Faerie Abilities Guide Series: Level 5

Hello again, Neopia! Welcome back to our comprehensive, in-depth series examining the different Faerie abilities released in Y15 to supplement the new Battledome! In this series, we not only give descriptions of each and every ability, but also provide you a full breakdown of their advantages and disadvantages relating to their tier, the other available abilities, their cost, and how you can best utilize them to enhance your battledome set and skills! This week, we will be looking at the Level 5 tier abilities: Bandage, Meditate, and Shade. Each of these abilities cost 2 blessings, but if you're switching from another ability in this tier, they will cost only 1 blessing.

The Abilities

Bandage

Costs: Earth Blessings

Bandage is a fairly simple ability. When it's used, it will heal 5 Hit Points (HP) on that turn, and it can be used once per battle. As the description for the ability states, "Every little bit helps," and this is in itself is the main downfall of this ability: the small amount of help it actually provides. The thing to remember about Bandage is that the 5 HP it restores are exclusive of any damage your opponent does during the round. For example, if they attack and do 86 damage, and you use the ability, you're still accumulating 81 damage (the 86 points of damage they would have done minus 5 that you "healed"). Despite this, there are a couple ways this ability can be utilized in battle.

One method is to use the ability to add an extra punch to your healing weapons. Using the ability in conjunction with something like a Lesser Healing Scroll would enhance the usefulness of the inexpensive weapon, something that is handy when battling on a budget. Similarly, the ability could be paired with a healer like a Green Scorchstone to beef up the weapon even more, and provide more of a chance to actually heal (gain HP) as opposed to simply negating damage (lowering the HP you lose as a result of an opponent's attack).

Another method is to use Bandage as a sort of lifeline, pairing it with a couple heavy-hitting offensive weapons at the end of a battle to hopefully negate enough damage so your offensive attack can defeat the opponent. Remember, you are victorious as long as your opponent reaches 0 HP first, even if you only finish with 1 HP yourself. This ability could allow you to hang on just enough to scrape a victory in a close battle. Using a healing ability rather than a weapon frees up both of your weapon slots during your turn for maximum offensive. Pairing Bandage with a one-use muffin, or something more powerful (and expensive) like one of the anagram swords from the Hidden Tower, such as Sword of Reif or Sword of Skardsen, is great for a last ditch, all-in strike on your enemy.

Meditate

Costs: Air Blessings

Meditate, like Bandage, is a healing ability, but it's not for the faint of heart. Unlike Bandage, Meditate heals 4 HP on the first round, and then has a 50% chance to heal an additional 4 HP on the following round! Choosing Meditate over Bandage is a risk - you have a chance of getting more HP than Bandage (provided you don't lose the battle on the round where you use it), but you also run the risk of getting less HP. Over time, however, you'll receive 4 HP roughly half the time and 8 HP roughly half the time, which averages to 6 HP per use. That greater healing power gives Meditate an edge over the other two abilities in this tier. Plus, unlike Bandage, Meditate can be used multiple times in the same battle. It has a 4 round cool down, but after 4 rounds it can be used again to heal.

However, much like Bandage, this ability does not offer a lot of HP. While in some cases 8 or even 4 HP can make a difference, many times it's just a fraction of damage that your opponent is attacking you with during that turn. Even the Chia Clown will attack with at least 4 damage. Plus, you need to survive the round you use this ability in order to have a chance at the additional benefit of the second round healing, so it's not a good idea to use Meditate when you're in desperate need of a heal. It's much better used as a way to aggravate your opponent by adding little bits of health to your pet and making the battle just a little more difficult for them to win. The best times in battle to use Meditate are toward the beginnings of a battle. That way, you're likely to survive to the next round, and if your battle lasts long enough and you're likely to survive another round, you can use it again.

Meditate is best paired with defensive weapons like Leaf Shield, Shiny Shoal Shell Shield, or Virtupets X-514 Super Shield. These shields will help block your opponent's attack and reduce the amount of damage you take, thus increasing your probability of surviving to the next round of battle and benefiting from the extra 4 HP of healing.

Shade

Costs: Dark Blessings

Shade is the most mysterious of the three abilities in this tier. Rather than healing, it is a defensive ability that will block an amount of 3 random icon types from your opponent's attack. Like Meditate, it has a 4 round cooldown period. The interesting thing about this ability is that the amount of icons it blocks is supposedly dependent on your opponent's defence boost. This can be extremely beneficial in 2 player battles where your opponent has a high defensive level, as the higher boost your opponent has, the more beneficial the ability will be for you. The one downfall of this ability is its random nature when it comes to icon type, and the possibility of it blocking icons that weren't used by your opponent. If your opponent attacks with water and earth, for example, there is a chance the ability will block physical, air and fire, making it ineffective on that turn.

There are two great ways to utilize Shade in battle. One is to use it along with healing weapons to hold off some of your opponent's attack to make your healing more effective. When paired with something like a Short Sleeved Yellow Tunic or a scorchstone, Shade can allow more of your weapons' power to go towards healing rather than just negating damage. Another way to make use of this ability is to use it on your first turn along with a couple of your offensive weapons to (hopefully) preserve some of your HP early on in the battle, while giving the ability time to recharge (remember, you can only use it once every 4 turns) to use again later, possibly with the aforementioned healing weapons.

Recommendation

Which ability is best for you may depend on your specific situation and battling style, but overall we recommend Shade. As long as your opponent has a defence boost of at least 1, as most opponents do, Shade has the potential to spare you from a minimum of 9 damage points - more than either Bandage or Meditate will heal you. If your opponent has a higher defence boost, you have an even greater opportunity to gain more benefit from Shade. Plus, because it's rare that an opponent attacks with only one icon type, you have a pretty good chance of blocking at least some of your opponent's attack. Using probability theory, we can calculate what that chance is! If your opponent uses 2 different icon types, you have about a 57% chance of blocking exactly one of those icon types, and a 14% chance of blocking both icon types, which leaves only a 29% chance of not blocking either icon type. As your opponent increases the number of types of icons they use, the chances that you'll block at least some of their attack increases, making Shade an even better choice.

However, if you are a battler with a low maximum HP, then Bandage could work best for you. For someone with a maximum of 20 HP, 5 HP is 25% of their total. Healing 5 HP is a big deal to this battler, much more so than a battler with a max HP of 500, for example. For someone in that type of situation, Bandage may be a better choice.

Conclusion

As this is the first tier you'll encounter that charges for abilities, it can be hard to choose one that you'll like for fear of wasting your hard-earned Neopoints. We hope we've given you the tools you need to pick an ability that works best for you! Stay tuned next time for our examination of the Level 10 tier!