Many are listed and described below. I have sorted them by area, and have my point of view on whether they create an unnecessary risk and if they are worth doing.
You should know the Basics of UWSC because they won't be described here.
CHAMBERSIN
The First Pull
-There are 2 different methods to clearing the opening zone of the underworld.
1. Solo Pull and Kill - This requires grabbing all aggro and blocking them against a wall on your right and killing them solo.
ProsCan leave Bladed Aatxes alive. [Saves Time] Keeps Vale Support Back and Safe Relies on one person for successful pulling instead of a team to block ConsLess Ecto [Aatxes still alive] Many are unaware of this pull and will yell at you for pulling incorrectly Or even worse, run in and disperse the aggro
2. Solo Pull and Group Kill - This requires the chamber to aggro the 3 groups of grasping and pulling them along a corner, with the other sin's bodyblocking the enemies for vale support to kill.
The three commonly used corners areCorner above the left stairs Corner above the right stairs Right Corner underneath the Center Stairs
Each pull spot has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Pull spot 1 is the most commonly used and therefore most well known. This equates to less confusion and makes a it more consistent to clear.
This pull spot is also the easiest spot for a complete bodyblock of the enemies because there is little room for enemies to break to begin with.
Pull spot 2's advantage is that the Bladed Aaxtes that stand between the Vale Team and Chamber will be included in the initial kill, saving the Vale team Time.
Pull spot 3 allows the Bladed Aaxtes above the center stairs to be pulled and killed in the initial pull. It allows the chamber faster access into the chamber, as it is closest to the doors, and also allows vale team to skip a group of enemies.
My Opinion: Pull Spot 1, the corner above the left stairs, is the best overall initial chamber pull, not because it is the best pull, but because it is the most common and most familiar pull. When everyone knows what they are suppose to be doing, it creates less chances of fail.
The Second Pull (Clearing the Chamber)
The Right Wall Trick, or whatever you want to call it.
-This trick, as briefly explained above, is to be able to prevent the deaggro of enemies while you kill them, so that they can die all together. It is explained in detail on other threads, but here it is again briefly. Note that this works on all melee enemies in Hard Mode
After aggroing all the enemies, pull them against a wall. It can be any wall or even a cliff. However, while facing the enemies, the wall has to be on your right, or the enemy's left. Their names should stack up one above another, creating one tall tower of enemy names.
Note: You do not have to be facing the enemies, it is just commonly said to make it easier to describe which wall they have to be against.
Note: If pulled correctly, you also do not need to make one step off the wall, as stated in other guides.
Reasoning: When enemies deaggro (different from scatter), they always flee to their left. If there happens to be a wall there, they just run into the wall and stay there. They will not be attacking you, but will stay in range of your AoE.
Using the Right Wall Trick is very important to clearing the chamber in a fast and efficient time, and creates no unnecessary risks.
Right Wall Trick + Terrorweb Dryders
After aggroing all of the enemies in the Labyrinth, the optimal position to tank and spank the enemies is in the long narrow passageway in which you came from. However, the most effective method of killing the Bladed Aaxtes, Grasping Darknesses, Terrorweb Dryders, and Dying Nightmares is to kill them ALL at once.
To do this, after aggroing all of the enemies, run down the left side of the passage, pulling the ranged enemies (Terrorwebs+Nightmares) into the narrow passage. Then run around the opposite wall, and block the melee enemies along the right wall using the right wall trick. Step backwards until the melee and ranged enemies are next to each other and can be killed together.
This is also a good trick to use in UWSC, as it has no negative effects.
Funky Terrorweb Dryders
When Terrorweb Dryders are first aggro'd, they will not all start wanding you immediately. Because they are not wanding, they will not aggro correctly. They will start wanding after a few seconds, after attempting to cast all of their spells/skills on you. To counter this and save time, do not wait to aggro the Dryders last. This way, they will do all that 'funky' stuff while you are still pulling the remainder of the enemies and will act normally when you make the final pull.
Unwanted Guests
What Order to kill the Keepers?
Almost all will say kill the Vale Keeper first. The only reason not to kill this keeper first is because it does not create the shortest path to all of the keepers (because you have to run to vale AND back, whereas leaving it for last you only have to run to vale). I recommend killing this keeper first because you never know when you'll have a fast vale team or get stuck somewhere.
After that keeper, the order is not very crucial, as long as you are not walking past keepers and leaving them alive for later. Basically, whatever path works best and what is most familiar, because getting stuck slows the time down a lot more than the order you kill them.
Killing the Terrorweb Dryders with the Keepers?
For obvious reasons, kill the terrorweb dryders accompanying the Keeper in Vale.
The other dryders can be left alive, but every terrorweb dryder is opportunity for ectoplasm. Of course killing the dryders takes more time than killing just the keepers, but my advice is that: as long as Unwanted Guests is not the last quest to finish, go ahead and kill the Dryders along with the Keepers. If you notice that 8/10 quests are completed and you have 2 keepers left, start considering just killing the remaining keepers and leaving the dryders. Chances are nobody will notice the difference unless you are last to finish.
VALE TEAM
There are many builds, some faster than others, some relying on personal cons or summoning stones to complete, so the following tips/tricks may not apply.
8 Curses, 8 Curses, 8 Curses
As a A/N Vale Sin, you must have 7 Curses before cons, and 8 curses after cons. This is because 8 Curses is the breakpoint for removing 2 enchantments during Wrathful Spirits. This is because the Tortured Spirits have two cover enchantments, Illusion of Weakness and Illusion of Haste.
On the Way to Chamber
The 2 -3 Bladed Aaxtes blocking the Vale Support from entering the Labyrinth do not have to be killed. The Vale Sin can pull those to the side, and allow the vale support to run through into chamber. I prefer this method even though it loses 2-3 chances for ecto because a lot of people like to QQ if they have to wait on Restore, or if the chamber has to wait on taking unwanted, etc.
On the Way to Vale
Depending on how the chamber pulled the initial aggro, there may be 2 or 4 Bladed Aaxtes left. If only 2 Bladed Aaxtes are left, they can be killed no problem; the vale tank can stand anywhere and they won't break. However, if there are 4 Aaxtes, 2 Sides of them need to be blocked, specifically the 2 sides in which the Aaxtes can run to the Vale Support. 1 side is a wall, the other is the vale sin. Then all 4 can be killed at once.
Note: This is because Hard Mode enemies will switch targets if more than 3 of them are on one target
Note: Because there are 4 Bladed Aaxtes, one will stop attacking, and if that one has SS on it, the Vale Sin can wand it to make it attack again.
Clearing Vale
There are 3 groups of grasping + one small group that patrols. The group that patrols is triggered when the vale sin walks up the first set of stairs entering vale (approximately where the vale Keeper of Soul spawns). They can be all pulled at once, and blocked at any location of the vale sins liking.
Some vale teams like to leave the first group of grasping alive and avoid them, so that not all of the spirits are spawned, making it impossible to fail wrathful spirits. However, this slows down vale, and I feel it is unnecessary. It commonly creates confusion to the Vale Necromancer, and relies on timing and patrols. My belief is that any Vale team that is aware of this trick and can pull it off successfully is experienced enough to not fail Wrathful in the first place, so it is a useless trick.
Escort the Souls
Valesin - Start at the Top 3 Mindblade Spectres to minimize walking around.
Vale Support - Pinging (default: Ctrl+Shift+Space) a target will make the new souls follow you regardless of who is moving around. This makes it easier to move the new souls, and allows you to escort them sooner because you can start escorting while the vale sin is finishing the pull (and still moving). This is a good trick because it also prevents unaware people from messing with the new souls as you escort them.
A/E PERMA
Understanding Sliver Armor
Sliver armor hurts more when more enemies are attacking you, therefore it is most beneficial to damage as many enemies as possible with Sliver before killing enemies. This, of course, does not apply to enemies that can heal (Obsidian Behemoths, Smite Crawlers) and does not apply to melee enemies (Smite Crawlers) because it is hard if not impossible to control which smite crawler sliver hits against a group of these.
Other enemies, such as Terrorweb Dryders, can only heal through Aura of Restoration, and that is casting Aura of Restoration while Aura of Restoration is up. The enemy AI does not do this, and even if they did, the health gained is not important.
The Right Wall Trick Applies to A/E as well
WASTES PERMA
Death Charge vs. Shadow of Hastes
With practice, the Death Charge method is equally reliable as the shadow of haste method, with the only factor that can result in failure is lag.
Death charge is more versatile, so if you are comfortable using death charge for the quest, it allows you to do other areas, if needed.
POOLS PERMA AND MOUNTAINS PERMA
With pools and mountain, a lot of the main tips and tricks rely on the build.
Deadly Paradox, Shadow Form, GoLE, Sliver Armor, and EBSoH are of course given, but the rest of the skill bar varies. (This skills are assuming no personal cons) Below is a list of those variables and their advantages and disadvantages.
Radiation Field
-Recommended for Pools. The large group of terrorweb dryders at the monument die quickly with the mass degen from radiation field
-Not Recommended for Mountains. There are only three terrorweb dryders, so they might as well be sliver'd to death.
I am Unstoppable!
-Assuming no personal cons are used, IAU is a very beneficial skill to both Pools and Mountain builds. Though it may not create the 'fastest' Pools or Mountains ever, it makes it a lot more consistent. It eliminates cripple which can waste time, and prevents knockdowns which also slow down times.
Death Charge
-Every once in awhile, there is a bad spawn somewhere along the way through mountain. It is beneficial for every member heading up mountain to carry death charge to reduce the effects of crappy spawns. Death Charge can also be used specifically in mountain as an advantage.
By Urals Hammer
-Recommended for Mountains. The greater damage from sliver creates quicker kill of Behemoths and allows more leeway in interrupting healing springs.
-Not Recommended for Pools. The greater damage from sliver only speeds up killing the Terrorweb Queen, and the difference it makes in killing the Queen is not enough to justify a skill slot.
POOLS PERMA
Terrorweb Queen
Some, for some reason or another, feel the need to pull the Terrorweb Queen out from the Wards that are put down. However, it is much faster to just run straight into the Queen and kill it from within the Wards. From inside, there is a greater number of enemies, and along with the time saved from not having to pull the queen, allows for a faster quest completion.
MOUNTAINS PERMA
Death Charge vs Feigned Neutrality
Death Charge is by far more versatile than feigned neutrality, and allows the mountain perma to cover wastes/pits if necessary.
the Death Charge trick
There is a delay in between when you run into range of a trap, and when the trap triggers, and when the trap hits you. This can be used to your advantage. This trick is to run into the traps laid by the Behemoths, and quickly Death Charge to a Terrorweb Dryders to remove all the traps there.
Taking Quest in Aggro
Anyone who has done mountain knows that the bottom spawn sometimes spawns in range of the Obsidian Behemoth. However, in the time the reaper spawns and casts his Aura of Restoration, before attacking those bottom behemoths, the quest can be taken from him.
Basically, right when the reaper spawns, talk to him, Click Demon Assassin, and Click Accept. Those 2 should be in the same spot, so you just have to double click.
Note: There is a downtime inbetween the two dialog boxes and if you click to fast, you might click to move on accident. There are multiple ways to solve this problem.
- Turn of Click to Move
Don't click too fast
Look at the sky when you talk to reaper so you don't click to move
There is a second part to taking the quest in aggro, and it involves only a select few mountain spawns. Obsidian Behemoths that spawn on the opposite side of the monument of the Reaper can be left alive if the quest is taking in aggro, because they are obstructed from the Reaper and can never hit him.
My Recommendations: After practicing taking quest in aggro, it is not difficult to pull off successfully. However, to practice, I would kill all but one behemoth on the bottom, so that even if you mess up, you can still complete the quest easily by killing that last behemoth with the help of the reaper. It's quite annoying when someone attempts this and fails and just gives up on doing their quest.
PITS PERMA
Many builds, many guides, many different tips depending on the build
There are so many different builds for pits, and each has their own tips
Death Charging up Bridge
Not only does this save the running time, it also makes certain enemies break aggro and allows less kills to be made to complete the quest
Farm During/After Quest, Not Before
This is given for every area, but it seems, especially pits, people like to farm before they do their quest. I believe this is because they are unaware of which enemies need to be killed. Watch videos or something.
Chained Souls
Ever wonder why sometimes the tortured spirits take forever to walk up to the reaper? It is because of the chained souls popups, specifically the bottom chained soul. Here is what happens: The chained soul degen'd out and is currently dead. The tortured spirits walk up towards pits. The chained soul respawns and the tortured spirits are in aggro range of the chained soul and run back down to him. While running back down, they get out of aggro range of the chained soul and walk back up pits. This cycle goes on and on until the chained soul dies. To counter this, time taking the quest while the between the time the Chained Soul is about to spawn, and when he is above half health. Another method to counter is just to kill the chained soul when he pops up.
The Back Groups
Kill the back groups, theres no reason not to. It irritates me the most when people farm other groups in pits, but then leave the back group in pits alive. They WILL randomly patrol and kill the reaper and spirits. It only takes a couple extra swings on A/D, an extra pull for A/ME, or a couple Slivers from A/E.
PLANES PERMA
Glitching the 3-Spawn Mindblades
To glitch the 3 spawn, let them patrol all the way down to the monument before aggroing. Then, take a big loop around plains, leaving from poolside, and returning to pitside, and they will be stuck against a wall. There is little harm in glitching this spawn, because even if someone went to unglitch them, you are still at plains, and can see them coming from a mile away. However, there is also little point because chances are nobody will be on plains for 4H that fast anyway, and even if they are, it won't be the last quest to finish.
Plus, thats ecto to be farmed.
Recall Solo 4H
I don't see the point unless every other perma in the group is horrible, because someone will be ready for 4H before everyone else is done. However, the method behind solo 4H is useful even if you are not soloing the quest. As the plains perma, you can wait for the bosses and dyrders to come to you instead of running out to them. This will allow you to use the solo kill method in case the other perma gets sig'd.
Tell me if any of these are unclear.
thanks alot
