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    Elite Master Adoede's Avatar
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    Adoede's Guide for Beginners

    Adoede’s Guide for Beginners

    A guide for new managers on how to successfully retire your initial gladiators for premium Hall of Legends recruits (and some other basic game-dynamic insights too)

    Let’s face it – until you get your own batch of HOL recruits, you’re still in the “orientation” phase of the game. Can you have a competitive glad in Blood gods without being HOL? Sure. But likely not a top contender. HOL glads have 50-90 more base stat points than the average bear and in the Blood gods bracket, every little advantage makes a difference. And, by the way, 50-90 extra stat points is more than “a little advantage.” Enough said.

    Now that the requirements for retiring a glad have dropped considerably, it isn’t too hard to take any of your decent glads to retirement. That being said, here are some guidelines to help ensure a successful campaign:

    Don’t waste too much time looking for the perfect non-HOL glad
    If you’re planning on retiring the fella, don’t worry about getting the best stats. So long as your key weapon stats are around 75, they’ll do just fine. I once had a non-HOL glad with 91 base agility. Did he do well? Yes. 117 – 0 at one point. Did I retire him for an HOL glad when he hit 1000 fights? Absolutely.

    Strategies don’t matter as much in this phase of the game
    Sorry to break the news to you, but strategies really come into play in the latter phases of the game – and especially in Blood gods. Not so much in the early game. Why is this so? Because in the early going nobody has enough skill to use strategies to much effect – except perhaps to find more stylish ways to lose Strategies are also minimized in the early game because you can challenge opponents that your build is suited to defeat and get away with using a one-dimensional strategy all the way up to the Blood gods bracket (which is a great tactic to use for quick retirement, btw).

    So what’s a good strategy to run in the basic game? Here are some guidelines to get you started.
    Until you are able to develop your defensive skills, it might be wise to focus your gladiators on offensive strategies initially:
    Some of the most seasoned masters in the game, Dainoji and Narol, suggest starting at 5/5 and working your way up as your weapon skill increases - which is a very sound strategy. Once you hit weapon skill level 10 (by about level 20 if you focus your training), you should be able to handle more aggressive strategies like the ones I prefer. If you see your glad needs more accuracy, drop the blood lust a bit. If you want to do more damage, drop the activity level and increase the blood lust. Want to be faster and more accurate? Increase activity and drop blood lust.

    Personally, I've always run my glads hot at 10-8 or 8-10 from the get-go and it has worked fine for me. This "aggressive" strategy works IF you make training your weapon skill to level 10 your first training priority, which we'll get to in a moment.

    For Offensive glads, these strategies are good enough to take you all the way to retirement if you pick your opponents well.
    Defensive glads require a bit more finesse.
    After you've trained your weapon skill to 10 and trained some defensive skills to a decent level, go ahead and be more creative with your strategies. You’ll do just fine so long as you…

    Plan your challenges well
    This can be a real key to success, especially for your borderline glads. You’ll soon learn what types of opponents your glad fares well against and what types eat them for breakfast. If you challenge the types you can win the majority of fights against, you’ll have a great shot at retirement and HOL recruit bliss. If you leave your fights to chance, it will be much harder…and you’ll make less gold in the process. So challenge away! Don't be shy! But just one thing…

    Please don’t challenge the same glad over and over 8 times in a row. That makes the game less fun for the other manager and if they’re new, they might not decide to stay. Spread your challenges around to a few glads and the game stays challenging and fun for everyone.

    Keep weapons updated
    Another important practice to keep in mind is to keep your weapons updated pretty regularly. I’d suggest swapping out to a higher-level weapon every 5 levels at the most – sooner if you’re starting to lose fights you should win. Blue weapons work fine until the Primus bracket where you’ll need to invest in some Purple weapons to stay competitive. I try to wait til my glad is level 50 before outfitting him in Purple weapons just because they’re expensive and I’d rather keep my nice shiny gold stash for other things.

    Basic “types” that do well for non-HOL glads
    There are three basic fighter types in the game. Speed builds, Power builds, and Defensive builds. These get a lot more nuanced at the Blood gods level, but for the basic game these types hold pretty well. There are lots of good guides out there for each Specialty so I won’t go into too much detail here. But if your goal is to get your glads to 1000 fights and retire them asap, then I’d stick with the offensive builds since they have the advantage in the early game. Of course, that’s not as fun, so go ahead and experiment with defensive builds if you’d like…just be more mindful of the opponents you challenge with them.

    Some basic thoughts to help you along: (I’ve put the types in order of ease of mastery and calibrated opponents for Primus level and below assuming equal optimization for each type. Note: SOTC mentions that as opponents upgrade their gear, you may have a harder go against some of these types than you did at first - especially against the armored types.)

    1) Speed Theatrics are the fastest glads in the game on account of their “Overwhelming Presence” skill (Presence reduces your opponent's initiative). They’re also the easiest of the speed builds to advance in skill because most of their skills are agility-based. Just boost agility and presence and you're good to go.
    Good against: Power Rages, Speed Rages
    Even against: Speed Theatrics, Defensive Wars, Hybrid Wars
    Bad against: Defensive Theatrics

    2) Speed Rages are also very effective in the early game. They have a slightly harder time training skills because all their skills are strength based (and their strength is probably lower than their agility). But they have the advantage that their enhanced offense typically punches through defenses better than the speed theatrics.
    Good against: Power Rages, Defensive Wars
    Even against: Speed Rages, Hybrid Wars
    Bad against: Speed Theatrics, Defensive Theatrics

    3) Power Rages sacrifice speed for devastating power. Strength, Stamina, Presence and Chi are typically most important here. Strength increases base damage. Stamina for hardiness. Presence for initiative. And Chi for boosts in critical hits and the multiplication factor of those critical hits.
    Good against: Defensive Wars, Defensive Theatrics
    Even against: Hybrid Wars, Power Rages
    Bad against: Speed Theatrics, Speed Rages

    4) Defensive Wars are pretty straight-forward. Just pile on the armor, boost the stamina, and watch your opponents drop from exhaustion. You’ll need to strike a few times to keep the crowd from pelting you into submission, but that’s about it. If you're a bit more daring, you can try to run them to prioritize parry-attack so they take down their opponents instead of exhausting them (useful against defenseless Rages who'll otherwise take you out).
    Good against: Defensive Theatrics, Speed Theatrics
    Even against: Defensive Wars, Hybrid Wars
    Bad against: Power Rages, Speed Rages, Hybrid Wars

    5) Many have been successful with Hybrid War builds that stack offensive Rage skills and yet utilize the War’s ability to wear good armor and use the “Tank” strategy in spots.
    Good against: None
    Even against: Defensive Wars, Defensive Theatrics, Speed Rages, Speed Theatrics, Hybrid Wars, Power Rages
    Bad against: None

    6) Defensive theatrics are perhaps the most difficult builds to master, but it sure is fun watching your opponents humiliate themselves as they try in vain to hit you.
    Good against: Speed Theatrics, Speed Rages
    Even against: Defensive Theatrics, Defensive Wars
    Bad against: Power Rages, Hybrid Wars

    There are many variations of these basic "types" in blood gods, so feel free to experiment!

    Word to the wise: Know what you are and play to your strengths.
    Last edited by Adoede; 08-06-2014 at 08:50 AM.
    Adoede | Tevrosin

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