How to: Order your Team

*REMINDER* Our first Guild raid vs BOURGARD is this FRIDAY (TODAY!) April 04/14 @ 1800 (6pm) EST Timezone.

Hello Riders!

Are you all pumped for the raid today? I know I am! Be sure that you've read and understand this article before we start: Guild Raids Tips and Tricks


ORDERING YOUR TEAM

Another question I'm frequently asked is about who shoud be put on a team and in what order.

Since we all have different cards, the easiest way to determine which cards are "best" is simply to order your cards by ATTACK value and use those who have the highest damage. In this game the best defence is a strong offence, but raw stats aren't all that is important since certain abilities are so strong that they demand inclusion into your team regardless of their ATK / HP. Think about sun mage for example... low stats but AMAZING ability!


TYPES OF ABILITIES

I break down abilities into 3 categories:

1. Offensive: Damage abilities like Sun Mage, Battle Mage and Elder Druid
2. Defensive: Shields created by Father M / Necross as well as ATK reduction abilities like Sir Kay / Psycho Butterfly
3. Healing: From the likes of Thorn Witch, Rhiannon the Fair, Taal, Paladin, etc...

Each type of ability is useful in a certain situation so you need to adjust your team to take advantage of the cards you have and what you're trying to accomplish.


TYPICAL PARTY SETUPS

You get 3x teams that compose your party. Traditionally the setup of those teams should look something like this:

• First Team = Tank Team. High Hitpoints with lots of Defensive abilities and Healing. You just want this team to take damage and SURVIVE. Cards like Fenris and Taal who heal, combos that reduce damage (example: Doomweaver + Psycho Butterfly), combos that revive (example: Father M + Necross the Grim) and skills that create shields or increase hit points (example: Celestial Lion + Giant Eagle) are all good examples of Tank Team skills.
• Second Team = Support Team. Providing good damage with the ability to support the Tank team if necessary. Sometimes run as a second Tank team for when / if the first team goes down. Some people like a lot of offensive abilities and other like to "buff" their tank team with more healing and shielding. This one is the most "random" of the teams in my opinion and I normally just fill it with strong cards.
• Third Team = Damage Team. Here is where you can plug in some of your weaker guys with great abilities. I normally try to get a lot of cards that do damage in this team even if they are rather weak on their own. Your first 2 teams protect this one so that it can continue to rain down on your opponents with damaging spells and abilities.

EXAMPLE SETUP - WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Since it was our guildie friend AlphaxNxOmega who inspired this article we'll use his team as an example. When I was asked to assit him he had his team in the following order (or close to it, I cant remember exactly):

1. Celestial Lion / Father M / Blood Briar / Necross the Grim
2. Ice Mage / Battlemage / Bard / Fenris
3. Black Knight / Mhor the Wurm / Archmage / Taal

Skills will process (or "proc") in the order that your team is setup. Therefore it is most beneficial to put the characters with the best abilities FIRST since it will check to see if their ability procs before moving down to the next in line. So basically you want yuor best guy first in line, your second bect second, etc...

Looking at the above team and knowing what you now know... how would YOU set up the above team if you had those characters in your party?

Think about it...
...
...
... Here's what I would do!

1. Fenris / Taal / Necross / Father M
2. Mhor / Battlemage / Ice Mage / Bard
3. Archmage / Black Knight / Celestial Lion / Blood Briar

Here's my reasoning:

1. On the first team you REALLY want Fenris to proc whenever he can. He boosts damage AND heals! Since this is your "tank" team, you want it to survive as long as possible, so the healing helps. If Fenris doesn't proc, you still get another chance to heal with Taal.( I MAY move Taal to the back of this line if his healing is not very strong because he isnt evolved or leveled) Next you can get some nice shielding to prevent damage using Necross and Father M and as an added bonus you get the "cultists" combo so that if they DO manage to take out this team there is a chance for them to revive and continue to lay beats.
2. Mhor does a TON of damage on his proc. Battlemage is also quite powerful. Ice mage is just "meh" but still does SOME damage and Bard is kinda weak but gives the "Gifted and Talented" skill which increses the chances of your other damage guys proccing! So she's there just to ensure that Mhor and Battlemage are activating every turn if possible. This is a nice damage team, but I'd try and get rid of the ice mage as an upgrade when able.
3. Archmage and Black Knight do decent damage. I put BK in team 3 instead of 2 (you could substitute Ice Mage for him) because I don't want my second team taking any damage when he procs since I want it to survive. Celestial Lion and Blood Briar are both just hanging out because there is nothing better.

Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments if you'd like!


TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this has helped you understand how to organize your team and select who makes the final cut. As always, let me know if you have questions, I'd be happy to clarify.

See you all in Ragnall's Cove in 5hr 40min and 16seconds as of this posting! :)


Cheers,
Carl Szalich (Psilence)