Twilight phoenix - the first poison pill in Elvenar...

[Yogi Dave]

Twilight phoenix - the first poison pill in Elvenar...​

...that I am aware of.

The Twilight Phoenix (hereafter referred to as 'the bird') can be acquired by anyone in any chapter since the base is given early. Newbies will have the base and perhaps a handful of artifacts and perhaps they will try to buy more.

Poison pill? I certainly don't see that. People are at different levels and have different needs. That is all.
There have been complaints by various old timers that the new stuff helps the noobs while doing nothing for them. Maybe this can be considered helping those players. The change in how tourney base squad size is computed was a 'poison pill' for older players, but it was great for new players. The Twilight Phoenix, which I call the vulture, helps them. BTW, I call the resurrected troops zombies.

The usefulness of the bird becomes amazing when fully evolved and used in conjunction with a Polar Bear and at least a level 12 Timewarp. [This statement is made for the benefit of players who do not know about such things; I realize that there is a large contingent of experienced players who are already doing this - and more). The ability to do 2 rounds of the Tourney within 12 hours seems to be the minimum condition for the bird to demonstrate its usefulness, which only increases as the level of the Timewarp AW increases and allows a player to do 3, 4, 5 or all 6 rounds of the Tourney within 12 hours.

That sounds about right. I don't feed it until I'm going to be doing the upper provs of the tourney (beyond prov 25)

Therefore, this building is a liability or just plain useless for a newby to employ. It is the first and only building that I am aware of that should be acquired but remain in inventory until the completion of chapter 14.

Not a bad idea. This isn't the first building that I wouldn't use in a low chapter. Those that will produce mana or seeds in later chapters didn't attract me since I was producing all the coins, hammers and goods needed to progress. I also found the buildings that gave troops which I couldn't produce yet pretty worthless since they were 1-star troops, and I had 2 or 3-star troops that were better to use in all cases. Of course, saving them for later wasn't very useful either since there wasn't a way to upgrade them then and would be too expensive today to bring a chapter 3 Vallorian Valor (lizard hot tub), to a level where it produces enough troops to be of use. Just craft a new one. Same with the Grounds of the Orc Strategist (alas, no silly name)

I also have buildings I'll never use since I'm in the upper chapters, but I'd use if I was in a lower chapter.

 

[Kadhrin]

The thing with the Twilight Phoenix that keeps me from using it is my lack of a polar bear. Without it, I've got only the Time Warp for tournament time reduction. Even with a level 20 Time Warp, I can get only 2 tourney rounds in one Twilight Phoenix food cycle.

Grounds of the Orc Strategist (alas, no silly name)

The Angry Axe Throwers.
They're angry because they keep missing the target.

 

[Yogi Dave]

The thing with the Twilight Phoenix that keeps me from using it is my lack of a polar bear. Without it, I've got only the Time Warp for tournament time reduction. Even with a level 20 Time Warp, I can get only 2 tourney rounds in one Twilight Phoenix food cycle.

The polar bear reduces it by 3h12m and the Timewarp at level 30 reduces it to 3h12m. So, keep working on the Timewarp for both benefits and even at level 1 the polar bear has half its total power, reducing it by 1h36m. When you get the rune upgrade to your Timewarp plus a level 1 polar bear will reduce you cooldown time to 4h48m. You should be able to get 3 rounds, if you can do a round do the rounds around every 5h, which can be tough to do with that thing called RL.

 

[MichaelMichael]

Then you know how it is.
I didnt come right out and say it, but I dont do as much as I could.
Tournies start out boring, so I do slide through the first 20-50 encounters with auto. Then patience and perseverance bring me to province 20. Then the boredom disappears and things start to get interesting (challenging) but then I just get tired of a series of 250 "mini-chess-games".
Anyway, our FS has a huge Tourney archive, so no one has to work hard and we always get 19 chests. I somehow always find myself in the first third of the FS. Those with pride of place get into the first three or so positions on the leaderboard for Harandar. I was #1, once but then only having 50 provinces keeps me below third place on the board, except during 'lazy weeks'. I've taken it about as far as I can, unless Inno comes up with more creative challanges, like a melee troop that can hit two adjacent opponents on one turn, or a minefield. Sometimes I wish for the old HoMM games.

I got through 50 Tourney provinces 6 times each for the first time this week plus a few in the 51-57 range. Fighting gets pretty tough to win provinces above 50. Supporting my higher performance was fully evolved and fed buildings: Polar Bear, Brown Bear, Twilight Phoenix and Fire Phoenix and 8 fight buildings and about 200 hours of time instants. I also maximized Goods through the Wholesaler and Troop Production (all 4 AWs) as well as maximizing my Sanctuary (defense). I have few more levels to add more offense for fighting and my mountain Halls (goods production) to get to my maximum capability. On my world, that got me a bit north of 14,000 points. With a bit more planning and more AW levels, I expect to get to 15,000 eventually, but I will never get to 24,000 using the techniques I have. I also have 15-20 more Premium Levels that I can't yet afford in diamonds. Mana and Orcs were tight but were not rate limiting. Both Goods and Troops were rate limiting although above 50, once my fight buildings were expired, were not likely to win any but the easiest combinations.

The four players above me all have multiple Twilight Phoenixes (29k/24k/15k/15k) . The only way to have multiple of those is to spend a lot of dollars for Diamonds. Two players have 6 Twilight Phoenixes, One has Nine and one has just two. Incidentally, the two players just behind me also have multiple Twilight Phoenixes but only earned 12k in the tourney. I have just the one Twilight Phoenix earned the normal way. I will continue to try to get higher scores without spending lots of $$'s but I do not think it possible to compete at the highest level in the tourney without talent plus lots of $$'s spent.

I am on Arendyll. I am just curious if anyone has seen any higher scores (above 14,000) on other servers with just one Twilight Phoenix? Or is lots of Twilight Phoenixes an absolute requirement to consistently gain the highest individual tourney scores?

 

[MichaelMichael]

Well, I have 2 Level 10 TP's (Twilight Phoenix's) and for this week's push tourney, I fed them both.

Two I can understand - you bought an event package and then a few diamonds here and there to earn the 18 upgrades. I see players in my world with 6 and 9 Twilight Phoenixes. I am curious how you viewed the purchase path to getting two - was it significant real money or did you have the diamonds to spare?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

@MichaelMichael don't forget we have those Heart instants now too, for squad healing. So in addition to the TPs, those top players may be using a bunch of those. A 100% recovery Heart to revive a dead squad in the high provinces is a lot of troops.

 

[StarLoad]

Two I can understand - you bought an event package and then a few diamonds here and there to earn the 18 upgrades. I see players in my world with 6 and 9 Twilight Phoenixes. I am curious how you viewed the purchase path to getting two - was it significant real money or did you have the diamonds to spare?

Just a bit of Diamonds from a 200% bonus offer

 

[MichaelMichael]

Just a bit of Diamonds from a 200% bonus offer

I hadn't noticed those. How often do they occur and what is the dollar outlay?

 

[MichaelMichael]

@MichaelMichael don't forget we have those Heart instants now too, for squad healing. So in addition to the TPs, those top players may be using a bunch of those. A 100% recovery Heart to revive a dead squad in the high provinces is a lot of troops.

those really don't amount to much - rarely do you lose an entire squad and not lose more than 50% on the others so you lose at least 3 squads and recover 1 still means your net loss is two huge squads. I usually take all the Heart instants possible from the Magic Academy as well as gaining some from events. I suppose I don't have the diamonds to consistently select the Royal Prizes as I still have a huge number of other uses for diamonds. (premium expansions are probably the most important). Despite having completed chapter 20, I have just 150 Provinces. Most having completed all the chapters have a lot more. I suspect I climbed faster than most.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Despite having completed chapter 20, I have just 150 Provinces. Most having completed all the chapters have a lot more. I suspect I climbed faster than most.

I think you are meaning something else here because it requires close to 600 completed provinces just to start chapter 20.

 

[Count Rupert]

I think you are meaning something else here because it requires close to 600 completed provinces just to start chapter 20.

He's talking about expansions.

 

[MichaelMichael]

He's talking about expansions

Correct.

 

[StarLoad]

I hadn't noticed those. How often do they occur and what is the dollar outlay?

if I am not mistaken it was 6400 Diamonds for 19.99US

 

[Dew Spinner]

I like my Twilight Phoenix, saves me a lot of troops when doing the Tournament all at once and combining that with doing the Spire all at once at the same time.

 

[StarLoad]

Just got a 200% offer so here is the proper value

 

[Count Rupert]

Sure tease me. I've never seen one.

 

[StarLoad]

Sure tease me. I've never seen one.

Well, now you can say you have seen one

Ed

 

[Yogi Dave]

It's interesting that the $20 shows 2400 increased to 7200 for 200% since the normal number of diamonds for $20 is 2000 but gives a 20% bonus to 2400. So, if you go by the 2000, you actually get a 260% bonus.

I got the 200% bonus several years ago and spent $100 to split between 2 cities, but after the Wishing Well bonanza, I have passed on all diamond deals, including a couple 200% ones.

Well, now you can say you have seen one

Seeing one and seeing one are two different things. <-Smart-ass smirk.

 

[SoggyShorts]

It's interesting that the $20 shows 2400 increased to 7200 for 200% since the normal number of diamonds for $20 is 2000 but gives a 20% bonus to 2400. So, if you go by the 2000, you actually get a 260% bonus.

It seems that the "2400" isn't technically a sale price, it's the regular price. That "+20%" is just a bit misleading, and actually only represents the bulk savings compared to the 500 diamond option.

 

[SuNaya Dark]

Hi.
I'm not a newbie, but I am about to enter Level 7 (Faeries) in both of my cities.
I now have the chance to craft Red Panda Master in my Magic Academy.
Is he worth the investment at Ch6 level, or should I wait?

Thanks.
- SuNaya Dark