Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Holy War Cards

There are certain cards that have skills that only benefit the user during Holy Wars. There are two types of Holy War cards, Wall Breakers, and Point Cards.

During Holy Wars an Order will normally have a wall with 50000 points. The purpose of this wall is to reduce the amount of points an Order gets by 50% from attacking the owners of the wall. Virtually every order will have a 50000 point wall. Many decks have over 50k attack so players might think what the big deal is. The big deal is that attacks against walls are substantially reduced in power. A deck that normally does 70k+ will only do about 2k on the wall. This is where cards containing boosts to wall damage are important.

Mithril Golem, Master Gunner, and Ares are the three Wall Breaker cards. Each card has around 15k Attack and 15k Defense. The Boost received from the deck is mammoth in comparison to a normal boost.

Advice: Only use three Wall Breakers in a deck for attacking walls and only use them in the top three spots. There is no need for more than three wall breakers because statistically they won't trigger that much more often. On top of this, Wall Breakers are seasonal cards but will always have a good use. Even should a player attain a deck of all Legendary Cards, they may still carry three Wall Breakers for Holy War. Also, because these cards aren't used against other players, but for their buff against a wall, there is little reason to do more than a 4max enhancement and use the remaining HP saved from not creating 6max to level the skills on the Wall Breaker. A higher skill level on the Wall Breaker will be a much higher boost.

During Holy Wars a player and orders ranking is determined by how many points each of them accumulate. Point cards increase the amount of points received from a victory over an opponent. Once a wall is down, an opponent who payed 100pts will now pay 200pts. Adding in Holy War point boosts will increase this amount again.

Witch Commander, Sektor, and Principality are the three point cards. Each card has around 17k Attack and 15k Defense.

Advice: Unlike buff to wall damage cards, the buff to holy points cards do not stack. Because of this a player only needs one of the cards and to place it in their lead off spot. This will allow the buff to activate 100% of the time. Since a player only needs one point card and it will be used to attack other players, its worth it to invest in a 6max version. If a player opts to do a 4max version there is no harm in it since they are technically only using it during holy wars and for the buff.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Skill Enhancement

Any card with a skill can have that skill enhanced to a higher level. The cards skill always starts at level one. At level on the percentage boost is determined by the label (big, med, small, massive, etc).

For each additional level the card gains 1% in power. Nightmare for example gives a 13% Boost to Demons Attack at level one. At level five this would turn into a 17% Boost. It is a 4% increase because the card has increased four levels (level one doesn't count as a percentage). At level 10, the max skill level, Nightmare would have 22% Boost to Attack.

The process of leveling a skill is simple in principle. If a card with a skill is enhanced using cards with skills, it has a percentage possibility of gaining a skill level. The percentage possibility has three factors.

1) The rarity of the card being evolved.
2) The rarity of the cards being used as the evolver
3) The current skill level of the card.

I found the exact numbers from Ragetrades who got the information by translating it directly from Japanese sources. The far left column signifies the skill level, the top signifies the percentage gain for each card of that rarity. For example, an SSR at level two will gain .7% chance of gaining a level per High Normal card being used or 20% per SSR used.

Legend Cards


SSR


SR


High Rare


Rare


High Normal



The information that can be deduced from these graphs is as follows. 
1) Cards like Dark Knight Luciella or Popstar which have a Higher Rarity but the same power level of a lower Rarity (both about High Rare-SR power levels) are actually worse than the lower Rarity counterparts. This is because leveling the skills will be very expensive in comparison.

2) A High Rare increased in level to SR is most effectively leveled by using High Normals. You can do so from start to finish most the time at a cheaper rate than Devil Queens/Treasure HRs.

3) Devil Queens are the only true cost effective way to gain levels on cards SSR on up.

4) Treasure Rare cards are a less expensive way of attaining HR enhancers. 

I will note that buyers rarely see the proper value of a card with a higher skill level so if you plan on selling the cards shortly, it's better not to spend a huge amount of money enhancing the level.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Tears Worth It?

In the current Tears of the Moon Event the rewards for rank number #1-5 will result in the highest possibility of two SS Rares, and one S Rare (if the S Rare Up pack gives an SS Rare).

The SS Rare Kaguya will probably be the highest priced item selling for 600 or so HP. Hati, being an event S Rare and having awesome art, will probably go for close to 200HP. The final SS Rare will be going for roughly 400-600HP. So realistically we're looking at 1400HP worth of cards for first through fifth place, the highest reward.

Here's where the math starts to get messed up. The fifth place player currently is at Quest 484. I have used approximately 40CW (155 stamina) to clear through quest 75. If the quests don't get longer requiring even more CW (which I doubt) that means the player would have had to spend roughly 250CW to attain that rank.

Since it's a seventeen day event I imagine people slow down on their usage until the last couple days again. But even a light estimate puts the consumption of CW at roughly 3000+ to attain a top 5 rank. Hopefully with that type of use the player falls upon a couple Hekates but even then they may only attain another 400 or so HP.

Now, it's possible the players at the top had people remove them from fellows before the event started and had them add them afterwards to reassign their points into Stamina, allowing them to reduce CW consumption.

As far as I can tell, the rewards for this event aren't even close to worth it if the CW/HP conversion rate remains at 1:1. The only way this event is worth the amount of CW used is if all the CW was purchased when the conversion was 3CW:1HP. So, for anybody who didn't enter this event with 3000CW bought at a 3:1 conversion rate to begin with, I don't see the purpose.

And if they did purchase at 3:1, Here's the most insane part. Top rank attains 1800HP worth of cards if they land two Hekate. If the player purchased 3000CW at 3:1 (1000HP) and currently sold that CW at 1:1 for HP, they would make 3000HP instead of 1800HP in cards, this is a 1200HP gain! This means that they would still be better off only using stamina to participate in the event and selling off their CW to other players.

This is more of my thought processing on the Tears of the Moon than a direct post advising people not to participate. Also, I would appreciate any feedback from people who are high ranked in the event as to why they think it's worth it.




Saturday, July 14, 2012

4-6 vs 6-10 Evolutions

The descriptions of these two evolutions and how to attain them can be found on the evolution page for those who don't know.

A 4-6 Evolution is a really common evolution being sold. It's final stats result in 96.629% of total potential power (8-14).

A 6-10 Evolution is a really common evolution as well. It's final stats result in 99.625% of total potential power (8-14).

There is only a 3% difference between these two evolutions. Because of the minor stat difference people are opting to constantly make 4-6 Evolutions, especially for cards that are expensive.

An example of this is Nightmare. A 4-6 Nightmare costs about 170HP to create between the cards and enhancements. A 6-10 Nightmare costs about 255HP to create between the cards and enhancement. The end result is a 470 point difference in attack. Most people can't justify an 85HP difference for the 470 attack power.

The difference between Sutekh and Cerberus is a 5% difference in total stats. This results in a 400+ difference in HP cost between these two cards, each. At a 4-6 Evolution the difference in HP between these two cards is 1600HP. For 5% total stats.

So, if it's not worth it to create a 6-10 evolution of a card why are there so many 6 card evolution of Rare cards? It's because they are cheap to make. And people go with the cheaper route. The fact is people use 3% difference as an excuse not to do a 6-10 because they are too impatient to do it the right way.

If a card is low value, I see no issue in not maxing it. But if a card is high value, like Nightmare, Claymore Maid, Apsara, etc. I prefer to see them created into proper 6-6 or 6-10 evolutions. The cards are simply too rare to be permanently making inferior.

It's like in every MMO I ever played. There are people who are High Tier players who aim for the best gear, the best rotations, the best specializations, and then there are players who are accepting of mediocrity.

So, when you are wondering whether to take your Lancelot and do a 4max evolution or a 6max evolution you should ask yourself, what kind of player are you? Because there's no devolving.


Friday, July 13, 2012

Card Skills

Card skills will play a large role in which ones players choose to attain. They also play a huge role in the value. For example the recently released cards Apsara vs Chimaera. Both are defensive orientated cards but since Chimaera offers a Big Hit to Demons Attack it is worth significantly less. Apsara offers a Big Boost to Gods Defense, the player can control which cards are in his/her defense deck, but cannot control the alignment of those attacking.

The way this chart reads is it breaks the percent buff/debuff offered based on whether it is a small/medium/big/great/massive/absolute. The Affects column refers to whether or not it is a  type 1 (man/god/demon specific), All, or Self and the percent buff/debuff changes based on that information. Finally it states whether or not the skill is attack related, defense related, or both. For example, Inugami offers a Big Attack/Defense Boost to Demons, this means she will apply an 8% increase. Nightmare offers a Big Attack Boost to Demons, this means she will apply a 13% increase.

These numbers are applied before skill boosting (leveling up a skill through enhancement). The chart is also not complete since some percentages are so negligible they don't matter (small) or because they are not seen on cards currently (self attack only buff).

By enhancing a card with other cards that have skills a player has a chance of increasing a cards skill level. Each skill level gained increases the potency of the card by 1% capping at skill lvl 10, or 10%. Most player achieve this by buying high normal cards and enhancing their card with nine of them in order to gain a skill level. The percent chance of gaining a skill level is changed based on the rarity of the card being used as the enhancer, the number of enhancers, and the rarity/skill level of the card being enhanced. For example, if a player attempts to use nine high normal skilled cards to enhance an SSR the percent chance of increasing from lvl 1 to lvl 2 would only hit around 12%. To increase from lvl 5 to lvl 6 would be near 2% if that.

The card Devil Queen gives a 50% chance to increase a cards skill level no matter what. These are often used to enhance high rarity cards to save on time and money.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tears of the Moon


Tears of the Moon is an upcoming event that is going to take after the Easter Event. Tears of the Moon will have two facets of gameplay.

The first facet of this event is treasure cards. The treasure cards given for this event can be evolved unlike normal treasure cards. Each alignment can acquire two colors of a treasure. Treasures accumulated during events can't be gifted to other players so you'll need to acquire them via battling other alignments for treasures. Be prepared to use quite a bit of Holy Powder doing this, not because weak opponents will be hard to find, but because of the Magic Circles. People will often use Magic Circles to protect event treasure. If you are of man realm it is highly advisable that you use Magic Circle on your blue treasure. Treasure cards for the first couple of days will sell at a high then slowly settle down in pricing.
 
The second facet of Tears of the Moon is individual ranking. Ranking is increased as you move through the quest lines and defeat monsters. Clear water can be used to replenish your stamina to move through the quests quicker and when you reach the end, further accumulate points. The rewards for individual ranking are better than those acquired through treasure cards. The highest ranking receiving S, SSR, and HR cards.

If this event plays out like the Easter Event, rare cards will also be given once a certain number of quests are completed, for Easter it was fifty, and one hundred. Because of this gathering Clear Water will be a necessity.

Finally, the quests normally give more High Normal and even Rare cards than what normal questing does. If you are a newer player still leveling, it is advisable for the entire duration to only quest via the event.

During this time the price of clear water will rise. 1HP for 2CW has always and should always be the worst case scenario for values but it would not be shocking to hear people trying to push the values down by saying they are getting 1:1 trades all the time, the people who say that are called liars.

Good luck, have fun.


Sunday, July 8, 2012

Best R/HR Man Decks

There is a specific best Attack/Defense decks for each alignment. These set ups that will be listed are based on 6-2 evolutions for Rares, and 6max evolutions for High Rare on up.

Rare card Man Attack Deck:

Leader: High Shaman - 10k attack - Med Boost to Man Att/Def
Second: High Ninja - 11.2k attack - Med Boost to this Cards Att/Def
Third: High Ninja - 11.2k attack - Med Boost to this Cards Att/Def
Fourth: High Gunner - 13.6k attack - Med Hit to Foes Man Defense
Fifth: High Gunner - 13.6k attack - Med Hit to Foes Man Defense

Readers may notice that this set up is significantly different than previous Rare Decks. This deck uses three different cards. The initial card is there purely for the 100% buff. That buff gives about 3k buff overall. This stacks with the Ninjas self buffs giving additional boosts. In Rare cards man lacks a card with a solid attack buff and higher stats. An alternate configuration for the attack deck would be to stack five High Gunner and only attack Man opponents. It would be a very powerful configuration.

Rare card Man Defense Deck:

Leader: High Lancer - 10.3k defense - Med Boost to Defense (all)
Second: Holy Knight - 11.9k defense - Med Boost to Man Defense
Third: Holy Knight - 11.9k defense - Med Boost to Man Defense
Fourth: Castor - 12.5k defense - Med Boost to Self Defense
Fifth: Castor - 12.5k defense - Med Boost to Self Defense

This deck is set up in such a way to ensure the best chances of High Lancer and Holy Knight going off. High Lancer is used in the lead spot because Holy Knight has higher base stats and for the second card I'm stacking two of them. The other option would be to use Holy Knight in the top spot and two High Lancers but that reduces overall stats. 

High Rare card Man Attack Deck:

Leader: Claymore Maid - 17.9k attack - Big Boost to Man Attack
Second: Master Archer - 18.4k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)
Third: Master Archer - 18.4k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)
Fourth: Holy Dragoon - 17.9k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)
Fifth: Holy Dragoon - 17.9k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)

Lead card is Master Archer because using it allows you to use two Claymore maids which have higher base stats. The Claymore Maids are still likely to go off and using Holy Dragoons in the last two spots makes them very likely to go off. Another alternative is to use M.Archer in the top spot and then four Claymore to ensure to almost always get a Claymore skill.

High Rare card Man Defense Deck:

Leader: Paladin - 15.8k defense - Big Boost to Man Defense
Second: Queen of Hearts - 17.2k defense - Big Boost to Man/Gods Defense
Third: Queen of Hearts - 17.2k defense - Big Boost to Man/Gods Defense
Fourth: Master Astrologist - 17.4k defense - Big Hit to God Attack
Fifth: Master Astrologist - 17.4k defense - Big Hit to God Attack

This deck is pretty simple. It capitalizes on Paladin's solid buff while using Queen of Hearts and Master Astrologist for the solid stats. Players can also use four Queen of Hearts to try for a second proc on Queen.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Best R/HR God Decks

There is a specific best Attack/Defense decks for each alignment. These set ups that will be listed are based on 6-2 evolutions for Rares, and 6max evolutions for High Rare on up.

Rare card God Attack Deck:

Leader: Agni - 11.3k attack - Medium Boost to Gods Attack
Second: Centaur Knight - 12.9k attack - Medium hit Foes Defense (all)
Third: Centaur Knight - 12.9k attack - Medium hit Foes Defense (all)
Fourth: Reshef - 13.2k attack - Medium hit to Foes Gods Attack
Fifth: Reshef - 13.2k attack - Medium hit to Foes Gods Attack

The true best attack deck for rare cards would be five Valkyrie Hilds but since these were referral cards and no longer obtainable for the same cost as rares, they aren't used in this composition. This composition uses 5% debuff cards instead of the 8% buff from Agni because the stat difference is just too high and 3% won't make up for it.

Rare card God Defense Deck:

Leader: Rhea - 11.4k defense - Med Boost to Def (all)
Second: Anemone - 12.5k defense - Med Hit to Foes Man Attack
Third: Anemone - 12.5k defense - Med Hit to Foes Man Attack
Fourth: Vayu - 12.4k defense - Big Hit to Foes Gods Attack
Fifth: Vayu - 12.4k defense - Big Hit to Foes Gods Attack

There is no reasonable option for a second buff in God Rares defensively. So instead what we are doing is maximizing the base defense in order to count on Rhea offering enough of a buff and hoping the attacker is Gods or Man for Anemone and Vayu's debuffs

High Rare card God Attack Deck:

Leader: Trow Elf - 19k attack - Big Boost to Gods Attack
Second: Pan - 18k attack - Big Boost to Gods/Demons Attack
Third: Pan - 18k attack - Big Boost to Gods/Demons Attack
Fourth: Sword Valkyrie - 17.7k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)
Fifth: Sword Valkyrie - 17.7k attack - Big Boost to Attack (all)

Crystal Lily could just as easily be used in the last two spots. This composition will offer a high chance at getting three procs. Trow elf will buff the four other cards while Pan and SV will both end up buffing all five cards. Not only does this have a very high base damage, it has a nice balance of buffs. 

High Rare card God Defense Deck:

Leader: Aspara - 18.3k defense - Big Boost to Gods Defense
Second: Xuanwu - 18.5k defense - Big Boost to Defense (ALL)
Third: Xuanwu - 18.5k defense - Big Boost to Defense (ALL)
Fourth: Xuanwu - 18.5k defense - Big Boost to Defense (ALL)
Fifth: Xuanwu - 18.5k defense - Big Boost to Defense (ALL)


Since Xuanwu has a higher base defense and weaker buff it only makes sense for Apsara to get the sure proc and Xuanwu's to be secondary. Another possible variation of this deck would be to use Marsyas from the demon realm in the lead spot, followed by two Apsara, followed by two Xuanwu. I personally prefer Apsara and Xuanwu because it's a sure two proc. Marsyas is also a sure two proc with a possible third, but he has lower stats and an increased chance to miss the Apsara proc.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Best R/HR Demon Decks

There is a specific best Attack/Defense decks for each alignment. These set ups that will be listed are based on 6-2 evolutions for Rares, and 6max evolutions for High Rare on up.

Rare card Demon Attack Deck:

Leader: Succubus - 11.7k attack - Med Boost to Demons Attack
Second: Demonic Slave - 12.4 attack - Med Boost to Attack (all)
Third: Demonic Slave - 12.4 attack - Med Boost to Attack (all)
Fourth: Elder Dragon - 12.6k attack - Med Hit to Foes Gods Defense
Fifth: Elder Dragon - 12.6k attack - Med Hit to Foes Gods Defense

Demonic slave serves as a supportive buff and a higher base damage. Overall, this set up increases the chance to get both a succubus and slave proc while offering high base damage as well.

Rare card Demon Defense Deck:

Leader: Eligos - 12.2k Defense - Med Boost to Gods/Demons Defense
Second: Jack-o-Lantern - 12.5k Defense - Med Boost to Defense (all)
Third: Jack-o-Lantern - 12.5k Defense - Med Boost to Defense (all)
Fourth: Manticore - 12.7k Defense - Med Hit to Foes Demons Attack
Fifth: Manticore - 12.7k Defensse - Med Hit to Foes Demons Attack

Scorpio can easily be subbed into Manticore's spot. Also if you have a destroyer golem it would be considered better but that card very rarely makes it onto the market since it was for an event and a lot of people got rid of theirs by now. If you can pick one up cheap use Destroy Golem in the last two spots. Eligos is placed in the lead spot for the stronger buff and thereby increase chances of Jack procing.

High Rare card Demon Attack Deck:

Leader: Nightmare - 15.5k Attack - Big Big Boost to Demons Attack
Second: Mad Hatter - 17.9k Attack - Big Big Boost to Gods/Demons Attack
Third: Demonic Knight - 17.6k Attack - Big Big Boost to Gods/Demons Attack
Fourth: Trow Elf - 19.6k Attack - Big Boost to Gods Attack
Fifth: Trow Elf - 19.6k Attack - Big Boost to Gods Attack

There are actual a couple combinations that all come out so close it's just stupid. I choose this one based on price. Nightmares have come down to low enough that using Dragonewt would be silly. Pan in the lead spot is very viable as well and in fact comes out about 3% ahead of this, I just prefer NM because I'm stubborn.

A final build that is also very viable is to substitute Trows for Dragonewts for the additional chances at procing a useful buff. Although in most cases this will end up weaker, the extra chance at a 3rd proc might be worth it for some people.

High Rare Demon Defense Deck:

Leader: Wraith - 15k Defense - Big Boost to Demons Def
Second: Marsyas - 17.5k Defense - Big Boost to God/Demon Defense
Third: Marsyas - 17.5k Defense - Big Boost to God/Demon Defense
Fourth: Bloody Mistress - 18.5k Defense - Big Boost to Defense (All)
Fifth: Bloody Mistress - 18.5k Defense - Big Boost to Defense (All)

This was a head scratcher for me. There are actually couple more set ups that work well here. One of which is to use Marsyas, Xuanwu, Xuanwu, Mistress, Mistress. This ensures an astoundingly high base damage, a resistance to realm specific debuffs, and a high chance of three procs going off.

Another possible set up is to use one Wraith and four BM and only count on the two buffs going off. In a situation where two buffs go off, this actually beats the recommended one up top. I just can't resist the extra shot at that third buff.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Trading For Dummies

Have you ever seen a post of "how much is...price check on...is this a good trade?" It's actually one of my biggest pet peeves. It's a waste of forum space and if they aren't willing to look up what the cost of a card is, they deserve to lose out on the trade.

It's not all the fault of the person posting for it, there isn't a really easy way to determine it. So, I have five very basic rules to follow involving trading.

1) Always check to see if the card is already evolved. Since a card increases its rarity when it is evolved, it may say "High Rare" and will normally have higher stats than your High Rare, but it is four Rares. Four Rares have a rough value of 8HP, a High Rare begins at 15HP.

2) Treasure High Rares are the following cards: Scribe, Alluring Angel, Ghost Rider, Verdandi, and Dragonrider. These cards cannot be evolved and are all essentially bad. Ignore any trade involving them.

3) Nine rares do NOT equal a High Rare. There is only one instance in which this MAY occur and that's if they are all invitation cards (hilde, princess, luciella).

4) If you believe that message about your leader card and how somebody has a great offer for you if you remove it from lead so they can offer you a trade, I know local singles in your area who want you as well.

5) If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

True High Rares for other True High Rares are a completely different market. The values of those though can be found all over Rage of Bahamut Forums and they are always fluctuating. Always aim for a fair trade with your peers. If a trade is just shy of what you're looking for, decline and counter offer, most people will take it if they want it.