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DISCLAIMER: All information is correct at the time it is written. The accuracy of this article is subject to changes in accordant to a multitude of Neopet factors such as downgrades, plots inflations, introduction of new weapons, retirement etc.

This article is written under the assumption that the opponent's defence boost equates to the strength boost. Difference of boost will affect the outcome of the attack and defence.

This article can be found on Cadaver Grey's Battledome BattleSense battle blog. Article written by Cadaver Grey. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. Those who chose to violate the rights of the writer will suffer the wrath of his Super Attack Can of Peas.

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You're gonna stare at me in disbelief for saying this, but I will say it: Ghostkershields are easy to beat.

Have I gone mad? Well, the last time I checked I think I'm perfectly sane. I put milk in my cereal, I put the correct shoe on the correct foot, and I know that 1+1 equals to 11 (ok, so my math is pretty bad but that doesn't mean I'm a loon ).

Anyway, back to the subject...

Before I begin to explain properly why I made that statement, lets refresh our memories on what the Ghostkershield does. Ghostkershield defends against ALL dark icons, 5 of earth and physical icons, and 3 of air and light icons. As you can see, it is without doubt one of the most powerful multi-use single shield out there in the battledome market. A battler with a nicely trained defensive pet would love this weapon. It cuts high powered weapons like Sword of Skardsen and Pirate Captains Cutlass to the roots, and vastly nullify a whole host of other weapons as well. But with all that power, there are some glaring weaknesses about this shield, and it is easier to exploit those weakness than most people think.

Let's address the obvious: Portable Kiln is an obvious choice to counter this shield; 11 icons worth of fire icons that cuts every bit through Ghostkershield at a reasonable price.

Here is a question though: Is Portable Kiln the ONLY weapon good enough to go against the might of the Ghostkershield? And what about those who can't yet afford a Portable Kiln? Are they destined to fall in the clutches of the Ghostkershield bearers?

The answer to these two questions: NO! Portable Kiln is not the ONLY answer. In fact you would be surprised to note that there a few worthy contenders... for budgets that are much less! These weapons guarantees at least 6 icons past the Ghostkershield, which is definitely more than what a Sword of Skardsen can do . Also, some of them addresses the Portable Kiln's major weaknesses: the vulnerability against sink, burrow, and reflectors and blockers.

Let's start from the top of the food chain to the mighty mices. You will soon realise that, the lower the budget, the more interesting the weapons get. All the items listed below are less than 10 million NPs and multiuse:

Above 3 million - less than 10 million
• Portable Kiln - The Grand daddy of them all. With 11 icons of fire, it cuts through Ghostkershield like a hot knife through butter.
• Mask of Coltzan - The common second choice. Not only is this a good anti-Ghostkershield weapon (8 icons of fire), it is in fact one of the best dual duties over all.
• Slumberberry Potion - 10 water icons that completely goes through G-Shield PLUS multifreeze ability.
• Maractite Battle Duck - Overpriced. But hey, when you want something badly, no price is "over", right? In fact, this pairs well with the water heavy Pike pike and Essence of Esophagor for a truly alternative anti-Ghostkershield combo .
• Pocket Cooking Pot - This is surprisingly more popular than most people. May seem overpriced when compared to the Portable Kiln, but is in fact less susceptible to reflectors, hence it's popularity.
• Ring of the Lost - This Ghostkershield substitute is also a Ghostkershield killer, with a guaranteed 6.5 icons through.
• Porcelain Hair Sticks - Not too good, but not too bad either. IMO, better than the Maractite Battle Duck. Wait a minute... it IS better! Hurrah!
• Ultra Bubble Gun - Just shiny. At least 7 icons through with a max of 12 nearly 50% of the time.
• Amulet of Thilg - another overpriced item. Not too worth it if compared to the Maractite Battle Duck cos this gets blocked parially by the shield. Also, far too many light blocking dual duties around. But for the purpose of this article I am including it anyway.
• Meukas Snot Trail - Yet another overpriced item. 2 icons more than an Essence of Esophagor for WAY much more NPs. But this is less susceptible than the Amulet of Thilg at least.
  
  1-3 million
• Fiery Battle Duck / Icy Battle Duck - Ah... two very uncommon and unpredicted weapons to have. Both guarantees 7 icons through Ghostkershield. In fact a combo of both ducks will guarantee 14 icons through, and 5 icons past burrow and sink.

100k - 1 million

• Pike Pike - One of the best weapons in its range. It guarantees 6 icons pass Ghostkershield.
• Chilli Sword - Mask of Coltzan without defence. 8 icons of flaming hot and spicy fire.

Less than 100k

• Skeletal Fire Gun - 6 guaranteed fire icons.
• Steaming Skeem Potion - Potential 8 anti-Ghostkershield icons for less than 100k (and it's hard to keep your neopet stupid, really!)
• Fiery Sun Scroll - Cheap anti-Ghostkershield weapon that cost less than 10k!

Perhaps this has not yet convinced you of how vulnerable the Ghostkershield really is. Well, let's address the facts that people often forget: In every round a battler can use two weapons and one battle/species/faerie ability. This may seem obvious enough, but ever considered about how you combo your weapons when facing a Ghostkershield scenario? Do note that a good combination of weapons could outgun ANY shield. So, if you already have a Portable Kiln or a Mask of Coltzan picking any one of these weapons would guarantee an outgun to YOUR advantage, even if the weapons you have may be partially blocked somehow.

Even if you are not one to have the budget for a Portable Kiln, a combo of any of the "lesser" weapons can really make your opponents sweat buckets! The Skeletal Fire Gun and Fiery Sun Scroll combo alone, for example, guarantees 12 icons through.

There are some other weapons that are not listed above but also serves well, owing to the fact that they can get at least 5 icons through, and that they have factors that would favour you in Burrow/Sink scenarios. But they are best used WITH a strong anti-Ghostkershield weaponry aka those that ALREADY deal with at least 8 icons worth attack against -Ghostkershield:

• Essence of Esophagor - 4.5 water
• Bow of Destiny - Gets 2 air and 3 fire through. Total 5
• Wand of Reality - Gets 2 air and 2 light through. Total 4
• Bzzt Blaster - 3 water and 2 light. Total 5 icons.
• Garoo Elite Blaster - 5 fire.
• Goo Blaster / Fungus Ray - 5 water each.
• Greater Fire Potion - 5 fire

Also, remember that a Ghostkershield enthusiast ATTACKS with only ONE weapon. As long as it's not an elite weapon for the uber-rich, it's YOU who have the advantage.

Of course, if you like, there are a few once per battle/one-use items worth looking into. I will touch on them, albeit briefly. Hardly usable enough to strike major fear in the hearts of a Ghostkershield user, cos they last only for one round. Also, they are often more used as a freeze-bomb rather than something used on a normal battle round. Still, good to know them for their worth (Mind you, these are just the most common and/or most affordable examples. There are alot more to this list):

Once per battle
• Ghostkerbomb - AT LEAST 15 icons
• Honey Potion - 8 icons
• Cursed Elixir - No icons to speak of per say. BUT it DOES do damage so in a way it 'beats' Ghostkershield.
  
  Single Use
• Sand Snowball - 5 icons (Not very powerful but makes it to the list cos it's UBER-cheap)
• Exploding Snowball - At least 6.9 icons
• Icy Eye Snowball - 6 icons
• Sticky Snowball - 6 icons
• Tortured Snowball - 10 icons (Possibly the best icon/price ratio anti-Ghostkershield item out there)
• Icey Muffin/Robot Muffin/Shooting Star Muffin - 7 icons each
  
  

Conclusion? Well, suffice to say that in spite of its popularity, Ghostkershield is not without weaknesses. Portable Kiln is an obvious choice to exploit it, but you don't have to crutch yourself on just that one weapon to win your battle. Supplementing its power with another that is less predictable is a sound tactic that's gonna surprise your opponent and let you win more battles

Good luck!

I personally like Faerie Tabard better, especially since water is so rare 2-p players at that level tend to use it a lot

also, you can save over 500k by getting Faerie Tabard instead of Ghostkershield if you just want mass icons

Well... the second part of your statement is a little contradictory, but IMO, the Faerie Tabard can be quite formidable. In fact an opponent with a Faerie Tabard and a Air Faerie Crown/Dusty Magic Broom or a Ring of the Lost is more difficult to kill.

This combo is also more COST-EFFICIENT than using a Ghostkershield with a Greater Fire Potion or a Hobans Hat. Air Faerie Crown/Dusty Magic Broom are affordable and instead of Ring of the Lost, a Golden Compass could be just as useful.

Now imagine theFaerie Tabard with Mask of Coltzan...

I'm assuming that you left the high end stuff out on purpose, but

You forgot about

• Amulet of Thilg (8 through),
• Kaylas Hat(7 through),
• Glowing Cauldron(usually 10 through),
• Prickly Potion(6 through) and
• Meukas Snot Trail (6 through)
• Glittery Faerie Dust(15,12,10, or 0 through, averaging 10.57).
  

Good work It helps high-end BDers a lot

rabid_schnauzer Wrote:I'm assuming that you left the high end stuff out on purpose, but

You forgot about

• Amulet of Thilg (8 through),
• Kaylas Hat(7 through),
• Glowing Cauldron(usually 10 through),
• Prickly Potion(6 through) and
• Meukas Snot Trail (6 through)
• Glittery Faerie Dust(15,12,10, or 0 through, averaging 10.57).
  

Added the Meukas Snot Trail and Amulet of Thilg to the list. Thanks, Rabid!

I am not including the others in cos they are above 10 million. Also, I wasn't sure about the Prickly Potion. The "reflected" dark won't get blocked by the Ghostkershield, eh?

Anyway, my intention with this article is:

1) Let low budget battlers who can't afford a Portable Kiln or a Mask of Coltzan to look into possible alternatives to counter the shield.

2) Let Ghostkershield be aware of possible counter-measures that can be used against them, so that they can counter the counter.

3) Let high-end battlers know that Portable Kiln is getting too boring... lol

Anyway, any opinions and suggestions will be used to ammend this article. Once this is is tight, I'm gonna put this up on my own personal battle blog (coming soon)

"Ring of the Lost - This Ghostkershield substitute is also a Ghostkershield killer, with a guaranteed 6.5 icons through. "

you use this kind of statement a couple of times but it is in fact incorrect
this is only true if the opponent's def boost is equal to your str boost
more often than not, this will be 6.5 or LESS since most people who use a gshield train def (and there's quite a few def tanks around now)

djeanmi Wrote:"Ring of the Lost - This Ghostkershield substitute is also a Ghostkershield killer, with a guaranteed 6.5 icons through. "

you use this kind of statement a couple of times but it is in fact incorrect
this is only true if the opponent's def boost is equal to your str boost
more often than not, this will be 6.5 or LESS since most people who use a gshield train def (and there's quite a few def tanks around now)

It is written under the assumption that the opponent's defence boost equates to the strength boost, yes. That is pretty much how the weapons in IDB database is tested, anyway: equal boost.

I shall include what you mentioned in the disclaimer.

Quote:more often than not, this will be 6.5 or LESS since most people who use a gshield train def (and there's quite a few def tanks around now)

I'm going to agree with the general sentiment, in that Cadaver probably should edit in a disclaimer to the effect that he's assuming even Str and Def boosts on the battlers and he's only concerned about *1.0 stances, when in actual battling the math will often be more complicated. Yet I'm going to disagree with "that more often than not" bit. It really depends on the stats level you're battling at. While tanks are stupidly common below 200 Str boost. It's pretty rare for any pet over about 300 boost to have defense more than 1 boost over str, and yet lab rats are pretty common at that level. Furthermore, I've seen pets at 400 str, 200 def (or similar stats) use GShield (at least one of which belongs to a fellow rater so I have to assume they know what they're doing)

rabid_schnauzer Wrote:Furthermore, I've seen pets at 400 str, 200 def (or similar stats) use GShield (at least one of which belongs to a fellow rater so I have to assume they know what they're doing)

I actually see the logic in that! You don't need to have balanced stats really. A pet with 200 defence, no matter what their strength stat may be, will have the defence of a 200 defence boost pet anyway. It's not gonna equate to their strength, surely, but if that is all they feel the need to be at, then yeah, it works well enough I think!

PS: Rabid, your siggy is just hilarious!

of course lab rats are common at that level, but how many of them use g-shield?
sure there are some, but from experience, I'd have to say they're a minority

but adding it in the disclaimer is good enough