Another week, another Share Your Battle Challenge... Wait... this is not your regular Share Your Battle Challenge, this is actually the first edition of the brand new Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge! What has changed is that instead of featuring a Monster, now the team has tasked us (the nerds) to feature a battle with a particular ruleset instead. We will begin this new type of challenge with the Aim True ruleset.
Let us see what this ruleset does before we get into the nitty-gritty of the line-up and the battle itself.
So the Aim True ruleset is pretty straight-forward - attacks always hit their target. This is the ruleset representation of the Monster ability we see on some of our favorite Monsters (and Summoners - cough Byzantine Kitty, cough) - True Strike (This Monster's attacks cannot miss)
Alright, we've got a good idea of what the Aim True ruleset practically does, so let's see now how it can be effectively utilized
The Monsters most prone to missing are the slow speed ones (unless one of the rulesets of the battle is Reverse Speed). So above you can see just a few examples of Monster who can definitely benefit from the Aim True ruleset. When you know they surely going to hit their target you are a bit more confident in including them in your line-up, however, unless its Reverse Speed they will still be ones of the last to act on the battlefield and you also need to be aware of that.
Another point that need to be made is that while True Aim/True Strike mostly concerns Melee and Ranged Attackers, they also affect Magic attack Monsters who could actually otherwise miss Monsters with the Phase ability (Magic attacks can miss this Monster (using the same hit/miss calculation as for Melee and Ranged attacks). So this is actually also a pretty important piece of information.
Now that we have a decent understanding of the featured Ruleset and its potential advantages and disadvantages, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.
The rulesets for this battle are Up Close & Personal (Only Monsters with Melee attack may be used in battles) and Aim True (we already know what it does). The mana budget is 49 which is an above average amount but so I cannot choose whatever Monsters I have available and I will need to pick more carefully. Only 1 Splinter is available - Fire. So that settles it I guess - Fire it is. This is a Diamond level battle and I can choose between a level 4 Jacek and a level 8 Tarsa (I've maxed both just recently). As I briefly mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, when every Monster can hit the rest of the Monster, then the battle becomes a game of who hits first. So Jacek's +2 Speed seems like a reasonable option in this case, pair that with the fact that he also provides Piercing (If Melee or Ranged attack damage is in excess of the target's Armor, the remainder will damage the target's Health) to all Monsters and we can only use Melee Monsters, and we have a clear winner (or do we?).
First in the line-up is Legionnaire Alvar. He has a decent amount of Armor, add to that his Giant Killer (Does double damage against targets that cost 10 or more mana) ability and Demoralize (Reduces the Melee attack of all enemy Monsters), and I find him a fitting tank for this battle.
The 2nd spot goes to the Radiated Scorcher. I have it here as a filler as I had 1 more spot to fill and 2 available Mana after selecting the reset of the line-up. Its purpose is to take a hit, and if it actually gets lucky and goes first, and hits the enemy tank - it will Shatter (Target's armor is destroyed when hit by an attack from Monsters with Shatter) any armor it may have, which could be crucial.
The 3rd place in the line-up goes to a favorite Monster of mine - the Tenyii Striker. It has Sneak (Targets the last Monster on the enemy Team instead of the first Monster) and that is enough for this battle as I need as many back-line attackers as I can muster. Its other abilities are also great in general but will do nothing under the Aim True ruleset so I won't even bother going over them right now. We'll leave them for another time.
Following immediately after is my very own Runi. Runi already has True Strike as an ability so it is incapable of missing in general but I actually have picked it for its general utility with Opportunity (Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health) and Rebirth (When this Monster dies it will self-resurrect with 1 Health once per battle). As I said I'm trying to get some back-line action and not just have my Monster just stand there until their tanking turn comes.
The 5th place in the line-up goes to the Arkemis the Bear. I have it to support my "rear end" if the last Monster happens to fail its task of surviving until the end of the battle. A few things have to be mentioned as far as Arkemis is concerned. All 4 of his abilities are actually very good in cases of taking heavy damage and also mitigating enemy attacks - Protect (All friendly Monsters gain +2 Armor), Halving (Each time this Monster hits a target, the target's attack is cut in half (rounded down)), Forcefield (This Monster takes only 1 damage from attacks with power 5+) and last but not least in terms of damage output - Enrage (Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged).
Last but definitely not least is my level 4 Forgotten One. Yes, I've not leveled it up yet because it is actually rather pricey but hopefully I will have the chance to do that at some point. Anyway, it is leveled enough to have what I am looking for and that thing is Retaliate (When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker) so even though it cannot attack from this position in this particular battle, it will have a chance to hit the opponents that hit it. Since we are playing under the Aim True ruleset, its retaliates will also have a 100% chance to hit their target which is exactly what we need. It will also benefit from Jacek's Piercing, of course.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
So the Summoner I am going with for this battle (as I have already mentioned) is my very own Jacek. Against me I have an all-gold team lead by a level 8 Tarsa. Generally their line-up looks a bit better constructed than mine but let's see if Jacek's Speed and Piercing or Tarsa's additional Melee Attack and Health point will prevail.
After 1 round my Tenyii Striker got blown up by a Retaliate from the enemy level 6 Forgotten One and then finished off by the enemy Mordeus. That's definitely not how I envisioned the beginning of this battle. My Forgotten One was also slapped the enemy Tenyii Striker in the face so at least that's good.
At the start of Round 3 you can see I have suffered even more loses and my Forgotten One has bitten the dust. The enemy Mordeus is thankfully also dead so there is still a chance for me to turn the tides of this battle.
Round 4 - My Legionnaire Alvar has fallen which means that the enemies are no longer affected by Demoralize so now they inflict even more damage. The enemy has lost their Uraeus, which is definitely important.
Round 5 - I've lost my Radiated Scorcher which isn't news really while the enemy has lost their Arkemis. It is getting really heated on the battlefield. My Arkemis's Forcefield is definitely starting to do decent work.
Round 6 - Some blows have been exchanged but there were no losses on any side this round.
Round 7 - My Runi is still alive. The enemy Tenyii Striker is still beating on Arkemis from behind but only for 1 damage per round.
Round 8 - I have lost my Runi but its Rebirth got activated so it can still take a hit or two. The enemy Tusk the Wide is close to dying as well. My Runi will hit it before it can hit my Runi thanks to Jacek's speed buff.
Round 9 - the enemy has lost their Tusk the Wide and my Runi is still alive and kicking.
Round 10 - The Runi and the Tenyii Striker have exchanged pleasantries and are both 1 hit away from dying. This time my Runi has less speed than its opponent so this will be it.
Round 11 - It's Arkemis against the remaining enemy force. Talking about force, his Forcefield is doing wonders right now mitigating all 5+ attacks.
Round 12 - My Arkemis has taken down the enemy Tenyii Striker and it's time for the final showdown - Arkemis vs The Forgotten One and its lethal Retaliate.
Round 13 - Arkemis is still taking just 1 damage while hitting the enemy for the full amount of 6 damage per turn. The forgotten one has not had any lucky Retaliates thankfully.
Round 14 - This is the end of the road for the enemy. Arkemis's Forcefield was absolutely clutch for my victory in this battle.
The battle seemed very close, Splintertools.io actually shows that I, indeed) had just a very small advantage in terms of my chance to win the battle 52% to 48% for the enemy. I guess the coin flip went in my favor this time.
Well this was definitely a fun battle, and a fun way to showcase the Aim True ruleset. See you next week with another exciting post related to the brand new Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challege!
