In-depth Underworld Me/R spiker guide

This is a written Guide on how to Play the spiker role in The Underworld properly.
This will require you to change headpieces, use several runes, so you'll have low hp and you'll need full pcons. If you don't feel like switching headpieces or you're being cheap and don't pop eggs, certain things will not apply to you. Also, it may seem I will go too much into depth in some things that don't seem relevant, but it's exactly those things that will make your spikes stronger.

In this guide a couple of abbreviations will be used to make it easier to write:
LT = Lab Tank
EoE = Edge of Extinction
SoS = Signet of Spirits
FC = Fast Casting
Cons = Conset (a set of Required Consumables)
Pcons = Personal Consumables
WW = Wastrells Worry
WD = Wastrells Demise
CoP = Cry of Pain

a) BAR :

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Template: OQJVAuAJ4xZRqlhu0G8mSGQDA6QEAA.

Skills are pretty much set. However, it seems everyone uses different set of attribute points. I think mine is best and here's why.

Domination 12: doh....

Inspiration 7: You cast Lyssa's Aura on a couple of times in a run so you can easily swap headpieces while casting it without being troubled too much. 7 + 4 + 3 from pcons is 14 Inspiration. At 13 Inspiration Magic, Lyssa's Aura will give +4 Energy Regen, at 14, it will give 5, which is pretty sweet.

Fast Casting 7: With a total of 13 Fast Casting, Wastrel's Demise will recharge just as fast as Wastrel's Worry, which is really nice for lab/chamber spikes and escort spikes. In the spoiler, there's an explanation why the 13FC is crucial, if you don't care, just assume I'm right.

boring math:

Beast Mastery 8: There's not much to say here. There's a lot of Graspings on the first spike to get many triggers on EoE so you don't need that strong Beast Mastery. The second spike contains fewer Graspings so your lvl is pretty relevant. EoE usually doesn't kill everything but it takes like one second to finish off the Aatxes.

Illusion Magic 4: The rest goes in here. At 8 Illusion Magic, you'll have a 7 second Visage, at 9 Illusion Magic you'll have 8 seconds, 10 Illusion still 8 seconds. With pcons, a Major Rune + Pcons will bring it to 9.

b) Weapons and armor :

Armor: +4 Domination Magic Headpiece, +4 Inspiration Magic Headpiece, +3 Fast Casting on any armor, +2 Illusion Magic. Full radiant Insignia.

Weapons: An enchanted weapon is really nice for Visage and for Lyssa's Aura between spikes in Vale. I use a 20/20 offhand for Empathy. If you can be bothered, you can swap to 40/40 set while fighting Skeles.

c) The Complete run :

First spike, in chamber, pretty straight forward. Watch your SoS, as soon as he starts activating, you drop down EoE, left of the top of the stairs so it's in range of the nightmares on the LT's side. Before putting it down, switch to Inspiration Magic headpiece. As soon as EoE is dropped, use Lyssa's Aura. Then target the LT and use Visage on him. Whilst you're running to the LT, you switch to Domination Headpiece. Then just use Wastrel's Worry and Wastrel's Demise on the ball. After three sets of each set of Wastrel's, use CoP. Or if you think stuff is gonna break, use Cry of Pain right before you expect stuff to run away.

Second spike, in lab, drop EoE as soon as you can. Switch to Inspiration Headpiece, use Lyssa's Aura, switch to Domination Headpiece. And start spike:
1 ) Visage on LT
2 ) Target nearest enemy (default key is C).
3 ) Wastrel's Demise, Wastrel's Worry
4 ) Target next enemy (default key is Tab).
5 ) Wastrel's Demise, Wastrel's Worry
6 ) Target next enemy
7 ) Wastrel's Demise, Wastrel's Worry
8 ) Manually target a Bladed Aatxe (you do this because Graspings Will die soon, but EoE will not kill the Aatxes)
9 ) Manually target attacking Dryders and spam Wastrel's on them, rupt something with Cry of Pain to do damage but also to keep Wastrel's up.

First escort spike:
This is where things get tricky to understand. There's a way to easily and consistently target both Aatxes but it's also hard to explain so bear with me.

Default keys:
C = target nearest enemy
Tab = select the 'next target'
Shift Tab = select the 'previous target'

First some game mechanics. When you hit C, you will target the nearest enemy and to make things easy to explain, we'll say the game assigns a number to that target, which will be number 1. When you hit Tab, the game will look for the next nearest enemy without a number and it will assign number 2, etc etc. As long as you keep tabbing and shift tabbing, these numbers will remain unchanged and you will go from 1 to 2, to 3. And shift tab will go from 3 to 2 to 1. These numbers will reset if you hit C again or if you click on an enemy with your mouse. What I do is I hit C at the moment the Aatxes are the nearest enemy and quickly use Tab. What this does is basically assign the numbers 1 and 2 to the two Aatxes. From this moment on, do NOT use C and do NOT click on enemies. You do this while the LT is doing the pull. That way, when the pullthrough is done, you'll have one dot, but you can still easily Tab and Shift Tab the two Aatxes. In this screenshot you can see the timing where you can hit C and tab to assign the numbers 1 and 2 to the Aatxes:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

1 ) Switch to Inspiration Headpiece after you take Escort/Restore.
2 ) Cast Lyssa's Aura and switch back to Domination Headpiece.
3 ) Cast Visage on LT as he runs in
4 ) C and then Tab to assign the numbers 1 and 2 to the Aatxes.
5 ) Shift Tab to go back to Aatxe 1
6 ) When the LT starts pulling through, Wastrel's Demise/Worry
7 ) Tab to select Aatxe 2
8 ) Wastrel's Demise/Worry followed by Cry of Pain on Aatxe 2
9 ) Shift Tab to go back to back to Aatxe 1
10 ) Wastrel's Demise/Worry
11 ) Tab to select Aatxe 2
12 ) Wastrel's Demise/Worry followed by Cry of Pain on Aatxe 2 and then ping the Aatxe
13 ) Visage on LT again
14 ) If spike isn't done, another Wastrel's Demise/Worry on your pinged target.

You can start putting Wastrel's on the Aatxe as the LT starts pulling through the spirits/SoS.

Second escort spike:

Basically same thing as the previous spike. However, since there are more Mindblades here, you can start spiking earlier. Mindblades don't have to die that evenly since the EoE bomb will be bigger than the first spike. I usually start spiking about half second before the SoS uses Signet of Spirits.

Vale Skeles:
Not much interesting stuff to say. Just some quick notes (some quite obvious but w/e):

1) Use Empathy on recharge.
2) Use Cry of Pain on Skeles that are balled
3) Don't use Wastrel's Demise
4) Use Wastrel's Worry right after Bone Spike that has been used after a Fury Splinters
5) As you're killing the group of Skeles, walk towards the lonely Skele that the LT should be about to aggro but make sure to use Empathy on recharge.
6) If mainteam is weak, hide behind house.

Dropping EoE:

I drop EoE in range of topgroup. That way top will be faster. Downside of this is that it can be killed.

1) Right before you drop EoE, use a Wastrel on the lonely Skele, not for damage but to refresh Lyssa's Aura.
2) Activate EoE
3) EE to SoS
4) Visage on LT
5) Use 3 sets of Wastrel's on the Graspings (3x WW, 3x WD).
6) Start using Wastrel's + CoP on the attacking Dryders. Graspings are not dead yet but they will die.

If you do this fast enough, you won't lose Lyssa's Aura.

Vale quest. This is easy, not gonna write too much about it, just some quick notes.

1) Kill buggy group first
2) Use Cry of Pain only when a new group spawns to ensure getting the most damage out of the degen.
3) Every time a new group spawns on the emo, throw some Wastrels on the 2nd wave of the buggy spawn so EoE will do work there as well.
4) Let the SoS do garden pulls, you're damaging the buggy group while he/she does that.
5) Near the end of the Vale quest, your energy should be gone. If it's not, it means you don't spike hard enough. Switch to high energy set for an extra 30 energy.


That's it.

~Hydro