It’s fairly obvious from the poll on Wrath of Heroes Facebook that the community is looking for guides on Team Tactics. Who are we to deny the people what they want? Before going into specific warband compositions, or templates as I call them, it’s important to understand a few basic philosophies that guide the creation of the templates.
Cross hero synergy is almost always stronger than stacking multiples of the same hero to get the 5% damage or healing/50 HP racial bonus. For example, using 2 Ikkriks gives each one a 5% damage bonus. Using Drulg with Ikkrik adds 33 damage against a target each time they each hit the target upon which Drulg places Bonecrusher, which adds up a lot more than a 5% damage bonus. If the racial bonus can be achieved across group roles, that’s best, but be wary of heroes with a Murderer passive to counter stacking a single race.
A mix of melee and ranged is helpful. Wrath of Heroes has full player collision, just like Age of Reckoning. A full melee group will find it difficult to all hit the same target. A group of all ranged will have no collision protection against an enemy melee line. Melee heroes are always more durable, and often faster, than ranged heroes giving the melees a significant advantage if they can reach the ranged.
Some heroes must be interchangeable. Players can, and will, change heroes mid game to counter enemies. Stack a bunch of armor and expect to see Nethys and Ilanya show up. Stack a bunch of casters and don’t be surprised if Drulg makes an appearance. Stack a bunch of healers and Volrik and Felicia usually come out to play. A team needs to be able to make the same overall strategy work with different heroes. Alternate abilities are especially helpful in this respect.
I call this first template Blitz. It’s all about moving fast, hitting fast, and killing fast. The core hero is Drulg. His Bonecrusher causes a target to take additional damage from Drulg anytime that target is damaged. A good elite Mastery set would be Bleak Pragmatism, Temerity, and Tearing Edge. Drulg needs a little bit of survivability since he’s a light armor melee. Tearing Edge will have a good chance to trigger since Drulg will hit the target any time someone else does in addition to with his own abilities. The normal versions are Grim Pragmatism, Desperation, and Jagged Edge. If Ilanya or Nethys is the main cause of trouble, (Perfect) Adaptation is preferred over Temerity or Desperation.
For the tank role, Aessa is best. I like to run Eternal Knowledge, Restorative Burst, and Counterblast. This build takes advantage of the sheer number of hits Aessa will take under Elite Bodyguard to heal herself back up quickly and deal a lot of area damage. These hits also trigger Bonecrusher. Bax does not have the ability to hit anywhere near as many times as Aessa. Bax will work, but he’s not ideal for this group. Drulg should use Tenderizer on targets Aessa knocks down for massive damage.
Damage dealers should be those that hit several times per ability. Good candidates for the other 2 damage slots are Ikkrik, Ilyana, and Felicia. Pick two of these based on what the enemy is bringing. Use Ikkrik against groups of light armor opponents. Ilyana is good against tougher melee opponents. Felicia is good if there are good healers, a good melee line, or the enemy is grouped close together often. Rotate these heroes as needed during the scenario.
Ikkrik’s best Mastery build for this group hands down is Endless Knowledge, Eternal Knowledge, Flinging Frenzy. Ikkrik attacks so fast with this setup it’s not even funny. Plus it reduces the cooldown on Smoke Bomb to 21s, massively increasing his survivability. Go Warpstone Stars into Flinging Frenzy into Warpstone Stars again. Replacing Endless Knowledge with Tearing Edge is an option too.
Felicia’s best Mastery setup for this group is Carnage, God’s Gift and Absorb Vitality. Eternal Knowledge works in place of God’s Gift too. Felicia using this Mastery build gains use of Absorb Vitality quicker than anyone else in game right now. With Rain of Fire, Conflagration of Doom, Absorb Vitality and Flame Breath triggered, Felicia can hit targets up to four times per second. She also soaks up Glowgob’s healing very effectively like this.
Ilanya’s ideal Mastery for this group is Overwhelming Force, Perfect Assault and Murderous Shadows. Eternal Knowledge can work in there too. Murderous Shadows adds more hits to Shadow Blades which has great synergy with Bonecrusher. During Shadow Blades, Ilanya also hits several times per second. Try to line up the end of Shadow Blades with Word of Pain’s final tick and either Gloomburst or Power of Darkness. To do this, watch your Word of Pain cooldown. Once it hits 6s, or 4s if you use Eternal Knowledge, hit Shadow Blades, Gloomburst, then Power of Darkness. The Power of Darkness will hit at the same time at Word of Pain’s big hit and the end of Shadow Blades. Good teams will recognize this and either interrupt it or line of sight it, so be careful with this. Get Glowgob to hit ‘Ere We Go! right before this happens and it’s almost a guaranteed kill.
Of course the group will need healing support. Glowgob is the man for this right now, and you’ll want two of him. Glory and Power Unbound are almost a given on Glowgob. The third slot is usually something for survivability. I like Eternal Knowledge for this actually. The reduced cooldowns on Vision of Mork and Mork’s Touch help immensely and it’s not bad for helping your group either. Desperation and Adaptation are good choices as well. Glory will turn around a fight for your team. Power Unbound will win any fight. Power Unbound is tough to use against coordinated teams, but it’s still worth it in my opinion. Try to save Glory to line up with your team’s big cooldowns, but it’s ok to use Glory defensively to force all healing on your team to go critical too.
Remember that we have a tournament running from April 28-May 5. Form your warband. Create your strategy. Dominate the battlefield. Take screenshots or it didn’t happen. Who knows? You might just win.