Ph33r teh Weapon!
Written by: Xil
Some people say the main point of battling is to gain the fame. Others would say that people simply like the idea of seeing that they are better than someone else, however, regardless of whether battling is done to become popular, or to feed basic egos; we can all agree on one thing: Battling would be nothing without the weapons.
Weapons allow us to deal damage to the opponent while in the dome. Although there are other ways of dealing damage to an opponent (such as abilities from Faeries and species specific skills), weapons still remain the easiest way to deal a nice round of damage. Damage, however, must first be classified into "icons". Each weapon deals a certain amount of icons and each icon represents a different element. These "icon elements" are as follows: Physical, Water, Air, Dark, Fire, Light, and Earth.
Subsequently, if different weapons deal different icons, then we can assume that other weapons would defend certain icons. Defensive weapons work to block out whatever type of icon they defend. Defense weapons in the Battledome, however, are slightly harder to explain than other weapons. There are two main types of Defense weapons in the dome: Linear and Non-Linear defense. Linear Defense is defense that is based off your Defense Boost.
Linear Defense is essentially comprised of three main factors:
- How many icons the weapon can defend
- Your Defense Boost
- Your attack form (Fierce, Caution, or Normal)
Subsequently, this reveals a thing or two to us. We cannot defend more than what is thrown at us, because we would end up doing less than 0 damage. This would counteract the whole idea of defending, and it would be more like attacking.
Non-Linear Defense items are items which defend regardless of your Defense Boost, a certain percentage of an attack (an example would be a Thyora's Tear or a Downsize!).
Now that you have Defense and Strength covered, it's time to look at what’s best for your pet. Many Neopians train their pets using the Training Schools. These schools allow us to equally train every stat in relevance to the level of your pet (i.e. Strength can only be two times that of a pets level). There are exceptions to this though; HP can be risen to three times that of a pets level. Weapons and Defensive weapons for pets who have been trained by their owner can be easily chosen. Especially Linear Defense weapons. As long as you have kept your Defense level with your Offence, you can fight enemies and get a good turnout on defense.
There are pets, however, which are trained via the lab ray (like my own!). The Lab Ray is definitely worth it as a tool to train your pets, however, it does not keep all the stats at an equal level with each other. Most lab pets will have lower Defense and higher HP. These kinds of pets fare better with Non-Linear Defense weapons because they are not based off the pets Defense point, which may be lower than its HP and Strength brackets.
Overall, the weapons you choose and the way you decide to train is entirely up to you! Don't let the Battledome become something that is a chore! It's meant to be fun, so til next time!
Fight well and have a good time!!