How to Clan Hunt: Manticore
by Kadavu FC and VEC clp3333
Clan hunting is a new game mode in AOW that offers a great opportunity for clans to work together for a common goal and high level rewards.
How it Works:
Clans have seven days to complete their clan hunting challenges and accumulate damage against the Clan Hunting boss, which is currently the Manticore. Each player gets one challenge a day. You can back out if you’re not doing well (quit before your last troop dies), but once the challenge is complete, your score is locked in for that day. Demo fights are also available for 10 gems each and don’t count as your one challenge. Rewards are given for reaching 10m, 30m, 100m, 200m, and 500m damage. You can get 500 medals and 380 gems by clearing all the rewards.
Manticore Skills:
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Needle rain
A Scholar born will die before the sin
The Manticore has three skills and a seasonal buff. The season buff varies, but can decrease damage or increase critical rate. It’s always good to check at the beginning of each Manticore season. The most destructive skill the Manticore has is Poison Needle Rain. When the Manticore goes up, damage comes down. This skill is most responsible for taking out enemy troops. The Roar attack stuns the battlefield and delivers damage that increases throughout the season. The Tail attack creates a poison fog that reduces the attack power of enemy units.
How to Fight the Manticore:
There are 3 distinct areas to deal with when creating a formation for the Manticore:
#1 The Front which will all be right up against the manticore, this is where all the melee units will go regardless of where you put them in your formation
#2 The Middle, this is where the peltasts will go, generally speaking regardless of where you put them, unless you put them towards the front, then some will be closer to the manticore.
#3 The Rear, this is where your ranged will stay if you put them at the back, if you position them anywhere else in your formation they will stay where you put them, so you can have ranged sitting up near the manticore.
Generally speaking, ranged troops should not be placed anywhere else but in the last two to 3 rows of your formation. Putting them anywhere else is bad for business, same with peltasts. They should sit on the sides of your formation (they will make a straight line and come to the middle regardless), but they should not be placed in the front of the formation.
There are two ways one can fight the manticore:
#1, Go for all out damage and expect it to be over pretty quick with little to no troops surviving until the timer runs out. In this case simply put the biggest damagers you have in your formation and let it play out. The biggest damagers are generally Voodoo dolls, Undead Warriors, Shadow Ninjas, Taurus Witchers, Peltasts, Frost Archers, Ghost Assassins, Undead Soldiers, and Orc Hunters. Mix in a few troops such as Pilgrims and Brawlers to keep these troops alive a bit longer. Positioning higher damagers along the edges (columns 1 and 7) of your formation can make them escape the poison rain for a bit longer.
#2, Play the long game until the timer runs out. This is the best way to get the most damage and it involves being creative with your formation and making use of the evade button.
The main skill of the manticore that is going to wipe out your troops is the poison rain skill, this is where you see a rain of green wiping out huge chunks of your army. Your formation must be built around mitigating this for as long as possible.
This poison rain skill will ALWAYS target the highest concentration of troops, so it becomes about ratios and going back to the ‘Middle, Front and Rear’ sections I mentioned previously. The first poison rain will generally not kill any of your troops if they are at level 8 or higher. After the first poison rain, ideally you want the second poison rain to hit only the front section of your army (The Front) and avoid hitting both The Front and The Middle, which will then wipe out the middle Peltasts as well. In order to achieve this, the number of troops in The Front must be at least 2x greater than the number of Peltasts you have (The Middle) and remember this is after that front has been taking a beating from the other skills of the Manticore. The best way to achieve this is to use Necromancers and position them in The Rear. They will create 4 skeletons each, which will then join The Front. If you have managed to get two poison rains to hit only The Front, you are halfway there to getting a better score. By the time the third poison rain rolls around, generally speaking, all your voodoo dolls will be dead thus decreasing the number of troops you have in The Front, if you can get the third poison rain to also miss The Middle (your Peltasts) you are onto a winner. If, however, it hits both The Front and The Middle, maybe that’s where your level of troops is at. At higher levels you can get 4 poison rains to hit The Front before it starts targeting either The Middle or The Rear. Once you see the poison rain has eventually taken out your middle peltasts, or at least it without question looks like the next one will, this is when you need to start hitting the evade button to keep The Rear and some side Peltasts from The Middle alive until the timer runs out, no matter what you do, the centrally located Peltasts cannot be saved. This then becomes about timing.
At the point after the poison rain finally takes out either your middle Peltasts, or it looks like The Front’s number of troops is barely anything, you are going to want to hit the evade button and you must time it right. You must hit it just before the Poison rain skill hits, I would say at 12:02 O’Clock. This should save The Rear from the poison rain and also the Peltasts on the sides, any middle ones will be killed, as I mentioned previously. As long as you have Necromancers in The Rear and they are spawning Skeletons, you can keep your Rear troops alive until the timer runs out, but it becomes a game of timing.
As long as you figure out the ratios in The Rear, The Middle and The Front, you can predict what the poison rain will do and where it will strike and at what point you need to start evading. Having too many peltasts or too many ranged means you will mess with the ratios and the rain will hit The Rear before you want it too.
Now the formula that I personally have found works the best for me and the troops I have at my disposal is: 6 Peltasts, 4 Necromancers, 6 Ranged, 33 Melee. This formula gets me 4 poison rains all hitting The Front before it starts targeting elsewhere. The reason my Melee is higher is because I have a lot of voodoo dolls which will die quickly thus decreasing the number of troops in The Front. More tankier troops can mean you can place more ranged in your form. But generally speaking, position your ranged and Necromancers in the last two rows, the Peltasts on the sides but not in row one, two or three. Everything else should be melee.
Troops to avoid: Single load ranged (except Necromancers), Single load Melee (one Pumpkin Guard can help keep troops alive a bit longer). Nuns (Nuns do not work very well, as they do no damage, don’t generally heal much and create imbalances in The Front, The Middle and The Rear. Ideally you want as many 9 load troops in your form as possible.
Troops to use: Brawlers and Pilgrims are essential to keep your melee alive, Paladins can also be somewhat helpful, but not by much. Undead Warriors and Voodoos are your biggest hitters but conversely usually the first to die. . Undead soldiers can work very well keeping The Front stacked with troops as they will revive once. Next up would be Ghost Assassins and Orc Hunters I wouldn’t recommend Harbingers or Magic Apprentices unless you have no other options or your Harbingers are level 9 and above. But generally speaking you want to use only 9 load melee for your front section with one pumpkin guard. Then you want to use either Taurus Witchers or Frost Archers as your ranged, if you don’t have enough of these, use Common Archers, but again, keep it 9 load while also sprinkling in the Necromancers.
Heroes
Aly is not to be used against the Manticore, her bomb deals no damage whatsoever and she does not boost your troops, so using her is pointless.
The top hero to use against the Manticore is Jinn, even as low as level 6–7 he can out perform a lot of other heroes. Other options are Drake, Davison, Seondeok, Dracula or Hohenheim. The best positioning of your hero depends on whether it is a melee hero or a stationary one. Ideally you put a melee hero on either side, and a stationary hero such as Seon or Dracula at the back where they can stay alive longer assuming you are following the second way of fighting the Manticore.
There you have it. Now, you’re ready to take one the Scorpion Lion Bat Thing. Make sure you’re in an active clan that takes full advantage of this event every week and share forms as the seasonal buffs change.
The most important part of this new mode is having a team working on it together. Need a good clan family? Vector has a clan to meet you at your level. Check out this link to join our discord: https://discord.gg/CZ6sSCsH95
