One of the biggest debates in Game of War is who is the most critical player in an Alliance. Leads, in their big, bruising Stronghold 110s get most of the glory. They fight for the Wonder, lead rallies, and direct most of the action during Kill Events. Traps bring the “Wow” factor when they win against a max player and rack up points for the Alliance every time they get hit. To be sure, both of these roles are critical for any Alliance to be successful. The success of both Lead and Trap accounts, however, is dependent on another type of player.
The unsung heroes in Game of War are the fillers. To most, the role of filler is almost an afterthought. Ponder this, though – can a Lead or Trap truly be successful without effective Fillers? If a Lead sets a rally and no one shows, how effective is your Lead? If you are rallied by a max player, how is your account going to hold up without the reinforcements that a Filler can provide? Fillers are the glue that holds everything we do in Game of War together and it is time to show them some love!
In this article, we will show you how to be an effective Filler in your Alliance by guiding you through what it takes to succeed in this role. Once you have implemented these strategies, your Leads and Traps will love you and you should be able to rack up impressive points during Kill Events while protecting your account.
The first key to being an effective Filler? Protect yourself!
If you want to be effective as a Filler, the first thing you need to work on is making sure that you can take a hit. One of the best ways to “fish” for hits during a Kill Event is to port in with your Alliance while your Lead is rallying. If your Leads are hitting a strong Alliance, other players from that Alliance will port in to reinforce the rally target and, if you are lucky, the target’s Leads will soon arrive to exact revenge for the attacks and hit you!
How do you prepare to take hits? Build Your Stats!
There are a number of places within your account where you build stats. Given how fluid the game is, it is difficult to give you an exact stat percentage to work towards. That being said, the cornerstone of building your stats will always be research, which is where you gain the majority of your stats in the game. The Team RealTips website has a ton of guides you can review to help you figure out what research to focus on. Here are the links to the critical guides you can review:
https://www.gameofwarrealtips.com/am-i-safe-gow/
https://www.gameofwarrealtips.com/building-your-stats-in-the-dragon-war-dimension/
In order to be an effective filler, you want your critical stats as high as possible. To me, the most critical stats for a filler to focus on are Empire Defender Defense, Attack, and Health along with your Type stats. For the current status of the game, stat percentages for Empire Defender Defense, Health, and Attack that you should be working toward as a Filler are shown in the Overall Boosts, below:
For Type Stats, these would be a good starting point:
The obligatory DISCLAIMER – The stats shown here are what I would consider the bare minimum that you should work toward and will protect you against most leads. However, these stats will not hold up against an account that is close to max with a march size of over 20,000,000. If you try to take a rally from a player with these kinds of stats, you will burn and you will lose on points. So don’t try it!
As a Filler, you will also want to focus on maximizing the number of troops that you can send to a rally, a gain that is also available within various research trees, your Hero selection, or, alternatively, via a March Size boost. For my account, at Stronghold 79, my unboosted March size in Hero 3 is 3,450,000 while in Hero 2 it is 3,470,000. When you consider that the average number of troops a stronger lead needs for a full rally is around 20,000,000, you can see that the bigger your march, the more effective you will be as a Filler.
Choose the Right Gear for the Job
When you are filling rallies, what is your goal? Sure, your immediate goal is to score points by filling rallies for your Alliance. Do you also want to gain additional points by enticing hits? If your goal is to entice hits, the gear you chose will play a critical role in whether you are hit so choose wisely.
The current strongest Defense gear in Dragon Dimension is the Elite Marshal Set. If you want to fill rallies without the bother of other players attacking you, this would be the gear to use. While the defense stats on this gear are insane when compared to the next lowest level of defense gear, Obsidian Knight, if you are “showing” this gear in Legendary (Gold), you are communicating to anyone who would hit you that your account is current and unlikely to burn. Here are the complete stats for the Elite Marshal Set, including the Power-Up for the Firebrand weapon that dropped last week:
The next level of gear that you should consider as a Filler is the Obsidian Knight’s Set. Although not the strongest defense gear, it wields impressive stats and will make most Leads think twice about hitting you. You should also consider that the Obsidian Knight’s Set gear has the added complication of the additional boost available to the gear through the Gear Workshop when you level it up to the current max of Level 50. The Base Set stats on the Obsidian Knight’s Set are shown below:
* Pro Trap Tip – If you do not want attackers to see that you have leveled up your Obsidian Knight’s set, switch out one piece of the gear for a piece from another gear set!
The next weakest set of defense gear that should remain in consideration is the Imperial Dragon Set. Although the stats are not impressive, when compared against the Elite Marshal Set or the Obsidian Knight’s Set, if your overall stats are sufficiently high then this gear will still protect you against most Leads. However, showing this gear will probably entice more hits since it gives the appearance that your account is somewhat outdated. That being so, it would be a good choice if you want the additional points that come with being hit while filling rallies. Here are the Base Set stats on the Imperial Dragon Set:
As an added wrinkle to your decision-making, the individual pieces of the Imperial Dragon Set can also be powered up to Level 10 and Leveled up to Level 50 in the Gear Workshop. Unlike Set Gear Leveling, the level at which your individual Imperial Dragon Set pieces are powered to shows any time you wear a piece of that gear.
If your goal as a Filler is to maximize the number of points you obtain while Filling, your best chance of doing so is to play around with your gear. Remember, there is no “perfect” set of gear for trapping. This being so, HAVE FUN WITH YOUR GEAR! Select the gear that accentuates your stats while still enticing hits. This can be accomplished by crafting lower level gear for the stronger defense gear that we have already discussed, mixing both old and new gear, using the Hades Gem in your Fourth Gem Slot to hide your gear or even running attack gear! There are almost no limits with what you can do with gear, assuming you have open gear slots and the materials needed to craft what you want!
Banners? We Don’t Need No Stinking Banners!
What part do banners play for Fillers? Assuming you have your Imperial Banner maxed at Level 10, you have 4 regular banner slots and one special banner slot available for use. Which banners should you use? Setting aside the obvious Banners that you would select for the defensive stats available, there are 3 banners that will help you excel as a Filler. My recommendation is that you make a Banner Preset for when you are filling and include these banners in that preset.
The first banner that you should consider adding to your Banner Preset is the Christmas Special: March Banner. This banner will increase your March Speed by 25%. While this is not a huge increase, it will save you from using at least a few March Speeds while filling.
The second banner to add to your preset is the New Year Special: Returning March Banner. As with the preceding banner, it also increases your March Speed by 25% but applies to the returning march.
The final banner for your consideration can only be used in the special banner slot unlocked by leveling your Imperial Banner to 10. The Special: Overload Banner will increase your March Size by 120,000 troops for a maximum duration of 30 minutes. Given the 2 hour cooldown on this banner, you will only be able to use it sparingly while filling so make it count!
While these 3 banners are not a great addition to your stats as a Filler, they will give you somewhat of an edge. The primary decision you will need to make regarding your banners is whether you want to increase the speed of your march and the number of troops you can donate to a rally versus being able to protect yourself by choosing defensive banners for the slots that are available to you. For me, I select the defense stats over the march stats since I usually only donate my dragons to rallies. A more balanced choice for someone who donates troops would be to select the two March Speed banners and then use two highest Health banners or, alternatively, the highest Health and Defense banners available to you. The same consideration would be present for the special banner slot – if the number of troops you are donating is not critical, select the banner that increases your health or defense stats the most.
Are you a VIP?
Another component of your account that deserves a mention is your VIP level. Your VIP is important as a Filler for two reasons: March Speed and March Size. The higher you have leveled your VIP, the faster your March Speed becomes, and the more troops you can include in your March Size. For example, VIP 120 has an increased March Speed of +187% and an increase in your March Size of +35,000. When you get to VIP 130, those increase to +227% and +200,000 respectively.
Dragon Skilling for Filling
At present, only 5 dragons can be present in a rally. This being so, it is critical that if you are going to use your dragon in rallies that you have it skilled properly. The focus of how you are skilled depends on whether you are participating in Wonder rallies or simple attack rallies. If your dragon is being used for regular rallies, you will want to maximize the skill points you have in the Attack skills. Using the Terra dragon as an example, those skills you would maximize are shown below:
Dragon Spirit skills
Dragon Destruction skills
Dragon Courage skills
Dragon Ego skills (assuming your Lead is sending Cavalry missiles)
Dragon Purge skills
Dragon Spark skills (limited to Terra Dragon Aggression in the middle)
Dragon Essence skills
Dragon Annihilation skills
Dragon Heart skills
Dragon Pride skills
Dragon Eradication skills
If your focus is going to be on filling rallies in the Wonder, you want to maximize all of the stats previously set out and then include the 6 Wonder skills included in the dragon skill tree shown here:
Dragon Carnage skills
Dragon Havoc skills
Remember, you can always shift your Dragon Skill points around if you do not have enough to skill to max. If you must choose between using your skills on individual troop type skills versus Empire Assault Attack, Defense, and Health, my suggestion would be to maximize your type stats first since they are not subject to Debuffs.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
I truly believe that the single most important factor in being a successful Filler is your ability to listen to your Leads. Prior to a Kill Event, your Leads should have communicated any presets (more on that later) they would like you to prepare ahead of time. For example, if your lead intends to run a Synergy boost, they will ask that you create a preset that fills the troops related to the Synergy boost being used. Other Leads may want you to create a preset that is an even mix of Regular or Strategic Troops of a certain tier or missiles that include one Troop Type that could have both Regular or Strategic Troops included in the preset. Remember, it is always good to have a variety of presets set up. The key for any filler is to be able to fill fast so that the rally launches as quickly as possible, thus minimizing the target’s ability to receive reinforcements or to shield before the rally hits.
If your Leads have not communicated the presets that they want ahead of time, your next best skill will be to pay attention to what is called out in Alliance Chat. Assuming you have built a mixture of presents in advance, you will be able to fill the rally faster with the troops needed.
Presets (Not as Useless as you Thought they Were)
As you can see from the previous section, the ability to build and use Presets is important to being a successful Filler. You can manage your presets in your Barracks, the building shown below.
Selecting the Barrack will take you to a screen that looks like this:
Within this screen, you should see a tab for March Presets towards the upper right of the screen as seen below.
When you click on the March Preset tab, you find the March Preset Slots that you can configure to include troops, dragons, and monsters. The screen should look like this:
When you select an open slot, you have the option to add a Title to the Preset (highly recommended that you keep it simple), make the preset your Default (not recommended), whether to include your Hero as part of the march, which dragon you will include (limited to one dragon for now), up to two Monsters per preset and the troops, including Mercenary Troops, that you use in the preset. As a Filler, your focus should be on the Dragon and Troops you select for the preset. The troops available to you are limited to those troops that you have unlocked through research and that are trained in your Barrack.
When setting the number of troops within a given preset, MZ was kind enough to give you two options. As shown below, you can either use the slider to add a certain percentage of a troop type or you can manually enter the percentage in the box on the right.
For my account, I have 10 presets available for use. Given that I typically fill for 3 different Leads, I have divided 9 of my available presets between these 3 Leads and leave one preset for a mix of all T6, Regular and Strategic, that I have available. This set up allows me the flexibility to fill rallies regardless of which Lead is on at any given time during an event. If you play around with your Presets, you will find the combination that works best for you as a Filler in your Alliance. Regardless of the approach you take, you should ensure that you have your presets memorized so that you are sending the right mix of troops and dragons to your lead.
The Mechanics
You are on the game completing your hourly events so that you get the most out of your account (remember what Cinder said about events – https://www.gameofwarrealtips.com/optimize-your-dragon-dimension-events/) when you see a lead post a message in Alliance Chat – Rally Up! What are the steps that you need to take in order to fill that rally? Here is where we put it all together!
There are two ways that you can gain access to a Rally once it has been set. The first way is by selecting the Hall of War, shown below.
To access the available rallies, you simply select the War Rally tab seen here:
Alternatively, when you see a Rally notification show up on your screen you can click on the Alliance button at the bottom of your screen, as shown below:
If there is an active rally, when you click on the Alliance button, you will see a screen that looks similar to this showing a RALLY! banner and an invitation to Donate troops now:
When you Select the RALLY! banner, you are taken to the Alliance War screen that we saw in the Hall of War:
Clicking on the active rally will then bring up a list of open slots within the rally
When you select a slot, you have a choice between the slots that are already unlocked or, more commonly, the Unlock War Slot that allows you to choose between claiming a slot as your own or simply unlocking it for others. Either selection requires Commissions to unlock, which can be purchased for a minimum amount of gold on the fly. The Unlock War Slot looks like this:
Once you have claimed your slot, you will see a screen that looks like this:
There is a lot of information available to you on this screen. The first component you will see at the top is the Troop Status for Battle information. This functions to tell you the number of troops and dragons you can donate or have donated, the length of time it will take for your troops to arrive in the Lead’s stronghold, and any boosts that you have applied to your March.
The next component of this screen that is of importance are your Presets. You can select between any of the Presets you have already created. If you see a preset with a white X in it, that means that your preset is either empty or you are missing a component of that present needed for it to work, for instance, troops or your Dragon.
On this page, you will also see two tabs that you can use to access additional functions for your march.
The Troop tab is self-explanatory. You use this tab to select the dragon, troops, and Mercenaries that you are going to donate to the rally. As in the Preset process, you can use sliders or manually input the percentage of troops that you are donating to the Lead.
The March Boost tab, when selected, brings up a screen that looks like this:
When you select the March Boost option below your presets, it takes you to a number of March Upgrades that you can apply to your March. This includes attack stats and March Size Boosts as shown below.
After you have cycled through all of this information, and have made all of your selections, the last thing for you to do is to hit the pulsing March button at the bottom right of your screen.
If you have an active Peace Shield, a warning will pop up and ask if you are sure you want to continue:
After you select “Yes”, the final screen that you will see is the Marches screen, which shows you how long it will take your troops to arrive at the rally point and how much time is remaining until the Rally launches. If the launch time is less than your march time, you should use the Speed up button to speed your march in so that Rally is not delayed.
If everything worked properly, you sent the correct troops and Dragon to the Lead and the target erupted into a ball of fire while your Alliance mates cheered the destruction! Hopefully, this article contributed to your success!
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