Difference between revisions of "Wrath of Midas"

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(Strategy: added Lifesteal strategy that doesn't need the Ritual to be completed)
(re-wrote to make it more accurate and incorporate the notes into the main strategy article)
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The boss drops the {{i|Gloves of Midas}}, which will be available in shops after beating this challenge. While wearing the Gloves of Midas, each kill will give you one gold per experience gained.  
 
The boss drops the {{i|Gloves of Midas}}, which will be available in shops after beating this challenge. While wearing the Gloves of Midas, each kill will give you one gold per experience gained.  
  
== Monsters Present ==
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== Special Rules ==
{{m|Meat Man}}. By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. They make good level up targets, but should be approached with caution until you can safely damage them faster than they can heal (and more importantly, faster than they can damage you, you squishy little Rogue). Abuse your First Strike advantage. Be sure to save a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing; you'll almost always gain more life than they take away, and Meat Men have plenty of life to spare.  
+
There is a unique item that always appears in this dungeon called the {{i|Ritual of Midas}}. The Ritual of Midas requires 80 gold to use, and will turn into the {{i|Armor of Midas}} when used. The Armor of Midas provides immunity to Death Gaze, and is the most straightforward way to fight the boss.  
  
{{m|Goblin}}.  By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. Since Goblins always have First Strike, they are poor choices for leveling, unless one can kill them in one hit. Save a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing, as long as you'll gain more life than they take away.  
+
There are 3 sub-bosses, all of which have puns for names.  
  
{{m|Burn Viper}}. These are one of the two monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and they inflict [[Mana Burn]] on attack. They [[Blink]] when damaged. Since they Blink, you should only tackle these monsters if 1) you've uncovered enough of the map that you're confident that they'll reappear somewhere visible, and 2) you can kill them in one fireball and one regular hit. The only exception to this is if you're about to level up, in which case you don't need to worry about Mana Burn. Mana Burn makes them unviable for Lifesteal regen-ing, unless you can kill them in one hit.  
+
# The first, the 'Wheeze-hard', is a level 8 {{r|Orc}} {{c|Wizard}}. He has Magical Attack, one layer of Death Protection, 111 health and 52 attack. He's not too hard to defeat after a certain level.  
  
{{m|Minotaur}}. These are the other monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and have Knockback.  
+
# The second sub-boss, the 'Prist', is a level 9 {{r|Orc}} {{c|Priest}}. He has 201 health and 63 attack. Again, not too hard, especially as a Rogue.  
An attack with the Knockback trait moves the opponent back one space. If the opponent hits a wall, the wall is destroyed, and the opponent takes the melee damage and knockback damage (which is 60% of your base attack). If the opponent hits a monster, the opponent does not move, and the opponent takes both melee and knockback damage, while the impacted monster only takes the knockback damage. Knockback damage is only 50% of base damage when the opponent hits another monster. 
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If they are at or below 50% health they gain Berserk. Berserk causes the monster to gain a 100% damage bonus.
+
Minotaurs are probably the easiest monster to kill in this dungeon. The trick is to endeavor to never fight a Minotaur with a wall behind you, and never ever fight a berserked Minotaur, as a Rogue is too squishy to tank that amount of damage. With First Strike, you don't have to. Only fight these guys if you can kill them in two hits. {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} can soften them up for the two-hit strategy, but you might want to save that for the more troublesome monsters. These monsters are your second best source for Lifesteal regen-ing; be sure to save some of the higher level ones.
+
  
Golden Statues are monsters unique to this dungeon. They have 1 attack, high health, and the traits [[Corrosive]], [[Weakening blow]], and [[No experience]]. While they drop a gold reward just like the sub-bosses, to get the gold one must step in their blood, which will inflict one layer of [[Corrosion]]. Do not use these monsters to collect the gold for the Ritual of Midas! Corrosion causes the player to take one extra damage per layer. Rogues cannot afford to take any extra damage whatsoever; they live right on the edge as-is. These monsters redeem themselves, however, by being the single best source of Lifesteal regen-ing in this dungeon. They have lots of health, and as long as you can kill them in one hit (which is child's play for a high-level Rogue), you can regenerate almost half of your life with each kill (more, if you take more levels of Lifesteal).
+
# The final sub-boss, 'Foyter', is a level 10 {{r|Human}} {{c|Fighter}}. He has 159 health, 75 attack, and 25% Physical and Magical Resistance. He's much tougher, but far from unbeatably so.  
  
== Unique Dungeon Traits ==
+
All three sub-bosses leave loot when defeated. When walking over it, the loot will give you 20 gold.
There is a unique item that always appears in this dungeon called the {{i|Ritual of Midas}}. The Ritual of Midas requires 80 gold to use, and will turn into the {{i|Armor of Midas}} when used. The Armor of Midas provides immunity to Death Gaze, and is the only way to fight the boss.  
+
  
There are 3 sub-bosses, all of which have puns for names.  
+
== Monsters ==
 +
{{m|Meat Man}}. By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. They make good level up targets, but should be approached with caution until you can safely damage them faster than they can heal (and more importantly, faster than they can damage you, you squishy little Rogue). Abuse your First Strike advantage and enjoy your Dodge kicking in time to time. Consider saving a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing; you'll almost always gain more life than they take away, and Meat Men have plenty of life to spare.  
  
# The first, the 'Wheeze-hard', is a level 8 {{r|Orc}} {{c|Wizard}}. He has Magical Attack, one layer of Death Protection, 111 health and 52 attack. He's not too hard to defeat after a certain level.  
+
{{m|Goblin}}. By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. Since Goblins always have First Strike, they are poor choices for leveling, unless one can kill them in one hit (and one or two fireballs). Save a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing, as long as you'll gain more life than they take away.
  
# The second sub-boss, the 'Prist', is a level 9 {{r|Orc}} {{c|Priest}}. He has 201 health and 63 attack. Again, not too hard, especially as a Rogue.  
+
{{m|Burn Viper}}. These are one of the two monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and they inflict [[Mana Burn]] on attack. They [[Blink]] when damaged. Since they Blink, you should only tackle these monsters if 1) you've uncovered enough of the map that you're confident that they'll reappear somewhere visible, and 2) you can kill them in one fireball and one regular hit. The only exception to this is if you're about to level up, in which case you don't need to worry about Mana Burn. Mana Burn makes them unviable for Lifesteal regen-ing, unless you can kill them in one hit.  
  
# The final sub-boss, 'Foyter', is a level 10 {{r|Human}} {{c|Fighter}}. He has 159 health, 75 attack, and 25% Physical and Magical Resistance. He's much tougher, but far from unbeatably so.  
+
{{m|Minotaur}}. These are the other monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and have Knockback (if they survive your melee hit, they knock you directly back 1 tile and do 50% damage to you - though this part of their damage can never kill you).
 +
If they are at or below 50% health they gain Berserk. Berserk causes the monster to gain a 50% damage bonus.
 +
Minotaurs are probably the easiest monster to kill in this dungeon. You should be able to survive a melee hit against a non-berserked minotaur that is even a few levels above you. Then you should be able to soften up said Minotaur by a fireball or two. Finally, your First Strike should take care of finishing the monster irrespective of the damage they would deal.
  
All three sub-bosses drop an item when defeated. This item will be picked up by walking over it, and will give you 20 gold.
+
{{m|Golden Statue}}s are monsters unique to this dungeon. They have 1 attack, high health, and the traits [[Corrosive]], [[Weakening blow]], and [[No experience]]. While they drop a gold reward just like the sub-bosses, to get the gold one must step in their blood, which will inflict one layer of [[Corrosion]]. There are several approaches to dealing with the Golden Statues. First, you may leave them be, so as to not incur any stacks of Weakness or Corrosion (both of which will seriously hinder you during the boss fight). Second, you may prepare to destroy them, gaining their gold and removing your debilitative conditions with a {{i|Burn Salve}} and a {{i|Fortitude Tonic}}. Last but not least, you may prepare to endure some Corrosion and Weakness (or cure them during the boss fight), and use these monsters as Blood Cows (monsters you use Lifesteal on to regain health).
  
== Midas ==
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== Boss ==
The boss Midas is quite powerful. He is a unique 10th level bandit with 954 health and 75 attack, and he has 101% Death Gaze and Retaliate: Fireball. The Death gaze number is not a mistake. If you attack him before acquiring the Armor of Midas, you ''will'' be petrified. You could maybe {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} him to death, but I wouldn't bet on it; he has the same amount of health as the Super Meat Man boss.  
+
The boss Midas is quite powerful. He is a unique 10th level bandit with 954 health and 75 attack, and he has 101% Death Gaze and Retaliate: Fireball. The Death gaze number is not a mistake. If you attack (or {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}}) him while you are at (or below) your maximum health, you ''will'' be petrified.  
  
 
== Strategy ==
 
== Strategy ==
The only two races that should even be considered for this dungeon are the {{r|Dwarf}} and the {{r|Orc}}. The Orc is probably a better bet, as with the proper strategy, the Orc will be able to take two hits from the boss before needing healing, while the Dwarf likely won't be able to take enough hits to make up the difference in damage. Also, the Orc's damage boosting trait will maximize the gains from worshipping Dracul.  
+
It is recommended to win this challenge with the {{OrRo}}. With the proper strategy, the Orc will be able to take two hits from the boss before needing healing, while the Dwarf likely won't be able to take enough hits to make up the difference in damage. Also, the Orc's damage boosting trait will maximize the gains from worshipping Dracul. Alternatively, {{r|Dwarf}} or {{r|Human}} are also viable. Other races may also work, though will probably be more difficult.
 
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The Pactmaker isn't very useful in this dungeon. The only other god to choose from is Dracul, and he's very stingy with piety. You'll need every bit of piety that you can get from Dracul to buy the boons that you'll need to win, too.
+
 
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The key to this dungeon is managing level catapults while using the fewest possible number of potions, getting Dracul and acquiring enough piety to worship Blood Hunger at least once (but preferably twice), and maximizing piety gain so that you can also acquire Blood Shield, one level of Blood Tithe, and at least one (but preferably two) levels of Blood Swell.  
+
  
With this setup, most of the blood pools remaining, and a select number of monsters kept around for Lifesteal regen-ing, the player should easily be able to overwhelm the boss. This setup is pretty expensive, though; in total, it would cost 165 Piety. This is possible, but difficult. Tips on getting this much Piety:
+
The most straightforward way to win this challenge involves two important parts. First of all, complete the Ritual of Midas to gain the Mantle of Midas, which affords immunity to the Death Gaze of the boss; and secondly, worship Dracul for purposes of Health restoration. You don't need to do either to win the challenge, but the map is easiest when you do.
  
# Once you hit level 9, there will quite likely not be enough monsters left to naturally get a level-up. At this point, take the boon Blood Curse. This won't have an effect on gameplay one way or another, but it will give you 20 piety.
+
To complete the Ritual of Midas you need 80 gold. This normally assumes that you collect all the gold piles in the dungeon, plus you defeat the three named sub-bosses for the loot they drop. You may have a bit of gold left over, which can be useful to buy items or potions. You can complete the Ritual of Midas without touching any of the Golden Statues. You may also prepare (or buy) Burn Salve (and/or Fortitude Tonic) and defeat the Golden Statues to claim their loot, giving you more gold. This can be used instead of the sub-bosses' loot, or to afford more items.
# Save every single health potion that you can get your hands on. Dracul punishes their use, and you can't afford to lose piety with him. However, each potion converted will be worth 5 piety. This will give you 20 piety if you didn't use any health potions, and 25 if you bought a health potion from the apothecary.
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# While you should avoid drinking too many blood pools, so as to leave plenty of life regen for taking on Midas, it is worth mentioning that each blood pool drunk will give 4 piety.
+
# Killing a monster is worth 2 piety. Lifestealing it will give you one additional piety. This will add up.
+
# If you find {{s|HALPMEH}} or {{s|CYDSTEPP}}, make sure that you are worshipping Dracul before you convert them. Either one is worth 10 piety.  
+
  
Convert all glyphs with the exception of {{s|BURNDAYRAZ}} as soon as possible. This goes double for the Orc; the base damage bonus will cause your attack to rise very quickly.  
+
If you worhip Dracul, you may pick up any number of his boons to help you against Midas. Blood Hunger is safe to take because you won't have significant resistances; and allows you to steal life from any low-mid level monsters (or Golden Statues) you left alive for this purpose. Blood Tithe is probably the most important boon, allowing you to recover health by absorbing Blood Pools. Blood Curse is safe to take at L8-9, and nets you easy Dracul piety. Blood Shield can help you fight Midas, and Blood Swell offers a cheap health-restore at the cost of some pop-corn or resists. As Dracul is stingy with piety, it is generally advisable to use any previously unused Health Potions - and 'holy magic' glyphs like HALPMEH and CYDSTEPP - to convert them under Dracul's worhip for bonus piety. Especially since Dracul abhors holy magic of all sorts and punishes its use.
  
One final tip: you will likely have enough gold to purchase one or two small items in addition to the Ritual of Midas. Be very careful: if you have to dip into the Golden statues for money, your run will be much more difficult. The single best starting item for this dungeon would be the {{i|Pendant of Health}}. At level 1 or 2, this will make taking on monsters 2 or 3 levels higher possible, and will make your run much more successful.
+
The other altar present will be the Pactmaker. You can skip the Dracul worship by picking up Warrior's Pact with him, gaining (up to) 17 max health, which will allow you to fight Midas effectively. You may also consider some of this other pacts, Consensus or Scholar's pact for example. If you go this route, it is advisable to keep HALPMEH.
  
Note: I've just beaten this level without using Dracul at all, playing as an {{OrRo}}. I used {{g|the Pactmaker}} to get Consensus and the Warrior's Pact to boost my Health by 17 points. When I finished killing off the monsters and mini-bosses, I killed all the Golden statues (at that time I only suffered 3 layers of Weakness, and of course about a dozen layers of Corrosions). Between the gold from the mini-bosses and this I had more than 200 gold, so even after paying for the Ritual of Midas, I still had enough money to purchase basically anything I wanted. I picked up a Burn Salve to get rid of the corrosions, and then converted all glyphs except my HALPMEH (of course getting good setup from the other glyphs before converting, ENDISWAL, GETINDARE, etc.). From the items I picked up, I kept only those that gave me extra durability (damage reduction, physical resistance or extra health) or bonus damage, all the others I converted for extra damage, which far outweighed the layers of Weakness I had to endure to get there. The boss was relatively easy at this point (of course, you can always just start worshipping Dracul and use his massive initial piety, plus blood curse if needed, and get sanguine to farm health and more piety).
+
You also do not need to complete the Ritual of Midas to fight Midas. Deathgaze 101% means that if you are above your maximum health, Midas won't petrify you. If you have any Lifesteal, this is attainable. If you can save enough low-level monsters for the boss fight, and have Lifesteal (from the Draining Blade item, or the Blood Hunger Dracul boon), you do not even need to complete the Ritual of Midas to win; jut make sure you are above your maximum health whenever you strike Midas (for example, by using blood pools to refill your health to (close to) maximum, and killing a low-level monster to steal enough life to bring your health to above your maximum).
  
Note2: Deathgaze 101% means that if you are above your maximum health, Midas won't petrify you. If you have any Lifesteal, this is attainable. If you can save enough low-level monsters for the boss fight, you do not even need to complete the Ritual of Midas to win; jut make sure you use blood pools to refill your health to (close to) maximum, and kill a low-level monster to steal enough life to bring your health to above your maximum between each strike.
+
The single best starting item for this dungeon would be the {{i|Pendant of Health}}. At level 1 or 2, this will make taking on monsters 2 or 3 levels higher possible, and will make your run much more successful. Purchase if you see it at low levels.
  
 
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Revision as of 22:25, 28 May 2015

The Wrath of Midas dungeon is the Class: Rogue Rogue silver challenge. The boss is a unique Monster: Bandit Bandit named Midas.

Preparations

Thieves' Guild, Witch, Alchemist, Altar of Dracul (Challenge recommends Alchemist & Pactmaker)

Resources Available

The dungeon will always have the Altars to Dracul and the Pactmaker, if unlocked, and has regular shops. There is more gold lying around than usual.

Reward

The boss drops the Item: Gloves of Midas Gloves of Midas, which will be available in shops after beating this challenge. While wearing the Gloves of Midas, each kill will give you one gold per experience gained.

Special Rules

There is a unique item that always appears in this dungeon called the Item: Ritual of Midas Ritual of Midas. The Ritual of Midas requires 80 gold to use, and will turn into the Item: Armor of Midas Armor of Midas when used. The Armor of Midas provides immunity to Death Gaze, and is the most straightforward way to fight the boss.

There are 3 sub-bosses, all of which have puns for names.

  1. The first, the 'Wheeze-hard', is a level 8 Race: Orc Orc Class: Wizard Wizard. He has Magical Attack, one layer of Death Protection, 111 health and 52 attack. He's not too hard to defeat after a certain level.
  1. The second sub-boss, the 'Prist', is a level 9 Race: Orc Orc Class: Priest Priest. He has 201 health and 63 attack. Again, not too hard, especially as a Rogue.
  1. The final sub-boss, 'Foyter', is a level 10 Race: Human Human Class: Fighter Fighter. He has 159 health, 75 attack, and 25% Physical and Magical Resistance. He's much tougher, but far from unbeatably so.

All three sub-bosses leave loot when defeated. When walking over it, the loot will give you 20 gold.

Monsters

Monster: Meat Man Meat Man. By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. They make good level up targets, but should be approached with caution until you can safely damage them faster than they can heal (and more importantly, faster than they can damage you, you squishy little Rogue). Abuse your First Strike advantage and enjoy your Dodge kicking in time to time. Consider saving a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing; you'll almost always gain more life than they take away, and Meat Men have plenty of life to spare.

Monster: Goblin Goblin. By this point, you should be familiar with these monsters. Since Goblins always have First Strike, they are poor choices for leveling, unless one can kill them in one hit (and one or two fireballs). Save a few mid-level ones for boss fight Lifesteal regen-ing, as long as you'll gain more life than they take away.

Monster: Burn Viper Burn Viper. These are one of the two monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and they inflict Mana Burn on attack. They Blink when damaged. Since they Blink, you should only tackle these monsters if 1) you've uncovered enough of the map that you're confident that they'll reappear somewhere visible, and 2) you can kill them in one fireball and one regular hit. The only exception to this is if you're about to level up, in which case you don't need to worry about Mana Burn. Mana Burn makes them unviable for Lifesteal regen-ing, unless you can kill them in one hit.

Monster: Minotaur Minotaur. These are the other monsters that you should definitely seek out for leveling. They have normal health and attack, and have Knockback (if they survive your melee hit, they knock you directly back 1 tile and do 50% damage to you - though this part of their damage can never kill you). If they are at or below 50% health they gain Berserk. Berserk causes the monster to gain a 50% damage bonus. Minotaurs are probably the easiest monster to kill in this dungeon. You should be able to survive a melee hit against a non-berserked minotaur that is even a few levels above you. Then you should be able to soften up said Minotaur by a fireball or two. Finally, your First Strike should take care of finishing the monster irrespective of the damage they would deal.

Monster: Golden Statue Golden Statues are monsters unique to this dungeon. They have 1 attack, high health, and the traits Corrosive, Weakening blow, and No experience. While they drop a gold reward just like the sub-bosses, to get the gold one must step in their blood, which will inflict one layer of Corrosion. There are several approaches to dealing with the Golden Statues. First, you may leave them be, so as to not incur any stacks of Weakness or Corrosion (both of which will seriously hinder you during the boss fight). Second, you may prepare to destroy them, gaining their gold and removing your debilitative conditions with a Item: Burn Salve Burn Salve and a Item: Fortitude Tonic Fortitude Tonic. Last but not least, you may prepare to endure some Corrosion and Weakness (or cure them during the boss fight), and use these monsters as Blood Cows (monsters you use Lifesteal on to regain health).

Boss

The boss Midas is quite powerful. He is a unique 10th level bandit with 954 health and 75 attack, and he has 101% Death Gaze and Retaliate: Fireball. The Death gaze number is not a mistake. If you attack (or Glyph: BURNDAYRAZ BURNDAYRAZ) him while you are at (or below) your maximum health, you will be petrified.

Strategy

It is recommended to win this challenge with the Class: Rogue Orc Rogue. With the proper strategy, the Orc will be able to take two hits from the boss before needing healing, while the Dwarf likely won't be able to take enough hits to make up the difference in damage. Also, the Orc's damage boosting trait will maximize the gains from worshipping Dracul. Alternatively, Race: Dwarf Dwarf or Race: Human Human are also viable. Other races may also work, though will probably be more difficult.

The most straightforward way to win this challenge involves two important parts. First of all, complete the Ritual of Midas to gain the Mantle of Midas, which affords immunity to the Death Gaze of the boss; and secondly, worship Dracul for purposes of Health restoration. You don't need to do either to win the challenge, but the map is easiest when you do.

To complete the Ritual of Midas you need 80 gold. This normally assumes that you collect all the gold piles in the dungeon, plus you defeat the three named sub-bosses for the loot they drop. You may have a bit of gold left over, which can be useful to buy items or potions. You can complete the Ritual of Midas without touching any of the Golden Statues. You may also prepare (or buy) Burn Salve (and/or Fortitude Tonic) and defeat the Golden Statues to claim their loot, giving you more gold. This can be used instead of the sub-bosses' loot, or to afford more items.

If you worhip Dracul, you may pick up any number of his boons to help you against Midas. Blood Hunger is safe to take because you won't have significant resistances; and allows you to steal life from any low-mid level monsters (or Golden Statues) you left alive for this purpose. Blood Tithe is probably the most important boon, allowing you to recover health by absorbing Blood Pools. Blood Curse is safe to take at L8-9, and nets you easy Dracul piety. Blood Shield can help you fight Midas, and Blood Swell offers a cheap health-restore at the cost of some pop-corn or resists. As Dracul is stingy with piety, it is generally advisable to use any previously unused Health Potions - and 'holy magic' glyphs like HALPMEH and CYDSTEPP - to convert them under Dracul's worhip for bonus piety. Especially since Dracul abhors holy magic of all sorts and punishes its use.

The other altar present will be the Pactmaker. You can skip the Dracul worship by picking up Warrior's Pact with him, gaining (up to) 17 max health, which will allow you to fight Midas effectively. You may also consider some of this other pacts, Consensus or Scholar's pact for example. If you go this route, it is advisable to keep HALPMEH.

You also do not need to complete the Ritual of Midas to fight Midas. Deathgaze 101% means that if you are above your maximum health, Midas won't petrify you. If you have any Lifesteal, this is attainable. If you can save enough low-level monsters for the boss fight, and have Lifesteal (from the Draining Blade item, or the Blood Hunger Dracul boon), you do not even need to complete the Ritual of Midas to win; jut make sure you are above your maximum health whenever you strike Midas (for example, by using blood pools to refill your health to (close to) maximum, and killing a low-level monster to steal enough life to bring your health to above your maximum).

The single best starting item for this dungeon would be the Item: Pendant of Health Pendant of Health. At level 1 or 2, this will make taking on monsters 2 or 3 levels higher possible, and will make your run much more successful. Purchase if you see it at low levels.