5 Pairs to Know: an Eligor Beginner's Guide

Another attempt of mine to sum up a character's strategy and parameters by analyzing some of his or her most impactful pairs. This time we will be taking a look at Eligor Larington, the glory-seeking, counterattacking paladin of Indines.

Disclaimer & Thanks

My objective for this work is to introduce a character and his or her general playstyle by looking at five of their most prominent attack pairs: attack pairs I think any player playing as or against this character need to familiarize themselves with. The intention is to give newer players a place to start with a character and a framework for analyzing and creating other pairs as they continue to play.
It is NOT a guide to all a character’s pairs, or even simply their strongest ones. I might not even mention the entire kit here. On any given beat a player has 20 combinations that he or she can play, and while a great deal of these will be removed from consideration due to the current range, opposing character, and other factors, the truth is that one will need to learn far more than any the five listed here to start using even the most simplistic characters effectively. Even so, I hope this provides a strong foundation to start with.

Big shoutout to Andyman119 for looking at drafts for this guide and suggesting some things as a real Eligor player.

Eligor in a Nutshell

Eligor is one of BattleCon’s premiere counterattackers. He specializes in taking hits and paying them back with interest; he is a fantastic character to learn for players who enjoy a slower, more systematic approach to making their opponents miserable.

Eligor accomplishes this through his unique ability in conjunction with an extensive amount of hit confirm smattered across his styles. During the ante phase Eligor can offer up Vengeance Tokens for 2 Stun Guard each and he regains a token for every point of damage he is dealt. Meanwhile, many of his styles allow him to advance, pull his foe, or simply teleport in front of the poor soul who hits him first. These aspects allow Eligor to comfortably retaliate against just about anything as long as he uses his resources responsibly. It is this adaptability that separates him from the rest of the heavies on the roster.

While a good Eligor is hard to outplay, the character’s weakness is often just that, being outplayed. He may be slow compared to the cast as a whole, but he’s not nearly as languid as other Heavies. The paladin is so reliant on being hit first that an even slower opponent can deprive him of his M.O. Additionally, while his means of regaining vengeance tokens means he will have a steady flow of them throughout the fight, a smart opponent can bait him into throwing more of them away than he needs to, as the defensive stats on his cards are rather low to compensate for his unique ability.

Like many 1 difficulty characters, Eligor is perfect for learning many of the game’s more advanced mechanics in a streamlined manner while at the same time being a wholly competitive character himself. Let’s start with the pairs to see if the paragon of vengeance is right for you.

Pair 1: Retribution Aegis

When swift vengeance is not swift enough, just teleport!

Pound for pound this is Eligor’s most consistently oppressive attack pair. I want to talk about it first because it can be a bit of a “newbie trap” nonetheless. The natural synergy is certainly there. Aegis gives Eligor plenty of soak. Retribution turns soaked damage into vengeance. Aegis can only hit the space in front of itself. Retribution warps Eligor right to his foe’s face. Given the fact you will be taking very little to no damage with this pair and hitting back for the opponent’s unsoaked power, trades with this aren’t really trades at all, they are clear winners.

But here’s the thing. The Eligor Maining Society has told me they see far too many newer players putting lots of vengeance into this attack to achieve maximum soak. They asked for me to say, and I quote, “STOP DOING THAT!” Ahem. One of the things that makes this pair so good is that it needs very little vengeance to do its job and win the turn. One token = 5 defense, 3 soak and 2 stun guard, and that’s enough to retaliate against most pairs. The key to token expenditure is to ensure you are able to hit back, not just to remove a point or two of damage during an already successful Beat.

Pair 2: Martial Shot

Ima firing mah LAZER!!!

If Retribution Aegis is Eligor’s go-to Beat Winner, then Martial Shot is his occasional Beat Devastator. If both of Martial’s effects trigger your shot becomes a whopping 8 power. Nuff said there.

A quick clear-up to a common Martial misconception. When Eligor is hit, he gains the appropriate amount of vengeance tokens immediately. That means he can ante tokens onto this attack, get hit, and still have 5 tokens for the trigger. So ante away here if you are confident in your opponent’s attack. That being said, this is a particularly good pair to force ante stun guard with to hold onto an additional token.

Martial Shot and Retribution Aegis, while being different in how they trade, both share a similar weakness. They are retaliatory attacks that lose out against many things that are just plain slower. Characters with exceptionally slow styles (Luc’s Eternal, Cadenza’s Clockwork) will pretty much ensure that Eligor is the Active player here, and thus he won’t be getting the trade he wants at all. Martial Shot in particular is clashable for any opponent as long as his or her Burst is up.

Pair 3: Vengeful Drive

The initiative is mine!

How do you best make lemonade out of the lemons that is Eligor’s “meh” priority? Run up to them with a decently fast attack, potentially stun them out, and STILL gain vengeance! Vengeful Drive is not as flashy as the first two pairs, but it can be a powerful and consistent option in many a matchup. That also sums up Vengeful, it’s Eligor’s all-around style. Extra power, neutral speed, an extra advance, movement immunity, and 3 stun guard already built into it often results in a middling beat where you do not need to spend much to come out ok. Vengeful Drive smashes opponents trying to Burst away and underspeed you while still having the defense to withstand and close in on faster moves. Mix this in now and again to keep people on their toes.

Andyman119 told me of the importance of this pair when Eligor is in the corner. If Shot is down, many opponents will consider Dodging backwards away from Eligor to buy positioning and possibly bait vengeance token antes. The trouble is, Vengeful Drive is also a Range 1-4 attack. That means backwards Dodge is never really open to an opponent, and it encourages them to stand and trade with you in the corner, which is exactly what you want them to do.

Pair 4: Chained Dodge

A Dodge Beat with exceptional setup potential.

In the previous pair I mentioned how Eligor likes to position himself in a corner to prevent opponents from dodging through him. Chained Dodge is the optimal way to create this situation. Dodge will often ensure Eligor a spot in one of the corners, while he can use Chained’s Before trigger to pull the opponent towards himself after doing so. Enough said. Doing this too much can hurt your Vengeance Token pool, but time it right and the beat you set up will be worth the expenditure.

Pair 5: Counter Burst

Counter Burst. One of the best styles to abuse 50/50s, its best base pair is highly situational.

Counter is a difficult style to describe in a vacuum. Given its unique auto-stun trigger, a good base for this card is very contingent upon what bases the opponent has available and how best you can abuse them. There are some universal things about Counter besides the Start trigger that are important to touch on: the -2 Priority and the Before trigger. Counter is Eligor’s slowest style, making your attacks hard to clash and even harder to underspeed. Its potential advance also gives hit confirm to the bases that need it most, such as Strike and Aegis.

One advanced technique I would like to share here is using Counter plays as a means of trying to clash your opponent’s strong options. In many cases when you try to purposely clash, known as parrying, your pair may be weak to many other options. That’s the price of a hard read. Thanks to Counter (and vengeance tokens), Eligor can hedge his bets in many different ways. Playing Counter Strike to parry Bursts or other slow moves? If that happens, great! If it doesn’t, it still autostuns their Strike, or outtrades a bunch of other options through Stun Guard and the per damage advance.

It’s all this tech that made me select Counter Burst instead of the better in a vacuum Counter Shot. The -1 Priority makes it devilishly hard for you to be taken advantage of speedwise. That makes it good to use either on its own or to end a clash chain once troublesome options are gone. Its advance option also lets you retaliate against opponents who ended up at Range 1: ante stun guard, take the damage, then advance through them to Range 2-3. The weirdest thing about it is that it doesn’t do well against actual Burst plays, as even though you stun out the opponent they still receive the SoB Retreat, letting them evade your attack when there’s no corner to aid you.

Pairs for Thought

As usual here are a few bonus pairs to muse over as you begin your quest for fame with Eligor:

Counter Shot
Chained Burst

Closing

I hope this guide was helpful in understanding a little bit of what makes Eligor tick. If you have any more questions or have thoughts about me continuing/stopping this format, please use the comments or DM me on Discord @Windup13ird#7285.