TheRealJazz guide to grant (reposted)

[Murs]

 THEREALJAZZ'S GUIDE TO GRANITACLES, THE LEGENDARY TITAN OF STONE.



OVERVIEW

Granitacles is a BIG, NASTY stone giant. He is the toughest titan with the biggest Hitpoints. He is a very straightforward, base-basher of a titan. He has a wonderful builder killing ability as well. This guy is my favourite titan, although you probably shouldn't pick him when your facing an all pro team.(Courtesy, CID)



Sections
1.PROS AND CONS
2.SKILLS
3.SKILL BUILD
4.ITEM BUILD
5.HINTS AND TIPS
6.END NOTE



1.PROS AND CONS



PROS
Huge HP.
Powerful base seiging ability.
Superb Ultimate.
Heal that rocks at higher titan levels.
A nuke that stuns.
Excellent minions.


CONS
Nuke does not kill many workers.
Heal is easily countered.
Harder to gain the first few levels.
Impossible to level against 10 Pro players.

Some crap about the PROS and CONS.


A stun nuke nabs you builder kills. Noobs die to stun, beat beat. Decent players die to windwand, stun, beat beat. Better players... Well, use creativity.

Huge HP of this titan make base breaking relatively easy. For Granitacles, base=feed. Simple equation for this titan. Break a base, you gain 2 or 3 levels, easy.

The scaled ability of the heal, although its easily countered, means that it is the most powerful healing spell at titan level 14.

His ultimate is one of the more useful ones in the game, aside from Magnamide and Shadow walk. With Avatar and a healing stone, nature bases crumble under his blows.

Finally, his minions are the Ultimate base builder harrassers. Their nuke is mana efficient and requires no pearling to use. Also, their Rage ability gives a huge bonus to their hitpoints.



2.SKILLS



SandStorm: Hides the Titan for 60 seconds while enhancing his movement speed and allowing him to walk through other units (not structures). Useful for escaping human armies that box you in. Cooldown is 3 minutes. Beware... Gnoll Trackers can see invisible units.

This skill is useful for catching builders unawares, and for escape purposes BEFORE builders get a merchant. After they have merchants, use it with caution. Gnoll trackers can still bust your 100hp butt. It could also be used to chase down builders or hunters, due to the increased run speed.


Hurl Boulder
Level 1: Deals 50 damage and stuns for 1 second.
Level 2: Deals 75 damage and stuns for 1.5 Seconds.
Level 3: Deals 100 damage and stuns for 2 seconds.

Beautiful ability for catching builders. Combined with a wind wand, you could tag a builder thats almost half a screen away from you. Also, the 2 second stun would help you in killing foolhardy hunters. Windwalking builders? Windwalk and stand next to them. When stun hits, byebye builder.


Sentry Stone
Level 1, 2 and 3 : Summons and invisible and immovable stone that provides vision in an area. Can see invisible units. Lasts for 600seconds. Wonderful for giving vision of a base during a seige, or when you want to catch a builder windwalking out. Gnoll trackers would destroy this though. And if your using Abysmal waters, summoning this would get it destroyed.


Earth's Valor: When Earth's Valor is activated, it gives the Stone Titan 5 bonus armor, 1200 bonus hit points, 50 bonus damage and spell immunity. Lasts 60 seconds.

Ahh. The bread and butter of all Granitacles players. Game winner. With this bonus hit points, the regeneration rate of healing ward and healing stone is unmatched in gayness. (Edit, certain bases and players are gayer then this ability.)



3.SKILL BUILD



Level
  1     Stun
  2     Stun
  3     Stun (Stats if you already nabbed a builder kill)
  4     Stats
  5     Stats(WindWalk or Stun if you took stats at level 3)
  6     Windwalk
  7     Sentry stone
  8     Sentry stone
  9     Sentry stone
 13     AVATAR

Q. WHAT? NO WINDWALK AS A FIRST SKILL??!! NOOB!
A. Windwalk nabs you an unwary noob kill. What if your playing against pro players? A stun would help more then a windwalk in this case.(Edit. Against pro players, WW would be taken as a 4th skill. It could be useful.)

Q. Eh? Stats before windwalk or another stun? Why?
A. Stats are permanent. They help you in base seiging. Stun does only 100 damage. It does not kill builders, it does not break buildings. 50Hp and 2 damage and 2%IAS helps you break bases. It makes heal stronger, too.

Q. Sentry stone last?
A. Unless you plan to kill a running, windwalked builder, I suggest putting points into other things first.

Q. Why take AVATAR at 13?
A. ... Are you stupid?



4.ITEM BUILD



If you playing decent players, or pros, I suggest this build.

1. Webbed Feet (skip if you already killed a builder)
2. Abysmal Water.
3. Titanic Trident
4. Eternal Wards.
5. Titanic Trident
6. Titanic Trident


Webbed Feet help you catch builders on the run. If you find it easier to run
around the map with Webbed Feet, go ahead and buy it.

It might not be possible to fill up your inventory with Titanic Tridents, do your best.

Abysmal Water is the key item. With this, you could win through attrition, no other item would help you as much.

Against noobs, you could skip Abysmal Waters all together. Because Abysmal Waters dont help you kill fruit trees faster, Titanic Trident does.

Eternal Wards save you cash on seiging. Also, you could play "pass the wards" to get a lifetime supply of healing wards! All you need are minions! It also saves gold on wards.

Of course the Pearls are left on minions. Are you nuts?



5.HINTS AND TIPS



First and foremost, is the aim of this titan. Feed to level 13, get your ultimate. Don't try to go for the win fast. Why? 1. It is unentertaining for builders. 2. If you leave the strongest base for last, its going to be too big for you to break, with 9level 2 minions and a level 4 Titan. -cd on.

Moving on.

After you return, pick out your skills. Sell your ankl. 10 gold is really good at this time. With your cash, buy a Wind Wand. Check out the bases where people most likely hang out. You might want to hotkey your cage for easy use.

You would aim to get a 1st minion as soon as possible. If you do not, relax. Feed on the base you're bashing on so you get a level at least. A level 3 stun is great for catching builders.

If you catch a base early enough, there wouldnt be titan hunters around. Heal stone can be used to your heart's content. Heres a tip on where to plant the stone. Good for avoiding pesky builders who like to poke it.







Punish your first minion. If there are threats to your minions, IE, multiple natures or goblins or magnataurs, take a second minion. Otherwise, KILL NO OTHER BUILDER. Remember, for Granitacles, Base = Feed.

Every base is breakable. Look for the 3walled ones. Those are super easy. If the builder repairs the fortified walls, stun them and continue bashing away.

Always remember to wipe all the EXP from a broken base before you leave. No point wasting anything.

Wind walk should be taken at level 6, as by then, you should need an escape mechanism when seiging the bigger bases. After all, stats help seiging more then windwalk did.

Minions should be used to nuke harrass the builder's lumber supply. There are many bases where the workers are exposed to nukes. Use them often! 200 mana. Its the titan's very own lumberburn!

When seiging a base, remember that healstone works even though Abysmal Waters is triggered. So does the Healing Ward. This helps you break bases abit over your level. However, any ranged heros present would just target your stone or ward automatically. Beware.



End Note.

This Titan not as hard to play as everyone says. Try it out, sometimes direct base sieging gives gratification too. Breaking everything is sight feels rather liberating.

Thanks for spending time reading this guy. Comments, suggestions are all welcome.

Replay Attached, for what you should do when things seem bad for Granitacles.