kthx
08-04-2008, 10:57 PM
Well, I have written a couple of small guides before, but I didn't put anything together for the last two expansions. However, this is a mighty big expansion, and I feel that I could really put together something useful. Just looking at how full the rooms are goes to show me that there will be a lot more tads looking for a good starting point in the coming weeks ;)
... and not to mention, I'm forever getting tells and messages asking me if I'll update :P
Oh, and before I begin - shameless plug. If you're into FS, you should consider joining the Frogstomp guild. We're open to all - you don't need to strictly play FS, although the majority do play FS as their main faction.
Firstly, I'd like to go through the runes available to our faction, with a brief writeup about each. From there I'd like to explore deck building and champion builds briefly. Be warned that whilst I'll try and give a complete picture of the variety within the faction, I do have my bias - as a rule, for example, I think Leap 3 is a poor upgrade, but I'll explain that later on.
So, without further ado...
Champions:
----------
I will divide these into different categories. Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Tier 1 are the very best choices, Tier 2 are very playable choices and Tier 3 are playable, but purely optional. I won't list runes like Forglar Jellyfish that are just garbage, or runes that only fit into for-fun decks.
Tier 1:
-------
Boghopper Spitter
Another staple. His only downside is he cannot hit shrines/relics/FW units. Still, he's a house - combined with the Tidemaster, he represents our best ranged module. Ultimately, there are a few good builds - I prefer 9 speed, Poison 2 and either +6 or +8 hp for 67 or 69 nora, but it is equally viable to run at 11 speed with either +4 or +6 hp for 74 or 75 nora.
Firk Sensorate
Simply a house. High damage, high hp, low cost. 69 nora for 11 speed, amphibious and some hp (or 67 without amphib and 2 more hp). Made of pure win and gold. Stay away from Stun, it is just too expensive (although can be useful on 9 speeders in a 10/10 with FW due to mobi). If you're interested in running stun, try 79 nora, 11 speed, +6 hp, Stun.
Marsh Raptor
Much better than I first thought - 54 nora for 10 speed, 44 hp, rend 3. Pretty hard hitting. Definitely include one, and possibly two. After sensorate, our best melee option.
Kartch, Finlord
Absolute gold. Probably our most flexible unit in terms of upgrades - in general you can't go wrong, so long as he gets 11 speed and stays under 108 nora. Play around and find what fits - can be worthwhile to add ranks to Poison, or Regen, or even some extra base damage. Some people go for leap, and on Kartch, that isn't a bad upgrade either - personally, I skip Leap and play with the other stuff.
Screaming Leviathan
High hp, decent range, good attacking type, reasonable damage. Combined with Boghopper Elite's BM3, he's a very good, very viable ranged unit - although he's quite good without it. 69 nora for 10 speed, either +1 damage and +2 hp or +3 hp for 68 nora. You could increase damage, hp or speed and his cost will remain good. Now that FW is so popular, he's a better option than the standard boghopper ranged module.
Tier 2:
-------
Boghopper Shaman
This guy is simply an excellent healer. In my view there is little flexibility with builds - 9 speed, +6 hp; then both heals at either level 3, or heal mass 3/heal champ 2. Roughly 78 nora, depending on which heals you go for. Never worth getting Leap, and generally not worth getting Invigorate, unless you have a particular strategy in mind.
Boghopper Tad
49 nora, 10 speed, +6 hp, Semi-Aquatic, Leap 3. Alternatively, 58 nora with 12 speed. He's a great little font contester, and would fit nicely into normal bgs if you can find the room. BkWiz runs his tad with extra hp (and +1 dam, in his case); an extra 6 hp will bring you to 64 nora and is probably worth it. You could add extra hp to the 10 speed version as well; again, another 6 hp will set you back 6 nora, so you'll be at 55.
Glowing Slider
A great healer. You can get either level of transfer life, up to you ; slap on some hp and the vulnerabilities and bump its cost to an X4 or X9 cost (explained later) and good to go.
Firk Diplomat
Simply an excellent unit - he opens up some sneaky strats and provides good melee muscle. Again, he's got some flexibility in builds - as a general rule you'll want to avoid Multi Attack, although there is some scope for damage upgrades (however, I don't touch his damage). You really need to ask yourself: Do I want him to fight, or do I want him to Truce/Majestic? I opt for 9 speed, although again you can give him 11; some extra hp is nice too. Mine runs at 74 nora, but anything up to low 80's is probably ok.
Pirahnid
Could be Tier 1, remains to be seen. 74 nora for 10 speed, +hp. Absolute house.
Tier 3:
-------
Due to popular demand, I'll be adding builds for these guys - I do have most of these guys CP'd so I can put down what I'd use.
Boghopper Bull
This guy is a very cheap melee option. Just adding 9 speed takes him to 69 nora, and adding 6 hp brings him to 72. You can add 2 more speed for 81 cost; leap is 7 more. 9 speed, +6 hp, Leap 3 is 79 nora, adding 11 speed makes him 88 nora. Pretty costly, but an option, nonetheless. I'd avoid pummel; its very expensive.
Boghopper Elite
When I said Kartch was our most flexible unit... I lied. This guy is. He can do lots and lots of different things, although, in my opinion, none of them particularly well. Still, he can be tweaked to fit almost any role in your BG, so he definitely has his uses. His biggest problem is his cost vs longevity - he's easily dispatched, but can cost as much as 100 nora. Realistically, you can go a number of ways with him, and I'll mention it all briefly.
1 - Fighter. Generally going to run either 11 speed or 9 speed, without any abilities. This is a very poor build due to having better melee options - the piranhid, mandrake, sensorate and others are just simply better.
2 - Battlemaster. My favourite. 84 nora buys you 9 speed, +2 hp, and BM3. Very useful and a great counter to SL's high defense. You're going to end up with an extra cooldown to get those last 4 cheap HPs, sadly.
3 - Init unit. Personally, I don't really like init in FS; but many do. In general, I favour a couple of builds, namely 10 speed, Riposte OR Init 2, +hp for 94 nora. However, if you want, you can give it 11 speed instead of init 2 or some other combination around that. Keep in mind though, adding init 1 to an 11 speed melee unit doesn't really make it good at anything: it isn't a great fighter, and nor is it a real initiative threat.
Electric Eel
49 nora, Semi-Aquatic, +6 hp, 10 speed. The poor eel - a mere shadow of his former glory. Still, he's cheap, and on some maps, capable of churning out some decent damage. His chain lightning is a ghetto-ranged attack that can get around Righteous Deflection and Demon Shield.
To get the most out of his Chain Lightning ability, you could try base 12 speed. Like the tad, it could be worth adding some extra hp - 12 speed, +12 hp from base will bring him to 64 nora.
Firk Psy-Sentry
I don't have one CP'd, but I understand it to cost about 78 for max detection, 9 speed and +6 hp. He's an option for detection, and not a *terrible* fighter. If you need detection, he's an option; better than the Salaman Sentry unless you're bringing expensive equips.
Fire Salaman
This guy is one of the most underrated champs in the entire game. He's got a good attacking type and a very relevant immunity (fire) and Flamestrike is just a brutal skill. 9 speed, Flamestrike 3, +6 hp brings him to 78 nora; a little costly, sure, but not bad.
Firk Spellblaster
A very poor version of the mandrake; this guy is *great* in the Trials, but sucks in multiplayer or the other campaigns. 79 nora buys you spellswallower, 9 speed and some hp - the reckless blast can be upgraded, but its not particularly great: if you're running it in the trials, don't bother, otherwise, it is ok to upgrade it for a ghetto-ranged option. Strictly worse than the mandrake, but easier to level up.
Frenzied Piranhid
The Rich Man's Piranhid. This guy is worse than the uncommon in every respect. I'd go for 69 nora, rend and some hp. You can go nuts on the cost and slap life siphons and all sorts on him; but he's just not that good and not worth investing large amounts of nora on.
Giant Crustacean
Could have been so good - I was really looking forward to this guy coming out; high defense, phys res, block, good hp... sadly, a 2x2 and a little expensive. 82 nora for 9 speed, phys res 3 and some hp. Stil, very tough and a good tank - strictly worse than the hippo rider.
Hippo Rider
Massive hp and low cost; 9 speed for 64 nora. Only worthwhile upgrade is hp. Relevant race - this guy doesn't see enough play.
kthx.
... and not to mention, I'm forever getting tells and messages asking me if I'll update :P
Oh, and before I begin - shameless plug. If you're into FS, you should consider joining the Frogstomp guild. We're open to all - you don't need to strictly play FS, although the majority do play FS as their main faction.
Firstly, I'd like to go through the runes available to our faction, with a brief writeup about each. From there I'd like to explore deck building and champion builds briefly. Be warned that whilst I'll try and give a complete picture of the variety within the faction, I do have my bias - as a rule, for example, I think Leap 3 is a poor upgrade, but I'll explain that later on.
So, without further ado...
Champions:
----------
I will divide these into different categories. Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Tier 1 are the very best choices, Tier 2 are very playable choices and Tier 3 are playable, but purely optional. I won't list runes like Forglar Jellyfish that are just garbage, or runes that only fit into for-fun decks.
Tier 1:
-------
Boghopper Spitter
Another staple. His only downside is he cannot hit shrines/relics/FW units. Still, he's a house - combined with the Tidemaster, he represents our best ranged module. Ultimately, there are a few good builds - I prefer 9 speed, Poison 2 and either +6 or +8 hp for 67 or 69 nora, but it is equally viable to run at 11 speed with either +4 or +6 hp for 74 or 75 nora.
Firk Sensorate
Simply a house. High damage, high hp, low cost. 69 nora for 11 speed, amphibious and some hp (or 67 without amphib and 2 more hp). Made of pure win and gold. Stay away from Stun, it is just too expensive (although can be useful on 9 speeders in a 10/10 with FW due to mobi). If you're interested in running stun, try 79 nora, 11 speed, +6 hp, Stun.
Marsh Raptor
Much better than I first thought - 54 nora for 10 speed, 44 hp, rend 3. Pretty hard hitting. Definitely include one, and possibly two. After sensorate, our best melee option.
Kartch, Finlord
Absolute gold. Probably our most flexible unit in terms of upgrades - in general you can't go wrong, so long as he gets 11 speed and stays under 108 nora. Play around and find what fits - can be worthwhile to add ranks to Poison, or Regen, or even some extra base damage. Some people go for leap, and on Kartch, that isn't a bad upgrade either - personally, I skip Leap and play with the other stuff.
Screaming Leviathan
High hp, decent range, good attacking type, reasonable damage. Combined with Boghopper Elite's BM3, he's a very good, very viable ranged unit - although he's quite good without it. 69 nora for 10 speed, either +1 damage and +2 hp or +3 hp for 68 nora. You could increase damage, hp or speed and his cost will remain good. Now that FW is so popular, he's a better option than the standard boghopper ranged module.
Tier 2:
-------
Boghopper Shaman
This guy is simply an excellent healer. In my view there is little flexibility with builds - 9 speed, +6 hp; then both heals at either level 3, or heal mass 3/heal champ 2. Roughly 78 nora, depending on which heals you go for. Never worth getting Leap, and generally not worth getting Invigorate, unless you have a particular strategy in mind.
Boghopper Tad
49 nora, 10 speed, +6 hp, Semi-Aquatic, Leap 3. Alternatively, 58 nora with 12 speed. He's a great little font contester, and would fit nicely into normal bgs if you can find the room. BkWiz runs his tad with extra hp (and +1 dam, in his case); an extra 6 hp will bring you to 64 nora and is probably worth it. You could add extra hp to the 10 speed version as well; again, another 6 hp will set you back 6 nora, so you'll be at 55.
Glowing Slider
A great healer. You can get either level of transfer life, up to you ; slap on some hp and the vulnerabilities and bump its cost to an X4 or X9 cost (explained later) and good to go.
Firk Diplomat
Simply an excellent unit - he opens up some sneaky strats and provides good melee muscle. Again, he's got some flexibility in builds - as a general rule you'll want to avoid Multi Attack, although there is some scope for damage upgrades (however, I don't touch his damage). You really need to ask yourself: Do I want him to fight, or do I want him to Truce/Majestic? I opt for 9 speed, although again you can give him 11; some extra hp is nice too. Mine runs at 74 nora, but anything up to low 80's is probably ok.
Pirahnid
Could be Tier 1, remains to be seen. 74 nora for 10 speed, +hp. Absolute house.
Tier 3:
-------
Due to popular demand, I'll be adding builds for these guys - I do have most of these guys CP'd so I can put down what I'd use.
Boghopper Bull
This guy is a very cheap melee option. Just adding 9 speed takes him to 69 nora, and adding 6 hp brings him to 72. You can add 2 more speed for 81 cost; leap is 7 more. 9 speed, +6 hp, Leap 3 is 79 nora, adding 11 speed makes him 88 nora. Pretty costly, but an option, nonetheless. I'd avoid pummel; its very expensive.
Boghopper Elite
When I said Kartch was our most flexible unit... I lied. This guy is. He can do lots and lots of different things, although, in my opinion, none of them particularly well. Still, he can be tweaked to fit almost any role in your BG, so he definitely has his uses. His biggest problem is his cost vs longevity - he's easily dispatched, but can cost as much as 100 nora. Realistically, you can go a number of ways with him, and I'll mention it all briefly.
1 - Fighter. Generally going to run either 11 speed or 9 speed, without any abilities. This is a very poor build due to having better melee options - the piranhid, mandrake, sensorate and others are just simply better.
2 - Battlemaster. My favourite. 84 nora buys you 9 speed, +2 hp, and BM3. Very useful and a great counter to SL's high defense. You're going to end up with an extra cooldown to get those last 4 cheap HPs, sadly.
3 - Init unit. Personally, I don't really like init in FS; but many do. In general, I favour a couple of builds, namely 10 speed, Riposte OR Init 2, +hp for 94 nora. However, if you want, you can give it 11 speed instead of init 2 or some other combination around that. Keep in mind though, adding init 1 to an 11 speed melee unit doesn't really make it good at anything: it isn't a great fighter, and nor is it a real initiative threat.
Electric Eel
49 nora, Semi-Aquatic, +6 hp, 10 speed. The poor eel - a mere shadow of his former glory. Still, he's cheap, and on some maps, capable of churning out some decent damage. His chain lightning is a ghetto-ranged attack that can get around Righteous Deflection and Demon Shield.
To get the most out of his Chain Lightning ability, you could try base 12 speed. Like the tad, it could be worth adding some extra hp - 12 speed, +12 hp from base will bring him to 64 nora.
Firk Psy-Sentry
I don't have one CP'd, but I understand it to cost about 78 for max detection, 9 speed and +6 hp. He's an option for detection, and not a *terrible* fighter. If you need detection, he's an option; better than the Salaman Sentry unless you're bringing expensive equips.
Fire Salaman
This guy is one of the most underrated champs in the entire game. He's got a good attacking type and a very relevant immunity (fire) and Flamestrike is just a brutal skill. 9 speed, Flamestrike 3, +6 hp brings him to 78 nora; a little costly, sure, but not bad.
Firk Spellblaster
A very poor version of the mandrake; this guy is *great* in the Trials, but sucks in multiplayer or the other campaigns. 79 nora buys you spellswallower, 9 speed and some hp - the reckless blast can be upgraded, but its not particularly great: if you're running it in the trials, don't bother, otherwise, it is ok to upgrade it for a ghetto-ranged option. Strictly worse than the mandrake, but easier to level up.
Frenzied Piranhid
The Rich Man's Piranhid. This guy is worse than the uncommon in every respect. I'd go for 69 nora, rend and some hp. You can go nuts on the cost and slap life siphons and all sorts on him; but he's just not that good and not worth investing large amounts of nora on.
Giant Crustacean
Could have been so good - I was really looking forward to this guy coming out; high defense, phys res, block, good hp... sadly, a 2x2 and a little expensive. 82 nora for 9 speed, phys res 3 and some hp. Stil, very tough and a good tank - strictly worse than the hippo rider.
Hippo Rider
Massive hp and low cost; 9 speed for 64 nora. Only worthwhile upgrade is hp. Relevant race - this guy doesn't see enough play.
kthx.