Splinterlands team has released Rebellion with new abilities and new battle tactics. Now, it is time to explore the possibilities of putting those new features into strategies and see how well we can use them against our opponents in the game.
The new Rebellion cards are posing a real challenge when used in a battle against other players who do not use Rebellion cards. Especially, when someone brings monsters with Corrosive Ward in its battle against melee units, they become a threat to melee units with armor.
Let's see how Corrosive Ward is making a difference in the game and how can it be used in a battle.
What is Corrosive Ward Ability?
This is one of the new abilities released in Rebellion edition packs and it is known to be a nemesis for the armored units.
Its working mechanism is similar to Thorns, but it does permanent damage to armor that is beyond repair. When a melee unit with armor attacks a unit with Corrosive Ward ability, it loses 2 armor forever every time it hits it. The affected monster also receives a Corrosive Ward debuff which prevents its amor from being repaired by any support unit.
Corrosive Armor removes 2 armor stats from the max armor of a unit which means every time a monster is affected by a Corrosive Ward, its max armor will also reduce. This is a permanent damage type to armor that cannot be mended with repair units.
Corrosive Ward Utility in Battles
Now, we'll dive into some battles and learn how this ability works in Splinterlands battles. Watch the video carefully and see the status effect it leaves on the monsters that damage their armor hitting a monster with Corrosive Ward.
Battle 1 is fought between Fire and Dragon units, this battle explains how Corrosive Ward damages the armor of striking melee unit. You can see Uraeus loses his 1 Armor permanently when he attacks Grimbardun Fighter, if there was any Repair unit, it could not repair his armor, but instead kept trying in failed attempts.
Similarly, when Living Lava hit Grimbardun Fighter, he also lost his armor and received a Corrosive Ward icon on the card.
Battle 2 is about understanding the way Corrosive Ward works when the armor is damaged but still repairable.
As you see Forgotten One has 5 armor stats in this battle, he loses 4 armor and hits Sea Dog of Eight, but you don't see any damage to his 1 armor. Technically, Forgotten One received 2 damage to his Max Armor that was 1/5 at the time of the strike, but the damage actually caused to his armor and reduced his armor to 1/3. It means if he had repaired his armor fully, he would have gained 3/3 armor instead.
So, remember when the armor is damaged with a normal attack already, the Corrosive ward does not show damage but it reduces the monster's armor from its repairable armor i.e. max armor stats.
Battle 3 is to show you a situation when the monsters do not have any armor and what happens to them when they hit a unit with Corrosive Ward. When a monster with no armor attacks a unit with Corrosive Amor, it only gets a status effect and takes no damage from Corrosive Ward.
Corrosive Ward is best against opponents that use monsters with armor and repair units in their teams. There is another benefit of this ability that the melee striker will lose the armor permanently when hitting the monster with Corrosive Ward.
Advantages of Corrosive Ward Ability
- This ability is best against teams with Taunt monsters with armor, once the armor is reduced to 0, the Taunt monster can be removed easily.
- It works like Thorns and removes the armor without hitting that monster.
- Corrosive Ward debuff cannot be removed with Cleanse ability.
- Monsters with Immunity can still be affected with Corrosive Ward.
- Repair unit will most likely target the monster affected by Corrosive Ward to repair its armor and fails to repair the armor.
Disadvantage of Armored Strike
- Monsters with Reflection Shield are immune to the Corrosive Ward effect.
- Life, Death, and Dragon factions have no unit with Corrosive Ward ability.
- Units revived in a battle with melted armor regain their original max armor.
Cards with Corrosive Ward Ability
There are currently 4 cards in Rebellion set i.e. 2 cards in the Water faction, 1 Card in the Earth faction, and 1 from the neutral faction.
Sea Dog of Eight is a rare Water unit with Corrosive Ward and Heal abilities. It is a moderate melee unit with 7 mana, 2 Attack, 1 Armor, 2 Speed, and 8 Health points at level 1. From level 4 onwards, he gains Heal ability and becomes stronger and harder to eliminate.
Thanalorian Scion is made to withstand any kind of magic damage with her armor, she hails from the Water faction and is known as an epic magic unit. She is known for her low mana consumption in battles, with just 5 mana this beautiful elf can fit into any low mana cost battle and crunch enemy armor with her destructive Corrosive Ward ability. She gains True Strike ability at level 5 and can hit Phase units with a perfect magic shot. She can be quite useful in battles against magic monsters.
Lurking Puffer is a nice common unit in Earth Splinter and it only require 2 mana to occupy a battle slot. It has no attack, but it can be paired with any unit that provides Weapons Training, and it will show it's confined skill. Lurking Puffer gains 3 abilities in total, Corrosive Ward is its first ability, then he obtains Silence at level 5, and learns how to poisons its enemies at level 10.
Grimbardun Fighter is a heavy hitter with Shield, Corrosive Strike, and Reflection Shield abilities. He can join any faction and any battle type as he is a neutral character. He costs 9 mana to be placed in a battle due to his effective skills and heavy protection. He has proved to be a nice melee unit as he takes 1 less damage when hit by melee and ranged monsters. Although, he cannot fit into battles with Taking Sides ruleset, other than that he can be placed in many toe-to-toe battle types and formats.
There can be a lot more to write about Corrosive Ward and its use cases, but I'll say this is enough to digest for now. I think you'll be amazed to see the battles I presented in the video and don't forget to write some lines about your thoughts regarding this post.
Splinterlands Adventures await you, let's join the fun by clicking the Splinterlands logo:
I am looking forwards to hear from you.
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