4s Nylocas Melee Freeze Waves

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.

MageMelee FreezeRangerMelee

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 Melee Freeze, your role is to prefire Nylos in the east lane and to help clear out melees.

It is essential to be on time (1^st or 2^nd tick) to your prefires. As you improve at the role, you will be able to identify how many hits you can fit between prefires.

When killing splits, you should prioritize them in the following order: melee, mage, ranged. Prioritize splits in the east and north parts of the room.

You should look out for barrage stacks that have formed or are about to form, especially during the later waves. As a Melee Freeze, you should not be barraging — that is the Mage’s job. If you notice Nylos that will form a stack, ignore them and hit something else.

The largest difficulty with Melee Freeze role is undoubtedly inventory management. To keep your inventory clean, you should do the following:

• Keep an empty inventory slot and put all of your two-handed weapons around it, so that your defender/shield always ends up next to your weapon.
• When switching between three styles, re-equip your previous switches before your new ones so that everything ends up in its original place. This can be seen in the example VOD — pay attention to how the player performs their switches.
• An example inventory arrangement is shown below.

Pre-cap

Waves 1-2

Sang wave 1 south, then Swift the wave 1 east melee. Swift it again if it didn’t die.

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.

Waves 3-4

Sang the wave 3 east small, then the wave 4 south big.

Wave 5

Sang the wave 5 east small, then Swift the wave 4 east melee. Clean up any smalls that survived and splits in the room until the next wave.

Wave 6

Scythe the east big as it enters the room. Finish it with your Swift if it doesn’t die.

Waves 7-8

Kill the wave 7 east melee, then clean up the east side and splits from the wave 6 big you killed.

Wave 9

Sang the east mage small.

Wave 10

Bow the east big on the first tick, ideally wearing full Void, then Blowpipe either the big (if it’s still alive) or the small.

Wave 11

Barrage the east mage doubles. Clean up splits from range big and finish off the barraged Nylos if they survived.

Wave 12

Scythe the east melee doubles. If one survived, swift it once.

Waves 13-14

Scythe the wave 13 east big as it enters the room. If it doesn’t die, finish it with your Swift, then clean up smalls and splits in the room.

Wave 15

Sang the east mage small, then clean up splits from the 13 melee big.

Wave 16

Sang the east mage small.

Wave 17

Sang the east mage big, and commit to the kill. Note that this (and many of your upcoming prefires) will flash in lane, so you can hit something in the room after the first Sang, then return to finish it off.

Wave 18

Clean up splits in the room.

Wave 19

Sang the east mage big and commit after it flashes.

If you are first tick to this, stand one tile back from the gate. This will cause the splits to spawn after the wave 20 check, avoiding a potential chain stall.

Finish off any remaining bigs afterwards.

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

You should aim to be first tick to all of your mage big prefires. This is important for your rotation as it causes the splits to spawn earlier, preventing your team from falling behind.

Wave 20

Scythe the east melee big as it enters the room.

Wave 21

Clean up splits, and be ready to first tick your wave 22 prefire.

Wave 22

Sang the east mage big. If it survives, you can Blowpipe it as it flashes, then Scythe to finish it off.

If it dies to your Sang, kill splits. You only have 8 ticks to fill before your next prefire, so don’t greed hits.

Wave 23

Sang the east mage big. If it survives, you can Blowpipe it as it flashes, then Scythe to finish it off. Kill splits afterwards, but be ready to Scythe the next melee big.

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

Wave 24

Scythe the east melee big as soon as it enters the room. While you’re waiting for it to enter, you can clean up any splits which spawned on wave 23 or higher.

If you first ticked the 23 mage and one-shot it, you can kill one split then Sang the 24 south mage on the first tick, Blowpipe 24 east once and you will be on tick to Scythe the 24 east melee big.

Wave 25

After Scything the 24 melee big, you have 5 ticks to fill, giving you several options:

• If the big survived, Scythe it again.
• If your Mage didn’t kill 25 east mage, back them up. Then, either lose a tick before your next prefire, or Blowpipe once and be a tick late.
• If both your 24 melee and the 25 mage bigs died, hit splits in the room. It is okay to fill 6 ticks and be a tick late to your next prefire.

Waves 26-27

The two east mage bigs spawning on waves 26 and 27 need to die as quickly as possible. Killing them takes priority over everything else.

If you are first tick to wave 26, Sang it standing right by the gate. Then, make sure to step back a tile to Sang 27 on the first tick, as this will cause its splits to spawn after the wave 28 check.

After the two bigs die, focus splits on the east side of the room.

Waves 28-29

These two waves spawn pairs of north and south smalls which flash in the lane. There will be many splits in the room, especially with the 26 and 27 bigs popping, which you should be prepared to hit.

You can fill ticks by Sanging the north 28 small. This is a flasher that will later turn melee, which could cause trouble on cleanup.

The southern 28 and northern 29 smalls enter the room as melee, so you should Swift them.

Wave 30

Continue killing splits. You may optionally help your Mage with by Sanging the east mage big once, though this depends on the state of the room:

• If there are a lot of barrage clumps, you can kill the 30 big for your Mage so that they can focus on barraging.
• If there aren’t many mage Nylos in the room, the Mage will kill the 30, so focus on cleaning the north side of the room.

Wave 31

Focus on cleaning up the northeast pillar and avoid running south. You should also scan the northwest pillar as you may have to move there during cleanup if it has a lot of melee Nylos.

Sometimes, if you are trying to Sang the 30 big, your Mage might kill it before you can Sang it. In this case, you can quickly Sang the 31 north mage small to avoid losing ticks switching back to melee.

If there are melee aggros in the middle of the room, you can hit them while transitioning between pillars to fill ticks.

Alternatively, you can choose to Blowpipe the wave 31 east smalls in lane, hitting the north one followed by the south one.

Cleanup

Your responsibility is to clean up north. Do not leave the north side of the room while Nylos there are still alive. The only exception is if there are an overwhelming number of melees on the south side which your Melee will need assistance to kill. Make sure not to double up with your Melee or Ranger.

It is important to follow your role’s style prioritization, but you should avoid destroying barrage value. Look for single mage Nylos if there are no melees left, or to fill ticks while pathing to the northwest pillar.

If the last Nylo in the room is a melee, you can BGS or Elder maul whack it for a higher chance of killing it.

Example VOD