Some facts about my battling to start off:
Training defense/strength equally. Only 1p battling. No top weapons.
I want to make full use of my decision to train defense.
My first question is: Because in 1p you are able to check the opponent's profile and equip whatever weapon or defense that counters that opponent, are variety blockers (shields that block a wide span of icons, but not in great quantity) not used as valuable (battling wise) as in 2p? Take ghostkershield, is this shield really necessary to have in 1p? Or can you just buy dual duties and other shields that focus on blocking more of the same icon(s)?
(Low cost effective dual duties/pure defense)
Such as having:
Mask of Coltzan to combat dark/earth
Ethereal Sword to combat light
Sophies Wooden Spoon to combat water
Flame Reflectozap to combat fire (what's the price on these nowadays?)
Earthen Scorchstone to combat air/additional dark
Winged Scarab to combat physical/additional air
Well anyways, I want to hear you veterans' opinion on this.
I was basing my defense choices off of my personal experience in the Battledome, please comment though on the debate of ghostkershield and whether or not it is as viable as other weapon choices in 1p.
It would help me a lot if you guys could also answer this:
generally in 1p, do opponents usually use a variety of icons or mainly focus on a single type. Perhaps that answer will answer my question on whether or not to chose ghostkershield and such.
Also: What are the most common massed icon types in 1p challengers and how do you combat them. (I train defense, and I'd prefer to take full advantage of that)
I'm basing my dual duty choices around my main attacker (BoD) and keeping it focused on the three icons. Since in 1p it is usually better to mass a few icons rather than a variety right?
Thanks to all.
Physical is the most common icon in One Player, and most opponents will focus on one or two icon types. The short answer is that it all depends on the opponent you're facing. Sometimes a dual-duty will suffice, but some of the stronger opponents will deal too many of a given icon for you to be gaining enough advantage off of defense rather than a full-blocker or reflector.
Ghostkershield and Faerie Tabard are unique in that their spread is able to infinite-win several of the weaker opponents. This is largely the reason why they're "necessary." They can also fare better than some dual-duties by "guaranteeing" some blocking each turn.
Yes, it's better to mass a couple of icons rather than go for a variety. Again, it depends on the opponent. If the opponent can't block your variety, it doesn't make a difference whether you use a couple of icon types or several.
Sadly, the entire answer comes down to the fact that it varies by opponent. Both the weak and mid-range opponents can be defeated by dual-duties, probably, but the strongest opponents require full-blockers/reflectors.
Shattered Rift Wrote:Physical is the most common icon in One Player, and most opponents will focus on one or two icon types. The short answer is that it all depends on the opponent you're facing. Sometimes a dual-duty will suffice, but some of the stronger opponents will deal too many of a given icon for you to be gaining enough advantage off of defense rather than a full-blocker or reflector.
Ghostkershield and Faerie Tabard are unique in that their spread is able to infinite-win several of the weaker opponents. This is largely the reason why they're "necessary." They can also fare better than some dual-duties by "guaranteeing" some blocking each turn.
Yes, it's better to mass a couple of icons rather than go for a variety. Again, it depends on the opponent. If the opponent can't block your variety, it doesn't make a difference whether you use a couple of icon types or several.
Sadly, the entire answer comes down to the fact that it varies by opponent. Both the weak and mid-range opponents can be defeated by dual-duties, probably, but the strongest opponents require full-blockers/reflectors.
Thanks for the advice
But how can I solve the problem of having to change weapons for every other opponent? Especially in wars, where we don't know the profiles and I may not have the right weapons and the right weapons will inflate!
Should I just buy what I think is a versatile set and keep it to a minimum number of icon variety and have defenses for everything?
I'll toss in a couple of comments here - first, I never thought of the Mask of Coltzan as being a low cost item - I'd love to have a budget where I considerred it such. Second, I'd tend to agree with most of the what Shattered has said in that in one player, it's all a matter of WHICH one player opponent you're opposing. In general, I'd also prefer to have items that defend a chunk of one icon, than ones that defend a couple of icons of many types - typically you can narrow down what you have to neutralize of your one-player opponent's offense to one or two items or icons (though obviously not against all opponents like a higher level war opponent - which we'll hopefully see again someday).
As I really don't have either the time nor the inclination to battle low level regular challengers hundreds of times (or more) to get on a high score list, I see the advantage of the G-Shield or Tabard to be more the vastly increased likelihood that you'll slow a significant amount of your opponent's attack down than the infinate wins against weak opponents approach. Personally, I don't tend to worry very much about weak opponents, and save my sweating for the tough ones. I do agree totally with Shattered that most one-player opponents are unable to defend one or more icon types, so you can pretty much damage them with anything of those types. Most also fail to attack (or attack with enough to scare you) in a couple of icons, which you use to your advantage when deciding what to equip for a fight. For example, if the opponent doesn't attack with either dark or earth icons, your Mask of Coltzan is realistically a pure offensive attacker, and at 8-icons, probably not worth equipping against that particular opponent, unless its concentrated fire attack gives you a needed attack advantage.
I think training both your pet's strength and defense allow you MANY options to defeat one-player opponents (and don't forget the better of the faerie abilities as well in your training), and personally haven't found either the G-Shield nor the Tabard to be a necessity thusfar in my fighting, though I won't disagree that they're nice things to have on hand.
What I tried to do was build the a flexable battleset that could address most needs, and due to my playing on s...l..o...w dail-up, price has ALWAYS been a consideration. When you think about it, most sets will have a healer, a freezer, a bomb, and at least one pure primary offensive attacker. That pretty much means your defense and remaining offense has to come from four weapons positions, and unless you have a far greater budget than I've had to work with, it means having some flexability. I like to keep on hand a few CHEAP situational items (Downsize, and a stealer) that can be rotated in if needed, and then have some offensive and defensive options to rotate in. The Mask of Coltzan is a nice item in that regard, in that it gives you a fair amount of protection against TWO types of icons, though if you run into something like a Sword of Skardsen, it's in over it's head and the G-shield is actually the more effective weapon in that case (though at twice the price). To me, the idea was always to have 10-12 weapons that I was willing to use, depending upon the opponent, and with my budget, the last three or four of them were pretty darn inexpensive ones (Leaf Shield for water with a chance of blocking some earth and physical as well and Downsize would be a couple of examples).
I think I've told you this before, Chobo, but I'm running a full set of full-blockers/reflectors. I'm always switching weapons in-and-out, but it's generally two(?) or so slots in my set that are variable. You're still going to have your "core" set, as Vermont already stated.
Factoring in price, you're going to need to spend some months (depending on the rate you earn) "building up" to your goal set that can handle everything (or can handle everything but Air: Pteri Pets are a compromise here). Try to buy the cheaper bits early on so you can cover "most" icons immediately.
There's no real reason to expect a War anymore (though we do seem due for a plot with battling in it), and quite a bit of reason to specifically not expect a war. And regular One Player opponents aren't going anywhere.
Awesome guys, thanks a ton for the feedback. Shattered again brings up my decision whether to train defense or not. I just don't know yet haha
But anyhow I like the point you made about Mask of Coltzan Vermont. Now I don't really see it as a 19 iconer with mostly defense. It'd probably be better used in 2p anyways.
Now I just have to figure out again whether or not I'll be training defense or getting a set of full blockers/pteri pet?
As a side-relevant question, is it worth it to sacrifice the benefit of being able to use a possible 66% healer for 40% air reduction? I'm sort of thinking yes, with the high cost of full air blockers and reflectors these days (30+ mill! wow!)
Also another question: When do you know when to reflect/defend with icons (IF I train defense) or use a full blocker?
Thanks
Edit: By the way Shattered, what do YOU use to combat air? haha
Personally I STILL recommend training defense. And I hope Shattered is wrong about the possibility of wars in the future, though I haven't seen anything that indicates TNT is currently focusing on doing much of anything with the battledome, much less a war in the near future. In my opinion, the Mask of Coltzan is GENERALLY a better two-player weapon than a one-player one, as unless your opponent scares you with BOTH earth and dark attacks, much of it's potential goes unused in one-player.
As far as sacrificing a possible 66% healer for a 40% reduction in air (Kacheek vs. Pteri), the only place I can see that you could make an arguement for it is in the intermediate area. Early on, you probably need all the healing hit points you can get. And later on, if you have a highly trained pet, the extra healing is usually greater than than the value of the air attack diverted.
If you have a set that covers all icons with full blockers and/or reflectors, again, in one-player, against all but top (say high level war opponents), you should be able to pretty much negate the one or two weapons you usually have to be afraid of. If you have an opponent with multiple damaging weapons, which attack with varied different icons, you can be in for a long day, though again, that will only be from TOP level one-player opponents. I think Shattered's strategy for one player, rotating a couple of his weapons depending upon the offense of the opponent is a valid one, though it has limitations as mentioned above, and is much less viable (though far from foolhardy) in two-player.
As to when you need to reflect or defend, that's based on the magnitude of your opponent's attack. Against a Sword of Skardsen, there's just no substitute for a full blocker or dark reflector if your oppenent's offensive boost is at least as high as your defensive one, as there's nothing on else that will counter the massive show of dark icons. However, if you're encountering a weapon that is more diluted into say three attack icons, say the 5-5-3 configuration of Wand of Reality/Bow of Destiny, a five icon defender with an attack can be of great value - example the Mask of Coltzan (even stat boosts), against the Bow of Destiny. In that example, the Mask will knock down the five icons of earth attack, leaving the Bow as an eight-icon attacker, which the Mask matches with 8 icons of fire attack, but which still leaves you with six icons of additional dark defense from the mask to use against the opponent's second weapon and/or species ability attack. In other words, the Mask is a draw plus against the Bow in this case. And of course reflectors are wonderful against the HEAVY focused attack of the icon (s) they reflect, but aren't so great against an attacker whose offense is more spread out over different icons, as you're reflecting whatever percentage your reflector is of the icon in play, but you're getting hit with any remaining attack in that icon, as well as the full force of the remaining attack icons that it doesn't reflect.
I'm still running Greater Healing Scroll on my 630ish HP Pet (but it's a one-turn stall rather than a healer now). Lacking a healer isn't as crippling in One Player as it is in Two Player, but I definitely could have pushed much farther with a 50% healer. (That said, I still pushed five of the High Score Charts several months back.)
I'm running a Ring of Weightlessness that I picked up for 8ish mil back in July or so. That was the price of both RoW and Shield of Soaring at the time, but I haven't been paying attention to the current market to know whether there's just a shortage right now, a price hike, or both.
With a 240 HP Pet, your healer is getting you 70 HP more than Greater Healing Scroll would (I'm assuming a 50% heal, though the KLP can more easily push those higher figures in One Player). If you're just lacking Air defense, the healer is more powerful overall (only a few opponents focus on Air in One Player). You could also consider making the species change once you have the other icons accounted for, as then you'd just have the healer left to afford. Short of a war or plot with battling, there's no rush to defend Air. (I hope I'm wrong about there never being wars again, too, but all the evidence in my mind points against the possibility.)
Vermont already touched on the subject of net icons, but for a simpler rule: if the opponent is stronger than you and using a lot of a single icon type, use a reflector. If your Defense Boost is equal or greater than their Strength Boost and they're using a few of a given icon, use a dual-duty or shield. If you're about to die, use a full-blocker.
However, I'm going to make an assumption that with each full-blocker/reflector you buy, you'll be going for the cheapest one. In which case the only question should be whether to use icon-based or non-icon-based.
From what I see for my battling set right now, there are three choices of weapons aside from my primaries.
There is:
Dual duty blocking one or two types of icons
Shield blocking three or less types of icons
Full blockers/Reflectors (also throwing RotL in there and like mini dual-duties such as winged scarab)
I'm trying to build a huge set that fit in those categories.