Skylanders Trap Team: Spotlight Upgrade Paths and Attack Damage Numbers

Spotlight has two solid base attacks.  Eye Beams clocks in at 60-90, but can be shot perpetually.  She also has freedom of movement while you spam the attack, but it is of course a bit slower than usual.  Halo Rings deal 50-75 on Impact and collision with enemies if used as a shield.  You can also reflect Eye Beams off of them, but the damage stays the same at 60-90.

Base Upgrades

Bright Eyes moves Eye Beams from 60-90 all the way up to 85-127, a very significant jump in my opinion.  Heavenly Aura is her tertiary attack and it creates an effective spectacle.  While shooting one out is cool to look at it, it lasts roughly 8 seconds and deals 45-67 10x if it is shot spot on an enemy.  The Halo Effect offers no damage increase, but when an enemy is hit with a halo and survives the attack they will wind up sporting it and moving a lot slower.  Hello Halo finishes off the base upgrades allowing you to have 4 Halos active at once, which comes in handy with both paths.

Visionary

This is a great path that is focused primarily on Spotlight’s Eye Beams attack.  Aura Charge couples the tertiary and primary and produces lethal attack damage numbers to the tune of 180-270 when the Heavenly Aura is shot with Eye Beams.  Light it Up knocks the base attack up even higher on the damage scale moving it from 85-127 all the way up to 120-180!  Bling is perhaps the least productive on the path, but it allows you to throw 2 Halos at once, thus quickly taking advantage of Hello Halo.  The cool part of this is that the damage moves from 50-75 to 60-90, nowhere near our other upgrades, but still significant enough to note.

The Ringer

This is also a good path.  I would consider it a bit defensive as the combined effect of Heavy Halo and Ring Shot allow you to take it easy and really orchestrate your offensive.  Heavy Halo is a significant upgrade to Halo Rings effectively doubling the damage output from 50-75 to 100-150!  You have to remember that in addition to doing damage on impact, enemies who pursue you and run into the Halos will take the same damage!  Ring Shot lets the Halos shoot their own lasers.  I was banking on this being good and not some cheesy 5-8, or 10-15; I was not disappointed.  While I expected a solid laser like Eye Beams, the Halos essentially fire off singular pulses as they rotate.  The best part isn’t the 360 degree attack pattern, but rather the fact they do 127-190 damage!  Uplifting Experience wraps the path up and allows you to capture bad guys via The Halo Effect and then get them in a Heavenly Aura for a skycapade.  The enemies are moved upward until they hit the peak and take 60-90 damage!  It isn’t as effective overall as the other upgrades on this path, but it definitely looks the coolest!

Soul Gem

Spotlight’s Soul Gem is dare I say, super effective!  When you have a Heavenly Aura going you simply shoot your Eye Beams into it (just like Aura Charge on the Visionary Path) and if you go for a fully cycle you will generate 4 Light Dragons that dash into enemies dealing 200-300 damage!

Spotlight Attack Damage (Click to Enlarge)

Conclusion

Once again, Spotlight has two solid upgrade paths…this really does come down to what you as an individual player prefers.  IF funds allow it, I would suggest you sport 2 Spotlights in your collection.  The Ringer really shines in the inherit defensive capabilities it offers.  If you set up 4 Halos and move to the middle of them, or behind a wall of Halos you will have 100-150 from each Halo exploding on enemies IF an enemy can get to you while the Halos deal 127-190 from their lasers.  The downside here is two fold…First, Spotlight can hit a Halo with Eye Beams and instead of decking your desired enemy cropping, you might wind up locked on to the Halo.  It is a minor inconvenience, but must be noted.  Lastly, while the damage the Halos deal with their lasers is great (and even higher than Eye Beams full upgraded down Visionary) they do shoot at random…If they homed in on enemies we’d be bragging about that, so this has to be cited as well.  Regardless of these two issues, The Ringer delivers and offers a totally unique move with Uplifting Experience.

Visionary would be the path I would consider best for my play style and that is primarily due to the fact I have more control with Aura Charge and Light It Up than I do with Ring Shot.  I really like the aesthetics of Aura Charge and coupled with Light it Up you’ve got rapid fire 300 damage over no time at all!  However, that same sequence (shooting the Heavenly Aura) also triggers the Soul Gem.  So, when you take Visionary and throw down  a Heavenly Aura and beging shooting it, you will deal 180-120-200 (500!) in no time flat…then of course, you consider that you can make that happen 2-4 times in most cases (provided enemies are left) and the damage is astronomical!

You really can’t go wrong with either path, but for my play style I think Visionary narrowly edges out The Ringer.