Strategy for Tough Levels

I was planning ahead, and it is not the first time I encounter levels where 1-hitting is impossible, not even with Death Dealer and high level CA. The Lao Xan Merchant Guard need even conservatively 18117 damage to 1-hit, and the maximum I can gather is 18048. 18117 is simply Armor + HP for that creature.

So as usual, I consider the option of staying back. The previous level requires CA 75. That has an efficiency of 1.48, which is worse than using the Potion of Fatality. That assumes that you can 1-hit when wither activates, as well as having enough defense not to get hit when wither did not activate. There's also another assumption that CA is not needed in this setup. If such a setup is possible, the efficiency would be 1.3.

I could not find a combination that has enough defense without the use of CA. The best I came up with was a setup that require CA 25. That adds a 1.0625 multiplier and the efficiency becomes 1.38. This is still better than staying back with CA 75.

That's when I thought about another possibility. What about simply going full damage, and use the shield imp 30% of the time. What's the efficiency of that? It turns out not to be such a good idea. Each imp used is about 8.3 stam. That means 30% of the time, you will not only be double hitting, but also use an imp block. That means the efficiency is 1.46. It is still slightly better than staying back with CA 75, but not as good as a defensive setup with CA25.

So why am I documenting this? Even though it is not the best setup for level 548, this is a viable strategy. If a level is so tough as to require CA 50 with wither in defensive mode, then this setup is no worse. Also, if you can get Imps at below stam cost, that will make this setup more efficient. That can be due to players selling imps below stam cost, or having a friend use Buff Master to buff the Imps.

Below table assumes 16x doubler.
It does not account for Shield Strike, Deathwish and Critical Hits. Please see updated table in my blog on Shield Strike.

Efficiency	Setup
1.00	1-hit
1.06	CA-25
1.13	CA-50
1.19	CA-75
1.25	CA-100
1.25	Back-level (1-hit)
1.30	Wither 350 + Defense
1.31	CA-125
1.33	Back-level (CA-25)
1.38	CA-150
1.38	Wither 350 + CA25 + Defense
1.41	Back-level (CA-50)
1.44	CA-175
1.46	Wither 350 + Imp
1.46	Wither 350 + CA50 + Defense
1.48	Back-level (CA-75)
1.54	Wither 350 + CA75 + Defense
1.56	Back-level (CA-100)
1.64	Back-level (CA-125)
1.72	Back-level (CA-150)
1.80	Back-level (CA-175)
2.00	2-hit