Volion
05-05-2009, 07:03 PM
Overview
The idea of the game is simple - you have a party of 4 adventurers, and your goal is to... the goal differs :) In addition to original Monsters' Den campaign, Book of Dread features an addition dungeon quest and a new survival mode where you gather and equip your party and face endless hordes of monsters. Two main 'modes' of the game are exploration and combat. In exploration mode your party travels through the map of current dungeon level, gathers treasures, encounters enemies and meets special quests and encounters. In combat mode you are represented with a schematic representation of battle field, where your party members stand in two lines against two lines of enemies. Melee combat is only allowed between the connected lines - meaning that you can strategically position your ber and better armored troops to protect more fragile party members in the second line. (if you have ever played Disciples: Sacred Lands - or rather - chess - you will be very familiar will this combat style).
Game campaigns:
Original Monsters' Den campaign - The Den of Corruption
New campaign - The Den of Terror
Totally new survival mode - The Fall of Tellunos
First of all, you have to gather your party for the adventure. The game usually suggests you well-playable class combination as your party members (for example, the 'standard' Dungeons and Dragons one - Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric). We will try to cover game classes, their strengths and weaknesses, as much as suggest some b class combinations, not only good to complete the game at expert difficulty, but even viable enough to 'survive' in the survival mode as long as you want :)
Classes:
Warrior
A heavy armored fighter, good not only to soak damage from the monsters, standing in the front line and protecting his fellow groupmates, but also do deal quite a hefty damage once equipped with two-handed weapons.
Notable skills: Defiance, Cleave, Shield Wall, Inspire, Execute, Leadership
Cleric
Clerics are the second class in the game that can wear heavy armor, and while potentially dealing less damage then warriors, clerics can heal the group, making it last way longer. The game on Expert difficulty is pretty hard without a cleric.
Notable skills: Heal, Holy Light, Revive
Mage
While wearing only light armor and usually possessing only a small amount of health, mages are a force to be reckoned with. Mages can attack from distance with staves, have a hefty arsenal of mass-damage spells and arguably possess the most devastating one-target skill in the game.
Notable skills: Electrical Storm, Cosmic Prison, Ensorcelled Blade, Power Siphon
Ranger
Rangers can wear medium armor, and can wield a big arsenal of weapons - from bows and crossbows to two-handed axes. Being ackquainted with some basic nature magic, rangers are also good as a secondary healer/buffer - their Nature's Balm and Swiftness buffs are very precious. They are also very fast units, often faster then rogues. And their Force of Nature skill can be compared to mage's Ensorcelled Blade by destructive power, while being quite cheaper energy-wise.
Notable skills: Hail of Arrows, Pin, Force of Nature
Rogue
Rogues are masters of daggers, poison and deception. They receive bonuses to damage from both strength and dexterity when wielding daggers, though they can be deadly with a bow as well (hint: Coup de Grace). They are also very fast, providing you with a chance to start combat first and often even dispatch one enemy before he even had a chance to move.
Notable skills: Pierce Defenses, Sneak Attack, Create Opening, Thief's Luck, Coup de Grace
Barbarian
Barbarians can be referred to as 'machines of destruction'. While not posessing any special 'total destruction' skills like mages or rangers, every attack of a properly equipped barbarian can be as devastating. They also possess two exceptional passive skills, making them very worthy at higher levels.
Notable skills: Reckless Fury, Whirlwind, Brutality, Vengeance
Conjuror
While wearing light armor, conjurors are good at building defensive walls in front of them by summoning endless amounts of creatures from the ether. Conjuror minions can perform any task - taking hits in front rows, restore health or mana to all party members, even removing cursing from your allies and cursing the enemies. Conjuror also possesses a spell that increases damage resistance of every party member, and can raise a fallen companion in the battle.
Notable skills: Manasprite, Eldritch Aegis, Call Soul
General tips:
Every time you explore a section of dungeon you haven't been to before it counts as a round of regeneration in combat.
If you have a cleric in party (or at least a ranger), you can use 'full regen' trick: kill all but one weak monster (preferrably of healer type so he doesn't do much damage), and then just skip turns healing everybody as needed to regen power points. This way you don't have to worry about healing between encounters (and don't have to use shrines, that decrease your score.)
There is no reason for a warrior to take Power Attack into a quickslots over Adrenaline. Adrenaline gives you 130% damage for the rest of the battle, plus a whooping stun immunity. You can take both Adrenaline and Power Attack, but don't take Power Attack over Adrenaline.
If you clean the whole level of monster presence, then on the next level you will have an option to retreat to the previous level and fully regenerate there (dead party members will be resurrected and restored to full hit points and power). This option is only available once for each level, but it is indeed very powerful.
Prefer not to regen at altars - each altar use decreases your score.
FAQ
Q:where do I get journeyman's stones? I only have X of them, but it says I need 9? A:journeyman's stones only appear at the fearsowers in the first 9 levels of the game. If you have skipped at least one fearsower group in the game - you can not complete the second campaign (by teleporting to and killing The Dreadfather - the second campaign main evil guy).
Battles
Regular combat
If you have ever played Disciples: Sacred Lands - or rather - chess - you will be very familiar will combat system in Monsters' Den: Book of Dread. There are two rows to place your party members - front row and back row. Characters or creatures from the back row cannot be engaged in melee combat if there exists an alive party member/creature in a front row - thus front row serves as a "protection layer" for the back row, and heavily armored characters (like warriors and sometimes clerics) should be put in the front row.
Level bosses
Every level of a dungeon in the game contains a "Level boss" - a powerful monster with his close minions. These battles are usually way harder than regular dungeon encounters, though they are guaranteed to return an 'epic'(and sometimes legendary) quality item as loot - so they are often worth the effort, even if you skip the whole level.
Campaign bosses
Goals of both Book of Dread campaigns can be summarized as "kill the last boss". For Den of Corruption campaign it is "The Corruptor", and for Den of Terror campaign it is "The Dreadfather".
The Corruptor is the main evil character in the Den of Corruption campaign of Monsters' Den: Book of Dread. He can be encountered on level 9 of the campaign's dungeon after all other monsters on the level has been killed.
In addition to his powerful mass attacks, The Corruptor also summons evil copies of your party members to fight on his side.
The ways to beat them differ - from simple 'hacking' the copies, trying to use 'banish' conjurer spell to destroy clones, or even undressing your characters - so your characters will not be so powerful (and so their copies as well).
The Dreadfather is the source of all evil in Monsters' Den second campaign: Book of Terror. To encounter him, you need to kill monster groups with special monsters called 'Fearsowers' on every level from 1 to 9. After each victory you will be rewarded by a quest item called 'Journeymans Stone'. After you have 9 of these stones, they can be combined into one by dragging the stack of the items onto one of your characters in inventory screen. Dragging the resulting stone on a character again will result in your whole party being teleported to face the almighty Dreadfather - so be prepared.
"The almighty" Dreadfather is not as badass as it sounds. His main combat trick is the ability to raise all his Fearsower followers from the dead with one spell, effectively making him take almost no damage from melee attack - he is almost always protected by the defensive line of his fearsowers - so bring some ranged damage-dealing characters with you :)
Legendary Encounters
Hydra
Medusa
Minotaur
Items
Items names in Monsters' Den reflect their properties. Items are named by the following convention (similar to Diablo and World of Warcraft):
item <of suffix>
Prefixes and suffixes represent magical properties of the item. Material is only an 'informative part'.
Example:
Unerring planespine bow of lethality
Item quality
Items in Monsters' Den are of several different qualities, represented by color of their frame. Item quantity represents the amount of special prefixes and suffixes the item can have. Damaged and normal items have no prefixes/suffixes, magical items can have aither prefix or suffix, rare - both prefix and suffix, and unique and legendary items have many prefixes/suffixes on them (not shown in item name though).
Damaged (gray color) – This is a lowest grade of items. Almost like "normal", but with lower armor/damage.
Normal (white color) – A regular item. There are special altars that transform normal white items into a unique item (purple) - so it is usually a good idea to carry at least one normal item with the party at all time.
Magical (green color) – These items can have either a prefix or suffix.
Rare (blue color) – Both prefix and suffix are present. In a good combination of prefix/suffix these items can be very powerful (often even more powerful then certain unique/legendary) items
Unique (purple color) – Has multiple prefixes/suffixes which are not displayed in item name (item name and description are unique).
Legendary (orange color) – Very powerful items received only as an award for a completed campaign, a victory in a legendary encounter or a victory over a monster pack with several monster leaders, or receiving as a reward from a special altar.
There is also one 'different' item type - Quest items. They are represented by yellow color and cannot be thrown away as they are related to the main story of the campaign.
Item prefixes
Blinding - reduces target's accuracy (up to 20%)
Consecrated - can be used by cleric
Lightweight - less penalty on quickness
Protective - armor on rings and cloaks
Purifying - up to 30% poison resistance
Runed - up to 5 more power regeneration
Sharp - deals more damage
Soothing - adds health regeneration (very useful on low levels)
Staggering - up to 10% chance to stun target on hit
Thick - item has more armor
Unerring - up to +15 accuracy
Vampiric - drains health from target and gives percentage of it to wielder
Venomous - adds poison damage
Item suffixes
of Accuracy - up to +15 chance to hit
of Deftness - adds dexterity
of Discretion - wearer may retreat instantly
of Insight - adds Intellect
of Lethality - up to 10% chance to kill target on hit (all bosses are immune to this effect)
of Might - gives extra strength
of Reflection - up to 45% damage reflection
of Resilience - gives extra endurance points
of Speed - up to +10 quickness
of Tenacity - up to 30% stun resistance
Item specials
Daggers add damage bonuses from both strength and dexterity
Spears can be used to hit enemies with melee attacks while standing in the back row
Defeating the survival challenge
Party setup
How to beat the survival challenge? What is the best party selection in order to survive as long as it is possible? We will try to find the best solution, if it exists. Everyone is welcomed to comment and contribute if you feel that your party combination is more viable in survival mode then ours. First thing we need to understand: there will be casualties. As monsters grow in level and damage, eventually one of the party members will get killed by receiving an unlucky hits from two or three mobs in a row. And unlike the normal campaign, you will not be able to flee and resurrect the member with resurrection potions, altars or 'retreat to previous level' feature. Thus we need a mean to resurrect fallen party members directly in battle. Two classes that can resurrect are cleric and conjuror. Since cleric wears heavy armor and can also heal, we would prefer a cleric - but what if it will be _him_ who will die in battle? We definitely need both cleric and conjuror. There is no way around it if you want to reach at least 100th wave in survival mode. Now, we need a tank. Someone might claim that both cleric and conjuror's war golems can tank - though level 10 war golems are really puny tanks when it comes to taking hits from level 15 bosses, and clerics are quite susceptible to stun. When we pick a warrior as a tank, we will be able to move cleric to the second row and give him an incense instead of a shield to boost his healing abilities. And one more 'feature' of warriors that makes the argument totally into their side - they possess 'Execute' - a skill that causes an instantaneous kill on any monster except bosses if used with 100 power points. This means we will be able to kill 5k+ hp monsters in a single hit - only rogues are capable of that, and they need the target to be stunned before use. Warriors also possess 'Inspire' skill that boosts the damage of all party members by 20% and are also immune to stun with 'Adrenaline' skill. So, we have a warrior, cleric and conjuror. Who else? This is pretty much up to you. Mages are quite devastating when it comes to Ensorcelled Blade, can take some damage since they have a hefty +40% damage resistance self-buff, rogues are pretty good with Coup de Grace, and rangers are able to do hefty damage with Hail of Arrows and Force of Nature. Our personal choice are rangers - they also bring poison immunity to the party with Nature's Balm (as well as some extra hp regen buff which never hurts), and can even help with healing a little bit.
Skill and equipment selection
Warrior
Skills: Execute is a must-have. Inspire is valuable. There is no need to take Power Attack instead of Adrenaline, which is a permanent +30% damage buff, and it also grants our warrior stun immunity. Shield Wall might be useful on later waves and Cleave might trigger some Leadership attacks or even insta-death if warrior has a weapon with 'of lethality' suffix. Right, we should put the rest of skill points into Leadership over Armor Proficiency, because the bonus in damage reduction from Armor Proficiency is just minimal. Equipment: Mostly items with 'Thick' prefix (they have more armor). Shield - it gives a lot of armor and is also needed to perform Shield Wall skill. Some vampiric stuff will be good too - we're gonna do really serious damage with ours Executes. Stats: all into endurance. We need to survive - and damage will come.
Cleric
Skills: Heal is a must-have as well as Revive. Holy Light is mandatory - the cumulative effect of 30% accuracy reduction for every monster saves way more health to party members then any healing spell would restore (I have yet to see lethality proc off a Holy Light, but poison proc works off it - so you can poison all your enemies with a single spell as well.) Heal All might be useful later, and Anoint is quite cool to have when you are about to unleash your mage's Ensorcelled Blade or ranger's Hail of Arrows on the enemies. The rest of skill points should be put into Benediction - this is very important. Through the game you will be debuffed with 50% less damage and 30% less accuracy - and you better have Benediction or you risk running with that debuffed stats until the end. Smite is a matter of taste. I often run without it. Equipment: Mostly stuff with Runed prefix and +Intellect bonuses. An incenser - it gives a very nice bonus to every heal spell. A mace with poison on it - it will proc off Holy Light. Stats: all into endurance. We do need that hp in order to survive. Maybe just 2-3 points into intelligence.
Conjurer
Skills: Wall of shadows is absolutely needed to decurse your party members. Call soul is mandatory - to raise cleric if he falls. Eldritch Aegis to buff your party members with damage resistance and Manasprite to make these power regen rounds shorter. Optionally Refresh Energies. Equipment: Any. Bonuses to power regen from Runed items are welcomed though - but don't focus on dressing conjuror until you have your warrior, cleric and damage dealer (ranger in our case) dressed up. Conjuror will be fine even in his basic starter gray clothes (he will thank you for a nice staff though :) Stats: all into endurance. There's no much need in Intelligence - most of the time conjuror will be busy messing with his manasprites.
Ranger
Skills: Ranger damaging skill selection should depend on equipment. If there is a nice bow/crossbow of lethality available in the store - go with Hail of Arrows. If no such weapon is available, but there is a nice two-handed axe/spear - go with Power of Nature (we will be nice guys and don't play with unending money and shop restock glitch that will be described later). Nature's Balm is quite useful to grant all your party members poison immunity and a nice hp regen increase. While cool in regular campaigns, Swiftness is not that useful in survival. Pin, Pierce, Focus - it's all a matter of choice. Equipment: A nice bow/crossbow of lethality. (crossbow is preferred since speed doesn't matter that much in survival). Or alternatively, a nice axe/spear of accuracy. Accuracy is very important for ranger skills - most of them perform multiple hits, but with a lowered accuracy, so you should prefer +accuracy items to any other. (Accuracy level of about 125 really boosts your damage). More lethality stuff - check rings and quivers. Some runed items might be good as well - this will help you to cast heavy damaging skills almost every round of combat, and some vampirism is nice since your ranger is going to do a lot of damage. Stats: everything into endurance.
The idea of the game is simple - you have a party of 4 adventurers, and your goal is to... the goal differs :) In addition to original Monsters' Den campaign, Book of Dread features an addition dungeon quest and a new survival mode where you gather and equip your party and face endless hordes of monsters. Two main 'modes' of the game are exploration and combat. In exploration mode your party travels through the map of current dungeon level, gathers treasures, encounters enemies and meets special quests and encounters. In combat mode you are represented with a schematic representation of battle field, where your party members stand in two lines against two lines of enemies. Melee combat is only allowed between the connected lines - meaning that you can strategically position your ber and better armored troops to protect more fragile party members in the second line. (if you have ever played Disciples: Sacred Lands - or rather - chess - you will be very familiar will this combat style).
Game campaigns:
Original Monsters' Den campaign - The Den of Corruption
New campaign - The Den of Terror
Totally new survival mode - The Fall of Tellunos
First of all, you have to gather your party for the adventure. The game usually suggests you well-playable class combination as your party members (for example, the 'standard' Dungeons and Dragons one - Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Cleric). We will try to cover game classes, their strengths and weaknesses, as much as suggest some b class combinations, not only good to complete the game at expert difficulty, but even viable enough to 'survive' in the survival mode as long as you want :)
Classes:
Warrior
A heavy armored fighter, good not only to soak damage from the monsters, standing in the front line and protecting his fellow groupmates, but also do deal quite a hefty damage once equipped with two-handed weapons.
Notable skills: Defiance, Cleave, Shield Wall, Inspire, Execute, Leadership
Cleric
Clerics are the second class in the game that can wear heavy armor, and while potentially dealing less damage then warriors, clerics can heal the group, making it last way longer. The game on Expert difficulty is pretty hard without a cleric.
Notable skills: Heal, Holy Light, Revive
Mage
While wearing only light armor and usually possessing only a small amount of health, mages are a force to be reckoned with. Mages can attack from distance with staves, have a hefty arsenal of mass-damage spells and arguably possess the most devastating one-target skill in the game.
Notable skills: Electrical Storm, Cosmic Prison, Ensorcelled Blade, Power Siphon
Ranger
Rangers can wear medium armor, and can wield a big arsenal of weapons - from bows and crossbows to two-handed axes. Being ackquainted with some basic nature magic, rangers are also good as a secondary healer/buffer - their Nature's Balm and Swiftness buffs are very precious. They are also very fast units, often faster then rogues. And their Force of Nature skill can be compared to mage's Ensorcelled Blade by destructive power, while being quite cheaper energy-wise.
Notable skills: Hail of Arrows, Pin, Force of Nature
Rogue
Rogues are masters of daggers, poison and deception. They receive bonuses to damage from both strength and dexterity when wielding daggers, though they can be deadly with a bow as well (hint: Coup de Grace). They are also very fast, providing you with a chance to start combat first and often even dispatch one enemy before he even had a chance to move.
Notable skills: Pierce Defenses, Sneak Attack, Create Opening, Thief's Luck, Coup de Grace
Barbarian
Barbarians can be referred to as 'machines of destruction'. While not posessing any special 'total destruction' skills like mages or rangers, every attack of a properly equipped barbarian can be as devastating. They also possess two exceptional passive skills, making them very worthy at higher levels.
Notable skills: Reckless Fury, Whirlwind, Brutality, Vengeance
Conjuror
While wearing light armor, conjurors are good at building defensive walls in front of them by summoning endless amounts of creatures from the ether. Conjuror minions can perform any task - taking hits in front rows, restore health or mana to all party members, even removing cursing from your allies and cursing the enemies. Conjuror also possesses a spell that increases damage resistance of every party member, and can raise a fallen companion in the battle.
Notable skills: Manasprite, Eldritch Aegis, Call Soul
General tips:
Every time you explore a section of dungeon you haven't been to before it counts as a round of regeneration in combat.
If you have a cleric in party (or at least a ranger), you can use 'full regen' trick: kill all but one weak monster (preferrably of healer type so he doesn't do much damage), and then just skip turns healing everybody as needed to regen power points. This way you don't have to worry about healing between encounters (and don't have to use shrines, that decrease your score.)
There is no reason for a warrior to take Power Attack into a quickslots over Adrenaline. Adrenaline gives you 130% damage for the rest of the battle, plus a whooping stun immunity. You can take both Adrenaline and Power Attack, but don't take Power Attack over Adrenaline.
If you clean the whole level of monster presence, then on the next level you will have an option to retreat to the previous level and fully regenerate there (dead party members will be resurrected and restored to full hit points and power). This option is only available once for each level, but it is indeed very powerful.
Prefer not to regen at altars - each altar use decreases your score.
FAQ
Q:where do I get journeyman's stones? I only have X of them, but it says I need 9? A:journeyman's stones only appear at the fearsowers in the first 9 levels of the game. If you have skipped at least one fearsower group in the game - you can not complete the second campaign (by teleporting to and killing The Dreadfather - the second campaign main evil guy).
Battles
Regular combat
If you have ever played Disciples: Sacred Lands - or rather - chess - you will be very familiar will combat system in Monsters' Den: Book of Dread. There are two rows to place your party members - front row and back row. Characters or creatures from the back row cannot be engaged in melee combat if there exists an alive party member/creature in a front row - thus front row serves as a "protection layer" for the back row, and heavily armored characters (like warriors and sometimes clerics) should be put in the front row.
Level bosses
Every level of a dungeon in the game contains a "Level boss" - a powerful monster with his close minions. These battles are usually way harder than regular dungeon encounters, though they are guaranteed to return an 'epic'(and sometimes legendary) quality item as loot - so they are often worth the effort, even if you skip the whole level.
Campaign bosses
Goals of both Book of Dread campaigns can be summarized as "kill the last boss". For Den of Corruption campaign it is "The Corruptor", and for Den of Terror campaign it is "The Dreadfather".
The Corruptor is the main evil character in the Den of Corruption campaign of Monsters' Den: Book of Dread. He can be encountered on level 9 of the campaign's dungeon after all other monsters on the level has been killed.
In addition to his powerful mass attacks, The Corruptor also summons evil copies of your party members to fight on his side.
The ways to beat them differ - from simple 'hacking' the copies, trying to use 'banish' conjurer spell to destroy clones, or even undressing your characters - so your characters will not be so powerful (and so their copies as well).
The Dreadfather is the source of all evil in Monsters' Den second campaign: Book of Terror. To encounter him, you need to kill monster groups with special monsters called 'Fearsowers' on every level from 1 to 9. After each victory you will be rewarded by a quest item called 'Journeymans Stone'. After you have 9 of these stones, they can be combined into one by dragging the stack of the items onto one of your characters in inventory screen. Dragging the resulting stone on a character again will result in your whole party being teleported to face the almighty Dreadfather - so be prepared.
"The almighty" Dreadfather is not as badass as it sounds. His main combat trick is the ability to raise all his Fearsower followers from the dead with one spell, effectively making him take almost no damage from melee attack - he is almost always protected by the defensive line of his fearsowers - so bring some ranged damage-dealing characters with you :)
Legendary Encounters
Hydra
Medusa
Minotaur
Items
Items names in Monsters' Den reflect their properties. Items are named by the following convention (similar to Diablo and World of Warcraft):
item <of suffix>
Prefixes and suffixes represent magical properties of the item. Material is only an 'informative part'.
Example:
Unerring planespine bow of lethality
Item quality
Items in Monsters' Den are of several different qualities, represented by color of their frame. Item quantity represents the amount of special prefixes and suffixes the item can have. Damaged and normal items have no prefixes/suffixes, magical items can have aither prefix or suffix, rare - both prefix and suffix, and unique and legendary items have many prefixes/suffixes on them (not shown in item name though).
Damaged (gray color) – This is a lowest grade of items. Almost like "normal", but with lower armor/damage.
Normal (white color) – A regular item. There are special altars that transform normal white items into a unique item (purple) - so it is usually a good idea to carry at least one normal item with the party at all time.
Magical (green color) – These items can have either a prefix or suffix.
Rare (blue color) – Both prefix and suffix are present. In a good combination of prefix/suffix these items can be very powerful (often even more powerful then certain unique/legendary) items
Unique (purple color) – Has multiple prefixes/suffixes which are not displayed in item name (item name and description are unique).
Legendary (orange color) – Very powerful items received only as an award for a completed campaign, a victory in a legendary encounter or a victory over a monster pack with several monster leaders, or receiving as a reward from a special altar.
There is also one 'different' item type - Quest items. They are represented by yellow color and cannot be thrown away as they are related to the main story of the campaign.
Item prefixes
Blinding - reduces target's accuracy (up to 20%)
Consecrated - can be used by cleric
Lightweight - less penalty on quickness
Protective - armor on rings and cloaks
Purifying - up to 30% poison resistance
Runed - up to 5 more power regeneration
Sharp - deals more damage
Soothing - adds health regeneration (very useful on low levels)
Staggering - up to 10% chance to stun target on hit
Thick - item has more armor
Unerring - up to +15 accuracy
Vampiric - drains health from target and gives percentage of it to wielder
Venomous - adds poison damage
Item suffixes
of Accuracy - up to +15 chance to hit
of Deftness - adds dexterity
of Discretion - wearer may retreat instantly
of Insight - adds Intellect
of Lethality - up to 10% chance to kill target on hit (all bosses are immune to this effect)
of Might - gives extra strength
of Reflection - up to 45% damage reflection
of Resilience - gives extra endurance points
of Speed - up to +10 quickness
of Tenacity - up to 30% stun resistance
Item specials
Daggers add damage bonuses from both strength and dexterity
Spears can be used to hit enemies with melee attacks while standing in the back row
Defeating the survival challenge
Party setup
How to beat the survival challenge? What is the best party selection in order to survive as long as it is possible? We will try to find the best solution, if it exists. Everyone is welcomed to comment and contribute if you feel that your party combination is more viable in survival mode then ours. First thing we need to understand: there will be casualties. As monsters grow in level and damage, eventually one of the party members will get killed by receiving an unlucky hits from two or three mobs in a row. And unlike the normal campaign, you will not be able to flee and resurrect the member with resurrection potions, altars or 'retreat to previous level' feature. Thus we need a mean to resurrect fallen party members directly in battle. Two classes that can resurrect are cleric and conjuror. Since cleric wears heavy armor and can also heal, we would prefer a cleric - but what if it will be _him_ who will die in battle? We definitely need both cleric and conjuror. There is no way around it if you want to reach at least 100th wave in survival mode. Now, we need a tank. Someone might claim that both cleric and conjuror's war golems can tank - though level 10 war golems are really puny tanks when it comes to taking hits from level 15 bosses, and clerics are quite susceptible to stun. When we pick a warrior as a tank, we will be able to move cleric to the second row and give him an incense instead of a shield to boost his healing abilities. And one more 'feature' of warriors that makes the argument totally into their side - they possess 'Execute' - a skill that causes an instantaneous kill on any monster except bosses if used with 100 power points. This means we will be able to kill 5k+ hp monsters in a single hit - only rogues are capable of that, and they need the target to be stunned before use. Warriors also possess 'Inspire' skill that boosts the damage of all party members by 20% and are also immune to stun with 'Adrenaline' skill. So, we have a warrior, cleric and conjuror. Who else? This is pretty much up to you. Mages are quite devastating when it comes to Ensorcelled Blade, can take some damage since they have a hefty +40% damage resistance self-buff, rogues are pretty good with Coup de Grace, and rangers are able to do hefty damage with Hail of Arrows and Force of Nature. Our personal choice are rangers - they also bring poison immunity to the party with Nature's Balm (as well as some extra hp regen buff which never hurts), and can even help with healing a little bit.
Skill and equipment selection
Warrior
Skills: Execute is a must-have. Inspire is valuable. There is no need to take Power Attack instead of Adrenaline, which is a permanent +30% damage buff, and it also grants our warrior stun immunity. Shield Wall might be useful on later waves and Cleave might trigger some Leadership attacks or even insta-death if warrior has a weapon with 'of lethality' suffix. Right, we should put the rest of skill points into Leadership over Armor Proficiency, because the bonus in damage reduction from Armor Proficiency is just minimal. Equipment: Mostly items with 'Thick' prefix (they have more armor). Shield - it gives a lot of armor and is also needed to perform Shield Wall skill. Some vampiric stuff will be good too - we're gonna do really serious damage with ours Executes. Stats: all into endurance. We need to survive - and damage will come.
Cleric
Skills: Heal is a must-have as well as Revive. Holy Light is mandatory - the cumulative effect of 30% accuracy reduction for every monster saves way more health to party members then any healing spell would restore (I have yet to see lethality proc off a Holy Light, but poison proc works off it - so you can poison all your enemies with a single spell as well.) Heal All might be useful later, and Anoint is quite cool to have when you are about to unleash your mage's Ensorcelled Blade or ranger's Hail of Arrows on the enemies. The rest of skill points should be put into Benediction - this is very important. Through the game you will be debuffed with 50% less damage and 30% less accuracy - and you better have Benediction or you risk running with that debuffed stats until the end. Smite is a matter of taste. I often run without it. Equipment: Mostly stuff with Runed prefix and +Intellect bonuses. An incenser - it gives a very nice bonus to every heal spell. A mace with poison on it - it will proc off Holy Light. Stats: all into endurance. We do need that hp in order to survive. Maybe just 2-3 points into intelligence.
Conjurer
Skills: Wall of shadows is absolutely needed to decurse your party members. Call soul is mandatory - to raise cleric if he falls. Eldritch Aegis to buff your party members with damage resistance and Manasprite to make these power regen rounds shorter. Optionally Refresh Energies. Equipment: Any. Bonuses to power regen from Runed items are welcomed though - but don't focus on dressing conjuror until you have your warrior, cleric and damage dealer (ranger in our case) dressed up. Conjuror will be fine even in his basic starter gray clothes (he will thank you for a nice staff though :) Stats: all into endurance. There's no much need in Intelligence - most of the time conjuror will be busy messing with his manasprites.
Ranger
Skills: Ranger damaging skill selection should depend on equipment. If there is a nice bow/crossbow of lethality available in the store - go with Hail of Arrows. If no such weapon is available, but there is a nice two-handed axe/spear - go with Power of Nature (we will be nice guys and don't play with unending money and shop restock glitch that will be described later). Nature's Balm is quite useful to grant all your party members poison immunity and a nice hp regen increase. While cool in regular campaigns, Swiftness is not that useful in survival. Pin, Pierce, Focus - it's all a matter of choice. Equipment: A nice bow/crossbow of lethality. (crossbow is preferred since speed doesn't matter that much in survival). Or alternatively, a nice axe/spear of accuracy. Accuracy is very important for ranger skills - most of them perform multiple hits, but with a lowered accuracy, so you should prefer +accuracy items to any other. (Accuracy level of about 125 really boosts your damage). More lethality stuff - check rings and quivers. Some runed items might be good as well - this will help you to cast heavy damaging skills almost every round of combat, and some vampirism is nice since your ranger is going to do a lot of damage. Stats: everything into endurance.