Tinto is one of my favorite offensive LPs, and I doubt many will bother to read this, many might not even agree, but hear me out. At Lv10, Tinto gets a speed increase, from 11 to 13. At 14 it gets even greater, going to 15. For the attack style I believe Tinto is best suited for, Speed is a BAD thing. Lv10 actually nerfs him because you want him to be slow. Tinto's main use is not to be doing damage or taking damage, he is a support LP. He adds an incredible amount of damage to your troops. You want to keep his buff active. Heavy troops (Juggs, Brutes, HG) have a speed of 11. If you use him like I do to buff your HG, he will not run ahead of them or the juggs until troops start to fragment later in the battle and things are much safer. By being slow, he stays back behind the juggs, protected by them, for longer. Even without juggs, the HG he's boosting will likely clear most buildings ahead of time without stopping their movement, so he will be safely behind them as well (I release my HG, then send Tinto slightly behind them to buff them), with them clearing the path of any danger ahead while his buff ticks on and on. As soon as he hits lv10, his speed goes to 13 and he can start getting ahead of your Juggs and HG. Not by much, but by enough when there's a long shore. He will have an increased risk of being targetted and dying. His buff wears off as soon as he dies, so you want to keep him alive as long as possible. The damage he does and takes is negligible compared to the insane amount of extra damage for each HG he keeps buffed. At speed 15 he will even keep up with normal gunners, and since they stop to attack, he can get ahead of them! This lets him die faster, reducing the overall amount of damage caused by him, since most of his damage is indirect in the form of buffing troops. At lv 19, the extra 10 damage to every troop probably outweighs the faster death combined with the other intermediate buffs along the way, but from 10-18 none of the buffs are worth letting him die early imo. I'm putting my money where my mouth is and leaving mine at 9 until I have a decent supply of voodoo masks saved up and can get him most of the way to 19 before training lv10. The +10 damage reduction level isn't very important compared to the extra damage, because if you're buffing HG (slow troops), they won't ever really be in range to take damage for most of the fight, and 2 extra troops isn't going to be a huge boost because at lv9 I can already buff 6 hg, which is more than enough. Catching an extra 2 normal gunners isn't going to really change the battle much compared to that 6 HG - its a bit of a bonus but I don't think it warrants letting him risk being targeted by defenses earlier in the fight. I think keeping him slower is more useful.
I always "bother" to read what you say. Your explaination makes a lot of sense. I personally wouldn't have put all those facts together myself. I'm glad you posted this at this point in time because Tinto was the most recent LP I've gotten, he's only reached level 8, needing 6 more voodoo masks to get to level 9. I definitely plan to keep him there, as you suggest, until I have enough voodoo masks to get him as near level 19 as I can. Thanks for sharing this information with plenty of detail so people can make a clear decision.
I love tinto. He is my favorite as well. I read all your posts. I find them well thought out, full of credible data, and extremely helpful. Please continue. Thank you for your hard work.
being one of the latecomers in getting tinto, I have the luxury of being able to heed your advice- which I will do. I don't know how @Skye posts/answers so many messages with, as other folks have said, the detail, comprehension, and clarity. must be some kind of superpower
Tinto is one of my favorites. I see many others prefer ching bb sadie and bart most of the time, in my opinion i think tinto is underrated.
