Is the Witch Doctor a good shipmate?

Anyone seen any information about whether a witch doctor provides any protection to troops on the boat when fighting at sea?

 

I used to use him, but after a bit more training I've stopped as he's too expensive and takes too long to recruit. Depending on what I'm hunting (mostly 4* fish) I use a combination of Brutes, Buccs and Gunners. If its a 4* Ghost Ship I'll drop the Gunners so that I can take the max number of Sky Raiders as I've trained them with that ability.

As long as my boat is full of the right troops I've never lost a battle, so I don't think the Witch Doctor makes much difference.

 

I've never noticed any difference with a WD on board.

 

I tried to use him but he always died, then it became to expensive and I don't think it makes a difference. The primary loadout for ships should be Buccs, Gunners, Brutes and Juggs. I've only lost once at sea and that was because I accidentally sailed through a Lvl 4 Santa Ship, Lvl 4 Royal Navy, Lvl 4 Bigger Fish and a Lvl 4 Serpent. I made it to the Serpent before getting killed though.

 

I don't intentionally train a WD for ship voyages, but I almost always train a WD for my attack squad. When I log on and don't have time or feel like battling, I will sail my attack squad. And once I sail that squad, I keep redeploying it until it is no longer effective. So, many trips will have a WD on board. Just wondered if it had any effect on the troops. With my level troops, I never worry about losing unless I do like DarkZero and get greedy.

 

Not sure if he provides any protective benefit, I'd also like to know this. Without that knowledge, though, I think he's a total waste on a ship. With a L5 ship, I've been able to defeat every 4* entity on the map with roughly the same crew (adjusted for ghost ships)

3 Juggs w/skill
3 Brutes w/skill 21
28 Buccaneers w/skill
16 Gunners w/skill

When going for a ghost ship, I replace 8 of the bucs with Raiders w/skill and no problems.

You could probably even get away with more bucs, and they're worth it. I love them for my ship, because even though I upgraded them to L16 precisely for ship duty, they still only cost 38 seconds and 500 grog to hire.

 

I totally agree that there are plenty of troop combos that are plenty effective at voyage attacks. However, I can't say the WD is a waste without hearing from Midoki, I guess, about the WD effect. This may become more relevant if new maps are introduced and if we ever encounter the legendary lvl 5 beast.

 

I agree. Just saying that until we know one way of the other, he's so expensive and long-in-the-hiring, that he's not needed.

The good news: I think I can answer this question for you in 2-3 days without Midoki's input. (though I'd welcome it). I have to take out a L4 fish to get one of my remaining map squares, and since I've kept track of how many troops each 4* monster ate in all my battles, I can send a WD on that last voyage, and see if there's any notable reduction in the number of troops eaten. The total-troops-eaten seems fairly consistent, so if he has an effect, it should be pretty apparent.

I'll give it a try and post results when I get them.

 

I'm so thankful for those who approach these games very analytically. It's a tremendous help to us by-the-seat-of-the-pants, throw-all-the-marbles-in-the-air-and-see-where-they-fall, players.

 

Glad to help. My guild members think I'm crazy for all my game analysis, (I am, but that's unrelated) the truth is, I just love a good mystery. I've been wondering the same thing about Mr. WD ever since I read that someone included him in a ship crew. I also remember an old post from Midoki that said certain features of troops had no effect on sea battles. I just can't remember whether that was toughness, damage or non-exploring skills.

 

Whenever I sent one on a voyage, it always seemed to die so I haven't sent one in a long time.

 

Interesting, I have always a WD on board and he nearly never dies.
(was sitting alone in the taverne when ship comes back so he joined the crew)
Much better than the priestess. Both I have had once on board died during battle with ghost ship.

On the other hand, I don't understand the AI of the ship at all.

 

Sent off a WD and my normal ship crew to a 4* Big Fish today. Should have some troops eaten results tomorrow afternoon.

 

@Daddy P Got some results for you, and everyone else. Hey, @Gangrene Beard here's one for your rumors/tips thread:

Yes! Having a Witch Doctor on your ship seems to reduce troops lost in sea battles by ~40%!.

I've tracked the troops eaten & rewards from 4* Fishes/Serpents ever since I first started killing them. So I averaged up all of the troop losses from 10 battles with the same fish, then I sent a full boat of my standard ship crew to a 4* Big Fish. (3 Juggs, 3 Brutes, rest 60%/40% Bucs/Gunners, swapping one buc & gunner for a WD)

4* Big Fish - Troops Eaten, No WD
(avg: 10 previous battles)
================================
11 Bucs
9 Gunners
2 Brutes
2 Juggs

4* Big Fish - Troops Eaten, With WD
============================
7 Bucs (-4)
5 Gunners (-4)
3 Brutes/Skill (-1)
1 Juggs (-1)


Of course, I'll need to test it again with the fish and a few other monsters, but seeing as my troop losses from each monster have been very consistent over multiple battles, I don't expect any big surprises there.

One neat thing: For some reason, when you send a WD on your boat, he tends to survive. I've seen him killed before, but for the most part, he'll make it back, so you can keep reusing him for future voyages.

 

My WD usually survives multiple voyages. Great news! While a $100k+ WD may not be a bargain, he could help at earlier levels, such as when it kept telling me my trip was suicidal against a lvl 4 ghost ship until I leveled up. A WD might have tipped the balance and may make a difference against a future lvl 5 beast.

 

Yeah, it definitely could have. I have to keep in mind that I used a 50k WD with Guardian, so a pre-Guardian WD, I'd expect would give a 20% reduction, or so. Still, not a bad thing to have on those tough battles.

 

I have always sailed with a WD. But only because I sail with an exact duplicate of my raiding party. Thst way if I need to do a quick double attack to start an upgrade I can do it.

 

Good idea. Most of my voyages were with one Buch, unless I specifically was targeting a creature or ship. However, often I would sail with my raiding party, which usually lasted 4 or 5 voyages. That's a great idea to send a full squadron to double up attacks.

 

Just for fun, I'm going to test this with two WDs. I doubt it'll do anything different, but you never know.

 

As I recall, overlapping WDs doesn't increase protection, right? If they are on a boat, wouldn't they always be overlapping?