Bloodlust and Punishing-Abilities - A risky, but rewarding combo

Prologue

Thorns, Magic Reflect, Return Fire - those are the three main abilities that cause the attacker to suffer. Magic Reflect and Return Fire even work when it's only blast damage - thorns doesn't though.

Combine that with Amplify, and the return-damage is even worse. Well, by 1 damage, which doesn't seem much - but especially in lower leagues it's actually quite a bit, when monsters do not have that many LP and AP yet.

If you want to really take full advantage, combine them with Bloodlust - this ability gets triggered for every kill the Bloodlust-Monster does, active and passive. So the Punishment-Ability does count. For example, that's why Krash Wanderford is such a great gladiator for "No-Magic"-rulesets. He's super fast, gives extra speed and has thorns at level 5, return-fire at level 7, and can be weaponed-trained. Even if he gets hit, he can still kill the opponent, and become even faster and stronger.

Today, we're going to explore that tactic with a much riskier game. It did work out, which is great, but was a bit of a nail biter. I hope you enjoy it.

Status Quo

Here's the link to the battle - Click here, please!

We have a Beginner-Level (Novice League) Chaos+Beta tournament here, playing against an experienced player that I encounter quite often. 23 Mana, only life splinter is available. Amplify for all, endless-trample, and every melee gets sneak.

In low mana life battles, using Grandmaster Rathe is not that good of an option. That leaves either the Hippo with +1 Range damage, or Ilthain with +1 Speed - and Return Fire. I did take a gamble with Ilthain, and it worked out perfectly.

The enemy went all in on ranged, reaching 12 ranged damage, plus one magic and one melee. Reducing my speed and upping theirs makes a great plus, as it makes it more likely to deal the 12 damage before my team hits. Not a bad strategy.

I went for the Barbarian as tank, as his Enrage is really useful. Since everyone has sneak, I put the Bloodlust-Monster Jared Scar behind it, hoping that he'll get some kills before the Barbarian bites the grass. In third position comes the Vulguine, as his Scavenger will give him extra life before he'd become the tank. Then the 0 Mana monster, and finally the Scrapper. It's sneak for all, so why not.

Round 1 - A very bad start.

The barbarian gets killed right away, no chance - Jared survives only thanks to his shield, and is able to get more shield by killing the Scrapper. That shield becomes very important. Since the opponent has the Clockwork with huge armor in the back, my other melee units just knock on wood there.

Round 2 - Close, closer, oh my, almost!

Time Mage does 1 damage, and the Pelacor kills the shield - but gets killed by the return fire! Bloodlust gives Jared another shield! Now he's faster than Zyriel and takes down the Agent, getting another bloodlust.

Zyriel only hits the armor - and does not get any life leech! The return fire kills her, too, giving Jared another bloodlust (and shield). As the Vulguine takes out the Clockwork's last shield, the Clockwork's attack gets returned to it and kills it - another bloodlust.

Killing the Time Mage at the beginning of Round 3 is just a snap of a finger. Jared leaves the battle with 11 damage points, 9 speed, 2 armor and 9 LP left. He was certainly the better Hippo for this match.

Conclusion

3 Return Fire kills. That speaks for itself, doesn't it?

Yet, this is not a strategy that can be used randomly. There are certain ways to play it.

a) you either have a punishment-ability as ruleset and monsters or summoners that provide Amplify (Grandmaster Rathe)

b) you have amplify as ruleset and monsters or summoners that provide a punishment-ability (like Tofu, Ilthain, ...)

In both cases, you need a sturdy Bloodlust-monster. Jared is usually too fickle to work out, as he doesn't have much LP before the killings. He works for Sneak, Melee-Mayhem and Opportunity-Rulesets, but has to be protected from those as well - and he definitely does not work for the Thorns-Ruleset.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoyed writing :-D If you have any comments or feedback - please let me know! And don't forget to leave your own posts for me to curate. Thank you very much!

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