Bloons TD 6 - Ice Monkey Tower EXP Run Version 31
Version 30 bugfixed Embrittlement to no longer do anything to Whites/Zebras without damaging them. I have to adjust to as much as well as a price increase to Icicles which apparently needed it despite completely relying on the Icicles to do anything to blimps. So I am having to get creative. Thankfully, the bulk of frustration is really no further than Round 40, not that getting complacent past that point is a good idea, but most of my failures is from how touchy everything until Round 40 is.
I do better understand Ice's early game balance. The following points get involved:
-Quincy, the least expensive Hero, can't pop Frozen Bloons without explosive arrows from his L7. He can shoot Whites/Zebras to give the Ice guys something to work with, but this applies with any Hero, although Quincy does have range and enough attack speed to reasonably clip them often enough.
-Ice is actually meant to be group control, although some leeway with spaced bloon control in comparison to Ace is intended. Still, the asking base price of $500 is fair in that regard.
-M1/B2 Ice may effectively infinite until Whites/Zebras get involved, but it has to catch the bloons first to even manage it. Pinks at the very least are bound to slip past. Extra Ice Towers became preferable until leaks would stop being a problem.
-Further compounding on the above, in the presence of Rainbows, Ceramics, and blimps, White and Zebras will not be prioritized by Strong targeting. Splash damage usage by the Hero is advised to keep this in check to reduce the risk of a singular White getting cheeky and laughing at all your defenses.
-Don't forget about Cold Snap; it's Ice's method to get rid of Leads early on to keep them from getting past Quincy's bow, and the Camo hitting is nice as well. Also make sure the Cold Snap availability isn't minimal, because it won't control all of the Round 28 Leads without additional factors.
-Finally, Ice already does nothing against blimps without specific upgrades, so it's best to get rid of any blimps at first convenience. I still needed the T1/M2 Sniper for the one on Round 40 as well; remember that any towers on the field other than Ice or the Hero will take for themselves Tower EXP from Ice proportional to the cost usage percent.
That said, I do still have to call the Tier 2 balancing into question. Cold Snap doesn't help at all if there are no Leads or Camos involved. Enhanced Freeze only does anything if there's any other towers capable of popping Frozen bloons, and is badly attenuated by Ceramics and any affected blimps. And Re-Freeze is capable of being VERY good and it won't need middle crosspath IF there are other Ice Towers in the area. So...uh...yeah. Gotta fix that, NinjaKiwi. Also, I think Icicles (the B4 upgrade) should be able to target blimps if it is going to cost more, even if any direct hitting of blimps should be marginalized to be mainly for damage purposes.
But at least this could help show when ice is nice.