The formula used for determining your troop power is square root (attack * defense * health) The system determines that above all else and who has a lower score loses the battle and 80 percent of what he threw on the table. Attack HP and defense mater separately after that is determined to calculate how much the winner loses.

So yea for defending you should go with defense and more health to lose less, that is if you win. However me personally would look at having as much of all stats as possible in any given situation so I'd go with the sword it gives me more of total like attack and defense than the serrated blade who would give me just more health at a greater cost of attack and defense. Its a minor thing tho won't make much of a difference anyhow. 

The formula used for determining your troop power is square root (attack * defense * health) The system determines that above all else and who has a lower score loses the battle and 80 percent of what he threw on the table. Attack HP and defense mater separately after that is determined to calculate how much the winner loses.

So yea for defending you should go with defense and more health to lose less, that is if you win. However me personally would look at having as much of all stats as possible in any given situation so I'd go with the sword it gives me more of total like attack and defense than the serrated blade who would give me just more health at a greater cost of attack and defense. Its a minor thing tho won't make much of a difference anyhow. 

Laird Brinni said:

 Have I understood you correctly.

almost... the most important of what he say is "its a minor thing"

at low level, gear is important, each % count but at more high level, it is research who do the trick...

the attack/health/defense when all is count together can be huge... in the 500% in my case... so, a few % difference on gear don't change a lot the outcome...

as you can see below, a few spy with the right research can exterminate million of not well train spy... the few % in gear will not have change the outcome a lot, if at all...

Rocketman said:

In my opinion, best way to get materials - farm 6 lvl invaders.

You probably mean kill lvl 6 invaders... but the word "farm" remember me of a way to have material if you don't have energy... yield invader tile...

It is slower but cost nothing and yielding make points in plenty of event

For barbarian/centurion material, you can only have it when you yield the special lvl 7 tile after a winning kvkr... there is a table somewhere on this forum with what material you can found on tile lvl 7

i am below 40k for uber invader and i kill only these now, mainly for the special gem who boost research and construction that usual invader don't drop

Laird Brinni said:

... I prefer to have equal stats for all my troops, If I had all cavalry troops with stronghold cavalry Armour and I was attacked by just Melee troops with Stronghold melee Armour they would have a massive 50% bonus against my cavalry troops.

... so for I can only get epic from an umber invader and my max attack is 445%

the problem with all type of troops is research... you cannot research everything for all type of troop unless you burn your credit card

in my example, i have loose only 66k t1 archer... and he was with horse... in defense, a good saturation do the jobs... for attack, it is something else... it is why my other speciality is spy... never, i will attack a guy, same a little one who is specialist in horse...

normally, with 445% you can have legendary material from uber... the attack % is one thing, more give better mat but a other thing important is the critical hit... for any invader, a critical hit give a material above the usual lvl... it is why you have epic from lvl 4, it happen when you do critical hit... you level of critical hit is probably not enough for uber...

my own stat are ( without my royal guardsman legendary gear ) and the 20% scroll booster :

- attack in serie 40 ( 600% ) ( allow to increase power of hit and give better reward when high )

- critical hit 57.5% ( give a reward above normal when hit )

- reduced invader defense 69.85% ( reduce energie needed for attack )

- hero offense 208.6% ( increase power from hit and reward, so less energy for fully kill a invader too )

usualy, i need around 40k energy for a uber... and begin to receive legendary material for normal when i reach 125%

don't ask for a formula, i don't know... but these 4 variable are important... the little 20% from scroll too... all research, gear, hero skill are additive... but bonus from scroll is multiplicative...

my offense is 208.6%... if i put my full royal guardsman gear... total 208.6+ 6 * 4.4 = 235%

my offense is 208.6%... forget to put my royal gurdsman gear but activate the scroll 20%... total 208.6 * 1.2 =  250.32%

my offense is 208.6%... put gear and activate scroll 20%... total 235 * 1.2 =  282%

welcome to vikings war of clans... a game who seem simple but who have in fact a very complex game mechanic... where little thing can make a huge difference

Didn't read all topic attentively but did someone already write about runes ?

There is few very good ones for scout (but not only on def tho) : Night Veil (Leg 32% scout offence), Iron Vill (9% scout def), Vengeance (9% scout health).

And if smb said about Gems there’re Morganite (12% scout def from Langobard)  and Zircon (12% scout health from Avarin)

Yes runes are the new game changer and are very important, however they are more useful in attack rather than defense but still very good for defense.

I recently got runes ranging from rare to epic, legendary runes are something for the truly rich people at this point. 

Having 12 rare attack runes in my hero gear and my shaman attacking gear is 12*19.20 percent which is huge, my ratios when attacking now improved a lot. For lynx I use the HP and defense runes it also helps but not as much as attack runes.

These are some recent hits on tiles where people were setting traps (which I think is very bad to set traps on tiles). I made a mistake while selecting troops in the first hit, went for 100k t4 but but ended up with 30k and lost some t6. The thing is first hit the guy had comparable rsrch I had maybe just a little more defense and health than him but runes in attack absolutely turn the ratios up for the attacker.

Yes runes are the new game changer and are very important, however they are more useful in attack rather than defense but still very good for defense.

I recently got runes ranging from rare to epic, legendary runes are something for the truly rich people at this point. 

Having 12 rare attack runes in my hero gear and my shaman attacking gear is 12*19.20 percent which is huge, my ratios when attacking now improved a lot. For lynx I use the HP and defense runes it also helps but not as much as attack runes.

These are some recent hits on tiles where people were setting traps (which I think is very bad to set traps on tiles). I made a mistake while selecting troops in the first hit, went for 100k t4 but but ended up with 30k and lost some t6. The thing is first hit the guy had comparable rsrch I had maybe just a little more defense and health than him but runes in attack absolutely turn the ratios up for the attacker.

Laird Brinni said:

Impressive I have a long way to go before I reach that kind of level I'm only at palace 23 with hero level 52 I only have one piece of Armour at the moment the Jarl's  helmet for food production, I only want legendary equipment so it will be some time before I have Lynx, Saracen and Sigurd Armour's but the wait will be worth it I think.

As to level up the hero you can craft certain rare or epic equipments which offers increased hero experience. Then buy that 41k pack from store which gives 2.5mil x 2 book of hero experience and apply them. I get 19.6mil of exp just from opening 1 2.5mil exp book and also dot forgot to put 25% hero exp boost.

As for you purchasing $4.99 pack is bad. Wait for 8 weeks and have 2.5mil energy pack for $9.99 and if there is supposed to be any day to be celebrated like we have right now you can have marvelous packs. Attaching SS of those below. But remember that dont waste money on energy which all had done at some point of time. First Do every important knowledge in invader section and get your invader gear First. I can kill 1 uber at 48-50k energy and 1 lvl 6 invader at 19-21k. And i am attaching another SS of my hero when i was at lvl55 and i had 600% sustain attack bonus.Hope it helps

That first energy pack listed WOW!!!  I usually get the second pack listed as my 2 months don't seem to line up with holidays:(

That first energy pack listed WOW!!!  I usually get the second pack listed as my 2 months don't seem to line up with holidays:(

My uber killing set is set-up like yours, for my farm/bank accounts I move the sustained attack points to total energy as they only attack lv. 1 or 2 and this gives them more time to gather points.

That first energy pack listed WOW!!!  I usually get the second pack listed as my 2 months don't seem to line up with holidays:(

I have separate special hero gear for my spies and my melee, but I have killed a lot of invaders/ubers over the last year.  With the shaman now available don't forget about them, especially now that they have more equipment choices.  With a hero/shaman combo you now can have 12 pieces of gear helping you in attacking/defense/spy/learning/building etc. and that my be more valuable to you right now than having a separate hero set for scouts.

I have separate special hero gear for my spies and my melee, but I have killed a lot of invaders/ubers over the last year.  With the shaman now available don't forget about them, especially now that they have more equipment choices.  With a hero/shaman combo you now can have 12 pieces of gear helping you in attacking/defense/spy/learning/building etc. and that my be more valuable to you right now than having a separate hero set for scouts.

@LairdBrinni

Yes ofc I have separate sets for everything. I use siege and melee 75m troops total. I have all the sh gear for development production and so on but  from troop gear just siege gear, melee gear and scout gear along with shaman sets of gear to go with it. But those are only for hits or for pop defense or for trapping in another town. When I drop my shield and pretend I'm offline I put lynx on and swallow couple of OSs.

Important to remember for when you use lynx is that you should put extra skills in scout health and scout defense if possible because if you are a bigger player ppl tend to scout you more often then they will actually attack, some might assume you are in sh special gear like melee. And in general we tend to have less scouts than we have troops so it helps. I personally have 12m t1 scouts 4m t4 and around 3mt5 and I never needed more, but will train more in the future.

Also assuming you have a lvl 60 bagi the big it is wise to invest in Ulf the brave for up to stage 4, his skills cover the two amulets spaces a stage 6 Bagi the big has. For stage 5 and 6 of Ulf or Vendla you will need more money. If you already did your essential research go for it but if not first do that then go invest there. 

Laird Brinni said:

Fantastic advice I have now gone from 2 hero sets to 4 I will make a 5th Hero set when I have enough skill points to put into Scouts. My Hero Set were just Military and Economic but I now have a set for rss yielding and  a set for Building Learning and Training . Now that I have 4 sets I don't think my 54 remaining hero activation set will last long. With my military set I don't have enough points to go troop specific  for attacking yet I am only at hero 53 I have Enemy Troop Health, Defense and Offense maxed out, Troop Health II and Troop Defense II Maxed out, Troop Health I is at 10/15 Troop Defense I is at 5/15 and Troop Offense I is at 3/5. once I reach Hero 54 I will have an extra 18 points to max out Troop Health I and Troop Defense I then I will go troop specific, Hopefully by then we will have the 4 extra shamans for Killer, Siege, Cavalry and Ranged  and at least one of the shamans will have infirmary capacity like Inga the wise does.

Thats great that you have done sets for different things(which is wise to do)...tho i would suggest that do those BIG 6 military knowledge at lvl11-12/15 and leave them there until u get big enough for rss needs. And for points i would suggest that leave offense for now until you have specific troop type. Offense is least counted compared to health and defense. So max out troop health and troop defense and then go for specific troop health and then its defense and then its offense. Which i did with my hero sets.

Which rune you will use will depend on how you want to use your spies.  As on offensive weapon use Night Veil, as more of a spy trap then Vengeance or Iron will.