Strategies against taunting teams

[konstifik]

I see a lot of complaining about taunting, but there are multiple ways to counter taunt heavy defending teams (most commonly teams with Mummy Eddie and/or Sentinel Soulless Demon). Taunting obviously prevents you from using power moves and leaves timing to the AI/RNG. It may also prevent you from using your toons in a certain desired order. By adapting to those circumstances wisely, there are a number of ways to excel against taunt heavy teams. Either build a team that will prevent the taunts or a team that will work well even when taunted (or both).

1. Immunity - Use Hell Hound or Artillery Dog to start the battle with Immunity on all your team members, thus preventing the enemy from taunting you during the first round. With the right set of other toons, you should be able to reduce the impact of the taunters. This strategy does not work if the defending team also have The Prisoner, Angel of Pain or Death Dog.

2. Perfect Hit passive - Desert Marauder and Assassin Pyro Soldier provides your team with perfect hit status for the first two rounds. This eliminates the problem with AI/RNG timing on attacks. Combine with some heavy hitters, preferably of the Warrior class, and the taunters will soon be sorry. You can also combine this with a multitude of talismans that only trigger on perfect hits. This strategy does not work if the defending team also have The Prisoner. Angel of Pain and Death Dog will hamper it but it can still be useful against teams with those toons.

3. Stun - Toons like Corrupt General, Angel of Fear, Angel of Strife and Wickerdog King can stun with their basic attack, so taunting them may end in the taunter being stunned, giving you some room to move. Just remember that the Corrupt General have affinity disadvantage against sentinels.

4. Warrior class heavy hitters - Sentinels do little damage against Warriors and take a lot of damage from them. Characters like The Nomad, Warrior COTD, Angel of Fear, Samurai Eddie, RTTH Eddie, Wickerdog King, Warrior Troll and Warrior Newborn Of Light all do a lot damage which, along with their other useful abilities and passives, will make the process short.

5. Accuracy Down debuff - Several characters can inflict the Accuracy Down debuff, and with that active, taunts are much less likely to happen.

These are some suggestions, from the top of my head. Look at what your characters and talismans can do and I'm sure you will find more ways. Be creative, be smart and it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Also, learn the patterns of the AI, which are fairly predictable, to make your fights easier once you regain control of your toons. And remember that taunts are cancelled when the taunter is killed.

[Tritium]

Awesome stuff here. I hadn't even thought of using the DM as a counter!

[Baba-8301]

PDK works well as a second round counter - at least it opens the opportunity for one of yours to do something useful. Of course if a prisoner is disabling your auras it's all a bit irrelevant...

[PIP]

Thank you for a very helpful post.

[CanyptianFit]

Taunt by itself, as noted above, isn't the challenge. It's when that combo is paired with the prisoner and the other team has no prisoner that it can becomes a nightmare.

Without a prisoner, 1 and 2 aren't viable, and all you can hope is that you can get some RNG stuff on your side for 3 and 5 as a counter.

I do have to applaud the creativity to put that group together...Similar to the Gunner team of death. If you go second without a prisoner and your whole team is taunted (seems "always" the case) sayonara.

We know this will happen...Someone puts together a difficult team and it quickly gets spread and used widely.

My only slight issue is the processing rate seems higher than advertised. My toons with other similar rates, don't seem to process with the consistency of the SSD. But maybe my "blinded view of the world".

[Tritium]

The one redeeming quality SSD has on defense is that he'll often use his dummy defense buff rather than taunting your guys again. The same isn't quite true for Mummy, unless he feels like using Bone Shroud or Sacred Sanction. When SSD uses his def buff, it gives you another turn to plan out how to deal with his taunt and maybe even allow you to CC him in some way. If only Mummy were so nice. He only wastes a turn like that when his HP is low (and by then, he's already not a problem anymore!).

[EnricoPalazzo]

One more tip to battling taunters:
Your taunted characters will attack in order from left to right.
Keep that in mind when setting up your team to get a chance at combo attacks or attack orders that make some kind of sense (should the automatic timing be nice to you).
One example would beto put a character with marking ability (like Axis Bomber Boys) to the far left, marking targets first so other attackers will follow to hopefully use the marks.

[Liebhild]

FFS the stun/taunt festival is ridiculous. If you meet the right team and go 2nd your lost. Had several games were I wasn't able to touch my device once. If the developers don't change anything on this, PVP is history for lots of players => also no money for them.

[ill]

I hoped to see some taunt fixes with the latest update. *sigh* If anything they trigger more often now. The immunity talisman was a great idea however it is still rendered useless by blue bat which all of the taunting teams are using now.

But hey, playing SSD and mummy 80% of the time is fun and exciting right guys?!

[Tritium]

I hoped to see some taunt fixes with the latest update. *sigh* If anything they trigger more often now. The immunity talisman was a great idea however it is still rendered useless by blue bat which all of the taunting teams are using now.

But hey, playing SSD and mummy 80% of the time is fun and exciting right guys?!

The immunity talismans also seems to widen the gap between those with Prisoners and those without. Now we are facing Prisoner teams with immunity and damage reduction perks on the first round. This makes it INCREDIBLY difficult to win when going 2nd, and even makes going first no longer a 100% win. I've even seen a Prisoner + Blue Bat team now. Shame, I thought these talis would level the playing field. :rolleyes:

[gmac]

The immunity talismans also seems to widen the gap between those with Prisoners and those without. Now we are facing Prisoner teams with immunity and damage reduction perks on the first round. This makes it INCREDIBLY difficult to win when going 2nd, and even makes going first no longer a 100% win. I've even seen a Prisoner + Blue Bat team now. Shame, I thought these talis would level the playing field. :rolleyes:

Hey Tritium,

Unfortunately I agree that these immunity talismans will make things even more unbalanced overall.

1 - Now Prisoner teams can go without HH or Art Dog, but with the same effect.
2 - At the same time they can counter the new talismans with AoP/death dog.
3 - And counter siege (plus every other passive in the game) with his own passive.

So even more Prisoner teams will continue to go with immunity at the start of the battle no matter what, and that is the real problem with his passive imo.

And some may argue that he is a lv5, well, but so is Pharaoh Dog King.

So, he is on a class of his own right now, he´s a lv 6, minimum.

[ShadowedLies]

My strategy basically is if i go first try and kill what i can. If i go second cry manly tears.

[aevv]

My strategy basically is if i go first try and kill what i can. If i go second cry manly tears.

Tht's my strategy no matter the team I have in front of me. As far as I remember I've never lost a fight when I go first, but I lose 80% of the times when I go second. The only solution I see is to make every turn just one hit, no the full team, that way It would have sense to have a strategy

[ShadowedLies]

Tht's my strategy no matter the team I have in front of me. As far as I remember I've never lost a fight when I go first, but I lose 80% of the times when I go second. The only solution I see is to make every turn just one hit, no the full team, that way It would have sense to have a strategy

Surprisingly i can come back against some team comps even if going second with the help of a little luck as far as what on my team gets attacked and manages to survive.

[slauki]

Hey Tritium,

Unfortunately I agree that these immunity talismans will make things even more unbalanced overall.

1 - Now Prisoner teams can go without HH or Art Dog, but with the same effect.
2 - At the same time they can counter the new talismans with AoP/death dog.
3 - And counter siege (plus every other passive in the game) with his own passive.

So even more Prisoner teams will continue to go with immunity at the start of the battle no matter what, and that is the real problem with his passive imo.

And some may argue that he is a lv5, well, but so is Pharaoh Dog King.

So, he is on a class of his own right now, he´s a lv 6, minimum.

prisoner is the same OP char as he was before and it's just a matter of time till people find ways to capitalize his OPness again.
We only bought some time with the talismans but in the end they will turn near to useless, against specific combinations...
don't know why he is the holy cow, when other chars got hit hard by the nerfbat pretty hard. none of them was so gamebreaking
as the prisoner and he kills the balance since december. quite enough time to do something about this...

let him remove ALL passives and things will be in order.

If prisoner is on your team, than you don't deserve to have aof extra turn, attack up and troll shield and other passivesyourself, while the enemy cannot use his. that would be my solution at least, and it would work for sure!
he would be a down to earth character again and not the only 6* character in a 5* game ;)

[zdm-1083]

let him remove ALL passives and things will be in order.

That's a very good idea!
It could balanced the game in good way.

[CanyptianFit]

LOL, I just went against a team with 2 prisoners. Ah, more is not necessarily better in this case.

They are sure rubbing it in with folks that don't have one though.

😜😎

[Sidney]

LOL, I just went against a team with 2 prisoners. Ah, more is not necessarily better in this case.

They are sure rubbing it in with folks that don't have one though.

😜😎

LOL... I wasn't going to say anything out of fear that they'd remove 1 of them. I've faced several teams with two Prisoners and at first I was of the mindset "Hell no, I'm not fighting that team"... then one day I did it just out of curiosity... Now if I find teams with two Prisoners I jump right in. That's what you get for rubbing in your extra special good luck... They probably have 4 prisoners in their inventory while RNG denies the majority of this toy... :D

[gmac]

let him remove ALL passives and things will be in order.



This will not be enough with the new immunity talisman. With the current AI the only chance defenses have comes from disabling. Immunity first round no matter what is too much. You´ll only lose if you are very unlucky or make a mistake.

Sag and Nicko have a 99% win rate... they probably only lose to game crashes! :-)

Don´t know how to solve this, but it´s very unbalanced and the new talismans made it worse.

[mjmxiii]

When I go first against "Fugitive" teams and kill the "Convict" in that first turn, my passive abilities engage. I dont know if this works for everyone but it seems to work for me. Kinda similar to how killing the AoP/DD in the first turn keeps your one turn passive active.... wondering if anyone else is seeing this....

[Silentknight]

When I go first against "Fugitive" teams and kill the "Convict" in that first turn, my passive abilities engage. I dont know if this works for everyone but it seems to work for me. Kinda similar to how killing the AoP/DD in the first turn keeps your one turn passive active.... wondering if anyone else is seeing this....
That's how it works

[mjmxiii]

That's how it works

Easier said than done when his ugly red buddy is with him but that's why I always try to kill him first. Happy hunting!

[gmac]

When I go first against "Fugitive" teams and kill the "Convict" in that first turn, my passive abilities engage. I dont know if this works for everyone but it seems to work for me. Kinda similar to how killing the AoP/DD in the first turn keeps your one turn passive active.... wondering if anyone else is seeing this....

Hey man, once it is killed all passives start working again!

[mjmxiii]

Hey man, once it is killed all passives start working again!

I've known that for a minute but never seen it mentioned... thought I'd share.. you Chuckers... that toons only OP if the team goes first ...

[CanyptianFit]

That's why the Red Bat was a good counter, PRIOR to the Red Bat neuter/nerf.

Oh, we can remember the good ole times.

🤣

[mjmxiii]

That's why the Red Bat was a good counter, PRIOR to the Red Bat neuter/nerf.

Oh, we can remember the good ole times.

🤣

DD and AGS are P killers... always have been, always will be.

[Nicko]

DD and AGS are P killers... always have been, always will be.

Or Prisoner victims if he strikes first...

[slauki]

This will not be enough with the new immunity talisman. With the current AI the only chance defenses have comes from disabling. Immunity first round no matter what is too much. You´ll only lose if you are very unlucky or make a mistake.

Sag and Nicko have a 99% win rate... they probably only lose to game crashes! :-)

Don´t know how to solve this, but it´s very unbalanced and the new talismans made it worse.

well yeah, removing all passives could solve the issue of a prisoner defense , but you are totally right. the big problem is invisible. it's the prisoner on offense.
i belive it's doable now to win 100% of the time against everyone, once you have him (not counting crashes ofc) since the talismans are released.

if you pair him with the right toons you are able to win every fight against everyone. then it comes down too, who spends more ironite and who can clear his list faster.

not easy to solve that, but if you leave it this way it will hurt the pvp and the game very badly.

[Ancient Mariner]

the taunting occurrences are seriously getting out of hand... i often get my WHOLE team taunted with a single attack, and sometimes i can't play for 2/3 rounds lol...
if you then add that often the mummy and the Soulness demon also have freezing or paralizing talismans, sometimes you can't even control a single character before losing the match: absurd and boring

[Monte47]

I just don't get why we want the toons messed with more.

1. I lose when people choose me to battle, probably 90% of the time, but if I'm in control of my team, I run 25 win streaks sometimes against varying sorts. So my point is, clearly on it's own my team is weak, but when I use strategy, it works just fine against a myriad of teams, and shot if I don't normally lose the coin toss.

2. I find the prisoner super easy to kill. Why don't you just kill him first?

[scott-5496]

I have a Prisoner and a hold rate of about 22% so clearly he is not all that and there has to be loads of way to win - I am not really sure what the big issue is with him - if he was that good I would have a better hold rate surely? He cant one hit kill like some other toons/Eddies - especially that GR Eddie - he is a monster when sharded. Gunner Rescuer is a pain as well, lots of characters are a pain but saying all that I a glad I have Prisoner! Now all I need is a few more Eddies and especially that Cyborg - his Fury move is utterly mad!

[ShadowedLies]

Holy hell to whomever has a Rainmaker maxed out. About one shotted my maxed GR. 17k damage on a basic attack is nuts!