Walrus's Guide to the Common Manbull

Introduction
So, you have chosen tauren. Congratulations! You are now the owner of a fuzzy cow and a target for this guide. Take a moment to appreciate your new builder as the furry beast that he is.

A. A cup of magic boiling water that never spills. Used to burn/douse the titan with.
B. Poor posture.
C. Axe used for hitting magic trees with.
D. Technicolor dream scarf.
E. Horns, not ears.
Mooving (haha) on.

In the Beginning
A tauren is standing at the gold mound, confused and alone. But then, a commanding voice comes from the heavens. Your voice. But he won?t listen. Click him and press Ctrl + 1. Now he?ll listen whenever you press 1. Demand that your tauren goes to the bottom left of the gold mound, the closest corner to the gold. That?s right, don?t make a lumber base. Lumber bases take up time and feed the titan. Walling the gold mound saves a satyr and generally spreads good feelings among the builders. Remember: if the titan is good, don?t wall up to where he can see it. Good titans know that unupgraded walls are feed. Also, hit your shelter twice so it?s easier to deny if you?re discovered by the titan. So, you should have a shelter with 1/3 hp, some walls, and a worker. Your builder will be chopping. Spam e (return resources) to harvest faster. For some reason, this will make your builder harvest about 20% faster.

Sating Your Greed
You?re a golder. Each gold gives you two experience, so 100 gold gives you your first level. In this way, the more gold you get, the more gold you can get. This is why we start out next to the gold mound. At the start, gold mining is easy. You have 4 fortified armor, so it takes quite a few hits to kill you. This means that if you?re on your own host or have good reactions, you can mine gold even when you don?t know where the titan is. If you die while golding when the titan?s level two, then you don?t have good enough reactions. Just have your finger over g (charge) and your mouse over safety. Some common trix that a titan will play on you while you?re golding and how to counter them:
Teleport: If you?re by yourself, run away. If there are other builders, keep mining. The titan will go for someone else. And if he doesn?t, then he?s probably nub and won?t know to nuke you. A nuke is a ranged spell used by the titan that deals damage. You can tell when the titan is teleporting by the blue magic stuff over the gold mound.
Wind Walk: There are several solutions to this problem.
You could wall up the entire gold mound, but this tends to make feed.
You could hope that your reactions are good enough to get away with charge, but hopes don?t always come true.
You could beg several demonologists to use sacrifice in shifts, but they usually don?t listen.
You could watch the titan carefully and run away when he possibly could get to the mound in wind walk, but this gets you less gold.
You could buy Tomes of Health to buy more time.
Or, you could share control with another player, then summon a speed turtle and stalk the titan with it. The other player would run you back if he teleported, and the speed turtle would see if he went wind walk. But the titan could nuke the turtle.
A combination of all of these works the best.
Wand of Wind + Webbed Feet:
Watch store item cooldowns to see when he buys these. Always keep a good distance away from the titan, especially if your charge is on cooldown or you?re low on hp.
Teleport and Spam Pause:
Spam pause at him for revenge when he?s trying to run away from a base. (F10, m, m, m, m, m, m)
Others:
Always keep a close eye on the titan when he?s killing walls near you. And don?t listen at all to what the titan is saying.

A Fate Worse than Death
So, you have died. If the titan is good and the game is more than just a hide and seek, stay. You might learn something. This doesn?t mean that the titan is your enemy and hates you. This doesn?t mean that the titan map hacks.

Lumber Basing
Ah, that sad time when a builder dies. Whether you have gold or not, this is the time to make a lumber base. The best spot for a lumber base is at the top of the map, to the right of the horrible base. This is because the titan will rarely pearl there. It isn?t near any bases or lumber bases, so he usually won?t find it unless he walks past. Here?s a screenshot of a model lumber base.

Note that everything is at around 1hp, or at least at 1 hit from the fruit trees. You get your shtuff to be like that by hitting it twice with your builder and then attacking it with your fruit trees for a little bit. It takes some timing to get it right. Although this lumber base has 5 shelters, it gives minimal feed. To deny the lumber base, do this:
Select the fruit trees.
Hold down shift.
Press A or Attack while still holding shift.
Click the buildings in this order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. It?s complicated, I know.
Select a bunch of harvesters.
Hit d (detonate), click somewhere near, d click, d click, d, click, d, click, and so on until they?re all dead.
By doing this, the titan will only get gold and experience from your walls. Feel free to call him ?NOOB!? or to say ?Pwnt, denied!? at this point. Because this gives no food, you can rebuild this as many times as you want.
If your lumber base keeps on getting killed, you might want to try lumber basing in shelter spots. Shelter spots are two by two areas in trees large enough for a shelter and some workers to fit into without the titan attacking them. Make sure that if the titan has a history of nuking, you detonate your workers when he walks by. Otherwise, you're feeding him all the workers in a lumber base, and many shelters if he gets mini-minis(minions' summons). A map of all of the shelter spots:

Killing that Minion
Killing minions is very important for taurens. They give him experience, and they open up the gold mound for even more experience. Hopefully, the minion's just level 2. That means that they probably have a level one nuke and wind walk. Now, either the minion is holding position next to the gold mound or he isn't. Hold position is an ability the minions have to stay still, even if they are being hit by towers and such. If he is, then go ahead and mine some gold. If not, then you need to lure him into an incomplete set of walls with a speed turtle. That means you have two walls in a row, but one wall missing that the minion can walk into. Just fill the gap when the minion walks in. He will be surrounded by walls. Remember throughout this that you have a ranged attack. If the minion is standing right next to the wall that he's attacking, you can hit him and he can't hit you. Get him low on health and use Charge to increase your attack speed. He should die. If you ever get below 131 health on a level 2 minion, or 156 on a level 3, get far away. The minion can nuke you to death. Note that it is very hard to kill a minion without any help whatsoever, especially if the titan pays the slightest bit of attention to it. And if the titan comes, get out unless the minion is just a few hits before death. It's very hard to kill a minion when the titan is trying to save it.

Evasive Techniques
Well, there?s a minion camping, but you can?t kill it. There aren?t any bases to defend. You made a lumber base, but what?s to do there? So, you?ve decided to stand in the open. But then, you?re surrounded by a titan and a minion. You?ll learn to juke him out and escape here.
Chokepoint wall: There are many spaces on the map where a wall or two will block out the titan. These are called chokepoints. If you?re being chased by the titan, start building a shelter or a wall in one of these places. Then, without finishing it, continue walking. The titan will then start taking the shortest path to get to you, which at the moment, would be away.
Anti-nuke: If you stand behind a tree or a tall building, it will be very hard for the titan to click on you with a nuke.
Line of Sight: Trees block the titan?s line of sight. That means that if you walk behind a tree, he won?t be able to see you. If a titan?s coming toward you, you can hide behind a tree while he walks by.
Hiding spots: Try to remember where all the hiding spots are. These are places where the builder can walk but the titan can?t. They can be very helpful in tight situations. If you?re up against a good titan, though, never walk into a hiding spot with one exit. The titan will block it, and since you can?t walk through him, you?re stuck while he nukes you to death.
Hopping: Have you ever wondered what happens when you build something on top of yourself? Well, you hop out to the side of it. But what if you hop out when there?s a tree wall? You just might go through it.

Remember: If the titan gets two wand of winds, you're an easy kill. Charge may seem like the perfect escape skill, but if you get wanded twice, there is nothing you can do. Watch the store cooldowns and the items that the titan picks up to be sure that you will not die.

Base Support
Finally, a builder made a base. This is when you can support him. Believe it or not, your builder has a slightly ranged attack. This means that if the titan is attacking, you can attack him back. If there are minions within nuke range of you, keep back. Your 4 fortified armor doesn?t reduce spell damage. If the titan is ever low on health, turn on charge and wall him in. Then, of course, attack him. Just make sure that you don?t get nuked to death by nearby minions.
Ah, the titan managed to get away. Now you?re stuck with some walls that need to be rebuilt and a titan that just might be wind walk-camping the walls. Against newb titans, there is an easy way to rebuild. Hold down shift, hit b(builder) and w(wall), build a wall, and then click for a retreat. If the titan is camping in wind walk, you will hear ?Can?t build there? and then your builder will automatically, immediately retreat. If otherwise, you?ll build the wall and then retreat. The titan won?t be able to get a hit off of you.
However, good titans use healing wards to block your retreat. Because that way is blocked, your builder will walk all the way around the titan and up the other side of walls just to get to where you sent him to. The obvious answer is to kill the ward, giving the titan valuable time to launch a few hits on you. If you use charge, though, you might be fine. For this reason, rebuilding with a good titan can be very hard.

A Fortress from Hooves
Ah, a tauren basing. One of the most confused aspects of Island Defense. At the gold penalty, it is time to choose where to base. Red = lumber base. Black = good base spot with enough room for your towers. White = double base spot. These spots have arms that are good spots for other builders to tower with their two by two towers.

Although you have 4 by 4 towers, the inner arrow technique still applies, as you can see in these screenshots:

It?s important to build this as fast as possible. You don?t want to get caught with an unfinished base.

Surviving the Siege
Congratulations on your new base. Now, you need to know how to defend it. Once you get it set up, you need to group your towers. This is done by selecting all of them and pressing Ctrl + 2. Once you?ve done this, you can focus your towers. You see, many titans use their minions to tank. This means that around 2000 damage is wasted on the minions, instead of hitting the titan. The simple counter to this is to press 2 and then right click the main titan. Want 45g? Press two and right click a minion. It?s as simple as that.
Of course, grouping your towers has other advantages. When a titan attacks, you can press 2 and then hit s (stop) as fast as you can until he starts attacking your walls. This will cause your towers to attack the titan simultaneously. It will be harder to gauge when to retreat and will generally mess up the titan.

Your builder is the vulnerable point in a normal siege. Good titans will be ready to nuke you whenever they can. This means that you should never be in nuking range for a long period of time. Even when you rebuild, you need to keep a close eye on the titan and his minions. If you see them all charge forward, have your builder run as fast as he can backward and see if you can focus your towers on a minion. Nuke ranges vary from minion to minion and titan to titan, but they are usually longer than you thing. You even need to be careful about what other builders are doing. Most of the titans? nukes can bounce off of one builder and hit another. This means that you might be out of range, but another builder might pass the nukes on to you. The titan alone can kill you if you only have 300 health. If he buys an energy rod, he can nuke you without the help of minions.

If you spam 400 health workers at the titan, you can cause some serious damage. They?re small, so the titan has a hard time clicking on each one. Replace two empty places with shelters. Then, when the titan attacks, mass your upgraded workers at him. They will be both walls and trap him in. To prevent food, detonate your workers after you send them out. When I say "empty spaces", here's what I mean:

In a siege, the titan has the advantage. He gets gold from your walls and you slowly run out of lumber. The only way to cause some damage to him is to kill a minion or the titan. With a tauren, it's actually easy. Just run up in front of the titan, wall him in, and then use all of your merchant summons. He won't have time to teleport. If he uses wind walk, you have your gnoll tracker. And he can't walk out because he's walled in. All of this is aided by the fact that you're attacking him with the force of your upgrades.

Mech Tauren, Upgrade!

They?re just extra merchant summons.

It?s an anti-nuke. This dominates for 2.5 minutes, but make sure your base is set to survive for the next 3.5 minutes after. This also resets the cooldowns for your other moves.(Imba) Total 75g.

If you have tauren master and ancestral rage, this is your slow poison. Total 60g.

This is a definite get. +100 health means that you can?t be nuked and energy rodded to death. Attack range makes it easier to attack the titan while he?s attacking you. Total 80g.

Get this. If you attack an item, it causes aftershocks, too. This means that you can keep attacking a titan egg or bones and deal damage. Total 50g.

On average, this will deal an extra 50 damage per hit. For the price, it?s pretty useful. Total 10g.

This is a starter ability, but it?s still godlike.

The aura doesn?t really matter, but it comes with healing wards. For 5g, this is a good thing to get. Total 25g.

You really only need this if the titan is newb, although it works well with Earthquake. When the titan punishes off Earthquake, you can use this on him. He can't punish it off, thanks to the punish cooldown. Total 5g.

For the gold cost, it?s not worth it. You really only want this if you have between 20 and 44 gold after your other researches. You will only be getting this if you have a large amount of gold because it's best used on a super tower. Total 25g.

To clarify:
Island Defense is not a linear game. There are many if's and when's. Feel free to warp and morph my guide to what suits your abilities and the situation. Feel free to improvise. A rule of thumb to go by is:
Gold.
When a minion dies, make a lumber base.
Try to organize a group of builders to kill it.
If you kill it, go back to the start.
If not, then either support a base, hide, or wait and make a base.

Are you still here? Ah, good. Thank yourself for reading this. It's the first version and my Preview won't work, so tell me if I've horribly messed something up.

Credits to Murs: I might?ve gotten a strategy from him.
Kama: For the pictures and contest.
Everyone who made ID.
Anyone else I got strategies from.

	Author	Topic: Walrus's Guide to the Common Manbull (Read 2765 times)
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