Agreth, The Nether Spider Guide
Agreth, The Nether Spider appears in Rotation 1 and 2 in the Doom Tower. This challenging encounter will force you to build a team specifically designed to counter her mechanics. Let’s break it down.
Ability Breakdown
Envenomed Strand
Attacks all enemies. Places 5% [Poison] Debuff for 4 turns. Will repeat the attack 1 time for each Spiderling without any active buffs. These [Poison] Debuffs cannot be resisted or blocked.
Brood Feast – 3 Turn Cooldown
Spawns 4 spiderlings then places a [Counterattack] buff on all Spiderlings for 3 turns. Will team up with all Spiderlings to attack all enemies if a Spiderling is spawned by this skill. This skill will take place at the start of the round and before you are able to take a turn.
Elder Lurker [Passive]
Counterattacks when enemy decreases Agreth’s Turn Meter. The damage inflicted is equal to the amount of Turn Meter lost. Will ignore 100% of the Target’s Defence.
Tide of Toxins [Passive]
Attacks all enemies at the start of each turn. Deals damage from all [Poison] Debuffs on each enemy instantly. When attacked by an enemy under a [Poison] debuff, increases the duration of all debuffs on the attacker by 1 turn, then places a 25% [Poison Sensitivity] debuff on them for 3 turns. When attacked by an enemy that has no [Poison] debuff, places a 5% [Poison] debuff on the attacker for 4 turns. This debuff cannot be blocked or resisted.
Almighty Immunity [Passive]
Immune to [Stun], [Freeze], [Sleep], [Provoke], [Block Cooldown Skills], [Fear] and [True Fear] debuffs. Also immune to HP exchange effects, HP balancing effects and cooldown increasing effects.
Almighty Strength [Passive]
Damage from skills that scale based on enemy MAX HP cannot exceed 10% of the boss’ MAX HP when attacking the boss
Almighty Persistence [Passive]
All Turn Meter reduction effects are decreased by 50% when used against the Boss.
Spiderlings
Attack Skill
Attacks all enemies. Places a 5% [Poison] Debuff for 2 turns. Cannot be resisted or blocked. Heals Agreth by 10% each time spiderling counterattacks. Places [Ally Protect] on Agreth whenever counterattack is removed or expires. [Ally Protect] cannot be removed.
How to beat the boss!
Although Agreth brings many allies to this fight, they don’t actually hit very hard – the thing you need to be careful off is the Poisons they will place when you attack them. Agreth will explode all poisons at the start of her turn, converting those placed poisons into a significant burst of damage on your team. Each poisons is 5% of your HP and these cannot be reduced by defensive buffs. This means you should avoid any champions that AoE on their A1 as spiderlings are buffed with counterattack and will lead to your quick demise.
When you start the fight, Agreth will summon her allies and trigger them to attack meaning you will start with a significant number of poisons. Remember you cannot block or resist these poisons so the only solutions are to either outheal or cleanse the poisons. As Agreth will cause those poisons to do instant damage – we recommend you consider cleansing the poisons by bringing a champion who can remove debuffs.
Additionally, bringing decrease attack on a single target skill will help reduce the on hit damage you will receive from Agreth. Surviving Agreth requires a team built around these mechanics before you can think about killing her.
Main things to Avoid:
- Avoid bringing too much reduce turn meter to your team. Agreth will hit you back for the amount of TM she loses and will ignore defence. This could easily one shot a member of your team. Small Turn Meter reductions are viable if the champion is reasonably sustainable i.e. Scyl of the Drakes
- Avoid champions with AoE A1 abilities i.e Psylar or Bad-el-Kazar. If a champion as a non-a1 ability with an AoE, the AI will decide not to use these by default (and you can ofcourse disable in the AI Tool) however you cannot stop an A1 attack.
Beating Agreth can be done in a few ways and we have 3 examples of team compositions below! First let’s cover the minimum stats you should aim to hit.
Required Stat Breakpoints
For a full stat breakdown, use our handy Raid Stages Tool which displays enemy stats for every encounter in the game. If you are not already a member of the HellHades community, you can sign up for a Free Account to gain access to this tool. Below we will outline the minimum stats you should aim for:
The key stats you should consider are Accuracy and Speed on your team alongside good HP/Def to survive the damage. You can choose to add resistance however this will only work to restrict the debuff extension and Poison sensitivity debuffs when you attack Agreth.
Rotation 1 – Normal
You will face Agreth on Floor 20, 60 and 90 Normal and is Spirit Affinity. To be successful, aim for:
- Speed: 175+ (Floor 90 is 150 speed however at 60 Agreth gains 25 speed) – Whilst you cannot stop Agreth taking the first turn, you dont want her lapping your champions. If you are running a cleanser on a longer cooldown – consider running them faster to ensure your cleanse is back when attacks again with Brood Feast
- Accuracy: 125+
- Resistance: 247+ (To resist the Poison Sensitivity Debuff and Debuff Extension effects)
Depending on which strategy you choose, you should ensure you have enough HP and Defence to survive this encounter. Generally we advise at least 30k HP and 2800 Defence for Normal.
Rotation 1 – Hard
You will face Agreth on Floor 20, 60 and 90 Hard and is Spirit Affinity. To be successful, aim for:
- Speed: 250+ Whilst you cannot stop Agreth taking the first turn, you don’t want her lapping your champions. If you are running a cleanser on a longer cooldown – consider running them faster to ensure your cleanse is back when attacks again with Brood Feast
- Accuracy: 355+
- Resistance: 397+ (To resist the Poison Sensitivity Debuff and Debuff Extension effects)
Depending on which strategy you choose, you should ensure you have enough HP and Defence to survive this encounter. Generally we advise at least 50k HP and 3500 Defence for Hard.
Rotation 2 – Normal
You will face Agreth on Floor 30, 70 and 110 Normal and is Magic Affinity. To be successful, aim for:
- Speed: 175+ (Floor 110 is 150 speed however at 70 Agreth gains 25 speed) – Whilst you cannot stop Agreth taking the first turn, you don’t want her lapping your champions. If you are running a cleanser on a longer cooldown – consider running them faster to ensure your cleanse is back when attacks again with Brood Feast
- Accuracy: 125+
- Resistance: 247+ (To resist the Poison Sensitivity Debuff and Debuff Extension effects)
Depending on which strategy you choose, you should ensure you have enough HP and Defence to survive this encounter. Generally we advise at least 30k HP and 2800 Defence for Normal.
Rotation 2 – Hard
You will face Agreth on Floor 30, 70 and 110 Hard and is Magic Affinity. To be successful, aim for:
- Speed: 250+ (Floor 90 is 150 speed however at 60 Agreth gains 25 speed) – Whilst you cannot stop Agreth taking the first turn, you dont want her lapping your champions. If you are running a cleanser on a longer cooldown – consider running them faster to ensure your cleanse is back when attacks again with Brood Feast
- Accuracy: 355+
- Resistance: 355+ (To resist the Poison Sensitivity Debuff and Debuff Extension effects)
Depending on which strategy you choose, you should ensure you have enough HP and Defence to survive this encounter. Generally we advise at least 50k HP and 3500 Defence for Hard.
Team Compositions
Strategy 1: Keep calm and Burn!
This is the safest strategy to approach this boss. It revolves around keeping your team fully healed and bringing champions who can cleanse the poisons. Drexthar Bloodtwin will apply HP Burn Debuffs when he is attacked which will be your primary method of dealing damage to Agreth.
You will want to ensure you have a full cleanse champion (list of good choices below) who is set to be the fastest or close to the fastest champion in your team. This champion will cleanse the initial burst of poisons Agreth will place. Every 3 turns, Agreth will use Brood Feast to re-summon any of her dead spiderlings and then launch another wave of poisons. You should ensure you can fully cleanse this also.
Eventually as each spidering attacks, they’ll receive HP Burn’s. This will cause Agreth to take 3% of her Max HP as damage. This combined with Warmaster and Giant Slayer (for three hit attack A1 champions) masteries you will slowly damage Agreth down. This comp can be auto’d if you can ensure your cleanse works on rotation with Agreth Brood Feast as most non-a1 AoE attacks will not be used by your champions.
MVP’s for this Strategy
Drexthar Bloodtwin: He is irreplaceable for the burn strategy as he can apply the debuff without actually attacking meaning he will not cause the spiderlings to poison you. Additionally, he is defence based and heals on his A1 if Agreth is under HP burn which makes him very durable.
Doompriest: Most of Doompriest’s kit is very disappointing except for her passive. Every turn taken will remove 1 random debuff from each member of your team and heal them for 7.5% of their HP. This makes her extremely useful in relentless artifacts sets or with high speed gear as she is able to cleanse the poisons/poison sensitivity you pick up from attacking Agreth.
Reliquary Tender: It is unusual for a Rare to have an MVP in an endgame strategy and there are certainly legendary champions that can also do he full team cleanse role however Reliquary can be considered an MVP due to the fact she brings an A1 decrease attack (albeit weak version), she brings a regular full team cleanse with continuous heals providing additional healing and she has single target revive should things get tricky.
Champion Alternatives
Not every player will have this exact team, but there are very good options to some of these champions. Below we detail viable alternatives:
Scyl of the Drakes: Lightsworn, Stag Knight, Skathix
Reliquary Tender/Masoleum Mage: Hakkhorn Smashlord, Cardiel, Melga Steelgirdle, Raglin, Riho Bonespear, Runekeeper Dazdurk, Skathix
Doompriest: Tuhanarak The following are sub-par but can perform this role: Fanatic, Heiress, Uugo
Strategy 2: Stun to Success
This strategy is a more dangerous but potentially faster strategy. It revolves around bringing plenty of Crowd Control to ensure spiderlings are permanently stunned allowing you to then bring higher damage champions. You will retain some elements of strategy 1: that is you still need a full team cleanse to deal with the initial burst of poisons and Drexthar is still a good option as HP burn will apply even if the spiderlings are controlled.
You will be looking for crowd control champions that can reliably bring Stun or Freeze. Sleep is not suitable as any form of damage will break this debuff. By disabling the poisons you should be able to bring more damage in your team with less focus required on defensive stats.
MVP’s for this Strategy
Astralon: As a fusion champion, Astralon was an amazing pickup for anyone who completed the event. He is one of the few champions (and probably the least conditional) that can apply a 100% AoE Stun through his Light of Sanctity ability. You should use this when you start the encounter to disable all the spiderlings allow you to unleash upon Agreth.
Champion Alternatives
Not every player will have this exact team, but there are very good options to some of these champions. Below we detail viable alternatives:
Scyl of the Drakes: Lightsworn, Stag Knight, Skathix
Reliquary Tender: Hakkhorn Smashlord, Cardiel, Melga Steelgirdle, Raglin, Riho Bonespear, Runekeeper Dazdurk, Skathix
Archmage Hellmut/Astralon: Achak the Wendarin, Ba Satha, Big’un, Crypt-King Graal, Fu-Shan, Gurgoh the Augur, Ninja (A3 if manual and targetting spiderlings), Shirimani, Teumesia
Strategy 3: The Paragon of Auto-Friendly
This strategy will work 100% of the time – however its one you put on auto and come back after making a cup of tea, playing a round of golf, cleaning the house and whatever else you can fill your time with. You may have seen the Paragon cheese strategy used in other areas of the game and it is no different in this encounter. Paragon can place unkillable on a target permanently. When he is the only one in the team (or alive) this means he cannot be killed. Agreth doesn’t ignore unkillable nor does she bring a debuff removal which makes him unkillable. His damage is not crazy and certainly getting him to 60 with Warmaster mastery will help speed this up but you can easily do this with a level 30/40 Paragon if he is able to survive the first burst of poisons.
This strategy is about picking 4 champions who can quickly nuke the 2 waves before the boss and any champions that can help reduce the damage on Paragon. Once you are at the boss you need to manual and ensure you use Paragon’s A2 on Paragon until all 4 other champions have been defeated by Agreth. After this you can put the battle on Auto. It should take anywhere between 20-35 minutes so take some time to stretch your legs!
It is highly recommended that you build Paragon in either a Toxic or Deflection set. If you have the option of both, we suggest Deflection as this can also deflect the Debuff Extension and Poison Sensitivity back on the boss. It will happen far less than Toxic but you will find it is probably faster on balance. Also – Make sure you build a team using the AI Tool and Disable Paragon’s A3 so he always A1 and A2.
Credit to StewGaming for coming up with this strategy – you can see it in action on his YouTube Channel here.
MVP’s for this Strategy
Paragon: The original cheese, Paragon will keep himself from being killed. As a rare void he’s reasonably (obviously not guarenteed!) to earn from Void Shards. He’s handy on some Doom Tower Floors too!
Champion Alternatives
Unfortunately this strategy requires Paragon however any champions can really fill the other 4 roles. You’re looking for big nukers to kill off the waves and any champions that can absorb damage from Agreth’s initial poison burst. A shield set on one of these champions is a great idea. Much of the survivability support depends on your Paragon’s rank and general tankiness.
Best team to farm for Forge Materials
Farming Agreth Rewards forge materials to make the Affinity Breaker set. You can read about all the artifact sets you can earn from Doom Tower in our Doom Tower Artifacts Guide.
If you want to Farm Agreth, we recommend Strategy 2. It will be much faster than strategy 1 albeit you may fail a few times along the way. As silver keys are only consumed on a successful run, its worth failing a few to cut down run times!
@HellHades worked for me Floor 60 with Scyl, Drexthar, Armiger, Mausoleum Mage and Skytouched Shaman, Thanks for the tips, they were very helpful.
Good work mate!
Thank you so much for the Drextar tip!! Used him as a lead with Doompriest, Duchess, Scyl, and Sir Nic on level 90 hard! Drextar only level 52. Sir Nic used for the Unkillable. Boss was manual to make sure no AOE went out. EZ PZ in 9m 30 seconds
:D
This is a great guide, thanks a lot.
There is one more champion that would be great for the Nether Spider.
Sanguinia is an epic from the Sacred Order. Her A2 puts continuous heals on all allies and her A3 cleanse all allies and transfer all debuffs to the target. Great way to kill the spider with her own poisons and poison sensitivity while cleansing your team…
Oh man, that is a good call. I am new to Doom Tower and have been stuck on the Nether Spider. I have been sleeping on Sanguinia though. Time to work her up!
Thanks for this helpful guide. I finally got this beast with these 5 heroes:
Duchess Lilitu, Scyl of the Drakes, Witness (!), Hakkorhn Smashlord, and Mausoleum Mage (lvl 50)… and it only took 26 minutes! heh heh
I just killed Nether Spider Floor 110, using Arbiter (L60, I think she can be replaced by Scyl), Trunda (L60), Sepulcher Sentinel (L60, Deflection set), Doompriest (L50), Reliquary Tender (L50), manual 205 turns. No champion died in the process, manual for Reliquary’s A2 timing. I also think Trunda can be replaced (but not tested), I killed small spiders by Trunda’s A2/A3.
I tried to use what I have, I am a low spender, so cannot choose the best team. I think I cannot beat higher floor bosses, by the way.
at late game levels, Lyssandra is the bomb for this boss. if you are 4:3, or better 2:1 on speed, Lys with her unique set of abilities will essentially take the poisons from the spiderlings and kill the mother by transferring debuffs to her. my comp is ARB, LYS, Dutchess, Warlord, and either Drexthar or Ithos… this comp works for me because I have a 4:3 (finally) on the boss on each of my chars. but I would caution that you have to be faster than the boss, and Warlord does not seem to be optional either. I have the chars of Hades’ recommended comp, I just haven’t leveled and booked them yet. they did OK for me at normal level 30, but ran into an endless standoff at 60 with my group.
I have a REALLY weak sustain team that can get me down to less than 5% of AGRETH’s health, they are all single target A1ers, but suddenly Agreth will heal for EACH spider, even though no single spider ling was touched – It is making the fight unwinnable for me currently. Has anyone else seen anything like this happen?
i really hate this level. cannot ever even get past the level 20 nether spider on normal level…and i can clear a level 20 dungeon. its just utterly undoable and completely demotivating
This worked: Drexthar, Doompriest, Scyl, Mausoleum Mage, and Reliquary Tender. I had to upgrade some gear after failing, and it turns out Rel. Tender’s survivability is key. Thanks!
Shamrock is a good champ to mix in. Accuracy aura. (1)Removes/steals buffs. (2) Increase Def and SPD. Increase CRate. Revive. Continuous Heal. (3)Decrease SPD on all enemies. I used him with MM, Scyl, Doompriest and Rotos.
This was great help. I used Drexar (L), Reliquary Tender (50). , Doompriest, Scyl and Armiger. I tried it in full auto first and bingo!
I had to upgrade for level 90 though. Manual all the way 15:42 159 turns… Drexthar, Maus Mage, Doompriest, Rel Tend. and Santa Nick.
So from the above comments, Doompriest is an absolute must. I’ll keep waiting then. All other cleansers haven’t been able to do it.
Killed with Rel. Tender, Scyl, Hakkorn Smashlord, Fahrakin, and Altan.
All A1 single target hitters to protect against the heal. Fahrakin throws poison and HP burn on Agreth,which slowly burns down little guys without setting off counter attack, and the allied attack puts out tons on single target damage. If my cleansers go down, Altan can then single shot the little spiders which resurrects them or Scy can bring them back. It is slow but effective.
Thanks for the tips. very useful!
For an almost FTP player, I had a lot of time to wait for booking 2 Spirithost. I got Vrask and tryed him, but it wasn’t enough to keep my low level team alive… But, 3 revivers Aniri(60) and Grinner(50) fully booked, but with only lvl 3 masteries, Rector Drath(50) with no books an only lvl 2 masteries, Spirithost(40), fully booked and lvl 3 masteries, and finally Kael(60) with all books and lvl 5 masteries…. That was an easy fight on manuel, cos the 3 revivers requed each other on shift… Just another way to clear the first Nether Sider on floor 30 Normal…. Hope I will get some better champions before I meet the spider in a higher level.
As an almost FTP player in my 7 month I’ve just started using Scyl of the Drakes. Stuck Sanguinia in lead with Doompriest, Mausoleum Mage, Scyl of the Drakes and the beast that is Narma the Returned…worked great.
Hi HellHades. I came across something for this poison spider. I had my drexar in deflection set. I was noticing that the debuffs I had on him were being extended without me having an extender. It turns out that is own skills would extend his own debuffs when they were deflected back to him by drexar. So if anyone is having trouble keeping Heal Reduction on him, you can deflect poisons and poison sensitivity back to him and he will extend them on his own. Not to mention the hp burns and decrease speed and other useful ones.
I have done it with Kael // StagKnight // Ninja // Medium // Geomancer on 90 – Normal (44 Turns)
Feel I have to add this hear – just beat Nether Spider on 110 (only normal). Never got anywhere near this far! And Minaya was absolutely key – almost did it solo (spider had almost 90% health when all other teammates died). Maybe it was just me, but I was impressed!
MVP for me here, was Madame Serris, stripped the spiderlings of counterattacks to open up for AOE abileties This allowed me to use Bad-El for A1 healing, an he has a nice cleanse with healing. Paired them with Doompriest (more heal, cleanse and a speed aura. Rhazin for damage and Mausoleum mage. (more cleanse, because damn cleanse is nice aigainst the poison). Okay gear on my champs, not insane, All at lvl 60! Did this for normal.