Building UP, UP, and AWAY: Level 5

By Arcane Ace, Magic's Wildcard

ID: 23078

As I am starting out on my journey, building myself up with greater power, I want to share my thoughts with other new players. 

To start with, I'm always asking myself when new choices arise the same question. "IS WHAT I AM DOING RIGHT?" Maybe it is better asked "IS WHAT I AM DOING BEST IN THE LONG RUN?"

Where should skill points go? What is better to do: Missions, Battles, Both? Do I spend Morphon points on gear or Power Cards?

For a new player, these questions will often come up. The truth is, they will keep coming up with every opportunity for a new power card, new item of gear in the armory, or new round of prizes in the Mystery Shuffle.

What I can tell you is your early levels are going to offer opportunities you won't have often. The choices here are smaller.

Let's start with Power Cards. 

At level 5, you can have a maximum of 25 Power Cards of each type (RED-Attack, BLUE-Defense, GREEN-Movement).

When Purchasing Power Cards, there are three options for payment. BUX, Crystals, and Morphons.

• Bux powers are available to purchase, but cost upkeep.
• Crystal powers are not available at this level for purchase. They can be gained as awards or during events. (Such as completing the 100 Attacks achievement which earns a Mental Assault Power Card). These Power Cards have no upkeep cost.
• Morphon Power Cards are large numerical cards which offer better value.

Let's evaluate the differences. If you had 25 of each of these cards, your base attack values would be:
25 Wrecking Ball Power Cards (Bux cards): Attack(200), Defense(75), Movement(50)

25 Mental Assault (Crystal cards): Attack(900), Defense(200), Movement(200)

25 Inner Light Power Cards (Morphon cards): Attack(2600), Defense(950), Movement(1075)

As you can see, there is a large difference. 

Morphon are a earnable and/or a purchasable resource, depending on your personal preferences. 

And, of course, different categories of cards stack their values. Let's say that you had 25 of each of the Morphon Power Cards for your character.

25 Inner Light: Attack(2600), Defense(950), Movement(1075)=1125MP

25 Selfie with Nova: Attack(1075), Defense(2525), Movement(1025) = 1000MP

25 Flash Step: Attack(1025), Defense(750), and Movement(2850) = 1300MP

That gives you a full Power Card base total of Attack(4700), Defense(4225), and Movement(4950).

These figures are based on the level one values for the Power Cards mentioned. Upgrading them fully adds to the Morphon expense, but nearly doubles most values.

                                                      

Attack(8250), Defense(7425), and Movement(8700)

Calculating the maximum values of your Power Cards can give you a good picture of how your character might compare to other players around your level. Very few players will ever see all their Morphon Power Cards maxed out because it gets very, very expensive.  

The best plan is to stay ahead of the curve between leveling and filling available Power Card slots with the best cards available to your budget.

As you level, more options open up with gear choices and Limited Time Offer Power Cards. For example, one of my favorite events is a BOOST event, when a new card is released and the power of the card increases as more and more are purchased. Just before League Wars: Haunted Heroes began, there was a RED Power Card, Spring Boost, that became available.

As you can see, the end results for values of Attack, Defense, and Movement are a bit higher for this BOOST Power Card that the cards available on the Powers tab. With boost events, there are limited quantities to how many a player can have of each card of one per character level.

Depending on timing, it is possible to get some good deals on great Power Cards, but at low levels, it will be some time before you can get many.

Between Power Cards, there is a general belief that MOVEMENT is king. Your DEFENSE ability doesn't come into play if your opponent cannot hit you in the first place. This is very true is good advice for effective play during PVP events. On the other hand, with the current methodology of RAIDS, a higher ATTACK value will get you more rewards. You will need to put your own personal preferences into consideration when making your choices for which card type to prioritize.

When I make it to level 10, I will speak more on Gear choices. My advice for right now it to spend your Morphons wisely. By now, without purchasing any Morphons, you should have in the area of 400-450 Morphons. That would be enough to purchase 10 Selfie with Nova Power Cards, or a combination of other Morphon Power Cards.

One last thought is don't stress too much about you're purchases. As you level, you gain slots for additional Power Cards. By level ten, with twice as many Power Cards available, you can easily redefine a character's scores. 

My best advice is don't spend Morphons to increase the level of the cards you earn from Missions. Bank you're Morphons. Just because you can level something doesn't mean it is in your best interest to level it. Some Morphon cards are designed to be sold back for Morphons, like Reality Writer Power Cards. A general rule of thumb I use is that if the sum of the three abilities doesn't exceed 400, the card will more than likely be best resold at some point.

Until next time, I'm going to make like my beautiful stage assistant and disappear,

Arcane Ace