Finish the game on 7 days?

[atlatea]

I guess the hardest part is the early game, but loreangelicus is right, CW offer many things which ease early game. Well, this is some input from me for reference.

KB CW offer a lv 5 unit that is not a random spawn (rune mage), and you can get this early, warrior and paladin can get this at the end of scarlet, ofc this is if you have grand strategy medal lv 2, which is easily doable.

As warrior or paladin, usually it's just thorn or the new orc tracker, orc shaman is also good (but i prefer tracker), and inquisitor for support (pet dragon spam). Pet dragon kick attack and treasure dig are top priority.

After clearing all enemies in debir except heroes, amelie usually have enough lv to tackle some of the heroes if not most with just that setup (might have to add royal snake), though she must kill them as quickly as possible, or some losses is unavoiable due to flame arrow or poison skull, but grand strategy 2 is top priority. Left some of the heroes which is impossible to kill without loses, because you'll go back to this island later. Just kill to get grand strategy 2 and level, leadership must reach 2k asap

Scarlet is almost the same as debir, pet dragon do half to almost all the work and the mission is same (Just kill to get grand strategy 2 and level, leadership must reach 2k asap), especially if you have trap spell early (as mentioned by impy), yet from my experience, trap in CW is buggy (units that are forced to enter the trap won't lose their turn). By the end of scarlet, paladin and warrior can get rune mage, this unit always spawn in debir (royal university) and scarlet (small island).

Though with high luck you can get call of colosus spell, if you get this spell, try to get red dragon or troll, yet this way is not 100% guaranteed, i mean getting the scroll (not the red dragon after you have the scroll). But rune mage usually suffice, ofc in case of damage, it is not as great as red dragon, but it is there for rage gatherer, tanker, debuffer, and summoner. If you utilize it right, it can come close to red dragon.

After getting rune mage and most of scarlet is cleared, as usual go to bolo. Left most or all of your units (up to you though), and switch to droids. You can still bring the inquisitor for extra rage gatherer and more dmg dealer (rune mage can resurrect them). Most of bolo can be cleared with just this setup (including heroes, and even the rusty anchor map guard, not sure about verona guard though).

In rusty anchor, things become much easier, because there is another lv 5 unit which always spawn, the green dragon. You can left all your army and use only the green dragon or otherwise, up to you. Using full army means your pet dragon will level up faster but more risky to do no loss, though it's up to you, because by this time some people still aim for grand strategy 3 (so no loss is a must), yet some do the otherwise. Again, not all enemy here must be killed, because you'll back to this island later (unless you want to skip that quest). By the time you arrive at verona, things become much more easier, so no specific input there.

It must be noted that losses won't decrease your final score (it just affect your pride when other peoples look at your score and personal satisfaction), unless you use a mod to modify how to calculate the score.

At this point, losses are acceptable unless you still aim for grand strategy 3. Though it must be noted that high amount of losses means less gold, gold is still very important at this point, because a very good artifact which usually cost 20k to 50k or more might spawn early. Another thing is, by this time your units is still few, so even a little losses might have a big impact, not only affect your gold, but also time required to restock them (you need to go to bolo which is a very waste of time, unless you still have some bussines there).

Though as paladin resurrection build (there are 2 major build for paladin), at this point you should have resurection 1 or maybe even 2, with this you can have losses as the resurection skill will resurect them anyway. But it must be noted that it will count as casualties/losses at the score screen, again it must be noted that losses/casualties doesn't affect score (only your pride and personal satisfaction). If you use paladin with resurection, i recommend taking losses, but keep in mind to your losses, calculate it, so all your losses will be resurected completely. Why taking losses? the advantage of taking losses is you can tackle enemies at the time when it is too impossible to tackle if you're going no loss (this is only for paladin with resurection though), the purpose of this? it is obvious, high jump on anything, i mean getting very high amount of gold, level, pet dragon, and aquiring late game island map early.

[bucazaurus]

As i found out recently , in CW due to the new artefacts (Wanderer Gloves) combined with a flaw in Pet Dragon's Wall ability (has no aggro on enemy , unless they can't reach any of your units) you can abuse the combo Mana accelerator - Holy Anger - Teleport spell for unlimited usage during battles.

In the picture attached i entered the battle with only 2 Inquisitors and 1 Demonologist , but at this point by using the Fire Dragon for kite i can play unlimited rounds because i will never run out of Rage\Mana since i get 22 mana and 30 rage (-19 rage for casting mana accelerator = 11 rage profit) for 15 mana spent. This is a major flaw in my opinion.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by bucazaurus

As i found out recently , in CW due to the new artefacts (Wanderer Gloves) combined with a flaw in Pet Dragon's Wall ability (has no aggro on enemy , unless they can't reach any of your units) you can abuse the combo Mana accelerator - Holy Anger - Teleport spell for unlimited usage during battles.

In the picture attached i entered the battle with only 2 Inquisitors and 1 Demonologist , but at this point by using the Fire Dragon for kite i can play unlimited rounds because i will never run out of Rage\Mana since i get 22 mana and 30 rage (-19 rage for casting mana accelerator = 11 rage profit) for 15 mana spent. This is a major flaw in my opinion.

Actually the Wanderer Glove existed in the Armored Princess Gift Pack Official Mod, which they included in Crossworlds.

Sure if you cast two teleports in two rounds (or burn a double cast), you will have enough rage to convert to more mana.

Stone Walls have two rounds of rest periods, so this is annoyingingly long to setup. If you burn Awaken Dragon to set it up, that seems like a fairly expensive way to suck up rage, although with a weaker army, this is the expected strategy.

Inquisitors are going to run out of Holy Anger, although with two of them, you got quite a stock pile.

And I suppose the Demonologists get buffed everytime you cast teleport and you get another 10 rage.

I don't see how this is really out of control if they do not Aggro the Stone Wall. e.g. if your Dragon of Chaos was garbage, they could simply annihilate it, and they will proceed to break down the wall.

Even against bosses, they jack up Rage generation by killing their summons for insane rage, so you can convert to mana. So the idea of unlimited mana doesn't seem too nutty, not to mention it takes a while to build up.

Tactically, this doesn't seem much different than casting target on any ol flying tank.

As for mana restoration, with transmute and mana accelerator, in most conventional battles with a Mage, I can end up with nearly full mana, or full mana anyways, even after using it on Ancient Phoenix AND Dragon of Chaos and possibly at a much faster pace.

And, while I do like the Wanderer's Gloves, I like wearing other things Haha

[bucazaurus]

This tactics helps you to level up your Pet Dragon and max out his vital abilities , without doing anymore then few battles and without investing any rune in Rage Control - Training - Anger skills from Might Tree. (For a Mage it's a pretty good deal ) .
Inquisitor are there for the initial Rage you need in the first 2 rounds of the battle. You open the battle without casting any spell until you get the Rage for building the first wall. After that you cast Awaken Dragon - Summon Fire Dragon
or Phoenix . Second round you complete the blockade and start kitting . The enemy will always go for the summon since the other troops are blocked behind the walls and because of summon's higher speed they will never catch him .
When you consider the Pet Dragon has got enough experience or when you get bored ,you can start using spells to finish the battle .
(Trap spell does wonder ) And since you can't run out of mana , that shouldn't be a problem .

[atlatea]

From my experience, my pet dragon skills always as i need it to be.

I mean, if your pet dragon skill is too high you won't be able to use it anyway (because you don't have sufficient rage). This is especially for mage, because mage has the lowest amount of rage.

Mage doesn't need training, but she need rage, and rage need 1 lv of training.

Just defeat 1 green dragon at rusty anchor or scarlet wind + 1 lv of training = +40% bonus experience to pet dragon, that should suffice, unless you play warrior class.

And i don't see any reason why i should lv my pet dragon skills beyond my capabilities to use it.

And i hate long long battle, more than 20 turn is a no.

[bucazaurus]

From my experience with mage class , i never have the opportunity to use him more then 1 or 2 times per battle and because of that i never gain enough exp with Pet Dragon. So in latest battles when i wanted to use Ball of Lightning to soften the huge stacks i never had the skill maxed.

You said :

And i don't see any reason why i should lv my pet dragon skills beyond my capabilities to use it.

It's 35 Rage beyond any mage capabilities ? Come on !

[atlatea]

From my experience with mage class , i never have the opportunity to use him more then 1 or 2 times per battle and because of that i never gain enough exp with Pet Dragon. So in latest battles when i wanted to use Ball of Lightning to soften the huge stacks i never had the skill maxed.

You said :

And i don't see any reason why i should lv my pet dragon skills beyond my capabilities to use it.

It's 35 Rage beyond any mage capabilities ? Come on !

I don't use 35 rage ball of light, i don't even know if it can reach that amount of rage requirement, because i halt the lv of my ball of light after it reach 25 rage. Its power always suffice for me.

Besides, it depends on playstyles.

If you don't do map kiting, your pet dragon is always enough for you, and using your technique will result in rage requirement is beyond the mage capabilitie, that is especially true in early game, that is what i mean by beyond the mage capabilities.

Early game is the hardest part of the game, and you have about 25 rage when you're at rusty anchor as a mage.

My setting is blind games (no scanner used), no loss at impossible, always aim for 7 days run (though not always succeed in doing so), no map kiting.

I don't do high lv run, but i follow unicornxp island route (sometimes i modify it according to circumtances since i play blind game).

Using that setting, my pet dragon always outleveled me by 2 or 4 lv higher, the rage requirements always reach my limit, untill i arrive at dersu or elon (verona->montero->verona->elon/dersu->elon/dersu). Using that route, at elon i already have sufficient rage to use the 25 rage ball of light, to me that is already sufficient.

And usually by the time i finish the game, my pet dragon already reach lv 54, that is already pretty high and enough for mage.

That's why for my playstyles i don't see any reason to maxing pet dragon skills early.

[ckdamascus]

Originally Posted by bucazaurus

From my experience with mage class , i never have the opportunity to use him more then 1 or 2 times per battle and because of that i never gain enough exp with Pet Dragon. So in latest battles when i wanted to use Ball of Lightning to soften the huge stacks i never had the skill maxed.

You said :

And i don't see any reason why i should lv my pet dragon skills beyond my capabilities to use it.

It's 35 Rage beyond any mage capabilities ? Come on !

My Mage has been fairly Rage-Tastic due to a bit of luck and playstyle.

The Gladiator Sword actually spawned for me early on (in Bolo), so that helped a lot. Not sure if a lot of people are aware of it, but raising your MAX Rage will INCREASE your Rage Generation rate as well.

I still needed Anger later on though.

As for how I increase Rage? I'm a summoner mage, so rage comes fairly easily. With the Ancient Phoenix, I do triple hits (RAGE!), and I burn triple times (MORE RAGE!).

The Dragon of Chaos does double hit (RAGE!!!) (or triple, more RAGE!), and always burns the enemy (RAAAAAGGE!)

Oh yeah, add in oil mist so you can do more Rage-a-licious damage.

Because the summons are so strong, I can afford to use Crushing Blow instead of Ball of Lightning, which is probably the most efficient method of gaining XP, since it can be used every round. You will level MUCH MUCH faster if you use Crushing Blow instead of Ball of Lightning. I only really used Mana Accelerator to help me pay off the stupid Guardian Angel spamming (I like having a lot of mana at the end of battles). Throw in the Dragon Slayer medal and you should be cruising by the time you really need a high level Ball of Lightning.

Even though Ball of Lightning gets really strong once you add in the +1 Rest, it makes it horrible for XP due to the rest.

Dragon Dive is also good, but I don't gain Rage fast enough (sniffles) since I only have 2 dragon stacks, and 2 rune mage stacks, (so, dealing with a partial army).

Although in the early game, my Pet Dragon was lower level than me. Once I got Anger Level 1, strong enough summons, my Pet Dragon has been out levelling me as usual.

Typically my Mages have lower level Pet Dragons than me.