruption/Wounding Shuriken in ammunition slots
-----
Implement the House rule of +1 to all stats every ten (10) levels.

The choice of the monster classes allows a nice edge with resistances and perks in the early stages, of which you wont use them much if at all in the later stages, with the exception of the spell resistances and immunities, but the Drow ability to render opponents unconscious is priceless.

On the initial creation focus the main stat point buy on DEX and WIS, as this is paramount for the initial class, a STR of 13 also allows you to get the Power Attack feat, still gain what you can in the other stats to at least 10 (-/+ 0).

The class progression is what helps define the monstrosity of the build:
I took Monk class to level 90 initially for a few reasons;

MONK Level 90
Firstly once you change from the Monk class you can not go back to it,
Secondly Unarmed Attack and Flurry of Blows allows you multiple melee attacks and the use of no weapons up to two weapons (like dual wielding Nunchaku), AC Bonus (Wisdom score based) + 1 point to AC every 5 levels.
Now the rest of the goodies,
Fast Movement,
Still Mind,
Purity of Body,
Diamond Body,
Diamond Soul.
The main reason for 90 levels of Monk is for Fast Movement and Diamond Soul, which are,
Fast Movement +2 squares of movement every three (3) levels
Diamond Soul gives you Spell Resistance equal to current monk level + 10

ROGUE Level 20 (Class level 110)
Straight forward response;
Sneak Attack, Uncanny Dodge (and the Improved),
The Class specific feats of Crippling Strike and Opportunist Feats as well.

PALADIN Level 20 (Class level 130)
In hindsight probably only needed to take this class to level 3, though the full range of spells (even though never used) is handy.
And an FYI in regards to Aura of Courage, the character can still be affected by Fear, just that they have a higher save roll for it.

CLERIC Level 20 (Class level 130)
The focus with this was for the Spells

ROGUE Level 21+ (Class level 150+)
Continuing the rest of the levels with the Rogue class allows you to build up your sneak attack damage feat.

With the Optional Feats I focused on the Melee Combat Training (Two-Weapon Fighting tree), Weapon Training, General Feats, Combat Maneuvers Training,

GENERAL FEATS
Toughness
Quick Draw
Improved Defences (level 10)
Dodge (DEX 13)
- Mobility
Improved Sneak Attack (level 21, Sneak Attack +8d6)
WEAPON TRAINING
Weapon Focus
- Greater Weapon Focus (level 8)
- Weapon Specialization (level 4)
- - Greater Weapon Specialization (level 12)
Improved Critical (level 8)
- Greater Critical (level 16)
- Power Critical (level 12)
- Bleeding Critical (level 11)
- - Improved Bleeding Critical (level 11)
- Crippling Critical (level 13)
- - Improved Crippling Critical (level 17)
- Stunning Critical (level 15)
- Critical Mastery (level 14)
- Overwhelming Critical (level 21)
Multiattack (Troll)
MELEE COMBAT TRAINING
Power Attack (STR 13)
- Cleave
- - Great Cleave (level 4)
- - Improved Cleave (level 4)
Combat Reflexes
Weapon Finesse
TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING
Two-Weapon Fighting (DEX 15)
- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (level 6, DEX 17
- - Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (level 11, DEX 19)
- - - Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting (level 16, DEX 21)
- Two-Weapon Defence (level 3)
- - Improved Two-Weapon Defence (level 6)
- Double Slice (level 6)
COMBAT MANEUVERS TRAINING
You can choose any that suit your play style, given your characters will have a higher DEX an investment in to Agile Maneuvers is advised as the first choice in this tree.

The focus on feats for the first several levels should be on things such as;
Quick Draw
Toughness
Dodge
Cleave
Combat Reflexes.

HINDSIGHT
Realising that 20 levels in PALADIN and CLERIC are not really necessary unless you will be using Mass Party Stat or Healing spells, all you need is 3 levels of PALADIN, giving you 13 levels to work on something else.
With 13 levels you can opt for a fighter class, If taken as the initial class you will need to push it to level 20 or higher (12 levels in fighter are fairly optimum as a second class after Monk, which gives you access to more feats around combat.
You can spend some levels on a caster class which will give you a familiar and the ability for summons (Stats for casting INT for Wiz and CHA for Sorc) which will help in combat in the early stages but not much point later, this is best as the initial class as you will not really need many levels in it.

Possible options for the rebuild are
Monk 90 (90)
Fighter 12 (102)
Paladin 3 (105)
Rogue + (106+)

Fighter 20 (20)
Monk 90 (110)
Paladin 3 (113)
Rogue + (114+)

-Universal Gamer

[Universal Gamer]

And yes all 6 characters are built the same way, with the Combat reflexes and rogue opportunist feats, they work very well in flank as they sneak attack and opportunist strike with the Monks flurry of blows.

Wait till you see the build work, it is nasty!

-Universal Gamer

[Kosiciel]

Thanks for such long and interesting replay! I have similar builds, although no level limit really makes characters OP as hell. That's why for now I only use three instead of six. Two identically build trolls (16 fighter/16 rogue/16 monk/rest ranger [at least 12/11/11 is a must], with an option to get paladin and/or levels of course, that bonus saves can be super useful afterall) and drow spellcaster (3 pal/rest sorcerer) with pumped CHA for summons. Nunchakus (and kamas if we want higher crit range and small trip bonus instead of stun on crit) are weapons to go.
Quick Draw is super useful for switching to dual-wielded throwing hammers/axes (up to 12 range with feat and enchantment and up to 6 attacks).
Itemization - very similar: extraordinarny counterstrike bracers, cloak of resistance, ioun stone of deflection, golden horseshoe, extraordinary amulet of natural armor, ring of hydra, extraordinary ring of energy resistance, magnificent belt, boots of levitation and weapons.
Elemental gem of fire, robe of archmage and magic guided hand crossbows for spellcaster.
No XP penalty, although I'm not sure if that matters or not. I'm tempted to make (almost) full-monk for testing purposes (ridiculous AC, speed and such).
https://i.postimg.cc/jj1fZBCX/image.png

[Universal Gamer]

The XP penalties are noticeable at the higher end, finding anywhere up to about 25 levels in difference.
90 levels of Monk with fast movement lets you clear the distance in almost any map, which lets you set up the characters nicely in most cases with huddles or flanking.

[Universal Gamer]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2780523652

Hit Arena wave 300.
Defeats 0
Deaths 0
Next objective Wave 500

Somethings are apparent;
- The character attacks are starting to miss more frequently, especially on specific creatures/monsters
- Magic items:
-- Blue still heaps of it,
-- Purple as well,
-- Yellow your better of crafting it,
-- Orange hardly much it found and even less in store,
-- Red, well this is a pain, maybe 1:0 fights something will show up
Hit Arena wave 300.
Defeats 0
Deaths 0
Next objective Wave 500

Somethings are apparent;
- The character attacks are starting to miss more frequently, especially on specific creatures/monsters
- Magic items:
-- Blue still heaps of it,
-- Purple as well,
-- Yellow your better of crafting it,
-- Orange hardly much it found and even less in store,
-- Red, well this is a pain, maybe 1:250 fights something will show up

For the most part I am still using Yellow magic items (Tier 3 of 5), and I am noticing the pinch at the higher levels.
I did take the advice of

Kosiciel původně napsal:

Nunchakus (and kamas if we want higher crit range and small trip bonus instead of stun on crit) are weapons to go.

The 'Trip' bonus is nice on the Kama and there is an extra bleed alternative with the 'Wounding' option, but only the Nanchakus have the Disruption option for dealing with undead, might switch weapons back to see how that pans out as the Rogue Opportunist and Sneak Attacks are where the core damage values in this build.

Next target is Wave 500.

-Universal Gamer

[Kosiciel]

Indeed, 'Disruption' enchantment is only for bludgeoning weapons. I often use kama in right hand and nunchakus in left.

I may switch warriors from monk to rogue for 1d6 sneak damage every two levels - every bit of damage is useful with inflated monster HP pools. I have one experimental troll barbarian, that +8 STR really helps on top of naturally high troll stat.

[Universal Gamer]

So just an update with the progress of this build.

Up to Wave 365
Continuous Challenges 2033
Kills 12290
Defeats & Deaths 0

Troll, Drow and Duergar
Monk 90, Paladin 20, Cleric 20 Rogue 192

Tiefling and Svirfneblin
Monk 90, Paladin 20, Cleric 20, Rogue 252

Aasimar
Monk 90, Paladin 20, Cleric 20, Rogue 253

------------------------------------------
The combat is getting difficult due to the XP penalties and the 60 level character difference is noticable.

It seems as though the encounter levels are at the higher character level yet the item drops and craft caps are at the lower character level.

This is posing a problem as the lower characters are having difficulties on many of the various opponents with their %hit, and the items are on the lower end so that is not helping them as much.

An average of 250 encounters is producing 1 random tier 5 (Red) item, and the store is even worse.
It also appears that Kama and Nanchaku are not available in anything beyond tier 3 (Yellow), Ioun Stones of Save are capped at +5, the Ring of Protection is only available in tier 1 (Blue),

I'll wait a few more updates and try remake with new monster classes, it will be a painful redo but currently I doubt I'll make 500 waves with 0 deaths/defeats.

-Universal Gamer

[Kosiciel]

Items with +saves were changed to only have +5 maximum (like Cloaks of Resistance).

About level difference issue - I keep ALL my chars at 60% penalty (may go even to 80%) so no problems there. I have still 2 free slots, so I may add someone else like Duergar or Svirfneblin, or simply two more Drow Nobles (3 Pal/12 Fighter/20 Monk/rest Rogue). I wonder if I may need a cleric at higher waves, so far I stomp everything (wave 220 or so). Sorcerer is super fun, but mainly used for Haste/Mass Bear/Time Stop/Greater Heroism/Sunburst/Weird and summon stone. Damage spells are quite weak later.

P.S. About red weapons - you just need to be lucky: https://i.imgur.com/en9O31K.png

[cloudius.white]

Any final update?

[Universal Gamer]

I've gained a few more waves still working on it periodically.
The level gap in the party is making it difficult with certain monsters, still at zero (0) deaths.

-Universal Gamer

[Rodjir]

Why do you put a signature at the bottom of your post? We can see your name every time you post anything

[sir Evans]

If you want to get a shot at 500 achievements, the best way is to stop leveling characters somewhere in between 5-10 level. Two halfling palladins with throwing hammer/axe, shields, damage reduction armors, troll blood and magnificent belts plus one half-elf ranger with composite bow of distance with preferably immobilizing and acid damage if you are lucky, with boots +2 to speed, troll regen and damage reduction can efectivelly farm in that level range forever.
If you get elemental stone (air elementals preferably for aoe and speed) you have a party of four doing very well.
I know that not leveling defeats the purpose, but I personally found 500 achievements insulting. Especially with how the difficulty spikes after level 20.

[Universal Gamer]

sir Evans:
The aim is to see how many waves can be completed with zero deaths, trying to find a solid group and build to see how far they can go.
500 battles was easy enough, 500 waves is challenging.

Rodjir:
The name stamp at the bottom is a habit when I was writing reviews and help/FAQ documents for submission years ago.
Those that read them back then and read them now will know the validity of what I write
Moot and redundant, possibly.

-Universal Gamer

[sir Evans]

Universal Gamer původně napsal:

sir Evans:
The aim is to see how many waves can be completed with zero deaths, trying to find a solid group and build to see how far they can go.
500 battles was easy enough, 500 waves is challenging.

It was a note for other people trying to get these achievements. I don't dis your efforts, on the contrary.
But folks who want to farm these two achievements will be better off staying in that level range for their own good :)