Event Type: Farm
The Unit: Cannoneer Trainee Kanon
Number of Maps: 6
Signature Unit Drop Maps: Maps 1(guaranteed first drop),3,4,5 and 6(guaranteed drop)
Monster Group: Goblins, Wolves, Ogres, Sahagins, Sandworms, Lizards, Mummies, Humanoid, Kanon and her mates
Notable Monsters: Kanon and her mates are pretty devastating in the last map since they are paired with skill activation and also due to the nature of the last map being heavily armor based. While all three Cannoneers come with big range and AOE, Mel’s range is exceptional and will most likely be the first to fire at your deployment; she does 730 physical damage per shot. Gianna on the other hand has huge AOE radius and will cause you big problems if there isn’t a targeted rod to divert her attention away from majority of your ranged units. Each shot hits for 550 not factoring mitigation. Kanon is the hardest hitting Cannoneer of all where she hits for 800 per shot.
Strategy: Most of the early maps can be cleared with respective ease; Map 5 is a desert themed map with pegasus riders so there is a need to consider ranged unit placement although the HP penalty is moderate (50% cut). The maps go from physical damage-heavy to magic damage-heavy up the tier, as more heavy infantry enemies will show up as you clear the maps culminating to a fully heavy based setup in map 6. Given how most enemies are physical damage based physical defense is the primary mitigation you seek with decent HP pool to deal with the cannoneers. In most cases however your unit placement order and UP management is the key to success for this event, especially if you seek to reliably farm map 6 for Kanon copies.
Team Foundation: Basic HAT setup plus AOE magic damage(mages, bishops) and a couple of rods ie. Bandits/Valkyries will do most of the trick. UP can be an issue for some so preparing a couple of low cost blockers like Soldiers/Valkyries can be considered. Then again apart from unit growth, your placement order and timing is important considering what the three Cannoneers can do, so it might take a few practices to get things right.
Unit Analysis:
While Cannoneers have existed on Nutaku for a while now this is the first event based Cannoneer made available for free players if we are not to include RNG based Zola on Gold Rush and Gianna who has yet to see her debut in the Trading Post. Cannoneers are created as a staple AOE unit with physical damage as their primary source. Like many other physical ranged unit class, Cannoneers have slow attack speed due to their bigger range, and thus any bonus that can improve either their attack speed or incorporate bigger splash radius are always welcome.
Cannoneers pre-buff has always been seen as non-existent due to their low attack damage when attack speed is factored in, more so when other physical ranged units have seen buffs on their attacks up to a point where Cannoneers no longer have a unique identity; why Cannoneer when the other ranged physical attack units can deal with rushes just as fast and just as well. With the attack buffs coming in Cannoneers are moving in at least to occupy certain positions where they make repetitive map farming so much safer and reliable such as Crystal Keeper G. Cost reduction buffs are seen as a simple buff to put them in line with the same AOE group ie. Mage/Bishop.
Because of how one dimensional Cannoneers can be as in dealing ranged AOE damage at slow pace, Cannoneers’ qualities are mostly distinguished by looking at their skill growth apart from base DPS, especially what is being offered on the table as they undergo skill changes. Kanon’s skill is a trade-off from the get go; she loses a .1 multiplier of damage which is approximately 98 to over 100 damage loss at max level AW growth (with AW multiplier factored in) for faster attack interval and slow. This means that with Kanon’s skill you are trading penetration and potential one-shot damage for sustained shot with slow that can be used to horde monsters together. In many cases the slow isn’t something too hot; if monsters can be one-shot there is no need to horde, and faster attack intervals without one-shot capacity means there is a potential situation where the target point gets shifted due to monster movement. Not to mention the skill’s WT is pretty horrendous for her caliber. To compensate for the damage loss Kanon needs Awakening, of which another trade-off occurs where she trades 20 range for the attack multiplier meaning she loses Cannoneer’s 20 range AW bonus. While this means Kanon can’t hit as far, it does puts her penetration damage back in place which is more valuable.
Kanon’s Skill Awakening however really puts her onto the spotlight. With this skill Kanon gets to fire a one-time shot that goes with huge damage and huge radius; with excess of 3000 attack and 3 times the normal radius Kanon can wipe about half the map of monsters if the shot is placed appropriately. The catch is the shot has a 2.5 seconds windup time after skill activation and is not an immediate shot, thus the positioning and target Kanon goes for can shift depending on the map flow. Despite this the skill itself gets a dramatic CT/WT reduction so the number of times the shot can be used is about one shot every 35 seconds after the initial shot, this means that Kanon can be a good bargain for a free player if you are looking for a map-saver in rush maps/domination runs (non-AFK runs of course). The question left then is the investment; until Kanon is Skill Awakened her power won’t spike as much, so there is the cost to consider.
Another interesting mechanic with Kanon’s Awakened Skill is how the skill effect is coded in relation to projectile and multiplier. Because the skill is a one-time shot, the skill effect duration is relatively similar to how Reinforce skill works; there is a 2.5 seconds margin between before the shot was fired and after the shot was fired. This means that upon skill activation Kanon will go into skill effect for 5 seconds before entering WT phase. Kanon’s skill effect comes with both radius and multiplier; what is interesting is the radius effect seems to apply immediately on skill activation while the multiplier only kicks in after the 2.5 seconds windup time. This means that you can snapshot Kanon’s skill and exploit the radius on the shot before the empowered shot by activating the skill during the projectile travel period which in most cases means the second when Kanon’s firing animation ends. This nets you 2 shots with empowered radius with one of them being empowered with the multiplier as well.
Overall Kanon will be substantially more useful after Skill Awakening is patched in to Nutaku. Until then she remains a better Cannoneer if you have no one else other than Percis.
Conclusion:
Because of the uncertainty around Gianna, you will want to get Kanon as your first choice Cannoneer if you are a free player and have no other options. The event maps itself are pretty straightforward; farming the G tier map for Kanon copies can be pretty taxing for new players however given the layout and Kanon’s mates being annoying.
iceinhell 