Weekly Path Adventure - Ruination, Hunting and Monkeys
Path Database writer Conansson walks you through this week's Path adventure.
Hello, my name is Conansson, you might know me from the Path Database, the Path Ratings or the unofficial Legends of Runeterra Rulebook. I’m going to walk you through this week’s Path adventure featuring GP, Fizz and Azir.
Starlight Portal - 1,5 Star Gangplank
The first Special Rule is a power that is available through the Ethereal Remitter node in the actual game. Both sides having access to Ruination means that you have to reconsider when to develop and when to open - attack, since the AI can wipe your board at any time. However, you also get a way to come back if you lost the board.
Ultimately, the power is very random and some games, the AI just doesn’t draw the Ruination. My recommendation would be someone who isn’t focused on building a big board and even has advantages from units dying, like Gwen or Jhin. Most fights are just midrange battles and the AI is very bad at getting value from Ruination, using it immediately when it falls behind on the board.
I did this fight with a Level 1 Star 1 Leona with the Challenger Relic to level her up since I still need a Targon 3 Star adventure win.
First fight: Rivershaper
This fight is a little annoying since the opponent’s Rivershaper can lead to them drawing into Ruination easier and they delay your gameplan with Concussive Palm. Don’t get frustrated and you should pull through.
First choice: Eye vs Broadmane
While the Eye fight has lots of recalls and small increments of Lifesteal, Lord Broadmane is a bit more aggressive with Stun units like Spell Slinger and Arachnoid Sentry. I still fought him because the Dragonling swarm can be hard to break through until you eventually get ruinated.
Second Choice: Zephyr Sage vs Squeaker
Both these fights don’t have any spells and just play a bunch of units. I went vs the Squeaker since it has a really hard time ever activating it’s power, but there isn’t a big difference. Even if you fall behind on the board, you can have the Ruination to catch up.
Fiora Miniboss
Fiora is one of the more common Minibosses. Remember that she only has Confront, Cataclysm and Fiora’s Riposte as interaction and you can easily outstat her. Even if she’s close to winning the game, don’t give up as you might find a Ruination off the top.
Third Choice: Fae Bladetwirler vs Kindly Tavernkeeper
This one was very easy for me as I find the constant Stun from Fae Bladetwirler very annoying, so I went against Kindly Tavernkeeper. The enemies now have 2 Mana Gems at the start, but even if you fall behind to big Regeneration units, you can always reset the board.
Fourth Choice: Astute Academic vs Herald of Spring
The Astute Academic fight is very scary since it can basically build a full board on the first turn, especially with the Vicious Enemy Power. I decided to fight the Herald of Springs instead, which is yet another board swarm fight my Daybreak units could outstat.
Final Boss: Gangplank
Be careful with Gangplank, as this is the original version that immediately summons the Dreadway. Trying to build up a big board to OTK him is also risky due to the Ruination. I prioritized removal for GP and kept Sunburst in the opening hand, however, my draws weren’t the best.
However, the power of Ruination allowed me to come back and after the Foe wasted two Ruinations on a single Spellshield unit, a big board of Daybreak units managed to kill GP in a single turn, denying him the Dreadway.
Overall, the AI doesn’t really use the Ruination at all and if it tries to, it fails horribly by just wasting it, so the Special Rule becomes a “Get out of Jail” - card for the player. Definetly possible to beat at a low level.
Shadow Portal: 1,5 Star Fizz
This adventure rewards the player for going in with a Freljord champion, so I decided to try out my Ashe at 2 Stars and Level 11 with Laurent Bladerack. The foe tries to get value out of the second Power by being quite aggressive, so be aware of that.
First Fight: Jagged Taskmaster
This foe tries to swarm you down with 1 cost - followers, but they aren’t even summoned attacking, causing the AI to jump - attack for no reason. In combination with the cost reduction, this fight was over in no time.
First Choice : Eye of the Dragon vs Jagged Butcher
The Eye fight is always annoying since you get spammed with Dragonling chumpblockers, so I recommend taking on the symetrical Jagged Butcher encounter. Don’t focus too much on hitting the Plunder, just playing units on curve will be more than enough.
Second Choice: Monkey Idol vs Marai Songstress
I always dislike fighting Monkey Idol, because it will result in guaranteed chip damage that can then trigger the enemy special power. Instead, I took on Marai Songstress. The symetrical power helps to prevent damage and random spells are not enough to keep up with the Freljord cost reduction.
Miniboss: Tahm Kench
This miniboss is a nerfed version of the final boss from the Bard 2 - Star fight. It focuses on damaged units in combination with heling spells. Watch out for the 3/3 Challenger Boxtopus with Nab 1 and for Tahm Kench, who will be a 4/10 when coming down. A good midrange curve with Challengers is still able to win the board and close out the game, for example with Ashe Level 2.
Third Choice: Zephyr Sage vs Petty Officer
Fights will now have 2 mana crystals at game start. Zephyr Sage will try a handbuff strategy, but has no useful spells to interact with you. Petty Officer is usually the easier fight since you can use the spell they give you to kill the Powder Kegs.
Fourth Choice: Boom Baboon vs Riptide Rex
While Riptide Rex is well known from the Gangplank adventure as the go wide - strategy randomly bombarding the board, Boom Baboon is a less known encounter from Garen’s 2 Star adventure. The Flame Chompers of the Foe have +2/+0, but if you prevent the AI from attacking, their power does nothing.
Final Boss: Fizz
This final boss is actually from the Lee Sin 2 Star adventure and focuses on spells. Fizz and all the other Bilgewater elusives can trigger the Special Power, however, my deck was just way too powerful at this point to even care about the random spells Fizz kept playing and Frostbites shut down the attackers.
One big final swing with Ashe Level 2 closed out the match. Honestly, this adventure felt far easier than the first 1,5 Star - fight, especially if you consider the Freljord cost reduction that you get for free.
Dark Star Portal: Azir 4 Star
This is the first 4 - Star adventure we ever got and boy, those powers look scary. a 4/1 Overwhelm Powder Monkey each turn is quite scary. The obvious choice here is Jinx, which can just pop the Monkey by playing a card each turn, but I wanted a bit of a challenge and went with 3 Star Level 18 Yasuo.
The Stun at Round Start prevents Monkeys from attacking during the opponent’s turn, but you still need some way to stop the Chip damage from the Last Breath - ability.
First Fight: Sparring Student
The first fight is a classic: Sparring Student with the summon - buff. This fight seems insanely hard if you can’t answer the Powder Monkeys which will be 5/2s. Outside of that, the enemy has no useful spells and just flings Blade Dances at you. The Stuns from my Star Power stopped the Monkeys and Fae Bladetwirler eventually grew big enough to close out the game, but this fight still took me down to 25.
Immediately after the fight, I got offered a healing card, which is quite essential in this run.
First Choice: Eye vs Fae Bladetwirler
At this point, there was no more escape: We had to choose one of the two annyoing fights. I decided to go for the Eye of the Dragon since my Blade’s Edge power made it easier to deal with the Dragonlings and since the Yasuo can’t really go wide enough to survive losing one unit to stuns each round. This depends on the champ you play though. My way to victory was once again Fae Bladetwirler, but not before I healed up with Brood Awakening. Life total in the end: 26.
I picked up more healing cards in the next shop to counteract the pings.
Second choice: Herald of Spring vs Crimosn Aristocrat
This choice is pretty funny since Crimson Aristocrat would normally not appear on this route, but with how the Powers work, it will kill off the Powder Monkey at Round Start. However, my key win conditions in Yasuo and Fae Bladetwirler would get whittled down by the power, so I chose to move to Herald of Spring instead. Since the Monkey got stunned each round, the support group didn’t have a good support target until Yasuo came and wiped everyone out. I still took some damage, leaving me at 19.
I then got yet another heal from the Item Chest, which made me confident to skip the healer and go for my third power (Bouncing Blades, Duelist, New Student).
Miniboss: Jhin
Jhin is a very special miniboss in Vi’s adventure with a completely different AI then most Path fights. He will very often just let damage through to create the Blade’s Edges in order to level up Jhin very fast and will mostly just use them on your Nexus.
His deck is full of aggressive units with skills, so be careful if you haven’t found any healing. He also has a variety of removal spells in Mystic Shot, Vile Feast and 1x Thermogenic Beam. and Jhin himself has Spellshield.
In my own fight, I didn’t find Yasuo for quite some time. but stuns, heals and the Blade’s Edge power helped me hold on. I never attacked unless it was with Challengers and managed to run Jhin out of cards without Yasuo. Once he showed up on turn 9, two attacks for 16 cleared out the Miniboss.
Third Choice: Swole Squirrel vs Astute Academic
For the final Path, there is an interesting choice (from Lulu’s 2 Star adventure) that you can, after fighting the Vicious enemy, immediately move towards the final boss Azir.
Between these two encounters, Swole Squirrel is obviously the easier one. The Academic usually starts the battle by summoning 4 - 5 units, especially if it is on 4 starting mana gems. I would generally advise going for the normal route, however, if you have no healing and would get worn down by Powder Monkeys, you can go directly to Azir.
Swole squirrel is a joke fight playingbasically only units and helping you out with it’s power. My Yasuo grew really bigand finished the game when he came down on round 4.
Fourth Choice: Greenglade Caretaker vs Yeti Yearling
Both of these fights awaken traumatizing experiences from the two 3 - Star adventures, however, both of them are in their nerfed versions (no Nabbing Yetis and weaker Power). I would recommend going for Yetis if you rely on killing the Powder Monkeys since Barrier will protect them. Otherwise, Greenglade Caretaker would probably the easier one.
I went for Yetis though since there was an epic champion node behind it. Once Yasuo came down, all the Yetis just evaporated, allowing me to leave the node at full health.
Final Boss: Azir
Time for the final boss, which is one of the most hated fights in Path of Champions 2.0. Aggresive playstyle is required since Azir’s Sand Soldiers and powder monkeys threaten a lot of damage. However, Arise! and Rite of Dominance can stall out the fight.
Funnily enough, this fight is arguably easier since the Sand Soldiers are only 3/1s and not 4/2s. My deck was way too strong though, making Azir waste an Emperor’s Divide on round 5 just to not die to my Yasuo. Tempest Blade cleared all the Sand soldiers and Azir failed to ever break through.
In the end, one big Yasuo swing lead to my Victory at 34 health. You definetly had to have a strategy prepared for this one, but I would have expected just a bit more difficulty from a 4 - Star adventure.
Ultimately, this week’s adventures were a blast and I really enjoyed doing this writeup. If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading and I hope that this will help you in your own Path of Champions adventures. See you in the future!