Hello, as long as we can understand you, your english is good enough, and clearly this is the case Don't worry, my english is shitty sometimes too and not my native language ofc, just like it isn't native language for the most of the ppl here.
This Guide is mainly for beginners and less experienced players of PvP.
I want to share basic knowledge more experienced players have over starters, so that they can try to have fun playing PvP even if they get stomped. Then they can look at this, helping them to analyze their games. So obviously, this is not a guide beginners just read and suddenly be strong, it just should give them ways to think how to get better.
There are a lot of guides out there already, written down or recorded as videos. This guide here will be my personal opinion on what is basic, and if one wants to improve further I recommend watching game commentaries of top players or guides like from Cicada etc.
Anyone who likes to add thoughts or critics to this, I would like to encourage to do so!
So what do experienced players usually know?
It is knowledge about:
0) How do I get started and better?
1) Energy
2) Summoned cards do different special damage.
3) Do I summon units dazed or better not?
4) Moving and placing units more efficiently
5) Focus Fire
6) When do I focus my damage on a well, when on an orb and when on a unit?
7) Split attacks
8) Don’t forget about your units
9) Watching the animations caused by the opponent player
10) Keep an eye on the mini map.
11) Estimation of a fights outcome
12) How powerful are additional orbs, when should I grab one?
13) Wide knowledge of existing cards, often played in PvP
0) How do I get started and better?
Honestly speaking:
Put some cards into a deck and play. Be brave to lose a LOT!
But you’ll definitely need: Ground units (I use the plural here and mean it. It’s possible to play with only 1 T1 unit, but you want to learn how to play right?) in T1 of ONE color (better T2, too)
Everything else is optional, you will find out quickly enough what works well and what not so.
Lose your first 100 games as quickly as possible and try to understand your mistakes and maybe those of your opponents.
1) Energy
So, I would like to spare you from the very details. But what is important to know right away?
There are generally 2 ways of energy income.
a) from wells
from void
When you start a map you get 2 wells, and a base of 400 void energy.
Beside that you get 100 energy for free at the start of a game.
Every second you constantly gain about half of the amount of what the 2 arrows show you in the top right into the power you can actually use.
The top arrow shows income from void, the second one the number of wells you have up.
Whenever a unit dies, a spell is casted or an activated ability is used 90% of the used energy will recycle into the void power.
So you only lose 10% of its energy in the long run completely (mainly over about 2:30 minutes, I know this is very gross: there are much more detailed lectures about this topic), but be careful that you have a temporary loss of power.
However! If you lose a well or an orb you won’t get your energy back. So try to not lose those without getting clear compensation (getting a temporary advantage that you can use to counter attack: e.g. a larger army on the field and or more temporary energy available to use).
Repairing is refunded 100%, but is temporary very costly. When to repair a well etc. or not is not an easy decision even for very good players, so I recommend to get your own experience (it’s very situational).
Being able to grab wells earlier is a big deal because you will also be able to take the 2nd earlier if nothing happens. But does that mean you should take one as quickly as possible? If you think you can do so without losing it to a rush being 100 (decreasing on time) down, yes. Here also: Get experience! Usually being bold and greedy might look dumb at first, but that’s a way to learn. At last if you cannot figure out how to hold, it was probably unreasonable to be greedy. This is then valuable information you can use when your opponent goes well first in the same situation next time. Lot of times you can keep fighting, even if you lose a well before you gained its 100 power, there are a lot of things important other than just being ahead or behind in energy.
Also: Be careful not to cast anything not clearly helping you to win or stall a battle, your opponent might be able to ignore or run from (e.g.: a Life Weaving-75 energy-, spells and buffs are good but you need to get its value played out) and put you into a temporary power disadvantage, so your opponent could take a well etc. for same or similar cost.
And of course if you kill a unit with more costs then your own unit or spell, you get a power advantage.
Whenever you end up with having less energy, that’s mainly due to decisions in game.
You can always improve with any new knowledge.
2) Summoned cards do different special damage.
Units casted have 4 different sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Extra large referred to as S, M, L, XL Units.
If on the bottom left of a card there is a sword (melee attacker) or a bow (ranged attacker) then right of that symbol is S, M, L or XL written. That means that it does an additional 50%! damage against that size of unit. For example: We call a unit that does 50% more damage against S-Units an S-Counter (M-Counter etc. likewise).
Obviously often (of course you have to find out the exceptions by experience) it is efficient to attack an S-Unit with an S-Counter etc.
If the symbol is a star the text on the card will explain what special damage it does (e.g. multishot, siege damage etc.)
Letting the right units fight the opponents ones is one part of what is called micromanagement (like unit movements such as spreading, kiting, body blocking or focus fire, explained later on)
3) Do I summon units dazed or better not?
Dazed units do less damage and have only half health. But when you are attacking far away from a spawning point, where your units are cast undazed you don’t have much of an option. But be careful with low health units which might die before they even get out of daze (especially against fire or shadow). So if you run an offense spawn some units before you reach the opponents units. Often in higher level play you see a T1 fight with some units “pre”spawned, so that they are able to fight with full force.
4) Moving and placing units more efficiently
Micromanagement is fairly important, and because movements are quite slow in this game it is in my opinion not as hard to get ok-ish at as in faster games like starcraft etc.
Let me explain some techniques you should be aware of and maybe try for yourself.
Spread your units!
That avoids splash damage to hit all your units at once. But try to spread them only as far as needed (yes you need to gain experience here again: vs. nasty surprise, lava field etc.), so that they still fight efficiently. Often it is good to spread units in a circle or to attack from different angles. When you cast new units also try to place them so they are spread efficiently.
Kite!
Hit and run if you have faster against slower units. (scavenger, frost bite and so on are also very helpful)
If you have a slower unit or your attack is “muted” by some special abilities. You can run with that unit and attack the attacker with another unit.
Block!
Many units get slowed down when enemy units are in the way. You might use that to your advantage!
Stampede!
Some units can trample others down and hinder their attack.
5) Focus Fire
Especially with ranged units focus fire is important. Means: Attacking the same target with a bunch of your attackers or with all of your attackers.
Let’s explain it with an overly simplified model(the units are not as simple, but it still applies often enough): Two armies A and B are fighting each others. All of A’s and B’s units do one damage per attack and have 4 hitpoints.
Round 0:
A(4) B(4)
A(4) B(4)
A(4) B(4)
A(4) B(4)
A uses focus fire and B not.
Round 1:
A(3)
A(3) B(4)
A(3) B(4)
A(3) B(4)
Round 2:
A(3)
A(2)
A(2) B(4)
A(2) B(4)
Round 3:
A(3)
A(2)
A(1)
A(1) B(4)
Round 3:
A(3)
A(2)
A(1)
Well, I hope you got the point.
Similar models you can make for pincer attacks (sandwiching) etc.
6) When do I focus my damage on a well, when on an orb and when on a unit?
You do want to get down something which is not getting recycled into the void (wells, orbs), but we aware!
When you shoot on a building you are not doing damage to something which may attack you back. Wells and orbs can serve as static tanks. So I cannot answer this question in a simple fashion. But the higher your DPS (damage output per second) is the likelier is an lesser punished focus on a well or orb.
Also with siege units you might prefer targeting structures.
As for targeting wells and orbs:
Wells have more function in the earlier stages of the game (in later stages why would you want to invest 100 energy when the game almost ends and the void income is huge) and lesser health than orbs. So you usually you want to target down wells over orbs early and the other way round in the late game.
7) Split attacks
Often it is easier to defend one place than two.
For example: Try sending 2 siege units to attack a well on one point of the map and if possible at the same time with the rest of your army somewhere else, your opponent will have a tough time trying to handle this problem.
8) Don’t forget about your units
Use your units you have cast. Try not to forget about any of them. They are bound power (not even void income) if they do nothing. If they are too far away to do anything helpful, consider sacrificing them. Same goes for towers if they have lost their strategic value.
9) Watching the animations caused by the opponent player
There is no fog of war. You need to collect all information you can get. So carefully observe what your opponent is casting.
10) Keep an eye on the mini map.
Well same as point 9)
11) Estimation of a fights outcome
That needs a lot of experience and/or good judgment, but…
At least: Do not sentence your units to death walking into obviously lost battles.
I have seen beginners run with one t1 unit into an army of t1/t2 units without a special idea to handle that (at least I couldn’t come up with one). You might do that if your one unit is much stronger and/or you have the energy and supporting spells prepared (e.g. nasty surprise, lava field, corpse explosion, life weaving)
12) How powerful are additional orbs, when should I grab one?
I personally like to stay lower tier and grab a well or the map presence instead, if I think I can defend. But an additional orb, especially t3 is a huge power (not in the meaning of energy besides void manipulation cards) boost. Here also, I do not really have THE beginner tip. But the more defensive your deck is build the more you might want to stay lower tier and collect more energy etc. instead.
13) Wide knowledge of existing cards, often played in PvP
The more cards you know in detail the better your judgment will become and the more likely you are to make the right decisions.
Usually (also depending on buffs and nerfs of cards) there will be a so called meta game (cards you find in most top players decks). Work on knowing those cards and how their animations look like in the game.
Ok,
I hope I did tell as less nonsense as possible, and
I know this is not even half of what one can learn and many of you might have diffrent opinions about what is important or basic.
But I hope it will help especially those, who find themselves at a huge loss at what to do and think about in PvP,
HiyaMC
@Kiwi If you are still in need of moderators for US time zones by the way i’m always available to tryout or w.e. way you’d like to do it ( i live on the east coast, UTC -6?) .
We can talk more on discord.
This post is addressed to admins and keep it as motivation to make the open beta beeing my brithday present.
By the way "reveal nothing" to the others ;-)
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