Faerie Abilities Guide Series: Level 25

Also by woccawoccawocca

Welcome back to our Faerie abilities series, where we discuss the new Faerie abilities released for the Battledome in Y15! In this series, we not only give descriptions of each and every ability, but also provide you a full breakdown of their advantages and disadvantages relating to their tier, the other available abilities, their cost, and how you can best utilize them to enhance your battledome set and skills! This week, we will be looking at the Level 25 tier abilities: An Icicle, Sear, and Irritable Minions. The first ability you buy in the tier will cost 10 Faerie blessings (the types are noted below). If you decide to switch to a different blessing after you purchase one, it will only cost 5 of the specified type of Faerie blessing.

The Abilities

An Icicle

Cost: Water Blessings

An Icicle is the most straightforward ability in this tier. When used, it will do 6 icons of water damage during the turn. Unlike the rest of the abilities that share this tier, An Icicle has no cooldown, meaning it can be used however often you like in a battle!

The weapons that work best with An Icicle would depend on your challenger. When fighting a challenger with little to no water defence, such as Boochi or Vira, having an ability that does 6 icons on its own can let you focus more on your own defence, especially if you have a high strength boost to amplify the effects of the ability. Paired with defensive weapons that are also multi-use like a Royal Blue Cape or, for the more financially gifted, a Faerie Tabard, you can deliver consistent attacks while protecting yourself. Additionally, for a more well-rounded attack, you can pair An Icicle with weapons that focus on other damage types or, even better, some good dual-duty weapons. Though it can only be used once per battle, a Ghostkerbomb is a great option because it inflicts 10 icons of both fire and earth, while also doing physical icons. With the addition of 6 more icons from the ability, you can do quite a bit of diverse damage within a single turn. If you're a more cautious battler, but still want to take down an enemy quickly, dual-duties are great to pair with An Icicle to amp up your attack without leaving you completely vulnerable. For the price, a Scarab Ring is a surprisingly well-rounded weapon, offering 2 attack icons each of water, dark and physical in addition to 3 icons each of fire and physical defence. It too can be used multiple times during battle. Again, if you have a little more to spend, a Hanso Charisma Charm could also be a good choice, especially against an opponent like Advisor Broo who has the ability to inflict quite a bit of dark damage.

Sear

Cost: Fire Blessings

Sear can be a useful ability because its effects last for 2 rounds - the round you use it and the following turn - and has a 2 round cooldown, meaning it can be used on every third turn. When used in the Battledome, it will inflict 4 icons of fire damage on the turn it's used, and an additional 4 fire icons on the following turn for a total potential of 8 fire icons every 3 turns.

The true strength of Sear comes from its effect in the second round. Knowing that you're going to attack with more icons in the second round can help you strategically choose weapons to pair with Sear. For example, if you pair Sear with a freezer, the second-round icons will attack during the next turn while your opponent is frozen. You could choose to attack with Cranky (from the Level 10 ability tier) on the second turn, and the additional 5% will also apply to the 4 icons from Sear from the previous round, meaning you could really pack a punch! Alternatively, you can also pair Sear with defensive weapons, being confident that you can still cause damage to your opponent on the second round. One of the downsides of Sear, though, is that a 2-player opponent will know it's coming on the second round and thus has the opportunity to choose to block - or worse, reflect! - fire, rendering the second-round effects useless.

In addition to pairing Sear with a freezer, you could also pair with weapons provide additional fire icons, such as Flask of Liquid Fire, Ylanas Blaster, or, if you have the NP, Sword of Reif. Provided your opponent does not have a full fire blocker, these additional fire icons can help you overpower their fire defences and cause some damage. On the other hand, if you prefer a well-rounded attack, you can pair Sear with weapons that do not inflict fire damage such as Scroll of Knowledge, Scroll of the Wise, Scroll of the Scholar, or Barbat Throwing Star. If you are battling an opponent with Sear, you may want to invest in a fire blocker. Sophies Magic Hat and Royal Blue Cape each provide 3 icons of fire defence in addition to other useful defences. If you have more NP to invest, Pirate Captains Hat or Frozen Cyodrake Shield can offer even more protection against fire. And if you'd like to reflect those fire icons right back onto your opponent, Turbo Flame Reflector is a strong choice.

Irritable Minions

Cost: Dark Blessings

Irritable Minions is an exciting ability that offers 8 icons of dark damage. While that's the most number of icons we've seen in an ability so far, it has a major downside: Irritable Minions requires 10 rounds of cooldown. At first glance, you may think that the extensive cooldown period renders this ability useless, but there are situations where Irritable Minions could really benefit you. Many battles don't last longer than 10 rounds, and the 2 icons this gives over An Icicle could really help you in the battle, especially if you have a high strength boost. If you think of this ability as a once per battle, compared to some of the other once per battle abilities, this one is pretty great.

When using Irritable Minions, you could pair it with other dark icons to try to overpower your opponent's dark defences. Weapons like Halo of Devilpuss, Ramtors Spellbook, or Scroll of the Dark Star can add an extra dark punch. However, watch out for Hanso Charisma Charm, a fairly common dual-duty weapon that blocks all dark icons. If you're playing 2-player, and particularly playing opponents who are likely to have weapons worth around 500,000 NP, you may want to avoid Irritable Minions or pair it with weapons that deal damage of different icons.

Recommendation

Overall, we recommend An Icicle. Irritable Minions attacks with 8 icons, but then has a 10 round cooldown, so it averages 0.73 icons per round. Similarly, Sear has 4 icons on the first turn, 4 on the second, and has a 2 round cooldown, so it averages 2.67 icons per round. An Icicle does a constant 6 icons, and you can use it every turn, so it averages 6 icons per turn - which is a lot more than both 2.67 and 0.73. Depending on your stats and weapons, that's stronger than any of the abilities we've discussed so far!

On the other hand, in order to get that average from An Icicle, you must use it every round. With Sear, since it inflicts some of its damage on the second use, you can combine with a freezer and/or a different faerie ability on the second round, like Shade or Cranky. If you prefer this strategy, then we recommend Sear.

Conclusion

You may start to notice a theme here: there are some abilities that aren't worth your time or NP, but the best abilities to choose depend on how you plan to use them. Hopefully our analyses can help you choose the best ability for you. Tune in next time for an examination of the Level 50 abilities!