Crucible of Steel and Flame: Difference between revisions

The Crucible of Steel and Flame's basic [[attack]] is similar to the [[Blade Maelstrom (BTD6)|Blade Maelstrom]] ability, but with limited area coverage. It shoots four rotating streams of white hot blades that each split into a nova of eight tacks when they expire. It constantly fires blades even when Bloons are not within its [[range]]. It can only detect [[Camo Bloon (BTD6)|Camo Bloon]]s when granted [[Camo detection]] by the [[Ascended Shadow]].<ref>{{cite|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/btd6/comments/1h7msmw/bloons_td_6_v460_update_preview/m0mf69b/|title=rohan_spibo comments on Bloons TD 6 v46.0 - Update Preview!|publisher=Reddit|retrieved=5 oct 2024}}</ref>

*The Meteor Impact ability targets a Bloon and strikes it with a meteor, dealing enormous damage in a large area around the target and spawning a circle of 32 homing fireballs around the point of impact. It has a 60-second cooldown.

Crucible of Steel and Flame's main attack is a passively attacking blade nova that is offset higher than its own centerpoint. The blade nova consists of two copies of a rotating twin blade attack 180° apart, rotating their offsets in opposite directions at 360° per second. Each blade has 2 radius and moves at 140 units per second, and lasts up to 0.25s. Once expired or hits an obstacle, each blade produces a nova of eight tacks that can hit the same target. The nova has 360° spread. Each tack has 0 radius (i.e. can only hit Bloons with its centerpoint), move at 120 units per second, and last up to 0.15s. Both blades and tacks have low pierce and damage but do extra damage to Bosses. None of its attacks can hit Camo without Camo detection from [[Ascended Shadow]]. It is affected by {{BTD6 mk|Fast Tack Attacks}}.

{{strategy needed|Add more strategizations of Crucible, do a few cleanups, and also state degree processes and how to do paragonning stuff like makeshift paragon and optimizing degrees. (Also, ascended camobuff isn't full uptime on paragons? people are rumoring ascended shadow full uptime on paragons) And verify use cases of when to properly time abilities (maelstrom ability debatable of in center better, might be worse?)}}

The Crucible of Steel and Flame is notable for being the second cheapest Paragon in the game, second to [[Apex Plasma Master]]. The majority of the Crucible's power stems from its abilities, most notably Meteor Impact for its powerful burst damage and AoE making it a very cost efficient Paragon.

 

Degrees have a great impact on the Crucible's potential DPS, giving Maelstrom greater uptime and further enhancing its main attack by shooting out more blades and tacks, Maelstrom's Ring of Fire by increasing its overall DPS, as well as Meteor Impact by having a shorter cooldown and dealing much greater damage overall, and the increased flat pierce improves the homing meteor's total DPS.

Crucible of Steel of Flame's best matchup is [[Blastapopoulos (BTD6)|Blastapopoulos]]; despite the increased ability cooldowns, Meteor Impact's massive burst damage is still very strong for its price. Its worst matchup is [[Phayze (BTD6)|Phayze]] as it lacks any way to naturally affect Camo Bloons, and even with Camo detection from [[Ascended Shadow]] it loses almost all of its DPS whenever Phayze hits a skull. Additionally, the Maelstrom ability is almost useless versus [[Lych]] because it steals the self-buff.

Alongside positioning, timing abilities are important. Time Maelstrom when the Boss is within the Crucible's range to make the most of its Ring of Fire's damage. Use Meteor Impact for certain Bosses when they are no longer immune to damage after reaching a skull (e.g. Vortex when its shield is down, Dreadbloon when no longer in Primary immunity, and Blastapopoulos a few seconds after creating Pyroclastic Rocks).

For maximum pops, place all of the T5 Tacks near the front of the track. For cheapest T2 and T3 crosspaths for the most tiers, use 0-2-2 and 0-2-3, the cheapest T4 for the most tiers is 0-4-2 [[Blade Maelstrom (BTD6)|Blade Maelstrom]], and for most expensive use 4-2-0 [[Ring of Fire (BTD6)|Ring of Fire]]s. However, 2-0-4 [[Overdrive (BTD6)|Overdrive]] is preferred if transitioning into the Paragon, since this T4 has the best DPS against MOAB-class Bloons.