05) General advice - Ruins of Zuan (Lower)

This post pulls together all of the learning from the previous posts in this series and applies it to the Ruins of Zuan (Lower) dungeon.  Ruins of Zuan (Lower) is the easiest of the guild dungeons so it is the ideal place to start raiding.  It is also the best dungeon to make the transition to tanking bosses rather than trying to nuke them down with a full team of DPS cards!

The advice offered here is intentionally high-level rather than being prescriptive.  It doesn't say "Collect these five cards, level them to this point, put this leader skill on them and use this formation" because not everyone will have the same cards or skills, especially at the beginning of their raiding career.  What it does do is tell you and show you what to expect and advise you on how you might approach it.  You can make whatever changes you need to or want to based on your cards and your preferences and still benefit from the information on offer.

Preparing for battle!

There is work to do before you go in.  Here are some of the most important things to prepare in advance:

• Set up your formations.  You can have three set at a time and you can switch between them without quitting a guild dungeon if you set them up in advance.  Think about the waves you will face - will you need a different set of cards or a different leader if you manage to complete one wave and move on to the next?  Will you need to swap a DPS card for a healer, or vise versa?
  
• Check your leader skills.  Are the right ones selected, if you have more than one on some cards?
  
• Check your equipment.  Could it be distributed better to improve your chances of survival or increase your damage output?
  
• Check the progress of the raid.  Which stage is it on?  What does the progress percentage tell you in terms of what you will face?  Is now the right time to go in, or should you wait?
  

Once you're sure everything is as you want it to be, you are ready to go!  The posts below show you exactly what you will face at the beginning of each stage.  They also offer you some guidance in terms of what you might need and how you might set up your team.  Beyond that, it's up to you.

Good luck!

Rewards

Placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd will win you a random piece of Leader's armour.
The death of each boss will also send a random piece of Leader's armour to Auction for people to bid on.

Characteristics:

Wave start: 100%
Wave end: ~94%

A trash wave comprised of three physical damage dealers.

Advice:

This is the weakest trash wave to be found in any of the guild dungeons so it's the place to come when you think you might be ready to start tanking trash.  Keep in mind though that these enemies are MUCH stronger and tougher than those found in ordinary dungeons so it isn't necessarily going to be easy!

A balanced team of purple+1 and above cards would have a reasonable chance of tanking this wave.  A backup healer would be wise unless the team is all purple+2 or above.

Optimum leader skill: Defensive Experience

Suggested formation:
Empty, Tank, Tank (possibly Lady as a backup Healer)
DPS, DPS, Healer (or replace one DPS with a backup Healer)

Characteristics:

Wave start: ~94%
Wave end: ~88%

A trash wave comprised of six enemies dealing predominantly magical damage.  With the exception of the physical damage dealer in the middle at the front, these MOBs behave like Shaman, firing a lightning bolt dead ahead for two turns then hitting three random targets every third turn.

Advice:

This is a significantly tougher trash wave and a balanced team of purple+2 cards would still find this wave mildly challenging.  A backup healer is advisable.  Once you kill a couple of them the pressure on your team eases considerably.

Optimum leader skill: Magic Refuge

Suggested formation:
Empty, Tank, Tank (possibly Lady as a backup Healer)
DPS, DPS, Healer (or replace one DPS with a backup Healer)

Characteristics:

Wave start: ~88%
Wave end: ~82%

A trash wave comprised of six physical damage dealers.

Advice:

This wave behaves a lot like the enemies in the ordinary Malador dungeon, so if you've been there you know roughly what to expect.  As ever though, these guys hit a LOT harder and take much more damage before they die.

These MOBs will hit your back row with Barrage every three turns and, while all six enemies are still alive, even teams of purple+2 cards will find that level of punishment difficult to withstand.  Once a few of them are dead this wave becomes much more manageable.

On a wave like this, DPS cards which target multiple enemies can do quite a lot of damage.  Brick, Cannon Lady and Shaman are examples. However, if you are having a hard time tanking a wave it is often best to focus your damage on one enemy using single-target DPS cards to kill it quickly and reduce the pain being inflicted on your team.

Optimum leader skill: Defensive Experience

Suggested formation:
Healer (possibly Druid), Tank, Tank (possibly Lady)
DPS, Healer, Empty

Characteristics:

Wave start: ~82%
Boss only: ~78%
Wave end: ~46%

A boss wave consisting of Wunos and two helpers, all doing magical damage.

Advice:

The boss in this stage has two helpers who behave like Shaman.  Eliminating them should be a priority because you are less likely to survive Wunos's special attack (see below) while these two are still pounding on you.

Wunos has a special attack which hits everyone for magical damage on rounds 10, 20 and 30.  This attack is likely to be fairly lethal at purple+ but increasingly survivable as your cards move towards purple+2.  It can't be avoided (there are no safe spots) and this makes Wunos the tougher of the two bosses in Ruins of Zuan (Lower).

Optimum leader skill: Magic Refuge

Suggested formation:
Empty, Tank, Tank (possibly Lady as a backup Healer)
DPS, Healer, DPS (or replace one DPS with a backup Healer)

Characteristics:

Wave start: ~46%
Wave end: ~40%

A trash wave comprised of three physical damage dealers in the front row and three magical damage dealers in the back row.

Advice:

This wave puts out a mix of physical and magical damage, making it tricky to counter both.  The back row are warlocks with the Flame Nova skill so they will attack your back row every few turns.  This makes Magic Refuge the better defensive option because the loss of your back row to spell damage probably will lead swiftly to defeat.

On a wave like this, DPS cards which target multiple enemies can do quite a lot of damage.  Brick, Cannon Lady and Shaman are examples.  However, if you are having a hard time tanking a wave it is often best to focus your damage on one enemy using single-target DPS cards to kill it quickly and reduce the pain being inflicted on your team.

Hunter can be useful here because he can target the casters in the back row long before you can hack a path to them through the shield wall in front.

Optimum leader skill: Magic Refuge

Suggested formation:
Empty, Tank, Tank (possibly Lady as a backup Healer)
DPS, DPS, Healer (or replace one DPS with a backup Healer)

Characteristics:

Wave start: ~40%
Boss only: ~36%
Wave end: 0%

A boss wave consisting of Mavors and two helpers, all doing magical damage.

Advice:

The boss in this stage has two helpers who use the Flame Nova initiative skill to bombard the back row with magical damage every three turns.  Eliminating them should be a priority because Mavors is actually pretty easy once the helpers are gone.

Mavors uses a Column Attack which hits for magical damage on rounds 10, 20 and 30.  This attack will hit both spaces in the middle column but won't touch anyone else.

Optimum leader skill: Magic Refuge

Suggested formation while helpers are alive:
DPS, Tank, Tank (possibly Lady as a backup Healer)
Healer, Empty, DPS (or replace the DPS with a backup Healer)

Suggested formation once helpers are dead:
DPS, Tank, DPS
DPS, Empty, Healer (or replace the DPS with a backup Healer)


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