Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Different Evolution Methods and YOU

*NOTE* For the foreseeable future we will be doing Bourgard raids on Fridays at 1900 EST and Jezebel raids on Sundays at 1200 EST.
 




There is a lot of debate on how to properly evolve your cards.

Casual players feel it’s ok to “cheat” and skip leveling your cards until you hit a T4. Purists feel that there is only one way… the perfect evolve. Most seem to fall somewhere in between and level and evolve a few cards here and there until they are happy with the overall results.

In all reality the ONLY “correct” way is the Perfect Evolution method, but let’s face it… that takes FOREVER and a day.
 
So if you’re not one of those people who can max level / evolve every single card that you come across (I barely have any room left in my inventory to store feeders to upgrade the cards I’m USING let alone those that are just going to be “in progress” for a few weeks), what should you be aiming for and how can you get there?


THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the story of the tortoise and the hare. If you’re not, the basis of the story is as such:

The hare (rabbit) challenges the tortoise (turtle) to a race. The hare gets a huge lead on the tortoise and decides that since he’s so far ahead, he can relax, so decides to sleep since he’s crushing the poor little tortoise. Meanwhile, the tortoise is slowly chugging along at a consistent pace, overtakes the sleeping hare, and wins the contest.

The moral of the story? “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Why am I bringing this up? Because evolving your cards properly is like being the tortoise, while just rushing to max evolution level and then starting to level your cards is like being the hare. Sure, you’ll start off faster and more powerful in the interim, but those who spend the time to properly evolve their cards will overtake you in the end.

It’s better to evolve your cards properly the first time.


DIFFERENT EVO METHODS

***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***
UPDATED! May 01 / 2014
I've been informed by our resident math wizard Speede that these numbers DO NOT LINE UP DIRECTLY with HoC.
 There are slight differences between them, so take these numbers with a grain of salt.
The % are LOWER at lower evolutions, so proper leveling is even MORE important than ever before!
***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***

So another player by the name of RAVES (Bors-46) is always hassling me about my evolutions and has given me a few tips on how to do so properly, and efficiently. He pointed me in the direction of an awesome resource… the evolution guide for a game called “Rage of Bahamut” which uses the same tiered system and gives the different evolution methods as well as what percentage each methods overall stats are when compared to a perfect evolve.

I’m not about to copy / paste all of the data from one page to another, so will simply link it here:
http://wiki.rageofbahamut.com/Evolving

Become familiar with this entire page on evolving as the information presented applies to Heroes of Camelot as well! This is an excellent resource because it tells you exactly how much you’ll gain (or lose) at different stages of evolution and leveling. More specifically it compares the evolutions here:
http://wiki.rageofbahamut.com/Evolving#Comparing_evos

So we can see by this list that you’ll lose out on more than 13% of your stats if you rush your evolution job. While that may not seem like a lot on a small number, when you’re dealing with potentially 100K+ and spreading that across all 12 cards in your party the loss becomes quite evident. You will never reach the top tier of players with a rush evolved team as once you hit the higher echelons you’ll be competing vs players who HAVE properly evolved their cards and you won’t even be a contender. 


WHAT DO NUMBERS LIKE 8-15 AND 6-6 REPRESENT?

You’ve probably heard numbers like these being used in chat or the forums when referencing the method used to evolve cards. Quite simply the FIRST number represents how many cards were used to get to a FINAL evolution tier (T4) and the SECOND number represents how many times you’ve MAX LEVELED on the way there.

So looking at a 6-3 we know that there were:
·         6 base cards (T1) used to make the T4
·         The T3 were maxed two times
·         The T4 was maxed 1 time
·         The final evolution will be 97.809% of a perfect evolve
 
Blatant theft of the picture from that “Rage of Bahamut” wiki shows this evolution method as such:
 
 
THE 1% DIFFERENCE

So where should you draw the line? When does the additional cost / time in feeders exceed the overall benefits of max leveling?

If you’re like RAVES, you advocate a 6-7 evolution which would net you a 99.476% of a perfect card.
I personally go with a 6-5 evolution which will only net me 98.727%.
You may say screw it and go for a measly 4-1 evolution and be happy with only 86.629%.

EVERY % point counts in higher competition. Again, you may start off as ruler of the roost with a quick T4, but when push comes to shove and you’re facing off against those who’ve gone to a higher evo method, you’ll reach an unsurmountable plateau unless you literally RESTART your cards… So do it right the first time!


EVEN I MAKE EXCEPTIONS…

There are certain cards you’re just NOT going to be able to 8 card evolve unless your name is Scrooge McDuck (or the mighty S.H.O.C.K.E.R. haha). I have a solitary Vambriel… the odds of me getting 7 more are probably less than the odds of me winning the REAL lottery. So what to do with those rare 5-6* cards that show up once in a blue moon and are close to impossible to get multiple copies of?

I plan on doing 4-4 evolutions which will net me 96.180%. If I’m super lazy and don’t think I’ll ever use the card, but don’t want to just eat it, I will at WORST 4-3 it for 95.73%. Were you to go any lower than that you’re missing out on a minimum 4% which is significant when talking about the better cards. Obviously any % loss isn’t ideal because the higher the * value of the card, the greater the stats, which means the greater the loss for each squandered percentage point.


IT’S AN EVOLUTION, BABY!

Glad I finally got this article on paper. It was a long time in the coming since “how to evolve” is one of the most frequent questions I’m asked. If you take nothing else away from this lesson just remember: Be the tortoise, not the hare. ;)


‘Till next time… RIDE HARD!

Carl Szalich
(Psilence on Bors-46)



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