Mastering the Up Close & Personal Ruleset: Using Demoralize to Weaken Enemy Melee Attacks

Hello, fellow Splinterlands players! How are you doing at the end of this battle season? Today, I want to share a personal experience about a new strategy I tried in combat. This is part of the weekly Splinterlands challenge, and this time, I’m giving you a sneak peek of my strategy in a battle with the UP CLOSE & PERSONAL ruleset. Just from the name, it already sounds exciting, doesn’t it? This ruleset only allows monsters with melee attacks to be used in battle.

Before jumping in, I thought, “What can I do to counter the enemy’s melee attacks?” Clearly, I needed a strategy to weaken them. Otherwise, my monsters could easily be wiped out by the brutal melee attacks from the opponent. Then, I had an idea—focusing on the Demoralize ability. For those who aren’t familiar, Demoralize is a skill that reduces the melee attack power of the enemy. So, if the opponent has a lot of melee monsters, this effect can significantly weaken their attacks.

First Impressions and Expectations

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical at first. The Up Close & Personal ruleset forces the battle to revolve around close-range attacks, so I thought that counter-attack strategies like Thorns or monsters with Shield would dominate. But I also knew that weakening the opponent early on would be key. By reducing their attack power, I hoped my team could survive long enough to launch effective counter-attacks.

Strategy and Formation

For this battle, I chose monsters that could apply the Demoralize effect to the enemy. My two favorite monsters for this role are Harklaw and Disintegrator. Not only can they weaken the enemy’s melee attacks, but they also have solid melee power themselves, making them a perfect fit for the Up Close & Personal ruleset.

Here’s the formation I used in the battle:

• Summoner: Quix The Devious (Level 3)
• Tank: Djinn Chwala (Level 5) – Thorns and Enrage abilities
• Second Tank: Carnage Titan (Level 3) – Reach and Double Strike
• Support: Disintegrator (Level 3) – Demoralize
• Sneak Attacker: Dhampir Infiltrator (Level 6) – Sneak, Double Strike, and Cripple
• Sneak Attacker 2: Uraeus (Level 4) – Sneak and Poison
• Defensive Backline: Harklaw (Level 3) – Shield, Immunity, and Demoralize

The main goal of this formation was to reduce the melee attack power of the enemy using Demoralize, while making sure that Dhampir Infiltrator and Uraeus could strike at the enemy’s backline with their sneak attacks. I placed Harklaw in the last position to defend against any sneak attackers from the opponent. With his shield and immunity, he was well-prepared to withstand sneaky backline attacks.

Key Moments

Once the battle started, I immediately saw the impact of the Demoralize strategy. The opponent’s normally devastating melee attacks became much more manageable. Djinn Chwala, in particular, held his ground in the front line, surviving longer thanks to the enemy’s reduced attack power. With his Thorns and Enrage abilities, each hit he took actually turned into a disadvantage for the enemy.

The most surprising moment came when the opponent’s Drybone Raider used the Shatter ability to break my monsters’ shields. However, because their melee attacks were already weakened by Demoralize, the damage wasn’t as catastrophic as I had feared. The real threat was the opponent’s gladiator, Marisol Contuma, with her Bloodlust ability. Every time she took down one of my monsters, her power increased, which could have easily turned the tide of the battle.

But luck was on my side. Harklaw successfully held off the enemy’s sneak attacks, while Dhampir Infiltrator and Uraeus swiftly took out the opponent’s backline monsters.

👉 LINK BATTLE 👈

Conclusion and Reflection

When the battle ended, I felt extremely satisfied with this strategy. Using Demoralize made a huge difference, especially in a ruleset that heavily relies on melee attacks like Up Close & Personal. The combination of Harklaw and Disintegrator to weaken the enemy’s attacks, along with the sneak assaults from Dhampir Infiltrator and Uraeus, proved to be highly effective.

The strength of this strategy lies in its ability to reduce the pressure from the enemy’s melee attacks, giving your team more time to launch counter-attacks. However, the downside is that if the opponent has monsters with abilities like Shatter or Bloodlust, as I faced, things can get a bit tricky. Nevertheless, this formation shines in situations where melee attacks dominate, especially in rulesets like Up Close & Personal.

So, for my fellow Splinterlands players looking for a strategy that can endure in the face of brutal melee combat, I highly recommend this formation! I hope this article gives you another solid strategy to try out in your Splinterlands battles.

Stay motivated and happy battling in Splinterlands!

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