The Character Builds

There are tons of good heroes out there. But what is going to make each player unique is the build they choose to use. So I decided to create this section on possible builds. All of these are usable, some may be better others. Note I have not tested all of these. The format for each build will be as follows.

Build Name

Starting hero - What hero you should/must start with for this build
Faction Choice - What faction you should choose.
Formation Choice - What formation you should level up first.
Hero Requirements - What heroes you MUST recruit to use the build. Sometimes this includes a broad type (i.e. Bugler) in which the actual type is up to you.
Hero Options - Most builds have one to two slots that are up in the air. This line will mention some good hero ideas.
Equipment Focus - What types of equipment you should prioritize. This will be for the required heroes. Since the optional heroes are up to you, use Strategy section Part A to help you decide.
Tech Focus – Basic Technologies you Should Focus on (All advanced technologies are good)
Notes - I will tell you a bit about the build.
Pros - The good points
Cons - The bad points


Now lets get started.


Sniper

Starting hero - Augustus
Faction Choice - Athenian or Zeusian
Formation Choice - Boar's Head
Hero Requirements - Paris, Medea (Athena 500 Prestige), Lacedeamon (Zeus 500 Prestige)
Hero Options - Nymph Dancer, Bugler, Asclepius
Equipment Focus - Horses, Horses, Horses
Tech Focus – Magic Penetration, Armorforging, Magic Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Hornblowing
Notes - The easiest of the Builds to get. You can have this up and running by the time you get to Defense of Athens. The concept revolves around power of Soul Taking Arrows, which has the ability to one shot most targets. Up your horses to as high as you can before worrying about anything else. You can have a fully functioning 5 person team with this by the end of Beats in the Wilderness with the additions of Artemis and Asclepius. Artemis will allow you to use a Soul Taking Arrows Each turn, conceivably ending the fight in 3-4 turns.
Pros - Ability to One Shot targets resulting in quick fights. Very powerful spirit attack.
Cons - Soul Taking Arrows is Single Target.


Stunner

Starting hero - Orianthi
Faction Choice - Poseidian or Zeusian
Formation Choice – Crescent, Lochoi
Hero Requirements – Adrastus/Doris (Poseidon 18k prestige), Pandora, Electra (Zeus 12k prestige) Daphne (Poseidon 190k prestige)
Hero Options – Asclepius, Perseus, Bugler, Mage (Thunder works well with the motif any is good though), heroes with Sneak Raid
Equipment Focus – Weapons, Armors, Cloaks
Tech Focus – Blacksmithing, Armorforging, Magic Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Hornblowing
Notes – An interesting build the main focus of the build is strong Valor attacker who B.M. cause your opponents heroes to miss their turn. The two heroes with Pandora’s Curse (Electra/Daphne and Pandora) Should be outfit to be tanks and tanks alone. Their BM doesn’t do much damage but can stun up to all five units on the field (seen it happen). Your best horses should be given to Adtrastus/Doris and Orianthi whose ability does more damage. Otherwise focus on weapons and armor to take advantage of the extra turns stunning your opponents gives you. Can create a basic version early on but full version takes time.
Pros - Ability to mount successive attacks. Ability to disable a target for possibly many turns. Good counter to B.M. formations as the stuns delay the time the B.M. come off.
Cons – Very Weak against Rally type heroes as if you stun a unit in defense, its keeps defense for the extra turn. Mages can be used to counteract. Takes a long while to full develop due to Pandora being towards the end and the Prestige heroes (especially for Poseidon). Works best if Pandora’s Curse characters are Renascenced many times.


AoE Spam

Starting hero – Conan/Any
Faction Choice – Any
Formation Choice – Boar’s Head
Hero Requirements – Bugler, Nymph Dancer, Healer, A single Hero with All Out Onslaught
Hero Options – Seige Weapon (Attacker or Cyclops Armored Chariot Work well)
Equipment Focus – Horse on the AoE. Great Armor/Cloaks on everyone else
Tech Focus – Magic Penetration, Armorforging, Magic Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Hornblowing
Notes – The most hated Meta build right now why, cause its incredibly powerful in the mid game. That’s right Mid game. It power will die out as people start getting their equipments to high levels. This build relies on getting your single AoE characters attack off each turn with a combination of Nymph Dancers/Buglers. The Healer keeps people alive so that those units which are on the front lines don’t die.
Pros - Very Powerful AoE attacks with built up horse. Cheap Build to upgrade as you focus almost entirely on a single horse.
Cons – Only a single attacker. If that attacker is killed/stunned your effectiveness is done. Front line units are very weak to Spirit attacks themselves.

Tank Attack

Starting hero – Kratos
Faction Choice – Any (Although Poseidon has more options and Athenians have best Total Defense Character)
Formation Choice – Skein, Lochoi
Hero Requirements – Heroes with Total Defense, Asclepius, Hermes
Hero Options – Other Rally Heroes
Equipment Focus – Weapons, Armor and Cloak
Tech Focus – Blacksmithing, Armorforging, Magic Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Hornblowing
Notes – This build is the classic attrition build. It uses heroes who have either Rally (Damage + Rally Status: Until next turn take one damage from all Valor/Spirit Attacks) or Total Defense (Damage and puts all troops in Rally Status). Since you are looking to have tanks with High Valor damage you want to ignore horses and just focus on building up your defense and Armor.
Pros - Very good survivability, is able to take a lot of damage due to Rally effect.
Cons – Weak against Mages as they can bypass the Rally effect, with their damage.


Morale Deprivation

Starting hero – Robin Hood/Beowulf
Faction Choice – Any (Although Athenian’s have the most Morale Suppression Heroes)
Formation Choice – Inverted Wedge, Skein or Testudo (Defensive formations)
Hero Requirements – 1-2 Heroes with Morale Absorption/Nocturnal Blitzkrieg, 1 Hero with Morale Suppression, 1 Bugler
Hero Options – Healer, Second Morale Suppression hero, characters with stunning B.M.
Equipment Focus – Armor, Cloak, Horses for Absorption/Blitzkrieg, Weapons for Suppression.
Tech Focus – Everything but Elemental Penetration
Notes – This build is about getting rid of your opponents Morale and keeping that way. It can be devastating to Spirit Builds if done right but requires a certain amount of luck and timing to truly reach its potential. Early game you will use Nocturnal Blitzkrieg characters which you should replace for character with Morale Absorption as soon as possible.
Pros - Can cut the legs out from underneath heavy Spirit reliant builds. Most heroes boast decent defense troops.
Cons – Weak against Siege weapons and Mage as they have no Spirit attack.

Magical Assault

Starting hero – Any
Faction Choice – Poseidon/Zeusian (Poseidon allows you to create a basic build earlier Zeusian allows you to unlock its full potential earlier)
Formation Choice – Gramarye
Hero Requirements – Asclepius, Mages, Any are good. You’ll want a Meteorite Mage, Furious Pyromancer and either a second Pyromancer or a Hydromancer.
Hero Options – Other Mages, Cyclops Armor Chariot Heroes to act as damage sponges.
Equipment Focus – Books, Cloak, Armor
Tech Focus – Elemental Penetration, Hornblowing, Armorforging, Spirit Resistance, Elemental Resistance
Notes – This build can be devastating or a joke depending on how your opponent is set up. It is very hard to reduce the damage your mages deal as only the tech gives elemental resistance. However your guys are squishy and can be killed easily. That is why Asclepius is of paramount importance. He’ll keep your mages alive so they can dominate the opponent.
Pros – Can deal damage regardless of opponent’s equipment and Rally Condition. Can be incredibly powerful to troops that rely on tanks. Ignores block and dodge. Immune to Morale Suppression
Cons – Very vulnerable to Spirit attacks. Mages are very squishy as take a lot more damage from attacks than the other troop types.

For more information on the Poseidon part of this build look here:
http://forum.clapalong.com/showthread.php?806-The-Elementalist-Build-Poseidon-Faction-upto-lvl-60.&p=2642#post2642

Damage Hybrid

Starting hero – Any
Faction Choice – Any
Formation Choice – Any
Hero Requirements – 1-2 Spirit Attackers, 1-2 Valor Attackers, 1-2 Mages
Hero Options – Any
Equipment Focus – All (depending on heroes)
Tech Focus – All Depending on heroes
Notes – Versatile Formation that can deal all types of damage. A good set up with this would be Valor siege, Healer, Spirit Attack, Nymph Dancer (Bm each turn) and mage. This formation would allow you to deal all types of damage and cover many holes.
Pros – Ability to deal all sort of damage, able to take care of all weaknesses.
Cons – No specialization causes this build to take time. Also since you do not specialize your going to be very dependant on equipment enhancements. Expensive, time consuming.


Cross

Starting hero – Atelente
Faction Choice – Any
Formation Choice – Boar’s Head
Hero Requirements – 1-3 Heroes with either Strike in Line or Strike in Column. (Herracles, Siren, Phologois) Don’t just use one as you want to be able to attack in a cross shape, Bugler
Hero Options – Nymph Dancer, second Bugler, Healer, Hero with Angel Wings
Equipment Focus – Horses, Armor, Cloak
Tech Focus – Magic Penetration, Hornblowing, Armorforging, Spirit Resistance, Elemental Resistance
Notes – Similar to AoE, This build relies on the more powerful BM of Strike in Line/Column. These two abilities have twice the attack power of AoE and still hit up to three units each. This will devastate people using Boar’s Head or Testudo Formations especially.
Pros - Incredibly Powerful Spirit Attacks that hit multiple targets. Devastatingly powerful against Boar’s Head and Testudo Formation making it good for anti spirit and anti tank. Attacks can reach into the back and get rid of those pesky units hiding behind tanks.
Cons – Some formations really screw it up normally those such as Inverted Wedge, Padmavyuha and Skein. Vulnerable to Dodge. Most units have low defense. Second non-prestige Strike in Column heroes is not until Roaring Seas and he sucks.


Outburst

Starting hero – Any
Faction Choice – Any (Zeusian and Athenians have best options for this build, Poseidon gets theirs the earliest)
Formation Choice – Any (Boar’s Head would probably be best)
Hero Requirements – Ares, Zephyrus/Palaemon/Aether (prestge heroes). 1-2 Buglers
Hero Options – Healer, 3rd Bugler, Cyclops Armored Chariot
Equipment Focus – Horses for Sally Outburst Guys, Armor, Cloak for everyone else
Tech Focus – Magic Penetration, Hornblowing, Armorforging, Spirit Resistance, Elemental Resistance
Notes – Again similar to AoE this build uses the Sally Outburst BM which has the added effect of restoring the units Morale back to 100. Allowing you to repeatedly use your BM every turn, if not hit by Blitzkreig or Morale Absorption. The Buglers are there to hurry your guys to their first BM and to counteract the effects of enemy buglers/ morale suppression.
Pros - Repetitive BM attacks with good damage. Doesn’t rely on a nymph dancer to use BM each turn. 2 -3 attackers each require no Morale intake once they get to 100.
Cons – Weak to Morale Deprivation. BM is only single target. Hard to get second Sally Outburst from prestige.

Mutiny

Starting hero – Any
Faction Choice – Athenian/Zeusian
Formation Choice – Any (Boar’s Head would probably be best)
Hero Requirements – Antaeus, Dionysus/Thalia (prestige heroes), Asclepius
Hero Options – Combination of buglers and nymph dancers ( I would go one of each)
Equipment Focus – Horses for Mutiny Outbreak Heroes, Armor, Cloak for everyone else
Tech Focus – Magic Penetration, Hornblowing, Armorforging, Spirit Resistance, Elemental Resistance
Notes – Since Mutiny Outbreak heal the attacker for the damage dealt this set up can have great survivability. Once you give Antaeus and your prestige hero a good horse. They can last quite a while if they get of their BM’s constantly, which is where the nymph dancers and buglers come in. The healer is necessary to keep whatever support troops you use alive.
Pros -BM’s heal the user allowing you units to receive extra healing as well as damaging the opponent.
Cons – Weak to Morale Deprivation. BM is only single target. Second Mutiny Outbreak hero is high in prestige.