Me and a guild mate were argueing. He says species abilities are worthless, I say they have use.
He says Defend works just as well, making a longer battle where the one with the best set can win.
I retort that Defend takes 20% off your attack and Species Ablities can help you win with extra icons while adding deversity.
So, what does the community think? Species Abilities, are they worth it?
EDIT: Guild member wanted to make sure you knew they were only talking about the ATTACK specie abilities.
Which you are.
They're definitely worth it. I'm not too great with words, but this is how I like to think of it:
Disregarding stances entirely, basically the amount of damage you and your opponent does is a ratio, for example 100:100. Now say for some reason, your opponent uses berserk and you use defend. That makes the damage 120 each (100*1.5*.8), so you're still even. However, suppose one of them use a species ability instead, and suppose that adds 10 damage to the base. So that would be like 110:100. So now, you attack like that, your opponent uses berserk, and the damage done is 165, while you take 150.
So yeah, that make any sense at all?
There are only several situations where it's viable to consider stances:
1. If you're using a healer like ECA where you can minimize or nullify damage done to you.
2. When your opponent is frozen (duh).
3. If your opponent has a small amount of HP left and you can risk using berserk to knock off the rest of their HP.
4. For weakling 1-player opponents.
I may have missed something, but that's all that comes to mind.
Definately. Although defend takes 20% of both your attack and your opponen's Attack. A 6 icon species ability is like uping the power of one of your weapons by a whopping SIX ICONS! Very worth it, esspecially in comparison to defend.
But for pets with low hps. (as the person how made this thread has) Defend gives him a better shot of surviving another round. Use two weapons with decent icon variation and defend or another useful drop down ability. (sink, burrow, heal etc)
Actually, for my boost my HP isn't that low.
Don't forget to factor in the weapons they will be using and the fact the icons won't be doing the same as a higher boost(Well, not as much HP. It makes it more relative).
I just feel when you use GoC and SoRF and peteri dive or whatever...you are leaving yourself open to getting smacked across the face and losing
I would most likely use Weapon + Shield + Species Ability, not Dual weapons + Specie Ability. No Defense gets you into a slugging match you might not be able to win. Dual Duty + Dual Duty + ? works too IMHO.
Defense can be helpful if you'll finish your opponent off no matter what, and just need to aviod losing. Otherwise, the abilities are better.
We need to go back to the 6-iconer era for a moment.
6-iconer + whatever + stance = 6 + whatever, be it a shield, dual-duty, etc. Assuming dual 6-iconers, the total was 12.
Compared to comboing with a 6-icon (or even 4) species ability. For the sake of comparison, throw two 6-iconer weapons with a 6-icon Species Ability. That's yields just as much damage as a Berserk would (icon types and blocking ignored), without leaving you to take that much damage. As Graph said, it's the ratio.
Now, with the 9-iconers it's not as insanely powerful as it used to be, but 6 is a third of 18, making it like using Jump and Attack without leaving yourself as vulnerable.
Further thoughts: you can use your Species Abilities to net more icons, and overload shields/dual-duties. People never take species abilities into account when they're buying weapons. (However, they tend to know what their Pet's species abilities do.) This gives you 4 to 6 unblocked (or even blocked) extra icons, putting you ahead in the battle. Heck, even if you're using a dual-duty, you're regaining icons while clipping icons off you're Opponent. The only short-coming is if your species ability rams headlong into a shield/dual-duty, but even in that case you didn't fall behind: defending wouldn't have made it any different.
Now, if you're defending instead, you're just stalling, and your Opponent (for all practical purposes) isn't taking damage because you've clipped your own attack.
Species abilities definitely have use, but Defend is sometimes the better option. Since your friend was apparently arguing that species abilities are ALWAYS worse, he'd be wrong (as people have already pointed out). However, I hope you weren't arguing that species abilities are always better (I doubt you were).
In a long battle between two pets with equal stats and comparable sets, those 4-6 icons from a species ability would add up over time. However, there might be battles where it's in the best interest of one side to draw the engagement out for as long as possible (someone brought up a pet using an ECA as an example. Another example would be if someone had a small HP window in which to use a Crisp Blue Tunic). In those cases, you'd be better off reducing the total damage done to both sides.
Looking at your edit...why would he be talking about anything else? Non-attack species abilities are basically useless, aren't they? Now I'm curious...*goes off to check*
OK...lets look at the context of our convo: (it was me and ace having the discussion)
We are both in the same guild. A newly formed guild. We have had a few wars since we opened the doors and we are getting spanked.
The reason is because most of our members are not the best at earning Neopoints. We are getting outclassed in weapons. Our League 4 pets with 3mill sets are getting beat by League 4 pets with 25Mill sets. Our League 7 pets with 4mill sets are getting beat by League 5 pets with 30Mill+ sets. You get the picture. Going offensive is not getting the job done. A different strategy is needed. I am not saying they(species abilities) are ALWAYS wrong....I just feel a different drop down choice might be wiser.
Adding 4 icons to two 9 icon weapons is not going to beat an opponent with Ftab/SoS/Bezerk. Defence needs to be taken more into account than our members are doing now.
Back when 6/9 iconers were the set standard, I could see using the abilities. But now that 13+ icons are pretty standard and 11 icon weapons are buyable. I just don't see the advantage of using them in a low stat/overmatched pet.
Smarter weapon choices, along with a better strategy and hopefully our members can maximize on an opponents mistakes. Its a long shot, I know...but one I think our members at this point and time can achieve.
I know I recall a thread somewhere around here that supported my stance. Just can't find it.