holepercent

Nice to see you posting again.. i joined the game late into 3.0, when 4.0 was still being planned and stayed in play. Now, to play 4.x, get out of 3.0 mindset and 'relearn' the game. Accept the fundemental shifts in balance and gameplay.. 4.0 is designed for competitive balance in pick (-sr is always balanced). All 4/5/6-element builds can be completed reasonably. 3.0 was well known for LWFD and its variations while DFNE was barely playable.. The hardest difficulty should not be the standard for most players.. the hardest difficulty is supposed to be for the best players only, those who know all if not most towers and the rest of the game inside out. There is short (starting from wave 15, 1000 gold) and extra short (starting from wave 30, 6000 gold) in the game.. And yes, eletd would not be staying on wc3.. we are exploring other ways to play such as sc2, flash etc..

Introduction Return to main guide This guide covers one of the most popular modes, -random. How to make the best of a random set of elements, interest and essences? Early game strategies The first 15 waves can be played using the standard arrow opening at IV/V. The build is as follows: (s=super, n=normal, a=advanced, e=element), disregarding elemental damage: (contributed by jolin) 1 S 2 SN 3 SA 4 SS 5 SS 6 SS 7 E 8 E 9 EN 10 ES 11 EE 12 EE 13 EE Remember that for undead waves, cannon AoE always works better. There is a permanent group, as listed above, built at IV. The 1 or 2 towers fire at the same creep, dealing just enough damage to kill it. It is difficult to have 3 arrows shoot the same creep all the time. If two elemental arrows are insufficient to kill the creeps in one volley, it may be better to use cannons or super arrows. Another group of towers, built at V is sold and rebuilt for interest. Some do build at VII, sell for interest and rebuild at V. Without this group, one or two creeps tend to be leaked. While not the fastest, this is a cost-efficient way to kill the creeps. This takes some micro so practice! Mid-game strategies Usually, this is where the action is. Use 200% damage where possible. Farm the interest here. Remember that in random, all towers are temporary. You can always overbuild and sell some towers just before the interest. The only 'permanent' towers may be the support towers, which do not relocate very well. Unless you randomed a strong build, it makes sense to relocate to a slower placement such as III, expanding up to VI, especially if you have been rushing your opponets out of the game at VII/IV/V. This would allow you to better prepare and farm some interest for the endgame. End-game strategies At this stage, tier1 duals do almost no damage. You best choice here is definately pures/periodic if you have. Tier2 triples are the next best. If not, use the tier2 duals or the stronger single target triples (impulse, zealot, hail). Build all the support towers available. It may be that the only way to deal with certain waves is to relocate, sometimes even more than once, VII-V-III-IX or similar , although this is (very) difficult witth a large number of towers and time taken to upgrade. Manually target creeps to reduce leaks. Kill as many as possible rather than dealing damage to all creeps and killing none. With long range towers, target those with low life or those at the back where there is more time to make a kill. Interest farming In the early game with few towers, cast the buffs of the well/blacksmith manually and sell the support dual after casting the buff. When the buff is about to expire, rebuild the support dual. Remember the buff lasts 60 sec, so it is about 3 rounds of interest. Conclusion -random is all about making the best use of the set. Not every game can go to ronalds. In fact, most games end before that. The best players get to roanlds in probably around 5-10% of games played. Aim to know the common towers and strong combinations well. in multiplayer, the aim may be to simply rush your opponents out of play rather than actually completing the game. Replays eletd_4.0_257_61_3ronalds.w3g

Introduction Return to main guide This guide would cover all the 4-element builds with no slowing towers. Overall strategy for the set With no slows, single-target towers are generally more effective. Individual build notes LDFE Duals: trickery,electricity,quark,magic,gunpowder,blacksmith Triples: radius,laser,gold,flamethrower LDWN Duals: trickery,ice,life,poison,disease,well Triples: hail,oblivion,tidal,drowning LWNE Duals: ice,life,quark,well,hydro,mushroom Triples: tidal,polar,enchantment,flesh golem DWFN Duals: poison,magic,disease,vapour,well,flame Triples: corrosion,drowning,voodoo,impulse WFNE Duals: vapour,well,hydro,flame,blacksmith,mushroom Triples: impulse,zealot,flesh golem,quaker Replays played in VH xsm pick unless otherwise stated eletd_4.0_221_DWFN_61_7lives.w3g eletd_4.0_244_LDFE_61_16lives.w3g eletd_4.0_249_LWNE_61_16lives.w3g eletd_4.0_251_LDWN_61_15lives.w3g eletd_4.0_252_WFNE_61_8lives.w3g eletd_4.0_269_DWFN_61_12lives.w3g eletd_4.0_273_LDEF_61_24lives.w3g

trickery towers have a casting range the same as the attack range. it does not clone any tower anywhere in your area... if it happens every game, it can be reproduced and therefore, make a replay of it.

As the last few builds are being played out, what does the community want to see from this series? Have the builds improved your play?

Except that in a fully competitve VH game, you'll be rushed out by then. So don't rely on life towers..kill as fast as possible while farming the interest well..

playtest LEFW replay

Yes. It is even stronger in a full length game. Even in the tournament FDS, farming the interest well, starting with $$ or even $$$ while minimising leaks and maintaining a moderate to fast kill is key to winning. One of the 'classic' builds include the 3-element $$DEF (magic, flamethrower, blacksmith). You could also try impulse/zealot+well/blacksmith or laser+trickery. Voodoo+polar also works quite well (the hp reduction from voodoo counts towards the damage for voodoo's ability). Add enchantment if available. For the ronald hunt, slow is not as useful. You want the ronalds to be spaced out, giving the single target towers time to take out individual ones. Use the strong single-target towers, together with tier3 support duals, usually well and/or blacksmith (rememeber to include some splash for undead waves).

If you want, consider replaying the build in VH difficulty to find out some of the weaknesses.. What works in lower difficulties might not always work in harder difficulties. Not too bad play but some tower placement could be improved slightly, such as the pure light. What you might want to consider is whether you have sufficient cover for your elemental weakness. Fire damage to cover the gold tower's earth damage etc. It is generally not a good idea to focus too much on any elemental damage type. To have more gold, try starting with $$ or even $$$.. It does require good micro to farm the interest well. The early leaks could be prevented by building (elemental) cannons (the wave is undead) which sell for 100%. You can build them just after the interest and sell just before the next interest for no loss of gold.

Any 4/5/6-element build is playable.. click the links in this signature for build ideas..

not sure for 4.1. whether you'll get the player's menu after the host dialog times out.. playing at player 3's slot for series in single player most of the time in 4.2b..

Same elements. Same towers. A whole new way to play... Overall concept 8-player FFA, fog off (there is not much point in choosing a target if you do not know the map). The key concept is to encourage interactivity. There must be strong incentives to send creeps and not play tower defence. Interest and gold There would be no interest. With interest, players have no incentive to send creeps as everyone would not build anything or send creeps and just farm the interest. There would only be one way to earn gold. You receive gold based on the the time the creeps you send stay alive. Creeps and Elementals At the start of the game, you can only send the basic creeps (probably the first 5 of the TD) in waves of 15/30/45. A player can be sent a maximum of 60 creeps every 30 seconds. A player who plays too slowly has to deal with a large mass of creeps. However, if his defense can hold, he is just giving his opponents more gold. All other non-elemental creeps become available when a player has all 6 elementals. After you send 200/500/1000 creeps of a particular element, the tier1/tier2/tier3 of that elemental is summoned for you. This encourages sending of creeps to receive the elementals you want. With tier1 of the element, you can send fast creeps of that element. With tier2, you can send fast and mechanical creeps of that element. With tier3, you can send fast, mech, healing and undead creeps of that element. If an opponent leaks the creeps you send, that player loses lives for the leaks and you gain that many lives. When you defeat a player (reduce that player to 0 or less lives), you gain the choice of a extra pure or bonus gold on the creeps you send. Considerations Mixed difficulty? reduced armour for creeps and lower tower costs for lower difficulties. random mode? 'send random creeps' therefore randoming the player's elements? sending creeps to self? (transfer to suggestions when ready. feel free to add your suggestions.. )

New replays for 4.2b added...

New builds posted in series..

Introduction Return to main guide This guide features one of the strongest builds in the game, the 6-element build. All towers are available. Overall strategy Full support and periodics. Generally, only one of each support tower is needed although 1-3 extra polar and enchantment towers are usually added. Replays played in VH xsm pick unless otherwise stated eletd_4.0_248_6ele_61_34lives.w3g

You'll need the same version of wc3 and the exact map in the same location as the replay to watch the replays.. hepefully we'll have some 4.2b replays out soon.. or use versionchanger or similar to watch older replays..

Do you have the replay? This is one of those rare bugs that occur (randomly? certain tower/combination of towers?) in various versions. been trying to isolate the cause and testing fixes.. need more replays to analyse..

Do you have any build in particular? click the series link for some builds.. new builds would be posted shortly..

True. No problem. good to hear other perspectives too, especially newer players who contribute workable ideas. While good, may lead to some concerns -information overload. how much information does the average player really bother about? does the player have enough time to process the information in between building towers and microing. -The more information there is, the longer the text is expected to stay on the screen, may lead to excess clutter in mid-endgame, with the text and numbers (from various towers, interest, creep gold ...) thoughts?

That is more of a issue in single player. in multiplayer, if you let creeps leak multiple times, you'll have to deal with 2 or more waves of creeps (unless everyone is playing slowly) and probably be rushed out of game. and in forum draft series, time is a key factor to winning the draft...

Enjoy the map! and post your best replays on the forums for all..

The element query was rarely used (at least by the beta testers) and hence removed, replaced by what it is now. In draft pick, there is still draft query. To find out what towers you have available, there is dual and triple query (what used to be tower query, now split into duals and triples).

the bug has been reported and would be fixed for 4.2b..

Guess we don't test all the mode combinations, timings and multiplayer that much in beta..

click the second link in this sig for some build ideas..