Antipode: Typical Hybrid TB Build

At least, I assume so

from Demigod Forums

Been dominating with TB recently, but am curious how others have been playing him, especially hybridized.  Here's my first 10:

 

Fireball 1

Circle of Ice 1

Deep Freeze 1

Fireball 2

Frost Nova 1

Circle of Ice 2

Fireball 3

Circle of Ice 3

(Save point)

Fireball 4 and Frost Nova 2

 

Favor: Blood of the Fallen

first 1000 Gold:

Scaled Helm + Sundries (Flag lock, teleport, revelation totem, all depending on map and team. Healing pot possible too).

Next 6000 gold

Journeyman's Treads

Nimoth's Chestplate

Vlemish FaceGuard

~Hauberk of Life, MAYBE the Plenor Battlecrown

 

So, first up I think fireball is a vastly superior spell to get at level 1.  You don't creep as fast, but repeated hitting with fireball can chase people from lane.  In general, even if you get Circle of Frost at level 2, you shouldn't use it much at all.  Save your mana so you can just keep the fiery pressure on the opponents. Over the course of about 30 seconds to a minute, a level 1-3 TB can keep an upper hand on most opponents.

I go for Frost nova big time, as it is a fairly fast interrupt, that also let's your team get the drop on someone. It also very strongly helps your team attack defended points (Left and right sides on cataract, to capture gold mine and/or portal flag).

Circle of Frost becomes better once you get it to level 2, as it does whipe out a full wave of creeps. That said, I still suggest not overusing it. There is nothing as sad as a TB with no mana.

Other general strategies: Try to keep both transform bonus' going at all times, especially the mana boost. TB's level 1 mana regen is pretty respectable with the Helm, and his primary fireball skill is very mana efficient, but still, when push comes to shove, you want to have the mana to have nova, fireball, rain, and Deep freeze all at your finger tips.  The difference between having and not having these is much bigger than a little extra gold from a lane.

I generally start confrontations in Fire, to lead with a fireball, and then switch to frost to persue or interrupt (Both deep freeze and nova work here). Get a good feeling for when to switch back to firemode to drop another ball.

Notice that most of my gear is HP based.  TB dishes out a lot of damage, and is one of the few DG's who well and truly ignores armor. The amount of attack damage you do in a game is pretty small, because you don't 'just attack' too often.

Keep an eye out for teammates.  Since you do a lot of burst damage, and have a strong control suite, teleporting in to finish someone, or getting behind them, can be clutch.

 

The one area I'm still trying to figure out, is in levels 11 through 15.  My natural inclination is to just get the last point in circle of frost, and then tech up deep freeze for the fireball buff.  Thing is though, that I often do not GET to level 15 in a game, and am basically wasting mana/points on getting more Deep freeze. 

 

Has anyone had any success with the auras?  I'm not even sure what numbers they post, but a little Area slow (Ice is your persuit form, I can't imagine changing to fire until I'm ready to Ball) sounds nice.

1,555 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Never forget TB's AA is 204-226 at lvl 1 with switching to Ice mode. So the armor comment means a lot :D

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

 I assume that your "Circle of Frost" = "Rain of Ice". ;)

I actually use the auto-attack quite a bit. I get Rain of Ice as first skill, faster farming trumps more single damage, imo, especially early on, and is usually sufficient enough to push most enemy DGs out of lane. Fireball as my second skill, and Permafrost as a third skill. Mana is only an issue in the very beginning.

Permafrost is a must for survival and as well as chasing down someone for that final kill, especially with auto-attack. I usually max it out by the end.

I typically don't use Deep Freeze except just 1 point in it for interrupts. I find the extra damage in the combined Fire and Ice skill is not worth it by the time you get to it. I'd much rather put those points in Permafrost, Frost/Fire Nova.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

For the record, Rain of Ice SUCKS until 4. The damage isnt worth casting for the mana unless your just trying to attrition down a DG. 

I would never cast this on creeps until 4 unless you have a good reason.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

well, keep in mind that even if raIN Of Ice dOesNt KILL tHeM, It caN stILL tag tHeM sO tHat YOU get tHe exPerIeNce.

(excuse the odd capitalization, trying out a new typing script that lets me use just my left hand to type all my keys.)

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

You can tag them with Autoattack for no mana.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Teseer, reply 5
You can tag them with Autoattack for no mana.
End of Teseer's quote

That takes more time. And Rain of Ice kills creeps on standard settings instantly at rank 2, unless your opponents have been upgrading their creep health.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

It takes a lot of mana. But like I said, its fine to use it, but be aware of how your going to need your mana. Don't just see a creep wave and throw it down.

Just don't use it until 4 unless you see a good reason to. Most of the time, Autoattack is the better option, but there are times to do it too :D

Edit: And yeah, rank 2 does kill them, but that's level for like I said.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

level 2 Rain of Ice instant clears a basic creep wave. seems fine to me if your mana situation is decent. 

 

if you're tight on mana i'd save it for putting the debuff on some DG's (and their minions) but other than that, why not farm faster? 

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

Again, lvl 1 RoI is the spell im refering too, when you hit lvl 4, go crazy.

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Teseer, reply 9
Again, lvl 1 RoI is the spell im refering too, when you hit lvl 4, go crazy.
End of Teseer's quote

Ah, you mean RoI 2.

It's confusing: The RoI you get at level 4 and RoI level 4 are two entirely different things.

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

If you play with high hp grunts RoF is fantastic as a pure tag. You can tag the mobs and then run and cap a flag and get back before the next wave. Not only do you get more xp but if your enemy wants that flag back he'll likely get less xp then normal.

 

So no, it's really not garbage. Unless you play with normal creeps, and I consider that newb mode.

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Milskidasith, reply 10

Quoting Teseer, reply 9Again, lvl 1 RoI is the spell im refering too, when you hit lvl 4, go crazy.

Ah, you mean RoI 2.

It's confusing: The RoI you get at level 4 and RoI level 4 are two entirely different things.
End of Milskidasith's quote

Yeah, I was kinda switching between using rank and lvl, lol. Oops.

Reply #13 from Demigod Forums Top

If you play with high hp grunts RoF is fantastic as a pure tag. You can tag the mobs and then run and cap a flag and get back before the next wave. Not only do you get more xp but if your enemy wants that flag back he'll likely get less xp then normal.

End of quote

Wait, I'm confused. You don't get any extra EXP by tagging creeps; it just nets you the gold (line of sight gets you EXP).

So no, it's really not garbage. Unless you play with normal creeps, and I consider that newb mode.
End of quote

Why are default settings newb mode, exactly?