Survival Mode Made Easy: Tips, Tricks, Tactics, and Quick Reference to Help You Succeed

Thanks to all the helpful tips and a good group I finally rolled my way in R19. I would've tried to tackle that as well but I was already too tired at the time, I'll try later.

This is just ridiculous how cheesy rolling is once you get the timing.

That's interesting. I saw it happen a few times, never knew what caused it. We thought it was some sort of a bug.
Had a laugh once when the Healer statue wasn't doing anything until Zeus died and only then started beating on us.

Reminds me about that one time we accidentally bugged Mr.Freeze - I'm not sure if it was a bug or some mechanic exploit or how to even replicate it - but he just followed the tank the whole time, not doing furnaces or spawning adds.

Is there any special reward for beating R30?
I know there's unlockable Lightning back in the vendor, but do you get something similar to previous SM's crowns?

There's also a special version of the Source Crown but it's basically just the version we already have from Wonderverse but with a lil electricity effect in the middle. Can be made to look decent with some styles though. Also the R30 trophy and a chance at the Source Lightning orbital (but we can also get that at 10/20).

Sorry I should have said Dreadful Blast. Good long-range taunt options for US/Zeus are:

Atomic: Anti-Matter Bomb
Earth: Rumblecrush / Striking Stones
Fire: Engulf
Ice: Snowball
Rage: Dreadful Blast / Frenetic Bombardment

Every power has comparable long-range options in addition to these and US/Zeus' effective attack range matches or exceeds our best case.

Added a supplemental video guide with standard/advanced build setup for different bosses. Will add Novice/Standard/Advanced rotation recommendations to Quick Reference for each boss when I get a chance.

Dont get me wrong; video is full of knowledge for casual tanks but only part I wanted to hear was 15:55 - 16:13 section. My only hope is Season 2 was another "live testing" on tanking basics and devs will take action to change it like how they did for lunge and flurry ticks.

Wait, why do you spec into health? After dom, resto would make your shields stronger. Am I missing something?

Stronger shields =/= min:max survivability when it costs us so much Health to do, particularly not when when most of these bosses have at least one critical 100% shield penetrating undodgeable attack. But also:

Max Dom + Max Resto + 15 in Health:

Health = 250663
Resto = 35843
Dom = 44114
Therefore HLS = 263041 and WW = 246002


Max Dom + 100 Resto + Remainder in Health:

Health = 271833
Resto = 30862
Dom = 44114
Therefore HLS = 249200 and WW = 233057


Max Dom + Max Health + 15 in Resto:

Health = 292971
Resto = 28930
Dom = 44114
Therefore HLS = 243832 and WW = 228036



Maxing Resto and Dom instead of Health results in, best case scenario, 19209 more DMG absorbed by HLS and 17966 more DMG absorbed by WW at the cost of 42308 health. So, as we can see here, even in the unrealistic best case scenario where we just popped both WW and HLS, maxing Dom & Resto still loses to maxing Dom & Health by 5133 (which could be made to break even with PDF stacked as well but the cd and the fact that we can't exactly plan when the big hits come makes that completely unrealistic). That said, we rarely want 100% WW + HLS overlap to begin with (and want to be coordinating with the Healer's shield around HLS) so the more practical outcome is an overall loss of 23099-24342, which is made even worse as our shields get chipped and, for shield pen, we're at a 42308 (~17%) disadvantage. That is the more realistic scenario, since we want more uniform shield coverage. Note: If we were using Dom face mod and Dom Affinity mods this would be closer but Health is still the way to go as it's always there.

On top of that, in the real world:
- We can't guarantee our shields will ever still be at full strength (due to chip attacks) when an eHP check comes, meaning trading Health for shields will pretty much always result in a much weaker eHP position, hindering survivability.
- Most bosses have at least one critical, undodgeable 100% shield penetrating attack which is not survivable with ~17% less Health.
- Less Health = narrower Everyman buff windows = reduced/eliminated potential for its buffs to enable us to survive multi-hit attacks we'd otherwise live through
- Healers can't heal Shields and we can't pop shields if we're dead.
- More Health = more potent Bottled City Soder mitigation bonus


Long story short, in the absolute best pro-shield case, it still has worse eHP than a build that emphasizes Health and, in actual practice, it is significantly worse. This is by far the #1 mistake Ice tanks (and tanks in general) make in this game and it's the reason a lot get 100-0'd in a split second in some normal elite content. I don't know how the "give up a ton of health for a modest, lesser shield buff" concept got so popularized but it's always been pretty detrimental to overall survivability with few useful applications. Shields are meant to augment our survivability but our entire survivability can't hinge on shields alone. It's better to consider Ice to be a defense/eHP battery tank as opposed to a "shield tank." In a vacuum, with no healing present, better shields would be nice but in actual practice with a healer and chip attacks + semi-regular eHP checks, it's not as effective at keeping the tank alive.

Question.... in your latest SM vid you recommend the troll should carry the Entwined Rings of Azar. Can you elaborate on this more? Meaning ... can you give a troll spec using this art?

Was the troll in your group a Battle Troll or traditional Power Troll? Right now, it seems most trolls are speccing towards a Battle Troll build, with Claw, Rao and either Trans or Grim as the third art if they're focusing on trying to help with the damage. Or they may add the cog / treta as the third if they're prioritizing buffing a hard hitting DPS over their own damage. With that, we are using DPS gear, Might or Prec augments and putting our SP into either Might or Prec before Vit.

I'm just curious... because the Rings give increased max health scaled to a troll's Vit. Was the Troll in your group full Power troll, with troll gear and Vit augments and SP into Vit before either Might or Prec? I'm assuming that would really be the only way the Rings could make a difference. Otherwise... if in Battle Troll stance, vit isn't really that high. I have 464 SP and only have about 70 Sp leftover to spec into Vit after everything is said and done.

Any advice you could give would be helpful. Thanks!

In a fight with a firm eHP check where the Rings were warranted it'd be Claw + Rao + Rings. If Rings wasn't needed he'd use either Tetra, Cog, or Grim in its place. We never felt the need to fully nut out Vit to buff Rings, as the base value with just Troll gear and his regular build was sufficient for our needs. I forget the difference in health by fully nutting Vit for Rings but we just didn't feel the need as I was already capable of surviving everything as is. Similarly, Troll gear stats are close enough to DPS gear stats that he'd usually just buff+battle troll in mostly troll gear + Prec Augs (but for some fights he'd adjust how much DPS gear he had on based on per-boss power requirements). In general, the Troll build is pretty fluid.

I'll leave it to Lowtie if he wants to reply to further elaborate on his builds as we'd predominately discuss the macro strategy and group focus for different fights, so he'd have more insight on the micro setup. We found a balanced overall approach was much faster and safer though and I think that shows in our clear times + win %. I believe he specced 150 vit 240 prec 70 Dom in general. I think it's really just important that the Troll be covering all their bases in terms of Debuffs + Power + Shields + Damage in terms of execution though so likely tons of leeway on how you spec.

Anyone is more than welcome to message me if they have any questions

Thanks for the reply.

Bump.

Would this be updated for Season 3 by any chance?

Here's an odd question...Is it better to concentrate on me personally getting DPS damage or doing a build which could also help others?

For instance: Right now I have an armory build I pop when the boss gets to 40%. This is so I can use The Batman Who Laugh's toxic gas (7% debuff) and Tetrahedron (200). Both of which help the whole group.

Is this a good idea or should I get rid of Tetra and concentrate on myself?