Set Items

[angryde]

@jewlsdeluxe Unfortunately, there is no trick… it’s down to the luck of the draw/spin. Only the AGPM and A-AGPM + the 3x and 5x confer any additional chance re: spinning set pieces (excluding the free set pieces obtained 1x per month from the daily rewards calendar). Some of our more mathematically minded fellow nesters have crunched the numbers… elsewhere, on other threads … and have listed the various probabilities, etc. Most of us drop a goodly number of LCs into the AGPM + A-AGPM with 5x each month. 200+ Good luck!

[Jewlsdeluxe]

@angryde Thank you for the quick response. I’ve been saving my lucky coins to get the Sea Dog class. I guess I need to spend more to try to get set items.

[angryde]

@jewlsdeluxe Just remember, there’s little point dropping LCs on the (A-)/AGMP until you are Level-50… as any set pieces you obtain will be sub-optimal. Purchasing Sea Dog first may not be a bad idea… as Rovio might – and I stress might – increase the mastery cap (12) before Xmas or in the New Year. Unless you’re flush with LCs, you’re always chasing your tail when it comes to set pieces… at least Sea Dog and the other LC purchasable classes are a sound, permanent investment. There’s arguments for and against both strategies. Good luck!

[GrauGeist]

Classes before Sets before Arena.

[Anonymous]

Man, my bar is almost full and still giving great equipment.

[angryde]

@jewlsdeluxe Listen to @graugeist. Concise as ever… but his advice is sound! ;-)

[Power Pork]

The only set item i have is the hook for bomb (finisher) is it useful enough in arena and caves?

[Anonymous]

And my only set item I have is Candy Chain for Bomb. Now my Bomb has over 600 HP.

[GrauGeist]

I just spun up The Navigator for Bomb, completing the Finisher set: Hocus Pocus (15%), Might (+8%) w/ 50% to kill target <20% health.

This is my best set for Bomb, but after playing it in Arena, I kinda feel that I’d rather have gotten upgraded Rock & Paper because Scissors can hit anything (and everything) at any time.

The <20% requirement is awfully narrow. Pretty much anything that I’d get Finisher on, I’m probably already killing with Sea Dog. In PvE, I’m playing Frost Savage and other lower-mastery classes, and still winning. In Arena, birds have maybe 6k health, and Sea Dog does 2k each hit. Only the Arena Banner has >10k health, and if I’ve got it <20%, I’m almost certainly already winning to the point I don’t need any more help to win.

OTOH, I see a lot of people using Finisher in the Arena – is it also because they don’t have anything better (i.e. Scissors)?

[Pointless]

@graugeist I have been wondering the exact same thing for a while now. Finisher’s set bonus really does seem somewhat useless, but maybe that’s due more to our high level birds and gear, because, as you say, Bomb is pretty much going to KO anything short of fully stacked banner and even then damage it to the teetering point.
I have used (and upgraded) Scissors for a long time, and even nerfed as it has been, find it more useful with the AoE element.
I used to have an eerie feeling that I was missing something about Finisher with its popularity in Arena (and let’s face it, many people are apparently not short on resources to acquire/upgrade sets immediately), but after playing around with the set myself, I no longer think so. Maybe just the high damage (equaled by Scissors, however), but I now think it’s just the show off factor…”Look what I’ve got, a shiny new set that you don’t have”

[Jadedbacon]

@pointless maybe these are just computer generated teams to “show off” the new stuff thus increasing the chances that someone will spend LCs on GPM for it?

I only base this on the fact that sometimes I would see enemy teams with maxed out sets/classes the day they are available, which I find suspect.

However I agree with you and @graugeist regarding Finisher’s usefulness. It’s why I still prefer Dragon over Primal/Banner Breaker (if I ever get the offhand) and starting to upgrade TLightning and going to be ditching Mana. The only time the AoE isn’t useful is during the “KO the Banner w/out KOing any enemy birds”; for that specific objective, I’d prefer Finisher/Banner Breaker over Scissors/Dragon.

[Pointless]

@jadedbacon I had wondered that, too, as there are so many out there that have, as you say, fully upgraded sets within hours of them becoming available. The darker part of me believes this is from the ever-present cheating faction rather than planted bots, but who knows? It really may be the shiny bauble planted to stimulate the “I want that” impulse.
Yes, for me the AoE sets are generally the way to go…especially with Mana being “fixed” to actually work with far less frequency…

@admins PLEASE would you remove the moderation from @graugeist and @killerkea Many of us find their input valuable and diminished by being delayed for hours. And, no, neither of them have paid me :)

[Ryogo Kusama]

I’ve been wondering why the moderation is in place for a while now, I thought it was the same for everyone but lately I noticed otherwise… what happened?

@graugeist I think it is exactly as you say… I use the Finisher set for Bomb in Arena only because I have yet to upgrade my old Rock & Paper set to the current level, else I’d use the latter… the Finisher set proc is really useless and Rock&Peaper set bonus is pretty sweet both for PvP and PvE.

[Jim151]

If finisher activates, it will inflict the damage required to kill off the banner, minus any protection the banner has in place. So it frequently does not finish off the banner. Has anyone seen finisher inflict less damage than bomb would inflict had the set item not activated? IOW, say the banner has 1000 health left, with a protection of 5% less damage. Would finisher, if activated, inflict only 950, while Bomb would other wise inflict well over 1000, even with the protection?

[Ryogo Kusama]

@jim151 I didn’t take notice of that but I guess your point makes sense, as sometimes I got some weird numbers popping up (mostly when someone has the resilience emblem) and didn’t manage to kill the banner in one hit as I should have.
Another weird interaction I got very recently, it’s about the new banner set (can’t remember the name) that splits the damage the bird receive with the banner by half: my bomb hit the bird (proccing the banner ability) and the damage on the banner proc’d the finisher set damage on himself, dealing way more damage than it should have.
I don’t know if it’s intended or not and I can’t say if it’s for better or worse… still, giving the amount of times I faced that banner set, this was the first time I ever experienced it.

[KillerKea]

One health related set that can be quite powerful is the Anger Management banner set. When Bomb explodes he can easily do over 4K damage. Add any damage enhancement bonus like the Pirate’s Whip Up! and Bomb will do an obscene amount of damage that will probably KO everything except the enemy banner. However the Valiant set is so over powered it trumps this set because it is hard to make sure Bomb’s health gets reduced below 25%.

I’m one of the few people that prefers using the Sugar Rush set for Bomb, but after the level increase from 45 to 50 I haven’t been able to get a max level set yet. I think Rovio weakened the Sugar Rush set a second time. Originally it healed all birds 100% of dealt damage. I believe they lowered it to 75% of dealt damage and now it only heals 50% of dealt damage. Does anyone know when it got lowered to 50%?

[GrauGeist]

Lightning vs Mana is a tough call. Mana is a better general purpose set, as it heals and it turns off a lot of the annoying stuff (i.e. Venomous, Princess, Stuns, Weakness). But it’s hard to argue with extra damage across the board.

I agree with Dragon over Masamune – damaging everything is better than damaging the banner (only).

[GrauGeist]

Thanks for confirming! Finisher is still my best set for Bomb, being a 52/52 Set with Might, so I’ll be playing it. I just don’t think I’ll be upgrading it a lot while I wait for Scissors to come in.

Tho if I’m wishing for ponies, I’m really wishing to complete Mana set. :D
____

2/22 – I’m no longer playing Finisher. It fails to “Finish” enemies too often, leaving them with a handful of health instead of KOing them. Bomb is actually weaker with the Finsher! I create a new topic to discuss directly…

[KillerKea]

The Sugar Rush set still heals 100% of damage done. The description when you click on it shows 50%.

[dillo]

Sugar Rush seems to proc at the worst moments but I’ll grant you it only seems to happen 15-20% of the time (described as 15% so pretty accurate). Finisher honestly sucks as it stands now, needs a double debuff as described in the other post. I’ll stick with Rock/Paper for now (works great, looks great on my FS Bomb).

[GrauGeist]

Today, most of us should have gotten the Reset weapon for Chuck, so that makes 5 sets. I don’t think that this really helps in high level arena play, nor in PvE play. In Arena, this is a “win more” set against non-Valiant users, which any high level player will already beat due to having Valiant themselves. Reset simply makes an already won fight somewhat easier. In PvE, the healing is nice, and Reset is situationally useful against a) Bosses that take 3 turns to charge up, and b) Undead. I think Reset is a good backup set, but won’t replace Mana (best for Arena) or Lightning (best PvE) as primary sets. Better than Time Jump (marginal) and Reborn (useless), though.

As I rank Chuck’s sets:
1. Mana Shell
2. Twin Lightning
3. Reset
4. Time Jump
…
9. Reborn

[Pointless]

@graugeist I completely agree about the uselessness of Reborn now, but this is another repercussion of Valiant. Previously in Arena it was almost a must-have as it kept Chuck alive even if you lost the toss. Now it really doesn’t matter as he’s up almost right away, ready for a spicy meal.
I will take issue with your ranking of Mana over Twin Lightning however. I find Mana less useful, especially now it has been fixed to actually proc at the rate advertised, and somewhat UP in terms of overall damage. I know this sounds strange as it actually deals higher base than TL, but the massive potential of critical associated with TL, for me at least, makes this set far more useful both in PvE and PvP. With luck of crit, you can clear whole stages in PvE with TL on a fairly consistent basis.
Has anyone not smiled in gleeful anticipation of Chuck/TL reviving alone to a full chili in Arena? This is often a complete devastation of even full health opposition, including almighty Red.

[GrauGeist]

I never played Reborn, even in the pre-Valiant era. I simply ran Resurrection emblem and killed things dead. Reborn has always been an overrated set to me.

The advantage of Mana over Lightning is small, whereas the benefit of Lightning over Reset (etc.) is large. I won’t quibble your liking Lightning over Mana – both are very good. I just find the breadth of Mana effectiveness to be superior to a little more damage. For most players, it will likely come down to which set they have at lv 52.

[Bubbley]

@graugeist I have both mana and TL. I use mana but if I had a valiant set I would probably use TL.

[GrauGeist]

OK, fair enough! :D