Man, I think I've just FFT'd myself. I saved (as I do after every battle or plot event) and sure enough, there's a fight as soon as I try to leave this town...and it's kicking my ass. I can't go grind either. Fuckbeans.
Thats why I have 9 rolling saves. Never save over your most recent save.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Man, I think I've just FFT'd myself. I saved (as I do after every battle or plot event) and sure enough, there's a fight as soon as I try to leave this town...and it's kicking my ass. I can't go grind either. Fuckbeans.
Man, I think I've just FFT'd myself. I saved (as I do after every battle or plot event) and sure enough, there's a fight as soon as I try to leave this town...and it's kicking my ass. I can't go grind either. Fuckbeans.
Rolling saves.
Good idea in any difficult RPG.
See...it wasn't difficult until just now, so I wasn't worrying about it
Vincent Grayson on
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
That's how they get you. That's how they trap you.
I'm up to Chapter 3, Law Route. Just saved a certain someone.
For my money, this is the best remake that I've played, even better than WotL (which was awesome, save for the FPS drops for some spells).
One of the great things is, it feels like it's completely new when I'm playing because the last time I played was when it came out on PSX, and I was 11 or so.
Just got a Dragoon and they are great. It's too bad they can't use basic spells here but it's okay considering how much they destroy beasts and dragons.
Also, crafting in this game is tedious and silly but makes such a huge difference. Because it's so annoying to do, I've just taken to crafting up my weapons which makes a big difference. Ups the damage by a lot more than you'd think and adds on hit effects and the like. good stuff.
Frei on
Are you the magic man?
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
Is ignoring the recruit skill going to cripple me?
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Is ignoring the recruit skill going to cripple me?
Depends.
In the original, the only reasons you'd recruit was to get items, spells, or monsters (for auctions).
In this remake you can't remove spells, so that's out, and there are less unique items on basic enemies, and you can steal them anyway. You'd think you could recruit to get access to different classes, but killing a class you don't have makes them drop class cards.
That leaves monsters. If you want a dragon or a cyclops or a ghost or gremlin, you'll need to recruit. In the original you could buy most monsters in different towns, but you had to train them up yourself; recruits started at level 1. When you auction monsters in towns it unlocked special items and equipment in the shops that you couldn't buy normally, but you had to auction monsters of a certain type and level. Now all your monsters will be the same level, but if you can't buy them, you have to recruit them.
The long and short of it is: recruit monsters that you can't buy in shops, everything else you can do yourself.
Also, archers are still way too good in this game. The reduced movement range doesn't negate their better bow range and total lack of friendly fire. They also get access to really good support and damage skills early and often. And since the new enemy ai won't focus them, they can do whatever they want for free, all the time. Once you get access to some movement items, they'll end up being even better than they were in the original.
I have to wonder what the lack of class alignment restrictions means for certain endgame special classes. Curious about the process for necros, liches, and angels will be this time, and if making them from story characters will still make the game think they're dead.
Maybe I just haven't picked the right spells, but archers seem generally much more useful than mages in the early going. They don't have to sit around waiting for MP to build up for even basic attacks, you don't have to worry about who gets in the way of your missile, and if somebody does decide to hit them, they are more durable. I think they have better movement, too.
There are some enemies against which bows don't do a whole lot of damage, but the same seems to be true for magic. The only thing that stops me from dropping my mage for another archer is that putting things to sleep (when it works, anyway) is gratifying.
If you're having trouble with your witches and wizards, remember to get them meditation (charges mp) asap. You can generally charge an extra 5-10 mana with it, since skills are a free action, and that number only goes up with use.
And then look for their indirect damage spells. They get them around lv 6. This eliminates friendly fire. Later in the game they will get aoe versions of their indirect spells as well, but those can hit friendlies. They're nice to have around anyway for the debuffs, since those are so much easier to land in this game.
Another benefit they have is synergy with your magic using melee units. If you're using elemental-touched spells, your casters can hit enemies and make them vulnerable to elements, letting your physical attacks do monster damage.
Train them up anyway, because endgame magic is completely broken.
A thing to keep in mind about the active skills is that they all list an RT penalty, which means that using them will make a character's next turn take even longer to cycle. That means it's a better idea to use them at the beginning of your turn, when you know you're going to make use of it, than at the end of your turn, when it's just going to delay you. Except for meditate; use that whenever it's up.
You don't recruit unique characters. If they're enemies then save them for last and lower their health instead of killing them. They will either run away, or give up. If they run away that means you'll fight them again later, and then have a chance to recruit them. If they give up you'll recruit them.
For some unique characters you MAY need a specific character to be in the battle with them.
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
So I went to Best Buy and this wasn't in stock. I asked one of the employees to do a search, and apparently, that Best Buy, and the 7 other in the area, were out of stock, and never planned to stock the game for the foreseeable future. What the heck? Is this not a popular game?
So this serious problem I'm having is in chapter 2 Chaos.
I'm fighting Vyse and that archer chick (who I guess I can recruit later if I don't kill her). Problem is, Vyse takes so little damage from everything I can't get him down in a reasonable amount of time without being nailed over and over by the 3 archers on the map.
There isn't really a great way to gang up on anyone, as each path to the enemies is only one square wide and gives them plenty of room to just gang up and kill my healers and mages. And then the mages are borderline useless anyway since Vyse takes like 1 damage a piece from spells and my knight.
How the fuck do I do this? (And of course, I cannot go back and grind up levels).
There are some maps where the best strat is to let them come to you. I remember the map you're talking about, in the original, and I'm almost there myself in the remake.
In a situation where you can't get your casters close enough to the enemy, try switching their debuffs for buffs so they can still help out.
Another thing to keep in mind is that units RT is lowered by every action they take in a turn. If they move, attack, and use a skill they'll take much longer to get their next turn, which is why you only want to use skills when they're needed. This is most important with your healers, because you always want them up as fast as possible, so if you don't have to, don't move them. The less they do, the faster they'll be healing.
My mages really started ramping up in usefulness in chapters 3 and 4, where meditate's started to restore significant amounts of MP (15+), they've gotten the AOE damage spells, and their status spells actually have a good chance of hitting most of the time (60-90%).
Before that they only really shined for fighting some monsters and buffing/debuffing every so often.
---
Recruiting is a fairly decent way to make money from random battles, since you'll get all of a character's equipment when you do it instead of the usual random junk you'll get from their bags of loot. It's basically what I've been doing to get some money to buy stuff for the secret shop. It's also been really nice for stocking up on tier 2 rings (ring of evasion, ring of vitality, etc.) without having to deal with the pain of crafting.
Auctioning monsters also makes some crafting materials available in the shop (various ores and things) which can help remove just a little bit of the tedium of crafting so I might at least consider upgrading a weapon or two.
But overall, the grind involved with leveling up the recruitment skills would probably outweigh any extra effort that will be required from trying to do whatever you want to with the level 1 versions. Maaaybe consider throwing anatomy or draconology on some appropriate people. Anatomy is possibly somewhat useful as a general skill just for the increased damage.
Frosteey on
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
Anatomy is useful on just about everyone because, well, obviously you face mostly humans and it levels up so it ends up being stronger than Strengthen or whatever other damage bonuses that don't level up.
leveling up your recruit skill isn't really necessary, having one that isn't levels just means you'll spend more turns trying to recruit in general and have to be right next to the thing to even get a good chance. the recruit chances even at Recruit level 1 when adjacent to the unit are still not bad, usually around 25 percent.
Frei on
Are you the magic man?
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
What class recruits dragons?
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
So I went to Best Buy and this wasn't in stock. I asked one of the employees to do a search, and apparently, that Best Buy, and the 7 other in the area, were out of stock, and never planned to stock the game for the foreseeable future. What the heck? Is this not a popular game?
I live in a major college town and our Best Buy had no copies on the day of release. We have 3 Gamestops, the one I went to had the game but there had been no pre-orders for it. I was also at one of our Walmarts and they had no copies or spot for it on the shelves.
Has anyone managed to find a copy of the strategy guide in a brick and mortal retail store? The release date online kept getting pushed back but I think some places did ship them out on Friday.
Kemal86 on
i used to test games now i sit on my couch and am lazy all day
PKMN White FC: 0046 2138 1298
A testament to how awesome this is even when it's frustrating: I laid down last night to play for "just a bit" before bed...and then suddenly it was almost 4 in the morning.
A testament to how awesome this is even when it's frustrating: I laid down last night to play for "just a bit" before bed...and then suddenly it was almost 4 in the morning.
I work nights, so bed time is usually 5am or so for me. Went to bed at 4, thinking i'd give myself some time to play TO before I pass out. Ended up going to bed at like 10:30am, after having to get up and find my charger and plug it in so the psp wouldn't shut off.
CorriganX on
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
A testament to how awesome this is even when it's frustrating: I laid down last night to play for "just a bit" before bed...and then suddenly it was almost 4 in the morning.
I work nights, so bed time is usually 5am or so for me. Went to bed at 4, thinking i'd give myself some time to play TO before I pass out. Ended up going to bed at like 10:30am, after having to get up and find my charger and plug it in so the psp wouldn't shut off.
The secret is to get a good extension cord and have it plugged in all the time.
Brigantys Castle is rock hard, wow. Probably partly due to my party being level 11 cos I've been training every class up to parity as soon as I unlock it as well as taming a dragon, but still.
Dragons are boss, really tanky and have a finisher grade move at 50 TP. Looking forward to getting Empower Dragon and going on a rampage later.
I wish finishers had been better explained to me. All I knew was that you needed rank in a weapon, but I thought you just had to use a weapon type to raise rank. It didn't occur to me until yesterday that the Swords (1H) skill allowed you to increase rank - I thought it just allowed you to use 1H Swords in classes that didn't allow them.
Weapon skill raises way too fucking slow. I'm on chapter 3 and still don't have a single character who has gained a rank.
I did finally get through that ridiculous battle last night and then kept playing on into Chapter 3 and man was that a cool twist of fate in the final battle of Chapter 2.
Now I just need to figure out how the fuck to rank up my newer classes. Where's a good spot for random battles other than that forest map with the different sections? The gryphons there just do too much damage for low level guys I'm trying to get up to survive.
Also, has anyone tried skill transferring a completely dead character yet? I'm wondering if spells transfer as well.
In my experience it's easiest to level one class at a time. It's tempting to drop 2 level 1 classes into a random battle, but that's two damage dealers or healers less than the normal roster, plus any guests and that's on top of the usually reduced unit count.
Units don't suffer for not doing anything, so just stick your new class in a corner and send out your higher level team.
I haven't had a problem with weapon skills. All my regular characters had at least 1 finishing move by the end of chapter 2, without any grinding.
I've been levelling up classes by just sticking one in the back of my normal battles and letting them hold position the whole time. Again, I've done no grinding at all yet, so it's the easiest way. In chapter 3 my highest level class is 12, my lowest is 9.
Swap cudgel for their element, imo. It's not worth it for them to be hitting stuff in melee, and there's no more universal counterattack.
Remember to check the Warren Report once and a while, because, just like the original, there are some story scenes that only appear there. The Talk option unlocks some extra content.
You start neutral for chapter 1 at the end you choose
to side with Leo or not. If you do, and kill everyone, then you go L, if not you go C. Vyce will always go the opposite.
Once you're on the L route you're stuck with it. If you go C, then at the end of chapter 2,
when Rhime gets invaded, you choose to either rejoin the Duke's army (N), or keep going your own way (C), and Vyce will again choose the opposite path.
You start neutral for chapter 1 at the end you choose
to side with Leo or not. If you do, and kill everyone, then you go L, if not you go C. Vyce will always go the opposite.
Once you're on the L route you're stuck with it. If you go C, then at the end of chapter 2,
when Rhime gets invaded, you choose to either rejoin the Duke's army (N), or keep going your own way (C), and Vyce will again choose the opposite path.
In the original at least, L
is the only path that you can get Vyce on.
With the L route, I really want him to just punch some people in the face, and tell them to grow up.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Not sure if he's any different on the other paths, but Vyce is a total dick on the Chaos Route.
Coercionist on
Pokemon Black FC: 3653 9907 8515
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
Right at the end of Law chapter 3 now, and I've finally hit the tipping point where I have so many unique characters I don't even know who I want to use anymore.
I don't know how people are leveling their weapon skills without any grinding though, the only people I've had increase their weapon rank at all so far are my Archers and that's because they can attack earlier and more often than pretty much any melee classes.
Right at the end of Law chapter 3 now, and I've finally hit the tipping point where I have so many unique characters I don't even know who I want to use anymore.
I don't know how people are leveling their weapon skills without any grinding though, the only people I've had increase their weapon rank at all so far are my Archers and that's because they can attack earlier and more often than pretty much any melee classes.
Weapon skills haven't been that much of an issue for me. My archers and Canopus definitely have gotten the most skillups, but my melee classes have gotten a couple ranks as well, although I am mid Chapter 4.
Except my knight. He doesn't really do much except heal and be a Rampart aura wall.
I'm not sure how I feel on where my Wizard's role is. He does less damage than my archers, which doesn't make much sense since he relies on mana and archers don't. So now he's relegated to just debuff spamming, since he can petrify and slow with 100% accuracy.
Coercionist on
Pokemon Black FC: 3653 9907 8515
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Right at the end of Law chapter 3 now, and I've finally hit the tipping point where I have so many unique characters I don't even know who I want to use anymore.
I don't know how people are leveling their weapon skills without any grinding though, the only people I've had increase their weapon rank at all so far are my Archers and that's because they can attack earlier and more often than pretty much any melee classes.
Weapon skills haven't been that much of an issue for me. My archers and Canopus definitely have gotten the most skillups, but my melee classes have gotten a couple ranks as well, although I am mid Chapter 4.
Except my knight. He doesn't really do much except heal and be a Rampart aura wall.
I'm not sure how I feel on where my Wizard's role is. He does less damage than my archers, which doesn't make much sense since he relies on mana and archers don't. So now he's relegated to just debuff spamming, since he can petrify and slow with 100% accuracy.
Yeah, Wizard/Witch/Warlock/Siren make excellent Buffers and Debuffers more than damage.
Strengthen gives a pretty significant boost to attack power, to the tune of 60+ the last time I checked. (On a unit with about 300 attack base)
Posts
Thats why I have 9 rolling saves. Never save over your most recent save.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Good idea in any difficult RPG.
See...it wasn't difficult until just now, so I wasn't worrying about it
I'm up to Chapter 3, Law Route. Just saved a certain someone.
For my money, this is the best remake that I've played, even better than WotL (which was awesome, save for the FPS drops for some spells).
One of the great things is, it feels like it's completely new when I'm playing because the last time I played was when it came out on PSX, and I was 11 or so.
Just got a Dragoon and they are great. It's too bad they can't use basic spells here but it's okay considering how much they destroy beasts and dragons.
Also, crafting in this game is tedious and silly but makes such a huge difference. Because it's so annoying to do, I've just taken to crafting up my weapons which makes a big difference. Ups the damage by a lot more than you'd think and adds on hit effects and the like. good stuff.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Depends.
In the original, the only reasons you'd recruit was to get items, spells, or monsters (for auctions).
In this remake you can't remove spells, so that's out, and there are less unique items on basic enemies, and you can steal them anyway. You'd think you could recruit to get access to different classes, but killing a class you don't have makes them drop class cards.
That leaves monsters. If you want a dragon or a cyclops or a ghost or gremlin, you'll need to recruit. In the original you could buy most monsters in different towns, but you had to train them up yourself; recruits started at level 1. When you auction monsters in towns it unlocked special items and equipment in the shops that you couldn't buy normally, but you had to auction monsters of a certain type and level. Now all your monsters will be the same level, but if you can't buy them, you have to recruit them.
The long and short of it is: recruit monsters that you can't buy in shops, everything else you can do yourself.
Also, archers are still way too good in this game. The reduced movement range doesn't negate their better bow range and total lack of friendly fire. They also get access to really good support and damage skills early and often. And since the new enemy ai won't focus them, they can do whatever they want for free, all the time. Once you get access to some movement items, they'll end up being even better than they were in the original.
I have to wonder what the lack of class alignment restrictions means for certain endgame special classes. Curious about the process for necros, liches, and angels will be this time, and if making them from story characters will still make the game think they're dead.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
There are some enemies against which bows don't do a whole lot of damage, but the same seems to be true for magic. The only thing that stops me from dropping my mage for another archer is that putting things to sleep (when it works, anyway) is gratifying.
And then look for their indirect damage spells. They get them around lv 6. This eliminates friendly fire. Later in the game they will get aoe versions of their indirect spells as well, but those can hit friendlies. They're nice to have around anyway for the debuffs, since those are so much easier to land in this game.
Another benefit they have is synergy with your magic using melee units. If you're using elemental-touched spells, your casters can hit enemies and make them vulnerable to elements, letting your physical attacks do monster damage.
Train them up anyway, because endgame magic is completely broken.
A thing to keep in mind about the active skills is that they all list an RT penalty, which means that using them will make a character's next turn take even longer to cycle. That means it's a better idea to use them at the beginning of your turn, when you know you're going to make use of it, than at the end of your turn, when it's just going to delay you. Except for meditate; use that whenever it's up.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
For some unique characters you MAY need a specific character to be in the battle with them.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
There isn't really a great way to gang up on anyone, as each path to the enemies is only one square wide and gives them plenty of room to just gang up and kill my healers and mages. And then the mages are borderline useless anyway since Vyse takes like 1 damage a piece from spells and my knight.
How the fuck do I do this? (And of course, I cannot go back and grind up levels).
In a situation where you can't get your casters close enough to the enemy, try switching their debuffs for buffs so they can still help out.
Another thing to keep in mind is that units RT is lowered by every action they take in a turn. If they move, attack, and use a skill they'll take much longer to get their next turn, which is why you only want to use skills when they're needed. This is most important with your healers, because you always want them up as fast as possible, so if you don't have to, don't move them. The less they do, the faster they'll be healing.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Before that they only really shined for fighting some monsters and buffing/debuffing every so often.
---
Recruiting is a fairly decent way to make money from random battles, since you'll get all of a character's equipment when you do it instead of the usual random junk you'll get from their bags of loot. It's basically what I've been doing to get some money to buy stuff for the secret shop. It's also been really nice for stocking up on tier 2 rings (ring of evasion, ring of vitality, etc.) without having to deal with the pain of crafting.
Auctioning monsters also makes some crafting materials available in the shop (various ores and things) which can help remove just a little bit of the tedium of crafting so I might at least consider upgrading a weapon or two.
But overall, the grind involved with leveling up the recruitment skills would probably outweigh any extra effort that will be required from trying to do whatever you want to with the level 1 versions. Maaaybe consider throwing anatomy or draconology on some appropriate people. Anatomy is possibly somewhat useful as a general skill just for the increased damage.
leveling up your recruit skill isn't really necessary, having one that isn't levels just means you'll spend more turns trying to recruit in general and have to be right next to the thing to even get a good chance. the recruit chances even at Recruit level 1 when adjacent to the unit are still not bad, usually around 25 percent.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I live in a major college town and our Best Buy had no copies on the day of release. We have 3 Gamestops, the one I went to had the game but there had been no pre-orders for it. I was also at one of our Walmarts and they had no copies or spot for it on the shelves.
Has anyone managed to find a copy of the strategy guide in a brick and mortal retail store? The release date online kept getting pushed back but I think some places did ship them out on Friday.
PKMN White FC: 0046 2138 1298
Beast Tamers. And you can't equip both of the skills to recruit beasts and dragons at the same time it is the worst : (
Beast tamers, but they need some levels to unlock it.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
I work nights, so bed time is usually 5am or so for me. Went to bed at 4, thinking i'd give myself some time to play TO before I pass out. Ended up going to bed at like 10:30am, after having to get up and find my charger and plug it in so the psp wouldn't shut off.
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
The secret is to get a good extension cord and have it plugged in all the time.
Dragons are boss, really tanky and have a finisher grade move at 50 TP. Looking forward to getting Empower Dragon and going on a rampage later.
I did finally get through that ridiculous battle last night and then kept playing on into Chapter 3 and man was that a cool twist of fate in the final battle of Chapter 2.
Now I just need to figure out how the fuck to rank up my newer classes. Where's a good spot for random battles other than that forest map with the different sections? The gryphons there just do too much damage for low level guys I'm trying to get up to survive.
Also, has anyone tried skill transferring a completely dead character yet? I'm wondering if spells transfer as well.
Units don't suffer for not doing anything, so just stick your new class in a corner and send out your higher level team.
I've been levelling up classes by just sticking one in the back of my normal battles and letting them hold position the whole time. Again, I've done no grinding at all yet, so it's the easiest way. In chapter 3 my highest level class is 12, my lowest is 9.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
edit: Also, I feel retarded for assuming I was doing the chaos route when in fact, I was doing the law route.
I only got Finishing Moves on Denam and my Archers. My warrior is about to get his. I wish I was playing this right now (damn job...).
edit: Should my mages level up their cudgel skills?
Remember to check the Warren Report once and a while, because, just like the original, there are some story scenes that only appear there. The Talk option unlocks some extra content.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Ok, thats what I thought. So far, lawful is kind of bugging me, so I started over going Chaos.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
You start neutral for chapter 1 at the end you choose
Once you're on the L route you're stuck with it. If you go C, then at the end of chapter 2,
In the original at least, L
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
With the L route, I really want him to just punch some people in the face, and tell them to grow up.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I don't know how people are leveling their weapon skills without any grinding though, the only people I've had increase their weapon rank at all so far are my Archers and that's because they can attack earlier and more often than pretty much any melee classes.
It does make the middle portions of the game quite different for each path, which is nice.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Weapon skills haven't been that much of an issue for me. My archers and Canopus definitely have gotten the most skillups, but my melee classes have gotten a couple ranks as well, although I am mid Chapter 4.
Except my knight. He doesn't really do much except heal and be a Rampart aura wall.
I'm not sure how I feel on where my Wizard's role is. He does less damage than my archers, which doesn't make much sense since he relies on mana and archers don't. So now he's relegated to just debuff spamming, since he can petrify and slow with 100% accuracy.
Yeah, Wizard/Witch/Warlock/Siren make excellent Buffers and Debuffers more than damage.
Strengthen gives a pretty significant boost to attack power, to the tune of 60+ the last time I checked. (On a unit with about 300 attack base)