With the release of PvP I decided it will be a good idea to also release a strategic introduction as well. During beta I spent a bunch of time trying different combinations and trying different heroes and setups.
To start off, I’ll go over some basic info and bring you up to date with some terms.
Abilities
Abilities are the different powers each hero can use during a fight. A fight consists of 5 combat rounds between each player’s opposing heroes. Each hero can choose to use one of its available 3 during one fight. Some abilities buff a hero. Buff means to increase your hero’s strength. Some skills debuff, which is of course the opposite, reducing your opponents power. Some skills are triggered before combat rounds; some are triggered during combat rounds. Some of the more powerful abilities are reactionary skills that are used when an ally has been buffed, or an enemy has been buffed etc. These can be triggered by skills before combat and during combat.
Below are a few of the more powerful abilities I would like to highlight
Generic
Purify (Minh, Albert, Oneira), Dispel Magic (Albert, Nya, Francesca), Indomitable (Gauvin, Lancaster, Moijan), Shake it Off (Clovis, Kurul, Azula), Inspiring Presence (Theor, Fiora, Edward), Crippling Blow (Palash, Mila, Kuro Shobi).
Unique
Slice and Dice (Oddette), Holy Shield (Fiora), Improvisation (Darthos), Victory Foretold (Azula), Hit-Woman (Kuro Shobi).
Heroes
Below I will be outlining a few specific heroes that I feel are worth mentioning. I feel as if these 3 heroes have the potential to become important pieces of many different team compositions.
Azula – With an impressive Shake it Off 3, placing her up against teams that debuff your heroes often will often yield great results. With a solid ability in victory foretold, can ascend to big power quick.
Fiora – She has one of the more interesting unique abilites, Holy Shield a reactionary ability that can occur when one of your own heroes gets a buff. In any team composition hoping to get a lot of buffs, it will likely benefit from have Fiora somewhere early in the lineup.
Francesca – Similar to the other heroes, she has another powerful ability. Dispel Magic 3, able to debuff multiple enemy heroes at once; it can be used fairly safely against teams without too many reactionary abilities. Her unique ability is also quite interesting, perhaps a slight counter to Lancaster or Louca? Still not quite sure if it will see much use.
Oneira – Packing one of the most powerful spells in purify 3, she has the chance to turn a bad thing, into something great. She works well in many combinations, especially with Fiora, and will likely stay powerful as long as purify stays as it is.
Theor – Despite being a tier 1 hero I will mention, Theor will likely rank close to highest for pick rate. His personal quests are easy to find, and is unlocked early in the game. His unique ability (Vengeance Aura) triggers 100% of the time with a 30% boost for 3 team mates. It’s a win/win, you get a victory, or you get a boost. Eventually you will likely replace Theor, but to start he isn’t a bad choice for first slot.
Often the heroes with the abilities mentioned above are good when you want certain effects or teams. Before getting into some basic teams though, I’d like to mention another aspect…
Gearing Heroes
When it comes to gearing heroes, at the moment the solution maybe isn’t perfect, but is mostly adequate for the time being. One thing to keep in mind when gearing heroes for the arena, is that gear cannot be broken forever in the arena. If an item breaks, after the fight the
In general, I try to get each hero equipped with a set bonus, The extra 25% is simply to great to pass up, unless you’re sitting on a whole pile of myth items. If that’s the case, you likely have figured out your own way of doing things by now. If possible, I strip away my heroes to only the gear that is required for questing, and just meet the power requirements. I won’t be going over quest gearing in this guide, but there are some others useful ones on the forum here. They should help you minimize the gear needed for questing. If your quest sets provide the set bonus, even better, copy em over!
To sum up that wall of text above, I recommend getting a set bonus by equipping heroes with the highest power gear they can wear and you can afford, without losing the set bonus. If this is not financially possible, it is not always necessary to fully gear a hero, as a good combination could outweigh raw power.
Team Compositions
There are simply too many team compositions for me to get into all of them. However I will give you two that I believe to be fairly simple in execution, as well as quite being quite successful. The first will be for players who are in a city who hasn’t quite unlocked all of the heroes, or maybe doesn’t have the proper abilities unlocked to use some of the heroes effectively.
Unmaxed Castle Team
Although many of these heroes can be subbed out by heroes with the same skill but better as you go:
- Theor (Vengeance Aura)
- Gauvin (indomitable)
- Minh / Albert (purify)
- Albert / Nya (Dispel Magic/Words of Widsom)
- Karal (Unstoppable Force)
Theor in lead I mentioned earlier being a win/win. Although not perfect, when starting it may your best option.
Gauvin is there to simply buff himself up, and benefit from both Theor and and the purify user. Minh can even use retribution if you wanna go all out with vengeance aura.
Minh or Albert in Slot 3 benefit your top 3, you make win before you get to your last 2.
Albert or Nya with dispel magic can cause chaos on a team with very few reactionary skills.
Karal in last slot is a bit of a solo player, however if there’s a chance she’ll get debuffed, swapping in Clovis with shake it off may make for a good switch.
Maxed castle team: Fioneira
The concept for this team is simple and can be used effectively in almost all cases. The combination is as follows:
- Alicia (Dragon Dance) / Odette (Slice and Dice) / Edward (Inspiring Presence)
- Fiora (Holy Shield)
- Azula (Shake It Off 3/)
- Oneira (Purify 3)
- Darthos (improvisation)
A quick explanation here, the first slot generally is the most flexible. Depending on the other player, different heroes may perform better. Generally if Odette does not have higher power than the opposing hero, I recommend using Edward or Alicia who can equip higher lvl gear for that chance to out muscle your opponents lead. Odette does fill the spot perfectly against Theor however, providing both a win and a bigger boost.
Fioneira is perhaps one of the most common and simple combinations. With Fiora and Oneira, one crippling blow user on the opponents team can turn 3 of your heroes into a buff machine. Espcially if that crippling blow user is targeting Azula.
Darthos is simply there for a good full team boost. The last slot also as a few less viable options, however Albert or Francesca can be subbed in fairly quickly.
Hopefully this has helped! Of course many heroes I have not mentioned as much are also good in different scenarios and teams; I am simply trying to get people off to a good start point to start understanding a few different setups and get thinking. Improvisation, scouting your opponents team and reviewing which of your heroes win and which lose after a battle is good practice to start setting up teams that are your own.
