Guides

Do you lack a good influx of fodder dragons to make treasure out of? Do you want to get items fast on a max level venue in a reliable and quick manner? And not need multiple Eliminates or level 25 dragons? Well, then I got the perfect build for you!

Clan Leaders from all across Sornieth, meet the Forbidden Portal Tactics build - or how I like to call it: Forbidden Tactics!
This 3-dragon-team can be used with dragons from levels 22-25, only needing a single Eliminate. The first battle can be a bit messy (don't worry, I'll guide you through it), but after that you'll be defeating groups of 3 monsters in 9 actions and any of the bosses in 12 actions, with plenty of breathing room (pun inteded) for missed attacks from your team.

~If you want to skip further introductions and go straight to stats, click [Here]


FAQ (or Questions I Frequently Asked Myself)

1. Another Coli build? Really? Isn't the Coliseum practically solved?
R: Well, yes. I can't deny there are multiple functional builds for all the relevant venues out there. BUT! I come from a very RPG-heavy background, love trying out different things, and boy oh boy do I find the Scratch+Eliminate builds boring, expensive and vulnerable to a bit of bad luck. So, all things considered, I decided to work on a build of my own!

2. Aren't three-dragon-teams outdated? There are plenty of 2-dragon 1-fodder builds for the Forbidden Portal out there.
R: Also true! But let me ask you... Why?? Why would you want to train one fodder in FP?? Sure, the experience rate is higher than Mire and the drops are a bit better, but if you're focusing on training fodder, you'll have a much more efficient time doing any 2-fodder build from Ruins, Mire or Kelp.

3. Alright, so what are the actual advantages of this build?
R: I'm glad you asked me, me! You see, the Forbidden Portal builds I managed to find either had...
Two dragons: a glass cannon and a healer, which are inneficient on defeating the bosses quickly
Or
Three dragons: two glass cannons and a healer/third glass cannon, needing to invest in multiple Eliminates, which I find a complete overkill of the venue and of a new player's treasure hoard.

...Both always having to count on building up Breath with multiple Scratches to be able to use Eliminate.

You see, farming on Coli is very easy and it takes a while to reap proper rewards. I don't have the resources or contacts to have a good influx of fooder to train, which would be the ideal way of getting treasure fast, so selling materials and the occasional rare drops is the plan B I usually spend most time practicing. What I mean is this build's optimal function is to farm items consistently and quickly, being as cheap to set up as possible. While acquiring 3 level 22 dragons is a daunting task, if like me you already have a 2-fodder trainer but quickly runs out of fodder, training 3 dragons will simply be an optimal use of your Coli free time.

[center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/200d784fb030ca9018eff2aa7e8a0ce0/29a119e278b72cf8-17/s1280x1920/097710754d829e9890f43020077caa7c5a41e8f7.png[/img][/center] Take note that the team MUST be in this exact order in the Organize Party section of Coliseum [b][size=4]Forbidden Tactician[/size][/b] (Water/Shadow) [center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/35b6c48e5737d71b93de1142bb67686c/29a119e278b72cf8-58/s1280x1920/8ae6e5f86021fdb26a4ba8da3cfd91d6a77dcb04.png[/img][/center] [u]Maximum Stats at level 25:[/u] STR: 99 QCK: 96 VIT: ~10 This huge Quickness offsets the disadvantages of the first fight, allowing this dragon to act an extra time every other turn. [gamedb item=495] sets any non-boss enemy's HP low enough for the Assassin to finish. [gamedb item=526] and [gamedb item=522] makes the boss battles quicker and safer, but you can skip it if you can't afford it. [gamedb item=519] or [gamedb item=518] is required to defeat the bosses quickly and safely, it also gives breathing room for your team members to regain breath if needed. 3 [gamedb item=674], 2 [gamedb item=687]. [u]Minimum Stats at level 22:[/u] STR: 99 QCK: 60 In each level up, put everything into QCK until you reach 96. At level 25, put the remaining points in VIT. [b][size=4]Forbidden Mage[/b][/size] (Water/Shadow) [center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/a1bbab2253d2cd4fdb79b75846aa590e/29a119e278b72cf8-1f/s1280x1920/b55650223ea206ac0499008f033ff543b44764c8.png[/img][/center] [u]Maximum Stats at level 25:[/u] INT: 121 QCK: 64 VIT: ~20 Standard mage with [gamedb item=496] and [gamedb item=978]. Mage's [gamedb item=526] will be extremely necessary and cannot be skipped. [gamedb item=733] or [gamedb item=715] is required for the same reasons as the Tactician's Elemental Slash. [gamedb item=521] will almost always make the first battle easier, but is not required. 3 [gamedb item=675], 2 [gamedb item=687]. [u]Minimum Stats at level 22:[/u] INT: 109 QCK: 60 When you level up, your priorities will be, in order: Fae, Coatl, Pearlcatcher, Skydancer, Spiral, Veilspun: Level 23: 64 QCK, remainder in INT Level 24: 118 INT, remainder in VIT Level 25: 121 INT, remainder in VIT Any other dragon: Level 23: 63 QCK, remainder in INT Level 24: 64 QCK, 118 INT, remainder in VIT Level 25: 121 INT, remainder in VIT [b][size=4]Forbidden Assassin[/b][/size] (Water/Shadow) [center][img]https://64.media.tumblr.com/dd52c39d97bf82fec03424ee8550150d/29a119e278b72cf8-27/s1280x1920/434f517713b5e22fec490af36c35f08035a2a0ab.png[/img][/center] [u]Maximum Stats at 25:[/u] STR: 119 QCK: 64 VIT: ~28 Your Assassin needs to [gamedb item=496] in order to [gamedb item=498] your opponents. [gamedb item=519] or [gamedb item=518] is essential for economizing breath vs. bosses. The other 2 slots are free! 3 [gamedb item=674], 2 [gamedb item=687]. [u]Minimum Stats at level 22:[/u] STR: 117 QCK: 44 VIT: 6-10 (varies with breed) (I need to change this, I managed having less than 117 STR just fine, only having to adapt against the two categories of most tanky enemies, by self-rallying the Tactician and Rallying the Assassin with the Mage. Maybe try to be just enough faster than the tankiest enemies, see how much STR is left and work from there) When you level up, your priorities will be, in order: Level 23: ~55 QCK Level 24: 60 QCK, 119 STR Level 25: 64 QCK, remainder in VIT

Battle Scenarios

T = Tactician
M = Mage
A = Assassin
I'll be using a water tactician, a shadow mage and a shadow assassin for these examples.

Usual Combat/Recharge Mage:
T: Scratch enemy 1
T: Scratch enemy 2
M: Meditate or Aid
M: Rally Assassin
A: Eliminate enemy 1
A: Eliminate enemy 2
T: Scratch enemy 3
M: Meditate*
A: Eliminate enemy 3
*Using Aid twice can leave you vulnerable to bosses and possible missed attacks even if you were at full breath.

How to deal with Miss:
Tactician, example 1:
T: Scratch enemy 1 (miss)
T: Scratch enemy 1
M: Shroud enemy 2
M: Rally Assassin
A: Eliminate enemy 1
A: Eliminate enemy 2
T: Scratch enemy 3
M: Meditate
A: Eliminate enemy 3

Tactician, example 2:
T: Scratch enemy 1 (miss)
T: Scratch enemy 1 (miss)
M: Shroud enemy 1
M: Shroud enemy 2
A: Eliminate enemy 1
A: Eliminate enemy 2
T: Scratch enemy 3
M: Rally Assassin
A: Eliminate enemy 3

Assassin, example 1:
T: Scratch enemy 1
T: Scratch enemy 2
M: Rally Assassin
M: Meditate
A: Eliminate enemy 1 (miss)
A: Eliminate enemy 1
T: Scratch enemy 3
M: Shroud enemy 3
A: Eliminate enemy 2
E3: Scratch or Meditate
T: Scratch enemy 3
T: Scratch enemy 3
Plan the next move according to the breath meter of the Mage and the Assassin. The Mage usually has more opportunities to Meditate, but is the main damage dealer against bosses and the only healer (unless you're also using potions). Alternatively, building breath with the Assassin usually requires the Tactician and the Mage to overcompensate using their own breath. If both dragons are low on breath, the simple alternative is to meditate with both, let the enemy act one more time, leaving the Tactician to finish them off.
M: Shroud (if >80 Breath, otherwise Meditate)
A: Eliminate (if >48 Breath, otherwise Meditate)
E3: Acts (if alive)
T: Scratch E3

Assassin, Example 2:
T: Scratch enemy 1
T: Scratch enemy 2
M: Rally Assassin
M: Meditate
A: Eliminate enemy 1 (miss)
A: Eliminate enemy 1 (miss)
T: Scratch Enemy 1
M: Shroud enemy 1
A: Eliminate enemy 2 (if still has 35 Breath, otherwise Meditate and move to Assassin Recharge Combat)


Assassin Recharge Combat
Either has 2 caster enemies (or 2 physical enemies if you're feeling confident with full-ish HP) or 2-3 vulnerable enemies {fire, wind, earth(vs. water) or ice(vs. shadow)}. Otherwise, move to First Fight at the end of this section. This part is a bit of a wildcard, but you'll be fine as long as you pay attention to your breath and know the things that can kill vulnerable enemies:
2x Shroud (vs. fire/wind/ice)
2x Scratch + Shroud (vs. fire/wind/ice)
Wave Slash + Shroud (vs. fire/wind)
2x Wave Slash + Scratch (vs. fire/wind/water)

Alternatively, if you need one more attack to avoid taking damage, you can use an Exhausted (the debuff from Meditate) Eliminate against any enemy that could be defeated with one more Scratch.
there's a non-vulnerable enemy and you still have 35 breath on your Assassin, you should use Eliminate once before turning to Meditate every possible turn.


Boss fights
Unless you're unlucky, you'll be getting here with more than enough breath.
Minimum break required for most optimal win: 38 on Tactician, 60 on mage, 48 on Assassin.

D1: Concentrate on Mage
D1: Rally on Monk
D2: Shroud
D2: Shroud
D3: Mist Slash
D3: Mist Slash
D1: Wave Slash
D2: Shroud
D3: Mist Slash
Boss: Meditate
D1: Wave Slash
If any attacks missed, you'll have three actions before the boss:
D1: Wave Slash or Scratch
D2: Shroud or Meditate
D3: Eliminate or Meditate (never finish this fight with less than 35 breath)
Boss*: Meditate or Sear/Disorient
*Only happens if you missed Shroud + another attack and/or ran out of breath, but it's only a problem if your health was low, if it's a crit (can deal up to 700 damage, but as long as the Assassin survives you don't need to reset), or Disorient applies the debuff on the Assassin or the Tactician.




Now you might be thinking to yourself "Hey Askarth, aren't you forgetting something? What about that messy first battle you said you'd guide me through?" And you're right! I left it for last because it's a bit more complicated, but also because if you read all the previous combat scenarios, you're already familiarized with the many combinations this build can defeat an enemy. In my experience, you're most likely going to defeat each enemy with one of these combos:
3 Scratches + 1 Signature Spell + Exhausted Eliminate
2 Scratches + 2 Signature Spells (needs at least 118 Int)

But that's in a neutral scenario, as in "three enemies that do not resist your mage's element, and that do not take double damage from your elemental attacks." Which brings to my three reset conditions:
1. Reset if any of the monsters resist your mage's element:
1.1. Shadow is resisted by Shadow and Plague;
1.2. Water is resisted by Water and Ice.
2. Reset if there are any casters that deal double damage against your dragons:
2.1. Shadow is vulnerable to Plague, Light and Arcane;
2.2. Water is vulnerable to Plague, Lightning and Ice.
3. Reset if the first battle is a boss fight.

Two-enemy compositions are definitely easier, but either they'll build you less breath or you'll have to stall. But okay, without further ado, the first battle!

For this one I'll also write damage taken by the enemies (using the stats of a Tattertail Billworper, which is the tankiest with 1950 HP) and the dragon's breath. It helped me a lot figuring out what to do in case of missing attacks or taking crits.

First Combat
T: Scratch E1 (343) 6
T: Scratch E1 (686) 12
M: Meditate 30
M: Haste* D2 35
A: Meditate 30
A: Meditate 60
T: Scratch E1 (1029) 18
M: Shroud E1 (1680) 15
A: Eliminate E1 (2017) 60
M: Acts
E3: Acts
*Haste won't have any effect against compositions where all monsters are any of the following: All-Seeing Eye, Portal Watcher, Frogspawn Flyer, Starspawn Flyer. In this case you're better off attacking and meditating.

T: Scratch E2 (343) 24
M: Meditate 45
T: Scratch E2 (686) 30
M: Shroud E2 (1337) 25
A: Meditate 90
E2: Acts
E3: Acts

T: Scratch E2 (1680) 36
M: Shroud E3 (651) 5
A: Eliminate E2 (2017) 90
T: Scratch E3 (994) 42
M: Meditate 35
E3: Acts

T: Scratch E3 (1337) 48
M: Shroud E3 (1988) 15

Battle ends here. Of course, there's always the chance of missed attacks and critical hits, but hopefully you this guide plus your skills will have prepared you enough. If you're using any of the level 22-24 variants or has tweaked the Quickness to be lower, this fight will be quite a bit more challenging, but as long as you get through it with your Assassin having more than 35 breath chances are you'll catch up (unless a boss appears or you miss one too many attacks)

Tweaks and Alternatives

QUICKNESS
While all dragons have at least 64 Quickness to be able to outspeed every possible enemy in the venue (as to save time because this way you won't see their action animation unless you miss a Eliminate), you can have your dragons be at 60 Quickness, which is enough to (b)outspeed every physical attacker plus the bosses(/b), still managing to defeat them before they even attack. I suggest investing these remaining points in Vitality.

The casters that will be quicker than you:
Foolish Prince/Mindless Flight (62 QCK); All-Seeing Eye/Portal Watcher (63);
Frogspawn Flyer/Starspawn Flyer (64).
Only the Mindless Flight from this list poses a threat, dealing double damage to Water Dragons and being resistant to their elemental attacks, although Shadow attacks will deal double damage to them.

If you want to put Quickness lower than 60 in your level 25 dragons... I think calculation and/or testing that would a waste, considering the numbers already work so well. I'll just advise you that 43-44 (depends on how the game rounds the Quickness calculation) is probably the lowest you can use safely-ish, but enemies will always act first (after Ambush turns) and will act an extra time every third action.
Something like:
Twice each dragon (Ambush) -> once each enemy -> once each dragon -> once each enemy -> once each dragon -> twice each enemy -> once each dragon -> once each enemy

It's specially difficult to deal on First Battles. 3 physical attackers compositions will always get one hit at you, and bosses will have a chance to attack. I can't see the extra points helping speed up anything, but this information could certainly be used to adapt other builds to the Forbidden Tactics configuration.


STRENGTH AND INTELLIGENCE
These are the minimum stats required to defeat the most resilient non-boss creatures in the Forbidden Portal.

*Reminder: Rally/Concentrate/Haste increases STR/INT/QCK by 5 + Caster's Level. So if you want to test these values with lower level dragons, you must adjust accordingly.

Scratch (99STR) + Eliminate (117STR +27 Rally)
Scratch (99STR) + Eliminate (114STR +30 Rally)

Drown or Shroud (120INT) + Eliminate (119STR)
Drown or Shroud (119INT) + Eliminate (120STR)
Drown or Shroud (100INT) + Eliminate (99STR +30 Rally)
Drown or Shroud (98INT) + Eliminate (100STR +30 Rally)
Drown or Shroud (115INT, half damage) + Eliminate (117STR +30 Rally)

3x Drown or Shroud (121INT)
2x Drown or Shroud (91INT, double damage*)

Drown or Shroud (101INT, double damage*) + Wave or Mist Slash (99STR, double damage*)

2x Wave or Mist Slash (95STR, double damage*) + Scratch (95STR)
2x Wave or Mist Slash (99STR, double damage*) + Exhausted Eliminate (94STR)

2x Drown or Shroud (118INT) + 2x Scratch (99STR)

*None of the most resilient monsters take double damage from our selected elements, so the calculation was made using the most appropriate monsters: Giggling and Teleporting Planesrunner.

Fear Frog and Terror Toad:
3x Wave or Mist Slash (119STR+30 Rally) + 3x Shroud or Drown (121INT +30 Concentrate) + 2x Wave or Mist Slash (99STR)

Same as above, I can't see these tweaks helping speed up anything, but the information could certainly be used to adapt other builds to the Forbidden Tactics configuration.


PAUPER TACTICIAN
STR: 99
QCK: 64
Scratch, Mist or Wave Slash. 2 Ambush, no augment stones.
A lot weaker in the first battle and defeats bosses slower, but it is still doable. While this Pauper version cannot become a Forbidden Tactician (getting 99 STR without Berserker makes it impossible to get 96 QCK), They can be turned into a Mire Millionaire with proper investiment anytime later.

Acknowledgements
This little personal project of mine wouldn't have been possible without:

• Newbie Guide by @unidra
I've been playing for less than 3 months and I would had probably given up on this amazing game without this to guide me.

• Comprehensive Coli Builds List by @K0L0
Further introduced me to the Coliseum metagame.

• Mire Monk build by @Kasael
Who first opened my eyes and meticulously guided me through the ways of Meditate + Eliminate and indirectly financed a LOT of what I do around here... Although now that I understand how Quickness works I like the Mire Millionaire by @ilimati better.

• Battle Stone Guide for Forbidden Portal by @Maki
Definitely made the initial research for this build a lot less scary and inspired me to try and make something different from the meta.

• Skills/Stats Calculator and Dragon Stat Calculator by @Sylvandyr
I have spent so many hours now tweaking and understanding numbers here, and I would have probably never given a chance to this project without those calculators. I feel compelled to donate missing Forbidden Portal familiars in their collection (like the Ferberus I already got using this build)

Last, but not least:
• @Ann22 my dear IRL friend, who had to listen to and read the many messages I sent about the Forbidden Tactics build for the entire month I worked on it. May we keep finding our fun in this wonderful game along with its wonderful community!

(reserved)

@Askarth

Congrats this seems like a great guide and I can't wait to try it out! Do you think it would be viable to use an arcane mage? The other two dragons would be water/shadow

[quote name="arywyvern" date="2021-09-24 04:21:46" ] @Askarth Congrats this seems like a great guide and I can't wait to try it out! Do you think it would be viable to use an arcane mage? The other two dragons would be water/shadow [/quote] Thank you very much @arywyvern ! It can very much work with other mages, the only downside is that they can't deal double damage to bosses! In this case I recommend not havivng Concentrate in the Tactician (only use is vs. bosses) and instead using the Mage's Rally on the Tactician in boss fights. I'll need to check if it's still enough to defeat the bosses without giving them the chance to fight back. And if I remember correctly, the arcane signature spell is specifically a bit weaker than the other ones to compensate the debuff it causes... So I'll be double-checking if 121 Intelligence is enough ~

Hello @arywyvern ! I just checked the numbers for an Arcane mage, and Enfeeble does less than half the damage of other signature spells... This build relies heavily on the strength of these spells, so contuse or bolts won't do the job either. Unfortunately it seems way too inneficient for an Arcane mage