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Value Of Abilities

Counter(+)

PvP

Counter is a fantastic move for PvP because it will reflect all active attacks. Devastating attacks like sacrifice will send damage back to the monster who cast it. In addition to health lost by the active ability, the counter's damage can weaken a sacrifice monster to the point where a few gem matches will take it out. Raid teams that use abilities like lacerate and snipe will have damage from those moves reflected back to them and typically they do not have much health, so counter is quite useful for taking down raid teams as well.

Crush(+)

Lost Temple

Single Element Target

Getting crushes in all of the elements is more important than getting the best crush you can find. For the longest time, I used some rare crushes that were not my zodiac(with a team of supers and ultras). As long as you can reach the crush before a boss meter fills(and does a devastating attack, invincible, etc.) then it has fulfilled it's purpose. All of the LT bosses have a meter that fills, so getting crushes in all the elements, aka a "rainbow crush team", is very important once you reach Lost Temple. Another situation would be raid events where extreme bosses have the same type of meter filling ability.

Deadshot+

Depends

With deadshot, people either love it or hate it. It's long cooldown of 7 turns makes it undesirable for some, but it's massive attack % makes it very appealing to others. It depends on your device(more so Android due to having faster animations) and the speed at which you gem. Because it ignores defense, in scenarios with enemies that have defense or a defensive active, it is better than snipe. It also has the potential to be better than bane for the same reason in addition to it being effective against any element.

Drain+

Healing Attack

Drain is an ability that attacks and heals, which can be very useful in certain situations. Drain in particular hits a single target, which is much more common than multiple target bosses, making it the top choice for this type of ability. If the enemy you are fighting against has the option to choose more than 1 energy, it will work even better because the increased damage dealt with using more energy will increase the amount healed.

Element Swap(+)

Raid

Sometimes PvP

Swaps are one of the important abilities in the game. For your raid team, you eventually want to get both element swap and swap, but element swap is the better one to start with because it swaps out the weaker element gems for the element of the monster's gems. With swap, hearts will swap to the element, so if your team needs the healing, it is best to start with element swap. For PvP defensive teams, it is a second choice because element swap does not come with old passives, but it still can be great on a PvP team with the right balance.

Flash Heal+

So-so

It has the continuous healing advantage like with the regen abilities, but because it is cast each turn(rather than lasting the number of turns), the amount of time that the animations take up prevent more actives from being fired off. The reason you try to survive with a healing ability is to be able to survive to do more damage and losing time in a timed match can have the opposite effect.

Group Heal(+)

So-so

For the same reason as with big heal, healing only once per 3 turns, it is less desirable than a continuously healing ability like regen.

Lacerate(+)

Multi-target

Some say that lacerate is no longer valuable because it is a multi-target attack, but it has one really awesome feature; it prevents healing. Certain bosses that use healing abilities will take far less damage when they heal themselves. Level 10 water Troop Wars pets use big heal and level 10 leaf pets use leech, so lacerate is a good move to have for that event. Another situation would be the Lost Temple leaf crystal boss who will take every bit of health you have left with it's devastating leech attack if the meter fills. It will basically undo damage already done to the crystal, which can get very frustrating for your troop. Another approach to this is to use leaf crush, but if you don't have one, the leech will kill you, but lacerate will not allow your health to heal the boss.

Miasma(+)

PvP

Miasma is a rather uncommon move, but has the potential to be great for PvP. It does half the damage that toxic does, but instead of 1 target it hits all 5. It has the same cooldown and number of turns when active and also ignores defense.

Phoenix(+)

Feeder

Phoenix has a very high % of healing, but it's 7 turn cooldown makes it almost always useless. If a healer is needed for a team, it is not likely the team will survive the 7 turns needed to activate phoenix.

Pound(+)

Feeder

It will stun all 5 enemies, but the problem with pound is that it deals low damage, has a 3 turn cooldown, and only lasts 1 turn. It also only applies to the element of the monster casting it.

Quick Strike+

Raid

Quick strike can be considered T1 for PvP because it ignores defense and has both a 1 turn initial cooldown and regular cooldown. Another scenario where players like this ability is to keep the meter down on a boss, but because it fires off each turn it takes a lot of time for the animations to go off which may lead to a loss in damage from gemming and other active abilities. However, in turn based combat because time does not matter, it is a great ability in that situation.

Regen(+)

Healer

Regen is one of the best abilities for a healer to have because it will heal for 3 turns and it has a 3 turn cooldown so it will continuously heal 3 monsters as long as it is active. It also only has a 1 turn initial cooldown.

Sacrifice(+)

PvP

Sacrifice is a very popular PvP active ability because it deals such a large amount of damage by sacrificing some of it's own health. The sacrifice monster must survive the 5 turn initial cooldown to be effective, but as long as the team is assembled the right way and the monster with the sacrifice ability is able to cast it at least once, it has the potential to take out the 3 monsters on the enemy's team with the highest health, leaving them with their 2 weakest monsters and easy to defeat.

Smash(+)

Feeder

Smash is far inferior to crush. Crush will stun an enemy the entire battle while doing a considerable amount of damage each time it is cast. Smash attacks 2 enemies but it only lasts 2 turns rather than 3 like crush, making it so there is a turn where the enemy monsters are not stunned. The best thing about crush is that it can stun a boss with a meter for the entire battle and smash does not provide this.

Snipe(+)

Raid

Certain Events

Snipe is one of the most highly desired abilities for a raid team. Due to recent bosses being nearly all single target, because of the amount of damage it does with a much shorter cooldown than deadshot(3 turns vs 7 turns) it is considered one of the best offensive active abilities. The animation with snipe is also one of the quickest, allowing for the player to get more turns in and deal more damage. Snipe is the only ability you want to have for certain events, especially ones that have targets that do not attack such as the Dominion towers or the Crystal Siege crystals.

Swap+

Raid

Swap+ monsters come with T1 attack passives, so this is a great ability to have for a raid team. The swap will change all the heart gems on the board to the element of that monster. However, a monster with the regular swap active ability can come with better passives for PvP, so this is not the best choice of active ability in that situation.

Team Regen+

Healer

Team regen is similar to regen, except it heals all monsters for less of a % and has an initial cooldown of 2. It is a good healing ability for the same reason as regen, continuous healing.

Toxic(+)

PvP

Certain Events On Android

Toxic is a common active ability for PvP because it ignores defense, giving the team an advantage over old passive PvP teams. It can be an amazing addition to an event team such as Dominion because in 3 turns(the cooldown for snipe) it does more damage than snipe. However, toxic must be rerolled and also toxic's damage does not stack so only 1 toxic makes sense for an event team. Also, the animation takes up a lot of time on Apple devices, thus it is recommended for Android users primarily.

Vampire(+)

Raid

Although drain can be considered slightly better due to it being a single target active, vampire is not far behind it. It does almost as much damage to 2 targets as drain does on 1 target. The healing % is the same and if against 2 targets, it will heal for more than drain. Even though single target bosses are more common, there are still various situations against multiple enemies, such as the beginning waves in Lost Temple.

Venom(+)

PvP

Venom is similar to toxic, but it hits 3 targets for less damage rather than 1 for more damage. It is a popular ability for offensive PvP teams due to how it ignores defense like toxic.

Wound(+)

Feeder

Wound is the inferior version of lacerate. It hits all 5 targets, but typically a preventing healing is only needed for single target enemies.

Old Actives

A large portion of the old actives can come with a "mutant" ability (different element active than the monster) that may result in them being a feeder. In some cases thought, mutants can actually be a good thing. Old actives are most commonly used in PvP. Check out the PvP 101 page for more information about building a PvP team and more information on PvP abilities.

Absorb

PvP

Absorb is a less common PvP ability, but paired with the right passive and it has the potential to be an amazing addition to a PvP team. It is also a common "mutant" ability (different element active than the monster). Rock and wind are 2 of the most common elements for PvP teams for a number of reasons. A reason rock is so common is because rock sacrifice ultras are easy to get because they come in U spins and players will build a team around them.

Burst

Feeder

Burst is absolutely a feeder ability because it is far inferior to blast. It does a fraction of the damage that blast does to the same number of enemies(all 5). The amount of damage does not increase with rarity level, so it is an even more drastic of a damage reduction with ultras and up.

Debuff

PvP

Debuff is another ability for PvP that can be good in mutant form. It follows pretty much the same rules for the element it will be useful in as Absorb. Wind or rock debuff because those will be your most common element opponents or the element your team is weak against to give you an advantage when you have the elemental disadvantage.

Heal

Feeder

Heal is garbage because the newer active abilities heal for a much higher amount and have a much shorter cooldown.

Invincible

PvP

Invincible is an amazing PvP ability for old passive teams. It allows the entire team to block all damage for 1 turn. It has a long cooldown, but with devastating moves like sacrifice, blocking the damage from it can keep your best monsters alive to then defeat the opponent. It also may go off during a swap round, when pure old passive defense teams make their devastating blow with big combos.

Kamikazi

Feeder

Kamizazi is an absolute garbage version of sacrifice. The monster casting it sacrifices 70% of it's health and deals back the same in damage. Sacrifice takes away a much smaller portion of it's health and deals a larger amount of damage. It can also come in mutant format, breaking the "mono" team aspect and making it even more useless.

Leech

Feeder

Yet another garbage active replaced by far superior new actives is leech. Vampire and drain both attack for a higher % and have a much shorter cooldown.

Mirror

PvP

Mirror is another ability that can be great in mutant format for PvP. Check out absorb and debuff above for which elements are best.

Poison

Feeder

Poison is terrible because it has a huge 7 turn cooldown and only lasts 2 turns. It also does far less damage to the other poison-like abilities miasma, toxic, and venom.

Shield

PvP

Shield is amazing for PvP because it will put up defense against all elements. Barrier only puts defense up against one element.

Stun

PvP

Against monsters of the right element, stun can be really great for PvP. Against a team of the element of the stun, they will be stunned for 2 entire turns. It is basically like having invincible with half the cooldown, but it only applies to one element.

Surge

Feeder

Surge is a terrible active. It does a fraction of the damage snipe does and has a longer regular cooldown.

Swap

PvP and Raid

Swap is one of the best abilities you can get for PvP as long as it comes with one of the best old passives. If you have a defensive old passive team, swap is your primary weapon, therefor it is one of the most important abilities to get. It can also be useful in raid teams. The only difference between swap and swap+ is that swap takes 1 turn longer to be able to activate.

Passives

View all passives on BCRank

New Passives

Tier charts rate ability pairings based on 4 different tiers. However, this is not a good system for the ways abilities are set up. There are 6 different ranges for the bonus granted to abilties. To explain further, here is a chart ranking ability pairings as they should be.

New Passive Bonus % Value At Level 1

	Attack	Health	Recovery	Bonus %
1	Cavalry Rogue	Bulwark Panzer	Medic Mender	+65%
2	Lethal	Protector	Priest	+55%
3	Champion Gladiator	Bruiser Knight	Cleric Shaman	+35%
4	Bruiser Shaman	Cleric Gladiator	Champion Knight	+20%
5	Cleric • Protector Medic • Panzer Priest • Protector	Cavalry • Champion Lethal • Mender Priest • Shaman	Bruiser • Bulwark Gladiator • Lethal Protector • Rogue	0%
6	Mender Bulwark	Medic Rogue	Cavalry Panzer	-10%

Old Passives

It's no secret that old passive abilities are well known for their amazing potential for a PvP defense team. The reason for this is that some of the older passive abilities come with a defense bonus. Building a defensive PvP team is all about balancing. Check out PvP 101 for a much more in depth look at old passive PvP team building.

Old Passives With Defense Bonus

Ability	Attack	Health	Recovery	Defense
Barbarian	60%			40%
Crusader	50%	50%		50%
Defender		115%		50%
Guardian			100%	65%
Paladin		50%		50%
Warrior*	50%			50%

The Juggernaut Debate

These passives are considered the absolute best passives for PvP due to their defense bonus. The one exception that is up for debate as being one of the best old passive abilities for PvP is juggernaut. It grants 65% attack, 75% health, and 100% recovery bonuses. New passives only add 1 bonus and may reduce another depending on the ability. In that regard, it is better than new passives, but without that fantastic defense bonus most consider it to be not a good mob for PvP. However, some people like it and do use it for PvP.

First Generation Old Passives

With the first generation of old passives(the ones displayed in grey at the bottom of the BCRank passive abilities page) it is tricky to tell at first why they are bad. You may see 70% defense bonuses at level 1 for those passives, but if you look closer they only apply to certain elements. Spirited and strong show a 65% defense bonus, but this only applies when the health is below 25% or above 75%. You need the defense bonus to apply at all times on old passive mobs so that your team can survive as best as possible in all scenarios.

At first glance, an ability like glass may appear better than rogue because it gives higher attack. The issue with this is that when the passive is leveled up, it increases by far less with each level than new passives. At level 2, rogue is already at 75% and glass is at 77%. The feeders are harder to find and the maximum passive level for old passives is 11, rather than 15.

Second Generation Old Passives

The passives displayed above the first generation passives in black are not good in any scenario either. Most of them rely on health being above or below a certain % to apply. The one that seems like it may be good because of it's defense bonus that always applies is defensive. However, the issue with it is that is grants no other bonuses. Barbarian is not as good for PvP as the other old passives that grant 3 bonuses because it only grants 2. Defensive with only 1 bonus is just too inferior to the other old passives to be considered good for PvP.

The Ability Trading Value Cheat Sheet

I came up with a simple cheat sheet to give players a quick reference to get an idea of the value of a monster based on abilities when trading. It is important to note what is best and worst ability-wise is subjective. Some may value certain ones more than others or have a unique preference for a passive/active considered a feeder. Feel free to copy, paste, and share!