Sundance
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Good evening my fellow Epic Duel build enthusiasts,
This evening, I want to show some folks some tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the past three years about build innovation. I’ll be concentrating on two different play styles with regard to “successful” build making; the first example will be how I go about creating builds that are made to counter other builds. The second is a typical build that needs to be countered. Each build has its own merit and can be considered “successful” creations depending on the person.
My goal is not to hand out builds that perform well. The builds below are fashioned to my particular gameplay habits. My objective here is to show everyone the benefits and the detriments of both builds. Ultimately, I hope this written piece will provide a logical rubric for many players seeking to make “successful” builds.
Things change so quickly in Epic Duel that what might be successful one day, changes the next. By searching out builds and copying them down without thinking critically about them, they will not perform as they would normally; in addition, they are not going to be permanently successful.
Simply stated: If someone asks other people to give them a build, they will only be receiving a temporary supplement –at best. To resolve the issue permanently, critical thinking and comprehensive training is almost always necessary. To use my own personal experience as an example: I was a terrible player until I was taught and mentored by some top ranking players of the time.
Counter Builds:
“Offense wins games, defense wins championships.”
That is a popular sports metaphor that can be applied to “Counter Builds” within Epic Duel. That is, if you are the sort of person that likes an increased flexibility in gameplay and being capable of pulling off some epic battles to be remembered, this build style is for you.
Some Pros:
1) The increased flexibility usually means a higher percentage.
2) Build created to counter other specific builds can occasionally lead to some awe-inspiring moments.
3) Possessing a feeling of “unkillability” meaning, if you’re on you’re A-game, it takes a great deal of luck to beat you.
Some Cons:
1) High flexibility can also be rewritten as “reactive with frills”. Flexibility isn’t always a good thing. Many builds and play styles build in momentum over time. These players will always be a danger to Counter Builds. While you’re still reacting to round 2, round 3 could be even more devastating and cause you to lose the battle. If you have a hard time thinking ahead, this style of playing might not be right for you.
2) Every build has its weakness, you will inevitably discover that weakness and could possibly diminish your flexibility by trying to protect yourself.
3) These builds are typically thought provoking, and a little slow. If you’re tired or impatient, you might try to make the build do things it’s simply incapable of doing. Afterwards, there is almost always a feeling of regret from the loss. With flexible builds, there is always something that you could have done differently. Sometimes you can go a little crazy playing the “woulda, coulda, and shoulda” games with these builds.
Now that we’ve gone over the description of this build style, let’s look at an example. I’ve selected to try to create a build that can counter (1) focus BMs and (2) Strength bounties.
First, I want to select what I consider the optimal class for countering knowing my own abilities and logic progressions. I’ve selected the Cyber Hunter class because of the following reasons:
1) EMP is unblockable and will cripple many focus BMs on the first turn.
2) Defense matrix will cripple many strength bounties.
3) Many BMs like using an energy Doom sidearm, level 10 plasma armor will perfectly counter the 8 skill points allotted to deadly aim for +10 sidearm damage.
4) Shadow Arts makes me a more formidable foe for a Bounty Hunter’s cheapshot or a Blood Mage’s bludgeon.
5) Malfunction serves a dual purpose, reducing the effect of smoke screen on Hunters, and decreasing the damage a Focus Blood Mage’s bot will deal.
With the entire list of counters above, there is always a chance you run into a player that has a semi counter to the counter. An example might be: you defense matrix, and they eliminate it with Azreal’s bot and so on. It’s up to you to figure out a way to combat them after that point. Many times with these builds, the flexibility can only go so far –until a battle of wits ensues.
Let’s get started. I know generally what skills I want to use. I also need to look for similarities in my problem. Let’s analyze both classes for similarities and see what we find. They share three of the same skills Energy Shield, Reflex Boost, and Bloodlust. Since the first two are reactive skills and I’m countering aggressive builds, I deduce that it is the Bloodlust that is the root of my problem.
So, what does Bloodlust do, and how do I counter it? Well, Bloodlust changes a percent of damage into health for the player. So, in my personal train of thought, I have three options.
1) Increase my damage so I burn through their moral gained through Bloodlust.
2) Increase my defenses so they hit lower and therefore making Bloodlust less effective.
3) Find a way to eliminate their biggest hit so I only have to work through minimal amounts of Bloodlust.
Now that we have a general idea of what we’re looking for, it’s time to start putting builds together.
Here I am trying to put together a build that will follow along with option one and overpower my opponents. This type of Counter Build is for those that are trying to make a hybrid between reactive and proactive build types. The goal here was to use one initial skill (either EMP or defense matrix) followed up by a series of aggressive maneuvers. Sometimes like-beats-like, with this build I am attempting to flip their own play style upon them.
Attempt #1
Okay, so now I have an idea on what I think will work. Next I’m going to go test the build.
Asking a Friend for Help.
Notice that I didn’t hop into battle. I went to seek out players that I knew and respected to test with. I did so for a few reasons. 1) I would be able to get feedback from people that I know and trust. 2) If the build turns out to be ineffective my record is not the worse for wear. 3) Its more fun!
I find that when your build testing with friends the battles tend to take longer and are more involved. On a scale of one to ten for countering, these battles are worth about 8 points, where a random strength bounty I meet in battle is worth about 6 points.
Here was the result:
Sadface.
Okay, so this build didn’t work. Wasted Spirit - wasted me. I could tell the build had some potential. I got first strike, but I got blocked during the fight. I realized then an error in the build. When I use malfunction, and they use smokescreen, unless I have an energy sidearm, my chances of getting blocked are very high. Since this type of build completely revolves around outdamaging them, I cannot afford a block.
In addition, I was using Delta armor because I like the stats very much. But as Spirit pointed out, if I’m using a strength build, the EbilCorp armor is superior for my particular build. After doing some more work, here was my result:
Attempt #2
Now that I’ve created a build that I feel will work against what I’m trying to beat, I need to ask myself: Will I use this build correctly? Does this build suit my play style? For those of you that know me ingame, I prefer to be more of a passive player. I attempt to make up for it with damage in intesting ways, but ultimately, when it comes to builds that take the bull by the horns and control the fight, I’m a fish out of water.
So, I decided to make a different build to challenge those classes in a different way, that was better suited to my play style. For passive play with decent damage, the first thing that came to mind for me was a passive focus build. I also wanted to try and reduce the effectiveness of Boodlust just by being heavily built. First I worked on the skill tree, next I had to pick out some weapons and armor that would fit with the build I was thinking of. I was already thinking heavy tanking gear. Here is what I came up with:
Attempt #3
Then I asked Wasted Spirit to help me yet again test the build. Here was the result:
Happyface
The point I’m trying to make is this: Even if it seems like your first idea for a build is right, it may not be a tailor fit for your play style. You know yourself better than anyone else, take command of that fact and learn to use it to your own advantage. Additionally, remember there is almost always room for improvement.
Command Builds:
“The best defense is offense.”
If you are the type of player that likes to take control the fight from round one, and like to simply overpower your opponents – leaving them behind you as Delta V recycling, these types of builds are for you.
Some Pros:
1) These heavy hitting builds can often overpower opponents quickly. For many aspects of Epic Duel the benefits of quantitative kills outweigh the benefits of quality kills.
2) On good days many optimum “command builds” can have ±5% win percentage versus a “counter build” it all depends on the majority of people playing at that time of day.
3) Possessing a feeling of “unkillability” meaning, if you’re on you’re A-game, it takes a great deal of luck to beat you.
Some Cons:
1) Many of these builds are dependent on a certain skill or stat, the Epic Duel team has innovatively created ways to give other players a way to counter you. In other words, to keep your build from being “overpowered”. When using these builds, you always run the risk of the thing you are most dependent on, being eliminated.
2) Every build has its weakness, as a “command build” there are usually numerous ways for your build to be countered. What might be a 90% build at 3 pm EST could crash and burn and become a -70% build at primetime between 9-11 pm EST.
3) Typically these builds depend on a lot of points on a certain stat. If this is the case, no matter what you do the loss is always made up somewhere else. Player’s tend to get unlucky a lot with these builds. You might get critted a lot, or deflected a lot, or blocked a lot, it all just depends on what you’re missing. Instead of calling all those players “lucky noobs”, take your lumps and move on. Realize that this is simply one of the things that will happen with types of these builds.
Now that we’ve gone over the description of this build style, let’s look at an example. I’ve selected to try to create a command build for mages. I’ve selected to use mage for a few reasons. First, I feel as if I have mastered, or at least have a good understanding of the other classes. I consider mage to be the “final frontier”, for me. I spent most of my Epic Duel life as a mercenary; many mage builds simply mystify me. I remember players like Smokin Aces, Ramirov and Oxblood, just to name a few, I’d lose to these players, study their builds and come up empty.
I personally consider mages a very artful and dynamic class. They can either be the worse, or best class. It all depends on who is playing them. This is however, just my personal opinion.
So, naturally, what would be more fun than taking this class typically used as a “counter class” and turn it into a “commander class”?
First, I needed some ideas of what to do. Here’s what I was thinking of:
Initially I tried some ideas that were running around in gamma. I remember similar builds made by mages who didn’t want to use the popular “loop healing” builds of the early gamma time period. It concentrates on three aggressive characteristics. After malfing, I can gun, aux and bot. All of these three are fairly heavy hits and with the physical armor I’m using, I stand a good change of out-damaging even the most aggressive of players.
Attempt #1
After playing around a lot with this build and others, I adjusted what I thought were some faults and spoke to some of the premier mage players that were available and willing to spend some time with me. I spent over two hours with a very knowledgeable mage named Xendran, who taught me a great deal about the Mage as a class and about Epic Duel as a game in general. After that time with Xendran and coming up with a few effective 2v2 builds, I turned my sights on a more aggressive skill tree for mages. That being, the caster mage:
Attempt #... err lots.
This is also the build I am currently using in game. Although it’s different from what I am normally accustomed to, I am within a few hundred kills from Emperor and I have been a commander since Beta. It’s very fast, very limited, but it is also very potent. As a college student as well, I have very little time to play Epic Duel. A build like this suites my needs better than anything else I could come up with.
Successful Builds:
“In any great adventure
If you don't want to lose
Victory depends upon
The people that you choose.”
I cannot go over enough just how important meeting with people, studying their builds, talking with them about their builds and working with others, teaches you. There is such an absolutely massive reservoir of knowledge that can be tapped into if people are willing to put aside their pride and listen.
This does not mean that you have to agree with all the advice that is given to you. Always weight advice with as much merit as it cost you to get. In many cases this advice is free, so similarly, your own opinion is what matters most. Nevertheless, always ask and investigate, at the very least—you’ll figure out how the other person thinks and makes builds. Once you find out a way a person thinks, you can counter them in a duel. No matter what, asking questions is helpful.
With practically every build I think up (which isn’t an absolute fail, lol.) I discuss with friends or even talk about in battle. This is why making friendships with people whose opinion you trust is so important.
For example: In my “counter build” section I had a good deal of tanking stats, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when I started blocking Spirit. What was a surprise was what he told me after the fight. He warned me that the build: “Gives him rage really fast”. With him using Ebilcorp and me using defense matrix it took him: “within two hits”. I might later try to fashion this build using Ebilcorp armor myself, that way I can counter their rage.
When you’re testing builds on the fly, and not dueling and talking about builds with others, you’re really missing a great opportunity. A competitor is not very likely to tell you how slow or how fast they’re getting rage. I’ve never once had someone that was trying to beat me say: “Hey SunnyD, I have rage next turn you should really consider healing instead of striking me.” Working with others and having “work partners” is one of the keys to increasing your knowledge of this game.
In conclusion to this post, I hope that at least something in this article will help you in how you go about creating builds. None of the builds posted are intended to be given out as surefire successful builds. They were just components of the necessary steps I felt are needed in order to make build creating possible. I would also like to call attention to Pro #3 on each of the build styles.
As a recap: Possessing a feeling of “unkillability” meaning, if you’re on your A-game, it takes a great deal of luck to beat you. The reason I put this in both sections is because both builds, if used by the right player, can be extremely difficult to beat without some luck involved. However, luck might be defined differently for the two play styles. To provide an example: For a player that likes tanking builds, a player “getting lucky” might be someone who critted, stunned, or had a premature rage. For an aggressive player “getting lucky” might better be defined as someone who deflected, stunned, or a blocked them. It really is just the same sentence but representing two completely different outlooks on gameplay.
Live for the Lord,
Sundance
I would like to personally thank Wasted Spirit for offering up some his time over the Christmas Holiday to make this post possible. Thank you work buddy!
I would also like to than Xendran for explaining some components to the game that overall increased my knowledge. Thank you.
< Message edited by Sundance -- 1/21/2013 20:59:41 >
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