Workshop/Portal 1 Fodder Team
or as I like to call them, the "Esoteric Explorers"
or as I like to call them, the "Esoteric Explorers"
These three dragons are designed to train 1 fodder in both the Golem Workshop and the Forbidden Portal. The two mages each handle one of the venues, while sharing a single physical attacker as their partner. This is to avoid needing to obtain more than one Eliminate, which is still the most costly battlestone.
While having different elements per venue is optimal, you can also use one mage between both venues! The stats listed are good for both venues, so feel free to be a cheapskate.
This team is not designed for fast fodder training. It is meant to strike a balance between being able to farm these venues for drops and level dragons for exaltation. Leveling your fodder in here will absolutely be slower than Ghostlight Ruins, Mire, and even the Kelp Beds.
The Warrior
Preferred element: Fire
Other element options: Earth, Arcane
This will be your powerhouse physical attacker in both venues. Fire is a great defensive element, as it is only weak to the Stone Borer in the Workshop and the Void Wyvern in the Portal. Earth and Arcane also work, but I do not recommend any other element as it will most likely be weak to a significant portion of enemies in one or both venues.
Stats (with stones)
STR 103 - This allows the Warrior to Scratch + Eliminate every enemy across both venues when Rallied.
QCK 64 - This gives the Warrior 3 turns at the start of a battle against all enemies except Mistral Minion and Spellbound Golem.
VIT 57 - Enemies in these venues hit hard, so a lot of health helps the Warrior tank those hits.
DEF 24 - A slightly more efficient stat distribution for taking physical hits.
Stones
Required stones
These are necessary for the Scratch + Eliminate combo to work, of course. Good news is that this is all the Warrior absolutely requires in terms of ability stones, so you can leave it at that if you don't want to buy more.
x3
x2The Berserker stones are required to be able to reach the stats shown above. The Ambush stones net you two free turns at the start of a battle, which you absolutely need.
Optional stones
This will allow the Warrior to Rally themselves in case something goes wrong. The stone is expensive though, so you could opt to simply reset whenever something goes wrong.
This stone is more than likely going to already be on your Warrior if you chose a breed that starts with it. It does a little more damage than Scratch, and then deals the same amount of damage once again across three turns. It can help kill bosses faster by using spare breath but is pretty much useless against normal enemies.
This is an attack you can use in place of Scratch to recover some health in a pinch. It's a very cheap stone that can help the team recover, but it's not going to make or break the build.
This lets your Warrior or Mage reflect magical attacks, which is really useful against the Portal bosses if you're using an element that is weak to them. It can also help against Mistral Minion and Spellbound Golem, since they're fast enough to get hits in.
Reflecting spells back at bosses also allows you to inflict them with their own status effects, which is great as Burn and Berserk are both very useful. Using it on Workshop bosses just for the occasional spell isn't really worth it though, especially since Petrify will just slow you down.
The main reason not to use this stone on your Warrior is the hefty breath cost, though against bosses it shouldn't matter if you're not too concerned with speed. If you are still concerned with the breath cost, consider using it on your Mage.
This allows your Warrior to come to the defense of your Mage. If you find yourself having trouble when enemies gang up on your Mage, this stone may be helpful. It's not guaranteed to work, though, which is why I don't recommend it as much as I could have.
This is probably the most confusing stone in this build. It costs a lot of breath and the description doesn't make it sound very good... but the description is wrong. As of writing this guide, Clobber has a 100% chance to stun an enemy when hit. This allows the Warrior to stun bosses or enemies if they threaten to end your streak. It's not something you will be using often, but it is extremely cheap which is why I consider it an option. If this behavior is ever fixed, I will be removing this stone from the guide.
The Mage
Preferred element: Wind for the Workshop, Water for the Portal, Fire for both
Other element options: Nature for the Workshop, Earth or Shadow for both
This is going to be your Warrior's helper. They will Rally the Warrior, assist in softening up enemies, and keep the team alive with some heals.
Wind and Water mages can deal some significant damage in their respective venues, especially against the bosses, and Wind can even shut down mages with the useful Berserk status effect. Keep in mind that the main thing taken into account for elements was the boss matchups, as dealing more damage is most impactful there. These elements have a few weaknesses as well, meaning that you have to be careful with your Mage. Nature is another great option in the Workshop.
Fire is going to be your best element choice if you want to only use one Mage. It's the best defensively, and also pretty great offensively in the Portal. Earth is a bit better in the Workshop, but misses out on some specific Rallied Elim KO combos and crit kills due to needing to use Boulder Bolt. Shadow is a great "boss hunting" option, but due to a poor elemental matchup against normal enemies it will also miss some Rallied Elim KO combos.
Stats (with stones)
INT 115 - This allows the Mage's attacks to soften up enemies enough for the Warrior's Eliminate to work.
QCK 64 - This makes the Mage just as speedy as the Warrior.
VIT 40 - Points are dumped into VIT so your Mage will be decently resistant to attacks.
DEF 10 - A slightly more efficient stat distribution for taking physical hits.
Stones
Required stones
This is what allows the Mage to build up breath, pretty straightforward.
Unlike on the Warrior, Rally is required here, as it's the Mage's job to buff them up for some Eliminating action.
A damaging spell that can be used instead of Scratch to set up for a Rallied Eliminate. It's got a low breath cost, and decreases the damage dealt by the target by 25% to boot! Toss this spell around liberally to have an easier and faster time taking down foes. There's some enemies the Contuse + Rallied Eliminate combo doesn't work on, though; more about that in the next post.
These are the two healing abilities the Mage has access to. There's been much debate about which is better, but I think both of them work perfectly fine. It's purely up to preference, so I will compare the two abilities here.
- Aid will heal 706 health on this build, or a little less than half the Warrior's health. It can also crit, making it heal 1496 health which is almost a full heal for the Warrior. The Virus debuff will make Aid deal damage instead, but you shouldn't be inflicted with this unless something goes terribly wrong.
- Regeneration will heal a total of 1170 health across 5 turns, or 234 health per turn, which is a little more than an enemy Scratch can deal. It cannot crit, but it also heals far more by default and is unaffected by Virus. Regeneration also has the additional effect of being able to heal back hits that the Warrior takes as the battle is ongoing, even if the Mage has died.
x3
x2Similarly to the Warrior, the Scholars are needed for their stat bonuses and the Ambushes will give you two free turns which the Mage needs.
Optional stones
Elemental spells have some advantages over Contuse. They hit harder, can inflict debuffs, and deal elemental damage. Elemental advantages can set up for one-shots with critical hits, or a Rallied Scratch kill. They're also more effective against bosses, especially if they're weak to the spell. Some elements benefit more from having this spell than others.
- Disorient can inflict the Berserk debuff, which will make enemies randomly use Scratch on friend or foe. Mages often have 0 or 1 STR, making their attacks hit for nothing and shutting them down entirely.
- Drown's Slow debuff isn't nearly as useful, and only has a noticeable effect vs Mistral Minion and Spellbound Golem. Drown is still good, though, because it has a good elemental matchup against the Portal enemies.
- Envenom's Poison debuff takes enemy turns to inflict its damage, so it's not reliable extra damage, while Sear's Burn debuff allows for a few extra Rallied Scratch kills.
For other elements, you should obviously use their respective elemental spell.
NOTE: For Arcane, you want to use Mana Bolt as Enfeeble deals significantly less damage and Amplify is unlikely to be helpful to you. For Earth you want to use Boulder Bolt as Fossilize's Petrify debuff slows your battles down a lot.
This allows you to use the Reflect strategies outlined in the Warrior section on your Mage, who has a lot more breath to spare. If you fancy safety over speed, or your elemental attack is a poor matchup anyway, this is definitely recommended.
