Does anyone have a good strategy for defeating the pyromancer of duval? I don't really get the mechanics of how she works. Everything will be going really well and then suddenly out of nowhere my entire party is dead haha. Can someone explain this to me?

I've been struggling with her too, I haven't figured it out yet. The secret is definitely in the wisps, imo. Their buffs confuse me a bit and I've yet to last long enough in a battle to figure it out. They have the flame barrier that deals massive damage to attackers, so I think it's best not to try and hit them since they'll kill you quick that way (I'm currently ranking up a Air cannon since Fire cannon obv won't work well for that). The other "buff" they have, Living Bomb, says they'll deal a ton of damage to all enemies at the end of 10 turns. I'm not sure if that means to my own party (the wisp's enemy) or if it means the enemies in the battle (the wisp's allies) since I haven't lived those 10 turns yet to see what they damage. At first I assumed it meant my party but after thinking for a while that didn't make sense to me and I started wondering if it was just weird wording? Cus making an enemy you can't hit cus it'll kill you yet you need to kill it by a certain turn feels like a mean mechanic and I'm not sure how to get around it. Makes more sense to me if the mechanic is to outlast the wisp's typical attack damage output and avoid attacking them with the benefit being that they deal damage to their own allies after 10 turns.

This is speculative though, I don't have much more than that atm and I haven't seen any advice in guides.


EDIT: Oh! Also I think good to block on first pet when pyro gets near full mana for the second time, she seems to lay down a big attack around that time that takes me out pretty frequently. Not totally sure on the timing yet, I just noted it down last time I went up against her.

the wisps have a reflective shield that basically reflects damage back at you -my strat is water shield, s5 light/raith's fury air the turn before summon, then r5 razor wind to take them out ASAP. usually you can then take out the pyromancer before they can summon another round.

TL;DR: negate damage and then go ham

This is what Krin said when I was lamenting how ridiculous Pyromancer seems to be in gen:

"Me: [04:31] the fact that even first floor north pyro can put our team in imminent danger if we don't manage to take out the wisps in under 3 turns- we can even manage north2 and south2 Guardian without Training grounds active if we pay attention, but pyromancer? haha, no, we just cannot take out the wisps in time to avoid obliteration, even with r5 temple, without the TG buff

Krinadon: [05:12] I'm not sure you're handling the mechanics correctly [Tongue]

Me: [05:31] entirely possible but i can only work with what I observe and what other people have observed and literally as far as that goes it's 'kill the wisps or die in short order'

Krinadon: [05:33] You aren't supposed to be taking any damage from his adds

Me: [05:36] whether they're doing damage or buffing pyro or what, I don't know. All I know is they get summoned and if they aren't taken out fast everything immediately goes downhill and pets start getting KOd

Krinadon: [05:37] There's two mechanics happening at once when he summons the adds. If you do it right, you can completely avoid taking any damage at all from the adds"

unfortunately I've only run into Pyro once this reset so far (might appear again in floor four, we'll have to see) and the fight still KO'd my earth tank twice (once was autorevived by the Blessing from the barracks temple, but she was KO'd again just as the fight ended (though it WAS a win vs floor 3 pyro without the tg buff for once). We'll probably need to try out a few different things to work out what we're actually MEANT to be using as a strategy against Pyro by Krin's reckoning.
But here's the info, so maybe with that, in collaborative effort, we can figure it out?

huh. I do know what he's talking about ("...if you do it right...[you] avoid taking damage") because I've had it happen in some runs but not others. Some runs it's smooth as butter, even in temple 3, and others i get my shirt wrecked, even in temple 1 xD

I do run water, went smoother than with my earth.

I just went at her with Hiraeth's strat, though with a fire rather than air. fire's key 5 and fairy light take out the adds right when the spawn and take out abt 3/4s of my fire's health, even with a water shield up. I got a lot closer, almost killed her. I'm gonna do another run with some ent flask buffs and see if I manage it that time.

Especially with what Krin said though, I really do wonder if the Living Bomb buff does damage the adds and pyromancer rather than your party. It sounds like he's alluding to that idea of 'don't attack the wisps at all'. With that in mind, a Water/Air/Light (or maybe Water/Air/Air) party might work for that strat with the water sheilding and air focusing solely on pyro, ignore the wisps entirely. If I had a fully ranked Air I'd give it a go but alas ^^;

As someone who runs Water/Air/Air I can definitely say I've never once had a problem with Pyromancer. They die incredibly quickly every time with the standard ability 5 first off, ability 1 for turn 2 to gain mana, ability 3 for turn 3 with the water and first air and then attack until a decimate can go off.

Eim, you are amazing. Using your strategy, I was able to easily take down the pyro, after weeks of fearing it, with a water/light/air team

oooh okay! Good to know, I'll focus on ranking up my Air pet then and see if I can take her out with a water/light/air team.