I do not know why this combo is still alive after so long, but its easily the most unfair tactical nuke in the game and an easy "I win" button against 90% of the builds. there is almost no counterplay, aside from very specific highly mobile or ranged units (Plus points for the MG with unsummon ability), assuming the arena you fight in is even big enough. Which it's usually not if the summoner is smart enough to stay in the middle of the map and has something like swap position.
Lets break down why its so unfair.
The Build:
there are a couple of variations for it, but usually you build a classic tanky GS. Your equipment for the most part is whatever you want, and weapons are either 2 Sthenno's for protection ignoring (not just m.armor) 10+25%youkai level acid damage*2 (acid being the hardest to resist element, so everyone is taking atleast 40ish damage from this) per summon or the tandem dagger set, which however needs way more dedicated build and I therefore find less problematic.
Thats basically it already, you are good to go and ruin everyones day. Its really braindead stupid and easy to play. Needs 0 stat investment for its damage, and its autohit, so you can not build Ski entirely and be fine for being even tankier.
Your Basic Gameplan:
You are usually slower than your opponents, so you are in a good position to adjust depending on what your opponent does but generally, your gameplan is moving close to the middle and just setting up your summons. If the opponent is close enough? Bully him with pushing him around with the summons and deal 40-50 Damage per summon in an AoE, meaning this is also very destructive in teamfights. In a small arena, the opponent usually has barely a way to not get hit by this eventually. So you are comfortably setting up your nuke and put pressure on your opponent at the same time.
So different scenarios can play here:
1.) If your opponent has no ways of unsommoning your youkai, they are very unlikely to have enough AoE DPS to murder any of the youkai, or kill like one or two at best. if the are foolish enough to stand their ground to attempt and kill them (or attack the Tanky summoner). GG you win! all your Youkai attack the person, no matter if tank or Dodgy, you will deal damage to them with either evasion ignores from the youkai, or just by attacking him, while getting you summons all in a nice cluster around them. Summon a few extra summons for them to explode on, depending on how much HP they have, you either do that at turn 2 or sometimes if its squishy dodgies you have enough summons by turn 1 to probably kill them or make them a nonethreat atleast. Either way you summon enough so that you still have 3 M left for impact dismiss and skip so all your youkai get into position. Then they get hit after all the chip damage from the whips+all your already summoned youkais attacks for Dimension Resonance damage. Undodgeable 60 elemental damage (based on youkai) which increases by 60 per unsommoned youkai to a maximum of 300 damage to which point its no longer icnreasing but still hits you for 300 per youkai unsommoned. tanks have it a little easier against this one, but dodgies are instantly dead. GG they never stood a chance.
2.) You are smart and get the fuck away from the youkai. If you are melee without ranged options, GG you are now on the defensive at the constant threat of being nuked. If you are ranged you have atleast the abillity to fight back a bit. But thats also playing into the GS's hands. They can just keep setting up an even bigger nuke and wait it out, they might lose a youkai or two during this (though tanky youkai aren't easy to kill in one round), but they nuke overall will still have grown in strength. And when the summoner feels ready to kill them, they use either Skip-> Let all youkai more into the target if needed with double move, plus points if your sub class is tactician and you march ordered them, so they WILL reach the target for certain-> Your turn again and you mass unsummon, all without giving the other person even a chance to react to this.
or if they are a variation with acess to swap position-> use that-> Skip-> same as above just that you can probably land more youkai skills in for even more damage.
3.)If the map is big enough there is actually a small chance for you, if you are highly mobile to get away and kite around this. but one mistake and you are done for. and if the Gs is smart they will be able to force it usually. gust trap does not work however, cause the GS probably just uses wind elemental, and so it backfires to you. same with trying to hide behind cinder tiles. The fire elemental basically just kills you. Ice tiles work somewhat and I assume water too, but you aren't going to set up enough of those to matter.
4.) MG has obviously the biggest advantage here, cause they can just get rid of the incoming nuke entirely.
So yeah, no matter what you do against this, the GS has you always in a pinch. Rushing down the GS? Good luck trying to rush down a Tanky GS, while staying out of nuke range. And even if you do, you still get double turned by all the remaining youkai.
So this is already highly unfair. But wait! there is more!
In a Teamfight, if you have someone set up a Solsphere, or some cinder tiles, you can also add its damage for EACH summon as they bully push you across those tiles. Think your damage is not enough? Have you heard of Deathknighting or Black spirits to further amplify the damage?
What I am trying to say is, the above scenario, which is already nuking the majority of people, is not even nearly its final form. Its Cheap, It has nearly no counterplay, and frankly? Its braindead simple and unfun. If you do not have a specific build to counter that specifically you can already tell from the start of the fight. "Yeah nah, I lost." no matter how well you play.
SO! how do we fix that? I propose something, that sounds like a massive nerf, but I honestly think it would still be OP actually.
Dimension Resonance:
Half its damage. Make it dodgeable.
It will still be probably nuking dodiges cause of the nature of how summoners work. But atleast then people can actually realistcally make a mistake and non insta die. There are still all the shenanigans you can do with field tiles and push bullying, and the 50ish damage per summon are crippling enough.
I can't be the only one who thinks that this is cheap and Overpowered.
Lets break down why its so unfair.
The Build:
there are a couple of variations for it, but usually you build a classic tanky GS. Your equipment for the most part is whatever you want, and weapons are either 2 Sthenno's for protection ignoring (not just m.armor) 10+25%youkai level acid damage*2 (acid being the hardest to resist element, so everyone is taking atleast 40ish damage from this) per summon or the tandem dagger set, which however needs way more dedicated build and I therefore find less problematic.
Thats basically it already, you are good to go and ruin everyones day. Its really braindead stupid and easy to play. Needs 0 stat investment for its damage, and its autohit, so you can not build Ski entirely and be fine for being even tankier.
Your Basic Gameplan:
You are usually slower than your opponents, so you are in a good position to adjust depending on what your opponent does but generally, your gameplan is moving close to the middle and just setting up your summons. If the opponent is close enough? Bully him with pushing him around with the summons and deal 40-50 Damage per summon in an AoE, meaning this is also very destructive in teamfights. In a small arena, the opponent usually has barely a way to not get hit by this eventually. So you are comfortably setting up your nuke and put pressure on your opponent at the same time.
So different scenarios can play here:
1.) If your opponent has no ways of unsommoning your youkai, they are very unlikely to have enough AoE DPS to murder any of the youkai, or kill like one or two at best. if the are foolish enough to stand their ground to attempt and kill them (or attack the Tanky summoner). GG you win! all your Youkai attack the person, no matter if tank or Dodgy, you will deal damage to them with either evasion ignores from the youkai, or just by attacking him, while getting you summons all in a nice cluster around them. Summon a few extra summons for them to explode on, depending on how much HP they have, you either do that at turn 2 or sometimes if its squishy dodgies you have enough summons by turn 1 to probably kill them or make them a nonethreat atleast. Either way you summon enough so that you still have 3 M left for impact dismiss and skip so all your youkai get into position. Then they get hit after all the chip damage from the whips+all your already summoned youkais attacks for Dimension Resonance damage. Undodgeable 60 elemental damage (based on youkai) which increases by 60 per unsommoned youkai to a maximum of 300 damage to which point its no longer icnreasing but still hits you for 300 per youkai unsommoned. tanks have it a little easier against this one, but dodgies are instantly dead. GG they never stood a chance.
2.) You are smart and get the fuck away from the youkai. If you are melee without ranged options, GG you are now on the defensive at the constant threat of being nuked. If you are ranged you have atleast the abillity to fight back a bit. But thats also playing into the GS's hands. They can just keep setting up an even bigger nuke and wait it out, they might lose a youkai or two during this (though tanky youkai aren't easy to kill in one round), but they nuke overall will still have grown in strength. And when the summoner feels ready to kill them, they use either Skip-> Let all youkai more into the target if needed with double move, plus points if your sub class is tactician and you march ordered them, so they WILL reach the target for certain-> Your turn again and you mass unsummon, all without giving the other person even a chance to react to this.
or if they are a variation with acess to swap position-> use that-> Skip-> same as above just that you can probably land more youkai skills in for even more damage.
3.)If the map is big enough there is actually a small chance for you, if you are highly mobile to get away and kite around this. but one mistake and you are done for. and if the Gs is smart they will be able to force it usually. gust trap does not work however, cause the GS probably just uses wind elemental, and so it backfires to you. same with trying to hide behind cinder tiles. The fire elemental basically just kills you. Ice tiles work somewhat and I assume water too, but you aren't going to set up enough of those to matter.
4.) MG has obviously the biggest advantage here, cause they can just get rid of the incoming nuke entirely.
So yeah, no matter what you do against this, the GS has you always in a pinch. Rushing down the GS? Good luck trying to rush down a Tanky GS, while staying out of nuke range. And even if you do, you still get double turned by all the remaining youkai.
So this is already highly unfair. But wait! there is more!
In a Teamfight, if you have someone set up a Solsphere, or some cinder tiles, you can also add its damage for EACH summon as they bully push you across those tiles. Think your damage is not enough? Have you heard of Deathknighting or Black spirits to further amplify the damage?
What I am trying to say is, the above scenario, which is already nuking the majority of people, is not even nearly its final form. Its Cheap, It has nearly no counterplay, and frankly? Its braindead simple and unfun. If you do not have a specific build to counter that specifically you can already tell from the start of the fight. "Yeah nah, I lost." no matter how well you play.
SO! how do we fix that? I propose something, that sounds like a massive nerf, but I honestly think it would still be OP actually.
Dimension Resonance:
Half its damage. Make it dodgeable.
It will still be probably nuking dodiges cause of the nature of how summoners work. But atleast then people can actually realistcally make a mistake and non insta die. There are still all the shenanigans you can do with field tiles and push bullying, and the 50ish damage per summon are crippling enough.
I can't be the only one who thinks that this is cheap and Overpowered.