Thank you very much!

Healing being disabled would have made things extremely difficult considering how much health he has. His curse can be pretty nasty though if you don’t have enough of the right scrolls.

Thank you and congrats on your win! You can try boosting your stats with the mecha but it may be best just to wait. He’s not going anywhere.

Because if you're boosting 100+ stats, then you'd need to boost at least around 40 levels to keep training :/

- thanks for including me in this really interesting discussion. I am neither an really experienced battler (just about a year now since getting serious) nor typical in my training/boosting (I don't boost at all and I train all four pets evenly for now because it makes using the training center much easier). However, with Tos just a few stats from T10, this is very helpful to me because I need to decide when to use all that EXP and saved boosters from Shinwa, and the old Apothecary plus I guess I should at least start to think about a final build. I'm sort of leaning in a very vague way to high health but don't really know that much about details (eg. how much speed is enough, ... ) Really looking forward to hearing (seeing :-) ) what everyone else has to say.

I never train level with Verdugo because he only gets 1-2 training sessions a day so I will either throw some exp into level from BQs or I will use level boosters/tomes. For stats like his health and strength, level will never be caught up. I just use it to slowly gain speed and defense in the background

As far as training costs go, for me there sort of aren't any (except my time) most days. Because I usually don't do all the quests, but after doing my basics - Shinwa, Wizard, Saggi, weekend (and sometimes Quentin), I also do some extras to cover my training costs. And some days I play a few games as well. Since I wouldn't be doing those otherwise, I figure the training is essentially free. Of course, I could just do the extra activities and save the sP for battle purposes Maybe I should think about starting to do that at some point. :-)

- just went back and read some of this discussion over the past few pages. I'm a little confused. You talk about saving on healer costs by not training level - but I was under the impression that the healer bases her costs on health, which, of course, you are continuing to raise - so I don't see any savings there.

of course! And you've been a serious battler longer than I have, so you're in my books ;)

I had forgotten you hoard your EXP like a dragon guards its gold (XD)

I'm glad though that you feel this topic will be helpful. I am not planning on using regular boosters until tier 13, but definitely will keep boosting with EXP.

I feel like a good build for me will be 12k HP | 11k STR | 6k DEF | 6k SPD I'm considering such high speed to match a few IMP challengers, although scaling-by-speed weapons go up to 4k speed I believe?

[edit]

[edit] You Won! You have defeated Sophie 10 times!

Wow the last two wins were HARD! Managed to chain freeze her on the last win though! Took 5 losses to get my 10 wins, BUT I had 5 wins and 8 losses before the reset, so definite improvement :D

I can confirm that only the normal/standard challengers drop things like mage amulets, tomes and crystals beyond ten wins. MC and CS guys don't drop afaik (I've gotten about 40 wins on Slaughter and got nothing sadly). Not sure about all the other secret ones like Drills or Chase.

Kind of sucks cause we really only have two standard Impos. challengers being MaFa and Prodigy. Getting more of those high tier crystals as a possible drop on every kind of opponent would be cool. Or maybe we just need more standard opponents for a change.

Yeah, some users think using the TC is the only way to get a battle pet, and don't do BQs or battle period. You also have some battlers who think it's worth using regardless if they're only getting one session on top of everything else they do; but really, they're only getting ahead by 1-3 points maybe, compared to someone who stops using the TC entirely and boosts their pet through boosters and hoarded EXP.

It balances out in the end though. High tier pets do end up earning more or less the same amount of stats per day as a newbie pet in the TC does.

[edit]And yeah, I think 4k speed is the top tier for scalers that rely on that stat. Keep in mind, your curses/blessings/freezing/stealing rates do tie into your speed stat. 6k should be fine, but you might have to rely a bit more on weapons that boost speed per turn when used like Cronus.

El's build is probably gonna be 10k HP; 9.5k Str; 7.5k Def; and 8k Spe. I might change it up to give him 7.5k Spe and put that remaining 500 in Str. Haven't decided yet lol

Oh - that makes sense. Kind of how I think about the extra quests paying for my training. The training costs pay the healer. I've got it now. Thank you.

The Cursed Effigy from the MC actually does give out extra loot, but all of the other MC challengers seem like they don't. I wish they did though.

Some people have battled more against Chase and The Mage and they give out extra stuff like Crystals and such as well. And I'm assuming the other non-MC secret challengers do as well, since there are some scroll pieces that come from them as well (like I know Phungis, Javir, and the Lizard Minion have scroll pieces).

Some more regular or easily unlockable opponents would be pretty nice anyway.

Yeah, I had a feeling the Secret, non-MC challengers dropped crystals with Effigy as an exception. I don't mess with Chase unless I have to. Guess we'll have to see if our holiday guys will drop crystals (Morostide, other Effigy, the wrestlers, etc.).

Thank you! I love how everyone has different opinions and perspective, yet everyone is still very understanding and respects each other's point of views and training methods :D

I think it's a matter of also people getting to a high tier with the first pet, VS when they're getting to the second (or more), because you're still learning your ways with the first one, while for the second (+) you already know what to do, or how to do it best (or the best way for you)

Well I'm glad that made your day (I was hoping you wouldn't take it the wrong way :P) I loved the dragon too! So cute and peaceful-looking ^_^

By the way, can anyone confirm if this page has Lady of the Water's correct icons? I can't find a guide for battling her.

Haha, I only have 5 wins against Chase so far, mainly because I wanted to confirm if he was giving out the same loot. But I won't be fighting him any more outside of BQs for a while.

I think it would be nice if the event challengers gave out more loot and crystals as well. Especially some of the rarer or harder to get crystals. If the only way to get certain ones is by beating Impossible challengers, they're going to be stupidly annoying to get especially since we only have 4 Impossible challengers right now who would give them out.

Yeah, those icons look correct off the top of my head (well, going off my photogenic memory anyways). I remember being annoyed that she blocked dark and earth and has that one weapon that can block even more shit.

And yeah, raising battle pets reminds of that Luvs diaper commercial, where they show the parents being all paranoid with the first child, and by the second child, they're so passive and relaxed from having experience with the first one.

Ya screw up with the first pet, but by the second and subsequent battle pets, you know who they can pick a fight with and who they can't.

Agreed. Ice King can drop Ice Marquise crystals at least, but he's an RE. And Hoarfrost will return whenever, so we'll have to see with him. And that's it, really.

I have just now learned something very interesting after battling Chase: if your opponent steals your MW and uses it against you, it does not do any damage!

Thanks ! Going to attempt her right after the sylph, I'm done with all the IMP challengers I can currently take on.

I was also thinking of the baby reference! But as a childless person, I'm not one to relate LOL

Yeah so, I guess we'll see in a few days whenever Fireside starts, if the Bandit and Carrot guys come back.

Also the past two weeks have gone by super fast, it still feels like Morostide just ended and now it's already the middle of November.

The really annoying thing about Lady of the Waters is her healing. As long as you can block her attacks, then beating her shouldn't be too difficult. Just takes a lot of turns to get her down, unless you get lucky with crit hits. Luckily, I believe she can be chain frozen so that would help too.

Thanks for the tip ! Are all features enabled for her, or is anything (like scrolls) disabled?

Oh yeah, scrolls are disabled against her, so chain freezing would be more difficult unless you use a weapon for it. Forgot about that. :c

You may be able to get to 5 wins though, depending on what you use. I guess focus on blocking her attacks long enough to be able to outlast her healing, and eventually you'll get her health down. Try using blasters as well, because I think she's got some weapons that block a lot of stuff.

- no need to worry about me taking something the wrong way. I know I'm among friends here. And so many interesting opinions about training versus boosting.

- that's a great analogy. LOL

It also seems to me that having an older sibling makes things easier because you're more likely to already have most of the better battle equipment (and perhaps a better thought out build?) so challengers can be beaten much sooner than the first time around. At least that seems to be what is finding with Oranos versus Verdugo. Don't know if that makes any difference in opinion about training versus boosting, but I suppose it could. Might also matter if you're on your second pet ... or your thirtieth. After all, anyone with an army can only afford so much boosting and is more likely to need to be training to keep progressing with some of them, which seems like a different decision.