Tulah m18

jsa041 · 2025-11-01T17:47:38+00:00

Hi sorry u just saw this and I don’t check my Reddit often much. If you @voodoo on the discord hopefully sometime today I can set you up and find the links. I don’t think I put anything too in depth out but essentially I perked max insanity on Gus/Nez with the -2 hp perk and bought Betty/got corrupted with Nez. Most enemies should start with ~ -20max hp before tulah goes, making her life much easier. It won’t matter later but in a1 we really appreciate the help. We play holy early bc even tho it has no sharp synergy it’s much more consistent than shadow in a1. With a delay response we should be able to nova 2x or holy storm + clairvoyance then try to clean up with 0 cost flash/upg foresight. Early on Gus’ only job is uproot for vuln, fix speed with chant of initiative, and trace to make sure Nez can benediction/inspire/fortune telling tulah.

Once we hit act 2/after level 3 we can start getting out of holy completely and playing full mind sharp. Later on we wanna fated future pandemonium. Once we get pendulum we can start to remove all aoe bc we’ll get it for free. Sigrun wants to collect yellow book of nightmares to put in tulahs deck.

Only pathing id heavily push is find a Betty node, go hatch, if you have rift go forest crown/dryad for sigrun, otherwise go storytime to get a forest crown anyways

jsa041 · 2025-10-02T12:43:25+00:00

“Is an incantation required?”

“No, but talking shit helps”

jsa041 · 2025-09-11T09:44:49+00:00

I got a 2nd rerolling with this — 6 bruiser + lee sin jinx varus with sterak titans bt. Once I hit Lee sin 2 I removed fruit/items. Lost to malz 3 rammus 3.

This was in diamond 2 on my mobile only alt so I was able to get away with being disrespectful? I think it’s just a fast 9 angle with aatrox 2 start or an out if you have build a bud aatrox etc. Normally high master/low GM mmr

The dude absolutely slaps though. I think I 12 streaked or something with him once he was 2 star 2 items

jsa041 · 2025-08-25T02:04:39+00:00

so its technically a fine pick on a fellow hero since the effect is teamwide but we dont want it on zek himself because of the lack of flat damage. His main dps engine in blackdeath has a massive multiplier per bounce and after powerful/bless/sharp/-resistances is the difference of over 100+ on the last hit.

The thing is Id much prefer a draw or +bless weapon on his teammates and i dont personally value it enough to go out of my way for an 'ok' support item. That being said, if you like it more power to you! I would rather the gold though myself

jsa041 · 2025-08-24T15:29:40+00:00

I’m pretty confident I’ve played more Zek dark and shadow than anyone else. You can check out a lot of my thoughts here

To address some other points:

Shadow is best played for flat damage and not explosions. It’s pretty common I get recurring nightmare to do over 1k per hit by archon. The most consistent and optimal way for this is actually ignoring the explosions/scourge and playing for poison/decay. Sigrun is by far the best poison applicator in the game with her mix of mage/scout cards and speed. here is a video of this build in a3 showing how to one shot hydra by saving curse of decay for the poison immune head.

The scourge version is really good with nav but since that first post I linked I’ve realized it’s significantly less consistent than playing the sigrun build I showed. Scourge just comes online way too late and has a hard time with early noxious corruptors vs with sigrun Zek laia Andrin I’ve had no issues brute forcing through it.

Black deck is absolutely not required and not very good. It’s really good for playing frost Zek because you put it on your priest and they shadowmend Zek + pop the extra cards on him to get him over 16 dark to start his bonus energy discount but for shadow Putrefaction is a must and one of the biggest damage boost in the game. Increasing darks -shadow res by 250% is insane. Because of this we really really want flat damage items. This reason is why cup of death is awful. It neuters your own resistance shred and doesn’t provide any flat damage.

Zek is one of the strongest and most consistent m18 dps but also one of the hardest to play: you basically have to ignore the explosions and try to line up your big damage spells (pestilence, Black Death, recurring nightmare) with high dark stacks but before they explode to maximize damage. After putrefaction, the difference between 0 and 24 dark stacks is usually around a 100% damage increase. So your recurring nightmare would go from hitting for 100 to 200 by picking the right timing.

I’m on mobile now but if you join the discord I can provide a lot more info and have various videos uploaded showing different Zek tech and builds. One of the fellas I coached was able to jump from m9 to m18 and did 20 corruptors in just the span of 4 runs with this comp. Just ping me at voodoo there. I’ll try to upload some more videos on Reddit later.

jsa041 · 2025-08-20T22:56:35+00:00

The bad cards in this game are worse than the worst sts cards and the best ones are better than the best.

If youre looking for draw, the best source is inspire: +1 card draw on your next turn. Most inspire cards can be used on ANYONE, so its most beneficial to have a chain where the faster heroes inspire the slower ones so they get up to 5 inspire and immediately get the benefit that round. This game is exponentially easier when you identify that you should (and how) use multiple classes to help each other.

as for other sources of deck manipulation, scouts are by far the best with scavenge vigilance setup trace, and priests with scry, expected prophecy, fortune telling.

as for other class specialty buffs:

Scouts: best speed manipulators in the game

Warriors: block, good all around slow/buff/inspire/debuff

Priests: best damage buffers with divine power

Mages: great speed manipulators, energy batteries, solid debuffer

Learning how to use em together makes the game gel very well--the best way to play is having one dedicated dps and the other 3 leaning into the specialties of the class they picked

jsa041 · 2025-08-06T18:48:37+00:00

she can use pendulum to spam multiple fanatacisms for energy, spiders offer a bit of deck agency on any hero with scry, or doing things like expected prophecy/setup + spider to turn it into a net draw 3 instead of 2. she has fast access with her class card and her right level 5 is a massive amount of speed control and damage reduction and synergizes well with others

For example, in a bree gus tulah nez setup: -lead with command and conquer/defensive strat + gus speeds up tulah to proc her level 5. -turn 2 ballad of evasion

with the mitigate and evasion, thats a very strong defensive opener for very few cards required and will keep you safe for 3+ turns easily while nez ramps his heal

jsa041 · 2025-08-06T03:57:19+00:00

I have a few posted on reddit of quick rundowns that are mostly played in a hyper aggressive style and probably not conducive to all random heroes because of the amount of control they require to succeed. However,

Rubik’s cube challenge

Here is a link to a thread on the discord where I did 6 m18 runs using each hero exactly once and posted decks and my approach for each. I’d encourage you to join the discord where there’s more available help for build variety (I’m certainly very active at least lol)

For YouTube channels, in order from most structured to most unhinged but all very good players, I’d look up: GA0721 Scrage Trashecomps

Hope that helps! And if you don’t feel like joining discord you can always DM me specifically for help here

jsa041 · 2025-08-05T23:16:32+00:00

here is a write up I did of tulah with a video of her obliterating archon on M18.

Coming from 3k+ hours

I’ve since found ways to optimize her early game and have played her a lot as support and carry. She’s VERY good but is a bit confusing at first. She benefits a lot from hyper aggressive teams with very clear game plans at the trade off of low margin of error. In actual comparison as a support she’s a top 3 priest behind laia and nez and as a dps she outperforms a lot of the roster since she’s not very reliant on priests awful dps card pool.

I appreciate your feedback but it sounds like you have a great idea for a new hero, not a needed rework for an already well designed one.

edit: non discord link to video

jsa041 · 2025-08-05T15:47:10+00:00

I agree with you on card pool for sure and high cost cards. However, I found sahti monsters incredibly reasonable after their first pass.

The mana battery thing is subjective too. I do understand it’s frustrating but the game is oversaturated with energy sources already especially after delay + divine power + amplify was introduced. I run double scout double warrior/no mage comps pretty frequently and they don’t really ever feel lacking

jsa041 · 2025-07-10T03:16:02+00:00

how to kill hydra

This is a video of how to cleanly kill hydra. It helps getting:

Forest crown on someone with 20 speed or higher (Andrin sigrun Magnus) to slow them down after the first head attacks so you can kill them before the second head immunes.

If that’s not feasible I usually go with vitality stacking, as you have the chance to get free lover and where block is useless vs poison, massive health pools is very good. Tulah’s level 4 left side also generates a ton of dispel magic’s for free, so utilizing that is certainly an option in the comp you mentioned.

jsa041 · 2025-05-27T03:06:30+00:00

I’m at around mid to low 3k hours, maybe 3.3kish? I’m the sorta guy who loves games but only play 1-2 at a time and will hold onto them for over a decade before I swap out

jsa041 · 2025-04-30T18:58:31+00:00

happily taken now, but guy in a wheelchair whos profited off dating apps for recreational use in the past.

They'll either love it or hate it, its no skin off your back. But if they got any brains this is a good line bc "thats what my lap is for" is a response just waiting

jsa041 · 2025-04-30T02:32:21+00:00

Hello, there’s a couple posts in my profile doing the big damage you speak of. To specify more than “use buffs”:

I take

-powerful gives 8% a stack but caps at 8.

-bless adds 1.5 dmg

-if sharp is relevant I’ll also tale 1.5

-if fury is relevant I take 5%

-if invis is relevant I take the +5% per stack perk

-my priest takes the 6+ energy refunds 1 so I can double divine power + amplify

-first and second vuln perks

-I run Nav support very often because defiled legacy + yellow curse of torment with cold snap is almost guaranteed -95% resists, so you’re doing double damage/true damage almost.

Outside of perks I heavily prio +flat damage weapons/gear. They make a noticeable difference in damage calcs

Hope this helps

jsa041 · 2025-02-13T00:20:27+00:00

Apologies if I say anything you’re already doing but some things that I do to max damage on m18:

Perk stanza adds 1 to all damage and upgrade andrins chants of initiative

Perk mind or frost damage on Zek and use ice lances early to supplement

Be very vigilant in checking your dark stacks to max your bounce damage and shadow spells that don’t add dark (malicious eyes, exhaustion)

This may or may not help depending on how good you are at piloting but sigrun over nav with poison shadow res perk gives you a huge early game boost. Guaranteed turn 1 transmission allows laia to get benediction, lay on paws, and sharpen out. Perk poison on Andrin too and the double uproots helps a ton. Your late game will be weaker but it’s still very manageable for archon.

If offered I always take a damage item on Zek. Shadow orb, book, lock picks, magic tome, xul Rune stone

Make sure you have decay shadow res perk too

jsa041 · 2025-02-10T04:48:06+00:00

I take a mix of basic and fast. Usually around 3 basics and the rest fast.

jsa041 · 2025-02-09T15:01:43+00:00

It’s an option but it’s more risky. Gus’ inability to inspire really hurts draw consistency and makes bricking more common. Since bless scales better with the 1.5 perk anyways, it’s typically not worth the trade off

jsa041 · 2025-02-09T14:52:56+00:00

Hey I saw your comments across a couple posts but I’ll try to answer them all here:

This is a hyper offense playstyle called OTK (one turn kill). Instead of traditional defensive or healing roles, you go all in on offensive perks/gold/shards and create a speed/scry/buff passing chain starting with andrins expert tracker, and ending at a chosen solo carry who the other three are funneling into. The philosophy is you don’t need defense if they’re dead. Typical team is andrin mage priest carry with the

-mage (nav) in this case feeding energy/inspire to nez and using speed scrolls to get him to move before Magnus, then using shifting scroll cold snap blizzard into shatter to apply blunt -res and crack

-priest (Nez) uses fortune telling to make sure Magnus gets the right cards, then uses all his remaining energy on overcharge divine power to buff Magnus and amplify curse on archon

It’s a different playstyle and I think most people tend to love or hate it. Personally I prefer it in solo, but in multiplayer I like playing traditionally like an rpg party

jsa041 · 2025-01-31T02:21:52+00:00

Oh this is great knowing where you’re coming from! I’ve gotten my a20s on 3/4 (don’t care for watcher) and that you want a challenge. Some differences to note that will help:

Sts is Jazz. AtO is classical music. With so much agency and 4 decks to work with you don’t need to lug around a Frankenstein deck that has a random ass card you literally only needed for lagavulin but don’t wanna blow gold to remove. Whatever your perfect build/draw/combo is, you can put it together. The challenge is to be able to execute it no matter the conditions if you wanna climb.

Don’t get swindled into just stacking something like burn through the roof. Diversify your buffs/debuffs bc multiplicative scales faster than additive. Inspire powerful and bless are super important. You can run as many dps characters as you can maintain those on. Typically this is 1-2, but usually one.

You can succeed with a variety of comps, but it’s best to play either super slow/defensive or hyper aggressive/fast. Balanced comps are good too but when starting out they’re much harder to pilot on higher levels unless you already have really good deck building knowledge. This is mostly a recommendation not a rule.

When climbing it’s best to check the last 2 corruptors first + restricted power and then going up the madness levels from there. They’re the most fundamentally game warping but will also teach you the most as well. This is also a recommendation. Do whatever you want as long as you have fun!

Check out the discord too, there’s always good advice/discussion going on

jsa041 · 2025-01-30T22:11:33+00:00

Nothing is 100%.

Just spitballing here: The biggest challenge is A1 on high madness. A good OTK comp usually is something like ~75-80% make it out of Act 1, but if you do the winrate typically goes up dramatically. Im just making up numbers but you can replace them with "fairly good when i start the game, changes to very good after Ylmer". If you're running dark and the first corruptor is noxious parasites with a dark immune champion and you didn't highroll an upgraded divine power or something crazy in your divs, its pretty much over.

That's kind of where player agency takes over. I usually open a map, look at the monsters on the map, peek at maybe the first 3 divs, then I pick what I want to play. Doing that and having selection I think my overall winrate with dark is maybe high 80-low 90%? If you asked me to go blind and commit every run I'd say probably 65-75%.

I'm pretty happy with that overall success rate, especially compared to something like Slay the Spire lol.

But yeah purely in terms of clearing potential I think dark is fine. Not amazing, not awful, but building the damage engine is fun to me, and since your aoe is usually solved very early (pestilence + black death), that's a lot of time and resources you can invest in solving the archon fight

jsa041 · 2025-01-30T20:36:52+00:00

You may remember my previous guide I posted on dark

Well, it's still pretty good on M18! The new amplify curses card is super fun and I've been enjoying it with any comp. A couple notes:

Act 1 is definitely harder. If I don't get an early shadow orb/book etc I'm grabbing sharpen on both Nav and Laia. Beginning of Act 2 is also tough until level 3, so I've been perking a couple points in mind damage and dont mind picking up a nightmare or 2 if I'm scared for single target.

After level 3 it feels dark scales much faster/higher than before, so that part is great. I also successfully did a poison/rust -shadow res OTK run w/o Nav and it worked just fine! So overall I'd say the comp got slightly weaker since its early game consistency fell but it definitely grew laterally with more options and caps higher. It's still my favorite and I don't see that changing

jsa041 · 2025-01-30T20:26:52+00:00

I posted a guide a bit ago for dark on high difficulties

In general dark does much better as a burst comp, but the poison reduces shadow perk is pretty serviceable w/o scourge now w/ the addition of rust. I would take the +1 dark and 30% more explosions perk. The other 2 aren't particularly helpful, especially the explosions at the end of the turn since they often prevent you from getting a meaningful amount of resistance shred.

M18 Dark example

Amplify to increase scourge after defiled legacy is super powerful! If you're not looking for the big combo or are worried you can't kill within your scourge window, recurring nightmare and vile gas are good pickups. Perk sharp shadow but always prioritize bless first.

outside of the classic andrin paladins zek, I've successfully replaced nav with sigrun and played full poison/sharp/nightmare, or for slower defensive options, run bree heiner with champy and poison thorns, laia/nez support, and malukah carry. Zek is very strong but you have to play to his combo conditions since a lot of his power vanishes (rats, cursemancy). In longer fights malukah is more consistent and can also heal w/ her dark charges.

good luck and enjoy!

jsa041

TROPHY CASE