They finally got me...

Well, they finally got me to spend some money. I am a sucker for pre-battle attack skills so I picked up a Crdnl Hardened Shield. With the money I spent I was really hoping to get something else out of it, but no luck at all.

Do you mind sharing your total spend and your results for those of us that are curious as to what we can realistically expect?

legend, check your PM please. I have a question on how I should post this.

Man the title of your topic had me believing that the Dakota crew had banned you...must learn not to panic. But can anyone blame me for thinking this way these days?

Even the paranoid have enemies. I thought the same thing.

Haha...sorry about that guys. To answer Legend's original question...I spend $70 and I really didn't get anything other than the Hardened Shield to speak of. Got an E3 Ironsight, an r1 and r2 ironsight, an r1 Abbadon, an r1 shellstinger, and a bunch of other junk. I was so hoping to get lucky and end up with a Gigan.

Sorry for double posting.

Wow guys....this merc is awesome. His pre battle skill seems to be close to 150%. I haven't had enough time to really confirm but he hit tower boss for around 2.5k and pre battle skill hit for 3.8k.

Btw, his last words when he dies are .....broken. lol

Edit: his other ability seems to be close to 300%. Auto attacked for around 4k and skill hit for about 11.5k on the keymaster I just fought.....wow

If anyone comes across my team in a PvP match would you mind letting me know how it does please. Trying to gauge the best way to use Hardened Shield in PvP.

Edit: IGN is whtdrgn33 for those that do not know.

What line up are you running or what mercs do you have available?

Currently running, Emperor - D&J - Hardened Shield - Overgrown - Cyclops, in W formation.

Dude! Don't leave a headline like that just floating!

My brain went right to the ban-hammer instead of the pick-pockets. Glad to hear we may have future ally opportunities. Whew!

KainHighwing, could you send me a picture of this Hardened Shield ? Is it the Lethal with the Ethreal form skill ?

I cannot currently send one. But I can tell you it is the one star Epic merc that looks just like the Gatekeeper and was featured in one of the packs during the last tower event. And it is quite possibly my favorite merc at the moment.

What are skills / stats ?

Here are the stats with 50cc

12000
15000
12500
10501
10499

skill 1: Retaliation: Deal heavy ATK damage to three enemies at once (seems to be a ~300% modifier) 30% proc rate
skill 2: Stand and Fight: Pre-battle, deal ATK damage to all enemies and sometimes weaken them for 1 turn (seems to be a ~150% modifier) 50% proc rate!!!

Single action

Last words: Broken!

The last words are extra funny to me.

So you're saying that if you buy 5 of these guys, you have a 97% chance (50% ^ 5) of winning every pvp match you start, regardless of what your opponents team is?

'Broken' is right....

Legend: I can already see the gears whirling behind your eyes ... hehehe.

"Guaranteed" PVP wins for about $300 bucks? What's that Velcro sound I hear?

Must be a bunch of folks are yanking open their wallets to get ready for PVP.

   SCORE!

That is why his last words are so funny to me. lol

With only one though, he does need a good buff to take out higher tier mercs. Now I just need to get a hold of a Golem before the PvP event. (I mean a Santa or Double Gun would be ok too. lol)

Since dan has already asked about my merc options in this thread, I will post it here. Need some help setting up a squad for the upcoming PvP event. Here is what I currently have to work with....

Incinerate v2
Cannonback Battlemaster (13383 atk)
Na'lac (15347 atk)
PE Abyssal Emperor
PE Cyclops
50 stats less than PE Sentinal
D&J (13105 wis)
Crdnl Hardened Shield
Mordeo
Slice and Blast v2
POPE Corp Bouncer
PE Lockdown v4 (what? I got bored and made one)
PE Vulture
PE Rail Gun Rider
PE Skrillz (see notes about Lockdown, oh and I had so much fun with him last event that I am considering going for a Technomancer)
POPE Overgrown Colossus v2
Pack Overgrown Colossus v2
3 x PE or better Prawn Drones

I would absolutely love to get a good Niobe and turn Slice and Blast into a Birdkeeper only because of the keeper having lower health. That way it and the Hardened Shield will get the Niobe buff. Then toss in Mordeo and Incinerate (or maybe D&J depending on the HP). Heck I don't know....that is why I need HELP! lol

Try out a 3-man squad with Hrdnd Shield - Mordeo - D&J in all-front formation. It should give you fairly easy match ups and a very good chance of taking out enemy teams even before the match starts. You can swap out Shield for a speedier yet still powerful cyclops or emperor if he is too slow and not cutting it. However, your D&J is key when paired with the mordeo because of its double action attacks. You will want to avoid teams faster than you if possible (F9s, Archangels, etc).

Ok cool. If I decided to run a 5 man for a little while what would you suggest?

What evo is the Mordeo ?

Not sure. It is just barely under 15k atk

Hey legend how do u setup that 3 man for just ur 3 best up front and just leader in the back row?

Pick the "W" formation. Place mercs in both front & back positions at the top of the W and remove mercs from the bottom of the W.

Ends up like this:

F9 - blank - Niobe - blank - F9
Archie - blank - leader - blank - Archie

Easy peazy.

Mark: What squad were you thinking? If you have adjacent buffers (boost, shield, etc) they can't be used with this setup as their skill gets wasted.

I'm guessing wasp f9 arch
D&j leader ?? Something like that

D&J advantage is before battle commences so it might be good to swap it forward before starting the round. Not sure how good D&J is coming forward during a full squad melee. Might want to toss in you Cannonback, or Lurker behind your AGI guys to have some firepower coming from the 2nd line.

Good Luck!

D&J - Empty - Torpid Controller - Empty - Burnfrost

or something like that, ( lol ).

hardened shield - mordeo - cyclops in M formation. maybe try to pick up a can is to replace the hardened shield

KainHighwind wrote:

Since dan has already asked about my merc options in this thread, I will post it here. Need some help setting up a squad for the upcoming PvP event. Here is what I currently have to work with....

Incinerate v2
Cannonback Battlemaster (13383 atk)
Na'lac (15347 atk)
PE Abyssal Emperor
PE Cyclops
50 stats less than PE Sentinal
D&J (13105 wis)
Crdnl Hardened Shield
Mordeo
Slice and Blast v2
POPE Corp Bouncer
PE Lockdown v4 (what? I got bored and made one)
PE Vulture
PE Rail Gun Rider
PE Skrillz (see notes about Lockdown, oh and I had so much fun with him last event that I am considering going for a Technomancer)
POPE Overgrown Colossus v2
Pack Overgrown Colossus v2
3 x PE or better Prawn Drones

I would absolutely love to get a good Niobe and turn Slice and Blast into a Birdkeeper only because of the keeper having lower health. That way it and the Hardened Shield will get the Niobe buff. Then toss in Mordeo and Incinerate (or maybe D&J depending on the HP). Heck I don't know....that is why I need HELP! lol

Cannonback Battlemaster (13383 atk)
Na'lac (15347 atk)
PE Abyssal Emperor
PE Cyclops
50 stats less than PE Sentinal
D&J (13105 wis)
Crdnl Hardened Shield
Mordeo
Slice and Blast v2

Try a spread 3-merc setup vs. a tight 3-merc crew and see which works better for you. With the pre-battle skill of D&J and Hard Shield, drop a Mordeo between them. Or spread the squad and swap out the Mordeo & D&J for Na'Lac (always a PVP beast) and either Emperor or Cyclops (whichever one has better AGI).

This is why we play the game.

souperbean wrote:

hardened shield - mordeo - cyclops in M formation. maybe try to pick up a can is to replace the hardened shield

Ugh, really .. ? As we've said before, if you run a 5-man but you want to run a 3-man squad, you can't use Adjacent buffers as Mordeo. You need to run M-formation like this;

Merc - Empty - Merc - Empty - Merc
Merc - Empty - Merc - Empty - Merc

If you put that Mordeo in the middle, he'll do nothing but buff himself up.
Or just create a new account and then run 3-man squad.

What I meant was empty - hardened - mordeo - cyclops - empty
sorry for the confusion.

The middle merc in the M formation receives more damage than using the left (or right) portion of the W formation. If your buffer gets clobbered in the M, switch to the W to see if they can survive longer.

Cheers!

In my opinion, D&J is getting a bit out dated with the increased damage reduction. It used to be that the opening skill would kill all but the strongest Ls. This is no longer the case.

For me it's definitely not as effective as it once was in a 3 man.

I agree about D&J in a 3 man squad. If they don't proc pre-battle then they are almost useless because of all the recent high agi mercs. However, I still love them in a 5 man.

So far the best 3 man I have did end up being Cyclops - Mordeo - Hardened Sheild.

I still have not settled on a five man. I did a little trading and ended up with a Santa. I totally over traded for it, but I have a good idea whos Santa it was so I did not mind, and I have always wanted one.

This is what I am thinking best for 5 man...

Abyssal/D&J - Santa - Hardened Sheild - Mordeo - Cyclops

Any thoughts?

And for the record, I finished a Matriarch Dutchess v2 and she is a really nice merc. I have not had enough experience to judge her modifier though. Ill try and figure that out today.

KainHighwind wrote:

I finished a Matriarch Dutchess v2 and she is a really nice merc. I have not had enough experience to judge her modifier though. Ill try and figure that out today.

Nice? To use, or to have in the collection? Isn't she the blonde hottie with the scythe?

Mmm...
Y do all u guys keep saying to have all front 3 mercs in 5 man form u have to do merc space merc space merc u do realise theres a all front 5 man form

To use. She has competitive agi (PE/50cc = 14673). It is the new rare merc in the area of the game that was recently opened up. Blonde chic in a Mardi Gras outfit (deals AGI damage, and sometimes silence 4 random targets).

Wow
after update, the game is quicker than wind..

Devildriver wrote:

Mmm...
Y do all u guys keep saying to have all front 3 mercs in 5 man form u have to do merc space merc space merc u do realise theres a all front 5 man form

Yes, but the "gaps" are to limit the damage from the "Cluster Attacks". Downside is that the adjacent modifier mercs become nearly worthless. Hence the references to the W & M formations. Also, not everyone has the full complement of formations at their disposal.

Another "Lady or the Tiger" decision:

Tight >> adjacent buffs work but risk of cluster damage
Spread >> limit cluster damage but adjacent buffs wasted / useless