dungeon guide for random parties | Midori

[BlazeMG]

recently I published this guide and didn't know about the contest, so I copy it here. I also update a small part due to game update

 

Dungeons are essential part of any good mmorpg and in Skylore there are a few things to remember.

First of all - most people don't use the search party mechanism. This means that most dungeon groups are either guild members/friends who play together regularly and don't need a guide OR a bunch of randoms. This guide is for RANDOM players.

PREPARATION---

the first thing you have to acknowledge is that dungeon is NOT profitable gold-wise. The chest from dungeon contains knowledge and dungeon gear. Even if you sell dungeon gear you will get smth around 100 coins. That is NOT WORTH the effort. So when you are going to the dungeon you have to be in a mindset that the dungeon is your INVESTMENT into obtaining knowledge and/or dungeon equipment. Keep in mind that dungeon equipment gives attack bonus against champion level enemies and all world bosses are champion level. So if you want to kill gnawer or baladrog faster, you want that equipment.

You will need all three types of potions. Max HP potion(at least one), Attack+ potion(at least one) and Healing potions(5-10).

dungeon gear gives you attack bonus, not the defense bonus. All armour and accessories will protect you in accordance to their stats so it is fine to go there with pvp set, just keep it upgraded.

Instead of focusing on getting full set of dungeon gear you should focus on getting a full set of HEAVY armour of any type (pve, dungeon pve or pvp). Yes, even for dd classes. Rogues(shadows), mages(sorcerers), archers(hunters) all need heavy armour for dungeon, because we are talking about RANDOM people. So any person should be ready to take up the role of a tank and for that they will need max def.

dungeons contain elite, boss and STRONG enemies, so equipping dungeon set will not give you attack bonus against EVERYTHING in the dungeon. Equipping a normal PvE set will at least help against strong enemies but not against elites/bosses. Assembly line also has weak enemies, but you will stomp them with anything so they are not worth mentioning. The only thing about weak enemies you might want to remember is that your alchemist can recover some of his/her health with its first skill and these weak enemies are perfect targets.

The healer(alchemist) must also have frantic accessories. Why? Because of cooldown of healing. Since you can't reduce cooldown easily, you must at least maximize the amount of HP you recover per heal.

it is also convenient to have nibblers for emergency. Because they increase your total dps and act as additional targets to draw attention of enemies from you.

EXPLORATION---

If one person votes to quit dungeon - everyone should do the same. You are not making it through. The person might have an emergency at home or they have estimated that the party is too weak or there is a level mismatch in the party and higher level players don't want to get smaller chest reward. Whatever the cause is - don't waste time. Just retreat. Don't wait for the majority vote. You see that retreat option? You agree. It will save you the trouble of going through the dungeon with weak party.

If a person if offline - retreat too. Dungeons are for full parties. Three players can barely make it and you should not bet on it. Besides, for three players there will be a much bigger demand for potions anyway.

You can communicate with players via chat but because of how it is implemented, it is not convenient. The time you spend typing message is the time you are not controlling the character, and dungeons have time limits to them. The best you can expect is "here" message from one of the players who have found the final boss.

To compensate for the lack of communication, it would be great if all players followed the same strategy. I offer the following.

the dungeon has to be explored in a counterclockwise pattern. This means that you check west wing first, then south wing then east wing. And in every room you go North-West-South-East. That should save you some time on deciding where to go.

The next rule is - everyone follows the tank. There are four people in the party and I have seen too often how the party just splits into pairs and each pair goes their way thinking that the other pair of players will follow them...only to get wiped on both sides. If there are two tanks - follow the one with more mastery/higher level. If there are three - vote to leave because you probably don't have enough dps anyway. The same for three healers. Not enough dps unless you are very lucky with skipping bosses. If there are no tanks and you still decide to try - everyone follow the healer, because the healer is now your meat shield tank due to ability to recover lost hp.

The next rule - we all imply that the purpose of your raid is to complete dungeon, not to complete daily tasks like killing four boss-level enemies or 12 elites. This means that we will all ATTEMPT boss skipping on every opportunity. The two bosses that are most skippable are flogrilla and object 251. Remember that bosses have specific rooms and by the appearance of the room you can tell who is the boss before you even see them. To skip the boss you have to move close to the wall, practically hugging the wall. it is possible, it was done more than once, it saves 2 minutes on average. It also saves you potions/nibblers. If you need daily tasks - you complete them by visiting more dungeons not by CLEARING the dungeon thoroughly when everyone is trying to rush to the final boss.

The next rule - focus fire enemies, attacking whatever your tank is attacking. Do not spread damage, you are just making it difficult for the healers to keep up.

For the assembly complex dungeon (the technological one) - you must always destroy repair bots first. Seriously - killing enemies' healers is gaming 101. If you don't kill their healers, you are extending the amount of hp they have, and the time to burn through it. So healers die first.

The next rule - do NOT stand in the red. Seriously - if the attack is telegraphed - get OUT! Don't make it harder for your healer.

The next rule - do NOT aggro more than one group of enemies. They are elites. They have too much hp and they hit hard. the 4 VS 4 is already challenging. 4 VS 8 is almost always a suicide. Let your tank pick a target and lure them slightly back to the corridor from which you have just arrived. And be careful with aoe attacks.

Next rule - do NOT spam skills. Elites are full of hp, you won't kill them in one burst of attacks. Use your skills strategically. Fear effect can interrupt any telegraphed attack of normal opponents but not bosses.

Don't even bother with dynamite and other bomb-consumables. You are throwing too much money on potions already. There is no need to toss more money at enemies.

Next rule - time management. It takes about 2-3 minutes to kill a boss. If you have one minute before final boss - exit. You are not making it.

killing a miniboss gives you buff but it is random and you can not rely on it when you plan your run. It can even backfire if this is a movement speed buff, because some of your teammates who get the buff will run faster than you without buff. Imagine running away from your healer :)

BOSSES---

Elariel - just don't. If you see that she is the boss of the dungeon - don't go there. She is the worst. But if you ABSOLUTELY have to, you must remember that random players WILL not attack roots to set you free from one of her attacks. And if you are a healer, and there is only one healer - that's a party wipe. Because you can't heal while you are bound. The best party composition would be two healers and two dd (at least one healer is NOT bound by roots will keep the other healer alive). When she spawns red/green fire - kite her. You can't kill all those targets in time but you can lure her away from them. If she is low on health you can kill her like this. This is also the boss where nibblers would be most useful. Each nibbler is an extra target that might get bound by roots instead of you. It is luck-based, but it helps. The swarm attack will hit the player and any player close to him/her, so don't approach other party members when the bees are trying to kill you.

The flower lord... whatever - this dude is a complete pushover. The greatest danger is if he spawns healers a few times and you don't kill them. There is a point where they will outheal any damage your party can deal. So every time he spawns ANYTHING - kill it and proceed with beating. His aoe attack is telegraphed. And it is HEAVILY telegraphed. You don't even have to wait to see red tiles on the floor. Before they appear you will see his attack animation as he raises his staff to strike the ground. That is how you know the attack is coming and you may begin to run to dodge it at that point. It will be much easier. The red tiles ALWAYS appear under your characters so you ALWAYS know that you have to move in ANY direction to dodge it. Just make sure you don't move into the red tiles of your neighbor. Unfortunately clones and nibblers don't dodge those.

Magnetron - this boss is average. He will randomly teleport a player close to him, attach a bomb and then teleport this player to the rest, and then the bomb explodes. With heavy armour you should survive the bomb and an alchemist will have group heal and heal to undo the effects. He can also be lured in the corner of the room where he will stuck but I am not certain if it is bug or a feature. Perhaps after this guide his AI will be fixed so he doesn't stuck in the corner anymore, but he does now. You can beat him without that trick anyway. This boss doesn't spawn minions.

Inspector Spineslasher - whatever. He is nightmare fuel in terms of looks but also average like magnetron. This dude has melee and ranged attacks. Don't stand in the red to avoid range attack and don't stand in the red to avoid aoe melee attack. Seriously that is it. Nothing special. Just a bunch of telegraphed attacks. Let the tank do the tanking, dd will be damaging and healer will be healing. This is as classic as it gets. The only real trick here is when the ranged attack is charged, move out of its way in the direction of your healer, so that you stay in range and healer doesn't have to step into poisonous gas to heal you. In fact - moving in direction of your healer is also gaming 101. There is no strategical advantage to spreading out. This boss doesn't spawn minions.

Mandragora - yes, this is the boss. Not the final boss but it could as well be. Mandragora is a sub boss, and it causes the most problems. Mandragora is FUNDAMENTALLY different from all other bosses. It is the most hyperactive creature in the dungeon. It will run all over the room chasing you. Players don't know how to beat it.

So here is the explanation. Imagine yourself a toreador. Mandragora will charge at you so you want to step to the side. You also want to avoid green poison on the ground. It leaves the trace so don't stand in it. The biggest problem is an aoe attack. It is too frequent. How frequent? Approximately every three strikes. So you count one-two-three and then you begin running in the direction opposite to mandragora. There is always a pillar in the room that mandragora can ram into and it will interrupt its charging attack, but that is optional. Just step sideways. Ranged dd are preferable because rogues will struggle to land a hit. You have to close in, hit and retreat before the next aoe attack. You don't have time for that! But tanks can just stand their with support from healer. Remember that mandragora will eventually switch target, so don't relax until it is dead.

about flogrilla---

you should always skip this boss but if you aggro it by accident there is a thing you should remember. The boulder attack is the biggest problem. Most players will NOT dodge it. They will stand in one place while a huge boulder is rolling toward them. To be killed by this thing is embarrassing. Just look where it goes and step to the side. Seriously it is THAT easy. And if you DON'T want to bother with boulders at all, they will not appear if at the moment when the red area is filled there are no targets inside of it. So if you see a red circle with flogrilla in the centre - just step out of it and flogrilla will cancel its own boulder attack! Once again - could be an AI bug, but it works for now.

the difference between bosses and sub bosses is that when bosses spawn something - it stays in the game until you kill it or get killed. When sub bosses spawn minions they will disappear. So you don't HAVE to kill repair bots near object 251 but you may do this to make the battle easier for you.

To sum it up - thorn hollow has the strongest and weakest bosses and both of those are summoners, assembly line has two average bosses and neither will summon minions. Thorn hollow also has the most annoying boss - mandragora while assembly line has healers (repair bots) and weak targets (perfect for your alchemist).

Try to kill bosses in their respective rooms. Do not lure them away unless you are trying to lead flower lord away from dozens of healers or Elariel from those red and green fires. But if you have to run out of their room - you are probably not going to make it anyway. Seriously - if you have to retreat, you are to weak. Just quit the dungeon.

 

UPDATED PART---

after the latest game update there are now healers in Thorn hollow. Just like with repair bots you have to kill them first. The hounds also became much stronger. Their special attack can one shot you if you are not at full health. You can use shield skill preemptively, but you can't know when the attack will happen so you are risking to waste it on nothing threatening.

EXTRA---

If you have 5 chests with rewards, do not forget to open(not unlock but actually open, so that the slot for the chest is now free) at least one of them so that the dungeon reward is added to the queue.

check your current gear before dungeon. you can not switch it mid combat, so if you have two or more sets, make sure you are wearing heavy set for dungeon.

Do not forget to repair before visiting dungeon. if there is an orange hammer icon - that piece must be repaired ASAP.

Do not make it more difficult for yourself. If you have costumes, make sure your character is in high contrast with the background. Your enemies are AI. You don't get any bonuses from camouflage. They will see you in any costume. But will you?

Play with sound, there are audio clues.

If you have more suggestions - add to this guide in comments.

Have fun

[Rogravi]

Guide can use some colour/font coding just so it will be easier to read/reread, but overall great examples

[BlazeMG]

GUIDE UPDATE 2---

first I would like to correct a mistake in the original guide. I wrote that tree hounds are a serious threat. I was wrong. The main damage was not from a tree hound but from rootgrabbers. They explode on death and cause severe AoE damage. I though it was from tree hound because they are always in one group. So the new approach is to ignore tree hound and kill one rootgrabber first then wait for your healer to heal you from that explosion while fighting anything OTHER than a second rootgrabber and then kill the second rootgrabber.

Now the main part - game's update. Now the game tries to balance the party with one healer one tank and two damage dealers. Does that mean that my previous advice of going in full heavy armour is no longer relevant? No, it is the same. But for a different reason. Now the game will force those balanced parties at the cost of level mismatch. So a level 30 character can be in a group with level 7 character in the same dungeon. And of course low level characters are less experienced and will die to often so having heavy armour to tank when you level 7 tank dies to a telegraphed attack is still a good choice.

Regardless of your teammates level you will always get the chest of your character level so you don't have to leave when someone is lower lvl than you are.

The monsters in the dungeon are still at the level of the lowest lvl party member and the lower that level is the easier it will be to complete the dungeon. Enemies have proportionally less hp and use special abilities less often at lower levels so it is convenient to have a low level teammate as long as they are not complete noobs who don't know to run out of red zones of telegraphed attacks and have some healing potions on them.

Another important thing to know is that now there are bots not only on arenas but also in dungeons. You will improve your chances of playing with humans if you accept dg invitation at the top of the screen with some players already in the lobby. If three players are waiting for you - you will have full human team. If two are waiting you can have 3 or 4 humans on your team including yourself. if only one is waiting then you will have at least on human teammate. So it is better to get into dg through a pop up invitation rather than from initiating a raid yourself, but someone has to initiate a raid anyway. To handle this I recommend to at least find one party member before going to dg so that you have two guaranteed human players.

Elariel is still a good reason to nope out especially with noobs who don't know to attack green and red fire-lings and to kite her away from fire-lings.

flower lord became slightly more difficult because noobs still don't know to always kill his summons before proceeding with beating the main target

magnetron and spineslasher cause as much trouble as you expect from your teammates standing in red zones of telegraphed attacks.

Finally - the steel claw and venom spitter subbosses are also skippable like flogrilla and object 251.

The steel claw is skippable on moving from south-east to either north-east or south west. (and in opposite directions too)

venom spitter is skippable on moving from south-west to south east or in oppsite direction from south-east to south west