The FTP Rebellion. Who wants to join? (Part 1)

Ah, yeah, i was thinking Grazul / Vanda / Francine would be the problems with that, hadn’t thought about Joon, or any monk I guess.

also, i guess cScarlett and Proteus’ poison damage would overwrite each other, but that might just be a matter of timing, and Proteus would give you time to charge them all up and do it again.

well, hard to say how well it will work in practice until they’re all ready to go and I can try it out. :slightly_smiling_face:

I think quite a bit of folks frowned upon Carol because her special does no initial damage, doesn’t create minions, and her family bonus became useless to her if any of her minion creating Christmas family members gets killed first. I think a lot of people thought she was going to be a 4* version of Jack or compared to other fast mana cut sniper of the same tier (e.g. Chao).

Aside from being much more pleasant to look at than her partner in crime (Buddy), her special is like planting a silent yet explosive vest (or Christmas Sweater) to the target and unless diffused, can still be set off before time expires. It also bypasses Riposte.

She is just such a unique addition to the roster, and I am glad I have a copy of her because the event portals seemed more kind to me than the challenge portals.

I just made it to my 2 year game anniversary on a very limited budget (<$1 per month). I did a little write up on Reddit (since I did one there for my 1 year anniversary as well). Feel free to hop on over if you’re interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/EmpiresAndPuzzles/comments/mu2jvx/two_year_recap_spending_little_to_no_money/

TLDR: it’s still possible to have fun in this game without spending money. :slight_smile:

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congrats fellow FTPer :wink: great write up!

This makes things so much clearer for me. Being medicated Bipolar, I live in fear of my meds no longer working. Knowing that the goal is “status quo” takes some pressure off me…as I’ve tried so hard (pushing always pushing but going nowhere) so now I can live my life knowing that I’m doing the best I can do.

Thank you @Igmuhota for your inciteful words. :joy::confetti_ball:

@TGW , I do i[quote=“amrath, post:2675, topic:138360, full:true”]

This makes things so much clearer for me. Being medicated Bipolar, I live in constant fear of my meds no longer working. Knowing that the goal is “status quo” takes some pressure off me…so now I can live my life knowing that I’m doing the best I can do.

Thank you @Igmuhota for your inciteful words. :joy::confetti_ball:
[/quote]

I use “And” at the beginning of a few sentences because it’s right. My college Profs liked my papers…and these were people who were sticklers on grammar and punctuation.[quote=“amrath, post:2675, topic:138360, full:true”]

This makes things so much clearer for me. Being medicated Bipolar, I live in fear of my meds no longer working. Knowing that the goal is “status quo” takes some pressure off me…as I’ve tried so hard (pushing always pushing but going nowhere) so now I can live my life knowing that I’m doing the best I can do.

Thank you @Igmuhota for your inciteful words. :joy::confetti_ball:

@TGW , I do i[quote=“amrath, post:2675, topic:138360, full:true”]

This makes things so much clearer for me. Being medicated Bipolar, I live in fear of my meds no longer working. Knowing that the goal is “status quo” takes some pressure off me…so now I can live my life knowing that I’m doing the best I can do.

Thank you @Igmuhota for your inciteful words. :joy::confetti_ball:
[/quote]

I use “And” at the beginning of a few sentences because it’s right. My college Profs liked my papers…and these were people who were sticklers on grammar and punctuation.
[/quote]

@Noble_Weasel it’s like the version 37 hero buffs were made for your roster! I think you have Domitia and know you have Justice (with costume), Khagan, giga-Thorne.

I already have Domitia, Leonidas, and Justice maxed so that’s awesome.

I don’t think the boost puts Thorne over Raff for me so he is still material stuck. That’s more a reflection of who I already have leveled than Thorne being bad.

I feel much better about maxing Horghall now when I finish Vivica and Zimkitha.

@TGW , your boys Miki and Obakan got some love too!

:beers:

EDIT:

They made Noor’s minions even bigger!?! I wish I had her.

Something tells me the boost still won’t get Aegir playing again on @sleepyhead roster.

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yup… I still prefer Richard w/ costume, to Aegir, as tank. And on offense, the defense buff ovverlaps with Kiril’s, and the healing from tile damage isn’t reliable enough…

Aegir still comes out in Ninja Tower and on my second Blue team in wars though :slight_smile:

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Tell me about it, brother. I’m stoked.

  • Domitia is still on my “lazy default” rainbow PvE team. I took all nine rogue attack nodes for her, so I should get maximum benefit from this buff.
  • Non-costume Justice is at 4^60-something, and I’m really looking forward to having her finished so I can switch to that version. Costume Justice leveled faster and has a much higher attack, but that blind-to-all looks pretty sweet next to “only does respectable damage if half your team is dead” for Costume Justice’s skill.
  • Just finished Khagan last week and brought him to +3 with emblems from Grimforest legendary completion. On the beta thread, folks are saying Khagan was already pretty good after his last buff, so I’m eager to try him out more in combination with BT, Falcon, and Gormek. Also wondering if he could be decent as the middle-back position in a double formation now that raid formations are back. Krampus and Heimdall would be the double tanks, while Poseidon and Sartana would be my wing snipers. Khagan’s slow mana would be crappy back there, but my reds pretty much suck anyway, Heimdall and Krampus should be able to hold on for a good while, and the defense and mana boosts to all when Khagan finally does fire could be pretty scary.
  • A 50% boost to Leo’s special damage output also makes me feel pretty good about giving him my next set of darts. I have 4 now and another set from PoV in a couple of weeks, so the next Shiloh quest should close the deal. Norns and Ranvir are his competition, and with my alliance fighting baby titans, I think Leo gets the call over Ranvir. (Centaurs are still cool, though!) I was gonna give my stash of monk emblems to Raff (currently 4^68) when he’s finished, but I think I’ll hold them for Leo (or hopefully, Yang Mai).
  • Of course, any buff to Giga-Thorne makes me a happy dude.

I still plan to finish Groot at some point, myself. At least he has usefulness as a green tank. I have plenty of green mats, but right now in green, he’s stuck behind Hansel, Bertila 3^70, probably Kadilen, and some green three-stars I need to finish (Grevle for sure, maybe By-Ulf and costume Tuck also). Let me know how the tree fares with his buff. Sometimes I like to level heroes that everyone hates just because no one else will! :crazy_face:

I think that’s the right call. Raff may be situational, but he does something that really no other hero does, and he does it really well. He’s finally leveled enough to make a war team for me, and this last time… just wow. As long as you get blue tiles, your team just keeps on coming. May be slow, but dang near impossible to kill. The opponent’s Clarissa kept poisoning me, but Raff’s HoT was too much for even that. I think you will like him a lot.

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That’s probably a good call. I have tinkered with with Ranvir in non titan scenarios, but I that is more me tinkering than something promising as a reliable strategy if you have the depth to not need him.

My Leo is now +8 and is really solid. I didn’t think he needed a buff, but that fact he is getting one is great. The buff makes him even more survivable because he regains health by special damage. It seems in general yellow, or at least mine, tend to be frail. I know there are some durable ones out there though, I just don’t have them.

If I get nothing else worth summing he is still 4 months or so out from getting there. Closer than he has been, but certainly still not imminent.

Mine has been stuck at 3:70 for what feels like forever. Even at 3:70 with a maxed special it is a potent ability.

I was trying to consider a team tweak myself. I noticed with formations going non-rainbow isn’t as crippling to your D. The team that was clicking for me had two blues with Magni center back to spread his D boost to all. I am considering Glenda there … but Magni is probably better as Glenda’s benefit needs more timing and she is slower mana.

That’s probably the order to do them in too I would say. Bertila can add to your D team too. Depending on your formation Krampus, Heimdall, and Bertila could be an insane core.

Those are some nice pulls you had. I have 11 EHTs saved and am hoping when I pull the trigger I get something worthwhile. I am not in a huge hurry as I have some projects. Tentatively targeting summer event as they have no blues. I do NOT need more blue 5’s.

:beers:

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I’m curious if you could flesh out that logic when you have some time; no hurry. Not saying you are wrong by any stretch; I just want to understand better so I can take advantage of this, especially because none of my reds are particularly strong on defense.

Yes, my plan was to go with Krampus and Bertila as double tanks before Heimdall came along. I haven’t faced Bertila much, but when I go up against her, I find her damage to be far more substantial than I had anticipated. Buffed with Krampus’ attack boost? Look out! I kinda still want to try this, but Heimdall is just so friggin’ tanky himself (will be pushing 600 paladin emblems for him by the time he’s maxed), and that overheal and chance to revive can just be demoralizing for an attacker.

Bertila could also be a good addition to my green mono teams, especially with Heimdall, Almur, and Buddy. Will probably pull emblems from Elena +10 when I finish Bertila, especially if Khagan suitably replaces Elena in my mono red squad. Lianna is my only maxed legendary green, since all of them took their sweet time about showing up. I guess it’s a blessing in disguise. I would have been major-league ticked if I had been short of tonics because I had maxed Horghall and Elkanen when Heimdall showed up!

No question. Amazing how one or two good pulls can totally change the game. I think my defense has only fallen out of diamond overnight maybe twice since Krampus took over at tank. Hoping for a couple of game-changing pulls for you soon to ensure you’re hanging around with us for a long time to come.

Me, too. Not sure why I’m so enamored of the Sand Empire heroes, but I am. Still want Jabbar, and if they launch costumes for Gafar, Hisan, and Arman, that will probably seal the deal. (Note, I am still arduously opposed to non-S1 costumes, but if they are bound and determined to roll them out, I guess I need to target the ones that will help me most.)

You not going after Yang Mai? I know you just pulled Zimkitty (congrats, again; great pull!) but before that, you were hurting for reds worse than I am. I’m going all-in on costumes and ToL next month for sure, just to have a shot at her. May also do my first S4 pulls if I haven’t gotten her by then. She doesn’t look otherworldly, but she’s solidly above any of my current red legendaries, I think.

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I can only speak for myself, by on double reverse I used Mother North and Brynhild in the back, with Joon and Clarissa in the front. Having 2 greens would normally have people stacking red, but since they are buried in the back, it takes a little more time for the attacker to get to them, so stacking red isn’t as effective in that formation. At least, that’s what I think.

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I only tried the double and double reverse. With those synergy plays much better from my limited experience because near allies can be all of them. As you know my reds suck. They still as Zim isn’t maxed. Even then, better. Not great. What I found was adding a second blue was better than Azlar who I had in for rainbow.

To me the difference was synergy and who the enemy has to target. My best team was 2 in front, 3 in back. Richard +19 and Elkanen +17 were the front two. Richard can live forever and when he goes off drops your attack to exacerbate that. Elkanen can take a lot of damage with self heal and fast mana. I then had Magni back center so when he fired my whole team got a D boost. Factoring in the reduced A, durable front two, and now they have boosted D they lived a long time. When my wings of Joon +19 and Quintus +13(ish) fired it was icing on the cake.

The part that made the middle 3 work was colors. If you stacked red for Elkanen then Richard and Magni destroyed you. I doubt many did go red heavy unless that is just their team they fight everyone with. I know some players that do that.

That means you’re likely stacking green. Elkanen can take neutral hits really well. If Richard lives to fire (likely as not as many columns of tiles hit him then standard tank spot), his odds get better as he dropped your A and if Magni fires us a D boost. Potentially a paladin boost to the D boost too.

On the off chance they stacked blue for neutral on them Elkanen can take weak hits all day and Richard can take neutral hits for longer then most would care to see.

It seemed to work. It played better than my standard formation D. I obviously can’t watch it play, but that’s what I envisioned happening based on results.

Yes, this D is not unbeatable. I will not go through the laundry list of “Just use this hero with that hero …”. General terms.

Try a 3 front with Krampus center. Also a 2 front with Heimdall middle back. It’ll take a lot to blow through the double tank and Heimdall will be half charged. Reviving either of the tanks or boosting the health or any still alive would be a set back for sure. Speed is a factor but Krampus helps with durability on top of all 3’s natural durability.

I am surprised you still use Buddy if you have Almur. There are so many good greens if I had elemental drop, especially running mono, I might drop Buddy as he only offers short terms A drop or a minion. You’re packing Heimdall so you don’t need the minion boost really.

My Elkanen +17’s feelings are hurt. He works. He’s not ideal.

@SamMe said something about them too. Not sure what they do, I didn’t look.

Truthfully I don’t have much to go after them with. I went “hard” on the last two costumes and got nothing. Even opened the bonus box in costumes. I will do my normal 3 costume pulls. I get bonus keys. Sometimes 4 happen. I will get my 2 ToL pulls. I should have 1-2 Valhalla coin pulls. Those may get me close to a bonus chest opening. Then I can maybe swing a single gem summon. Given I have some projects I wasn’t going to use the single gem summon mostly likely. Maybe 6 pulls makes the odds pretty low for the HotM.

:beers:

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@Muchacho - kind of weird being in an alliance wherein we win wars and take on rare Titans. I’m quite enjoying it! :grimacing:

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Well, I’d be playing around with the same colors (green and blue) and avoiding the same color (red), so I will have to think about this some. Game still hasn’t updated to v37 for me, so I can’t try anything new right now.

This is the one I was giving some thought to. Only hesitation was the slow mana for Heimdall, but it might work.

You forget he also gives regular defense down to stack with elemental defense down? That’s what he’s there for, and I have a level 25 green mana troop so he can charge fast enough to be effective with Almur. Heimdall would be for the attack up (and overheal, obviously), but at slow mana, that wouldn’t come into play until he and Bertila were both charged.

I wanted him for a long time, and I had cleric emblems for him. He just waited so dang long to show up. I was one cleric hitter short for trials, but he had to avoid me until I got Hansel also, so now he gets to wait a nice LONG time for me to get back around to him!

Yeah, that’s a problem then. I’ve been saving keys since that mammoth (and disappointing) costume binge right when the last round came out, and I’ve been saving legends coins since the second iteration of the event (right before they put the HotM possibility back in). I also have 4000+ gems, but I’m not sure which portal I want to target with those.

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My go to team is Almur +20, Mist +10, Melendor +7, cGrimm +10 and cCaedmon +18. So 3-1-1 and this lot do rely somewhat on the right board but if I do get Mist going quickly I can take a little more time in getting the board set up. I have faced Alfrike, Telluria, Garnet, Frigg, Odin, and Krampus and beaten them all, but this does take good board play and it depends who those folks are paired with… and I’ve beaten all of th them in various setups…

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I didn’t, I just view it differently. If go 3-2, 2-2-1, etc. In the context of mixed colors the D drop in addition to elemental drop is great.

A brief disclaimer, my only elemental drop is Guardian Jackal, so this is theoretical and also watching D’s do it to me.

On elemental drop and mono I find that nothing will live from tile impacts anyway. As is the case in green you fast fast elemental drops in Evelyn and Almur. By the time even fast mana charges enemies have taken damage. If their hurt, get the impact from the special, and then have subsequent elemental drop, then you’re likely going to finish someone with either:

A - Other charged specials from Lianna, Caedmon, Elkanen, Kingston, whomever.

B - If you don’t finish with specials any green tile, much less more than one, is going to hit that enemy like an atomic bomb.

If you don’t have green tiles for the duration the elemental drop is in effect and are running mono it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. They could have had negative D and you wouldn’t have charged special or done damage anyway.

In a mono team I see less bonus to elemental drop and D drop over synergy and team building. Again, maybe I am wrong.

Awesome, great to hear. If you didn’t I would end you! (Kidding … maybe?)

Cool team, congrats on Mist, Almur, and Grimm costume! In that scenario of mixed colors the elemental drop and D drop is much more beneficial.

:beers:

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Thinking about posting my roster a bit later for feedback if you’re gonna be around?

Not sure if there’s anything specific I can do at the moment, but feeling like I might be approaching a point of change (3* weight loss :grimacing:).

And please don’t end me, I’m too young and pretty to die. :flushed::joy:

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You may be right; it’s just almost reflex at this point to stack defense drop and elemental defense drop. Part of that is seeing difficult red wings/flanks in the teams that I otherwise want to attack with mono green. The other part is not having lots of options in green anyway. My usual mono green team is C. Melendor - Almur - Buddy - Caedmon - Lianna. Maxed on the bench, I have Brynhild, C. Kasshrek, C. Skittles, LJ, and Gobbler, plus dupes of Melendor and Caedmon (both without emblems). None of those seem a significant upgrade over Buddy to me. With some luck, when I get everyone charged, I can sometimes drop two defenders by combining the defense drops, then sniping the healthier target with Lianna and the less-healthy one with Caedmon (+18, all attack). Once Heimdall and Hansel are done, then I can maybe shake things up a little.

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You mean on the forum? Post away. I should be around tonight or early tomorrow morning. People smarter than me are here to look at it as well. Less so in game chat where you can’t send pics.

image

:beers:

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