You may have noticed the new color scheme. I was experiencing long load times from my computer and decided to get rid of some of the fancy Blogger In Draft features that I was playing around with.
Somewhere in that process, comment posting was disabled. It was probably a template problem and it appears to be fixed now. If you still cannot post a comment, let me know...umm, by posting a comment...HAHA!
Or you can just send me an e-mail at dignfight(at)gmail(dot)com or message me on the English server - moxSapphyre.
BTW: any comments on the black background and grey text? I like the darker theme, but readability doesn't seem as good as black text on a white background.
Here is a spell that has great potential. I'm not much of an attacker and I haven't studied the numbers enough, but Wall of Fire looks like a great way to increase the damage that you do in combat.
This spell costs a lot more time and money to research than Berserker. It costs nearly twice as much to cast as Berserker, but Wall of Fire will always do damage to every enemy creature. By the time you can use this spell, you should only be attacking with level 15 creatures (94% chance to hit) and your creatures should be hitting almost every time. My point is, that if your creature misses, Berserker won't do any extra damage. Whether your creature hits or not, Wall of Fire will always do damage to the enemy.
Casting a high-level Wall of Fire for 4000-5000 gold gets you a 2-3 hour attack window. I'll let you figure out whether or not you can turn a profit with this spell.
Description: All enemy creatures on battlefield suffer X damage.
| Level | Research Time (hours) | Research Cost | Requirements | Casting Cost (gold) | Duration (h:m:s) | X |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1000 | 1500/Wizard | Berserker lvl 5, Lightning Strikelvl 5, Library 13x13 | 1500 | 1:00:00 | 1-2 |
| 2 | 2000 | 3000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 1 | 2121 | 1:24:51 | 1-3 |
| 3 | 3000 | 45000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 2 | 2598 | 1:43:55 | 2-3 |
| 4 | 4000 | 6000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 3 | 3000 | 2:00:00 | 2-4 |
| 5 | 5000 | 7500/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 4 | 3354 | 2:14:09 | 2-4 |
| 6 | 6000 | 9000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 5 | 3674 | 2:26:58 | 2-5 |
| 7 | 7000 | 10500/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 6 | 3969 | 2:38:44 | 3-5 |
| 8 | 8000 | 12000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 7 | 4243 | 2:49:42 | 3-6 |
| 9 | 9000 | 13500/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 8 | 4500 | 3:00:00 | 3-6 |
| 10 | 10000 | 15000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 9 | 4743 | 3:09:44 | 3-6 |
| 11 | 11000 | 16500/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 10 | 4975 | 3:18:59 | 3-7 |
| 12 | 12000 | 18000/Wizard | Wall of Fire lvl 11 | 5196 | 3:27:51 | 3-7 |
This is what happens when you don't scout. If you don't know what the Keepers around you are up to, how can you expect to make a profit by attacking?
Keep in mind that this attack takes place in the Top 100 on the English server. What in the world was he thinking attacking with level 6 creatures?
- Scout a little. Use a Glowworm to attack each potential target once (see puzzle #4). A Glowworm only costs 300 gold and will detect 0% defense ALL the time.
- After you scout, attack with appropriately leveled creatures. Gronk9 could have very easily lost 3 more Devilers. That would have been expensive and time-consuming to replace. Notice the damage difference, his creatures took 5x more damage than my defenders took.
- At least Gronk9 attacked with a full squad of Devilers. A squad of mixed creature types would have resulted in more deaths.
Call me narrow-minded, but I really do not see the value in a spell that damages EVERY creature on the battle field. This reminds me of Pestilence from Magic: The Gathering, maybe if there was another spell that you can combo with, Earthquake might be useful, but I just don't see it.
Description: ALL creatures (including yours) on the battlefield suffer X damage.
| Level | Research Time (hours) | Research Cost | Requirements | Casting Cost (gold) | Duration (h:mm:ss) | X |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 900 | 1000/Wizard | ??? | 1000 | 1:00:00 | 1-2 |
| 2 | 1800 | 2000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 1 | 1414 | 1:24:51 | 1-3 |
| 3 | 2700 | 3000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 2 | 1732 | 1:43:55 | 2-3 |
| 4 | 3600 | 4000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 3 | 2000 | 2:00:00 | 2-4 |
| 5 | 4500 | 5000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 4 | 2236 | 2:14:09 | 2-4 |
| 6 | 5400 | 6000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 5 | 2449 | 2:26:58 | 2-5 |
| 7 | 6300 | 7000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 6 | 2646 | 2:38:44 | 3-5 |
| 8 | 7200 | 8000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 7 | 2828 | 2:49:42 | 3-6 |
| 9 | 8100 | 9000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 8 | 3000 | 3:00:00 | 3-6 |
| 10 | 9000 | 10000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 9 | 3162 | 3:09:44 | 3-6 |
| 11 | 9900 | 11000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 10 | 3317 | 3:18:59 | 3-7 |
| 12 | 10800 | 12000/Wizard | Earthquake lvl 11 | 3464 | 3:27:51 | 3-7 |
Heh, this is yet another attack by my favorite attacker. If it wasn't for Gronk9, this article series would not have lasted this long. ;)
Bring it on. What's wrong with this? What would you have done differently? Or how would you have avoided making this kind of attack?
Rather than say that this week's puzzle was wrong, it was a good example of a common bad habit.
Don't mix creature types. Notice how the only attacking creatures that took damage are the Dark Elves. My Dark Elves have a certain attack priority: Sprinter, Battle Supporter, Blocker, Flanker.
Dark Elves are Battle Supporters, Devilers and Trolls are Blockers...the Dark Elves will take ALL of the combat damage. The next target priority will not take any damage until all of the Battle Supporters are dead. When you mix creature types, a small number of your battle squad will end up taking all of the damage. This is a great way to "execute" some of your own creatures.
mame81's Dark Elves have less than 20 hit points left. This not too bad, but should be a warning to you NOT to attack again, otherwise you risk losing a Dark Elf.
One the other hand, I was very surprised to see that 3 level 9 Dark Elves can take all of the damage from a full squad of level 10 Dark Elves and still survive. In my experience, a full squad of creatures can survive combat against a full squad of the same creatures even if they are 5 levels higher (without any spells or traps). example: a squad of level 9 Dark Elves should be able to survive combat against a full squad of level 14 Dark Elves. Your mileage may vary, post a comment if you think differently.
I'm not a big fan of spells. Most of them are just too expensive to research, expensive to cast and I don't see much value in using them. Except for Berserker.
My lack of interest in spells has delayed the posting of spell information. All of this stuff has been on TheEliteImps public forum for a long time, but I didn't update Lightning Strike on this blog until today.
This week's puzzle is more of a conversation piece. There are a handful of things that can be learned from this screenshot, be sure to leave your thoughts as a comment.
There is a new set of "beta" features called Blogger in Draft. They look like fun, so I changed the design template and added star ratings.
Right now, there is no way to find top-rated posts...hopefully, Blogger.com will develop that in the future. For now, go ahead and rate the posts. Let other Keepers know which posts you find useful.
I needed to step back and think about the Clan Affiliation List. The whole point of it was to highlight which clans had the most high-end keepers. Since I revived the Clan Affiliation List in May, I got carried away and started sorting the list strictly by Total Score.
Starting with this week, I will return to my original intent of putting the clan with the most keepers at the top of the Clan Affiliation List.
Sigh, this one is so wrong, I don't even know where to begin. But this is all about learning, so here goes:
- attacking with less than 12 creatures
- mixing creature types
- attacking with low level creatures (compared to the defenders)
Another point to learn is how durable creatures are. 4 Dark Elves going up against 12 level 10 Dark Elves only ends up with one casualty (I was surprised). In my experience, your creatures can survive being attacked by the same creature 5 levels higher. You will take a lot of damage and you have no chance of winning, but your creatures will usually survive. The level difference changes when you go up against different creatures - level 5 glowworms will NOT survive against level 10 Dark Elves.
Mixing creature types is a big no-no. Piccolastella was almost guaranteed to lose at least 1 Dark Elf or 1 Deviler. This is how Target Priorities can work against you.
The only loss was 1 level 4 Dark Elf. 6000 gold and 2 days of training time...not too bad. But still painful. If you spend the time to train your creatures, then take the time to scout your targets properly, you can avoid wasting resources. With high level creatures, your attacks will also be more effective.
Yesterday, I noticed that theEliteImps have posted stats on training creatures up to level 18. I don't know how long the info has been in the public section of their forums, and the highest training level I can reach on any of my accounts is still 15.
Can creatures really be trained beyond level 15? or are they just extrapolating the numbers according to how many "level graphics" have been found on the DignFight site?
Does anybody have info on what the requirements are to train creatures past level 15?
This one is a little harder to explain without giving away the answer right away.
This attack takes place on one of the non-mainstream servers somewhere in the Top 300. For now, I consider the English and German to be mainstream (but that's not very important).
The funny part is that piccolastella is the clan founder. I guess a clan is best described as a group of friends, rather than an organized group of dungeon keepers.
Bring on the comments.
I think just about everybody in my clan (Nightlords) is gone. Our forum and website don't work anymore, but somehow, there are still 34 members in our clan.
Well, my main account on the English server is in need of some social interaction. I want to find a clan that has active members, preferably with a few members in the Top 100 so that we can talk strategy and share reconnaissance information.
I can help train your clan members, I can be a flunkie and take orders, I may even consider deleting my English account and starting from scratch (you better have a really good reason for asking me to do this). Perhaps you need a clan leader or a clan webpage...I can do that too.
Anyway, I am looking for a new clan to join. Leave a comment if you like. E-mail in private if your prefer - dignfight(AT)gmail(DOT)com
The next Clan Affiliation List has been uploaded.
Hell Slayer [H.S], a one-man clan popped into the Top 300 this week.
I've been taking hits from a few Keepers for quite a while (that's one thing that sucks in the Top 100). Since I don't have adequate defense, they regularly steal handfuls of gold. Like I've said many times before, I don't really care about the gold, since I can dig up gold MUCH faster than they can steal it.
The problem is one of them regularly uses Berserker level 8. Check out this battle report (I am defending):
This is not quite ordinary, but you get the picture. Twelve level 15 Black Riders attack, my twelve level 15 Black Riders defend. My Riders do LOUSY damage and his Riders to quite a bit. Normally, equal level creatures should NOT even come close to killing each other, but notice how dangerously close one of my Black Riders comes to dying.
Note: I currently am not receiving any combat bonuses for field coverage (coverage is obviously below 50%). Things that can help you defend against Berserker are:
- activate Burning Eye
- have adequate dungeon coverage (I recommend at least 75%)
- Make sure that your Training Room and Arena are upgraded as far as possible
- Train your defenders well
- With these combat bonuses, you may be able to win more battles and prevent attackers from stealing gold. If they can't steal anything, they may give up on you and attack somebody else
Casting a level 8 Berseker costs 2121 gold. Even if you manage to steal over 600 gold, the damage that you receive will probably cost close to 600 gold to heal (without the First Aid Kit premium). You may not earn much, but if you are able to kill one creature, that means your enemy just lost a lot more than 2121 gold.
- researching Berserker to high levels is expensive and time-consuming.
- casting Berserker at any level is expensive (compared to how much gold you will steal)
- The extra damage that you will do with Berseker is amazing.
So what's it going to be?
I am pretty sure that unless you are relatively low on the High Score List, you will NOT be able to turn a profit by casting Berserker and attacking. Even if you are low on the High Score List and you have good targets near you, you might not be able to turn a profit (there's still healing costs).
The damage that you can do to your enemies, however, will probably be worth it. High level Berserker spells are the first time that I have seen a squad of attackers come close to killing an equal-level defender. Any time that you can kill a level 10 creature or higher, is absolutely wonderful!
Oh, so much confusion.
BTW, the Watcher traps are not the problem...even though you might think so. My excuse is that my Trolls were restless and didn't have anything better to tinker. LOL.
In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this week's screenshot. In fact, sending in a lone glowworm is my preferred method of scouting a target. It's cheaper and will find out more information than Evil Eye at any level. Wouldn't it be funny if he learned this strategy from reading this blog? Well, before I strain anything by trying to pat myself on my back, let's review once more why a lone glowworm is such a good method of scouting.
On second thought, just go back and read the post.
Welcome to another episode of DignFight Puzzles. This week's screenshot comes from my main account, which is in the Top 100. Take a look at it and tell me what is wrong with this attack.
Post your thoughts as a comments. Hopefully we can all learn from your input.
This week's Clan Affiliation List has been posted.
Diggaz with Attitude wasn't on the list back in January, but they are now in 4th place with 20 members and 1.7 million points. Brotherhood: Delta (#42 this week) is also crawling it's way up the list.
I also need to recognize a new 1-man clan: [Orc] Shadowclan. They debuted on this list last week, but I didn't notice him/her. Congratulations for jumping onto the Clan Affiliation List last week at #28!
I added a new poll today at the request of one of my loyal readers. Go ahead and vote in the sidebar and tell us how long you've been playing DignFight.
Is there anything that you would like to see in a poll? Add a comment or e-mail me at dignfight(at)gmail(dot)com.