Wickerman

[Nicko]

I scored a Wickerman the other day and had read great things about him. ATK/DEF buff and AOE attack? Sounded great!

Quickly worked him to Lvl 100 with 5 maxed Fierce/Safeguard Talismans and the mandatory green, and was fairly unimpressed.

Yes, his passive is nice, but his damage was really underwhelming. Warrior Golden Son hits much harder (having trouble scoring the assassin GS I want!). Neither have skillshards invested yet

Seeing him as more of a support character - anyone have him dealing impressive damage?

Don't have a troll, but used my Troopers, with their passive and great damage they also seem to smoke the Wickerman

What am I missing here?

[Kardas]

I thought the commonly accepted Talisman loadout of the Wicker Man was 2 Stone Overwhelming, 2 Iron and 2 Guardian (either Fierce or Safeguard). Because his primary attack scales with DEF, and his DEF at lv100 is significantly higher than his ATK

IDK though, I haven't really started on mine.

[aur0ra85]

I can't remember the optimal talisman setup exactly. I do remember that iron talismans gave less of a calculated bonus than guardian fierce because guardian fierce buffs attack 20% of his absurdly high defence. Strength buffs 15% of the lesser attack value, and iron talismans I think buff 15% of defence which is great, but the formula is almost always sum of (i.e. Attack + defence), which means you'll get a 5% higher bonus from the guardian set. I had no way of calculating the damage formula for this character due to the unknown effect of enemy defense on damage received, but I've seen this sum of formula on many other characters. Another one of note is characters that scale "Max HP" I also suspect this is a "sum of" set bonus and does not in fact scale max HP, but a percent max base HP plus attack and/or magic (which completely negates stacking green talismans to increase damage output).
In short, where the wickerman really starts to shine for me is his two AoE damage attacks, no matter what, he will always produce damage and not flake out by using an either useless, or poorly timed power attack (like my hellhound always healing on the first turn). Wickerman has a power ability that does huge damage as well, and the passive is money on an auto farm team. I was using wickerman on almost every autofarm team along with soldier Eddie who he has great synergy with. These two pair great with the PSS who also has two AoE damage abilities ->they shred waves.
Hope that helps.

[Reeb99]

I thought the commonly accepted Talisman loadout of the Wicker Man was 2 Stone Overwhelming, 2 Iron and 2 Guardian (either Fierce or Safeguard). Because his primary attack scales with DEF, and his DEF at lv100 is significantly higher than his ATK

IDK though, I haven't really started on mine.

That's the build I'm using on mine. I've seen him hit for well over 30k before if both debuffs stick and he has the Alliance General buff. I do have skills maxed, but not all talismans. Two guardian sets might be better though, as I haven't tried that yet.

Basically he really shines with skill upgrades because the debuffs stick much more often in addition to higher damage.

[Nicko]

Thanks for the analysis - harder for me to test out Talisman combos with the cruddy Rune drop rate, but I'll play around a little more. Had a couple Safeguard talismans that made no sense, so now all Fierce

Great point about his Power - can't stand when the computer makes idiot moves with Power abilities

My Angel of Fear works great on farming, but wanted some variety so may need to just test him out more.

[Nicko]

It's also interesting how his AOE basic attack works. Every other AOE attack I've seen does equal damage to all targets of the same type. I'm finding with the Wickerman, the intended target takes a pretty good hit while the other enemies in the party take minimal damage, even if they're the exact same type as the highlighted target

Bug? Or intended?

[Reeb99]

Think of his basic attack more as a single target attack that does splash damage instead of aoe attack. I think it's meant to be that way. True area attacks can apply debuffs to all enemies instead of just one target, and his basic attack does not.

All in all, he makes a good autofarm partner for the red bat. Alliance General is probably the ideal autofarm partner for the red bat, but they are pretty close. I have all three, and they all have their uses.

[Switch]

Doesn't seem like a bug, if you watch the damage numbers the target gets hit twice, once with a load of damage, and once which deals less but hits all. It's like a weird single target/aoe mix.

As said above, with maxed out skills this guy hits like a truck, and with soldier Eddie and alliance general can deal some insane damage to the whole group. The debuffs happen pretty reliably with skills maxed, and with a pure damage team he works wonders.

[ill]

Doesn't seem like a bug, if you watch the damage numbers the target gets hit twice, once with a load of damage, and once which deals less but hits all. It's like a weird single target/aoe mix.

As said above, with maxed out skills this guy hits like a truck, and with soldier Eddie and alliance general can deal some insane damage to the whole group. The debuffs happen pretty reliably with skills maxed, and with a pure damage team he works wonders.

He is my go to attacker and seems to be scaling up well with defense. I am looking towards upgrading a 4 pack of iron to put on him in addition to stone. I might go with meteor instead so we'll see. He is my main trooper and racks up a great deal of trooper points for me.

[Reeb99]

He is my go to attacker and seems to be scaling up well with defense. I am looking towards upgrading a 4 pack of iron to put on him in addition to stone. I might go with meteor instead so we'll see. He is my main trooper and racks up a great deal of trooper points for me.

I'd use at least one guardian set (the red one with the wing) as you'll be missing out on a huge attack boost if you don't. His defense is insanely high at level 100 (900 some) and guardian boosts attack by 20% of defense. Maybe even two sets. Any attack that says physical damage but scales with defense actually scales with both attack and defense. The wording is just a little confusing.

[Nicko]

I was focusing on a perceived AOE and the "splash" that occurred on enemies he wasn't attacking. It made him look underpowered, thinking everything should be equal

He's hitting heavy even without skillshards now that I get his attack, and the fact that his power ability is also useful makes him great for farming. Combined with an Angel of Fear (who also has a useful power) and my Tailgunner Eddie, they farm through almost any level pretty quickly

[Esquatcho]

He is my go to attacker and seems to be scaling up well with defense. I am looking towards upgrading a 4 pack of iron to put on him in addition to stone. I might go with meteor instead so we'll see. He is my main trooper and racks up a great deal of trooper points for me.

Yup it was your trooper that made me get quite excited when I pulled one!

[iPoop]

Any thoughts on having two Health Overwhelming instead of two Stone Overwhelming? I know you lose the defense boost from the Stone's, but gain some hit points from the Health's.

I'm also toying with the idea of just running 5 Fierce&Safeguard and 1 Overwhelming? Has anyone tried that? Does this make him too much of a glass cannon?

These talisman take forever to upgrade so all advice is appreciated! :)

[CanyptianFit]

His health needs all depends on where you are in the game. Paired with other maxed physical damage toons, won't really require much health, 1 green talis is probably enough. That's where I am.

If not at max level, or with other non- max toons, 2 is probably needed.

Beacause his damage increases with Def, number of good talisman builds for him.

Agree with Nicko's comment above, he is one of my preferred auto-farming toons when going with a Physical team.

I've got 4 shards in him, and am compelled to put more.

Canyptianfit-2758

[Kardas]

Any thoughts on having two Health Overwhelming instead of two Stone Overwhelming? I know you lose the defense boost from the Stone's, but gain some hit points from the Health's.

I'm also toying with the idea of just running 5 Fierce&Safeguard and 1 Overwhelming? Has anyone tried that? Does this make him too much of a glass cannon?

These talisman take forever to upgrade so all advice is appreciated! :)

Don't think that's super necessary. With 2 Stone and 4 Guardian, The Wicker Man will already have around 21,000 HP around lv100, which is pretty great.
Just finished bringing mine to lv100 and boy that power attack is a lot of fun.

While I haven't tested your 5 red 1 green setup, I don't think it's worth losing the Stone bonus.

One thing I am still wondering is what a good balance between Safeguard and Fierce is. I'm currently running 2 Fierce & 2 Safeguard on mine. Any more Fierce and Wicker Man's MR makes me uneasy

[mjmxiii]

Using sets of Stone Mystical, Iron Safeguard and Guardian Skilled on my Wicker Man. No where near maxed yet but still hits pretty hard and has good MR.

[Nicko]

Don't think that's super necessary. With 2 Stone and 4 Guardian, The Wicker Man will already have around 21,000 HP around lv100, which is pretty great.
Just finished bringing mine to lv100 and boy that power attack is a lot of fun.

While I haven't tested your 5 red 1 green setup, I don't think it's worth losing the Stone bonus.

One thing I am still wondering is what a good balance between Safeguard and Fierce is. I'm currently running 2 Fierce & 2 Safeguard on mine. Any more Fierce and Wicker Man's MR makes me uneasy

Fierce used to be the overwhelming choice for any red Talismans due to the crazy ATK increase, but after they nerfed them several months ago I lean towards Safeguard

Red characters are particularly vulnerable against Blue, so I like getting the boost in MR that safeguard gives. Of course he scales with DEF, so it's really where you put your priority - damage or survivability.

In PvP the AI seems to weigh Class heavily in its attack choices; ex a blue character like a Grim Reaper seems to go for the red character. If you plan on taking him to the arena, safeguard may be the way to go

[Kardas]

Using sets of Stone Mystical, Iron Safeguard and Guardian Skilled on my Wicker Man. No where near maxed yet but still hits pretty hard and has good MR.

Actually, Stone Mystical is a pretty good idea here. Sure, you lose a little bit of ATK, but get good MR in return. I might just give my Wicker Man that and give the Overwhelming set to my FotD Eddie.

I also really like your signature

[scott-5496]

He is my go to attacker and seems to be scaling up well with defense. I am looking towards upgrading a 4 pack of iron to put on him in addition to stone. I might go with meteor instead so we'll see. He is my main trooper and racks up a great deal of trooper points for me.

I can confirm that ill your dude is tough!

[Nicko]

Using sets of Stone Mystical, Iron Safeguard and Guardian Skilled on my Wicker Man. No where near maxed yet but still hits pretty hard and has good MR.

I'm not getting this setup, though I think I sell all Mystical and Skilled talismans

With Mystical you get no increase in ATK. With Skilled you get no HP

Why not use Overwhelming (Stone) and more Iron (Safeguard OR Fierce since you have some Safeguard already - but you want the HP!)

The Overwhelming would boost ATK nicely at the expense of some MR, made up for by the Iron Safeguard (which also bumps defense). Honestly I think the additional hitpoints provided by the Safeguard are more important than the MR and DEF provided by Skilled. Or if that's too aggressive for you use that setup with the Stone but make it one Mystical and one Overwhelming for the added MR

But 2 Skilled and 2 Mystical sounds like you're sacrificing a lot of ATK and HP