Guide to Field Roles in The Forge [Beta]

[The Curator]

Summary of findings on the team composition nuances for surviving The Forge, reposted from Steam.

The Characters :

All the original characters in the game appear to have their inherent benefits removed and each replaced with unique passive abilities, however their health is still mostly the same as it is in the main game although there are some minor tweaks to certain characters health.

The characters are divided into classes based on their starting equipment; ranged, magic and melee.

The Expertise field listed in each characters description tells which weapon types they are able to use. The starting weapons each character has is a guideline based on what they would be best with. If they start with melee they are fit for tanking, ranged and magic for distance.


The Roles :

A primary element of survival is the roles.

The Runner needs to equip the +20% movement speed garland and +10% movement speed reed body in order to consistently avoid the Boarilla. +20% movement speed allows the Runner to avoid its attack when running straight but if they turn directions, there is a decent chance of getting hit without the extra +10%. Wes is preferable for this due to his passives. When the Boarilla spawns, later in the waves, the Runner must quickly attack it and get its attention (typically with a ranged or magic weapon). The Runner leads the Boarilla around the arena over and over again while the rest of the team kills the minions. The pattern for keeping the Boarilla's aggravation is to attack it periodically. Let it swing and miss at you, then you stop and hit it once or twice, then you start running again. This will keep it on you forever as if you do not keep attacking it, it will eventually change targets when another is close enough. When the Boarilla goes behind its shield, it is better to keep attacking it to passively keep the aggravation up even though it isn't being offencive. Then potentially hit it once or twice as it is coming out from the shield. If you stop attacking it while it is behind the shield it can change targets when it gets out of it. It is also possible to lure the Boarilla around without hitting it, but this requires a large area without any other players nearby, which is possible if a team shifts to one side of the map and lets the Runner lure the Boarilla around the other half.

When the first Boarilla wave is finished, the Runner must lead one of the two Boarilla's spawned in the next wave around in the same fashion while the team fights the other one. It is key for the team to kill all the minions spawned before the final Boarilla is faced, as when the last Boarilla of the two is brought to low health the Grand Forge Boarrior will spawn. Thus having all the minions gone before the Boarrior appears is significantly beneficial. During the Boarrior fight the Runner can attempt to lead the Boarrior around when need be if there is an emergency, and also when the Boarrior spawns its own horde of minions if this isn't interrupted.

The Healer is the one who takes the healing staff dropped in the early waves and uses it as much as possible to keep the team alive. Wilson is a good option for this as he already has a revival boost which compliments a support role. It is important for the healer to not only use the heal as much as they can but to also use it for crowd control. The heal area puts enemies to sleep if they go into it, and so if players do not need healing the spell can be used to control enemies by putting them to sleep. Although it is usually better to save it for healing. The spell can also be used to create a sanctuary for players. As they can stand in the heal area to gain health while any enemies that come near it will fall asleep and be unable to attack. However this is most effective when all players in the heal area know this and are purposely do not attack sleeping enemies, as if they are attacked they will wake up and become hostile again. This is most useful for disabling bosses and allowing the team to heal up while the boss is asleep, or placing the heal on a dead ally and reviving them while under the protection of the heals sleep area effect. It is also possible for the healer to also double as a Controller if they are Maxwell or Wickerbottom, and vice versa.

The Controller is a player, often Wickerbottom, can also be a completely valid team member by exclusively using the Petrifying Tome's spell to freeze enemies while the team deals with the others. This can be exceptionally useful in making waves easier especially when your team knows not to attack petrified enemies. It is best used to freeze groups of enemies as they spawn, and keep that group of enemies distracted while the team kills the other ones. The Controller can also lead whichever enemies that they are focusing on around to keep them distracted while they wait for the spell to recharge. However, the petrify is not effective against big enemies like the Boarilla and so it is better for the Controller to switch weapons and go offensive while a Boarilla is out; unless there is a good opportunity to freeze bunches of minions. Using the book itself as an actual weapon is not very optimal however in any critical situation.

The Tank often it does not require the Tank to be very active in any specific roll other then drawing aggravation from groups of enemies so that players can revive others or deal damage from a distance. Although having at least one or two in a team is good for composition. The stun ability that the melee weapons have is very good for breaking enemies out of a sheltered state.

The Mage is typically a Willow, Wickerbottom or Maxwell that takes the Infernal Staff. It is also possible for them to double as a Controller or less likely Healer. The area effect spell the mage has is very useful for hitting large groups so focusing on landing good hits with it is important. Groups of enemies caught sleeping in a healing field are the best chance for this, but the Mage should wait until the healing field is nearly expired before they cast the spell and wake all the enemies up. The Mage is also extremely important for surviving the Boarrior's minion spawn sequence, as the spell of the Infernal Staff can nearly kill the Boarrior's summoned pigs in a single hit. Thus, grouping the pigs up especially with a petrify or healing field and casting the Infernal Staff spell on them is very important for surviving the horde of pigs effectively.

The Attacker meanwhile is whichever player uses the ranged weapons. Their main benefit being to attack enemies that are currently distracted by a tank; or using the right click on the Molten Dart to interrupt enemies and break them form a sheltered state.

 

The Runner is the most important role to designate as any character who is not a Tank or Healer can serve as a Runner without hindering the teams effectiveness. When choosing the Runner, always choose a regular Attacker over the Mage as the Mage has a significantly higher damage per second potential then most Attackers. The rest of the roles are determined naturally by who picks what item up and so on compared to the character they are using.

Characters to the Roles :

Wilson - Healer / Attacker / Runner - Wilson's passive makes him generally effective for playing open roles like the Runner and Attacker due to how useful it is as a whole. Being the Healer pairing with his revival boost as a support type character.

Willow - Attacker / Mage - Willow's fire boost makes her effective for using the Infernal Staff and thus being a Mage, or using the Molten Dart as an Attacker. However, magic based characters are still more effective as a Mage. Bernie is also very useful for distracting enemies on the side, which makes her more effective in general to have as an Attacker.

Wolfgang - Tank - Wolfgang's boost near death allows him to persist slightly longer then the average Tank when absorbing damage.

WX 78 - Tank - WX 78's shock effect, which sometimes damages enemies who hit him, makes him very viable to being a focus for the mobs as the more he gets hit the more likely he is to shock enemies back. The shock can also jump from enemy to enemy if they are close by.

Woodie - Tank / Runner - Woodie's ability to throw Lucy is exceptionally useful for being a Runner and Tank as enemies hit by a flying Lucy will be forced to change their focus over the Woodie regardless of who they are attacking. Woodie can use this to draw enemies away from others as a Tank, or draw bosses away from others as a Runner.

Wes - Runner - Wes has a passive ability which inherently makes enemies focus on him longer then average, making him a good Runner. However due to his low health this means he cannot double as an Attacker nearly as well, and so it is best to only pick Wes if he will be used to constantly pull and lead mobs; not just during the boss stages.

Winona - Tank / Attacker / Healer - Winona's cooldown boost makes her slightly effective as a Healer as the heal will recharge sooner. However her general expertise allows her to also use melee and ranged decently as well to be a Tank or Attacker.

Wendy - Attacker - Abigail is a mildly decent distraction, but due to her health pool she still falls sooner then Bernie with the main benefit being she actually does some damage.

Webber - Attacker - Webber's spiders add a decent amount of damage to his contribution, making him quite viable as a generic Attacker. The spiders will quickly move in to attack whatever he attacks, meaning fighting at range does not hinder the ability of the spiders to be effective at all.

Wigfrid - Tank / Attacker - Wigfrid's passive shout is quite effective for boosting enemies in the middle of the fray, however she is also beneficial as a ranged Attacker due to her lower rate of enemy aggravation.

Maxwell - Mage / Healer / Controller - Because Maxwell can use the Pertify Tome he can serve as a Controller, but this is less viable with his lower health pool being a general handicap. He is most effective as a Mage, as by focusing on one target with the Infernal Staff he can stack his shadow damage quite well. He can also serve as a Healer for this same reason, but due to his low health pool it is signifcantly more dangerous.

Wickerbottom - Mage / Controller / Healer - Wickerbottom's magic boost makes her very effective as a Mage, especially when using the Infernal Staff right click when her spell charge is at maximum. She is also a viable Controller due to her Pertify Tome, and a Healer.

 

Appendix of Forge Enemies :

The Forge has a variety of enemies who are each significantly more unique then most found in Don't Starve normally, at least when it comes to their combat tactics. This is a directory on how they each work strategically.

Pigs : Pigs have one basic attack, and one special attack they use against targets who are at a distance. Their basic attack has a larger attack range then that of a spider, which makes it very difficult to dodge reactively. Baiting the attack out by getting slightly close to them is the best way to make them miss. However they deal little damage that it is possible for most characters to just absorb their hits if there are not many of them around; so long as they are wearing good armour. Their special attack is a very quick rush which punishes players for running from them, which makes it much more difficult to lead groups of Pigs around; like if you are the Runner. To counter the rush, always try to run at sharp curved angles when possible. Especially if the Pigs have been chasing you for a brief period as they are more likely to rush when they have been following you without being attacked for awhile.

Crocoviles : Crocoviles have a moderately damaging consistent melee attack and a ranged attack they occasionally resort to when they are aggravated on targets at a distance. However their only unique ability is spawning battle standards which buff all their allies on the map. No matter how far a standard is its buff will effect all living mobs. The shield standard doubles all mob defense, the jaws standard buffs all enemy damage, the flowers standard heals all enemies. The standards are very fragile and should always be destroyed as soon as possible. If a Crocovile spawns a standard away from the rest of the team it can go unnoticed and will silently keep buffing all enemies until it is destroyed. The best way to notice this is if your damage suddenly halves, or if a ring shaped effect occasionally appears under enemies. Both of these indicate that they are being buffed by a standard somewhere. Often the standard will be located on the side of the map that the Crocoviles the team didn't attack out of spawn were on.

Tortanks : The basic spike attack Tortanks have is very easy to bait out by briefly getting close to them, however the attack also hits all players in range regardless of who the Tortank is aggravated to. The Tortanks will somtimes withdraw into their shell when they recieve too many attacks in a short period of time, and interrupt right click abilities such as that of the Molten Dart will break them out of it. When at low health the Tortanks will periodically withdraw into their shell, spin and target players in place of their default defensive shell withdraw. To avoid the shell spin, sharply move at an angle slightly less then ninety degrees each time the shell spins towards you. You will end up running in a triangle as you do it. You can also zig-zag to avoid the shell but this requires a lot of space in one direction, moving diagonally forward away from the shell each time it spins at you. If it spins at you from the bottom right side, move top right as soon as it starts heading to towards you. It cannot change its direction once it has set off until it stops and targets your next most recent position. It is best for players to spread out when the Tortanks are spinning so that less are hit, and players have more room to dodge when they are targetted.

Venomeers : Venomeers fight with a strong moderate reaching melee attack which becomes paired with an area blast of poison when they get to lower health. They will not shoot the poison everytime they attack, only some of the time, and specifically at targets who are not already poisoned. The poison is shot very suddenly and will kill Tanks very quickly which is to be expected, but Attackers and the Mage can easily avoid it by simply never getting close enough to a lower health Venomeer for them to attack. If they can't reach with their melee claw attack the poison blast will never activate. Players should always stay away from the Tanks as much as possible at this point as the splash poison can still hit them if they are near its original target, who are often the Tanks who need to be in melee range to attack.

Boarillas : The Boarilla's main attack is a moderate reaching high damage punch which tosses players up into the air. The punch can hit multiple targets, but only if they are close together, and Boarillas are fast enough that players without at least 20% extra speed boost cannot avoid getting hit. When at lower health the Boarilla's will also use a much faster jumping smash, often on targets at a distance from them; while occasionally hiding behind their shields which can be interrupted with special attacks like that of the Molten Dart. It is best for Runners to only try leading Boarillas around if they have not reached the stage of using their jumping attack. The jumping attack will often hit Runners if they are not a great distance away. Tanks fighting the Boarilla are best to spread out to avoid them both getting hit at once by its punch attack.

Grand Forge Boarrior : The Grand Forge Boarrior spawns when the last Boarilla of the double Boarilla wave is near death. It is thus recommended to kill all minions in the map before trying to kill that last surviving Boarilla. Once the Grand Forge Boarrior spawns, the Runner should quickly meet it and lead it away while the team finishes of the last Boarilla.

The Grand Forge Boarrior will become stronger and faster the more it is hurt. At the beginning it will only use its basic single swipe attack. When its health reaches medium, it will start using a three sixty degree spin swipe and a ground smash as its main attacks. The ground smash hits twice, and often the second hit will land unless the player is already near the edge of the range and moves out of it. The smash also has a very long reach. The team must spread out at all times to avoid multiple players getting hit by that long narrow range smash, and players must always avoid standing behind or infront of eachother. At this point, the Runner cannot kite the Boarrior anymore without staying far ahead of the Boarrior otherwise he will use his smash and hit them anyways. Once the Boarriors health gets even lower it will begin using its triple swipe attack ontop of the previous two, and it will rush towards any player it targets who is at a distance making it nearly impossible to run from.

When the Boarrior is past the midway of its health it will tap its weapons together and spawn four battle standards around the centre of the room along with a large wave of Pigs. At this point the battle standards must be destroyed as soon as possible, a Tank distracting the Boarrior as long as they can while the rest of the team fights the Pigs. The most effective way to eliminate them it to lure as many of them as possible in a healing spell, then cast the Infernal Staffs right click spell on them which takes off most of their health.

To make the Boarrior fight go smoothly all the way through, forcing the Boarrior to sleep on a healing spell while the team heals is extremely effective. The Healer casts the spell ontop of the Boarrior and immediately the team stops attacking it. It will quickly fall asleep, allowing the team to heal the full amount until the heal expires and the Boarrior wakes up. If the Boarrior switches targets to a player at a distance and ends up walking away from the spawned healing field; it is best for the that player to lure it away while the rest of the team heals up. Salvaging an attempt to put the Boarrior to sleep by luring it back onto the healing field is seldom worthwhile.

The Boarrior will continue to get more aggressive as its health becomes critical, and it is up to the team to keep this cycle up as much as they can in order to survive. Having the Boarrior focus on the Tanks at all times is very significant to this.

 

 

Synopsis :

Having a good Runner is very integral to making the late wave fights smoother as it is essentially the team trading one of their members in exchange for removing a boss from the field temporarily. It is possible for any character to be a decent Runner although the above ones specifically cited have their own unique benefits that stand out from the rest. While both the Healer and Controller benefit greatly from having an eye for the best situations to use their spells in, as each spell used can be very influential on the fight. The Tanks and Attackers do not have to worry much about how they play, although there are minor things they can do to improve their performance as mentioned above.

Without these designated roles The Forge is significantly harder then it potentially is. Teamwork, or at least decent awareness of the roles and how they operate, is essential for a good chance of survival.

The optimal team arrangement is one Healer Wilson, one Attacker Wilson, two Tanks, one Mage and one Runner. Having two Wilsons for revivals is imperative as with two Wilsons, even if one dies you still have a capable reviver around somewhere. This is great for if the Healer Wilson dies as the other Wilson can quickly get the Healer back up. Two tanks is generally the most balanced amount to have, with one Mage doubling as a Controller and one Runner to distract bosses and mobs.

[Silentdarkness1]

On 10/25/2017 at 2:12 AM, The Curator said:

Wilson is a good option for this as he already has a revival boost which compliments a support role.

No, not really.

Having a singular Wilson, and expecting them to both handle healing everyone AND doing revives is putting too many eggs in one basket. That Wilson gets downed, you're out heals AND revives, which can single-handedly ruin your chances. I do however agree with Winona being a good role for heals. Keep in mind that the game actually gives an XP reward for not having more than one of each character.

[SupervisorSwank]

Another thing I've found that with tortanks they usually spin clockwise or anticlockwise along a triangle shape. You end up doing the same to avoid as you've said 

[Coldman]

On 10/25/2017 at 9:12 AM, The Curator said:

Characters to the Roles :

Wilson - Healer / Attacker / Runner - Wilson's passive makes him generally effective for playing open roles like the Runner and Attacker due to how useful it is as a whole. Being the Healer pairing with his revival boost as a support type character.

Wilson - Healer / Reviver *

I'd recommend to have 2 Wilson's in your team or if you're skilled, you can play both roles.

[furtrout]

Webber can also make an okay runner in a pinch if there's no Woodie or Wes or if there's only one Wilson. Although the thing about him is that usually when running as Webber, you do a lot of damage between darts and spiders, so the rest of the team has to be quicker because some enemies increase their attacks when at low health (namely the Boarilla that guy is hard to dodge when he gets low health). This can be helpful for speed runs or the like I think.  

[Cyberboy2000]

1 hour ago, furtrout said:

namely the Boarilla that guy is hard to dodge when he gets low health

Actually that can be dodged if you have both the +20% speed hat and +10% speed armor

[Tumalu]

If you know what you're doing, anyone with darts (plus woodie) can be runner. Or staves, but, that's a little desperate...

You do need to be good at running before attempting it (as opposed to, say, Woodie, who isn't hard even on the first try imo if you have 30% movespeed) It's a nice way to enjoy a little more character variety or help get more of the "Forging Victory" achievements, though. I just did a bunch of runs as Winona runner.

Definitely recommend multiple Wilsons though, especially if one is healing. More wilsons=easier run. And yes, that does mean 6 wilsons is the easiest run, but that's a little boring (and certainly won't get you many 'cheevos.) I did one of those earlier and even if you never get boarrior in the sleep field, revival cycling will easily net you the win.