Guides

I'm trying to make meditate builds for each of the grinding venues, and this is my take on a Harpy's Roost build.

This build is very quick, but has almost no health (even compared to a normal glass cannon). The lack of health can be a deterrent, but it actually works quite well because you get hit every couple battles instead of every battle. It's more similar to my Boreal Banisher than my Ruin Wrecker for those who have tried those builds (though, unlike the Banisher, enemies will hit this build).

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Post Index:

What Stats and Why

Which Element to Pick

Enemies You'll Face

What to do on Your Turn

What to do Against Each Group

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I would like to thank:
Sylvandyr - Their stat tools (found HERE)
Shadow Dom Discord - Helping me pick the name

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[columns] [b]Stats:[/b] STR AGI DEF QCK [nextcol] 108 8 5 87 [nextcol] | | | | [nextcol] INT VIT MND [nextcol] 5 8 5 [nextcol] | | | | [nextcol] [b]Stones:[/b] Meditate Rally Berserker Ambush [nextcol] Eliminate Berserker Ambush [nextcol] Sap [nextcol] Haste [/columns] [img]https://i.postimg.cc/RVrhctmg/stats.png[/img] The reasoning for the stats is as follows: Str 108 allows the Rustler to Rally + Elim everything in the venue (other than bosses). Qck 87 base allows you to take 2 extra turns at the start before 11 (14 including event enemies) enemies, and adding 30 from haste allows you to get 3 extra turns before 3 of the enemies. I would have used less Qck, but because of the ability to get 2 base extra turns against most enemies and 3 with haste against a few enemies at the same time made me go with this. Vit 8 is what's left. I'd love for more, but I think the high Qck keeps you alive for longer than higher Vit.

I'll now go through the various dragon elements and say which I think are best, and which are worst. This is based on which elements are super effective against your dragon's element. (I'm only counting the elements for spell-casting enemies since the melee enemies don't usually use their element attack before you kill them). My scale will be Great, Good, Doable, Bad, and Terrible. [b][u]NOTE:[/u][/b] The rankings in this venue mean less than the rankings in other venues, like the Kelp Beds, because the enemies are slower and weaker. While I don't suggest using a Terrible ranked element, you should be able to with relative success. Your trainer's element only matters when you're hit by elemental attacks, and this build can beat melee enemies before they get a chance to use their elemental attacks. After the first battle, you have enough breath the cast eliminate and beat mages before they can cast elemental attacks as well, so element matters even less after the first battle. [b]# Strong Elem[/b] is how many enemy elements are strong versus the element (deal more damage to your dragon) [b]# Weak Elem[/b] is how many enemy elements are weak versus the element (deal less damage to your dragon) [columns] [b]Element[/b] Arcane Earth Fire Ice Light Lightning Nature Plague Shadow Water Wind [nextcol] |[b]Rank[/b] |Doable |Bad |Good |Bad |Bad |Doable |Good |Good |Good |Doable |Great [nextcol] |[b]# Weak Elem[/b] |1 |0 |0 |0 |0 |1 |0 |0 |0 |1 |1 [nextcol] |[b]# Strong Elem[/b] |1 |1 |0 |1 |1 |1 |0 |0 |0 |1 |0 [/columns] ----- If you don't want to read the chart, here's the ranking from best to worst [b]1st (Great):[/b] Wind [b]2nd (Good):[/b] Fire Nature Plague Shadow [b]3rd (Doable):[/b] Arcane Water Lightning [b]4th (Bad):[/b] Earth Ice Light [b]5th (Terrible):[/b] ----- Here's a chart to show what elements are strong/weak to what [img]http://i.imgur.com/lLliwWS.png[/img]

Even with this build working the best, you still will take hits from the enemy. This is due to the nature of the coliseum.

The following 3 melee groups will be able to get 1 hit on your Rustler:
Masked Harpy
Fallen Streak
Snow Streak
Dodo
Brush Dodo

Other melee enemies won't have the Qck to get in hits if you don't need to use meditate. The groups of 4 can also get a hit in (I'm not sure if they all can or not, but expect to take a hit from them).

Mages:

Cardinal Hippogriff Blue Tang Hippogriff Mesacliff Harpy Windcarve Harpy

Neutral Lightning Neutral Wind

Melee:

Death Seeker Storm Seeker Masked Harpy Stonewatch Harpy Fallen Streak Snow Streak Bluemoon Aviar Renegade Aviar Clouddancer Sunspot Clouddancer Dodo Brush Dodo Hooded Dodo Roc Crowned Roc Mesacliff Assassin Windcarve Bladedancer

Shadow Lightning Wind Light Arcane Ice Wind Earth Nature Fire Neutral Water Plague Arcane Wind Neutral Wind

First Battle:
1) Meditate
2) Haste (targeting Rustler)
3) Rally (targeting Rustler)
4) Defend
5) Eliminate

Meditate, haste, and rally will generate enough breath to cast eliminate. You need to defend because you still have 1 turn left before the penalty of meditate wears off.

With the speed of the build, you will be able to defend on your first turn, before the enemies go. For slower groups (ones that give you 5 turns by default) you can use meditate twice at the start on your first turn and still be able to defend before they go.

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Second Battle (3 Enemies):
1) Rally (targeting Rustler)
2) Eliminate

Second Battle (4 Enemies):
1) Haste (targeting Rustler)
2) Rally (targeting Rustler)
3) Eliminate

Using Haste isn't needed unless you want more breath, or there's a group of 4. Against a group of 4, Haste allows the Rustler to kills 2 enemies, then (usually) take 2 more turns the next time it goes.

Using Haste will also be useful if you want to heal with Sap since it allows you to Sap then Elim.

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Enemy Attack Order:
Hit the melee enemies first, and the mages last. The mage has a chance at charging instead of attacking so you won't take more damage.

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Sap Usage:
You'll sometimes have an extra turn to use Sap then Eliminate before the last enemy goes, otherwise you can wait for a mage to use it on.

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Refresh:
You can put the fodder's stats into Vit if you want, and it might be a good idea if you want to train your dragons to higher levels (past 6 or 7), otherwise there shouldn't be too much reason to since the build is fast enough to let it survive for a bit.

Dodge:
When an enemy dodges an Elim, what you should do depends on the situation. Here's a general guide to what to do in different situations:
- There are 3 enemies left and you can't cast Elim? You should refresh.
- There are 1-2 enemies left and you're 5-10 breath away from Elim? You can use Haste and/or Rally to get the breath.
- There are 1-2 enemies left and you need to cast Meditate? If you have Haste up, you can use Meditate, Defend, (enemy turn), Rally, Defend, (enemy turn), Elim to mitigate damage taken.

Of course these situations also depend on your HP, so you'll get a better feel for what you can and can't do as you use the build more often. Just remember that refreshing can be faster, and Defend is great when you use Meditate.

*NOTE:* All of these numbers are assuming you don't miss an attack. You might want to refresh if you miss an eliminate before your breath it at 70 (70 breath is the point where missing with eliminate still leaves you with enough breath to try again).

Enemy Groups 2 Mages 3 Mages 4 Mages 2 Mages + 1 Melee 1 Mage + 2 Melee 2 Mages + 2 Melee 2 Melee 3 Melee

Max Hits Turn 1 0 1 2 2 3 4 2 4

Max Hits Later 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Refresh Turn 1 No No Maybe No No Maybe No Maybe

2 Mages
First battle: These are the best to start with.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

3 Mages
First battle: These are the great to start with.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

4 Mages
First battle: These aren't the best to start with, but you sometimes can.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

2 Mages + 1 Melee
First Battle: These are very good to start with.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

1 Mages + 2 Melee
First Battle: These are very good to start with.
Later Battle: These are very easy later on.

2 Mages + 2 Melee
First Battle: These aren't the best to start with, but you can.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

2 Melee
First battle: These are the great to start with.
Later Battles: These are very easy later on.

3 Melee
First Battle: These aren't the best to start with, but you can.
Later battles: These are the only thing (other than bosses) that will get a hit on you if you don't miss.

Bosses:
Don't try taking them on, just refresh. They aren't worth the time or effort to try and beat it. The only time they might be worth it is later when you have nearly full health and full breath.

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@Mohenjo Hey there, big fan of all your builds.
Harpy's Roost and Crystal Pools have historically been pretty similar, and so builds that were finetuned to both venues started popping up, like this one.
For the purpose of saving on another Eliminate, do you have any experience with how well this build works in Pools? I would imagine it works better there than any other build I have lying around, because of the high QCK and the STR being about high enough, but I wanted to ask anyway. I can't really test for myself yet since I have yet to level the dragon I want to use this build on.

@Savato
I gave it a try and it felt really squishy when I didn't have fodder with it (but that's pretty normal with this build). Once I had fodder with it, it felt a lot more comfortable, so I'd say you can double this as a Crystal Pools trainer as well.

As a side note, I've never tried the build you linked, so I can't say how the two compare to each other.

How is this build handling the changes to the roost?