Blizzard of the Cystal Castle

Well, I was partially right on the Blizzard of the Crystal Castle event in that it was a boss attack event, but the variance is worth talking about.

Where other boss attack events like The Puppet Master were based purely on attack damage done to bosses, this event is based on items attained from the boss to determine ranking. Also the way rewards are distributed is different from the previous event.

Oddly, this event is based off of Marvel War of Heroes Avengers event. Considering both games are Mobage, it's not surprising to see a crossover.

So, on the questing aspect of the game I will note there is a resurgence of the 'pick your path' before a boss. This is barely worth mentioning, but is a difference from puppet master events.

The battle aspect of the game is what changed significantly. Previously players were rated purely on the damage they did but this event is based on frost shards collected. The amount of frost shards you gain are based on a couple factors.

Reasons to get frost shards:
1) You discovered the boss
2) You dealt the killing blow
3) You did enough damage to be considered an MVP
4) Damage done (amount of shards increase with amount of damage done, exact ratio unknown)
5) Big Hits - This refers to a bonus that appears randomly for me. I get bonus shards that I can collect even if the boss isn't dead yet. I assume this is a bonus paid for heavy damage.

The overall amount of frost shards gathered will determine your personal rank as well as your orders rank.

Now, on the topic of Snow Crystals.

There are three types of Snow Crystals: White, Blue, and Pink. White Crystals can be exchanged for the lowest rewards, it takes 10 to receive a reward. Blue Crystals can be exchanged for the middle tier of reward, it takes 5 to receive a reward. Pink Crystals can be exchanged for the highest tier of reward, it takes 3 to receive a reward.

White will produce randomly one of the following:
Cure Water (Personal)
Holy Powder (Personal)
5,000 Rupies
10,000 Rupies
500 Friendship Points
1,000 Friendship Points
5 Frost Shards
10 Frost Shards
20 Frost Shards
Random Card
 
Blue will produce randomly one of the following:
PREMIUM CP Claim Ticket
Frost Knight Card
Cure Water (Personal)
Holy Powder (Personal)
10,000 Rupies
20,000 Rupies
1,000 Friendship Points
2,000 Friendship Points
10 Frost Shards
20 Frost Shards
50 Frost Shards
Random Card

Pink will produce randomly one of the following:
HR & UP CP Claim Ticket
PREMIUM CP Claim Ticket
Archangel Queen Card
Devil Queen Card (ABOUT DAMN TIME THIS CARD MADE AN APPEARANCE)
Frost Knight Card
Cure Water (Personal) x 1
Holy Powder (Personal) x 1
20,000 Rupies
100,000 Rupies
1,000 Friendship Points
3,000 Friendship Points
100 Frost Shards
250 Frost Shards
500 Frost Shards
Random Card

Some Extra Notes:
1) If you wish to maximize your points, try to attack bosses with huge health pools that have high combos running. This will result in more damage and thus more crystals.
2) If you use a card that is not fully enhanced during an attack, it randomly gains experience (not really useful but wierd)
3) Individual rewards are far superior to order rewards. As a result it is probably worth it for your order to hold off on spending huge amounts for a better order ranking. If individuals want to gain high ranking let them, but don't require it of your members, better to have them ready for Holy Wars.

Finally:
Sorry about the first mispost of Crystal Castle. I didn't expect them to change the way the event ran versus previous times.

Marvel War of Heroes

Some people may have noted that I was going to do a review of Marvel War of Heroes and after playing for a couple weeks I'm ready to do an analysis of the game.

I decided I would do this in a manner where I would just compare certain elements to Rage of Bahamut. Most people who play Rage of Bahamut understand how a trading card game works and will find a lot of the aspects pretty similar.

For example, stat distribution and questing are identical to Rage of Bahamut. The HP/CW/Magic Circle are also in the game in the form of Energy Pack/Power Pack/Shield Barrier. Overall, there are a lot of things that function similarly that should be no surprise to people who have played Rage for some time.

Now, for the things I find really good about it.

1) Marvel

This is a no brainer for me. The marvel universe is filled with interesting dynamic characters. Rage of Bahamut may have monsters and scantly clad women, but Marvel has Wolverine, Moon Knight, and Iron Man.

2) Two card Evolution

In Marvel its called fusion but it's the same thing. I've always been opposed of the four card evolutions because they are needlessly complicated. Marvel only requires two of the same card to be combined. The same 5% and 10% rules are there though. A cards mastery level though will also mess with the final numbers.

3) Resources

Resources are the treasure of the game. Each resource can be completed three times. This is awesome. The first completion nets a rare card, the second completion gives an enhancement card (equivalent of angel), and the third card is a second rare same as the first. This helps a lot in players starting their decks and makes a lot more sense than one treasure completion in Rage.

4) Mastery

I found this a little confusing at first but once I figured it out I liked it. Every card has a mastery number. It starts at zero and once maxed the card will gain something around 37% of its base stats. So if a card begins with 1000, it will get a bonus 370pts once maxed. 10% of this can be carried over to the final form as well. The final form once mastered also gets the boost. For high level cards this boost can be over 1000.

5) Team Combo Boosts

This is by far my favorite feature of the game. If you have certain heroes or villains together they will get an additional skill bonus even after their skills go off. Wolverine and Captain American for example have a chance to proc Super Soldier for an additional attack boost. So when creating decks players not only need to look at the normal skill boosts and stats, but also try to maximize for bonus buffs. My only disappointment in the system is certain buffs that should exist. For example there is a buff for Wolverine, Human Torch, and Ghost Rider for "Bikers Association" or something like that, but they couldn't do a buff for Wolverine/Sabertooth called Weapon X or something?

What I find really bad about it?

1) Trading

Currently trading follows the same two week rules as Rage of Bahamut and there is no bazaar/auction house yet. This makes trading a huge pain in the ass. You pretty much have to do it within your order/team. This is partially do to the game just recently releasing.

2) Power Packs/Energy Packs

Currently the HP/CW equivalents are only personal. I imagine the devs are waiting until they're ready to release the AH to release the Packs because they don't want the market flooded with them before trading is really allowed, but it's frustrating for a player like me who like to trade to be so limited over all.

That's all I really have to say that I don't like about it other than some random things I'm going to rand about now.

RANT:

I hate it when game developers like Mobage pick up a contract for Marvel and you can tell the people creating the game are not fans of the series. Not only that, they are only informed to the absolute minimum. It's probably one of the things that pisses me off most. There are HUGE gaping flaws in card quality for characters and although there are cool card combos, the developers seem to just be creating them randomly.

Franklin Richards is my primary example. When I saw him as a one star normal quality card it just screamed to me that the game developers said "oh, it's a kid, he can be low level." They completely ignore the fact that Franklin Richards is an Omega Level and was born one. Considering he's part of a group of under ten (can't remember the exact number) mutants that are considered to have extreme powers, I think he deserves a little more than a 'common' ranking. He doesn't necessarily deserve Ultra Rare quality rankings (for several geeky reasons I won't mention) but he at least deserved to be a damn rare.

Besides that, they use the same heroes in different rarity tiers. There will be a basic level hero. Then it will be (insert modifier here) hero if you get the rare version of it. For example there's Wolverine, then there's (Adamantium Claw) Wolverine. Last I checked all the other Wolverines (in the game) have adamantium claws too. I would have been impressed if there was a (Bone Claw) Wolverine. I understand using a modifier once but in some instances they do it three times just to reuse popular heroes. I think there may be a Spiderman in every damn tier by the time they're finished.

When they make a game like Rage of Bahamut where they can just pull random names and develop the lore themselves, I don't have issues. But when you are playing with a universe that already exists, get shit right. Hollywood and television bastardize enough Marvel stuff without videogames joining in.

END RANT

Finally, if you decide to join Marvel War of Heroes, please use my referral code:

q w y 7 0 1 6 7 9

Thanks!

Crystal Castle

 **PLEASE SEE BLIZZARD OF THE CRYSTAL CASTLE FOR BETTER INFORMATION**

Well, looks like the next event has been decided and it will be Crystal Castle. The event is set to run from November 22nd until December 4th. This event was probably popped in because they didn't want to compete with an actual Christmas event they intend on running and didn't want to have a Holy War on the upcoming Holiday weekend. Personally, although I want Holy Wars to get here, I think they made a smart decision.

Chances are it will be followed up by an almost immediate Holy War which will then be followed up almost immediately by a Christmas event.

The event will follow the same structure as Roar of the Dragons and The Puppet Master. This means players will have to progress through quests and random monsters will be generated that players need to defeat. The power of the monsters will increase and there will be rewards based on defeating a certain number of monsters as well as rewards at the end of event for ranking based on damage done to bosses.

Since this event is based on killing bosses, HP is far more valuable than CW. Players will want to participate in every boss that is up because you will receive cards for participating and no matter who summons the boss your damage done goes to personal and order ranking.

Things to note:

1) You have one hour once the boss is summoned to defeat him.

2) Allies summoned will be from both order and fellows. Keep them separate.

3) The more damage a player does to the boss the more rewards they will receive.

4) Event Skill cards are made to do well, use them if you can afford them. *I don't believe there are any for this event other than previously released boss damage cards*

5) Huge amounts of skilled high normals are rewarded during the event, it's a great time to skill up your main cards.

6) Always help kill other peoples bosses if you're invited to, work together and share in rewards. 

7) There is an order rewards based on the number of bosses defeated, better rewards at higher tiers.
8) Individual ranking is calculated by overall damage done to bosses.
9) Order ranking is calculated by overall damage done by all members of your order to bosses.

*Sidenote* If you plan on blowing a ton of HP on this event, be warned that you will probably need to try to liquidate your rewards quickly in order to have HP for Holy Wars. For some extra tips read The Puppet Master Guide all the information pretty much carries over.

Alternate Accounts

A lot of people will note that I've mentioned that I have multiple accounts. Some people frown on this saying it's unfair, others accept it as part of the game. Both are kind of right.

It used to be people would make 100s of accounts the day a referral card was listed, level them all to 10 using some sort of bot, then trade all the resources to a main account. This was shady. I don not condone or support such activity because it's game breaking.

I DO condone creating however many accounts you will actually PLAY. For most people this is two to three. I myself currently have two, but will be creating a stamina account as my third. I play both accounts regularly enough to be in a top 300 Order on one, and a top 150 order on the other. Neither account is useful during stamina events...QQ.

Each account should be viewed like a business. Starting one from scratch was expensive, but is finally yielding something. To start the second one you should transfer resources to speed up its progress, accepting that although you'll go negative at start it will result in higher yields in the long run.

There are some rules I advise when creating a second account (A non stamina account):

Rule 1: Treat it as a main account.

-By treating the account as a main account, you create value for it. Your actual main account should virtually be on auto pilot leaving time available for the second account. Think of it like a business, once your main building is up and running smoothly, you go to your second to run it and make sure it runs smoothly.

Rule 2:  Do not steal from your second account.

-Do not use HP from your second account to feed your first account. The HP you earn on your second account should be used to progress the account. Sometimes you can take from your first account for your second, but you should never take from your weaker account unless it's absolutely necessary.

Rule 3: Transfer cards, HP, CW over to account number two.

-You will progress faster if you have a decent deck, hp, and cw. I'm not talking about great cards, but for example I had four DK Lucy's sitting around and two full evo rares that went to my second account. I gave the account 50HP and 20CW to start. Because I did this, there was no need for me to spend HP on cards, allowing me to accumulate HP fast on account number two. Also by having a decent deck at a low level and a willingness to blow 50HP on a Holy War, I managed to enter a decent order.

Rule 4: Friend your main account

-This gives you the ability to trade and utilize your bazaar tickets and cards to maximize profits. Pretty self explanatory.

If you do this, eventually you will have two higher level accounts that will get double rewards doing HW and the ability to transfer HP/CW cards between them to help them both.

Stamina Accounts: A stamina account is necessary for stamina based events as well as gaining feeders for your main account. Only a single stamina account is necessary as the events are so competitive that splitting your resources is expensive and difficult. Make sure to leave enough attack/defense for one attack and one defend, otherwise gaining treasures during the event are a pain.

Power Leveling Accounts:  To power level an account the easiest method is to place all points into stamina. I normally recommend getting around 300 stamina. If you push it a lot past you won't be able to drop it down to 150 easily. Use CW to level quickly.

Reallocating points: Hard way is to remove fellows yourself, suffering additional point losses if you do more than one in a day. Easy way is to have people unfellow you. If they refuse just keep sending them stupid trades for being dicks.

Logging in and out: Swapping between accounts on a single device is easily done by force stopping the application and clearing cache. You will be able to log into the alternate account. Of course the account won't be registered.

Registering a second account: I'm sure you have a parent, friend, sibling that has a smart phone or tablet that doesn't play, once authenticated, the account can be accessed from any device. There are other ways but I'm not going into them, they are shady. Google it.

The advantages of having multiple accounts should be obvious.  You get multiple login rewards, multiple HW rewards, extra bazaar tickets, and easy access to feeders. On top of this it's almost necessary in order to have an account that can do well during stamina based events. Just remember, each account needs attention.