It seems like every day, there is another thread complaining about how unfair the raiding system is. “How did I lose to someone 300 Team Power below me?” “Why do I have to reroll 100 times to find an opponent that isn’t 300 points above me?” “Why do I lose 50 cups when I get raided, but only gain 10 back when I revenge?” It’s a neverending chorus. I think it comes from people who really don’t grasp how the raiding system works., and think that it is biased against the attacker. Nothing could be further from the truth. The attacker has ALL the advantages in raiding. I’ll detail why below, but first an explanation of how raiding and trophies work.
Trophies are a measure of 2 things, how skilled you are at attacking AND how strong your defense team is. If you raid someone with an equal trophy count, you’ll either win or lose 30 trophies, regardless of team power. If you raid (or are raided by) someone with more trophies than you, you’ll gain more than 30 for a victory or lose less than 30 for a loss. If you raid (or are raided by) someone with fewer trophies than you, you’ll gain less than 30 trophies for a victory or lose more than 30 trophies for a loss. The bigger the difference in trophy count, the bigger the difference in prizes. This also applies to revenge raids. You don’t win back the same number of trophies you lost. You win more, if they have more than you, or less, if they have fewer than you.
The strength, composition and synergy of your defense team determines how many trophies you can hold on to when you’re offline. A well composed team, with specials that work well together, will generally be able to sustain a higher trophy count than a defense team that doesn’t work as well together. This holds true whether you’re in Silver or Diamond tier, or anywhere between. A defense team composed of maxed Brienne, Ulmer, Bane, Tyrum and Hawkmoon, in that order will probably be able to sustain more trophies than one composed of maxed Balthazar, Berden, Bane, Nashgar and Valen in that order, because of the way the special abilities interact.
Your skill as an attacker determines how many trophies you can win when you’re online. When you’re attacking, a skilled player can generally win more trophies than they can hold on defense, because the attacker has all the advantages. Again, this holds true whether you’re attacking in Silver or Diamond or anywhere between.
I keep saying that the attacker has all the advantages. Here’s what I mean:
- The attacker can choose whether to attack or reroll. If you don’t have heroes in your stable suited for a particular opponent, if the cup win/loss ratio isn’t one you like, if they don’t have enough iron to be worth it, the attacker can reroll for another opponent.
- The attacker can choose which heroes to bring to the attack. Do you want to double up on the strong color against the tank? Do you need a dispeller to get rid of their buffs? Maybe you’ll need a cleanser to neutralize damage over time. Do you want a mana controller to keep their annoying specials from firing? The choice of which heroes to bring is a huge advantage for the attacker.
- The attacker is generally smarter than the AI. As the attacker, you can choose how to play the board. Do you want to work one side to avoid charging mana on the other? Can you create a diamond or a shield? Do you want to match a vertical column of tiles to only charge one opponent, or go horizontally to charge 3 a little bit each? Do you want to explode a diamond or wait? Do you want to ghost tiles to charge your specials?
You can also choose how to play your heroes. You can choose when to fire specials, in what order, and who to target with them. If the opponent has riposte up, you can choose to dispel it or wait for it to expire before firing off an AoE special. If an enemy buffer is charged and ready to fire, as an attacker, you can choose to wait to fire your dispeller until after they fire, and get rid of the buff, or hit them with a mana controller to delay it a turn or two. You can choose to fire your attack buff and defense debuff before your snipers. You can choose who to target with something like Merlin’s Mindless Attack or Chao’s mana reduction. The AI is stupid. It doesn’t do any of that. That’s a huge advantage for the attacker.
- You can choose which tiles to play. If you have a choice of two matches, one a vertical column in a strong color and the other a horizontal row in an absent color, you can decide which one you want to use. If your red hero is already dead, you can choose to pound their riposte protected heroes with red matches instead of other colors which will damage your living heroes. If you need to charge your healer, you can look for matches in that color. The AI is stupid. It won’t do that.
