Spectral Wolf

## Overview

Spectral Wolf is a fairly traditional crit-based damage dealer with a mix of damage multipliers. It gets good value out of Chill, even outside a Chill team, has access to rare and powerful Buff support, and scales well with Age stacks, while having better toughness than many monsters in its role. When fully set up, Wolf has some of the highest damage potential in the game.

Wolf can struggle in the early turns. Its toughness coming mostly from Critical Defense leaves it vulnerable to attacks if going second, and while its damage potential is high, it needs quite a few buffs to break through stall teams, while offering little to circumvent common counters to offense such as Blind, Dodge, and Phoenix Affinity, unless the target is weak to Ice Spears.

## Standard Setup

#### Equipment

* Scythe / Torch
* Infinity Flame
* Fin
* Coat / Fang/Cape
* Ancestral Medal / Coat / Buckler

### Build Details

Lifesteal plus Mana Symbiosis allow Wolf to sustain its mana by attacking. Critical Freeze and Cooling can enable Shatter and Flash Freeze for more damage, while Multi Chill supports them. Aging and Primal Rage allow Wolf to increase its damage over time, and Outlast can help provide toughness in the early turns. Multi Offense with Improved Glory and the rare Improved Sidekick allow Wolf to make strong use of a teammate who can apply buffs.

Light shift is most commonly used, as it offers the most damage and gives Wolf enough Crit Chance that it can afford to run Ancestral Medal for the massive damage bonus, though Dark is better at self sustain, being able to heal and shield itself.

On a team that runs Might support, Wolf could run Ice Spear Volley in place of Ice Spears to have access to a physical AOE, and Ice Hail to still have an option to hit Thanatos. On a team that focuses on Sorcery, Wolf can run Gale, Spectral Flame, and Ice Hail as its attacks, which gives it better coverage options while still having an AOE magical attack, and one physical move to hit Goblins. If you know what team you'll be facing, you can also choose a specific set of attacks to counter them, as well as leaving some trees at rank 4 to grab some extra stat plus nodes.

All three of Wolf's ultimates have their use, Blizzard is Wolf's highest damage attack against three frail enemies, with the chance to Chill on hit helping to trigger Flash Freeze. Gravity helps Wolf bypass tanky teams, hitting harder the more health and defense they have, while Typhoon Cut it Wolf's only way to buff itself.

Scythe and Torch are the two best weapons for Wolf, with scythe being more consistent in the early turns and Torch being better once your Glory buffs are set up. Ancestral Medal and Fin are must-runs for the excellent mix of stats they give. Coat is a good option to power double Life Overload, though Fang or Cape can be run as pure damage options. Ancestral Medal is a massive damage increase, providing an Age stack to synergize with Primal Rage, and 5 Charge stacks for a 15% multiplier to the first attack, but Coat or Buckler can be run if toughness and Crit Chance are preferred.

### Team Options

Wolf wants supports with some form of damage buffing that support Aging, Chill, or Sidekick/Glory. Sadly, there's no monster that supports all three, but common teammates include:

* Frosty is perhaps Wolf's best teammates, able to cast Full Offense on Wolf twice thanks to Buff Mastery, amplifying those buffs with Spirit Strength, and has a second instance of Multi Chill to help out Wolf's damage, while being able to protect it with Ice Shield.
* Dracozul can spread Chill quickly with Dragon Mastery and boosts Wolf's damage with Sub Zero, while also having Multi Sidekick, though using it usually means needing your third monster to be both a buffer and a healer.
* Ascendant The only mon with Age support and access to either Multi Sidekick or Multi Glory, Ascendant can keep harmful stacks off Wolf with Age of Purification while buffing and healing it, and has Cleansing Sidekick and Punishment for even more hits.
* Vertraag (Aging, Buffs)
* Sutsune (Buffs, Cleansing Sidekick works well on Wolf)