Need a Defense 101 thread

I’m nearing level 900 and have yet to find a team that is decent in defend. It seems like the ceiling is about 40% win rate, no matter what you throw in there. I don’t have any of the Horsemen but I do have a good number of fully-traited legendaries.

Any tips?

40% is about the average for late game. There really isn’t anything that will break that by too much simply because of everyone’s high win rate at that high a level.

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What team’s do you think are most consistent in that case?

Most of them do require some of the horsemen, usually Famine. Without any of the horsemen, I would say Khorvash - Amira - Spirit Fox - Manticore or nearly any combination with Sorcerer + Creeping Death. Any team that can spam mana drain right now tends to have a decent chance at securing a win.

Also, while on this topic, I might as well make that today’s video. xD

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That would be sweet. Thanks!

Please no! Don’t encourage the obnoxious mana drain teams!

Well if mana drain is the only way to get consistent wins in Defense, I guess I won’t be getting consistent wins. :wink:

Emperor Khorvash is my favorite troop in the game but I’m philosophically opposed to using him on defense. The only time he ever ends up on Defense is if I clear out my teams and accidentally leave my Invade team on Defense.

I use Spirit Fox for cleanup on my True Damage quick Explore team but I don’t use her in PVP anymore.

I’ve stopped using Manticore altogether.

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The only thing that will stop that is if they add mana drain immunity and a trait that causes true damage to hit armor first.

True. But you can also make a “good non-mana drain defense teams” video. Or a “good anti-mana drain teams” video. Be a part of the solution!

You mean mana drain them before they mana drain you? xD

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This used to be my mantra.

Not exactly what I had in mind. But I suppose no “anti-mana drain” video would be complete without a mana drain team.

Makes me think “good counters to the current meta” would be a nice video/series.

I’m interested in builds that can overcome mana drain, due to spam or sheer speed. For example, I built a team recently that, after watching the AI, I thought for sure would produce decent results.

Jarl / IK / Giant Spider / Succubus

It fills extremely fast, spams gems all over the board (including skulls), and has a final troop that both mana drains and death marks.

It was 0-12 before I finally pulled it.

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All things considered, it really doesn’t matter. I’m running a Black Beast defense team that is getting about a 20% win rate over the last two weeks and over 50% during the beginning of the weeks when everyone is playing PvP (probably just from lower players taking the option and getting overwhelmed, I have quite a few 5* but dont have any guild statue bonuses). I just try to change it every once in a while so it doesn’t get too stale.

Yeah, that’s how I’m kind of looking at it at this point. I’ve got one main team I like to run Invades with. After that, I’m experimenting with a half dozen teams just to see what fun stuff I can come up with. Keeps it fresh.

So I decided to experiment instead of looking for a “good” defense team.

I setup a new defense team for this week named “Token Defense” just to see what the AI would do with it:

Vampire’s Banner (red/purple)
Mythic Herdmaster ***
Mythic Naga Queen ***
Mythic Siren ***
Mythic Night Terror ***

Right now, it’s winning at a 20% clip despite being fairly underpowered compared to what is attacking it.