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Cocofang

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  1. I wanted to add that I think that the second to last progress picture looks much more dynamic because the legs don't just hang down but the right one has a different position.
  2. @Chronopie For this bandit dragon you have very powerful support from Unity and Bloodthirst. On top of its innate life steal, which synergizes greatly with its high offensive stat. That will lead to this guy being deceptively tanky, it's going to be an airborne leechtank. As long as it isn't bursted out of the sky, it won't go down at all. And you got a mobile mass-cleanse that you can even use preemptively. Assuming these are U0 numbers, then the duration might even be longer than 10 seconds. Or it might be even cheaper. I think that justifies a price tag of 280-290. As for the artwork itself, the color scheme is amazing. It fits in seamlessly with other bandit cards. I do think it should be a bit bigger though, there is a lot of wasted space. Maybe have it be more centered like this. The lower jaw seems a bit small to me though. Almost like a fish eating crocodile, with a very slender and fragile jaw. It suggests that this mighty dragon is mostly hunting small and soft game. I think it should be way more pronounced and give the impression that it could crack open a Tortugun. Even if you look at the in-game model of Northland Drake, its jaw bone is very big and looks like it has powerful muscles despite having a much more slender snout than the Gen1 dragon models. And the neck seems very short, like it is ducking its head. Might just be perspective but if you look at the in-game models, the neck is always very long compared to the placement of the wings. Wasteland Wing does sound like a very fitting name. The alliteration makes it very smooth and it makes sense that it would be called like that by natives.
  3. Hm, that's unfortunate. I recorded it on the test server because I wanted to do a run without upgrades, so that's most likely why. Won't do a blank run on live since I would have to downgrade all cards, which would waste a lot of gold. The replay should work on the current iteration on the test server though!
  4. Of course the extra Unity can be replaced with something else but since they both stack and the G is very good on T3, while B is generally superior on T4 using both can be justified. Especially if the goal is to make the deck a bit more forgiving. Before someone gets a few upgrades and charges going on their units, it can indeed be valuable to add some more to the deck to have something to fall back on if charges get depleted. My first candidates to replace would be Fire Sphere, Inferno and possibly Comet Catcher. A cheap unit to fill the gaps could then be Thugs if you want even more prowess on T1. On T2 it depends. Gladiatrix G for more ranged damage. Enforcer and Scythe Fiends if a beefier frontline is needed. T3 either Vulcan for AoE damage or Sun Reaver as an inexpensive frontline. On T4 the already mentioned Boom Brothers or Emberstrike. If their abilities are used more conservatively, then energy shouldn't be an issue.
  5. Foreword Content: Cost Tier progression Alternative Cards to use Upgrade priorities My other Guides This guide aims to put together a pure fire deck on a reasonable budget. As always in Skylords, any suggestion is merely that. It’s all about experimenting. If you don’t like something, just change it! Want to give something a try? Just slot it in! Pulled an interesting card that you want to see in action? Build a deck around it, make it work! Struggle with a specific map? Try different cards, there might be more suitable for different situations. Create something else entirely from the ground up? The card pool is your oyster. With that being said my goals here are: Focus on cards of mostly lower rarity Use cheap cards Introduce cards (in the deck itself or as alternatives) that have at least some interesting synergies and are more involved Be flexible, so many cards can be changed Be a generalist, usable in both rPvE and cPvE Cost The estimated total to get at least one copy of each card should be no more than 800 BFP, which is achievable within a mere two days of play. Here are some tips on how to get there easily. To get to a more comfortable level of play, which means a few good charge upgrades, you are probably looking at roughly 1100 BFP investment. It's also a good idea to immediately invest some gold on high value upgrades. Commons are very cheap to upgrade and should be done so right away. Uncommons are also not that expensive. AH (Auction House) prices seem to be pretty consistent, if big outliers appear they usually settle again after a few days. Playing rPvE 9 is possible without any upgrades at all but lacking charges and upgrades can make it a bit tight and I wouldn't necessarily advise it. Especially the harder enemy types and map layouts will be a big challenge and probably not always work out. It's better to stick to solo until you got a good feeling for the deck. No shame in playing a few low difficulty maps and then work your way up. You will notice my use of singular letters next to card names, which are referring to the cards affinity. G = Green, P = Purple, B = Blue, R = Red. Cards with affinities have two different versions and they vary in effect, depending on their affinity. Affinities are represented by a small dot on the card in their respective color. They have nothing to do with what Orbs you need to play that card though. Here is the deck: Rough price chart: Strikers 80 Sunstriders 10 (starter card) Fire Stalker 10 (starter card) Skyfire Drake 50 Magma Hurler1 15 (starter card) Emberstrike 10 Batariel P 150 Blaster Cannon R 15 Morklay Trap 10 Pyromaniac R 35 Shrine of War 160 Tower of Flames 30 Eruption 15 (starter card) Fire Force B 10 Lava Field 10 (starter card) Unity G 20 (starter card) Dying Breed P 30 Aura of Pain 30 Bloodthirst 70 Fire Sphere 15 (starter card) So minus starter cards it totals roughly 700 BFP. Even less if you take the time to ask people in trade chat. A bit more if you buy during price spikes in the AH. Use SMJ to check if the price is currently favorable or if you would rather want to wait for it to be lower. Tier progression Tier 1 The backbone of this T1 is Strikers. You have to summon four of them at the very least so their passive activates. Which is quite the power investment early on but it is well worth it. They become extremely durable fighters. With additional micro, you can pull individual squads back so that others can use their powerful Charge one after another. This is especially strong against buildings. Sunstriders also handle buildings well, in addition to airborne targets. It can also be a good idea to have one squad ready to suppress buildings and finish off S squads. The T1 building slot is flexible. Against powerful flyers Blaster Cannon R will do wonders. Eruption is as straight forward as it is versatile. It will help a lot against airborne units, can be used in quick succession to destroy high priority buildings, such as enemy spawns, and disrupt combat. Or quickly finish off an important target that’s barely hanging on. Tier 2 Strikers scale well into T2 thanks to Fire Force B. They become even tankier, gaining more value from their shared health and regeneration. Don't be afraid to keep using them. The more you have, the better they get. While they fight in melee combat Fire Stalkers boast respectable L bonus damage. Switched to Unstable Ember they can be used as artillery pieces and disrupt combat with S knockback. Use them to destroy buildings from afar and lure enemies out to fight them in the open. Despite having a ranged mode, they always count as melee, so they benefit from Fire Force as well! Skyfire Drake is very fragile but deals devastating damage. Use their high mobility to keep them out of danger and hit the enemy where it hurts. With Pyromaniac R you get a surprisingly deadly tower. Although it cannot hit airborne targets it melts through multiple units at once. If you expect a lot of dangerous airborne enemies you can use B instead. A very versatile card is Morklay Trap. You can build it offensively and lure enemies into it, dealing massive damage before the fight even begins. Defensively, it can quickly dispatch attackers or weaken them enough so you can clean them up. Lava Field is expensive, so use it wisely. It can give you some time to breath by knocking back S and M units. Tier 3 Skyfire Drakes can still be of help because of their high mobility. Hardly in direct confrontations through. Magma Hurler is the sole star of the show. Summon as many as you can and focus fire anything dangerous. If you are in need for defense then Tower of Flames can lock down areas but it needs extra attention. Uncharacteristically for a fire card it doesn't deal that much damage but it is rather sturdy. Volcanic Ground has to be used in order to make the most of it. One of the most important cards that you won't easily get around is Shrine of War. It recycles your void energy on enemy death, which is necessary so you can keep using spells and abilities. Unity. G has a decent healing attached to it. Use it on your Magma Hurlers to turn them into a deathball. With Dying Breed P you can drastically accelerate your power economy. Aura of Pain is some additional damage that can either be cast on your Magma Hurlers to make enemies that come too close take additional damage. Or you cast it on a tanky enemy so it burns itself and its allies. It also stacks! So if you want to ramp up the damage in extended fights cast it multiple times. Tier 4 You can keep your Magma Hurlers around unless you have enough charges on your other T4 units. Speaking of which, we have Batariel P here. Its aura makes enemy entities take a whole lot more damage from all sources. Its active ability can be used to initiate combat to immediately fire it up. It makes damage spells absolutely devastating. Emberstrike puts some extra meat on the field. They can be summoned mid-combat to deal damage and fight at full power right away. Fire Lance hits airborne too and if you cast multiple ones in quick succession, it deals a lot of damage. The damage gets of coursed increased by Batariels aura. Fire Sphere has a delay but anything that remains in its explosion will suffer massive damage. An extremely important spell is Bloodthirst as it lets your units heal up during combat. Ideally, you want to cast Fire Force B on a Batariel, link your army together with Unity and then heal it with Bloodthirst. Keep the unit limit for these spells in mind though. Dying Breed will continue to provide you with lots of energy. And Aura of Pain also gets stronger through Batariels aura. Alternative Cards to use With each Tier explained, let's look at some alternatives, upgrades or additions. Rough price chart: Very cheap - <20 Cheap - <50 Moderate - <150 Expensive - <250 Very expensive - <600 Top end - 600+ Tier 1 Options Sunderer – The only T1 L unit in the game and very beefy for a fire unit. Can destroy buildings with ease. Expensive to very expensive. Firesworn R - They deal massive damage against L targets and transition well into T2. Moderate to expensive. Nomad G – Very versatile with sustain, anti air capabilities and fast. Very Cheap. Makeshift Tower – Low damage output but its S knockback can buy a lot of time early on. Its Accelerated Construction can even make it useful offensively. Cheap. Mine – The iconic and ridiculously strong fire opener. It has ludicrous damage potential with up to 3600. Top end. Tier 2 Options Gladiatrix G – Strong and agile with good utility. Moderate to expensive. Firedancer – Artillery range and extremely high damage to buildings. Top end. Ravage – Can help keeping a Skyfire Drake or Magma Hurler from dying. Very cheap. Disenchant P/G – Counteract disabling effects on your units, which is especially important in fire because most units don’t have a lot of health and can therefore die quickly if they are unable to retaliate. Very expensive to top end. Wildfire – Less versatile than Lava Field but when several enemies are close together it can easily melt through an army. Especially strong when many enemies are wailing on a wall or are bunched up fighting your frontline. Moderate to expensive. Viridya – Passive healing for your army. But makes you feel dirty for diluting your pure fire deck. Careful here, though! Using a Neutral card will disqualify the deck from fulfilling tasks that require you to use only fire cards! Expensive to very expensive. Tier 3 Options Vulcan – Very strong AoE clear but cannot hit air. Cheap. Juggernaut – Another iconic card that can devastate buildings and packs a punch. Expensive to very expensive. Spitfire – Has relatively low damage and life but is very versatile. The only airborne unit with artillery range and siege. Very expensive to top end. Inferno – A huge energy investment for devastating effect. Needs to be used together with Shrine of War. Expensive to very expensive. Tier 4 Options Boom Brothers – A very involved and surprisingly powerful playstyle but it relies on fast void return with Shrine of War. The active ability is incredibly strong and with their damage bonus, they tear through any XL enemy, making them helpless with their knockback to boot. Cheap. Fire Dragon – Ramping damage that melts tough enemies. Benefits a lot from Batariel P aura. Cheap to moderate. Moloch – Slow but close to immortal. A good combination with Unity. Expensive. Magma Fiend – If you are already going slow with Moloch, why not commit further? Moderate. Volcano G/R – If you are looking to fortify one position, this card can get the job done. Can deal a lot of damage but will take some in return. Expensive. Earthshaker – An extremely useful card. It has good CC against units but most importantly destroys buildings quickly. Expensive to very expensive. Cluster Explosion – Stupidly powerful spell that can destroy clumped up enemies on its own. Very expensive to top end. Upgrade priorities Some advice on what to invest in once you start gathering Gold for card upgrades and BFP for more charges. If you have some excess gold, it's a good idea to invest some into vital upgrades right away. It's very cheap to upgrade Commons To U2 and Uncommons to U1. Vital upgrades AND charges Skyfire Drake - More life and lower energy cost makes this card much more forgiving. Strikers - They need all the tankiness they can get. And damage benefits their Charge ability as well. Magma Hurler - As the only T3 unit, these should be as strong as possible. They only gain some life, but that's very good when combined with Unity. Eruption - As a bread and butter spell, this needs to deal as much damage as possible. And the reduced cost adds up quickly if you cast it a lot. Unity G/B - Longer duration and lower cost makes this much easier to juggle. Bloodthirst - Your most powerful heal should do its job often and properly. Good upgrades Sunstriders - They will always be squishy but their damage gets rather good. Emberstrike - Its gains a lot of health, which is important for Unity. Lava Field - More bang for your buck. Morklay Trap - When you use it, you want it to count. Tower of Flames - Additional bulk and stronger ability will help if you find yourself using it a lot. Good charges Batariel P - More damage means its aura will proc and ramp up faster. You mostly want the extra charges here. Dying Breed P - Being able to cast it a couple of times will drastically boost your power economy. My other Guides HOW TO: PvE Deckbuilding Guide - If you are unsure how to start building your own decks and what to consider. CHEAP and powerful BEGINNER Deck - If you are rather interested in a very cheap and flexible mixed deck. CHEAP Pure-Shadow Deck - If you are rather interested in a cheap and flexible shadow deck. Budget Fire rPvE9.pmv
  6. Holding and hopefully gonna pull the new frost shielding card once it's released🤞
  7. Worldbreaker Gun doesn't literally break worlds. Glaciation or Glacier Shell don't literally turn walls and buildings into glaciers. Ice Age is not literally a global, extinction level climate change. It's exaggeration for dramatic and imposing effect, as used a dime and dozen in fiction and everyday language. If anything these cards show that for frost it is perfectly in line that they give their spells and entities names that present them as much grander than they are in reality. "This enormous cannon is so mighty, it can break the entire world!" "This ancient, arcane magic makes buildings as sturdy as a glacier!" "This powerful enchantment will conjure an ice age so that our protection will be everlasting!" and here "These Ice Shields are so potent, they turn any creature into an immortal bastion!" Immortal Aegis does have a nice ring to it too, though ...
  8. I am in favor of having the player engage with the camp instead of killing the spawner over a cliff while the AI remains idle. It would still be possible to occupy the defending army and rushing in to destroy the building. But with that strat you at least have to play around the twilight camp.
  9. The building is the designated spawn for the enemy waves, right? What behavior would you rather see?
  10. Incredible work by Tweeto. Very lucky to have such an artist on the team. He captures the artstyle very well, I think. This looks like one hell of a fight against Lost Souls. So the intent seems to be that Winterwitch remains the go-to shielding solution for 2B2X splash, while this spell is reserved for pure frost. I hope Ice Age will remain splashable, just like Winterwitch, so they can still work together. Synergy with Ice Age G will also dictate how good the purple affinity will be. Name: Immortal Bastion Ability: Tainted/Blessed Last Stand An "Immortal Bastion" sounds like something that peak-frost could achieve. The entire faction is about longevity and tankiness, so the apex of that is obviously becoming undying in battle through the use of overwhelming shielding power. Every unit affected becomes a moving, immortal bastion by itself. The spell should have an imposing name. A coat is soft and comfy. Protection is caring. Frost however is cold, mighty and insurmountable. It does not pamper, it creates beings that can withstand anything like an ancient glacier. Something infused with the essence of frost cannot die. Not because it is actually immortal or is able to revive. No, because it becomes such an indestructible presence that any weaponry known to god, giant or men just shatters on contact. But it is also something that's not used lightly. It takes a lot of effort to weave a spell this grand, to conjure the true potential of the most stalwart faction. So it mostly sees use in dire situations, when frost has to make a last stand and become an immovable object for enemies to shatter on. This is Frost! This is our Last Stand against forces who dare challenge us and push us this far. Know true despair as your puny weapons fail you and you grind yourself to pieces against our Immortal Bastion! This! Is! Frost! Sounds about right to me 😛 There are already cards with accents in the game, Nomad comes to mind. If the accent fits for the unit and faction it could be very charming and give it some extra personality. But not every accent would be suitable for a Cocky Bandit Sniper and the factions background.
  11. Yes, what you described falls under "Build for specific cards". Which can be anywhere in the tier progression. Like in my example with Juggernaut, the rest of the deck has to warp around its orb requirements, just like in your examples. And there is obviously a lot of overlap. If you decide to build for color you then still have to decide whether to start bottom, mid, top or build for specific cards or maps. Employing and combining multiple of the outlined approaches is a given. But if you are still inexperienced, you have to start somewhere.
  12. Already got a few people telling me the deck helped them a lot, even in expert cPvE: New one for PvE deckbuilding:
  13. Foreword Content: Orb and Color Overview Picking your Approach General considerations Units in general Units in Tiers Buildings Spells Synergies My other Guides If you recently asked "Can somebody show me a good deck for this color?" or "Can anyone rate my deck?" then this PvE Deckbuilding Guide could give you a foundation to use if you need some early pointers on what to pay attention to when you start building your own deck. Experimentation and exploration are name of the game, so feel free to deviate from conventions. In line with that I will refrain from giving concrete examples or handholding. This is supposed to provide food for thought to point into a helpful direction to build decks yourself if you are still unsure. There is no universal solution for deck building. For many maps, especially on expert difficulty, some adjustments to tackle the individual circumstances are advisable. It’s also quite different whether you play cPvE (campaign maps) or rPvE (randomly generated PvE). You will notice my use of singular letters next to card names, which are referring to the cards affinity. G = Green, P = Purple, B = Blue, R = Red. Cards with affinities have two different versions and they vary in effect, depending on their affinity. Affinities are represented by a small dot on the card in their respective color. They have nothing to do with what Orbs you need to play that card though. Orb and Color Overview Your deck consists of 20 cards and usually you get 4 orbs during a normal game of Skylords. The color of the orbs you pick dictate which cards you are able to play. Every card requires a specific amount of orbs too, these are referred to as tiers, shortened to just T. If a card requires one orb, it’s T1. If you need two orbs, it’s T2 and so on. Lost Vigil G, thus the green nature affinity, is a T3 unit. So for starters you need three orbs to play it. One of these has to be frost and one shadow, represented by the blue and purple dot respectively. The color of the third orb does not matter, which is represented by the grey circle. It doesn’t have to be nature just because its affinity is, it can be anything. The order in which these orb colors were built doesn't matter either. This makes Lost Vigil G a semi-flexible card color wise since it does require two fixed orb colors but leaves the third one up to the player. For example, you wouldn’t be able to play Lost Vigil G if you previously picked two fire orbs for your T2. But one fire orb would be fine. Check out the wiki articles for Monuments and Orbs and Cards for more information. Picking the Approach First you have to settle on the broad idea you want to follow. For that I want to present a few simple approaches. The images are meant to illustrate the concepts, not represent a deck. Build bottom up Pick the color you want to start with on T1. Chose cards that build onto that as T2, either using the same color as T1 or a new one. Repeat for T3. Finally look at what’s left on T4 for the color combination you ended up with. Build order: Starting with Forsaken means my first Orb is . Then I pick Rippers , so I am actually still undecided on which color to pick next. After I decide on Vulcan I have to go for fire on T2 nonetheless because it needs two of those. For my last orb I settle on , which opens up Skycatcher B . Could’ve picked Giant Wyrm , Bloodhorn , Tortugun , Tempest or many other cards instead if I adjusted my 4th Orb accordingly. Build top down Pick T4 cards that fit together color wise first. Which T3 cards can be used with these colors if you subtract one orb? Then check T2, finally pick what’s left for T1. Build order: I pick Lost Dragon P as my T4. That still leaves me enough wiggle room to use Tremor as my T3. For T2 I want War Eagle , so that means I have to build my first shadow orb on T3. It also means I have to start with frost. Build for a color theme Decide which color combination you want to end up with, this will naturally limit your available card pool. Then look in which order you want these orbs and which cards fit that order. Build order: then either or . Last one flexible. I am building a Stonekin deck, which means I am restricting myself to and . So I could start with either of them, in this case. Then add because I really want my first Stonekin unit by T2. T3 could be either or since Deepfang R is flexible. Gemeye G is already covered but maybe another card in the deck needs one more or , so I have to pay attention to that. Build for specific cards Decide what cards you absolutely want to use. If there are multiple, check if they fit together into a linear orb progression. If yes, reverse engineer which other colored cards you can add for the color progression to work. Build order: I really want to use Juggernaut . That means I have to start and also add another on T2. On T4 though, I am free to pick whatever. Either make a pure fire deck or go for something else entirely, like Grimvine . But Juggernaut wouldn’t fit with T1 or T2 cards that require other colors than . Build for specific maps Can be important for the more difficult content. Once you learn a maps hurdles, you can try to adjust decks to tackle them more effectively or build decks for them from the ground up. Are there positions you have to defend at certain tiers? Might be a good idea to add some towers. Are you fighting from walls? Ranged S squads are helpful. Do you encounter a lot of enemies of a certain size? Use a respective size counter. Enemy buildings need to be destroyed quickly? Siege units will do the job. Lots of enemy air units? Look into anti-air solutions or ranged counters. Incoming artillery units? Bring ways to combat their long range. And so fourth. Knowing what awaits you on a map goes a long way when building a good deck to tackle it. General considerations Combining Color Color order Something important to look out for is that you are actually able to play all the cards you picked at a certain tier. There are some exceptions to this but in general a deck only functions when most cards can succeed each other. Here the Deep One P cannot be played until T3 because the deck starts with :fireorb:. So this is obviously a waste. Either I change my T1 to or I change my T2 to cards that allow it to be :fireorb:. Color restrictions Orb color requirements dictate which cards you can potentially use together in a normal deck that progresses linearly through T1 up to T4. If you want to mix your orb colors a lot, then you won’t be able to use some cards that have stricter color requirements. Something like this would be a so-called rainbow deck. :frostorb::shadoworb::natureorb::fireorb: is the orb sequence and everything works together just fine. I won’t be able to use any cards that need two of the same color. But one of each leaves me with a sizable card pool to choose from nonetheless. Color flexibility Most cards don't need a fixed color for every orb to be played. These are prime candidates to be splashed, which means being mixed with other colors. Here, despite all cards being nature, it actually only requires one specific :natureorb: to play them all. It’s often the case that your T4 and sometimes even T3 color doesn’t need to be something specific because you got your colors covered beforehand. Taking care of the Army Sustain Coming from units, buildings or spells to keep your army and constructions healthy. If at all available, it’s good if you have one source of sustain in the lower tiers, so T1 or T2 and one stronger source in T3 or T4. Sustain on demand in the form of heals or shields will make a deck more forgiving and durable. Without it your units will eventually die to accumulating damage. All colors have access to different types of sustain. Damage mitigation Defensive buffs for both units and buildings. Especially in T3 and T4 there are some very strong options. Having ways of mitigating damage is valuable because especially in later tiers your army is quite expensive. Damage mitigation also makes every point of health and therefore healing more efficient. Think, with 50% damage reduction, it takes 2 damage to remove 1 HP but only a healing value of 1 to restore it again. Damage buffs If enemies die quicker you take less damage and progress faster. Percentage based buffs (% more damage) are usable at any point in the game even if they are T1 or T2. Taking care of the Enemy Crowd Control (CC) Disabling enemies is very important. It’s great to have CC available at every tier but some lower tier CC can work throughout the entire game. Enemies become resilient against CC for a short time after being affected by it. Also, death is the best CC so if you are unsure then it could be a good idea to go for ... Extra damage Either through unit abilities, spells or even some buildings, a solid burst of frontloaded damage can make fights much easier. AoE damage makes big armies more manageable. Well timed extra damage can turn a loss around or solidify victory. Debuffs There are various debuffs available that weaken enemies. Use them to pick off priority targets or make them less threatening. Lock down Areas Fortification If the situation calls for it, consider adding Towers and Fortresses. Depending on the map it will make defending a lot easier. There are even units that excel at this. Utility Meatshields There are various ways to quickly summon big quantities of disposable units. And although they won’t grant ground presence (they don't have an "aura" that allows you to play out cards next to them), they also don’t bind power and can not only deal some damage but also take the hits instead of your actual entities. Mobility Very powerful if used correctly. Means to traverse the map quickly can turn the tides of war. Either to rush ahead when time is of the essence, make a quick retreat or help out on a different front. Economy Anything with energy management: Get energy faster, preserve it, pay less, recover spent energy from the void pool and so on. Very important if you want to keep running on full steam. Every color has different means to achieve that. Charges in your deck are also part of the economy and can be manipulated if you are in need of that. The beauty of Skylords is that you can combine colors very freely, depending on your collection, intentions, preferences and creativity. You can try to build a more flexible all rounder deck or specialize for a particular aspect. This might seem like a lot to keep in mind but don’t worry about it too much. Some color combinations naturally lean more into certain areas so just look at the cards available and see what you want or can get. No need to worry if you cannot hit all the marks. For example, if you have a lot of sustain, you might not need a lot of damage mitigation, although they have natural synergy with one another. Or vice versa. If your deck can deal a lot of extra damage, maybe you don’t need damage buffs. And so on. Units in general After you have a broad idea how you want to build, it’s time to go into the specific card types. Most of the time a unit roster consists of 1 or 2 cards for each tier. 3 unit cards for one tier is already a noteworthy commitment. Using more can become slot inefficient and you might run out of space to fit good cards into your deck in other places. So usually there are 6 to 8, at times maybe even 10 units in a deck. Some possible picks for unit combinations in each tier are: One ranged unit Sometimes just spamming one solid ranged unit is enough. Take care to have enough charges on that one card to play it repeatedly before it goes on cooldown. Two ranged units Two different ranged units can also be used as a duo if they have good synergy. One ranged and one melee unit Mix one melee and one ranged unit to create a conventional army set-up of a front- and backline. One ranged/melee and one support unit Support units can debuff enemies, buff your own or allied entities, shield or heal. Many beneficial effects to pick from if you are so inclined. Investing too much energy into supportive units will slow you down though. After all, every unit exclusively busy supporting is equivalent to one damage orientated unit, that you could’ve summoned instead, not fighting. If you summon a mix of melee and ranged units, the ratio of your army is usually about 1/3 melee, 2/3 ranged. For supportive units, it’s roughly ¾ ranged/melee and ¼ support. In case you forgo ranged units entirely, don’t leave yourself vulnerable to enemy air units. Also consider that only a certain number of melee units can attack one building at a time. Again, these are general guidelines and deviating from them is fine if you still feel like you get everything you need out of your deck. Adding more units can lead to a more flexible army with interesting synergies. Units in Tiers Tier 1 Already on T1 there are many combinations to discover, so go out and try a few or observe how units do by themselves. Tier 2 Things get more complicated here because now orbs can be splashed and there are much more units to choose from. L sized units are expensive energy wise but deliver a good bang for your buck. If you pick a beefy L melee frontliner, you can supplement them with ranged units. But ranged L units can often hold their own as well. L units are also less susceptible to knockback, which can be a real pain for S and M units. Don't dismiss them entirely though. They often boast strong effects and are cheaper to summon. Good airborne units become broadly available on T2. Those are squishy and die easily but their great damage can make up for it if you use their high mobility to focus weak spots like melee enemies or buildings unable to defend against air. Strong traits like exceptionally long artillery range or siege damage that destroys buildings quickly will also be at your disposal. Units generally start having much more interesting abilities. So consider if you want to have these in your deck as there are many synergies to discover. You can still fall back on your T1 units if necessary. Especially some T1 support units can still keep up. Tier 3 Powerful XL units start being common in T3. They are big energy investments but if you take care of them, they can do some serious work. L units are no slouch either, many of them are loaded with amazing effects. S and M units are usually a bit more specialized here. Knockback against S and M units is very common at this point in the game, so they are more difficult to pilot. However, their abilities can turn the tides of battle. Tier 4 The realm of mighty XL units. The colors you picked in your previous tiers heavily influence which units you have available here. T4 L and S units have powerful offensive abilities. M units are incredible supports. It’s tempting to use a lot of different XL units but you should exercise restraint and not add too many of them into your deck, overloading your T4 unit roster. Their big energy cost means you won’t be able to summon them rapidly. Buildings Usually buildings make up the smallest part of a deck. Sometimes as low as 2, especially in rPvE. For some cPvE maps it can be as much as 7 or 8. But commonly somewhere in the 3 to 5 range. Towers and Fortresses Most of them are pretty straight forward and are simply meant to kill enemies. Defending is their most obvious use but they can also be utilized offensively if you can wait out the construction time when building away from wells and orbs and bait enemies into them. Some towers are dedicated anti-air (AA) and some have additional utility effects giving them extra uses past their damage capabilities. These rarely find a place in rPvE decks where you are mostly on the move. But for cPvE they are very good to fortify key locations. If necessary, 2 of these can be added to the deck at different tiers. 3 if you want to lean into it more heavily and have a smoother transition between tiers. More than that would be a very tower heavy, specialized deck. Always have them in the back of your mind though. These classes of buildings usually have much higher damage and life than any unit for their cost or extremely powerful combat effects. So whenever you repeatedly find yourself in situations where your units have a tough time, maybe backup from a building does the trick. Shrines, Huts and Devices Utility buildings, mostly without damage capabilities by themselves but with useful effects. Like sustain, cross-map mobility for units and support for other entities. Being generally very useful almost all decks have a few of these. You will likely find at the very least 2 helpful buildings within these classes, regardless of your decks purpose. Possibly even more. A very important aspect about these is economy management, especially void return. Speeding up the energy return from your void pool can make your game a lot faster overall. Having at least one building that is able to manipulate energy in some way is a big benefit. Either making summons cost less, affecting well output, changing power refund when killing units or affecting void return. Spells Spells are a very important card type that often turns the tides of battle. So it’s not uncommon for a deck to contain a lot of these. Rarely are there less than 5 spells. More commonly somewhere between 7 or even 10 spell cards. There are three spell classes: Spell Requires ground presence. Which means there has to be a conventionally summoned (played straight from a card) ground entity nearby. Enchantments Global effects that can be played anywhere. Arcane Local effects that can be played anywhere. Spell cards themselves have a lot of different uses. Some buff or heal your own units or buildings. Others deal a lot of damage to enemies. And there are utility spells that offer mobility, CC or have uniquely powerful effects. There are even low tier spell cards that are useful throughout the entire game. A good balance of spells that allow for flexibility is very helpful. They can also be used to further define your decks strengths or cover for weaknesses. You can refer back to the general considerations to decide which spells you prefer in order to cover a given purpose. Synergies Decks really shine if you use cards that work well together. Some synergies are obvious and part of the card description. Like cards that depend on freezes or nearby buildings for full effect. Others are maybe not as immediately apparent. Here are a couple pointers to look out for, with many more waiting to be discovered as you familiarize yourself with the game. Damage reduction is very powerful when combined with sustain since it makes every bit of healing worth so much more. Similarly many self-damage mechanics can also be mitigated, so definitely test those in the forge. Healing combos incredibly well to compensate. There are some ways to directly increase effectiveness of healing, so if you lean a lot into health restoration mechanics, these can vastly improve their performance. Mechanics that summon disposable units work great together with those that require sacrifices or corpses. For mechanics that use corpses as a resource, it’s possible to boost their efficiency. If you are struggling with charges or cooldowns on certain cards, there are ways to replenish them during a game. Internal buffs (effects entities apply to themselves passively) stack with themselves. External buffs (effects that for example a spell applies to an entity) don't stack with themselves. Only the strongest one is applied. Damage redirection abilities don't stack with themselves. Units that specialize in abilities that lock them in place can be very potent together as you can use localized effects much better. Damage buffs on your units and simultaneously damage taken debuffs on enemies have devastating effects. Root networks can develop into very powerful set-ups. My other Guides CHEAP and powerful BEGINNER Deck - If you are interested in a very cheap and flexible mixed deck. CHEAP Pure-Fire Deck - If you are interested in a cheap and flexible fire deck. CHEAP Pure-Shadow Deck - If you are interested in a cheap and flexible shadow deck.
  14. Not possible. The volunteer devs of this project do not own the IP. They can't put a game up on Steam that they don't even own.
  15. I assume promos have to have a different card ID than their regular version? So being able to put both the normal- and promo-version of a card into the deck will always be possible unless some major breakthrough in reverse engineering happens.
  16. Eeeh ... that survey result comes with a hefty caveat, really. It's basically asking "The shiny thing is very rare. Would you like it to be less so, so you could also more easily have the shiny thing?" Obviously a decent chunk of people will say yes to that, regardless of what the state the rarity actually is. Promos should just be eye-candy. As far as the Twilight-edition promos you, you don't need them and you never will. The only one that could be argued as enabling something meaningful is the promo Construct, for a Construct-deck. But that's just as easily done with Offering and Rifle Cultists. All the other ones have irrelevant gameplay implications, so what's the big deal? Well, speaking of tangible upsides for promos they have the unfortunate gameplay implications of allowing the regular version and the promo version of a card to be in a deck at the same time. Again, most of the time that's irrelevant but for neutral cards it supports a new deck archetype in the legendary-deck with Ravenheart and possibly also Mo. A problematically high price tag for a deck. But also more of a novelty deck as well, so it's not too bad. Sure, since video games are a visual medium the aesthetics are important. But it's not like the base-versions look like shit. I can also understand the desire to "show off" seems fulfilled in a more meaningful way if it's tied to personal accomplishments instead of getting lucky or slamming a fistful of cash on the table. But here is a question you didn't consider: What purpose do promos serve for the game right now? Well, the follow up question is: Where do you get promos from? You get them from boosters. Exclusively from boosters. Which means if more promos are to enter the game, then boosters have to be opened. And that's an absolutely fundamental part of the game. People have to keep opening boosters for the entire show to run. You already regularly see people arguing that you'd be better off to just buy from the AH straight up. Well, the supply has to come from somewhere. And while regular cards naturally serve as a draw, the fact that you can also ONLY get promos from opening lots of boosters provides vital additional incentive. I do however agree that the game currently lacks long-term goals for players to work towards. I also agree that a stale meta is rather detrimental to the overall health of the game and makes people miss the wealth of options the intended boundaries offer, making it instead seem shallow and solved, hence less interesting. But the position of promos does not have to be undermined or changed in order to work on that.
  17. Opening boosters is a big part of the game. It really depends on what you want here. If you are excited about trying new things and experimenting with cards you haven't used before, then open boosters. Try the stuff you get from them. Not having all the cards and working with what I had was a whole lot of fun in the beginning. So if exploration is interesting to you, just open boosters. If you have certain cards in mind that you really need or want to play, then the AH is the better option, obviously.
  18. What I value in PtD is that there is no set meta. People feel comfortable to enter the map with whatever. You see all colors, all sorts of cards. Of course you sometimes have someone Enlightening a Giant Wyrm and going straight for the altars but that's nowhere near meta defining without a feeder, of which I have never encountered one. I am not necessarily in favor of keeping the Expert version on a "anyone can join"-level. But I'd definitely want to preserve "almost anything can be played"-level. Obviously making it harder will weed out extremely wacky decks (of which I have seen very few, the vast majority was a bit more exotic but still functional) but in turn you would actually have something to fight. And, yes, like LEBOVIN noted, the altars prevent respawning Aspects on the other maps. It's just something that comes so naturally with progressing through the map that I didn't consider it as a connection that can be used too. In addition to stronger bandits, the Aspects could also be accompanied with progressively stronger and bigger armies until their altars get destroyed.
  19. Both Skycatcher Affinities shoot their projectile from the top of their head instead of the mouth.
  20. A section on the wall at the starting base cannot be accessed by units because it's blocked by terrain. Also encountered the problem that if you destroy the bases before reaching the wagon the bases are marked as not destroyed until you kill the main base, at which point the quests proceed. As far as aesthetics are concerned, I think the cliffs and edges of the mountains look way too clean and steep. They look, well, modeled by a "raise terrain"-tool and artificial. Take a look at some of the snow and mountain maps in the game to see how they made them look more natural. But that's probably polish to get to once you are completely satisfied with the layout and everything. In the north, I'd move the insta-kill flames back a bit. If you place your army on the small available space before them then melee units can get aggroed into the flames by twilight ranged units. Flying units behave a bit weirdly. They kind of follow the paths that is also accessible to ground entities but at the same time often soar up really high. So after all is said and done, also check the traversable terrain for flyers.
  21. Yes, I know. It was just an example on how <Unit name> =/= <Unit name> when it comes to gauging PvE-entities power compared to player-entities.
  22. The entire takeover mechanic was never functionally implemented into the game. It's an incomplete hackjob full of half measures. LS being immune to it is pretty much an admission of "This is so fucked and not even finished but we don't have the resources to fix existing entities. Let's just block it for now ...". The current "implementation" has multiple extremely powerful effects built into it that aren't even considered most of the time. Takeover insta-kills the targeted entity. So it immediately removes a major threat from the field, which is incredibly potent by itself. Takeover goes even further and adds the entity that was just immediately removed from the opposing force to the army of the player. It's a massive shift in military strength. But those two things are pretty much inherent to a takeover mechanic. Except if you implemented something like a HP threshold and you can only take over weakened entities or something. But the real issues begin afterwards, which are unique to Skylords. Fundamentally speaking, every permanent entity that the player can create binds energy for as long as its on the field. Takeover undermines that by granting assets that are entirely unbound and just from that perspective alone superior to regularly summoned entities. The downside being that they don't grant any ground presence, which is easy to negate by simply mixing in one regularly summoned unit. Nightguard further complicates that by being a T1 unit that can grant access to entities vastly surpassing anything else on that tier by orders of magnitudes. This instantly subverts any maps that attempt to challenge the players with strong opposition on T1. It's almost comparable as if cards like Fathom Lord, Swamp Drake, Stone Warrior or other units with equivalent strength were spells instead of units. Also important to consider that PvE-versions of units are sometimes stronger than card-versions of them. So just because Windhunter is T2 for the player, the PvE-Windhunter is clearly much more powerful equivalent to T3. Because of its on-hit paralyze definitely in the upper echelons, if not low T4. Entities with strength that is equivalent to a player summoned T3 unit, completely energy-unbound and also while insta-killing that entity on the enemies side is just obscene. Even if you look at T2, disregarding Harvester, there are already exceptionally powerful units present and we are talking about commanding those under the aforementioned conditions. There is the argument that Nightguard would be dead if takeover was fixed but that just shows how warped the perception of power has become. Even if it could only swap units that are very strictly equivalent to T2 and 150 energy, you'd still be objectively trading up a whole lot. Not only in military power and detrimental effect on the enemy but also economically. Even if takeover was functioning properly Nightguard would be extremely powerful. So things that have to be considered to actually integrate takeover appropriately into the design of Skylords are: Bound energy. Should taken over entities be exempt from that? Entity power. Which unit-power is reasonable to have access to at which point in the game? Takeover conditions. Should there be additional conditions that need to be fulfilled in order to take over an entity? Clarity. How do you effectively and intuitively communicate to the player which entities can be taken over without them having to look it up externally?
  23. As stated, I am very concerned that a simply buffed damage for the wrath immediately creates a very plain and boring green-meta because that orb splash is best equipped to deal with a DoT, up to the point where it becomes too strong and has to be switched. To preserve the diverse playfield that PtD currently offers, looking for other ways to make the wrath more threatening without providing a clear counter that enforces a meta is much more preferable.
  24. Main Issue: Amii Monument. It undermines the final objective, making the last orb obsolete. Removes any need to engage with the final camp in any way. Context: The final camp isn't hard to destroy, Amii Monument simply skips it. Additionally, the camp doesn't even need to be wiped out, it's enough to get ground presence up there and clear enough for the Orb to be built. Fix: Make it necessary to capture the fifth orb.
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