General Advice and Strategies for End Game Maps (Guide)
Apr 15, 2016 19:54:40 GMT
sonbalin, kittenmittons✪NFS, and 7 more like this
Post by ℜ★God on Apr 15, 2016 19:54:40 GMT
General Advice and Strats for End Game Maps
Changelog:
Hello all!
First of all, a little disclaimer: If you are breezing through maps 13, 14, and 15, then this will probably not be useful to you. I have designed this guide to be for those who are on 11 or 12, and don't really know what to expect from these higher level maps. This also might be helpful to you if you are heavily struggling with 13, 14, and 15. Also, this is written from a completely F2P point of view. Meaning, no Revives, no Recycle 2's, and no rare creatures or heroes.
Introduction - What can I expect from the maps?
The three end game maps have a few things that really set them apart from earlier maps:
These three things obviously make a very big difference in the difficulty, as shown by the graph below (the numbers on said graph don't actually mean anything, it's the line that you want to look at).
Unless you've made it pretty far in Trials, you have likely not gone up against an NPC who had Runes equipped. Well, unfortunately for you, IGG is a bunch of cheaters, so the runes that your enemies will have will be level 7 at the very least (normally they're level 9 or 10). This means that the heroes will have up to 130k HP, the creatures will often have hundreds of extra ATK and HP, and they will have runes that are otherwise rare to the normal player base (like Dodge IV and Immunity V).
The powerful creatures part shouldn't require too much explanation. Most people expect to encounter rarer and more powerful creatures at later maps; however, do remember that they will ALL be melded. An Aquarius is annoying enough on her own, but with Immunity 10 and a level 10 Immunity Rune she is a complete nightmare.
You've most likely encountered level 10 skills by this point. Think about how annoying they were, and then imagine them at level 15 instead of level 10. Fortunately, those don't start popping up until map 15.
Preparation - What should I farm for?
Going into anything unprepared is idiotic. So make sure that you farm for the following heroes and creatures, in order to ensure that you avoid as much blood, sweat, and tears as possible!
Heroes
There's 5 main heroes that you'll want to try to obtain before you reach these end game maps:
Creatures
Here's all of the creatures that you'll want to get:
General Advice
Now that you're all prepared, it's time for some general advice to ensure that you have the highest possible probability of success!
Combos - Are there any combos that will help me out?
Combos, when executed correctly, can be really devastating, even to the overpowered creatures and heroes that you'll encounter on end game maps. Here's some of the combos used by both F2P and P2W players alike:
Misc Advice - Anything else that I should know?
Conclusion - Thanks for the help, God!
That's all I have. Hopefully this helps those of you who are about to make the arduous journey through the end game maps (and if you're currently stuck on one of them, hopefully this helps you get unstuck)!
I probably forgot some stuff, so if you have any info that you feel was left out, let me know!
Further Reading - Anywhere else that I can get some help?
Sources:
-Over a year of Deck Heroes experience.
Have a great day,
God
Changelog:
- (4/16/2016) - Added "Further Reading" section.
- (4/16/2016) - Added "Alchemist + Magic Spam" combo.
- (4/16/2016) - Added "Misc Advice" section.
Hello all!
First of all, a little disclaimer: If you are breezing through maps 13, 14, and 15, then this will probably not be useful to you. I have designed this guide to be for those who are on 11 or 12, and don't really know what to expect from these higher level maps. This also might be helpful to you if you are heavily struggling with 13, 14, and 15. Also, this is written from a completely F2P point of view. Meaning, no Revives, no Recycle 2's, and no rare creatures or heroes.
Introduction - What can I expect from the maps?
The three end game maps have a few things that really set them apart from earlier maps:
- Runes
- Really powerful creatures
- Overleveled Skills (Level 11-15 skills)
These three things obviously make a very big difference in the difficulty, as shown by the graph below (the numbers on said graph don't actually mean anything, it's the line that you want to look at).
Unless you've made it pretty far in Trials, you have likely not gone up against an NPC who had Runes equipped. Well, unfortunately for you, IGG is a bunch of cheaters, so the runes that your enemies will have will be level 7 at the very least (normally they're level 9 or 10). This means that the heroes will have up to 130k HP, the creatures will often have hundreds of extra ATK and HP, and they will have runes that are otherwise rare to the normal player base (like Dodge IV and Immunity V).
The powerful creatures part shouldn't require too much explanation. Most people expect to encounter rarer and more powerful creatures at later maps; however, do remember that they will ALL be melded. An Aquarius is annoying enough on her own, but with Immunity 10 and a level 10 Immunity Rune she is a complete nightmare.
You've most likely encountered level 10 skills by this point. Think about how annoying they were, and then imagine them at level 15 instead of level 10. Fortunately, those don't start popping up until map 15.
Preparation - What should I farm for?
Going into anything unprepared is idiotic. So make sure that you farm for the following heroes and creatures, in order to ensure that you avoid as much blood, sweat, and tears as possible!
Heroes
There's 5 main heroes that you'll want to try to obtain before you reach these end game maps:
- Oceanus - Eww. As much as I hate him, Oceanus is pretty good, especially on end game maps. If you don't have a Revive or Recycle 2, he'll be able to just clone one for you. He can be used to clone key creatures who will be able to turn the tides of the battle into your favor, making him a very powerful hero to have in your arsenal.
- Captivator - What's the best way to deal with creatures who have thousands of ATK? Why, turn them on their own allies, of course! That's exactly what her hero skill, Crazed Sorrow, does. It basically grants your creatures an extra turn, because the enemy creatures will be too busy attacking each other. This will allow them to kill some of themselves off, as well as give you more time to gain control of the board. Also, she is involved in a devastating combo that I'll talk about later
- Armageddon - This one is a bit subjective, but hear me out. If your Paragon always dies too quickly, try throwing her in an Armageddon deck. Hopefully she'll last long enough in order to keep a couple of key creatures in the graveyard, allowing Armageddon to Reanimate them into your service. This prevents them from being Recycled or Revived later on in the fight.
- Wight - If the enemy doesn't have a lot of casters or Bullseye creatures, then just throw on Wight with a good Guild Map deck. Surprisingly, this works on a few of the dungeons on 13 and 14. Also, Wight is good against decks that contain Snow Harlots.
- Berserker - Is the enemy using a lot of magic? Don't fret, because that's actually a very good thing. A Berserker with a high level Spikey Bits talent can easily nuke an entire field of creatures, as long as they are using an ample amount of magic.
Creatures
Here's all of the creatures that you'll want to get:
- Paragon - This creature is absolutely necessary to beat these maps (unless you want to end up smashing your device in frustration). So make sure that you get her as quickly as possible.
- Killer Queen - Killer Queen's Guilt skill punishes enemy creatures for attacking your creatures, dealing massive amounts of damage to them. She can be combo'd with a certain hero to double that massive damage, but we'll get to that later
- Anathema - Anathema may be a bit specific. Really, any powerful Bullseye creature will work. You'll want to get a lot of them in order to deal with all of the Dodge 10 and Frost Armor 10 creatures that you encounter.
- Mythril Drone - If you for some reason don't want to use Spikey Bits (or if there aren't enough casters to warrant trying to use it), then throwing a Mythril Drone in your deck might not be a bad idea. His Spellbinder skill completely negates all enemy magic skills, which is obviously pretty insane. Throw him under a Snow Harlot and he'll be nearly invincible!
- Retreat Queen Temptress - A Queen Temptress melded with Retreat is one of the most useful creatures ever in PvP. Her expertise can also be applied in PvE. Normally, you don't want an enemy hero's rage to trigger, as it can often spell certain death for your creatures. So she can control the hero's rage, as well as help you keep/regain board control!
- Sacrifice 8/Battleblow 8 Graboid - Pretty much every Great Mystic that you run into will have Immunity 10. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's bad because you obviously can't dispose or instakill it. But it's good because that means that she will have no defense from a Sacrifice 8 Graboid's 3.4k ATK to her face!
- Disposal/Instakill Creatures - Not everything will have Immunity 10 or Stoneskin. Make sure that you take advantage of this and try to get rid of them the easy way: by disposing or instakilling them. This is especially useful if you're using an Armageddon.
- Stabthrough Creatures - Meld a few Border Rangers, Techno Chiefs, Swordmasters, and Graboids with Stabthrough. They are much more effective at killing the enemy hero than Curse, Voodoo and Godswill creatures, especially when they have leveled Stabthrough runes equipped.
General Advice
Now that you're all prepared, it's time for some general advice to ensure that you have the highest possible probability of success!
- Take your time, plan your moves. - You aren't racing against some sort of clock. Before you move, really consider the order of your creatures, and which creatures to keep and which to send out. These maps can't be beaten by just throwing everything out randomly. Unlike earlier maps, they actually require strategy to beat. Use that big brain of yours!
- Don't make things hard on yourself. - Don't worry, this isn't PvP. No one is going to criticize you for using incredibly cheap tactics to beat incredibly hard dungeons! Even P2W players have to resort to doing things the easy way sometimes.
- Kill the hero WHENEVER POSSIBLE. - The first thing that I always do when I check the enemy's deck list is look at how much HP that the hero has. If it has ~20k or less, then I instantly just throw on my hero kill deck. This is normally a much easier approach than doing it the normal way.
- Use Spiky Bits WHENEVER POSSIBLE. - The second thing that I always do when I check the enemy's deck list is look at how many casters that they have. If I see a significant amount of them, then I bring out my Berserker, and make a Neander based deck. Much like hero killing, this is normally much easier than doing it the normal way.
- Try not to use things that trigger Immunity. - Obviously it's unavoidable to have a deck that contains nothing that triggers Immunity. But, you want to try to keep the triggers as minimal as possible. This is because most of the creatures who have Immunity will also have an Immunity rune, which heals the creature for 400 every time its Immunity triggers (at level 10). So to prevent yourself from accidentally Mass Healing the entire enemy team, don't use that many Immunity triggers.
- You'll need Hero HP. A lot of it. - Unless you're going for some sort of Medium or Hard challenge, you'll want to make sure that your hero has a boat load of HP, because it will likely take a LOT of hits. 50k+ HP is ideal.
- Make sure that you always have a way of keeping/regaining board control. - Board control is REALLY important in card games. The more creatures that you have out, the better (in most cases. If a creature doesn't need to be thrown out (or if it will actually be detrimental if you do play it), then don't throw it yet).
Combos - Are there any combos that will help me out?
Combos, when executed correctly, can be really devastating, even to the overpowered creatures and heroes that you'll encounter on end game maps. Here's some of the combos used by both F2P and P2W players alike:
- Captivator + Killer Queen - This one is REALLY popular, simply because it works so well. Captivator's Crazed Sorrow causes enemy creatures to deal a basic attack to the two creatures who are adjacent to it. When they are inflicted with Killer Queen's Guilt, then they will be Guilted not once, but twice. Add this on to the damage that they will deal and receive from Crazed Sorrow, and you have yourself a really nasty combo that can easily wipe an entire field of creatures.
- Battlecry + War Hungry + Berserk - Battleblow is a pretty great skill, right? Well that's basically what War Hungry and Berserk are. They're hero talents that grant your creatures with Battleblow once your hero's HP has dropped below a certain threshold. The great thing about them is that they stack. This can easily get a creature to 12k ATK, and even 24k if they have an ATK increasing skill of their own. Couple these talents with Bullseye creatures for maximum effectiveness.
- Instakill Creatures Melded with Disposal - This is a great way of dealing with creatures that have Rebirth, Undying, and/or Deathless on them. Your creature will Instakill them (assuming that it doesn't have Immunity 10 or Stoneskin), and if they come back to life, it will immediately get disposed.
- Armageddon + Disposal/Instakill - The one downside to Armageddon is that he can often sit at 100 rage without being able to trigger it. Fortunately for you, if you Dispose or Instakill a creature while Armageddon is sitting at max rage, then he will immediately Reanimate it. I use this combo a lot, and it works out quite well.
- Alchemist + Magic Spam - Immunity 10 is a pretty nasty skill, but fortunately, Alchemist let's you use it to your advantage. If your Alchemist is powerful enough to deal more damage than the amount that is healed by the creatures' Immunity runes, then it might be worth trying to use her along with a bunch of major casters (Flame Brave, Sea Wizard, Abaddon, Naga Mistress, etc).
Misc Advice - Anything else that I should know?
- Get and level up a Bullseye Rune IV. - A Bullseye Rune basically acts as a weaker version of Battleblow, increasing your creature's ATK if it is attacking a creature who has Dodge or Frost Armor.
- The win condition is to kill the enemy hero, but it has like 130,000 HP. Help! - This is a pretty tough challenge, but it is do-able! You need to make sure that you leave one enemy creature alive (obviously), and you need to find a way to prevent your creatures or hero from killing it. For example, if the last creature is a Frost Armor Mimir's Tree, just put a Frost Armor creature in front of it (if it doesn't also have Bullseye) and let the rest of your creatures beat the hell out of the hero until it dies.
- I don't have a Paragon. Are there any decent alternatives? - There are some decent alternatives, yes. Armageddon, Overlord, and Balrog all remove enemy creatures from play, so you don't have to worry about keeping them in the Graveyard for the ENTIRE match. Also, Paw Master's Fiery Elixer negates Rebirth (and Undying, and Deathless), and Spirit Arbiter's Scourge can remove a creature from play straight from the battlefield. So they might be worth trying as well.
- I have tried everything in this guide, but am still stuck! - Keep trying. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten slaughtered by a dungeon, and then decided to give it just one more go, and ended up beating it on that last try. This may sound cliche, but don't give up!
Conclusion - Thanks for the help, God!
That's all I have. Hopefully this helps those of you who are about to make the arduous journey through the end game maps (and if you're currently stuck on one of them, hopefully this helps you get unstuck)!
I probably forgot some stuff, so if you have any info that you feel was left out, let me know!
Further Reading - Anywhere else that I can get some help?
Sources:
-Over a year of Deck Heroes experience.
Have a great day,
God