The Trial of Ascension (ToA) is a challenging PvE feature in the game Summoners War. You can access it once you reach level 15, and it offers two modes: ToA Normal (ToAN) and ToA Hard (ToAH).
When you're ready to tackle ToA, it's best to start as soon as you can clear GB7, which is a milestone that gives you great rewards. Once you reach that point, your team should be strong enough to reach at least stage 5 and 10 in ToA. At these stages, you can replenish your energy and earn some extra crystals.
In the later part of this guide, we'll discuss the best stats, runes, monsters, and teams to use in ToA and ToAH.
Keep in mind that both ToA difficulties reset once a month. So, it's a good idea to clear as many stages as you can before the reset day to make the most of the opportunity.
Rewards
ToA is loaded with really great rewards that help boost your overall progression, and possibility of getting good monsters each month. You'll gain reward every 10 floors.
ToA Rewards by Floor Level
Lvl 10: 50 Energy
Lvl 20: 4* Rainbowmon
Lvl 30: Mystical Scroll
Lvl 40: 100 Crystals
Lvl 50: 2x Mystical Scrolls
Lvl 60: 5* Rainbowmon
Lvl 70: Devilmon
Lvl 80: 300 Crystals
Lvl 90: Light and Darkness Scroll
Lvl 100: All Attribute Scroll
Best ToA & ToAH Monsters: Includes Runes & Builds
In each stage of ToA, you'll encounter three waves of monsters, and some stages have a boss waiting for you at the final wave.
Certain stages can be quite challenging to clear and may require specific monsters to overcome, especially when dealing with boss stages.
The primary strategy in ToA revolves around combining Crowd Control (CC) and Damage Over Time (DoTs). This strategy helps prevent your team from succumbing to enemy attacks while gradually wearing down the waves of enemies.
The reason why the standard approach of relying on defense break and regular damage is not ideal in ToA is that the monsters there have exceptionally high HP and deal substantial damage.
Due to their high HP, DoTs become highly effective as they inflict a percentage-based damage (-5% of the enemy's maximum HP) with each turn. Crowd Control is also crucial because if multiple enemies get a chance to attack at once, they can easily eliminate one of your monsters.
Early Game Monsters
If you are looking for free-to-play (F2P) ToA monsters, these will do the trick. Some will require RNG but most are farmable.
Contribution:
Puts 2 stacks of AoE DoTs
Resets ATB back to 0
Can AoE stun with despair runes.
Leader skill: +19% SPD
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
AoE stun. If not stunned, 100% chance to decrease ATK bar by 50%.
Deals damage proportionate to the Enemy's HP.
DoT on a single target with his first skill.
AoE Cleanse your team every turn
Leader skill: +33% HP
Rune Builds:
Swift / Energy
SPD / CD% / HP%
Contribution:
Smart heal that will only be used when your monsters are low on HP.
Her heal will also boost your teams attack bar
Defense break
Decreases ATK bar
Rune Builds:
Violent / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
DEF break
Team up with 2 other allies
Gains another turn if an enemy dies
Rune Builds:
Violent / Focus
SPD / CD% / ATK%
Contribution:
DEF break
Brand
Team up with 1 other ally
Damage scales off of Debuffs
Rune Builds:
Rage / Blade or Fatal / Blade
ATK% / CD% / ATK%
Contribution:
Decrease ATK bar
Weakens their Attack Power and Defense
Defense break
Increases ATK bar and ATK Speed
Rune Builds:
Swift / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
Inflicts damage proportional to the enemy's MAX HP
Decrease the Attack Bar of all enemies
Decrease enemies' Attack Speed and Attack Power
Rune Builds:
Swift / Energy
SPD / CD% / HP%
Contribution:
Glancing Hit
Absorbs the ATK bar
Decreasing enemy's Attack Speed
Increases the Attack Power and Defense of all allies
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
Stun
Self-heals himself and provokes a single target
Decrease enemies' Attack Speed and Attack Power
AoE Cleanse
Reduces Allies cooldowns by 1
ATK speed buff
Rune Builds:
Violent / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
Mainly used against 10 floor bosses
AoE heal
AoE ATK buff
Heal Block
ATK break
Rune Builds:
Violent / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
AoE freeze
AoE reduce ATB
AoE DoTs
AoE skills on despair = AoE Stun
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus or Despair / Blade
SPD / CD% / ATK%
Contribution:
AoE Increases skill cooldown time of all enemies while putting up attack speed slow debuff.
AoE Reduces the cooldown time of your team’s skills while giving your team attack speed buff.
Single target buff strip with a stun or defense break.
Rune Builds:
Violent / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
40% ATB boost to your entire team every single turn
Rune Builds:
Violent / Revenge
SPD / CR% / ATK%
Contribution:
Decreases the target's Attack Power
Glancing Hit
AoE ATK bar decrease
Decreases the skill cooldown time of all allies
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
AoE ATK speed slow
AoE reduces attack bar
AoE freezes
AoE stun on despair
Leader Skill
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / HP% / HP%
Contribution:
AoE ATK speed slow
Silences the target
AoE enemy max HP damage
AoE stun on despair
Leader Skill
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / CD% / HP%
Contribution:
DEF break
Absorb ATK Bar
AoE stun on despair
Leader Skill
Rune Builds:
Despair / Focus
SPD / CD% / ATK%
Contribution:
DEF break
AoE stun
Team up with Maruna
Rune Builds:
Violent / Blade or Rage / Blade or Fatal / Blade
SPD / CD% / ATK%
Contribution:
DEF break
AoE stun
Team up with Shaina
Rune Builds:
Violent / Blade or Rage / Blade or Fatal / Blade
SPD / CD% / ATK%
ToA Team Comps
Here are some viable team lineups to consider for your gameplay. However, if you're aiming to construct the most optimal team for your current stage in the game, I highly recommend consulting our comprehensive Max Efficiency Progression Guide.
Within the guide, we provide extensive analysis and recommendations on the best team compositions for every stage in Summoners War. This includes highly reliable auto teams for early-game progression as well as speed-oriented auto teams for end-game content. By referring to the guide, you can access detailed stats, insights and strategies tailored to your specific needs and objectives.
Early Game Team Builds
Here are some early game comps for those of you getting started and have limited monsters and lower quality runes.
Baretta (L), Veromos, Belladeon, Bernard, Shannon
Baretta (L), Belladeon, Bernard/Spectra, Shannon, Mav
Baretta (L), Veromos, Belladeon, Shannon, Mav
Veromos (L), Belladeon, Bernard/Spectra, Shannon, Mav
Crowd Control (CC) Teams
Here are some comps that focus on preventing your enemies from moving. These all involve SPD slow, SPD up, ATK bar boosting, ATK bar reduction, stuns, and freezes.
Tyron (L), Raoq, Spectra, Water Homie, Verdehile
Tyron (L), Lupinus/Lapis, Woochi, Water Homie, Verdhehile
Baretta (L), Shaina, Maruna, Tyrone, Spectra
Conclusion
Completing Trial of Ascension (ToA) in Summoners War offers incredible rewards that make it worth your time. By participating in ToA, you can earn valuable items like scrolls, crystals, rainbowmons, devilmons, and even rare L&D and Legendary scrolls.
To succeed in ToA, you'll need to strategize carefully. It's essential to focus on crowd control (CC) techniques and effectively use damage over time (DoTs) or the help of versatile twins to defeat your opponents.
Some floors in ToA can be quite challenging and require specific monsters or unique team combinations to overcome the obstacles they present.
As you progress through ToA, you'll encounter powerful boss floors that demand the use of precise debuffs like slow and attack break, or special abilities such as attack bar reset and provoke.
In the comprehensive Max Efficiency Progression Guide, you'll find dozens of team compositions meticulously crafted to suit different challenges. This guide delves into the intricate details of building each monster and provides strategic insights to conquer even the toughest stages and boss floors in the Trial of Ascension.
