VH 4.1b FDE 7 Ronalds

[Guest n3tw0rkn3rd]

Hey Guys,

It's my first win on VH. Be aware that I usually play for fun with friends on VH AR or SR. Additionally, I'm still learning the intricacies of interest, and any tips on better ways to manage interest would be appreciated (especially in AP games when I can't sell elemental towers). This is far from my best game, and I was just trying to prove a concept, but I did end up winning.

Some quick thoughts:

I realized that this build didn't have any "weak" elemental phases. I.e. During nature phases, the extra fire damage made up for the loss of my earth damage, the extra darkness damage made up for loss of fire (during water), and the earth made up for the darkness. The build has solid single target and aoe, while being weak in fire until later in the game.

I'm sure if I played this build again I could improve/perfect it much more, but I find myself wanting to try other builds (I guess I think it's too simple of a build).

WC3 Version: 1.24.1.6374

Map Version: 4.1b

As far as map location it should be Maps\Download, but I may have named the folder Downloads, so if that's the case, sorry. I'll verify when I get home.

VH4.1b_FDE Win.w3g

[Black Gun]

it is well known that DEF is one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful build in this version.

some things that came up my mind:

- in the beginning, u never used elemental arrow towers. they sell for full^^

- dont build so many ordinary elemental towers in the beginning. in ap u cant sell them and arrows (e.g. fire arrows) can have the same effect. magic and gunpowder are both very strong towers which are much more cost-effective than any ordinary elemental tower. for the early nature waves, use fire arrows/cannons. u can sell them after the nature waves.

- why did u get 2 pure essences if u couldnt afford the 3rd and 4th pure? maybe this is a question of experience, but i already knew at wave 50 when u got ur first essence that u wouldnt have enough money for that. with the DEF build, it probably is best to get 2 water, this gives u corrosion and muck. especially muck with its slow and gunpowder with its aoe are a very powerful combo.

- u summoned higher tier elementals several times when u couldnt take on them yet and leaked them, although u then didnt use these elementals immediately. in this case it would have been better to save up the wood for some time until u are ready. u can summon them before a water wave which gets destroyed by ur darkness-dam magic towers, even if u let them target the elemental while creeps are already in range.

but all these are rather minor mistakes, so dont get me wrong plz. im a notoriously fussy perfectionist u chose a good tower placement and played a solid game. for a first timer, u really did well! time to go on and try harder builds imho. ^^

[Guest n3tw0rkn3rd]

it is well known that DEF is one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful build in this version.

some things that came up my mind:

- in the beginning, u never used elemental arrow towers. they sell for full^^

- dont build so many ordinary elemental towers in the beginning. in ap u cant sell them and arrows (e.g. fire arrows) can have the same effect. magic and gunpowder are both very strong towers which are much more cost-effective than any ordinary elemental tower. for the early nature waves, use fire arrows/cannons. u can sell them after the nature waves.

- why did u get 2 pure essences if u couldnt afford the 3rd and 4th pure? maybe this is a question of experience, but i already knew at wave 50 when u got ur first essence that u wouldnt have enough money for that. with the DEF build, it probably is best to get 2 water, this gives u corrosion and muck. especially muck with its slow and gunpowder with its aoe are a very powerful combo.

- u summoned higher tier elementals several times when u couldnt take on them yet and leaked them, although u then didnt use these elementals immediately. in this case it would have been better to save up the wood for some time until u are ready. u can summon them before a water wave which gets destroyed by ur darkness-dam magic towers, even if u let them target the elemental while creeps are already in range.

but all these are rather minor mistakes, so dont get me wrong plz. im a notoriously fussy perfectionist u chose a good tower placement and played a solid game. for a first timer, u really did well! time to go on and try harder builds imho. ^^

- Thanks for the info, as trivial as it is, I had never tested using elemental Arrow/Cannon towers and whether they got full sell-back on AP (it was on my to-do list, just never did it). For that reason, I almost never use those towers.

- Based on the information from the first note, this sounds like it goes hand in hand with that and my question about how to better utilize interest.

- The most simple explanation is that I spent some time thinking out a FDE build (locations and such). When it got to lvl 50, I pretty much was celebrating that I'd won by this point and was mostly throwing pures in because, what the heck, I don't have anything else to spend it on (which was entirely untrue)... You're definitely correct that the slow and armor debuffs would have provided way more benefit.

- This was another of the questions I hoped to get answered. After the tier 2 Fire leaked, I figured the tier 3 would also. I contemplated saving the wood to summon later, but I was concerned that it would make no difference (I'm not sure what the equation is based on, but HP of the tiers goes up as levels do, and I thought all it would serve to do is make me do even less damage). I did contemplate throwing them in at the beginning of a light round because the extra damage from the DE towers would polish off the creeps while I could still use the single target damage of the DF to full effect. In the end, I didn't do this when I should have and it definitely cost me (12 lives... bleh).

Thanks again for the input and encouragement, the last time I played ETD (before the last few weeks) was 3.0. Definitely a lot of changes since I love that ETD requires actual thinking. I'll work on the stuff you mentioned and will hopefully have more of it mastered next time I post a VH victory.

As a side note, this forum is awesome. It's encouraging to see constructive criticism and advice instead of the generic "roflcoptr you sux0rz noob."

[Black Gun]

forget what i just wrote, they indeed get more life if u summon them later. but imho it can still be worth to wait a bit sometimes.

wow, u never stop learning new things. i really really thought their hps would stay the same oO