Complete TH8 research or upgrade to TH9 once all defences done?

Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a dilemma right now. In short, my defences will be done in about 25 days if I keep 4 builders busy, plus 10 days for the TH9 upgrade itself, so total 35 days. But my lab research still has about 60 days left to complete. So should I keep my builders idle while lab research completes, or just go to TH9 and leave out the upgrades I am least likely to use? I am keeping 1 builder free as I still need about 140 more skull walls.

The long version. These are the research left at TH8, ignoring Healer:

The upgrades that I will definitely do (39 days):
- Pekka Lvl 3
- Golem lvl 2
- Rage spell lvl 5
- Lightning spell lvl 5
- Wallbreaker lvl 5

The upgrades I will skip if I don't complete all TH8 research (25 days):
- Loon lvl 5
- Goblins lvl 5
- Minions lvl 3 and 4

I war seriously, but I also farm regularly. I want to progress fast, but also be good in wars. As a TH8, I have mostly used mass dragons with the occasional hog attack, even with lvl 4 hogs.

Keeping builders idle for a month seems criminal, but leaving out TH8 research will restrict my options at TH9. What do you recommend and why? I already gemmed a 12 day lab upgrade, but I am not sure if I will have enough gems to gem another one.

make sure you do the research for troops and spells that you use, which it looks like you have planned. Max all buildings, including walls. Then upgrade your TH.

At TH9 there are more buildings days than lab days so you will have time to catch up.

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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Originally Posted by Swam

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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Maxing out defs and walls is obvious, but maxing out research for troops you don't use makes no sense imho.

Especially if that means leaving builders inactive, it will create a huge delay for nothing...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Swam

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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no need if he is going to use those troops. However if he is then I agree

If your serious about war don't skip the balloons. They become decent at lv5 but are a beast at lv 6. pair them with minions and a lavahound and you can win a lot of battles. A lot of people here will tell you to max everything at th 8. Im in the same situation as you. Got 3-4 weeks left on defense and 75 walls left to get to skull so my walls will be done by the weekend then just cannons and at left. I'm gonna get as much research done as i can and probably gonna skip the remaining de research till th 9. Most here say De is easier to get at th 9 with 2 max drills. Other than that it sounds like a good plan.

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Originally Posted by Jayrock

If your serious about war don't skip the balloons. They become decent at lv5 but are a beast at lv 6. pair them with minions and a lavahound and you can win a lot of battles. A lot of people here will tell you to max everything at th 8. Im in the same situation as you. Got 3-4 weeks left on defense and 75 walls left to get to skull so my walls will be done by the weekend then just cannons and at left. I'm gonna get as much research done as i can and probably gonna skip the remaining de research till th 9. Most here say De is easier to get at th 9 with 2 max drills. Other than that it sounds like a good plan.

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I would leave the golem and lightning and do loons and minions. Then do golems from L1 to L4 at TH9, but all people attack differently.

maxing out troops at each level depends on a few things imo. if someday you want to be truely maxxed out at th10 then i would say do then before upgrading th. if you want to get as high as you can as quickly as you can then only max the ones you use, but do bare in mind that this will change as you progress and you will use other troops in different situations other than you do now. as far as maxxing out goes then loot becomes more scarse the higher you go esp th10.

i also have a theory about clan wars. you overall troop strength is taken into account during match making. so to eventually upgrade those troops to max that you do not use will match you up against higher lvl clans. i have never used hogs but i have maxxed hogs so that would put me in the higher categorie.

i do plan on being truely maxxed out but my troops alone will probably take another 120 days to complete without using gems. at th10 with all but AD maxxed out that is a long time. but still at least it will give plenty of time for walls and heors :)

Read sharonsyms thread

First of all, thanks for the replies especially those with detailed arguments.

Another point I should mention is that my first 3 upgrades at th9 are likely to be barbarians and archers for farming and then giants for DE farming. Then I will ficus on war troops.

I am leaning towards leaving out loons, minions and goblins. Hoping for more replies to takr a finsl decision :)