Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Battle Camp Released Globally! BEST NEW GAME!

Alright, so today Battle Camp is officially available for Global Download! Not only that but it seems like the Apple App Store has jumped on the bandwagon and featured Battle Camp as a BEST NEW GAME.

Now, for those unfamiliar, Apple is pretty picky about who makes their BEST NEW GAME list, so this is pretty insane for an unheard of company to make the list.

The reasons it probably made the list:

1) Full virtual world with avatars + monsters that follow you around
2) Raiding
3) Global Chat/Troop Chat/Messaging
4) Troop Halls
5) Troop Pets
6) Mosaic (This is an easter egg that I am completely addicted to, it's a board game I play with people while my energy recharges)
7) Match 3 Combat
8) Synchronous PvP (Yes, this is INSANELY fun)
9) Huge story and progression
10) Or in other words, it's a freakin MMO.

Overall, the game is insanely fun and the company behind it has really raised the bar on what should be expected.

The downsides:

1) Graphics. Personally I've said it again and again, Gameplay > Graphics. But the art style lacks the sex appeal of other games.

2) Paying players have an advantage. Sorry, but I think we're in a world where that's just a case in games. You can watch videos or do 'Tapjoy' functions to earn gold though like F2P MMOs did. Also they are adding daily logins + trading in the next patch so that should help. Overall, where other games are taking away ways for players to earn things, they add ways.

I really can't say I've had more fun playing a mobile game than I have playing Battle Camp, and their constant updates/changes keeps it really interesting to me. That and the fact I get to wander around showing off my awesome pets + costumes and can solo carry newbies through easy raids.

The game is still VERY new, but honestly it reminds me a lot of Warcraft, it's always adding content.

Download it at: http://bit.ly/BattleCampApp

Photo: Campers, we have gone global! And we want to celebrate with a 50 energy giveaway! 

To get the energy, just post your user name in the comments by the end of the day Friday, 9/20. Then make this banner your cover photo and make our app icon your profile picture for one week.

We'll be handing out the energy next Friday, 9/27.

Download the images here:
http://we.tl/voKs3bl3Z1

Play NOW ---- > http://bit.ly/BattleCampApp


Friday, September 13, 2013

Battle Camp Update

Ok, so the previous date of the 14th got changed. It will be released the 18th of this month atm.

Apparently the push back was so they could add a bunch of languages for the Global Release rather than add the languages in future patches :(

So, there have been a few questions posed on some different sites.

1) Will you get your ass handed to you by people who have been playing?

- Absolutely. There's a huge advantage to being part of a BETA. I've BETA'd a lot of games and it always gives me an edge, it's one of the only perks they get. The upside though is that improving your team can be done pretty rapidly to the point where you can compete. If you're good the edge they gained can be caught up in about a month of normal play.

2) Is it P2W like Rage/Marvel

- Yes and no. Obviously all games have a pay process, they have to make money and expecting them not to is just silly. The real question is are they greedy about it? The answer to that is no. Players earn rare spins in events just by earning trophies/participating. Players also can ask friends to send them a recharge for their energy. Finally, they do have stuff where you can watch ads to earn coins. 

Do paying players have an advantage? Yep. Not going to avoid that anywhere really, but the nice part is that you can catch up and they are regularly adding ways for players to earn stuff rather than take away those opportunities.

3) Are you going to make a fan site for it?

- Maybe. I've been busy (14+ hour days) constantly lately.

4) Any tips for newbies?

- Stay in Camp until you have a full team of Rares. Camp Rares only require 2 pieces to make vs 4-6 as you go through. Although they're weaker than other rares they will help you farm the other rares faster.

- Special monsters give way more XP than other monsters. Use your normal monsters to level a special and then feed that one to a Rare. You'll level much faster and spend a lot less stone leveling.
 

- Find a Troop that Raids regularly. The Beginner Raids aren't super hard (my player can solo the entire first raid in a day). You get a piece of a Super Rare monster for winning raids so it's the best way to power up fast.
 

- Participate heavily in events. Pretty much all players win something, but also you gain rewards by earning trophies. You can also find Event Tokens that carry over to other events and can be used to be traded for event monsters/costumes/trophies/stone.
- Play through the entire story. You get experience boosts/stone/monster grabs.


- Be active. A lot of troops are willing to take friendly active members even if they are weak because they know that they can carry them through raids and power them up quickly.

Finally, here's a piece of Battle Camp art I put together:

Battle Camp
Battle Camp, Experience the Awesome.

Friday, August 9, 2013

So Where has Lucarda Been?

After four months of being MIA I'm back, unfortunately I just don't have time to keep up on Marvel War of Heroes and all the best strats anymore. The truth is I found a game that has pretty much everything I could ask for in a mobile game.

While Rage of Bahamut was fun for a while, the game I'm currently playing is a hell of a lot more fun. The game is called Battle Camp! I've been in the beta and helping with the game for the last several months.

I haven't been writing about it while I was playing because I didn't want to get in trouble but now that it's about to launch I figured I'd let my readers know about it first.

So, what makes Battle Camp so much better than Marvel War of Heroes?


Well, let me tell you my experience with it.

I first entered the game and opened the game and began designing my character. At first I thought, wow I can choose from five looks, then I noticed the customize button. It was there I found out that I could make my character appear thousands of different ways. I wondered how much it cost for the various vanities and I was shocked to find out nothing. The amount of customization a player can do for their character is just absurd. There are also tons of costumes players CAN purchase though that look pretty funny/weird/cute/awesome.

So, after completing my character I entered the game. The combat system is like Puzzles and Dragons (for any who have played it). This is just a grossly better system over the TCG model. All of the movement and gem matching was seamless and I found being able to determine my attacks with a combination of skill+monster stats really refreshing.

At this point the similarities to Puzzles and Dragons ended. My avatar was in a zone in the world and immediately story dialog came up and began sending me on various quests. The amount of story+quests in this game borders on full MMO status. The story is also funny with tons of puns if you read to catch them.

So, what next? Farm, farm, farm for monsters which I always find to be a fun part of a game. Farming in Battle Camp isn't nearly as brutal as it is in Marvel. I spent about 5-10 minutes an hour playing trying to gather up pieces of rare monsters. As I gathered more and more rares I ended up joining a Troop (Battle Camps version of Guilds/Orders).

That's where the game started getting really addicting. The troops have built in chats, raids that players can do, and troop pets for the team to raise (plays an important role in one of the events). Ultimately through raiding with the rest of the troop I was able to accumulate a bunch of higher rarity monsters and evolve them. After that it's just fun to watch your damage cap rise and rise in raids.

Now, that's not all there is to do otherwise I would have been bored already. Much like Marvel there are several events. There are Troop Wars which pit troops against each other (sort of like Shield Training but different), there are Raid Events where the troop gathers items together to battle unique raid bosses, and also a dungeon event where players battle their way through waves of challenge mode caves to earn tokens and battle a boss. All of the events are extremely fun and each has their own unique story.

PvP deserves a special mention because it's real head to head. Players battle against other live players to see who is more skilled on the board as well as who has the better monsters. Obviously monsters give an edge (sometimes insurmountable, sorry commons don't beat epics unless the other guy forfeits), but the cool part is that I have on a regular basis crushed people with pets much rarer than mine. The reason? Because skill plays a role.

Overall, I'm sure I'm forgetting about something but I figured any of my readers deserved to know why I haven't been commenting/playing Marvel War of Heroes. I would love to see you all in Battle Camp though.

It is on iOS only right now with an android version scheduled later this year. It doesn't get released in the US until the 14th but if you want to get in early Canada is one of the beta countries so you can download it in the canadian app store.

If you do decide to join me in game please use my referral code! And as always, IGN Lucarda.

p8cgzp


Friday, April 19, 2013

Deadpool Boot Camp

Marvel War of Heroes newest event Deadpool Bootcamp is the same as the other raid events so you could just as easily read those posts for a lot of the information and it will still be the same. That information being:

1) If you want to rank well you need raider cards, the higher the rarity the better.
2) Loaning out raid cards to friends when you sleep and them loaning them to you are both great ways to maximize points while minimizing cost.
3) Some people will let you rent theirs if you have collateral. (I still recommend only using people you know because your collateral is worth far more after the event)
4) Be highly active but passive for the first half (attack but don't use RDS/PP)
5) Use all your stored RDS/PP for enraged bosses

Group Raiding

Those are the cliff notes. But this time I'm going to talk about something that not a lot of people do. Group sharing/questing. This is a great way for lower level Alliances to do well.

During Shield Training people are able to coordinate so several are on at once but during Raid Events it very much becomes an every man for themselves attitude. I'm not saying this is wrong, the requirement of Raider cards makes it being a group activity tough. But it's not impossible.

Attacking other peoples raid bosses gives you a damage bonus, and every little bit helps. If you reasonably got 10-20 Alliance members on simultaneously when enraged bosses were popping up and did some power summoning of bosses you could give yourselves quite a bonus.

The way it would work is you attack only your enraged bosses. Attack them once then share. If everybody does this once, not only will you get a damage bonus for enraged but you will also get one for supporting a friend. With everybody doing it, everybody would benefit. It also would turn a boring solo grind activity into something a little more fun if you set up a few times to do this after enraged bosses started popping up.

It's also a nice way for people who maybe can't afford the best raider cards to get an edge.

Deadpool

Deadpool will be insanely priced. I'm not sure how high he will go, but I believe he'll be higher than any of the other reward cards. The reason for this is two things. The first is that he is a top notch speed card with a Relatively High Proc to pure attack. This is the card people stacking Spider-man have been waiting for. Second, come on, that art is hilarious and unique.

So, if you were going to push in a Raid Event this year...I'd recommend this one.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Lets Talk Shield Training

So, by now people should know enough about Shield Training to make some valid strategies and how to do well. If you don't, check back at some of my previous posts regarding it.

Instead, I'd rather address things people do that are just bad decisions. So, here is my list of things I see people doing because somewhere they think it gives them an advantage.

1) Not Building Walls

I understand that people think of these as 'free points' but the amount of points per attack power players get from destroying a wall is much lower than the points per attack power a player can get from attacking a player.

2) Single Card Defense

I don't get this one. Apparently people haven't realized yet that they are penalized for using single cards on defense? If you don't believe me...attack somebody with a single card assigned. You can attack them over and over again while receiving full or near full points. Don't do it.

3) Lockout Strategy

It doesn't work. People who use this strategy are simply saying..."I plan on losing, but I plan to take all the fun out of the game while doing it." An active team can still accumulate far more points. Now, can you do it? Yes, but you're a dick ruining the game for others and your odds of winning aren't actually increased.

4) Minimum Attack/Defense Requirements

This is something that's been around since Rage. Realistically, it's not a good determiner of how people will do. Instead you want to ask them how much PP they are willing to spend. People will aim for players they can beat naturally. But some players with high stats will merely do the minimum and do nothing after that. It's important to find members who are willing to throw down, not just members stats.

Those are my big four. But for those who don't know, the keys to winning are:

1) Active Players
2) Coordinated Battles
3) Solid PP stockpiles
4) Strong enough decks to break defenses
5) Good Attack/Defense Leaders

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Captain America vs Red Skull

So, I anticipated a Hydra event for some time so it's good to see one showing up. Red Skull is one of my favorite villains, even though Captain America is a little 'too good' for my taste in heroes.

First things first. I'd like to address the Raider Card Changes. I get that people are getting continually frustrated at the diminished value of Raid Reward Raider Cards. The fact that an SR Raid Reward has not only less boost than its purchased equivalent, but less boost than its Rare equivalent is pretty annoying.

And I have to say, I am very disappointed in the change. For high level players this change makes very little difference, but for low level players this change makes rising in rank even more difficulty.

Couple this with the changes to Personal Power Packs being given out, I struggle to think of how low level players can improve their decks without spending money. I feel these change will cause the game to lose players faster as they hit a wall in improving their deck.

Now, on the upside. The value of PP had been diminishing, actually down to about seventy five cents per PP. This was partially due to how easy it was to get Personal PP during the Raid Event. So, the one thing we can look forward to is PP increasing in value back up to its dollar hopefully (but generally when things drop they don't go back up). This of course...will make it even harder for new players to get ahead.

Overall, these changes are bad. And a game that had a possible shelf life of 2 years probably has a shelf life of one as a result of them. This is due to the fact that these changes increase the chances of losing new players, and veteran players will leave naturally. I find it hard to believe that given these changes that Marvel won't be losing players at a higher rate than which they gain them.

That's enough of a rant there about the changes.

Captain America vs Red Skull

So, for this event obviously there are certain tricks. Trick number one is ideally you don't want to use any of your RDS bars until enraged bosses come along. This way the damage done is significantly more. On top of this, try to stack as many raid cards as you can for the bonus damage.

Trick number two involves retrieving prizes from raid bosses. Ideally, you want to let the inbox for your prizes get to the full 30 max before accepting them. The idea behind this is you will summon weaker bosses making them easier to finish and get RDS bars. If you gradually prizes as you beat the bosses, you will gradually get tougher bosses. This will mean that you may have 15 battles that take 2 RDS each instead of 30 that take 1 RDS each.

Trick number three involves teamwork. Ideally you'll want to target shared bosses regularly. If your Alliance set aside a two hour period during enraged bosses where you all farm enraged bosses, hit them once, then share them, you can look forward to a bonus as well. This boost to damage is welcome because it promotes active participation.

Trick number five involves renting/borrowing cards. Players all have a limited amount of time they can play and need to sleep. A strong alliance with good bonds will often be able to pass around cards for people to use even if they didn't purchase them.

Finally trick number six is to know your damage. I try to always hit the highest level boss available with a 1 RDS, a 3 RDS and a 6 RDS attack. I normally write these down so I know how much to use on certain bosses. Then when enraged come along you just triple it.

Anyway, Good luck on the event.


Friday, March 15, 2013

Sorry about Delays

Sorry about delays on posts. I wanted to have the Raid Info and my take on it before launch but I've been working on a project that requires a huge amount of my time. I plan on making some time this weekend to do an update on the event and the changes as well as.

I have yet to get time to update my best decks either. They haven't shifted a lot in SSR and only slightly in SR. Rares have probably been effected the most.

Finally, yes, I am just as annoyed as you all are at the shifts in the way events are operating. Just remember, everybody is in the same boat so if you can't get personal PP, neither can others.

Anyway, I'll have an event update post by Sunday.

Friday, March 8, 2013

SHIELD Enforcement Training Four

Sorry about the delay on the SHIELD Enforcement Training. With some of the game changes recently I wasn't sure if they were going to perform significant changes to SHIELD Enforcement Training.

Structure:


For those who aren't aware, I hope that's very few anymore, SHIELD Enforcement Training is an event where players and their alliances compete to reach the top rankings. Players declare a training, afterwards the system matches them against another alliance, and then they destroy the defense leader and wall before going to town on the alliance.

Obviously the outcomes of these wars are heavily influenced by the amount of PP a team is willing to spend, but having powerful members always helps.

Changes:


For this SHIELD Enforcement Training a ranking system was added called the Instructor System. As you raise your valor in battle you improve in rank and eventually get upgraded to another instructor. As you do this you gain rewards for each increase which consists of shards, rally points, silver, training power packs, etc. While do high level players this change may seem like 'who cares?' to low level players it gives them some additional incentive to battle, especially for the poor souls trapped in temporary alliances.

Player Bans:


Haha. So, it's no real secret that top level alliances in the previous SHIELD Training had been using an exploit that caused them to earn about 300-500 extra Valor per PP. I'm not going to name the specific alliance but I know from a friend that one specific top level abused it profusely. This went mostly unnoticed but I guess during the downtime between trainings Mobage learned about it (Not from me).

Anyway, the bug was that when a player hit the attack key rapidly they would perform about five full attacks on the same target even if they only had the attack power for one. I learned about this bug in the last HW from a friend and didn't even tell my alliance about it for fear that some of them might use it, figuring that it would eventually end in bans.

It's nice to see Mobage finally grew a pair of testicles and did something about the cheaters though.

Two Cheap Strategies Everybody Needs to Know About:


1) Alt Attacks - Using alternate accounts to spam attack a specific defense leader and lower their defense points. This tactic is common amongst low level alliances but falls off the higher you get, mainly because a 30% morale boost with a decent attack deck is all you really need to break a defense leader.

It can be very frustrating for low level players who have a baller defense leader to lose to this strategy. The key is...your defense leader needs to be using PP to replenish.

2) Lockout Strategy - I find this to be the most boring and awful strategy in the game. This strategy is accomplished by one player being the only one who's attacking. This way as your Alliance attacks all of this team members are worth low amounts of Valor while he farms your team for proper amounts of valor.

This strategy is effective at high levels because players don't want to spend PP to only get 120-160 Valor Points. Even if you end up winning the war, you feel like you lost.

This strategy is something that Mobage really needs to look at correcting because it is the epitome of Anti-Fun. Most notably, for the Alliance using it - only one player is really playing while the others sit back and do nothing. For the Alliance that it is getting used on - They just stop participating in that battle because even though they CAN win, they want to get a premium on their PP.

The only person having fun out of 60 players is the single person participating. Although some people will say 'I don't mind not having to participate as long as I get my rewards' that isn't playing. That's having somebody play the game for you and it's sad.


Anyway, those are my thoughts for this SHIELD Enforcement Training. Good luck and have fun!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Spider-Man vs Venom Reward Values

I just wanted to make a quick post on the reward values for the Spider-man vs. Venom Event. Then I thought to myself...why? The prices fluctuate so much anyway and currently the economy is shifting quite a bit as players reach high power levels. But then, hell, why not.

UR Symbiote Venom:


Ultra Rare Venom meets a need that players have been waiting to be filled, an acceptably powerful UR Bruiser card. Although players might look at him and say 'hey, he's pretty much an Iron Man with less frequent proc rates!' he does allow bruisers to get rid of those UR+ Thors in the core of their deck. That and the fact he's Venom and extremely limited puts his price somewhere around 300+. Personally though, I wouldn't pay over 200 for him because lets face it, he's an Iron Man.

SSR Wall-Crawler Spider-Man:


Seriously...another Spider-Man? Don't have enough of those. And it does what? Oh, decreases Bruiser attack and defense...yeah...that's not useless at all. Lets face it...this card is just bad. It helps you defend against the weakest alignment offensively and defensively. I bet it will sell pretty solid for 10PP but lets be honest, it's worth 7PP at most.

SR Secret Veteran Arachne:


Actually she's really good for an SR card and possibly the best SR speed attack card now. Her pure boost to speed attack and her future wall breaker event ability makes her a pretty nice card. Unfortunately her abundance will bring down the price. Realistically 3-4 PP each would be a reasonable amount of PP.

R All Seeing Doctor Strange:


Lets be honest. He really has no value. Rares just are nice stepping stones for low level players but otherwise are used to skill up cards.


On a side note. Pretty much every SR quality card is worth 1-2PP each at this point and in a month will probably all just be worth 1PP each.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Finishing an Event

People are built differently. Some people will fight a losing battle to the end, others will cut their the losses and move on, but some people will always win.

Now, I have been that blind bull that pushes a losing battle until the very end...I don't like it. Generally, I only do that when I'm particularly angry or don't care. This is probably the worst case scenario for anybody who wants to profit off of an event. The reason is, when you push hundreds of PP into a losing battle, you're gimping yourself for the next one. It's a Pyrrhic Victory. People can literally 'win' themselves into the poor house.

Now, I've been the second type of person as well, that guy who cuts his losses. This will normally be the result of frustration and I compare it to flipping the monopoly board. Realistically, this is me throwing a hissy fit that I'm not going to get where I want and I've already invested X amount and I'm just done. I used to be more like this in games, and even now I will get this way for a short time. The key is to step back and look at everything, and this leads into the third type of people.

Always winning. Some people will finish every event with more than they put in. This is almost always accomplished by people who step back and look at all facets of the game and where they are at. It's accomplished when people look at the time tables of games and graph highs and lows. This is the type of gamer I am now. Although I'm always susceptible to one and two, I tend to end up at this point.

In MMOs I've graphed and tracked auction house data down to how certain times of day effected prices. I did this to the point I almost got banned in vanilla WoW for messing with the entire market on my server. In free to play MMOs I've identified needs of players and used that to get people to gift me cash shop items which I then sold for huge profit.

Now, I know, that appears like a huge waste of time for some, but I often find engaging in those activities more fun than talking politics in chat.

What's this have to do with Marvel?

Simple, we are at that point in the event where players are deciding whether they are going to be the bull, cut their losses, and some are looking at profiting.

During these last couple of days if you want to bull it, do it. It's awesome when you hit your target, but if you miss, it's infuriating. If you're going to quit frustrated at all the issues that occurred this event...that's your right. But I'm saying there's an alternative.

Some players are quitting and selling their event cards cheap, other players are intending to bull their way through and are picking up event cards. If you're smart you can clear about 10 PP as a middleman for trades. Look for people selling a card for a certain amount...let them know you might have a buyer, go into one of your other trade chats and ask if anybody wants to buy x card for (Their Price+5-10PP.) If you have somebody who says yes, tell the person you'll buy it and you clear the profit.

Not only that, there are people who are selling their solid non-raid cards at a discount to get that last bit of PP to push. One guy in my Alliance during the Dr. Doom Event Liquidated his entire deck during the last couple days to earn 2 Dooms. If you buy low at the end of the event, you can normally sell for a profit down the road.

Finally, have fun. Do what you think will result in the most fun for you. I find this type of thing fun, but if you'll have more fun blindly pushing, that's what you should do. If you're not having fun, it's fine to take a break.

The message I'm trying to push here is to look at the greater picture for this event and try to profit where you can. Whether you win or lose is entirely up to how active you are willing to be and how broad a view you can achieve. Yes, its a lot for an android TCG, but that's because this is how I have fun.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

How I would Solve the Exploit Issue

There are different types of 'exploits'. Just because you wish to call it an 'exploit' doesn't mean it's not cheating. For example, exploiting knowledge you shouldn't have to buy/sell stock results in years in prison.

There is always an implied understanding in online games that there will be bugs and if you find them you should not exploit them for personal gain. World of Warcraft banned high end guilds for exploiting bosses, Guild Wars 2 banned players for exploiting bad pricing to make high end equipment, and Raiderz wiped a mammoth amount of items off all their servers as a result of a duping exploit.

The cold hard fact is:

No, you're not so stupid as to 'think it was okay'
'Everybody is doing it' is not an excuse
You don't get to fall back on 'well they should have programmed better'
And you really are a twat if you try to say 'I used it 40x on accident'

If you used it you know what you did, and you know what you did was wrong and actively chose to do it because your personal gain was more important than any semblance of sportsmanship or personal integrity. You truly are the twat of twats.

How I would deal with the problem if I were Mobage:

24 hour maintenance and extension of the event. I would use this time to figure out everybody who used the exploit.

When the event came back, every damn person who exploited the glitch...oh lets say five times to be fair...would happily find themselves with 0 raid points. 

This would move up the ranks of every honest person and send a message to people who think it's okay to exploit, and nobody would be banned. 

After all, when my teacher caught me 'exploiting' another persons test (they should have covered it if they didn't want me looking) I would have received a zero.

   

Raid Event Changes

So, today I woke up to find myself horribly annoyed that Mobage decided to change the raid to disallow players from not accepting boss rewards to keep their bosses low and farm green shards.

The first thing:
They claim that it is the result of 'server stability' but I can 100% assure you that is complete bullshit. I know it's complete bullshit because a huge number of players, myself included, are sitting on over 500 gifts of rally points from previous raid events in our mailboxes but that's never been a blip on their radar.

A few days into the event they realize that players have managed to figure out how to farm PP even though they removed the PP rewards from red and purple shards to prevent players from from farming PP.

This change is just annoying. It's another way to make the game unplayable if you don't spend money on it.

The second thing:
Really Mobage? Your number one priority is keeping people from farming PP? Not that wicked exploit that allows players to push bosses insane without using any PP? 

I am tempted to just announce the damn exploit to break their game.

But I'm bigger than that. Not much. But slightly. Not only did that not fix a SHIELD Training exploit that allowed players to attack without attack power, but they don't fix another exploit that top players are using to attack without using PP.

That's how you know that a game company is fail. Their primary focus is spent on punishing casuals, not punishing exploiters.

*Note on that last comment. The game designers of the game are not fail. They did a really damn good job. Their bosses, the guys who decide what to focus on and how to monetize are fail. Seriously, what a bunch of twats.*

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Spider-Man vs. Venom Raid Event

Spider-Man vs. Venom Raid Event

Spider-Man vs Venom Marvel War of Heroes Guide

Well, it looks like Mobage said...you know those things we did in Rage of Bahamut that cause 40% of our player base to jump ship? Lets do those things in Marvel War of Heroes.

So, the new Spider-Man vs. Venom Raid Event had some very unfortunate twists that people weren't really able to plan for.

Twist 1: Raider Cards


So, in previous events the Raider Cards that players received from previous events generally had an 'okay' buff to Raid Bosses. This was a brilliant system that allowed players to participate even if they didn't have a fortune to spend. It was also a nice consolation prize for players who scored in the mid range of a previous event.

Apparently this was unacceptable, so Mobage decided to drop down the effectiveness GREATLY of non-purchased Raider Cards.

Sentinel is doing 350% instead of the 600% that previous SRs did. The Hercules that people were spending a bunch of PP to try to earn out of card packs is only doing 200%...which is just sad considering that Black Cat does 250%. Of course not as sad as Sifs 150%...there's sure a point in fusing and maxing that...

Spider Woman, Thing, Scarlet Spider, and Iron Fist all do the normalized raid damage. I have no idea why they would have made this changes to Raider cards other than a blatant cash grab.

So, all those people who were purchasing Sentinels for 10PP each...sorry, you got screwed.


Twist 2: The Raid Deployment Points


So, what's pointless? Oh yeah, attack power. You have that energy heavy feeder account with only 10 Attack and Defense points? Congratulations, you're the raid event winner here.

This system completely changes the way players need to approach the raid event in order to do well. The reason is, previously a player could just use a single raider card, attack over and over, and slowly whittle away big enemies. Not anymore. A player could also simply tag every enemy once for shards using a single card to gain PP. They can still do it, but instead of costing 4-5% of their Attack Power, it's costing them 1/6 of it for each swat.

A player is given 6 Raid Deployment Points that recharge at a rate of once every 20 minutes. This means that a player can get a full set of attacks in once every two hours, or recharge the points using their PP.

Now, here's the bright/dark side of this system. No matter how powerful your deck is...it cost the same 1 RDP to attack. So, if you only have 1 Raider Card, you get screwed, if you have 5 good raider cards, you are benefiting.

So, with the new system it would be most beneficial to try to stack five raid cards.

So, what to do now?


Well, ideally you're going to want to stack five of the highest level Raider Cards you can get. The sooner you can get them the better. The way this event is set up costs pretty much everybody significantly more to do well in.

For example. Previously if you had five Silver Surfers the deck would cost about 75 Attack per Shot. This mean that a player with 300 attack (Standard for anybody stacking that kind of firepower during a Raid Event) would get 6 attacks in. A player like me would have had 50 attack power leftover for another mini attack as well.

Currently, if I had five Iron Fist the deck I would be able to get those same 6 shots in, but now I wouldn't be able to get that extra attack from my attack power.

Now, for the really bad part. If you did well in the previous event by using one Silver Surfer (A lot of people did this) you can't anymore. You could normally attack close to 20x with a Single Silver Surfer before needing to use a PP. Now you can attack....6.

In essence. Single card attacks have had the shit nerfed out of them. Why? Because Mobage thinks that if you HAVE to buy five UR IF to do well that you WILL buy five UR IF to do well. Of course, players like me see this for what it is, a blatant pay to win set up. Last I checked, I played games to challenge/enjoy myself, not buy my way to the top.

I'm not saying I'm leaving Marvel...but I am definitely eyeballing some of the prettier games out there.




Saturday, February 9, 2013

SHIELD Combat Readiness Training



SHIELD Combat Readiness Training Marvel War of Heroes introduced a new 'mini event' to substitute for the previous 'assignment' mini events that normally prefaced the large Raid/Shield Events, and its pretty awesome.

Shield Combat Readiness Training allows players to engage in a mini combat free for all to gain shards that can be traded in for rally points, silver, cards for the upcoming event, and even Ability ISOs.

There are three different options for Trading in Shards; 5, 10, 100.

As you move up in number of shards, you gain access to better rewards. Of course the downside is that you still have a pretty substantial chance of getting Rally Points or Silver...neither of which are really sought after.

 

What's the Best Trade In?

I believe the 10 Shard Trade in is the best value, and here's why. Although 100 Shard trade in doubles the chance of getting Sif and Hercules as well as introduces the ability ISO-8, players still have almost the same chance of getting the rally points and silver as they did before.

So, lets say that you have a 2% Chance at Hercules on a 10 shard trade in. Now, you do that trade in 10 times. Since each time its calculated individually it isn't a 20% chance at getting him, but its something around 17% of getting him.

Now, lets say you have 2x the chances on the 100 shard trade in + the Ability ISO chance. So lets say Ability ISO is 2% and 4% Hercules. That's a 6% chance (although 1 of those chances is 2x Hercules) on 1 draw with 100 shards

The absence of Hercules in the 5 shard pack makes them pointless.

Now, if the chance is literally based on the reward selections (which I doubt, but hey, who knows?)

There is a 3/16 chance of getting Hercules or Ability ISO-8 out of the 100 Shard Exchange.
There is a 1/16 chance of getting Hercules out of the 10 Shard Exchange.
There is a 1/11 chance of getting Sif out of the 5 Shard Exchange. (No Hercules. There is a 1/16 chance of getting Sif out of 10 Shard Exchange and 2/16 chance of getting Sif out of 100 Shard Exchange)

This means that over 100 Shards you have 10 1/16 chances at Hercules using the 10 shard exchange, or 3/16 chances of Hercules or Ability ISO on the 100 Shard Exchange. Take your pick (the losing rewards are way better with the 100 Shard Packs unless you get 100k silver like me)

In the end, its your choice, but I prefer my odds with the 10 Shards.

Combat Grades

Interesting. But I fail to get the point of them. They don't give an increase to shards. In fact, as you increase your rank you will be pitted against people with higher rank as well meaning that winning will become more difficult.

If there was some final ranking reward or players were given more shards per attack when they increase in rank, I could see a purpose, but in the current inception I don't really see a point. Kind of nice to have a rank though.

Participate

In the end, this event gives you the ability to get free stuff for minimal effort. Whether you are a new player or a veteran, don't worry about losing, participate. The only way you could lose during this mini event is by not playing.

Friday, February 8, 2013

No Time No time

Alright readers! I gotta make this fast because today is just not a day I have time, but I HAVE to post on the updates.

Item 1:

Marvel War of Heroes just released a battling event that is currently running.  If you ran straight to your page instead of reading home you may have missed it. You gain ISO-Shards that can be traded for chances at personal resources and...drumroll....cards that are good for the next event.

PARTICIPATE. DO IT.

If you didn't see it, hit home, its on the menu there.

Item 2:

Despite the game not saying it before, Sentinel and Black Cat will both be raider cards. Your Sentinels are worth 10-15PP as a result. Don't get scammed on them. Black Cats you can probably skate by getting 2-3PP each for them depending on buyers.

Item 3:

If you had ULTIMATE CARD PACK TICKETS as rewards, hold onto them. If you thought raider cards for Fantastic Four were expensive, this event will hit higher. Not only is it a sought after UR for Bruiser which they are lacking in, but it's also VENOM, one of peoples favorite comic villains.

Item 4:

I will have proper updates tomorrow. Sorry, that's all I had time for today.


Sunday, February 3, 2013

SHIELD Training 3 Reward Values

Because of the popularity of my post about the reward values for the Fantastic Four Event I decided to create one for the rewards of the SHIELD Training 3. Although many people were dissatisfied by the fact that once again rewards for being a top level Alliance are horribly lagging behind individual rewards, they are still better than what other TCG offer.

One thing to note is that no cards have mentioned whether or not they would be useful in the next event. 

Ferrous Hero Iron Man

Marvel war of heroes guide Ferrous Hero Iron Man

Ferrous Hero Iron Man is a pretty solid SSR for people who are just starting into SSR on their decks, but substantially inferior to many other SSR. Because of his mammoth versatility his buff is substantially weaker than other cards. His final stats are predicted to be around 10700 attack and 10300 defense, making him a jack of all trades card. But, with the increasing popularity of Tactics cards in the game I wouldn't be surprised to see him going for 20PP.

Ability Boom ISO-8s

Marvel war of heroes guide Ability Boom ISO-8

Rewards for top level players in addition to the Iron Man card these are the true reward for participating in the event. Ability Booms have traditionally sold for a steady 30PP each. Recently I've seen them going for as low as 25PP each in my trade chats. I assume they will drop and remain at 25PP for sometime, especially now that many high level players have skill 10d most of their cards already.

Mutant Hunter Sentinel

Marvel War of Heroes Guide Mutant Hunter Sentinel

A solid SR offensive wing card Mutant Hunter Sentinal offers a nice boost to its own attack for a bruiser deck. There is always a possibility despite it not being mentioned that Sentinel can be used in the next raid event. I don't find it likely, but hold onto it until you know for sure. If it is usable in the next raid event, you will probably be able to sell it for 10-15PP each.

Fickle Fortune Black Cat

Marvel War of Heroes Guide Fickle Fortune Black Cat

Did we really need another Black Cat card? Oh well. Much like Sentinel, if it's usable in the next event it will have SOME value. If it's not usable in the next event it will be a nice addition to some lowbies deck since it is a degrade to all ability.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Assault Cards SHIELD Enforcement Training 3

Assault Cards SHIELD Enforcement Training 3

In Marvel War of Heroes Assault Cards are the primary source of wall damage. Anybody who has attacked a wall notices that it takes a significant reduction in damage. Versus other card games where the assault card used is based on realm, Marvel War of Heroes actually has different rankings of Assault Cards based on Rarities. On top of this, the Assault cards change for each training. For this Training the assault cards are as follows:

Enemy Inside Incredible Hulk - 1000% Bonus Damage Base, 2500% Bonus Damage Fused.


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Enemy Inside Hulk


Son of Chaos Wiccan - 500% Bonus Damage Base, 1200% Bonus Damage Fused.


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Son of Chaos Wiccan

Black Leopard Black Panther - 300% Bonus Damage Base, 1000% Bonus Damage Fused.


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Black Leopard Black Panther

Black Widow - 250% Bonus Damage Base, 700% Bonus Damage Fused.


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Red in the Ledger Black Widow

Starjammer Ms. Marvel - 200% Bonus Damage Base, 600% Bonus Damage Fused.


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Starjammer Ms. Marvel

Monday, January 28, 2013

Fantastic Four Reward Values

Well, it being the last day I figured I would give my input on the value of the upcoming rewards for the Fantastic Four event. Marvel War of Heroes events appear to always offer rewards that are nice compared to other TCG, and in this case they are some of the nicest.

Marvel War of Heroes The Master Dr. Doom:


Marvel War of Heroes Guide Doctor Doom 

Dr. Doom is the top reward and currently I would estimate that he will be going for close to 400PP each based on what I've seen people offer thus far. At those prices...sell him. He is a great card no doubt, the best for some time probably, but the deck price to make him effective is too high.

To put it into perspective. You will need five Tactic Villains cards to get the most out of him (Tactics boosts + Wild Villains skill), which means you will wither need five of him, or three Dr. Doom and two Magneto wings. Doom and Magneto are the two most expensive cards in the game making the deck cost about 2800ish PP.

For that amount of PP, you could have Five Legend Spideys with close to 1500PP to spare and there is NO defense deck that can beat Five Legend Spideys. This makes it absolutely pointless to pick up a Doom deck over Spidey. 

Marvel War of Heroes Oathbound Silver Surfer:

Marvel War of Heroes Guide Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer is the 'runner up' of rewards. Of course the amount of them will be abundant since 3400 will be given out for 301-2000, and another 3000 will be given out for 2000-5000. On top of this, another 100 will be given out to all members of each top 100 orders, so about another 3000-3500. This makes for close to 10,000 Surfers being on the market, or 5,000 UR+ Oathbounds once they are all combined.

Now, the cards skill is awesome and it fits nicely in bruiser decks which have recently become popular as a result of the inexpensive cards. Because of this I would estimate that it sells for 20-25 just because of the sheer number of them. Anybody paying over 30 for them should just wait a week or two, because high level players will be looking to sell and there are close to 10,000 of them.

Marvel War of Heroes Black Leopard Black Panther:

 Marvel War of Heroes Guide Black Panther

So, Black Panther will be the interesting card. I recommend that players max him and combine him to his final form if they can in preparation of the next event. Black Panther's value will be completely determined by what the upcoming event is. If the next event is a raider event again, you can expect Black Panther's to sell for 10-15PP each. If it's a SHIELD training siege card, don't expect to get much more than 5-6PP out of it.

Marvel War of Heroes Red in the Ledger Black Widow:

Marvel War of Heroes Guide Red in the Ledger Black Widow

Red in the Ledger Black Widow won't be worth much at all. She will be so common that the idea of getting much more than 1-2PP each out of her would surprise me. Even as an event card most players will be pushing to acquire Panthers leaving Widow in the dust.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Fantastic Four Raider Cards

The Fantastic Four Raider Cards are used to do additional damage to the boss. These cards are completely necessary to ranking highly in the Fantastic Four Raider Event in Marvel war of Heroes.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 1:


Fantastic Four Raider Card Sky Rider Silver Surfer

Sky-Rider Silver Surfer: 1000% upgrade on ATK! 2000% when Fused! The damage cap on this card is removed allowing it to hit over the previous 99999 cap. Only attainable in trade or from card packs.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 2:


Marvel war of heroes Idol of Millions The Thing

Idol of Millions The Thing: 800% upgrade on ATK! 1700% when Fused! Damage cap of 99,999. Only attainable in trade or from card packs.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 3:


Marvel War of Heroes Unseen Power Invisible Woman

Unseen Power Invisible Woman: 400% upgrade on ATK! 900% when Fused! Attainable from Red Shard Packs or trade.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 4:

Marvel war of heroes Diamond Lady Emma Frost

Diamond Lady Emma Frost: 250% upgrade on ATK! 600% when Fused! Attainable from previous event or trade.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 5: 


Matchstick Johnny Human Torch: 150% upgrade on ATK! 400% when Fused! Attainable from Red Shards packs or trade.

Fantastic Four Raider Card 6:


Mister Elastic Mr. Fantastic: 120% upgrade on ATK! 300% when Fused! Attainable from pretty much any type of card pack and trade.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Marvel Card Tier List

So, I decided to create a full tier list so people could see how each card in the UR and SSR relate to each other. For this list I will be comparing final M/M cards. This way people can visualize which cards are better than which. This order is based on which cards are the most powerful, not based on market price. My standards for power come from the attack power, the buff, and the proc rate of the buff. Cards are listed as Name - # ATK or #/# if it has a dual purpose skill - Buff - Proc Rate.

Attack:
  1. UR Spiderman - 12238 ATK - Extremely intensify ATK of your Speed Cards. (Relatively High)
  2. UR Dr Doom - Extremely intensify ATK of your Tactics Cards. (Average)
  3. UR Magneto - 12880 ATK - Extremely degrade DEF all of opponent's Cards. (Average)
  4. UR Iron Man - 11995/12236 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF of your Tactics Cards. (Relatively High)  
  5. UR Wolverine - 12977/11254 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF on this Card. (Average)
  6. UR Hulk - 13396 ATK - Extremely intensify ATK on this Card. (Low)
  7. SSR Ghost Rider (Original) - 11254 ATK - Significantly intensify ATK of your Speed Cards. (Average)
  8. UR Silver Surfer - 11835/12398 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Average)
  9. UR Cyclops - 12398/11835 - Significantly degrade ATK and DEF of opponent's Tactics Cards. (Average)
  10. SSR Phoenix Force - 11270 ATK - Significantly degrade DEF on all of opponent's Cards. (Average)
  11. SSR Professor X - 10338 ATK - Significantly intensify ATK of your Tactics Cards. (Average)
  12. SSR Thor - 10144 ATK - Significantly intensify attacks on your Bruiser Cards. (Average)
  13. SSR Juggernaut - 10948/10128 -  Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Relatively High)
  14. SSR Iron Fist - 10594 ATK - Significantly intensify ATK of this Card. (Relatively High)
  15. SSR Hulk - 11432 ATK - Significantly intensify attack of this Card. (Very Low)
  16. SSR Annihilus - 10788 ATK - Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Average)
  17. SSR Ghost Rider (New) - 10997 ATK - Significantly degrade DEF of opponent's Bruiser Cards. (Average)
  18. SSR Wolverine - 10869 ATK - Significantly degrade DEF of opponent's Tactics Cards. (Average) 
  19. SSR Spiderman - 10401/10079 - Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of all your Cards. (Average) 
  20. SSR Silver Surfer - 10000/10482 - Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Average)
  21. SSR Black Cat - 9500/10982 -  Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of your Speed Cards. (Average)
  22. SSR Loki - 10466 ATK - Significantly degrade DEF on opponent's Speed Cards. (Average)
  23. SSR Mr. Fantastic - 9982/10498- Significantly degrade ATK and DEF of opponents Speed Cards. (Relatively High)
Spider-man is a better card than Magneto, period, but Magneto is number two. After that Iron Man wins because his buff is to the entire deck. Wolverine beats hulk because the 400pt stat difference doesn't make up for having a LOW proc. After that Ghost Rider actually beats Surfer and Cyclops because although his stats are lower his buff is far superior. Now, after Surfer and Cyclops comes the tough grouping. It is arguable that the order should go X, Thor, Phoenix based on buffs, but her stats are so much higher and the debuff is so effective, that I think it warrants the placement. Then we start to move into the self buff cards which the order should be obvious. Finally we move into cards like SSR Spidey with his buff that effects everything, unfortunately the buff is significantly less powerful as a result. Black Cat is more tailored toward defense and its arguable she shouldn't be included, but she does buff her attack and is still better than Loki and Mr. Fantastic. 

Defense:
  1. SSR Captain America - 12060 DEF - Significantly intensify defense on your Tactics Cards.(High)
  2. UR Iron Man - 11995/12236 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF of your Tactics Cards. (Relatively High) 
  3. SSR Ms. Marvel - 10820 DEF - Significantly intensify DEF of your Speed Cards. (Average)
  4. UR Silver Surfer - 11835/12398 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Average)
  5. SSR Black Cat - 9500/10982 -  Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of your Speed Cards. (Average)
  6. SSR Daredevil - 10513 DEF - Significantly degrade ATK of all of opponent's Cards. (Relatively Low)
  7. UR Wolverine - 12977/11254 - Extremely intensify ATK and DEF on this Card. (Average)
  8. SSR Spiderman - 10401/10079 - Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of all your Cards. (Average) 
  9. SSR Juggernaut - 10948/10128 -  Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Relatively High)
  10. SSR Silver Surfer - 10000/10482 - Significantly intensify ATK and DEF of this Card. (Average) 
  11. SSR Mr. Fantastic - 9982/10498- Significantly degrade ATK and DEF of opponents Speed Cards. (Relatively High)
There aren't nearly as many viable defense cards in Marvel War of Heroes as there are attack cards. In this Marvel Card Tier list there was no reason to move past 10 cards. SSR Captain is the hands down winner followed by UR Iron Man. SSR Ms. Marvel beats out other cards because her buff is to just speed, so stacking five of her is powerful. Surfer beats out the following cards because of his high defense stats and potent self buff. It is arguable that Daredevil deserves to be even lower because of how infrequent his buff is. UR Wolverine beats out the other cards because despite being more offense orientated, his stats are solid and his self buff is powerful.. Then going forward cards are ordered for their skills. 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Fantastic Four

I has been decided that the next event is Fantastic Four, and the top reward is one of the greatest comic book villains of all time...Dr. Doom. This event will be another raid event meaning players will complete missions and summon bosses they battle. If you want to read in depth on how Raid Events progress check Raid Events.

The Raider Cards for this event are:

UR ????: My guess here is an U Rare Mister Fantasic will come out out either right before the event or during the event if it follows previous events. Maybe they realized with the 99,999 damage cap though there is little reason to release an UR event card.

SSR Idol of Millions Thing: He will presumably do around 800% damage base.1800% damage fused. This will result in a cap of 99,999 damage.  (Assuming he mirrors Professor X)

SR: Unseen Power Invisible Woman: She will presumably do around 500% base damage. 1200% damage fused. (Assuming she mirrors Psylocke)

SR2:  Diamond Lady Emma Frost: She will presumably do around 400% base damage. 600% damage fused. (Assuming she mirrors She-Hulk)

Rare: Matchstick Johnny Human Torch:  He will presumably do around 300% damage base.700% damage fused. (Assuming he mirrors Storm

Rare2: Mister Elastic Mr. Fantastic: He will presumably do around 200% damage base.300% damage fused. (This is assuming he is following Cosmic Energy Havoc)

Obviously the trick with raider events is to attain raider cards but there are some other ways to make sure you are successful. The first half of the event you should avoid using PP because once enraged bosses come out you gain additional damage. Instead, you should focus on summoning bosses striking them, and sharing them. When the bosses are defeated you gain shards which can be traded at a chance of personal PP. Once the enraged bosses come you can then use the PP.

On top of this, try to strike everybody's shared boss at least once. And remember when enraged bosses come you get charged less attack power to attack friends bosses. So during the home stretch it's worth it to heavily attack team mates bosses for the reduced power.

Try to only use raider cards in your deck if you can help it. In a vast majority of cases, using a single Diamond Lady over and over will yield better results than a Diamond Lady and four non raider cards.

Finally, if you have a team mate who's boss is never dying, stop hitting it and remove him from your team. Nothing is more annoying then spending attacking five of a teammates bosses only to have none of them go down.

For specifics and more information on raids, feel free to check out the posts on X-Men, Avengers, and the Raid Events Page.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Best SSR Speed Decks

In Marvel War of Heroes in each alignment there is always a best deck for each rarity. Of course while certain realms excel in different areas at any given moment, as new cards release the meta shifts. Inevitably all decks shift and change.

Best SSR Speed Deck - Defense:

1st Card: Kree Honor Ms. Marvel - 10820 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Speed Cards.
2nd Card: Kree Honor Ms. Marvel - 10820 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Speed Cards.
3rd Card: Kree Honor Ms. Marvel - 10820 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Speed Cards.
4th Card: Kree Honor Ms. Marvel - 10820 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Speed Cards.
5th Card: Kree Honor Ms. Marvel - 10820 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Speed Cards.

Ms. Marvel is the second best defense card in the SSR and beats Daredevil by offering a stronger buff and higher stats. Reasonably, a player could use a Daredevil lead to add a powerful debuff to an opponents attack, but Ms. Marvel is just such a great card for speed defense I don't see why they would.

Best SSR Speed Deck - Attack:

1st Card: Hellfire Ghost Rider - 11254 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Speed Cards.
2nd Card: Hellfire Ghost Rider - 11254 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Speed Cards.
3rd Card: Hellfire Ghost Rider - 11254 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Speed Cards.
4th Card: Hellfire Ghost Rider - 11254 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Speed Cards.
5th Card: Hellfire Ghost Rider - 11254 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Speed Cards.

I...was torn on this one. I really feel that Phoenix Force would be a better wing. I know it's wrong, but something nags at me and tells me to add a debuff in there. Maybe its just my hatred for stacking all of the same card. Either way, Hellfire Ghost Rider and Phoenix Force are the two best attack cards and are just about equal, but Riders buff is a bit stronger since it is specific to speed unlike Phoenix Force's skill which effects all.

Overall:
Speed has the second best defense and the best attack in SSR. This is one of the reasons that Speed has some of the highest card prices in the game as players are building decks. Because of the high prices and demand it is normally easier for people to make more powerful decks in other alignments.

Best SSR Bruiser Decks

In Marvel War of Heroes in each alignment there is always a best deck for each rarity. Of course while certain realms excel in different areas at any given moment, as new cards release the meta shifts. Inevitably all decks shift and change.

Best SSR Bruiser Deck - Defense:

1st Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10128 Def - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.
2nd Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10128 Def - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.
3rd Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10128 Def - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.
4th Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10128 Def - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.
5th Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10128 Def - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.

Please, do not make an SSR Bruiser Defense Deck! That being said, the only truly viable cards for a bruiser defense deck are Silver Surfer and Juggernuat. They both have the same buff but Juggernaut has a higher Proc chance. Surfer has 300 more defense points though. I'm going to say, although this is really cheap and you pretty much will always get 3 Procs, it just isn't strong enough to hold back most SSR offenses.

Best SSR Bruiser Deck - Attack:

1st Card: Son of Asgard Thor - 10144 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Bruiser Cards.
2nd Card: Son of Asgard Thor - 10144 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Bruiser Cards.
3rd Card: Son of Asgard Thor - 10144 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Bruiser Cards.
4th Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10984 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.
5th Card: Crimson Gem of Cyttorak Juggernaut - 10984 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK/DEF of this Card.

Now, some people opt to place incredible rage Hulk in the wing spots of this deck since it has roughly 500 more attack and its buff to self is purely to attack, making it stronger. Their decks will occasionally hit harder than this deck, but consistently they will do less. That's because Hulks ability has one of the lowest proc rates in the game while Juggernaut has one of the highest. Juggernaut is just plain better and honestly I would be tempted to use four of them and only one Thor based on Price, Proc Rates, and Power.

Overall:
Bruiser coasted on having the best Defense for some time and as a result is punished at the SSR level. Bruiser pretty much has zero SSR defense. Offensively they are also the weakest, but still very competitive. As a result of being so weak Bruiser often had the lowest prices but recently we've seen them balance as people realize it's cheaper to build an SSR Bruiser deck than Speed/Tactics and they can use the leftover PP to skill their cards.

Best SSR Tactics Decks

In Marvel War of Heroes in each alignment there is always a best deck for each rarity. Of course while certain realms excel in different areas at any given moment, as new cards release the meta shifts. Inevitably all decks shift and change.

Best SSR Tactics Deck - Defense:

1st Card: American Pride Captain America - 12060 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Tactics Cards
2nd Card: American Pride Captain America - 12060 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Tactics Cards
3rd Card: American Pride Captain America - 12060 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Tactics Cards
4th Card: American Pride Captain America - 12060 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Tactics Cards
5th Card: American Pride Captain America - 12060 Def - Significantly intensify DEF of Tactics Cards

This is probably on of the most powerful cards in the game, and personally I consider it overpowered. Not only does it have the best possible defense and boost for a defensive card, but it has a HIGH usage rate. This card goes off all the time for the best possible boosts. Now, it is absurdly expensive as a result of its high demand. If you're on a budget, a Tactics defense is not what you should be aiming for.

Best SSR Tactics Deck - Attack:

1st Card: Professor X - 10338 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Tactics Cards.
2nd Card: Professor X - 10338 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Tactics Cards.
3rd Card: Professor X - 10338 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of Tactics Cards.
4th Card: Kun Lun Master Iron Fist - 10594 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of this Card.
5th Card: Kun Lun Master Iron Fist - 10594 Atk - Significantly intensify ATK of this Card.

Professor X was a well needed buff to Tactics offensively and actually gave them a lot more legitimacy. For this deck Professor X is used in the top spots for his buff but Iron Fist keeps it real in the wings. His proc rate is considered high and his buff to self attack is mammoth. Reasonably a player could also use two Professor X and three Iron Fist and possibly have better results. It would be a lot cheaper as well.

Overall:
Tactics is known for its defense but that doesn't mean it can't be an offensive power house. Professor X and Iron Fist can normally be gained easily in trading and provide substantial buffs. Although defensively Tactics is expensive, offensively they are more affordable.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Card Cost Fluctuations

So recently, primarily at high levels, there has been some fluctuations on card prices. I felt this deserves to be addressed in a post.

Recently there has been a flood of players looking primarily for Bruiser alignment cards and quite a few moving out of speed alignment. This was caused primarily as a result of prices in the game. Speed cards have been extremely high priced for some time causing a lot of frustration to players, and tactics defense cards have also been rising in price as a result of cards like Cap America.

Players in response have decided, what the hell am I thinking? I could purchase a deck with 5-10k more base and better buffs for the same price as a speed counterpart! This shift has caused speed cards to be slightly less sought after and Bruisers to be slightly more so. This is simply the market evening out. Where Rage of Bahamut offers a buff to encourage players to stick with a certain alignment, there is nothing in Marvel War of Heroes that forces players to stick with the same alignment. This freedom of movement will eventually result in all alignments evening out to similar prices.

The key in this type of market is not to panic and think your speed cards are all of a sudden worth less, but to simply understand that all three alignments are becoming more evenly priced. In the end trades will probably be decided based on a buff for buff basis anyway.

So, don't panic that you all of a sudden see things changing up, they are simply balancing.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Ability Boom ISO-8

There is a lot of chatter about the ability ISO-8 from the Shield Training that just completed. I always forget that for many people Marvel War of Heroes is their first trading card game.

For those who don't know this new ISO-8 is meant to be used in the boosting process to give a high percent chance of increasing a skill level. This card is extremely valuable for players looking to level Legendary cards as well as Ultra Rares because of the high cost of leveling. In the highest level cases, this single Ability ISO-8 will offer more of an ability boost percentage than 10 UR cards.

Currently it's assumed that these Ability ISO-8 will mirror the Rage of Bahamut Card Devil Queen which sells for roughly 120HP. Currently in many trades PP has a rough value of 1PP=3HP. Because of this it's safe to assume that the Ability ISO-8 will probably be worth about 40PP in most cases. As people use them to level their legends, the cards will slowly increase in price, probably capping off somewhere around 50PP per.

So, what to do with yours?

If you don't need it and don't have a buyer lined up, I would recommend saving it until the price rises. There is no harm in seeing how high the price will rise because its not likely to drop since it's useful to everybody.

If you do need it, only use it on legend cards and even then for higher levels. It's too rare and valuable of a card to waste on leveling your legend from 1-2.

If you do decide to sell it, I would recommend aiming for at least 35-40PP. Chances are you will get better value out of it in a trade though.