The Gladiatus.US Board Community

Strategy Guide (split to fit the messages max allowed characters)

This is my strategy guide that I'd like to share with the .US community.
I have many reasons to do so, but mainly, it's because on the server I play on, US server 7, the gap between my guild and rest of the server has become so ridiculous that we are able to dominate pact using players with our pacts turned off. I stopped playing for several month (3-4 I think), came back, and only one player outside the guild could beat me with his pacts ON and all mines.
The gap has widened so much that we are all being accused of pushing each other (I don't even know how that even works, how can 2 players push each other? Isn't it supposed to be 1 player pushing the others?!).

I hope by publishing this guide it will help all players realize what they were doing wrong, and maybe catch up to the outliers of each server.
This is by all means not meant to "rub it in" or annoy anyway, so, and while all comments are welcome, I'd ask you to keep ur hate messages –if any- to your selves.

Also, this strategy is the cumulative knowledge of all the Elite guild, and not all information is coming from me. I do not take full credit for this. I can name at least 10 other player who should take the credit…but if I had to single out the one person who contributed the most, it will have to be FattyNoob

Target players:

This guide is meant to target players level 70 and above, and mainly ruby users. The reason it starts from 70 and not before is simply because I don't remember how things were before 70, and I believe you can screw up all you want before 70 and yet still catch up normally by the time u reach 90.
Obviously, non ruby players and/or player below level 70 can still benefit a great deal from this strategy guide.





And now, let's begin:

A- General Strategy

There are 2 general strategies usually used on Gladiatus: on one extreme, some players' level extremely slow and build stats; and on the other, you have players who burn threw levels as fast as possible.

Although no strategy is 100% correct, a balance should be used when leveling. Leveling too slow is useless, and the opportunity cost –your time- is too precious. Regardless of how slow you can play at the beginning, 90% of your time is going to be spent on the levels between 70 and 90, and an equal amount will be spent on the level between 91 and 100! And that's because the exp needed to level up increases at an alarming rate while each level.

I find that the best way is to keep in to your level bracket (i.e. 10-19; 20-29;…70-79…) until you can start beating the next dungeon. That means stay in your 60 to 69 bracket until u can beat Papa Sama (level 80 dungeon), and stay in the 70-79 until u can beat Franky (level 90 dungeon), and 80-89 until u can beat Zag.(level 100 dungeon).
You can slow down progress by stopping any arena fights, or slowing down on ur expeditions, but never on dungeons!!!


B- Dungeons

1. General and Drops:

Dungeons ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in the game!! I honestly don't know how players can go threw the game without ever doing dungeons!!! They are the number one source of income for you and the number one source of excellent items u'll need to conquer the arena.
One very important thing to realize about dungeons is that the bigger the difference between you and the boss or minions, the BETTER the drops you'll get!
(This is why I mentioned earlier not to advance to a new level baroque before you can beat the next dungeon).

Even if you can't beat the boss, you should go and beat the minions. The dungeon reset every 7 days, so keep track of when it will end, and return in 7 days to beat the minions. This is how u'll get the great drops u'll need to beat that dungeons. At level 70, you should be paying franky's minions a visit every 7 days. That's where u'll get all the icho gear needed to beat him later. And you should also try Zag minions if you can beat them, also once every 7 days.

Another very important thing to realize about dungeons and drops is that it's all relative to the number of rounds it takes u to beat them! Less it NOT BETTER and MORE is not better as well! It seems that the best number to guarantee a good drop is in the 70 rounds. If you're killing them too fast, then take one less merc (that will also give u a bit more gold, but you're not doing it for the 100 or 200 more gold per minions, u're doing it for the drops!) if 3 mercs are still too strong, take 2…still too strong? Take just ur healer? Also too strong? Take an item of ur self...do what ever to get the number of rounds into the 70s.


2. Mercs:

You can take up to 4 mercs with u in the dungeons. Here, you can either be ur own healer and use the 4 mercs as attackers, or get a healer and use ur self as an attacker.
Usually, it's always easier to use ur self as a healer simply because the mercs have much better stats then you for attaching!
Regardless of what strategy you decide to use, the attackers need to have very height charisma, enough to get a 100% chance of double hit or the boss if possible, and height skill, enough to at least land a hit 45 to 50% of the time. Strength is also needed for the added damage. But Charisma comes first, then skill, then finally strength. (On a side note, the best mercs available on server 7 are the ones I'm using. They are level 102, have 233 base charisma, 216 base skill and 184 base strength; these are being using by quite a few of us….additionally, the best merc on server 7- as far as I can tell- is the blue version of that merc and I think I have the only one; he has 244 base charisma, 227 base skill and 197 base strength )

The healer needs to have Agility as high as possible, and enough charisma for the boss to have 0% chance of double hit. Intelligence is not really needed because the healer will get all of his healing from the equipment. HP is a bonus. So charisma = boss charisma, Agility as height as possible, then HP as a luxury. Everything else is a waist.

Remember that the boss will target your healer regardless of what strategy you use, and the healer will heal himself. So armor is not a needed, and agility and/or armor for ur attackers are not needed as well. (this does not apply to the Circum Tenma Arena btw)
Also remember that u absolutely need to kill the boss before he kills ur healer. Once the healer is dead, that's it for u.
You probably all know how the increase of the damage done by the boss increase, so keep that in mind as well.

3. Equipments:
This is the most essential part of the setup, and 90% of players actually DO GET SOME OF IT WRONG!

1- You need 4 hell weapons for ur attackers, the higher the damage, the better- but that, we all knew.
2- You need high damage gear= that means you need icho gear. The icho have very high damage and some skill and agility but rarely charisma, but this is OK, we'll fix it for you ;-) all your equipment except the weapon and 2 others SHOULD BE ICHO if possible.
3- This is the part most get it wrong: the last 2 items should be Trafans of Death/ Of freedom/ of Critical Strike. The trafans have +9 damage, and the death, freedom and critical strike will have very height charisma % that u'll need. 2 of those AND charisma upgrades on all ur gear to get u to max ur charisma even if no other item has any charisma bonus on it!!!
But here's the kicker: the main reason u need to use trafans is because of the HP bonus! Icho gear comes with a very very high negative HP penalty! If u don't have ur 2 trafans items (they come with +500HP each), one of ur attackers might actually end up dead in the fist couple of rounds before the boss starts targeting ur healer!
4- Finally, I'd recommend that one of those 2 trafans item be boots because boots don't come with skill bonus, and trafans don't come with skill bonus.
5- Boosting: if you can't beat the boss, and just need a final push, you can boost each merc, and I'm not talking about ur regular one boost per merc. You can use up to 4 charisma boosts, 4 skill boosts, 4 strength boosts and 1damage boost, ALL PER MERC! I'll illustrate how to do that with an example: use an 8 hour +7 charisma boost on merc x, then use a 4 hour +8 charisma boost on the same merc, then a 2 hour +9 charisma boost then a 1 hour +10 charisma boost. IT should be done in that order: the longest duration to the shortest, and the lowest boost to the highest! This might be a bit costly, but each run will more then cover the fees and increase ur chances of getting usable drops to till u wont need the boosts anymore.

C- Pacts and Centurion

Centurion: do NOT activate a ton of centurion weeks just because you want the 12 hours of wage! It's just a waist of money! If u really have all that money to waist, then wait till something good comes up in auction and buy out a couple of then sell them in market. It's cheaper for u, and will benefit the whole server! Also, one of the MAJOR draw back of activating centurion before it expires is that you don't get the 12 expedition points and 12 dungeon points that u would have gotten when you REACTIVATE centurion (I,E when you wait till it expires and you reactivate it). Always make sure to win an arena duel before reactivating because this seems to help avoid the reactivation bug (when u reactivate and don't get any of the free points)

Pacts: you should be using the +12 expedition points pact, and switching pact every 24 hours! This means that when u activate it for the first time, u get 12 expedition points, in 24 hours, switch to another pact –either the charisma pact or the one that shorten the cool down/waiting period before u can accept new quests- and after 24 hours, reactivate the +12 expedition points one and get ur 12 expedition points. DO NOT LEAVE UR CHARISMA PACT ON 24/7 like some of the players. This is just giving u a temporary advantage, but on the long wrong, someone who's switching pact will be able to beat u without his charisma pact on and while ur pact is ON! This is what's currently happening on S7.

Another pact that u need, if u can afford to, is the one that allows u to see 2 levels above u in the auction or the market. This is most needed when u're setting up ur mercs or ur main guy just because it will give you additional items to buy.
For example, if you're at level 67 then you definitely should be using this pact If you can because it will give you a chance to see level 78, all the needed talith of advantage jewelry is level 78.

The berserker pact is also a big help.

Finally, and what I consider the most important pact, is the one that give u 50% chance to find a searched item. This does not only work on quest items, but this pact actually gives u a better chance of a drop in the dungeons and expeditions. If you can afford 2, never go on an expedition or dungeon without this pact.

D- Equipment for the arena

As soon as u are able to see level 78 in auction, u should be on the look up for a taliths amulet of advantage, and 2 taliths rings of advantage. These are always level 78, and u'll use them till u're in the middle on the 90s!!!

Armor is the most important thing here. Each 60 armor points are equivalent to 1 damage point. That's why you should fit ur guy with all Uridos of Heaven, Talith of Heaven or Optimizer of heaven gear. Talith is better then Uridos, and Opi is better then Talith. Keep that in mind. BUT opi comes with negative agility and skill but +charisma, talith comes with +charisma and skill, and Uridos comes with +agility and charisma, and –skill.

Ones you have most of ur gear opi of heaven (u wont till u're in the 90s) you can switch those 3 advantage jewelry items to ichorus of delicateness that will give u high damage, and very high skill and agility bonus to counter the negative skill and agility from ur opi of heaven. Plus with all the charisma bonus you're getting from your opi gear, you can afford to let go of the charisma bonus from ur advantage jewelry.
Also, with all that extra armor, you can afford to loose 1200 armor when you switch away from talith of advantage jewelry.

All ur gear except ur jewelry should be upgraded with armor (and except weapon), unless you absolutely need to use other upgrades in order to maximize charisma.

Also note that some people find it easier to use talith of heaven or talith of advantage gloves instead of opi of heaven gloves. This is because gloves have the lowest armor, and have all attributes (i.e Skill, Agility and charisma), so if you have a hard time maximizing your stats, think of getting a talith of advantage pair of gloves. This will maximize stats, give u 2 additional damage points from opi, and will only cost you relatively low amount of armor.

E- Training

When training, remember that Strength is the most expensive, followed by charisma and skill (equally expensive) then finally agility.

You should train based on what u need in the dungeon. If u're using ur self as a healer, then u need to concentrate on agility and charisma. If u're an attacker, then on skill and charisma.
I’m sure some people are going to make a huge fuss about the above, so for all of you who are going to argue that you should train based or ur arena, think of this: the better you do in dungeon, the more drops you get that u can use and sell, and the more you can train and improve your stats are you arena chances/

I personally find it useless to train strength! It's too expensive, and u need 10 points (in total and not base) to add 1 damage point. U also need 10 skill points (total) to add ur chance to hit by about 1% and u need 10 agility points (in total and not base as well) to decrease his chance to hit u by about 1%. That's why I personally believe in training charisma: it's the only one that u'll get an immediate result from, and don't need 10 points to see the difference. Also it's needed in the dungeons and arenas equally. Finally, each point is multiplied by 1.5 when u activate ur charisma pact.
Try the gladiater simulator to see…this can be especially helpful if u’re trying to figure out what to train so you can beat that special someone.
What I recommend is training ur charisma, and when ever u level, train ur skill and agility and strength to add 10 total points. Once u're done with training charisma for what ever reason, switch to training agility. It's has the same result as skill in the arena, only much cheaper.

Also, don't make the rooky mistake of training for nice round numbers, having 200 basic skill might be nice, but if it totals 316 (for example) then u have 6 wasted points…aim to have the actual skill, agility and strength in 10s, i.e current skill 310, current agility 270. (so base skill would be 197 or something, while when maxed it will be 310)


F- Circus Turma

In circus terma, u're healer is very important. U need as much charisma and agility as possible for him and u need as much armor as possible! He'll be targeted by all the other team, and unlike the dungeon, it doesn't matter if he heals him self or not, each damage point done to him, is an additional point to ur adversary. Having very high charisma ( to avoid being double hilted, u'll need even more then with the boss since the attackers mercs already double hit the boss ur healer ties with) and very high armor will make all the difference. Also remember that half the healing ur healer will do will count as points for u!

G- Arena

There is no point being in the second position, it only means everyone below can now raid you!
Also make sure u don't get raided! People will attack u much much more if u gives out gold even once. U become a target and attracts attacks! Think of it like this: you and a bunch of other people are stuck in sharks infested waters. If you're bleeding or have any blood on you, all the sharks will come at you.

H- Market
Always check the market! U never know when someone has undervalued an item or when an item u need will pop up there! Plus I find it cheaper to spend virtual gold to buy an item, then to spend real money buying rubies to buy out the item.

I- Auction
The auction is a whole different story. I might be a bit biased here, but I believe in not outbidding! People are less likely to outbid you when u have the opening bid, also, make sure to be available at the end of any auction u've bided on to protect ur bids and know who's trying to outbid you. Most importantly, make them pay!!!! I can't stress this point enough! Make them suffer, and make them pay in any possible way. The point is not to get revenge, but to dissuade them from outbidding you again! If u let one slip, the guy will come back and try it again! Even if u're going to loose gold, exp, time or honor, MAKE HIM PAY and STAND BY UR BIDS! That's the only way to fend away the sharks.
If you have a habit of biding and not being around to protect ur bids, or if you've made a habit not to make the sniper pay, then you can be sure that people will be overbidding you when ever they feel like it.

If you're on the other side of the auction, and want something someone else bided on, |I personally prefer to talk to him and agree on a price.
This can be mush cheaper for everyone instead of wasting gold in an auction.

J- Quests
Always keep a heretic quest open or a Minotaur quest open. They pop up everywhere! Try to combine kill X number of Y with find J item or visit A place…if u're giving a quest that will drain u, then simply ignore it and cancel it, it's no big deal: the question here is learn to walk away from a quest that will cost you too much.

Another rather obvious lesson would be to never take a hectic quest on its own. Going on expeditions looking for just heretics is possibly the dumbest thing you can ever do! Go looking for them when you have another "find x minotaur" or "y…." this way, if you don't find you heretic, u'll find your other monster.
Ideally, go look for heretic / minotaur and another type of monsters + searching for an item…this is the ideal set up.

Also note then when ever you can buy, from the market, the item u're looking for for a quest, you should go ahead and BUY IT! Even if you're 3 quests atm are find minotaur and heretic and 1 silver ring, go ahead and buy that silver ring from the market (but the low level, cheap ones of course!)
The idea behind it is that you don't want to risk missing any kind of drop because you were dropped that quest silver ring you were looking for but that you could have gotten from the market for 300 gold!
Never take any bear quests, avoid wolfs at all cost…stick to minotausr, constables, vandals and bounty hunters (in that oreder) as much as you + a heretic quest


K- Packaging Gold

The easiest way I find to package gold is biding on items that cost 40 rubies or more to buy out. This will guarantee that you will receive the exact amount of the opening bid when you sell it to the merchant.
also note that pink items that cost 40 rubies and above to buy out will sell to merchantl for 5-10% more than their opening auction bid

L- Guilds, bldgs and war hall guild wars

Just a few quick words about the guild: realistically, all you need to run a good guild is a level 10 training ground. Everything else is just a waist of gold. The cost of upgrading the training ground beyond level 10 is barely justifiable.
All other bldgs can be upgraded as long as they are very cheap; otherwise, there is really no point for it.
Make sure you are no in guild farmable range, and don't sleep on a fortune. Id recommend giving a heads up before starting a donations drive (for example a one week heads up before starting) then going from 0 gold to the amount needed to upgrading in the shortest amount of time.
If need be, add a couple low level players (or kick them out) to play around the honor average of the guild.
Remember: the guild you can raid and the guild that can raid you is defined by your total honor of the guild/ total number of players in the guild. You can only raid/be raided by guild with similar averages.


M- Final notes

While this strategy guide's cover almost everything you need to know about the game, it does not cover everything. A couple, very few, tricks were intentionally left out just because I don't want to give all the secrets away :p

And one final note: this strategy guide was prepared in the end of 2009, but due to various reasons, it wasn't published; but all the information contained above are still perfectly valid. I can go on and on and on over each point, but I think the above sums it up pretty much.

I hope you enjoyed the read.

Chezarez
Sever 7

I wanted to add the merc naming thing, and how u can check out good mercs in auction based on the names rather then going one by one. but it's rather very complicated...I think u're one of the few who get that naming correct

Quoted from "Adrenaline"

Quoted from "chezz"

Strategy Guide (split to fit the messages max allowed characters)
Another very important thing to realize about dungeons and drops is that it's all relative to the number of rounds it takes u to beat them! Less it NOT BETTER and MORE is not better as well! It seems that the best number to guarantee a good drop is in the 70 rounds. If you're killing them too fast, then take one less merc (that will also give u a bit more gold, but you're not doing it for the 100 or 200 more gold per minions, u're doing it for the drops!) if 3 mercs are still too strong, take 2…still too strong? Take just ur healer? Also too strong? Take an item of ur self...do what ever to get the number of rounds into the 70s.

well i tried every combination there is but it seem i'm still not able to kill Zag's minions in more than 40 rounds but can tell you a thing that with the less merc i go in i get bad drops like food or boosts or even no drops at all
is this theory to apply on the bosses or on the minions

you're saying that you can't kill the minions in more then 40 rounds regardless of ur combination?

so just don't take all of ur works.
try taking 3 instead of 4, and see how many rounds the fight lasts...if it's still short, switch to taking 2 mercs..if still too short, just take ur healers (in case u're the healer, just take an attacker), if that's still too short, remove some of ur (or the attacker) gear.
the purpose is to get the rounds to last for about 72 rounds...

and no, this does not work on bosses...I tried that on zag a couple of times, was beating him using 3 mercs...didn't feel I was getting any better drops