Breakers - The Ultimate Snipers

Revelade

BattleForums Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
432
Reaction score
0
Location
Glendale, California
Website
Visit site
Today was a good day for me using... BREAKERS! Yes, we are all used to seeing the same old casters and rifles, but breakers are truly something.

They move FAST, so you can respond to attacks better. Secondly, they pack a LOT of health (600 with 3 armor = 708 hp). Thirdly, they are magic immune so you don't have to worry about area of effect attacks and finally...

FEEDBACK! Yes, this attack is not ONLY good at raping mana units, but it also STRIPS their mana as well. The feedback damage is also 20, which means 20 mana stripped, 20 extra damage added. Yes, it's even better than the demon hunter's mana burn. Why? Well, it's a FREE attack, mana burn is a hero spell, which makes it so limited.

Feedback also works amazing on heroes. Sure, it only does 4 damage and 4 mana removal, but it really helps against killer hero spells.

So again here are the stats:

- fast move speed
- lots of health
- feedback

With that in mind, you want to AVOID melee. Instead, take a pack of footmen and use them to soak the damage. In the mean time, get your breakers and hunt their heroes, casters, statues or whatever!

I love using them period. I say riddance to my slow potato footmen and riflemen and now I can hunt down harassers. Their speed is fast enough to trap heroes and kill them very fast. Feedback makes their spells extremely limited.

Now they have a upgrade called control summon or something. Frankly, I've never used it. Well, you can control summons, but the catch is that the cost is HALF of the summons HP. That means with a limited mana pool of 250, you can't get summons with more than 500 hp, which at tier 2 is common. So I say skip it.

Other potential weaknesses of the breaker are that they do fairly little damage if the target has no mana. Even footmen do more damage per food than breakers. Also, breakers are easily smashed if they have melee units, so I suggest not to use them against orc. Finally, they lack an air attack, so they can't counter destroyers, although to be fair, roys can't hit them either.

So here's when you want to use breakers:

1. Undead
Deathknight is breaker food. Mana is painfully slow for the UD race. Statues you say? Breakers tear them up with FEEDBACK! When you see an army of statues, attack-move and laugh. The only problems you'll have is if they switch to ghouls, at which your footmen can easily tank for.

2. Human
Archmage is full of mana, which means go for it! If that's not juicy enough, there's plenty of casters to be expected. Riflemen? Breakers have the advantage through both their attack and armor type. Again, use footmen to tank if needed.

3. Elf
Eh, no. The popular huntresses will eat breakers up. You should always stick to rifles here. DON'T use breakers against bears. They will do far more damage than feedback can ever counter.

4. Orc
Chances are, you'll see lots of grunts. You need foots to tank and at tier 2, either go casters or air. I say go air. Bats? You go shackles. Headhunters? Breakers finally come to play here.

Breakers
UD - (must)yes
HU - yes
Elf - (definitely)no
Orc - probably not

So, try breakers out. They are fast, sturdy and immune to magic and have a miniature manaburn.
 

Drkpsycho13666

Member!
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Now that you put it, Breakers seem valuabe with an army, though i use knights with sorcs, shall i add breakers or substitute sorcs?
 

Revelade

BattleForums Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
432
Reaction score
0
Location
Glendale, California
Website
Visit site
Well it depends on the matchup. I only play random 2v2, but I choose to base my build to counter the stronger of their players.

To counter undead, it's very easy. Get 8 or so breakers, run past the fiends, surround the DK or Lich and if you are successful you can force a TP. Although you might think that footmen with defend are good against fiends, they move PAINFULLY slow and are vulnerable to spells. Defend only reduces 30%, when breaker armor reduces 25% piercing, yet they retain their fast speed. So undead, go breakers and hit tier 2 hard. Hunt heroes down if possible and the combination of feedback and having no mana will screw them badly. Then target statues not only to do massive damage, but even if you don't kill them, a stat with no mana is useless.

Human is tricky. The mage is the obvious target here. But if they have footmen of their own, you have to make them target your footmen. Send footmen first, run breakers through the front lines, surround their heroes and you'll have the advantage.

Elf, don't bother.

You might be better off with sorcs against orc, but feedback is extremely useful versus orc heroes. You can stop them from using windwalk, shockwave, wolves, chain lightning, hex, etc.

It works extremely well against UD. All the UD players could never hold their front lines since breakers are so deadly to their heroes. The only unit that can counter breakers is ghouls, but that's why you got footmen.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
You can still use Breakers to transfer the Faerie Fire over to thier own forces. But you are better off using Knights if you need melee vs them.
 

Revelade

BattleForums Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
432
Reaction score
0
Location
Glendale, California
Website
Visit site
Yep, that's very true.

I just find people tend to go bears more often than not and they completely massacre breakers with their huge attacks.

And hunts with their normal damage also do bonus damage to breakers as well - and it's splash.

But I suggest for everyone to try it out as they are great units.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Yeah, but if you got rifle or hawk backup... then whats the point of keeping hunts except for giving the human 60 experience?

But yeah, Breakers can be a threatening anti-caster. The medium armor can also help them take on ranged units.
 

InMemory

New Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
umm spell steal?

WOW..you guys must be 50% players...well maybe not, but they missed key information. - they didnt mention the spell steal ability? ***almost everygood orc player in a 3v3 2v2 4v4 match will get bloodlust. everyone these days think dryads and priests are the best for it. BREAKERS. 4 breakers can take everysingle bloodlust from the enemies armies. and give it to their own guys or allies. they turn the tide of battle. if you see Orcs with shamans. breakers will own them. but ofcourse you need a teamate with melee or anything tier 2-3 to own them***
secondly. breakers are useful against all Races. If you see a bad guy with casters. frankly. time to get breakers. they're simply the best anti magic unit in my opinion.
3 reasons why better then dryads and priests
#1- abolish magic only works on single unit.
#2- dispel isn't autocast
#3- they can take a beating unlike preists or dryads.

now dont get massings breakers. the key to winning with humans is a balanced army of melee range and casters. probly the hardest race for me to play as. BREAKERS are only needed as anti magic. make sure you scout and find out what the other teams getting. thats the key
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Yeah but consider this. There will be more than 1 shaman. Spell steal costs 75mana to switch the buffs to another person, Shaman uses 35 mana on bloodlust per cast.
 

Emperor Pan I

Respected Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Messages
12,653
Reaction score
12
Location
Canada
I think breakers are second best anti-casters. Definately destroyers are the best.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
And definitly the hardest to take down. In my opinion at least. Can't live without them vs orc.
 

InMemory

New Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
yah i destroyers are quite good. it all depends on your preferance. Yes the Shamans need less mana, but you have to be good enough to micro well to kill the shamans quick. in the heat of a large battle. that usally isn't to difficult. overall humans and NE are the best anti casters. Undead is destroyers. but you cant get destroyers at tier 2 i believe? and Orc. well if they get casters..get them too
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Well, that is where things like air can be quite useful. Especially when your night elf because you can use Hippo Riders to snipe the Shaman or just use Faerie Dragons to give them a double edged sword to worry about. Or Siege weapons! Ever seen Frag Shard Morts on Shaman? truly quite nasty.

You need Spirit Walkers if you are going Orc anticasting. Especially in FFA with human, who have a heavier reliance on casters than the other races.
 

Revelade

BattleForums Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
432
Reaction score
0
Location
Glendale, California
Website
Visit site
Yeah but consider this. There will be more than 1 shaman. Spell steal costs 75mana to switch the buffs to another person, Shaman uses 35 mana on bloodlust per cast.
Absolutely true.

If you see horrendous amounts of lust, breakers are NOT the answer.

Breakers only have a pool of 250 mana and 75 mana only steals one buff. But shamans have a pool of 400 mana and 75 mana gets them TWO lusts. That doesn't work.

Mass buffs? Go for the dispells. Wisps, spirit walkers, destroyers or priests are what I'm talking about.

Anyway, so if I say DON'T rely on breakers for mass casters, then why should you use them?

Again, look at their SPEED and FEEDBACK. The combination of these two makes it obvious that you can get into enemy lines, surround the hero and go for the kill. Even if you don't kill the hero, you've stripped their mana, therefore stopping potential coils, novas, or things that wreak havoc on your army.

But beware as breaker armor ironically breaks up when facing melee. Breakers will fall to common melee damage units like hunts, grunts, footmen or ghouls. It only gets worse against tier 3 melee.

So to answer the question, breakers or knights. Knights are definitely good against ranged and melee units. But breakers have secret bonuses as well. They strip mana so they are better at killing heroes and casters. They are immune to magic, so you can walk into an army of destroyers and you can't be touched. To sum it up, Knights are better when facing simple enemies, while breakers are better in fancy situations.

Knights > ranged, melee
Breakers > hero, casters, air

(not saying that breakers can attack air, but breakers are immune to heavy air like chims, and their armor type reduces damage from piercing air)
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Revelade said:
Anyway, so if I say DON'T rely on breakers for mass casters, then why should you use them?
Only two exceptions: Cripple necs or Polymorph sorcs. That is when you trade the buff to the enemy. It was will damage them 3 ways.

1) Renders one of thier unit's useless
2) The caster will lose a large chunk of mana
3) A unit will have to blow more mana to remove it, otherwise the unit just isnt a unit.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Cripple and Polymorph have to be done manually.
 

brightlight

Member!
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
Location
canada
The thing is footmen doesn't counter ghoul frenzy. In theory works very well, but as every good undead player does is timing. Hitting hu at the weakest period. If arcane sanctrum goes up, and breakers are pumped, tier 3 is delayed. Meaning lateworkshop or worst cast scenario late tier 3.

4 Destroyers, ghouls, lich and dk > am, mk and pl, 6 breakers, footmen, and w/e anti air. (hopefully pala is out)
When ud hits, u won't have eneough antiairs to fight against the ud. Unless the ud is going fiend build this strat will not work if ud executes fast destroyer tech properly. People these days who go fiend builds, often is b/c they can't micro ghouls.. then overall is a poor ud user. If one cannot control most basic simple unit, how can they manage to pull of ridiculous timings and micro.

btw, no one uses rifle and casters anymore... that stopped like 2 yrs ago...

One thing i found out the hard way. Dragonhawk riders dont counter mass bats. It is really impossible to shakle 6-7 bats running. First i thought i wasn't doing it fast eneough.. but after i saw sky's rep..

You got it wrong.. You need breakers vs bears. Saying that they will do more dmg.. is saying ud to not go fiend build vs orc, b/c grunt does more dmg vs fiends. This is test of micro for hu. With 185+apm and good micro hu can win this fight. The point here is to stop bears from rejuvenating, bear to eat up mana well more, and tank. That's right.. while mortars go for dryads, and sorc hit bears. While backing the breakers to be healed. *note fragment shard or w/e that upgrade is called must be up meaning this is tier 3 fight. Normally it will occur when ne hits your base to stop your expo. Later breakers -> knights. Without breakres there is noting you can tank with. Knights are tier 3, while bears are tier 2. Bears will surely outnumber knights.. maybe 1 or 2 knights are out when ne hits with like 5 bears. (animal war thingy is surely not upgraded... by this time) Footmen is a joke.. esp to dryad's slow, and if bears can walk straight up to mortars or start hitting your casters.. with dryad's help hu army is dead. Thats why breakers are used. Also use for tier 2 push. If ne masses huntress.. is pretty much a joke.. if massed tier 1, rifles -> we with mass summons tower push at tier 2. Game over. If mass at tier 2-3.. put bit of pressure on the ne, and stay in base. Once workshop is up and mortars are out.. huntress will explode in 2 seconds before they hit a single breaker.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
brightlight said:
You need breakers vs bears.
Its more of a support unit to the bear counters. But since thier mana gets fried per shot, they may not be able to turn back into a druid to allow the Rejuevination to fully heal them. Also, each attack does a piercing 24 damage if the attack does damage. Especially helpful when they got level 3 armor. Then agian, you could always use gryphons to kill bears more effectively.

Line up your shots though so the Storm Hammers hit more than 1 bear.
 

Revelade

BattleForums Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
432
Reaction score
0
Location
Glendale, California
Website
Visit site
@brightlight: Why would UD use destroyers if you aren't going casters? For a 5 food unit, 15 DPS is pathetic - it's only a little more than a footman. Second of all, UD fiends is still popular as ever. Think about it this way: A level 2 death coil heals 400 right? Well, if a ghoul has a max of 340 hp, you are losing 60 bonus healing. And even then, chances are it will have more HP than 1 when you heal it, further negating the health bonus. And finally, ghouls die fast. If UD techs, than that's better, you run to their base with breakers and hit.

Bats and hawks are a matter of micro. The fact is that hawks can take 1 suicide hit. So you have to run that and heal that up. So the best advice I can give is don't let them mass bats or outproduce them. If you can't avoid that, get some rifles then.

Going straight breakers versus bears just doesn't work in my book. Bears do amazing DPS, couple that with roar and multiply that times 150% means breakers fall very fast. You need to take advantage of the bear's weakness and that is that it has the lowest hp of all the tier 3 melee units. Gryphons do double damage to bears. So much that rejuvenation won't save a bear from focus firing gryphons. Knights aren't much better. Yes, bears do less damage to knights than breakers, but bears still have that roar advantage. You need to eliminate bears quicky and that's where gryphons come in. Yes you can mass druid bears at tier 2 and just upgrade the bear upgrade, but that's also why you can drop aviaries at tier 2 and mass gryphs at tier 3. Breakers are good, but without feedback, they do pathetic damage, like a 3 food footman.

So to sum it up, ghouls are useless with highlevels of coil. If they do switch to aboms, you might want to go with other options like knights or MAYBE gryphons. But against the popular fiend build, breakers destroy statues, can't be touched by destroyers, can't be nuked and are better than fiends.

If they mass bats then don't go air. But if you have the element of surprise, mass gryphons and RUSH their burrows BEFORE they can get bats going.

Against elf, rifles will be great against the common hunts and dryads. At tier 2, you should drop 2 aviaries and prepare for gryphons at tier 3. At battle time, FF bears with gryphons and take care of dryads with rifles.
 

ChrisH36

Guy with Most Posts on Quiet Board.
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
15,042
Reaction score
4
Location
Temple Prime, Sarajevo
Revelade said:
So to sum it up, ghouls are useless with highlevels of coil. If they do switch to aboms, you might want to go with other options like knights or MAYBE gryphons. But against the popular fiend build, breakers destroy statues, can't be touched by destroyers, can't be nuked and are better than fiends.
Not if you have ghoul frenzy equipped. A somewhat large army can easily swarm units and possibly take them out. But that would require amounts of support units to make it effecitve.

I know this because me and Pan used to do that, and we did win on attacks.
 
Top