My Team Last Time
My Team This Time
I apparently forgot to screenshot my team this time while distracted working on the Raid Tournament and Poseidon threads, so here’s a dramatic re-enactment:
Last time Sumitomo was a new addition to the team, as much as anything for fun.
Since last time I maxed a second Boldtusk, so I figured I’d give a two-healer setup a go, and see if it worked well.
Boldtusk Prime has also come to +7 (screenshot is after completing the Trials and upping him another node), and Grimm has come to +6. Plus I worked on troops a bit since then.
Trials of Strength is a fun one for me for leveling progress — during the first cycle I had maxed Gato in that slot, then Sumitomo, and now Boldtusk. By next time I’ll have a second maxed Grimm too.
I really enjoy the visible leveling progress reminders each time I compare my team.
The Battle
As expected with a decent team, the first two Stages were straightforward and item-free.
For the third Stage, the double Boldtusk combo proved useful, and I got through the monsters with at most a minor healing or two.
The Boss Battle started off well, dealing lots of damage from specials, and taking advantage of the attack buff from Boldtusk and defense debuff from Grimm to deal a lot of tile damage.
I used 2 antidotes along the way to clear DoT from Nashgar and Azlar.
For a while, the dual Boldtusks worked well to ensure I had one ready to heal when needed.
As the battle wore on and I’d killed off Azlar, I got into a period of a slower board that I was having trouble avoiding feeding Elena with, and couldn’t manage to charge up my Boldtusk duo fast enough, so I started burning through minor healing pots.
When Elena fired and I continued having trouble avoiding hitting her and couldn’t heal, I started losing some of my heroes to Riposte and slash attacks.
At that point, Nashgar and Elena were fairly close to dead, so to avoid risk of dying, I used 1 Dragon Attack, which took out Elena; and 1 Bomb, which finished off Nashgar.
Was It Harder?
I probably could have done without the Bomb if this were still Version 19, but I don’t think the added HP really made much difference.
I do wonder, though, if Defense has been increased too — if so, that would be a much bigger impact to playing through with specials and tile damage.
I’ll be interested to see how next time goes. I’m thinking by then I might take double Boldtusks, double Grimms, and Hu Tao.
Shiny New Emblems
Boldtusk finally stepped up to +8, continuing on a defense/health build:
Grimm, unfortunately, remains slightly shy of +7 — but with the constant drip of Emblems from Diamond Raid Chests and VIP, new loot to come from the Raid Tournament, plus the upcoming Trials of Survival in a couple weeks, it shouldn’t be terribly long before he can step up.
At some point I should decide whether to bring other Fighters and Barbarians up a bit. I use Little John every day in Raids, which makes giving him some Emblems in addition to Grimm an appealing plan.
But in the meantime, I’m just marching forward on the Talent Grid, without much concrete plan for swapping to other heroes in mind yet.