by Attabrain Zee, on server 4. Updated for 2.7
I've noticed a lot of DragonSoul players losing battles when they have perfectly good heroes, so here are some tips to help. No one should have to lose any battles against equal-powered teams, and most people should be able to attack teams stronger than them.
But first, here's the official doc on how war works: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i0tVI93vBadX6YWElgBnMVL93w-O-G9jpsiYHHhMOx4/pub
These are the numbers next to the sword icons when you open a tower. Line-ups worth more battle points are worth more to your guild, since these are the way you win the war. The first level of a normal tower is worth 20, then 30, then 50. A gold tower is worth double that.
Tip: If you think you're strong enough, go after the line-up worth the most points.
When you win a battle, you get laurels. These determine how many guild tokens you'll get at the end of the war. There are only three ways to get laurels:
The number of battle points in a line-up has nothing to do with the number of laurels you get. So while it's annoying when someone steals a tower you were working on, it has no effect at all on your score.
Tip: If you're certain that you can't beat any of the towers with your remaining heroes, use up your attacks on charged towers. That way, you're not hurting anyone, but you still gain 5 points per loss. But make sure to say what you're doing in guild chat, or you might be kicked out of the guild.
This means that you beat the minions, failed to beat the enemy heroes, and then either chose “Keep Results” or retried and lost. This is bad. You've just created a tower that has charged-up enemy heroes. Even a single charged-up bard, rabid or ninja can wipe out many teams. Chances are, this tower is now lost to your guild.
Tip: Never use your retry to attack a charged tower. If you want to give a charged tower a try, use your first attack. Then, if you lose, you can retry on a clean tower.
Tip: If you want to go against a charged tower, try bringing in legendary Bone Dragon. He'll drain off a lot of that starting energy.
If you lose a battle, you're given two choices: “Keep” or “Retry.” Always choose “Retry.” If you keep the results, you've probably broken a tower.
Clicking “Retry” does not mean you have to fight the same battle again. If you think you can beat that tower with a different team of heroes, give it a try, but if it's too hard for you, press the “Back” button in the upper-left corner and try an easier tower.
Don't be stubborn! If you can't beat a tower, attack a different tower. You'll get more laurels, and your guild will do better in the war.
Tip: If, on your retry, you know you're going to lose a fight after killing the minions, pause and retreat. The minions will still be dead, but if you're lucky, the heroes will be reset to zero energy, making them beatable by a stronger team.
Always fight minions with “auto” and “fast forward” off. Only use your powers if you absolutely have to. If you pick your line-up correctly, you usually won't have to use any powers. If the minions seem tough, bring along a healer. In my opinion, Skeleton is the best for this, followed by Orc, Satyr and Unicorgi. Faith Healer works too, especially with his epic skill.
Most of the time, I don't even bother with a healer, since winning quickly is usually more effective.
Gnomes will blow up your front line, often killing heroes in one hit. If there are gnomes, put one fast hero in the front, so none of your other heroes are hit. Megataur works well for this. His charge puts him way out in front, and his stun gives you a chance to kill the gnomes before they explode.
Cauldrons ignore you until you attack them. Then they're very strong, and can decimate your front line. Like with gnomes, send one fast tank out in front. Megataur works well, as does Horse because of his shield. Roller Warrior and Polemaster will shove them back, but might not be able to handle the damage – I haven't tried them. Legendary Ninja is okay, since he sends 25% of damage taken to your tank.
What a pain! If a crab gets on your Ninja, he'll kill your whole team! Fortunately, crabs are predictable – they always go after the hero in the front. So make sure you don't have too many +movement runes on Ninja, Bard, Satyr or other non-tanks who like to hang out in the front, and include a sacrificial tank. Snap Dragon works if you haven't built him up too much, because his basic attack is weak, and he's the fastest hero before runes. Horse, Roller Warrior, Polemaster and Dragon Lady can work too. My favorite is Megatuar with +movement runes, since he usually survives the crabbery. Consider also including Understudy, since she seems to kill crabs pretty quickly with her storm.
If you find yourself facing more than one crab, go heavy on area effect damage. With Understudy, Catapult, Drakul, Storm Drake or Frost Giant, you might be able to kill all the crabs before they get to you.
Ogres stun you like crazy, but they do very little damage. The way to beat ogres is simple – keep your front line small, so only one or two heroes get stunned. Alternatively, bring in Frost Giant to reduce stun duration. Kill the back line, and worry about ogres later.
These guys do a lot of splash damage, but they're easy to beat. All you need is some hero – any hero – who targets the back line. The best for this is Ninja, but Spiky, Centuar and Dwarf can do the job as well. If you need those heroes for something else, try someone who targets all enemies, like Understudy, Storm Drake or Frost Giant. Even Moon Drake can take out Mushrooms if you have enough health or shields in your team to soak up damage while she charges.
Clouds can be annoying, because they have a lot of health, are immune to physical damage, and have a shield if you give them enough time to raise it. But anyone with magic damage can beat them. Ninja and Understudy work well. You can also target the back line first, and then kill the clouds at your leisure.
Your charged-up team is far more powerful than the uncharged enemy team. If you took my advice and used as few white skills as possible against the minions, you should be able to take out a team 10%-30% stronger than yours. Just make sure to choose the right line-up. Your heroes have to do enough damage with their whites to beat the enemy quickly, before they can use their own whites.
Bard isn't quite so scary when she's not charged, but she charges quickly. To counter her, use your own Bard and Witch, Spider, Legendary Frost Giant, Legendary Catapult Knight or Kraken. Even if you have none of these, a few damage heroes can knock her down before she gets going. Be careful with area-effect damage, since it charges her without killing her, unless you bring enough area-effect heroes to do a ton of damage quickly.
Legendary Bone Dragon shuts her down. Barring that, use Mega or Cutie to stun her and then do damage as quickly as possible, use one of the mass-disabling heroes, or just don't send tasty heroes.
If you're roughly the same power level as your enemy, ignore him. You'll usually kill him without trying, before he charges up. If your power level is significantly lower, bring in Understudy, Bard or epic Frost Giant. If you're really scared, use a bunch of tanks so he can't kill you quickly. And if you're really, really scared, try a maxed Dragonlady and don't bring magic heroes. She has a high intelligence, so Ninja will go after her first, which forces him into the deadly front line.
You can also try Spirit Wolf, Cosmic Elf or Medusa, and time their whites to fire right before he uses his.
Legendary Medusa will let you start with enough energy that his drain doesn't matter. If she's not available, send in heroes who don't need their whites, like Thief, Bard, Ninja, Mega and Understudy. Legendary Moon Drake can recharge your heroes early in the fight, if the only heroes you have left depend on their whites.
Not such a big deal in an enemy team in war. Bring along your own Wolf if you're worried, or any hero who targets the back line.
These heroes give energy to the team, reducing the advantage you have from being fully charged. Kill them quickly with heroes who target the back line.
Epic Frost Giant is nice against tanks. So is Catapult Knight. But really, just bring some damage heroes, and tanks shouldn't be a problem. A line-up with a lot of tanks usually means some other hero, like Bard or Ninja, is being protected. Worry about the protected hero and don't think too hard about the tanks.
The exception is the Megataur-Cutie combination. If Megataur has enough +Movement Speed, he'll bunch up your heroes and wait for Cutie's stun to work against your whole team. Combat this by using your own Megataur or other fast hero.
Godzilla is really strong against heavy heroes, so don't send Megataur, Horse or other big tanks against him. However, Ninja is still good, because when he's fully charged, he can take out Kaiju before the little-guy-in-a-Godzilla-costume can do any damage.
Legendary Bone Dragon shuts him down.
He's really not much of a problem in War. Use Legendary Bone Dragon, Wolf, Medusa, or any back-line attacker.
This guy can do a lot of damage to your Bard+Witch team, but don't worry too much. You're fully charged, so enough damage heroes should be able to get rid of him.
That starting shield will slow down your slaughter, and prevent Ninja from killing the back line right away. Always use a little extra power when Horse is around.
Heroes are expensive to maintain, but your top heroes have to be as powerful as you can afford. When hiring for the crypt, I've seen 3* heroes, heroes with few if any runes, and heroes with unleveled skills. These same heroes are probably being sent to wars. They're useless. Your best heroes have to be at max level, with max skills, high enchanting levels if possible, and with the best rune sets. Money and runes are easy to come by, so use them! If you're short on money or scraps or runes, focus on one hero at a time.
Some general advice can be found in my Hero Guide. Here's some specific advice for war.
Bardbarian speeds up your whole team, and does tons of damage herself, making her useful everywhere, including in War. Give her bolt or flame runes with life steal if possible, and enchant her equipment.
It's okay to fire her white against minions, since she charges up so quickly. And unless there are explody gnomes, she can be your tank. She's even okay against crabs. Since crabbed heroes don't use their whites, she won't obliterate your team.
Best when paired with Crimson Witch.
Get her Cooldown Reduction up with runes, and she can be very powerful. The longer the fight goes on, the stronger she is, so consider her as part of a stall team including Brozerker, Horse, Orc and other defenders. Or just use her in any team, because she's great.
Get him up to 5* and max him out, with flame and blood rune sets, plenty of extra life steal, and some Conservation if possible.
Make sure “auto” is off when you go against the team of heroes. Wait until all heroes are on screen, and then use it, so you'll maximize your damage. The exception is when the other team has Megataur or Spider. In the case of Megataur, you want to use your white before you're stunned. With Spider, you want to use your white before she uses hers.
Watch out when facing crabs, since Ninja will destroy your team. If your server doesn't have runes yet, send Snapdragon in with Ninja. As the fastest hero, Snap will take the crab and probably die, but Ninja, and thus the rest of your team, will be safe. Once runes are available, use a tank who has at least 10% more +Movement Speed than your Ninja. I recommend Megataur, since he can usually survive being crabbed.
Ninja works well with Megataur, Bard or Wolf.
These crazies will kill several back line heroes in seconds. Use them against teams with a lot of damage and support heroes. Not as useful against tanks.
These guys can take out a whole enemy team when they're charged up. You shouldn't be losing battles if you have these heroes. Use Kaiju against heavies (Snapdragon, Megataur, Horse, Ninja etc), and Genie against anyone. Not as good against Legendary Bone Dragon, since he'll cripple your starting energy.
The queen of War (and Expedition), Legendary Medusa will not only stun the entire enemy team, but she'll let your heroes start with more than max energy. Use her with auto turned off. Get as much energy as possible, and don't use it until the whole enemy team is on screen. Be careful against Ninja, Skeleton, Spider and Goblins with high starting energy. You don't want to wait too long.
Medusa works well with everyone. She's pretty much an auto-win for one of your war attempts, and she's one of the few ways to counter Bone Dragon (draining a few hundred energy doesn't matter when you start with 2000). Throw in Cyclops and Hydra for massive damage while the enemy is stunned.
A little trickier to use than Medusa, Wolf can still give you a win a lot of the time. Turn “auto” off and wait for the enemy team to be on screen. Ideally, you won't fire her white until just before the enemy fires theirs, but it's hard to guess that, so do it a little early. Once she's fired her white, you can turn “auto” back on.
They can sometimes kill the front hero in the first second of battle. Or turn “Auto” off until the enemy ninja gets close, and take care of him quickly. Witch and Bard's damage boosts help for this.
An instant Skeledeer means the enemy is clumped together in the back. Then let Understudy, Catapult, Spiky or Megataur wipe out the whole team.
You can't go wrong with a huge starting shield.
It can be hard to keep her alive through the minions, but if you do, she'll binge on all the tasty heroes. Great against teams with three or more tasties. Make sure to have “auto” off, so you can choose who to eat first!
Use 2.7's big mistake to your advantage. Bone Dragon is the perfect solution to high starting energy or fast-charging heroes like Spider, Genie, Kaiju and Banshee.
Bone is also one of the few ways to break up a charged tower. Send in Bone along with a few strong heroes who don't need their whites (Bard, Nina, Thief, Mega, Understudy etc).
Faster energy gain means you have a better chance against minions, and his powerful white means you can take out the enemy team, even if you're petrified by Medusa (his DOT continues while petrified).
Works best with Legendary Hydra and Electroyeti, both of whom give him a huge damage boost.
Here are my personal favorite teams, based on how I've runed my heroes. You may have different results:
Medusa, Cyclops, Hydra and two others – a tank if there are crabs or gnomes, a spider if there are lots of tasty heroes, etc. This team pretty much always wins, even against enemy teams with 30% more power.
Wolf, Cutie, and whoever else seems appropriate. With Wolf suppressing the enemy's whites, this team pretty much always wins, except against Bone Dragon. Include your own Bone Dragon if there's a Spider or Kaiju on the enemy team.
Ninja, Megataur and whoever seems appropriate. The fully charged Ninja wipes out the entire back line very quickly. If there's a crab, make sure Mega has more movement speed than Ninja. Understudy is good for killing the Crab without killing Mega (but don't use her white). I use this line-up against teams with three or more back-line heroes.