Hope the TOTA league mechanics never make it to the core

Thanks for the rundown. Sounds very similar to what I've been doing, tho I think you focus on items more than I have. Have preferred to upgrade units instead of spending extra favour on items.

Provided I started with 6-7 units, I typically have 4 flankers in the first match. Then 1 defender and 1 attacker, while I mostly play it defensively to keep control of the situation. But if we for example start with a spearfisher + tidecaller, both go in defence.

Have seen some different views on Fieldmasters. What is yours?

I quite like them, and have often had a few in the team. That has often been 1-2 fieldmasters in the forward flanker positions, thinking their walls would help defend the second flankers, let's say a thunderbird or sunset sage.

For the most part I've also filled out escorts last, but in the last stint I had I tried to pick 1-2 escorts before everything else was filled out due to some other thread about it. That little experiment aside, I liked to do as you did (I think). Filled out flankers first, then attack and defend more or less equally. And escorts last, which would typically mean the crap units like honoured sages and honoured warriors. Tended to put Firebreathers in attack tho, until replaced, as I figured they could maybe do something there, as opposed to blowing themselves up and then I have a man down in defence. They are decent in AI hands because everything will oneshot us, but in human hands they do almost no damage, so are useless.

Anyway, maybe the biggest difference is simply down to skills, as in manual dodging. I find matches up to around mid-tournament are more manageable, because the field isn't full of units then. Once the AI is full, somebody can oneshot me pretty much no matter where I am, so it doesn't take much bad luck/coincidence to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or having some jerk like goaliaths jumping into the screen and blowing up most of that screenspace, with me in it. Or Tawa-nuke-U leisurely doing just that from the other side of the arena. Gosh, that is so frustrating, with nothing else on the screen.

Like I have said 100 times now lol, really badly balanced. No wonder many people go 1 HP, cause it doesn't make much practical difference with 5000 HP or 1 HP. You die after 1 hit anyway.

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Pangaearocks wrote:

Have seen some different views on Fieldmasters. What is yours?

I quite like them, and have often had a few in the team. That has often been 1-2 fieldmasters in the forward flanker positions, thinking their walls would help defend the second flankers, let's say a thunderbird or sunset sage.

Mixed feelings, I don't consider them mandatory, would always pick camouflaged tuotara over them, and I don't get more than one Fieldmaster if I have choice.

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Pangaearocks wrote:

Tended to put Firebreathers in attack tho, until replaced, as I figured they could maybe do something there, as opposed to blowing themselves up and then I have a man down in defence. They are decent in AI hands because everything will oneshot us, but in human hands they do almost no damage, so are useless.

I ignore them if they're in enemy team, they will just slowly walk and explode after timer, so it is easy for me to walk away just before they explode - prioritizing other totems over them.

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Pangaearocks wrote:

Once the AI is full, somebody can oneshot me pretty much no matter where I am, so it doesn't take much bad luck/coincidence to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time

I don't think there is anything like bad luck there, only danger I'm not able to predict easily are archers and mirror archer totems (still learning their pattern), rest have either slow projectiles or clear telegraph attack, or need to be close to you (and this is why I tend to kill spear dancers and thunderbirds, spear dancers are quick, birds can teleport).
Tawhanuku is the chaos one? with chaos cap I can survive chaos aoe.

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Pangaearocks wrote:

Like I have said 100 times now lol, really badly balanced. No wonder many people go 1 HP, cause it doesn't make much practical difference with 5000 HP or 1 HP. You die after 1 hit anyway.

I wouldn't say it is bad balance, it is different what we got used to. I find it refreshing, fun and unique.


About items, sometimes I skip taking troops from navali, because she tend to have either dmg items or quick revive items. I think Tukohama have 50% more dmg vs totems, I usually take this for camouflaged tuatara, Ramako have extra projectiles, fun with tidecallers, caldera ravagers or spearfishers.


Why big dps can help - had a game today when something went wrong and I was left with only 2 totems (me at 10% and fieldmaster) vs Rakiata and 3 other totems, had to run back, def totems, wipe enemy team, go to attack, wipe enemy team again and clear totems one by one. So while high dps is not mandatory, it can save a game or two, chaos cap can save a life if against chaos champion.

I agree this mechanic needs to disappear or be seriously worked on. Half the time your warriors don't fulfill the assigned function and worse is that the entire balance is so out of wack between your team and the ancestor's team that you can determine the victor within 30seconds. Either it is a fair match or you will immediately see that you have no chance and you might as well just end your tournament.

Balance it or drop it completely.

Still think this mechanic is terribly balanced, but I'm also surprised how well it has gone after I ended up going back there, trying to get to level 99. Reason is that I'm not really doing anything differently. Except that I'm not trying to adapt to TOTA. Merely removed the AG and went in there, but I do have blind chance on a jewel, so that should help a little bit.

Went through 150+ coins. One tournament was 10 matches, but on average it's probably around 7. So let's say it's 20-22 tournaments. Won all of them, and think I only lost one match while trying to win. That was in the 10-match tournament against Kaom. Too many caldera ravagers and everything was blowing up constantly, so none of our units could really do anything, and slowly he grinded us into dust.

This has been very surprising to me, cause I used to lose a lot more frequently. Ofc there are still the numerous oneshots from nowhere, and staring at my corpse for 20 seconds at a time is boring. The mechanic itself is pretty samey and monotonous too. But it helps to feel like I can participate in it without feeling like a ragdog.

Very lucky with rewards as well, even got a Hinekora's Lock and +1 projectile tattoo. Super nervous in that final against Ahuana, and it was a tight affair, but glad we ended up on top in the end.

Perhaps this streak won't last and I'll begin losing repeatedly again, but felt it was fair to report back since I was suicidal enough to go back into that damn hall :o