Trading: Beginners Guide

Trading: Beginners Guide

Trading cards is perhaps the most important aspect of an mmo trading card game and Marvel War of Heroes is no exception.  Trading is everything in this game.  It's how you advance your deck(s) and get to know other members of the community.  This guide will give the reader all the fundamental aspects of proper trading and get them started on the next step of their Marvel WoH journey.

1. Basics

Everyone should know how and to whom you can trade cards and items to already, but I'll repeat the basics for the beginner.  You can only trade with members of your alliance (after 2 week trading ban) and with your 50 team members (after 2 week trading ban).  This limits you to about 80-90 other players that you can actually physically make trade offers too.  How do we trade our cards and items to multiple alliances then?  The answer to that is what the post is all about.  Through 3rd party software (legal software, not against the games terms of service) we advertise trades and then "middle" them across multiple players (called a bridge).  I will teach you how to middle trades later on in this guide.

2. Valuing Your Cards:

Putting a price value on your cards is easy.  The first thing you need to know is that cards are valued by the community by the amount of power packs (pp) they are worth.  Players only use the pp value when trading because silver is not an in-game currency.  If you are just starting out and don't have any pp, I would advise purchasing some from the store rather then purchasing card packs.  PP purchases are a sure thing, while card packs are a gamble.  

The next thing you need to know to value a card is a good "trading guide".  Note that trading guides are just guides, they are not the final say at a cards value.  Only you and the person you are trading with can put an actual value on a card.  The trading guide I currently use is Sleepy's MWOH Trading Guide on Neoseeker. You can use the link to find the guide.  It will be at the top of the forum list under the sticky section.  Sleepy does a good job providing his readers current market value for their cards.  Note that he gives prices in pp amounts only.  Usually players use Sleepy's guide as a reference price and ask or offer a little more or less. 

3. Active Alliance

Players who wish to be active traders in the Marvel WoH community will first want to make sure that they are a member of an active alliance.  I already made a post about how to get into an active alliance.  You can view it by clicking the following link:  Rex's Alliance Post  

An active Alliance is an alliance where members are all active and communicative using 3rd party software like Line App.  Your alliance is your very first trade network and the starting point for building more. 

4. Creating Trade Networks

Above, I mentioned that to be a successful trader that you will want to first be in an active alliance.  The next step is to create a new room using your 3rd Party App (I use Line App).  Give this room a decent trading name like "Bob's Trade Room" or "Bill's Trading Post".  The next step is to invite all of your alliance members and team members into the room.  Players will naturally start posting what they have to trade and what they want in return.  This is the way it's done guys.  

Now ask your alliance members to also invite their Team members to the trade group.  Now you will start seeing posts from players that you can't trade with, but your fellow alliance members and team members, who you can trade with, can!  This is how trade links start to form.  I'll explain middling trades a bit more below.

5. Middling Trades

To become an active trader in the Marvel WoH community you will have to start middling trades for your alliance members and team members.  The way this is done is simple.  Let's say for example you, Alliance Friend (A) and Team Mate (B) are all members of the same trade network.  A makes a deal with B, but they can not trade directly together because they are not linked by alliance or team membership.  So they ask you to middle the trade for them because you are linked to both.  They way this works is player A trades to you his end of the agreement and player B trades you his end of the agreement.  You then trade to A B's side and trade to B A's side.  It's as simple as that.  The trade route looks like this:  A > You < B.

Sometimes, depending on the trade room, you may have to middle a deal containing more than one middlemen.  It is very common to see 1 or 2 middlemen, but is less common  to see 3 or more.  This is because both sides of the trade don't really know everybody involved and are afraid that a middle will steal their cards or pp.  I suggest that you don't steal anyone's items because you will be blacklisted in all trade markets and your account will get spammed with hate.  I do suggest that you middle as many trades as possible because you will get to know other players and get a feel for how much cards are currently worth in the days market.

Typical Line App Trade Room

6. Expanding Trade Routes

Expanding trade routes is important to become an active trader.  Above, I talked a bit about trade routes and networks, but didn't give any examples of how to expand them.  The following is a list of tips on how to expand your trade routes in Marvel WoH:

• Don't team up with members of your alliance.  You can already trade with these players and you want to fill these spaces up with other active traders.  Drop any team members who are not active or not using 3rd Party Software to communicate with you.  Rallying trades is impossible.
• When you have a free team member spot to fill advertise it in your alliances trade room.  Team up with this new link and ask them if they can invite you into their own trade groups.
• Ask your current team members if they can invite you into their own trade groups.
• Get to know the people that you middle for a lot.  These people will make good team members and will be able to provide you with new trade routes. 

Co-Op X Event - Strategy Guide

Co-Op X Event - Strategy Guide

I've gotten the chance to play the new Co-Op X event today for a few hours after the extended server maintenance.  I'm going to write up a short guide on how I think the event should be played to maximize you and your squads co-op score.

PART I

Part I contains basic information that you should be familiar with.  I'll start with 5 aspects to the event that I feel you need to be aware of most:

1.  Danger Cards:

Danger cards are similar to raider cards in that they give a nice bonus to your boss attacks.  Also similar to the raid events, having danger cards is the key to success in this event.  Try and accumulate as many danger cards as possible through card packs, rally cards, ultimate card packs, and trades.

2.  Squads:

Players are broken up into small teams of six.  These teams are called squads.  You have the option of forming your own squad or you can allow the game to form a squad for you.  I recommend that you form your own squad with trusted alliance members and teammates.  The reason it is important to team up with people that you know is that you want to trade your Danger Deck around with your squad so that everybody has a shot at accumulating maximum co-op points.

3.  Companies:

This is where things get a bit weird.  The game automatically groups you and your squad together with several other squads.  This grouping is called a company.  Your company is the group of players that you will be playing the event with.  All bosses that are summoned are available to attack by all company members. Everyday your company competes with another company for co-op points.  The company with the most points wins, stays together, and gets all sorts of bonuses.  The losing company is broken up and reformed anew the next day.

4.  Bosses:

The co-op event bosses are very similar in appearance to the raid bosses.  They are summoned by playing through event missions and are attacked using the RDS method.  The only difference between these bosses and raid bosses is that you can not share them.  They automatically are shared with your entire company. The higher the level the boss is, the more hit points he has.   The amount of co-op points earned for fighting a boss is split between the members who attacked him.  The only bonus points in this event is given to the "star agent" or the member who hit for the most points.

5.  Danger Bars

Danger bars are the same thing as RDS bars from the raid event.  Danger bars are primarily earned by accumulating a set amount of co-op points.  Danger bars are also available in the iso shard processors.

PART II:

Part II of the guide will be a bullet list of points that I feel are important to maximize co-op points for yourself and your squad:

• Share your Danger Deck with your Squad!  This is the most important factor in this event!
• Only use up your Danger Bars when you have your squads Danger Deck.  
• Pay attention to the hit points of the boss and attack accordingly (you may only need a light attack to finish him off because a member of your company already attacked him).
• Make sure to budget your Danger Bars for each of the 4 days of the event!  

I'll be adding more to the guide as the event progresses and I learn more tips and tricks.

Marvel: War of Heroes - S.H.I.E.L.D. Enforcement Training Event Guide

Marvel: War of Heroes - S.H.I.E.L.D. Enforcement Training Event Guide

My MARVEL: War of Heroes SHIELD Enforcement Training Event Guide is complete.  It can be viewed in it's own page by clicking "Shield Training Event Guide" in the scroll at the top of the home page (or the drop down menu if using mobile device).  The guide can also be viewed by clicking the following link:  MARVEL: War of Heroes - SHIELD Enforcement Training Guide

I will provide updates to the guide during each event.  I encourage all my readers to comment on the actual event page, rather than this page (or old posts), so that I can easily view and respond.

Deck Building: Beginners Guide

Deck Building: Beginners Guide

Building a proper attack and defense deck is one of the fundamental elements of Marvel: War of Heroes.  I see a lot of poorly constructed decks from beginners and veterans alike, and it always makes me cringe to see a powerful card paired with the wrong cards. 

There are 5 things to think about when building your deck.  They are as follows (in random order):

• Deck Center Card
• Card Alignment
• Card Ability 
• Card Faction (Hero or Villain)
• Special Combinations

I'll start out with some basic information that may be helpful.  The center card (or top card) of your deck should be your most powerful card.  The center spot is the only position in your deck that is given an increased chance to proc so you want to start with your best card in the center and build out from there.  I'm going to use my own attack deck as an example:

Photo 1: Rex's Attack Deck

Photo 1 is a screen shot of my attack deck.  I have a Legendary Red Skull placed as my center card.  Next to my center card I have two UR+ Chaos Kings.  My "wing cards" (outer most cards) are two UR+ Carnages.  In the deck edit screen it displays the cards from top to bottom rather than left to right. From top to bottom my cards are listed in the following order; Red Skull, Chaos King, Chaos King, Carnage, Carnage.  I chose my five cards based upon the five deck building items listed above.  I'll explain below how each card effects my deck relative to these items:

Deck Center Card:

As I said above, the only position in my deck where the card you select really matters is the center card.  I put the Legendary Red Skull in the center of my deck because he is my strongest card and I want him to proc as often as possible, and the center card has an increased chance to proc.  The other 4 cards can really be put into your deck in any order.  The game will choose them randomly and they will proc based off of their individual proc rates.  

Card Alignment:

Most proper decks are constructed with five cards of the same alignment.  However, you may have noticed that mine is made up of two alignments.  This is because I do not have any alignment specific boosts, but I'll explain that further below.  For now just know that you have to consider your card(s) alignment when building your deck and that most decks will be constructed of five cards of the same alignment.

Card Ability:

Your card(s) ability is the single most import factor to consider when building your deck.  There are all sorts of abilities.  Examples of abilities are; boosts to self, boosts to all, boosts to single alignment, boosts to single attack alignment, boosts to single defense alignment, boosts to attack faction, degrades to defense, degrades to attack, and degrades to alignment defenses.  That is a lot of information to take in, but if you have been playing the game for a while you should be comfortable with all the terms used.

It is very important to chose your cards based upon their abilities.  A card that boosts all Tactics Defense clashes with any card that is not of the Tactics alignment.  If you are going to use one of these cards you have to make sure that all five cards in your deck are of the Tactics alignment.

My deck does not contain any single alignment boosts.  Therefore, I'm able to have cards of two different alignments.  My Legendary Red Skull and two Carnages degrades the defense of my opponent.  My two Chaos Kings boosts the attack of my "villain" cards.  Since all of my cards are of the villain faction there is no conflict (I'll address card faction in more detail below).  Lets say that I wanted to get rid of one of my Chaos Kings.  Cards that I would want to consider as replacements would have to be of the Villain faction (because I still have a Chaos King that boosts attack of Villains) and either boost attack of all Villains, boost attack of all cards, or degrade opponents defense.  I would not put a Legendary (Friendly Neighbor) Spider Man in my deck because that card boosts attack of all Speed cards in my deck.  The Chaos King (bruiser) conflicts with the Spidey.  Similarly, I wouldn't want to add Legendary Thanos to my deck because he boosts attack of all Bruiser cards in my deck and that would conflict with the three Speed cards that I have.  I can consider adding the new Legendary Magneto though.  This version of Magneto boosts the attack of all cards.

I hope that you understand the logic in the paragraph above.  It really is important that you pair your cards with abilities that do not conflict with each other.

Card Faction:

Your card's faction is either hero, villain, or neutral.  Up until last month a card's faction was used only in special combinations.  With the release of new abilities (boosts to all Heroes and boosts to all Villains) card factions have now become more important.  I built my deck with card faction in mind.  My two Chaos Kings each boost the attack of all my Villain cards.  This is a powerful new boost and it is exciting because it gives me the option to have a proper built mixed alignment deck that isn't made up of all degrade ability cards.  

Special Combinations:

Certain combinations of cards can also give you special abilities.  Therefore, the potential of having a special combination should be considered when building your deck.  You don't necessarily need a special combination to have a strong proper built deck, but every little bit of extra boost counts in battle.  Figure 1 above shows that my deck has a special combo.  Because I have a deck made up of five Villains I qualify for the "Wild Villains" special combo.  This combo gives me a small boost to my attack deck.

The items listed above are the most critical factors to think about when building your decks.  Do yourself a favor and build yourself a proper attack and defense deck.  Also, using the "suggested attack/defense deck" option is a bad idea.  It does not build properly constructed decks.

Finding the Right Alliance for You

Finding the Right Alliance for You

All mmo type games include groups of players that join together as a team.  In Marvel War of Heroes they are called Alliances.  Please don't confuse your "team members" with your Alliance. Team members in WoH are just for trading.  You do nothing else as a group like you do with your Alliance mates.  Finding an Alliance is easy.  However finding the right Alliance can be difficult and will take a little extra effort on your part.  In this post I will tell you how to go about finding an Alliance that is the right fit for you. 

I will break the post up into three player categories; beginners, intermediates, and advanced players.

Beginning Players:

If you are new and just started playing Marvel WoH you should join an Alliance, any Alliance, as soon as possible.  Go about this by simply starting your own, the search for Alliance feature, or just accept a random invite.  The random invite is the easiest way to join an Alliance.  Once you hit level 10 or so you will start getting multiple random invites every hour.  Don't worry about the Alliance's member count or level at this point.  Just get yourself in an Alliance.  The reason that you want to be in an Alliance at this point is that both Raid and Shield Training events give not only individual rewards, but also give Alliance rewards.  These rewards will be a valuable stepping stone to increase your silver, strengthen your decks, and you will learn how the group events work so that you know what you are doing during the next similar event.  Stay in your beginners Alliance until you are comfortable with the game mechanics and know that you want to make a small commitment and continue playing the game.

Intermediate Players:

If you are at the point that you feel that you want to increase the value of the cards in your decks and you have at least one or two group event experiences in, then you are an Intermediate Player. Now is the right time to leave your beginners Alliance and find one that is more organized.  The benefits of being in an organized Alliance are huge.  Your alliance mates should help teach you some of the games more advanced mechanics, may help by giving (or trading) you the right cards to finish your decks, and will help you earn more in-game experience at group events.  All of these items are valuable if you want to make the jump from an intermediate player to an advanced player.

Finding a good Alliance at the intermediate level is probably the most difficult of the three.  You may have lucked out and found the right Alliance when you were a beginner (like I did) and then you don't even have to worry about changing Alliances.  But more likely than not, you will want to leave your beginners Alliance and find a new one.  The way that I suggest you go about this is has two parts:

1. Install an Instant Messaging Application to your Mobile Device:  You will want to install an instant messaging application to your mobile device if you want to get into a good intermediate Alliance.  The Marvel WoH Alliance interface is very bad for communication and good communication is the key to be successful at this game.  I recommend that install "Line" by Line Corporation.  Line is the most popular application used by Alliances in Marvel WoH and will open you up to the entire community.  To install Line just go into the Google Play Store or Apple Store, search "Line", and download it.  Set up a user account after you download and you are ready for the second part.
2. Search Online Gaming Forums for Open Alliance Spots:  Like I said above, communication is the key to be successful at this game, and reading through gaming forums is one way that players communicate with the community.  Alliances primarily do all of their recruiting announcements on these forums.  I recommend that you use Neoseeker as your forum of choice.  It is the most widely used forum in Marvel WoH.  So what you want to do is search through all of the forum postings and find one that is relevant to your alliance search.  More likely than not you will be asked to contact an Alliance officer via Line app. Make sure you like the guy(s) you talk to and then join their Alliance.

You will want to stay in your intermediate Alliance for a while.  At least until you master all the elements of the game and have some experience communicating (and trading) on an instant message application.

Advanced Players:

When you have mastered all in-game elements, have acquired at least a UR+ Attack Deck, learned how to communicate with the community with an instant message application, and you are ready to start competing in events to earn SSR and UR base rewards, then you have become an Advanced Player.  You will also probably feel that the guys in your current Alliance just don't compete at the same level as yourself.  Now is the time to get yourself into an advanced Alliance.

People will probably argue with me about the definition of an Advanced Alliance is, but I feel it's any alliance that has some expectations of their members performance in group events.  There are plenty of Advanced Alliances in Marvel WoH and it shouldn't be hard to find yourself one if you are ready and have the decks and game knowledge to back yourself up. The process you want to use to find one is the same as the Intermediate level.  Search through gaming forums and find yourself an alliance that is competitive.  Expect to have a short interview with Alliance Leaders as well.   Also, at this point you have probably been playing for several months and you may be recruited by a friend or former Alliance mate.  You may also have gotten to know other players in other Alliances through trading networks.  Trading network contacts are a great source to get help get you into an advanced Alliance.

Also remember that this is a game, and games are meant to be fun.  If you're having a blast playing with the guys in your alliance you may just want to stay with them even if they are not up to your level.  Many advanced Alliances (specifically the Top 150 Alliances) have strict rules and require their members to achieve certain milestones in group events.  This may not be fun for everybody. Ultimately, you have to decide which Alliance is right for you.

Silver: Farming, Earning, & Saving

Silver: Farming, Earning & Saving

Vibranium: 10,000 Silver

Lack of silver (or bad silver management) is a constant problem that I see players have in Marvel War of Heroes.  Most new players will come across a lack of silver at least once while leveling their first few decks.  However, I am confident that with a little knowledge and planning that players should never have need for silver.  This guide will cover all things "silver" and will include the uses of silver, ways to earn silver, and tips on how to maximize your silver earning & saving.

1. Use of Silver

In Marvel War of Heroes, silver is primarily used during the card leveling process.  This includes; leveling, fusing, and ability boosting.  Silver is almost never used as a form of in-game currency to purchase cards and items from other players.  The only time that I see silver being used in player to player transactions is when a player is all out of silver and doesn't have time (or knowledge) on how to earn the silver themselves.  That is all you really need to know about the uses of silver in this game.

2. How to Earn Silver

There are several different ways to earn silver.  Some are quick and simple.  While some are more time consuming and annoying.  I will break up this section into multiple methods to earn silver:

• Missions:  Playing through missions is probably the easiest and most basic way to earn silver.  Every time you hit the opponent you will earn some silver.  You also have a chance of pulling some silver out of one of the chests that randomly drop while playing missions.  The amount of silver that you can potentially earn playing missions rises with the level of the mission.  However, playing through the higher level missions isn't necessarily a better way to earn silver.  I'll talk more about this in the "Maximizing Your Silver" section below.

• Selling Cards:  This one is simple.  In the roster menu you are given the option to sell your cards for a set amount of silver.  Each card is worth a set amount of silver depending on it's rarity and attributes.  You can sell any card that you want this way, but I recommend only selling common and non-ability uncommon cards.  Any other card (except Vibranium) should not be sold for silver.  You are better off saving your ability uncommon,  rare, etc. for ability boosting your cards.

• Participate in Events:  This is by far the best way to earn silver.  A lot of silver in fact.  Iso Shards are earned and exchanged in every event for rewards.  A good part of these available rewards are various amounts of silver.  I earn millions and millions of silver every event just by exchanging the Iso Shards.  I can not stress any more that this is the best way to earn massive amounts of silver!

• Trading:  Trading cards and items for silver is not very popular, but some players do trade this way.  I usually see players adding some silver to a trade to sweeten a deal.  Sometimes I see desperate players buying silver with pp.  I don't recommend using your pp to buy silver, but if you really need some to ability boost a new Legendary card the normal exchange rate is 1 pp = 1 million silver.  Note:  This exchange rate is based off of today's market (08/09/2013) and can change at any time. 

3. Maximizing Silver Earnings and Savings

Now that you know all of the uses of silver and how to earn it.  I will share with you some strategy that I use to maximize my silver earnings and savings:

• Boosting Cards:  Boosting new cards correctly is very important in terms of saving silver.  I have already posted a Card Leveling Guide and a Card Boosting Guide that detail how to properly level, fuse, and ability boost cards.  If you are not familiar with these techniques please learn them quickly as they are essential for playing this game correctly.   A quick summary of how this saves you silver is as follows:  It costs more silver to boost a card as it's level is increased.  Boosting cards with the right feeders at the right points will save you a lot of silver in the long run.

• Rally Cards:  A quick way to earn silver is to exchange your rally points for rally cards and sell them.  Sell all of the common and non-ability uncommon cards (keep ability uncommon and higher cards for card ability boosting).  A lot of silver can be earned in a short amount of time using this method.  Experienced players usually have a present list full of unused rally points that were earned during events.  This method may not be very efficient for newer players though.

• Mission 2 Farming Technique:  This is a technique that I used when I was a new player.  It is long and tedious, but effective.  What you want to do is play through Mission 2 (use Mission 2-3 & 2-4 if you also want to save up some ability feeders) until you have collected the maximum amount of cards.  Then sell the cards that you collected.  Repeat this process until you have enough silver for your boost or fusion.  Again, this is not a desired method of earning silver, but it is effective over time.  You earn silver for each enemy attack, through random present drops, and by selling the cards that you have earned.