Battleheart strategy, tips, & tricks

[SirDarkened]

I added more items to the wiki. I think people should try to contribute with what items they have. I posted all mine that I currently have descriptions for.

[makitango]

Originally Posted by SirDarkened

I added more items to the wiki. I think people should try to contribute with what items they have. I posted all mine that I currently have descriptions for.

I hope that you're not mad at me; I turned some things around in the wiki. Only thing I left out is "classes"... this will take far too long.

[Chakachaka]

Originally Posted by makitango

Anyone here with an arena score above 100 at Doomvale's and with a cleric, barbarian, wizard (with Time Stop) or a rogue in it? Of course, with characters below 60...

Running: knight, barbarian, wizard (no time stop), cleric. All level 40-44) High score 103.

[skarsnik]

Originally Posted by Chakachaka

Running: knight, barbarian, wizard (no time stop), cleric. All level 40-44) High score 103.

32 Knight (shout, 2 x 20% deflection), 30 wizard (blizzard, conflagrate, meteor knockdown), 30 witch (poison cloud, horror), 39 bard (attack buff, group heal). High score 108.

Knight has 2 x 20% deflection, rest of the party has 2 x jabe (-12 cooldown).

Tanks and healers were of higher level as I had to use them to level the rest of the DPS to 30.

I cycled the AOE crowd controls (shout, blizz, horror), used conflagrate and meteor knockdown as additional pinch CC options, and spammed bard attack buff and HOT whenever it is up.

I find that up to a certain point (approx 70 kills in), the tank will not be able to survive with more than 2 normal mobs, or even 1 ogre beating on him without cooldowns and all I do is war cry then kite. CC at this stage becomes very important to survive.

Hence I find Ezak's party build of dual wizard, witch and bard interesting - will try it once i finish farming T9 weapons and armor (suiciding at 70 kills right now).

[Patch]

I like the Monk, Bard, Witch, Wizard setup.. but all are in the 30's and can't handle high rounds of Doomvale, without going über defensive.

[makitango]

@wiki: Life-drain items got buffed in 1.0.2, please don't change it.

edit: Got a 130 score (silly mistake wiped the tank) with my setup posted a few sites ago.

[Ezak]

Originally Posted by Patch

I like the Monk, Bard, Witch, Wizard setup.. but all are in the 30's and can't handle high rounds of Doomvale, without going über defensive.

This is similar to what I used to have, but replaced monk with witch (had dual mage already) and got 116 on second try in doomvale (archers killed my bard in what felt like 2 seconds, but it was really just me being sloppy with CC).
I'm stopping at 75kills now to get T9 gear, but I think I could easily get much higher score (toons are between 32 and 36 atm) with better gear and level (full T8 except bard in T9, since nothing else drops lol).
Problem is that I need to grind xp and that gets boring :/

I use -6sec*2 CD reduction on everyone, constant blizzard coupled with 4 knockbacks on short CD is crazy dmg mitigation.
Cursed Eyeballs are nice and all, but CD reduction trinket is always effective. If you go for dual mage combo, get them CD trinkets
I can't afford a hole in my rotation, so if it doesn't proc on blizzard, it completely changes the pace of the game and kiting becomes much much harder (especially when all your players are targetted and have to kite).
Witch is mainly useful because she's ranged cloth damage so she won't aggro like say, a rogue would (and then turn into a useless kiting machine).
AOE fear can be a lifesaver..

The problem I will face the higher I get is the ever increasing crazy damage of archers, so apart from leveling, I have to reduce their damage as much as possible.
I now save my fear when there are 2 or more archers, and I replaced conflagrate with the pbaoe knock back talent, and i'm pretty satisfied. I just about never take any damage at all to 75 (not counting initial archers hit).
It's more micro intensive, but mage blinking into group of archers and aoeing helps reduce their damage considerably.
I'm also considering switching bard dmg song to -15%damage taken, but well, that would just delay the inevitable ^^

Anyways, keep blizzard and bard buffs on a 100%uptime, focus archers first, kite like crazy, and when you feel like archers start hitting too hard, save all knockbacks/fear for them as much as you can to nullify their damage.

Dual Mage/Witch/Bard with 8*CD reduction trinket owns :P


On a side note, anyone know what the best "powerlevel" zone is ?
I currently chain the rock boss for around 500xp a pop and he goes down pretty fast, but I'm wondering if someone knows a better zone ?

[porkchop]

i got all my guys with items that give 10 and 20% more money but it seems im still recieving the same amounts

[florhackson]

Just got a 128 on the final arena, using this setup, also some questions at the end of this post, if anyone would care to help me please

Party

Monk - 37 (Zara's Signet, Ninja Glove)
Wind Walk
Evasion
Tiger Claw
1000 Palms
Dragon Style
Counter
Solar Strikes

Rogue - 30 (Ninja Glove x 2)
Sneak Attack
Expose Weakness
Flurry
Shadowstep
Pursuit
Envenomed Blades
Aggression

Witch - 38 (Codex of Jabe x 2)
Drain Life
Plague
Piercing Shadow
Hex
Terrifying Presence
Prey on the Weak
Crushing Despair

Bard - 38 (Codex of Jabe x 2)
Song of Renewal
Song of Vigor
Stoicism
Song of War
Healing Chords
Prestissimo
Echo of Renewal

First off, the only person I believe that is interchangeable in this party is the Monk, as I was using him as a tank. He was getting the bard's armor, plus wind walk and evasion, so he could grab aggro from everyone and then sit there taking zero damage. I was torn between Sweep the leg and solar strikes, but the 6 seconds crippling effect it gave was just got good enough.

The other 3 party members are essential to how I play. Having the 2 codex on the Bard, plus echo of renewal, gives him 2 team heals on 12 second cooldowns, and a damage increase on a 22 second cooldown, that lasts 15 seconds, meaning only 15 seconds of downtime. Also with the Bard's effect on the monk it cuts the cd times of the monk by 20%. The Bard is a must have.

The witch and the rogue complement each other,(since the rogue can paralyze, and the witch will do even more damage to it.) Also the witch can heal, and has CC. So for how I play, this is key.

How it works

Single target dps, while ccing the others is key. My witch and Rogue ALWAYS attack the same target,(unless it is a red slime targetting one of them.) Since the rogue has shadowstep, and the witch is ranged, this works out amazingly well, and since the rogue complements the witch, they burn down things fast.(specifically archers)

The monk should be rounding up the rest using wind walk, and between the bard's 2 heals, the witch's heal, and the monk's evasion, he should be able to tank it relatively well(until you get into the 80's and it get's a lot harder.)

You should easily be able to get into the 80's with this setup, and 100's if you maximise the use of your cooldowns.

Thoughts on how I could have done better

I am thinking I should make my Monk more defensive, trading spirit trance for 1000 palms, and clarity for dragon style.

Should probably trade Horror for Hex on the witch.

My questions

I know my trinkets for the rogue and monk are wrong, what should I be using?

For the rogue lvl 30 talent, Aggression or lethality?

[ArtNJ]

Originally Posted by florhackson

I know my trinkets for the rogue and monk are wrong, what should I be using?

For the rogue lvl 30 talent, Aggression or lethality?

Crit trinkets probably give the most damage for the rogue in arenas (not boss farm), although I certainly cant prove that its more or less then the eyeballs or books. I could see either books or eyeballs coming out ahead on boss farm, because more expose weakness is more damage for whole party.

Regardless, how much does a little damage bump really matter for arena? I actually usually use paralyzing knife instead of shadowstep, on the theory that more cc is always better. Doesnt seem to be a popular choice, but dont think that one usually dies in arena for lack of more dps? To me, 20% evasion and 20% run speed is just as reasonable as boosting dps (if you go paralyzing knife).