Beating Burbenog TD 2.32 Expert Mode.

[rtMONSTER]

Hello clan Moju and other TD fans,


abraxas_XVI, jazzgnuen, Anti-Flag and myself(rtMONSTER) have finished burbenog TD 2.32 on expert a while ago.... afterwards, we discussed what the optimal strategy would be to defeat expert... here is how....


First, you all need to know how to build effectively. This article discusses the specifics of effective bases. Furthermore, you need very good teamwork, have fun/learning attitude, because it is easy to get discouraged losing at different levels. Start with a friendly team, stick to 1 tactic and perfect it until you finish the expert mode; otherwise, it is very hard to keep track of where you go wrong. Only then, I would suggest changing your tactic.


The hardest rounds are the magic immune rounds.. magic immune rounds can have all sorts of armor: light, normal, heavy, siege, antimagicshell etc... Furthermore, there can be both air and ground units... Thus, it is important to mix all tower damage types(normal, piercing, siege, chaos, (magic cant hit magic immune, except hero immunity negation spell)) when building your bases. Do not focus on 1 type of damage in your base, very important, always get good expensive towers from allies. Later, I will explain which towers I think are very good deal for their damage output/price.


Before I explain which towers to put in your base, a more important topic is the slowing down of enemies. If you can slow them down, you can keep them longer in the towers' attack range. Initially, to slow down siege armor, you need ice turrets..... to slow down magic immune creeps you need poison burrows... thus, ideally all bases should have 7-9 poison burrows and 6-8ice turrets.... For AOE ice slowing effect, later you should get Ice Launcher(can only hit ground, not so good) and later NovaShoker(both air and ground attack). I would also suggest getting 6-8 enchanted magic turrets, because their cold arrows slowing effect stacks with that of the ice turrets.


The best positioning of these burrows in my opinion is near the 4-way crossroad and at the path leading from the crossroad around the island.... so here is what i mean: xxx denotes (empty space),
UBER TOWERS ONLY!!! (only expensive towers go inthere), P(poisonburrow), I(iceturret), and M(enchanted magic turret), S(statis trap give stun to all type of units) and Q(quake tower), F(PermaFROST,500 range, build this much later ofcourse), L(Ancient of Lore, 400 range), W(Ancient of Wind, 500 range), N(NovaSchoker, 600 Range).. The shorter the range of a tower, the closer it should be build to the corner to the buttem left island corner(markes as UBER TOWERS ONLY!!!) inside the description to maximize the attacking range. Therefore, at corner, I would put the 400 range tower.


I repeat, the reason Permafrost, Ancient of Lore, and Ancient of Wind are at corner is to maximize their hitting range... Also the reason why the uber tower space is closest to siege attack(lvl19, lvl34,lvl37, lvl 41,etc) spot is to make the creeps attack the heavy buildings first and not do much damage to the rest of the low-HP towers.... Highest 4000 HP ultimate towers, Enfeebler, Mindripper, Skydominator and Cyrogenics towers should meet the enemy first, if you repair with builders they survive easily even at lvl41... Behind these towers, there should be sludge producers and other high damage buildings...


XXPIX XXXXXXX
XXMSP XXXXX
XXXMI XXXX
UBERx XXXXX
TOWER IMSxxxxx
ONLNW PXMxxxxx
YXXFL QIPxxxxx




xxPIQ xPIMxxxx
xxMxP Ixxxxxxx
xxSMI Pxxxxxxx
xxxxx Mxxxxxxx


The reason I don't build cheap towers at the most effective tower area of the island is because best towers need the most range effectiveness to damage the units... thus reserve the uber tower space for only expensive towers... In my opinion all races, should adapt this setup... rest of the towers may very for each player, but this setup is ideal for slowing down all sorts of enemies.


Also each base should have magic dampener(removes bloodlust& antimagic shell), 1 Ancient of wind, 1 Ancient of Lore, 1 MindRipper, 1Novashocker, 1Enfeebler, 1 SkyDominator, 1Cyrogenics, 1-2-3 SludgeProducer(best chaos damage, all around tower in the game). Other than that, it is very important to mix damage types and not focus on 1 type of damage on all bases... To kill magic immune ground normal armor, i suggest bladeguardians and giant cactus. For air magic immune normal armor, I suggest Ancient of Wind.. All should get heros around lvl 15-20, however itis possible to beat expert without any hero usage =) We did it without any heros.


race choice... since the hardest rounds are magic immune, it helps a lot to pick races that defeat magic immune creeps easiest. Here are my favorite races and why:


To beat lvl 39 magic immune air round the easiest way, you need windultimate building, the skydominator... therefore you need windbuilder at start... wind hero is very very very good vs light armor(most air are light armor)... can ensnare with hero and cyclone with owl, fantastic combination to slow down enemy waves... at start 4-6 needler, followed by 2 bladeguardian is great... Then, start getting ice and poison from allies.


To negate spell immunity and to dispel antimagic shell(for example lvl21, antimagic shell banshee, very hard round) with magic dampener, you need magic... mindripper is also extremely helpful to defeat magic armor... build magic turrets at start 4-8 then save for sentry ward.... followed my other buildings, at start poison burrows and ice turrets from your allies.... get hero quickly and lvl up to lvl 12 asap for imba magic immunity removal...


Ice has earth builder which can summon the earth hero... Earth hero is very powerful vs siege armor.... Also giant cactus normal damage to ground and piercing to air is very cheap(220gold) for the damage it deals... Later, ice+earth can create the uber permafrost groundsplash tower(300 AOE range)... that tower alone can kill many many waves with the earth hero's earthquake spell(slows enemies %65 in large area). Ice is also needed for nova shockers... Get cyrogenics only much later... it does no damage thus be careful getting it before your base can deal good amount of damage... Best start is 6-8 ice turrets followed by 1 chilling tower, followed by sentry ward, followed by burrows, 2blade guardian etc..


Death ultimate building,Enfeebler, can slow all creeps, even magic immune creeps by %20.. However, poison ultimate building is not as much teamwork friendly, ie it it just a specific high damage attack tower. Thus, while both poison and death races can access the poison and death builders respectively, it is better to start with Deathbuidler. Initially death + poison is a powerful combination and death hero can cripple, reducing movement speed greatly... death hero also very effective vs siege due to death and decay spell... Ideal death setup is 5-6 zigg, ice turrets, poison burrows, 2-3 exuders, corruptwells (chaos damage) etc...


The most experienced, most team friendly player in this setup should either play ice+earth or death+poison, because a lot of ice turrets and poison burrows must be built in all bases.. Ice and poison builders need to be travelling a lot, thus let the more friendly, high APM(actions per minute), short reaction time players play with ice or death...


Here is some information on what to build depending the level you are at. Everyone has their favorite start, I will not say much about it, but after lvl 9-10 things start getting harder....


For lvl9 unarmored necro and lvl 11 is siege round get firebomb, get rockthrower, and/or quaketower. For magic immune dryad normal armor round(lvl11) get bladeguardians, Lvl 12 magic immune light armored Siege golems can be best killed by piercing attack-> ziggs, corrupts wells or better yet by asssasin's den. lvl 16mechanical round with normal armor, you need ice to slow them down... lvl17 invisibility, dont forget sentry wards or shades... lvl19 chimeara(flying light armor), mortar siege round with heavy armor, or raider light armor...


lvl21 antimagicshellled banshees (get magic dampener at least in 2 bases before this round or you will leak most likely), lvl 22 magic immune normal armor spell breakers-->>> get cactus in all bases... lvl 26 normal armored flying Griffons will be best killed by ancient of
wind.... lvl27 siege attack( bats usually or tanks...), lvl 34 siege again with tanks, siege armor...lvl37 again siege attack... You really need high power output(chaos, AOE or siege) damage bases to defeat these siege lvls.


Lvl36,38 and/or 39(Dragons flying magic immune, probably light armor, get SkyDominator up in all bases by then or 2-3 Sludge) Don't forget to build Ancient of Lores(400 Range, thus at corner) and much later Permafrost(500 range, thus next to corner spot) in all bases..... SludgeProducer(poison,460 gold) is very well-rounded tower with 800 range, very fast attack speed, uber damage and chaos attack.... I suggest 2-3 sludge producers in all bases.


Also to defeat normal armor air, build 1 Ancient of Wind. Giant Cactus is very effective killing light armored air units too, it is also very nice vs normal armor magic immune ground creeps.... Make balanced, mixed attack type bases.


Here is also stuff that annoys me during games... Many people report similar issues.


1. Telling that you beat burbenog TD on expert, whereas all you did was beating the rigged high bounty version or the much easier lisk versions. 2.32 is the last , hardest , originial burbenog TD... try it a few times and you will see it is not so easy to beat it... If you really beat it, congratulations, show us the replay or screenshot to prove your point.
2. Not building under the shadow of friendly builder... I have left various games where allies were repeatedly not careful in placing the towers where I wanted, so be careful. Tower placement is extremely important, your ally can get mad if you don't do what he asks exactly.
3. Long reaction times, ie: Not cedeing quickly enough, not sending the builder as quickyly as possible. This is team TD, so act like one. When your ally needs you, help him ASAP.
4. Worrying too much about killcount, going killgreedy when rest of the bases are too weak vs siege attack... It is obvious that if all bases are not balanced, then the siege rounds will leak and the killhungry player will lose as well.
5. Building in a way that uses the most effective tower spots for the longest range towers, leaving no effective room for short range towers...
6. Pretending to be expert, but then doing 4 of the major sins of team TD.... 1) not helping your allies 2) not mixing your towers' attack type sufficiently 3) placing your towers not ideally 4) not using any slow effects. You are being incongruent.. You can learn from other better players, it is normal, everyone can improve. Don't act like uber experts, we are all learning how to play better.
7. I will leave the game whenever I sense that lack of teamwork will eventually cost us the game. One bad, non-friendly player can ruin the whole team, so pick your team carefully.


Good luck, have fun with burbenog TD and report me back your victories


rtMONSTER

[RedRagToAnOrc]

Um, that's a pretty expansive guide, so I'm moving it to the Articles Section. Kudos to you, sir.

One point, however, is that I have never played this gametype, and I doubt a huge number of people on the forums will. However, it's the effort that counts. Well done on "beating the game on expert".

Oh, and welcome to WarBoards!

[UbikA]

ok, nice guide, some addings that makes life much easier.
if u have holy builder in ur team. he can make wind builder. holy+wind allows to build celestial winds tower that works on spell immune/mechanical/air/magic shield/all type of armor it pushes it's target on hit (500 dmg/hit) 300 yards back, so if u build few celestial winds at least 3 mobs will never pass ur base cause speed is average, if u also have ice it can push back 2 times more mobs if u also have poison u will push back 4 times more mobs - so 12 mobs will never pass ur xroads, even with any armor/immune/air etc.
ONE SERIOUS BUT - wind builder from holy base will never be able to build skydominator! However celestial winds are much better because u will attack mob till it dead. Bad thing when more mobs come from ur mates base - u can't push them all so team should also have it. it cost 550g.

[China]

Excellent post by RTMonster, and as someone who has recently picked up Burbenog TD Legends 2.32 and plays it often (on USEast), I have a few points of my own that I would like to add. These deal more with general game tips and attitude of players than with the very specific game information that he has. While the races and base setup he mentioned are crucial pieces of information, the qualities and basic knowledge that I look for in a teammate are listed below.

Introduction
This usually will not prove a problem if you are playing with friends, but if you plan on beating 41 levels of Burbenog TD 2.32 Legends on Expert Difficulty, you need to have the right attitude when you join public games. I've run across way too many people who simply did not care what the outcome was, or were unresponsive or simply unwilling to engage in teamwork.

Some of you may be saying, "OMG STFU STUPID NUB ITS JUST A GAME GET A LYFE". Well, if you're going to spend potentially hours of your time (in the process taking other people with you), at least have the basic courtesy to try and communicate and win. Don't bother leaving the single player campaigns if you come into these games expecting competent people to just carry you and do everything for every single game. This naturally segues into the two specific areas of the game mentioned below.

1) Essential Game Information
These bits of knowledge about Burbenog TD should be learned very quickly. However sometimes I still encounter players with no knowledge of them, which can prove very frustrating.

a) Building and Ceding for Other Players
This is such a basic component of a smooth and winning Burbenog TD game, especially if you happen to be playing a race like Ice or Poison (which everyone seems to want to play, but few actually want to build for others). With these races there is a tremendous demand throughout the game from other players for your towers, since slow is so coveted. Generally players who ask you to build for them will have you build under their workers' shadow, or use blinks on the spots where they want things built. Needless to say you should blink your own builders across the map asap when you are paid and asked to build a tower. You also need to cede towers (type -cede [player number here] or use the option that you can click on the tower) as soon as possible, since you don't want your towers stealing kills from other people.

b) Invisible and Attacking Rounds
I've seen too many games end prematurely because of lack of awareness about these rounds. Really, any person who is thinking and paying attention to the game should only get brutally owned a maximum of once to these rounds before correcting their mistakes the next game.

For invisible you should communicate with your team to determine what type of detection you will need to buy or use. Often times depending on race you will have towers or detection of your own that you can build or upgrade from the tech building. Some examples that come to mind are Magic's Sentry Tower (70 Gold), or Ice's Chilling Tower Upgrade (available for upgrade after you build the Ice Tech Building, The Freezer).

When it comes to attacking rounds, sometimes communication with allies to get help repairing or building is essential. But some players are just utterly unprepared for attackers because of base build. Know that attacking rounds come from where your starting wave spawns, and thus you will need to build tanking or damaging structures that they will come to first before the rest of your towers. You obviously don't have to go completely out of your way to build your structures as close to the spawn point as possible, but just have a bit of discretion with the placement of your better structures. RTMonster's mention of the Sky Dominator above is an excellent example of this.

c) Basic Leak Awareness
Obviously on expert difficulty, just one leak will result in felhounds and infernals dropping from the heavens and reducing everything to smoldering ruins. Now if you don't have basic knowledge of the game or a willingness to work together and balance damage (as well as other techniques RTMonster mentioned), you are going to lose anyway. But I have seen too many games lost (especially very late, such as in the higher 30 rounds) to one completely preventable reason, and thus end up being a heartbreaking waste of time.

The reason I am talking of is when people fail to micro their towers against the leak rounds that come into their base. You may get away with slacking on microing (naturally not everyone is going to having groups of towers numbered and firing on different targets every second) in the beginning, but in the later and faster rounds, you must know what color your leak is, and focus all of your fire on killing those mobs as soon as they reach your base. After just a few games of Burbenog you should have noticed what color your leak round is, and know off the top of your head what those of your allies are.

Here is the rundown, just incase:
If you are Red (Upper Left Corner) your leak wave color is Green
If you are Purple (Lower Left Corner) your leak wave color is Orange
If you are Teal (Upper Right Corner) your leak wave color is Yellow
If you are Blue (Lower Right Corner) your leak wave color is Silver

There are few things in Burbenog more frustrating than watching a leaked monster end the game, only to look at the leaker's base and see that player still slowing/disabling a monster from the first or second wave that the player saw. A complete lack of attentiveness and micro which should not be allowed to ruin Burbenog games.

2) Teamwork and Simple Quirks
Talk to people. Be responsive to their questions and concerns, take stock of what races are being played. Help people when it is requested, and do not use heroes to steal kills from other players, but be ready to dispatch them to trouble spots. Now it is hard to separate this category from the essential game information given above, as you can be of very little use to a team if you don't understand the basics of the game. But at least be willing to ask and listen so you don't ruin everyone's experience.

Once you do have an idea of what is going on, you can make suggestions or adjustments based on what races and towers other players have. As RTMonster mentioned, you need to be able to deal with all sorts of armor types to win the game, and that will include monsters with magic immunity. If you are bent on making certain types of towers (which you may sometimes need to be, depending on racial proficiency and teched towers), tell people what you will be lacking, and this obviously applies in reverse when you need to make up for the projected weaknesses of other players. It never hurts to make donations or help build important towers for players who have fallen too far behind; the rhetoric about the chain being as strong as its weakest link is definitely applicable to Burbenog.

There are a few more basic tips and tricks which can help you win games. The first is what I've termed "The Strainer", and is basically applicable to Ice, Poison, and Magic builders (whose slows stack). What I mean by this is, once the middle rounds roll by with faster and immune monsters, to build random ice and poison towers on the paths between the bases, and perhaps build some watching the turns in the path that lead to the middle. The advantages of this should be obvious. Even the most astute observer may sometimes fail to notice where leaks might occur all over the map (especially if they are microing), or occasionally one sort of round might just be a bit too tough to handle. In this case, when the rounds are nearly over, it will be priceless to have a bit of time to take stock of where there might be leaks, and thus dispatch emergency builders or heroes to deal with them. In addition, while the rounds are happening, these towers will begin to strain individual monsters away from their pack, making it easier for bases to focus fire weak or leak round monsters.

Another trick, sometimes clutch during brutal attack rounds (especially the last one) is termed "kiting". Sometimes if your base is unable to withstand the assault, there is something you can do instead of idly watching the assault mobs head straight for the middle. I believe attacking mobs are agroed to the player color of the corner they spawn in; this being the case, you can build lines of very cheap towers that slowly guide and lead the attackers to the base of an ally who can handle them.

If you plan on getting a hero, think carefully about which skills to get. Some hero abilities may be fun to use or very helpful in the short run, but will prove useless and unable to stop leaks in the long run. To use just a simple example, consider Wind's hero, the Priestess of the Sky. Say you are given a choice between Twister and Ensnare. The choice should be incredibly obvious; Twister, depending on how early you get it and how skilled it is, may prove a devastating source of damage to some of the weaker rounds. Unfortunately in the grand scheme of things, being able to deal 800 damage to an entire wave is but a tickle on monsters that move incredibly fast and have tens of thousands of hitpoints. On the other hand ensnare disables any unit (including magic immune ones, since it is not a spell), and at higher levels lasts longer and has less of a cooldown. If there are potential leaks or a few leaked monsters streaming towards the middle of the map, which skill would save you the game?

Conclusion
I'm sure there are countless points and other tidbits that I neglected to mention. It's part of what makes this game balanced, fun, and interesting to play. Obviously given the profusion of races and combinations, there are alot of different ways to get the job done. But please, when you enter public Burbenog games (and hopefully any team game in general), be prepared to contribute as part of the team to make sure everyone has fun. Until next time, happy burbing!