Mint Announcement Batch 10 — Roar Skills Explained!

This article is part of a series, second part of three. Part 1 can be found here, part 3 will be published on 11.09.

Now it’s time to explain how roar skills work, how they create anticipation, why they play such a big role in creating pre-combat and how skillful players can make the best out of their roars!

ROAR SKILLS
At the beginning of combat, before anything else happens, all units on both teams activate their roar skill, buffing friendly units. Think of this as the pre-combat setup phase where both players reveal a bit of their strategy to each other. Your enemy is buffing Physical Power on those three units? Well those are most likely damage dealers. Your enemy is buffing Armor on those two units? Defensive units, damage soakers. This roar Phase allows players and spectators alike to have a sense of what will happen in the combat round, it gives everyone the ability to anticipate combat and because viewers can anticipate combat major events that change the course of combat are more impactful. The roars are an important part of what makes watching Chapter 1 as an eSport an exciting experience!

The factors that determine a unit’s roar ability are as follows:
-When the unit is created (minted or hatched) the direction of its roar is decided randomly. There are only four directions used for combat in Chapter 1 (we don’t use diagonal directions), above, below, in front, behind.

-All units buff themselves when they roar, but they also buff friendly units. This is called the range of the roar and it is determined by the unit’s type. Minions buff 1 extra tile in the direction of their roar. Descendant dragons buff 2 extra tiles and Genesis dragons buff 3 extra tiles.

-The above two factors determine the shape of the unit’s roar but the unit’s class determines what the roar can actually do, its content. Class roars can contain one of two effects.

ASSASSIN ROARS
Flurry
- When this unit attacks an enemy, the first strike of the skill is repeated. This consumes Flurry.
Stealth
- This unit can not be targeted by enemies. Sustaining unblocked damage removes Stealth.

DRUID ROARS
Harmony
- At the end of this unit’s turn, decrease the cooldown of its cooldown skill by 1.
- Chaotic effects never change targets.
Absolute Unit
- Significantly raises the Max HP of the unit.
- If the unit is at full health when this is placed, heal the unit to its full health.

FIGHTER ROARS
Invincible
- When a debuff would be placed on this unit, instead decrease the duration of Invincible.
Revenge
- After a unit with Revenge is attacked, it counter-attacks its attacker back using its default skill.

GUARDIAN ROARS
Dragon Shield
- When this unit is next struck, prevent all damage from the strike.
Elemental Mastery
- Significantly increases the target’s Elemental Power.

HUNTER ROARS
Pack Attack
- When this unit attacks, there is a chance it will cause an adjacent friendly unit to use its default skill to attack the same target.
Target Backmost
- The next skill the unit uses that targets an enemy, targets a random backmost enemy.

MAGE ROARS
Reactive Scales
- After this unit is struck it gains Block. Block gain is based on the unit’s Armor.
Destiny!
- Heals the unit at the start of its turn.
- Heal is 5% of the unit’s Max HP for each duration on Destiny!
- Each duration of Destiny! cancels out a duration of Doom! and vice versa.

SLAYER ROARS
Brutality
- Units with Brutality have a 50% chance to deal 100% more damage.
Combat Mastery
- Significantly increases the target’s Physical Power.

TANKER ROARS
Battle Hardened Scales
- Block is not lost at the start of this unit’s turn.
Defensive Stance
- Significantly increases the unit’s Armor.

WARLOCK ROARS
Spell Mastery
- Significantly increases the unit’s Spellcasting.
Doom!
- At the end of this unit’s turn, it loses HP equal to 5% of its Max HP for each duration on Doom!
- Loss of life can not be blocked by Armor.
- On application, each duration of Doom! cancels out a duration of Destiny! and vice versa.

Now wait a minute! Doom! isn’t a buff! It’s a debuff!

Yes it is. The Warlock is the only class which has a roar that applies a debuff! This reflects the Warlock’s punitive and dark nature. When Warlocks roar with Doom! they apply it to 2, 3 or 4 random enemies depending on the Warlock’s unit type (Minion, Descendant and Genesis types respectively).

An important thing to keep in mind is that buffs (and debuffs) applied by roars are the same buffs and debuffs that units can apply individually and stack just like any other buff or debuff. It is therefore up to you how you build upon your roars. You can consider them as something solely for the first round, either to negate your enemy’s first attacks or debuffs or to set up a massive first round attack after which your team settles into its own groove. Or you might intend to stack up on your roar buffs (or debuffs) by having units on your team individually apply the same buffs (or debuffs). The choice is up to you and as you can imagine, unit placement plays a key role.

And that’s it for roars! See you in part 3!

You are now allowed to copy the following line:

*\*flexes\** I am **Dragoneer**, I am buff!

… into our Discord’s #general_chat channel.

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Eternal Dragons