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Monday, March 14, 2011

Buddy Rush: Botherella Curse Build

I am still playing Buddy Rush on Facebook. One of my characters is Botherella, which is built around the Curse skill.
The Curse Skill
As a second active skill, Curse has decent cool time (compared to the third ability, Thornbush) and MP costs. At level 11 Curse and level 10 Charity it can seriously undermine the Oblins' ability to fight back.

I don't know what Botherella's passive skill Charity does exactly. It may increase Curse's effectiveness or duration or range. I'm unwilling to purchase the chips just to test it out. I can, however, detail the effectiveness of level 11 Curse and level 10 Charity.

For one, Curse covers almost the whole screen (it doesn't reach Oblins at the back of the screen), easily hitting all the Oblins in a big fight.

It seriously cuts down Oblins' defense. What I have noticed is that Oblins tend to have high defense but low HP. Thus, once Cursed, they go down quick.

It also reduces Oblins' attack such that party members will hardly take damage. In the fight with White Tiger, it reduced his buffed-up regular attack (which can take a chunk of HP off a Worrier, by the way) into puny scratches.

It lasts long enough for one big fight. However, it wears off earlier for bosses. I think it affects bosses for half the duration it affects normal Oblins. If the boss is Cursed when Worrier uses his Chopchop on him/her or Boorseye uses his No-yield shot, the boss will go down pretty quick.

In short, Curse helps finish a big fight quick with little damage and it makes boss fights easier.

As such, to take advantage of (i.e. to thoroughly abuse) this skill, I load my Botherella with cool time reduction and MP regeneration items.
Botherella ready to bother Oblins!
With an MP Regen of 8, my Botherella never runs out of MP. Skill cool time is still an issue, though - it is enough for me to use Curse on every other big fight in a mission. Unless I wait for it to cool.

I have not tested this build as a party member yet. The AI is much better than me at draining MP, so I have yet to see if MP Regen+8 is enough to keep the Curses coming. I know the AI is going to happily use it every chance it gets but with the decent range, I expect that at least half the Oblins in a big fight will be Cursed.

The weakness of this build is the low attack. This Botherella depends on party members to dish out the damage. At level 4, Wolfgan cannot be depended upon for this - he's still good for taking a few hits and distracting an Oblin, though. Another problem is that Curse does not work on inanimate objects (towers, barriers, etc.). Doesn't stop the AI from trying to Curse a barrier.

Good party members are those who can deliver a high rate of attack, to take advantage of the Oblins' low defense while Cursed. Nagne with his Sword Mastery is a good choice for general fights. Also good are skills that hit Oblins over time like Aikilu's Blade Typhoon and Wizz's Fire Field.

For fights with tougher Oblins (like bosses), Worrier with his Chopchop and Boorseye with his No-yield Shot are good choices.

I'm pretty much happy with this Botherella build when using her as the active character. Judiciously liberal (ab)use of the Curse skill during a mission makes it fun as Oblins go down quick. And in dungeons, after I'm done with the Cursing, I can go looting while the damage-dealing party members do the work. After all, having a pitiful attack won't add much to the fight. :)

The main problem is if I lose my damage-dealing party member. Then it gets painful. I blame the AI for failing to keep that party member alive as I hoard the HP Potions.

Update 25 March 2011:
I had my Botherella as a party member in the Dungeon so I could see how she fared.

Basically, she never ran out of MP. When she Curses, all Cursed Oblins get defeated fast.

However, her low Def meant that she loses HP quick if left in the line of fire. (I had less Def and slightly more Atk in the Botherella build I brought into that Dungeon.) Atk was not an issue since I had a Boorseye to do all the damage.

Buddy Rush: Barberella Build for Botherella
Buddy Rush: Contents

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