Faerie Abilities Guide Series: Level 200

Thank you for joining us once again for our Faerie abilities serial guide, where we describe and analyze the new Faerie abilities released in Y15 for the new Battledome! We're starting to get into the high levels, which means most pets looking at these abilities are going to be pretty experienced battlers. In this series, we help out battlers by giving descriptions of all of the faerie abilities, and also analyzing the abilities in relation to the others in the same tier as well as providing advantages and disadvantages of each, comparisons with the other abilities, and recommendations for how to use each ability to give you the best advantage over your opponent in the Battledome. This week, we are examining the Level 200 abilities. Each of these abilities will cost you 25 Faerie blessings of one element and 15 Faerie blessings of a second element. After you purchase one, if you decide you'd like to switch, the new ability will cost you only half of the original cost, that is, 12 Faerie blessings of one type and 8 of the second type. For example, if you learn Snowager's Breath but decide to switch to Tempest, Tempest will cost you 12 earth blessings and 8 air blessings.

The Abilities

Tempest

Cost: Earth and Air Blessings

Tempest is a very interesting ability. In a way, it's an upgrade to Lens Flare, an ability from the Level 50 tier. It disables your opponent's weapons just like Lens Flare, but it also attacks with a constant 6 air icons. Thus, not only can you stop your opponent from attacking you for a turn, but you can also add a little extra to your attack! It sounds great, but there's a catch -- Tempest is a once-per-day ability. Thus, Tempest is not an ability to be relied upon for your everyday battling to get your Battledome prizes. if you choose to use Tempest, you should make sure it's for a very important battle, because you won't be able to use it the rest of the day.

Tempest is most useful for people looking to defeat a specific opponent only once, such as for an avatar or a Defenders of Neopia trophy. (Note: At the time of writing this, Defenders of Neopia trophies are not currently working in the new Battledome. TNT is working on it.) Since you're not looking to battle with that opponent multiple times, especially not in the same day, Tempest can help give you an extra edge in those important battles. Plus, you don't have to be concerned about your opponent being well-defended against air icons, since Tempest will also prevent your opponent from using weapons. Therefore, Tempest can help you take on and win against opponents like the Space Faerie, Snow Beast, Mootix Warrior, The Drenched, or Qasalan Mummy.

When using Tempest, a good choice is to pair it with strong attack weapons such as bombs or constants. Since your opponent will be unable to use weapons and therefore unable to defend against your attack except by using a faerie ability, you don't really need to be concerned with the weapon types. Thus, the more icons you use to attack, the better! You can also pair Tempest with a freezing weapon, so you can have another free shot at your opponent during the next turn of the battle. A few abilities can block Tempest, such as Shhhhhhhhh... (Level 50), Lens Flare (Level 50), and Warlock's Rage (Level 200). Lens Flare and Warlock's Rage also disable weapons, so only the 6 air icons will attack. Shhhhhhhhh... neutralizes abilities, so it will prevent Tempest from attacking or disabling weapons, but your weapons will attack. If you think your opponent might use Shhhhhhhhh..., you should pair Tempest with a defensive weapon in case your opponent attacks, thinking you'll be undefended. When you're fighting a 1-player opponent, you don't really need to worry about Tempest being blocked, since the 1-p opponents tend to not use their abilities strategically. However, for a 2-p opponent, be aware that Tempest may be blocked, and then you still won't be able to use it for the rest of the day.

Snowager's Breath

Cost: Light and Water Blessings

Snowager's Breath is perhaps the most lackluster of all the abilities, and at its price and with other, better abilities available, it's not one we would recommend buying. There are two main issues with this ability. If it had one or the other, it could redeem itself as useful in the right conditions, but it's limitations make it one of the worst abilities you can buy. Firstly, it works as a freezer, preventing your enemy from using weapons and abilities on the turn after the ability is used, but it only has a one-third of a chance of freezing your opponent. This means that, on average, it will only freeze your opponent 1 out of every 3 uses. This wouldn't be such a bad deal if it was a multi-use ability, but the second problem with Snowager's Breath is that it can only be used once per day. This means that, on average, you're going to get one freeze from this ability every 3 days.

If you choose to buy this ability for whatever reason, it's definitely not something you want to count on to compliment a regular set, as it's so wholly unreliable. At best, it would be something to use if you've exhausted all your other abilities during other turns. Even then, both of the other abilities in this tier would be better choices, as they both disable your opponent's weapons on the turn the ability is used. Again, we would really advise against buying this ability, as it's basically wasting a slot that could be filled with something better.

Warlock's Rage

Cost: Fire and Dark Blessings

Warlock's Rage is by far the best ability of this tier, mostly due to the fact that it can be used more than once a day. Power-wise, it's slightly weaker than Tempest, as it does no icons in addition to disabling your opponent's weapons; however, the fact that it can be used once per battle more than makes up for the small amount of damage you're missing out on. This is a great ability to pair with the Lens Flare ability from the Level 50 tier, as it would then give you two turns of disabling weapons per battle. This is especially useful in 2-player where your opponent is more calculating in the use of their abilities and you have a greater chance of having one of yours blocked, and fantastic in 1-player to speed up your battles.

The best way to make use of this ability, especially in conjunction with Lens Flare, is to focus the majority of your attack on offence, especially when facing low and mid-level opponents. However, when battling high-level opponents, you'll need to maintain some defensive power for the turns when you're unable to freeze or disable weapons, but you'll be able to downgrade a little, due to the fact that you'll (hopefully) not be facing any attacks for 2 rounds. For a heavy offensive for your two rounds of oblivion, you can opt for a multi-use weapon to use for both rounds, like one of the Anagram Swords from the Hidden Tower. Dr. Sloths Personal Bath Buddy or Brynns Legendary Sword of Wraith Smiting are two good mid-range multi-use options, while you can't go wrong with a Scroll of Ultranova as a wallet-friendly, lower-level option. If you really want to prevent your opponent from playing, you can combine Warlock's Rage with a 100% freezer such as Scroll of Freezing or H4000 Helmet. Then your opponent is not only stopped from using weapons on the turn where you use Warlock's Rage, but they are also frozen for the subsequent turn, giving you another free shot at them. In some cases, you can defeat an opponent without taking a single point of damage!

If you choose to use both Warlock's Rage and Lens Flare together, you'll be facing fewer rounds of offensive attacks from your opponent, so this is a good opportunity to make use of some single-use defensive weapons. Downsize! is a wonderful, cheap option that blocks half of all icons, making it extremely useful against powerful opponents. If you don't mind having to replenish after each battle, a Thick Smoke Bomb is also an affordable option that blocks 100% of icons on the turn it's used.

Recommendation

Overall, we recommend Warlock's Rage. Snowager's Breath and Tempest are both once per day, while Warlock's Rage can be used once per battle, which is what makes that one the best choice. Compared to the other two, Snowager's Breath is pretty weak, since the other two provide a guaranteed "freeze" where your opponent can't use weapons. While Tempest is a stronger ability per use, for the routine battler, it just doesn't cut it. Tempest is a good choice for someone who is battling only one time per day or less: battling for avatars or trophies. If you plan to battle more often than that, you're better off learning Warlock's Rage.

Conclusion

Though Level 200 doesn't bring very many exciting new abilities, since Warlock's Rage is so similar to Lens Flare, it's still nice to have another turn to disable your opponent's weapons! In the next tier, we'll encounter some brand new abilities, all that have to do with healing. Tune in next time for our in-depth analysis of those Level 300 abilities!