BobTheSnark

I think you make an excellent point - perhaps a part of it is structural, insofar as the game makes it a lot easier to chat with the people you are playing together with rather than your opponents... so folks who like to trash-talk foes are going to find a different game in which to do so. But in general that there are few problem players in alliance, on the old forums, even on Discord much less here as the forums are rebuilt is something I can well appreciate too!

For what it's worth, I've been doubling down on my old #SlayTheDragons forum thread on E&P Discord: In particular, that... pretty arguably, everything we've seen in what passes for the dragon!story would actually be amusingly consistent with burning down Dragonspire and reconstituting it into the main game instead. it's possible that the delay in finally wrapping up the Dragonspire, er, story, is that maybe SG has realized they ought to tie it all up a little neater than "the epic story of emo stalker boy." (Or it's just unrelated chicanery, of course; I'm not particularly expecting SG to ACTUALLY end Dragonspire per se.)

Firstly, no one ever knows for sure until less than or equal to around 24 hours in advance, as far as I know. Secondly, one can look at the recent release dates to get some idea (standard disclaimer: past performance is not indicative of future results) Feb 22 - Troop (blue) Feb 7 - Aether (purple) Jan 26 - Aether (green) Jan 5 - Aether (yellow) Dec 11 - Aether (blue) Roughly every 2-3 weeks or so. If that holds, then the next mimic would possibly be somewhen roughly around March 8-15.

A fair point - and that reminds me that it's worth remember that for heroes who invoke minions/Mega Minions/fiends/Mega Fiends, LB2 can also be important, as minions/Mega are capped at 1000hp/2000hp in size until 2LB. (These days, with at-all-modern-ish heroes plus legendary troops, it means generally if you want your minions/fiends to reach the full % of hp listed on the card, you kinda need to 2LB.)

Counterpoint: toon!Cyprian's counterattack is undispellable (and longer!) on himself plus any adjoining purple, which makes him a pretty obnoxious tank, doubleplustrue in 4* no-yellow tournaments when it's way too easy to flank him with purples. If you tank with Azmia (or non-Toon Cyprian or most other counterattackers), someone like rocket!cLiXiu (in her Wizard class) can auto-dispel counterattack via Superior Jinx from tile damage (never mind other, regular dispellers). Once toon!Cyprian gets his counterattack up, though, it's basically until his death. (Even trying to buffblock him is problematic because of his Toon-resist-everything.)

Review is up! (I might tweak it a bit as I chew this over and/or get feedback.) Short version: how well can you make the chain-targeting mechanic work for you? https://www.bobthesnark.org/hotm

For what it's worth, there's currently the Moonlit Vault deal (here in USD) Of course, even this deal (like many with alphas) depends on how much you value what else is in the deal -- here, how much you value paying for a couple of Covenant draws. (But if you do value an AA at around 2USD, then it means two Covenant pulls for 1USD.) cf. Phoenix VIP 10USD for 3 alphas, 950 gems, 1 big/5 medium/10 small LB1, some emblems/memblems, one max ascension item and trainer heroes and food/iron boxes. If you actually want at least some of the other stuff, it can be a fair deal, but (assuming "2 USD alphas") the rest needs to actually be worth more than 4USD to you. With these deals around, I'd agree that the goal would be to indeed avoid paying more than 2USD (without buying too much other stuff in a bundle you don't want to actually shell out for), if you are buying over the long run.

I’m here to second what @ Spinach said — I don’t automatically 2LB every hero. Sure, if I had infinite alphas, I guess, but how much you 2LB depends on the rate at which you accrue both heroes you actually wanna use versus the rate at which you accrue alphas — and there’s a fair of portal RNG on the former, and spending level (zero or otherwise) affects both. —If nonzero spending on a finite budget is involved, it signals that it’s time to spend less on summons and more on more-optimally-priced sales on alphas. (It’s also worth noting that one use for Hero Coach is to jump a hero up from 4/80 or 4/85 up to 4/90 for cheap — if the hero is old enough.) But overall? I mean, I actually use, at times, some * snipers * HotM * Slow heroes * Insanity heroes much less sometimes even heroes who aren’t (yet, or even ever planned to be) 2LB. Maybe all of this is… heresy, at least to folks who are or would like to be used to being constantly able to draw and fully max top-level Borg defenses. But I agree with a lot of folks that plenty of us are more in another camp: Resource management is part of the game, neh?

It is kinda unfair when there is a specialist who stands head and shoulders above most, if not all, other titan specialist heroes (and who isn’t shabby in other fights), and though I’m missing any number of more recent premium heroes I’m still lucky to have landed Gastille. On the one hand, you ideally want to stack abilities like defense down, elemental defense down, attack up, normal attack up, “more damage taken,” but on the other hand, you also want to generally have a solid base attack to work all those multipliers on (so at least some high stats and mostly in the strong color), so it becomes a balancing act based on what you have.

It’s a fair point — it’s good to note “Visiting Outfitter could help with this,” but if and when you already have a queue (never mind what else you might also get in the meantime from Fated Summon or other summons), then yeah it doesn’t pay to value too much a hypothetical costume you may never get around to.

I guess I would add that c-UT1 and Faun Insanity-resistance also significantly matters if you actually *use* Insanity heroes. I realize that’s not a popular option for many, but for someone who uses Insanity even sometimes, then that use case would certainly be a lot more frequent than Insanity wars. (I agree that the Insanity PvE event generally doesn’t need any particular resistance, if for no other reason than you can bring a bunch of minor healing potions and antidotes!) Insanity isn’t my favorite thing - but I think at least some Insanity heroes can be underrated; in fact, I might noodle around the idea of writing up a Bob’s Practical Guide to Insanity. —If I can defend much-maligned snipers, for RNG’s sake, I can probably make some arguments about Insanity; one main issue is that when actually actively using Insanity heroes, each one tends to have their own twist. The main thing to me about Insanity heroes is that you almost cannot just drop them into an existing team the way you would a big often-generically-effective hitter, you do have to plan — and play — around them.

Chameleon is a tough call - the special has fantastic potential utility, but without any costume he’s… hmm a titan/Mythic Titan specialist possibly? Size isn’t everything, but in stats and survivability he’s basically a 4* hero at a 5* cost. If you don’t mind investing in a specialist, it’s a very nice ability, just tough. I don’t know if you’ve pulled the trigger already, but I guess I’d say some of whom you keep depends on whether any of your keepers would be leveled potentially soon, or “maybe someday.” If it’s the latter, then heroes whom you can costume via Visiting Outfitter are a consideration — depending on how many *other* folks you have already waiting on a costume. Hulda -> cHulda is a consideration, just ask yourself how often you’d go full summon (she’d likely go well together with cW3K heroes and their Unstoppable Minion schtick). Depending on what you’re facing, Vaishali is possibly still decently usable as-is, but also her costume will be VO-able in about a year. For more immediate use: Eron’s Shifting Mindless Attack is always useful; his attack mechanic mean that Growth/Wither matter for with him than most heroes. And while some folks look down on HotM, Liora and Dvalin are both reasonably respectable damage and some utility (Liora’s dispel-and-possibly-steal, Dvalin’s debuff-and-buff). — Personally, I’d probably lean toward something like Vaishali, Eron, and either Chameleon or a HotM (possibly Liora if you were leaning her way already), but it depends a bit on how you’d combo them up with teams of course. Good hunting!

Gastille (he really is ridiculously high-powered for titans, and not shabby for other use; I use him for all titans except Rare purples who reflect purple) cVivica (Zatanna version, defense-down) Guardian Jackal (elemental defense down; I don’t yet have Leonidas costumes) Haumri (Wither lowers defense) toon!Joon (mostly just to contribute some high base attack, but Blind isn’t awful to throw) cf. my general thoughts on stacking titanbusting abilities: https://bobthesnark.org/titanguide

For what it’s worth, I’d argue that Silverpaw is worth the souls because of his unique ability (see https://bobthesnark.org/soulexchange ) — though he’s hardly the only good choice in this lineup! since we are bringing up Visiting Outfitter, there’s also Hero Coach next month… which could insta-level the base form of one of the SE costumed heroes (just the base form, but still) or Odile or Pophit. I’m not saying that’s a main reason to pick one possible choice over another, but it is another potential consideration.

Heh, sorry about that I guess; this SE probably has a higher degree of FOMO than most, with enticing bargains, powerful useful abilities in the midrange, and significant power at the high end. There are pretty legitimate reasons most all of the SE heroes could be a good fit for at least some players, even if a few are more niche than others. You can look up heroes on reference sites, notably https://empuzzled.com/hero-database/ For example, if you look up Song Jiang https://empuzzled.com/hero-database?search=song&hero=outlaw_song_jiang up front amongst other information, it shows you his Power rating, both when fully emblemed and elevated to LB2 (1580) and also when max level but without emblems or limit break (1203). To be fair, cDomiventus is not a bad choice for most folks, if you have the heroes to trade in. And you should pick whom you will most enjoy using! One consideration is this: * there are many heroes who can throw pretty good damage one way or another (and you have some even already) * but Silverpaw has some unique mechanics (most notably, lasting Greed, but combined with minion stealing, Curse damage-over-time, and healing nerf through the passive ability) But make sure you’re happy trying to learn Silverpaw’s use and playstyle before you commit to him. See, e.g. https://bobthesnark.org/soulexchange If you’d really prefer cDomiventus boom, don’t let us talk you out of what you will actually enjoy playing, but do read up and consider, and good hunting!

Whaaaat? Sarcasm? On E&P forums? No. I mean, what would THAT be like? Snark and sarcasm ahoy!

Howdy all! Time for *return of the Snark* as I chip in my own personal reviews of this jam-packed Soul Exchange! Good hunting https://www.bobthesnark.org/soulexchange

Howdy all — my own collected musings, advice, and strategy are all on an old-school blog/website-type place: https://bobthesnark.org ”Current events” pages Soul Exchange Fated Summon Hero of the Month General strategy guides Bob’s Practical Guide to Snipers Bob’s Practical Guide to Titans And, (infamously) #52RareQuestsAYear

Hi and welcome! I’m an old-timer, so I’m going to offer a bit of a “long view” response — E&P is a game that tends to be very much about the long haul. In the long run… 1* and 2* heroes are ones you won’t use. I’m not saying you shouldn’t level or work on them at all, but be aware that eventually 3* heroes will be the smallest heroes you will use. (That said, as I recall, Layla was the last of my 2* I eventually got rid of.) In the early game, one major use for gems is to summon heroes; outside of the freebie gray-token Mystic Summon portal, other portals will drop you at least 3* heroes to start working on and leveling up. If you get some 4* or even 5* heroes early, congratulations — but be aware that it might be a while before you can fully level them up and trick them out. You should spend most of your hero development time and resources (e.g. food) on 3* early on. Level up your farms and mines as much as possible as you go. You will, short, medium, and long term always face crunches in the amount of food and/or iron. Low level battle items can be very useful. I like to almost always have a healer hero on my teams, but even minor healing potions can be a useful backup — even as a high level player, I still find minor mana potions and regular antidotes useful. (The latter nuke ALL status ailments for a low cost, and the former can be the difference between “I get to use my Special ability that’s almost ready, and win” and “I lose” in tough fights.) Keep an eye open for freebies — the game will have a *berjillion* different offers to sell you, but tucked in there is some free stuff (which is now marked by the little “present” icon). There are always Mystic Vision ads, which depending on your time, tolerance, and sanity, can be the single biggest source of free-to-play gems. There’s also the Daily Streak at the official website https://www.empiresandpuzzles.com/dailystreak As you get into the game and a high enough level to be able to join an alliance, consider doing so. It’s more fun to play together, and there are some items you can get from Titans and Alliance Wars (and Alliance Quests and Monster Island and even “support your Alliance!” paid offers) that you, well, need to be in an alliance for. I…. won’t advocate here how or whether to spend your real-world money (plenty of people spend, plenty of people are free-to-play), but I will say that you’ll want to decide whether/how much money (zero or otherwise) AND how much time you want to devote to this game. A lot of things about this game are designed to try to get you to spend always more of both! Be wary about chasing anything too hard — this is a long term game! Make sure you’re actually having fun And always feel free to ask questions. In game, here on these newly-reforming forums, on Discord, or other socials. It’s fun to welcome and help out new folks!

Hi everyone! Someone said “forum,” and a wild Snark appears! Looking forward to the rebirth, and as always