Madness Annihilator Guide for a 30 Wave Arena [1.7.6]

[LordKarasuman]

Overview/Strategy
Why Madness? Unlike other campaigns, Arena on Madness is actually quite doable. It still gets somewhat crazy, but it's quite a bit more within reason than Age of Ascendancy (or any other campaign, really).

Why 30 Wave Arena? I'm here for a good time, not a long time.

If you want the shorthand of what you need to do in order to clear Madness, you have to understand the limitations of your equipment. Namely, that you only get the one Steam Generator that gives you 5 steam a turn. You're not getting anything better, or even any more steam generators at all. Unless you use addons, but some would argue that's cheating.

What does this limitation mean? It means that you don't want anything that drains Steam-- i.e. most Sustains. You need to be getting that Steam back in order to keep your offense going. This means you aren't even getting access to Exoskeleton. Defense-wise, you're relying more on free stuff (Static Shock, Reactive Armor, etc). Now, you're probably asking yourself, wait a minute. You don't get Rocket Pod. You don't get Miasma, or really anything from Chemical Warfare. Death From Above still works but you have 12 levels from the time Artillery becomes available until you can actually use it. So what do you do?

Turrets. Specifically, Overlock will tear through mobs handily. But don't open with it. Instead, throw out a Flame Turret and Upgrade it. Then, as soon as it's off cooldown, throw down a Steamgun Turret. THEN Overlock. Then use your Steamgen, then Block to activate Static Shock. Watch things melt. This is your bread and butter tactic throughout the entirety of Arena.

Keep moving unless you're using talents, keeping track of projectiles thrown out by enemies. Don't throw out Medic Turret unless you think you're not gonna make it; you need to make sure you have enough Steam to keep doing stuff, after all. It may be possible that you don't kill all enemies within the first round of using Overclock. Simply wait for durations to run out and repeat the above process, unless you've done something like unlock DFA or you have access to disablers such as a Storm wand or Acid Wave rune.

Pick up Acid Wave runes (and/or early Healing/Regeneration that you may or may not replace later) especially if you're Cornac. Also, don't underestimate Lightning Storm wands, or indeed any items with actives that you may not necessarily have thought about using in regular campaigns. You may get surprising mileage out of them.

Assuming you're always resetting the Arena so that you fight Rej as the final boss, you may want to use Hunker Down in addition to your regular Turrets. Either that, or go in on him with whatever other option you chose to invest in (such as Death From Above).




Leveling Guide:
Assumes Cornac.

Autoloader 1. Static Shock 1. Grenade Launcher 1. Deploy Turret to 2 immediately. You don't need the point in Heavy Weapons, so you can feel free to remove it (at least temporarily?).

Deploy Turret to 4.

Overclock to 4.

Upgrade to 4.

Take Steamtech/Mecharachnid as soon as it's available. Get a point in Mecharachnid ASAP. You might also want a point in Reactive Armor at this point.

Mecharachnid to 4. Stormcoil Generator to 4. Mecharachnid Chassis to 4. Chassis to 4 is the most important one of these. Use the melee Mecharachnid. Make sure you get Automated Repair System to 5/5 as soon as possible. The rest of its talents can be chosen to your taste.

You'll get one Prodigy, I recommend Adept in order to give Overclock a higher extended duration for your turrets. On that note, get Overclock to 5.

Hunker Down to 1.

At this point, you need to figure out where to put your remaining points. You have some options:

a) beeline to 1/5 AED to stop a lethal hit
b) put more points in Hunker Down
c) max out your existing Turret and Mecharachnid talents
d) go for 5/5 Death From Above
e) go for Automated Defenses for the slim chance at silencing something that needs it

Pray you don't run into some jerk like Gunsnake during the run, and pray that the Arena bosses don't spawn with classes you can't deal with. Burning Hex in particular can be catastrophic to be hit by.


Race
Cornac, so that you can smoothly open up your Inscriptions to get 1-2 Acid Wave runes which will let you handle the final boss Rej much more easily.
Yeek, Skeleton, and Dwarf might also work.


Stats
CUN > DEX. At 30 Wave Arena you won't find room to invest in another stat.


Talents:
Steamtech / Magnetism - 1/0/0/0 early, 1+/0/0/0 later
Steamtech / Demoltion - 1/0/0/0 early, 1/1+/0/0 later
Steamtech / Gadgets - 1/0/0/0 early, 1+/1/1/1+ later
Steamtech / Turrets - 4/4/4/0 ASAP, 4+/5/4+/1+ later
Steamtech / Heavy Weapons - 0-1/0/0/0 early, 1/1/1+/0 later
Steamtech / Mecharachnid - 4/4/4/0 ASAP, 4+/4+/4+/0 later
Steamtech / Artillery - 0/0/0/0 early, either 0/0/0/0 later or 1/1/1/5 later
Steamtech / Chemical Warfare - 0/0/0/0

Technique / Combat Training - 0/2/0/2/0/0 early, 0/2/1+/5/0/0 later
Cunning / Survival - 0/0/0/0
Steamtech / Blacksmith - 0/0/0/0
Steamtech / Engineering - 1/1/1/5 ASAP, then add points depending on schematics you find
Steamtech / Chemisty - 1/1/1/1/5 ASAP, then add points depending on schematics you find
Steamtech / Engineering - 0/0/0/0 early, 1/1/1/5 later


Prodigies
Adept is solid because it boosts Turret durations, damage, and lets you get mileage out of talents that have minimum point investment.

Master of Disasters is an easily available damage steroid. I don't find it better than Adept at all for Arena, but you might find some mileage out of it.



Character Sheets
Madness/Roguelike (1.7.6): W