Dungeon Defenders Apprentice Guide

Dungeon Defenders Apprentice Guide by Finally

So you’re having trouble deciding on what to name your Apprentice? Can’t figure out if its a boy or girl? Then you’ve come to the right place. Here is a simple guide to teach you the basics of the class. (He’s a boy FYI)

How should I build my Apprentice?
The Apprentice by far has the most powerful towers in the game. They do impressive damage and is one of 2 characters (version 1.0) that can build physical towers. Much like the Squire, there are three typical builds:

Tower Build (all points in tower stats)
Pros:

• Impressive tower damage
• All towers are ranged except the barricade

Cons:

• Leaves the mage with low health
• Monsters can be resistant to the towers elements

DPS Build (all points in character stats)
Pros:

• Weapons are ranged
• High level weapons do high damage and have split attacks (ie shoot up to 5 missiles at once)

Cons:

• Towers will not do as much damage
• Lack of a good barrier makes soloing harder

Hybrid Build (Mix of the two, most common)
Pros:

• Good for public team games
• Able to use both their weapon and towers efficiently

Cons:

• Not specialized
• Towers will lack maximum damage if they are needed

Tower Breakdown

Magic Missile Tower(Magic Tower)
-The Magic tower is the very first tower available to the Apprentice and has a low cost to summon. The Apprentice is able to build many of these towers all over the map covering many points. These make for good early towers or support for higher level towers as monsters do not have elemental resistance to them. A balanced tower defense should include a few Magic towers covering the map.
Cost: 3 Tower Points 40 Mana

Magic Blockade
-The Magic Blockade is a great tower to fill out a map when you want to make Defense Units due to being only 1DU. Although, this tower is quite basic in that it is something mobs will walk into and attack. That is pretty much the extent of it. Good for solo Apprentice runs, the Magic Blockade is bested by a few Squire towers that do much more then block paths. The Magic Blockades are very good against elemental resistant monsters as it steals their resistance, exposing them to all the elements.
Cost: 1 Defense Units 20 Mana

Fireball Tower(Fire Tower)
-The Fire tower is the second tower the Apprentice has access to. This tower does high damage but fires at a slow rate. The best part of the Fire tower is that each attack does splash damage on the area of impact, making up for the slow rate of fire. I would advise against building only fireball towers since many of the resistance monsters have fire resistance, negating any damage. These are best accompanied by other Apprentice or Squire towers.
Cost: 4 Defense Units 80 Mana

Lightning Tower
-By far the most unique tower in the Apprentice’s arsenal, the Lighting tower can be quite impressive. This is the only tower with 360 degree coverage and it is able to hit multiple monsters with its chain lighting attacks. The Lighting tower does low-medium damage that is compensated by hitting many monsters. The uses for this tower are limited currently, as it is rare to have more then a few monsters in each lane.
Cost: 7 Defense Units 120 Mana

Deadly Striker Tower(Uber Tower)
A very rarely used tower, the Deadly Striker does impressive damage at a large cost. The DS tower will shoot through walls and has the longest range of any tower in the game currently. The down side to this tower is the extremely large charge up time and lack of control. The tower, although powerful, will tend to attack the closest monster rather then the strongest one. This will cause its 1k+ damage to be wasted on a 100hp monster. Best used before bosses, never more then one or 2 at a time.
Cost: 8 Defense Units 150 Mana

Apprentice Skills

Overcharge
-This skill allows the Apprentice to summon towers faster or activate Mana Bomb in less then a second. Overcharge is quite useful in two situations. The first being when monsters break through the maps barricades and the crystal is in danger of being damaged. The Apprentice can setup a defensive area in quite a short time using this skill. The second situation is when using Mana Bomb around monsters. This skill reduces the casting time saving the player precious seconds.
8 Mana per second

Mana Bomb
-Mana Bomb is a large rage aoe attack centered from the Apprentice. The skill requires a few seconds to charge before unleashing its devastating damage. The cost of the skill is well worth using, but only in emergencies or when mana is plentyful. Mana is always best used on towers first, then skills.
200 Mana per use

Apprentice Weapons
-The Apprentice can equip Staffs and Clubs. Clubs are a bit rare to find with decent stats so most players will use staffs. One thing to watch for is how many additional projectiles the weapon has. More projectiles means more damage and more monsters hit per attack. In the later levels it is necessary to have +3 or more projectiles if the player intends to use their attacks effectively.

Apprentice Stats
There are 10 possible places to spend stat points on:

– Player Health
-This stat increases the Apprentice’s Health increasing his overall survivability. Every Apprentice should invest a few points in this stat as they are rather squishy. Health is not an important skill due to the Apprentice being ranged in nature but it is needed to survive on Insane maps later on. (50 max)

– Player Damage
-Placing points in Player Damage increase the damage of each attack done by the player. This stat is not useful for tower builds and is only good for a DPS build. (50 max)

– Player Speed
-This stat increases the players movement speed. It is best not to put points in Player Speed due to its relatively low max. Tho at higher levels, this skill needs to be maxed and if necessary points should be placed in Player Speed. Items should cover the player speed stat well over the 20 max. (20 max)

– Player Attack Speed
-This stat increases the rate at which the player creates and repairs towers. This is a good skill to place points in if the player is doing a Tower build otherwise the points can be better placed elsewhere. The Apprentice’s towers have relatively low health and being able to rebuild them quickly is needed. A tower build Apprentice should also focus on repairing all towers. (50 max)

– Tower Health
-This stat increases the health of all the towers. Apprentice towers have low health so upgrading this stat is needed if the player intends to play on Hard/Insane. (50 max)

– Tower Damage
-Tower damages increases the damage of all Apprentice towers. This is a good skill to max if the player is going for a tower or hybrid build. Not much else to write. (50 max)

– Tower Aoe Range
-This stat increase the range of towers aoe attacks. This is important to invest in as the range of towers increases with each point although, other stats like damage and attack speed should come first.. More range = more damage over time. (50 max)

– Tower Attack Speed
-Tower Attack Speed increases the attack rate of all Apprentice towers. This is an important skill to max if the player is going for a tower or hybrid build as the damage output of each tower is greatly increased. This should be maxed if the player intends to do a Tower build.(50 max)