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Introduction

Another ability deep dive this week. We are going to look at demoralize this week.
Good productive ability with certain rule set where it is almost an must have like Melee Mayhem or Up Close and Personal.

Ability

Really straightforward, reduces the melee attack of all enemy monsters by 1.
Important to notes:

Demoralize can be stacked
Demoralize is removed when the unit with demoralized is killed

Official ability information from splinterlands: List abilities

Synergies / strategy

Abilities benefits

Inspire - +1 for all you monsters and -1 for all enemy monster win-win
Shield - if you can get the melee attack damage down to 1 it will not do any damage anymore.

be wary on
Immunity - If your opponent plays a monster with Immunity, be aware that negative status effects will not impact it. This includes demoralize.

Cleanse - If your opponent plays a monster with cleanse be aware that demoralize can be cleansed.

Ruleset benefits

Melee Mayhem - melee monster can attack from any position so an higher change to see some melee monster, therefor a good to pick a monster with demoralize
Up close and Personal - of course when there are only melee monster this ability is almost a must play. Als very likely your opponent does this.

Ruleset to be aware of
Going the Distance / Wands Out - in both rule sets the demoralize is useless because there will be no melee units.

Select / favorite

My current units with demoralize:

No1 Card.gif

This week it was hard to choose. I really love the Deeplurker and it is in many of my games but in this case the demoralize if very welcomed benefit I do not chose it often for its demoralize.
Then there is the Disintegrator and the Legionnaire Alvar i often have them as a combo with the melee mayhem rule set. I have not done it often but now i'm writing this post I want to try a triple demoralize with Harklaw / Disintegrator / Legionnaire Alvar with a melee mayhem rule set 🤣.

But this week i choose the Harklaw the demoralize with shield is a combo that reduces the damage from melee monster actually with 2 therefore I love this monster. This was an old reward card you just could earn it 😍.

Strategy

Lets have a look in a battle where harklaw really shine and utilize its demoralize
High mana battle no magic monster allowed and all monster have blast and opportunity.
So there will be definitely be some melee monsters in this battle because of the opportunity imo

Rulesets

Equal Opportunity:
All units gain the opportunity ability. This means units with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy unit with the lowest health.

Lost Magic:
No magic unit are allowed

Explosive Weaponry:
All units gain the blast ability. units do additional damage to units adjacent to the target monster

The Lineup

Summoner

Card	Reason
	My beloved lux. I want to play death and Thaddius with the -1 magic is not useful here.

Monsters Lineup

#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

Ever-Hungry Skull (lvl 10)
No Magic monster sot basically this is a 12 health tank monster with thorn and return fire ideally with the lost magic rule set.

Harklaw (lvl 4)
Here it is in the second position with the opportunity it can attack from this position and the shield will absorb all blast damage. I expect more melee monster so the demoralize is also important in this battle.

Runi (lvl 4)
Reflection Shield important with all the blast that will be happening.

Gargoya Devil (lvl 8)
First of my ranges monster when it gets in the front it still can attack because of the close range.
Also try not to select only melee monster because my opponent can also think of the demoralize

Lira the Dark (lvl 3)
The extra speed hope to shift the battle so i may start first with attacking.

Dhampir Stalker (lvl 8)
Heavy hitter with 7 health and 5 damage

The Battle

Reference

Link to the battle:
Link to battle

Rounds

Start :

My opponent has also chosen to play a mixed style with melee and ranged. Arkemis the bear is a nice choice to halve my damage when it strikes. Also a unit with the shield ability on the second position.
He also played a demoralize monster so basically similar setup only with complete different monsters.
Mine will be targeting the Dumacke Orc and he wil be targeting my Every Hungry Skull as intended.

Round 1:

Harklaw already has absorbed with its shield a lot of damage still the heavy hitter of my opponent cause lots of damage and my Every Hungry Skull is dead in round one

Round 2:

Massacre this round the blast is kicking in. The reflection shield of my Runi and shield of harklaw are most important to stay alive.
ranged monsters are getting in the front. When the Molten ash golem is killed it benefit my team greatly becuase not only the demoralize is removed from my team also the supply runner with range attack gets in the front. Then the supply runner is not able to attack from the front.

Round 3:

Battle shifted quickly. Imperializing my opponent now Countess Sinash is in the front the battle is over. IMO crucial role of harklaw with its demoralize reducing damage and shield absorbing damage

Round 4:

Battle played out as expected.

Conclusion

Harklaw is a very nice monster and only imagine that not so long ago you could earn this monster.
What is our next harklaw monster you currently can earn ????

Some other demoralize battles

Click on the image to re-watch the battle

All nice battles with stacked demoralize with the Disintegrator and Legionnaire Alvar

Another battle where harklaw shine in this case with the immunity.

Previous ability strategy posts

Below you will find references to the other ability strategies / analysis posts.

Ability	post
Affliction	Ability post: Affliction
Amplify	Ability post: Amplify
Backfire	Ability post: Backfire
Blast	Ability post: Blast
Blind	Ability post: Blind
Bloodlust	Ability post: Bloodlust
Camouflage	Ability post: Camouflage
Close Range	Ability post: Close Range
Cleanse	Ability post: Cleanse
Cripple	Ability post: Cripple
Deathblow	Ability post: Deathblow
Demoralize