Sunday, October 16, 2016

Thank you everyone for your support!

Hello Heroes!

Although I haven't played Heroes of Camelot in a few years I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been using this blog for reference. Over 60000 hits... wow. Keep up the good fight my friends!

Cheers,
Carl Szalich

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Optimizing Your Raid Teams



This article is going to focus on building a better / more efficient raid team so that you can save mana, kill faster, earn more rewards, and place higher in your raids. Granted, these are my personal feelings and opinions and what I’ve been having success with, but the general ideas should be able to be applied to YOUR teams, even if you don’t have the same cards that I do.
 

½ MANA TEAM (OR LOWER)

Obviously one of the most important things to do is conserve your pots, so I typically try and find the lowest mana cost team that is still capable of completing front attacks. My strategy is always to build a team based on who we're raiding against, I don’t have a generic raiding team since every boss is different and has different stats.

My best suggestion would be to take your total mana, divide by 2, and build a team that will use that much mana. This gives you your "2x attack / potion team". IF that team is killing the boss easily, try dividing total mana by 3 and seeing if you can still defeat the boss. If you can, try dividing by 4, etc.

This will optimize your team for mana efficiency, allowing you to get the most hits in per potion spent. This is always the FIRST thing I look at when building a team: “How many hits can I get / potion and still survive?”
 

COMBOS / SKILLS THAT HELP

Bosses don’t have any “abilities”, so damage reduction really works well. Some of the most common and easiest to put together include:
  • Mhor + Giant Boar (Thick Skinned -30% damage)
  • Psycho Butterfly + Doomweaver (Giant Insects-40% damage)
Another way to survive is to increase your hit points with +%HP combos. More HP = more hits able to be taken = higher possibility of survival. Some of the common ones include:
  • Giant Eagle + Celestial Lion (+50% HP)
  • Balzathor + Fenric (Demons +80% HP)
Note: Going purely defensive like this may get you a lot of HP, but if you aren’t doing enough damage (or are doing damage too slowly) to defeat the boss, then you’ll have to modify your strategy. Sometimes high damage is greater than high hit points because you can kill them before they kill you!

That is how I position my team when facing easy bosses like Bourgard… Hit him so hard he can’t kill you before you kill him! Some good combos for +ATK% are:
  • Paladin + Armored Warhorse + Grail Knight (Knight Warband +100% ATK)
  • Gaznar + Morbius (Unholy Strength +80% ATK)
  • Ysbadden + Mhor (Titans +50% ATK) 
 
MY RAIDING TEAMS

While these are probably far from optimal, I’ll share the layouts I use for my teams when I’m battling raid bosses.

My Bourgard team is:
 
  • T4 Fenric / T3 Paladin / T4 Grail Knight / T4 Armored Warhorse
This team BARELY survives vs Bourgard front, but defeats him everytime. Mana cost is only 32x / attack so I get 7x attacks per mana potion.
 
My Jezebel team is:
  • T3 Mhor / T4 Giant Boar / T4 Psycho Butterfly / T4 Doomweaver
  • T3 Paladin / T4 Fenric / T4 Grail Knight / T4 Armored Warhorse
I like the damage reduction teams because they can take a LOT of hits for you before they go down. I put Paladin in the lead of team 2 so that the healing proc keeps team 1 alive longer. This gets me 3x attacks per potion.

My Ossion / Lord team is:
  • T2 Druid Initiate
  • T3 Mhor / T4 Giant Boar / T4 Psycho Butterfly / T4 Doomweaver
  • T4 Fenric / T3 Paladin / T4 Grail Knight / T4 Armored Warhorse
This team is almost the same, but adding the single 1* card in team 1 to absorb the first hit so that the other teams survive. As long as I get a "crossed swords", I can get 3x attacks per potion with this team vs both Ossion and the Lord from Seige.
 

FINAL SUGGESTIONS!

We’ve all got different cards at different evolutions and level so what works for me may not work for you. Try and make use of the combos you have available, set up chumps to take hits like I have w / my Ossion team, hit the bosses hard and have survivability in your party. Experiment with your ½ or (or 1/3 etc…) mana teams and remember that not ALL of your teams need to survive… just one.

Good luck with your raids! J

 
Carl Szalich
Psilence6K on Bors-46

Friday, June 13, 2014

Raids / Schedules / Policies


 
This post is primarily for members of the PALE_RIDERS, but perhaps other guilds follow these same sets of ideals so can use this as a reference for their own raid schedules and policies.


RAIDS – MOVING FORWARD

We have a fairly robust raiding schedule. Four times a week us PALE_RIDERS get together and take on various baddies for loot, cards, and honor. Our present schedule for those who don’t read our Guild Message Board are:

  • Bourgard – Mon / Fri @ 2000 EST &
  • Jezebel – Wed / Sun @ 2000 EST
We currently have the following number of scrolls:
  • Scrolls of Death – 399 (Bourgard / Ossion) &
  • Scrolls of Cruelty – 664 (Jezebel)
This scroll horde should allow us to continue with our raid schedule unabated, but aside from our wealth of Jez scrolls, we don’t really have a ton of “extra” Bour / Ossion scrolls just “lying around waiting to be used”. However, I feel it’s important for us to start farming Ossion, which uses the same scrolls as Bour, which puts them at odds with each other.

We all love Bourgard. He’s super easy to kill, and many of us can get 4+ hits per potion which results in mad profit of summon stones / streaks, feeders, and charms. BUT we can’t get 5* cards, which is what we really need to improve at this point.

Hence where Ossion comes into play… He hits a LITTLE harder than Jez, has a LITTLE more health, but you get a 1 HOUR timer instead of 30 minutes. It’s the 30 minute timer that makes Jez difficult, so Ossion has a higher chance of completion AND better rewards!

 
A NOTE ON JEZEBEL

Let’s face it, she’s useless.

We’ve only defeated her once because frankly, no one cares about her. She takes a lot of pots to defeat, doesn’t drop 5* cards, and again… that timer, it sucks. As such, completing a Jezebel raids seriously depletes the limited number of pots that we accumulate through the week, and makes it nigh impossible to defeat her once, let alone TWICE like we have her presently scheduled. It is NO surprise to me that people aren’t showing up for her raids because of the poor rewards vs resource cost, and as such, those that DO hit her hard end up failing the raid due to lack of participation.

This creates a vicious cycle as those that DID hit her now have less pots and have to build back up, which results in THEM possibly missing the 2nd Jez raid, causing those who participate in it to fail, and so the circle completes itself anew.

This means that we should probably only run her ONCE a week, especially since the pot use of a Jez raid will possibly prevent Ossion from completing.

Battles per week: 2 -> 1

 
SPEAKING OF OSSION…

We MUST add him to our rotation ASAP. Killing Bour is not making us any stronger. Sure it gets us useful items like S/S and feeders, but soon we will stagnate unless we continue to get “quality” cards of 5* caliber to actually improve our decks and evolve our existing 5* cards. Since he comes w / a high pot use requirement, mixing him in place of our other former Jezebel raid seems convenient.

Battles per week: 0 -> 1
 

WE WANT MHOR BOUR!

We can’t just stop farming him, if for no other reasons than he keeps us rich in S/S so that we can keep grinding arenas at +200%. As such, I feel we should keep him in rotation twice a week.

Battles per week: 2 -> 2
 

NEW PROPOSED RAIDING SCHEDULE

Ideally, what I’d like to see is the following raids per week:
  • 2x Bourgard  - WEDNESDAY / SUNDAY @ 2000 EST
  • 1x Ossion (High chance to defeat) – MONDAY @ 2000 EST
  • 1x Jezebel (High Probability of Failure) – FRIDAY @ 2000
I think the following schedule can be maintained PROVIDED WE HUNT FOR SCROLLS. If we DO NOT DO THIS we will run out of scrolls very quickly since now we are using 21+21+48 = 90 / week instead of just 42.

How do you guys feel about the above schedule?
 

UNSCHEDULED RAIDS

A quick comment on requests for unscheduled raids: They will not happen. As a guild we farm the scrolls, so as a guild we should all get the opportunity to engage in raids. Some people collect more scrolls than others, and some people are more active than others, but we’re all members of a guild and we will succeed or fail AS A GUILD. Were we to start randomly doing guild raids it would undoubtedly cause sour grapes among those who didn’t know “special” raids were occurring. After all, they helped farm those scrolls… why should they miss out on a raid just because they weren’t lucky enough to be online when someone decided to arbitrarily start one on a whim? Yes, there will be times when you can’t make a scheduled raid, or miss it for some reason or another… that is not “unfair to you”, it is life, and $#!+ happens outside the game. Now what WOULD be unfair is if you woke up from sleeping and someone in another time zone used all the teams’ scrolls running random raids while you were in bed!

So there will be NO UNSCHEDULED RAIDS.
(Please don’t ask for them.)

 
HORSEMEN CAN NOW START RAIDS!!

I am glad that finally, officers can start raids. If a raid is due to begin and I am not online within 5 minutes of start time, ANY OFFICER SHOULD START THE RAID. If it’s Wednesday at 2005 EST and I’m not there… START THE RAID. I try my best to always show up to at least START the raids, but I also have a life, and it’s not impossible that something has happened on my side. So horsemen please consider this your written confirmation to start the designated raid at 2005 EST if I am not online.
 

PLEASE POST YOUR RAID COMMENTS!!!

If the new schedule isn’t working for you, please post your opinions on this blog (obv this applies only to PALE_RIDERS) so that we can try to figure something out that accommodates you. I'm not ALWAYS online, nor are the horsemen, so posting to this blog will allow me to see if all is well amongst the team or not.
 

I hope this clears up a little bit about our raids and why we are running them when / how we do. Again, we’re a TEAM, and we all need to work together to maximize our FUN as well as our rewards J.


See you in Ragnal’s Cove! Happy Riding!

Carl Szalich
Bors-46

Thursday, May 22, 2014

"What is the best place to...?"

Bourgard raids are now MON / FRI @ 1700EST.
Jezebel raids are now WED @ 1700EST & SUN @ 1200EST.


Hello all! It's been a while since I've been able to make a new post because work has been... "consistent" is the way I'll phrase it. Great for job security, not so good for free time!

We all want to be efficient with our farming since it takes up such a large portion of our time, so it's logical to ask the question: "Where is the best place to..." in order to ensure you're maximizing your efficiency. Maybe you just don't know where to find those elusive guild scrolls, or perhaps you're looking for the best place to fight certain bosses. I'm hoping this article helps answer those questions for you.


WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO... ?

... Fight Wandering Bosses?

Wandering bosses are essentially an unlimited supply of cards, mana / stamina potions and arena tickets.... provided you have the mana / skills to defeat them! I used to be picky about who I farmed, but in my old age I've become wiser, and now farm them ALL until I can no longer beat them without using any potions. I do this mostly to GET potions (and their cards), so obviously don't USE potions when they are what you're trying to stockpile from defeating them. I have selected these locations to farm since they have the best feeders and the lowest stamina costs.
  • Black Knight: Avalon - Stone Hill (2 stamina)
  • Father Maleficent: Glastonbury - Joseph's Gorge (3 stamina)
  • Necros the Grim: Broceliande - Nasciens Cave (3 stamina)
  • Fenris: Tintagel - Uther's Gorge (4 stamina)
  • Morbius the Cursed: Lyonesse - Priory Mount (4 stamina)
  • Balzathor: Southport - Melsow's Mountain (5 stamina)
  • Karn: Salisbury - Wilton Forest (5 stamina)
  • Desdemona: Silchester - Levocomagus Village (5 stamina)
  • Gravebane: Sandstorm - Demons Flat (5 stamina)
  • Terraheart: Huntington - Crawden Pass (5 stamina)

... Gain Experience?

Experience levels you up, and there is really only ONE place to go if EXP is what you hunger for!
  • Tintagel - Uther's Gorge (+18 EXP!)

... Refill Mana / Stamina Bars?

Sometimes you're just short those last few mana to fight a boss. Others you just want to keep exploring a region. In either case, if you're looking to refill stamina / mana through exploration the best place to farm is:
  • Lyonesse - Priory Mount (Refills 30 stamina / mana!)

... Find Guild Scrolls?

You like guild battles, right? RIGHT?? Good! We all need to be vigilant and farm these locations because when we stop... so do the guild raids! DO YOUR PART FOR YOUR GUILD!
  • Scrolls of Death: Glastonbury - Joseph's Gorge (Bourgard / Ossion The Dread)
  • Scrolls of Cruelty: Broceliande - Nasciens Cave (Jezebel the Shriek)

... Find FEEDER Cards?

This is the $1 million question, and it's the only one I have no concrete answer to. However, through our testing we've come up with the following "logical explanations" since different areas have different benefits. I look at this question as needing a "secondary objective" in order to know where the best place is to farm feeders, but it is always between the following locations:
  • Glastonbury - Joseph's Gorge: IF I also require Scrolls of Death
  • Broceliande - Nasciens Cave: IF I also require Scrolls of Cruelty
  • Tintagel - Uther's Gorge: IF I also want lots of EXP
  • Lyonesse - Priory Mount: If I just want to keep grinding as long as possible
Glastonbury / Brocelliande are both great places since the stamina cost is 3 in contrast to the others which are 4. The tradeoff is that if you get a stamina / mana (s/m) restoration it is much less than those you get from both Tintagel and Lyonesse. As a guild leader I can also appreciate the fact that you get scrolls from these locations. If there was one that I prefer to the other, it is Brocelliande since it restores 10 s/m instead of the 5 s/m you get from Glastonbury.

Tintagel / Lyonesse cost more to quest in, but give higher s/m returns on a potion discovery. This additional s/m helps to mitigate the additional 1 stamina cost to quest in these areas. Since Lyonesse pays out 30 s/m it is my preference between the 2 of them.

Soooo my personal choices as "top places to find feeders" is a toss-up between
  • Broceliande - Nasciens Cave &
  • Lyonesse - Priory Mount

 DID I MISS ANYTHING?

I tried to cover most of the questions I get asked on the regular, but maybe there's something I missed, something you want more information about, or something you disagree with. If so, please post in the comments and I'd be happy to reply with further information or amend this guide as required.

I hope it helps save you may hours of farming by becoming more efficient... and now that you've read this you have no excuses for NOT farming some guild scrolls since you know where they're located! (... No need to wait for a formal invitation, get out there and get farming!)


Cheers,
Carl Szalich

Thursday, May 8, 2014

The Avalon News Network - TANN

Volume 1.0: May 08, 2014



Hello, and thank you for tuning into TANN: "The Avalon News Network". I'm your host, Psilence, from Bors-46.


IN TODAYS TOP STORY...

Gaznar and Morbius were recently seen together strolling the outskirts of Joseph's Gorge smoking cigars and gorging on mana potions. The pair recently garnered media notoriety when Gaznar, formerly a recluse, decided to publicly appear for 24 hours in the small village of Glastonbury. Seen carousing with the locals and signing autographs, it seemed as though the BFFs would enjoy a day of luxury and admiration, but it was not to be. Paparazzi and hopeful suitors flooded the streets upon news of his arrival, and what started as a day of fun and friendship ended in a murderous spree when one foolhardy reporter made the egregious mistake of accusing Gaznar of being a "cheap promotional item designed to steal peoples money" and that he "wasn't that great as a T1 anyways".


S.H.O.C.K.E.R. MISSING? WE'RE SHOCKED!

It has been over a week since the legendary and enigmatic SHOCKER has been seen in the arenas, and speculation is abound as to his wereabouts. Some claim that he's retired his sword since there was no competition left, and he'd accomplished all he set out to do. Others say a large group of adversaries surrounded him and were able to defeat him using superior numbers and an increased proc chance on an army of Sunmages. Yet others speculate that the credit card companies took him into custody when he couldn't pay them back for his ill-gotten-gains, and a mounting debt in the "real world" caused him to go into hiding. We may never solve the mystery of what's happened to him, but the phrase "one in the pink, and two in the stink" will always bring back vivid memories of the destruction we all faced at his hands. S.H.O.C.K.E.R., wherever you are, know that you are missed.


FENRIS SUICIDE ATTEMPT THWARTED

The mighty Fenris was admitted to a hospital in Tintagel for psychological evaluation after a failed suicide attempt late last night. "I just can't deal with not being the best" said the washed up demon lord. "I used to be the one people would hope to drop... now all I hear is Terraheart this, or Gravebane that. That used to be ME they'd complain about! MEEEE!!!!". Our squire on the scene is standing by with Desdemona for her comments. "He'd always been a little unstable, but none of us in the monsters community thought it would come to this. We're all wishing Fenris a speedy recovery and are hopeful he'll be terrorizing newbs everywhere again soon." Balzathor himself was also on scene and in an exclusive interview had a differing opinion: "The guy's a washed up has-been, maybe even a never-was. You try working with him on a tank team for hours at a time... the guy smells like wet dog and never procs when I want him to. He's only good for his stats, and even those aren't that great anymore. Heck, I wouldn't even perfect evolve his hairy @$$." Those of us here at TANN offer our sympathies.


ROBOTS AMONGST US?

And in our final piece of the night we explore an undercover story: "FelixTheCat & Fausto... real people, or robots in disguise?" Our experts here at TANN are investigating allegations that these two (amongst others) are not actually people, but 'bots designed to be beaten up by newbs in order to increase their confidence! What a cruel and sadistic marketing ploy by big brother Kabam. More on this breaking story as it develops...


From all of here at TANN, this is Psilence signing off.
Stay classy HoC!

Carl Szalich (Psilence on Bors-46)

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Finding Friends in FLASH ARENAs

*REMINDER* BOURGARD is this WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY May 07 / May 09 @ 1900 (7pm) EST Timezone.
*REMINDER* JEZEBEL is this SUNDAY May 11 @ 1200 (12pm) EST Timezone.


 
 
We've probably all been here at some point:
 
It's getting late. You're exhausted and just want to sleep, BUT you're only a couple hundred might away from making that elusive top prize in the most recent 24hr Flash Arena. You hit refresh... DAMN! All of your opponents are either too close to risk losing your +200% streak bonus OR have 20K+ attack higher than you do. Crestfallen and cursing your luck you prepare to waste another 3min of your life pondering how it ever was that you began playing this game in the first place while pulling out small tuffs of your hair in an impatient, mindless manner. The timer hits zero... you refresh again hoping beyond hope for some chump to have left in their farm team... but alas, the fates are cruel and instead you're rewarded with the 3 top players in your realm (fully powered) in each of the challenge, average, and easy slots. Your cold tears soak your pillow as you lay down, defeated at last, and collapse in exhaustion...
 
 
IT'S TOUGH BEING THE LITTLE GUY 
 
I feel decks in HoC can basically be broken down into 3 rough categories:
  1. Beginner: You're just starting and dont know much about the game. You tried arena, but couldn't beat anyone. You're not sure if you even LIKE this game but are willing to try it out so start the long arduous road to leveling your toons. You do not expect to win anytime soon.
  2. Midrange Decks: You've now been playing for a month at least and are having SOME success in the arenas. You struggle to beat other midrange decks since you can't afford to lose a streak, and auto-skip any of the hard battles. You're beginnig to wonder if you'll ever catch up to the big fish but vow to keep trying!
  3. Ultra Decks: The deck you see in arena that are waaayyyyyy ahead of yours that you both fear and admire, but can't compete with.
This article is geared towards us players who fall into the Midrange Decks category. You know enough about the game to compete, but can't seem to get anywhere due to being blocked by Ultra Decks and being too close to other midrange decks to guarantee not losing your streak.
 
 
WORKING TOGETHER TO SUCCEED
 
I think Conan the Barbarian best sums up our feelings on what we want to do in the arena:
 
But how are we to get there? How do we get the resources to turn our weak girly-man decks into competitors? We can either get lucky with stones or WIN ARENA PRIZES. As alluded to above, however, that's not always so easy.
 
So what can we do? We can band together!!
 
You know that fuzzy feeling you get when you hit refresh and find a farm team? We can all experience that joy on a much more frequent basis if when we're done in a FLASH ARENA (whether it be because we hit max reward OR are just taking a break) we put in our FARM TEAM or something equally terrible that your fellow midrange decks can beat!
 
By doing this we are helping our fellow midrange (as well as beginner) players AND ourselves!
 
Now obviously this isn't going to work if only one or two people per realm do it, but that's why I'm getting this article out there... so that we can all try it out and see how our realms adapt to it. If after a month you're still the only person doing this, then sure, your back has been trampled by others enough and stop. But let's give this a fair shot, because if a LOT of people start doing it, we should all be able to save a ton of tickets and keep our streak bonuses going for much longer than previoulsy possible!
 
 
HOW IT HELPS?
  • Allows more possible victories when you refresh since farm teams are 100% beatable.
  • Helps new players acheive moderate success and may prevent them from quitting since they see some "hope" of acheiving a goal.
  • Even if someone doesn't put in their farm team, if they are weaker than you and have acheived a higher rank than you by piggy backing, you now have a weaker player ahead of you on refresh that you can beat.
  • Able to acheive top prizes faster since you'll have more targets which means you get to reclaim a little more of your "real" life instead of grinding.
  • And how about the biggie: Gives midrange players the POSSIBILITY to hit 3K to 4K might which for many of us is an impossibility right now.
     
WHY ONLY FLASH ARENAS?
 
Since there are no "rank" prizes in flash arenas, it doesn't matter if you're in first place or 100th place you just need to have enough might to get top prize. I would not do this method when there are RANKED prizes to be won unless you;re trying to LOWER your position.  So things like "Scroll Arenas" or "Super Arenas" are out when it comes to this strategy.
 
(... UNLESS you're like me, and want to push people ahead of you in the first day or two so that you'll have an easier time in the last day when you actually start grinding since weaker decks will have already piggy backed off you and are now primed for a beating haha :P.)
 
 
WARNING! "TRICK TEAMS"!
 
Something I should put out there as a warning: I've seen a lot of the Ultra players reduce their teams to a point where it may appear as though you have a chance, but in reality they bury a T4 Arcane Archer or Khufu somewhere where you can't see it so you will THINK they are beatable, but then have your entire party wiped out in one proc. If suddenly the top player in your realm is showing up with a deck that you think you can beat... be careful! They could have a "streak breaking team" in place and are trying to trick you into battling them so that you'll lose.
 
(Yes this has happened to me, but I'm not bitter... OK I'm bitter.)
 
 
A BIG THANK YOU!!
 
To all those players out there who already have Ultra decks and still lower their teams when done. You guys are AWESOME and I'm sure we all really appreciate the help! :)


I'll personally be trying to do this strategy more often, as I'd like to be able to catch up to the Ultra decks someday and feel that if we all work together in FLASH ARENAS we'll ALL have a better chance to succeed and continue to enjoy the game long term. Please consider trying this strategy for a while to see if it helps! ;)

Cheers,

Carl Szalich
Psilence on Bors-46

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Different Evolution Methods and YOU

*NOTE* For the foreseeable future we will be doing Bourgard raids on Fridays at 1900 EST and Jezebel raids on Sundays at 1200 EST.
 




There is a lot of debate on how to properly evolve your cards.

Casual players feel it’s ok to “cheat” and skip leveling your cards until you hit a T4. Purists feel that there is only one way… the perfect evolve. Most seem to fall somewhere in between and level and evolve a few cards here and there until they are happy with the overall results.

In all reality the ONLY “correct” way is the Perfect Evolution method, but let’s face it… that takes FOREVER and a day.
 
So if you’re not one of those people who can max level / evolve every single card that you come across (I barely have any room left in my inventory to store feeders to upgrade the cards I’m USING let alone those that are just going to be “in progress” for a few weeks), what should you be aiming for and how can you get there?


THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the story of the tortoise and the hare. If you’re not, the basis of the story is as such:

The hare (rabbit) challenges the tortoise (turtle) to a race. The hare gets a huge lead on the tortoise and decides that since he’s so far ahead, he can relax, so decides to sleep since he’s crushing the poor little tortoise. Meanwhile, the tortoise is slowly chugging along at a consistent pace, overtakes the sleeping hare, and wins the contest.

The moral of the story? “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Why am I bringing this up? Because evolving your cards properly is like being the tortoise, while just rushing to max evolution level and then starting to level your cards is like being the hare. Sure, you’ll start off faster and more powerful in the interim, but those who spend the time to properly evolve their cards will overtake you in the end.

It’s better to evolve your cards properly the first time.


DIFFERENT EVO METHODS

***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***
UPDATED! May 01 / 2014
I've been informed by our resident math wizard Speede that these numbers DO NOT LINE UP DIRECTLY with HoC.
 There are slight differences between them, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.
The % are LOWER at lower evolutions, so proper leveling is even MORE important than ever before!
***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***

So another player by the name of RAVES (Bors-46) is always hassling me about my evolutions and has given me a few tips on how to do so properly, and efficiently. He pointed me in the direction of an awesome resource… the evolution guide for a game called “Rage of Bahamut” which uses the same tiered system and gives the different evolution methods as well as what percentage each methods overall stats are when compared to a perfect evolve.

I’m not about to copy / paste all of the data from one page to another, so will simply link it here:
http://wiki.rageofbahamut.com/Evolving

Become familiar with this entire page on evolving as the information presented applies to Heroes of Camelot as well! This is an excellent resource because it tells you exactly how much you’ll gain (or lose) at different stages of evolution and leveling. More specifically it compares the evolutions here:
http://wiki.rageofbahamut.com/Evolving#Comparing_evos

So we can see by this list that you’ll lose out on more than 13% of your stats if you rush your evolution job. While that may not seem like a lot on a small number, when you’re dealing with potentially 100K+ and spreading that across all 12 cards in your party the loss becomes quite evident. You will never reach the top tier of players with a rush evolved team as once you hit the higher echelons you’ll be competing vs players who HAVE properly evolved their cards and you won’t even be a contender. 


WHAT DO NUMBERS LIKE 8-15 AND 6-6 REPRESENT?

You’ve probably heard numbers like these being used in chat or the forums when referencing the method used to evolve cards. Quite simply the FIRST number represents how many cards were used to get to a FINAL evolution tier (T4) and the SECOND number represents how many times you’ve MAX LEVELED on the way there.

So looking at a 6-3 we know that there were:
·         6 base cards (T1) used to make the T4
·         The T3 were maxed two times
·         The T4 was maxed 1 time
·         The final evolution will be 97.809% of a perfect evolve
 
Blatant theft of the picture from that “Rage of Bahamut” wiki shows this evolution method as such:
 
 
THE 1% DIFFERENCE

So where should you draw the line? When does the additional cost / time in feeders exceed the overall benefits of max leveling?

If you’re like RAVES, you advocate a 6-7 evolution which would net you a 99.476% of a perfect card.
I personally go with a 6-5 evolution which will only net me 98.727%.
You may say screw it and go for a measly 4-1 evolution and be happy with only 86.629%.

EVERY % point counts in higher competition. Again, you may start off as ruler of the roost with a quick T4, but when push comes to shove and you’re facing off against those who’ve gone to a higher evo method, you’ll reach an unsurmountable plateau unless you literally RESTART your cards… So do it right the first time!


EVEN I MAKE EXCEPTIONS…

There are certain cards you’re just NOT going to be able to 8 card evolve unless your name is Scrooge McDuck (or the mighty S.H.O.C.K.E.R. haha). I have a solitary Vambriel… the odds of me getting 7 more are probably less than the odds of me winning the REAL lottery. So what to do with those rare 5-6* cards that show up once in a blue moon and are close to impossible to get multiple copies of?

I plan on doing 4-4 evolutions which will net me 96.180%. If I’m super lazy and don’t think I’ll ever use the card, but don’t want to just eat it, I will at WORST 4-3 it for 95.73%. Were you to go any lower than that you’re missing out on a minimum 4% which is significant when talking about the better cards. Obviously any % loss isn’t ideal because the higher the * value of the card, the greater the stats, which means the greater the loss for each squandered percentage point.


IT’S AN EVOLUTION, BABY!

Glad I finally got this article on paper. It was a long time in the coming since “how to evolve” is one of the most frequent questions I’m asked. If you take nothing else away from this lesson just remember: Be the tortoise, not the hare. ;)


‘Till next time… RIDE HARD!

Carl Szalich
(Psilence on Bors-46)