Donaar

I really like the idea of a similar ranking! That said, Nyxia 6.12 😄 Btw, if someone is interested I can write a small guide on the map (or on any other community map that I try) where I also explain a bit the strategy development process that lies behind a run. See you in the Forge, Donaar

Hey, Glad you like Pure Frost. Here is an overview of my deck and the choices behind the inclusion/exclusion of every card. Keep in mind that the deck is built for rpve 10 and should be able to clear most expert maps. Master Archers, Frost Mage, Ice Barrier and Home Soil are the bread and butter of Frost T1, both for campaign maps and rpve. Nothing much to explain here I guess. My most used composition for rpve 9 is 4 MA and 2 FM. Glyph of Frost and Northern Keep are optional cards for lower difficulties but they are mandatory for rpve 10. Yeah, the following part is basically a summary of what RadicalX has (excellently) analysed in-depth, but I started writing this before his post so I'll keep it. For rpve 10 I usually build 2 Keeps near my base, then push for the spawncamp using 9-10 units and support by Glyph (place Glyph where you would place a Mine if you started fire) and Home Soil. After the spawn is destroyed, I retreat where I built Keeps and kill every enemy unit that follows me. Having x2 Keeps and using their ability continuously makes your units unkillable. I choose to use Keep (R) because i like to deal a bit more damage (since I used Home Soil to destroy the spawncamp) but honestly the affinity doesn't really matter for Keep - other experienced Frost players such as Gam3over use the Blue affinity because they like having a more durable Keep in case enemies attack it. Other good T1 options are Lightblade and Imperials in maps where you need a solid T1 tank or where you face lots of L units (Behind Enemy Lines for example). Wintertide is a solid card that has some uses (it counters the Bandit Wizard Towers in maps such as Blight), but I find it too situational to be included in my all-around deck. Construction Hut is the best Frost card by far. I decided to not include it in the deck since in normal games I only build a single Shrine of Martyrs - while it is mathematically worthed, the use is too narrow to justify a deck slot. Frost Bite (P) is another good card - I usually bring it in maps with a bossfight (Sunbridge, Insane God, Oracle, Titans and so on...) For T2 the most important unit is War Eagle: it is surely one of the best T2 units in the game and carries runs on many expert maps. The only downside of War Eagles is that they can't attack flying enemies - therefore, the best unit to support them is Stormsinger due to her Gravity Surge ability. Here I prefer the Red affinity since 1) i like to deal a bit of damage and 2) i don't really need a fast unit (mainly since War Eagles are slow) - but honestly the affinity is not that important, choose the one you prefer. Coldsnap is the bread and butter CC spell for Pure Frost - freeze enemies and focus down spawn camps and other important targets. Coldsnap scales incredibly well to higher tiers as well, thanks to Martyrs void return, Dreadnought passive ability and Shatter Ice. Other good options for Frost T2 are: -Mountaineers (especially in maps with lots of buildings and no air enemies - Convoy for example). -White Rangers to snipe down important targets from distance. -Cannon Tower for defensive maps. -Skyelf Templar + Ice Barrier to spawntrap enemies on many maps. -Area Ice Shield in situations where there is a long T2 phase. Avatar of Frost is surely the best T3 unit for Frost. It's incredibly durable and with a bit of support (mainly from Ice Age (G)) can singlehandedly clear camps. As I already wrote in the other post, Frost Shard is the best Frost spell. Shard is super useful in many situations, especially since it has an immediate effect with damage and CC combined. Here are 3 rpve examples where Frost Shard is super useful: 1) vs Twilight it can insta freeze the Willzapper before it paralyses your units 2) vs Lost Souls it shines in freezing the lost dancers before they Disenchant your shields 3) vs Fire it is mostly used to freeze Volcano. T4 is the Tier in which Pure Frost really shines. An army of 4-5 Dreadnoughts supported by 2 Winter Witches is incredibly powerful and is enough to tackle every situation, especially with spells support (mainly from Maelstrom and Ice Tornado). Here's my usual approach to a camp: 1) immediately use Frost Shard to the sensible targets, mainly Willzappers, Windhunters and Lost Dancers. 2) cast Maelstrom in the middle of the camp. Keep in mind that freezes are ultra useful for Pure Frost: they block enemies from attacking, enemies take 50% more dmg since you're using Dreadnoughts and you get void return with Shrine of Martyrs. 3) cast both Winter Witches ability on the spot where Dreadnoughts are. Afterwards I move WW into the same spot to keep them safe between the shields and Dreadnoughts auras. 4) at this point Maelstrom has frozen most enemy units and you got back a lot of power through Shrine of Martyrs. That's the moment to spam spells. I always go for Ice Tornado on the spawn camp and Shatter Ice on the frozen units. Ice Age (G) follows next, especially if Dreadnoughts have walked outside the shield area. With this approach you should be able to deal with every situation you can face. My T4 also includes Ironchad and Coat of Protection but both are optional. Ironchad is simply a support card for Dreadnought - I usually don't use many of them, only 1 or 2 for the very last camp if I got some spare power. Ironchads can be swapped out for any other support/ranged unit you like, a cheaper but solid alternative is Battleship. Battleship's ability is very good to destroy spawn camps from distance - make sure to use that as often as you can. Coat on the other hand is used as a backup shield option or to support allies. While I rarely use Coat on easier maps and rpve 9, it can act as a safety net for rpve 10 if Dreadnoughts walk away from Winter Witch shield area. Coat is surely the first card I would swap out from this deck. I hope everything is clear, feel free to ask anything otherwise. See you in the Forge, Donaar

I think those are horrible examples: 1. On Blight spending 50 power for nothing can be detrimental even in 4P runs - I can't imagine how terrible it is in solo since you also have to defend waves coming from other camps. 2 & 4. You also need to consider the fact that Juice Tank needs another 1.40min (100s -> 50 power) to be completely worthed. So in both SoH and DH it is kinda useless. Also, in both maps you have enough wells to work with so... 3. A 1200 power well takes 40min to deplete... It is perfectly fine to say that there are some situations in which Juice Tank is mathematically worthed. But playing a card that does nothing for such a long time is never worthed in my opinion.

Here is a comprehensive list of maps and wells where Juicy Tank is actually viable: - Jokes aside, Juice Tank lives in the contradiction of being a card that one wants to build as soon as possible (to maximize long-term return) but only gets value from a certain point - that is whenever the well would run out of power (since production per time increment remains the same). Consider a 600 capacity power well - it lasts for 20m. That's the lowest well capacity in the game. If you build JT as soon as the well its built you maximize the long-term power gain. However JT is effectively useless for those 20mins due to the production per time remaining the same. Playing a card that is only a waste of power for such a long time is never worthed in my opinion.

Hey guys, Frost is my favorite faction and I've played 400+ games in expert cpve maps and in rpve 9 and 10. This is the deck I mainly use for rpve 9 and 10: Lets jump in the Tier List. As for the Nature Tier List, I tried to order the cards within each tier so that the best ones are on the left side and the worse ones on the right side. For spacing purposes, I also avoided to rank each individual affinity if there's no substantial ranking difference in them. For example: both Northern Keep would be in the same A-Tier, so I only ranked one of them. Conversely, there's a huge difference in Frost Bite's affinities, so you'll see them both. Here it is: A few comments (i am at home a bit bored with nothing to do): -first things first, I have to clarify my ranking criteria for S-Tier cards. S-Tier cards satisfy one of the two following conditions: 1) are incredibly good in almost any situation and you always want to include them in your deck if it meets their orb requirements (Examples could be Shrine of War, Regrowth and Frenetic Assault). 2) cards that circumvent rules of the game by warping the gameplay (eg. Decomposer and Amii Monument), bypassing orbs and cooldowns (Enlightenment and Offering) or by simply giving the player more power (Breeding Grounds, Resource Booster and Construction Hut). -Northern Keep is surely one of the best towers in the game, probably only second to Necroblaster. Just build 2 of them and you basically have invincible units. -While a T1 with Master Archers, Frost Mage, Barrier and Home Soil is more than enough for lower difficulties and rpve 9, Northern Keep and Glyph of Frost are mandatory for even trying rpve 10. -Avatar of Frost is the best Frost T3 unit - whoever says that Core Dredge is better clearly has not played enough games with Pure Frost 👀. Use Ice Age G with Avatar and you basically have an invincible unit. -Shrine of Martyrs is a B-Tier card and in my opinion is the worst void return building in the game. It's still a very good card and makes Pure Frost viable in the hardest scenarios, but you still have to use power to gain back power. -Winter Witch is the best shielding card in the game - it really outshines Coat of Protection. Winter Witch's ability costs way less than Coat and applies more shields - which is a huge thing in situations where Shrine of Martyrs is your only void return option. In those situations you simply don't have enough power to cast Coat + Freezes + any other supporting spell (like Ice Tornado or Ice Age). If you say that Coat > Winter Witch then you must always have played Frost with a Shrine of War support from another player. Coat is only used as a backup shield as it needs Ice Age to be completely viable, WW shield refreshes itself automatically. -Frost Shard is the best spell Frost has. Super useful in many situations - here are 3 rpve examples 1) vs Twilight it can insta freeze the Willzapper before it paralyses your units 2) vs Lost Souls it shines in freezing the lost dancers before they Disenchant your shields 3) vs Fire it is mostly used to freeze Volcano. -A few words on the fan-favorite Battleship - the card is good and I used extensively in the past since its ability is very good to take down spawn camps from distance (too bad now Ice Tornado serves the same purpose without binding power). Battleship can still be used as a strong support unit instead of Ironclads: make sure to its ability as often as you can. -I feel like the problem with Frost cards is that many of those are too situational and serve a very specific purpose. Cards like Ice Age, Wintertide, all building-support spells, Amii Ritual, Wardens Sigil are good and can be very useful, but only on very narrow situations. Same goes for many lf the units listed in the C and D Tier. I really like cards such as Tremor, Defenders, Lightblade, Imperials and Lyrish Knight, but they get outclassed by more flexible units. -Another problem Frost has is with offensive towers, especially at T2 and T3. Cannon Tower is surely good but can be lackluster in situations where you get attacked by flying units (and teching Gravity Surge is kinda meh for these kinds of scenarios). Stronghold is too weak in this current iteration - even with Skyelfs support (but don't worry, there are plans for buffs). The other offensive towers are just bad. -Juice Tank is a meme-Tier card - even if some pros (👀) are trying to promote its use. Never ever build this useless thing, unless you just want to meme around lol.

Hey guys, so, after completing the Force of Nature achievement, I decided to do my own ranking of Nature cards. Rankings are made under a PvE perspective. I tried to order the cards within each tier so that the best ones are on the left side and the worse ones on the right side. For spacing purposes, I also avoided to rank each individual affinity if there's no substantial ranking difference in them. For example: Equilibrium G and F would both be in the same A-Tier, so I only ranked one of them. Conversely, there's a huge difference in Mumbo Jumbo's affinities, so you'll see them both. Here it is: A few comments: Shrine of Memory is the major buff Nature has received. I always thought Pure Nature missed a good void return mechanism to be viable in PvE - and now there's one. Alongside Surge of Light and Breeding Grounds, SoM is the card I always included in the decks I used to complete the Force o Nature Quest. Parasite Swarm is the best T2 option Nature has. And by a huge margin. It literally carries runs on both Nightmare Maps, Convoy, Oracle, Behind Enemy Lines and Soultree. Nature T2 Units, beside Parasite Swarm, lack something. Spikeroot and Deep Ones are powerful (the former excels with full Root support), but are both costly melee units which require support to express their full potential. Burrowers are good too, but only on very limited circumnstances (Titans P1 and P2 and Siege of Hope for example). The rest is very underwhelming, especially considering the only ranged unit are Spirit Hunters. When theorycrafting the decks for the runs, I have chosen many times to include T2 units (mainly Deep Ones) but ultimately I have not used them - in lots of maps the super good Nature T1 can carry you all the way up to T3 without problems. Note that i may change my mind on Nature T2 after trying Sunken Temple a lot. Fountain of Rebirth buff really make the card better than Shaman, especially in scenarios with a long T1. Also, it's a global heal. Creeping Paralysis is another card that really benefits from the buffs. It's not good as Oink - which doesn't have a delayed effect and is splashable - but it excels in scanarios where you use the CC to engage enemies in combat. Oink is much more flexible, but less efficient when used in combat since enemies wil get retransformed after being attacked. Razorleaf is a legit B-Tier card. It's the King of the Root and basically the sole reason you want to include the root nexus system in your deck. It excels at defending scenarios with lots of L units coming at you (Insane God, Convoy, Nightmare maps) and has a very long range (useful, for example, in Defending Hope and Behind Enemy Lines). The only problem I see with the root nexus system is that it requires a lot of bound power, which is an issue at the lower tiers. Besides Razorleaf, all the other good root system cards sit in the C-Tier. Living Tower, on the other hand, lies in the D-Tier: I dont really like the card - it really becomes useful with full root system support and can't be used alone as a defensive tower. I don't really like Sylvan Gate as well, I just feel like it's a redundant card (Razorleaf does enough damage on its own) Some argue that can be used to effectively use the root system for offensive purposes, but I feel like that's not needed, especially since Nature T3 already has Swamp Drakes. Nonetheless, I'll try to use the root system offensively in the next days and I may change my mind on the Gate. Forest Elders got a huge upgrade recently and the both gained a Tier since the patch. Breeding Ground is arguably one of the best Nature cards and having a walking one is super good. Forest Elder G also helps dealing more damage (a thing that Nature lacks at T4, especially since the only XL counter is Colossus) and the P affinity is incredibly useful at dealing with mid-sized tier enemies (waves in Nightmare's End and Insane God for example). I still think Nature misses something at T4. Forest Elder, Giant Wyrm and Primeval Watcher are all good cards, but none of them excels at dealing with XL units, which can be an issue in some maps and rpve 9-10. The spells don't help either. Mind Control is ok but super costly and Noxious Cloud simply doesn't do enough damage. Wheel of Gift, ah yeah, that card. Please don't let me start on this one. See you in the Forge, Donaar

This is a more optimized version, I wonder where u got your list 👀 Here is instead a fun Pure Nature deck - it's slower but super fun: Here is replay of a Pure Nature duo run played with my buddy @gam3over. It's by no means an optimized run but it just shows the raw power of the root system. And I just wanted to show Gam3over stupid defense and fails at the end 🤭 GoL Pure Nature Duo.pmv

Hey @WindHunter, i'll answer you since you quoted my previous comment. So, just to summarize the most important points of your post: -Some expert maps are difficult to beat without NG and/or any other exploits -Players feel that maps are unfair -Players are therefore "forced" to use NG and other exploits to beat expert maps -Using NG/Exploits make a player win any map with ease, loosening the sense of accomplishment beating a hard map brings, and this leads to lower player retention So, as a consequence, it is better to nerf exploits (well, NG in this discussion) and change the maps to be more approachable by newcomers. Well, the first thing I note is that the discussion has shifted to also include map design, which is a much bigger topic than just NG itself - don't get me wrong, this is perfectly fine but requires a broader discussion imo. I'll just leave there some points of discussion: 1) expert maps are meant to be hard and in my opinion it's perfectly fine to have some of them that are really challenging and require a specific deck to be overcomed. Note that this doesn't mean that "knowing how to exploit a map's design is a prerequisite for playing it on expert". 2) It's not true that players are forced towards a single strategy. It is true that NG or other cards (like Mana Wings & Mine) make maps easier, but, at the same time, every single expert map can be cleared with every single faction. Saying that Nightmare Shard can only be played with Nightguard or Mana Wing is a misleading argument. 3) Using specific cards/exploits doesn't necessarily imply a freewin on a map. I've played Blight a lot and you have no idea on how many Mana Wings players i've seen failing. Same thing with NG on Titans P4. Bad micromanagement and missplays weight much more than the deck/strategies used. Actually, I feel like that newcomers that try to use "meta strategies" and exploits have an incredibly high fail rate, since they lack the background knowledge that led to the construction of said strategy. 4) If you really feel that using NG or another exploit make a map incredibly easy, there's an easy solution to that. Simply don't use it. I would like to emphasize again that after the change we'll simply lose the possibility of playing specific strategies, while any other run you currently like is simply untouched. One last thing that I would like to mention, even if I know that many players will not agree with me. In the past we have already seen a situation in which a strategy has been destroyed: Guns of Lyr with block. Even if the rationale of the change is clear and understandable (blocking was lame and trivialized the map cause enemies won't even spawn), at the end, what did it achieve? only the fact that players cannot play that strategy anymore. And there were many players that liked the strategy and that tried the map many times just to improve at it - now many of those are not even playing GoL anymore. Was that worthed? any other strategy was possible back then - if you didn't like the block you could simply play the map as intended (as I did many times even before the change).

Ok well, Let's start from the beginning - that is - the underlying reason behind this proposal: "The reason for such a change is the desire to fix the current issues where units which are spawned via script have no orb or power costs attached to them. This allows units such as Nightguard to swap with any non-XL units, not just those which are T2 and cost 150p or less". Is that really an issue?? Ok, the fact that some units have to tier/power cost attached to them doesn't really make any sense. But, there are thousands of things (should I make the list?) that don't make any sense in this game, not only Nightguard. That's a huge part of why I love Battleforge - finding and using any single possible interaction is what makes me play. If we fix every single thing that's abusable/broken/not intended we'll end up with a monodimensional game. Well, while this previous discussion was a more general one, let's go back to Nightguard. The one and only consequence that I see after the change is that NG will be no longer usable on many maps. Is that a good thing? I would say no, as reducing the number of available strategies is a bad thing for a RTS. I also feel like reducing the number of strategies will, in turn, reduce the popularity of some maps as well: I expect a huge drop in Convoy's playrate if the changes goes on, since NG strategies are very popular and liked by lots of players. At the end, I simply want a game where I can play my pure frost deck on maps like Behind Enemy Lines & Convoy and where, if I want, I can tryhard them both with fast strategies made possible by NG (oh and on a sidenote - such a similar change should be paired with a ranking reset). This change goes instead in the opposite direction.

I improved my record for Insane God Solo- 8.30.4

Hey guys, I got another Titans Solo P2 replay, since after the new patch old ones don't work anymore. I also improved the record by over a minute, optimizing a bit the second half of the run. See you in the Forge, Donaar Titans Solo P2 18.36.pmv

Hello everyone, I am here to share my thoughts as well. First of all I would like to say that I love Battleforge/Skylords Reborn (mainly its PVE) for two main reasons: the uniqueness, as it presents many distinctive elements such as Power Wells/Orbs and the Void mechanism, and the versatility of the game, in the sense that it can be played in thousands different ways. Therefore, I agree with any change that increase the number of ways a map is played, both in a "casual-run" perspective (such as the extra bosses on Crusade and Passage to Darkness and the new Priests mechanics in Insane God) and in a speedrunning perspective. Concerning this last category I am very excited about the proposed changes in Crusade, Siege of Hope and Defending Hope as removing the "fixed time thresholds" will surely increase the interests on said maps and open up new strategies; I am also a bit surprised that there are no such proposals on Titans (as e.g. Jorne could spawn once the 12 civilians are rescued). On the other hand, I feel like some proposed changes (both in the document and in the comments of this post) go in the opposite direction, removing ways a certain map is played. The most prominent example in this sense are the proposed changes in Guns of Lyr. Removing the possibility to build any structure at the map borders will inevitably kill many strategies that are currently used. I do not fully understand the rationale behind those proposals; ok, I recognize that some players find "lame" using certain tricks, but nobody is forcing them to use those. Guns of Lyr can still be played "as intended" even if there is the possibility to block incoming waves, as the two ways to play the map are not mutually exclusive. See you in the Forge, Donaar

Hey guys 😁, Donaar here presenting you a fun and unusual run: Titans Expert Solo starting P2 (thanks to @Kapo for theorycrafting this challenge). Soloing this map is quite challenging since the player has to clear the way for Rogan and free the 12 civilians before Jorne spawns (which happens 13 minutes into the game). As showcased in this replay (all credits to Pritstift and RadicalX), Titans Solo runs always start on P4, since the way for Rogan is "automatically cleared" in order to get T2, T3 and T4. Corsair's Assistance ability is then used to open the gates for the civilians - this step has to be performed carefully due to the 60s cooldown of said ability. Starting on another position (P2 in my case) is a completely different story: you have to free the 12 civilians, go to the cave where Rogan & Jorne spawn, clear an enemy camp (in order to make Rogan move) and block Jorne with buildings, ALL in 13 minutes. Okok, i know, blocking Jorne is lame but it's the only way to keep Rogan alive (there's no way to clear all Rogan's path within the tight time tresholds we got). I completed my run in 19.45 minutes (and the second part isn't fully optimized) - below you can find the replay. Here's the deck I used: Nomad (G) + Mines: classic Fire T1 for PvE, nothing much to say here. Scythe Fiends + Undead Army: great combination to reach spots you're not supposed to reach. Burrower: great card for this run since it's fast, it's a melee unit (counters Mark of the Keepers) with Siege (useful to kill Living Towers & Spawners) and the Acid Spit ability is super useful against walls. Cultists Master + Furnace of Flesh: best void manipulation tool in the game. Mutating Frenzy: pretty good melee unit that is used both to clear Rogan's way (ranged units have an hard time given MotKs presence) and for oneshotting Brannoc by stacking its ability multiple times. Corsair: used to reach the bossfight arena without clearing the fire emitters. Here's important to note that the switch provides ground presence. Used in combination with Enlightenment Dreadnought: used to stack up Mutating Frenzies infinitely. Obviously spawned after an Enlightenment use. Makeshift Tower: used to defend your wells from the small waves (2 Thugs) that attack you. Useful mostly for its S-knockback ability. Tunnel: used for both teleporting units strategically and to block Jorne. Breeding Grounds, Surge of Light, Curse of Oink, Thunderstorm, Regrowth, Frenetic Assault (G), Soulshatter: some of the best offensive & support spells/buildings in the game. Nothing much to say here. Hope you enjoy this run as much as I do, See you in the Forge, Donaar Titans Solo P2 19.45.pmv

New record for Insane God Solo 10.27.1