Is TH8.5 Useless?

[TankSinatra]

I've gone 8.5 with my mini, and preach it to my clan after first experiencing the opposite strategy. When wars started up we had a nice undefeated streak, followed by a long losing streak facing tougher opponents. We figured out the problem was a bunch of us going th9 at the same time & dropping xbows, drawing mature th9s opponents that we couldn't keep up with on offense. To make matters worse we had a th10 preemie - inferno towers but th8 offense and pink walls, exact opposite of the th9.5 strategy.
Definitely don't understand the haters, if you think its overpowered emulate it. If you think its useless chuckle to yourself while you beat us (good luck with that). You're not *****ing if you choose to max out your mortars before building the second blower, I'm not *****ing if I want to buff out walls before I drop xbows.

[FisherPrice]

Not useless at all.

[NioTheDreamer]

Their are different breeds of this strategy.


I personally did it as a Th8. I maxed offense before doing much with defense.

I hit Air Defenses (damn dragons) and then focused on offense. As my offense got up to snuff I did teslas, then wizard towers - either long or very useful upgrades.



But once I could hit the typical Th8, I dropped the strategy and upgraded everything. (I didn't think golems level 2 would dramatically change my 3 star ratio).


I think its a good way to transition until you get to that point where you have the fire power to hit another maxed base of your level - once you do - upgrade those defenses! They do matter

[FisherPrice]

Technically he was always a th9 and even if you build Xbows a .5 knows that you should keep them level 1. You need to remember that defence buildings will always weight more than heros/walls. A Tougher match or moving up a couple spots doesn't matter to a .5 because they can basically 3 star any Th9
which is exactly the point of .5 being able to three star any th9. Why is that so hard to comprehend?



i agree, i checked out some of the complainers clash profiles and they don't even have solid war troops.

I don't see how building xbows but keeping them lvl1 makes any sense at all, whatsoever. Level 1 xbows have a very high weight and pretty much suck in actual use.

I also find it in accurate to say "a .5 can basically 3 star any TH9". I mean...lol. Very few TH9's can basically three star any TH9, let alone a transitional 8.5.

[jonthepirate]

I think there is some value in it if you war a lot. I'm doing a hybrid TH9.75 now (everything but the new xbow) and it has helped a lot. We get some slightly unfair matchups in war, but it's clear that my matchups are easier since I have low level xbows an am missing my other one.

for TH8.5 I always recommend adding the air defense. that's a game changer for war defenses.

Max loons, and queen are super nice to have. Really helps. I did it and recommend ppl do it. I also farm up high where shields are easy and people will take a TH pop instead of wiping you most of the time, so defending from raids was not a huge factor.

[Dresden]

I'm probably too late in this thread to actually contribute anything to the discussion, but I did some experimenting with 8.5 these last 3 weeks, and I can tell you that it doesn't make a difference whatsoever. Keep in mind I wasn't maxed TH8 - I still had some pink walls, not a single skull wall, and a lot of my troops still needed upgrading.

First, I started into TH9 with just getting my spell factory upgraded and put my AQ down. The first matchup I got was a maxed TH8 who rushed to TH10 with all towers except infernos. Even though it was rushed, his base still had more DPS and HP than I could reasonably handle within 3 mins. Not being particularly happy about the matchup, I decided I'd give it another shot, and if I get an unfavorable matchup again, I'm going to put my other towers down. I got matched with a new-ish TH9 this time, but he had all towers down and upgraded to TH8 levels. A little easier to deal with, but still unfavorable.

I decided it was time to throw down everything I could except the xbows to see how that affected my matchups. It made no difference - I was still getting paired up with either rushed TH10s or TH9s that were at least somewhat ahead of me. At the same time, my base was desperately needing those Xbows to counter the AQs I was now having to deal with to try and keep my opponent from 2-starring me. I said screw it, and I put both Xbows down.

It made no difference. Exact same kinds of matchups, except now, I was defending better. I kept note of my "war weight" throughout the process, and before going to TH9, I was at 58. After going to TH9 with AQ and Spells, I was at 60. After putting all towers and xbows down, I'm at 62. My opponents through the entire process have been 62-66.

[Aramil]

I see no benefit in this whole x.5 thing. You are an easy target for farming and an easy target in high level wars.

You would have to be in a clan with everyone x.5 for it to work out...

[dansta31]

people can say what they want, but you need to consider that war match making in a whole is based on the composition of a clan. If 1 person does 8.5, it may not sway that much in your favor. But if you have a decent amount of people attempting the strategy will yield much better results.

[Jessio]

I'm another who see the .5 thing as a waste of time especially 8.5. I expect my th8's to 3 star all other th8's and if they can't my th9's will do it on clean up.

[webbie]

I think there are different views on what constitutes an 8.5.

I started with spell factory, army camps, cc, lab first. Loons were my first upgrade and I dropped the xbows about the time they finished (so 2 weeks into th9).

Until that time I was a th8 with an AQ on offense so I was in no rush to drop the heavily weighted xbows and I don't feel bad or cowardly about that. I just made sure my defense didn't outpace my offense

Some people go basically full lavas lvl 20 queen before dropping anything and I think that falls more into the gaming the system (or cowardice) when it is done to those extreme levels.