Or: how to move on from the herocaplypse
Disclaimer: We here at Shop Titans Central would like to remind our readers you do not need to solo content, nor is it cheap. This article is for people who really love heroes and want to get their maximum performance, or have nothing better do with their time and resources.
We’ve previously covered before a build on this blog which was able to solo Castle Hard and at the time it was pretty damned amazing. Then 4.3 happened and the mighty hand of balance came down from the heavens, striking at those who dared challenge the Gods by making (justified) nerfs to the mastery skills and (still puzzled but whatever) mage skills in an attempt to prevent it.
Anyway here’s some skills and builds you can use to continue soloing:
First up we have:
Perfect Form: +100% Attack, +30% Defense
Flame Brand: +100% Attack, +30% Defense
Shining Blade: +90% Attack, +30% Defense
These 3 skills are a fantastic option for any would-be solo build, providing an incredible amount of damage to your hero. Whilst the defence increase isn’t as potent as the old mage line, it still provides a very respectable amount. Having any 2 of the 3 on your hero is well advised.
Moving on, along with the damage/defense you’ll need some health, which comes in the form of:
Health! Glorious health! It has many different flavours, the ones I’ve highlighted here are my preferred options but the others can work too. We have:
Sturdy: +40% health
Toughness: +40% health and -15% resting time
Juggernaut: +60% defense and +25% health
Impervious: +50% health and +50 hp.
Sturdy is your standard “here, have some extra health” skill. The beauty of it being a common skill means it’s not too hard to roll/retire rehire for (see here about retire/rehiring) and 40% is nothing to be scoffed at.
Toughness also gives an extra 40% health but it also lowers the resting time of your hero. From a soloer perspective this is a fantastic skill, it shortens the downtime between runs even more. Slightly more annoying to use in a duo/group setup though as it’ll mean one hero is out of line compared to the others.
Juggernaut is an interesting skill pick – although it does not bring as much health to the table, it does give a nice meaty +60% defense. This when paired with one of the skills in the first set means you’re looking at a phenomenal hero for soloing already.
Impervious is the gold standard of health skills. +50% health is a lot and it also gives +50 hp on top of that. Basically it’s incredibly silly and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got nerfed at some point.
Okay, so you’ve got some health, got 1 or 2 of the dual-stat skills. Where you go from here is up to you and depends on your hero:
If you feel your hero needs more attack:
Warlord: +10% Health, +200% Attack with Sword/Axe/Dagger/Spear/Mace
Marksman: +5% Evasion, +200% Attack with Bow/Crossbow/Gun
Adept: +15% Attack, +200% Attack with Staff and Wand
The epic weapon mastery skills are still incredibly strong even with the mastery bug fix. These also do give you a few options for the weapon slot instead of being locked to just 1 weapon type like the common ones cause.
If you feel your hero needs more defence:
Extra Plating: +100% Defense and +10% Health
Extra Conditioning: +50% Defense and +15% Evasion
Blurred Movement: +25% Evasion
Mana Shield: +80% Attack, +35% Defense
Although Mana Shield is one of the skills that was hit in 4.3, it’s still pretty respectable. Blurred Movement/Extra Conditioning should be used on Green heroes to really up their evasion as they live or die by the dodge lord. Extra Plating adds some serious beefiness to any Red hero.
Spirits
The main spirits to keep in mind for your solo heroes, pick whatever you feel will help the most:
If you need:
Damage and some HP: Bear
Damage and some evasion: Lion
Tons of HP because you have enough damage: Walrus
HP regen because you already have high damage/defence: Lizard
Gear
Gearing for your solo hero comes down to having an fairly even distribution of health, attack and defence – too much in one stat compared to the other two can compromise your hero. Now whilst it is a good rule to stick by it’s not cast-iron, you can bend it a bit if you’ve got something planned to cover the hit ?
Ideally you want dual-stat gear where possible, with health is great but attack and evasion also acceptable. Some examples:
So you’ve got your skills, your enchants, your gear you can go on your merry way to slaughtering the denizens of Haunted Castle. I’m going to show now some examples of heroes who can clear it by themselves:
So there you have it, an idea of what to look for when designing a hero to go solo. These aren’t the only ways it can be done, you might feel inspired to try a different route and find a new meta build ?
If you do get stuck when making one, there’s a hero channel on the ST Central discord where we can give advice specific to your hero. Feel free to drop in ?
Until next time, go forth and pillage the haunted castle!