Best/Worst towers/abilities?

[krossbow]

hey, which abilities and towers do you think are best, and, conversely, which do you think are the worst?


Base this upon things like DU requirements, ect.

[Ryz1989]

Hmmm the best towers I would say harpoon turret decent dmg massive pierce dmg decent DU count worse i would say slice and dice short range, not a lot of hp cost a lot of DU

[krossbow]

I have to say that i think ensnare and adepts barriers are some of the better ones in the game (discounting adept barriers in nightmare....).

Ensnare is incredibly useful for buying you more time, and adept barriers last almost as long as Squire ones in insane due to stripping the element.

[Ryz1989]

but in nightmare they get killed very fast the barriers

[Ricebowl]

Worst tower in the game is ethereal spike trap by far. Absolutely zero usefulness. Worst ability in the game is tougher, but instant upgrade is pretty damn bad.

[WizardRed]

I have to agree with the above, it's certainly the worst tower.
And instant upgrade/build. That's also really useless, and is completely overshadowed by overcharge in every manner.

[Cymmina]

Harpoon and Ensnare Aura are at the top of my list. Best ability is a tougher choice, there's so many good ones: Ranger/Huntress piercing shots, Call to Arms, Remote Tower Boost, Blood Rage, Overcharge, etc.


Worst tower in the game is ethereal spike trap by far. Absolutely zero usefulness. Worst ability in the game is tougher, but instant upgrade is pretty damn bad.

I was just coming here to post the same thing ;-) Instant Upgrade sounded really good at first, but then you realize you get enough +cast speed gear that it doesn't matter. Also, repairing a 3-star tower with this skill costs an outrageous 1500 mana.

Ranger's invisibility: expensive for what you get, long recharge, and I don't think I've seen it work on a tower.
Mana Bomb/Purity Bomb: damage isn't worth the mana cost, recharge is too long.

[Volvagia]

I like the bumper new antispider rol, of course awesome ensare is awesome.

[krossbow]

Personally, i have to say that the tower boost ability is pretty poor; barely increases your towers by more than a paltry 1 or 2%, and the healing isn't anything to write home about.


Bloodrage is an awesome ability as far as abilities go though; Turns you into chuck norris.


Healing aura isn't *useless*, but i find that its DU are generally better spent elsewhere imo. Enemies will smack you so hard that it just can't heal you fast enough to make a difference.




Ethereal trap i agree wholeheartedly on; Its a single target Trap when AOE is the absolute KING of the game.

[m1kest4r]

Monk's defense boost is useless even after the buff.

[krossbow]

I think that deadly strike towers are a little UP as well; High cost, but no piercing (of mobs) and limited utility.
They're cool and all as sniper towers, but they cost WAY too many DU units for what they do.

[Pinstripedbarbarian]

ES Traps for worst. I think the discussion has to move on to "What's the worst tower other than ES Trap?" Then, I'd say the more I play the less use I find for Spinners.
Best... hmm. I find I always have room for an Ensnare Aura in my build. Lowers mob damage, gives your towers a better chance to deal damage, all around good. I think Blindness Trap is better than most take it to be.

Abilities: I never found myself using Overcharge unless I was in a rush, but having tried out Nightmare and Hardcore for the first time recently, I find it to be a godsend. Piercing (Spread)Shot is probably up there, as is Bloodrage / Call to Arms. Instant Upgrade, Invisibility Sphere, and Joust are all pretty worthless in my eyes, which is a shame because they all look like they have a bunch of potential.

A special note: Lightning Stance. Ability or tower depending on how you want to argue it, the only time I ever use it is on dummies in the tavern. Awful.

EDIT: Having played Apprentice so much, I do actually find some value in Mana Bomb. You can finish off a lot of smaller mobs all at once and has a surprising range for the burst. Expensive, slow, but not the worst ability. Likewise, Deadly Striker Towers are way too costly for such a low firing rate and sucky aim, but they have their use. I occasionally place one near a crystal to cover them since they have such a huge radius they can still reach choke points. Going through walls can make them far more useful than at first glance on the right maps (I'm looking at Servants Quarters in particular).

[Zhadow]

One of the worst towers that seems to have been forgotten about... Lightning tower since 7.16 went live. Pretty useless for the DUs now. Amend that, everything apprentice related save the Magic Blockade is just not worth it in most end game builds now.

[CrzyRndm]

Amend that, everything apprentice related save the Magic Blockade is just not worth it in most end game builds now.In NM only. Bit of an exageration aswell. The highest I've ever been in NM misty survival was on a mage build (current patch)

On topic

W. towers
-Eth spike
-SnD's
Everything else has it's uses, and is used.

B. towers
-Ensnare (Better version of str. drain. Capped strength approx. 6x tower damage per unit distance)
-Proxy (clearing general mobs)
There are so many for this, but these are my favourites

W. Abilities
-Instant upgrade
-AoE invisibility (I've never needed to cloak multiple chars, and the upkeep is too high otherwise)

B. Abilities
-Overcharge
-CtA (Charging through lanes taking minimal damage and boosting the huntress following you...)

[Zhadow]

In NM only. Bit of an exageration aswell. The highest I've ever been in NM misty survival was on a mage build (current patch)


<shrug> In my experience with the same builder stats, squire towers just go a lot farther now, and you have a lot less to upgrade. I just do not see a point in spending the same DUs for less results. I also DID state that it was endgame, which does imply nightmare. You can use just about anything and get results in insane and less. On that same note, there are situational uses for mage towers, but they are few and far between. I still use a single DST turret on UMF to handle stray Wyverns, as on occasion the harpoons are all busy killing ogres.

All "bad" towers have a use somewhere, does not mean they are good thou.

[Zenxacred]

One of the worst towers that seems to have been forgotten about... Lightning tower since 7.16 went live. Pretty useless for the DUs now. Amend that, everything apprentice related save the Magic Blockade is just not worth it in most end game builds now.

QFT. There's not much the apprentice can be used for these days. Aside from the sprinkling of mm towers here and there, maybe a DST when one is feeling adventurous. other than that, the app is just limited to early nm and lower. he pretty much joined the monk in the "take him out, put some stuff down, and then put him back in the box" type of deal.

i miss my 7.15a apprentice. :(

[Urza]

These DU used are assuming you are playing nightmare as a monkey with no weapon playing inverted and blind taking afk banana eat breaks can beat anything else.

Top 5 DU Uses:
1) Barricades: Is there any build in any survival game or most nightmare maps that does not use a magic barricade or spiked barricade? That is what I thought.
2) Harpoon: Practically death strike tower damage at less DU, pierces mobs, and fires faster. Sign me up.
3) Ensnare Aura: 3 DU to stop some mobs in tracks right before they get to your defenses so towers get them and you take no damage. Yes please.
4) Proximity Trap: 3 DU to insta gib pretty much everything but flyers and ogres. Get me Macgyver to make me 7 out of leftover apprentice tower parts, broken monk dreams, and dental floss the squire used to get the giblets of monsters of his teeth.
5) Bouncer Blockade: The antidote to that spider poison feeling you have right now.

Note that squire/countess has 3 of my top 5!

Top 5 Worst DU Uses:
1) Slice N Dice: Way too much DU.
2) Bowling Bowl: How many times have you seen this used in a map for the du cost? I see it used solely for melting ppls CPUs on their taverns when left overnight. A great DU use for griefers in taverns and maybe endless spires.
3) Tie Electric Aura and Ethereal Trap: You dont see these used in any map ever so has to be bad.
4) Lightning Tower: This needed its previous damage. It uberfest its stunning of mobs but only tickling them actually costs you the game on time. It does have one use though as the pinnacle of strategy in spider portal defense. Make 5 of these in center and get 3 ppl with huntress guardian and monk guardian and app guardian and watch them pwn. Surround all crystal in barricade and have other guy warp to where crystal goes.
5) Death Strike Tower: Overshadowed by the Harpoon Tower except it looks cooler when it fires and it does shoot through walls which can come in handy on some campaign maps on nightmare.

Top 5 Character Abilities:
1) Ranger Triple Flip the Bird: This ranger ability I just love to spam and hear the singing birds even though on nightmare character damage is fairly meaningless. This has cool factor.
2) Barbs Tornado Stance: What better way to warp around the map fixing stuff and attacking at speed of light?!
3) Huntress Single Flip the Bird - One third as cool as the top is still fairly cool. Huntress is more played for some reason. Wonder what it is.
4) Tie Monk Hero Boost and Countess Call to Arms: This is just fun to mow down bosses and ogres twice as fast.
5) Countess Joust: This should be added to list of requirements to play game if u want to beat nightmare assault maps.

Worst 5 Character Abilities
1) Ranger / Huntress Invisibility: Ninjas see throught it. Spider still web you. Doesnt seem to mask towers and instead makes mobs glitch through towers and barricades. Using this can actually make you lose. It doesnt get worse than this.
2) Monk Tower Boost: Did someone forget to carry a 1 or something. This does practically nothing.
3) Initiate Remote Defense Boost: This initiate version of Tower boost is lacking as well.
4) Initiate Enemy Drain: This combo of pretty much useless enemy drain and remote defense boost is why you see about
zero initiates in the whole game ever. Seriously try and take a screenshot of one ingame that is LV 74. I bet u cant.
5) Adept Instant Upgrade: This is overshadowed by Overcharge in every possible way. Thumbs down here. It does have a use on insane UMF though since for some reason my guy with 1700 repair speed takes a whole build round to repair a couple of hurt towers. Seriously test this out...you repair faster on nightmare umf than on insane umf.

[michaeljermyn]

Best tower: harpoon
Best ability: call to arms or piercing shot

Worst tower: ethereal spike trap
Worst ability: tower boost (does nothing, at least other abilities do something even if they are overshadowed)