General Game Strategies, Part 1

For newer players, here are some game tips and strategies I picked up along the way. FYI: I consider myself a n00b and casual player because although I have in times past achieved around rank 500 with my Forsaken Wastes battlegroup, I play around with crazy deckbuilding schemes, play un-playable champs just for fun, and generally play all factions (though I mainly play FW, UD, ST, SP). Advice:


- Pay for a set of runes, at least a 100 pack, but I recommend spending what you normally spend on any good, new PC game, i.e. $35-$50. The bigger the rune pack, the better the value!

- The sample battlegroups are rarely updated and, depending on which faction you pick, may not provide a good enough deck to beat another trial player!

- The game has eight factions, play them all or you are wasting money by paying for 1/8th of a game. This also goes for playing all game types & modes, using the trader, chat, forums, etc.

- You should focus on building one main faction into your PvP winning deck, because runes can get expensive, and you need many rares and/or some exotics to make it to higher ranks. Once you have at least one competetive deck in any faction, then you can build another from any faction, and keep doing so.

- The more competetive (PvP), winning (PvP or Campaign), or fun (Any Game Mode) decks you have successfully built, the more fun the game as a whole will become, because switching to a new faction & deck will break any monotony or playstyle rut you are presently in.

- Build you decks with a sensible mixture of melee and ranged troops. While playing, use your archers to provide backup to the melee champions, but keep close so as not to be separated and picked off by spells, stealth units, etc.

- For PvP, always include some way of ridding the enemy of his pesky overpowered equipment. There are champion abilities and spells that do this, e.g. Shatter, Disarm, Recycle.

- Winning the game is all about Nora, plain and simple. Control the Nora, and you control the map, control the map and you control the game, control the game and you win!

- Before you do anything else, capture the Nora Font closest to your base (shrine). This will generate the Nora "income" per turn you need to summon units, play spells, etc.

- Always have a viable defense plan for your primary Nora Font (closest to your shrine), secondary Nora Font (any other you control), and shrine. Tides turn quickly, and you need to be able to swim with or against the current, and not drown. Think of your defense planning as your waterwings against Davey Jones Locker.

- Try to include units with varying movement abilities - leap, flying, teleport, high speed - in order to remain a threat on various maps with differing terrain.

- Never rush an enemy group of champions with a single champions of yours, no matter how powerful. Lone melee exotics can be killed easily by a group of ordinary common runes.

- Conserve Nora from turn to turn, do not use it all on any given turn. This gives you a "safety blanket" to cast spells from or otherwise surprise the enemy. One good surprise can change the direction of the game.

- Conserve AP on all your champions. Try to move and or attack, but keep at least 2-3 extra AP available per champion at the end of your turn. Next turn you may be able to move and attack twice if your speed is upgraded correctly, which is devastating to the enemy.

- Run champions that may attack at 9 speed, so that they may move and attack on the same turn, or move one space and attack twice if needed. Upgrade a few of your best champions to 11 speed, in order to guarantee two attacks per turn, but as this makes them cost a lot, do this sparingly, with maybe two or three maximum, like heroes, titans, exotics.

- Ten champions per battlegroup is a good rule of thumb, then I recommend 7 spells, 2 relics, and one equipment. One relic should be your faction's Battle Standard flag if you have one and play full faction, otherwise one offensive and one defensive relic.

- Use full faction, multi-faction, or multi-rune synergies to gain a power edge over your opponent before the game even begins, in deck building. For example, powerful combos like the Dragon Skull relic (SL) + Firestorm spell (US) make use of amplify fire damage plus a (now amplified) fire damage spell with damage over time, utilizing a multi-faction synergy. You can do this in full faction by using powerful synergies like Demon Champions and the Beckon Demon ability of the Darkelf Priestess to gain a lot of ground quickly.

- Equipment can turn the tide in any one-on-one champion face off. Place a shield or weapon equipment on any good melee champion, and you increase its power level considerably. Do this while contesting a font, and you almost guarantee yourself a win, short-term or even final.

- Play any combos, decks, or factions you do not fully understand, to learn their pros & cons.

- Upgrade all melee champions, at least with speed 9, but after that only with absolutely necessary abilities for your deck and rune synergy and overall strategy to work. A very nora efficient deck will usually win over a more costly, highly upgraded deck, due to faster respawn times, cheaper deployment, more units on the field, extra nora in reserve, etc.

- Have some means of Nora generation in your deck, in addition to shrines and fonts. Some faction bonuses help (SP or FW's Boon of the Undead ability), otherwise use relics (Unholy Tomb, Nora Mine), champions (Scorched Dwarf, Nora Beast), or spells (Marsh Song, Thorn Collection). Backup or extra nora can give you the edge.

- Keep track of respawn times and cooldowns when building your battlegroup, and also in-game while planning your strategy, or engaging in any battlefield tactics.

- Try out new battlegroups in the Anything Goes (AG) room prior to the PvP ladder. If you cannot win in AG, tweak your battlegroup and try again, or scrap it and build another.

- Have some type of stealth detection in your battlegroup.

- Have at least one highly specialized defensive unit handy, for emergency shrine or font defense.

- Use a relic offensively at an enemy nora font (place it in the nora font's zone and that font will go neutral when your turn ends to deny the enemy of nora and contest the font), in order to buy yourself some time for strategy and tactics. This works best when backed up by at least one champion, since relics are relatively light on HP and easy to destroy.

- Play campaigns or in AG in order to gain CP (experience points) to upgrade your champions for a viable PvP deck, or to add value to them in order to trade for other champions in the Trader.

- In the Rune Trader, almost all single same-rarity rune trades are denied or fail because outbid. As a general rule, if you trade a same-rarity rune as the one you want, then add at least two sweeteners (that don't suck), you will win the bid.

- Use the Rune Crafter to create any runes you might need or are missing. The cost is usually higher than what you receive, but in some cases crafting might be a lot cheaper than in the Trader.

- Purchase essential runes immediately in the Single Rune Store, rather than trying to trade for them. Trading for an entire battlegroup, especially for rares or exotics, can take weeks.

- If you can afford it, buy only jumbo 250 rune packs, because your return investment and value are much higher since you get many more rare runes, and thus 10% opportunity for exotics.

- Exotics are a strong trading commodity. Keep this in mind always.

- Learn rune trade values well before you ever use the Rune Trader.

- Don't ever, ever, ever, accept a trade based on promises or placeholders and not actual runes, unless you need to learn the lesson that not all people are honest and want to help you.

- Don't ever click a URL link in a trade offer, it may be a scam that you will regret greatly.

- Be polite and mature in chat, while in-game and out. Be a community leader, not loser.

- Help new players, because with each expansion, the game becomes increasingly complex.