Clash Royale Log Spell Guide

Clash Royale Log Spell Guide by ApprenticeTheNoob

Table Of Contents

1. About Me (AKA Why You Should Trust Me), and Why I’m Making this Guide
2. Attributes of The Log, and The Log’s Purpose
3. Comparison Vs Other Spells
4. Interaction with Buildings
5. Interaction with Troops
6. Synergy
7. Basic Strategy
8. Advanced Strategy
9. Basic Techniques
10. Advanced Techniques
11. My Thoughts on Buffs
12. Conclusion

About Me

I am Apprentice. It’s likely you have no idea who I am. What makes me think that I’m an authority on The Log. However, I am one of the few people, if not the only one, that has performed extensive testing of The Log. Have a sample. And have some pics. I’m also fairly well-known on the Discord for being a fanatic of The Log. I have posted a guide for The Log about a month ago, and was asked to post the Daily Card Discussion Post for The Log.

“But why are you spending so much time on this? Is The Log really viable?”

After The Log was released, I bought it as soon as it appeared in my shop. The first legendary I had ever bought. It was amazing. And then I decide, “Hey, I wonder what Reddit thinks of this awesome new Legendary!”. I wish I hadn’t checked. Absolute shit-storm. DAE think The Log sucks?, Fml, got The Log as first leggie, The Log should switch rarity with Zap. It was depressing. And then people asked Yarn to make a video on it. His response is completely understandable. I know that I can’t replace him, and that I have no reputation in my favor, but I hope to fill in the void, because no one else will. With that being said, let’s start this guide. Enjoy.

Attributes of The Log and The Log’s Purpose

• Hits only Ground-based troops and buildings.
• Costs 2 elixir.
• Deals 240 damage.
• Inflicts knock-back.
• Rolls for a distance of 9.6 tiles, but can only be placed on your side.
• Really slow speed. Decent roll speed.

Seems pretty weak, doesn’t it? And you’re right. It does seem weak. Thing is, it isn’t weak at all. Surprise! The truth is, The Log is a very special spell; Obviously it’s the only Legendary spell, but while every other spell is good offensively, The Log is the king of ground unit defense. If you’ve read the spreadsheet I linked above, you’ll notice that The Log tradesextremely well with many troops. Stops Musketeer, Wizard, Ice Wizard, Princess, Archers, Fire Spirits, Ice Spirits, Both Goblins, Guards, Bomber. And that when The Log is usedalone. We haven’t even touched on combos yet! All of those troops listed above are positive or even trades, with Ice Spirit being the exception. Now, due to The Log’s roll speed, and limited range, it’ll be a little hard to hit all those troops from across the river. Obviously, this make The Log entirely useless trash. I mean, who would keep a spell in their hand and use it for the role it was practically made for? Only an idiot would use such a defensively powerful and offensively weak spell on defense instead of offense.

Comparisons Vs Other Spells

So now that we know The Log is a DEFENSIVE spell, let’s get rid of the idea of using it on offense for now, ok? That can wait until you obtain mastery of The Log and gain an intuition for offensive purposes. Here’s a table of Spell Comparisons.

As you can see, The Log is remarkably cost-efficient, and has a host of bonus effects suitable to a primarily defensive spell. You may have noticed that I stuck in Pseudo Stun and Area Denial as bonus effects of The Log. This makes sense if you factor in The Log’s slow roll speed and knock-back. After all, your opponent won’t want to play troops in the path of The Log just for them to die, similar to poison. And troops in the process of being knocked back cannot attack anything, which is a sort of stun.

The Log has some good synergy with some spells, such as Chain-Stunning, covered in a later section below. You can also knock troops back into Poison, ensuring they take critical damage, or die. Depending on circumstances, you can knock them forwards or backwards out of a Rage. Hit them back to save your Rocket/Lightning from missing. Or chain that knock back with Fireball and knock them into another lane!

Interaction with Buildings

Yes, I know. I said that The Log is a defensive spell, and to not use it on offense. But Rocket is also a defensive spell that happens to be aggressive and defends against buildings by taking them down. If you’re a little confused, let me remedy that right now. Buildings have hit-points. Those hit-points also act as their life timer. Thus, they expire earlier and stop performing their function. You will encounter other players that will attempt to avoid damage on their towers if you use anti-building spells, such as the Rocket. A very common position is right in front of the King Tower. This is problematic because you cannot damage their tower with some spells and could be a negative trade. The Log can help with this! Against an Elixir Collector, The Log will deny 2 elixir. Against the Furnace, The Log will kill one wave of spawns, and deny 2 waves of spawns. Against Tesla and Cannon, The Log will save a Hog Rider a hit, letting it get to the tower, with the possibility of knocking away or killing any defending troops. By chipping away at your opponent’s supporting buildings, you can persuade them to play them in more vulnerable places, such as behind towers, to avoid The Log. Then you pull out your Rocket, Poison, Fireball, etc.

Interaction with Troops

I’m going to choose to keep this section with defending solo only. Combos will go under Strategy, Synergy, Techniques, etc. The Log currently only hits Ground Troops, and will only knock back medium-small troops. An nice thing to note is that The Log can be timed to kill skeletons already spawned by the Witch that are far in front, and a fresh spawn of skeletons. This will allow you to strike down a Giant-Witch push with just a Mini Pekka. Of course, you’ll want to pressure the other lane so they can’t back up the push. It’s important to note that The Log will shove troops in 4 main directions: North West, North East, South East, and South West. Troops may also be pushed West and East, but it is even more difficult than knocking them Southwards.

Synergy

Synergy of cards is something that is important for every deck. If your cards don’t work well together, you’ll have a tougher time winning than if they did. This is especially evident with The Log. If you don’t have any troops that can take advantage of The Log’s bonus effects, it won’t perform as well as it could have. Based on my experience, The Log goes great with:

• Hog Rider
• Mortar
• Cannon
• Archers
• Princess
• Spear Goblins
• Musketeer
• Zap
• Arrows
• Mini P.E.K.K.A

These cards pair well with The Log because they can take advantage of the cheap cost, removal ability, and knock-back/pseudo stun. Paired with Hog Rider, The Log will shut down a “no buildings” deck because no troops will be able to be placed without getting hit or killed, except for ranged and flying troops. Mortar does well because it can get an extra shot off, or eliminates most cheap counters for a low, disposable cost. Using Cannon with The Log can squeeze in a little bit of life time by preventing small troops from overwhelming, and stalling + damaging medium troops. Princess, Archers, Spear Goblins, and Musketeer benefit in the same way as cannon. When used in conjunction with Zap, your deck will have cheap removal spells for many combinations of troops and is great for cycling or clutching a 150 hp tower in a dramatic win. With Arrows, you will be able to cheaply shut down most every single typical Miner Combo single handedly, allowing you to focus on the Miner or the remaining glass cannons behind it. Mini P.E.K.K.A also benefits heavily, due to being able to stop Hog-Zap, Pig Push, win Mini Pekka Spirit combos, survive Mini Pekka duels, and get rid of or knock away distractions from the target troop.

Basic Strategy

The Log is a very versatile card. Combo it with other cards on defense, especially ranged troops. Or, use it to provide some cover for certain attacks, such as Mortars or Royal Giants. Use it to get troops off of your damage dealers, and onto a tank or stall so your damage dealers kill it. In general, the longer the path you can make The Log take before being too late is the best option. Why? To provide area denial coverage. If they drop a mini pekka on your Royal Giant and you kill it, they might prepare to drop goblins. But if you toss a pre-emptive Log, you’re giving them a difficult choice; Let the RG shoot the tower for longer and get a small elixir advantage, or place goblins that will quickly die and possibly stop one shot from getting off? Essentially, basic strategy requires that you use logic, common sense, and your brain. Keep a level-headed mind! Do not tilt, or you will fail using The Log.

Advanced Strategy

This is where it gets fun. It’s hard to pick when to use a versatile card. You might want to save it for later. What ever the case, this is a good thing. You should now realize that versatility is a great thing, even if it makes it hard to choose when to use The Log. You must have a large knowledge of The Log’s capabilities, and play analytically. Rushing in or tilting will be detrimental, don’t let your feelings get the better of you. If you’ve been using The Log to counter your opponents pig push all game, please stop. Switch it up. This will disrupt them (they’ll be expecting it, and then not see it), they will hopefully fear you have something up your sleeve, and you’ll break out of the monotonous cycle. This would be a great opportunity to suddenly use The Log on their Miner-Gobs instead and they’ll be unused to playing around it. Or use The Log instead of zapping their next goblin barrel. A user of The Log’s greatest asset is unpredictability. Predictability is the greatest weakness of all, so avoid that.

Basic Techniques

Every self-respecting user of The Log should know how to do these basic techs:

• Log Rider: The latest “buff” made the movement speed of The Log faster. The Log used to match up perfectly with The Log, allowing them to be quick dropped at the bridge for the technique. However, it is still quite possible to execute The Log Rider. Simply do a pig push and then quick drop The Log immediately afterwards. Not recommended for use vs decks that use buildings to defend. Use pre-emptive Logs in those scenarios, or utilize counter pushing.
• Pig Push Away: I hope you know what a Pig Push is. Also known as Hog Rider Building Bypass. This technique involves using The Log to counter a Pig Push. The knock back will stop the Pig Push from succeeding, and eliminate troops typically used to Pig Push.
• Un-Supporting a Tank: Remove or displace the troops behind a tank or mini tank, while severely damaging or eliminating them. Allows you to clear out the support more effectively and gain good value.
• Stun Chain: Linking together stuns from The Log, Zap, Fireball, Bowler, Ice Spirit. Timing is a must and varies based on specific conditions.

Advanced Techniques More difficult to use, practice, or time.

• Lane Change: After luring a troop to the center or near the center of the map (your side or your opponent’s side), you use The Log to knock troops into the other lane. This causes them to aggro onto your other tower. Example. Opponent drops musketeer in other lane to defend vs your push and counter push the other lane which is heavily damaged. Use The Log to knock her into the other lane and have tower tank it out. Opponent drops a Hog Rider push and you lure to center with an off-set cannon in the other side. Their push kills the cannon, but you use The Log to knock the Hog far enough that it targets your other tower where you tank it out and deal with support troops on the other lane.
• Pump Defense: Defend versus the Miner! Knock it onto a crown tower (Easy), or knock it onto your king tower to activate it (Difficult) and requires nearly perfect timing. However, the deploy time nerf of Miner and deploy time buff of The Log has made it easier. Requires using something to persuade opponent to not place miner at front of Pump, such as repeated denials using guards or such.

My Thoughts on Buffs

Actually Implemented Changes:

• Cast time decreased by 66%: I’m fine with this buff, it allows you to be more reactive and delay The Log for longer. It also attracted people to use The Log, but because they want to use it offensively. I don’t like that people think it’s a good buff for that reason.
• Travel speed increased by 20%: People are loving this buff and have started trying out The Log because of it. That’s good. What’s not good is that this “buff” is actually a nerf. People love to tout that the increased roll speed is great for The Log. I’m sorry, but it’s not. The Log roll noticeably faster, and is not as effective at preventing troops from being placed. It is now much more difficult to use The Log to defend say, a Princess at the bridge from Fire Spirits, etc. This buff should be reverted because it is actually detrimental to The Log, but many still haven’t realized it. Yes, The Log can now easily cleanly snipe a Goblin Barrel, but it is not really that beneficial, and the Goblin Barrel needs less, not more counters. I can only hope ClashRoyale takes this suggestion seriously and revert this change if they truly do think that The Log needs some love.

Commonly Requested Changes:

• Hit air troops for the first few tiles of deployment: No, I do not agree. I feel as though we would be treading into “brokendary” territory. This would be an enormous boost to The Log’s power, but doesn’t make sense.
• Knock back all troops: While this sounds great, I’m a little worried on whether tank separation would still work. As of right now, it’s useful to be able to separate Double Prince from their support, but would a buff change this?
• The Log should be a <Insert Lower Rarity Here> card, not Legendary: ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Conclusion I do apologize for such a massive wall of text, but The Log is a very nuanced card where every misplay is potentially game changing, and trust me, misplays with The Log are semi-common even for me, with over 200 matches played with it. I originally had a video version of this post planned, but it didn’t work out. I’m sorry. Please, discuss Your uses and thoughts of The Log below! I’ll do my best to reply when I can.