Duke Ravengard | Ezmerelda | Tier List & Overview | Idle Champions

[@CleafKnowsVLOGS_nl]

Absolute Adversaries and Awful Ones are my favorites, like a combination of both.

[@freefoodftw]

Absolutely Awful?

[@tyredack]

Or the Awful Adversaries.

[@randomencounter8984]

It's also good idea to invest in Lae'zel feat "Hurry Up!", Since that feat just makes you fly (+add Dianna).

[@tyredack]

Absolutely agree!

[@retroboomer3197]

Sorry, what feat is "Hurry Up"? I'm looking at their feats now and not a single one is named "hurry up".

[@randomencounter8984]

@@retroboomer3197 you have to buy it for 50k gems. At least it's listed in the wiki so I don't know why it doesn't show up for you

[@retroboomer3197]

Thanks for the help. I must be blind or something. I didn't see it until you told me where to find it.

[@jefflokanata]

I am new player, first play was when steam free gave away Lae’zel 3 months ago , I spent my first 50k gem to Laezel’s feat, my rationale is: i want to read all story as fast as possible. No regret!

[@canadaball1984]

3 Views in 15 seconds You really fell off

[@tyredack]

It's all over.

[@Raxele]

CNE should seriously hire you.

[@tyredack]

I don't know about all that, but I appreciate the sentiment!

[@HewieSux]

another AA Human with no Human-Glitch-feat for DU.. * le sigh * my boi Eggbert is always part in my DU formation...just saying because you derpefi his name so much it makes me smile - I like it :D thanks yet again for your analysis .

[@tyredack]

Hopefully we get that Human Feat eventually!

[@zebio]

Poor Binwin. Maybe someday he'll get a nice rework... Though man I really wish the Aerois core would go for gems. It's the last one I want and I actually kind of like that team.

[@tyredack]

I would love Binwin to get a rework. Give me a proper Dwarven Berserker DPS!

[@ManiacClown]

@@tyredack I'd argue he still deserves a (very low) D. If I forget to actually start my gem farm script and I need to get to the stacking zone, I have a formation called "Briv oops" to quickly get to my stacking zone and he's the DPS for all the armored enemies.

[@rtfmtech]

@@tyredack #justiceforbinwin

[@ThatAnnoyingGuyOnTheInternet]

The Absolute Adversaries anti-synergy is amazing. Or maybe they expected/wanted Wyll to carry the AA through Ceremorphosis and other teams through Folk Hero...

[@tyredack]

Here's hoping we get that Human Glitch Feat for Durge to really help that Affiliation out.

[@mbarrow360]

Good stuff!

[@tyredack]

Much appreciated!

[@sinclairo3349]

I was actually wondering, if she could replace orkira for a buff/debuff zorbu formation. Her role sounded perfect at first glance. Thank you for answering that question for me in the video.

[@tyredack]

It's just a pity that kind of formation has been getting outclasses as time has gone on. I'm hope we see more mechanics/champions added to the game to support more of those kinds of formations! Her kit is now perfect for it.

[@Pluis83]

wauw goat, look at all these comments. u getting famous, and rightfully so. great guide again!. tryed to join stream but real life happend. hopefully next time. have a good day 😃

[@tyredack]

😅 I don't think me and famous will ever be synonymous, but I appreciate the thought! Hope you'll be able to catch one sometime! 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

[@Raxele]

Do you know who are the champions who are "visiting" this event since its the first year of events 2.0? And where they are going after this year?

[@tyredack]

I'd have to do some sleuthing I'm not sure. Could even be this is where they'll all just end up at the end of the day.

[@TelespallaJoe]

In the event, as first free champ to unlock I chose Nova, hope I did well. Korth is in the same seat of Kyrdle and I have him, same for BBEG with Artemis and he's untouchable

[@popington4674]

You still want to get BBEG even if you use artemis. BBEG is one of the best speed champions to have if you can reliably activate his buff. This will help you push areas so much faster! You can then swap back to Artemis when you need damage. For the first several months of play, speed is far more important than damage.

[@gelert16]

Nova is one of the better buffers in the game, so a very solid choice. BBEG and Merilwen have very useful abilities beyond damage, though, so I'd say they are quite good to pick up as well.

[@tyredack]

Dropping in just to mirror what people are saying! Nova is a good pick and there are others than can certainly help your pushing teams, but you'll want to keep gold find and speed in mind as well, but it all depends on what you're working on right now.

[@TelespallaJoe]

I'm a rookie, started playing since Dark Urge gotten out (as a BG3 player I love him), and my idea is to do all the adventures I can and to build a team around Artemis, Durge come too late to use him and not finished the adventure yet. Still haven't unlocked the modron core yet. I would show you my roster so far but I don't know how 😅

[@HHWorldspawn]

Seeing as Ezmeralda is spawning additional mobs, how does she stack up as a speed hero (she doesn't have the tag) compared to other ones in the same slot? I'm a bit limited in my hero selection but just to speed through stages I had Ezmeralda, Minsc, Shandie, Diana, Hew-Man and Melf (leaving dmg to familiars). I currently don't have any other heroes that can improve speed/spawns/quest counts and got nothing to compare it to but maybe this is one avenue where Ezmeralda could do well (assuming she's not outperformed by the other two heroes tagged with speed in her slot)?

[@tyredack]

It's true, while she doesn't have the Speed Tag yet, I believe they confirmed they're going to give it to her. I'll have to add her to my speed tier list at some point, but I foresee her being close to Minsc tbh, maybe high D or low C on that list. While it's nice to spawn more enemies, she has no way to scale it like Melf and Tatyana, and she shares a Seat with Thellora, so if we're talking a gem speed farm team you're for sure leaning into Thellora over Ezmerelda.

[@thefastmagician]

Should we always be running with a patron on levels? What is the benefit? It looks like I need to go back and beat levels I defeated without a patron.

[@tyredack]

Once you have completed an adventure *without* a Patron active you will then have Patron specific rewards completing them again *with* a Patron. So, it can be beneficial to do so for those rewards. If you're just looking to finish a campaign, you'll want to do it first without a Patron, as Patron runs are repeating old runs for more rewards.

[@thefastmagician]

@@tyredack as always, thanks fellow Champion.

[@thevideogamemaster8173]

If you want those additional feats for Durge and Valentine, then is video needs to spread like wild fire so everyone and those who work at CodeName Entertainment can hear your cry for help

[@tyredack]

I'm begging over here! Don't think it's enough though 😅

[@sgising2]

It just makes sense for Valentine to have the feat. Tregrum is almost a tadpole. ​@@tyredack

[@tyredack]

I don't know much about the lore of her character admittedly, but she does seem to have brains tied to her mechanics for sure 🧠

[@rtfmtech]

Always use the EgGbUrT

[@tyredack]

🥚🥚🥚

[@gelert16]

I gotta figure that Binwin is on the list for eventual reworks. I mean, he must be, right? Poor guy just don't got anything else to look forward to. Wyll's papa is cool, good numbers and helps fix up a bit of that anti-synergy for AA. It's like all the AA champions were designed in a complete vacuum with no regard to how they mesh together. I should probably stop complaining about that eventually, but it is still so mystifying. And yeah, Ez is a good champion now but just doesn't have a niche in any meta DPS formation. That has happened a few times recently. Season reworks at least tried to make new niches for their reworked champions.

[@tyredack]

We can only hope so, poor guy really does needs one. The AA is a struggle sometimes, can be fun, can be annoying to work around. Let's hope for that Human Glitch Feat! All we can hope for with Ez is that this is the start of more synergy coming her way with a Debuff based DPS that actually performs well.

[@JJofTheNorth]

Best in the business.

[@tyredack]

I don't know about all that, but I certainly appreciate the sentiment!

[@popington4674]

Why are Ezmerelda’s numbers so weird on “Preparation”??? The description shows a very large multiplier that stacks multiplicatively (which would break the game lol) but in reality it’s only 20% per stack. Is the post stack multiplier mistakenly applying to the prestack description when it shouldn’t be? Other stacking champions don’t do that, so why is she?

[@tyredack]

Preparation is how it scales the post stack that's not a mistake. Training Montage itself is pre stack, Threats is pre stack, then Preparation scales the post stack. Just how she works.

[@popington4674]

Yes, I understand that Preparation is a form of Post-Stack scaling for Training Montage. My problem is with the description of Preparation. The base effect is only 10% which can be stacked 100 times multiplicatively, then it gets effected by a post stack to get a total multiplier that is a post stack for Training Montage. However the post stack part of Preparation is being applied to the 10% part of Preparation in the description when it shouldn’t be. Instead of the description saying “10% stacking 100 times multiplicatively, then multiplied by post stack” it’s saying for me “4,058% stacking 100 times multiplicatively” which would result in a buff over e160 in strength lol Compare this to Dhadius’ Chromatic Wonder. Every set of orbs increases Skill Empowerment by 100% stacking multiplicatively 20 times. It also has a post stack multiplier on itself. But see how the base description says it is 100% per stack? The post stack multiplier of Chromatic Wonder isn’t included in the 100% stack description value like it is for Ezmerelda. This shows how Ezmerelda’s Preparation description is not only inconsistent and confusing, but mathematically incorrect for what it is actually doing

[@tyredack]

Iiiiiii see what you're saying now. Sorry misunderstood the first post. No, you're right, the wording is strange. Based on the game's terminology I *should* be pumping mine to an e186 lol. But alas, 9.45e08. Now I need to figure out for myself how it's even getting that number 😅

[@popington4674]

@@tyredack All good! It’s definitely hard to talk about when we’re throwing around all these terms and numbers without being able to share a reference picture 😂 From how I’m understanding it, the post-stack multipliers are mistakenly pretending to be a pre-stack multiplier for that one line of the description. Everything else is working as intended. In reality, there are no pre-stack modifiers for Preparation. It’s always 10% and should say so, but it’s showing 10% * Post-Stack for some reason

[@tyredack]

Yeah, that makes sense with the numbers. Interesting that it's showing the scaling on that 10% instead of just the flat number. Plenty of formation abilities that work that way that don't have issue. Like you said, even Dhadius. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out before too long.

[@DragonSinged]

I'm brand new to the game, I started a day into the Wyrm Slayer/Dragondown event I think - Is there a guide for how to unlock the core champions of the Absolute Adversaries? I have unlocked Duke Ravenguard (not really part of the affiliation I understand), Karlach, and Wyll. Are my options just to wait for specific events for them or buy them with $? Is there something else I should prioritize in the shorter term? Thank you for any advice!

[@tyredack]

Any Champions can be unlocked through the game's "Time Gate" mechanic where you spend "Time Gate Pieces" to open a mini-campaign to unlock them and get some gear for them. These pieces accrue very slowly over time (I believe you can get 1 every ~5 days). As you play the game you also unlock "Patrons" which is another way to get those pieces. So, you'll be able to build them up the more you play. There is an "Event" every month (like the one with Duke Ravengard right now) where you can unlock more Champions. Lae'zel in particular should be available in August's Event if you want to grab her then in particular. If you need a lot of base general information, the very first video I covered for Idle Champions, my "Idle Champions Overview" has a lot of info to digest. It's an older vid of mine, so some of the information about specific champions or formation types will be dated. But the core game mechanics and base info of it are solid still. Or you could join Idle Champions' official discord, lots of helpful people there. Also a link in this vid to my Discord. We're small and while it's intended for all things Tyredack, lots of Idle Champions talk there as well.

[@DragonSinged]

@@tyredack Thank you for the detailed reply. I've used some Time Gate pieces for Dungeon Master and BBEG - from now I should save up 6 pieces and use them on Dark Urge then maybe?

[@tyredack]

Potentially, though The Dark Urge really takes off as their DPS once you have a lot of that Ceremorhposis before getting him. Lae'zel is a pretty good pick for their team even though she's in August because of her Speed mechanic. Being able to utilize her speed in your pushing team is *really* nice. She is often one of my early recommendations for newer players because of it. Wyll also has some *really* good buffing power while you can still use Lae'zel or Karlach as your DPS until you get The Dark Urge after building up the team. It all comes down to waht you're looking to get first!

[@DragonSinged]

@@tyredack I've followed your advice and picked up Lae'zel - between her and Briv it's sort of funny watching the levels flash by sometimes. That brings my Absolute Adversaries to - Lae'zel, Karlach, Wyll, and (sort of) Ravengard. I'm starting to learn my way around balancing Wyll's Folk Hero, though when I look at the numbers in Outgoing/Incoming effects on people, Ravengard's "Legacy of Ravengard" specialization doesn't seem to be increasing the stack by 1? Am I missing something? If you don't mind, what would be your advice for prioritization order of recruitment for the rest of the team? Thank you again for your help!

[@tyredack]

​@@DragonSinged Good to hear it's working out great for ya! You're probably doing it right, but a recent patch actually broke it. It will work again once they fixed it, which will be (hopefully) at the most in 2 weeks when the next Event is. They know it's a problem and are working on it from what I hear. Oddly enough, I would say Durge last. Since he scales directly with Ceremorphosis it's best to have the rest of that Affiliation rocking, and you can use Lae'zel or Karlach as your DPS in the meantime. Shadowheart or Astarian would be great picks before him, depending on how you need to fill out your Seats. Even some staple speedsters can help out too, like Diana, as she doesn't conflict with Lae'zel's type of speed. Gale is great, but as another Human he often conflicts with good Folk Hero setups for Durge, but is still a *good* pick. Whether or not before Durge is questionable and your call to make.

[@tentacle_love]

How do you get dark urge to 4 stacks of folk hero? I see him capped at 3/3 with no chance of him getting a 4th. edit: I paused, asked this question, and then unpaused and you basically said he can't... yet. so nvm.

[@tyredack]

The Dark Urge current *can* get 4 Folk Hero stacks, but only through Ravengard's specialization choice and slotting a very specific formation. Ravengard with "Legacy of Ravengard" automatically gives 1 stack of Folk Hero, so then you can focus on maintaining a 3/4 Folk Hero, then he adds that last one. It's not entirely synergistic with the AA, but it's possible. During stream we found out this was my favorite way to do it... The Dark Urge - Lae'zel - Karlach - Shadowheart - Duke Ravengard - Astarian - Wyll for the ceremorphosis users Valentine for the Sorc tag Orkira or Egbert for the 1 Dragonborn tag, your choice Then fill with Birdsong as a DPS that can be adjacent to Durge who is a great buffer and doesn't conflict with Folk Hero as a Tabaxi/Bard/Unaffiliated You will be able to get 4/4 that way for now. Hopefully we get a Human Glitch Feat on The Dark Urge to make things simpler.

[@tentacle_love]

@@tyredack That's amazing. Thanks!

[@tyredack]

Yup yup!

[@makaisenki]

​@@tyredackthat formation cuts out so many of my strongest buffers it's hard for me to justify. Why bother with a buff and crap heals when I can get the same buffing potential out of Evelyn. Using Egbert when Jim and Vin Ursa are like e30 buffs while Egbert is like an e7. Maybe for smokescreen, the survivability is pretty awesome. Gale after his broken event buffs wore off isn't so important now. Which frees up Thellora if I need a third tank or a 4th (depending on if I'm Wild Heart or Berserker) At this rate I might as well see what Minsc does in a melee AA, Baldurs' Gate formation for the lulz. Feels like we should get a seasonal celebration soon which means I can take ilvls off a bunch of champs and see what happens. Now that Gale and Nrakk are no longer super busted I guess I'll see what kind of damage I can do now, but I seem to be down about e70. down to e480 from e550. At least I beat a bunch of stuff like Evil to the Core and a bunch of other high level elminster variants. Wulfgar is like single mindedly focused on stunning enemies but isn't a debuffer? Nova slows enemies and is? This month just feels off lol.

[@tyredack]

Talking about slotting the likes of Evelyn, Jim or Vin Ursa, while potent buffers, means you're sacrificing not only Folk Hero stacks but also potentially Ceremorphosis on top of that, and if we're specifically talking about this crew if you're investing in them it does tend to stack up. But I get where you're coming from. It's true that Nrakk and Gale have certainly taken a hit when losing their event buffs, no doubt. I think they're both still really strong, but yeah... they had particularly over-performing event buffs. Though, Minsc with the AA in those Ravengard runs might not be a bad pick! And good things you got those harder Elminster runs done! I will say Nova still makes sense with their definition of the "Debuff" role, as a marked debuff that increases the damage enemies take from all/most sources, since Nova also has "Curiosity" on top of Slow which is a sticky debuff that increases the damage all enemies that spawn take. I still think spec-based debuffers need that role though (like Gromma).

[@stephendavies1518]

I don't get this 😆 I see you have Lae'zel at A- but I'm doing WAAAAAY more damage with Celeste who's on D tier... I'm literally doing like 700QT with Celeste in the group, compared to Lae'zel who I'm finding only one good character with her going to 20QT... like I'm literally doing what 35x the amount of damage? So I'm confused how Celeste is on D tier? Also, to add I'm a noob here and only started a couple days ago, so I've no clue much about yhe game 😂 Plus I'm on Xbox, I'm only doing this for the achievments, I'm just trying to do the game fast, but I'm just confused still how Celeste is on D tier 🧐

[@tyredack]

When you're *really* new the Core Champions (the initial 12, like Celeste) will be alright for you since they are the only ones that gear from basic chests (silver, gold). Event Champions like Lae'zel get gear from Electrum or specified chests like rewards from unlocking them in an Event or Time Gate. In the case of Celeste vs. Lae'zel it comes down to their mechanics. To be as low as you are you must have very little to no equipment unlocked yet for Lae'zel. Celeste has 1 damage increasing Formation Ability "Crusader's Mantle," which scales its damage based on only one piece of equipment, her 3rd equipment slot. Lae'zel on the other hand, while only having 1 damage buffing formation ability in "Lethal Coordination," scales that up through 2 other formation abilities - "Ceremorphosis" and "Abberation Hunter" and all 3 of those formation abilities have gear to scale them *all* up. So very quickly Celeste will taper off at a low buff and Lae'zel will just continue to increase her damage further and further. Add on top of that, Lae'zel can serve as a DPS herself (though isn't the best for that in her affiliation) and works as a Speed Champions quite well if you use multiple from her Affiliation. Overall, Celeste has very limited use for the grand scheme of the entire game, where Lae'zel actually fits a lot of niches and potential end game formations.

[@stephendavies1518]

@@tyredack Not sure how to explain their gear here 😂 but with Celeste I have 2 Purples, Crown + Boots but the Crown looks Gold shiny and the rest of the equipment is Blue. Laz has 2 Purples, Bow + Boots (same item locations as Celeste) but no shinys on either. The other 4 are also blue too but the sword and chest armour are shiny silver. Whats even more confusing Laz gear is in the 20-30+ compared to Celeste where four of them are between 2-3 and two are 10 + 14... this is confusing to me on why i'm not doing more damage with Laz 🤣 Only thing I can think of is Celeste has that Purple / Shiny Gold crow cos it says "increases the damage of all Champions by 476.6%" I dunno 😆 but curious who do you thinks a great team setup? I got Briv from the Time Gate but then realized I can spend 3 shards on the Event ones, which I've been looking at Egbert as he's good for Gold multiplier and he takes of Minsc (from Baldurs Gate) I believe. Do you think Egbert a good choice or should I go with one of the others? The choices are Stoi, Wulfgar, Farideh, Pwent, Torogar,D'hani, Egbert and Certainty Dran from the event and not sure how many chances I get to get one of them, I'm guessing 2? or 3 if I buy the DLC, unless that unlocks later.

[@tyredack]

Also depends on how you're setting up a formation, so it's always hard to communicate just through text for stuff like that for sure. 😅 As far as Flex Slots go, you get 3 for free, one unlocking per week of the event. So, the 3rd free slot will unlock next Wednesday and that will be all of them without purchasing something for this Event. This Event's roster isn't the greatest, but Egbert is indeed decent for a gold spot. And as far as Champions to focus on that's a hard one to give a direct recommendation, as there are so many things to consider at this stage of the game and everyone has their own opinions... but I will wall of text you with this... -Ellywick is good to get going early these days just because her Gem gains are crazy tbh since her rework and gems are important for the long game. -Overall my recommendation for a starting *team* would be the Absolute Adversaries, because through Lae'zel they get their speed mechanic, and the more of them you get the better they all perform because they all give that Ceremorphosis, from which they all tend to scale. But then you're also building up a decent legit end game team if you want to focus on them. There is another DPS better than The Dark Urge and the AA for just raw numbers, but he takes a fair amount of time and item levels to set up proper and is imo better served as a later goal. But the AA can handle the entire game if you choose to go that route too with roughly equal investment. All personal preference. And we're getting more to the Absolute Adversaries team in the next 2 events. (Minthara and Halsin as they announced) -Then I personally recommend after that work on a legit gem farm team. Briv is excellent to have and work on, both for gem farming and general progression, but he does take some time to get up there for sure. His jumps are vital in some cases, especially in a legit Gem farm team which you should have in mind for a goal for earlymid/mid game. All the while working on unlocking all the in-game mechanics, like the Patrons, Trials of Mount Tiamat, Modron Cores, etc. etc. It's a lot to take in but it tends to come organically if you like to play the long game.

[@sinsemo1995]

anyone think Duke Ravengard pair pretty well with Artemis ?

[@tyredack]

Problem there is Artemis specifically scales with positional formation abilities and/or DPS to Observe those positionals on, neither being Ravengard. So you can get some good numbers, but it doesn't synergy with Artemis' kit.

[@sinsemo1995]

@tyredack I mean getting buff of almost 100% Crit with 1100% damaged sound pretty good. If going with crit comp like the Hall gangs I think we got full stun from Wulfga, Full heal with Regis and other all time

[@tyredack]

Full crit gang is fun and can synergize together well, just not really with Artemis. The goal with Artie is to get massive exponential power through his Observe that very much outscales that 1,100% crit damage. Don't get me wrong, Ravengard is great and works well with some formations, just not ideal for Artemis. At the end of the day use who you want wherever you want, I'm just saying in a purely objective sense he's likely not going to see end game play with Artie.

[@sinsemo1995]

@@tyredack in that case, which dps characters than I can use for full crit gang that can potentially out dps Arti? or have great synergize with crit?

[@tyredack]

There is always the Companion crew with Drizzt, though he's not exactly a DPS to focus. Krond synergizes well with crit buffers like Wulfgar, Pwent, Catti-brie (with her Strength Feat), and Ravengard. And of course since Ravengard has that Ceremorphosis Feat pairing him with the AA team with Durge as your DPS fits decently well, as he'll still be buffing Durge's crit rather high while Lae'zel is critting often.

[@Siegsoul]

Narack is now a debuffer and or already was

[@tyredack]

Nrakk is now a debuffer because they just introduced the role - but has technically been one since his rework in Season 6 (like 7 months ago). Before that he was not.

[@robotroy]

.... H

[@tyredack]

Knew it'd get someone, if even 1 person out there. 😅