Tuesday, November 17, 2015

StormBorn Guide for New Players!

So you've just installed the game and have finished the tutorial? You likely have a Fighter, Magician, Rogue and a Scholar. You probably skipped all the word-intensive pop-ups explaining how to get the heroes you need, but you prefer some direction! No surprise there.

Important tips:
-level up all the heroes you intend to use for Attack/Defense to the maximum you possibly can
-increase the leader heroes (top slots in battle selection screens) ultimate abilities to their current cap
-summon each gender of each class for quests: start with Fighter, Magician, Rogue, Scholar & Duelist
-don't rush StrongHold upgrades; everyone wants to climb to the top, but doing this upgrade as quickly as possible can lead to difficult matches in PVP battles. Consider yourself warned!
-don't upgrade Ultimate Abilities on classes you don't intend to equip in the leader slots! This one should be common sense, but I felt it was important to remind players.

Suggestions:
-don't focus on honor too much. Attack players stronger than you are from time to time to gauge your true power and note which Army styles you are strong/weak against
-when deciding on a PVP battle and whether or not to attack a player, look at defense power, hero levels, number of heroes and evolution levels. Some low power players have excellent heroes and some high power players have some easier to defeat defenders. You have 30 seconds to help decide so use it!


Which heroes do I equip in my army?

This question surfaces quite often in chats. While army selection is up to each player, having a certain combination makes progressing in the game much easier. I decided to look at my army much like real ones. Troops, medics and leaders are all essential parts of battle. This is also the case in StormBorn. Some all-damage-dealers armies and other variations can work, but since I attack players stronger than myself and more often than not, stronger players deal more damage than I do, I need my healers to help defeat walls.

-Scholar - my squad revolves around this hero's ultimate ability. They shine the most later in battles, so most players dislike the class. When he's resurrected my entire army or an average of 3 heroes per battle, it becomes difficult to consider replacing.

-Druid - the most survivable basic healer which improved HP and armor capabilities from traits. This hero has been known to solo entire wall defenses. Two of them are also great to help keep the heal-over-time on your army for longer periods of time. Note that two druids casting heal within a short time does not cumulatively stack their healing. It's best to wait until the first heal finishes ticking and then apply a second.

-Darkmage - closer to a glass cannon than anything, at higher levels their ultimate ability heals for large amounts.

-Beastmaster - as far as utility, this class is MVP for newer players and gaining the advantage needed to overcome tougher opponents. It is the best class available from a level 1 portal, which makes evolving them slower, but well worth the effort. High HP and a frontal cone stun? Two of them for chain stun is really fun in battle.


Which class to evolve first/next?

I highly recommend all players spend a few days maxing the evolution of Fighter, Magician and Rogue. Their ultimate abilities are situationally inferior to others, but they make great troops for how easy they are to get to 5* - keeping in mind that the 5-minute-free rule works for summons, it should only take 30 hours of non-stop summons to get from 1* to 5* for each of these classes.

My personal recommendation for which classes to evolve and in order:
-Fighter, Magician, Rogue, Scholar, Darkmage, Druid, Beastmaster
-if you unlock Portal level 2 and Tier3: Warlock, Inquisitor, Disciple

Friday, November 6, 2015

StormBorn Global Launch!

Most regions of the world should now see StormBorn: War of Legends in their app stores for iOS and Android. PvP has improved as more fresh bodies were injected into the game.




A significant number of performance improvements and game changes have occurred as of late. Chat moderation is on the way, lowered requirements for obtaining an Embassy. It used to require Stronghold 7, or about a week of play; it should be Stronghold 4 soon, which can take a day or two. This is great news for all the new players starting out!

Alliance features are also in the works, such as the ability to donate a hero for other alliance members to make use of in their army. The specifics of the feature haven't been revealed, but it was a popular feature request from HonorBound, so it's not a big shock to see a version of it here. Hopefully balance and abuse concerns are addressed before it gets added. Resetting the hero level, traits, evo and gear or some other form of control is likely to happen I'd wager.



One final piece of information that we learned from the global launch is that this game is not currently cross-platform for switching devices. What I mean by that is that a player cannot begin a new account on an iOS device and then switch to Android, or vice versa. This is likely due to the differing authentication methods used by each platform. Apple Game Center versus Google Play Games. Based on the phrasing from the devs, I would think this is something that may change in the future, but it's important to keep in mind for anyone considering a new device.




If you have any questions for me, comments are welcome!