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BATTLE DOME - Your pet finds a captured Faerie and being the nice person that
you are, you free it. Depending on your pet's level and which Faerie it was, you'll
be granted an ability. What does this mean? It means you have access to use that
ability in the Battledome. This article is a subjective discourse stating what
I feel are the best abilities to have as well as some suggestions on their uses.
Let's start off with a simple introduction. You'll often hear people talk
about icons in regards to the Battledome. What's an icon in this context, you
ask? It's a representation of damage either inflicted or defended. There are
seven icon-types in use for the battle dome. Water (which looks like a drop
of water), earth (a tree), dark (a black flame with a red center), light (a
yellow blob), fire (a flame), physical (a sword), and air (several blue squiggly
lines). This is important because weapons do certain types of icons and Faerie
abilities can defend them.
When you start a battle, you have your health and below that something that
says Power 100% and a green bar. When you begin a battle, below your numerically
displayed hit points, is a green bar indicating your power, which will begin
at 100%. As you use Faerie abilities, this bar shrinks. If you ever let your
Power get to 0%, not only can you not use any more Faerie abilities, but nothing
in the drop-down list will work. How much power each ability uses depends on
the strength used. If you use one on Weak, it will take 10% of the power, Medium
takes 20%, and Strong 40%.
While your pet can be granted 52 abilities, you can only have seven active
for use at any one time. I realize I list more than seven here but, unlike with
weapons where you have to purchase different ones, Faerie abilities are easy
to change between battles depending on circumstances. My favourite abilities,
grouped by type of Faerie used, are:
Air Diamond Dust. 8th ability granted. Pet level required: 28
Dark Drain Life. 7th ability granted. Pet level required: 21 Sink. 8th ability
granted. Pet level required: 30
Earth Burrow. 4th ability granted. Pet level required: 10 Regeneration. 8th
ability granted. Pet level required: 23
Fire Fiery Gaze. 3rd ability granted. Pet level required: 6 Boil. 8th ability
granted. Pet level required: 24
Light *none Restore. 7th ability granted. Pet level required: 22
Water Quench. 4th ability granted. Pet level required: 9 Steam Shield. 5th
ability granted. Pet level required: 12
The number of ability granted means that's how many of that type of Faerie
you have to free in order to be granted the ability. Pet level is the level
your pet has to be in order to learn it. For example, to get the ability Drain
Life, your pet has to be at least level 21 and you have to free seven Bottled
Dark Faeries. The *none for the Light Faerie means that I've found none of the
light abilities useful except maybe Restore. The problem is that Regeneration
does the same thing as Restore, so unless you need two healing abilities Restore
is redundant.
Explanation of Abilities Diamond Dust - When used on weak it has a chance
of freezing your opponent for a round. Useful when fighting pets stronger than
you or with better weapons and you feel your only hope for a victory is a freeze.
On a successful freeze, this ability vanishes for the remainder of the battle.
Author's Note: For exact percentage of a freeze over long-term use, you can
visit my pet's page at http://www.neopets.com/~Grephun
Drain Life - When used on Weak, this ability drains 11% of your opponent's
remaining health and heals you by that same amount (up to a limit of 100 hit
points drained/healed). Useful when your opponent has more hit points than you
or when you need quick healing. Also useful for guaranteed damage. Author's
Note: Drain Life is probably THE premiere ability to have for 1-player battling
due to its dual nature of healing while still doing damage. I racked up MANY
wins simply be using defensive weapons and Drain Life until I got my opponent's
health down to a manageable level.
Sink - When used on Strong, it will block all icon damage except from earth
and air icons. Even on Medium, it can be helpful by blocking a lesser amount,
although for best results, using it on Strong is highly recommended. Useful
when needing to avoid damage from opponents that don't use air or earth-based
attacks. Normally a once per battle ability, occasionally in 2-player battles
it can be used more than once.
Burrow - This ability is very similar to Sink except that when used on Strong,
it will block all icon damage except from light and dark icons rather than all
except earth and air. Even on Medium, it can be helpful by blocking a lesser
amount, although for best results, using it on Strong is highly recommended.
Useful when needing to avoid damage from opponents that don't use light or dark-based
attacks. Normally a once per battle ability, occasionally in 2-player battles
it can be used more than once.
Regeneration - When used on Strong, it will heal your pet 33% of its missing
hit points. Useful if you have a lot of hit points and are low. In most instances,
Drain Life would work as well or better.
Fiery Gaze - Just like Diamond Dust, when used on weak it has a chance of
freezing your opponent for a round. Useful when fighting pets stronger than
you or with better weapons and you feel your only hope for a victory is a freeze.
On a successful freeze, this ability vanishes for the remainder of the battle.
Author's Note: For exact percentage of a freeze over long-term use, you can
visit my pet's page at http://www.neopets.com/~Grephun
Boil - When used on Weak, Boil will block all damage from water icons. Useful
when fighting opponents with a lot of water-based attacks such as players using
Dark Battle Ducks, Battle Ducks, Snowballs, Snowball Slingshots, Meukas Snot
Trails, and/or Battle Plungers.
Restore - Just like Regeneration, when used on Strong, this ability will heal
your pet 33% of its missing hit points. Useful if you have a lot of hit points
and are low. In most instances, Drain Life would work as well or better.
Quench - When used on Weak, Quench will block all damage from fire icons.
Useful when fighting opponents that use strong fire-based attacks such as Portable
Kiln users in 2-player battles.
Steam Shield - When used on Weak, this ability will block all damage from
light icons. Useful when fighting opponents that use a lot of light-based attacks
such as players armed with Pumpkin Sticks, Seasonal Attack Peas, Faerie Slingshots,
or Yellow Clockwork Grundos.
Author's Note: While the suggestions above are purely my opinion, they
are based on prolonged use and experimentation from over 14,000 victories in
the Battledome.
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