Donaar

Batariel record down😄

New Slavemaster record and update on Convoy.

Sub 18 🙂

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.

Nope, the deck is dead.
You mean the slightly buffed single-target dmg that does not even help to trigger the aura any faster? Sorry, but you do not seem to understand how this deck worked. Batariel decks are no big dmg spell carrier. The main dmg must usually come from Batariel himself, this deck has only very limited options for spell-dmg usually and if your single unit takes to long in a harder camp, in a double camp or encountering early harder bosses you are just plain dead. Ofc you have plenty of energy, but beside Soulshatter and Thunderstorm there are not much options for dmg-spells on the one hand, and on the other if you just want to have a carrier for your spells you take units that have a) less cost and b) better orb restrictions (2 Green for Enlighten, 2 Shadow for needed CC and one Red for Disenchant) then an enlightened Batariel.
I played only a few matches since patch, but even a common twilight-3-willzapper rpve9 stopped me completely, I was hard-carried by a STONEKIN player! I lost 3 Batas and switched Orbs 5 times, a real fun.
The last months 2player 10 I was not able to take out the early Infester camp in 4 tries... I had to give up.
Even better players - and I mean I think I was able to push quite a decent Bata - like Damo dropped the deck entirely because it became almost unplayable for random maps. Sure you can hope for some easy bandits or that a Stonekin player carries you, but that is what I described above, the usual everyday Batariel (that was never strong, never fast and dies very often) deck that has nothing in common with what Dutchy cut quite perfect in his Bata-guide.
Literally everybody that I know dropped this deck, to say it works still is just plain unrealistic. May we ask instead you for a replay to prove your statements?

I do not often agree with Fundus, since he presents his opinion of very exaggerated, but here do not only I agree, but everybody that I have spoken with since the patch. And you may imagine I know quite some decent rpve players.
I would not even agree with his statement that you should not nerf any cards at all but only buff unused cards - hell and you guys did that and you did a great job there. But don't get me wrong, Fundus, your legit opinion ofc.
But the goal to get the Bata deck a tier down was failed sadly, it moved into lower tier fun-decks and is less viable as some of those
 
 
 

How I would organize it. 

The tier list below only includes rPvE performance as my pure Fire knowledge at campaign is fairly limited. For Global Warming I would like to add that I'm referring to the red affinity here. The blue one would rate way lower, but it was the only affinity you could select in this list.

Mine is a little closer to Dutchy's but still a bit different 🙂

We did discuss and this is what we came up with
 
If a unit would be rated higher if it shines more in one mode (rpve, cpve) it got the higher tier.
S - Absolute powercreeps that you can almost not pick if playing pure fire
A - Obvious picks in their decks and strong first choices
B - More niche, but very good cards that are usefull in many situations
C - Alternative picks that are weaker as C+ but still viable sometimes
D - Either cards that are rarely playable or that have very, very few niche use-cases
F - just plain useless (in pve)
 
 

 
If you want more reasoning for a certain card you can see that probably here:

 

After the stream, I did a quick one without thinking too much, just putting the cards in 2 minutes and... that's what I got
 

Bad Harvest Position 3 Practice Map
Are you tired of losing on Bad Harvest? Do you want to learn how to defend the Gold Wagon on expert difficulty? Want to experiment with new strategies? Now is your chance!

 
Why this map exists
Bad Harvest position 3 on expert difficulty is feared by many players because defending the gold wagon is difficult. Position 3 is critical. If position 3 fails, this often results in a loss for the whole team. It's hard for players to learn position 3 because failure means potentially disappointing three other players. The goal of this map is to encourage newer players to learn position 3, and for veteran players to develop new and creative strategies.
 
Map Layout
This map is Bad Harvest, but modified such that the player doesn't have to worry about defending the main base. This is a single-player map. Enemy units are killed near the four main base entrances (the red areas shown below). 

 
Map Mechanics
All of the original mechanics should be intact, and the spawn waves should be identical to the original Bad Harvest map. You can still win the map by killing the Stonekin Lords and Rogue Giant. However, you can also win by surviving 25 minutes. Once 25 minutes have elapsed, a switch in the main base can be activated to obtain victory.

 
How to Play
Like all community made maps, this map can be found by clicking the blue "User Generated Map" icon on the world map screen. The map name is "Bad Harvest Pos3 Practice"
You can also download the map here.
Credits/Thanks
Thanks to Kapo for inspiring this map idea by hosting CCC #7.
Special thanks for Dallarian for making the first version of this map and introducing me to map-making.
 

Hello Skylords, Skyladies and other Skybeings; and welcome to CCC #8 – the eighth Crappy Community Contest!
 
THE CONTEST HAS ENDED.
To see the winners, CLICK HERE. If you are just here to grab the booster code, there you go:  CCC8-NOWA-LLNE-EDED



What are “Crappy Community Contests”?
CCC's are meant to be small-scale contests with weird challenges, hopefully luring you away from well-trodden paths. They are small-scale on the organizers side too: there will be no stream, video or event announcing the winners. What's special about these contests is a participation price for the whole Skylords community.

This is the first CCC not only presented by me, but the Winner of CCC # 7 - the contest-idea-contest: Sucks! (@womiy org) We have worked together the last few weeks to present you this challenge, an extension to what he submitted:
 
What, when, where, how?
He makes it sound easy...

The city is the last hope for the people of Lyr,
but Rogan Kayle still wants you to prove your prowess.

This challenge is to win the 1-player-map “Defending Hope” on Expert
without walls and as many extra-challenges as you are able to manage.

Even when exploring the expert maps for the first time, Defending Hope is usually a map that is an easy win. So let's start making it as difficult as you can handle! For an eligible entry, you are not allowed to build any walls and both Soulstones have to stay intact. After that, you can earn points to rank up your entry by taking on extra challenges. The Skylord with the most points will win this challenge - in case of a tie, the faster Skylord will win. You can earn points by adding the following hardships to your run:
 
Mandatory: Use no walls Mandatory: Both Soulstones stay intact
  A: 1 Point: No Faction Cards (Bandit, Twilight, Stonekin, Lost Souls) Cards are played B: 1 Point: Using a Pure Color Deck C : 1 Point: Only Twilight Edition Cards are used
  D : 2 Points: Play no Buildings E: 2 Points: Play no Spells F: 3 Points: Play no Units G: 2 Points: Play only Buildings H: 1 Point: Play only Units
  I: 1 Point: Don't go T4  J: 2 Points: Don't go T3   K: 3 Points: Don't go T2  
  L: 1 Point: No wells inside the city get destroyed M: 1 Point: No orb gets destroyed N: 1 Point: Both Soulstone Guardians Survive
  O: 1 Point: Claim 4 (or more) wells outside the city P: 1 Point: Claim southern 2 wells Q: 1 Point: Claim no well inside the city R: 2 Points: Claim all wells outside the city and don't lose any well during whole game
  S: 1 Point: Collect no gold chest
  T: 1 Point: Destroy two Twilight Manifestations U: 1 Point: Destroy all Twilight Manifestations V: 2 Points: Kill no Twilight Dragon
  W: 1 Point: No Shrine of War / Memory / Martys / Greed or Furnace of Flesh is played X: 1 Point: No Unity / Frenetic Assault / Thunderstorm / Frost Shard is played Y: 1 Point: No Razorleaf / Necroblaster / Magma Hurler / Stronghold
(Edit: After it has been suggested, I added letters to make it easier to submit an entry.)

As you can see, the list is constructed in a way that we expect NOBODY to get all possible points. This challenge is to set an attainable goal with as many points as you are able to get without losing the map. To avoid misunderstandings: points on this list accumulate. So, if you kill all Twilight Manifestations, you get one point for the "kill two Manifastations" AND one point for "kill all Manifestations", yielding a total of two points. Also, if you don't go T2, you will get a total of six points for that, not just the three points mentioned in the list on that line.
Please add the following information to your entry:
IGN: <Your ingame name> Objectives Achieved: <Name them: A, B, C, ...> Points total: <Points> Your replay with the following file name: CCC8_<Points>_<Your IGN>.pmv
  Battleforge automatically saves a replay file of the last match you play, named autosave.pmv.  After playing the map, rename this file, so it doesn't get overwritten. You can find your replays here: Documents => Battleforge => replays.

The contest has started with the release of this post – submit your entry through Discord (DM to Kapo#0116) or the Skylords Forum (DM to @Kapo) until 11.09.2022 23:59 CET  (= 8 days time total). You can submit multiple times, but only the one with the most points will count. Please note that your any submitted replay may be posted here in the forums.

Clarifications
 

 
 
What's the price pool?
Since this is not just a Crappy Contest, but a Crappy Community Contest, you may help with your participation to earn a price for the whole Community. If we reach more than 20 participants (unique players, not entries), we will unlock a Mini-Booster code for the entire Skylords Community. If more than 35 participants enter, the code will be upgraded to a Booster instead of a Mini-Booster. So tell your fellow Skylords to try this challenge – it's an occasion to try something completely new, and it raises our chances to hand out a code for everybody. 
Of course, the Skylords with the most points will get prices too, sponsored by myself, the Community and the Skylords Reborn Team:
1st place               5 General Boosters + Promo Rogan Kayle + Easter Egg
2nd place              4 General Boosters + Promo Lyrish Knight + Easter Egg
3rd place              3 General Boosters + Promo Snapjaws + Easter Egg
4th place              2 General Boosters + Lord Cyrian + Easter Egg
5th place              1 General Booster +  Core Dredge (B) + Easter Egg
6th place              250 BFP + Promise of Life (B) + Bloodhorn (R) + Easter Egg
7th place              200 BFP + Banzai (P) + Banzai (G) + Easter Egg
8th place              175 BFP + Bloodhorn (R) + Mind Control + Easter Egg
9th place              150 BFP + Home Soil + Giant Slayer + Easter Egg
10th place            100 BFP + Sunderer + Easter Egg
11th-15th place    Santa Claus

Last place              Juice Tank (x8)
For participation, there is a random chance to win one of the following cards:
Random Draws          5x1 General Booster, Avatar of Frost, Spitfire, Church of Negation, Bandit Minefield, Fire Worm, Skyelf Templar, Banzai Lord (P) (x5)
This CCC also features again a Newcomer Card Pool. By participating, players of Bronze or Silver Rank will automatically receive an uncommon random card sponsored by @THE_BIG_WET. Of course, you may also win other random draws additionally if you are lucky. The Newbie Card Pool contains the following cards:
 
Should we get more entries than 20 Bronze/Silver, the pool will be expanded, so every newcomer will receive a card. Those expansion cards will be rare cards (instead of more uncommons), so tell your fellow beginner to participate!
 
Sponsors
If one or more mighty Skylord(s) decides to sponsor this event, please contact me. I would be more than happy to beef up or expand the prize pool beyond the 10th place, add additional random draws, special bounties or any other upgrades to the prize pool. 
The following prices have been sponsored so far:
Skylords Team          General Boosters (x20), Community Booster Code
@Kapo                Promo Rogan Kayle, Promo Lyrish Knight
@womiy org        Promo Snapjaws
@THE_BIG_WET     Newcomer Card Pool (see above)
@Donaar             Juice Tank (x8)
@T1421               Spitfire
@DeLirium          1400 BFP (which has been in part used to buy random draw cards)
@Sylar                Avatar of Frost, Church of Negation, Core Dredge (B), Promise of Life (B), Lord Cyrian, Bandit Minefield, Sunderer, Giant Slayer, Mind Control, Bloodhorn (R), Bloodhorn, (P), Banzai Lord (G), Banzai Lord, (P), Fire Worm, Home Soil, Skyelf Templar
@Bozzah             Easter Egg (x10), Banzai Lord (P) (x5), Santa Claus (x5)
 
 
Special thanks and Conclusion
My very special thanks (and congratulations on winning CCC#7!) goes out to Sucks, who came up with this idea and worked with me designing on this challenge.

One last disclaimer: Should there be a patch rolling into the contest, it may end early.
Good luck, I hope you will like this very modular challenge where you can set your own difficulty!
Kapo
     
Future Events - get involved!
If you are interested in helping with these (or better) kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself, don't be afraid and simply reach out! Contact our beloved Event Managers @Minashigo Hiko and/or @Metagross31 on the forums or discord. They are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring your prize pool!
If you especially like this small-scale-format, and you have an idea for it, you may also contact me directly to discuss your idea and host your own Crappy Community Contest.

This one is, to be honest, more of a joke.

On many of the previous contests, you had to collect all gold chests - and on several times people stated the hate the gold chest objective. That's why you get a point for not doing it this time 😃

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

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

Hello speedrunning and community map enthusiasts,
Since the ingame speedrunning rankings only track official campaign maps and rPvE map of the month, @Emmaerzeh and I decided to create a forum post to track the speedrunning records for community maps as well. Since there are a lot of community maps out there, of which some are not suited for speedrunning or have other issues, we picked a few maps which we deemed worthy of a ranking. This list might be expanded in the future.
Have fun speedrunning! 🙂
The Rankings
1-Player maps
Icedessert
1. 10:01.6 - Metagross31
2. -
3. -
King's Ridge v.0.8
1. -
2. -
3. -
Nyxia
1. 9:50.2 - Wanky
2. -
3. -
Rogans Schatz
1. 26:00.1 - Wanky
2. -
3. -

Warrior on the mountain
1. -
2. -
3. -

City of Tears
1. 11:13.3 - Metagross31
2. 14:45.1 - Wanky
3. -

Aeglos Fortress
1. -
2. -
3. -
2-Player maps
Army of Darkness
1. 32:03.4 - Bini Inibitor, Metagross31
2. -
3. -
The Conquest
1. 21:22.6 - Kapo, Metagross31
2. -
3. -
Simple Land
4-Player maps
The mortals 2020
1. -
2. -
3. -
Twisted Legends - 1.00 Final Release
1. -
2. -
3. -
How to get your time listed
In order to get your time listed in the rankings, you first have to make sure that your run follows all the rules (see below). In order to get your time verified, you have to send a replay of the run to me either via Discord (Metagross31#1103) or via DM in the forums (@Metagross31). I will not share any replays for the rankings without explicit permission of the runners.
You may also feel free to also post your times publicly as responses to this post to share them with everyone else. However, the rankings will only be updated once I verified that the time is legit.
Rules
Every run for the rankings has to be performed on expert difficulty. Whenever there are multiple versions of a map available, you have to use the one that explicitly matches the name in the rankings. If the version of a map is updated, the rankings for that map might be reset. There are no restrictions on deck building and gameplay, other than those employed by the maps themselves. If a replay is not watchable or desyncs when watched on the same patch the run was performed on, the replay is not valid. Any modifications to maps or replay files are strictly prohibited.

Your answer is huge, my friend. Ty so much, i'm still having a blast playing pure frost, definitly the most fun ive ever had while playing BF. 
I think i ll go Battleship over Chads but we ll see. 
All the best to you Sensei 🙂

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