iDB Community Forum

I've been going to this site for about two years and never bothered to look on its forums until now. Right now I have a Maraquan Gelert with these stats:

Health : 104 / 104
Strength : LEGENDARY (105)
Defence : LEGENDARY (104)
Move : LEGENDARY (104)
Intelligence : ULTIMATE GENIUS (138)

Abilities in-use:
Drain Life
Meteor Shower
Lava Spit
Healing Vapour
Burrow
Sink
Fiery Roar

Equipment:

Honey Potion
Winged Scarab
Gelert Healing Remedy
Downsize!

I was suggested to buy Bow Of Destiny and Ramtors Spellbook but I would like some kind of defense better than the Winged Scarab. What's up with defense? Is it good for my pet or should it be ignored? I do both 2 player and 1 player battles, more 1 player battles though. Thanks.

Firstly: Fiery Roar, Lava Spit and Meteor Shower are pretty much useless. The other faerie abilities are fine. If you must have a few more, quench and steam shield are the next-most-useful (water faerie)

You shouldn't use winged scarab- its made for pets with low defense and high offense. If you MUST have full physical defense (and i personally cant see why you would), get a Yooyuball Keepers Chest Guard, otherwise stick with leaf shield/patched magic hat. Now you need a minimum of 2 multiple use constants (especially since your doing alot of 1-p) and extra one or two for mixing it up.

13 Iconers:
Bow of Destiny - 3.6mil-ish (combinability, gets through sink, solid, cheaper)
Wand of Reality - 3.8mil-ish (hard-to-block all, 5 through burrow, 5 through sink, vulnerable to light defense dual duties, more expensive)

11 Iconers
Portable Kiln - 2.9mil-ish (anti-shields, expensive)
Fungus Ray/Goo Blaster - 1.75mil-ish (1-player alternative, good mix up for 2-p)

10-iconers
Ramtors Spellbook .5mil
Scuzzys Comb .35mil (dark vs physical debate- ask yourself how much ghostkershields/rings of the losts/golden compasses youll see?)

9-iconers (if you runout of moneys)
Golden Compass .13mil
Essence of Esophagor .13mil


For you, im going to pick Bow of Destiny as your main offensive. Even though you are trained evenly, you need an offensive weapon of this power and i'd like to conserve as much cash as possible for the rest of your set. If you find WoR cheaper- get it- it'll be a better match with the rest im suggesting (so you dont overload on earth with DMB). I'd like to utilise your defense, so im going to recommend getting a golden compass and dusty magic broom (for 1.3mil ish). GC Is good in most situations, DMB for against WoR, Scuzzys Comb, RSB and a few other light-included weapons. If you want a little more offence, get a scuzzys comb, but those three should suffice.

Your last slot should be a freezer, even if you cant afford a 100% one. I'm assuming you like your maraquan gelert how it is, so get a snowglobe staff/black frost cannon just for 1-p battles. Don't fight 2-p battles with 100% freeze allowed, you wont be able to win. Save for a 100% freezer- in the future, downgrade your BoD into an 11-iconer or 10-iconer and buy one- yes its that important.

Thanks for the info!

Just wondering what does BoD stand for?

So my items list is:
Dusty Magic Broom
Bow of Destiny
Golden compass

And a freezer. What's a good 100% freezer?

BoD = Bow of Destiny

Winged Scarab's physical defense is BEST for low-def boost pets, but it's still worthwhile for even def pets if you are fighting against a physical heavy opponent, especially one who has a higher Str boost than your defense boost, and that's a surprising number of 1p opponents and war challengers if you are trying to climb high score charts or competing in 1p tournaments.

Still, the Yooyuball Keepers Chest Guard is going to be a lot better for an even def pet, and will likely have some use in standard 2p matches as well. While it's not a killer shield against too many weapons, roughly half of all 10 icon and better weapons deal at least some physical damage, which means the defense is unlikely to be totally wasted.

Of course, Leaf Shield and Patched Magic Hat are viable for much cheaper.

Amen.

The cheapest non-species, non-fragile 100% freezer is the H4000 Helmet, although Freezing Potion can often be found for just slightly more. The 6 million NP price tag is likely a problem.


I want to add a couple other options rylix did not mention:

For 1p battles against stronger opponents, Prickly Potion's reflected icons can be awesome. At your current 85 Strength boost, P-Pot will deal as much damage as an 11 iconer when you are fighting a 200 boost opponent (such as the Giant Ghostkerchief), and as much as an 18 iconer (or more) when fighting high-str opponents such as the GHM Chomby or Space Faerie. At a price of ~300k (and dropping slowly) it's well worth considering getting 1 or 2 for 1p battling.

For 2p battles, Jittery Jipple Potion and Steaming Skeem Potion can be a lot cheaper than other weapons with similar icons, which can make them very attractive. Just remember that their damage depends on the intelligence of your opponent, so you won't want to rely on them exclusively

Here is what I think you should do with your set!

Freezer: Snowglobe Staff
Healer: Gelert Healing Remedy
Primary Attack: Bow of Destiny
Secondary Attack: Fungus Ray
Dual-Duty: Sword of the Dead
Dual-Duty: Golden Compass
Shield: Sophies Magic Hat
Bomb: Honey Potion

That gives you some good defense and an even better offense:
Snowglobe Staff: This should only really be used in 1player battles where you can withdraw if you don't get the freeze on the first/2nd round.  The thing has the highest % freeze for the cheapest price, so it is better than the cannons if you are planning to withdraw if you have to.  You may want to replace this with a sticky hand or reflector or similar if you feel that it will help you more.

Gelert Healing Remedy: I have a feeling this is one reason you are a Gelert, and it's one of the few great species healers... so keep it!

Bow of Destiny: This is your main attacking weapon.  It deals 13 solid icons which you can really use in 1player.  It is not the best for 2player because the icon types are not the best, but it is still good! If you have money to upgrade, look for a Wand of Reality (they are more expensive).

Sword of the Dead: This offers light defense for cheap price AND deals ~6 icons of damage.  This is for use when your 1player opponent deals a decent amount of light, but not overdone - you may want to consider something more powerful when you KNOW light is going to be done.

Golden Compass: This is similar to Sword of the Dead, except offers more attack and a different type of defense (defends 3 dark).  The downside is that it only defends 3 - but that is made up because it attacks 9!

Sophies Magic Hat: This is a great shield.  It fills your fire, earth, and physical defense gap.  With your DEF boost being very good, even though the icons are low, it will still cut dramatically from your opponent's attack.  If you want more earth or water specific, then swap it with a Leaf Shield.

Honey Potion: This is the greatest bomb for your price range.  In 2player, wait until your opponent has used his burrow before using it (burrow kills it).. otherwise it's great - doing 16 icons, many of which will get at least a good portion through most shields.  In 1player, don't worry about it getting defended - or use it when opponent is frozen with your Bow of Destiny.

Note: If you want to keep the Winged Scarab, sell the Fungus Ray and buy a Ramptors Spellbook.  It does 1 less icon but is less than half the price of the Fungus Ray.

Thanks. I've read all of the posts and they're very informative. I actually don't know much about the battledome and weapons.

Wand of Reality is being offered at around 3.75 million while I see a Bow of destiny on auction at 3.5 million. I might go for the WOR.

As for the dusty magic broom. I can only find one of them available on the trading post and it seems there is no asking price. So I'll stick with the Sword of the Dead as it is far cheaper, at around 105k and is the same. My list is now:

Sophies Magic Hat
Snowglobe Staff
Wand of Reality
Sword of the Dead
Golden Compass

I will probably get rid of my winged scarab too.

Well, I think the winged scarab will still be useful, especially in 1p. Winged scarab does not necessarily decrease in effectiveness with higher defense stats because such pets will find the defensive air icons more useful.

I also disagree with recommendations of sword of the dead and sophies magic hat. Sword of the Dead is too underpowered, even if it were to defend all 5 light icons.

Getting both Golden Compass and Sophies magic hat seems counterproductive as well. They both defend dark, which is unecessary, especially since sophies magic hat is a bit overpriced. I think you should avoid the hat.

Pure shields for one player are really something you want to avoid, because the opponent's boost will climb rather wuickly, and your defense won't be able to keep up very easily. That's why full blockers or reflectors are the most effective item to use in one player. This goes out the window, of course, when you're at a certain point - 450 boost or so, but by that time your main shields should be Gshield and Ftab, along with other full blockers anyway.

Now, let me congratulate you on the maraquan gelert. It's somewhere in my top 5 pets, just haven't decided where since the revamp.

I'm going to say something about your stats next: There is, as of now only one item that uses movement at all in the BD, and that's the heavy robe of theivery it's pretty much a waste of the millions it costs to get 200 movement, so you may want to consider dropping that training.

Now, for the set. Bow of Destiny is a great choice, either in one player or in two player. In one player it's the better of the two 13 iconers because it is the cheaper, and there, price is the main factor. Secondary is that weapons should be  as close to mono-icons as possible. I'm not sure which I would call better in one player, but again it's likely the BoD. [isb]mask of coltzan[/idb] zaps the 5 earth it deals, but Dusty Magic Broom[idb] and [idb]Air Faerie Crown both take chunks out of the Wand. These are probably the three most common dual duty items at your level, so it's pick your poison pretty much.

If you went the wand of reality route, I would definitely immediately suggest to you a Scuzzys Comb this stacks icon types with the wand in both light and physical, mneaning you force icons through just about any regular shield your opponent throws at you. Watch out for full blockers though. Although a bit more expensive, because the icons stack this may be the buy you want for 1 player.

If you went with the BoD (my personal choice) I would probably still suggest a comb. The mask of coltzan I mentioned blocks dark as well as earth, so the spellbook is merely adding 5 icons to it's usefulness. While the comb doesn't stack at all with the bow, it's still useful in it's own right, and between the two, you have 23 icons for less than the cost of one Wand of Reality

So after those we've spent (if you go comb + Bow) approximately 3.6, because the bow is really only worth 3.35 mill and the comb 250k. If you wait a while, they'll deflate to that. The most important thing you can still afford is a backup weapon. Spend about 120k on a Golden Compass. It's nearly impossible to  just block fully, and it beats out tons of different secondary weapons at this level, such as the Ramtors Spellbook[/idb or [idb]Sword of Apocalypse

that puts us around 3.7 - 1.3 mill left to spend. You only have one slot in your set open, and for now I'm just going to suggest a Purple sticky hand. Save up the rest of your money, and look into either a second 13 iconer (I recommend going dual with whatver you chose before, and replacing the comb) or save even more and get yourself a 100% freezer.

Set looks like this:

Attacker: Wand of Reality or Bow of Destiny
Attacker: Scuzzys Comb
Backup Attacker: Golden Compass
Blocker: Downsize!
Shield: Winged Scarab
Healer: [idb[Gelert Healing Remedy[/idb]
Bomb: Honey Potion
Other: 50% reflector, depending on 1player opponent, 100% fragile freezer for important 1 player fights, or [idb[Purple Sticky Hand[/idb]

Okay I got the Wand of Reality for 3.4 million in an auction. I couldn't find the Bow of Destiny offered at a cheaper price. I also bought the golden compass and I'm about to buy scuzzy's comb but I'm still thinking about it. Thanks for the info though.