The best F2P march in IK? Fire w. Cyrus! (patch 2.5.2)

This guide is part of my article series on fire builds. If this build is not to your likeing, have a look at the rest of my builds on the lightning build page. I have multiple builds for any taste available, IB, PvE, arena/ToS builds and F2P/cheap builds.

This article is on fire as a third march. Why did I choose fire for my very first guide on building a third team you might ask? Because fire is a strong element viable as mains and very powerful as seconds and third!

Fire has the bonuses of being:
(1) Free to play (or atleast always the option to make a F2P variation)
(2) Dragon breath has very high damage, meaning you will ALWAYS make a big dent in your opponent – even if your march itself is rubbish.
(3) Fire dragon boost fire Immortal damage based on buffs, which means all of those blessings and boons we are not using in our main and even in our seconds synergize perfectly with the fire dragon.

This build perform well versus shadow as long as your Wu dosen’t get hit my the shadow dragons attacks. However, it looses big time to holy! It also has a hard time nuking through proper earth setups, but is otherwise a very good and solid build.

This is a Free to Play special. You can run this build without spending a penny on Infinity Kingdom, but naturally things like top artifacts etc. is a big boost to the build. If you are a mid-level spender, this build can make you competitive at the absolute top level of play without having to spend a fraction of what other whales you compete against do!

Top F2P Build: Cyrus, Wu, William, Hippolyta Fire Build

Fire builds are a popular strategy in Infinity Kingdom, and for good reason. They offer a balanced approach to offense and defense, allowing players to both deal significant damage to enemy troops while also mitigating incoming attacks. Of course, not all fire builds are created equal, and some are more effective than others. In this article, we’ll be exploring a Fire Build that uses the Immortals Cyrus, Empress Wu, Hippolyta, and William to create a setup that performs better than any other Cyrus fire build ever.

The Build Setup

Let’s start by breaking down the setup for this Fire Build:

Cyrus: Assist + Malice + Blessing of Defense/Absolute Defense

At first glance, this setup may not seem all that different from other Fire Builds. However, the devil is in the details, and it’s the specific Immortal talents and equipment choices that make this build stand out.

Cyrus is the linchpin of this setup, providing a significant boost to the rest of the team with his Assist talent. Malice is a great choice for his second talent, as it allows your team to become resiliant and to survive longer in battle, while Defense Blessing ensure your allied stay on higher troop count for longer and the alternative Absolute Defense ensures that Cyrus isn’t killed instantly against heavy backline pressure builds.

Empress Wu: Annihilation + Death Breath + Chase

Empress Wu is a popular choice for Fire Builds, and for good reason. She deal massive damage and ranks amongst the very best damage dealers in the game. Her DB and Annihilation Tower of Knowledge skills are a great choice, as it allows her to deal a ton of extra damage to enemy troops as well as ensuring consistent damage instances securing procs of Chase on internal cooldown. Lastly, chase is pure and simple a massive burst reward for having the upperhand and massive crit attributes.

William: Fighting Will + Resist + Energy Suppression

William is another key player in this setup. His Fighting Will talent provides a significant boost to his damage while also providnig a decent control effect to the enemy. Resist is just pure and simple amazing defense against big burst magical damage and Energy Suppression allow you to get ahead in the energy-regen-game making your ultimates go off faster than your enemy’s and thus giving you the upper hand right out of he gates.

Hippolyta: Weakness + Oaken Guard + Energy Burst

Finally, Hippolyta rounds out the team with her Weakness Tower of Knowledge skill, which reduces the resilience of nearby enemy troops making your Immortals crit more frequently. Great asset to Fire setups and especially Chase-based builds. It is also very powerful in combination with Energy Burst which we are using on Hippo to get the highest energy regen in the game. Consistent procs of EB on its internal CD is the top regen. But it only works in builds like this where we have massive crit chance buffs. Lastly, we run Oaken Guard. It’s simple: For the physical dominated meta, you need that physical defense to preserve troop count in the beginning of the fight.

Dragon

For the dragon’s talents you want to maximize the damage output of your Empress Wu. The best way to do so, is by using the Calamity talent specialization for your fire dragon.

This provides an absolute top tier specialization for the current meta. It is both the best damage buff you can get for Empress Wu (your main damage dealer) by increasing her crit damage by a massive 50% for a full minute at max level!

As if that was not strong enough on its own, your Flaming Breath is augmented to also provide an incredibly strong 36% reduction to physical damage dealt by your enemy for 3s. That is massive especially in the physically dominated meta that we are in right now with strong hybrid and holy setups.

Moreover, an added advantage of running Defense Blessing, Oaken Guard and Resist is that they are all Graces / Blessings. These are buffs for your Immortals and thus activates you dragon’s bonus damage buff proving crazy value once stacked!

The Results

So, how does this Fire Build perform in battle? According to players who have tested it, the results are impressive, competing with big spender marches making it one of the strongest fire setups in the game and possible the single strongest Free to Play build out there!

Perhaps more importantly, this Fire Build is surprisingly effective against holy, shadow, and hybrid marches. It’s a versatile setup that can hold its own against a variety of different opponents, making it a great choice for players who want to be prepared for anything.

Published: 18-04-2023