Faerie Abilities Guide Series: Level 400

Hello again and welcome back to our Faerie abilities serial guide, where we describe and analyze the new Faerie abilities released in Y15 for the new Battledome! In this series, we not only give descriptions of all of the faerie abilities, but we also analyze the abilities in relation to the others in the same tier, 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 400 abilities. Each of these abilities will cost you 120 Faerie blessings of their respective elements. After you purchase one, if you decide you'd like to switch, the new ability will cost you 60 Faerie blessings of the specified type.

The Abilities

Reflect

Cost: Light Blessings

This is a unique ability in that it lets you reflect damage back at your opponent. When used, this ability will cause two-thirds of the damage your enemy would have inflicted on you to bounce back and be inflicted on them instead. This means you're both cutting down the amount of damage you're taking to one-third of what it would have been, as well as using your enemy's power against them, with the ability to inflict quite a bit of damage against higher level opponents.

There are a couple different approaches you can take when using this ability. One is to forgo defences, take a third of the damage, and use your weapon slots to maximize damage to your opponent. Because this ability can only be used once per battle, you could also pair it with some weapons that are good offensively once per battle. A Ghostkerbomb would be an excellent choice. If you don't battle a ton and wouldn't mind having to restock weapons, Water Muffins are a good, cheap single-use weapon that pack a punch for the price.

You may also choose to take a more cautious approach, relying on the reflected attack to do the damage for the round and protecting yourself against the third of the attack that reaches you. A Wanderer's Cloak is an affordable option that provides a breadth of defence, blocking 2 air, water and earth icons, 3 fire and light icons, and possibly an additional 3 earth icons. For a well-rounded turn, you could use Reflect in conjunction with the Cloak and the Ghostkerbomb, Water Muffin, or your other favourite offensive weapon.

Rally Cry

Cost: Fire Blessings

Similar to Sear from the Level 25 tier, Rally Cry has the chance of inflicting damage over multiple rounds. When used, Rally Cry will deliver 6 icons of fire damage to your opponent. It then has a small chance of delivering an additional 6 icons on the following turn, and after inflicting damage that turn, an additional chance of inflicting damage on the third turn. This means that you could possibly deal up to 18 icons of fire damage over the 3 turns, if it kicks in for all 3. Because it has the chance of working over 3 consecutive turns, you're going to want to use this ability towards the beginning of a battle to ensure you give yourself the best chance of getting all its possible benefits.

A good strategy to employ when using this ability is to follow it with an ability that disables weapons, like Warlock's Rage, Tempest, or Lens Flare on the next turn. This means that your opponent will be unable to use defensive weapons to block the potential extra damage Rally Cry can do on subsequent turns. Since it's best to use this ability near the beginning of a battle, you can couple it with some good offensive weapons to deal a good amount of damage right off the bat. If you've spent the time and money to train up to Level 400, you definitely should be investing in some good weapons to supplement your skills.

Anagram swords such as Sword of Reif, Sword of Ari, or Sword of Thigl can be a good choice depending on the challengers you end up fighting, as they offer more specialized damage in the form of 15 icons of their specific element, 2 physical icons and the chance of an additional 7 physical icons for a possible 24 icons for a decent price, especially if you buy on Hidden Tower Discount Day. Kelpbeards Trident is an even more affordable option with similar power if you find yourself consistently facing enemies with weak water defences. If you're always fighting a variety of opponents with multiple different defence types, you may want to go for something that offers a little more than 2 types of damage. A Fan of Swords is a nice option because it offers a total of 17 icons of damage spread over 6 different types, along with 5 physical defence icons. The downside is that it costs about 65% more than an anagram sword, but with its range of damage, it's difficult to fully block.

Adrenaline Rush

Cost: Water Blessings

Adrenaline Rush, much like Cranky from the Level 10 tier, provides an increase of your total damage. Adrenaline Rush increases damage by 8.125%. On the surface, that may seem like a great tool to use, but in reality it's just not strong enough to make a difference. For instance, if you attack with 2 15-icon muffins and Adrenaline Rush, your total damage will actually be based on 32.5 icons of damage. Even a stronger weapon like Ghostkerbomb, which typically averages 25.5 icons per use, only increases to 27.6 icons with this ability. Plus, if you plan to use defensive instead of offensive weapons, this ability will give you even less benefit.

However, if your strategy is primarily an offensive one, you may find Adrenaline Rush useful. If you freeze your opponent and then pair this ability with high-icon weapons, Adrenaline Rush can give you a little extra oomph in your battling. For a pet whose strategy is heavily reliant on freezing, Adrenaline Rush could come in handy. Adrenaline Rush is best combined with high-icon weapons, such as 15-icon muffins, anagram swords, or Ghostkerbomb, and pets with high strength boosts, since that will give you the most additional damage.

Recommendation

Overall, we recommend Reflect. Compared to the other two abilities in this tier, Reflect gives you the most icons for your NP. Adrenaline Rush is pretty measly, adding only a few icons to your attack: if you attack with 50 icons, it will add less than 5 icons worth of damage. On the other hand, Rally Cry at most gives 18 icons spread over 3 turns, but it only has a small chance that you'll get that full benefit. In most cases you will end with 12 or even 6 total icons. Instead, Reflect will not only block a large chunk of damage, but it will attack with that damage, too. If you opponent hits you with 2 15-icon muffins, Reflect will cause you to only take damage from 10 icons and will cause 20 icons of damage to your opponent! Even on a more regular turn, when an opponent may attack with one shield and one constant such as an anagram sword or Kelpbeards Trident, Reflect still blocks 12 icons of damage to you and sends that right back to your opponent, making this a marked improvement over Rally Cry. Reflect is one of the best abilities in the academy, and you can't go wrong with selecting it!

Conclusion

As we increase in levels, the available abilities become stronger and more interesting, and Level 400 is no exception. Battlers who persevere and train their pets up to Level 400 for these abilities will not regret it! Next time we'll be looking at the top tier abilities for those who manage to train to Level 500. Stay tuned!