Tales & Tactics PvP - Vanguard/Reptile/Duelist/Elemental

[@Anti6eptik]

Great video, very informative! Did I understand correctly that the concept is to outtank incoming damage while slowly killing via Shock pendant, Nimbus and raw damage of others? At first, I thought that this comps lacks damage, On-hit Nimbus without Superior Spear is not that strong, and Spiritfang with only Skill + Shock Pendant as damage don't look like a Two-man Army. But looks like it is enough. Should definitely try it.
But I'm wondering, why not AD Nimbus? It feels more natural with Duelist buff and Monty AD. On-hit Nimbus can be great, but you are not giving him Spear or Elementals II for more Magicannon procs.
Another route i see for this comp is AD caster Nimbus with Leachknife and Monty buff with Duelist II. On paper it looks strong

[@Naelhinn]

Thank you! Essentially yes, the goal is to have an extremely tanky frontline that survives (I mean you can see at some point the T4 Mawrice doing only 28 damage per hit) while killing with Burnadana, Shock Pendant and Nimbus. The ideal version of that comp itemizes Craggus instead, because he actually deals insane burst damage with his skill (as he can get 100 armour + 60 SP between Shock Pendant, Burndana and Vanguard), I was just forced to make a switch into Spiritfang since Craggus was still T1 and SF was T4. If you get a good Craggus on the way, you can also burst down jumpers before they jump on your backline, or at least deal enough damage that they die soon after jumping.
The real strength of that comp, I think, is that it honestly deals well with most current meta comps. Dweller usually sends their Geogukk right into the mix and he dies immediately, and physical carries struggle to push through your frontline. Scrappers can become problematic if you can't burst Grundy fast enough but they're not really meta enough to see them consistently.
As for why not AD Nimbus - I usually do build him a spear as well, I just didn't find the time here, and so his magicannon often deals fairly significant damage. Another advantage of Magicannon is that it obviously ignores armour, but also is perfect for T1 unit, so if you can 't find tiers up for your Nimbus, he can still do good damage. His skill acts as a double spear with Elemental 1 but AD is reduced to 30% for the bonus targets I think? But yeah, you can totally go a more AD route with him, I don't think it's a bad call at all. It's also good to build a Spiked Gauntlet or Khopesh in case you go to rares to get 4 Vanguards, as you can then switch AD items onto Sargon.
Monty can be replaced with Jabbar, obviously, as they both serve the same "burst with fast retargeting" role that helps to deal with jumpers, to be fair when I do build AD items I usually put them onto Monty to help with burst damage.The reason I usually go Monty is simply because I often have one left from my starting comp, and that adding another uncommon unit starts to make the upgrade hard to afford. I think I did run with him once with good success, but Jabbar also needs items to be really good, and I'm pretty sure that run eventually went the 5 reptiles way
And for Duelist 2, I tried it once and it honestly didn't feel all that strong? Maybe I was just unlucky and met a way stronger comp. If you want Monty with that you do need a banner however. I think the damage isn't really the issue, especially if you start building two or three shock pendant, and having your frontline survives often helps more, but I'll have to try as well.
In any case, thanks for your insightful comment Anti