I created a project to track long-term data of stats and leaderboards. I already posted this project in Skylords Reborn API topic, but I think it's worth creating a new topic.
What's included?
- Long-term tracking of available stats which are fetched every hour
- PVP 1v1 Leaderboards (fetched every 6 hours)
- PVP 1v1 Player Details for long-term progress
To do:
- Add other leaderboards like 2v2
- Optimize mobile view
Since some people asked me to do this I decided to make a small guide regarding Shadow T1. This guide provides information for every type of player (from new to experienced). I will try to explain every single matchup and I hope this is going to be helpful for some of you, who want to improve their gameplay when we get to play again.
Note: Every statement refers to 1v1-PvP since 2v2 doesn't always works in the same way.
First of all: What makes Shadow T1 so attractive?
Shadow T1 & Fire T1 were the most played T1's in the game for a simple reason: Both of them haven't got any major weaknesses. Frost T1 often loses Map control due to the lack of swift units and Nature struggles seriously against towers or can get entirely ruined by an instant T2. Meanwhile Shadow doesn't have these issues and it doesn't lack in strenghts either. The early T1 is the strongest out of all colours.
- the Deck -
(This is just a short list without in depth explanation. For some more detailed information take a look at Eirias' Deck building guide: [http://forum.bfreborn.com/index.php?/topic/917-how-to-build-a-pvp-deck-guide/])
Group 1 - The "must have" Units (you won't be able to compete on a high level without them):
Dreadcharger
Forsaken
Nox Trooper
Nasty
Group 2 - Strong additional cards, which provide safety for some matchups:
Motivate
Skeleton Warriors
Phasetower
Nightguard
Group 3 - Cards, that are only useful for higher Tier combinations:
Embalmers Shrine
Life Weaving
Group 4 - Cards that are only useful in a single certain scenario (usually not viable):
Snapjaws
Witchclaws (both affinities)
Wrathblades
Soulsplicer (green)
Decomposer
Lifestealer (For specific information ask @Hirooo)
Executor
Group 5 - Trash
Offering (both affinites)
Soulsplicer (red)
You should make sure that your T1 has a good synergy with the rest of your Deck.
Some examples:
- If you play Shadow Nature, Life Weaving would be a trash card, but in a Bandits-T2 Life Weaving is essential to support your skyfire drakes.
- Phasetower gets even stronger in a shadow/frost deck, because you can support them in T2 with Kobold Trick & Glacier Shell.
- Shadow Nature has a nice synergy with nightguard because the cheap cc allows you easily to catch the enemies units / you can prevent the nightguard from escaping after she used her ability.
The average Shadow T1 includes 6-7 cards (I usually played Dreadcharger, Forsaken, Nox-Trooper, Skeleton Warriors, Nasty & Motivate (+ Life Weaving in Bandits & Pure Shadow). In theory Phasetower has to be included since this card is a little bit OP (especially against nature), but Phasetowerspam doesn't require any micro and these dirty wins weren't really satisfying.
- Matchups -
Shadow vs Fire
Lets start with this matchup since it's the most popular one.
Most important cards in this matchup:
Shadow:
1. Dreadcharger - 2. Forsaken - 3. Nasty - 4. Motivate
Fire:
1. Scavenger - 2. Sunstriders - 3. Thugs- 4. Sunderer - 5. Eruption
Core strategy:
Your first unit is Dreadcharger. Apparently this should be your starting unit in every single matchup, because the Dreadcharger is fast and has the shortest spawn animation out of every T1 swift unit (werebeasts are equal, but they weren't really popular). This means you will always reach important positions like middle orbs on random maps before your opponent. The first thing you have to notice is your map. As long as you play on a large map you are allowed to take a power well without any concern, but on smaller maps like Elyon for example you shouldn't take anything, otherwise you are going to lose immediately against a Sunderer rush. On smaller maps you have to go for a dazed fight. So lets take a look at "How to play dazed fights":
1. Spawn a dreadcharger, walk towards the position you intend to capture.
2. Spam mass forsaken and split your units (as long as your units are dazed you shouldn't have multiple ones at the same position, otherwise the can get erupted. If your Units reach full hp it's okay to have 2 Forsaken-squads close to each other). If you got multiple units in position you are ready to fight!
3. Your opponent will use Scavenger, Thugs & Sunstrider. Your first focus should be the scavenger, Sunstriders may have next to no health and are very vulnerable, but the scavy can slow your unit -> your opponent will kite you to death. The Fire player on the other hand has to focus your dreadcharger, because he won't reach your forsaken with his 540hp Scavenger, who has got inferior stats compared to dreadcharger, but a superior ability and aslong as they focus each other they are even in terms of strength.
4. If your units are close to death try to get them out of combat and heal them up later. Save as many units as you can and always try to have a good focus to catch out your opponent's Sunstriders as long as the scavy is out of the fight. If one of your Forsaken squads is out of position close to your enemies units just frenzy them to force your opponent back to get a positional advantage or - in the case where your opponent doesn't retreat - deal tons of damage (Frenzy Forsaken are devastating for Fire) and motivate them afterwards to get an even bigger damage boost.
5. Many people play thugs since their micro isn't good enough to win a dazed fight against frenzy Forsaken. The most important thing to notice is that Thugs are more expensive than Forsaken, which means the focussed forsaken squad can just run away, the thugs have to chase them, but your opponent has 10 additional bound power which creates an advantage for you. But be careful! Don't get lazy with your micro against thugs, because otherwise they can delete your forsaken and their passive will give your opponent even more power. Your micro has to be on point in this situation. EDIT: Since there was some discussion about thugs I want to expand this paragraph. It's very important to note that 2 Forsaken can kill Thugs, that are played in your backline before they get out of daze. So a very important tip against Thugs is to avoid early engagements and get up a decent amount of Forsaken (at least 4-5). This allows you to burst down dazed squads & full hp thugs from the other side will be easier to kite. Thugs are powerful, but onedimensional cards, so this strategy works with a high consistency to prevent them from destroying and zoning your backline and ensures you to win the early dazed fight.
6. If you get an advantage take a super aggressive power well to gain map control. If you lose the dazed fight try to take a safe position and buy time to recover your temporary disadvantage (but be careful, if your opponent tries to abuse this and starts spamming power wells. Pure Fire benefits heavily from this.). If you get a good amount of practice with this, you should win at least 90% out of your dazed fights against Fire T1.
Important notes:
Even if Nasty and Eruption can be game changing in the perfect moment they are usually not efficient in dazed fights! They are only good to punish mistakes, aside from that spawning additional units is the better choice. Sometimes you can spawn a single squad Skeleton Warriors with their tank ability they can easily reach good nasty positions, but you still shouldn't rely on the use of Nasty to win the fight.
NEVER use lifeweaving on your Dreadcharger. It's just not good to spend 70 power to support a unit without substantial damage. Your opponent can just run away or change his focus and would always win the trade. If you think you really need a tank in your fight choose skeleton warriors. They do have got even more effective hp (1.5k) with their ability and you have to spend only 50 power which is fine.
Fake Frenzy is pretty funny ^-^ You have to wait a split second until Frenzy gets activated which means you can easily cancel the animation by walking around -> sometimes your opponent thinks you really activated your Forsaken and retreats immediately.
Always try to play at your power limit. It's pointless to hold anything back since the only useful spell in your Deck is Motivate which costs next to nothing.
Here is a replay that shows how a dazed fight between two good players looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cm1gRHwA0U
Hirooo made some small mistakes but that was an overall well executed T1. Sadly the commentating isn't always on point since Farrock doesn't have the same game knowledge as the top players (No offense against him, I respect his work & effort alot).
The dazed fight is pretty much the most important thing to master in this matchup, because even on alot of the bigger maps you will fight under the same conditions after taking a power well.
But lets take a look at another very common scenario: The close well fights
This fights are way more aggressive, because Forsaken & Thugs are way more efficient in these situations. The reason for that is very simple: As a fire player you can't just run away from Frenzy Forsaken because otherwise they will just focus your well and delete it in no time. Thugs are super strong to support the fire players' defence. But keep in mind you got the early advantage in this matchup, so play as aggressive as you can. The power of fire scales proportionate with gametime as long as no wells go down, because Sundererspam can get really dangerous in the later stages of your T1. If you have to defend a Sunderer just use a Dreadcharger to block its walkpath as fast as you can (this slows the unit down severely) and focus it as much as you can before it's able to reach your power well (Use Nox Trooper + overload if you need a little bit more burst to finish it of when your opponent retreats). You have to keep calm in these situations, because if you panic and go for something like "mass frenzy" your opponent just walks away, waits 20 seconds and returns with a second Sunderer and this is ... lets say it's not good ...
I also found a replay that shows how to abuse the early power of Shadow in a close well fight. Very nice decisionmaking by killroy in this game (he didn't waste any units). He does a really good job in terms of snowballing the game by attacking 2 spots at the same time, it's worth it to watch this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD_n3CbbbMk
This is a pretty rare scenario, but some maps do have big well distances and promote passive play (Simai does this because the Shadow player doesn't take the middle since he's scared of cliffdancer, meanwhile the Fire player prefers high well distances). Nox Trooper gets more valuable on maps like this. Usually they are inferior compared to forsaken in this matchup but they can create a high amount of burst and on this maps you don't have to deal with such a high amount of Sunstriders. The Overload-ability does 487,5 damage -> 1 hit + overload kills a scavenger in 6 seconds for sure and creates a little temporary power advantage for you. Just abuse this and take another power well, your opponents' attacks will be predictable since the map is big which allows you to defend well against sunderer. You can create a small, but reliable lead like this and this allows you a safe transition into your T2.
[I didn't find a good replay for this, but I'm going to add one as soon as I got one]
- Map Advantages -
This matchup is the least map dependend one (Shadow mirror doesn't count ^^), but there are still some maps that give you advantages or disadvantges.
Elyon: Small map, fast and early T1 fight -> it's easy to secure map control and sometimes you will be able to prevent your opponent from his T3.
Yrmia: This is a very small map aswell with close wells next to each other, but the map isn't as fancy for you as it looks. The passages on this map are really really small, you won't be able to split your units unless you attack from multiple areas! Keep that in mind, otherwise Eruptions can be a threat at this map.
Haladur: This matchup is pretty balanced on this map and very entertaining aswell. Pretty much one of the main reasons why Haladur was such a popular map in the community.
Simai: As explained this map promotes a slow & passive T1. It's usually a solid map for you, but be careful against these nasty pure fire player, who abuses this to get into a high powerlevel T2.
Lajesh: Weird map for casual ranked games, since you always have to pay attentions at your walls + it gets really easy to turtle with wallspamming. In tournament maps this can be one of the greatest maps in the game as long as both players agree to play without walls.
Whazai: This map is fine for T1 action, but has some risks for you. It has a very small passage before you reach the middle which is a dangerous eruption spot and the small area gives you a hard time microing against thugs at the same time. But if both players take a well in the middle you are at a clear advantage. It's very easy to let your Forsaken attack the well & the main base at the same time and since there is a cliff next to the main base thugs & scavenger can't reach the Forsaken in time. But careful! This map gets really nasty against pure fire, especially if you decide to take that well in the middle.
Uro: The most dangerous map for you. Wells are so far away from each other, it's even hard to move your units between your own wells to defend properly against Sunderer without a disadvantage. Sometimes you get forced to trade wells - you can't just sit back and play passive. Calm decisionmaking is even more important on this map.
Generated maps: Small maps usually favour you a little bit since they are mid centered and you will most likely win the dazed fight, big maps are really shitty to be honest. T1 doesn't really matter, the better T3 usually wins.
Shadow vs Frost
The second matchup will be against Frost. I think a very important thing to notice is that this matchup is very map dependend.
Most important cards in this matchup:
Shadow:
1. Dreadcharger 2. Nox Trooper 3. Motivate
Frost:
1.Master Archers 2. Ice Guardian 3. Ice Barrier 4. Home Soil
Core strategy:
Playing against Frost is always a little bit tricky. You will start with your Dreadcharger as fast as you can! Don't waste time, you have to reach your opponent as fast as possible to force a dazed fight, because Shadow will win that dazed fight against Frost every single time. Dreadchargerspam will always beat Masterarcherspam, just be careful with wintertide. If your opponent plays it just stop any move command and micro your units very carefully. Aslong as you don't suicide your Dreadcharger, Wintertide won't have any impact on the game. If you catch your opponent before he takes a power well, you can deny him access to the entire map, which is litereally game over. But lets get over to the interesting part where you can't deny the power well:
1. Your opponent has to take a well: You get a 100 power advantage and now it's your turn to use that to attack (unless you play on a super big random map). Your core units in this situation are Dreadcharger & Nox Trooper. That's everything you need since Forsaken are very weak against Master Archer (sometimes you can play a single squad, but be careful with the use of Forsaken against Frost).
2. It is very important to notice which starting unit your opponent got. If it's a Lightblade just go for 2 Dreadcharger + Nox Trooper spam. If he got only Master Archers you should think about more Dreadcharger.
3. After that you have to react to your opponents' unit composition. If he chooses to play ice Guardians, play more Nox Trooper - against Master Archers you have to get more Dreadcharger. In the perfect scenario the Dreadcharger take out the Master-Archers without beeing hit by the Ice Guardians, who get smashed by your Nox Trooper in the meantime. But this doesn't always work out perfectly. https://youtu.be/F-uawwk6hRg?t=23m5s At this game it worked out pretty well, even if it's a 2v2 match. That would've worked on a small 1v1 map aswell.
4. If one of your units starts to get very low just pull it out of the fight. It's easy to micro the fast Shadow units. Sometimes you won't be able to kick the power well, but you can take out so many units without losing a single one.
5. If you get around 4-5 low hp units just take your own power well, heal your units and continue to pressure. Your temporary advantage is still massive and even if your opponent got a good amount of power thorugh his extra well he doesn't have that much extra power, because he lost many units already and only 90% of the power returns back into the void. 5 power lost per unit and this adds up pretty fast in this matchup. Especially if you continue your attacked with your healed units. Now it's your time to get a massive advantage.
6. If you think you can take your opponents' power well you can use motivate to give your units some extra punch, but be careful. Frost has already access to Glacier Shell, you have to deal around 3,8k damage in a very short time. It's usually wise to go for the units first & take the well down later when you got an overwhelming amount of units.
Important notes:
Nasty is usually not very useful against Frost units, because they have just too many hp. In addition to that Ice barrier can be used to block alot of the damage in dangerous Situations. You need at least T2 units like Lyrish Knight for example to make some effective nasties.
If you have to wait for some units to heal up or something like that, try to tease a little bit with your Dreadcharger to force a early home soil or maybe even a frost glyph.
You need godly reaction to entirely dodge a well placed Frost Glyph, but keep in mind that it's not that bad when you get hit unless your opponent has already 5+ units, which shouldn't be the case as long as you are aggressive. Otherwise just use the focussed unit as motivate-food ^-^
Many people don't consider attacking as the best choice, but that's just a huge mistake. If you just take your own well against frost, the power level will rise and your opponent benefits from that since Frost T1 Units are very cheap and have very good stats. Back in 2011 I lost so many games, because I wasn't aggressive enough in this matchup. Double Ice Guardian + MA spam + homesoil will be way to efficient at some point, there is not alot you can do against then after you played a passive early T1.
-Again I would love to add a replay at that point, but I didn't find a decent one. If anyone knows some good Shadow vs X replays on youtube send me a pm please.-
Ok lets get through the Map part. Frost is super map dependend due to the lack of a swift unit, so it's really important to abuse your map-advantages.
Haladur: The more common "Scavy-spam" works on Haladur aswell with Dreadchargers. Your opponent takes a well in the middle, but the distance between the well & main base are incredible high. So you just have to spam Dreadcharger and run down to the main base, attack there and if your opponent spawns alot of units just walk back to the well in the middle. The Frost units will be to slow to follow and you can overwhelm your opponent. Motivate is essential to this strategy! Aside from that Frost even has an advantage on Haladur if your opponent gets his position in the middle since the power wells are very close to each other and Frost T1 excels at that scenario. So try to zone him from the main entrance to the center of the map.
Elyon: One of the easier maps for you. You can get control over the middle wells & orbs, which denies your opponent a T3 spot. You don't even have to take anything there. Just use your units to prevent the Frost player from reaching the area. Later on you just need to stall for T3 and win basically without taking any risks.
Yrmia: Very difficult map. Power wells are really close to each other, there is no way to get superior map control or something like that. At least it is a really small map which allows you to attack very early with a strong rush. But if you fail to control the early game you may end up beeing at a bad spot because Frost T1 results nearly every time in a Timeless One based T3 which is very powerful.
Simai: Slow Map, you can make an aggressive push to deny your opponent control over the wells at the top of the map. Aside from that the well distances are very high unless you take any stupid power wells which makes it a low pressure map. But if your opponent takes a well at the start you actually get to zone him from his T2, which gives you control over the early game though.
Whazai: Great Map for you, you can get immediate control over the mid spot and in addition to that nox trooper can attack 2 of the power wells in the base over cliffs, which makes it sooo difficult to defend against this with Ice Guardians. Keep in mind that Frost can spawn dazed Iceguardian with an active (!) Shield behind the cliff at their main base, so don't rely on a simple Dreadchargerspam.
Uro: The best map for you. It's important to do a quick start, because you have to walk very far. This map is litereally an autoloose for Frost because you can deny your opponent every position on the entire map. You will be able to force a dazed fight, that shadow is going to win without any Problems.
Lajesh: With walls again very weird to play. Very slow and passive gameplay. If both players agree to play without walls the game gets really great. Small map with alot of potential for aggression, but potential close wells on the other hand.
Generated Maps: small maps are nearly a freewin since they are usually mid-centered (as I said before) and you will be able to control the mid-wells. Large maps will be boring & usually end up in a T3 fight, which is not so good against Timeless One decks.
Shadow vs Nature
The matchup with the potential to be the greatest out of all, but 2 cards influence the balancing in a negative way (Phasetower & Treespirit).
Nature without Treespirit:
1.Spearman 2. Windweavers 3. Ensnaring Roots 4. Surge of Light
Core strategy:
There are 2 ways of playing the matchup Shadow vs Nature and I'll start with the easy one. It includes the use of Phasetower, a card that is ridicilously broken in this matchup for multiple reasons:
1. Phasetower has insane stats (900/1200) and is even with his teleport debuff stronger than any unit nature can offer (Primal defender can match him in terms of strength, but Phasetower has his insane teleport ability which makes him way more versitile). His strength is so overwhelming that his transition into T2 is still amazing (especially for shadow frost that can protect the turrets with kobold trick and glacier shell).
2. Phasetower has splash damage which allows him to finish off windweavers squads very quickly (The Nox Trooper for example has to shot at every single unit at the end to kill the entire squad)
3. Buildings are uneffected by crowd control which is a huge advantage against nature, that usually relies on Ensnaring roots in this matchup.
4. Nature doesn't have a counter unit against phasetower (apparently Sunderer is the only unit with Siege damage in the entire T1 -> no nature Unit, that can threaten buildings.).
5. I do consider Treespirit as a ridicilous card, that needs a rework and destroys the beauty of nature T1. But Phasetower is the perfect counter against them, because of superior stats and the fact, that they are unaffected by the poison.
6. Since nature is forced to play slow units against shadow it is possible to take a well on mid centered maps and defend it successfully with a Phasetower to gain map control for free, which is devestating on maps like Elyon.
Just overall: Phasetower is op and I will just show a short replay that demonstrates the power of Phasetower without any micro-effort. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1x8GEMpyAI (Game 3 of a showmatch series between Elendil & Sarlesch - german cast by JMCW)
Sarlesch wanted to go instant T2, that's why he started with amazon. He changed his mind after 30 seconds and played 2 Windweaver squads (I guess the reasoning behind this was the fact, that elendil was able to rush his instant T2 in the previous game). And after that his chance of winning went down to litereally 0%. Elendil realized immediatly Sarlesch couldn't go T2 anymore, built up some phasetowers and won the game with no effort.
The matchup gets way more interesting without Phasetower or Treespirits (btw. I recommend instant T2 against Treespirit as long as you play without Phasetower) included.
The start is pretty interesting against nature because nature has different starting units against different colours. Swiftclaw, which is usually the best choice, is just awful against Nox Trooper and against shadow in general. So as long as your opponent doesn't know you play Shadow T1, you can try to play some mindgames. Just don't play a single unit in the first 10 seconds and see how your opponent reacts. Some people will get impatient and start with the swiftclaw which gives you a massive advantage. Nature needs 4+ units (Spearmen + Windweaver spam) and around 100 extra power to be able to use crowd control and surge of light. If he plays an aditional useless 80 power unit it takes such a long time for him to reach a state where he is able to fight you. A time window that can get abused heavily. At that point you can just go ahead and beat your opponent with a nox trooper spam. If he retreats you can use your temporary advantage to secure map control with an aggressive T2, which is litereally "gg" beacuse nature struggles really hard against T2 since its units are super expensive with low dps.
If your opponent doesn't fall for the bait just go ahead with your Dreadcharger and look for an immediate fight because at late T1 stages Ensnaring roots & Surge of light provide way to much power. On the other hand Shadow has the early fight advantage beacuse you've got cheap high dps units, that can overwhelm the nature player easily. Dreadcharger and Nox Trooper are your core units at this stage.
How to play a dazed fight against nature:
If you get to fight your opponent before he gets a critical amount of units you have to play around 2 things:
1. Ensnaring roots
This is why you need at least 2 dreadcharger to run around your opponents' slow units and attack from multiple positions with them and multiple nox trooper. Otherwise your entire army gets rooted and 3+ windweaver squads can easiliy take out 2-3 units in those 15 seconds with a 45 power spell. If your opponent tries to kill the rooted units the other army can attack without interference (maybe even with a motivate boost).
2. Surge of light
It is very important to notice, that nox troopers don't finish 6 unit squads immediatly. They have to shoot at every single unit once to kill it. It is really important to finish off the windweaver/spearmen squads immediatly to prevent efficient heals. There are many ways to do this:
- Dreadcharger can use his "stomp" to finish them off since it does a small amount of damage when you knock back units
- If your opponent plays with Spearmen it's fine to have a single forsaken squad added to your unit composition. They can finish off squads very fast, but be careful with your positioning, Forsaken are really squishy in this matchup - Windweavers can take them out really fast. And don't play 2 squads at the same position otherwise hurricane is going to hurt you
- Nasty surprise can outclass heal in this matchup. If your Dreadcharger is in a good position and you can finish a single unit + damage other ones, just go for it. Your opponent can't make an efficient heal against that (150 vs 110 power). In addition to that the power of nature decreases tremendously with every unit loss since this just lowers the efficency of crowd control.
How to play if your opponent takes a power well:
Just attack at 2 positions at once with the compositions of 1 dreadcharger, 1 nox trooper & 1 forsaken squad. There is no way nature can match this even if you built up your own power well. Just spawn additional Dreadcharger/Nox Trooper over time and apply as much pressure as possible. If one of your attacks seems to go down, just use motivate to start the big push on the other side. You can kick a power well for sure. After that just go immediatly T2 to negate your opponents temporary advantage due to a superior amount of left units. Nature can't use cc at multiple positions, playing around this is your main win condition.
Important notes:
- This doesn't work against Treespirit! So be careful if you don't know your opponents' playstyle.
- You can force your opponent to take a well as long as you play with phasetower, because shadow can just take a power well and defend it without any problems due to phasetower. If your opponent then decides to take his own well you have 2 places to attack, even if he is a smart player who tries to avoid unfavourable early fights.
Map specific information:
Haladur: Great Map for you! You can split your army really well and threaten the main base & the middle position at the same time. Haladur is really troublesome for nature, your opponnent may think about an instant T2.
Elyon: With phasetower an absolute freewin. Without Phasetower it can get a little troublesome because the main base it protected through the wall. Your main approach is winning an early fight in the middle since there is alot of space to play around ensnaring roots. Afterwards you can secure map control with an early T2
Yrmia: Great map to attack from multiple positions, but can get sometimes a little bit tricky because there isn't that much room to split your units that well. But since the map is really small you can apply an insane amount of early pressure. With phasetower it's nearly a freewin.
Simai: Very slow map that doesn't really promote early fights unless both players try to go for the middle immediatly. At that point you have a good shot at beating the nature player with a good nasty if you play well around ensnaring roots.
Whazai: Ridiculous phasetower map. You need 2 ports from your base to be able to attack your opponents power wells. Without Phasetower it's important to use the side ways to surround your opponent. If you are only focussed on the middle you will get serious trouble against roots.
Uro: You can run around your opponent due to the fast Dreadcharger. But keep in mind, Uro is a really big map and it takes time to reach the enemies base which favours the nature player. Your advantage: An early T2 at a good position can be devastating for your opponent.
Lajesh: Favours Nature heavily. The Walls just block every kind of early aggression. On lajesh without walls you have a better shot since the map is really small and you can play more aggressive. But there is a wellcluster pretty close to the main base which is easy to defend for the nature player. Pretty balanced map aslong as both players agree to play without walls.
Generated Maps: Small maps favour Shadow with Phasetower heavily, because you can just take the middle, build a turret and ... it's gg (okay to be honest Phasetower-Shadow T1 has an advantage on every map). Without Phasetower you can get problems on mid centered maps, but atleast there is alot of space to play around Ensnaring Roots. Large generated maps favour you a little bit, because you can just play super aggressive without anything to worry about. Even if you mess up, your opponent won't be able to reach you in time, because it sometimes takes around 50-60 seconds for remaining windweavers & spearmen to reach their destination. Enough time for your void to come back to you.
Shadow vs Shadow
The mirror matchup is pretty interesting since small mistakes can get punished super hard (especially with high dps units like Forsaken).
The Most important cards for the mirror matchup:
1.Dreadcharger 2.Forsaken 3.Skeleton Warriors 4.Motivate 5.Nasty Surprise
Core strategy:
In theory this matchup consists mainly of Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam vs Dreadcharger + Forsaken spam and the guy with better micro (or the one who hits the clutch-nasty) wins the game since both players use the same cards. If you want to reach the highest ranks you should practise the mirror match opening, because the first skirmish is super important since you can't avoid it unless you go instant T2. You can't just take an additional power well unless the distance between you and your enemy is incredible big. If your opponent gets greedy and takes a well you can just attack, destroy it and the game is pretty much over.
And this is how the rush works:
Spawn 2 Dreadchargers to prepare an attack from 2 spots. Your opponent loses his opportunity to defend with a huge nasty. Spawn additional units and focus the power well. There is nothing your opponent can do against this since he just spent 100 power more which is massive in the early game (you can play 2 additional Forsaken squads, which adds more than 2.000 dp20s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u965vcN2cug Here is an example of a T1 rush against the strongest defence shadow can offer (Phasetower + wrathblades). I made some horrible mistakes in the early T2 stage, but if you can destroy a power well that early in the game you get such a massive advantage. The game was just over. My opponent was more than prepared for an attack (I used the same strategy to beat him in the first game in this bo5 series) but there is nothing you can do to stop the rush.
If your opponent doesn't go for a power well things will get a little bit harder. Micro management gets super important, but also the decisionmaking. The way you use the Frenzy ability of your Forsaken often decides who wins the fight. You can increase your dps in the skirmish, but if you activate to many Forsaken your opponent can just retreat and wait for them to die for nothing.
More important notes:
- Always be aware of nasties. Dreadcharger is very fast and if you leave it at full hp you can get in trouble if your units aren't well positioned
- Motivate can be massive. The amount of additional damage you can deal for literally no power is very good for any kind of skirmishes. Use it on the first Forsaken squad that is close to die.
- Phasetower can be super useful on maps like Whazai, but usually isn't the best choice, because Shadow has got high dps Units to deal with it.
But lets go ahead and talk about one of the most important cards in this matchup. Skeleton Warriors are monsters against Shadow. 50 power and 1,65k effective hp with their ability is huge. Shadow just hasn't got anything to deal with them. They can tank against Forsaken forever, they beat Dreadcharger with their ability and the most dangerous thing: You can't just ignore them and kite because they are a massive nasty threat aswell.
Many players would just think of Wrathblades as a solution. But here is the problem: Wrathblades have got only 600hp and can get killed super fast by Forsaken and even if you don't focus them Wrathblades get a dp20s of 1512 against S units with their ability. If you compare the stats (1512dmg/600health vs 600dmg/1650health) you will realise, that Skeleton Warriors win the 1v1 against the Wrathblades. This is why Wrathblades are pretty useless, at least for dazed fights.
If you managed to win the first skirmish you can use your temporary advantage to take a power well at a position that gives you map control. Try to make a gameplan from that point, maybe you can use your position to deny a T3 spot, or maybe try to get close to your opponent to push your advantage.
If you are even after the first small fights you can also try to take a power well, but maybe at a safe spot. If the power level gets higher it is unlikely to get rushed that easily, because you can spam more units to intercept your opponent. In addition to that nasty gets way more effective at that point since it's harder to split the high amount of units well enough to prevent nasties from beeing power efficient.
How to play when both players aquired a power well:
Try to play as aggressive as possible. Never be passive, that will lose you the game for a simple reason. If the enemies Forsaken manage to reach your base you'll get a problem. At that point your opponent can just activate frenzy and you can't get rid of them, because it's super bad to frenzy your Forsaken in a defensive position. Even if you kill the enemies units, your own Forsaken will die aswell and you will just sit there with a low power well. You can play more units, but the next attack will finish the well most likely and if you decide to repair your well you won't have enough power to play any units. This is why you have to force skirmishes on an open ground and if you get an advantage due to superior micro just play as aggressive as you can. If you get pressured at some point just don't lose your nerves and activate your Forsaken. You will lose your chance to use a temporary advantage for a counterattack. Attacking at multiple positions is always a good choice. It is just way more difficult to react properly if you apply pressure everywhere even if your opponent has got enough power in theory. If you manage to control and micro your units well you can gain massive advantages because so many players struggle with multitasking especially when they have to react fast and have to prevent you from reaching their power wells.
A common strategy: If you get an overwhelming amount of units just go ahead, and frenzy all of them. Just go for the wellfocus, but go T2 at the same time. This will allow you to deal with the counterattack (Darkelf Assassins, Shadow Phoenix, CC vs Frenzy, AoE damage spells like lavafield or lyrish nasty).
There aren't many map specific advantages because both players have got access to the same cards so i won't make a map list for this matchup. Just keep this in mind:
- Phasetower is super effective on Whazai (I mentioned this earlier aswell)
- Big generated maps are just awful, you can't be aggressive on these maps, because if your opponent takes a well you just have to take one aswell. You need atleast an entire minute to reach him, which means your opponent can build up a good defense and even gets around 30-40 power back even before you applied any sort of pressure.
But this is just an exception. So keep in mind: Good micro and the ability to be proactive are the most important things you need to master the shadow mirror.
Okay, this is the end of my Shadow T1 guide. I hope this will help some of you in the upcoming future. Since I've got some requests I will write something about different colors at some point too, you can find my Frost T1 guide in the new player section and I almost finished Nature T1 too which will be released soon. So thank you for reading this, enjoy your day and stay hyped.
I had three nice games recently, I added them to the post :-) The one one Wazhai is a nice nature T1 vs Shadow/Frost T2 base trade, the other two are Root Network games. The one vs. Imperial Knight is him practicing with a Stonekin deck and the one vs. Tygwar is vs. Shadow/Frost.
MarbSlonk vs KnightofAlbania.pmv MarbSlonk vs Imperial_Knight (1).pmv MarbSlonk vs Tygwar.pmv
EDIT: My ELO is ~110.000, around the 65th place in 1v1, in case it matters :-)
Battles were fought and alliances were forged. Which team will win the Skylords Open #3?
Format?
The tournament will be played as a best of 3 double elimination 2on2 tournament, grand finals will be best of 5, no reset.
Prize Pool!
1st team - 2000 BFP +2 promo harvesters!
2nd team - 1200 BFP +2 promo lyrish knights!
3rd team - 800 BFP
4th team - 500 BFP
And one free boosterpack for every participant!
Special prize: The first team to beat RadicalX in a set will get 8 boosters.
Big thanks to the devs who sponsor the BFP and free boosters!
Big thanks to NewGuy for the promo harvesters and the 8 boosters!
Big thanks to TrollAxeThrower for the promo lyrish knights!
When?
On 13.02.21 starting on 3pm CET (Berlin time), the stream will start about 30 minutes in advance.
Organisation?
The tournament brackets will be on Challonge, so register and join the tournament there. Please use your in game account name to make communication and finding your enemy easier.
The streaming channel that will be covering the tournament is DasToggy on twitch.tv.
In case of problems contact me or one of my mods via Discord, Battleforge or in the stream.
Twitch mods: LynnTaki, Karlmann90, TheFatherJack
Ingame: Karlo
Rules!
-No bugabuse, cheating or insulting the other players. Penalties may vary from a warning to default loss.
-Disconnection during a game results in a default loss. If both sides agree it is possible to have a remake.
-Not showing up to your match after 15 minutes results in a default loss. The plan is to play a round of matches every ~30 mins.
-After your match, go to Challonge and insert the result. That is done by clicking on your match and selecting the winner/stats . The brackets will be updated automatically.
-The Map Pool is: 1st round: Fyre, 2nd round: Turan, 3rd round: Danduil, 4th: Nadai , 5th: Zahadune, 6th: Gorgash. The first match of the round will be played on the fixed map, then it is losers choice. The winning Team (who won the last match in this bo3) also has to lock in their decks first.
-The brackets for the tournament will be shuffled before the tournament starts.
-Use your Battleforge name for the tournament. If your Challonge account differs from your Battleforge account name use the "Sign up with an alternate name" feature or change your name for the tournament in the settings. Create a team and invite your mate in challonge.
-You need to be a team of 2 players present to participate in the tournament
Please recheck this thread before the tournament starts in case of rulechanges/mappool changes/mod changes/ prizepool changes.
Reply in this thread if you have questions, I will check it out later.
We consider the collection PvP mode to be optional and are not looking to incentivize players for playing it rather than the unlimited mode. We do plan to add more incentives to encourage playing PvP in general this year (e.g. ranked seasons with rewards at the end).
I strongly dislike PvP but would still like achievements like this.
Anything that encourages play and ISNT a daily quest is a plus in my book.
If new players join to do this they can always start participating in the content i do enjoy like PvE, achievements like this would be a boon to the community as a whole.
Could even encourage non-pvpers to try it out for a bit in hopes of getting the rewards.
THIS IS A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN TOURNAMENT. WE ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE SR-TEAM.
Hello fellow Skyladies and Skylords!
We had one Skylords Open yes, but what about the second Skylords Open? Now you know about second Skylords Open!
Format?
The tournament will be played as a best of 3 double elimination tournament, grand finals will be best of 5, no reset.
Prize Pool!
1st place - 20€ + promo Juggernaut
2nd place - 15€
3rd place - 10€
4th place - 5€
Special prize: Beat RadicalX in a best of 3 and you get 8 booster.
Big thanks to Nachtwolf for the € sponsoring!
Big thanks to NewGuy for the promo Juggernaut and the 8 boosters!
Prizes will be distributed via PayPal.
When?
On 30.01.21 starting on 3pm CET (Berlin time), the stream will start about 30 minutes in advance.
Organisation?
The tournament brackets will be on Challonge, so register and join the tournament there. Please use your in game account name to make communication and finding your enemy easier.
The streaming channel that will be covering the tournament is DasToggy on twitch.tv.
In case of problems contact me or one of my mods via Discord, Battleforge or in the stream.
Twitch mods: LynnTaki, TheFatherJack
Rules!
-No bugabuse, cheating or insulting the other players. Penalties may vary from a warning to default loss.
-Disconnection during a game results in a default loss. If both sides agree it is possible to have a remake.
-Not showing up to your match after 15 minutes results in a default loss. The plan is to play a round of matches every ~30 mins.
-After your match, go to Challonge and insert the result. That is done by clicking on your match and selecting the winner/stats . The brackets will be updated automatically.
-The Map Pool is:
1st round: Haladur, 2nd round: Simai, 3rd round: Wazhai, 4th: Elyon, 5th: Lajesh, 6th: Uro and 7th: Yrmia (same pool as in ranked duel). The first match of the round will be played on the fixed map, then it is losers choice. The winning player (who won the last match in this bo3) also has to lock in his deck first.
-The brackets for the tournament will be shuffled before the tournament starts.
-Use your Battleforge name for the tournament. If your Challonge account differs from your Battleforge account name use the "Sign up with an alternate name" feature or change your name for the tournament in the settings. Finding your opponent will be a LOT easier this way.
Reply in this thread if you have questions, I will check it out later.
After sending many emails, and tweet messages to game reviewers, I finally got the first article to be published.
This article was published by Jonathan Bolding a month ago:
https://www.pcgamer.com/skylords-reborn-brings-back-unique-rts-plus-ccg-battleforge/
I hope more will follow.
Hello Skyladies and Skylords,
The rookies have battled it out and we have a winner! Congratulations to Mirosius for winning the Skylords Rookies#1!
You will receive your boosters within the next week, I will send the BFP until tomorrow.
Big thank you to the mods for helping and the devs for sponsoring!
Great job, but isn't it kinda useless? Farming random generated maps, rewarding huge amount of golds and buying these upgrades makes all this meaningless?
Good evening fellow skylords,
As some might recall @Eirias and I did some commentaries on PvP matches quite a while ago on Eirias YouTube Channel and on the Official SkylordsReborn Channel.
Since the game has entered the realm of the living again, it is also time for me to wake up from my slumber and start annoying Eirias again. Sadly our only way of communication is through the commentary of PvP Replays.
I am currently still pretty rusty and even though I played some games against top 20 players, many weren't that interesting.
Because there is no real source of new Replays, I wanted to asked all you guys to post or send me or Eirias your PvP Replays for YouTube.
If you have any good, special or weird games you want the world to know about, just give them to us.
Rewards: 100 BFP
for each Replay that ends up on Youtube (on top of the fame ) for the one sending the Replay to us.
I hope we can make something work and flooooood the World with Skylords!
Love YaBro0 ❤
The first tournament was fought out and we have a champion. But who might become the first squire? All the newer players may gather to show off their freshly gained skills! Veteran Skylords step aside, it is time for the new recruits to put up a show.
Format?
The tournament will be a best of three single elimination tournament. Should a lot of participants register again the format might be changed to best of one again.
The access to the tournament will be restricted, only players who...
...are not part of the top 40
...have a w/l ratio of below 60%
...feel like they are rookies
are allowed to enter the tournament. I will recheck some of the entries personally.
If you have doubt wether you are allowed into the tournament either ask me via discord or ingame.
Prize Pool! (stay tuned)
1st place - 1200 BFP
2nd place - 800 BFP
3rd-4th place - 550 BFP
5th-8th place - 350 BFP
And one free Boosterpack for everyone participating!
Big thanks to the devs who sponsor the ENTIRE prizepool again!
When?
On 17.01.21 starting on 2pm CET (Berlin time), the stream will start about 30 minutes in advance.
Organisation?
The tournament brackets will be on Challonge, so register and join the tournament there. Use your in game account name to make communication and finding your opponent easier.
The streaming channel that will be covering the tournament is DasToggy on twitch.tv.
In case of problems contact me or one of my mods via Discord, Battleforge or in the stream.
Twitch mods: Karlmann90, Lynntaki, TheFatherJack
ingame: Karlo
Rules!
-No bugabuse, cheating or insulting the other players. Penalties may vary from a warning to default loss.
-Disconnection during a game results in a default loss. If both sides agree it is possible to have a remake.
-Not showing up to your match after 15 minutes results in a default loss. The plan is to play a round of matches every ~30 mins.
-After your match, go to Challonge and insert the result. That is done by clicking on your match and selecting the winner/stats . The brackets will be updated automatically.
-The Map Pool is:
1st round: Haladur, 2nd round: Simai, 3rd round: Wazhai, 4th: Elyon, 5th: Lajesh, 6th: Uro and 7th: Yrmia (same pool as in ranked duel). The first match of the round will be played on the fixed map, then it is losers choice. The winning player (who won the last match in this bo3) also has to lock in his deck first.
-The brackets for the tournament will be shuffled before the tournament starts.
-Use your account name for the tournament. If your Challonge account differs from your Battleforge account name use the "Sign up with an alternate name" feature or change your name for the tournament in the settings. Finding your opponent will be a LOT easier this way. If you do not register for the tournament with your Battleforge name we cannot find you for the prizes!
Reply in this thread if you have questions, I will check it out later. Also recheck this thread before the tournament starts, there might be changes to rules, format,mods or prizepool.
Yeah, our Google drive Link is locked for now, because of too many views/+ downloads. It's certainly great news! And he did this totally out of the blue it was really unexpected haha
Good news on this topic: One of the biggest Gaming/LetsPlay Channels in Germany posted a Video about Skylords as he played the original. Its on his 2nd channel where videos usually get from 100 - 300 k views.
https://youtu.be/_9d3q93Vob0
Nice advertisement. Maybe more LetsPlayers who played the original will also pick up on the project.
We've been saying from the start that there will be a reset when the game releases. Thousands of players were waiting for that reset, since they didn't want to lose their progress. Our previous phase was called the "Open Stress Test", where even the name indicates that it's just a test phase. If you wish to delete your account, please confirm your request by sending me a DM.
Here are my two cents. First seasonal cycles, which is about constantly changing cards' stats and certain aspects of the game. Secondly how to possibly find a solution to reconnecting to games.
Let me just say first, I have no idea what you can and cannot change in development, so reject or accept as you may see fit.
Seasonal Cycles:-
Keeps the game interesting and more competitive, especially in the PvP scene, where players should be encouraged to try out new things. Creating the perfect Shadow deck will not necessarily mean it will stay the best, no. Throughout the seasons, cards will receive a buff or nerf in terms of speed, damage and health. Think of it like in League of Legends.
However, this will also be beneficial for the economy as well, since prices will not stay the same. As cards have their stats changed, their prices will drop or increase respectively. It will create a more interesting, to me at least, environment. When you think of it, prices right now in the AH are the same as they were like, a decade ago, so bringing a new dynamic element would definitely aid a game like Battleforge. It died out for a reason after all.
Client Handling:-
Yet again, I do not know how BF handles clients, or how the server does it either, but disconnecting for a moment just to have my 45 minutes progress go to waste is getting frustrating, so why not have a workaround? I assume the game does not accept new client connections, hence the no reconnect option, so why not create a ghost client for every player, and that ghost client "fits the player's shoes" in case they disconnect? Basically it would be one of two things:
1- Ghost client (A) where it is the proxy of the player's client's (B) actions. So (B) takes action -> (A) takes the same action and plays it. Now, if (B) disconnects, and tries to reconnect, it still can (assumingly, do not know if it is possible to send a client into an ongoing game), since the player technically never left the game to begin with, since (A) is still in the game.
2- Basically 1, but without being the proxy. So the moment the player's client disconnect, a ghost client takes place (of course, units will be brought to a halt), until the player's client reconnects.
1 minute to reconnect, if player does not reconnect by then, they surrender. (Assuming any of this is plausible)
Thanks for organising such a great tournament!
With such a massive amount of players this felt amazing. Glad to see so many players wanting to play competitively.
Perhaps in order to continue with such a large amount of players we can divide the tourney in two sections: the open and the newbie friendly. In the open everyone can participate and in the newbie friendly we can match players of similar strength to each other. This way we can cover both the high level PvP and the promising PvP starters even later in the tourney.
@gemeiner Lauch That's a question to Eirias, RadicalX, Ultrakool, Toggy, or actually any person that would be interested in making such content, it could be even you.
For sure it is time consuming ^^
I used to make short ~30-90 seconds long videos that do not need any editing, but still uploading it in high quality was a pain. Therefore, a great respect for those who already make Youtube videos.
There's possibility to ask top players for their replays and then cast them.
After a long day strife and warfare a champion emerges victorious from the battle.
Congratulations to RadicalX for winning the Skylords Open#1!
1st - RadicalX, 2000 BFP
2nd - Draken, 1200 BFP
3rd - xHightech, 800 BFP
4th - TopS3cret, 500 BFP
Thank you all for the support and stay tuned for more tournaments in the future.
EDIT: The Booster packs will be distributed next week as soon as possible.
Currently active abilities are only visible above units, which is very chaotic with lots of them around and they also disappear when the cursor is not nearby, and to the left of the portrait of one of the selected units.
Could all abilities of all selected units be added to a static overview(not moving across the screen like the icons above units) that functions like the ability next to the portrait so it is easier to manage?
We are happy to announce that @Maze has joined our team as a web developer. He has demonstrated to have time, knowledge and interest in the project, especially with the card price tracking website and card price notification bot he has been developing. For now he will be working with @freund17 on new tools and services, more prominently internal moderation tools. That being said, he has shown interest in other areas such as Data Analysis, which can for example become very useful to analyze the effect of balance changes in the future.
Patch #400022
Greetings Skylords, Skyladies, and Skyfolks,
This update contains our first balance patch for the game and a minor fix, enjoy! Feedback to these changes can be given on the balancing discord. When you give feedback make sure to properly support your reasoning by including replays or video footage, otherwise it is not very helpful.
General fixes
Fixed wrong amount of gained ELO displayed after a ranked PvP match.
General changes
Added the option to select the reward distribution mode also for single player campaign.
Card changes
A detailed list of all balancing changes can be found on the wiki: https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Patches#Patch_.23400022
Hotfix
Added missing ability "Accelerated Construction" to Northstar. The first upgrade was changed from "-5 construction time" to "-10 construction time" and the second upgrade was changed from "-5 construction time" to "-10 energy cost", and the energy cost was increased for the card at level 0 and 1.
Reverted accidental increase of tunneling ability with Deep One and Burrower.
Fixed [missing english text] ability for Stonekin Tempest (Purple) ability.
Fixed an issue with Gemeye (Green) where the paralyze ability did not apply anymore.
The latest patch which interduces the PvP collection mode is a commendable effort by the developers to address this issue.
However, I am afraid it is not going far enough to resolve the issue.
I predict most players will continue to play "Unlimited" PvP and ignore the "Collection" PvP mode.
My suggestion is to change "Ranked PvP" to collection mode only and increase its Gold reward greatly in order to attract more players to that mode.
Higher gold reward will also be useful for grinding PvP cards.
