"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

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)

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc

 

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

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)

Abilities - Speedes Spreadsheet (Ver 1.0)

*REMINDER* BOURGARD Raid Friday April 25/14 @ 1900 (7pm) EST Timezone.
*REMINDER* JEZEBEL Raid Saturday April 27/14 @ 1200 (1200pm) EST Timezone.



Welcome back Riders!

Today we have the first installment of our resident math wizard, Speedes, spreadsheet! He's been busy compiling data on the various beasts that we run into while playing Heroes of Camelot and has reverse engineered them to discover how their abilities are applied and what damage / prevention / healing / etc you can expect them to do based on their stats. Sure, it's possible we've recreated the wheel and this info is available elsewhere, but if it is, we haven't found it.

Without further ado, I present to you Speedes Spreadsheet version 1.0! (Well, it's not REALLY a spreadsheet, but you get the idea...)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is a simple breakdown of known formulas for Card Abilities that we've been compiling.

• Card = The Card Name
• Target = Who it affects: Team / Party / etc...
• Description = What it does / amount it does

Example: A T1 L50 Mhor the Wyrm has 13616 HP and 75% of that is 10212 Damage to enemy Team

Card	Target	Description
Arabel the True	Party	80% of ATK = Party ATK Down
Archmage	Team	90% of HP = Dmg
Bard	Leader	80% HP = Leader Heal	50% ATK = Leader ATK Up
Battlemage	Team w/ > ATK	40% HP = Dmg Team w/ > ATK	60% ATK = ATK Down
Black Knight	Team	-30% HP Down	180% ATK Up
Celestial Lion	Team	150% ATK = ATK Down
Duelist	Team	60% HP = Dmg
Earth Elemental	Team	60% ATK = ATK Down
Elder Shaman	Team	90% HP = Dmg
Father Maleficent	Team	200% of ATK = Shield
Fenric Gore-claw	Team	150% of HP = Heal	100% of ATK = ATK Up
Giant Boar	Team	100% of ATK = ATK Up
Gryphon	Leader	100% of HP = Leader Heal
Ice Mage	Team	80% HP = Dmg
Maiden Exemplar	Team	200% of ATK = ATK up
Mechanical Knight	Team	-30% HP Down	180% ATK Up
Merlin's Dragon	Party	80% of ATK = Party ATK Down
Mhor the Wyrm	Team	75% of HP = Dmg
Morbius the Cursed	Party	70% of ATK = Party ATK Down
Necros the Grim	Team	30% of ATK = ATK Down	300% of ATK = Shield
Stone Ancient	Team	60% ATK = ATK Down
Sun Mage	Party	125% of HP = Dmg to Party
Taal	Team	150% of HP = Heal
War Horse	Team w/ > HP	100% of HP = Heal Team w/ > HP
Water Elemental	Team	150% of HP = Heal

Note: Tiers do not change percentages, a T1 and a T4 of the same creature will still use the same percentage, the T4 will just have higher stats to calculate with.

Use this to determine which monsters are better than other’s based on their stats.

Example:  Take Black Knight vs Mechanical Knight…Exactly the same Ability

Black Knight	T1 L1	4320	1368	Team	-1296	2462
Mechanical Knight	T1 L1	4180	1020	Team	-1254	1836
Black Knight	T4 L1	9204	2914	Team	-2761	5245
Mechanical Knight	T4 L1	8909	2173	Team	-2672	3911

However, since the ATK value of Black Knight (BK) is over 30% of his HP and Mechanical Knight’s (MK) is just under 25% of his HP the ratio of HP down to ATK Up is drastic.

BK will make you lose 42 more HP than MK, however, increases your ATK by 626 points.  A Base T4 BK will cost you 296 more HP but increase your ATK by 1334 over a Base T4 MK.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I hope this is going to help you decide who would be better in your teams and / or who you should be leveling first (or at all). We're always looking for more data to continue to update this list so if you wanted Speede to figure out an equation for you post in the comments the NAME of the CARD, its LEVEL, its ATK / HP as well as the DAMAGE (or healing, or reduction) that the card does when it procs and we will add it to the next spreadsheet.

Thanks for the info / work Speede! I know I'm looking forward to the next installment and have some data RE: KARN to provide you with :).


Ride hard!

Carl Szalich (Psilence)
John Wright (Speede)

(... both of whom are PALE_RIDERS on Bors-46!)