War Metal[]
Analysis[]
When Viral Clusters were first introduced, they were designed to be a counter to the War Chip structure Cloning Laboratory, which could heal a nice amount for every Infantry unit in the player's active force. As such, Viral Clusters (Biotoxin) gave a chance to prevent healing (6-8) and to deal damage to each player for each active Infantry unit.
With the then forthcoming introduction of the Asphodel Vanguard Epic Boss, the developers changed Viral Cluster to its current state, which includes blocking an enemy Infantry unit and having a set amount of anti-healing ability.
For PvP, Viral Clusters are mainly only useful against opponents who use an Infantry-heavy force in their active formation. For players not using War Chip structures, Viral Clusters have some use as an anti-heal unit, either in the players active formation or brought in via the Fortify boost.
For Epic Boss events, Viral Clusters have a bit more usage, especially for players not using War Chip structures. In Epics such as Kraken & Titan where the EMP is not active or in a Cataclysm where the Atomizer is not active, Viral Clusters 4-anti-heal per attack can be very helpful. For Epics like Behemoth and Sentinel, the same is true since both Epics healing factor cannot be otherwise prevented.
However, a Viral Cluster unit should NEVER replace a structure that either does greater than 4-damage per attack OR a structure that brings in a reinforcement unit that does greater than 4-damage per attack, factoring in the structure's reinforcement proc rate. For example, if you have SkyCom or SkyCom Neuro-Core as structures, you would use them instead of Viral Clusters because they both do more damage than Viral Cluster recovers with anti-heal.
Viral Cluster's main usage will come from the Asphodel Vanguard Epic as this is a MUST HAVE unit for that fight, both in terms of jamming Asphodel Infantry units and in preventing healing.
Todd-sama 2011Apr23@10:37:47(UTC)