Hello all,
I have just recently signed up and need some help about understanding the game. Things like can I get xp without dueling someone else (are the NPC monsters to duel). I have checked out the battle boards and with me being lvl 1 and the lowest being lvl 4 Im not sure if I would be able to win or even put up a good fight. Does lvl have anything to do with it? I looked for an FAQ did not find it but Im sure I could have missed it. Also I did do a sparring match with someone else how long does it take for that to finish it has been going on for about 1 or 2 days now, is that normal? Any help anyone can provide me I would be greatful for.
Lym
What does not kill you makes you stronger
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Dec 29, 2004 3:05
I hope you are up for some reading.
Well, technically, level itself has nothing to do with battle. Things determined from the level -- such as techs, practice, boosts, and life -- do impact battle.
It is best to use level as a general judgement of things, although it is possible to defeat someone well above your own level. It really depends on how good you are and how stupid they are The things that primarily determine a battle are the individual statistics (Strength, Speed, Agility, and so forth). The totals will be even for monsters, but the apportionment will make all of the difference.
If no one on the Battle Board looks to be a good challenge, follow the advice stated everywhere on the site and search for a foe instead. The Battle Board is just the place to check for someone who has a really good chance of giving you a positive response.
With the new system, battles can technically last forever, although this would take quite a bit of effort of both parties' part to never deal damage.
One or two days is normal. When you get into four and five, begin to worry. It not only means that your enemy is prolly incompetent at a fight, but also that you cannot even beat your own stupid opponent!
If you are using a majority of non-damaging techs, especially toward the end of your match, such that most messages are just maxing out something, you have made a terrible mistake. Switch your AI to start dealing damage and get the fight over with.
Non-player monsters do not exist. There was an RPG, and it is slated to comeback, but no significant experience could or will ever be able to come from it.
There are three sources of experience: web site views, web battles, and tournaments. If you do not want to mar your win/loss ratio, join a tournament. They are pretty nifty for beginners since they give you an idea of what you can fight, what you cannot, and what you are doing wrong.
LieutenantEagle
Posts: 953
Member #27
Dec 29, 2004 11:08
May I append my thoughts?
1. Before challenging, keep in mind the Elemental and Phenotype circles. Theoretically, it is possible to defeat an opponent whose Element or Phenotype beats yours; however, it is much easier when you're the one with the advantage. If you do not know the Elemental and Phenotype circles check the BD FAQ - it's there.
2. When challenging an opponent to a battle, check that he/she has some techs learned. If not, that means that the person made a BD account before version 4.0 came out and successfully forgot about it; challenging them would only mean that you would get no acception or declination.
3. Definitely, definitely get a website and put your familiar on it. Methinks I get somewhere from 5 to 20 XP per day from my website alone, and that's pretty good.
4. Your grid is everything in the battle. I can beat a person five levels above me if he/she has a poor grid. Just be sensible and don't overslot it with techs that increase/decrease stats. If your familiar is able to have healing techs, definitely have them - it's only recovery in the single digits, but heck, it makes all the difference in my Kamaitachi's battles.
5. You're not always an idiot if your battle lasts four days. Sometimes it's just a good battle. Question to MintMan: When I fought Grasspoke, was I being stupid that the battle lasted for, like, a week? No! I was using lots of healing techs to maintain my survival, but that doesn't mean I wasn't attacking. I wasn't wasting time, like healing and using stat boosters/decrementers.
Well, congratulations if you read all of my ranting, and welcome to the Reality's End Battling Dragons community! Good luck in the near future!
* uses Luck on Lymfada in BD * LieutenantEagle
President of the SMFC
Super Mario Fan Club -----------
Truth --> <-- Bush
LieutenantEagle uses Luck on Lymfada
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Dec 29, 2004 12:45
A battle against a dragon lasting a week? You were not at fault; Ash was.
Kamaitachi's healing sucks, quite frank-i-ly. I know you sing healing's praises all the time, Eagle, but get it through your head that it mostly relies on your opponent's incompetence. With Kama's blasted Virtue, your healing is far from great. I would say the only reason it is allowed to work is dodging blows with superior Agility while your life points creep slowly up.
Spending a turn and energy to undo a fraction of the enemy's may not be the best decision in the world, especially if your foe is smart enough to just blast defenses/raise offenses to entirely outdo your recovery.
Of course, few are.
Ash should have been able to stamp you out hastily. I mean, Kama is all Bestial and a few castings; Nidhogg owns all over those.
'Course, Ash10 does not exactly fight intelligently with the new system. He does like Camo did in the beginning and uses lots of spells, even when they are far from the best choice. I mean, once you get an SL 4 stat-increase under your belt, you should not be casting it again for a long time.
Using your upper-tier techs inheritly requires using your lower ones, which is fine if you really need an effect from all the way up there. However, a lot of oldbies used to using nothing but spells still think they are the way to victory; they ain't.
Sacrificing your turns with piddle techs multiple times in a row is not the way to go, especially when you begin to overly max-out stats with SL 1s.
Dude, something's wrong if you are doing that!
Everything else was sound advice, tho'. What exactly did you adopt, Lym?
Lymfada
Posts: 187
Member #214
Dec 29, 2004 17:44
Thanks guys for the tips my sparring match is still going on I have a Bennu Egg. I tried to change the AI in the middle of match but it did not seem to work. I am going to try again as the match looks like its a marathon one. Im sparring a lvl 4 Nidhogg Egg.
Lym
Lym
What does not kill you makes you stronger
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Dec 30, 2004 24:30
Oh nos! Egg battle!
Hmm, newbie egg versus level four, eh? Well, you should have the upper hand since you packed bans. Use Obelisk whenever possible -- Light destroys the Dark. That gives you two other actions every turn, so Beam, Bounce, Obelisk, repeat. Don't worry about Burn; it really is quite useless to you in this match.
And no, this match will not be nearly as long as your last. Well, it will not be if you ever get an Obelisk out!
Waitaminute... Torch and Burn? In the same match? Oh nos, you overslotted!
Bad move on your part. Lessee the line-up figured only from your battle.
You have three magic moves: Burn, Torch, and Obelisk. Burn is a cast and thus nearly worthless agaisnt a Nidhogg. Torch is a ban and thus godly against them. Obelisk is what you want to use. However, since you slotted it in EL3 instead of EL2 in order to fit in Burn (which you should not have), you cannot use Obelisk nearly as much as you should be able to. Even with this fact, Obelisk is still your best bet.
So, for future fights against the evil 'Hoggs, do the Bounce/Beam/Obelisk strategy. This time around, it looks like you will have to slow things down with Bounce/Beam/Bounce/Obelisk, Beam/Bounce/Beam/Obelisk, repeat. Damage from it will be well worth it. Trust me.
I mean, you are mutilated the poor foe with an SL1 Fire Banishment. Can you imagine what will happen at SL2 and with a stronger type Poor neglected Bennu; treat it well!
AI didn't change? You did check the box to change the battle's AI and not your default, right?
And was your battle grid loaded out and not your default grid? There is a lot to watch out for.
Lymfada
Posts: 187
Member #214
Dec 30, 2004 24:58
Thankyou very much, I am very new to this and have been able to now reset my AI. my first sparring match is still going on though will have to let you all know how it turns out.
Lym
What does not kill you makes you stronger
LieutenantEagle
Posts: 953
Member #27
Dec 30, 2004 1:16
An important point to remember is that Casting is effective against familiars with high Virtue (i.e. Monoceros), and that Banishment is effective against familiars with high Arcane (Nidhogg, duh). If you're fighting someone like Hrimfaxi (equal Arcane/Virtue), then check your own Arcane and Virtue and decide which is more effective (i.e. if your own Virtue is higher than your Arcane and your opponent's A/V are equal, you should use Bans and vice-versa).
A Bennu Egg, eh? I want to get one of those, soon as either Fox or Asfaloth reach Level 25. Both are Level 22, so I'm not too far from that.
A question for you, MintMan: I have challenged Culex's Shadow several times repeatedly, winning each time - none of my challenges were ever denied. Is this legal to do, or have I done something that is not allowed in BD? I mean, theoretically I'm not harassing the guy (if he didn't want to fight me he'd just refuse the challenge knowing that he's bound to lose), but...somehow, I have a feeling that I'm doing something illegal. If I am, then...well, I don't want to know what will happen to me.
* uses Luck which he will need plenty of in avoiding the oncoming beating for challenging Culex some five or six times * LieutenantEagle
President of the SMFC
Super Mario Fan Club -----------
The best Mario club, only for the best Mario fans!
LieutenantEagle uses Luck
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Dec 30, 2004 1:58
Most of Camo's hefty win record on Ripper Nomercy comes from the repeated pommeling given to a certain April. So long as Culex is not secretly you wearing a mustache as a clever disguise, beat 'em all you want. If he is stupid enough to lose to you that many times in a row, take full advantage.
Personally, I boosted MegaZero his only losses from his once flawless record of 5-0. I think a few others have jumped on that bandwagon since, but 'twas a good ride for my horses while it lasted!
One last thing that should be mentioned of the Magics that you were glib on -- maybe because you assumed the reader to already know it, but I still feel it should be mentioned since people can miss a lot -- is that Castings are also defended by the enemy's Arcane and Bans by Virtue. The boni received from casting against an exceptional Virtue holder or banning a very Arcane monster pale in comparison to the lack of these defensive parameters on a foe.
So once again, in order of decreasing effectiveness, when using a Casting, it goes:
Your Arcane Raises Dmg Enemy's Arcane Lowers Dmg Enemy's Virtue Raises Dmg
And contrarily, Banishments go:
Your Virtue Raises Dmg Enemy's Virtue Lowers Dmg Enemy's Arcane Raises Dmg
Lymfada
Posts: 187
Member #214
Dec 30, 2004 16:13
Hope you all dont mind if I ask another question. I am still in my sparring match, I have signed up for the Tourney on Jan 1. If my match is still going on will I still be able to participate in the tournament?
Lym
What does not kill you makes you stronger
MadGoblin
Posts: 1515
Member #2
Dec 30, 2004 19:20
Heh. Don't feel bad about asking that. There's still aged veterans who struggle with that question.
A single player may participate in one Challenge and one Tournement at a time. So, yes.
You can't be in two web battles nor two tourneys, but just one of each. This fact is held true no matter how many monsters you eventually adopt. For example, I have three. I still can only have one of each going on at the same time despite having more familiars to use.
... hopefully dragging all that other stuff in didn't add needless complication "Thank you, Spanky San, for giving Ling-Ling honor in hat form."
- Drawn Together
LieutenantEagle
Posts: 953
Member #27
Dec 30, 2004 20:01
MintMan's right. I always ignore that last critical part. It often costs me the matches....I should know better, but I don't.
LieutenantEagle
President of the SMFC
Super Mario Fan Club -----------
"At this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly outta Ronald Reagan airport." -President Dubya
draggy1234
Posts: 486
Member #97
Jan 1, 2005 17:25
My question:
Does the practice rating for spells only increase per level for each level, and not all at once at a later level? To clarify, does a practice rating of a spell require training through at least three different levels, or can it increase all the way to 100% three levels later?
I hope I didn't stick myself in a disadvantage because of this...
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Jan 1, 2005 22:50
Every level, you are allowed to train up all of your spells by a certain amount. I used some sort of Pythagorian method to do this.
Every level, the sum of the squares of all of your practice rating earned may not exceed a set constant. I think it is 1200, being so for twenty-percent in each of a familiar's three spells per level. If you put all of your training for a level into one spell, it comes up to be thirty-six percent or so.
Therefore, if you managed to get your level up really high but did not train your spell any, you would not be able to train it right up to one-hundred percent, but rather need to train it up in the steps like someone of a much lower level.
It does not need to be three levels to mastery, either. When you are training multiple spells up at once, it can take heaps of levels.
LieutenantEagle
Posts: 953
Member #27
Jan 2, 2005 12:43
Do the mastery percentages drop to zero every five levels, or does this end after Level 20? I know that Asfaloth's mastery percentages dropped from all 100% to all 0% when reaching Level 20.
I didn't get new spells, though, only stronger effects for each one. Before Level 20, I didn't even bother to use Alicorn...I mean, come on, a Moderate Attack + Minor Decrease to Defense isn't as good as a Major Attack (Smash)...so I just used that. Now, though, I start with Alicorn, then use Smash a time or two afterwards.
Y'know, MintMan, now that I think about it, Monoceroses would've been a lot better off if instead of Legendary they had a SL4 Banishment - I mean, I don't even USE Legendary since my foes will just blast me with Castings, which Legendary makes even more effective (and the agility bonus does nil, unlike Kamaitachi).
LieutenantEagle
President of the SMFC
Super Mario Fan Club -----------
All your base are belong to us.
Lymfada
Posts: 187
Member #214
Jan 2, 2005 14:24
Next question as I was looking this over,
So once again, in order of decreasing effectiveness, when using a Casting, it goes:
Your Arcane Raises Dmg Enemy's Arcane Lowers Dmg Enemy's Virtue Raises Dmg
And contrarily, Banishments go:
Your Virtue Raises Dmg Enemy's Virtue Lowers Dmg Enemy's Arcane Raises Dmg
Does this mean in a casting my arcane makes the attack more powerful, the enemys arcane decreases the damage done and lastly the lower the enemys virtue is the more damage done?
Lym
What does not kill you makes you stronger
draggy1234
Posts: 486
Member #97
Jan 2, 2005 15:58
Almost correct, lymfada. Actually, the higher the enemy's virtue, the more damage done by castings.
MadGoblin
Posts: 1515
Member #2
Jan 2, 2005 22:29
Whaaa? Draggy... was... correct? Ack! I'm dead!
Yeah, Lym, I know its a pretty freaky system. I mean, heck, I still struggle with it a bit. Arcane kinda reflects a monster's evil nature and Virtue kinda reflects a monster's good nature. So, when a monster is really evil (high Arcane), a Banishment tech will do more damage since it's, like, smiting it with goodness. This isn't literally, just more reflected in a sense, but I think it makes a good example.
Probably no other game out there has negative effects for having a higher stat, but BD was unique like that. So unique, that even tho' it was originally removed from an earlier version of the game, Ems went on and reinstated it.
Lwty, that is incorrect, Meganaut! Alicorn really is a better Smash, even at lvl 3. Sure, it has one less damage level, but it drops defense. After about just two uses of Alicorn, the foe's defense will drop enough to make the damage greater than that caused by Smash. And since every battle I know of consists of a general cycling of tech usage, you'd build up to double damage in no time. Now, unless you had some sort of SL4 defense reducer, that dropped guard is gonna come in handy.
Sheer brute force doesn't win a battle, but neither does sheer effects. Union is the key
(closest I could get to a yin-yang)
If this made sense, I'm obviously not trying hard enough.
LieutenantEagle
Posts: 953
Member #27
Jan 3, 2005 1:11
Somehow it seems that by the time I get to my third use of LV3 Alicorn, the defense down will be gone. That's why my strategy was always just flat-out Bellow+Smash...and it didn't work, as did anything
Now that Alicorn is a major attack, I start off with it, then use Smash since that's one less SL, and same damage as Alicorn plus extra due to decreased defense.
LieutenantEagle
President of the SMFC
Super Mario Fan Club -----------
"Border relations between Mexico and Canada have never been better." -President Dubya
MintMan
Posts: 4061
Member #1
Jan 3, 2005 2:11
If the defense-drop was gone, that is only more of a reason to use it. Then you'd know that you would not be overly minimizing the enemy's defense.
That, and I am sure that Alicorn is not the only attack you are using There have gotta be other physical damagees on the Monoceros' side.
And gee, why doesn't Mono get an SL 4? Oh, that's right, because the freakin' game doesn't revolve around what would be good -- it is based on mythology! In fact, no monster raising game ever sits down and thinks "Gee, what could really kick arse?" No! They always have a basis for it and let the ultimate combos show themselves true.
Show me anything that says "Monoceros's like to wander graveyards and smite the undead" and he'll get that big ban
As for forgetting mastery every five levels... what's wrong with you? "I didn't learn any new spells, but they became stronger." Well that's a new spell, ain't it? Just because the name didn't change (and hence, the picture for it) doesn't mean it isn't a new spell. You went through the same thing with Fox McBlur as a two-form creature; you should know how that song and dance goes.
Since certain creatures lack either too much description or just not enough inspiration to have as many forms as the egged or larvaed monsters, certain monsters are instead given two forms but effectively three stages.
At levels ten and twenty -- just like for three-formers -- a power boost is experienced to stats and spells. The only difference between a two-former is that its appearance does not change at these times, but instead half-way through (that is, level fifteen).
So you are not losing your practice every five levels. (I do not know where you came up with that one from.) In fact, you are technically losing nothing at all.
A spell trained to one-hundred percent operates as a technique of its given Spell Level. Thus, your Alicorn was SL 3 at 100%. Upon level up, you got an SL 4 at 0%, but as everybody knows, a completely untrained spell operates as a technique one spell level lower than it is displayed, so you traded an actual SL 3 for a technically SL 3 -- that is, until you train it up better than that.
Oh nos, you overslotted!
