Physical Hell Mode Build - SB6
This is a summary of the hell mode build that can be used to start clearing hell mode at lower levels, taking advantage of the high boss damage Vayne does. There are example videos at the bottom of the guide.
The Mythics
Despite the name, this strategy has a blend of physical and magic DPS. To do this strategy, you'll need to have
Main
- Vayne - level 15
- Chu - level 12
- Lancelot - level 12
- Kitty Mage - level 12
- Tao - level 12
Optional
- Frog - level 15
- Indy - level 12
- Orc Shaman - level 10 or 12
You're going to want to have the exclusive treasure on all of these mythics.
Wave Clearing
The main Wave Clear units of this strategy are Rocket Chu, Lazy Taoist, and Reaper Frog. Rocket Chu and Taoist are both strong enough to carry waves up until the very end of the game. It's worth noting that this strategy revolves around Vayne and Lancelot for boss damage, so keep that in mind when deciding on whether or not to summon a Taoist. You will need at least 2 Vaynes to clear. If Taoist doesn't keep you from doing that, he's a good summon, so be careful. Note: Reaper Frog is an EXTREMELY good wave clearer. Since Reaper form is expensive to obtain, I have it listed as optional. It's worth noting that if you DO have Reaper Frog, he's often very easy to get before wave 20. If you do get him that early, you don't need anything else until wave 40. This makes the hardest part of hell mode, the start of the game, much easier. Since it makes the start so much easier, you can completely abstain from spending any gold at all until you're closer to wave 40 where you'll need a second DPS to clear. Any of the reccomended wave clears and boss killers on this guide will do to clear wave 40 alongside Reaper Frog.
Beating the Bosses
The real focus of this build is the boss damage. You have two important pieces to this - Lancelot, and Vayne. Lancelot is really great here because while he's known for being a boss killer, he also does great damage during horde waves. So you can kill two birds with one stone by getting two Lancelots. Vayne can't do the same - I have Vayne maxxed on both her treasure and her altar, and while she surprisingly can help clear waves up to wave 25-ish, allowing you to save gold as long as possible, she can't help after that. But she does huge boss damage, and because she has ranged attacks, you can have up to 4 attacking the bosses at the same time. I often will only have 2 or 3. If you only have 2 it often gets really close, but you can still win. 4 is a guaranteed easy clear. This still assumes you have 2 Lancelots. An interesting note about Vayne is that she will clear both Barrier, and Grunt, despite Barrier having a huge amount of health, and Grunt being resistant to physical damage. Vayne deals so much physical damage that she will eat through Grunt's health anyways.
Support
The support on this build can be difficult. But with Orc Shaman's exclusive treasure it's much easier. The first issue is that you need as much Defense Reduction as you can possibly get. This is difficult considering this strategy doesn't use Monopoly Man, and Vayne and Lancelot both rely on hunters to summon. Orc Shaman also uses Hunters to summon, but in the long run it's worth it because Orc gives 20 Defense Reduce just by existing, his exclusive treasure makes his stun much stronger, AND buffs physical damage by up to 18%. This 18% is borderline broken when you're using 2 to 3 Vaynes on bosses, and Chu's to do wave clearing. If your partner can contribute Defense Reduction as well, then you're set. If you get a bunch of Tigers, it's often worth having a stack of them in front, even if it takes the place of a Lancelot. One strategy you can use is have Lancelots in place during the main waves, then switch one of the Lancelots out for the stack of Tigers during the boss fight. This will help your stuns be more solid, and every time Tiger uses his ult it will reduce enemy defense by 80 for 5 seconds. With Kitty Mage support this is essentially permanent if you have a full stack of tigers.
You also need Kitty Mage for this strategy. Not only does Lancelot need MP Regen, but Vayne does 4x the damage when in ult form. With 3 Kitty Mages, Vayne is almost permanently in ult form. This means each Vayne is as strong as 4 Vaynes, and your Lances will do much better wave clearing and boss damage. This means that while Orc is nice to have and can make clearing much easier, Kitty Mage is a must have.
The other optional summon is Indy. At level 12, Indy just has really cool buffs that are much more easily attainable. The best one for Indy is 50+ (up to 80) defense reduction. This basically completely solves the above problem of trying to get enough defense reduction. It doesn't cost any hunters, so if you get it you can use those hunters you're saving to summon more Vaynes, Lancelots, and Orc Shamans. A really useful buff to get that can nearly guarantee a win if you can get it.
Gold
You're going to need about 400k gold to clear realistically. I believe I've done it with less, but it's always at least been close to that. Learn to stack gold as aggressively as possible.
Good luck on the grind!
-GhidWard
Gameplay (sbmg 7/6)
Find the full playlist of LDG hell mode videos here.
