Rift Wizard Archmage Trial: Wolfer

Intro

The Wolfer Trial, it sucks you will reset probably a few hundred times while getting used to this trial. The Wolfer trial is difficult mainly for two reasons: Physical Immunities and AI. All other issues are secondary, these two issues will kill your run more than any other after you get the basics setup.

Wolf Spell:

The Wolf spell is the single spell you have access to so it is best to know exactly what it does.

1SP Wolf: 12 Mana Summon: 11HP, 5 damage (Melee)

1SP: Minion Damage: +4 minion damage.

3SP: Pounce: 4 range dash attack.

3SP: Minion Health: +12 health

8SP: Pack: Summon 4 wolves for 2 Mana.

Hound Options:

3SP: Ice wolves : 4 Ice Thorns Ice/Demon

100% Ice Resist, 75% dark resist, 100% holy Weak

3SP: Blood Wolves : +2 Attack per attack for 10 turns Demon/Nature

75% Dark Resist, 100% holy Weak.

6SP: Clay Wolves : 3 Regen

50% Fire/Phys/Lightning resist

Some notes on the Hound upgrades, you can only have 1 they are exclusive. Generally i prefer the Clay Hound upgrade, it gives great resistances of which physical is the most common type. Regeneration will literally save the creature quite often.

Blood Hound is decent but with how fragile it is they will often die quickly.

Ice Hound is the odd duck out, note that the Ice Hound loses the Nature typing, Meaning that it loses things like Venom spit that require a nature typing. HOWEVER the Wolf spell is still a Nature attributed spell so shrines and skills that target nature spells will work. I Strongly recommend against using this upgrade.

On the normal upgrades:

Minion Damage is a great tool early, it allows you to one shot things like goblins and is very cheap.

Pounce is Mandatory for this it just depends on when to get it.

Minion Health: . . . it CAN be really good, but it often isn't worth the price until very late as other methods of beefing up your minions are a better investment. if you have spare SP going into the later levels go ahead and grab it.

Wolf Pack is expensive but makes a huge difference in middling levels due to 2 reasons. First you get a 2 for 1 deal on your SP which is huge. Also your Action Economy is improved by summoning 4 wolves at a time, this alone will save your life on some floors. as a side note on this upgrade it has 2 interesting interactions. If you only have 1 SP and cast it you get all 4 wolves for the 1 SP, additionally if you use Potion of Youth it reduces the cost to 1 SP not 0!.

Physical Immunity

With the exception of the Ice Hound upgrade the largest issue facing the Wolfer Trial is Physical Immunity. Most common in ghost type enemies but also visible in other types such as Witches who summon temporary ghosts or even stronger Vampires and the Box of Woe which create permanent ones. ALWAYS check what creatures resist in the area you are looking to enter. if you don't have a method to deal with Physical resistances such as Houndlord, Items, Shrines DO NOT GO THAT ROUTE!!

Note: i have places an S-F tier attached to each to signify their quality for dealing with Physical Resistances.

Shrines are one of the Major ways you will be making up for your Physical Immunity hurdle IF you can find one of the major ones. Note that because you only get 1 spell you only get 1 shrine! I have listed these shrines in general preference.

A Butterfly Wing: 5 turn butterfly demon per 50 dmg.

50HP, 3 Shield, 100% resist Lightning/arcane/dark, 50% weak Ice, 100% weak holy,

Arcane and Lightning 6 range rays 6/9 damage on 3 turn cooldown, or a 4 physical melee.

25% blink chance.

Very useful, when wolves are upgraded getting 50 damage isn't that hard, the big downside is the 5 turn limit to get rid of anything physically weak.

A Icy Spriggan: On cast summon icy spriggan (unlimited duration)

4 range 3 ice dmg 9HP, 100% ice resist 50% phys, turns into thorns on death.

My 2nd Favorite way to deal with Physical immunity, even with the Wolf pack upgrade you will get several spriggans and you don't have to worry about time limit unlike butterfly demon, but these do tend to be very weak overall.

D Firefly shrine: on kill summon 2 firefly near caster for 20 turns, negligable damage unfortunately but useful in a pinch and can act as body blockers. Similar issues with wolf pack.

? Wyrmblood: Last charge also gives wyrm egg, fire or ice.

Haven't gotten this on a run without a different shrine. but i would assume it has a general issue of needing to be the last cast so you get Many many less summons out of it, probably better than firefly shrine though.

The second option to deal with Physical resists comes in the Form of items:

S Aether dagger: removes all resistances from enemies in line of sight.

S Summoning Items: lightning trolls, Dragon horn, etc.

D Death Dice: deals massive dark damage to 6 random targets, BUT many enemies who are physically immune are also dark immune.

An odd item that sidesteps the Physical immunity issue:

B Portal Key: Creates an Active Rift that you may step through.

this particular item is what saved my winning run, i was stuck in a deadlock on floor 24.

Honorable Mentions go to the Following skills:

C Houndlord: create firehounds in all adjacent spaces upon entering a rift.

A great leveling skill, however absolutely useless against Mordred and several zones that have lots of walls/ voids.

D Bone Guard: create 4 bone knights,

Similar to Death dice these have the issue of dark immunity being common with physical immunity. Additionally because they are melee without pounce they have a difficult time with ranged enemies. Useless against mordred like the Houndlord skill.

Shrines General

Shrines are the most random part of this as you will be on the lookout for a good shrine, primarily to deal with your Physical immunity issues but also just to generally upgrade your wolves. I will be listing the shrines and a ranking with them S-F. To my knowlege these are all the shrines able to be used with the Wolf Spell.

Buff Shrine list

A OAKEN: +50% phy and holy resists, +25% minionHP, +10% dmg.

A SANDSTONE: +50% phys and holy resists, +75%hp,

A- Blue SKY: 100% lightning resists, Flying, Regen2

C Afterlife: Auto-life itself 1 time

C Memory: double charges

C Protection: +1 Shield on minions.

B+ Fire/Ice claw shrine: redeal dmg as fire/ice.

B Bloodrage: +3 dmg 5 turns on kill to minions in LoS.

C Fae: passive blink + healing spell.

C Toxic Agony: poisoned enemies hit deal lightning dmg to 4 enemies in 5 radius

C Shell Shrine +10 minion hp

B- Claw Shrine: +75% dmg

C Vigor Shrine +80%hp

C Farsight: +75% range

C Alchemist shrine: +1 charge when using item.

Summon Shrines: All 4 of these are a way to deal with Physical Immunity

S Butterfly Wing[: 5 turn butterfly demon per 50 dmg.

S Icy Spriggan[: On cast summon icy spriggan

D Firefly shrine[: on kill summon 2 firefly near caster.

? Wyrmblood[: Last charge also gives dragon egg

Crap shrines

F Bone shamblers: only body blockers

F- Sniper shrine: wolves don’t have a natural ranged attack

Summaries:

S Tier: I will often go out of my way to get these even for bad odds as they can just Make a run so much smoother.

Butterfly Wing shrine due to its strong summons that help deal with the physical immunity issue. additionally it is not tied to SP costs to generate the summons just damage dealt. In the Fight with Mordred even if you ONLY have 1 wolf left and no SP or mana potions this shrine keeps pumping out new butterly demons as long as that wolf keeps dealing damage.

Icy Spriggan is a great way to get around the Physical immunity issue however it is tied to how many times you cast the wolf spell. This limits its effectiveness to how much mana you have.

A Tier: Willingly will go here if it doesn't have mana potions and possibly use an Physical immunity item if do-able.

Oaken Shrine: 50% resistances makes Clay wolves immune to phsical, plus a boost to HP and dmg is great.

Sandstone: is just like Oaken but more health and no damage boost.

Blue Sky: Flight is amazing, this helps the wolf reach enemies it normally couldn't and you can fit more on the board.

B Tier: Damage increasers, thats all this tier is because the Wolf Spell really needs a better way to do damage. the Ele-Claw shrines are a bit better because it counts as a 2nd hit for shielding and the Bloodrage is that standard because it is stacking, but Standard claw is still good.

C Tier: is just the general utility options, nothing to go out of your way for, items are probably more important than these. don't waste a item to get these.

D Tier: This technically has a use but is so unlikely to be actually useful. . . .

F Tier: Bone Shambler and Sniper shrines are absolutely useless, bone just clutters up the field and Sniper has 0 effect because everything is added after the fact.

Skills (Part 1)

Skills Listed:

________Wolf Upgrades:

Hibernation 4SP: Minions gain 75 Ice resist, if frozen heal 15 HP, If take Ice dmg freeze 3 turns.

Minion Regeneration 4SP: Heal all minions 2HP/turn

Natural Vigor 4SP: +25 Phys/Lightning/Ice/Fire Resist (net +100% Ice with Hibernation)

Venom Spit 4SP: Wolves gain 4 Poison 6 range attack, 4 turn cooldown.

________Poison Combo-skills:

____Paralyzing Venom 4SP: poisoned enemy have 25% chance to be stunned.

____Spider Spawning 4SP: If enemy dies to poison. . . spawn spiders

____Collected Agony 5SP: deal Dark dmg to nearest unit per point of poison dmg dealt

Thorn Garden 5SP: Spawn 2Fae thorns, 10HP 4 Phys Melee, Lasts 6 turns (combo with Venom spit?)

Nature Lord 7SP: +3 mana, +2 duration, +7 dmg, +10 HP

Arch Conjurer 7SP: +2 mana, +3 dmg, +7 HP, +1 range!, +1 duration

Shielded Minions 4SP: 1Sh on summons (no arcane minions)

!!Purestrike 5SP: if enemy shielded deal 2 more hits @1/2 dmg Holy/Arcane!

!!Prince of Ruin 5SP: if enemy dies to Phys/Fire/Lightning deal 13 dmg to enemy in LoS range5.

!!Icy Vengance 6SP: If a minion dies it deals half its HP as ice damage to 3 enemies within 5 range at random. (I actually missed this skill until rechecking things, this could be another way around Physical Immunity!!!!)

Warning on Houndlord and Bone Guard: They often don’t stick around vs Moldred!

Houndlord 5SP: Summon Hell hounds in every adjacent floor space upon entering a rift.

19 HP, 100 Fire Resist, 50 Dark resist, 50 Ice Weak, 4 Fire Thorns,

6 Fire Mele attack, 6 Fire Leap Attack 4 tile range.

____Fire Lord 7SP: +12 Damage, (other effects don’t matter for hounds)

____Melting Armor 5SP: When an enemy takes Fire damage reduce fire and Phys resist by 10.

____Pyrophillia 5SP: If a minion has line of sight to an enemy taking Fire damage heal for ½ dmg

____Firey Judgement 6SP: when an enemy takes fire damage deal another hit for ½ dmg as Holy

____Starfire 6SP: when an enemy takes fire damage deal another hit for ½ dmg as Arcane.

____Bone Guard 6SP: Summon 4 Bone Knights,

40HP, 1 Sh, 100 Dark resist, 50 Ice Resist, 9 Dark Melee +2 max HP

____Hungry Dead 5SP: Undead units gain Hunger: 5 Dark 2 range attack, 3 turn CD. Steals HP

____Dark Dmg Synergies

____Ghostfire combo

Faestone 4SP: 120HP, heals for 10 Per nature spell used, no arcane spell to use other.

____Ghostfire Combo: Houndlord/Fireclaw shrine + Bone guard/Collected Agony

Ghostfire 4SP: if an enemy takes Dark and Fire damage in same turn summon a Burning Ghost near the enemy. 100 Fire & Dark resist, last 10 turns, 7 Fire attack 5 range.

________Arcane Dmg Synergy: Purestrike or Houndlord+ Starfire.

Arcane Combustion 4SP: 12 dmg 3 tile burst centered on enemy who dies to Arcane dmg.

Cracklevoid 6SP: if enemy takes Arcane dmg deal Lightning to 2 enemy units range 6 burst.

________Holy Thunder 6SP: ½ lightning dmg dealt redealt as Holy

________Storm caller 5SP: Ice/lightning dmg : spawn blizzard/ storm 5rnds near enemy hit

________Shock Value 7SP: If enemy dies to lightning dmg berzerk diff. enemy in LoS for 5 turns.

________Lightning Lord 7SP: +8 dmg on skills (Just lightning warp?), +1 Num targets?

Void Lord 7SP: +8dmg +2 range

________Dark Dmg Synergy: Collected agony/ Bone Guard

____Horror 5SP: if Enemy dies to dark dmg stun 3 random LoS enemies 5 turns.

____Dark Lord 7SP: 6 minion dmg, 6 dmg.

________Holy dmg Synergy: Purestrike/ Fiery judgment/ holy Thunder

____chastisement 4SP: 50% chance to stun if enemy takes holy dmg

____Righteous march 5SP: if enemy dies to holy dmg allies in LoS gets a shield.

Special Synergy:

Storm caller 5SP: Ice (Ice hound), Icy Vengance, Lightning (Cracklevoid)

Skills Part 2:

Skill tier Lists:

Generally Combo-synergies won't be touched on unless the baseline is set as part of a C Tier or higher skill. You basically want all S and A Tier Upgrades. C Tier are pretty much luxury items for negligible benefit, possibly combo-synergies would be more useful case by case basis is needed to check.

____S Tier:

Prince of Ruin: just stright dmg upgrade, usable at all times.

PureStrike: helps with the problem of Multi-shield enemies.

Icy Vengance: This DOES help get around the Physical immunity problem, though it is limited. since its 1/2 HP its best used only as a stopgap. it also is just another source of damage.

Clay Hound: Best hound upgrade.

Pounce: Must have to get in close enough to deal damage, also mobility to cross gaps.

Minion Damage: Often taken within the first 3 rifts, enables 1 shot kills of a lot of early enemies.

____A Teir:

Houndlord: great leveling skill, useless vs Mordred. Meaning all the skills based off it tend to be bad vs mordred. Pounce from the start which is great.

Venom Spit: great wolf upgrade but a LOT is immune to poison.

Minion regen/ Natural Vigor/ Hibernation/ Nature lord/ arch conjuror/ shielded minions: straight summons upgrades.

Wolf Pack: Action economy and value upgrade.

____B Tier:

Collected Agony: deals dark dmg in tandem with Venom Spit.

Thorn Garden: Decent body blockers, not much else.

Minion Health: Costly compared to what it does.

____C Tier:

Para venom: Situational due to rampant poison resists, but good when it works.

Spider Spawning: Difficult due to low poison dmg only viable with Poison spit attacks.

Ghostfire: problematic due to dark dmg, either needing poison dmg with agony or bone Guard.

____D Tier:

Bone Guard: bad due to melee only unless gets hunger.

____F Tier:

Ice Hound: while it does get around the Physical damage issue, it loses way to much to be viable.

General Tips

First thing to note is KNOW YOUR ENEMIES!!! i lost several early runs not knowing which enemies alternate forms were Physically immune, like greater vampires.

You don't HAVE to have a way around Physical immunities at all times, but getting the right items when you need them. . . . its just better to be safe than sorry if you can.

Clay Hound + Natural immunity skill = 75% Physical/fire/lightning resists and 25% Ice.

Add hibernation for 100% ice resists.

Clay Hound + Regeneration is 5 HP regen, but that won't save you if the hound dies before its turn comes around!

Poison Spit + Collected Aggony is a decent way to get another damage type (Dark), but Poison spit means the wolf won't attack/ pounce!

Mordred has the ability to Orb of Corruption floor 25 on a recharge, this has a good chance to wipe out your wolves, so summon them in waves and try to collect items if you can!

The most common Defeats are: Physical immunities, Running out of mana, Damage deadlock, wolves die to ranged enemies before dealing damage, Can't reach enemies [pits, flying, teleportation, etc], Regen Deadlock, Spawning Deadlock.

Of these you can get out of a few of them, but they require a specific item: Portal Key! Keep these until you really need them. if you can't win a floor without crippling yourself use it.

General Item Preferences: Mana potions> Anti-physical immunity> Portal key> Portal Disruptor> get out of jail items [stopwatch/chaos bell/etc].

About choosing Rifts: 3 things to take into account.

Are there physically immune enemies, if yes can you take them? If no AVOID!!!!!

Are there mana potions? If no seriously consider other rifts.

Is there a summoning circle/shrine you want? If yes consider the quality of what your getting vs other rifts loot.

If no to previous is there a Heart? Are there items you want?

If none of the above work then consider using a portal disruptor!

Special notes on Floor spawning:

depending on the type of enemies you will want either a very defensible location or an area you can blitzkrieg down spawners.

If you have houdlord remember you want a more open area immediately around your character or you lose out on minions.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2686625761

Archmage Trial: Wolfer