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An interesting strategy for 2 Wickerbottoms/Maxwells


Sinister_Fang

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In the past I always thought having more then one Wickerbottom/Maxwell on your team was a bad idea due to them fighting over the fire staff. However, I found out that's really not the case. That means there's 2 petrifying tomes so when the staff drops one can remain dedicated to cc while the other switches over to magic dps. The one remaining as cc can juggle the tomes for minimal downtime with the petrifying.

Although it might be better to only have 1 to juggle the tome and staff, this was still an interesting strategy I stumbled upon. It actually made me enjoy using a weapon I hate the most...

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That plan makes it less painful if you do end up running a team with both, but do you really want an entire playerslot dedicated to freezing when normally someone can freeze -and- dps? Plus, the early rounds are gonna take even longer with TWO people unable to do any damage (almost like 3 people if a wilson or winona insists on using the healing staff- there goes like half the party's damage).

Instead, if you had both I'd probably just make Wicker the healer since she can't do a lot else. Maxwell can juggle both tomes until the fire staff drops, and then wicker can use the tomes instead in her free time, which would keep her pretty busy. The problem though is there tends to be a wilson or winona who was planning on running healer, and they might not want to swap roles if the game's already started.

I'd prefer no maxwells though, once the Boarrior spawns, the biggest concern really isn't dps; it's making sure you don't have too many people dead at once, get unlucky on that and the run's over. Maxwell's extra damage to sliiiightly speed up the fight isn't worth the extra fragility. Wicker's better for freezing (with extra duration it lasts the whole cooldown period) and doesn't do that much less dps. But you can't control everyone's picks so it happens (or double wickers hah) and yeah, having these backup plans is good.

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He's Wickerbottom with a little extra damage but way less HP, and Wickerbottom already has pretty heavy damage from her own ability, plus it helps her with freezing too. Needing to get revived more once the Boarrior spawns has the party skirting the fine line between having things under control, and suddenly too much of the party being dead at once to make a comeback. That guy does a looootta damage and the name of the game is having enough Max HP to survive a few hits between healing fields, since you're -gonna- get hit.

S'not like it's the end of the world, just hopefully have him wearing some of the 85% armor imo, but if someone was asking I'd definitely say to pick Wicker over Max. It just doesn't feel like he has any real advantage over Wicker to be worth the fragility.

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1 hour ago, Tumalu said:

He's Wickerbottom with a little extra damage but way less HP, and Wickerbottom already has pretty heavy damage from her own ability, plus it helps her with freezing too. Needing to get revived more once the Boarrior spawns has the party skirting the fine line between having things under control, and suddenly too much of the party being dead at once to make a comeback. That guy does a looootta damage and the name of the game is having enough Max HP to survive a few hits between healing fields, since you're -gonna- get hit.

S'not like it's the end of the world, just hopefully have him wearing some of the 85% armor imo, but if someone was asking I'd definitely say to pick Wicker over Max. It just doesn't feel like he has any real advantage over Wicker to be worth the fragility.

I know... =(

Although to be fair, if you have a good team structure and keep aware of your surroundings then Maxwell works fine. The magic dps role really shouldn't be getting hit that often anyway.

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Yeah, most of the game damage isn't too big of a deal. The real problem is mostly just the Boarrior at the end. Buuut, you can't avoid his attacks outright unless you're too far away to attack at all, and they put on severe hurt when they connect.

...jeez, one shot of venom must nearly kill maxwell, unless venom damage scales to max hp somehow >.>

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1 hour ago, Tumalu said:

Yeah, most of the game damage isn't too big of a deal. The real problem is mostly just the Boarrior at the end. Buuut, you can't avoid his attacks outright unless you're too far away to attack at all, and they put on severe hurt when they connect.

...jeez, one shot of venom must nearly kill maxwell, unless venom damage scales to max hp somehow >.>

When I'm using a ranged weapon I don't get hit much at all actually. I usually position myself so I don't get caught in the crossfire of the melee characters. But of course that's only in games with good teamwork and team structure.

And yeah, the poison is a problem with Maxwell. Usually it just outright kills him unless he's at or near full health.

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Yessss my friend! For the last two days I've wanted to do this and just a few hours ago I got to. I was wicker with two books, and max firestaffed. When bosses spawned I switched to healer and used the book just for boarriar's pigs. But before the first boarilla doing this to all the mobs is so much fun. It almost forces a team, with potential newcomers in it, to focus fire on one unit at a time

I love new strats like these bc I've won enough games that I rarely play with the "strongest six" or "best character for the role" anymore (barring wilson for revives) because it's so bland bleugh. I personally love wicker and max because how versatile they can be juggling either staff and book

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Maxwell's 3 star difficulty rating is on point. You'll get clobbered if you're newish to the forge, but several hours and above poison is the no worry at all. You kite the scorpions. Only challenge is boarriar's fissure attack which can wipe max even at full hp, but with the 85% armor even that's not a big problem

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Wicker and Max wouldn't be a bad combo if they let one of them heal but no one ever seems to want to allow such a thing to happen with me. :T

Even with only ONE in the team, it feels like the designated healer should really just wait until the fire staff drops and let wicker/max do it until then while juggling their freezing book.

Can Max proc shadow duelists with the healing staff? I've never seen one of my teammates do it with the book.

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3 hours ago, Tumalu said:

Can Max proc shadow duelists with the healing staff? I've never seen one of my teammates do it with the book.

I'd imagine he could. I'm pretty sure it's based on number of hits and not damage. That would actually be an interesting idea now that I think about it. Maxwell could easily be a hybrid dps/healer because of the duelists.

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Not really
You have to deal sufficient dmg for proc shadow duelists, so it's quite hard to get them with the healing staff
Moreover, too dangereous to let Maxwell heal, because if you loose him (because of his low life), you could loose the run.

But like i said in different post, Maxwell is really great for blocking ennemies for the first wave (While Wicker healing), and change for dps once he got the fire staff (After the scorpion wave, we still need him to stun them, once their is only 3 scorpion, he can switch)
Edit : For the scorpion wave, i usually let wilson dps with the firestaff, but we switch when their is only 3 alive

And for the last boss, mister Boarrior, the shadow duelists are able to stun lock the boss for few seconds, quite usefull with other abilities from the team to chain lock the boss.
But for this phase, he really need the 85% armor, maybe you loose 5% cooldown, but at least you don't die from him, you can take at least 5 hit with it

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Wicker can get longer petrifications which is pretty useful, since if timed properly with the boost, allows you to use the tome again as soon as the spell wears off. However her extra damage with the cataclysm feels kinda "meh" since even with all the CD reduction items you are going to be casting it once and then, and often you will hit 2 or maybe 3 enemies at once, and very rarely 4 or more. I think Wickerbottom shines in the amount of things she can do, as the "versatile" mage: longer petrifications, stronger cataclysms, stronger healing buffs, as long as you have an organized team and keep juggling between items.

Maxwell is more of the damage dealer mage, more focused on dealing damage, with some CC as a bonus. I've been going hard on Maxwell and the things that worked for me the best are as follows:

-Early on little damage, just assisting others while keeping mobs petrified as much as possible, and helping divert the enemies attention when needed. Duelists rarely proc with the book since you deal very little damage and you can't stay next to the enemies for long (I've seen it once only, almost died twice and committed to kill a single tortank for the whole wave, it was pretty lame) so I wouldn't even bother trying again.
- As soon as you get better armor, even if its the starting 75% armor of the tanks, take it. If you can later have the 85% armor better, but I don't worry much if a tank gets it. It does trigger me if a webber or a wendy takes it though.
- Once you get the infernal staff, the next waves are the scorpion thingies, so its still imperative that you keep using the petrifying tome and switch to the staff only on the tome's cooldown. Maxwell with a decent armor can quickly kill most smaller mobs if he focus fires them
- Maxwell shines in the last waves, about 120 extra damage every 10-12 hits plus one second stun. I usually try to use the extra 90% armor, even if it makes you slower, it allows you to tank some aggro of the boarilla and the final boss if needed, while still dealing tons of damage. You don't really need to be fast in the last waves, and the "magic damage" garland thingie also negates some of the speed penalty.

So basically in a team with both a Maxwell and a Wicker, I'd say definitely Wicker should do the CC and Maxwell the fire staff, but ideally I feel only one of them should be present...


Ā 

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In fact, we don't really need the wickerbottom boost for theĀ petrifications book, because Maxwell with the cooldown crown who grant 10% and the first armor with the 5% cooldown reduce, he is able to chain lock ennemies by his own.

I feel more secure if wicker use his passive only for healing, because the team can focus easier ennemies and don't care about getting dmg, so we don't loose time to run around and dodge ennemies.

On my view, Maxwell can become the damage dealer mage once the scorpion wave is about to end (And pick a good armor to be secure, 75% first, then 85% once the 2 tank got the 90% one)

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well as you said me and my friends cleared like that yesterday

20171027013719_1.thumb.jpg.73127a5cfb6d087669b2c779762416e3.jpg

Ā 

because max well has shadow ability, he is really good dealer and because teamĀ have two pertrifying book

wicker can petrify mobs infinite. not bad idea

Ā 

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After more play, despite what I said earlier, I'm actually starting to like Maxwell because he adds precious stun with his ability ontop of the extra damage- as long as he's in good hands and isn't gonna get killed a lot. (There often isn't really a spare armor to give him- two melee tanks and runner woodie swapping to tank mode just plain need it more) It's all about cutting down on how many attacks the boarrior gets between heal fields, hammer and molten dart stuns, Woodies attempting to toss Lucy as an interrupt here and there, etc. Maxwell regularly procs duelists with fire staff and the magic crown, and it's a pretty niceĀ  and consistent amount of stunning on the boarrior; all that extra damage doesn't hurt either.

although, curious how much damage the 2-hit line aoe does with log armor on. I'm assuming it doesn't one-shot maxwell from full hp? <_<

And, yes, he's definitely more useful if someone's running Wicker healer, because he can run petrify specials full time until the fire staff drops. Makes the annoying tortank/scorpion phases less painful. Just, dear god, don't be that Maxwell who wants the 5% cooldown reduction on the initial awful armor. Please upgrade asap. 5% is not worth being a few hits from death at full hp, yet one maxwell insisted on wearing it during boarrior, constantly dying to one-shots while I cried.

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13 hours ago, Tumalu said:

Just, dear god, don't be that Maxwell who wants the 5% cooldown reduction on the initial awful armor. Please upgrade asap. 5% is not worth being a few hits from death at full hp, yet one maxwell insisted on wearing it during boarrior, constantly dying to one-shots while I cried.

For my setup, i keep the first armor with the 5% cooldown + the crown with 10% cooldown for the first wave, i can alone block one side for crocommanders, then 2 side for Tortank / Scorpion phase, i'm not supposed to get hit
Once the firestaff is dropped, i switch DPS against the last scorpion
When the Boarilla died, i'm able to wear the 85% armor (because our 2 tank got their 90% armor), with it, i'm able to take 4 hit from the Boarrior (5 = death)

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