4s Nylocas Mage Waves

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Theatre of Blood

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Prelude

This guide is part of Blert’s series of max-eff Theatre of Blood 4s guides. It is intended for players who already have a basic knowledge of the Theatre of Blood and are looking to learn how to run efficient raids.

View Nylocas waves guides for the other roles using the links below.

Refer to the ToB Plugins guide for information about useful plugins. Of particular note are the Nyloer plugin to track spawns and splits, and Nylo Death Indicators to avoid doubling up on dead Nylos.

Overview

As a Mage, your priority is to prefire Mage bigs entering the room during later waves to ensure they die as quickly as possible. It is also your responsibility to look for high-value barrages across the room, as your melee freeze will rarely (if ever) barrage.

Some general things to keep in mind during the waves include:

Pray Augury throughout the waves and make sure you always barrage with a 15% staff equipped.
Prioritize mage splits on the west side of the room to avoid doubling up with your melee freeze, who will be hitting splits on the east side.
Always try to be on tick for your prefires. The Nylo room runs on a 4-tick cycle, which is the same speed as your Sang. Knowing how many hits you can fill between waves is an important part of improving your waves.
Look out for potential barrage stacks forming when Nylos path towards pillars.
Ensure you use corner tiles for barraging to hit Nylos on both sides of a pillar.

Pre-cap

Waves 1-3

Sang the wave 1 south small, the wave 2 west small, then the wave 3 east small.

If you bring a Volatile nightmare staff as your barrage weapon, spec the wave 1 small instead of Sanging it to get Chally and ZCB specs for the boss. If your team gets inconsistent boss spawns (slower than 2:57.6) you can spec a later Nylo, but no later than wave 4.

Wave 4

Sang the wave 4 south big until it dies.

Wave 5

Sang the wave 5 east small, then kill splits in the room.

Waves 6-7

Sang wave 6 west and wave 7 south. Help out with the south big if you kill both quickly.

Wave 8

Sang the west mage big on the first tick it spawns and commit to the kill.

Wave 9

Bow the west big once, then finish it with your blowpipe. If you didn’t one-shot the wave 8 big, skip the bow and just pipe. Clean up splits in the room afterwards.

Wave 10

Continue cleaning splits. If the west range doubles are still alive, you can blowpipe them twice before wave 11 spawns.

Waves 11-12

Sang the west mage big, then barrage thesouth doubles. If you hit the big on the first tick, you can Sang it again and still have time to barrage.

Kill splits in the room afterwards.

Wave 13

Sang the west small and kill another split. If your melee didn’ kill the ranger small and there are no mage splits to hit, you can blowpipe it once before wave 14.

Wave 14

Sang the west small followed by the south small.

Waves 15-16

Sang the south big mage first tick and commit to the kill. You can do another 2 sangs after your first — prioritize smalls in the room or hit the 16 east if there are none.

Waves 17-18

Sang the wave 17 south mage big. If your first Sang doesn’t kill it, blowpipe the 16 south range small once as the 17 flashes, then finish it.

After the big is dead, clean up smalls or the other 17 mage bigs. Prioritize south first, then west. You can do a total of 5 Sangs between 17-19.

Wave 19

Sang the wave 19 south mage big. If you hit it on the first tick, stand one tile away from the gate to increase your projectile travel time, ensuring it pops following the wave 20 check.

Do 2 more Sangs before wave 20. If you were first tick to the south big, you can hit a 17 big on a pillar before it switches to melee.

Pay attention to how many 17s entered the room. If 2 or more popped in the room, consider cleaning up smalls instead of instantly prefiring the 19 to avoid stalling.

Post-cap

Wave 20

Sang the south mage big, ideally on the first tick.

If it dies to your Sang, you can Sang 3 more times before the next wave.
If it doesn’t die, Blowpipe it once as it flashes ranged. If the Blowpipe kills it, you can Sang twice more before the next wave.
If the Blowpipe doesn’t kill it, Scythe it as it enters the room, then do one more Sang.

Wave 21

Barrage the west mage doubles on the first tick, then either blowpipe or Sang something in the room while running east.

Wave 22

Sang the east mage big, then bow the west ranged big with your ranger as it flashes.

From this point, avoid hitting any smalls that spawned earlier than wave 23, as they will expire around wave 28.

Wave 23

Sang the east mage big, then path south. You can Sang something in the room before your next prefire.

If your ranger doesn’t kill the 23 south big, don’t Sang it. Doing so will put you off tick for your following prefires. Your meleer should deal with it instead.

Wave 24

Sang the south mage big and commit to the kill. You can Sang once more before the next wave. If your ranger doesn’t kill the west big, don’t Sang it when it flashes; just let your meleer deal with it.

Wave 25

If the 24 south is dead, Sang the east mage big on the first tick, standing up against the gate. Sang one more thing before your next prefire. If 24 south or west died instantly, you can hit one of their splits.

Being first tick to the 25 big ensures that its splits auto for 2:50.2. If the 24 south did not die in 2 Sangs, it is preferable to Sang it a third time over prefiring the 25, as only one of then will die for a potential 2:50, and the 24 likely has a higher chance of dying.

Waves 26-27

Sang the 26 west mage big on the first tick. Then, regardless of whether it died, Sang the 27 west mage big immediately afterwards. Commit to killing the 27, then return to the 26.

You should stand up against the gate when attacking the 26, but step back a tile for the 27, as the increased projectile travel time will cause its splits to spawn after the wave check.

Waves 28-29

At this point, you should primarily be looking out for barrage clumps. Ideally, the clumps consist of 27s and above, but it is sometimes worth barraging earlier Nylos to avoid a stall.

If your Melee Freeze did not kill their east bigs, you should clean these up, though avoid doubling up on them.

You can Sang the 28 east small as it later turns melee, which can cause issues during cleanup.

Unless there are no other mages, you should not hit the small mage aggros from these waves, as they will turn melee and follow players around during cleanup.