Higher losses in recent tournaments

[qaccy]

It's extremely easy to test. Apply a damage buff, go into a battle where at least one of the enemy units matches the damage buff and is something players can train, and see if the damage they deal lines up with the damage the game says they should be dealing. No need to guess or assume about whether the issue's been fixed when all you have to do is jump into a battle and compare numbers. In the case of the current gems tournament, Orc Strategists would be the unit that's bugged if it's still going on. Anyone with a Fire Phoenix and/or Temple of the Toads can test this.

 

[Alistaire]

@Alistaire I believe a QA moditator in Beta also stated the hotfix and that it applied to all enemy units. https://beta.forum.elvenar.com/inde...ng-more-damage-than-intended.14012/post-80143

Fixed - [29101]Forest Warden doing more damage than intended

wasn't it for all the units from training ground and merc ?

beta.forum.elvenar.com

I haven't had a chance to do today's tourney yet but at least for me the past 2 weeks have been better. I'll see how it is when I play later today. It's possible that it might not be fixed.

Yeah I'd heard they were testing a fix on beta but last I heard it was on beta only so far. In any case I @'d Fairy Dust on that thread I linked to confirm so we'll see how they respond.

 

[samidodamage]

I'm with @T6583 there was a noticeable difference in difficulty for the dust tourney. In addition to testing for enemy damage (which had come back in line with expected damage with no additional boosts), there was also discussion by lots of folks in the FS about it being the easiest dust tourney we'd seen in a while. Considering that it's second only to the dreaded scrolls tourney in troop losses, the losses were still high, but not unmanageable this time. Smaller cities were even going farther with troops before having to cater.

 

[qaccy]

I didn't really observe any difference in this past dust tourney compared to previous ones. I had higher losses overall, but that's because I went in without a UUU building like I usually do so I had lower health on my units. Still though, with the bug being fixed, everything that happens during a battle and over the course of a tournament will fall within what's considered normal.

As an aside, from this fighter's perspective, tournament 'difficulty' (and losses) can generally be ranked from hardest to easiest as follows:
Scrolls > Dust > Crystal > Silk > Elixir > Planks > Gems > Marble > Steel
This order will shuffle depending on whether or not you have boost effects available and what units you have unlocked, but this is roughly how it looks for a player who at least has all 5 unit types available. The important takeaway though is that one should NOT expect roughly equal losses from each tournament because that is definitely not the case, bugs or not. Units with range have a significant advantage so the tournaments/encounters that allow you to use them are the ones where you'll see the fewest losses.

 

[The Unbeliever]

For Humans, I find Silk + Crystal to be *much* easier than Plank + Elixir...
Paladin may not be the greatest, but he's still far, far better than the useless flaming trashbag that's the stupid Mortar.

If you don't have access to Orc Strats as a human, you're going to have a very bad time of it in the Plank/Elixir since Mortars will seemingly routinely lose event against the units they supposedly hard-counter.
(mostly because they do jack-all for damage... again, it gets a lot better for a human player if you've got Orc Strats and/or the Brown Bear)

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

As an aside, from this fighter's perspective, tournament 'difficulty' (and losses) can generally be ranked from hardest to easiest as follows:
Scrolls > Dust > Crystal > Silk > Elixir > Planks > Gems > Marble > Steel

Then why for years, was it always said that if a fellowship wanted to get all 10 chests, they should use the Planks tourney, since it was the easiest? And only within the past several months, have people said Steel is now the easiest, instead of Planks? I still find Planks to be the second easiest after Steel.

 

[T6583]

I’m not having any issue in general with this tourney. Losses are as expected. I find Gems to be a bit harder than some of the others. I’m trying to remember where I saw it but I read somewhere that Elves have an easier time with certain provinces such as Elixir than Humans do, while Humans have an easier time with the Gems tourney. Not sure if it’s true or not. Both of my cities are Elves. I personally find the Marble, Steel, and Elixir tourneys the easiest. Scrolls is hands down the hardest for me.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

A lot depends on your AW levels as well, both in defense/damage boosts as well as production speed. I used to dread scrolls tournaments, but I don't even know if I put them at the top of the hard list anymore (Elf endgame) - Granite Golems/Strategists clean this up nicely with UUU and Fire Phoenix. Well, even with those boosts dogs still do melt in 6* rounds, so losses are still high if mages show up en masse.

I'd say at the moment right up there are Dust (because light melee) and Gems (banshees are good but are squishy and no range, so I have to put UUU, Phoenix and 2x MMM). Silk is not far behind (because melee).

For everything else I don't even put up UUU. Definitely wouldn't put Crystal high on the list - Treants/Vallorians/Banshees do a good job there even without UUU, even though losses are a bit higher than ideal. With UUU it would be a cake.

 

[Arayla]

...banshees are good but are squishy and no range...

I agree about banshees. I've started using the Vallorian Guard in situations that involve mostly heavy ranged with 1 or 2 light ranged and 1 or 2 heavy melee. This week I put down 2 MMM, fed the Phoenix, and those lizards still equal/outperform the banshee.

 

[qaccy]

For Humans, I find Silk + Crystal to be *much* easier than Plank + Elixir...
Paladin may not be the greatest, but he's still far, far better than the useless flaming trashbag that's the stupid Mortar.

If you don't have access to Orc Strats as a human, you're going to have a very bad time of it in the Plank/Elixir since Mortars will seemingly routinely lose event against the units they supposedly hard-counter.
(mostly because they do jack-all for damage... again, it gets a lot better for a human player if you've got Orc Strats and/or the Brown Bear)

I did mention that the order will shuffle depending on other factors. Mortars and Frogs in particular benefit massively from damage increases. With Frog Princes and a Fire Phoenix, Elixir is arguably the easiest province to fight in because you can simply kill or severely weaken everything before it ever makes it to you (the fact that Frog Princes are the only heavy range unit with a debuff that increases damage taken rather than reducing damage dealt is huge here), and that's the underlying balance issue with Elvenar's battle system as a whole. It's incredibly skewed in favor of range, almost to the exclusion of any other factors. It doesn't matter if your units are strong against the enemy units if they're still killed before they get the chance to attack. That's why the most recent Crystal tournament caused this thread to pop up. Sure, there was also a fairly significant bug in the game, but replacing the enemy Cannoneers with Frog Princes really hammered home for a lot of people just how imbalanced the five unit types are.

Instead of trying to be general, I'll go ahead and revise my difficulty ranking based on what each tournament costs for me to fight through:
Scrolls > Dust > Crystal > Silk > Gems > Planks > Marble > Steel > Elixir

I pretty much gauge tournament 'difficulty' by what round I can make it to before I start losing full squads of units in a battle. For Steel, I can make it up to round 4 before this begins to happen, and it happens first in the encounters which consist of 4 Thieves and 2 Thornrose Mages, the 'worst' battle in a tournament that favors light ranged units. For any of the 4 tournaments that revolve around using melee units, I'm already seeing full squad losses just in the first round. The others fall in between. Gems has been sliding backwards towards the more difficult end because I'm still stuck using Priests, but upgrades from the last 3 chapters have made other tournaments a lot easier. Marble's gotten Blossom Princesses and even Forest Wardens, Planks got Senior Orc Strategists, and Elixir got Frog Princes.

Anyway, perhaps my posts are long-winded but so many people don't bother with really looking at the game's battle system that I feel it's necessary to explain things in a little more detail.

 

[EarthbornIcarus]

A city in chapter 3 with five tournament provinces uncovered would be at it's upper-explored-provinces and have the 5th in it's outermost ring, which would affect how difficult the fifth province would be. Are you talking about the first round of the fifth province, or the fifth round of hte fifth province? Because the latter should be pretty tough, and maybe impossible without excellent tactics and troop mixes (or extra military boosts).

Hi Ali...its pretty much all battles after the first 4 provinces, from day 1 to 5. I have not been able to get as much done as I have on any other world when at same level & chapter. but, this is just my general feelings,---not a recorded math experiment. Catering seems harder as well, larger amounts asked for than usual, but like I said, I didnt record every little scrap of info. I pushed harder than usual....out to province 10-12 while in chapter 3.
I'll be the first to admit I still have much to learn about the military side.

 

[EarthbornIcarus]

A city in chapter 3 with five tournament provinces uncovered would be at it's upper-explored-provinces and have the 5th in it's outermost ring, which would affect how difficult the fifth province would be. Are you talking about the first round of the fifth province, or the fifth round of hte fifth province? Because the latter should be pretty tough, and maybe impossible without excellent tactics and troop mixes (or extra military boosts).

I may have pushed the limits a bit....lol being in the #1 fs on the new world ...makes us a bit crazy at times.