Battleblood Style: Warehouse

Alright, so it seems that a guide about the Warehouse has been released on Central a few days ago, which you can look at here.  It’s very detailed; it includes the health points of each monster on each floor, and dips a little into exactly what the Bosses and their minions do.  It covers plenty of information, but a few missing tidbits here and there (since I last saw it), so I’ll fill in more of the details.  In addition, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, it’s a guide geared so specifically to the Warehouse, that some of us may feel lost when it comes to fighting a new Cheater.  So, let’s look at something you can apply to almost anywhere, and create a more streamlined run/farm!

Note:  This guide is intended for Grandmasters with Text and Open Chat.  (kudos to Arlen Dawneyes and Thomas Lionblood for pointing out the importance of communication)

(I strongly recommend having a Life player when doing Warehouse, especially if you have had a hard time with the instance after many tries; there is one tactic that Central’s guide is critically missing, which I will cover later.  However, this tower CAN be done without a Theurgist.)

ZERG RUSH (AOE Decks) – Rule of Special Decks

The term “Zerg rush” comes from an old, favorite RTS (real-time strategy) game of mine:  Starcraft, created by Blizzard Entertainment.  It’s coined after a tactic where a Zerg player will unconventionally create nothing but their weakest and inexpensive attackers, and send them off to attack an opponent within the first few minutes of the game.  The intention is to harass their opponents enough that their progress will slow to a game-changing point, and when the Zerglings are in large numbers, the match ends faster.

A “Zerg Rush” in Wizard101 means knocking out your enemies in the first, second, or third turn through a combination of Area of Effect (AOE; not to be mistaken with Global, which means “affect everyone”) attacks, with a full team of Wizards (4 players).  If you treat your whole team as one entity or body, the “Zerg Rush” allows your team to escape a battle faster, and thus with the fewer scars.  Let’s call it the “All Rush” strategy, so our Text Chatters can see both words.

The “All Rush” strategy works beautifully with saving time, health, and mana; it may even allow you to end a tower with all potions full!  This is what I used in Big Ben (modified to kill on the first turn), the Secure House (where Redwind’s Sword (Life-100 damage) is dropped; got four of them within two weeks!), Briskbreeze, and any other long, grueling tower.  Kensington dropped down to around an hour to complete.  This method will help you clear the floors up to the bosses very quickly.

What this requires (if you don’t have an extra “sandbox” deck on hand) is a small alternative deck, perhaps around 15-20 cards.  Yep, you read it right: Grandmasters with Krokotopia-level decks.  In this deck, you need to “max out” (use the maximum allowed) your Rank 4 AOE, if you have one (Balance, Fire, Ice, Storm, Myth).  If you are Death School, max out your Scarecrow.  If you’re Life, stock up on full Unicorns.

Next, if you are using Rank 4 AOEs, stack your deck with your School Blade.  If you are Death School, you will need Empower*.  If you are Life, you will need Guidance.

*Empower does not act accordingly to its description.  It does not cost one pip to give you three; it instead adds two white pips, with no change to what you have already.

No other cards are needed (no shields, no traps, etc.  Maybe a Prism if the monsters are the same school as all of your attackers). 

Your goal is to clear the floors of the weak minions in TWO turns. 

·         For those with the Rank 4 AOE, Blading up and removing duplicate Blades and Wand Attacks will be your first move, that way your AOE shows up if one’s not already in hand. 

·         If you are a Death Player, ask that your teammates allow you to be positioned in the Sun circle (first player).  You will need the most enemies alive when your Life Steal hits in order to recover from Empower’s damage. 

·         If you are a Life player, make sure you are entering on the Moon circle (last player).  You will need to cast Guidance the same turn everyone uses Blades or Empower, for a sure chance of killing, and so that your Charm is not used on those Spells.

On the second turn, all players will use their AOE attack or Unicorn.  Do a little jig at the end of the animations, and proceed to the next Barbecue.

CHEATER BOSS BATTLES

This section will cover the cause and effects, and the strategy my team and I used on both Cheater floors.  Remember, the only knowledge about the tower we had was that there was Storm Lord, Frost Giant, and Rebirth somewhere.  We encountered rumors that these spells came randomly, but when we tested around, it turns out that these Rank 7 AOEs (along with others) happen during specific events.

·         Crab Cheater (CC)

o   Any damage to CC will result in him yelling “HELP ME!”  When the turn is over, the Storm Skeleton will then cast a Storm Lord, which does stun.  Because he forms a Storm Seal, Dissipate will prevent the spell.

o   Like Orrick from Briskbreeze, CC removes traps placed on him, one at a time.  He also sports a Tower Shield and automatically replaces them when hurt.  Thus, you can use Steal Ward open him up for full damage.  – Patching changed his Tower Shields to a *casted* Interrupt, so Melt will work in preventing his spell.  Also, it doesn’t seem that he replaces Tower Shield right away anymore.

o   He is glitched a bit; I believe he is meant to cast “Pierce” to remove one *positive* ward, but instead, he will funnily remove a negative ward.  In other words, when you shield, he will cast a “break” spell, but instead of your shield, it affects any TRAPS on you.  I wonder how many people will actually report this ;)

o   We killed off his skeletons in this order: Life (because he was shielding against Fallon Deathslinger heavily), Ice (to reduce the chance of another Tower appearing), and Storm.  Without his minions, CC will still cry for “HELP!” but no one is around to hear him.  (Concept of Disarming)  After the last skeleton dies, you will be given the MC Hammer effect.  Shrug it off and cook that crustacean!

·         Final Floor

o   You will encounter some dialogue between Estrakir and one of the mice minions; a hint is given here, stating that the rats should do something to us when Global/Bubble spells are casted

§  John Lifeglen tested this in another run to see what happened: the enemies returned after being defeated…at least twice.  – Possible bug after Patching.  Enemies returned for my second run, without use of Global.

o   Rats (2)

§  They will add triple shields around and specifically a Tower Shield to Knuckles whenever he is attacked.  Thus, they must be taken out first.

o   Knuckles

§  He is definitely a copycat.  Whenever any type of recovery spell, be it Helping Hands, Sprite, etc. is casted by a Wizard, he immediately casts a fake Rebirth, which heals for 750 HP.  The awesome catch is, the enemies aren’t given Absorbs.

·         The plan was to have Fallon be the only attacker, since I assumed Absorbs were to be bountiful on the enemies.  But, it looks like that won’t be a problem!

o   Estrakir

§  The head honcho has a variety of AOEs at his disposal:  Dragon, Fire* Nova, and Scarecrow

·         *Fire Nova is the same graphic as the Balance spell, but has outgoing Fire damage; bring those shields if you don’t have Quench

·         Dragon is unleashed every few turns after you hurt Estrakir (small or large damage; we tested with a wand attack) while his allies are still up.  Therefore, try not to hit him when against 4 units!

·         Fire Nova is casted whenever any attack goes off (this Interrupt stacks with Dragon’s Interrupt, so you definitely don’t want to aim for him right away), but that also means be prepared to heal after killing off his allies

·         Scarecrow is casted every other turn after his allies are dead.

PVP TACTIC

I’ve mentioned a few times that I implemented some strategy from the arena in our fights against CC and the Final Floor.  I call this method the “Iron Medic.”

(keep in mind that this was our first encounter with each boss, so the fight took longer than it should have)

Our Life player, Taryn, removed as many attacks as she could (save the Centaur from her gear) and placed in nothing but Shields of all types, Rebirths, Unicorns, Guiding Lights, and Guidances, and any other heals she could fit in.  Plus two Reshuffles.  We were expecting a long fight ;)

Any shields that came up in our hand were all placed onto Taryn.  The less she had to worry about healing herself, the more her pips could be focused on keeping the whole team alive.  Also, while we experimented around, her Group Heals were the main basis of aggro, so we were prepared to protect her against four attackers.  Because the enemies passed a few times, we ended up blocking them faster than they could tear shields off of Taryn.  Overall, we were able to keep our cool knowing that we had virtually infinite recovery.

Let me know how your Warehouse runs go!