Strategies and brainstorming for Survival Mode

[Vodka7up]

I've got a pretty good handle on normal mode and now I want to beat to survival mode, but keep getting murdered by death. So I thought I'd write down my thoughts on how to go through it in hopes that it'll spring new ideas or someone will show me the light. Here goes . .

Rules of survival mode
- instead of getting all of your health between duels you get a tiny smidge of healing between matches instead
- if you die you fight death . . . practically a game over

healing
probably the most important aspect of getting through this mode, there are only three spells in the game that do this, heal, dryad, and the lv6 force spell. unfortunately you almost have to take heal, regardless of your specialization, for a few reaons
- you'll need it to survive the duels before you get dryad
- the dryad is unpredictable
- you NEED to finish a duel at 100% health

the last point has to be remembered at all times, i've had some good 14 win runs turn sour when an overzealous summon, or a foolish misfire "won" me the duel at 50% health. it's always better to drag the game out so you can get to full health.

builds for survival mode
in my opinion communion summoners are the best option (of course picking up heal asap) for survival mode. you can trump blasters with golem and the force weakening curse (im really bad with spell names), and hopefully out summon other commune/curse builds. also i don't think a blaster is a good idea since you kinda run out of steam later on and can't afford a loss (id really love to hear a counter arguement)

how to arange your stats?
i think with all edges (except int which should be at 11 or 12) should start at 1, the first duels are relatively easy for a smart player and i think you need the end/mid game boost to plow through. incantation should start at 15 (unless its your edge, then i don't know where it should start) and be increased at the first opportunity until it's maxed, it's just such a good stat. i've lowered resistence all the way down to 1 each time i've played so i can have 15's in Iintel and Incantation, this might be a weak point in my builds but I've mostly lost to Incantation Edged characters or the Ice Queen.

classes
I think every class has some value EXCEPT for the caligrapher and technolich, mostly since I value resistence really low. Lately I've been doing "well" with the Archmage going on a 18 streak before I didn't get fully healed by the end of two matches and some bitch Ice Queen did me in, death promptly face raped me after that.

If anyone feels like sharing some tips/tricks/builds or criticism feel free to share. I'm going to try out a pure one for the free built in healing they have, and I love my incantation.

[TeeGee]

I think you should value Resistance more. Especially if you are playing a summoner build and in Survival mode. Remember that Resistance not only lowers the damage you receive, making it easier to heal afterwards, but also makes your shields and creatures more durable.
With high enough RES, a single Dryad behind a good shield can easily heal more damage than your opponent is doing to you without commiting fully to reckless attacking.

Other than that - yeah, the Pure One is a very good Survival character because of the built-in healing skill.

[Vodka7up]

I got up to twenty wins with a pure one on survival mode until a techno lich resisted four sleep spells in a row (i got way to greedy and should stopped at two). i realised a few things with my build
- ice queens are bitches, and you pretty much have to save at least your 2nd edge (da heal) for when they imprison you, it'd be best if you had all three saved to ensure you come out of it alive
- against the caligrapher and technolich (high resistence) DO NOT fully commit to trying to sleep lock them
- stop curse at sleep, and summoning at void elemental, from there get blue up to five at least (don't know exactly what to do from there probably curse up to seven?)
- my build has NO WAY to deal with an opposing void elemental over than getting yours out first, so I think if they open their fourth channel of summoning that's your cue to channel up to a void elemental

my starting arrow was
Force 6 (usually this is a four or one, which i might make it, but it was nice to be able to blast in the early fights)
Incantation 10 (kinda sucks have your edge not start at one, but it's kinda impossible to get by with 1 inc on survival)
Resistence 8 (trying out teegee's advice, it's been working out and i think my creatures are more durable than when i did the 15com 1res start)
Communion 11 (i actually didn't really notice the hit)
Intellegence 15 (i just gotta get me my exp asap, and usually my problems come at 12-15 wins not in the beginning)

first spell pick: healing
second: imp
third: dull
rotate between summon and curse from there till you get void and sleep and then up defence and blast (in that order)

one little trick i've learned is how to trap the AI using swarm, if they open up red immediately get your swarm out asap (always open green as your first channel anyways) and then get your second channel while they shoot at the swarm, then get out another swarm after the first has been shot down. if it didn't before now it should take TWO magic missles for it to die, giving you a 2 casting time advantage, from there just keep opening up and summoning swarms (sometimes theyll even land hits on the usual warlock/ice queen). you could also summon a golem to mess with them, basically how this usually ends up is you have 4 open green channels to their 1 red, not a bad start if i do say so myself.

IF they don't go red, every time i think its best to get an imp out asap for a few reasons
- it'll trump their swarms every time, netting you casting time advantage
- it'll eventually break their shield, interrupting a spell AND paying its self off in casting time
- it'll only get hit by one magic missle (at most in my experience) if you immediately raise a shield after it's cast

that's all ive got for now

update
just tried out
Force 2
Inc 10
Res 8
Com 15
Int 15
its not bad, but both my first round opponents cast golem on me! thankfully dissonecence and swarms pulled it out, but couldnt get fulled healed at fight end

[TeeGee]

I think you could easily try starting with 5 INC. The impact isn't that big at that point. And when you think about it, you neither spam spells nor go for high channels at the start, so you don't really need that casting boost. And when it starts being useful, you should already have it high through your edge. INT or more RES might be a better investment in the end.

If you get to 5 blue, you might as well get to 7 and learn Dispel. It's probably the best counter to high-tier summons like Void, and having a "reset" spell in the Survival mode helps a lot in general.

Trying to curse high level RES characters is only really viable with high COM on your side. Also remember about the Breach curse - it's easy to hit with it, and it lowers RES of the opponent giving much higher chance of succeeding with following curses.