I tried to beat Kowlla again and couldn't do it xD I borrowed some pets to beat her the first time, so I need to rank up my own. You really need the Training ground bonus, reforged gear, full ranks, and all the pet buffs you can get. I even tried using Ent Flasks to boost strength on both air cannons. For some reason, my attacks were really low, even the critical ones. So I wonder if those are working correctly..... I also tried Light healer/tank instead of Water, so I was missing that extra buff.

Fire instead of Air might work, I'd love to know if someone can beat her with those at full rank. Looking at the attacks:

Fire - Conflagrate at rank 4 = 300% damage to all enemies

so if you had 2 fire pets, you could hit each wisp with 600% damage, with an additional 450% damage (split between all 3 enemies) next turn (which I think works before the wisps make their attack that turn). This would be helpful if you can't one-shot defeat them. Fire pets have a buff attack (#3) that increases magical damage by 30%, which might be better than the Air buff. Would you need a critical hit to defeat the wisps?

Air - Decimate at rank 4 = 750% damage to one enemy.

so if you had 2 air pets, you could hit each wisp for 750% damage. Attack 3 causes the Frenzy buff, which boosts your pets critical hit and quickness chance by 40% for 4 turns. So using this first really boosts your chance of a critical hit using Decimate. You do need critical hits to defeat the wisps in one shot.

Countering your point on "Fire pets do not have a buff attack", Fire pets have Flamethrow.
At Ranks 3 and 4 its Engulfed buff boosts the user's Magical Damage by 30%, and Rank 4 additionally inflicts Burning at the same damage rate as Fireball's Burning debuff (as opposed to Air, where Slash and Razor Wind inflict different damage rate Bleeding debuffs)

Yeah, all those buffs are necessary! I suspect it'll be easier once I get some more stoneweaver gear & fully rank up to 4!

But maths (at rank 4):

Air:
Torrential Blow 300% damage (chance of extra 100% if bleeding)
Decimate 750% (plus a 0.4 chance of critical = 1500%)

300+750=1050. (chance of extra 750+100)

Total: 1050% damage (with a chance of 1900%) to each wisp


Fire:
Flamethrow: 300% (plus burning at 100%--and this is likely to hit before wisps for another turn)
Conflagrate: 300% (plus 450% on next turn) (this hits both enemies)

Flamethrow gives an extra x0.30 to all magical damage.

So (100+300+300)=700 *(0.30)=210

300+700+210=1210

If the extra flamethrow and Inferno are included: (100+100+300+300+450+450)=1700 *0.30= 510.

300+1700+510=2510% to each wisp

Total: 1210% damage (increasing to 2510% if inferno & flamethrow are quicker than wisps)

So really, fire is actually stronger in this situation. Fire is good, because it keeps doing 450% damage to Kowla each turn while you are dealing with the wisps. However, finishing blow has a greater impact right near the end, doing an additional 720% damage (1480% total) when kowla is at 20%, doubled with a crit!

Thats why I said they were roughly equivalent. (1050% vs 1210%, but air has a chance of crit) However, if conflagrate's inferno can work before the wisps, then fire is much better!

I say this very dispassionately. I prefer air, and with Eleane, her supporters were so weak that fire's boost was wasted compared to air's ability to do more damage to Eleane herself. Same with Oakstout. So I only have low ranked fire pets now. :( But in the cave, fire really looks better most of the time!

The extra 450% damage from fire is shared among all enemies (so 150% each if it is evenly distributed). So all 3 enemies add up to the extra 450%, not 450% each. If that makes sense.

So with that in mind, it seems like they are pretty even? It looks like Fire does have a buff attack (#3) that increases magical damage 30% (thanks for finding that Scath). That might be better than the 40% crit chance that Air has.

I'd love if someone can test this, using 2 Fires instead of 2 Air cannons. It seems like it should work. I'm thinking of testing a LIght Tank/healer instead of a water tank as well for Kowlla. I'm definitely going to do a comparison post in my guide on the rank 4 abilities to make things easier to see lol.

Ah, you're right. I didnt catch that Inferno's damage was shared! xD

That bring's the totals to:

Air:
Total: 1050% damage (with a chance of 1900%) to each wisp

Fire:
Total: 1210% damage (increasing to 1730% if inferno & flamethrow are quicker than wisps)


(100+100+300+300+150+150)*0.30=330
300+1100+330=1730

Mathematically, the water tank will do more damage. Light tanks are recommended just because, well, its often hard to keep enough health. But it doesnt sound like health was your main issue with kowla? If you're not struggling for health, water is better. Otherwise a light tank (or a bag full of potions) might be necessary.

I honestly can't really remember if I was struggling with health xD I do like the water tank for the extra buff. However, the shield (attack 4) seemed like it was more of a back up plan instead of much help. It was able to absorb 6k damage between all pets. But when each wisp can hit each pet for up to 15k per turn, I don't know how useful the shield is. I seem to remember 2/3 of my pets died after the wisps took a turn at them when I failed to one-shot them. I feel like I would rather have the healing ability that I'm familiar with, but it depends on if the water buff makes the difference or not.

I mainly want to try a Light healer/tank instead because I already have one ranked xD I have a water tank in the works, but it is at rank 1 right now. And Kowlla is taunting me lol. Plus I'm curious to see if it will work or not, so others will know (if they are in a similar situation).

Much more testing is needed! Hopefully if someone is successful, they will share. I try to grab notes from chat if I see them.

Also, can you post what the forging requirements are for the new gear? I'm excited you got a Tome, congrats!

question time: does Dazed debuff deal 100% additional damage if the opponent has Bleeding debuff, or is it +100% damage on each bleeding debuff the opponent has, since you can stack multiple Bleeding debuffs, and Slash and Razor Wind's Bleeding debuffs deal different amounts of % damage? I always interpreted it as "each bleeding debuff gets a 100% boost"... science time.


Turn 3: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Nightfall Brigand for 714 Physical Damage!

Turn 4: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Nightfall Brigand for 649 Physical Damage!
(1 Slash bleeding debuff)

Turn 5: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Nightfall Brigand for 1,373 Physical Damage!

Turn 6: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Nightfall Brigand for 1,393 Physical Damage!
(1 Slash bleeding debuff + 1 Dazed)

Turn 6: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Myconid Thrasher for 1,591 Physical Damage!
Turn 6: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Myconid Thrasher for 1,404 Physical Damage!
Turn 6: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Myconid Thrasher for 1,437 Physical Damage!
(3 Slash bleeding debuff + 1 Dazed)

Turn 17: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Earthen Construct for 1,355 Physical Damage!
(1 Razor Wind bleeding debuff)

Turn 3: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Nightfall Battlemage for 3,595 Physical Damage!
(1 Razor Wind bleeding debuff + 1 Dazed)

Turn 14: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Earthen Construct for 3,030 Physical Damage!
Turn 14: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Earthen Construct for 2,865 Physical Damage!
Turn 14: Voulges Force's Bleeding hits Earthen Construct for 1,285 Physical Damage!
(2 Razor Wind bleeding debuff + 1 Slash bleeding debuff + 1 Dazed)

Conclusion: as long as you can stack the bleeding debuffs, Dazed is gonna boost each one.
I have no idea what would happen if you were using two all-rank-4 air attackers in on team and could potentially get like, 6-8 Bleeding debuffs + Dazed on an opponent at once.
Does Dazed Stack?!

This is interesting scath! Thanks for testing it out! :)

Hi Bunne,

The Ancient Tome of Knowledge (rare drop from cave named) unlocks one specific piece of equipment of your choice. I ended up choosing a pyromancer bracer, so now that i unlocked it, I can make as many stoneweaver pyromancer bracers as I have material for, but nothing else!

Once unlocked, here is the material needed to build the equipment (I'm not sure if its different for other types or not):



12 iron ingots ~ (takes 72 iron ore to make)
6 silver ingots ~ (takes 30 silver ore to make)
2 gold ingots ~ (takes 6 gold ore to make)

10 enchanted powder
4 enigmatic crystals
50,000 gold


Reforging is even more tricky, needing something called an "Enigmatic Gem":