The race you'll need is:
Corrupt
Chaos
Elf (union)
Northern
======================
Stage 1:
Corrupt builds Neither Ancient
Chaos builds Chaos Citadel
Elf builds Dragon hawk Portal
Northern builds Azure Nest
Note:
In the end when Elf builds Dragon hawk Portal, Chaos will have enough money to upgrade Chaos Citadel to Greater Chaos Citadel.
What can you expect?
Basically you will notice this formation has 3 air units formation and only 1 ground unit, so opponent's who haven't prepared with sufficient anti-air will suffer.
Because elf has rushed to Dragon Hawk, this tactic also sufficiently counters enemy air.
There is another advantage I noticed recently, Chaos Champion's attack type is normal, and it is good to kill Troll, Blood thirster, Suumpnolk and Marksman (This one is weird. Effects seem good even though Sniper is light armor), so if your opponents don't build a good meat shield in front of their anti air units, you can massacre their units with Chaos Champion.
What if this doesn't work?
Option 1:
Corrupt buys a blast staff and passes it to Northern.
Option 2:
After Corrupt gets its first Shadow Drake, re-synchronize all units, wait for them to spawn, and then stike with Northern.
How does one re-synchronize all units?
1. reset Shadow Drake
2. 2 seconds later reset Chaos Champion
3. 2 seconds later reset Dragon hawk
4. 2 seconds later reset Azure Drake
The math that justifies the above is as follows:
Shadow Drake 400 => 15 + 400/20 = 35 (seconds)
Chaos Champion 350 => 15 + 350/20 = 32.5
Dragon hawk 310 => 15 + 310/20 = 30.5
Azure Drake 280 => 15+ 280/20 = 29
So it shows you just need to count down approximately 2 seconds for each units then you'll get your re-synchronization.
Re-synchronization is extremely useful before any sides use their strike. When you re-synchronize before you strike you get an overpowered push wave after you strike, and if you are lucky enough to have guessed the right timing on your re-synchronization before they use a strike, they'll find they wasted a strike and will have to use another one.
Being good at micro-management is really important in stages 1-2 because it allows you to re-synchronize well.
By stages 2-3, re-synchronization becomes less effective because there are too many units on the field.
What you can do sync trick?
Indeed, synchronizing is a part of the core strategy that everyone should know. Here I listed what units are good for doing sync.
350$:
Chaos Champion
(But this one seems only 1 from start to end game)
Red Dragon
Ballista
400$:
Shadow Drake
Ice Queen
These five units are core AOE damage output units, so you must sync them for best the battle result. (Uless you are facing frost luncher.)
======================
Stage 2:
Corrupt builds Shadow Ancient until there are totally 3 (so it means 2 more after the first one). And lastly, one more unit in this stage (I prefer Felhound for this one). This aims for 1350 wood.
Chaos
Now I have better route to build creeps.
Satyr x3 to form cage on the corner(don't upgrade), Red Dragon x2 and one last unit depending on how much you need for a SoD. If you are receiving very little pressure then try an Infernal, otherwise get a Red Dragon.
This one is better because you will already be prepared for opponent's specials, and at the same time I found that waiting for red dragon is just too long to wait. Waiting for a red dragon will slow down your income rate.
Elf builds Blood elf War Academy, if opponents have more land units, especially mass casters, build High elf Siege Factory x2, then more Dragon hawk Portal (don't build School of Wizardry unless there is a eraser).This aims for 1800 woods
Northern builds Crystal Palace x2, one last unit that depends on the situation. It's usually safe to get even a third Crystal Palace. This aims for 1350 woods
Note:
In the stage 2 opponents WILL be abusing specials, The key to survival is farming to weaken their usage of specials and still be able to aim for enough wood.
Here is a good guide:
farming guide by monk
Good farming ration usually goes about 1:3. It means like opponents built a Obelisk of light, and we need corrupted ent 125x1, 2 satyr 120 x2 to form a cage. It will most likely not be frost wolf. I'll wait for queen, This is just an illustration to show you what a cage looks like.
and what unit is still good to do farming in 1.12?
Any cheap units you can find !!
For example,Corrupt has Corrupted Ancient of Battle (125$), Chaos has lesser Demon Cage (120$), Northern has Snowy Rocks (115$).
Caging them will result in weak units surviving longer on the battle field. And don't forget the building cost is the production rate: 15+ building costs/20, the lower the cost, the faster the production rate, therefore, this is an easy calculation between their special and how many weak units we need. The ratio is about 1 : 3, this means when they have 1 Obelisk of Light, Well of Pain, City of Magic, Death Pit,...etc. In this situation, sufficient farming will be 3 cheap caged units versus 1 special.
The two things you'll need to find a different way to deal with are Volcanoes and Forgotten Ones.
(Well, maybe Starfall Obelisk should be included as well, but since it is nerfed, I think most people will choose Amazon.)
When you face Volcanoes it's hard to sustain your cage, but fortunately most of your units are AIR units, so it won't be a good counter to your formation. Just stop producing those cheap units. BTW, if opponents try to mix Volcano with other specials, just try TOP LANE. Building cheap units without a cage on the top lane is the answer. It will waste and drain their power.
When you face Forgotten Ones it is also hard to sustain your cage, but fortunately Icy Tower from Northern is a good counter to mass Forgotten Ones (Corrupt Protector is also a good counter, but northern has less wood requirements). Building only 1 Icy Tower near your cage will make you free money. (Try RP that versus 5 AI one)
When you face Forgotten One it is also hard to sustain your cage, but fortunately Icy Tower from is a good counter to mass Forgotten One, build only 1 Icy Tower near your cage will make you free money. (Try RP that versus 5 AI one)
======================
Stage 3:
Corrupt builds Eye of Corruption
Then build 1 void keeper. After that it depends. I usually save for items. However, the alternative option is to build more Shadow Dragons and Wells of Pain. This is still a good option.
*Forgotten One in the end game stage doesn't seem good when there is a lots of AOE damage on the field.
Chaos builds Shine of Destruction
If you're finding that your opponent is overwhelming you with more meat shields then balance the situation with more Infernals. Otherwise, try more Red Dragons. And don't forget Magic Tower Ruin or Volcano!
Elf builds Shrine of Justice
The only good unit for Elf in the end game is still Dragon Hawk. I find, for the most part, that you can abuse this, but if you're finding that your opponent's long siege units are beating your Ice Queens, you should try more ballistas. And don't forget Obelisk of Light.
*City of Magic in any game stage is totally a waste of money, so don't build it!
Northern builds World Freezer
Afterward Build 1 Wandigoo. I usually prefer Ice Queens for the rest of the units. But If you're finding that the power of your air isn't sufficient, for instance if your opponents built too many Dragon Hawks and are forcing a tie with your air, then try to mass Azure Drakes. It will be the deciding factor. And don't forget Greater Frost Launcher.
Note:
Stage 3 is almost 15 minutes into the game. After this stage it's totally chaos. What you need to do is mass those AOE units similar to what you did in stages 1 and 2. The difference is you'll buy an orb, drum and bass, mass specials, change single lane tactic to both lane, etc. There's too much to be explained, but after the end of stage 3 there is nothing that can stop this formation because there is too much AOE damage in the front.
What forms AOE attack?
There are 4 main resources:
Spell Damages from Queen and Dragon hawk.
Splash Damages from AIR unit.
Long Range Siege.
World Freezer.
Maybe nobody noticed that this game was designed with higher armor values for high-end units. And what does armors value mean? It means your units are stronger than the HP values you see on your screen would suggest.
Unit takes damage = damage / (1+ Armor*6%)
SO
Unit maximum HP = Unit equal HP / (1+ Armor*6%)
Unit equal HP = Unit maximum HP * (1+ Armor*6%) (when armor > 0)
At the first glance, everyone will think to nerf a unit by reducing it's armor or picking a good damage type. In fact this is WRONG! There are other ways to totally ignore armor.
They are spell, splash, and cleaving damage (I don't know how the line damage from ballistas will act). Reducing armor to make huge damage is totally a waste of time!
So, I combine these 3 kinds of effects to form the maximum AOE attack. Your unit number will increase with time, and most of the units without enough HP or magic resistance will be instantly killed in the later game stages. For now even several infernals still get killed in a second (1500 HP! and 7 armor = 42% equals HP = 630 is ignored!) , I think only legendary Hydra will be stronger than infernal, but it is not possible to use a meat shield protecting units behind it since there are AOE effects everywhere and 0 armor effects on them.
Focus on Damage
However, I didn't feel satisfied with only massive AOE. I also abused reduced armor effects and increasing both attack speed and damage at the same time.
reduce armor effects from:
Single target from Blood thirster
650 range Aura from Void Keeper
850 range AOE from Wandigoo
Whole map from Eye of Corruption
Increasing attack speed:
Felhound
Increasing attack damage:
525 range AOE from Chaos Champion
It is already overkill without AOE attack.
Strength and Weakness
Strength
This tactic has overkill power on units pushing, once it completed Nothing is capable to withstand this tactic.
This tactic also has better income growing rates since it doesn't use any specials before legendary buildings. Dealing with opponent's specials by farming will also make sure you have more units than they do.
Weakness
Lack of Healing power and too unit focused. This is not a good rush tactic.
AOE attacks grow with Time, and therefore it is not very strong at first. Focusing on units means that this tactic doesn't murder units with killer specials. Players must know HOW TO PLAY WITHOUT SPECIALS until the 1st legendary building for each race is built. This will be hard for newbies because farming and single lane strategies aren't popular in public games.
Tactics over tactics, this isn't ready for newbies.
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