3. Raid Events

Myconid King - Fungus Grove raid. Magic. Can do multi-target attacks, put a debuff on your pet that both lowers defense and drains HP, lower all your pets' defense, heal himself, and does damage to heal himself.

Myconids - See Umbra Forest section.

Nightfall Bandit - See Viridian Meadows. On the raid versions, they have the ability to put HP draining and stat decreasing debuffs on your pet. Sometimes, they will heal themselves or they can heal themselves by attacking your pet. They can also put a debuff that both drains your pet's HP and lowers defense.

Nightfall Bandit Overseer - See Viridian Meadows. On the raid versions, they can put an HP draining debuff on your pet, put stat-decreasing debuffs on your pet, and perform multi-target attacks. They can also put an HP regen buff on themselves, heal themselves, or put a buff that increases their attack on themselves.

Tyrielle "The Greedy" - Esior's Haven raid. Can drop Tyrielle's Runic Scythe avatar item. Named. Magical. She can decrease all your pets' defenses, decrease a pet's avoidance and accuracy, heal herself, and do multi-target attacks. Out of the raid bosses, she seems to be a bit weaker.

Vorkid Queen - Faerina's Shrine raid. Physical. Can do multi-target attacks, put an HP regen buff on herself, decrease all your pet's critical hit chances, and put an HP-draining debuff on all your pets. She's the strongest Vorkid with the most defense / HP so expect her to put up a fight, but like all Vorkids, she still doesn't seem to have as much defense / HP as some of the other raid bosses.

Vorkids - See Umbra Forest section.

Zutherean the Arch Lich - Can drop Arch Mage's Staff avatar item. Magical. Can do multi-target attacks, decrease your pet's accuracy and avoidance, decrease your pet's critical hit chances, and put an HP regen buff on himself.



4. Festival Zones / Festivals

These may change from festival to festival. The Named drop the avatar items they are wearing.

Astryl's Meadow Named - Magical. They all seem to share the same attack type, attack pattern, and similiar stat mixes, though their individual stats vary. Some can range from being easier to defeat while others are more difficult from the different stats. They are all more bulky in the defense / HP department and have average attack. It is more of a long fight than a difficult fight if you have pets around the same level. They start off with a stun attack and continue to stun your pet once in awhile. They can also put a debuff on your pet that both lowers defense and drains HP, and they tend to renew the debuff once it runs out. However, they don't put it on multiple pets at the same time so you only need to keep an eye on the HP levels of one pet while the debuff is active. They also do multi-target attacks every once in awhile.

Hallowed Sprite - They are basically a water sprite with increased stats, and they are only found on the lakes in Astryl's Meadow. See water sprite in the Ethernia section.

Nightfall Bandits - Physical (even when they are carrying staffs). They are different from the ones in the Viridian Meadow areas, dungeon, and raids. They will start off the battle with an HP draining debuff and put it on again soon after the debuff wears off. Other than that, they don't have any other special attacks. They aren't as powerful as the dungeon bandits.

Wild Pets - Physical or magical. They seem to have no real special attacks, regardless of rarity or strength, unlike other wild pets.

(I know I'm missing a couple of entries on this here and there for rarer enemies and bosses.)

5. All Areas

Wild Pets - Magical or physical. (Attack type seems to be randomly assigned or depends on the element the wild pets are in tune with.) These come in different varieties depending on the area you are in, and they come in a different variety of strength and rarities. In Viridian Meadows, they tend to be pretty basic, but in Umbra Forest and afterwards, they can have a greater variety of attacks, such as multi-target attacks, HP draining debuffs, and stat debuffs. They may also be able to put HP regen buffs on themselves, heal themselves, or do damage to heal themselves. I think the greater attack variety is only in the stronger wild pets, though. In the Lost Grove, wild pets that are rare rarity or higher are attuned to an element and have the same element attacks as your own pets available to them. Almost all wild pets also gain the ability to heal themselves regardless of rarity or strength, except for the weakest of them.


6. Viridian Meadows

Myconids - If I remember right, there may be some Myconids in the Fungus Grove for story reasons in your initial run of the grove. See Umbra Forest section for them, if I'm right.

Nightfall Bandit - Physical or magical. (Strange enough, even when they are holding a staff and look like mages, they can do physical damage. I think it is randomly assigned.) They aren't that strong and should be easy enough to take out.

Nightfall Bandit Overseer - Physical or magical.(Strange enough, even when they are holding a bow and look like archers, they can do magical damage. I think it is randomly assigned.) A stronger and more hardy version of the Nightfall Bandit.


7. Umbra Forest

Myconids drop the Myconid avatar items, but I'm not sure if color of the staff / item is dependent on the color of the Myconid who was carrying it, and I don't know if they are only limited to dropping from stronger Myconids. Same thing with the Vorkids and their items.


Arch Mage - Magical. These are strong undead with a lot of HP / defense. They can do multi-target attacks and put an HP regen buff on themselves and anyone else in their party. They can put a debuff on your pet that does damage to the pet and heals the mage in the process.

Cave Troll Annihilator - Enigmatic Grotto. Physical. The strongest type of troll in the Enigmatic Grotto. They have loads of HP / defense, and they can put stoneskin on themselves, which absorbs some of the damage your pet does. They can also put a buff on themselves that increases their strength and damage output.

Cave Troll Brute - Engimatic Grotto. Physical. The weakest of the cave trolls with the lowest defense / HP. I don't think it has any special abilities.

Cave Troll Crusher - Engimatic Grotto. Physical. They are one of the stronger trolls in the grotto, and they have good HP / defense. They can also use stoneskin to negate some of the damage that is done to them.

Cave Troll Ravager - Enigmatic Grotto. Physical. One of the weaker trolls. They still have a good amount of HP / defense, though. I don't think it has any special abilities.

Decayed Archer - Physical. They can put an HP draining debuff on your pets. Other than that, they aren't that strong and don't do anything too special.

King Desius - Forgotten Tomb boss. What I find most memoriable about this enemy is not the fight itself but the translating and figuring out the riddles in the tomb. He is designed to be more or less impossible to defeat without activating at least some of the seals. You don't need to activate all of them, though. I got by him by only activitating three of the four seals. What I remember of the fight itself is the endless supply of undead knights that accompany him after you activate some of the seals (he is otherwise alone if you don't activate the seals), and you should focus on targeting the king himself and not his undead knights.

Myconid Adept - Magical. They can heal themselves and do multi-target attacks.

Myconid Auger - Magical. A more powerful Myconid with a good amount of HP / defense. They can do multi-target attacks, heal themselves by attacking your pet, and heal themselves without having to attack your pets.

Myconid Champion - Physical. Champions are super-powered Myconids, second to their king. They can heal themselves and put HP draining debuffs on your pets. They also have a good amount of HP / defense.

Myconid King - The king only shows up in the raid event or in the dungeon as a boss. See raid events.

Myconid Reaver - Physical. They can put an HP draining debuff on your pet. They can also heal themselves.

Myconid Seer - Magical. Can do multi-target attacks and heal themselves by attacking your pet.

Myconid Shroom - Magical. These are weak Myconids with lower HP / defense. They can heal themselves by attacking your pets.

Myconid Sprout - Physical. A weak Myconid. It doesn't seem to have any real special attacks.

Myconid Warrior - Physical. There is nothing really special about these creatures other than their ability to put HP draining debuffs on your pets.

Risen Soldier - Drops the arms avatar items. Physical. A common, weak undead. I don't think they have any special attacks.

Undead Knight - Can drop the knight avatar items. Physical. They are pretty strong and have a good amount of health, but they aren't the strongest undead. They can use multi-target attacks and heal themselves.

Vorkid Drone - Physical. A weak Vorkid. They appear to have no special attacks.

Vorkid Lurker - Physical. A weaker Vorkid. They can put an HP draining debuff on your pet.

Vorkid Pouncer - Physical. They can put an HP regen buff on themselves, and they have decent power and HP. They can also put HP draining debuffs on your pets.

Vorkid Queen - The queen only shows up in the raid event or in the dungeon as a boss. See raid events.

Vorkid Shadowweaver - Magical. This is a super-powered Vorkid and second in strength to the Queen herself. It can do multi-attacks, put an HP regen buff on itself, and heal itself by doing damage to your pet. They have decent HP / defense, too.

Vorkid Shifter - Magical. They can do multi-target attacks, but they aren't overly powerful. It can also heal itself by doing damage to your pets.

Vorkid Venomspitter - Magical. A more powerful vorkid. They can do multi-target attacks, and they can put an HP regen buff on themselves and heal themselves by doing damage to your pets. They are a bit more challenging than Pouncers since they can hit all your pets at once.

Vorkid Webspinner - Magical. A common, weak Vorkid. It can heal itself by doing damage to your pets, but they aren't a big threat considering how weak they are and how little defense / health they have.


8. Ethernia

Ameryth Swiftfyre - Astryl's Tranquility. Named by the mushroom house. She drops the red oracle avatar items. Magical. Can do multi-target attacks and put a debuff on your pet that both lowers defense and drains HP. I think she and Yurgo are suppose to be keyed more for damage than defense. I think her attack patterns, moves, and stats are the same as Yurgo the Twisted.

Ariella - Astryl's Tranquility's lake. Named. She drops the mermaid stuff that isn't in Tranquility's shop. Since she has no placeholder double, it takes longer for her spot on the map to be filled than the other Named. Physical. Can stun your pet and put an HP draining debuff on your pet. She tends to use stun at the beginning of battle and then only stuns a pet infrequently afterwards. She also has higher stats than her minions and the Water Sprites, but she doesn't feel like the most powerful Named in Tranquility.

Ariella's Minion - Astryl's Tranquility's lake. This seems to be an exact copy of a Water Sprite so check the Water Sprite entry below. They only show up with Ariella so they aren't a random enemy spawn.

Barbaric Woodsman - Astryl's Tranquility. Named placeholder for the Named Sariveni Songblade. Physical. These seems to be a copy of the Woodsman Savage but with increased stats. (As a side note, defeating the placeholder does count towards the task of defeating woodsmen/tamers.)

Damien

Deviant Channeler - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named placeholder for Koralai. Doesn't show up until you finish the zone storyline. Magical. Stronger than the common enemies on the map but not as strong as the actual Named. Can put an HP draining debuff on your pet.

Elryssa the Huntress - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named in the northwestern part of the map. Physical. Can do multi-target attacks and put an HP draining debuff on your pet. She has good defense / HP.

Koralai - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named. She doesn't show up until you finish the zone storyline since she stands in the exact same place as the zone's storyline boss. She drops the Herbalist avatar items. Magical. Can do multi-target attacks and put a buff on your pet that both lowers its defense and drains HP. She has pretty good stats so she can take awhile to defeat.

Myrida - Sweet Blossom Orchard boss. I don't remember much about her... I'm guessing that Koralai, who replaces her, has the exact same attack pattern as her.

Rogue Necromancer - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named (I know he doesn't have a proper name, but with his stats, he might as well be a Named). Magical. This guy only shows up at random if you have the task for defeating him. Otherwise, he won't show up at all. Can do multi-target attacks and put a debuff on your pet that lowers their defense and drains HP. He has good stats so he can be difficult to defeat.

Ruthless Tamer - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named placeholder for Elrysssa the Huntress. Magical. It seems to be a copy of the Woomans Tamer but with increased stats. (As a side note, defeating the placeholder does count towards the task of defeating woodsmen/tamers.)

Ruthless Savage - Sweet Blossom Orchard. Named placeholder for the Damien. Physical. These seems to be a copy of the Woodsman Savage but with increased stats. (As a side note, defeating the placeholder does count towards the task of defeating woodsmen/tamers.)

Sariveni Songblade - Astryl's Tranquility. Named on the island. Physical. Can do multi-target attacks and put an HP-draining debuff on your pet. I think she has higher defense / HP than the other Named in Tranquility.

Vopar the Prime Water Elemental - Astryl's Tranquility boss. It's been awhile since I've fought him, but I do remember that he has a buff where he takes no damage at all and regenerates HP. The way to destroy the shield is to focus on taking out the water elemental minions that are summoned with the buff. When the water elementals are dead, the buff goes away.

Water Elementals - Astryl's Tranquility's lake. It's been awhile, but I think they are built just like the Water Sprites that replace them.
Water Sprite - Astryl's Tranquility's lake. Physical. Personally, I find these things to be annoying for some reason. They have a boost in stats compared to land enemies, and they can use a restoration-like ability to heal themselves or a companion. This ability probably makes them feel like they have more HP than they actually do... They can also put an HP draining debuff on your pet.

Wicked Evoker - Astryl's Tranquility. Named placeholder for Ameryth and Yurgo. Magical. While not as powerful as the actual Named, they still have a boost in stats compared to the commmon enemies wandering the map. They can put an HP draining debuff on your pet.

Woodsman Savage - May drop the woodmans avatar items, along with all their copies (placeholders and Named). Physical. Can put an HP draining debuff on your pet. They aren't extremely strong or difficult.

Woodmans Tamer - May drop the white and black ravens, along with all their copies (placeholders and Named). Magical. Can put an HP draining debuff on your pet. They aren't extremely strong or difficult.

Yurgo the Twisted - Astryl's Tranquility. Named by the tent on the far side of the lake. He drops the green oracle avatar items. Magical. Can do multi-target attacks and put a buff on your pet that both lowers defense and drains HP. I think he and Ameryth are suppose to be keyed more for damage than defense. I think his attack patterns, moves, and stats are the same as Ameryth Swiftfyre.

(I know that I'm missing a couple of entries on here.)

9. Lost Grove

The recommendations for when to take on the Named are based on early stage enemy strength, before enemy strength and level goes up in the grove. I've heard after you beat the behemoth, enemy level goes up, but I haven't gotten that far. The grove is fairly difficult at first, but once your pets level up, have a full set of at least basic LG gear, and have some rank 2 skills, you'll fly through most of the area pretty quickly and the semi-Named elite won't be much of a problem.

Behemoth - Boss.

Crazed Druids - Magical. Semi-Named elites. These are similiar to water sprites and forest sprites so they shouldn't be too difficult if you can take out the forest sprites with ease, despite being a semi-Named elite character. They occassionally put an HP regen buff on themselves or heal themselves, and they can put HP draining debuffs on your pet (Celestial fire does more damage than swarmed so watch for celestial fire debuff). They can also decrease all your pets' avoidance and speed.

Eleane the Duelest - Named. Physical. She is accompanied by Nightfall Vicars, and as they are healers, it's best to do them in first so they don't heal Eleane. Other than that, she is just like the Nightfall Captains but with increased stats. Alone, she isn't that terrible. You can take her on if you have a couple of rank 2 skills, a couple of pieces of vinethorn gear, some potions, and are level 70. Just be prepared for a longer and tougher battle than the captains.

Ents - Semi-Named elites. Physical. These can be nasty to take on, and the longer the fight is drawn out, the stronger they become. They have three buffs - one is a single turn critical hit buff, another is a "permanent" increase in attack for the duration of the battle, and the third is a buff that absorbs damage. The permanent increase in attack always follows the turn after the critical hit buff. If the pet gets hit while the critical hit buff is active on the ent, typically the pet will be stunned for about five turns if it doesn't die from the attack, but blocking seems to negate that as my pets are never stunned when blocking while the buff is active. Ents can also use a shorter duration stun attack at any time, but it is infrequent. With the buff that absorbs damage, just keep on attacking. Once the buff absorbs enough damage (even over a couple of turns), it will disappear. Ents have a lot of defense / HP so keeping the fight short can be challenging, especially when you are just starting the Lost Grove. Focus on defense only when you absolutely have to, and pick skills that do damage over non-damaging skills (like Fairy Lights instead of Restoration).

Forest Sprites - Physical. The most basic of the enemies in the Lost Grove, they have an attack pattern similiar to water sprites in Tranquility. They will typically put an HP regen buff on themselves when their HP goes low, and they can put an HP draining debuff on your pets. However, that is the only interesting things that they do. When you first get to the Lost Grove, they may be a bit hard to defeat, but it should be much, much easier after you get Lost Grove gear and level up. I remember using block quite a bit and then forcefully going after them when they put on the HP regen buff in the beginning, but it is no longer necessary for me.

Luna - Named. Magical. This is Malfarian's pet companion. The only thing to watch out for in particular is the lunar light debuff, which increases the damage that Malfarian's celestial fire debuff does. It affects all your pets. Luna and Solas have much lower defense / HP than Malfarian.

Malfarian - Named. Magical. He is accompanied by his pets, Luna and Solas. His celestial fire debuff has the potential to drain a lot of HP from your pets, and his companions put a debuff on your pets to increase the damage his celestial fire debuff does (100% more damage from the debuff from each pet so about 200% more damage between the two pets). The first line of business is to take out the two pets so the debuff doesn't do massive damage. (Malfarian doesn't use celestial fire until around turn 16 so you have some time to dispose of his pets, even though they use their debuff earlier on.) When hit with celestial fire, use defensive and healing abilities and potions on the pet affected by it. He also has another HP draining debuff that does less damage than celestial fire, but forunately, he uses the weaker debuff more often than celestial fire. He can lower the avoidance and speed of all your pets, and he has an HP regen buff similiar to the crazed druids. If you have a team that is more lightweight and doesn't handle damage as well, it may be better to wait until your pets are level 70, have rank 2 basic abilities, and have a full set of Lost Grove gear. I was able to defeat him when my shadow-water-wind team had rank 1 abilities, but he can still do a lot of damage and be challenging to take out on rank 1. Having some potions / revives on hand is also a good idea. The first time I took him on with the same team, they got KO'ed since I had no potions and no revives. After you start to get a bunch of rank 2 abilities, you may not even need potions and revives anymore for the battle.

Nightfall Battlemages - Magical. Watch out for their lightning shield buff. If you attack them when they have the shield on, your pets take damage from the shield (much like thorncoat). Other things that battlemages can do is decrease the speed of all your pets, put an HP draining debuff on your pet, and do a powerful multi-target attack. Fortunately, they are lightweights when it comes to taking damage, and they are quicker to take out. However, they can do a good amount of damage.

Nightfall Brigand - Physical. These are built like an earth pet but without a thorncoat-like ability. If they are in a group, they will use taunt. (If alone, they skip using that ability.) They also have a shield that really boosts their defense and makes them significantly slower to take out, and they can put an HP draining debuff on your pet. Sometimes, they use stun, but it is not extremely frequent.

Nightfall Captains - Semi-Named elites. These are typically considered the hardest of the semi-Named elite characters so be prepared for a harder fight, and I found these difficult to fight until I got the timing down right (which happened after I had gotten a lot of Lost Grove gear). There are two things to watch for. One is a "permanent" HP drain debuff that will last the whole battle instead of going away after a couple of turns. The other thing is the invisibility buff, which lasts three turns and which he will always use when his MP is completely full. While the buff is active, the captain's dodging ability goes way up to where your pets are unlikely to hit the captain, and the captain's chances for critical hits goes through the roof. Don't bother using anything more than basic attacks or defensive abilities while the buff is active since it'll most likely miss and be a waste of mana. Captains also have some self-healing abilities, but they aren't as great at healing themselves as menders are so it is closer to an inconvenience instead of a headache.

Nightfall Menders - Magical. These are a pain to get rid of. They can put HP regen buffs on anyone in their party, and they have a restoration spell similiar to a light pet's restoration ability. You just have to keep on hitting them persistantly to keep their HP down. If they are in a group, I typically focus on taking out the menders last since the other members of their group are likely to be easier to take out (unless the other members are also menders, then it doesn't matter). They can attack your pets, but they don't have much in the way of heavy-duty attack skills.

Nightfall Vicars - Magical. They accompany Eleane, and they don't show up randomly on the map. They are pretty much menders with increased stats. They don't seem to heal quite as frequently or quite as much as ordinary menders so it's more manageable to take them out. Every once in awhile, they use an attack that hits all your pets and heals themselves and Eleane. Fortunately, Eleane's vanish doesn't affect the vicars so you can still attack them while she has the vanish buff if she is distracted by taunted or your pets have a strong shield buff.

Oakstout - Named. Physical. He is accompanied by two angry forest sprites. His attack pattern is identical to the ents, but he is harder to take out since his health has been given a boost, which helps the battle to drag out longer. The first time I took him on, I got his health down to around 5%, but he took out my team since his attack buff was up to somewhere around 40% - 50% and I had run out of potions / revives. Bringing a lot of potions / revives is highly recommended if you only have rank 1 skills, are below level 70, and don't have a full set of Lost Grove gear. Even then, you may have a really hard time taking him out. He is easier to take out when your pets have rank 2 basic abilities and a full set of Lost Grove gear, even if they aren't level 70. The damage boost on most rank 2 skills helps to cut down on the length of the battle to where it's more manageable.

Solas - Named. Magical. This is Malfarian's pet companion. The only thing to watch out for in particular is the solar light debuff, which increases the damage that Malfarian's celestial fire debuff does. It affects all your pets. Luna and Solas have much lower defense / HP than Malfarian.

I think this is the last one I'll reserve.

Oooh, what a nice guide!^^

It's great for anyone interested in strategy, and I haven't seen anything so detailed since Luca's old arena guides under the old system. When the new area gets released in the lost grove, I suspect there will be a renewed interest in developing strategies! xD (Each new zone seems to come with a jump in difficulty.)

While the arenas are interesting for needing good strategies, they are capped at lvl 59 and only use the first two skills. The lost grove uses more, but only has a small number of enemy types. I expect this will expand in the future.

I enjoy discussing strategies, more as an exploration of what is possible than anything else. I love testing different abilities and combinations in different situations.

I also have some comments, not criticisms really, but more taking an already awesome guide and adding points of interest to me. See what you think of them! :)

First of all, I would go into a (brief) discussion of forming battle parties. Not so much which elements to pick (you're right, it has been done enough elsewhere), but what are some of the principles, benefits and challenges of different styles of teams (defensive, balanced, offensive, etc.)? What about physical vs magical vs mixed teams? When I entered the lost grove, I began to set up physical and magical teams to maximize against specific bosses, only to find that the lost grove named have identical mitigation for both types! >.<

There is a reason why almost all guides recommend a balanced team (i.e. earth or shadow/light/air or fire) for new players. Even the game itself recommends the shadow element for people who are unsure. There are very clear combinations that are better if people only use basic attacks all the time. There are also elements, like shadow, that are more forgiving of "mistakes" (such as forgetting to block a powerful attack, etc). But while there are good reasons for recommending these, they are not necessarily ideal for every situation.

I really enjoyed post #5! I think we need more discussions of strategy concepts based on experience. However, I was less interested in post #3. I would have summed it up as "read the proficiency page". What I am interested in are some of the benefits and limits of these abilities based on experience. :)

For example, beam has a tremendous boost at rank 3. Simply the consistency of having every beam attack heal makes it markedly better than the already impressive doubling boost it appears on the proficiency page (i.e from a 50% chance of healing to 100% chance). Or air's decimate vs fire's conflagrate. While decimate can do incredible amounts of damage in the middle and near the end of a battle in a single turn, conflagrate can be used effectively more often, especially near the start of a battle. For teams with both fire and air (for example), using up fire's mana on skill combos before chaining air's combos can be quite effective. Water's tidal surge is quite cheap mana-wise and can be devastating with skill-chains or large attacks! Etc.

With advanced tactics, a lot of concepts are not intuitive at first glance. For example, under the old system, an all light party with max stats and skewed training could pretty much beat anything by a tremendous margin. When Krin changed the leveling/battle sysem, he balanced that out. And the current crop of lost grove named/elites penalize long battles and encourage high attacking teams.

I am amazed at how well water does as a "tanking" pet in the lost grove so far because of this (when combined with a strong attacker or two, such as air). It would look like a poor tank, but because it boosts attacks more than earth or shadow, it can ko an enemy before its poorer tanking becomes an issue. The attacking boost of water's "tidal surge" buff as a greater effect (I find), than the enemy weakening buffs of shadow.

I also wouldn't dismiss the power of "off-tanks", having a second tank, or an earth or shadow in the second slot. I have used a second tank quite effectively with oakstout. Sometimes a pet is dazed and can't block his powered attack. Towards the end of the battle, these can be very strong! A second tank can use a taunting ability to pull attacks away from the center and allow healing. When I tried this, I used shadow. However, in theory, earth would be great for this! I suspect a water/earth/air setup (with water in the middle), would be very powerful under certain conditions. But only after earth ranks up. Looking at the proficiency page, leeching strike looks annoying at low ranks. I've tried using earth tanks, and they need a light healer to manage all the attacks they receive! At higher ranks though, leeching strike's taunt becomes more consistent (rising to 100% at rnk 5, which hasnt been unlocked yet). This means it can pull attacks away from the center more readily, and looks like a very useful strategy when placed off-center. Naturally, the most of the other attacks fall on the center, balancing attacks more evenly through the team.
Unfortunately, I do not have a high ranked earth pet to test this out.

There are lots of similar anecdotes and ideas that could be shared. One more, that I skip a lot, is checking for enemy quickness, especially attacks that influence this. In the arena, and in the lost grove (i.e. captains and elaene), using quick attack is needed to counter or bypass an enemy. Knowing when to do this (instead of a block or a regular attack) can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Anyway, I think I'll stop here. Good luck with the guide! It is great having something like this!! :D

Oh, one more thing. I notice you scorned the use of the best vinethorn equipment.

While, yes, removing them does allow for a better use of strategy, they are useful to have. Even if it is just to have them in storage and test out from time to time! ;)

The reason is that strategies that are effective for an underpowered (weaker) team are not as effective with an overpowered (stronger) team, and vice versa.

Light/fire/fire is absolutely amazing against weaker enemies! (for example with max stats in the festival zone) Against really weak mobs, even fire/fire/fire works well. But it falls flat with the fest zone bosses because they are stronger.

A lot of the strategy suggestions you gave are most effective with teams weaker than the enemy. In the lost grove this is generally the case! But at higher ranks (when the partyy surpasses the elites/named), other strategies become viable.

Also, some people like the option of dual (or triple!) training a stat. While it costs gold to maintain, elements can be switched right before a change (such as a named boss).

:D

You must remember, I don't have everything unlocked for the Lost Grove, and I'm currently trying to finish some of the earlier areas, like collecting badges in Umbra Forest to get the last two avatar items in the armory, so I'm not in the Lost Grove as much right now. I only have 1 piece of vinethorn equipment between all my teams, and most of my skills are at rank 1 right now. Half the elements that I have right now don't even have their fourth skill yet, though that will probably change once the spring fest is here. Some of the stuff you are asking for, I don't have much personal experience with right now. It makes it harder to put that in. (Though I was surprised to learn that some people play on their phone, and who knows how much of the proficiency pages they are missing since they don't have a cursor to hover over the icons and other things to look at the actual descriptions. So the post will likely stay as it is for now.) I've only started to get together teams of alternative element combinations than my main teams together for the upcoming leaderboards in the past two or three months, but it is probably during the fest that I'll have more of a chance to really test them.

I honestly don't remember when / if I scorned vinethorn equipment. If it was chat, I was only saying that disposing of crazed druids is do-able without Lost Grove equipment, even if they are more difficult to dispose of without it. I've been through it myself without buying equipment off the broker. But I've seen someone want to sell +5 vinethorn for at least a couple of million or something like that, and getting that much gold together can be as difficult as going out and fighting off crazed druids with no Lost Grove equipment. Suggesting that someone buys high level / high stat vinethorn equipment right off the bat when they are new to the Lost Grove is not something I would do. Affordable exotic / low level vinethorn would get them into the Grove much faster if they need the extra help to get started and are willing to spend the gold on it. If they don't want to spend the gold, do-it-yourself can work.

I wasn't around when the old system was in place so I don't know much about what the old system was like. Hence, the strategies are based on observations about the current system alone. I can see where these observations could feel counter-intuitive to someone who is used to the old system, which sounds like it was completely different from what we have now. From your description and Somneli's experiments with a triple light team in the current system, it seems like a triple light team performed extremely different under the two different systems.

You are forgetting that earth tanks have an ability that will always put taunted on the enemy so you don't need the leeching vines debuff to always work. It is only 20 mana and has no cooldown time. Though earth tanks usually do need a healer in the party.

Ah, I didn't realise you haven't finished the lost grove! Your post was so lovely and detailed that I thought you had finished the grove and started playing with different strategies and elements (something I like to do).

So you've done an amazing job! ^^

Once you rank up in the grove, you'll probably find that different strategies work best at different ranks. I'm still only at rank 3, since I've been training multiple elements (onto my 10th pet right now! xD), but by rank 4, based on what some others are doing, almost any combo is successful in the current grove...

Yeah, its probably best to ignore the confusion of the old system, especially considering it doesn't exist anymore... =P

In the grove, the most important things for power are:
1) Skill Ranks
2) Equipment quality
3) Stats/Proficiency points


Good luck with all your adventures!

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=75013&page=2#17 Author: Nightstooth Time Posted: 4/3/2019 at 12:38 AM You must remember, I don't have everything unlocked for the Lost Grove, and I'm currently trying to finish some of the earlier areas, like collecting badges in Umbra Forest to get the last two avatar items in the armory, so I'm not in the Lost Grove as much right now. I only have 1 piece of vinethorn equipment between all my teams, and most of my skills are at rank 1 right now. Half the elements that I have right now don't even have their fourth skill yet, though that will probably change once the spring fest is here. Some of the stuff you are asking for, I don't have much personal experience with right now. It makes it harder to put that in. (Though I was surprised to learn that some people play on their phone, and who knows how much of the proficiency pages they are missing since they don't have a cursor to hover over the icons and other things to look at the actual descriptions. So the post will likely stay as it is for now.) I've only started to get together teams of alternative element combinations than my main teams together for the upcoming leaderboards in the past two or three months, but it is probably during the fest that I'll have more of a chance to really test them. I honestly don't remember when / if I scorned vinethorn equipment. If it was chat, I was only saying that disposing of crazed druids is do-able without Lost Grove equipment, even if they are more difficult to dispose of without it. I've been through it myself without buying equipment off the broker. But I've seen someone want to sell +5 vinethorn for at least a couple of million or something like that, and getting that much gold together can be as difficult as going out and fighting off crazed druids with no Lost Grove equipment. Suggesting that someone buys high level / high stat vinethorn equipment right off the bat when they are new to the Lost Grove is not something I would do. Affordable exotic / low level vinethorn would get them into the Grove much faster if they need the extra help to get started and are willing to spend the gold on it. If they don't want to spend the gold, do-it-yourself can work. I wasn't around when the old system was in place so I don't know much about what the old system was like. Hence, the strategies are based on observations about the current system alone. I can see where these observations could feel counter-intuitive to someone who is used to the old system, which sounds like it was completely different from what we have now. From your description and Somneli's experiments with a triple light team in the current system, it seems like a triple light team performed extremely different under the two different systems. You are forgetting that earth tanks have an ability that will always put taunted on the enemy so you don't need the leeching vines debuff to always work. It is only 20 mana and has no cooldown time. Though earth tanks usually do need a healer in the party.

Not sure how much it will be of benefit to you, but this guide has a few suggestions for alternate teams (Its in the eighth post.): https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=45988&page=1. I myself have put together one of all of them (Im only working on leveling & statting up my main one & two others, though.) except the Offensive build, for exactly the reason the person who put that guide together said- it requires extensive use of the Mend ability and Elixirs. My first (and main) team has the formation in the Lost Grove build (Shadow Tank, Fire Cannon, Light Healer), and generally, it works pretty well.

I ate something that made me sick so I haven't checked this in the past few days.

Malikas, it's probably why I survived the Lost Grove with rank 1, low stat pets, even when I just started the grove. I've caught on to some useful things relatively early on.


Earthprotector, both my main teams are more on the balanced side (shadow-water-air and earth-light-fire). I've just been throwing different combinations together for the leaderboards and seeing how they work. But due to differences in levels and other stuff like that, it's harder to gauge before I actually use them for the fest.