Before building an arsenal you need to figure out what you are building an arsenal for: League or house patterns, travel league or multiple houses, Tournament bowling, or Sport/PBA pattern leagues or tournaments.

For a regular house shot league you will need 4 balls:

1. A Heavy oil ball for when the machine goes nuts and puts down a flood, it happens. Suggested Balls to use: Cell, Buzzbomb, black Widow bite, Special Agent or Attitude shift or Passion, or columbia resurgence, MoRich LevRG. Brunswick Twisted Fury.

2. Benchmark ball. This is an everyday ball used for most medium conditions. Suggested balls: Columbia Rival or momentum, Any of the Nv series from Ebonite, Hammer Black Widow, or Toxic, Lane#1 Super Nova, MoRich NsaneLevRG, Storm Secret Agent, or Rapid Fire, Legends/LaneMasters Black Pearl. Brunswick Fury Pearl

3. Dry Lane ball for when you show up and the lane oiling machine is broken. Suggested balls to use: Columbia Jazz, Ebonite Bash, Hammer Vibe, Lane #1 Supernova xp or Liberator, Legends/Lanemasters Hornet, Brunswick Groove DryR or Power Groove.

4. Spare Ball DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT ONE.

Sorry I had to enter what I had written and come back later.

Balls to add for a Travel League.

1. Aggressive Pearl to cut through carrydown and open up a shot.
Columbia Momentum, Ebonite Raid or Clash, Hammer Black Widow Pearl or doom, Storm Gravity Shift, Legends/lanemasters the buzz.

2. A different drill pattern on your benchmark ball. If you drilled it with the pin above the fingers drill another one with the pin below the fingers and shine it, or try shining the other one and dulling this one. The reason for a different drilling of the same ball is when you go to some houses you hit the pocket, but just can't seem to carry, switching to the same ball with a different pattern and or different surface may help put 10 in the pit.

Additional or optional balls for PBA patterns. There is a difference between PBA Experience league shots and the actual patterns in houses that don't own the proper lane oiling equipment, so look out for that. The proper machine is either red, or black and says sanction technology on it. If not you probably are just getting what the lane man interprets the pattern to be.

The key to PBA Patterns is not necessarily equipment, but proper Execution and delivery. By that I mean you can have success with the wrong ball in your hand as long as you are throwing it right.

With that in mind I will do my best to tell you what seems to work and what types of players seem to do best on each pattern.

Shark: the longest pattern. Lately the pros seem to be playing it from outside with low pin aggressive equipment and end over end low side rotation release this is after burning open a hole in the pattern around the 5 board. To do the job of burning a hole in the pattern you need an aggressive ball dulled to at least 320, keep in mind this is not the ball you will be playing the shot with, but also keep in mind you don't get a half hour of practice to burn a hole in the pattern like they do on TV so I would suggest a high pin aggressive ball with a high flare drilling and 500 abralon finish that you could use until the 5th frame or so, then change to the low pin 5 to 5 1/2 inch pin to pap aggressive ball with 2000 abralon finish to go the rest of the way.

High Rev players have success playing inside lines on the shark start off by burning a hole going up the 10 board and moving in and playing to the hook spot you just created the key is to increase the side rotation as you move in deeper and avoid crossing the playing area of those playing outside of you because their carrydown will cause your shot to hang.

Scorpion Pattern. Plays simillar to a house pattern with the break point between 6 and 9 just don't drift left or right of that at the break point or you will pay a stiff penalty. Your aggressive ball will work until the oil breaks down then your benchmark ball will take over from there.

Chameleon Pattern. High Revers will have success playing from deep inside out to the 7 to 9 board with the pin over fingers benchmark ball, straight players will have success going up the second arrow out to 6 or 7 with one or the other benchmark balls either pin over or under fingers which ever carries.

Viper pattern. Plays great end over end up the second arrow with a shiny weak ball, pin under the fingers to keep it from burning out too quickly. Lefties seem to rule on this pattern this year so righties take a tip and play hard and straight up the outside.

Cheetah pattern. Seems to be playing harder this year and doesn't seem to be scoring as high as last year.I am not sure what the deal is I have not had the chance to bowl on it. It seems that you don't need to be out on the gutter like last year and seems to play close to the viper but with a sharper break point so a lower pin and duller surface in the viper ball might work with an end over end release.

Sport shots all that matters is how long the pattern is that tells you straight away what ball to use longer = more aggressive and higher pin shorter = shiny and lower pin. If you are having problems with the ball being too jumpy at the breakpoint use a duller piece of equipment if the ball is not turning the corner use a shiny coverstock.

Just a note: the Cheetah pattern has been modified. I do believe the extended the oil by the gutters a few extra feet, so if you get it too far outside, that dry isn't there like it use to be to let the ball recover.

Admin: +1 for pinning this or a similar thread to the top

One thing I would disagree with is that the Twisted Fury isn't a heavy oil ball. Atleast that's not how I see it.

Everyone I know that has a twisted fury uses it on broken down medium or fresh lighter conditions. It's a pearl solid ball - that is the least traction a coverstock can have. Heavy oil tends to demand early friction.

In fact, it's the weakest ball in Brunswick's Premium line: http://www.brunswickbowling.com/twisted-fury

If you get a lot of movement out of it on heavy oil, you're not actually on heavy oil

I have heard of pros using the twisted on many conditions by altering the surface. You could also use a Total Inferno, but I wouldn't recommend a fury unless you get a good one, it is hit or miss with the new factory, the twisted sanded seems to give everything the fury was supposed to plus seems to be more consistent from the factory, like they might have turned the corner in their quality control, at least I haven't heard of someone's twisted hitting like a marshmallow or skidding through the pindeck right out of the box like I have from some fury owners, so I have a hard time recommending the fury.

The total is more aggressive in cover similar to the absolute, but doesn't have the back end the twisted does when you dull it, which is why I recommended it, besides it seems to be a good one two punch with the fury pearl.

I hear Brad Angelo on Xtra Frame the PBA video service. Brad Angelo was talking about what balls he would be using and why on Viper Pattern. He noted that he would start with Total Inferno and as the front head get burnt he would use twisted fury, which he stated dont seem to see that early friction as much as other balls.

Surface prep plays a big part with friction too, as CoachJim was saying. At OOB the Twisted Fury won't have have the friction. If you take that same ball down to 800 like the Fury it will encounter more friction earlier. The Twisted Fury is at Brunswick's Rough Buff.

As for issues with the Fury, I have an original Fury, I had mine delivered to my house the same day pro shops around me were getting it delivered to their shops and the only problem I've had with mine is the same as with all typical dull solids, soaking up oil. Removing the oil and redoing the surface fixed this as well as regular maintenance, which I was doing anyways, but now I touch it up on the spinner every so many games. I have mine at 500 abralon. I know of many others that have the ball and have few or no issues with it.

For a house shot, I can see having 4 balls, but no need to carry them all into the building with you. You build an arsenal starting with ones bowling style. that has to be the first ingredient. There is no one size fits all when it comes to arsenals. My arsenal is very different from Erins ( not picking on you Erin ), because of our different bowling styles. A majority of my bowling balls are drilled for length. The balls that hook the most, don't get used a lot. Even on PBA shots, the big hooking balls don't get used much. Yes I can get just as much hook, if not more hook on PBA shots. The big problem is you don't have the mistake room on the PBA shots that you do on house shots. So the same balls that work wonders on house shots, may not work wonders on PBA shots.

It may have been the house I was bowling at, but I found that most if not all of the patterns played better from the outside. I thought that the carry was better and it seemed like I had an easier time getting to the pocket. Carry was a much bigger issue for me than reaching the pocket. Matching up ball with bowler is so big on the PBA shots. One thing I saw was that you have to be in the pocket. You can't risk losing the pocket for more backend. So, you want balls that don't jump off of the breakpoint. You want an evenish rolling ball. Strong arc with a continuos backend would work well. Still, even with that, I bowled better with balls that got length. The reason is because of my rev rate and ball speed. I'm not Robert Smith, but my rev rate has always been higher than my ball speed. I have just this year increased my ball speed. If I get to bowl in another PBA pattern league, I will see how that changes things.

For a house shot that you normally play on, I can't see carrying more than 3 balls into the building. a medium/heavy oil ball and a light/medium ball will cover everything they can throw at you. That means different things to different people. For me its a particle pearl and a pearl ball. No matter what they do to the lane machine, I can bowl on it with my particle pearl. I keep an extra ball in my car for drier conditions.