The X.5 Methodology

[Noir12]

Nice Topic, Thanks

Thank you for your kind words!

Btw reeeeally sorry ♥♥♥♥♥, brain farted and I wrote 3 stars, when in actual fact I rated it 5. >.<

Haha, I was a little confused, admittedly. I actually thought you were being sarcastic
Then I figured "maybe he's like a restaurant critic for the Michelin Guide or something?" And took the 3 stars as a compliment :P

[Harrisman24]

Haha, I was a little confused, admittedly. I actually thought you were being sarcastic
Then I figured "maybe he's like a restaurant critic for the Michelin Guide or something?" And took the 3 stars as a compliment :P

That woud be an awesome explanation however sadly I am not. Just a harmless brain fart.

[NioTheDreamer]

I am trying .5 with my alt account. Its the bottom of the heap currently in War.

As far as giving up the 3 star, that's a wash being the bottom base. But trying to get myself an opponent I can 3 star is pretty much my hope.

I've been maxing traps and upgrading walls. The traps seem a particularly good investment, they allow you to seem weaker while packing a few wild cards into a base.

Pretty much blows up attack 2 since traps are revealed, but holding off one attack when at the bottom is good.

As far as drawing a good opponent I'd say results are mixed. Initially it was a tough go for sure. Being a maxed Th7 I seemed unlikely to draw a th7 as a counterpart.

But it does seem help help draw a fellow 7.5 (8.5... not sure here, I am Th8 with my alt) .5 base. When it works, its nice. When it doesn't it makes the sacrifices to be that a pain. I had forgotten how slow offense advances when compared to defense.

If in a health clan I'd recommend taking a month off and just focusing on offense/walls/traps, but that is me.

[sbauer9]

I wonder how much perceived benefit the player is getting by holding his ranking in the clan low versus real benefit to the clan by making the war more winnable. I assume in most clans you are compared to the clan members around your ranking on the war map and a player whose offensive is much more developed than there defense is going to appear better than they really are.

If you end up on the war map at #20 and can easily 3 star your mirror while your mirror struggle to 2 star you, you are going to seem like a hero but if the offense means you really counted more like #15 and everyone above you got a harder war because of it are you really helping the clan?

I think it is impossible to say without more details of how much offense really matters to match making but I am suspicious as it certainly benefits the player and assuming supercell has the matchmaking right will not benefit the clan.

[Xitra]

I don't see how you can separate #4 with thx.5, they both follow the same concept of gaming the matchmaking system by intentionally lowering your weighting. Although the extent is completely different they are fundamentally the same thing aren't they?

You make a good point, Gama321, and I've added the following to the post: "They may stem from the same principles revolving around engineering the MMR, but Minmaxers take it to extremes which are irrelevant to the X.5 discussion, and they do not share the same goals as X.5s"

Basically, I am certain that the goal of these players is to exploit the MMR utterly for free wins. Letting them stomp TH7's with a maxed GoWiWi. That sort of business. It's not at all what X.5 is about.

I think that taking 8.5 to the extreme is a wee bit of "gaming the system". Maxing out heroes and walls before starting a single defensive upgrade, while maxing out all war offense (including research) is comparable to people that do defenseless accounts.

However, a smart .5 approach isn't gaming the system, it's just smart. At TH9, you can have two level 1 X-Bows in the first week, and two maxed (for TH9) X-Bows in the first month. Those X-Bows are going to count as about half of the defensive power available for a TH9, but cost a small fraction of the upgrade time.

However, the minimum time to max out lavaloonion is 35 days, and that's if you don't upgrade your farming troops first (which I personally would). The time to max out golems and witches is even longer. So to max out either of your 3* armies takes longer than the time it takes to make your MMR place you in the path of those same 3* armies.

Ideally, to be "fair", you'd want to get that 3* army at about the same time that you'll be facing it, which means you want to upgrade your defenses a little slower than your offense. X-Bows probably need to wait at least a couple weeks. However, you'll also want at least a few wars to practice that 3* army on a somewhat weaker (not weak, just weaker) opponent. Otherwise, you'll have yourself an expensive 1* strat.

[Scuba061]

What the? The really good guide got merged? I understand compiling the same topic, but the one it got merged into is a TERRIBLE explanation of X.5. The guy basically gave the benefits of rushing and now a lot of really good advice is lost in the middle likely never to be seen.

[Pete82]

What the? The really good guide got merged? I understand compiling the same topic, but the one it got merged into is a TERRIBLE explanation of X.5. The guy basically gave the benefits of rushing and now a lot of really good advice is lost in the middle likely never to be seen.

Yeah I have to agree, this was not a good merge.

[Harrisman24]

Yeah I have to agree, this was not a good merge.

Totally agree, not a good merger.

[ThePeskyDingo]

What is my TH1 with all offense maxed? It just has a lvl 1 cannon. a TH0.5 base?

Also, what is my Th6 called with only a level 1 cannon and all offense maxed?

[xAlex21]

It's basically a way to have an advantage one way or another. The real advantage is for war, which to me makes up about 30% of the gameplay right now. That to me is a lot of focus for 2 attacks per war and the amount of defends you will get. I am th10 with max de troops and most elixer troops. I am now almost done with Legos and lvl 20 heroes. I probably have 1 person per season try and really attack me in crystal 2. They usually get 30% or worse. So I'll take my nearly max defense for farming over usually getting 1 star in war against me. I would also assume those players lose out on a good deal of loot from getting wrecked on normal defends for raids.