[Beta_9b]Some thoughts

[Guest Beast_Pete]

Hey guys!

I'm Beast_Pete, a rather noobish guy in Ele TD, more experienced in DotA. I joined the team at beta5 and started learning strategies only then. So my feedback might be good for seeing how a newcomer can get along with this new version.

First of all I'd like to say that the new version really rocks my socks. I like it much better than 3.0 as it's more balance (although some builds are still inferior to others) and it's more exciting to play it. So good job so far!

I am playing Extreme Mode 98% of the time, because I was bored of how slow the creeps are coming on nonextreme mode. I tried this nonextreme today and lol, it was sooooo much easier. While playing with Expert Mode I managed to win in Very Easy and Easy with some of the better builds, but in Normal level the best I could do is getting till level56.

I think the problems with my playstyle still come from having just a little experience in the game, and sometimes I underestimate waves and by trying to get more golds with the sell+rebuild technique I leak several creeps.

So onto the balance part... in extreme mode you can get till level25 with 4 interest rate and then choosing an element without leaking. That's possible even for Normal level if you are good enough and I guess most of you are. The income you'll be getting will be very high, but the problem is, at levels 34 and 35 you will be in big trouble unless you go the pure Darkness way, which is in my humble opinion the best way to get till Ronalds.

The power of Pure Darkness comes from the fact that you may increase your interest rate 4 times in a row and yet not or barely leaking till level35 which is one of the most difficult parts. This way you can stack a high amount of golds and a relatively high interest rate, while having a high damage output for a long range and having the option to get 3 additional Pure Elementals. Darkness is undoubtly the best pure element.

After Darkness comes DE (Death + Earth), so Gunpowder. This is very similar to Pure Darkness as you may build Darkness towers against Nature creeps and having a really great high DPS, AoE, long range tower called Gunpowder Tower as well which is perfect against Darkness' counter-element, Light. When I tried nonextreme Easy mode, I managed to get maximum golds at round 41 and kill 603 Ronalds at the end with this build. It was so amusing.

In Ele TD 3.0 the slowing AoE towers and Gold Towers used to be the best from my experience. Gathering all creeps to the same area slowing them to zero speed and damaging all of them at the same time is way too cheesy. Or earning maximum golds without really sweating your pants.

In 4.0 the slowing towers seem to be less powerful. I have to admit I haven't experimented with them ever since I managed to learn the erase+rebuild strategy on a decent level, but I will give it a try in nonextreme mode for sure.

Basically the key words for having a powerful build are:

AoE

high DPS

slow

long range

countering (so one element being the counter-elemnt for the other element's counter-element i.g: DE, L countering D, but E countering L)

no more than 2 element types

edit: I can't upload my replays. :/

[Guest Sancdar]

Long range is actually pretty horrible, because if you aren't playing alone you won't have time to get the full power out of the towers. This is mitigated if everyone's on a low difficulty, of course, because the timer is much longer, but if you've got like a single player on hard or VH who knows how to play you'll have a harder time of it.

I still think that full creeps is way too much gold on lower difficulties, both from my experiences in multiplayer and singleplayer and from testimonials like "When I tried nonextreme Easy mode, I managed to get maximum golds at round 41"

Edit: I just saw that one of your keys for a powerful build is having no more than 2 elements. Maybe you should try playing on a harder difficulty.

[Guest Beast_Pete]

I will definitely move on to harder difficulties. Yesterday I tried 4* interest rate + maxing W and L + 1 Pure Element. I sold all my towers when I killed the 2358th Ronalds, without leaking any of them, because I had to go test DotA and was bored from watching Ronalds dieing anyway.

You sure have a point with the multiplayer part regarding long ranged towers. As I haven't joined any multiplayer tests yet, I haven't experienced it yet. After my last exam I will come and join multiplayer tests for sure.

[Guest Beast_Pete]

Sorry for the double post, but I guess it doesn't matter in the Beta section as it's all about constructivism.

So I tried Normal non-extreme mode and without any real efforts I managed to get full golds in this mode as well. I went 3 times Interest Rate + 3*FW + 2*Pure Element. Kindle tower is crazy good against waves, even on its first level. However against the elements its too weak, so you have to build Water Towers as it's great against the Fire Elemental and decent against it's own one. The problems with this build is not with the fact wether it's too weak or powerful but that it EATS up your whole memory. It was really spiking for me and when I alt-tabbed to check how much memory it ate up... well, all of it (512MB). So something needs to be tweaked on the animation and on how the damage is calculated in order to optimize the code.