|
Series EV Documentation | By ForeverMaster | Version:0.1 |
| |
| of this guide is complete. |
For her Tower Buff Beams alone, Series EV is among the most important builder heroes in DD1, next to the Monk/Initiate. By the start of Nightmare progression, there is almost no practical reason to not use and upgrade one or more Buff Beams in every single defense build.
EV can also be a strong choice vs. Ogre packs, as well as numerous boss fights, thanks to her Proton Charge Blast.
Weapons[]
Series EV can equip any two Apprentice or Huntress weapons and quickly switch between them. The latter class weapons get effectively a 20% damage penalty, vs. staffs. Unlike the other heroes, EV has a definitive best DPS weapon: the Ember Sceptre, from Embermount Volcano.
Defenses[]
Series EV creates two-point beams which can be drawn to variable lengths. Longer beams cost more Defense Units, but cover more ground and have more health/charges.
Proton Beam (40 Mana, 2-6 DU)[]
The Proton Beam damages enemies along its length. It loses health every time it hits.
Though often treated like a perpendicular tripwire, installing the beam in parallel with a walkway is usually more effective. The narrower the path is, the greater the chance is to damage the same enemies multiple times.
Physical Beam (30 Mana, 2-5 DU)[]
A simple flexible wall that blocks off enemies, but not heroes. The Physical Beam is the only beam defense enemies can target and damage directly. Sharken will attempt to push this beam on-sight.
This is a super-reliable blockade to hold aggravated Ogres in-place. As long as they are targeting a hero or a different defense outside their melee range, the Ogre(s) will never swing their club(s) to attack the Physical Beam.
Reflection Beam (20 Mana, 1-3 DU)[]
This tall barrier bounces back enemy projectiles which can then hurt enemies for multiplied damage. The Reflection Beam takes exactly 25 damage for every projectile it blocks. It does not block Harbinger lightning balls or most boss projectiles.
Reflectors are capable of protecting heroes and defenses from dangerous projectiles, like spider webs and copter rockets. They can also stop Dark Elf Archers from sneaking arrows into a core.
Though Ogre snot balls are far less deadly than the monster's melee, these projectiles landing direct hits on fragile defenses can still be worrisome. Encasing them in reflectors will prevent this from happening.
Shock Beam (x0 Mana, 2-6 DU)[]
This beam damages and stuns enemies along its length. It does not affect enemies immune to lightning. What would be the range stat for beams is instead dedicated to the Shock Beam's stun time. Like traps, this beam has a finite amount of charges for health and goes down once its last charge is consumed.
Tower Buff Beam (70 Mana, 4-6 DU)[]
An invaluable mechanism that powers up all other defenses touching it. Affected defenses are indicated by red lines converging into them. They take less damage from enemies, hit harder, have more range and attack faster. These boosts do not stack with other Buff Beams. The Tower Buff Beam only goes down to a Djinn de-summoning it or when ANY buffed defense is destroyed/sold during combat.
Not all hero defenses receive equal benefits from a Tower Buff Beam. Traps get an expanded detection radius, but their area of effect does not change. Minions on Buff Beams do not attack faster, despite the fact their "Attack Rate" statistic is increased. If you are using minions for walls to not aggro Ogres specifically, buffing them might be unnecessary which saves DU for other defenses.
Buff Beams are a must to complete the hardest defense missions on Nightmare. Their Nightmare prevalence overall escalates the necessity to maintain defenses far beyond Insane difficulty. If one boosted defense is lost, everything else falls apart.
Abilities[]
Holographic Decoy (100 mana, 15-second cooldown)[]
Series EV deploys a stationary hologram of herself to distract and blow up on enemies. The decoy explodes after 10 seconds or taking too much damage.
Proton Charge Blast (xx-second cooldown)[]
EV holds up her arm cannon to magnetize dropped mana in a larger radius than normal, in order to charge up a powerful beam. No mana she draws in will go to her casting reserves, until either the beam is fully charged or the ability is deactivated prior to firing.
Attacking while this ability is active unleashes the devastating Proton Charge Blast. This beam does massive damage to all enemies caught in its short range, even those behind cover. The attack's duration depends on how much mana was gathered, up to 18 seconds with a full 3,600 mana tank.
Costumes[]
All of EV's alternate costumes increase her health at the cost of speed.
The Jetpacking Bounty Hunter and Series 1.5/1.75 models grant hovering. Though 1.75 moves the slowest, she is the best choice for DPS. EV 1.75 has the most amount of health, the longest flight time (16 seconds) and gets a damage bonus.
Stat Allocation[]
Series EV's beam stats are slightly less important than the defense stats of other heroes. This might free up some armor upgrade levels to increase her resistances if she needs to build during combat.
All four beam stats increase the Buff Beam's multipliers, but these barely change above the 2k benchmark. However, if Physical Beams will not be used and projectile bullet hells are not a concern, a builder EV specialized in Beam Damage instead of Beam Health can optimize the DPS of buffed defenses. Shock Beam Stun Time (range stat slot) and Attack Rate over 2k are essentially irrelevant, ignoring Proton and Shock Beams.
Offensively, Proton Charged Blast's damage is calculated by (in order of importance):
- The selected weapon's Base Damage.
- Hero Damage
- The ability's stat (Ability 2).
The Ember Sceptre is her best weapon overall, followed by the Honey Gun for "beaming" specifically.
Pet Suggestions[]
A Propeller Cat, alongside a Monk's Hero Boost, blasts EV's Hyper Beam damage off into the stratosphere, capable of reaching 200+ million DPS (on Nightmare)! Even when accounting for a boss's damage reduction and up-scaled health, she can still annihilate them in seconds!
If you're already backed up by a teammate's cat, a Fairy, Desert Goblin or Treadmill on a Treadmill are a few good alternatives to equip without sacrificing damage.
Dungeon Defenders Redux[]
Series EV acquires a new defense and ability in Redux, the former being useful for its target priority and synergy with Oil Traps.
Proton and Shock Beams have improved damage scaling, while Physical Beams have improved health scaling. Proton Beams slow down enemies they are damaging by up to 50%; this stacks with other slowing effects. The effect wears off shortly after the enemy steps off the beam. Shock Beams that land the killing blow on an enemy will trigger an explosion that damages other enemies equal to (at-most) 25% of the original victim's max HP.
Proton Charge Blast is indirectly nerfed in that the Mischievous Ninja Monk in Temple of Polybius is now completely immune to it. Some bosses also take reduced from the ability, on top of their standard damage reduction. Holographic Decoy has been buffed on the other hand, with increased health scaling, damage scaling and enemy aggro range. The decoys can also be deployed while EV is airborne.
SAM Unit (150 Mana, 8 Defense Units)[]
This anti-air turret launches homing rockets at enemies which explode and deal fire damage on impact. The tower shares the same target priority as the Deadly Striker Tower, favoring to attack Djinn, Wyverns, Goblin Copters, Sharken and Dark Elf Mages over other enemy types. While they cannot attack through walls or damage fire-immune enemies and their shooting range is shorter, the fact SAMs are fire-based allows them to benefit from Oil Traps. They have potential to achieve a DPS higher than that of DSTs, whilst costing the same amount of DU and serving a similar purpose.
SAM Units also have a wide firing cone and their rockets draw a lot of attention from the enemies they hit; they can sometimes be used instead of Lightning Towers to aggro Ogres away from Eternia Crystals. However, SAMs have a large footprint and cannot be realistically stacked inside of other towers to save space.
Tesla Bomb (100 mana, x-second cooldown)[]
EV's new ability consists of firing a lightning ball that bounces off of surfaces before exploding, similar to a grenade. The Tesla Bomb inflicts lightning damage that scales with Hero Damage and her chosen weapon's base damage. It also benefits from Hero Boost and all other damage-boosting effects. Overall, this ability offers EV an additional attack for when Proton Charge Blast is ineffective or on its cooldown.
Tips and Notes[]
- Proton and Shock Beams must have one of their nodes touch a Buff Beam to rack the benefits.
- When upgrading defenses, the game will try to place the player's cursor over an upgradable Buff Beam over anything else since they are the most cost-effective defense to prioritize.
Hotkey/Hotbar Suggestions[]
*Modifications to the default hotkeys are italicized.
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower Buff Beam | Physical Beam | Reflection Beam | Proton Beam | SAM Unit |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Heal Self | Holographic Decoy | Tesla Bomb | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower Buff Beam | Physical Beam | Reflection Beam | Proton Beam | Shock Beam |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Heal Self | Holographic Decoy | Sell Defense | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Detonate Traps" | Holographic Decoy | Holographic Decoy | Physical Beam | Sell Defense |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Heal Self | Tesla Bomb | Proton Charge Blast | Repair Defense | Upgrade Defense |
Beam-Jester Interactions[]
- The Jester's presents will never contain a beam defense.
- Tower Buff Beams cannot be moved.
- When an applicable beam is relocated by a Jester, one of its nodes will be aligned to the cursor, causing the beam to be offset. The length and orientation of the beam cannot be changed. An inconvenience, there is no ghost model to visualize where the beam will be placed.
- As a Jester, it is possible to move traps and auras further away after a Buff Beam expands them, without losing their stat boosts. This is because the range of a moved tower does not update until its new location is confirmed.
Technical[]
- The screens of Physical and Reflection Beams are translucent. Their semitransparent textures can cause major FPS drops when the game client has to render multiple beams over a lot of geometry.
- If you're split-screening with idle heroes, try moving them so that their screens display less walls and reflectors and/or less of the map (excluding the skybox).
Other[]
- You can draw temporary beams to measure specific distances, such as an Ogre's melee range and the healing radius of Mage Minions.
- Shockwaves from an Ogre's club reach to a distance of approximately one 1-DU Reflection Beam (at maximum length).
- Mages will heal allies in a radius of one 5-DU Shock Beam (at maximum length).
- Your mana reserved for casting can be dropped to quick charge a Proton Charge Blast by up to 56% capacity (2,020/3,600 mana) in an instant.
- Another way to speed up charging is to have someone with a Genie drop the mana he/she generates.
- Warrior Minions are completely unaffected by Buff Beams. A Buff Beam will never break if a warrior touching it is lost in combat.