Retaliation: A Brief Ability Summation of Offensive Defense

Not playing Splinterlands? click here to sign up. Retaliation is an ability in which when attacked a creature will have a fair chance to counter-attack the attacker. Unlike thorns, the damage of this ability is changed by how much damage your creature does as your creature will be the one to throw the attack. Melee buffs and debuff and other creature buffs like Vera Salacia's summoner ability that lends everyone snare. Or the dreaded Yodin Zaku's blast buff. Any sort of rally ability. All of these factors effect the deadliness of your retaliation, but not only in your own lineup. If the enemy has a hard to hit foe, thorns, armor, plated, etc. your retaliation will be effected also. Unlike with thorns (in most situations) retaliation can be more effected by the lineup. Additionally similarly to thorns if NO MELEE attacks are encountered retaliation is unfufilled damage, so retaliation is best suited upon anticipating melee. Now let's get started.

Card First Impressions

The card I used in the battle located here was Stonesplitter Orc.

Having 4 health 1 armor and 3 speed at lvl 1 Stoneplitter Orc hits very hard, especially against
high health low burst damage enemies (Nightmare and Orc Sergeant to name a few). Even though he has low health, due to the nature of the retaliate ability, when that first strong melee attack is hit on the armor of Stoneplitter Orc it can be met by swift recourse. Overall I would say Stoneplitter Orc is a good high damage card for countering, and one of the best retaliators out there. However, any magic damage beyond a certain degree and even at 3 speed Stoneplitter Orc would melt like butter before being able to split any hairs let alone stones. In my particular battle I have a golden copy of the card so it is at lvl 2 for this fight. However even at lvl 1 Stonespliiter Orc is a terrifying prospect to encounter for any melee based enemy lineup.

Placement & Strategy

In the battle located here the enemy utilized 2 team melee debuffs. Reducing by quite a margin the output damage for Stoneplitter Orc, the only thing benefiting my melee units now is the enrage modifier. None the less Stoneplitter Orc deals fair damage at 2 instead of 3 after enrage takes effect. Not being able to take out their front line Stoneplitter Orc eventually succumbs to the bombardment of various backliners and Goblin Mech.

But wait a minute, there is one last trick up my sleeve. Druid grog's (or any other creature for that matter) revival ability gives the unit their default armor aswell. And brings them back at 1 hp. That plus the enrage battle modifier means a very quick and very angry Stoneplitter Orc intent on avenging his own death. In fact the enrage ability lends itself so well to Stoneplitter Orc that at the higher levels it has it inherently.

And before any of the enemy lineup can strike a blow Stoneplitter Orc finishes off goblin mech. Preventing a very nasty 6 damage at a higher speed than any other creature that would've been on the field at the time.

Resting in peace for the final time Stoneplitter Orc had truly won the day this battle. In the rounds to follow the inability to attack when in the frontline and lack of sustainability caused the rest of the enemy lineup to eventually fall. But if Goblin Mech had lead with 6 damage it was unlikely that flesh golem would have acted as any kind of buffer and this would have been a much different outcome. Maybe even a loss.

Takeaway and Talking Tidbits

Overall should you use retaliate is it a good ability? Absolutely. Does it have it's pros and cons? Of course. Can it be countered? You betcha. As you saw in the previous battle it was very nearly countered and rendered inutile, It can also be strengthened and all this can be effected by anything that effects an attack so there are a plethora of possibilities. So this gives you room to find which splinter and which faction and what combination you like the best. This is just one example of a way to use retaliate. Use it the way that fits your summoning style the best.
Keep Summoning and See you in the #Splinterlands