Subliminal Sunday:

Illusion Battlefield Prime League

💠Introduction 

Hello friends! It's that time of season again, friends! It is time for Illusion Battlefield Prime League. This timely event comes around every so often, wherein you do not use your norheim march as you do in regular Illusion Battlefield. Instead, you craft your own march and skills from a variety of available immortals and skills!

In this guide, I will go over the beginner's basics and tricks to advance and progress in the event!

💠Table of Contents 

Starting Out

How To Advance

Testing Builds 

Countering

Summary

💠Starting Out 

Starting Out for IBL (IBPL) is actually pretty easy! Whether you are in a small or large alliance, you just need the leader of the alliance (R6) to register players. The regular season allows you to have 40 players, with 10 substitutes. These players can be changed out at any given time. It is crucial to have consistent attendance and reliable players for you to be able to advance as it is a point based ranking system. It is every Sunday starting at either one of two timeslots: 14 utc or 20 utc. Most people register for 14 utc because it is generally a good time for players from all over! 

💠How To Advance

There are 10 matches total for the points race (10 weeks essentially), but you can only register for 8 games! Meaning: you can only play 8 games total in the point race. So, how do you advance if you can only play 8 games? 

The best time to register and play is the beginning weeks, as everyone is playing and the activity is higher. Only the top 64 teams can advance to the playoffs, meaning you must rank in the top 64 by the end of the point race so you are not eliminated. Since you can only miss 2 weeks, you must choose wisely. 

The top teams always choose 14 utc, so it is easy to match up with them. If you are looking for something more convenient for the point of ranking and getting points, choose 20 utc. The less experienced alliances and alternate alliances of top teams always choose 20 utc. Some teams deliberately choose 20 utc to advance while avoiding top teams! 

💠Testing Builds 

Always test your Builds in the beginning weeks. Everyone will be running essentially the same builds: full fire march or full water marches. That is because fire is the fastest burst damage with a team full of high energy regeneration. Water is the counter to fire (which we will get into soon) and is mainly used in another formation. 

Since you have a variety of immortals and skills available (some that you may not own yourself in norheim), the possibilities are endless. Do not limit yourself to following the generic full fire or full water marches in your main formation! You can build absolutely anything you want in the beginning weeks to test. It is very much trial and error, you will be surprised by the combinations of Builds that work.

💠Countering

As I said previously, a full water march is what players essentially use to counter a full fire march. Merlin shuts down Empress Wu by not only element advantage, but also heavy damage. So, why would you use fire if the element advantages apply even in IBL?

Variety! That's why!

I will be testing with my experimental build (shown in testing builds) throughout these coming weeks. My thought process is that Charles shields and protects the team, accompanied by the resistance skills, and Weakness on Qin Emperor to allow Empress Wu to do what she does best. The War Blessing amplifies the early burst of the initial fire march, Hippolyta shreds the enemy and hurts them even as she loses health with Fighting Will, and Wu chases the crits. 

💠Summary

Find an alliance that loves to play IBL or even wants to try it out. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Do not be scared and build however you want in the beginning weeks. This will be a series that you can follow along with me on my IBL journey! I will update you on how it goes, and hopefully along the way you can advance as well and meet me in the playoffs! 

Thanks for reading and remember to stay smiling friends!