Must admit I find it difficult to believe that you have won every single tournament you have entered, and have played several thousand. But I'm more intrigued in what kind of approach you have to the matches, and how you go about the matches themselves. And what type of build you have (your profile is private).
I struggled a great deal with TOTA at higher ranks (am 2000 now), because pretty much everything in sight can and will oneshot me. When that happens a lot in a match, and several matches in a row, I get extremely frustrated and upset. Downright angry. Because it's so frustrating to feel like I'm just a pawn with zero influence on anything. Oneshot. 30 seconds respawn time. Oneshot 1.2s into a new 'life. 30 second respawn time. (maybe most of your totems are gone now). Oneshot 4 seconds into new life. Etc.
That's why I wonder about what sort of tactics you use, besides just team composition. Suppose it's fairly well-known by now what are the good and bad units.
Kuru for example gave me huge problems due to all those very powerful and hyper aggressive units oneshotting the screen all the bloody time. Lately (before I quit at 2000), I also had big problems with the Tasalio tribe, because there are a million traps everywhere. Maybe that's why it feels like our AI has been turned off in some of those matches. Flankers and attackers do nothing. I try to go on the offensive. BAM, 30 sec respawn timer, due to invisible traps. They even carpet bomb our own half of the field.
In one final Ahuana smashed me into the ground too, and it had the best reward I've ever seen, with 5 divines. That hurt. But when the opposing team have a horde of sunset sages, and I can't do jack offensively, it's really hard to avoid a loss. They smash through totems super quickly! I try to help out defensively (and hope our flankers do SOMETHING), but then the other flank goes down. Or the sages just move 5 pixels and target another totem. Stunning doesn't seem to exist for AI units. Or maybe for 0.2 seconds.
The mode is extremely unfair. But all that aside, I'd love to hear what kind of tactics you or others use that apparently makes this mode so easy with a 'normal' non-cheese build.
(I don't have problems with turtles either for what it's worth, it's the oneshotters that do my head in, like the 4 goliaths on Team Cowshit)
Most of the tactics are going to be situational, so it would honestly be easier to talk through a couple rounds I'm playing than give vague, generic tips. But if you're having trouble specifically with Kahu and his Goliaths of Night the best advice I can give you is to never backtrack. Goliaths use Earthquake, and it is not survivable by any build I've ever seen because it's pure physical damage which ignores armor. Maybe like a 20k ES managuardian could eat those aftershocks at 2k rating, but generally speaking you want to never get hit by them. And the best way to do that is do make loops through the enemy position instead of retracing your steps. There is a visual indicator of where the aftershock is going to erupt, but it can be hard to see in the chaos of a match so it's easier to just always move forward.
Re: Trawlers and Fieldmasters, you should try to destroy their traps and walls yourself before they can distract your flankers and prevent them from doing their jobs. Any area damage can break the bear traps before they're triggered, so unless you're playing a summoner just focus on clearing a path for your flankers. If you are playing minions or totems there's not a lot to be done here, you need to be able to manually target or Tasalio is just always going to be a tough matchup. In that case, I'd prioritize bringing down whichever side of the opposing base is furthest from the trawler (mercifully, Rakiata seems to be limited to one) and try to get an overwhelming numerical advantage, but I admit I'm not the person to ask when it comes to Minion Stuff.
Anyway, here's the start of my last two final rounds and some thoughts on why I bought the units I did and placed them where I did. I won both of these rounds in under 2 minutes without losing a single totem.
Game 1:
Spoiler
My escorts are Maata boars and a Spear Dancer, because they move quickly. I play very actively and aggressively, which means I need high-speed escorts who can keep up with me and help me fight enemy units and blitz down isolated totems. The two best escort units in the game are the Storm Guard and Blackbark Demolisher, but I didn't have those as options in this tournament.
My flankers are 4 sunset sages because they're the best flankers in the game, period. You said you're 2k and mentioned what a nightmare these are to play against so I'm going to assume you know this already, but I'm going to write this so someone struggling to get past 500 might learn something helpful. S Sages have every single thing you want your flankers to have: they have a disengage skill to evade enemy defenders, they have the ability to channel totems from long range, they're very tanky, and they are decently fast moving. I literally never run any other flankers if I have Sunset Sages available. If I don't, I put fast movers like Thunderbirds, Boars, Tuataras, and generic Navali Warriors here. Storm Guards and Blackbark Demolishers are also incredibly effective in this role, I would just rather have them on escort.
Defenders: this is where I'm probably going to lose some people, but the role of your defenders is NOT to kill enemy units, it's to stop them from breaking your totems. That means that above all else they need to have either very high speed or very long range. A defender who can't reach your besieged totems in time can't defend jack s**t. Thunderbirds make excellent defenders for this reason, but it's hard to do better (especially in earlier rounds) than a Tidecaller with a cyclic bauble to just spam knockback waves like they're going out of style. If you're lucky enough to pick up a Death Guide like I did here, place it in a center defense position so it can revive you and your units. If not, put a Hinekora Horn in the same exact spot for a lesser version of this ability.
Attackers: this is where you put any units which are good at killing other units, with those dealing AoE damage having an edge over those who don't. Most Tier 3 units work great here, as well as Caldera Ravagers, Goliaths of Night, the Lunar Turtle I've got 2 of, and Jade Hulks.
Bad units (Aka, the No Buy List):
Only use these if you have literally no other options, and start selling them as soon as you get up to 13+ units. Firebreathers, Frenzymongers, Titanic Shells, Honorable Sages, Spearfishers, STORM CONDUITS, Warcallers, and Moon Dancers are all priced well above their actual effectiveness. Even the ones with limited niche applications (Moon Dancer, T Shell) are still less useful than 2 units that you could get for the same price.
Game 2:
Spoiler
Same general rules for What To Get as above, with differences based on availability.
My Escorts are almost the best possible setup: 3 spear dancers and a storm guard. My posse single handedly blitzed our way in through the bottom of the enemy base, broke all 4 defender totems, broke the top flankers, then doubled back and broke Hinekora's chieftain totem.
Flankers are obviously less stacked than the first game, but 3 boars and a stealth iguana get the job done.
Attackers are a T3 Jadecrafter, a Lunar Turtle, a Goliath, and a Fieldmaster I think I started the tournament with and never got around to replacing. Same as I said above, these are your tanky brawlers whose job is killing enemies.
Defenders were Hinekora Horn in the Death Guide role, a Spearfisher I forgot to upgrade/replace, a Thunderbird, and a Consuming Boar. Not great and certainly my team's weak point, but with offense this stacked most rounds of this tournament were over in seconds.
"
xX999Xx wrote:
How are you channeling totems "if you never stop moving". Mate, you just made your wall of text ad absurdum.
First of all, I didn't say "never stop moving," I said "Storm Conduits won't hit you while you are moving." You might want to avoid using quotation marks when you aren't actually quoting someone. This isn't Reddit.
Anyway, there seems to be a reading comprehension issue here so I'm going to assume English is not your native language and use the smallest words possible to make it easier for Google Translate. How to deal with Storm Conduits:
Option 1: Wait out the beam and then channel enemy totems while it's on cooldown.
Option 2: Focus on fighting the enemy units while your team brings totems down. All you have to do is move every second or so and you won't get hit because the beam charge time really is that long.
Option 3, aka the Galaxy Brain Maneuver: kill the storm conduit and THEN channel their totem.
Option 4: Swarm the Conduit with your escort units. They usually use their basic attack instead of the death beam when engaged in melee, and their basic attack is incredibly weak (similar to a Tidecaller).
Mate, I dont even need to finish reading your last post.
First, I am not the one having problems, I play since at least a month at 2k Rating and only lost a single turnament because of 2 disconnects
Second: I totally understand the TP, because anything offscreening needs to be fixed. And they are "OFFSCREENING".
Only because you can survive them, or they are not an issue for your build/strategy doesnt mean its "fine".
Most of the tactics are going to be situational, so it would honestly be easier to talk through a couple rounds I'm playing than give vague, generic tips. But if you're having trouble specifically with Kahu and his Goliaths of Night the best advice I can give you is to never backtrack. Goliaths use Earthquake, and it is not survivable by any build I've ever seen because it's pure physical damage which ignores armor. Maybe like a 20k ES managuardian could eat those aftershocks at 2k rating, but generally speaking you want to never get hit by them. And the best way to do that is do make loops through the enemy position instead of retracing your steps. There is a visual indicator of where the aftershock is going to erupt, but it can be hard to see in the chaos of a match so it's easier to just always move forward.
Re: Trawlers and Fieldmasters, you should try to destroy their traps and walls yourself before they can distract your flankers and prevent them from doing their jobs. Any area damage can break the bear traps before they're triggered, so unless you're playing a summoner just focus on clearing a path for your flankers. If you are playing minions or totems there's not a lot to be done here, you need to be able to manually target or Tasalio is just always going to be a tough matchup. In that case, I'd prioritize bringing down whichever side of the opposing base is furthest from the trawler (mercifully, Rakiata seems to be limited to one) and try to get an overwhelming numerical advantage, but I admit I'm not the person to ask when it comes to Minion Stuff.
Anyway, here's the start of my last two final rounds and some thoughts on why I bought the units I did and placed them where I did. I won both of these rounds in under 2 minutes without losing a single totem.
Game 1:
Spoiler
My escorts are Maata boars and a Spear Dancer, because they move quickly. I play very actively and aggressively, which means I need high-speed escorts who can keep up with me and help me fight enemy units and blitz down isolated totems. The two best escort units in the game are the Storm Guard and Blackbark Demolisher, but I didn't have those as options in this tournament.
My flankers are 4 sunset sages because they're the best flankers in the game, period. You said you're 2k and mentioned what a nightmare these are to play against so I'm going to assume you know this already, but I'm going to write this so someone struggling to get past 500 might learn something helpful. S Sages have every single thing you want your flankers to have: they have a disengage skill to evade enemy defenders, they have the ability to channel totems from long range, they're very tanky, and they are decently fast moving. I literally never run any other flankers if I have Sunset Sages available. If I don't, I put fast movers like Thunderbirds, Boars, Tuataras, and generic Navali Warriors here. Storm Guards and Blackbark Demolishers are also incredibly effective in this role, I would just rather have them on escort.
Defenders: this is where I'm probably going to lose some people, but the role of your defenders is NOT to kill enemy units, it's to stop them from breaking your totems. That means that above all else they need to have either very high speed or very long range. A defender who can't reach your besieged totems in time can't defend jack s**t. Thunderbirds make excellent defenders for this reason, but it's hard to do better (especially in earlier rounds) than a Tidecaller with a cyclic bauble to just spam knockback waves like they're going out of style. If you're lucky enough to pick up a Death Guide like I did here, place it in a center defense position so it can revive you and your units. If not, put a Hinekora Horn in the same exact spot for a lesser version of this ability.
Attackers: this is where you put any units which are good at killing other units, with those dealing AoE damage having an edge over those who don't. Most Tier 3 units work great here, as well as Caldera Ravagers, Goliaths of Night, the Lunar Turtle I've got 2 of, and Jade Hulks.
Bad units (Aka, the No Buy List):
Only use these if you have literally no other options, and start selling them as soon as you get up to 13+ units. Firebreathers, Frenzymongers, Titanic Shells, Honorable Sages, Spearfishers, STORM CONDUITS, Warcallers, and Moon Dancers are all priced well above their actual effectiveness. Even the ones with limited niche applications (Moon Dancer, T Shell) are still less useful than 2 units that you could get for the same price.
Game 2:
Spoiler
Same general rules for What To Get as above, with differences based on availability.
My Escorts are almost the best possible setup: 3 spear dancers and a storm guard. My posse single handedly blitzed our way in through the bottom of the enemy base, broke all 4 defender totems, broke the top flankers, then doubled back and broke Hinekora's chieftain totem.
Flankers are obviously less stacked than the first game, but 3 boars and a stealth iguana get the job done.
Attackers are a T3 Jadecrafter, a Lunar Turtle, a Goliath, and a Fieldmaster I think I started the tournament with and never got around to replacing. Same as I said above, these are your tanky brawlers whose job is killing enemies.
Defenders were Hinekora Horn in the Death Guide role, a Spearfisher I forgot to upgrade/replace, a Thunderbird, and a Consuming Boar. Not great and certainly my team's weak point, but with offense this stacked most rounds of this tournament were over in seconds.
Thanks a lot for going through those matches like that. Very useful.
I happen to play a minion build, so that may be why the trawler or that team has proved very tricky lately. Doesn't sound like there is much to do besides "play and pray" heh.
Noticed you use some units differently, however, and by what you write it sounds like you don't like Fieldmasters at all, and try to swap them out. Meanwhile, I rather like them, they're cheap and tend to mess up AI pathfinding and they waste time attacking the walls. So I like to have a few of those. Typically on the forward flank position, or the side attacker, so they can (attempt to) protect my flankers. Prefer to have Sunset sages as flankers ofc, but they're not always available, and also a tad expensive (especially if they come pre-equipped). Sometimes the right points aren't really on offer either, and converting that many points is rough. Pretty much the same reason I don't often get to try out the very expensive units, such as Blackbark warrior and so on.
I too like the expensive jade units, but oftentimes I can only afford Warcallers. Sounds like you don't like them either? I saw in some video that they had high HP, so I've used them quite a lot in attacking positions, trying to hold the line a little. But also have had one in escort. Otherwise I like to have quick units in escort, such as the mobile boars.
Really surprised to see you use the slow-as-hell Lunar turtles in attack tho. I've used those sometimes, but in defence. They have good AoE, so I figured that would be useful in defence, and they won't have to move around a lot there. Are they really good in attack? I will have to try that then, if I go back to this mode.
Being largely armour based minion build, it has been an extremely frustrating experience at high ranks. Well, most matches are fine tbh, but sometimes it's this hellish experience of just getting to play dead all match, and not really participate. Getting randomly oneshot from being greedy or whatever I'm okay with, but suddenly falling over dead with nothing else on screen, time and again, gets old (and frustrating) real fast.
Some tournaments are also kinda weird, in that there is almost no points on offer anywhere. 400 there, 300 there, 250+250 there, maybe 500 there. Hard to build a solid team then.
About Fieldmasters again, and this was a huge outlier, but one time I had so many points of that tribe, and ended up with 7 fieldmasters and a goliath in the final. AI couldn't do much anywhere, and we crushed them. That was cool.
I was a dumbass and went back to the TOTA mode. With this thread in mind, I thought maybe it would suck less arse now. But I was ofc deluded in my naive optimism.
I recoloured some items to make room for Grace instead of Determination, and removed some gems to make space for a pseudo-5-linked Phantasmal void sphere. Even so, with the cheese on the side, it got rammed down my throat at lightning pace.
It started well in fairness. Won the first 3 tournaments, and felt like I was in control. Even dared to take on Mr Cowshit twice at the start of one tournament (he had good points).
Then it predictably went sour. Ahuana in the final, but with a sucky reward, so I removed our warriors and took the loss for a reroll (yeah, I actually felt confident - how dumb I was). Re-match and still a pretty sucky reward, but off we go. Solid lineup too, and with three spear dancers in escort, a caldera ravager in attack and another in defence, plus other good units, but also some 'starting' units like tuataras. We lost and I suffered countless deaths, and soon enough the 3 sunset sages in various attacking positions tore us asunder. But at least we did SOMETHING and took down... ONE totem.
Allright. Next tournament, maybe our AI won't be turned off this time.
A few wins later, and still got a good team. Not the final yet, and I forget which opponent it was, but don't think it was Ahuana.
0.5 seconds into the match, and I'm dead on the ground from a spear dancer that flies at me from offscreen to oneshot me. I've got 79% evasion, or 74% with flasks off, but it may as well be 0% for all the good it does. Same with 75/74 block (dropped down due to gear changes on this re-work).
I'm falling over dead time and again an eye blink or three after reviving, sometimes with not a damn thing visible on screen. And I'm using Void sphere too, at least when I'm alive long enough to get the f'ing spell off.
After that match I close down the game in disgust, and I doubt (and bloody well hope!!!) that I never am stupid enough to set my feet back into that f'ing hall again.
This is, without a shred of doubt, the most infuriating, frustrating and unbalanced game or game mode I have ever experienced in my gaming life. And I'm a grown man, not a freckled kid.
If this ever goes core -- Kitava bless our souls if it does -- it needs a complete overhaul from the ground up to make it have a shred of balance and fairness. Short of that, we can "hope" GGG nerfs it into the ground, so nobody will bother setting foot there. Right now it's such a god-awful experience, I regret ever trying out the game and wasting money on it. It has one redeeming quality, namely the tattoos.
As for rewards? I got 7 chaos out of those 4.5 tournaments, at rank 2000, so hip hu-flipping-rah.
Now then, before I switch back to my usual setup of Poison SRS with an AG, this is how I ventured into the Hall of Instant Oneshots. I will try to sell the phantasmal void sphere to avoid being tempted to go back into this nightmare from the deepest trenches of Hell again.
Meanwhile I'll cross my fingers that the next league will better balanced and with a (much!) fairer gameplay. Horrendously low bar to meet, but that's where we are now. My first, and rather accidental, meeting with Sirus felt more fair than this. At least I beat the fecker.
Sorry for the long text, but writing out some of the frustrations can help, and there is also the (again) naive hope that it is valuable feedback for the few souls still working on POE1.
