Introduction

This guide gives an explanation of the importance of damage boosts vs attack, defense, health boosts in King of Avalon, and a list of how to improve Bowmen Damage.

Explanation of Basics

Attack, Defense and Health are the basic stats each troop type has that are relevant for combat and they can be improved in many different ways.

In a battle the difference between attack of one player and defense of another player determines the basic damage that is done and together with the health of your troops the damage done determines how many troops die.

The exact formulas have not been published by the game makers and you will find that even when total defense of one player is higher than total attack of another player some small losses will be taken.

One battle actually contains of many subbattles, if we can call them that, and there is also some randomness involved, as you can for example see with Royal Arena subsequent battles can have different results.

When looking at Attack, Defense and Health a lack in stats and buffs can be compensated by larger amount of troops, basically no matter how large the difference in boost is, you can theoretically compensate it by large amount of troops. Even large amount of lower tier troops.

Damage and Damage Received/Reduction

In the description in the previous paragraph we can consider that the basic damage based on the difference in Attack and Defense there is 100%. The Damage related buffs of the attacker increase this value and the Damage Received/Reduction buffs of the defender decrease this amount.

This part of the combat calculation is not directly related to the amount of troops you have, which means that extreme differences in Damage related buffs between attacker and defender can result in very weird battle reports. We probably all have seen those crazy reports coming by where a player with very high damage reduction buffs attacks a small player with 1 troop, and the troop doesn't die because his damage reduction buffs totally cancel out any incoming damage.

Because of the way this works, the damage and damage reduction boosts are very important. With superior Damage and Damage reduction boosts you can win against players with much higher Attack, Defense Health stats.

Ways to get Damage and Damage Received/Reduction boosts

The main focus will be Bowmen Damage in this section, but often the other damage related boosts are achieved in a similar way, so I will point that out as well.

Building Prestige Levels are a very important way to get Damage related buffs. The Watchtower gives Bowmen Damage, Embassy Cavalry Damage, Forge Infantry Damage, Trap Factory Army Damage, Trading Post Bowmen Damage Received, Wishing Well Cavalry Damage Received, Wall Infantry Damage Received, Storehouse Army Damage Received. You might consider focusing on these instead of the ones providing Attack, Defense and Health buffs. You only get the damage/damage reduction boosts until building level 30, so it should be quite easy to max these.

From Range and Stables level 41 onwards you can get a bit of Bowmen/Cavalry Damage and Bowmen/Cavalry Damage received with each level to a total of 5%.

For gear all sets from Deathseeker onwards give the same Damage and Damage Reduction boosts: 30% Damage Received buffs for all Troop Types plus another 50% Army Damage Received, 30% Damage for All Troop Types and 50% Army Damage. Note that for the sets after Ice Lord you the damage and damage reduction boosts have become part of the set bonus, which means you need to have a complete Smith Mark set to get damage and damage reduction boosts from your gear. So never mix Deathseeker or Ice Lord with the new Smith Mark gear.

The Dragon Skills are another good way to get Damage related buffs. The two Flaming Arrows Dragon Skills provide Bowmen Damage buffs against Infantry and Cavalry and the two Cavalry Claw Skills provide Cavalry Damage buffs against Infantry and Bowmen. The two Infantry Backbone dragon skills provide Damage Reduction boosts of the Bowmen and Cavalry against Infantry. At higher level the Flaming Arrow against Cavalry also provides general Bowmen Damage and the Cavalry Claw against Bowmen provides general Cavalry damage. It is very important to max these, which means getting your Dragon to a high level, which is quite hard, but worth it.

Heroes are also a reasonable source for Damage related boosts. Here you have to pay attention, as newer heroes are not always providing better boosts, especially if they prove hard to upgrade. I have the Royal Return set of King Arthurs Soul, Sir Baudwin and Elaine of Garlot. Their individual boosts do not contain damage, but as a set, all 5 stars, I get 20% Bowmen Damage Received, 25% Infantry Damage Received and 25% Cavalry Damage. This is quite simple, relatively easy to get as a low/non spender and no real alternative for those hero council slots.

The second set of heroes, Sword and Shield, is more tricky. Yes, if you have a complete 5 star set it is interesting as you get 25% Bowmen Damage, 30% Army Damage, and 20% Cavalry Damage Received reduction. In my experience this is actually not so easy to achieve, and if you only have 3 stars are worse, I am not convinced it is better than the easier alternative. Just looking at the damage related boosts 3 star Sword and Shield with the Red Knight, Accolon of Gaul and Sebile gives 17.5% Bowmen Damage, 20% Army Damage and 15% Cavalry Damage Received reduction. What I use is Sir Agravain, Tristan and Sir Kay 5 star. Sir Kay and Tristan dont give any damage related boosts, but Sir Agravain gives 22% Bowmen Damage and 26.4% Army Damage, no cavalry damage received reduction, but from an inflicting damage point of view much better. Since in my eyes Damage related boosts are so important, you should only trade in your Sir Agravain for the Sword and Shield set once you reach 5 stars.

I haven't looked at the Monarch Strike Hero set yet.

The Dragon Spirit Skills provide some relatively small Damage buffs. These are maxed at Dragon Spirit lvl 40 with 8% Bowmen/Cavalry vs Infantry Damage and Infantry vs Bowmen/Cavalry Damage Reduction.

The Mage Dragon Spirit Talent tree also provides a total of 5% Army Damage (called Troop Damage).

In the Undead Trader you can purchase 4 accolades giving you 10% extra bowmen, cavalry and infantry damage and 10% army damage. I guess purchasing the infantry damage one does add little benefit. They are valid for 7 days and I always make sure to purchase them when active.

Recently new Alliance Research was introduced that provided new damage buffs as well. It is not much, but when maxed it can provide you with 5% (0.5% + 1.5% + 3%) Bowmen, Cavalry, Infantry and Siege Damage. I am urging my alliance to focus on the Bowmen Damage and Cavalry Damage first, although there are also quite nice Attack, Defense and Health boosts to get.

Note that the heroes King Arthurs Soul and the Red Knight also have some damage related special skill, but I leave this out of the list because it is not simply a damage buff.

I think these should be complete, but in case I missed any, please let me know in the comment section.

Breakdown of Damage Boosts

Just for the Army Damage, Bowmen Damage, and Cavalry Damage I have provided a breakdown how you can increase it.

Note that for Army Damage can be temporary higher with 5% if you are the king and 20% if you occupy bliss castle in Season Map event.

Conclusion

I do hope this guide helps to understand the results of combat and helps in focussing the development of your account to do better. If you have amy questions, or any further tips or explanations, please share.