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Jando wrote on 2011-01-20 06:21
Quote from truefire;297741:
Excellent guide. Reading through it, it was like reliving every little thing I learned about Their Method via trial and error. I never considered Barrier Spikes for future wall herding, that was an invaluable gem for me. Of course, I've still got about 400 lvls before HM so it'll be awhile before that's an issue, and I was eventually planning to work on Barrier Spikes regardless when I start ranged training and working on RA qualifications. Since you said you've never run Int, I will say this: Intermediate is alright, but in regards to exp efficiency, Advanced is where it really takes off, so you didn't miss much.
I really can't be bothered with Barrier Spikes. I use 2 main methods for my TM HM spamming and thats either grouping them up and WMing till dead or WM them all into a wall and then WMspam till dead. To lazy to have a cylinder and use my rN barrier spike on them, would help if I was an alchemist but no, Melee and Range is where it's at for me and and blitz through TM HM to even care about the spikes. But still, its a great for those who have trouble taking out that much hp in a short amount of time.
Quote from truefire;297741:
I did have one thing I disagreed on, though. You said the best swords to dual wield for this mission were broads at 200+ dex, but I'd wager that 204 min-emphatic Bastards are better, particularly those with 22-37 damage prior to upgrades. Their balance is comparable to broads, their max is slightly higher, their min is substantially higher, and due to the generous requirement of only 30% crit for Their Method, the high crit of Broads isn't as vital (if you've got dex-based balance that high, crit should already be a non-issue via enchants or Will from skills, luck, crit or will titles). They're simply more optimized for Their Method in terms of damage output (hpw, wpz, and hpcw considered). 22-37 upgraded optimally becomes 35-80 damage.
I'm actually in the process of updating the entire guide, making it look amazing and whatnot, and the main section thats going to be heavily worked on will be Skills and Equipment. Weapons in particular. In g14 Battle Swords are able to get S/R upgrades and when that happens they WILL become the BEST dual swords (besides lvl 50 bastard/Elsinore Sword), their Artisan upgrade is beyond beast and with a 6/6 S/R upgrade those things will be insane! Beyond comprehension of how OP they will be. Its pretty much game over if you have 2 w/ max str from Artisan which happens to be +140 str....OVERKILL!
Quote from truefire;297741:
My personal best for Adv. Their Method was 6 mins while transed. I usually get 'er done in 8-9 mins. 10 or more if I have to afk or if lag is affecting me severely. One thing I will note is that Their Method can be very laggy at times which is odd as any other SMs I do don't have that issue. Not sure why it only affects Their Method.
I can do TM HM in around 9 - 13mins which is fun times due to how much exp I get from it. 125k exp in 9-13mins is pretty nice and the reward list is yum. And what I love about TM the most is that lag is close to nonexistent. Unlike SCC which is victim to fast AI and server lag which screws me up and makes me go super sayian rage, TM is so relaxing. Double Rainbow Event + TM HM = Good times. The main reason its just a great SM is due to its lagless spamability.
Thanks for the post.
New things to include in update:
- Elite section
- Elite TM Video
- Massive detail on Weapons, Skills, Enchants
- How to Spam
- Strategies for optimal performance
- Optimal times to out perform higher difficulties
- and more!
Not sure how long it will take. Needing to make alot of vguides for most of these.
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Sunureu13 wrote on 2011-01-24 01:06
So I can consistently get sub-6 minutes with a Forest Golem on HM. That's 1 golem per mission. That's with r1 AM, Clay Master title, and Earthquake Cyl. I'll eventually make some videos -.-
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Jando wrote on 2011-01-24 03:22
Quote from Sunureu13;302209:
So I can consistently get sub-6 minutes with a Forest Golem on HM. That's 1 golem per mission. That's with r1 AM, Clay Master title, and Earthquake Cyl. I'll eventually make some videos -.-
Dayum...
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Lan wrote on 2011-01-24 03:34
My fastest time on ADV was 11 minutes ._.
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truefire wrote on 2011-01-25 11:12
Quote from Lan;302366:
My fastest time on ADV was 11 minutes ._.
It gets faster. The strongest determinants are the rank of your windmill, the power of your weapon(s), your str, and the rank of your critical hit in that order. Other factors include your knowledge of the various zombie spawn points (so that you don't have to double back) and how to herd zombies on sight regardless of their positioning. When I first started Adv. (exactly at total lvl 300), I had R2 Windmill and R8 Critical Hit and was using their boss status to grind my way to rank 1 WM before my CP got too high. Used to take me anywhere from 16-19 minutes at the start. By the time I was ready to rebirth in that cycle, I'd gotten it down to 10 mins. If you've got anywhere between 20-30% crit chance and your balance is not capped, it's a good idea to focus on balance for a bit. Knowing that it'll definitely take you (x) many hits non-crit to kill a zombie is a good way to stabilize not just your damage, but your tactics as well.
In this day and age, though, with the new upgrades, weapon mastery skills, assault slash (for finishing off that one stray zombie in deadly) and the personas, you should notice your run times sky rocket. R1 WM, R1 CM, R3 Critical Hit, RE Sword Mastery + red upgrade (which will switch to blue once conversion stones come out and critical hit reaches R1) on my gladius makes the zombies a guaranteed two-shot if I crit even once, non-trans. Factoring in trans, I almost have enough damage that with Hamlet's Anguish turned on, I might soon be able to 2-shot zombies non-crit. And once I reach R1 Awakening, I'll be popping Demi every six lvls or so for an additional speed boost and damage increase via Red Javelin. It's... gonna get real fun. I might even start working on an ego weapon soon (read: finally).
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truefire wrote on 2011-01-28 07:30
Not meaning to double post, but I just had my first run-in with Their Method Elite today and figured I'd share the info I gained. Firstly, before I post zombie xp, I must state that this shadow mission is unreal. I almost cried when I cleared it because I really did not think I was going to. I think I probably will cry uncontrollably before I'm done submitting this post.
Females: 2040 combat (180 battle participation) xp
Males: 1920 combat (180 battle participation) xp
Either I was just having really bad luck on crits, or these zombies have some other way of reducing crit besides protection. Because I could not crit to save my life. And my reward for breaking my back on this mission? One R4 Fireball Crystal. *twitches*
I'm also not sure how much additional def/prot these guys have, but whatever it is, it's enough to shave off anywhere from 30-100 damage compared to Adv. zombies. I went from hitting between 220-250 non-trans non-crit to most of the time facepalming at 150-190. Crit-wise, I saw one as low as 420 (Rank 3 Critical Hit, Gladius R-Upgrade level 3, so practically R1 Critical Hit). None broke 600 out of trans.
Never mind getting them on a wall. Start moving the entire group little by little to the next mob. And for the love of god, bring nukes with you. Save your trans for the boss room, or better yet. Only enter this when you know you can trans twice. *cries in a corner... told you* Finished this one in about 23.5 mins. My dura... my precious, precious dura....
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Sunureu13 wrote on 2011-01-28 07:46
The 4 minutes of TM Elite I did (monsters unsummoned) wasn't all that bad. It was basically just like running a TM HM pre-g13 with a Forest Golem, but it was TM Elite post-g13.
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Alexane wrote on 2011-03-16 04:35
Even though you're thread is a bit outdated i thank you from the bottom of my heart for this guide, because of you i managed to fly past everyone my level in levels and power getting 90-100 levels a rebirth, i started following your guide on int with no enchants and upgraded broads level 700-800 with 10 minute int runs, i followed your guide now I'm running 9-10 minute hardmode runs at level 1150 and have almost perfect end game enchanted armor/weaponry because of the levels and money i've made, thank you for this wonderful guide.
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Idris wrote on 2011-03-16 11:29
For giants, right now the fastest way for me to run their method Adv is in trans, using Full Swing r1. Not sure how well it'll work on HM when I get there, but it's ohko nearly all the time. Without trans it takes a couple mins more. Question- what's the odds of getting Vicious ES? Been working int-adv TH since I found this guide months ago, and never seen hide nor hair of that one.
And btw- good guide. Transformed my levelling. (already had wm r1 when I found this guide, but didn't use it much)
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truefire wrote on 2011-03-16 11:40
Quote from Idris;374876:
For giants, right now the fastest way for me to run their method Adv is in trans, using Full Swing r1. Not sure how well it'll work on HM when I get there, but it's ohko nearly all the time. Without trans it takes a couple mins more. Question- what's the odds of getting Vicious ES? Been working int-adv TH since I found this guide months ago, and never seen hide nor hair of that one.
And btw- good guide. Transformed my levelling. (already had wm r1 when I found this guide, but didn't use it much)
Vicious is a pretty rare drop. I've gotten maybe 7 or 8 of them after about... 3 months or so of Their Method being my primary stomping ground.
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hylianblade wrote on 2011-03-17 05:04
Vicious is only slightly more common than Burgundy Bear. Which is to say, very rare.
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Yulai wrote on 2011-03-20 16:48
If I hadn't started a new main, I would definitely use this a lot more. :o
Thanks for making it thought! I'll probably end up using it on basic (My new main is only total 61 <<; My old was was like....5XX.)
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Ryoko wrote on 2011-03-20 18:26
I never really thought of the Barrier Spikes method, as I never really did care much about Barrier Spikes except use them for Ranged and Magic in harder dungeons with multi aggro heaven all over the place.
Crystal Deers also are a nice save as their snow storm when summoned can save someone from fatal hits or so.
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TheKartheus wrote on 2011-03-20 18:59
Quote from truefire;374878:
Vicious is a pretty rare drop. I've gotten maybe 7 or 8 of them after about... 3 months or so of Their Method being my primary stomping ground.
I've gotten one Vicious ES, ever, in the months I've been doing this.
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Koishi wrote on 2011-04-24 05:34
i must say that while i'm glad this guide has helped many people, I personally don't find a mission that consists of clicking one skill hotkey over and over for 15 minutes particularly "fun", and I also personally find it to be poor game design that spamming an idiotically easy mission is more lucrative than taking on hard challenges like elite SMs.
Devcat actually recognizes this, which is why they nerfed the other mindless spam mission (except it's actually challenging if you have a laggy connection).