Introduction
This guide was accurate as of Patch 1.1 on May 23rd, 2016.
v1.0: Initial Publication
Sept. 19, 2016 NOTE: With the removal of Siege mode from Orcs Must Die! Unchained, there is little need for most of the information in this guide. Moreover, I don't feel much motivation to experiment with Survival mode or retool it for that. I will leave it up for dedicated Smolder players to gleam a few hints & tips from, but unless a competitive mode is added to OMDU again, this guide is discontinued.
Defensive Smolders have proliferated lately, and with them a lot of ineffective and nearly useless fire trap setups. This guide will not only explain how to PvP and defend as Smolder from the default Siege deck all the way up to a customized fire trap deck, but teach you the intricacies of fire damage, how they affect fire trap setup, and how to combine them with Smolder's Naphtha Sprayer and her own abilities to melt minions before they reach your Guardian.
The 3 Biggest Novice Mistakes
If you only read one part of this guide, read this one.
1. Build from the Guardian out, not the Entrance in.
The old habit of putting all your traps at the minions' entrance to your killbox and fighting near them is a fatal mistake in OMDU. It's easier for the enemy heroes to shield their minions from your traps, and it gives the enemy pillager a larger window to gank and kill you. Build your traps starting near the Guardian so you can shoot, get combos, and chase off enemy heroes from the safely of the Guardian's aura; Even if you have to wade into the thick of them to cause damage (like Smolder often does), if you get into trouble it's only a 1-second run to the safety of the Guardian instead of 3.
2. Naphtha sprayers don't do damage themselves, they just amplify burning damage from other sources.
Naphtha sprayers are useless by themselves. Naphtha doesn't do damage itself, it increases all fire damage the target takes by 25% for 5 seconds. Place Naphtha sprayers right before your gauntlet of fire traps, and wherever minions are while you're shooting/incinerating them.
3. Fire traps of the same type do not stack.
A cluster of Firecrackers is barely more effective than just one. Same with Brimstones, Floor Scorchers, or Spitfire Walls. Multiple burns from the same type of trap don't stack, they just overwrite each other, slightly increasing the duration. For maximum effectiveness, you need to hit them with different types of fire traps. Burns from a Firecracker, Brimstone, Floor Scorcher, and Firespitter Wall will all stack with each other. Burns from a half-dozen Brimstones won't.
Fire traps of the same type should be 3 tiles apart (2 if the minions are slowed) to avoid overlapping each other's burns.
Playing Smolder
Smolder is "a melee character with a ranged attacker's health". Although she has ranged fireballs, her most damaging abilities all require her to get into the thick of things. To play her well, learn when to charge in and when to get out.
Abilities
From the Ashes: Her passive resurrects her shortly after death with 40% health & 50% mana while also dealing minor fire damage to enemies around her. This can save you from several deaths, but experienced players will set up snares & attacks to kill you right when you reincarnate. It also has a 4-minute cooldown, so don't rely on it to get you out of every bad situation, but it's handy in a pinch.
Fireball: Her primary attack has no spread, but is slow-moving. It does a moderate amount of fire damage up front and adds a short fire DoT to the target. This DoT usually doesn't last long enough to finish Incinerate. If you're chasing after an enemy while shooting these, try shooting them in front of your target to force him to go through your fireballs.
Dragon's Breath: Hold down right-click to spit a cone of fire in front of Smolder, doing some burst damage and applying a large fire DoT to enemies. This is her best source of reliable damage (Incinerate has a long cooldown) and burning for Incinerate, but it eats through mana fast.
Heart of Flame aura: Burns enemies around you once every few seconds and makes you run 15% faster. Tap Q to toggle it on & off; it consumes mana while it's on. While this does a bit of damage, its main uses are burning nearby enemies for Incinerate and escaping or chasing enemies. Once you reach Level 12, you can upgrade it so you're immune to all Crowd Control while it's active, which is a life-saver in Siege mode.
Incinerate: Smolder's E attack makes her pause for a second, then damage every burning enemy in a large radius around her for 10% of their maximum health plus a damage bonus that depends on Smolder's level. This is the bulk of her damage against minions and even players; be careful when you use it, because it has an 18-second cooldown. (Additional Notes: Incinerate does not spend mana or go on cooldown if there's no burning enemies in range or if it's interrupted.)
This line of Brimstones shows the approximate maximum range of Smolder's Incinerate.
Clearing Minion Waves with Incinerate
Activate your Q (Heart of Flame aura) and run up to the minions just as they're walking through your Naphtha Sprayer. Hold right-click while spinning around to burn as many of them as possible (including any heroes accompanying them), then hit E to Incinerate them. Run back to safety, deactivate Q, and Fireball or Dragon's Breath the survivors as needed.
Smolder's Weaver Upgrades
Level 3:
Chemical Burn: Increases how long Naphtha sticks to enemies by 2 seconds; they will be soaked for about 7 tiles, approximately a 40% duration increase. I buy this occasionally, usually on Unchained Fortress with its larger killboxes.
Feisty: Increases Fireball damage & speed. I don't use Fireball against players often enough to use this much. Might be useful on an attacking Smolder.
Fuel Reserves: My primary Lvl.3 choice. Increases her mana by 14% for about 3 more seconds of Dragon's Breath or Heart of Flame.
Level 6:
Phoenix Heart: Reduces your passive's cooldown by 1 minute, or 25%. Take this if the enemy heroes are focusing on you or you're dying a lot.
Endothermia: Reduces the mana cost of Dragon's Breath by 3/sec (or 20%), down to 12/sec. My go-to choice for this level.
Red-Headed: Increases your health by 12%, or about 40HP at Level 6. Increases to 53HP by Level 12. Lets you survive 2-3 extra hits. I rarely use this.
Level 9:
Resilient: You now reincarnate From the Ashes with 60% health and 75% mana. I usually get this if I took Phoenix Heart at Lvl.6.
Channeling Dragons: Increases Dragon's Breath damage by 20%. My primary choice for this level.
Passionate: Reduces Incinerate cooldown by 5sec, or from 18 to 13 sec, nearly a 30% reduction. I don't use it often myself, but can be useful if you spam Incinerate.
Level 12:
Stolen Tinder: Eliminates the mana cost of Heart of Flame. I usually get this in Survival mode, but for Siege I take...
Wildfire: Smolder is immune to Crowd Control while Heart of Flame is active. I can't emphasize enough how useful this is for Siege. No-sell snares, stuns, roots, and slows. Escape nearly anything, chase almost anyone.
Sapper: Slows Incinerate targets by 35%. Could be useful if you took the Incinerate cooldown reduction at level 9 and aren't worried about the enemy team's CC (or if them escaping is frustrating you more), but it has the misfortune of trying to compete with CC Immunity.
PvPing as Smolder
Know when to snipe with Fireballs and when to close and Incinerate. If you're fighting heroes who can easily escape (like Blackpaw), save Incinerate for when they're low-health and try to kill them by surprise. Otherwise, Incinerate as soon as you have everyone in the battle burning; Smolder is fragile, and you don't want to die before using it.
Don't use her Q-aura for raw damage; use it to chase, escape, set up group Incinerates, or (if you have the Lvl 12 upgrade) completely ignore Crowd Control. It uses up nearly as much mana/sec as Dragon's Breath, so try to shut it off whenever possible.
Smolder's fireballs, although slow, fire rapidly and always shoot towards the center of your reticle. Shoot them in front of moving enemies to force them to walk through the barrage.
Smolder's Dragon's Breath does slightly more DPS (and is easier to hit with), but requires being in melee range and can burn through her entire mana pool in 20 seconds. Leave yourself enough mana to Incinerate and escape. (I recommend reserving 125 mana, or about 40% of her mana pool, to Incinerate & escape.)
Playing Smolder Pt.2: The Numbers
If the last section didn't give you enough details on Smolder, this will. I went into a solo Custom Siege and tested all of Smolder's abilities against a hapless wave of light orcs and the various caches spread across the map. (If you don't want to get into this much detail yet, skip ahead to the next section.) Here's the results:
Raw Stats
Smolder starts with 275 HP at Level 1 and gains approximately 15 HP every level.
Smolder starts with 290 Mana; her max Mana doesn't increase when she levels. She regenerates 2 mana per second.
Ability Mana Cost Dragon's Breath 15/sec Heart of Flame 12/sec Incinerate 50
Ability Damage
This table is a rough estimate of Smolder's damage at different levels, tested in Custom Siege matches on light orc minions & caches. The DoT Ticks is the number of times they take the DoT damage. Burst Dmg is how much damage they take on the initial hit. Tick Dmg is how much damage they take each DoT tick.
Ability DoT Ticks Lv.1 Burst Dmg Lv.1 Tick Dmg Lv.6 Burst Dmg Lv.6 Tick Dmg Lv.12 Burst Dmg Lv.12 Tick Dmg Fireball 2 9 1 14 2 20 3 Dragon's Breath 6 12 1 19 2 27 3 Heart of Flame 7.5 - 1 - 2 - 3 Incinerate - 10%+24 - 10%+38 - 10%+56 - NOTE: The 10% in Incinerate's Burst Dmg stands for 10% of the enemy's maximum HP. (Incinerate's damage bonuses are estimated by taking total damage & subtracting 15 HP, which is 10% of a light orc's max HP. Need to confirm and verify with other minions.)
These damage tables don't take firing rate into account: Smolder shoots fireballs faster than her Dragon's Breath ticks. Experimenting with how long it took to destroy caches as Lvl.1 Smolder using just the Fireball (9 seconds) or Dragon's Breath (8 seconds), it seems Dragon's Breath has a 12% higher DPS than Fireballs. It's also easier to hit with the Dragon's Breath & its DoT lasts longer; I'll leave it up to you to decide when using Dragon's Breath instead of Fireballs is worth the mana cost.
(Note: test whether DoTs from different abilities stack.)
Effect of Armor on Smolder's Damage
Smolder's damage is affected by how much magic armor her targets have. Minions and heroes normally have 0 magic armor, meaning they take full damage from fire attacks. However, several heroes can gain magic armor from upgrades, or from standing near their Guardian. How does this affect Smolder's damage?
(Note: Armor calculation gathered from this thread[forums.orcsmustdie.com] , not personally confirmed yet.
To determine total damage reduction, divide their magic armor rating by their magic armor rating +100.
If they have 25 magic armor (like most of the weaver upgrades provide), they'll take 25/125 = 1/5th less damage, or 20% less.
If they're standing near a Guardian's +50 magic armor aura, they'll take 50/150 = 1/3rd less damage, or 33% less.
If they have the upgrade and are standing near a Guardian, they'll take 75/175 = 3/7ths less damage, or 43% less.
The Basic Traps: Naphtha + Brimstone
Odds are for your first few dozen matches playing the game, Brimstone will be the only fire trap you'll have. Therefore you should learn to use it, and learn to use it well. Even a simple Naphtha + Brimstone combo can be scarily effective when placed correctly.
The Technical Details of Naphtha & Brimstone
The Naphtha Sprayer doesn't do any damage itself; instead, it amplifies fire damage to the targets by 25% for ~5 seconds (7 if you get Smolder's upgrade). Once activated, it hits all enemies 3 squares in front of it for 10 seconds, then recharges for 4 seconds. Most minions walk ~5 tiles (I'm defining tile here as the width of a 1x1 floor trap) before the naphtha wears off.
Brimstone is a ground trap that applies a Damage-Over-Time burn to any minion that walks over it. The burn does ~135 fire damage over 4.2 seconds; most minions walk ~3.5 tiles before it wears off. It holds 10 charges, and for each charge it burns 1 minion walking over it. Charges regenerate slowly.
Wide Lanes are Your Friend
Unlike nearly every other trap, Brimstones do not benefit from tightly-clustered foes. Due to their burning Damage-Over-Time not stacking with other Brimstones, there's little benefit to setting Brimstones one after the other. However, Brimstones are also a Charge trap: they store enough charges to burn 10 enemies, then have to recharge for a time. The only way to burn more than 10 enemies at a time with Brimstone is to set them side-by-side so the enemies spread out and a few walk over each one.
This means the entrance, exit, and wide lanes of the killbox are great places for Brimstones.
Put Naphtha at the Exit & Entrance
The naphtha sprayer continuously coats enemies up to 3 tiles away with the highly-flammable substance; it fires for 10 seconds and recharges in just 4 seconds, so I just assume it coats every enemy that crosses its path. This makes it perfect for positions where wall traps can't rely on barricades or tar pits to group up minions, or they would just be shot from the front (and ignored by shield-bearing minions).
Build from the Guardian Out
Most players' instinctive strategy is to build their first traps at the front of the killbox. The most effective strategy, though, is to build your first traps towards the back of the killbox, preferably within sight of the guardian. Why? It all has to do with overextension.
You earn more coins for combo-killing enemies while they're in traps, therefore you earn more coins if you stick near your traps.
You gain extra armor and health/mana regeneration if you stick near your Guardian. The Guardian also attacks any nearby enemy champions unless there's minions attacking it.
Enemy champions want to stick close to your traps to grant their minions trap resistance. If you can drive them away from your traps, their minions take extra trap damage.
If you fight near the entrance to your killbox, the enemy champions have a slight advantage due to their minions blocking your shots and attacking you. It also takes you several seconds to get back to your Guardian if you're injured and gives the enemy pillager a giant window to ambush you from behind.
If you fight at your Guardian, you have the advantage thanks to its aura of armor & regen, thus it's easier to drive off the enemy champions. It also makes it extremely difficult for enemy melee champions to attack you without getting slaughtered by your Guardian. You can drive off the enemy champions, keep yourself from being ambushed, and rack up combos from relative safety.
Building from the Guardian out is very important for Smolder, since her Naphtha Sprayers amplify her own damage as well. If you place them by the entrance first, the naphtha will wear off before the minions get within sight of the Guardian.
Not the best early setup, but at least it's within sight of the Guardian.
Place Brimstone Side-by-Side on Straightaways, Diagonally on Corners
You want to ensure every enemy only walks over 1 Brimstone at a time; if they walk over 2 Brimstones, that's a wasted charge. On straight lanes, you want to set them side-by-side. If the enemies are turning a corner, through, you want to set them diagonally. Then they won't walk over 2 Brimstones if they turn 90 degrees on one.
Naphtha + Fire Wall Bracers
If you're dedicated to defending as Smolder, you should craft Fire Wall Bracers ASAP. They combo well with your Naphtha Sprayer; simply run up just as the first enemies trigger your naphtha sprayer, plop a Fire Wall right after it, and watch them all burn. It's like a temporary line of Brimstone with infinite charges, making it perfect for fast & swarming enemies like orcs or kobolds.
Brimstone/Fire Wall + Incinerate
Incinerate deals a percentage of nearby burning enemies' max HP as damage (plus a straight damage bonus based off your level). Brimstone & Fire Wall burn enemies that walk over it. It should be obvious how you can combo them. This works extremely well for large swarms of enemies, and still takes a giant chunk off small groups like bears or ogres.
Naphtha + Brimstone + Fire Wall + Incinerate
Setting up a Fire Wall just past your Naphtha & Brimstone, toggling on your Heart of Flame fire aura to run near their minions, then activating Incinerate will melt 60-80% of Tier 1/2 minion waves and still dish out heavy damage to Tier 3/4 minion waves. This is the cornerstone of a good Smolder defense.
The First Wave
For the 1st wave, you want as much raw trap damage as possible. One Naphtha Sprayer or Barricade takes up a sixth of your entire defense's starting coin; place them wisely. Figure out which traps in your eventual killbox are just as effective without any Barricades and place those. If you need them immediately, place as few as necessary (preferably 0-1). As for the Naphtha, I usually place it after I have a Brimstone out. (Arguments about whether to place Brimstone or Naphtha first have been hot.)
Filling Out the Rest
Once you have more coins, spread out Brimstone every 4 Tiles along the enemy's path. Fill the ground spots between with Spikes, Ice Vents, or Cursed Grounds. Ice Vents are particularly useful for slowing minions & letting you set Brimstones closer together. (I like to repeat a Brimstone -> Ice Vent -> Spikes pattern on the minions' path.) Lightning traps on the walls & ceilings also make good finishers; positioned properly, they'll blow up a nearly-dead minion, causing him to explode and kill his fellow minions, who are also nearly-dead because they all got singed by your Brimstone.
(This might be a tad overkill.)
Practice your Killbox Layout in a 1v0 Siege Custom Match
A 1v0 Siege Custom match lets you practice your trap setup in the closest thing OMDU currently has to a Sandbox mode: there's no enemy heroes, the only minions are a single squad of orcs, and you get a massive chunk of money after each wave. You should have no problem setting up your entire killbox in just a few waves.
Why should you practice this? Because in actual Siege games, you have to set it up fast, sometimes while enemy heroes are trying to harass/kill you. Time spent remembering how you want to set it up is time wasted; you want to practice it enough that setting up your basic killbox is instinctive. Once the layout and reasoning behind it is second nature, you can quickly set it up & modify it.
Building The Deck: Winning With The Default Siege Deck
While Smolder truly shines once you have all 4 fire traps in your Siege deck, it'll take some time (and matches) to get there. In the meantime, you have little more than the Default Siege deck you started with to trap your way to success. That means you're not as effective as defenders with fully-customized decks, right?
Not as much as you'd think.
If you know the quirks of your default traps, and how to effectively use them, you can still make a rather terrifying killbox. Here's how I do it:
Background: The Default Challenge
To figure out the best way for novices to successfully run Smolder on a new deck, I limited myself to using a Default Siege Deck with all the slots filled: +1 trap, +1 item, +1 boss. I also chose the easiest items to craft to fill them with, something a novice could reasonably scrap together in a few matches. I then played several matches with this deck... against top-tier players. Needless to say, it got a workout.
The Chosen Items
So what did I choose to fill my loadout?
Trap: Brimstone- What's a fire deck without a fire trap? I spent half of the last section explaining why Brimstone was a great first fire trap and how to successfully use it, of course it'll be here.
Item: Fire Wall Bracers- Once again, I explained why these were great in the last section. Good arguments can be made for the Mana Clover (Smolder burns through mana) and Freedom Locket (Smolder needs to be in melee range for maximum damage, which makes her extra vulnerable to Crowd Control), but Fire Wall Bracers can help you single-handedly counter kobold rushes, which can rip a Guardian to shreds in one wave if you let them and are (usually) a huge problem for new defenders, and are generally a great way to set up Incinerates over a large group of minions.
Boss: Urza the Fire Lord- Keeping with the fire theme here, Urza is a tanky boss that can blast an enemy Guardian from full to 20% health in its explosive death throes. It also frustrates the enemy's Smolder with its 50% fire resistance.
The Brimstone -> Ice Vent -> Floor Spike Combo
The basic combo of my (almost-)default Smolder deck is Brimstones followed by an Ice Vent followed by Floor Spikes. Why?
Brimstone's DoT means the slower minions march, the more Brimstones you can use effectively in your killbox. Ice Vents are an easy way to slow & freeze minions. (They also CC minions so less are hitting you when you move in to Incinerate.)
Ice Vents usually freeze their victims a step or two after they walk off it. If you put Brimstones right before the Ice Vent, they're still burning, so putting Brimstones immediately after is slightly inefficient. What we need is a buffer trap to place after the Ice Vent, but before the next Brimstone, preferably one that hits all minions standing on it simultaneously... like a Spike Trap.
The combination of a burst trap with a cooldown & DoT traps with charges makes a well-rounded killbox that's effective against multiple minions. The Ice Vents slaughter weak swarms. The Brimstone causes heavy damage against fast minions and squads of 3-4 minions, but can be exhausted by large swarms. Spikes do moderate burst damage against anyone standing on top, which is really effective against medium-size swarms like guards & orcs.
Barricades
If you need to stretch out the minion lane a bit, set 2 barricades diagonally along a corner. Put Ice Vents at the start and end of it, a Brimstone where they turn the corner, and spikes adjacent to the Brimstone, where the minions have to walk straight instead of turning the corner.
Set up your traps so a few can still do damage to minions that clamber over barricades, like gnolls & pride hunters. For this reason, I usually don't rely solely on barricades, and leave a few straightaways without them that catch both minions who have to walk around barricades and minions who can climb over them.
Arrow Walls
Arrow walls are a good starting wall trap. Set them where minions turn corners so they shoot the minions in the back. (Arrow walls shooting them from the front are easily countered by shield minions.)
Revision: You'll want to place arrow walls a half-tile into corners; this dramatically increases their hit rate against small minions. Will update images with revised placement later.
Wall Charger
Set these where minions hug the walls. Good burst damage, but expensive. Can also be useful to set at the end of an Ice Vent.
Shock Zapper
These ceiling traps are extremely expensive, but do an amazing amount of burst damage and have one of the shortest cooldowns of all traps in the game (5 seconds). Highly recommended if you have the coin to place them.
Putting It All Together
Rather than reiterate the advice I've discussed over the past two sections, I've decided to just post images of several of the killboxes I've made with this deck for inspiration. Each is slightly different due to personal whim at the time, building around the other defender's traps, and constant experimentation/tweaking of the basic design. Enjoy:
Building Up a Killbox
A Match as Near-Default Smolder
Finally, here's a video, with commentary, of me in a high-ranked match playing my near-Default Smolder. Just to show that even with only a few traps unlocked, you can still play well:
Advanced Fire Traps: Floor Scorchers, Spitfire Walls, Firecrackers
Variety is the spice of life. While fire traps of the same type don't stack, different fire traps do. Once you can start hitting minions with all 4 fire traps + naphtha, they'll be burnt to ashes before you can say "I'm MELLLLTING!"
Floor Scorchers
Floor scorchers are a unique ground trap in that they have a ranged effect: instead of only affecting minions on top of them, they shoot flames across the ground up to 3 tiles away. (They also hit minions on top of them.) They are useful against nearly all minions, but require good positioning to be really effective:
Place them on ground the minions don't walk over, such as the far side of a killbox entrance/exit.
Place them so they catch an entire row of minions, such as across a corner (similar to Fire Spitters or Arrow Traps) or in the middle of a long, straight stretch.
Place them in front of tar or frost traps to fry large groups of minions at once.
Place them just behind a barrier to fry a whole group of minions when they break the barrier.
You can place them behind barricades. (The flames go through barricades.)
I think Floor Scorchers are the 2nd-most useful fire trap (topped only by Brimstone) because they're the only ground trap that don't require minions to walk directly over them. Try to craft them quickly.
Spitfire Walls
Spitfires are wall traps that shoot fireballs up to 3 tiles away. They're most effective against large minions, like ogres & giants; smaller minions will just go under most of the fireballs. For best effect, place them so they catch minions rounding a corner from behind. (If you shoot them from the front, shield minions can block it.)
NOTE: Place Spitfires so they're a half-tile into the corner; doing so increases their hits against small minions dramatically. Will add more info on this later.
Firecrackers
Firecrackers are a 3-wide, 10-charge trap similar to brimstone. Their half-tile length makes them easy to fit between other traps; I suggest placing them at the start & end of the killbox (and sporadically in-between) for a little extra fire damage against the front 10 minions.
You can also place them in the half-tile gap between a Barricade and a wall to save space.
Firecrackers are good for a little extra damage against small (10 or less) minion groups or fast minions (kobolds/satyrs). They're not as good as Brimstone, though, and should be used to supplement Brimstones rather than replace them. I suggest crafting them last, after you've crafted the other fire traps.
Combining Fire Traps
So how do you arrange all these fire traps for maximum effectiveness?
Set each type of fire trap 3-4 tiles away from each other. (Firecrackers should be at least 3 tiles apart from each other, Flame Vents should be about 3 tiles apart from each other, etc.)
Set Naphtha Sprayers so they spray minions in the face as they're turning a corner. (Unlike Spitfires, Naphtha isn't blocked by shields.)
If you want to use those wall tiles for something else, set Naphtha Sprayers on an angled ceiling so they spray down.
Set 2 Naphtha Sprayers per killbox, one near the Guardian and one at the entrance.
Set Firecrackers at the very entrance, exit, and sporadically through the killbox. Don't be afraid to sell & replace them later.
Set Floor Scorchers so they burn a row of minions as they turn a corner or on a straightaway. Remember that Flame Vents can shoot outside the killbox, so you can set them facing out the entrance.
Set Spitfires so they shoot the minions in the back as they're turning a corner. (I often place them right above a Flame Vent.)
On corners, set pairs of Brimstones diagonally so each minion will only go over one while turning. On straightaways, set Brimstones side-by-side.
My Personal No-Barricade Fire Trap Deck
A problem with most current killboxes is they rely too heavily on barricades. If the enemy team sends gnolls or pride hunters, or they send in Orfum to destroy the barricades, minions can bypass most of the killbox's damage. My No-Barricade Fire Deck uses a lack of Barricades as an advantage: minions spread out more, letting you set more Brimstones side-by-side.
Items:
Mana Clover: Smolder uses up a lot of mana. This lets you recharge it faster, or squeeze out 5 extra seconds of her flame run in a pinch.
Fire Wall Bracers: Almost a no-brainer; it synergizes with her Naphtha Sprayers and chews up giant swarms of Kobolds/Satyrs/Orcs. And the cooldown is short enough she can use it on every Wave.
Traps:
Brimstone, Flame Vent, Fire Spitter, Firecracker: After devoting entire sections to them, are you really surprised?
Cursed Ground: Perfect for filling up ground tiles between Brimstones; pile up the Arcane vulnerability over 3 tiles, let them walk over a Brimstone, continue with more Cursed Grounds on the other side.
Shock Zapper: There's no ceiling fire traps. This is arguably the best ceiling trap. Blow up a near-death minion with one and cause a chain reaction that blows up other nearby nearly-dead minions.
Hero-Seeker Zapper: Another ceiling trap, this time for frying heroes. I prefer these over Hero-Seeker Ballistae because heroes can be hit by multiple Zappers. (Each hero can only be targeted by one ballistae at a time.) Set up a row of them and suddenly enemies will think twice about pushing through that killbox, and if they try to retreat through it they'll get a nasty surprise.
Bosses:
Urza the Firelord: Sense a theme here? He's a tanky boss that gives an enemy Smolder grief and can blow up Guardians with his death throes.
Swiftyhooves: This boss is a game-ender once all of the Guardians in a lane are down. Stick him in with Kobolds/Satyrs and unless the entire enemy team focuses on killing Swifty, they're pretty much hosed.
Minions:
These aren't as important as your items/traps- after all, as a defender you'll rarely set minions- but it's always handy to have a few secondary minion choices in a pinch.
Kobolds: Kobolds are a Defender's Exam: "Are you good/fast enough to kill 25+ reptiles scampering for your Guardian?" A good defender will wipe the floor with them. A bad defender will lose a Guardian in one wave to them. There's a lot of bad defenders out there...
Satyrs: These buggers are a bit trickier to use effectively than Kobolds, since by Tier 3 the enemy should have a nasty killbox set up. However, once you've eliminated every Guardian in a lane and have their defenders on the rope, satyrs can quickly end the game.
Fire Mages: These guys are overpowered right now. They laugh off most trap damage, incinerate novice players, and even give expert players a hard time killing them. If you reach Tier 4 and they still have Guardians up, send in Fire Mages to remedy that. Just have your attackers keep an eye on them; they have a bad habit of getting stuck shooting the wall instead of the barrier.
Traits:
I'm still working on crafting these, so this may not be my final setup, but my current traits are a good base for any defender.
Ultimate Set of Tools: +6% trap damage? Yes please.
Has a Trap Fetish: Provides a bit of health regen around your killbox.
Practices Witchcraft: Gives life drain on your primary (magical) attack and some extra magic armor.
Feels Safe at Home: Extra armor near your Guardians is useful for surviving diving Midnights & Blackpaws.
A Match with the No-Cade Fire Deck
To show my No-Cade Fire deck in action, here's a match (with commentary) showcasing it. Unfortunately, the other team isn't very skilled and quickly gets beaten as a result, but it's still a good example of my usual killbox setup.
Expert Defense: What You Should Eventually Consider
So you've followed my advice so far, played a few dozen Siege matches, and feel like you've graduated from newbie to amateur? How do you take it to the next level? By expanding your considerations from just the killbox itself to the whole match. Here's a few more things you'll eventually want to consider or remember every match:
The 32-Trap Lane
Try to keep a rough estimate of how many traps you've placed in your lane and avoid going over 32 traps in your lane; if you do, the other lane can't place as many and will suffer for it. How can you help keep your personal trap count from going over 32?
Minimize the number of barricades you use. (If you set them a half-tile away from the wall, minions won't squeeze through the half-tile gap unless they have to.) Don't place 3 barricades when you just need 2. Don't place 2 when you just need one.
Place traps for efficiency rather than quantity. Don't be afraid to sell cheap or poorly-positioned traps.
Don't be afraid to tear down most of a killbox if you have the coin to place it further back.
Losing Ground Gracefully, or How to Make Life Hell for Attackers
Lots of defenders can set up the front killbox just fine, but after the first Guardian falls, they just keep adding traps to the front killbox. This is a bad idea: you've lost your advantage in that killbox (the Guardian's aura), so the attackers can push through it with near-impunity, applying their trap resistance aura to the entirety of it.
No, the proper response is to fall back and start making your 2nd (or 3rd) killbox in front of the next Guardian. Don't be afraid to abandon your first killbox (or even sell most of it) to setup your next one further back, around a living Guardian. You want to make it as hard as possible for the enemy team to escort their minions through all your traps.
(That said, you probably want to leave a few traps in your first killbox to pop Satyrs' phasing shield before they reach your actual killbox.)
Also note that the further the attackers push into your base, the less time you'll have between waves to set new traps. Being able to set traps quickly, and using any opportunity to do so, is vital in this part of the match and could mean the difference between a swift defeat & buying your attackers enough time to win.
Counters to Smolder's Fire Traps
While Smolder does pretty well against most minions (she rips apart Kobolds & Satyrs, and giant minions lose huge chunks of health to her Incinerate), there's several threats to watch out for:
Ivy is the biggest problem for fire-trap Smolder; her heal aura & glyph can reverse most of the damage from your DOTs if you don't have many burst-damage traps to kill them quickly. Fortunately, Ivy is easy to take care of: get in her face and burn her until she runs away. if you get the Crowd Control Immunity upgrade at Lvl.12, she can't even root you anymore; have fun.
Similarly, hobgoblin shamans will heal other minions, reversing most of the damage your traps do, and they are resistant to trap damage themselves. If you see the enemy sending them out, intercept and kill the shamans quickly.
Oziel can become a nuisance if you leave him be. Play aggressive with him; his health is low and he has minimal Crowd Control, so get up close and burn him to death. If he spends his ult just to escape you, consider it a win. His glyph also protects minions from magic damage (including fire); you'll have to work harder to kill them, but it should still be doable.
Hogarth almost has too much HP to burn down before he kills you; focus on the minions instead and try to sucker him into a kamikaze run to kill you while your Rebirth passive is up; with luck, you'll revive at half health while your Guardian kills him. Once you hit Lvl.12, grab the CC Immunity upgrade and he should no longer be a problem. He also has a Magic Armor glyph like Oziel, so his minions will be harder for you to kill as well, but he's nothing you can't handle.
A skilled Midnight can be a pain in the rear; she can ambush you from behind and even if your Rebirth passive is up, she can drop a Snare on you while you're reviving and kill you anyway. Either stick near your Guardian or kite her through your Hero Seeker traps again & again. Once you hit Lvl.12, grab the CC Immunity upgrade and she won't be as much of a threat. Her speed glyph might be troublesome in the future, but since it currently doesn't work, you don't have to worry about it yet.
Large swarms of medium units (Orcs, Guards) will exhaust most of your Brimstone charges. Fire Wall Bracers and Floor Scorchers will whittle them down.
Urza the Firelord and his 50% Fire Resistance buff makes most of your defense as useful as hot air, and if he reaches your Guardian he can one-shot it even if you kill him. Don't be afraid to call for the entire team to help kill him, and place some non-Fire traps afterwards to whittle him down if they summon him a 2nd (or 3rd) time.
Experiment, Analyze, Question
Don't take any of this guide's advice as set in stone; the reason it took me weeks to write it is because I was constantly testing and reevaluating what I suggested, and I'll still be doing that once it's posted. Do enough minions walk over a 2nd diagonal Brimstone to justify placing it? What's the best positions for traps? Should I swap a Freedom Trinket or Shield Buff into my deck? Experiment with different loadouts and setups. If they work better or worse, try to figure out why. Don't take anything for granted.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663286697
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