Post by storyteller on Aug 19, 2015 0:44:56 GMT
After the update that added rune power to deck power, I've been tracking the power level of the opponents that I face in gauntlet. To give credit where it is due, IGG made gauntlet a very ftp friendly game feat, i.e. it is harder to spend your way to beat the gauntlet, and ftp players like myself can fairly quickly and predictably get the four-star heroes that can carry us through the game. So after that rather unwelcome bump in deck power in the last update, I've been keeping track of the power level of my gauntlet opponents and the kind of decks I face. What I hope is that we can have an idea of the difficulty associated with the saved power level.
n=11 runs through
saved gauntlet pwr: 2886
1st opponent high/mean pwr: 2274/2162
highest opponent high/mean pwr: 4590/4366
potential problems: watch out for spiky bits on neander hero, if your recycler has high health, there's an odd Wight here and there. I use a deck of two recycle hb, two flame braves, and a frost rager with bless. As long as you have a recycle melded on something better than thalassa, you can get through about as fast as you can push the buttons. You might need to replace the hero partway through if you don't have something with bless.
saved gauntlet pwr: 4581
1st opponent high/mean pwr: 4581/4203
highest opponent high/mean pwr: 6522/6323
potential problems: at this level, there are a few multiple recycle/revive decks, but still aren't too bad. A few evolved crits, but none of the really nasty melds. I've seen a few Great Mystics, but no revive Fafnir, for example. A lot of 4* heroes, but no Oceanus. There are a few hero killer decks, so I need to look at the opponent and adjust my deck on occasion. Most decks have disposal/instakill, so if you are autoing, you might need to make replacements once in a while.
A few observations:
1. As most people are aware now, the opposing decks are saved without runes. That has the effect of facing decks that have better crits, but sometimes they are missing the runes that create synergy, such as a healer deck that now lacks the heal runes, bullseye crits won't crush your fa/dodge crits, etc. So we can take advantage of that.
2. If you are trying to keep deck power low, runes got a lot more discretionary to use. I'm making a list of how much power runes add to the deck to see which ones are worth it.
3. The first deck in gauntlet is often harder and has higher deck power than many of the following decks. I kind of feel like they want gauntlet to start out with a bang, but it often eases up for the next few. So if the first one looks tough, it can be worth trying to power through to see if it gets better. Overall, deck power of opponents seems more uniform to me. I used to face decks that were more than twice my deck power. Now, it seems as though the range is determined by some multiplier applied to your deck power. (Maybe ~1.5?)
4. Similarly, the last deck is often not the hardest. So again, if you run into a tough deck near the end, it might be worth a few tries before you reset.
5. The main thing for mid-game (or whatever you would call where I am at) is to get the 4* heroes, even moreso than the chest at the end. Since the gauntlet heroes are all summoning heroes, level 5 is a good target. So mostly you want to keep the credits flowing in, so if there is a deck that would take too many tries to wear down, it might be better to just reset. If you can clear gauntlet most days, you should be able to get all the shards for at least two, and maybe three of the heroes.
A few tips for getting through:
1. Queen Temptress placed on the far right is really helpful for keeping a nasty hero skill from triggering. A high level voodoo rune (~7 or 8) can do the same thing.
2. If you can't beat the deck, maybe you can kill the hero. I'm not sure how the game determines how much damage remains on the hero. But I've won sometimes by bringing the hero down through multiple attacks.
3. Spiky bits is a great equalizer. I faced a deck once where none of the crits had magic damage, but lo and behold! - the hero had two. He helpfully wiped out his army. Berserker is especially good as he can tank until most of the enemy army has come out.
4. Take out the key cog, usually the revive/recycles with sacrificial heroes and disposal/one-shotters. If the enemy has a sacrifice creature, even better - let him help you whittle the deck down. Create a low health hero by bringing one crit, let him get pounded down, the pop out the crit before the hero dies. Reset until you get a draw where you can dispose the crit you want. If you can charge up Balrog, that's even better, because he can make sure the disposed crit dies by exploding it.
Most of you on this forum are probably way ahead of me in the game and on deck power. I'm trying avoid getting to the level where I have to face those impossible decks. It would be really helpful to me if you guys could let me know what to expect at power levels of 5.5k+. I don't have revive, and one of my accts has limited disposal, so I don't want to ramp up deck power too high for me to handle. RL is keeping me busy too, so it's been helpful to be able to go through guantlet fast, but I've really stalled out in terms of progressing on the map.
Cheers, and may your gauntlet rewards be rich!
n=11 runs through
saved gauntlet pwr: 2886
1st opponent high/mean pwr: 2274/2162
highest opponent high/mean pwr: 4590/4366
potential problems: watch out for spiky bits on neander hero, if your recycler has high health, there's an odd Wight here and there. I use a deck of two recycle hb, two flame braves, and a frost rager with bless. As long as you have a recycle melded on something better than thalassa, you can get through about as fast as you can push the buttons. You might need to replace the hero partway through if you don't have something with bless.
saved gauntlet pwr: 4581
1st opponent high/mean pwr: 4581/4203
highest opponent high/mean pwr: 6522/6323
potential problems: at this level, there are a few multiple recycle/revive decks, but still aren't too bad. A few evolved crits, but none of the really nasty melds. I've seen a few Great Mystics, but no revive Fafnir, for example. A lot of 4* heroes, but no Oceanus. There are a few hero killer decks, so I need to look at the opponent and adjust my deck on occasion. Most decks have disposal/instakill, so if you are autoing, you might need to make replacements once in a while.
A few observations:
1. As most people are aware now, the opposing decks are saved without runes. That has the effect of facing decks that have better crits, but sometimes they are missing the runes that create synergy, such as a healer deck that now lacks the heal runes, bullseye crits won't crush your fa/dodge crits, etc. So we can take advantage of that.
2. If you are trying to keep deck power low, runes got a lot more discretionary to use. I'm making a list of how much power runes add to the deck to see which ones are worth it.
3. The first deck in gauntlet is often harder and has higher deck power than many of the following decks. I kind of feel like they want gauntlet to start out with a bang, but it often eases up for the next few. So if the first one looks tough, it can be worth trying to power through to see if it gets better. Overall, deck power of opponents seems more uniform to me. I used to face decks that were more than twice my deck power. Now, it seems as though the range is determined by some multiplier applied to your deck power. (Maybe ~1.5?)
4. Similarly, the last deck is often not the hardest. So again, if you run into a tough deck near the end, it might be worth a few tries before you reset.
5. The main thing for mid-game (or whatever you would call where I am at) is to get the 4* heroes, even moreso than the chest at the end. Since the gauntlet heroes are all summoning heroes, level 5 is a good target. So mostly you want to keep the credits flowing in, so if there is a deck that would take too many tries to wear down, it might be better to just reset. If you can clear gauntlet most days, you should be able to get all the shards for at least two, and maybe three of the heroes.
A few tips for getting through:
1. Queen Temptress placed on the far right is really helpful for keeping a nasty hero skill from triggering. A high level voodoo rune (~7 or 8) can do the same thing.
2. If you can't beat the deck, maybe you can kill the hero. I'm not sure how the game determines how much damage remains on the hero. But I've won sometimes by bringing the hero down through multiple attacks.
3. Spiky bits is a great equalizer. I faced a deck once where none of the crits had magic damage, but lo and behold! - the hero had two. He helpfully wiped out his army. Berserker is especially good as he can tank until most of the enemy army has come out.
4. Take out the key cog, usually the revive/recycles with sacrificial heroes and disposal/one-shotters. If the enemy has a sacrifice creature, even better - let him help you whittle the deck down. Create a low health hero by bringing one crit, let him get pounded down, the pop out the crit before the hero dies. Reset until you get a draw where you can dispose the crit you want. If you can charge up Balrog, that's even better, because he can make sure the disposed crit dies by exploding it.
Most of you on this forum are probably way ahead of me in the game and on deck power. I'm trying avoid getting to the level where I have to face those impossible decks. It would be really helpful to me if you guys could let me know what to expect at power levels of 5.5k+. I don't have revive, and one of my accts has limited disposal, so I don't want to ramp up deck power too high for me to handle. RL is keeping me busy too, so it's been helpful to be able to go through guantlet fast, but I've really stalled out in terms of progressing on the map.
Cheers, and may your gauntlet rewards be rich!