How to do Hilwen Nightmare Right

• Kamisa wrote on 2013-08-11 08:27
  Didn't read most of these posts but I found a team tactic that was pretty interesting.
  /alch\ Y /alch\
  -- mage --- mage --
  gunner
  So basically barriers get put inbetween the mages and alch is at front blah blah.
  
  Then once Alchs get r5 barrier it goes like
  /alch\ Y /alch\
  --------------------
  /mage\ /mage\
  gunner
  Yeah. Just made it easier.
• Aliyah wrote on 2013-08-11 17:05

  Quote from meoros;1134482:

  A tip to make better use of flame burst when u're using this method
  
  www.imgur.com/CTuiM9K
  
  since the mobs keep walking on the direction of the blue arrows even after beeing knocked back the best thing u can do is flame burst on the oposite direction(the red arrows), that way they dont spread, this is also useful to hold the hyenas for more time even with Flame Burst at rB.
  
  PD: sorry for just posting just the link I cant put the image since I have few posts on the forum

  yeah that's what we were doing. I was just told not to put up barriers on hound rounds since they don't get stunned, but seeing how well flameburst stunned them, it works still
• Kaeporo wrote on 2013-08-11 21:56
  I'll add some additional comments to go along with my previous post.
  
  - Ice Spear is generally more useful than Fireball but you'll have to actually invest gold into the skill.
  
  - You should ideally have a Giant Gunslinger on your team. Alongside stomp, Shooting Rush is useful in the early rounds as you can fire towards your team from behind the enemies (in the tunnel area) and send the group backwards. I wouldn't invest in the skill unless you're not a Giant. If that's the case, you may consider dropping a little bit of gold on it and the better ammo towards the later waves (5+).
  
  - You'll probably want to stop ranking Flame Burst at r4. It gets a final load time reduction at this rank and you'll want to single-charge the skill on the emerald enemies later on in order to control multiple angles of approach.
  
  - Mages should rank their elemental mastery of preference at least once for the cheap MP cost reduction.
  
  - Mages should also invest in MP and Mana Shield instead of MP and HP.
  
  - The best way to kill the Master Lich on the final wave (that i've found):
  
  Set up alternating spikes in the tunnel.
  Have mages load their best skill in the mine cart area.
  Have alchemists end the last bunch of enemies with low health.
  Alchemist #1 casts shock
  Alchemists rush the Master Lich with Life Drain and run past the spikes.
  Mages cast their spells and run through the spikes.
  Gunslinger runs out and grabs agro.
  Mages and Alchemists repeat once more.
• Kuryaka wrote on 2013-08-12 22:52
  I dunno if it works on later levels, as I only got past the first Lich once. Gunner + speed pot can lure the Volatile Zombies away from teammates. As long as they don't try something stupid like running in there with fighter combos, you'll get that threat out of the way. Also works well with other enemies, so even without damage you can just collect the stragglers and let mages clean them up later. Or have them set up for a perfect Shooting Rush/Bullet Storm.
• ttinchung111 wrote on 2013-08-14 08:16
  This is a bit late, but here goes. I find Ice Spear to be the best attacking skill due to the damage it adds by splashing after death and the freeze. Rank 1 shock early takes care of the early waves. For rounds 1-6 a barrier spike should be used in the middle of the tunnel so that mobs teleport forward. Hear me out, with two capable alchemists, you can lock down both forward spawns with shock and flame burst juggling, so your mages can maximize kills with ice spear or fireball due to the lack of max targets. Maxxing shock and flame burst as an alchemist is key so you can keep things stunned indefinitely. When volatile zombies spawn, use the explosions to be capable of spamming life drain to get stragglers or kill other volatiles. This with a gunner that maxed flash launcher to instantly kill hyenas that ran past allowed me to beat the nightmare quite comfortably. At rounds 7-8 you just have to rely on your mages while making a chokepoint and flameburst juggling, but it works fine with ice spear spam.
• Blassreiter wrote on 2013-08-14 15:58
  The reasons why I don't recommend Ice Spear is because:
  *If it is badly shot, it wont kill everything (Basically you need to know how Ice Spear works, the range, width, explosion, etc.)
  *Although it's good at first, [I]the damage weakens each successful chain[/s] (once it gets to the point that the chain no longer kills the enemies, they'll just be at half HP or whatever and still run, but of course the Gunslingers/Alchemists can finish them off but they're not always going to be free)
  *Hyenas and White Prison Ghosts wont be frozen (sure you may be able to kill them with the Spear even if they're not frozen but refer to the previous point)
  *It has a shorter range than Fireball (1400 vs Fireball 2000 which increases the risk of being exploded by Volatiles)
  *The explosion range is small compared to Fireball
  [S]*People who don't know what they're doing just uses 1 Charge Ice Spear[/S] (please DON'T EVER USE 1 CHARGE IS. It's weak, it wont chain, and it will just stress out your Alchemist/Stomper because you just spread them apart without even killing at least one
  
  
  Fireball is really just much better than IS. It has long distance, large explosion, high damage (which is essential for killing the bosses that IS can't do), it doesn't get weaker each successive use, and at the very least it will deadly everything which at that point the Gunslinger/Alchemist/Stomper will finish off.
• Kuryaka wrote on 2013-08-16 18:28
  Is thunder completely out of the question? It buys a bit more time for bossing, does a little less damage than Fireball, but can also get rid of the first wave of spawns. I wouldn't say to actually put points in it because Mana Deflector screws it up, but I've found it useful in one-charge doses for stunning as well.
  
  Got to wave 7 with a Hail Storm + Thunder mage setup, alch spamming Shock, and a gunner who actually did damage. For a supposed fail run... it was fun. I basically took out most of Demi/Arc Lich's health with Thunder, and then we just ran around trying to get rid of the summons' aggro.
• Marimaster wrote on 2013-08-20 03:38
  People need to know that you only need one fucking fireball. With 2 you wont kill the boss cuz you HAVE! to charge to 5. The fkin Lich will target you before you fdinish charging. Oh hey look you did 3000 Dmg WOOP DE FKIN DOO SO DID I DICKHEAD. AND GUESS WHAT I CAN DO 3000 MORE BCUZ I CAN ACTUALLY CARGE THUNDER AGAIN AND ACTUALLY HIT THE SUPER FAST LICH. Fireball works once and only once. You won't get a second fireball. And if you do you are probably going to miss cuz those fuckinnng liches are fast.
• XneizO wrote on 2013-08-20 04:54
  I am becomming aroused.
• Blassreiter wrote on 2013-08-20 04:58

  Quote from Marimaster;1137991:

  People need to know that you only need one fucking fireball. With 2 you wont kill the boss cuz you HAVE! to charge to 5. The fkin Lich will target you before you fdinish charging. Oh hey look you did 3000 Dmg WOOP DE FKIN DOO SO DID I DICKHEAD. AND GUESS WHAT I CAN DO 3000 MORE BCUZ I CAN ACTUALLY CARGE THUNDER AGAIN AND ACTUALLY HIT THE SUPER FAST LICH. Fireball works once and only once. You won't get a second fireball. And if you do you are probably going to miss cuz those fuckinnng liches are fast.

  
  
  [S]Then you have a retarded Gunslinger[/S]. I don't know about other Gunslingers but I actually [S]take out my Giant b@LL$ and[/S] run up to the Lich (be it Master or Demi), use Way of the Gun, and shoot the crap out of it. If it gets Fireballed I Windmill it so it doesn't chase down the Mages and instead return to aggroing me and my 971 HP. Also the Alchemists can help Windmill too. They should have high HP as well, if not Life Drain still works wonders. Windmill is essential in defeating the Master Lich in order to stop it from using Flames of Hell.
  
  Besides, Mages should have high enough MP to tank Liches with Mana Shield. If you don't have high MP, you're doing it wrong.
  
  To tell you the truth, Rank 5 and Rank 1 spells aren't very different, at least to a big degree. IMO you're better off in spending the gold in Potions to sustain Mana Shield for tanking or rank some Int for damage, or even Critical Hit for a chance at a high damage crit against bosses. (And I've actually did this and it works for me)
  
  But again, the most important thing is to know how to fundamentally play the game. There's this one random guy I partied with, he was doing good with IS (which I've reiterated that I do not recommend it) until the Emerald Hyenas. Once they came out and was exhibiting Lv2 Mana Deflector he starts to use 1 Charge IS in hopes of stalling it (which does not work. Please don't ever use 1 Charge IS. EVER)