My mortiking, angry pointy thing, just hit Tier 8 while battling tonight! Awesomely, this coincides with bobblehead re-releases so I have a pretty trident to play with too. Here's my set for him right now:

Defense:

Healer: Stealer: Freezer:

Scrolls: is my main one I use, I have for when I want to hit hard instead of healing.

My questions now...

1. First off, if you have any suggestions for my set feel free to share! However, I can't afford anything expensive right now. This might be the best set I can build with what I have to be honest, as anything over 10m is pushing it, 15m+ probably not going to happen right now. ...though I did just notice this is only 7 weapons, I have room for one more it seems...

2. I'd like to use the mod slots on my weapons, but I am not sure what's best for each weapon. I read somewhere that parched and singed baguette crystals are good for the trident, should I invest in those? I was thinking maybe 2 of each since there's 4 mod slots. What about the other weapons?

3. Should I look into upgrading the Holy Deluge or finding some new scrolls? I can't afford the super expensive challenger loot ones, but any scroll that I can make at the shrine is perfectly fine as I can restock the ingredients. What would be a good scroll set for a young T8 with 137 AP?

4. Is there anything I should be considering about stat distribution at this point? Because of the personality I imagine for my mortiking, I like to put a lot in both strength and health, and neglect speed. But I know his stats are all still low, is there a minimum speed I should try and reach before stopping, for instance?

5. Is this a good tier to begin using stat booster items, or should I keep saving them for higher tiers (T10+ I'm thinking?)

6. Finally, the Hustler is perpetually beating me in BQs. I'll be fine and then suddenly he'll pull out a weapon that 1HKOs me. Is there some trick to beating this guy? I figure at T8 it's about time to get it done...

Thanks! I appreciate all the help from the battle experts here. Hope it isn't too much stuff to ask.

Suggestions for budget set and , depending on opponents. Forj Tempered Shield breaks too frequently and too soon to make it a good option against stronger opponents.

(for when your SPD is 1,300 or more) works as an alternative to the LGK, but the knife is hands down better all around. Other cheap weapons might have some use, but those are on a case basis rather than general upgrade.

makes a better freezer for the tier until you can make the

ETA: healer Noticed that you haven't listed this but the is also highly recommended.

Unfortunately all the better options that will last you until T11 are expensive. I'm going to just throw them out there for you to consider later: (only useful at 2,500 DEF)

Mod slots are the most common. Each Parched or Singed adds 4 or 5 extra icons onto the weapon it is attached to, respectively. For my Trident I go with 3 parched, 1 crit, but you can go with 2 parched, 1 singed, 1 crit. I always leave the last slot on any of my main attackers for a cheaper mod crystal (crit or BoNA) so that I can tailor it to certain opponents.

Scrolls If cost is your concern you can stick with Holy Deluge, but at T11+ that will need an upgrade for sure. At T11 you can borrow weapons and scrolls to earn your own Aftershocks if you've got Crithbolcan unlocked. Other scrolls to make at the Shrine: - pure defensive - fire block with water attack and freeze chance.

Further down the line:

I highly recommend PWs though especially when you cannot afford advanced freezing scrolls. They make for serviceable freezing options and are sturdy against fire-based and water-weak opponents (Forj, Cursed Effigy both versions, Meatslab and later Flamagia).

are also worth investing in.

Stat distribution You can think of a final build and add stats accordingly. There is no minimum SPD. The only wonky builds would be super low ATK or HP (say, like 200 ATK or 200 HP, which is impractical against almost all opponents). Other than that, pets with low SPD do just fine in battle. The only sacrifice is they cannot make use of speed-based weapons and scrolls (not many of them are good anyway). For now, you can keep training SPD in the TC and up every other stats using your earned EXP through BQs.

Stat boosters The best return you can get from using boosters is at T13. However, stat boosters can be helpful during site events when you want to push for those few needed wins but haven't got enough stats.

The Hustler has a guide for the Hustler here if you want to take a look. There are two ways to beat him. One is to go the chain freezing path. Using Blessed trident + poison quill + PW every turn would work, or poison quill = flayed lord breastplate + PW. Blasting doesn't help against him unfortunately. The other method is to steal his and use it against him paired with a full heal (phoenix quill). It may take several tries to steal the right weapon though.

[edit] Edited to trim down the wall of text OMG T.T

Thank you for your awesome advice as always!

I looked at the defense options and it looks like the item hunters shield blocks at 5 of every icon, whereas flayed lord doesn't block water, light, or ice and even has a chance of blocking nothing at all? When would it be better to use the breastplate, as the other option seems more reliable/well-rounded?

seems very affordable for what it is so I'll get one of those. I see that it blocks light icons so I suppose it can cover that if the breastplate doesn't. I like that it has 3 mod slots and Pylots Preservation blessing, I'm guessing these are part of what make it better than the reborn icewand of doom? (I hope you dont mind these questions btw, I'm starting to try and learn what makes certain weapons better than others... as I find my intuition is often very wrong about these things haha)

And wow I didn't realize doesn't take the healer slot. Woohoo!

Instead of the Reviver of the Lion, could I just use Phoenix Quill + 100% blocker (like negating pylonic, I think it was?) to get the same effect for much cheaper?

Though now that I'm thinking about it, if I invest a lot in health and strength, I suppose healing is less important than weapons that hit hard. Is 30ish icons about the best I could get for this tier?

Sorry if my questions are a lot and a bit rambley, battling is so complex to me. Thanks for helping me out!

The benefit of having both Phoenix Quill and Reviver of the Lion is that it gives you two (almost) full healers which can be useful when dealing with opponents who are likely to dish out critical hits. So like, say you are close to losing so you use your quill, then you get crit hit again and need more healing. The reviver could potentially save you in that case.

Although if you're doing fine without it, you could probably just leave it on your list of things to maybe save for eventually, since it is more expensive compared to some of the other things mentioned.

It depends on the opponent really. For those that deal large chunks of a few icons Flayed Lord Breastplate is generally better [edit] (because I misunderstood your question I'm sorry :'() For example, if your opponent deals a total of 20-40 icons per type per round across two weapons, there's no way the Defenders Shield would withstand that much damage. Cases in point are Slavam, Recycle Beast, Meatslab the Resting and Cursed Effigy the Tormented, to name just a few.

However for longer fights against opponents who: (1) deal a spread of stray icons (~10-14 each type across two weapons) but (2) have (an) icon bias(es) that the breastplate doesn't block (light, ice, water) the Item Defenders Shield, lame as it may look, can actually be better. For longer fights and against opponents who heal for more than I can attack, reliable block, which the breastplate cannot guarantee, for maximum survival is preferred hence the Defenders Shield would be better for such cases.

Yes to all you said re. the LGK versus Icewand. We usually evaluate a weapon based on a few criteria: (1) The total number of icons it deals (2) The spread of its icon types (usually the fewer the better, but we also judge whether or not it deals the icons that the opponents block)

• To explain this point more: Some opponents, esp. those at higher levels, tend to have spread-out defence and blocks several icons across many types, which makes weapons like the icewand less effective once their shield is up and only a very small number of icons might get through. (3) Its percentage heal (the higher the better, the less variable the better) (4) Its gimmicks, such as:
• Blessing (additional def or heal)
• Curses (the more icons and the more rounds, the better)
• Freeze/ steal chance All of these might not come packed together in a weapon (or it would be too OP). However a weapon with curse/blessing is always nice.

Phoenix Quill + Full block is different than two full heals. Having two full heals is like giving you three lives in one battle, while full block only protects you for one round. If, say, an opponent deals an average of 200 damage per turn, and you've got 1,000 health, the RotL + 10% healing scroll allow you to survive at least 5 more rounds, while if you use a full block at 200 HP, it will only protect you for another round top. If you run out of shields for that last 200HP, one crit from the opponent might still easily take you out.

If you invest a lot in HP, healing is still as important. High HP only allows you to absorb damage to a certain point; it is the healing that keeps you survive for longer in a battle. Sometimes for certain opponents, I tend to sacrifice hits for better defence for longer survival, especially those who are slightly above my range of difficulty. 30-ish is quite a lot of icons actually for an infinite pre-T11 attacker :D If you slot parched or singed crystals each of them give you 4-5 extra icons. Even godlies fluctuate between 35-45 icons. Only bombs deal more damage but they're OPB. Usually to stack damage we would do 2 attackers + offensive scroll, for anywhere between 92-113 icons per round not including mod crystal additional icons or curse damage. We however would need enough HP and the correct block on our weapons to be able to do that. For my lower tier pets, due to the limited health and lack of sufficient block on weapons in general, the most commonly used method for me personally is attacker + shield + scroll.

Thanks for clarifying, I understand now! I'll definitely try and save up for it, I think the "extra lives" analogy was really good for understanding why it's useful.

My other weapons have mod slots and I rather like the singed and parched baguette crystals, I wanted to ask though, how about the healing and freezing baguette crystals? they seem like something helpful, especially freezing if it stacks. I have mod slots on the gutting knife for instance, I was thinking of filling that with freezing or a combo of like critical strike and freezing.

The healing baguettes only do 2% healing, which isn't really that much even with stacking. Your decent weapons + scrolls will do a lot more healing than that.

The freezing baguette likewise only has a 2% chance to freeze, so there are better options for more freezing as well.

Most battlers love using the parched baguettes because being chain frozen by an opponent really sucks, so you want to try and prevent that from happening as much as you can.

Pretty much what said. Plus the healing baguette has a chance to heal for only 2HP. Freezing baguette is only good for very few occasions, and it's usually when it's slotted onto a weapon already with some freeze chance. Still, even then freezing won't stack; the crystal only increases the chance a weapon freezes by a tiny teeny bit, not really worth it generally speaking. I wouldn't waste a slot on a non-freeze weapon for that.

Thanks so much for the help! Here's the set I've ended up with:

Real quick - Is there anything else I should grab from the MC before summer turns to fall?

i'd buy for the since you need all four (spring, summer, winter, and autumn, who isn't in a box) to unlock the ancient sphinx challenger.

it's best suited for pets t10+, i think? but you have to wait to buy the other minions anyway so now's not a bad time to start buying them. (though you could pay out of season prices for the rest, but i was too cheap for that lol)

I notice that you haven't got a in your set. I'd swap out the Rapier of Error for it for now.

Also concur 's suggestion if you want to beat the Sphinx. No notable weapons apart from the PQuill for your tier there I think.

[edit] We evaluate a weapon based on its defence and number of mod slots as well, how could I forget that :D, but this topic will merit a whole essay so. As of now your weapons are good.