Sylvan Creature Statistics

[Zamolxis]

Gay or not gay that dragon, most confusing for me is still the Unicorn. The Silver one is so brown that it could have as well been named Copper Unicorn. And the Porcelain... sorry, White Unicorn has mostly lower stats, but still costs almost double. Dunno what that "bond of light" is, but I hope it makes up for the difference.

[Wraith]

go to AOH,there are explained what those new abilities do

[Orfinn]

"The Silver one is so brown that it could have as well been named Copper Unicorn."



Yeah, agree, replace that icon....WAKE UP! ;P

[Orfinn]

And that bladesinger reminds me of Spok...just with long, blonde hair...pointing to the facial expression, except eyes and to long ears...



BTW most icons not only here nedds updating and the rainbow dragon...gay? grow up kids, jeeez if it has ben gay it would be PINK!
Edited on Tue, Jul 24 2007, 17:04 by Orfinn

[Gnoll_Mage]

Did I hear right, that Rainbow dragon has had its name changed, to Sapphire or something?

[Elvin]

Correct. Not sure if the ability is renamed as well though

[Wraith]

maybe but i hope not that ability havent chanced

[Wulfstan8182]

its crystal dragon not rainbow dragon

[Saturas]

There are other names mentioned in official manual. Arcane archer instead of Sharpshooter, Savage treant instead of Anger treant and Crystal dragon, Pristine unicorn and Wind dancer
Edited on Sun, Oct 28 2007, 15:26 by Saturas

[Tyber Zann]

Ahhh Sylvan. The elves, the naturalists, the hippies. They've got an impressive army as is, and with alternate upgrades, we must choose which units will serve us better. Of coarse some units are better in certain situations, but in most cases one of the choices is better most of the time, and that's what were looking for. So, let's take a look at our options here.



1) Pixie: The best tier 1 unit as far as basic fighting ability goes. Personally, I find peasants and Imps much more effective overall because of their special abilities (taxes and mana theft), and assassins for their poison, but as far as just straight up massacre goes, these cute little pixies can sure bring on the slaughter. So which upgrade makes them even deadlier? Let's discuss.

Sprites or Dryads? The old sprite is a basic upgrade, with the addition of spellcasting, giving them one spell. Swarm (the bees or wasps or whatever). This is a pretty good spell. Not much damage but it knocks ATB back a little and allows them to attack while they wait for an opportunity to strike. So what about the Dryad? Little extra damage, little less HP, but with a much better ability.Dryads trade casting for an ability called "symbiosis". It allows them to heal/resurrect tree ents, and vice versa. Sort of like how master gremlins can repair Golems, but imagine the golems then turned around and resurrected some gremlins. That what symbiosis does. When the Dryads heal the ents, the ents then heal the Dryads. It's based on number of units using the ability, but its way more useful than bees, and it more than makes up for having 1 less HP. The choice is pretty obvious.



Dryad wins.



2) Blade dancer. A fast melee unit with a good attack, but light on endurance. They can cause some serious damage, but can't take much themselves. So which upgrade makes them more effective? Let's see



The old War dancer has the "war dance combo", which is a lot like the hydras area attack. Each attack will damage every adjacent enemy unit with no retaliation (retaliation only comes from the unit that was targeted). This is not only a good way to cause damage, but it allows the War Dancer to potentially avoid retaliation, by targeting weak stacks that are near stronger ones. One on one, this ability does nothing, but when outnumbered, these guys actually perform better than if evenly matched. A killer unit to be sure.

The Wind Dancer is the new upgrade, and they trade the War Dance combo for something called "agility". First of all, all of their stats are better. More attack/defense. More damage, more HP, more movement speed. The only thing that doesn't improve is initiative (15 is high enough). That alone makes the Wind Dancer stand out, but remember that they can't multi-kill like the war Dancer, who can inflict greater damage against large groups. So is Agility worth it? It's a close call. Agility gives the Wind Dancer a defense bonus for each tile they covered on their last turn, which lasts until their next turn. They also start combat with a max bonus in place (as if they had just moved their max distance). Basically, as long as you keep them moving, their defense stays very high. This helps keep them alive, giving them more opportunity to kill. Since Blade/War dancers are quite fragile, the Wind dancer offers a welcome improvement to their survivability.

And so we must descide, who is better. This is tough. Both units rock the house. However, since Wind Dancers don't die at the drop of a hat, I gotta give the win to them. It was close though.



Wind Dancer wins.



3) Hunter: The best shooter in the game. A combination of reasonable cost, high numbers, and double shooting makes the hunter an efficient killing machine. So which upgrade is more useful?

Master hunter or Arcane hunter?

This one is tough as well. Stats are pretty close. Master hunters do more damage and have one less initiative, but Arcane Hunters have "no range penalty", allowing them to do full damage at max range. However, the Arcane hunter does NOT shoot twice, therefore the Master Hunter still does more damage at max range, and a LOT more damage at close range. The Arcane Hunter has one more ability, will it turn the tide? "Force Arrow" does 2 things. One, it always ignores 50% of the targets armor. This makes them effective against high tier units with lots of defense. On top of that, force arrow has a chance to push the target back one tile and stun them, a lot like how the Master Hunters Warding Arrow pushes back the targets ATB.

So who's better? This reminds me of the comparison between the Havens Marksmen and Crossbowmen. We have a long range specialist and a short range specialist. The difference here is that the short range specialist actually does more damage at long range than the long range specialist, most of the time (high tier units being the exception). And they can both stun enemies, but since the Master Hunter shoots twice per attack, their odds of stunning are doubled. Looks like the Arcane Hunter is S.O.L on this one. That's what u get for competing with master hunters. The ego.



Master Hunters win.



4) Druids. Everybody's favorite neutral stack!! So which upgrade will have u pulling even more hair out of your head when u gotta fight them?



Druid Elders or High Druids? Well, stats r close. High druids have a hair more damage and HP, but a whopping 4 less defense, making their extra 1 HP a form of compensation. What about abilities? They're both shooters. They're both casters with good spells, and each of them is capable of assisting their hero with casting, in different ways.

Elder Druids can channel mana, giving their mana to their hero which adds to their pool as normal. This is.useful not just for casting in combat, but to help you keep your mana up between battles. You can channel mana as you creep, so as to not enter a big battle unprepared. What about High Druids. The name certainly suits the faction, being naturalists and all. Rather than giving mana, the High Druid can temporarily boost their heroes spellpower. This lasts until the end of combat, or until the High Druids bite the dust, but it cannot improve your spellpower beyond your current knowledge. I'm sure this is simply to avoid reaching rediculous levels of spellpower, as a few hundred druids would be able to make you a god like caster.

So, this is a great ability too. The problem is that Rangers are not usually magic heroes. They can use magic, and often use summoning or light magic. Light magic does not require a lot of spellpower. Summoning magic can be boosted a fair amount with spellpower, but its just not as pertinent as it is with a Magic oriented hero like a wizard or warlock. This ability to boost spellpower seems out of place here. It would almost suit the inferno better, since they use spellpower for things like hellfire. Overall, I find having an endless mana pool (in the long run) better than being able to summon a stronger pheonix. Summoning magic is more intended as an obstacle to your enemies for a ranger, rather than a primary fighting force as it is for Wizards. Obviously wizards have armies too, but the point is that elves don't need powerful magic to succeed. Having mana to keep up the smokescreen is more useful.



Druid Elders win.



5) Unicorns. Cavalry without the mounted infantry. Which upgrade will have your enemies flipping you the bird over your webcam faster? Let's take a look.

Silver unicorn or white unicorn?

Stats are close. the most notable difference being that silver unicorns have 2 extra initiative that white. So let's look at abilities.

Both units have a chance to blind their opponent. Then, each one has one additional ability. The old silver unicorn has "aura of magic resistance", a passive ability that provides constant 30% magic resistance to the silver unicorn as well as all adjacent allies. Simple and effective.

White unicorns trade magic resistance for "bond of light". This makes any light magic spell cast in the field apply to the white unicorn as well, regardless of who casts it. I think this excludes divine vengeance, but I haven't tested it. What a bummer that would be eh?

So, assuming white unicorns don't get hit with every divine vengeance, which one is actually better?

Magic resistance is magic resistance. A light magic magnet is about 2 1/2 inches from useless in most cases. To clerify, let's go through the possible situations in which this bond of light actually helps you.

Fighting an enemy hero that uses light magic. Likely a knight or wizard. If its a wizard, you've got a lot more to worry about magic wise than buffs, therefore the silver unicorn would help more. Against a knight, you could actually leech a few good buffs from their hero.

You might think it helps if you have light magic, but be realistic. Mass divine strength, mass haste, mass endurance/deflect missile. All the best buffs make bond of light obsolete. The only true benefit would be any time you use cleansing or resurrection. This is great, but still outdone by the silver unicorns magic defense aura.

These few cases of a extra bonus or 2 to a single unit, pale in comparison to a constant magic defense shield that is also faster. We have a winner.



Silver unicorn wins.



6) Treant. The Sylvan tank. This is a tough one, mainly because the treant is the Sylvans only tank unit. Since elves rely heavily on shooter, tank are that much more important than normal, as opposed to say, inferno or dungeon heroes, who's shooters are auxiliaries compared to their melee units. The Sylvan need a tank more than anyone, and since treants are expensive and come in sparse numbers (being a tier 6 unit), there is little margin for error when choosing an upgrade. What have we got to work with?

Ancient Treant or Savage Treant. Let's see.

Stats indicate an "offensive/defensive" role difference. The Savage treant is an attack unit. A little more damage and attack skill, a little less HP and defense skil. Speed and initiative are equal. So it comes down to abilities. The Ancient Treants abilities lean heavily toward defense, solidifying its role as the tank. They have "entangling roots", allowing them to pin enemy units down and prevent them from moving. Savage treants have this as well, but their other ability takes this one away. Both also have "enrage", increasing their damage as enemy stacks die. Now were down to 1 unique ability each.

Ancient Treants can "take root", planting themselves firmly in place, quite literally. This is triggered any time they are given the defend command (not wait), and will remain/re active any time they defend. While rooted, they revieve a greater defense bonus (50%), and gain unlimited retaliation while rooted. On top of that, if the hero has "stand your ground" perk, take roots gives (100%) increase, doubling defense. That's quite the package. Combined with their insane HP (181!! That's close to most tier 7s), the ancient treant is the single strongest tank in the game. Not the cheapest/most effective, but the one that will hold its ground the longest.

So how does a savage treant compare?

They sacrifice "take roots" in exchange for "rage of the forest", an ability that turns the savage treant into a full on assault unit. It subtracts half of its defense and puts it toward attack, and increases initiative by 5!!!!! Until the end of battle. This ability also takes away the entangle roots ability. I guess they're too mad to concentrate at that point. The funny thing is, this ability turns the treant into an awesome unit, but it simply does not compare with the tanking ability of the ancient treant. As I said, Sylvan need a tank, and having those tanks drink 1000 shots of espresso and run off into battle does not help the army as a whole. The only time that these pissed off trees are better is if you for some reason have no shooters in your army. After a big battle I guess, during recovery, turn them into savage trees, then when u have more shooters, turn em back into ancient tree tanks.



Ancient treant wins (unless you have no shooters)



7) Green Dragon. And so we come to the least impressive of the dragons. I know, know, someones saying bone dragons but their upgrades are better. Anyway, let's look at what a hippie dragon can do. They are actually great units.

Emerald or crystal dragons?? This one is interesting.

Emerald dragons have "immune to earth" and acid breath, which is exactly like fire breath that shadow and lava dragons use, coloured green.

Crystal Dragons have a strange ability. They sacrifice both earth immunity and acid breath in exchange for "prismatic breath". A melee attack that behaves in a way similar to chain shot or chain lighting, like when a thane hits something, but not as many units.

Basically, the damage will jump from unit to unit in the direction opposite the attacker. Each hit is the same, initial damage, and the number of hits is random between 1-5, with the only changeable factor being luck. If you have high luck, your chances of more hits is better. Since elves usually have good luck, this is a good unit.

Both units have near identical combat stats. A few units off on damage and attack/defense, which means less with higher tier units (+1 damage is huge for a tier 1, etc).

So who's better? This is tough. I like crystal dragon, but the emerald dragon is just more.reliable. earth immunity and u can control which targets you hit. Crystal dragons are only better if you have high luck (5+ I'd say) so that your consistantly hitting 3-5 units each time, otherwise you might as well be spraying acid. For versatility and reliability, emerald wind.



Emerald dragon wins (unless you got super luck (5+))



That's my elf list. If anyones got better uses for these units, lemme know.