Universal team: Infested, Reaper, Dark Knight, Mummy

[sandman25dcsss]

I am trying different teams with Infested and I found a nice team which normally deals fun stress damage via Dark Knight in stand while everyone else throws debuffs, but in case of stress-immune enemies the team deals high physical damage while changing positions via physical attacks to move Mummy into third position so no movement spell is needed. The trick is to have Second Brain on both Infected and Reaper since those are rarely attacked and don't need defense items. Knight has vampirism item, Mummy heals 20+ HP per turn from debuffs. Having 5+ debuffs on turn 2 meant 120+ damage from Dark Knight despite first floor, that was funny.

[MasterBLB]

Looks like someone put into good use my tip about 2nd Brain ;P

Team looks good, however consider to order the minions like:
Reaper, Infested, Dark Knight, Mummy
Thanks to that Infested can use ultimate Plague Garden, or in case of these stupid Ronins and Monks in 100% evasion stance Carpet With Filth. His physical sling shot moves him 1 position backward, so you could still do to transition to "phys damage mode" as you have now in one turn, assuming you've set initiative to be like Dark Knight > Infested > Reaper > Mummy.

What else - I see no way to destroy enemies armor. Well, Infested with right upgrade does not care about it, Dark Knight, having 2nd Brain and ~20 armor/resistance deals so big damage with Death Comes For Everyone that his swing breaks through it, but Mummy and to some extend Reaper might have little trouble here. Although Reaper has option to use Energy Wave, and Mummy's Agile Wraps, while not dealing damage, can permanently lower enemy's luck, and on some point every attack against him/her will score crit...hmm, maybe that's enough; if not, then you need to give Acid Glands to someone.

[sandman25dcsss]

Thank you for the tips! Yes, Second Brain is a nice item for universal minions.
I am on 3rd floor now, it is too early for Ronins and Monks. Of course it is not physical team so its damage is not huge, yet there are only a few stress-immune enemies with high armor, they are on last floor as far as I recall. My Infested ignores armor indeed, Knight has attack 50 thanks to armor/resistance bonus, Reaper has Second Brain, only Mummy is not that great, but I am going to put some points into attack soon so he will be fine as well.

[MasterBLB]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

I am on 3rd floor now(...) yet there are only a few stress-immune enemies with high armor, they are on last floor as far as I recall.

Not really, in fact:

• 3rd floor - you'll soon meet Gargoyles. These have high resistance too, so Reaper's Energy Wave also will be affected.
  
• 4th floor - Living Armors, straight from the beginning. Also Wardens might be a bit problematic due to being immune to debuffs, so ex. Reaper's scythe throw won't do anything to them, thus also not trigger knight's stance.
  
• 5th and 6th floor - actually nothing immune to stress with high armor.

[sandman25dcsss]

Ok, I will let you know how it goes.

[sandman25dcsss]

It took 8 turns to kill 3 Living Armours, it looks like I really need Acid Glands :(

Edit. Probably Acid Glands is not needed, I have just tried it vs next 3 Living Armours and it never worked, still 7-8 turns.

[MasterBLB]

In case you didn't knew that - ability expected to trigger Acid Gland has to deal damage, or cause some effect to the enemy. So example Mummy's Beam won't trigger the item against stress immune enemies, but wraps attack do (no damage, but -10 luck).

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by MasterBLB:

In case you didn't knew that - ability expected to trigger Acid Gland has to deal damage, or cause some effect to the enemy. So example Mummy's Beam won't trigger the item against stress immune enemies, but wraps attack do (no damage, but -10 luck).

I didn't know it, thank you!
I guess I had bad luck, it triggered in next fights. Living Armors, Wardens and Gargoyles are ok for the team.

[MasterBLB]

What do you use to protect the knight's stance? Martyr Rags on Mummy?

[sandman25dcsss]

Later I switched to normal attacks (Knight still benefits from debuffs) because too many units remove stance or because I need to kill some dangerous unit first.
I have both artefacts which permanently buff minions for kills so I am trying to distribute kills between all minions.

[sandman25dcsss]

Also I found it works quite well with Finger of Death (that was another reason of the build) which costs 70 mana, and then Reaper uses ultimate and returns 50 mana back because he has mana item.

[sandman25dcsss]

Just had a fight vs 4 elite gargoyles on last floor, no issues at all.

[MasterBLB]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Just had a fight vs 4 elite gargoyles on last floor, no issues at all.

And how exactly you've defeated them?

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Also I found it works quite well with Finger of Death (that was another reason of the build) which costs 70 mana, and then Reaper uses ultimate and returns 50 mana back because he has mana item.

Ah yes, good old Finger of Death + Reaper's Scythe of Sth combo - solid as always. Was even trying a squad which does it twice in a turn, however results were mediocre at best - however it turned out that Reaper's ultimate leeches mana and wrath really nicely, as you've noticed.

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by MasterBLB:

And how exactly you've defeated them?

Finger of Death killed one, 3 other minions killed another, Eternal Battle was ready just in case, cheap guaranteed critical with 130+ damage from Knight was useful too, finished the fight at almost full HP.
Second Brain is very good for Reaper ultimate, it adds up to 120 damage (15*8)

Ah yes, good old Finger of Death + Reaper's Scythe of Sth combo - solid as always. Was even trying a squad which does it twice in a turn, however results were mediocre at best - however it turned out that Reaper's ultimate leeches mana and wrath really nicely, as you've noticed.

That would be a sign that Finger of Death is not nerfed enough :)
I've just won the game, final battle was not trivial, I casted Eternal Battle twice, the bosses dispel debuffs too often. No Tongue dropped so my main damage dealers were Infested and Knight, punishing for own buffs was fun.

By the way my Knights dealt 297 damage without critical in some elite fight, that was fun too.