defense team : Caedmon+3 - Jackal+10 - Wu Kong+4 - Grimm+10 - Scarlett+1
1st day tournament
defense win/loss : 1/2 (Grade D)
offense win/loss : 4/1
score : 2,524 & rank : (Top 25%)
Well, the 1st fight was very hard, strong opponent and very very bad board, so I lose 1.
I take full responsibility for the first loss since I forgot it was Bloody Battle and was puzzled why my Melendor wasn’t healing himself. The second loss was just bad, bad luck, but I credit myself for it being close in spite of that. His Kelile just killed my Skittle first.
Aaaaaaand I think this is going to be a short one for me because I totally forgot how few 4* emblemed hitters I have and how many of them are not just healers but purple too.
Yikes 0-4 on defense. This is the most times I have been attacked in a single day. Anyway, squad nomana is on short rations and kp duty.
Reversed that for 4-1 on attack. Loss to a Boril tank. No healers or green tiles. Seeing less healers overall this bloody battle actually.
DAY 1: 5-0 attacks, woot!
609 vs 3708 with Li Xiu tank and Hu Tao+18 on the left wing
616 vs 3767 with Gormek+19 tank… and a Boldtusk+18 - we have a healer sighting!
622 vs 3615 with Chao tank
618 vs 3890 with Buddy+18 tank (and everyone else +18 or higher emblems too)
617 vs 3900 with Sonya+19 tank (and everyone else +19 or higher emblems too)
My defense went 2-3 so far, Grade C… not holding out much hope of getting attacked again today to have any shot at improving that to a 50% Grade B.
So far so good, total score 3082, Top 1%, 14 points shy of the leader. 
That’ll drop once defense points get added in, though.
Interesting. Rogue is one of only 3/10 classes that allows for 8/20 nodes to be attack upgrades, which permits 8x15 attack or +120 attack (a few more, because of the structure of node #10) .
But instead of an attacking Danza with 745 attack and chance for 240% damage to all, you went with defense and his attack is only 670.
Very interesting choice for a Rogue…
I won all 5 attacks.
My team won 7 and lost 5, putting it at a 58.3% win rate, and 1 win short of an A Defense Grade. Doh.
Not a bad start…
**DAY 1 **
Defense:
EDIT- TOP 5% AT THIS TIME.
5-0
A DEF
Going to be tough to crack top 1% it seems, considering my day one performance is only good enough for top 5%.
Have also had the impression that people are putting less healers this time. I’ve met two, one Boldtusk tank and one Kashrek flank. I actually lost against the last one, 4 heroes were emblemed up to 18 or 19. No easy match ups from the start, 2 of my wins were won with only one almost dead hero standing. I expect this tournament to be over rather quickly 
My defense is a B, top 10 for now
Day 1 resume… as i dont have liu nor hu tao…
My defense is G Jackal /G Jackal +20/wilbur+20/Chao/G. Jackal
Day two.
Still won all of my attacks, so 10 wins.
Defense was A rank yesterday (only 1 guy attacked me). It’s B rank now (another guy attacked me), but can change until tomorrow.
I didn’t think I’d do that good. I got lots of maxed heroes, so I can build my team as needed, but hardly any of them have talents.
Enemy heroes on the other hand are all +17 or higher. Hardly any yellows though, so I can stack against them. Didn’t encounter any healer today, so battles were harder, but I could still manage.
2nd battle day.
Opponents become stronger.
Def lost 3 of 3. Grade E.
Top 1% rank 183 so far.
Really bad frustrating first day as I had higher expectations at least on offense.
First raid vs lower TP team, absolutely no tiles. Lost my fourth raid again no tiles.
Day 1
Offense 3-2
Defense 1-2, D grade
Day 2 defense improved now B grade overall 4-4
I’m suspecting they blast the right side and ghost tiles, at least that’s what I would try if I was attacking myself.
He was my tank at the time, and for a long time. (Now Boril, and in the not-too-distant future, Thorne.) It was either him or Gormek. That was the best I could do. With his high def and XP (relative to the rest of my roster at the time) and the chance for evade, I thought it was a defensible choice. I kept going with rogue emblems on him so I wouldn’t have to reset two heroes to get them back for Domitia, who I’m now close to maxing. I will not be taking a defense path with her! 
I set my defense in the deadliest way possible. The attackers 100-200 TP over me and currently is 9-1 
defense team : Caedmon+3 - Jackal+10 - Wu Kong+4 - Grimm+10 - Scarlett+1
1st day tournament
defense win/loss : 1/2 (Grade D)
offense win/loss : 4/1
score : 2,524 & rank : (Top 25%)
2nd day tournament
defense win/loss : 3/4 (Grade C) 
offense win/loss : 8/2
score : 5,886 & rank : (Top 5%)
Face against very highly emblemed all-5 and very bad board… so day 2, one lose. 
Hanging on by a thread, but I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this one. The tile gods were not with me in my raids, and that carried on to the tournament. Top 10% for now, but I’m just nowhere near the level of everybody else here. 
Defense is getting creamed also which sucks.
Gotcha. Indeed, we have to do what we can at the time, with what we have to work with.
I’m always curious about the rationalization and thoughts behind the upgrade paths, in case I’m missing out on some superior strategy that others have discovered.
Thanks for sharing the journey!
