Kronik's Colosseum Guide

= Kronik's Colosseum Guide =


 * Ok for a while now I have been working my way through the collosseum to better understand what it takes to make it through it, what toons are best to have, if rares are needed or not, and what it really takes to win. After many wins and losses I have decided I would put together a guide for everyone.  As with all my guides I am not perfect and do not know everything.  Because of this don't take this as the end all and be all of guides.  I encourage you to read every guide you can find, ask around, and try the colosseum yourself.  I will also thank everyone who has posted up a guide before.  With out you I could not have made my guide.  And a Speical Thank you goes to Tika Waylen and Burningman.  With out the two of you I would not have gotten started or my wins.

General Info

 * In my opinion the most important thing you can start with is listening. Listening to the leader is very important, if not the most important thing to do.  With a good leader and any group you can win the colosseum.  Some runs are easier than others because of the different players that go.  I have been on runs that had 0 seconds left over and runs that we have had 10 minutes left over.

Decal

 * I use decal ingame and I use it alot on colosseum runs. I do this because it makes things easier and faster for me.  The three plug-ins I use are Call It which allows me to call out each room before and also while in it.  This way I don't have to type anything and can just hit the button.  Ammo Gimp is something for archers I think is great.  I simply equipe my by bown and that plug in puts the arrow I set up for it in.  Saves me time in each room.  It can also be set up to make arrows if you run out as well.  Very handy.  Lastly and in my opinion the most important plug in is Target Info.  As long as you are in the room it records what targets have imp/vulns on them.  This for a mage makes things easy to figure out who needs what imps or vulns and who does not.  This also helps when targeting something.  If it has no imps vulns I move to the next one that does.  This way I can kill faster.  It is the most effeciant way to imp and vuln things in the colosseum and out as well.  I suggest to anyone who plays to get those 3.

Weapons/Spells

 * Weapons on a colosseum run are very important. If you don't have the right weapons with you and on you buffed and ready to go, then you are not going to win.  You will slow the group down.  With only 60 minutes to use every second counts.  You must have all rends on your weapons and I mean all of them.  You must have all of your slayers (minus the skeleton slayer).  You must have a Soul Bound weapon or enough CS weapons to make up for it; really a Soul Bound is a must.  As far as must have spells go, for mages the biggest is Tusker Fist and after that all your ring and wall spells.  Even missing just one of these spells makes it harder to win.  You would not thing that one spell would be that big of a deal but, it is.  That few seconds that you spend killing slows the group down and when ever single second counts it is a big deal.

Armor/Shields

 * At this point you will be asking what kind of armor do I need. At first impression one would think you need fully tinked armor.  This is a tricky answer.  The better your armor you have on the better your chances of taking less damage is.  It is possible to do the colosseum with fully untinked armor.  I have done it on more than occasion.  I also have melee defense that is over 540 buffed.  I would suggest for inexperienced colosseum players to have fully tinked armor.  Down the road you can experiment with untinked armor.  Keep in mind I have only run in untinked armor cause I am working on making sets of armor and don't want to tink anything until it is 100% ready.  As far as shields go, I am not really sure what the best is to bring because I have yet to play a melee through the colosseum.  I can say from what I have seen from people they always have high armor level on it.  A few have used some quested shields but, they are the ones that have some sort of magic defense built in.

Augmentations/Luminance/Aetheria/Other

 * In the colosseum every second counts in it. Because of that you want to do the maximum damage you can all the time.  This is where bonuses come in to play.  Augmentations, Luminance, Aetheria, and other items in game all add up to damage.  Your first instinct might be to go with more critical damage but, really unless you are using a critical damage weapon the bonus is wasted because of what is called damage over time.  Damage over time or DOT, is how much damage you are doing over the entire thing you are killing.  Since the idea is to kill everything in every room as fast as possible using something that just gives a CS bonus is not as effective as something gives a bonus to every hit.  For an example aetheria, there are many different types of aetheria to choose from.  The one I have found the most useful is the destruction aetheria.  The reason why is they add more damage per hit verses the fury aetheria that only add a bonus on a CS strike.  It is not that I don't have CS strikes on the colosseum but, in many instances I simply don't get a chance to do any or maybe one per kill.  This is not always the case in every room but, as a majority it is.  Am I saying don't use fury and only use destruction, no.  I am saying this as for me has shown more results.  This applies with Luminance as well.  By giving yourself more killing power you have a greater damage amount that you do.  So having Aura of Valor which gives you a bonus to damage directly is going to help you.  There are others to choose from but, this is the one that has helped me the most.  Augmentation is a similar in that the Frenzy of the Slayer which gives a +3 to damage is going to help you.  Also the Master of the Steel Circle, Five/Four Fold Path, and Focused Eye will have an effect as well.  The Steel Circle and Focused Eye will let you lower your bar toward speed some.  In some rooms I am able to lower my bar to half way.  This means I can get more hits in per minute then if it is on maximum accuracy which will allow me to kill faster.  If you can get a hold of the beers in game do so.  With level 8 spells now being available with a +45 over level 7 spells only giving a +40 the beers help some but, not as much as they used to be.  Beers give a +50 for 30 minutes because of this you will need 2 of each kind.  That little +5 or +10 they give you can really be the difference between beating the room or colosseum or just almost doing it.


 * Master of the Five Fold Path
 * Master of the Focused Eye
 * Master of the Steel Circle
 * Frenzy of the Slayer
 * Token of the Aura of Valor
 * Aetheria

Spell Duration/Sticky Buffs

 * The colosseum run is for 60 minutes. This means if you have level 7 only buffs with no augmentation for longer spells it is not possible to make it through the colosseum on your buffs.  You will either have to have someone else buff you, your armor, and your weapons that have more than 1 hour buffs.  Since level 8 spells last longer than level 7 you can buff yourself with 8's with no augmentation and be ok.  My suggestion is to get the longer buffs because it will help you with more than the colosseum.  The other thing to consider is when you die in the colosseum you don't lose items but, you do lose your buffs.  Keep in mind I did say when and not if you die in the colosseum.  It is going to happen on a run at some point no matter how careful you are.  It has happened to me on more than one run where we did win.  If you have people dying left and right that is not going to work but, 1 person dying on the run is not going to cause a catastrophic failure.  It will slow you down some but, you can recover or survive it.  With this being said when you die the most important thing is to get your butt back in the room as fast as possible as you will have to run into each and every room you came through when you died.  This sucks if you are in later rooms like 15 and beyond like 18.  If you don't have sticky buffs then you are going to have to rebuff life and creature buffs as the items will still be on.  This is 2 to 3 minutes of time that you just don't have in the colosseum.  Am I saying sticky buffs are a must, no.  I am saying without them you can cause a run to fail.  Be aware of that as your fight so you can watch your health closely and don't die.  If you do die and have vite it is not like you can go run and kill a bunch of stuff to work it off.  I would suggest to have your lifestone at the Dark Island and have a Dark Island trophy to hand in or have a colosseum miniboss token on you to hand in for instant experience points.  I myself have a few colosseum tokens on me, so when I die I portal recall, give my token, and run the doors as fast as possible.  I like that better then the Dark Island trophies.


 * Archmage's Endurance (at least 1)
 * Enduring Enchantment

Rares/Grave Yard Rares

 * Can you beat the colosseum without rares? Yes, plain and simple.  Is it harder to win without the rares? Absolutely it is but, it is very possible and not really that hard.  Using rares does not mean you will win at all.  It might increase your skill for a short time but, it is not a guarantee win.  I have been on runs where no rares have been used and we had 10 minutes left over.  I have been on runs where rares were used over and over again and didn't win.  Choosing what rare to use when is important as well.  Knowing what rare is going to help you the most is very important as well.  Each skill has an additional hidden damage modifier based on another stat as follows:


 * Bow: Coordination
 * Crossbow: Coordination
 * TW: Strength
 * Sword: Strength
 * Mace: Strength
 * Axe: Strength
 * Staff: Strength
 * UA: Strength + UA
 * Dagger: Coordination
 * 2H: Strength
 * Spear: Strength
 * War: War
 * Life: Life
 * Void (nether arc/streak/ring/bolt): Void

As you can see there are some things to consider when you use a rare. Using a bow rare is only going to allow you to lower your bar toward speed; it will not allow you to do more damage, only coordination rare will.

Mages:
 * Spectral Crystal of the Hieromancer
 * Spectral Crystal of the Life Giver
 * Spectral Crystal of the Corruptor
 * Resister's Crystal
 * Corruptor's Crystal
 * Evader's Crystal
 * Pearl of Defending
 * Pearl of Hermetic Linking
 * Converter's Crystal

Melees:
 * Spectral Sword Mastery Crystal (or other melee weapon rare)
 * Spectral Crystal of the Life Giver
 * Pearl of Blood Drinking

Archers:
 * Spectral Bow Mastery Crystal (or other missile weapon rare)
 * Spectral Crystal of the Life Giver
 * Wayfarer's Pearl
 * Pearl of Blood Drinking

Grouping

 * Any combination of characters you can win the colosseum with but, different combinations will make it easier or harder to win. Mages, Melee, and Ranged weapons are all available to you to choose from.  Void magic is a new type of magic and is useful in the colosseum so don't count them out.  A good high level void mage with slayers will really help especially with their Damage Over Time spells which increase the amount of damage that can be done for up to a 26% increase.  You will need a minimum of 4 war mages, after that it is up to you as to what you bring as long as it includes 2 melee/ranged toons.  That brings your total up to 6, leaving you 3 more to fill up.  With the combinations being massive as to what you can bring I have found that 5 mages and 4 archers work really well, of the 5 mages 4 being war and 1 void being a good alternate as well to just 5 straight war mages.


 * 5 Mages, 4 Archers (Ideal)
 * 5 Mages 3 Archers, 1 Melee
 * 5 Mages, 2 Archers, 2 Melees
 * 6 Mages, 3 Archers
 * 4 Mages, 3 Archers, 2 Melees
 * 6 Mages, 2 Archers, 1 Melee

Note: There are even more successful combinations then what is above including Void Mages.

Formations

 *  Entry Door  - Stay at Entry Way Door The idea here is to let the room come to you giving mages time to start Imp/Vuln.


 *  Spread  - Spread out evenly around the permieter of the room. The goal is to allow mages to apply Tusker Fists or Ring Spells to cover the entire arena.  Archers and Melees will pick off the stragglers, heavily focusing on creatures that spawn on the edges and corners.


 *  West Spread  - Everyone moves to the West side of the arena along the wall with a little space in between each other. The goal is to keep the spawn as close as possible, which makes for easy targeting for both mages and melee/archers.


 *  East & West Teams  - Before staring, the quest leader will split up the fellowship into two teams, East and West. Typically, its best to split the mages evenly between the teams, and then stack the archers on one team and the melees on the other.
 * Tip: When lineing up in East & West Teams, use the bell to center yourself on the East and West side basically standing shoulder to shoulder. The goal is to cast Tusker Fists or wall spells directly back and forth from East to West creating what is called a kill box in the middle of the room.


 *  SouthWest Corner  This is the fomation you will use in Room 16-B on the Swarm Demons. In this room the Archer/Melees will line up creating a pocket of safty for the mages.  Three or more Archers/Melees are needed for this.  I like to go over the people before hand where and how they will stand.


 *  Northeast & Southwest Corners  - Same as East & West Teams (see above), adjusted so teams set up in the Northeast & Southwest corners. This formation is only used on Arena 18-1, the Tremendous Monougas creating yet again a kill box in the room.

Strategy
Normally we do not take many if any melees along. With that in mind I wrote this with Archers and War Mages in mind. If your a Void mage you will have to adjust it for you as well as if you are a melee. With that in mind it is important to talk about who is doing what and going where before hand. Do not assume that everyone knows what is going on, what todo, where to stand, etc. Before each run I like to get my Archers set for who is going to be in the SW corner so they know who is on the right, middle, and left side and how to stand. Make sure everyone knows which East/West Team they are on and the SW/NE corners as well. Lastly so save time on Imps/Vulns have these peole set up before. With four or mages it is easy to say you two mages vuln, you two mages imp, and the rest war. The faster you imp/vuln the faster stuff dies which means you save time.