Thick Skinned Modifier gives Shield to all units which means melee and range attacks are cut in half. This changes the whole battle because melee and range attacks normally are weaker than magic since they can miss and needs to destroy the enemy armor before dealing damage to health. But with this modifier, they are weaker since their attacks also only does half the damage. While this problem can have a work around of just using magic attackers, what would be your move when in that situation, there's really no other ways than to use melee and range units?
Thick Skinned - All units have the Shield ability.
| Modifier | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Relentless Strike | Attacks deal true damage. +1 damage if the target has Void, Shield or Forcefield. | |
| - Relentless Strike is extremely strong in Thick Skinned Modifier because it ignores Shield and even adds +1 damage. While other melee or range units struggle with reduced damage, this ability keeps your unit on hitting hard every round. The extra +1 damage helps deal damage to armor and health faster which makes it very effective in Thick Skinned Modifier. This ability just makes Shield, Void and Forcefield a power up instead of a problem. | ||
| Expose | 80% chance to remove Forcefield, Lookout, Deflect, Shield, Void, Void Armor, or Immunity after a successful attack. Expose will always remove Immunity first. | |
| - Expose has an 80% chance to remove defensive abilities, which includes Shield. In Thick Skinned Modifier, removing Shield from a key enemy unit can completely change the fight since it affects your other units and makes them attack for full damage as well. Not many units have this ability but when it works, it opens the enemy lineup to full damage. It can also remove other defensive abilities like Void or Immunity which makes it even more useful if your enemy have those and more. | ||
| Shatter | Target's armor is destroyed when hit by an attack from Units with Shatter | |
| - Shatter destroys armor in one hit which is very important when Shield already reduces damage. Armor blocks melee and range attacks first so removing it quickly helps your units deal real damage to health. In Thick Skinned Modifier, units with melee and range attacks need all the help they can get and Shatter provides that support. It may not look strong but if you encounter ones with like 6 or so armor, you would wish you have this ability to quickly open up the unit's health to kill it. | ||
| Void | Reduced damage from Magic attacks | |
| - Void reduces magic damage which becomes very important in Thick Skinned Modifier. Since Shield does not affect magic damage, many players will rely on magic heavy teams. Void protects your frontline unit from getting melted by constant magic attacks. Having at least one unit with Void in the front helps balance the matchup and keeps your formation intact. | ||
| Taunt | All enemy Units target this Unit (if they are able to) | |
| - Taunt helps control where attacks go which is very useful even if all units have Shield. Sneak and Snipe units can still attack the backline and slowly kill your key units. With Taunt, you can force those attacks into a single strong tanky unit that is ready to take hits. This keeps your important damage dealers and healers alive longer. This also makes it easier for you to focus your heals instead of just trying to heal everyone once a round. |
Early Game:
This was a tricky battle. I want to use magic damage to bypass the Shield but there's no strong magic damage picks that I have in Fire and Life elements. So, my next strategy is compound Inspire to outdo the Shield. I am lucky that my enemy also doesn't have good magic damage or I might've lost this battle. With the multiple Inspire from 5 different sources, every melee unit I have now has a +5 melee which wouldn't be that high because it would be halved by the Shield from Thick Skinned modifier.
Mid Game:
After a round, Cloveria Morth'lana has been killed by my Sneak units which was nice because Cloveria Morth'lana has Recharge which makes her attack every other round but 3x the power. She wasn't able to release that attack since she died before she unleashed the powered attack. I was pretty happy that this build of mine always have Sneak and Opportunity units because getting through that Ulundin Overseer with Shield and getting healed by Meriput Magician in the back was really bad experience. I was able to put down their Meriput Magician by the next round which stopped the healing.
Late Game:
After that problem solved, my units started to deal damage to both sides, front and back. Eventually, Ulundin Overseer has to die with the damage he gets. Even with the Shield, my units hit a huge 3 and 4 melee attacks which was nice The True Strike from some of my units was also a good thing to make that great damage somewhat consistent.
Full Battle can be found here: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_00ecf07e12348432de4ca9344e4cf1ea
Thick Skinned Modifier makes battles slower but also more strategic because Shield reduces melee and range damage. While you can use magic damage to work around this modifier, that also makes your attacks predictable and if your enemy is prepared while you are not, it is easy to see who would win that bout. In this fight, I focused on stacking Inspire and using abilities to change the targeting to remove key threats early like Cloveria Morth'lana and Meriput Magician. Once the healing and other threats were gone, my units slowly overwhelmed the frontline even with Shield active. Instead of using magic damage units with low attacks, I forced the melee build even if that means my attacks will be halved by Shield. Thick Skinned Modifier rewards players who knows how to make the best of the modifier but sometimes, it also rewards the stubborn ones especially if your enemy also did the same.
