Melf, Vi and BBEG - Speed

[Kampfschwein Fjonda]

Is Melf or Vi the faster Speed champion for midgame? I usually beat z700.
Also why is BBEG called speed champion? He doesn't do anything imho.

[Flooz]

I'm using Vi at the moment but will replace her with Melf. The second monster spawning together with the first doesn't really do much for me in terms of speed increase. I could just as easily use Minsc for his 33%-10% bonus spawn.

From what I read BBEG decreases quest requirements by 25% when clearing within 5 seconds. I'm using Nahara and have a 45% decrease in my farm run. She can keep up her stacks perfectly as long as I reset before mobs are tougher than her dmg.

This is in relation to farm runs for me. For other reasons, Vi or BBEG mich have more use.

[Kyouko Tsukino]

BBEG can decrease quest requirement by 50% (for a meager 50k gems,) and unlike Nahara, doesn't need a "wind up" of more than one single stage. He can also be helped by Lae'zel's "get bored and complete stages quickly" skill, which makes many stages be done quicker, and by Hew Mann and Virgil's "drops/kills may count double." Hew Mann is specially vicious there, as I have up to 100% drop duplication chance (if in the front row/two front rows,) which with their ultimate becomes 200% for thirty seconds every once in a while. And they also speed up things slightly if the party is not attacked, and unlike Shandie's version of that, they don't have the "for X seconds" flaw, making them a better overall choice than Shandie.

For extra "Gotta Go Fast" add Sentry and Deekin. First reduces stage requirements, second can make it so everything spawns much faster.

Vi is useful for speeding things up a bit, but her real use is in her very strong buff, which for gem farming (my main use for "speed" formations) is pretty pointless.

I use BBEG + Lae'zel + Deekin + Hew Mann + Sentry + Virgil for gem farming, in Cursed Farmer or Mad Wizard, which lets me often have stage requirements of eight, which Hew Mann turns into four (or two with their ultimate active,) and Lae'zel gets bored every sixteen kills that isn't hers and completely skips stages, making BBEG's railroad continue to choo-choo along and blasting through stages. Note that BBEG's "five seconds" are five in-game active seconds, meaning things like "bag animation" or "area transition" don't count. Five seconds are plentiful if your champions and/or familiars aren't wusses.

Even when I'm doing a push, I still use the same setup, plus Vi (to slowly farm up her buff while getting there,) and once I reach z1000-z1100 (where these guys start not being quite up to the task) I switch for my usual pushers and five familiars on the field. I even get Hew Mann to "tank" in campaigns where their drop increase only works in the front row. Sometimes I'll even keep the speed formation and go back to z1 to farm Vi's buff to its current cap, so my "push" formation doesn't have to worry about an under-performing main buffer.

[Flooz]

I need the first 5 zones to have the machine running (Shandie & Nahara).

I'll get BBEG when I got the time pieces. Every second less is more gems for the same effort so I'll try him and see what the difference is.

[ninja85]

I bought Virgil's golden item (rapid fire) in the enclave shop yesterday, which to my surprise brought his skill up from 2x quest items to 3x quest items. Didn't know it would do that!

[Kyouko Tsukino]

All "gold" tags on items (as well as their previous tier, "Shiny") will increase the effect of the item, so yeah, that's exactly what they do. But "gold" tags are a waste to buy for evergreens (they get a lot of shinies from even silver chests, Jarl has a couple golds already.) I didn't buy that item because I already have Hew Mann around, but Virgil adds a chance for more quest items/kills on top of that.

[Flooz]

Originally posted by ninja85:

I bought Virgil's golden item (rapid fire) in the enclave shop yesterday, which to my surprise brought his skill up from 2x quest items to 3x quest items. Didn't know it would do that! :manamana:

Virgil's Rapid Fire bonus depends on other Rivals being in the party. I have the golden item but have 65% chance on 2x because I only have him and Selise in the farm party. Him alone is just 32% on 2x.

[kab_reg]

Originally posted by Kyouko Tsukino:

But "gold" tags are a waste to buy for evergreens.

Not a waste in patron shops. It's a free potion of polish you can use on other champions.

[LostSoul]

Just be aware that Melf's speed buff can cause problems, same as WIddle's, when the spawn-speed boost gets high enough. The higher it gets, the more frequently and further into your formation enemies can randomly spawn. That's why I've stopped using Melf entirely, removed both of Widdle's speed feats, and try to keep her along the periphery of the formation to limit how much she boosts spawn speed.

Another stellar example of CNE's game-dev competence, since the bug has been around for years.

[Flooz]

I switched my gem farm from the Mad Wizard to the Roots of Loomlurch in Witchlight. It got some armored bosses which are a bit annoying; Boss 50 hits Shandie out of her speed boost 1/3 times.

Still, I do a dry run 0-300 in the Mad Wizard in about 22 minutes while, using the same 9 champions in Loomlurch, I do 0-300 in 18 minutes.

AND I can add a tenth champion to decrease the time even more.

[Syrrah]

For speed farms it's better not to use BBEG and fall back on Naharra instead. The loss of 5% between Naharra and BBEG shouldn't matter because the first wave spawned suffices to clear an area regardless with a maxed team.

The wind-up speed of Nahraa is actually a plus because it gives Thellora chance to trigger in the first area.

The extra animations of BBEG's zombies however slow the game more than Naharra's attack. That is also (one of the reasons) why Vi is a better speed toon than Melf, or why using less speed toons normally is better than more. Every single attackframe that needs to be rendered is one too much.

Right now I'm running Briv, Thellora, Widdle, Naharra, Sentry and Hew-Maan. Rimfrost, automated reset at area 603.

[Flooz]

I did some reading up and I can do the same farm run under Patronage of Vajra and that's 20% less quest requirements for the same effort (Tier 3 Blessings).

BBEG's CON is too low and there's no way I can increase it high enough to make him available for this Patron variant. Nahara is available when I invest 50k in her CON feat.

[LostSoul]

Originally posted by Flooz:

I did some reading up and I can do the same farm run under Patronage of Vajra and that's 20% less quest requirements for the same effort (Tier 3 Blessings).

BBEG's CON is too low and there's no way I can increase it high enough to make him available for this Patron variant. Nahara is available when I invest 50k in her CON feat.

BBEG is available for every patron and nearly every variant. His 'availability' isn't based on his own stats or alignment but of those of every champion with the Awful Ones affiliation. That's Nix, Evandra, and Antrius. If any of them qualify, he qualifies.

[Flooz]

Originally posted by LostSoul:

BBEG is available for every patron and nearly every variant. His 'availability' isn't based on his own stats or alignment but of those of every champion with the Awful Ones affiliation. That's Nix, Evandra, and Antrius. If any of them qualify, he qualifies.

Thanks, didn't know that.
I got the Nahara feat but even while that allows me to do the Vajra variant with 20% less requirements, all in all I'm slower because I can't use Selise. In her aggressive stance her shield toss tends to stun those pesky bosses that break Shandie's speed.

It seems that it's all about details and that any change here requires some adjustments there.