Best Ancient Wonders

[Mykan]

Playstyle, playstyle playstyle.

Your question has no right answer as we all play differently and your playstyle decides the best wonder. If you can define your playstyle , the more the better, than it is easier for people to tailor their response to that playstyle. An example is, one could say "Thrones of High men is the best wonder", now for an economy playstyle it is terrible, but for a ranking playstyle the answer starts to change.

Best AW with no conditions:

Golden Abyss
.

Late game there is no conditions but earlier on there is a big condition on this one. When you get it it is teriible and a normal residence is better except for gold production which is less of an issue than population early on. Later though it is a great wonder for the reasons you mention.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Honestly, it seems like ALL the AW's are nothing but raging dumpster fires until about Dwarves and on.
The joys of everything being %-based and all.

 

[SunsetDanar]

@Reiq
Awesome list.

I agree! I'll pronounce the name as "Rike" until corrected.

I've tried to build an army but so far have failed miserably. I've tried to follow all of the advice from Soggy's and Crazy Wizard's sites and others advise as well but still usually end up wearing my butt cheeks up around my ears and losing soldiers in the interim. I upgrade, train and fight to, mostly a resounding defeat. I even get a bad deal on auto fight whenever I'm favored so I quit trying...At least for now, but I've elected not to place any of the battle related AW's...And again, for now.

It's already been said that there really are no best AW's (Although there seems to be some pretty poor ones), some work better than others for your playing style. I think you'll do well in considering the advise already offered...

 

[samidodamage]

SunsetDanar have you tried following the advice in this thread:
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/combat-101.4968/
Watching how this works was the single biggest help to me in learning to fight and not get demolished. It really helped that I could do it in the early rounds of the tournament when squad sizes were very small, therefore losses were smaller. My issue now is that I've never really made up for ignoring my military for the first several months I played, not even training troops. So I've never been able to develop a troop inventory. Even in tournaments, I'll sometimes run out of troops. With everything upgraded, I'm training a bit over 200 troops every 45 minutes, so the training queue runs out on me overnight and anytime I'm AFK for a few hours during the day.

 

[Mykan]

For those interested in wonders that provide supplies this may be of interest.

Numbers are for Elves, Humans vary slightly in chapters 2 and 3 only.

This compares the 3 supply production wonders across each chapter and the highest level workshop available for that chapter. This is based on free to play workshops and supporting culture and residences. You will notice on a per square basis a workshop is a little blip in the graph (123/square in halfling chapter).

All numbers are based on 24 hours (except ToS which is by scout). You need to make your own adjustments for:

• Scout times
• Number of collection of prosperity towers (Graph uses 8 in 24 hours for normalisation of data)
• Culture bonus
• Frequency of spells
• More efficient diamond or event buildings to reduce residence and culture support costs.
• Frequency of production on workshops
• Preference of secondary functions which are completely ignored for above.

I can get the hard numbers if people really want them. In brief ToS is 25% higher than Prosperity towers if you scouted once per day and 2.5 times higher than Endless Excavation.

 

[DeletedUser3602]

@Reiq : you don't mention the Enar's Embassy in your list. It's supposed to give you mana when you scout (and it produces broken shards, but who cares). I was thinking of building it, but since it's not on your list, maybe I better not?

 

[SoggyShorts]

@Reiq : you don't mention the Enar's Embassy in your list. It's supposed to give you mana when you scout (and it produces broken shards, but who cares). I was thinking of building it, but since it's not on your list, maybe I better not?

It's good until you get the abbey, better at mana production than a willow or library, so if you have the runes go for it, just don't get too attached

 

[DeletedUser3602]

It's good until you get the abbey, better at mana production than a willow or library, so if you have the runes go for it, just don't get too attached

Okay, thanks.

 

[qaccy]

@The Unbeliever
No doubt the time for a heavy melee unit will come eventually, but I don't think it's necessarily a 'finally' moment.. Dwarves gave us light melee, O&G gave us light ranged, Woodelves gave us mages, and Halflings gave us heavy ranged. Looking at how they've been released, it could be the next batch of AWs or it could be the pair afterward. If we're trying to look for a pattern where there isn't one, of course.

Also probably coming down the pipeline at some point would be AW bonuses for light melee attack and for increasing the speed of the Training Grounds. Maybe also a bonus that reduces recruitment costs?

 

[SoggyShorts]

I'm impatiently waiting though for Inno to finally give us the 'barracks heavy inf' unit/3hrs.

No doubt the time for a heavy melee unit will come eventually

Or perhaps it will never come. You can already get all 5 types without using barracks:
Light melee - Dwarven Bulwark
Light range - Shrine of Shrewdy Shrooms
Heavy Melee - Vallorian Valor
Heavy Ranged - Grounds of Orc Strategist
Mage - Flying Academy
While it would be interesting if we could get all 15 types from event/AW buildings I'm not sure that's where onno is headed. Then again I'm not sure inno knows where inno is headed

 

[qaccy]

@SoggyShorts

While true that you can get all 5 unit types from non-training buildings, specifically the Barracks units are only missing heavy melee in representation, with the additional note that they currently all come from AWs and event buildings are reserved for the 'specialized' units. I do believe that it's only a matter of time before the 'set' is complete with an AW that produces Paladins/Treants, regardless of what is available from event buildings.

Regarding event buildings, I believe they're created with the express purpose of appealing to a particular race (humans or elves) by providing a late-game unit that covers a weakness in your military. Orc Strategists fit the bill for humans, who have a fairly lackluster heavy range unit in general compared to elves with their Golems. To a lesser degree, Vallorians are this to elves, who lack a 'ranged' heavy melee unit and this can be a powerful advantage as well, on par with something like Strategists having vastly superior damage/health over Mortars. This also serves to keep 'balance' by having one event building be (mostly) appealing for each race.

If Inno ever comes out with another troop-producing event building, my money's on Blossom Mages to the benefit of elves, for the reasons outlined above.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

I just wish the Flying Academy was better. Free mage units? Good for humans, crappy for elves. Merc camp speed? Good for elves, crappy for humans. Either way, you get something that isn't useful to you.

Where the Woodelves AWs always meh?

 

[DeletedUser8946]

@Reiq Awesome list, I agree with most of the stuff on it. I build pretty much every AW I can. I only sacrifice a couple, like EE for the Towers. One question, though. I've not gotten it, but it seems sweet. Enar's Embassy. Mana per scout is nice, and more scouting's nice if you still have the Tome as well. Broken shards every few days might seem more awesome to me because of my fondness for AWs, though.

I'm not too smart in AWs, however. Highest city's only Dwarven.

 

[qaccy]

I just wish the Flying Academy was better. Free mage units? Good for humans, crappy for elves. Merc camp speed? Good for elves, crappy for humans. Either way, you get something that isn't useful to you.

Where the Woodelves AWs always meh?

I like both bonuses on the Academy. Mercenary Camp provides access to both Rangers and Blossom Mages, which I do employ as a human player. The Ranger is the only light range unit players have access to that can strike back, as well as the highest movement and unrivaled mage bonuses. The Blossom Mage is more of a niche use for the rare battle where that heavy melee defense bonus actually proves necessary. They also deal slightly more damage than the Priests do.

I think it's just normal that AW bonuses are going to have varying values depending on playstyle and in the case of the battle wonders, racial choice. As another example to go with yours, the Temple of Toads is essentially like that for humans. Mortars suck compared to Golems! But the damage increase is a welcome bonus for the sake of Orc Strategists, at least.

 

[Mykan]

@Reiq Awesome list, I agree with most of the stuff on it. I build pretty much every AW I can. I only sacrifice a couple, like EE for the Towers. One question, though. I've not gotten it, but it seems sweet. Enar's Embassy. Mana per scout is nice, and more scouting's nice if you still have the Tome as well. Broken shards every few days might seem more awesome to me because of my fondness for AWs, though.

I'm not too smart in AWs, however. Highest city's only Dwarven.

Yeah the synergy for scouting with ToS and Enar's Embassy is nice, especially if you are scouting regularly.

If you like wonders have a look at the comparison of EE compared to a workshop (my post above). Even on level 1 the EE is very powerful per square compared to a normal workshop and that gap is only increasing every chapter in favour of the EE. Granted your use of spells, activity and other factors will reduce this gap but it is something you may want to monitor every chapter as you may find this wonder better than a workshop allowing you to add another wonder to your collection and remain efficient.

 

[DeletedUser3640]

@Reiq : you don't mention the Enar's Embassy in your list. It's supposed to give you mana when you scout (and it produces broken shards, but who cares). I was thinking of building it, but since it's not on your list, maybe I better not?

@Reiq Awesome list, I agree with most of the stuff on it. I build pretty much every AW I can. I only sacrifice a couple, like EE for the Towers. One question, though. I've not gotten it, but it seems sweet. Enar's Embassy. Mana per scout is nice, and more scouting's nice if you still have the Tome as well. Broken shards every few days might seem more awesome to me because of my fondness for AWs, though.

I actually forgot one. Haha. Personally I like it, but it's not a good AW:

1) secondary effect is a joke;
2) it's big and expensive;
3) value drops as your scouting times increase in duration;
4) tricky to use to max potential*.

*Keep in mind mana decay. If you don't time your scouting properly, then value of this AW drops even more.

 

[DeletedUser8946]

Broken Shard production's not a joke for ME. Especially because I'm running around trying to nab almost all the AWs. I know the production is SLOW, but still.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

Broken Shard production's not a joke for ME. Especially because I'm running around trying to nab almost all the AWs. I know the production is SLOW, but still.

That production rate is 1 broken shard per week. I can get 4 or 5 from a tournament each week without too much effort. I consider that not worth the space. I will have to evaluate the mana production when I get there, but I think that will likely be by handled by other mana producers.

 

[DeletedUser8946]

@TedGrau yeah, I know it's crazy slow. Still, I have no other way to get 'em besides tournaments and the occasional Rune.

 

[SoggyShorts]

@TedGrau yeah, I know it's crazy slow. Still, I have no other way to get 'em besides tournaments and the occasional Rune.

The reason people say it's a joke is that there are lots of ways to use 28 squares to get more than 1 broken rune shard every 7 days.
Any military building or factory will make enough goods or troops to get more than 1 extra broken rune shard each tournament.