Gau's Attacker Guide

[Gau Cho]

Welcome to Gau’s Barbarian Assault Attacker Guide for Leeches. This guide goes through the fundamental strategies as a solo attacker using the Magic shortbow (i) meta. This guide assumes you've played at least a few rounds as an attacker.

This guide is broken down into parts. After you have completed each part, you should play a few games in order to master that part before moving on to the next part. This guide goes into some of the most advanced techniques for an attacker. In order to join our clan, ONLY KNOWLEDGE OF PARTS 1-5 ARE REQUIRED. The rest of the guide aims to be as comprehensive as possible to cover everything about the attacker role for speedrunning and nitty-gritty optimization. Parts 6-8 are OPTIONAL for attackers to use. Don't be intimidated by the length!

• PART 1
  • Background
  • Requirements
  • Gear + Inventory Setup
  • Scroll Order
  • Timer Script
• PART 2
  • Basic Gameplay (Waves 1-9)
  • Magic comp bow & Magic shortbow (i)
  • Wave 9 Survival
  • Wave 10 (One-egging as Non-scroller)
• PART 3
  • Lower Wave Killing Order
  • Wave 10 (Egg Force & Egg Dupe) (Mind shield)
• PART 4
  • Dinh's bulwark
  • Wave 10 A/C Block
• PART 5
  • Crystal halberd
  • Wave 5-9 A/C Block
  • Monster Spawns (Dinh's bulwark and Crystal halberd)
• PART 6
  • Dragon claws
  • Dark bow (Call change)
  • Dark bow (Wave 1)
• PART 7
  • Force-ending Waves
  • Scrawled note
  • Mind-shield-loop
• PART 8
  • Shrink-me-quick potion
  • Advanced Penance Ranger tagging
  • Scythe of vitur

Example Elite Attacker Gameplay
Note this incorporates elements from parts 1-7 and so this goes way beyond what we expect for a simple attacker trial. It does demonstrate all the parts of the guide well though. Note that the crystal halberd mechanics in this video predate the Crystal halberd patch on 2018 June 7 and so the playstyle with the halberd is slightly different. However, the Crystal halberd section later in this guide is up to date.

Credits

• Big T - Dinh's bulwark pioneer
• Dren - Dark bow discoverer
• flunch - Dragon claws, proofreading, inventory setup modifications, clips, playtesting
• henke - Crystal halberd pioneer, Scythe of vitur
• Pahy - Fighter safespot discoverer
• Sedation (Aptitude) - Videos for forcing, Crystal halberd pioneer
• Westies - Shrink-looping
• Whurse (with henke18) - Forcing mechanics

History

• 2018 Jan 20 - Pre-update theoretical gear guides.
• 2018 Jan 25 - Barbarian Assault arrow update day. Initial release of Attacker guide with slight modifications over the course of the week.
• 2018 May 22 - Forcing mechanics and guide
• 2018 Jun 9 - Crystal halberd guide update following Crystal halberd buff/nerf
• 2018 Jun 9 - Archers ring (i) no longer recommended
• 2018 Jun 12 - Whole guide revamped. Saradomin godsword no longer recommended.
• 2018 Jul 16 - Scythe of vitur generally not recommended except for very niche uses
• 2018 Aug 21 - Typos and mention of RuneLite timer
• 2018 Aug 24 - Updated Dinh's and Crystal halberd parts to reflect changing meta on special attack timing.
• 2018 Sep 13 - Further updates to Dinh's and Crystal halberd special attack timings.
• 2018 Nov 12 - Part 8 added: Shrink-me-quick potion, optimal Ranger tagging and Scythe of vitur niche uses now discussed
• 2019 Feb 9 - Shrink-me-quick potion has been given a more prominent role. Dragon claws have been moved to the miscellanious niche item section. Ferocious gloves have been added. The whole guide has been tweaked to be more up to date and to discuss tag order more prominently.

Let me know if there's anything I should change or update!

Cheers ~Gau

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 1

Background
Following the Barbarian Assault changes on January 25, 2018, the Magic shortbow (i) became the new fastest way of performing the attacker role. Ranged is significantly faster than both melee and magic.

As this guide explains the basics of the attacker role in this new meta, it may not cover some advanced techniques or strategies. In addition, this guide focuses on playing as a solo attacker. That being said, many parts of this guide may apply when you play with two attackers.

This guide assumes you know the basics of Barbarian Assault and of the attacker role. That is, you have casually played a few games as an attacker.

Requirements
In order to play efficiently, you should not expect the healer to heal you on any wave. Therefore, you must be able to tank damage from the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. In order to avoid dying, it is recommended to have at least 90 Ranged, 75 Defence and 90 Hitpoints. However, a higher Ranged and Defence level is even better.

It is absolutely crucial to level up your attacker role to level 5. At level 5, you do an additional 5 damage per attack, regardless of if your attack hits or not. The bonus from level 5 in the attacker role accounts for over 20% of your damage output.

Gear
Please refer to the following table for the recommended basic equipment setup. The most important items are in black. Elite void is strongly recommended over regular void. Make sure to prioritize at least getting the bolded items.

Do I Really Need To Get This Upgrade?
This section gives you an idea of how much faster you will be per round (per 12-15 minutes) if you add the following gear/levels. By the end of all the parts, we will have explained the essentials to all these listed items, so do not worry if you are unsure how to use these items at present. You should come back to refer to this section after having gone through the guide.

Ranging Gear

• Ranged level-up: 99 Ranged is 30 seconds faster than 90 Ranged (3.3 seconds faster per level)
• Elite void: 7.5 seconds faster than regular void.
• Pegasian boots: 0.7 seconds faster than Blessed boots.
• 3rd age bow: 2 seconds faster than the Magic shortbow (i) if you can swap to the Magic shortbow (i) and use the special attack without losing ticks. It also has 2 more attack distance than the Magic shortbow (i), meaning that you also save extra time when chasing down monsters heading east.

Melee Gear

• Dinh's bulwark with Serpentine helm: About 15 seconds faster compared to Ranged-only attacking
• Crystal halberd: Saves about 45 seconds compared to Ranged-only attacking
• Ferocious gloves/Barrows gloves: Saves about 1.5 seconds if you can switch without losing ticks
• Amulet of torture: Saves about 1.5 seconds if you can switch without losing ticks
• Berserker ring (i): Saves about 1.5 seconds if you can switch without losing ticks
• Primordial boots: Saves about 1 second if you can switch without losing ticks
• Void melee helm: Equivalent in damage to the Serpentine helm in combination with Ferocious or Barrows gloves, but does not poison monsters. Essentially a downgrade, but it may be easier to use if you want to switch fewer items.

Forcing Items

• Scrawled note: Saves up to 20 seconds
• Shrink-me-quick: Slightly inferior to Mind and Elemental shields by about 0.6 seconds, but easier to use without messing up

Accessory Special Attacks

• Dark bow: Saves about 6 seconds
• Dragon claws: Saves about 1-2 seconds
• Scythe of vitur: Probably saves about 1-3 seconds

Not recommended

• Archers ring (i): Does less damage than a Ring of suffering (ri). Even on lower waves, the recoil damage is superior to the accuracy bonus. Not recommended.
• Saradomin godsword and Toxic blowpipe: Healing special attacks are not recommended as they do not heal very much. By wasting your special attack on these weapons, your dps is decreased and so your wave times are slower and you receive more damage.
• Dragon 2h sword: Not recommended - ineffective compared to other strategies

Inventory Setup
Basic Setup (for Part 2)
New attackers should use this basic setup. As you go through the guide, we will slowly add new items until you reach the advanced setup below. You can use any item on the right as placeholders to align your inventory as demonstrated below for maximum efficiency.

Advanced Setup
The advanced setup contains all the items you might consider using during a round depending on the situation. This is the final setup an expert attacker will reach. Setups using the Magic shortbow (i) and the 3rd age bow are displayed. Here we display a 4-way switch into melee gear. Some attackers will opt for a 5-way switch which also includes Primordial boots. Some attackers will take a Shrink-me-quick potion instead of two Elemental/Mind shields.

Team Formation - Scroll Order
The spawn location of players depends on the "scroll order" - that is, the order in which players join a team. In order for all players to start each wave as close as possible to where they need to go, we invite players to a team in a specific order. Generally, in leeches, the attacker should grab the scroll (he should be the “scroller”) and invite people in the following order: ACHLD - which corresponds to
Scroller/1: Attacker
2: Collector
3: Healer
4: Customer aka Leeching Role (any role)
5: Defender

The most common scroll order in "funs" (casual two-attacker rounds) is the following: AAHCD

Point Mechanics - Timer Script
Attacking with the wrong style as an attacker is the fastest way to lose points during a round. Excluding the very first mistake, every attack you do with the wrong style will give you a 2-point penalty and will give everyone else a 1-point penalty, up to a maximum penalty of 20/10 points per wave. Therefore, it is imperative that you use a timer of some sorts to know when the attack style will change and when the monsters will spawn. The attack "call" changes every 30 seconds.

There are two main options to keep track of time:

RuneLite has an automatic timer script when you play Barbarian Assault.

Alternatively, a premade timer script using autohotkey can be found here: https://baservices.site/threads/27/. The advantage of this script is that it has a more obvious audio warning when the call changes. Note that this script does not interact with your client in any fashion - it only provides an audiovisual overlay. It does not break any Jagex rules. With the default setup, simply press F3 as the first wave starts to begin the timer, and press F2 at the start of each additional wave to reset the wave timer.

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 2
Inventory Setup
New attackers should use this basic setup. As you go through the guide, you will slowly add new items until you reach the advanced setup below. You can use any item on the right as placeholders to align your inventory as demonstrated below for maximum efficiency.

Basic Gameplay
If you have minimal experience using Ranged as an attacker, it is a good idea to get familiar with the basics of gameplay. You can even practice the very basic setup in world 306 with other random players. In general, the attacker role is quite similar for all waves. The next few lines break down the basic strategy used in all waves.

Usual Round (Waves 1-9)
Prior to the round starting, in the wave 1 lobby, set attack options to left-click. Set your attack style to Rapid and turn off auto-retaliate. Drink a Ranging potion.

1. Run up to the dispenser and collect some arrows
2. Run up along the east wall of the western cannon hill
3. Call for the collector
4. Switch to your Magic comp bow and equip your arrows
5. Drink potions, if necessary
6. Hit the first monster with your magic comp bow, then continue running to the northwest corner and switch to your magic shortbow (i)
7. Keep hitting the monsters, killing fighters and rangers equally, while staying in the northwest corner
8. Once all monsters in the northwest corner are dead, run east and kill any stragglers (fighters that are east (fe) or rangers that are east (re)).
9. Once all the fighters and rangers are dead, you have a few options depending on the situation
   • For practice or fun rounds, or for Ba Services leeches where the customer is on a "defender" or "attacker" round, run to the eastern hill and use the cannon to shoot red or green eggs at any surviving penance healers or escaping runners.
   • For Ba Services leeches, where the customer is on a “healer” round, find and stand near the player healer so that he or she can heal you with their vial, gaining more points for the wave.
   • For Ba Services leeches, where the customer is on a "collector" round, you do not need to do anything.

Example gameplay

2. Run up along the east wall of the western cannon hill
One of the attacker's roles is to help out the healer by manipulating how Penance Healers move. Penance Healers aggro onto players and chase them down and poison them. By standing far west, you will be out of view of any Penance Healers. This means that all the Penancer Healers will stay in the northeast corner, helping the player healer poison all the monsters more quickly.

If you run up in the middle of the map and cross the red line, newly spawning Penance Healers will chase after you as you head into the northwest corner. Therefore, you must always use one of the 3 green corridors while running up to attack monsters. In this way, the Penance Healers will stay east.

4. Switch to your Magic comp bow and equip your arrows
The arrows are colour-coded to match with the four elemental Magic spells, allowing you to quickly select the right arrow. More on the Magic comp bow below.

5. Drink potions, if necessary
You should drink a Ranging potion before wave 1 and on waves 6 and 9.
You should drink a Super combat on waves 6 and 9.

6. Hit the first monster with your magic comp bow, then continue running to the northwest corner and switch to your magic shortbow (i)
The magic comp bow has a range of 10 squares, and the magic shortbow (i) has a range of 7 squares. Using the magic comp bow for the first hit allows you to start attacking approximately 1 tick earlier, increasing your wave efficiency. If you are using a 3rd age bow, you do not need to switch between weapons as the 3rd age bow has a range of 9 squares.

You should stay quite far west after you reach the monsters. Earlier it was stated that you should not cross the red line in the image above. This is still true - you should never cross the red line until all the monsters in the northwest are dead. However, you should also stand west of the yellow line below, especially on waves 5-9. Wandering Penance Healers have a chance of aggroing onto players that stand east of the yellow line. If you stand west of the yellow line, it is extremely rare for any Penance Healers to ever reaggro you. As the collector must also respect these rules, it is ideal to kill monsters to drop eggs west of the yellow line. You may very briefly cross the yellow line to chase down a monster but in ideal circumstances you would always be west of the yellow line.

Ring of suffering (ri)
The Ring of suffering (ri) increases your survivability (it is equivalent to having +9 Defence levels), especially on wave 9, but that is not its only important role. The Ring of suffering (ri) increases your damage output via the recoil effect. The recoil effect from the Ring of suffering (ri) makes it more advantageous than the Archers ring (i) on all waves. Make sure the recoil setting is turned to "on". The recoil effect costs approximately 6k gp per hour, and so its price is negligible.

Surviving Wave 9
Even a maxed account can die if they don't use the right approach to surviving wave 9. When you are new to attacking, use as many of these tips as you can to reduce your chances of dying. As you get more comfortable, you may choose to only use some of these strategies.

• Always pot up (Ranging potion and Super combat) as you run up.
• Level-up your Hitpoints and Defence.
• Focus down individual mobs and don't try to tag (target) everything. Tagging a lot of monsters will cause them to pile onto you, killing you faster. If you don't attack Penance Fighters as they spawn, there's a chance that they wander east and attack the defender and healer. This may result in a "zoo east", where a bunch of monsters end up on the east side. This is good as it lowers the damage you receive. However, this strategy may slightly increase your wave time.
• Rangers have a higher max hit and a higher accuracy than fighters. In addition, they attack more often as they used ranged instead of melee. Therefore, focus on killing rangers that are currently attacking you.
• Use the safespot on the west wall - covered below.
• As a last resort, if you end up with low hp, head to the cannon and wait for the monsters to aggro the collector. Once they are aggroed onto the collector, you can target the monsters one-by-one while requesting heals from the healer. Note that monsters reaggro every 6 seconds (6, 12, 18, 24 etc), so as long as you are hiding behind the cannon on that tick, they will not aggro you. The max hit you can get is 9 damage, but you can also receive poison damage from healers.

Wave 9 Safespot
By using this safespot, you avoid getting hit by any fighters that are targetting you. Firstly, stand on the tile shown in this image.

Next, run down to the second location indicated in the images. The fighters will get stuck on the wall and be unable to hit you. Note that monsters change targets every 6 seconds, so you may need to run back and forth between the two spots every six or twelve seconds.

Here is a video of the above in play:

Wave 10 Specifics
There are a few differences between waves 1-9 and wave 10.

Firstly, the layout of the map is slightly different. Healers spawn near the middle of the map. This means that the aggro zone for healers is different. You may not cross the red line on the image below. This means that on wave 10 only, you should be running to the west of the west cannon at the start of the game.

If a fighter wanders east right away, you cannot shoot it without crossing the red line. In addition, the penance fighters have a greater tendancy to head east on wave 10. Therefore, you are more likely to have a large number of monsters east on wave 10. Once all the monsters in the northwest are dead, you may only head east to kill the remaining monsters after 60 seconds have elapsed since the wave start (i.e. after the call changes a second time). This is because there is a Penance Healer that spawns at 60 seconds and you do not want it to target you.

You may note in the above image that there is a mushroom highlighted in orange. You cannot shoot over this mushroom. Therefore, if the ranger is standing directly on its spawn point, you should instead use your Magic comp bow to shoot the fighter first. If the ranger has moved a tile west or east, you may shoot the ranger with your first shot as you run up.

After you have killed all the fighters and rangers, you may use the cannon to shoot at any surviving healers, if any. Next, prepare for the queen by following the steps below.

Collect 1 set of spikes from the mushroom circled in green. Next, stand on the tile indicated in orange. Drop some arrows so that when you get the egg, it will appear in your inventory at the indicated spot. Angle your camera so that north points downwards. Once you get your egg, you can immediately add spikes and use it on the defender.

If you have the Barbarian Assault scroll in your inventory (i.e. are in the first position), you are the scroller. The scroller should NOT shoot the cannon to kill the queen. If you do not have the scroll (i.e. are in the 2nd-5th position), you are not the scroller. You SHOULD shoot the cannon.

This video demonstrates "one-egging" the queen when you are NOT the scroller.

Putting everything together, it should look something like this:

Magic Shortbow (i) Special Attack
The Magic shortbow (i) has a special attack uses up 50% special energy, and shoots two attacks with slightly decreased accuracy. Given the high accuracy of all attacks, it's essentially equivalent to doing two attacks in one interval. Use this on every wave for now, and prioritize fighters at full hp. Using it early in the wave allows the monsters to spawn faster and allows the collector get more eggs. Therefore, consider using it on the 2nd and 3rd fighter for now.

If you use the 3rd age bow, you will need to switch to the magic shortbow (i) to use the special attack.

Part 2 Cheat sheet
This is the end of part 2. There is a lot of information above. I recommend practicing a few rounds until you understand the basic information provided in this section, before moving on to part 3. You may use this handy cheat sheet to remember a few important details.

Lobby: Left-click attack. Rapid & Retal off. Ranging potion
W1: For all waves, try to kill fighters and rangers equally
W2:
W3:
W4:
W5:
W6: Ranging potion + Super combat
W7:
W8:
W9: Ranging potion + Super combat. Watch HP. Use safespot and prioritize rangers if needed.
W10: Run west of cannon - only cross east after 2nd call (60s)

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 3
Gear
If you are learning the attacker role, you should add one Mind shield and one Elemental shield to your inventory. However, some players will prefer to use a Shrink-me-quick potion instead. Your inventory should now look something like one of these two choices:

Lower Wave Killing Order
There are a few important concepts to know when it comes to the killing order on the lower waves.

There is a maximum number of Penance Fighters that may be spawned at any one time, and a maximum number of Penance Rangers that may be spawned at any one time. This limit is based on the wave. The remaining fighters and rangers will only spawn if you kill off some of the original spawning monsters.

For example, on wave 1, there are a total of 4 fighters and 4 rangers, but there may only be a total of 2 fighters and 2 rangers out at any one time. Monsters spawn at 6-second intervals. Therefore, it is in your best interest to kill the monsters off equally so all the extra monsters can also be killed.

The second important concept is that after a fighter reaches 0 hp, it takes approximately 2.4 seconds for it to die. Conversely, when a ranger reaches 0 hp, it takes approximately 1.2 seconds to die. Therefore, whenever possible, the last monster you kill should always be a ranger and not a fighter, as it allows the wave to end faster.

Lastly, it takes time for an arrow to fly towards a monster. Therefore, when feasible, you should always try to be standing as close as possible to the last monster as you kill it in order to save time.

We can apply these three concepts to the lower waves.

Wave 1
There are 4 fighters and 4 rangers but only 2 fighters and 2 rangers may be out at any given time (F 2+2 R 2+2)

Therefore, you should start by killing a fighter and alternate between killing fighters and rangers until all monsters are dead. This ensures that the spawns of the 3rd and 4th monsters aren't delayed (at 18 seconds and 24 seconds of wave time respectively)

Killing order: F1-R1-F2-R2-F3-R3-F4-R4

An alternate killing order is to use the magic shortbow (i) special attack on the first and last fighter. As your first hit is with a Magic comp bow, you would tag the ranger with 1 hit first, and then go back to the normal killing order:
Alternate killing order: R1(tag)-F1*-R1(kill)-F2-R2-F3-R3-F4*-R4
*Use your magic shortbow (i) special attack.

Wave 2
There are 5 fighters and 4 rangers, with a maximum of 2 fighters and 3 rangers out at any time. (F 2+3 R 3+1). In order for all monsters to spawn, a total of 3 fighters and 1 ranger must be killed. The best way is to immediately kill two fighters, then kill 1 ranger, then kill 1 fighter. After that, you can kill the rest of the monsters in any order.

Killing order: F1-F2-R1-F3-...
where ... represents killing the middle monsters in an arbitrary order. As the last fighter spawns at 36 seconds and the last ranger spawns at 30 seconds, the last monster you will kill is a fighter.

Incorporating special attacks, you may consider the following order. Again it is the same order with an extra tag of the first ranger at the start:
Alternate killing order: R1(tag)-F1*-F2-R1(kill)-F3-...-F5*
*Use your magic shortbow (i) special attack on the first and last fighter.

Wave 3
The spawns are F 5+0 R 3+3. You need to kill only 3 rangers and all fighters and rangers will spawn.

As there are more rangers than fighters, you should prioritize killing rangers. Ideally alternate between Rangers and Fighters.

Ideal killing order: R-F (alternate) ... -R

Waves 4-9
For the higher waves, the exact spawn numbers are no longer very important. You should kill in approximate equal numbers between fighters and rangers, targetting fighters first.

Ideal killing order: F-R (alternate) ... -R

An important strategy for all waves is to try and prevent any monster from chasing after the defender to the east. Six seconds after spawning, the Penance Fighter will aggro a random player that it can see, including the healer or defender in the east. To prevent this from happening, you can shoot an arrow at a newly spawned Penance Fighter to make it aggro and walk towards you.

However, if the Penance Fighter is already aggroed onto the defender, you can still shoot an arrow at it and make it change aggro onto you. Note that the monster will only reaggro onto you if 1) It hasn't hit any player in the last 6 seconds and 2) It hasn't been hit by an attack in the last 6 seconds. If either condition is false, it will not reaggro when hit by an arrow.

In addition, during the first call, make sure to finish off your kills when possible so that the collector has enough eggs to collect.

Once there are enough eggs on the ground, you can ignore monsters that have 1 hp left, hoping that they will deal damage to you and die from the Ring of suffering (ri)'s recoil effect, as long as the collector has enough eggs to collect.

Wave 10 Egg Forcing and Egg Duping
You can optimize wave 10 by forcing the egg and duping the egg when you are the person with the scroll. Note that only the person with the scroll (the scroller) can affect the game by stalling things (demonstrated below). Players 2-5 cannot stall. This video demonstrates what you would ideally want to achieve:

Egg Forcing
As the person holding the scroll (i.e. first position), it is possible to make the first yellow egg spawn up to 6 seconds faster for the collector. To do this, you should create a "stall". The simplest type of stall uses prayer interfaces. Simply click on any prayer, and while the error message is displayed in the chatbox, the game is "soft" stalled - that is, any "soft" actions will be delayed. You want to press the prayer icon after the queen-appearing animation starts, and you want to exit the interface after the queen npc has appeared on the map. Refer to the video below:

This however can fail if the call changes when your interface is open. A call change is a "hard" action that will force-exit your interface. If the call is changing at the same time as the queen spawning, you have to open your prayer interface AFTER the call changes but while the queen is spawning.

Egg Duping Option 1: Elemental/Mind Shields
As seen in Part 2, you can one-egg the queen if everyone spams to shoot the omega egg on the same tick. However, if someone is a bit slow, a one-egg may be unsuccessful, requiring two eggs. However, using a "hard" stall, you can shoot the egg over two ticks instead of one tick, allowing for double the time to spam the omega egg. To do this, we use either the Mind shield or Elemental shield (from now on referred to as a Mind shield). Whenever you equip a Mind shield, you cause a 1-tick "hard" stall, blocking all actions in the game. This prevents the number of eggs in the cannon from going down for an extra tick, allowing you to shoot for two ticks. You need to equip the shield the tick after the collector loads the hopper. As this is nearly impossible to time, there is a foolproof way of achieving this. Firstly, equip your first Mind shield. As the collector gets ready to load the hopper, just start spam-equipping your second shield. In doing so, you equip 1 shield per tick, guaranteeing that you will be equipping the shield on the right tick.

Egg Duping Option 2: Shrink-me-quick potion
The Shrink-me-quick ("shrink pot") is made very readily by using a Tarromin potion (unf) on a Shrunk ogleroot after having completed the Grim Tales quest. See this page for more information: https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Shrink-me-quick.

While spamming Mind shields will delay 1 tick and result in 2 eggs, spamming the potion will delay 3 ticks, costing some time, but will result in multiple eggs.

Part 3 Cheat Sheet
This is the end of part 3. There is not as much information as part 2, but these strategies are a lot more about understanding specific mechanics about Barbarian Assault and fine-tuning things. Once you have mastered the Ranged aspect of this role, you are ready to move onto incorporating melee attacks.

Lobby: Left-click attack. Rapid & Retal off. Range pot
W1: F->R
W2: F-F-R-F
W3: R->F
W4: F->R
W5:
W6: Range pot + Super combat
W7:
W8:
W9: Range pot + Super combat
W10: West of cannon - only cross east after 2nd call (60s)

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 4
Part 4 and Part 5 cover Dinh's bulwark and the Crystal halberd respectively. Dinh's is a lot more straightforward that the Crystal halberd, so this part is much shorter. Dinh's bulwark and the Crystal halberd complement each other as Dinh's bulwark can only be used if the call change is Accurate, whereas the Crystal halberd can be used for all call changes EXCEPT Accurate.

Gear
In this part, we are adding Dinh's bulwark and the Crystal halberd to our inventory. Note that at the present time, there is no benefit in imbuing your Crystal halberd as all Crystal halberds (1/10 to full) have the same stats. We are also adding offensive melee gear. You can choose the number of items to equip. If you'd like to just practice technique, you can just use a Void melee helm and not equip any other melee items.

Dinh's bulwark
Dinh's bulwark has a special attack, which hits up to 10 enemies standing up to 5 squares away from the player. (11x11 area attack). It costs 50% of your special attack. This is one of the best attacks in Barbarian Assault, second only to the Crystal halberd. With maxed gear and stats, Dinh's bulwark causes an average of 17 damage per monster in range (and 34 damage to the primary targeted monster as it gets double-hit). In addition, there is a 30% chance of poisoning any given monster due to the effect of the Serpentine helm. Overall, on higher waves, the special attack will deal over 200 damage on average and poison about 2 monsters. In general, expect at least 100 damage PER special attack. You can use the special attack twice in a row.

The drawback is that this special attack can only be used on an accurate call style, and so if the call is not accurate, you cannot use the special attack. The other attack styles can be used with the Crystal halberd, covered in the next section.

You should use the special attack at the following times:
Wave 4-5: At the end of the first call if accurate (24 seconds), or at the beginning of the second call (31 seconds)
Wave 6-10: Around 36-41 seconds

Note you can use your special attack on the exact tick corresponding to 30.0 seconds and hit monsters spawning at 30 seconds in the first call. However, this is risky because if you attack a tick too late, you will get negative points using the wrong attack.

Dinh's special attack is SUPERIOR to using the Magic shortbow (i) special attack if you hit 3 or more monsters with the special attack. If you have not used the special attack by the beginning of the 3rd call, use your magic shortbow (i) special attack.

Note that you need to switch you ranged attack style back to rapid after unequipping Dinh's bulwark.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the special attack, once you know that the call is accurate, you should avoid finishing off monsters and focusing on tagging monsters to bring them near you (only if the collector has enough eggs to gather). As a reminder, monsters will only change target onto you when you tag them if they have not attacked or been attacked in the last 6 seconds (check for an hp bar on the monster).

Wave 10 A/C Block
Due to the unique characteristics of the wave 10 map, fighters and rangers are much more likely to aggro onto the defender or healer and end up in the middle of the map. As you should never cross the red line in the first 60 seconds of the wave, it is harder to tag fighters wandering east as well. Therefore, Dinh's bulwark is less effective. In addition, if you do use Dinh's bulwark or are a fast attacker, you may kill all the monsters in the northwest corner before 60 seconds have elapsed. You then have to wait for some time before heading east to kill the rest of the monsters.

In order to prevent this from happening, one can do what is called an "a/c block" (attacker-collector block). In this section, we discuss the a/c block on wave 10. The a/c block for waves 6-9 is discussed further below.

To perform the a/c block, the collector stands on the yellow square, and the attacker stands on the red square. From 0-23 seconds, if a fighter is attacking either player from the east, the player steps 2 squares west, waits 1 tick, then steps 2 squares back east to the original spot. This brings the fighter to the west side of the player. Tag each fighter as it spawns to bring it into the a/c block.

Monsters will start to be aggroed east to the center of the map at 24-36 seconds, so you must stand still on the indicated tiles during that time. Monsters that try to go east will instead be stuck behind the attacker/collector, keeping them in the northwest corner.

One important thing to understand is the concept of whether or not a tile is solid. When you step onto a tile, the tile is marked as "solid", preventing any monster from stepping on that tile. When you step off that tile, the tile is marked as "unsolid", allowing monsters to step onto that tile. If you are 3 people standing on a tile, and you step off that tile, the tile will be marked as "unsolid", allowing monsters to walk through the tile even though there are 2 more players on that tile. In a similar vein, if the attacker is standing on his block spot, and the collector "runs through" the attacker, the attacker's tile is marked as "unsolid". To remake the tile "solid", you need to step off and back on the tile.

Part 4 Cheat Sheet
Lobby: Left-click attack. Rapid & Retal off. Range pot
W1: F->R
W2: F-F-R-F
W3: R->F
W4: F->R, D24-31
W5: D24-31
W6: D36-41, Range + Super
W7: D36-41,
W8: D36-41,
W9: D36-41, Range + Super
W10: D36-41, east @60

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 5
The crystal halberd mechanics have become very straightforward ever since its special attack was modified on 2018 June 7. In fact, the crystal halberd is in fact currently the best weapon to use in Barbarian Assault. The dragon halberd works exactly the same way as the crystal halberd, but has a lower accuracy and lower strength bonus. Given that the requirements to obtain the crystal halberd are almost the same as the dragon halberd, we exclusively recommend the crystal halberd.

The crystal halberd is superior to the magic shortbow (i) special attacks if you are able to hit 3+ monsters with the special attack, assuming that you take no time to set up the special attack. Practically, it is probably worth it to use it on stacks of 4+ monsters. The crystal halberd does superior damaged compared to Dinh's bulwark.

Gear

Crystal Halberd Special Attack Mechanics
The crystal halberd special attack takes up 30% of your special attack energy. It hits a maximum of ten targets in a 3x1 area. Please refer to the image below. If you use the special attack on a monster directly north or south of you, it will hit up to ten monsters in a 3x1 grid centered on the targetted monster. If you use the special attack on a monster directly east or west, it will hit monsters in a 1x3 grid. However, using the special attack diagonally is a bit counter-intuitive. Essentially, when you hit diagonally, the special attack will always work in a horizontal 3x1 (i.e. west-east) area that is centered on the monster that you clicked on.

Crystal Halberd Strategy
Essentially, the idea of the crystal halberd is to stack all the monsters on top of the ranger spawn tile, and then unleash three special attacks which will decimate all the monsters in the special attack area. For example, on Wave 9, three special attacks will kill any given monster about 75% of the time. However, since you will hit each monster once with your bow to lure it to the right tile, taking into account the bow, the success rate of instantly killing any given monster on Wave 9 is approximately 90%.

Gear Selection
With a max combat account, using a Super combat and Ranging potion, in theory, tagging a monster and then using 3 crystal halberd specs will kill a monster on wave 9 with a 94% success rate. This assumes you do a 4-way switch.

The following changes reduce your success rate as follows:

• Using a 1-way switch (Void melee helm only): -3% success rate
• Not using any potions: -5% success rate
• Having 90 Ranged instead of 99 Ranged: -0.5% success rate
• Having 75 Attack instead of 99 Attack: -1% success rate
• Having 80 Strength instead of 99 Strength: -4% success rate
• Using a dragon halberd instead of a crystal halberd: -5% success rate

By changing the above, the differences in absolute success rate are relatively small. However, you should always use a crystal halberd and pot up. If you lose time trying to equip items doing a 4-way switch, it may be more prudent to simply do a 1-way switch with a Void melee helm. Or, as stated before, switch most of your gear only after doing the first special attack hit.

A/C Block (Waves 5 to 9)
In order to stack monsters on the ranger spawn, it is imperative that the attacker and collector cooperate to make an attacker/collector block (A/C block) Here we will revisit the attacker-collector block for waves 4-9. It is important to have good teamwork between the attacker and collector in order for the crystal halberd to work effectively.

When the defender gets logs in the middle of the map, fighters and rangers aggro onto the defender and chase after the defender. The a/c block physically blocks the monsters from travelling east across the map. In Barbarian Assault, fighters and rangers change targets at 6-second intervals (i.e. 12 seconds, 18 seconds, 24 seconds, 30 seconds, etc). Monsters also spawn on these 6-second intervals (6 seconds, 12 seconds, 18 seconds, etc).

Collector's Role During and After the A/C Block
The collector's role is very important. The collector must stand on certain tiles at specific points in time. As mentioned earlier, monsters spawn every 6 seconds. Therefore, the first Fighter and Ranger spawn at 6 seconds; the second Fighter and Ranger spawn at 12 seconds, and so on. As a collector, you must either use a timer or pay attention to when the monsters spawn to keep track of time.

The most important thing is that at NO point in time do you ever step on the ranger spawn (R) while there are monsters alive.

Here are the steps which you must do:

• After you run up to the northwest corner, you should go and stand on the tile labelled C1. Occasionally, Penance Rangers will wander northeast immediately after spawning - you therefore block them from wandering further east.
• At 13-17 seconds (i.e., before the 3rd batch of monsters spawn), you should move to C2. Then, at 20-23 seconds (i.e. before the 4th batch of monsters spawn), you should move back to C1. By doing this, any Penance Fighter standing to the east of of you will get trapped to the west of C1.
• You must absolutely be standing on C1 from 24-30 seconds without moving, or else the a/c block does not work.
• If the second call is accurate, the attacker will use Dinh's bulwark and so you can abandon the a/c block and collect eggs freely.
• Otherwise, after the call change, you have a few seconds to collect eggs that are ADJACENT to the ranger spawn. While grabbing eggs, try to move the fighters onto the ranger spawn tile R.
• By 36 seconds, you must drag all the fighters that are attacking you back onto the ranger spawn by heading to either C2 or A2, depending on where monsters are standing. Now, all the monsters will be stacked on the ranger spawn (R). While the attacker is using his special attacks, you may directly click on any of the yellow squares in the image below to go there and collect eggs - this should not move any of the fighters away from the central tile.
• After the attacker has used his special attacks, you may freely run around and collect/load eggs.

Attacker's Role During the A/C Block
As mentioned in the part of the collector's role, monsters spawn every 6 seconds, and aggro onto players every 6 seconds. However, this means that for the first 6 seconds of a monster's life, it is not aggroed onto any player. During this time, it will wander randomly unless you hit it once with a weapon, at which point it will aggro onto you. It is easy to position fighters as they chase you. However, if a ranger steps off its spawn tile, you can no longer use your special attack on it. Therefore, it is imperative that you tag rangers as soon as they spawn. If you do this, they are less likely to wander away from the ranger spawn point.

Here are the steps which you must do:

• As you run up, tag the ranger asap if it is still standing on the ranger spawn. This way, you will be able to keep it in the stack of monsters. If the ranger has already wandered away, you can tag the fighter instead. If the fighter walked east from its spawn point, you probably want to tag it first or else it will be lost in the far east.
• As you are attacking monsters, go and stand on the tile labelled A2.
• Around 20-23 seconds, move to A1. The defender aggros monsters at 24 seconds.
• Normally, the defender is out of range at 30 seconds so the monsters will reaggro onto you or the collector. Usually, you'll head back to A2 so that newly spawning fighters will stand on the ranger spawn tile.

While doing the above, every 6 seconds (when you see a fighter spawn), you should immediately tag the spawning ranger, and then fighter. In the stack of monsters on the ranger spawn spot, the second monster in the list will be the newest-spawned ranger.

First Call Change
After 30 seconds, as an attacker you will have just finished the a/c block. If the call is accurate, you should use Dinh's bulwark as previously described. Otherwise, you should prepare to use the Crystal halberd. You should use the special attack at the same time as you would use Dinh's bulwark in the previous part. Most people do not bother using the Crystal halberd on waves 4 and 5, but DO use Dinh's bulwark.

Generally, tag the ranger and fighter that spawn at 36 seconds (6 seconds after the call change), then prepare for the special attack and execute it as soon as you can (before 42 seconds)

First Call Change - Monster Spawns (Crystal halberd and Dinh's)
Prior to using the special attack, very advanced attackers will kill enough monsters to allow all monsters to spawn, similar to the early waves. This section can be applied to both the Crystal halberd and Dinh's bulwark. I recommend not trying this until you are a seasoned attacker with many many rounds under your belt.

We will use wave 7 as an example. On wave 7, there are a total of 7 fighters and 7 rangers. There may be a maximum of 5 fighters and 6 rangers spawned at any given time. Therefore, in an ideal world, you would need to kill 2 fighters and 1 ranger before using your special attack on the remaining monsters. The last monster should spawn at 42 seconds. This is coded as follows: F2 R1 - 42. Focus mainly on rangers that are no longer in the stack as they won't be hit by the halberd special attack.

Special Attack
When using the special attack, you can stand on A2 or any other convenient tile and use your special attack on the ranger spawn R. If there is a monster 1 tile away from the ranger stack, you would choose your standing spot accordingly to hit the most monsters possible in the 3x1 area.

Use 3 special attacks in a row. Ideally, right-click on a Penance fighter to attack. If you left click, you might be dragged by a moving monster off of your stack. Make sure to switch attack styles before using your special attack, and be careful of any call change. After that, switch back to your bow and kill any leftover stragglers, making sure your attack style is Rapid.

Please see the following videos for examples:

Part 5 Cheat Sheet
Consider using Dinh's bulwark on waves 4 and 5. The Crystal halberd in some rare circumstances may be used as well.

Lobby: Left-click attack. Rapid & Retal off. Range pot
W1: F->R
W2: F-F-R-F
W3: R->F
W4: F->R, 24-31
W5: F3 R1 - 24-31
W6: F1 R2 - 36, Pot
W7: F2 R1 - 36
W8: F0 R3 - 36
W9: F2 R1 - 36, Pot
W10: F2 R1 - 36

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 6
Part 6 discusses the dark bow, which has a few niche uses that can optimize your gameplay. Incorrect use of the dark bow will make you lose time however.

Gear

Dark Bow
The Dark bow fires two arrows are the same time, but has a 4.8 tick delay per attack (Rapid). The accuracy of the Dark bow is essentially equivalent to the Magic shortbow (i)'s normal attack, and so the Dark bow normal attack can be considered equivalent to two normal attacks. Two magic shortbow (i) attacks take 3.6 seconds, and so overall you lose 1.2 seconds if you use a single Dark bow attack. However, the Dark bow has specific uses because the two attacks happen right away.

Dark Bow and Call Changes
At call change, there is usually a delay in your next attack. If you have to delay by more than 1.2 seconds (2 ticks) (either because it takes you a second to equip your arrows and/or the collector does not call immediately), you should use the Dark bow on your last attack before call change, and then use the Dark bow's cooldown to re-equip your magic shortbow (i) and choose your arrows.

Guessing the call on your first attack after a call change, and then switching arrows in time for your second attack also makes you lose 2 ticks on average, and so can be considered equivalent to using a Dark bow. However, by guessing the call you have a 67% of having a missed attacked. In addition, if you have to guess the attack twice in a row, then it was slower than using the Dark bow.

Lastly, if the monster is at low hitpoints, then it is also a waste to use the Dark bow at call change.

Dark Bow Wave 1 Strategy
The Dark bow can also be used to insta-kill the last monster on a wave as it fires two attacks immediately. However, if the monster does not die, you have to wait 4.8 seconds for your next attack. When potted at level 90-99 Ranged, you have approximately a 90% and 85% chance of insta-killing the ranger and fighter on wave 1 from max health respectively.

Running simulations, the strategy with the highest chance of successfully killing all monsters before the first call change was calculated to be two magic shortbow (i) special attacks and ending with the Dark bow. You kill the first fighter to prevent a delayed spawn, and the last fighter to get the last two kills quickly.

Bear in mind that you should be standing next to the last ranger at the end, as arrows take a fair amount of time to fly toward their target.

The kill order is essentially the same as before:

Dark bow Wave 1: R1(tag)-F1*-R1(kill)-F2-R2-F3-R3-F4*-R4
*Magic shortbow (i) special attack
_Dark bow normal attack

Dark Bow and Wave End
You can use the Dark bow to kill the last monster faster on other waves as well. This works especially well when combined with "forcing" (covered in the next part). Essentially, knock down the last monster to about 50% health with one or two hits with your magic shortbow (i), and then switch to the Dark bow and hit it with the Dark bow, which is very likely to insta-kill the last monster. You can also do this to hit the last monster in the northwest corner before heading east to kill stragglers.

Part 6 Cheat Sheet
There's nothing to add to the cheat sheet.

Lobby: Left-click attack. Rapid & Retal off. Range pot
W1: F->R (dbow)
W2: F-F-R-F
W3: R->F
W4: F->R, 24-30
W5: F3 R1 - 24-30
W6: F1 R2 - 36, Pot
W7: F2 R1 - 36
W8: F0 R3 - 36
W9: F2 R1 - 36, Pot
W10: F2 R1 - 36

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 7
Part 6 discusses force-ending waves. While there are many different ways to force-end a wave, it is sufficient to learn only two different methods of forcing the wave end. We will use the Scrawled note on waves 1-10, and the Mind-shield-loop on wave 10.

Gear
The Scrawled note from Monkey Madness 2 is an easy way of forcing.

Obtaining the Scrawled note
You must have started Monkey Madness 2 in order to obtained the Scrawled note. Obtaining the Scrawled note is the very first thing you do in the quest. If you have already completed the quest, you may follow this expedited guide below.

Items required:

• Pestle and mortar
• Lemon
• Grapes

Steps:

1. Head to Glough’s house, top floor
2. Search Gnome crates to get a Brush (red)
3. Investigate Fire remains to get a Mysterious note (orange)
4. Use Pestle and mortar -> Lemon
5. Use Pestle and mortar -> Grapes
6. Use Mysterious note -> Candles (green circle)
7. Use Juice-coated brush -> Mysterious note

Overview of Forcing
This guide provides a superficial practical understanding of how to force. The underlying (“game engine”) mechanics are not described here.

The player that holds the Scroll item can delay certain events in the Barbarian assault wave, because the wave events are tied to this player in particular. The player can delay the wave events using player events (using a Mind shield, Scrawled note, etc).

There are three main places in Barbarian assault where forcing is useful. The first two are the Egg Force and Egg Dupe on Wave 10 described in Part 2, which shall not be covered here. The third is forcing the wave end.

The game checks for a wave end every 6 seconds (at 6 seconds, 12 seconds, 18 seconds, etc.). If the last monster dies at 31 seconds, the wave will only end at 36 seconds. However, if your character is "busy" from 30-32 seconds, then the 30-second wave-end check will only occur at 32 seconds, causing the wave to end at 32 seconds instead of 36 seconds. Thus, the end is "forced" at 32 seconds instead of waiting until 36 seconds.

Please see the video below for general concepts related to forcing the wave end.

Whenever you have an interface open (Scrawled note interfaces, prayer interface) or while you are doing an uninterruptable action (egg conversion, egg shooting), you are stalled. Certain "hard" game actions will force-close interfaces. Game actions include the following:

• Healer or Runner death
• Fighter or Ranger death (only if you are in combat with the monster)
• Getting hit by a monster
• Cannon firing
• Cannon loading
• Vialling
• Call change

"Soft" game actions will wait until the interface is closed to occur. The two most important soft game actions are:

• Wave-end check (every 6 seconds)
• Yellow egg spawn on wave 10 (already covered in part 3)

Scrawled Note Forcing
The Scrawled note opens 2 interfaces. Therefore, it takes a minimum of two ticks to close the 2 interfaces. If you hold "Esc" and spam-click the Scrawled note, it will open 1 interface per tick, meaning that you will never run out of interfaces and can keep doing this forever.

As stalling concepts are hard to wrap your head around, we will use examples to learn. The wave ends after a monster dies. We will go over all the possibilities, even though they are all essentially the same (Fighter/ranger death, Healer death, Runner death).

The steps to force end are as follows:

• Hold Esc while spam-clicking the note as long as there are 2+ monsters alive
• When there is 1 monster left, stop spam-clicking before it dies
• When the last monster dies, the wave will automatically end early
• If you were still spam-clicking when the last monster dies, you will need to manually end the wave. To do this, simply move or equip an item and the wave will end.

Last Monsters to Die are Healers
Here are two examples with proper execution.

Last Monsters to Die are Runners
Although not demonstrated in this video, note that if the last monsters die on the same tick (e.g. a multikill), the forcing will be successful.

Last Monster to Die is a Fighter/Ranger
If you shoot your last arrow at 34 seconds, and the last monster dies at 37 seconds, the wave will usually end at 42 seconds. You can stall from 34 seconds until 37 seconds to make the wave end at 37 seconds. As soon as you shoot your last arrow, start spam-clicking the Scrawled note while holding Esc. Even if there is one monster left, you need to spam the Scrawled note or else your interface might close early if you get hit by the monster as it dies.

Combination
When you have multiple types of monsters dying, the concept is the same. In the example video, multiple monsters died at approximately the same time, so to be safe, the player kept on spamming even after the last monster died. This means that he had to click on the minimap to move to manually force the wave to end.

Scrawled Note and Moving
To walk around with the Scrawled note, do not press Esc, but click on the note. After the interface opens, if you click on the minimap, you will move without interrupting the Scrawled note. After that, you may resume spam-clicking the Scrawled note while holding Esc if you desire.

VIDEO TO COME

Scrawled Note and Wave 10
Note that after all the fighters, rangers, healers and runners are dead on wave 10, the game will do a "wave-end check" to spawn the queen. This check also occurs every 6 seconds. The Penance Queen spawns 15 seconds after this wave-end check. Therefore, you can force the death of the last normal monster on wave 10 to make the queen spawn faster.

Advanced Egg Duping on Wave 10 - Prayer-loop Forcing
This strategy is harder than using the Scrawled note. Mind-shield-loop forcing is an advanced version of the egg dupe. You can use this to essentially guarantee the queen kill and to force the wave end of wave 10 so that the wave ends at the same time that the queen dies.

You can do this with a mind shield (Mind-shield-loop or MSL) or with a Shrink-me-quick potion (Shrink-loop)

Mind-shield-looping
When collector steps forward to load, equip the mind shield and use your hotkey to switch to prayers tab. Click the prayer your mouse is on 2-3 times, then switch back to your inventory using hotkey. Click mind shield again, hotkey back to prayers and click only 1 prayer this time. Tab back to inventory and click mind shield for the last time. Finally, spam click the ground as queen is taking damage to break any extra prayer interfaces and end the wave. When you become familiar with force-ending wave 10 with mind shields, you can make minor adjustments. If queen is close to cannon, you might do only 2 mind shield loops or stack less prayers. If queen is far away, you might do an extra loop. The method explained above may lose you a couple ticks sometimes, but is generally a safe way to get most of the possible time save.

Shrink-looping
See the video below:

 

[Gau Cho]

PART 8
Part 8 is just an amalgam of miscellaneous ideas that are niche or alternatives to the main strategies. You can safely ignore this section.

Optimization of Ranger tagging
In order to improve the efficacy of the Crystal halberd, you want to tag the Penance Rangers as soon as they spawn to avoid them wandering off their spawn point. Penance Rangers spawn every 10 ticks. The 3rd age bow and Magic shorbow (i) both attack on a 3-tick cycle. This means that every 3rd attack should target the newly spawning Penance Ranger.

For example:
Attack 1: Newly spawned Penance Ranger
Attack 2: Penance fighter
Attack 3: Stray monster (Penance Ranger that has wandered, Penance Fighter aggroed onto the defender or killing a monster with low hp to make sure the last monster spawns occur)
Repeat the above

If you do 3 attacks, you then have to stop attacking for 1 tick to wait for the next Penance ranger to spawn. Alternatively, you can change your attack style from "Rapid" to "Accurate" for one attack. This means that your attacks take 3+4+3 = 10 ticks of time, and then you no longer need to wait for 1 tick before attacking the next Penance Ranger.

Remember that the newest spawning Penance Ranger is the top Penance Ranger on right click of the stack, excluding the first monster.

Dragon Claws
Dragon claws used to be much more popular than they are now. Some people still use them. Dragon claws can be thought of a stronger version of the Magic shortbow (i) special attack. It hits faster as it is not a ranged attack, and it does more damage. People use dragon claws to kill the last monster in a wave faster. Nowadays, people often use the Dark bow instead as a "special attack" to kill the last monster, or save their special attack for Dinh's bulwark and the Crystal halberd.

Scythe of vitur
As the Scythe of vitur hits only 3 monsters as opposed to the Crystal halberd's 10, the Scythe of vitur only has a few niche uses.

Firstly, if your second call is Accurate, you can use Dinh's bulwark's specs, and then switch to the Scythe of vitur to finish off your stack of monsters in a similar manner as to the Crystal halberd.

Secondly, the Scythe of vitur can be used to tag a spawning Ranger. You can use Dinh's special attack at 29.4 seconds to hit the Ranger that spawns at 30 seconds before the call change comes into effect. Similarly, if you swing your Scythe of vitur at a monster in the stack at 29.4 seconds, the Penance Ranger that spawns at 30 seconds will be hit, preventing it from moving away.

Some demonstrations of great Ranger tagging and use of the Scythe of vitur is available in this video here (Waves 7-10). Note that since this is NOT a video of a leech, but instead a duo-healer round, the a/c block is not done on waves 7-9. However, you should do the a/c block.