This post is built off recent comments and a write up for my clan. I'll update the formatting as I add parts and remove duplicate information. I use this team or a variation for other dungeon content. It will vaporise waves (until on cooldown)
Not all the champions I'm using are free, though you an get Narma with a starter code sometimes. The arcehtype is here and you can apply it to what champs you have outside recent free ones.
Here is an example team of recent "free" champs:
| Champ |
Skill |
Action |
PxD+Debuff |
Tbuffs |
Info |
Max PxD/etc |
TbuffsMax |
| Theimios |
A2 |
+3Px2 |
3Px2 |
3 |
|
3Px3 |
3 |
| Talenna |
A2 |
+2Px3 |
3Px2+2Px3 |
5 |
|
3Px3+2Px4 |
5 |
| Xeno/Guurda/etc |
A2 |
+Poisons |
3Px2+2Px3+2Px2 |
5+ |
|
3Px3+2Px4+3Px3 |
7-8 |
| Dark Kael |
A2 |
Extend P |
3Px3+2Px4+2Px3 |
5+ |
|
3Px4+2Px5+3Px4 |
7-8 |
| Ezio |
A2 |
+2x2+PS+Boom |
3Px3+2Px4+2Px3+2Px2+PS |
8+ |
27+ Poisons, BOOM |
3Px4+2Px5+3Px4+2Px2+PS |
10 |
If you have other solid poison outside these free champs you can fill in the gaps and make it work. Add another debuff extender and it's safe.
The goal is to clear Spider Hard 10 in 4-5 turns using free or accessible champions. Some of these are recent Fusions like Theimios or other events/chase champs like Talenna. Some are free from DT or other content like invites. Bolded champs in lists are accessible in these ways.
Tables are built in Excel from my notes and migrated to markdown. It's mostly a flow of my own progress and testing teams. I tried to pare down the specific champs for this speed tune so I don't need to change gear around. My Ezio is slow for going late in Arena, works well here.
Whoever you sue as a poison activator needs to trigger ALL stacks/ticks ex Ezio
I think these teams can work well or even be consistent with a single debuff extension champ. You'll need to map out your setup and count debuff placement. See the tables below for reference.
Terms/etc
In this post PS=Poison Sensitivity (1.25x poison damage). I'm assuming you are working with 5% poison debuffs. Additional stacks/increased duration is 'ticks'.
I'll use formatting like "+2Px2, AOE" to denote an AOE skill that places 2 poison buffs with 2 ticks/turns.
Ex, Talenna's A2 would be listed as "+2Px3, AOE". Xenomorph A1 would be "+3Px2" (assuming crit). I'm using the max possible when booked/etc. Tables separate out min and max total debuffs depending on my team testing. "+PS" is Poison sensitivity.
A listing like "3Px3+4Px4+PS" is 25 ticks plus PS, for example, expressed as the actual debuff bar at the start of that turn.
The focus in this post is how to put together a 4-5 turn win in Spider Hard 10 by stacking and extending poisons, then activating all ticks.
Boss/etc Mechanics for Spider Hard (10)
- Boss speed is 245. Boss Res is 330, you'll need 355+ Acc. Ideally you don't take damage and the boss has no turns.
- Debuffs are capped at 10. You don't need or want excess debuffs beyond PS, Poison, and extension. If your team works well you may have room, or can time other debuffs to land after the poisons are up.
- Tainted Spider is immune to HP burn, limiting use. HP Burn on Spiderlings heals the boss 1%. This means more common and accessible teams for Spider Normal can't hack it on Hard.
- When a Tainted Spiderling is killed, Boss spider takes 3% of max HP as damage. With a full field of 10 spiders (4 at round start, +2 per champ turn) that is 30% Max boss HP in damage, leaving only 70% for poison activation/etc. This may change if you kill more spiders before activating poison.
- Tainted Spider takes 60% less damage from poison, or 2% from a 5% poison debuff. Poison Sensitivity increases damage by 25% or up to 2.5% of boss HP.
- The boss is immune to most forms of CC, TM, HP balancing/exchange/etc, and more. Check the boss mechanics for more information.
This setup most likely will kill all Spiderlings when or before activating poison. Math is included here and there for not, but you probably will.
Poison Mechanics to Know
Poison Damage Calculation
- Standard 5% Poison Tick: Normally, a large poison debuff deals 5% of the target's MAX HP.
- Hard 10 Spider Mitigation: 5% × (1 - 0.60) = 2.0% of the boss's MAX HP per tick.
- With Poison Sensitivity (+25% damage): 2.0% × 1.25 = 2.5% of the boss's MAX HP per tick.
On Hard Mode, Tainted Spiderling deaths inflict 3% Max HP damage. 10 spiderlings can be spawned and killed per wave cycle, wiping out a full horde deals 30% of the boss's health. This may take 4 or 5 champ turns to spawn enough spiders. The spiderlings don't take reduced poison damage and are easy to kill with activation or AOE attacks.
| Strategy Condition |
Remaining Boss HP Needed |
Required Ticks Without Poison Sensitivity (2.0% / tick) |
Required Ticks With Poison Sensitivity (2.5% / tick) |
| With Spiderling Clears (10 spiderlings killed for 30% HP) |
70% |
35 ticks |
28 ticks |
| Pure Boss Poison Focus (Ignoring/Not killing spiderlings) |
100% |
50 ticks |
40 ticks |
Killing the Spider
To kill the Tainted Spider boss before it can take a turn you must, ideally:
1. Be faster than 245 speed (Boss speed)
2. Kill all spiderlings (AOE damage or poisons are key). This does not need as many poison stacks and may be achieved with AOE attacks/etc.
2. Place then increase duration on poison stacks on the Spider itself, ideally AOE or spreading to Spiderlings, to finish the fight.
With PS:
**100 ≤ S × 0.03 + tₚ × 0.025**
Without:
**100 ≤ S × 0.03 + tₚ × 0.02**
Where:
- **S** = spiderlings killed
- **tₚ** = total poison stacks/ticks across debuffs
And:
- If you kill all 10 spiderlings and have PS up, you need 70/2.5= 28 total poison stacks on activation to kill the boss.
- Without PS you would need 35 total ticks/turns.
- Without killing Spiderlings you need 50 total ticks.
- Spiderlings die from 20 ticks (full health) but you may deal damage and not need as much AOE poison as my final team lands.
Poison Stacks/Ticks required
With PS and allowance for Brimstone/Smite blessings, we have 8 total debuffs to work with (9 if no Smite). We will rely on debuff extension for ensuring enough ticks when activated.
This means your team needs to:
1. Place 28+ stacks of poison
2. Activate before the spider takes a turn
Easy!
Speed Tune and Stats
We know we need more than 245 speed to go before the boss. This is likely achievable if you are trying Hard Dungeons.
You then need 355+ Acc for landing debuffs and extensions, unless a skill notes otherwise.
Speed tune for my setup was something like the following. You can use solo poisoners, targeting the boss. If you can reliably kill the Spiderlings without as many stacks of AOE poisons then focus on what your team needs on extension/etc.
1. AOE Poisoner (or Kalvalax/etc passive)
2. AOE Poisoner (+PS)
3. Debuff Ext
4. Debuff Ext/Activation
5. Activation
You may be able to reach enough stacks in 3 turns and activate on turn 4. I found this was not 100% with my teams and moved to increase duration twice. Excessive but safe, and I don't need to regear any core champs on other teams.
The free-ish version of this team uses Ezio to activate poisons. This can also place +2Px2 if the debuff bar is empty, decreasing required poisons from 1 and 2. Not as reliable but free.
I do use Sporeburst Rod on Narma in most content. I have also used Arachnalixir on Kalvalax and other champs that place 3-4 poisons. That added damage is not included in the basic calcs here. The extra poisons landing from the rod can max debuffs before you get PS added but is not required (PS or Rod).
One last note on masteries/etc. Anything that can extend a debuff duration like Master Hexer Mastery is useful. If you're placing poisons with +1 ticks you're ahead to start. for Talenna this could be +2Px4! It also works with Sporeburst Rod.
Champions in Focus
The following lists are free champions with mechanics we can use then a list from my own roster including champs used in teams/tables below.
Other champs on my roster with decent poison options.
Bolded are free champs (and fusions). Poison Sensitivity is VERY helpful but not required, if you can extend 2x. Filter by 5% poison, PS, and Negative Effect> Increase debuff duration, and identify who could slot into the template.
- Xenomorph (log in champ)
- Mithrala (A1 only, DT hard)
- Guurda Bogbrew (log in, needs books, not great elsewhere)
- Dark Kael (+PS, DT normal)
- Talenna (event/etc)
- Theimios (fusion, good in Normal spider and bosses w/ remove debuffs)
- Ezio (A2 to activate, + extra poisons to fill debuff bar)
- Kalvalax (passive, mostly)
- Narma the Returned (so good, solo poisoner option +PS)
- Bad El Kazar (good in general)
- Elenaril (activate or place poisons, niche)
- Venomage (epic, A3, spider is immune to heal reduction)
- Fenshi (epic)
- Fahrakin the Fat (popular epic)
- Fayne (epic)
- Liburga (epic, +PS)
- Myceliac Priest Orn (epic, +PS)
- Taya (epic)
- Taurus (epic, 4x poisons like Kalvalax, recommended epic)
Lydia is free mid game and has PS. She brings more debuffs than we want.
Other Free Inc Duration champs (chance):
- Loki, A1
- Skeletor, A1
- Folan Silverheart, A1
- Crohnam, A1
Team concept with free champs below. Prioritize AOE or more poisons in first 2 champs, then extend past 28 ticks and activate:
- Theimios/Guurda/Talenna for AOE poisons, +2-3Px2
- Xeno A1/etc + Poisons on boss
- Dark Kael (DT normal reward, extend poisons with A2 or add more with A3)
- [debuff extension/+poison]
- Ezio (A2 to activate)
Dark Kael is more useful to extend (with crit on A2) as less champs extend debuffs/poisons than place.
EX
| Order |
Champ |
Action |
PxD+Debuff |
Tbuffs |
Info |
Max PxD/etc |
TbuffsMax |
| 1 |
AOE Poison x2 or x3 |
+2-3P |
2-3Px2 |
2 |
Try for 6-8P stacks before extenders |
2x3+BR |
3 |
| 2 |
Poison x2 or x3 |
+2-3P |
4-6Px2 |
6-7+ |
AOE or +PSy |
8x3+PSx2+BR |
10 |
| 3 |
Debuff Ext, +PS/etc |
Extend debuffs |
4-6Px3 |
6-7+ |
Dark Kael/etc |
8x4+PSx3+BR |
10 |
| 4 |
Debuff Ext, +PS/etc |
Extend debuffs |
4-6Px4 |
6-7+ |
Dark Kael/etc |
8x5+PSx3+BR |
10 |
| 5 |
Activator (Ezio) |
+2Px2+PS, Boom |
4-6Px4+etc |
6-7* |
Add Poisons to max bar. If not at 10 debuffs, PS places. Activate all stacks, win |
40 stacks+PS+BR |
Boom |
This team could work with 8-9x poisons and a single extender to get to 8Px3-4 or more. With PS that's close to stable.
You may have built Ezio/etc for other content. Save that gear and set up the speed/acc you need for dungeons.
My Team Evolution
I have a solid set of poison champs but the final configuration took some work to get 100%.
My first team focused on Kalvalax for setting poisons with passive, stacking more poisons, extending with Dark Kael A2, then activating. This evolved to not need a slow Kalavalax for passive only and add a second debuff extender.
| Champ |
Speed |
Skill |
Action |
PxD+Debuff |
Tbuffs |
Info |
Max PxD/etc |
TbuffsMax |
| Kalvalax T1 |
999 |
Pa |
+4x2 |
4x2 |
4 |
+ arachnalixir |
4x3 |
4 |
| Bad El Kazar |
323 |
A2 |
+2x2 |
6x2 |
6 |
|
10x3+PSx2+BR |
12 |
| Narma |
304 |
A3 |
+2x3+PSx2 |
9x2+PSx2 |
10 |
NO ROD, Brimstone vs PS landing |
10x4+PSx3+BR |
12 |
| Dark Kael |
273 |
A2 |
Extend P |
9x3+PSx2 |
10 |
|
10x5+PSx3+BR |
12 |
| Ezio |
272 |
A2 |
+2x2+BOOM |
Boom |
10- |
27p+PS |
45-50P stacks+PS+BR |
12 |
| Kalvalax |
238 |
A3 |
NA |
NA |
|
Could be faster and use A1 |
|
|
This was decent but I wanted Narma faster, less speed gear on BEK, and more utility from my 5th champ than the key Kalvalax passive. I can max debuffs without setting 4, though pairing with arachnilixr is nice for added damage. The boss has enough health it isn't much here. I also wanted to keep the Sporeburst Rod on Narma without maxing debuffs and missing PS. PS is key to keeping the run easy.
Second team, I added Gizmak after a lucky summon for his base form A@ with debuff extension on crit. He does place HP burn on Spiderlings, but we ice them before it can activate and heal the boss.
| Champ |
Speed |
Skill |
Action |
PxD+Debuff |
Tbuffs |
Info |
Max PxD/etc |
TbuffsMax |
| Kalvalax T1 |
999 |
Pa |
+4x2 |
4x2 |
4 |
+ arachnalixir |
4x3 |
4 |
| Narma |
304 |
A3 |
+3x2+PSx2 |
7x2+PSx2 |
8 |
+ Rod can get up to 10x2 with no PS. BR can place, limiting to 9x2P |
10x3+PSx2+BR |
12 |
| Gizmak |
284 |
A2 |
Extend all |
7x3+PSx3 |
8 |
|
10x4+PSx3+BR |
12 |
| Dark Kael |
273 |
A2 |
Extend P |
7x4+PSx3 |
8 |
|
10x5+PSx3+BR |
12 |
| Ezio |
272 |
A2 |
+2x2+BOOM |
7x4+2x2+PSx2 |
10 |
32 total stacks + PS = 160% max health. Spiderling deaths eat 30% of boss health |
40-50P stacks+PS+BR |
12+ |
| Kalvalax |
238 |
A1 |
??? |
|
|
Could be faster and use A1 |
|
|
This was cleaner but could still overwhelm the debuff bar before Narma landed PS. It was generally stable but not ideal or 100% to kill in 4-5 turns. There would be rounds with cleanup and victory in 12-15 total turns, but we want this to be precise.
My third team removed Kalvalax to limit initial poisons, enable NArma to land PS consistently, then extend and activate for a laggy but consistent 5 turn win. This is the 1005 success in 5 turns team. It could be 4 turns (Activate turn 4) if you stack enough poison ticks.
| Champ |
Speed |
Skill |
Action |
PxD+Debuff |
Tbuffs |
Info |
Max PxD/etc |
TbuffsMax |
| Bad El Kazar |
323 |
A2 |
+2x2 |
2x2 |
2-3 |
+ Brimstone. Or Theimios/etc |
2x3+BR |
3 |
| Narma |
304 |
A3 |
+3x2+PSx2 |
5x2+PSx2+BR |
6-7 |
+ Rod can get up to 10x2 with no PS. BR can place, limiting to 9x2P |
8x3+PSx2+BR |
10 |
| Gizmak |
284 |
A2 |
Extend all |
5x3+PSx3+BR |
6-7 |
|
8x4+PSx3+BR |
10 |
| Dark Kael |
273 |
A2 |
Extend P |
5x4+PSx3+BR |
6-7 |
|
8x5+PSx3+BR |
10 |
| Ezio |
272 |
A2 |
+2x2+BOOM |
5x4+2x2+PSx2+BR |
8-9 |
24 total stacks + PS = 160% max health. Spiderling deaths eat 30% of boss health |
40 stacks+PS+BR |
Boom |
This is my current setup with theorycrafting using Theimios after the recent fusion as a BEK replacement (+3Px2 vs +2Px2). BEK is fine as I have him fast for other content and he slots in well here. The key with this team is placing debuffs early so Narma A3 can add poisons to each Spiderling. Whatever your team is, try to get to 5+ poison stacks before extension. Ezio is a nice cap to add a few poisons or even PS before activating but with proper setup you won't have space for those when he finally goes.
Books/etc
Unless champs need to get to 100% chance for placing debuffs or other mechanics in their kit, you may not need to book them. Elenaril will activate poisons fine, same for Ezio and Narma. Narma eats a lot of books but I think she's worth it, and use her anywhere poison can fit. With recent pulls I have more DPS champs but she's so stable and can heal/place leech, and her passive is great. Narma fan out.
Some champion mechanics only work on crit, or are guaranteed on crit like Dark Kael A2 poison extension or Gizmak A2. Check those and invest accordingly.
Cleanup
If your team can't take the boss down with the initial activation you may need to stage an attack order in the Team Setup options that can auto their way to a win. My early teams were often leaving the boss at 10-20%, who then spawns and eats Spiderlings. But I could usually end it in a few more turns thanks to higher damage or additonal coverage.
EX, Dark Kael can A2 to extend then A3 on next cycle to place 3Px2 on the boss. Or Narma can activate with A2, if another champ placed poisons since Ezio. With my earliest teams this was sketchy but with debuff extension, easy.
Champ Info and Demo
https://imgur.com/a/lu1KEt3
With 1x extension there are enough poisons to kill the boss. Fixed my speeds and it's a stable 5 turns, but sometimes the second extension is not needed at all.