The last time I wrote about Epic Seven, I mentioned that my next goal was to focus on building teams for Nightmare Raid. Hell Raid was starting to feel a bit easy, plus I’m entering into late game territory and I no longer need good gear but rather great gear to take my main units to the next level. Apart from the Penetration set necklace and other top-tier gear in the Azmakalis dungeon shop, the bosses in Nightmare Raid also have a high chance of dropping really good level 88 gear, so that’s what I was after.
I managed to beat almost every boss last month (didn’t get good gear though), but I kept failing to beat the queen. Something always went wrong somehow, no matter what I did. Luckily, an easier strategy involving Challenger Dominiel and Ainz Ooal Gown came out recently. I wasn’t quite able to pull off a Phase Two one-shot, but I did enough damage to weaken her severely and FINALLY get the win. Full credit goes to the originator and refiner of this strategy. You guys are awesome!
It’s good for me to help others in turn, so I’m listing and screenshotting my Epic Seven Nightmare Raid teams here. It will also come in handy next time I take a break from the game, because I always forget who I used to do what, and unlike Expeditions, the game doesn’t record teams for future reference. Speaking of Expeditions, if I ever manage to full-auto all of them, I’ll post those teams too. Right now I can only beat Brutal Pherus (Fire) if I soul burn Choux at some point, and I hover around 1.0 to 1.2 million with the other ones.
Anyway, on to the teams. None of these are “auto” teams, by the way. Just FYI. Credit for all these builds and ideas go mainly to Tristen Wulf and Dad E7/Zoopido, also other YouTubers and Reddit posters whose names I don’t remember. I’m not smart enough to come up with any ideas by myself.
Queen Azumashik
Tamarinne
She’s my little cutie-pie! I wish she were a little faster, but you can’t have everything. You’ll need to watch the videos I mentioned above for the actual strategy because it’s a little fiddly. I’ve seen people beat the Nightmare Queen with other soul weavers like Lots and Destina, but IMO that’s like sawing wood with a butter knife. Just get Tamarinne and make your life easier.
Iseria
The standard Iseria I pair with Dark Corvus for Guild Wars shenanigans. I’m sure there are better artifacts I can run, like Bloodstone for extra heals, or Ms. Confille for better defense breaks, but I can’t be bothered. Her effectiveness for buff stripping the queen is the most important thing. If Queen Azumashik has her buffs up, she hits harder and takes less damage AND she transfers the buffs to her minions AND the minions counter attack if you attack the queen when she is buffed. You really need those buffs to come down.
Ainz Ooal Gown
Sasuga Ainz-sama! Any artifact or build will do, IMO. He just needs 100% crit and enough bulk to stay alive. If he dies, the whole operation falls apart because it’s his soulburned AOE S1 that enables Challenger Dominiel to hit big numbers. Watch the video for more details.
Challenger Dominiel
The legend. The phenom. I only thought of her as “that annoying girl in the Nixied dungeon” until this strategy came out. Give her as much attack and crit damage as possible. Only 50% crit chance is needed because of her S3, if I recall correctly. Ainz’s crits will boost her combat readiness, so zero speed is fine. A bit of bulk so she doesn’t get one-shot either.
The Kal’adra artifact is really important for getting enough damage too, unless you have a super cracked ChanDom. On a tangential note, I really like it when someone pulls a niche hero from somewhere for a crazy strategy in this game. That’s why I try to keep at least one copy of everyone, even the lamest-seeming 3-star.
June 2024 update: I’ve beaten the queen twice with this strategy now, so I can confidently say it works. But! In my case, I have to fight a few random battles first to get a full bar of souls. The strategy of dragging out the fight against the Queen until the bar fills up is too risky for me because both Ainz and ChanDom are kind of squishy. Also all is not lost if the queen hits 50% and pushes phase because you over-damaged her, as long as Tamarinne’s S3 and Iseria’s S3s are immediately ready or ready within a turn. Free everyone from paralysis, def break the queen ASAP and let her have it. It’s even better this way because it clears all the hatched minions and you just have to tank the bleeds for a turn to kill the queen.
Devourer Arakahan
Navy Captain Landy
Apologies, I just changed her equipment today to give her more HP and less crit damage, so I don’t know if she still works against Arakahan. I’ll test this build against the boss next month and let you know. If she doesn’t, replace the HP necklace with a Critical Hit Damage necklace and aim for around 3400 attack, 16,000 HP and 300+ critical hit damage. (update: Crit Damage neck is faster, but this also works)
I chose Navy Captain Landy to be my main damage dealer because the boss uses a lot of Stuns, which she is immune to. She’s also a PVE beast with both single hits and AOEs, plus she self-heals and she can stun the mobs and prevent them from hurting me or healing the boss. I love this character.
Suthan
He plays an important role in burning the enemies. You see, Devourer Arakahan’s mobs take much less damage unless you stack two or more of the same debuff/status effect on them. Bleeds and burns are the best choice, so you can use other characters like Carrot or your rift debuffers if you want. I like Suthan because he doesn’t need to build effectiveness (I’ll have to change that Hit set to Torrent later) and he has unhealable to stop the battle from dragging out forever.
Magic Scholar Doris
As you may know from Guild Wars, Doris has a passive that heals whenever she is attacked by a dark enemy. Also she’s cute. I like soul weavers. The Wondrous Potion Vial artifact helps cleanse that pesky stun from your characters too. I have one that is close to +30, but someone else is wearing it right now… Roana? I forget.
Seaside Bellona
Usually on Bloodstone for extra heals. I’m sure any other sub DPS would do, but I like how her passive heals me up while dealing good damage, and with Life Steal, she’s pretty self-sustaining. Now that I look at it, that crit damage is really bad… I’ll have to take a second look at it next time I log in (update: later raised it to 278% with 95% crit chance, which is the best I can do for now).
Executioner Karkanis
(Daddy) Brieg
Daddy Brieg, not just “Brieg,” you peasant. The dude completely transformed my Expedition game, and he’s pretty good against Executioner Karkanis because he can target Karkanis even in stealth when his focus S3 goes off. That’s huge. The defense break is nice too. I’ll try him on the Daydream Joker artifact next time.
Choux
Ignore that artifact up there. It is very important that you run +30 Daydream Joker on Choux or whoever your main DPS is, or you simply won’t do enough damage. I learned that the hard way. I like using Choux because Karkanis goes into Rage mode and attacks like crazy when his HP reaches like 30% (or 40%?). But if he’s defense broken and you have a lot of souls, you can soul burn Choux’s S1 and wipe him out without giving him a chance to fight back. I’m working on getting Choux another 2-3000 HP and more crit damage, but you know how Epic Seven is with gear.
Diene
Why does she look so suspicious of me, lol. I should have chosen another expression. Executioner Karkanis uses a LOT of debuffs, and if you hit him with a debuffed character, he cleanses his own debuffs and counterattacks, so you really need a lot of cleansing. Diene also helps with damage by giving an attack buff to the whole party.
Angelic Montmorancy
I played Epic Seven for many, many, many months before I got Tamarinne, and in all that time, Angelic Montmorancy carried my whole team on her shoulders. Even though she’s largely retired now, she’s still useful here because she’s the cleansing champion. Instead of Magahara, I’ll try giving her Wondrous Potion Vial next time (update: this was a great idea that made the run much faster). She would also benefit from like 30 more speed. In fact I should just exchange her gear with Diene’s or Hazel’s, since A. Momo doesn’t need HP to heal.
Secretary Vera
The team below doesn’t have a defense break, and you’ll need that to burst through the boss’s second phase before the egg pops and kills you all. I use Zeaon as a guardian and try to build up enough souls going into the egg phase to prevent it from becoming an issue. You can also fight one or two battles before warping to the boss if that makes it easier for you.
Fire Lilias
The key to victory in this fight, for me. I tried other fire knights and failed, though maaaaybe Adventurer Ras might work for someone, especially since he has defense break. Firstly, Fire Lilias has a full team cleanse on her S3, which helps a lot. Plus even with her poor damage stats, she does good damage to those pesky eggs because of the way her S3 works (scales off highest attack stat in the team), so imagine if I built her with more crit chance and and damage… I’ll try it once I have the gear.
More importantly, in the final phase of Secretary Vera, you need to use a lot of dual or extra attacks to make the boss take more damage. Lilias’ S1 always does a dual attack, so that’s a quick and easy way to satisfy the requirement. As I said, you can use A. Ras with his S2 instead, but you’ll need to save a lot of souls for the final stage.
Mascot Hazel
She’s mainly there for the attack buff to fire allies, which she does a great job with. I felt she wasn’t healing enough, probably because her HP is so low, so the Touch of Rekos artifact helps with that. I should really just give her better gear so I can run something like Guardian Ice Crystals or Idol’s Cheer instead.
Mercedes
Mercedes-chan the fluffy destroyer! Her powerful AOE attacks are handy for wiping out the eggs while hurting Vera. Her S2 also attacks twice when she has an attack buff up, which both her S3 and Mascot Hazel handily supply. That helps a lot in the final stage. Between the Counter set and her Magic for Friends artifacts, she is constantly attacking, so she helps the battle end faster. My dream is to give her over 4000 attack and 200 speed one day.
Cermia
I think any fire sub DPS will do, not necessarily Cermia. I just like Cermia because she hits HARD, doesn’t die easily because of Golden Rose, and will occasionally (nay, more than occasionally) attack twice if she has the Exclusive Equipment for it. I’m almost done building her, just want that 100% crit and like 15 more speed.
Juleeve Council
Destina
Bastion of Hope to boost her horrible effect resistance. Anything but build her with better gear, eh? Juleeve Council is my least favorite Raid boss because of the injury and all the poisons, but Destina helps a lot in cleansing them and CR pushing my attackers.
Laia
Apparently most people run a second Earth soul weaver like Roana or Ray in Laia’s slot, but I tried her and she worked great. Her S2 helps cleanse Juleeve’s pesky poison while lowering skill cooldowns, and her S1 triggers dual attacks which will pull in either Zahak or MG Lilias if you’re lucky. IMO the battle against Juleeve Council is a pure DPS race, so more dakka is better than sustain.
Zahak
Ignore the Symbol of Unity artifact. For this battle you want +30 Daydream Joker on both Zahak and Midnight Gala Lilias to do more damage. Other Earth DPS characters will do the job too, I’m sure. Vivian, Celine, Vildred, ae-Giselle if you have her.
Zahak is just preferred because he doesn’t have debuffs (Juleeve will cleanse, attack, and self-buff if you debuff him, the hateful thing) and his S2 cleanses poison while attack buffing and CR pushing. Even better, his S1 can be soul burned for 1 soul. You really need soul burned attacks in the last phase of the fight to remove Juleeve Council’s rage buff.
Midnight Gala Lilias
See the note about other Earth DPS above. Many people won’t have MG Lilias because she’s limited, but if you do, whoooo boy! Use +30 Daydream Joker and watch the fur fly. I wish I had 4000+ attack and 250+ speed on her like all the cool kids do, but honestly this build is more than enough for Juleeve Council.
And that’s it! Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions! I’ve tried all of these teams at least twice, except the Queen, so I know they work, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement!
