I got bored and wrote down everything I've learned so far.

[Arcwell]

WARNING: The following document is a very large wall of text. Reader discretion is advised.

 

I've decided to write down the "meta" that I've learned playing the Forge beta. I'm currently level 45, my main is Wickerbottom, and I've beaten the Grand Forge Boarrior about 15 times. This is going to include character roles, gameplay tips, as well as a tier list that I guarantee you everyone will disagree with me on. With the tier list in particular, please post any disagreements you have and reasons for them, I would love to hear them.

 

Classes:

- Healer: Provides heal zones whenever possible, must not take aggro

Equips: Crystal Tiara > Woven Garland, Silken Wood Armor, Living Staff

- Tank: Soaks up damage for the team, must not position team in line of fire

Equips: Flower Headband > Blossomed Wreath, Stone Splint Mail > Steadfast Stone Armor

- Runner: Pulls aggro on Boarilla and other enemy groups away from the team

Equips: Feathered Wreath

- Caster: Petrifies groups while providing DPS with fire staff

Equips: Crystal Tiara > Clairvoyant Crown, Silken Wood Armor, Fire Staff (Alternate with tome)

- Dart DPS: Deals constant damage, can swap darts for extra specials

Equips: Barbed Helm > Nox Helm > Resplendent Nox Helm, Jagged Wood Armor, Molten Darts

- Melee DPS: Deals constant damage. Shares a similar role to tank but tries to deal damage more than shrug off hits.

Equips: Barbed Helm > Nox Helm > Resplendent Nox Helm, Jagged Wood Armor > Steadfast Stone Armor

 

Characters & Their Roles:

- Wilson: Healer*, Dart DPS, Runner

- Willow: Dart DPS*, Runner, Caster~

- Wolfgang: Tank*, Melee DPS

- Wendy: Dart DPS

- WX-78: Tank*, Melee DPS

- Wickerbottom: Caster*, Healer

- Woodie: Runner* (vs. single targets), Tank, Melee DPS

- Wes: Runner*, Dart DPS

- Maxwell: Caster*

- Wigfrid: Melee DPS*, Dart DPS, Tank~

- Webber: Dart DPS*, Runner

- Winona: Healer*, Tank, Dart DPS, Runner, Melee DPS~

* = This character is particularly good at this role

~ = This character should avoid this role unless necessary

 

Viability:

S: Wilson, WX-78, Wickerbottom

[Characters are consistent and game-changingly strong]

A: Woodie, Maxwell, Wes, Wolfgang

[Characters are consistent and strong or situational and game-changingly strong]

B: Willow, Webber

[Characters are consistent and mediocre or situational and strong]

C: Winona, Wigfrid

[Characters are consistent but weak or situational and mediocre]

D: Wendy

[Characters are detrimental to the team]

 

Reasons for Viability Rankings:

Wilson: Almost necessary to have at least one per team since 10 seconds is horrendously long to be reviving and reviving a tank without Wilson's extra health generally dooms them to die again immediately or be useless until a heal field goes up.

WX-78: Arguably the best tank since getting hit will cause damage and stun. Stuns also helps vs. spinning turtles or Boarrior charges (I think). 150 Health as opposed to 200 is not a big enough drawback when you're consistently below 100 as a tank.

Wickerbottom: With buffed petrify, you can chain-lock groups of enemies. With buffed meteor, you can deal upwards of 500 damage to groups of enemies, 1-shotting pigs. With buffed heal, you keep tanks alive longer than normal. The damage to achieve this buff is only hard to attain (but not impossible) if you're solely using the book.

Willow: Extra molten dart damage makes Willow compete with Webber for top Dart DPS, though Willow is usually more helpful since Bernie can distract enemies. Bernie CAN be detrimental if you don't manage your aggro correctly, for example pulling pigs away from a heal field you're trying to kite them into.

Woodie: One of the top two runners. He kites the Boarilla without fail (assuming average level player) and can kite Boarrior where Wes cannot. He also functions as a tank that can cancel attacks and gain consistent aggro, but the Lucy throw lacks the shield breaking and long stun that anvil strike provides. Since he fills two roles instead of one, he doesn't work particularly well on a team that already has 2 tanks since there's only 2 steadfast stone armors.

Wes: One of the top two runners. He kites the Boarilla well (assuming you or your team doesn't screw up) and can kite groups of enemies where Woodie cannot. He also functions as a Dart DPS, but has no particular advantages to it besides pulling less aggro. Pulling less aggro can also be an issue if you lose aggro while running enemies around.

Wolfgang: Stays alive longer than any tank due to having 200 HP and damage resist when in mighty form. Mighty form also helps deal with swarms, though the transform and revert animations will take away some of your fighting time and might form can be wasted depending on when it procs.

Maxwell: Highest single target DPS of any character and (possibly) highest stun uptime of any character, albeit only having 75 HP. An average Maxwell will usually have the most deaths if not their team's tank(s) or very bad Wes. The stuns can't be specifically timed to interrupt attacks, though they hit often and last long.

Webber: Competes with Willow for top Dart DPS. Generally outperformed by Willow in utility. Have yet to confirm but spiders supposedly help with filling the runner role (at least on Boarilla).

Winona: Has 10% Cooldown reduction which helps for heal staff. The +50 HP usually doesn't make a difference and I would argue Wilson and Wickerbottom perform the healing role better simply because they have better utility. There are few instances where faster heal field recharge time would be a bigger benefit than another reviving character or stronger heals.

Wendy: Below both Willow and Webber for Dart DPS, Abigail can't tank well, and often aggros enemies you don't want her to.

Wigfrid: Can't tank due to pulling less aggro, her spear does not guard-break (different from shield break) and its special requires you to dash out of melee range. Arguably useful as a dart DPS, though I'm fairly certain Willow and Webber outperform in every instance for damage (even when including team-wide damage). Also worth noting her 25% damage buff (which only lasts for one attack) requires you to be consistently attacking and only procs every 8 hits, not including the hit that triggers the buff.

 

Gameplay notes:

- Every item has its own cooldown. If for instance there are 4 Barrage Darts on the floor, you can barrage, pick up a new dart, barrage, pick up a new dart, barrage, etc.

- The team should always focus the same target. Targets that are not being focused should be controlled through Tome of Petrification or Living Staff

- Order of focus should be Battle standard > Pit Pig > Crocommander > Scorpeon > Snortoise > Boarilla > Grand Forge Boarrior. Exceptions can be made when higher priority targets are petrified. Some will argue Crocommanders are higher priority targets than Pit Pigs, though I've yet to see much of a difference so long as one is focused.

- Battle Standards make all enemies take half damage.

- The player with the Feathered Wreath should take out Battle Standards on the opposite side of the arena

- On both the all-Snortoise wave and the all-Scorpeon wave, the caster and runner should work together to control the 2 groups that the party is not focusing. The runner should kite the 2 enemy groups together, then the caster should petrify the combined group. Remember to kite the group towards the caster, so they can anticipate their movement and petrify correctly.

- When fighting Snortoises, do not change focus. They will only spin when they're at low health, which deals massive damage. If you change focus when one hides or spins, they will eventually all get to low health, and all start spinning.

- When fighting Scorpeons, make sure your melees are flanking. This way, they won't both be hit by 1 acid attack.

- On the first Boarilla wave, let the runner kite the Boarilla while the rest of the team deals with the 2 Scorpeons and Snortoises.

- The second Boarilla wave has the following spawn mechanics:

- A Crocommander and 3 Pit Pigs will spawn center when the first Boarilla takes enough damage

- When the first Boarilla dies, a Crocommander and 3 Pit Pigs will spawn center, while 1 Scorpeon and 1 Snortoise will spawn on each side.

- When the second Boarilla takes enough damage, the Grand Forge Boarrior will spawn. This means that you should avoid damaging the second Boarilla until ALL enemies are dead.

- The healer should always place the heal centered on the Grand Forge Boarrior. In his last phase, the Grand Forge Boarrior will deliberately avoid the heal zone.

- When the healer is casting the heal zone, the entire team should cease fire, let the Grand Forge Boarrior sleep, and then go in to heal.

- When the Grand Forge Boarrior has taken enough damage, he will spawn 4 Pit Pigs on each spawn as well as 4 Battle Standards

- The easiest way to deal with this phase is to place a heal around the center, kite all the Pit Pigs into the heal, and then have your fire staff user cast a meteor on it around the end. An upgraded Wickerbottom meteor will 1-shot Pit Pigs while a normal one will severely damage them enough to be picked off easily.

- During the Grand Forge Boarrior's last phase, the main priority becomes keeping him stationary. If he is not standing still in the heal field when it goes up, the entire team will lose their heal for one cycle.

[Sinister_Fang]

29 minutes ago, Arcwell said:

D: Wigfrid

I think you're really, really underestimating Wigfrid here. Simply having her in your team increases eveyone's dps. And all she has to do is hold down F to trigger the buff...

[Arcwell]

The reason I rated Wigfrid so low is that she is a melee character who draws aggro poorly. That, and her special has a set distance it dashes, which often means she loses aggro when she uses it. The damage buff is effective, but it only lasts for one attack, which can even be wasted on a Boarilla/Snortoise shield.

[Mr Pig]

 

2 hours ago, Arcwell said:

C: Woodie, Winona

[Characters that work in their respective niches]

Woodie, niche? really?

He has an axe throw with almost no cooldown that can shut almost any attack from almost any enemy if timed properly which also guarantees the target to aggro Woodie. It makes him in my opinion one of the best tanks due to the fact that he can entirely shutdown attacks with skilled timing and without that timing can still distract any enemy to attack him instead of someone else. 

[Toroic]

Woodie and Wx are rated far, far too low.  Wx has extra stuns which are amazing all the time and Woodie is a fantastic tank, dps, and runner.

Woodie can stop spinning turtles with a lucy toss, has the highest attack speed, and 200 hp.

[Arcwell]

I called Woodie niche because of his role as both a tank and a runner, which are entirely different roles that I would argue Wolfgang and Wes perform better. I haven't noticed the axe throw being a guaranteed aggro, is that actually the case? If so, he's certainly much better than I rated him. Still loses out on damage when his axe isn't in hand and can't anvil strike shielded enemies, though.

WX is rated A, how is that low? WX is great, I just didn't put him in S because he has 150 health as opposed to 200.

[Spaartan]

Wendy is good because she has a good skin  (No seriously someone needs to buff Wendy)

[Syfik]

19 minutes ago, Toros said:

Woodie and Wx are rated far, far too low.  Wx has extra stuns which are amazing all the time and Woodie is a fantastic tank, dps, and runner.

Woodie can stop spinning turtles with a lucy toss, has the highest attack speed, and 200 hp.

If your team is focusing one turtle at a time (which they should be) canceling the spin almost doesn't matter. Also Wes and other dart classes are better for being Monkeybait simply because they fire faster giving them more time to run from an attack. And if you're doing everything right you don't need the axe to gain agro. Also he was saying that they aren't bad but other characters do their Job better. Wes is an overall better "runner", Wolfgang out damages and out tanks them, and more often then not your team has enough CC for Woodie's axe throw to not matter. 

[Eren189]

Oh Hey! didnt we play together on that server where we beat the forge twice?

[Superlucas1231]

3 hours ago, Arcwell said:

D: Wendy, Wigfrid

[Outperformed by other characters in their respective roles]

Sorry, but I feel like putting Wendy and Wigfrid on the same teir is insulting at best. 

Wigfred, while she isn't the best at tanking, can still help out the team. I mean, she can flip those turtles so everyone has a more easier time with them AND boost the dmg of other characters, which can enable Wicker to deal a massive 500+ AOE with a charged fire staff.

...And then there is Wendy. 

Every single character in the game out performs her in ever single class out there

Healer? Willson, Winona, and Wicker are better.

Mage? Wicker, Maxwell, and Willow are better.

Use abby as a tank? Bernie is better.

DPS dart? Webber and Willow can do better etc. 

There is zero reason why you should even consider picking Wendy besides "best girl" and other minor reasons.

46 minutes ago, Mr Pig said:

Woodie, niche? really?

It's hard for me to say that he's a good runner due to the fact that he starts out with wood armor; meaning he doesn't get that extra speed boost unless he trades a Webber or someone else for it. As for a tank, His axe can only hit one enemy at a time, and while the cooldown is pretty fast, you're better off with just having a wolf or any other meleer use their special to aggro a group of enemies then just that one. 

Don't get me wrong, though; Woodie is still a great runner.

If you have a Webber who gladly trade armor tho.

[Arcwell]

Did some testing with Woodie. The attack speed is almost identical to a normal melee class, but the axe throw is (I'm fairly certain) guaranteed to aggro, even when another melee is hitting the target. For that reason I'm moving Woodie up. Granted, the melee should almost always have aggro in the first place, so he's only moving up one tier.

I still don't feel that Wigfrid is worthwhile. Wickerbottom can achieve 500+ damage without Wigfrid's battle cry, it's hard to time, and turtles can easily be dealt with if you have a good runner. Granted, I duo-queue with a Wes main, and good runners aren't always easy to come by. For those instances Wigfrid would work well, but outside of that, not worthwhile in my opinion.

[Toroic]

3 minutes ago, Arcwell said:

Did some testing with Woodie. The attack speed is almost identical to a normal melee class, but the axe throw is (I'm fairly certain) guaranteed to aggro, even when another melee is hitting the target. For that reason I'm moving Woodie up. Granted, the melee should almost always have aggro in the first place, so he's only moving up one tier.

I still don't feel that Wigfrid is worthwhile. Wickerbottom can achieve 500+ damage without Wigfrid's battle cry, it's hard to time, and turtles can easily be dealt with if you have a good runner. Granted, I duo-queue with a Wes main, and good runners aren't always easy to come by. For those instances Wigfrid would work well, but outside of that, not worthwhile in my opinion.

If you separated characters into pub dullard lists and people who know what they’re doing, Woodie is great because he’s versatile and good at fixing the mistakes others make.

 

I agree he falls off when you have skilled Wes runners and a Wx tank that can breathe.

[minespatch]

1 hour ago, Mr Pig said:

He has an axe throw with almost no cooldown that can shut almost any attack from almost any enemy if timed properly which also guarantees the target to aggro Woodie

I can back up on this from seeing several playthroughs from quickmatches. Woodie and Wes share similar purposes and I'm glad they both can do aggro.

[Ffwrnyn]

18 minutes ago, minespatch said:

I can back up on this from seeing several playthroughs from quickmatches. Woodie and Wes share similar purposes and I'm glad they both can do aggro.

As a level 30 Woodie main, I have to say-- Wes and Woodie can both kite excellently. Personally, I prefer to use Woodie because I'm more comfortable with his higher health + ability to draw aggro quickly, but either one can work.

[Arcwell]

Thanks for the comments so far, guys. I'm seeing Woodie in a much better light now, while I thought he was almost unusable when I made this thread.

Still don't think Wigfrid is very useful, maybe someone could enlighten me on that.

[Toroic]

58 minutes ago, Arcwell said:

Thanks for the comments so far, guys. I'm seeing Woodie in a much better light now, while I thought he was almost unusable when I made this thread.

Still don't think Wigfrid is very useful, maybe someone could enlighten me on that.

She boosts everyone else’s dps and her ability to flip turtles with her spear is pretty good I guess?

Personally I’m not super impressed because that ability is only good against one of the easier enemies.

[Squake]

1 hour ago, Arcwell said:

Still don't think Wigfrid is very useful, maybe someone could enlighten me on that.

As a Wig main I can tell you that her ability to use darts makes her the only melee class to not die 5-6 times on whatever the scorpions are called now wave, and she can switch between floor weapons and pound out specials faster than a Winona with the tiara and silken armor (citation needed.) The less aggro is also very nice for when everyone's attacking the Boarilla or Boarrior, since you get hit far less and can contribute more damage due to not being dead. The DPS boost is also just nice in general-makes for a far quicker Boarilla/Boarrior fight if you have a cohesive team. I've noticed that things tend to go down quicker with a Wig on the team. 

I wouldn't say she's S or even A material, but after playing her for just about all of the Forge I'd place her at B. Outclassed at being tank/melee/dart melee, but no other character provides DPS bonus for the whole team and no other character can switch between darts/melee, which is enough to make her a decent choice. 

[Arcwell]

Worth noting that Winona, Wilson, and Wes can all switch between darts and melee (and staff), though I can understand that aggro reduction (plus the fact that 2 of those characters don't have melee weapons) make Wigfrid the best candidate for dart-switching. Still, anyone who can use darts can switch specials.

One thing I am curious about is the exact nature of the battle-cry. I don't play Wigfrid very often, but from what I've tested, it seems to activate every 8 hits (no damage armor/helm), but only when continuously firing. Progress to battle-cry seems to decay when you don't attack. Since specials do large amounts of damage quickly but require cease-fire to switch, do they speed up or slow down the process of building battle-cry?

[Syfik]

1 hour ago, Squake said:

As a Wig main I can tell you that her ability to use darts makes her the only melee class to not die 5-6 times on whatever the scorpions are called now wave

This isn't an issue when you have a decent Runner on your team. 

[Tumalu]

Wes is fine for kiting the boarilla, but the real kicker is he can't do much with the boarrior due to having no HP and being actively bad at taking aggro from others. Once the boarillas are done, he's just ranged DPS. HOWEVER, honestly, just the fast revive ability is decent enough as dps. (It's offset by having low HP, but it's decent. I don't mind a wes in the party at all!)

Woodie makes running the boarilla easy, imo, even if you haven't before. Not starting with speed armor is a thing but it's generally around- and once you're a good kiter you don't even really NEED it (though I'd use it if it's around). Woodie just has more margin for error since he's got double Wes's HP for messing up and getting hit, and if you lose aggro, you can instantly regain it with one toss- Wes struggles to regain aggro if it's lost.

But that's boarilla. Boarrior is the tricky part and Wes can't run/tank him, but Woodie can. Woodie's got 200 hp and regularly tossing lucy will make him usually target Woodie (a feat no one else can replicate)- he can quickly run boarrior off in a pinch, and tosses can stun him out of attacks. I don't mind Woodie+Wes because Wes can run boarillas and leave Woodie free to take tank equips the whole match and not worry about having to find them when it's boarrior time.

Woodie with 90% armor can pull Boarrior into a corner and facetank while spamming toss to keep aggro- this makes the fight much easier with no coordination necessary. He stays in place to easily sleep him, and only Woodie should get hit enough to die (and heal cooldown should be over by then)- sleeping fails and random deaths are run-ending problems on later boarrior phases and Woodie really mitigates them.

"But any tank does this!" It's the consistency. The low CD and consistent aggro steal on lucy toss makes a huge difference. And the -only- person who needs to do their job well for it to work is Woodie, making it easier to win with random people.

Woodie is easily party VIP if they know how to handle boarrior. At that point you start loving stuff like having a Maxwell because they shouldn't get hit by boarrior anymore and add more precious stun time with the duelists to make tanking easier, which is actually VERY helpful. (Maxwell will contribute notably more stun than anyone else and it's -great-, best dps on the side isn't bad either) Woodie can also conveniently let one player slot duo as runner and tank, leaving your party setup a little more conveniently open for whatever people feel like choosing.

 

As an aside, I really like Wicker healer because her spell boost works on healing for really strong heals, and she can juggle heal staff and petrification tome for extra support. If you're a Winona who picks up the heal bonus crown instead of double cd items, you may as well be choosing Wickerbottom with double cd equips as she heals more than Winona with same cooldown on double cd armor plus can petrify. My friend tested and the effect of CD items seems to be WHEN YOU CAST THE SPECIAL, not via holding it, so it's fine to drop heal staff- you're still getting the full cooldown reduction effect. (Winona's extra hp and potential 30% cooldown still make her a decent healer choice, though. And Wilson healer is good if it means the team has TWO wilsons instead of one.)

[Arcwell]

You mentioned Woodie being able to throw Lucy to keep aggro on the Boarrior. Does that Lucy aggro prevent other members of the party from being targeted by the Boarrior's line AoE attack? In my experience, he will focus that completely randomly, though I haven't had a woodie face-chucking at the thing the entire time. If the Lucy throw doesn't prevent the line AoE, then yeah, every other tank can do that. When a tank has lost aggro (which only happens when they die), they can regain it with anvil strike. IF, however, the Lucy throw DOES prevent the line AoE, that is game-changing. Would really like to hear back on this if you know the answer.

[RancorSnp]

1 hour ago, Arcwell said:

You mentioned Woodie being able to throw Lucy to keep aggro on the Boarrior. Does that Lucy aggro prevent other members of the party from being targeted by the Boarrior's line AoE attack? In my experience, he will focus that completely randomly, though I haven't had a woodie face-chucking at the thing the entire time. If the Lucy throw doesn't prevent the line AoE, then yeah, every other tank can do that. When a tank has lost aggro (which only happens when they die), they can regain it with anvil strike. IF, however, the Lucy throw DOES prevent the line AoE, that is game-changing. Would really like to hear back on this if you know the answer.

It does. All woodie has to is not have anyone behind him. That's incredibly easy even in a 100% random first time playing people. 

If someone is trying to get hit by running behind you even though they get hit just move boarior to the edge of the map. Woodie never loses aggro because aggro from lucy toss lasts longer than cooldown on it.

[Atkvin]

Personally, I don't see how Winona is a bad tank at all. In fact she's an even better tank than Wolfgang since she has the same amount of health, same starting loadout, ability to switch between weapons so she doesn't die to acid, and her perk is way better. Never has that 10 seconds of Mighty Wolfgang before dying served a meaningful purpose for me. And for the argument that she could be better used healing or whatnot, you can just have more than one to do that job.

As for the Wigfridge argument, I just find her a fun and quirky character to play! You start out getting some melee action before switching to darts, juggling weapons and giving a small push with warcry every few hits. Unlike the other all-round characters who have perks that encourage other roles(reviver, healer, runner), her perk just encourages you to juggle all you can and keep whacking and shooting and having fun while you're at it.

Also, this is probably just because I had the most practice with her, but her special is also the easiest for me to interrupt a spinning Snortoise. Just that I have to get hit before charging in the direction it goes. (Okay well, maybe not easiest, but most certainly the most satisfying.) Not sure on this, but I believe it also stuns Snortoises for a short while if you don't hit them immediately afterwards.

[Toroic]

I’m not sure why people are talking about dying to scorpions as melee like that’s a given.

Have you considered just... not going in melee range?  Scorpions are the easiest enemy to fight if you just kite and attack from range.  It’s a little slower but poison/acid seems to ignore armor.

[PillsStealer]

What I like to do when I’m wigfrid is gather all the snortoise then stun them with her special. Usually a wickerbottom follows up (after a few seconds) to petrify them. Nice little combo to separate 1 turtle from the other.

As for the scorpions, I go darts. They don’t have a way to catch up.

Then I like to go tank when fighting the boarilla. Holding f often gives a lot of battlecries

 

Plus I really like her Gladiator skin.