In the Enigmatic Grotto I chose to fight through the undead because it sounded like fun....but I am completely stuck. I can't beat the seemingly unending hordes, I die once I get to the archmages every time. I've been at this for hours now. I try stocking up on elixirs and such, but it's hard getting the money for them when I have to explore in previous zones and that's a bit of a long grind. And then I end up dead broke buying them all, and have to sell stuff just to bring my pets back to consciousness and start over.

I have 2 pets in my party and no prayer of getting the money for a 3rd soon. There seems to be no option to hide/run away from the horde. I'm doing missions for the gold. My pets are the right level(30+). Help :(

(Also why is there no help forum?)

I would recommend restatting your pets to health. They both have pretty low health. Also this is the help forum. :)

Ok thanks :) How much health is "acceptable" ? I'm used to games where you can frontload the damage and things usually turn out ok ^.^

Focus down higher star enemies, one at a time. Through the battle, try to have two 1 stars beside the highest-star-enemy so that their damage is minimized (save the 1 star's for last). Another thing to consider is to un-party your Sylesti so that they can heal while you're offline. Remember to use Mend when around 74% HP when it's off cooldown. Other than that, make sure you're statting and itemizing fairly decently and try again :)

Try to get that third pet slot unlocked as soon as you can. It really helps a lot.
What you can do is to explore other "lower level" regions while sending your pets on missions. So you earn the money from missions, while still increasing the experience of your party. You can also interchange the pet you intend to put in the third slot with either of your current party pets while doing this, to increase the intended third pet to the same level as your other party pets.

Other than that, like Maident said, one tip is to hit the higher star opponent first, leaving the 1-2 stars behind. So while you're focusing on killing one, the rest won't be hitting too much damage on you.

This is a guide to team building:
http://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=11101
Most people go for a tanker (first pet), which will absorb the most damage, but deals very little damage; and two glass canon (second and third pet), which deals a lot of damage, but have minimum level up points in their health and can last shorter.

Thanks, I was building my glass cannons first. I've started my tank and hope to get past that stage soon(ish) ^.^

Do you know if enemies always target your main (middle) pet first? That seems to be the case in most of my combats, and I'm wondering if I need to arrange my party so that the tank is in the active pet slot.

You're welcome. ^-^

Usually they hit the first pet (middle and main pet) first.
But some can hit all three pets at one time, and some that only hit one do hit the others, just not as often.

From what I see, usually my first pet gets the most damage, then the second, and the last pet receives the least damage, on average.

Pff and the Archmage is totally the last guy in the lineup! I accidentally went there just now leveling my tank and beat the zombie horde! I'd forgotten about it and went there lol (to be fair I got a lucky treasure chest that had 6 strong restore elixir II, the one that heals 1,600) But YAY!

Congrats then! =)

Yeah, Archmages are totally a pain! >.<
I always kill archmages first. Especially since they can heal themselves and other people in their team. xP