Strategy Guides/iOS Guild Battle Basics

 iOS GUILD BATTLE BASICS

created by • // 2012 Sept 08

What Is The Purpose Of This Guide
Many players do not understand the basics of iOS Guild Battles and also don't know where to look in the wiki to get all of the info they really want to know. This guide exists as a single source compilation of the BASIC info to help new players come up to speed, and even to fill in some gaps for existing players. If you are looking for TACTICS and other more advanced information, try this guide.

Entry Fee / Cost of Participation
Guild battles normally cost 20 stamina to participate. Your GM can set a particular guild banner which reduces the cost to 15 stamina (looks like a white monster skull with horns on a dark blue background). Other than this initial stamina cost, no actions within the battle will require or deplete your character's actual energy, stamina, or health as they exist outside of the battle.

Choosing to NOT opt in to battle
Whether or not you pay the entry fee to participate in the battle, your character will still exist as a target within the battle. By participating you become a combatant instead of just a target. There is no advantage to yourself or your guild by choosing voluntarily not to participate.

Battle Length
On iOS, guild battles last for 2 hours. These are known as Festival guild battles on Facebook. Note that a battle can over in less than 2 hours if one side is totally defeated.

Tokens
Tokens are used in guild battles in place of stamina. Every action you take uses 1 token, whether you choose to attack or use any (non-passive) power regardless of strength. On initial entry all participants start with 10 tokens, which is the maximum amount a player can have at any time. When you have less than 10 tokens, they will regenerate back to the maximum of 10 at a rate of 1 token every 5 minutes. There is no way to increase the maximum or replenish tokens faster.
 * This means that you can have a maximum of 33 tokens to use during a guild battle. This assumes that you join and use a token in the first 5 minutes, don't allow yourself to sit idle with 10 tokens, and play until the end of the battle.

Attacking
After selecting a target from a tower, you may attack them using the Attack button at the bottom of the popup screen. The attack itself is essentially the same as a PVP (player vs player) duel - based on a strength comparison you will either see the message "Victory" or "Defeat". When you attack - win or lose - you deal a certain amount of damage to your opponent, and likewise win or lose your opponent deals a certain amount of damage to you.

Battle Points
Each time a token is used your character will earn some amount of battle points, which can be viewed beside your character's name. The points you receive for using a token depend on the action taken, and if the action is a standard attack they also depend on your opponents level relative to your own, and whether you won or lost the duel. The amount of guild coins you receive is directly related to the battle points you have accumulated - you will receive 1 GC per 100 battle points, + 10% bonus for the winning guild.


 * 240 points for: Attack, victory, opponent was > 120% of your level
 * 200 points for: Attack, victory, opponent was > 80% but < 120% of your level
 * 160 points for: Attack, victory, opponent was < 80% of your level
 * 100 points for: Attack, defeat
 * 135 points for: Using a special ability on a friendly target (heal, cleanse, mana shield, etc)
 * 50 points for: Your character was confused and attacked him/herself

Abilities
For a full list of abilities, see the sections below detailing each class.

Equipping an ability
Simply purchasing an ability does not allow you to use it. You must equip it. To equip a purchased power, go to the class selection page (from the home page), make sure your desired class is selected, and tap the Powers tab. You will be presented with a list of all available powers you have purchased for that class. To equip one, simply tap on it and the background color will change to match your selected class indicating it is now equipped.

Using an Ability (non-passive)
If you have any abilities equipped that require a token for use, select "Change Attack" on the popup instead of "Attack". This will present you with a list of all options available to you.

Using an Ability (passive)
Some abilities (for example, the Rogue power Evade) are used automatically, without requiring a token to be activated or to be used. Evade can also occur even if you have not opted into a battle, and your character is attacked.

Buffs and Debuffs
A buff is an extra status that has a positive effect, and a debuff is the same but with a negative effect. Using class powers can apply these extra statuses to characters in a guild battle, and it pays to know what each looks like and what they mean.

Health
Within battles your player's maximum health is equal to your normal character max health x 10. So if your character has 150 health outside of guild battles you will have 1500 health during a guild battle. You may also have an additional amount of health (typically minor) based on your guild essence storage.

Status
Your status changes according to the current health of your player. If you are defeated or stunned your character can not longer be healed by a cleric using the heal ability. Your character CAN still be healed by clerics using their passive ability. Also regardless of status your character will be able to attack and use tokens. Defeated or stunned does NOT mean your character can no longer participate in the battle!
 * Healthy = > 800 Health
 * Good = 601 - 800 Health
 * Fair = 401 - 600 Health
 * Weak = 200 - 400 Health
 * Defeated = < 200 Health
 * Stunned = 0 Health

Defeated vs Stunned
A player who is defeated or stunned can still make attacks but with some limitations.


 * † = Resistance still works when stunned.
 * †† = Active abilities require a token in order to use them.
 * ††† = Meaning character can be healed via a clerics active powers (Heal, Fortitude, Dispel). All characters can always be healed by a clerics's passive ability.

Base (normal):
Most damage falls into this category.
 * all normal attacks (130-170 for victory, 70-90 for defeat, value is halved when stunned)
 * Rogue's passive class ability (+30, +60, +100; goes away when stunned)
 * Deshara's additional +40 damage as a rogue (goes away when stunned)
 * Mage's Confuse ability (when victim attacks themself)

Bonus:
Works even when stunned.
 * Deianira's +20 damage
 * Warrior's Confidence ability [??]
 * Warrior's Shout / Leadership ability [??]
 * Rogue's Poison ability (once applied to a target)
 * Rogue's Backstab ability

Splash:
Damage done to additional targets because of an attack made on a main target. The additional targets automatically take the damage, and cannot deflect any part of it regardless of their strength, level, or equipped powers.
 * Warrior's Whirlwind splash damage
 * Mage passive ability tower damage
 * Cleric's passive ability tower heal (not "damage" but it is essentially a splash effect)

Winning a Guild Battle
Each guild has a "health" meter based on the percent of it's players that are NOT defeated or stunned (players that are still fully functional). A guild battle will end when one of two conditions is met:
 * 1) all members of one guild have a status of defeated or stunned.
 * 2) the 2 hour battle timer has expired.

If a battle ends because all members of one guild are defeated, obviously that guild has lost the battle. If a battle ends because the battle timer has expired, the guild that has more of its health meter remaining is pronounced the winner.

Collection Period
Immediately after a guild battle is over, for 1 hour there is a manual collection period. In order to obtain your rewards for participating in the battle (regular experience points, class experience points, gold, and guild coins), you must collect. Tap the collect button during this time to collect manually. On iOS only there is an auto-collect feature. If you opted in to battle and for any reason did not manually collect during the 1 hour after battle ended, the auto collect feature should kick in the next time you log in to castle age. If this happens you will see a popup explaining your rewards.
 * Note that the 1 hour collection time is one hour past the normal two hour length of a battle. If the battle end early, it is more than 1 hour (i.e., the end of the collection is not a fixed one hour after the end, but is based on the actual time-of-day).

If you are a FB player but were logged into iOS to fight the battle, you can get the autocollect (on your device). But if you are a FB player and fought the battle on FB you will not be eligible for the autocollect feature.

Choosing a Class
Navigate to the class selection page (from the home page) and select your desired class from the menu at the top. There are 4 options - Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Cleric. Changing class DURING a guild battle will not change your class within that ongoing battle. Once a battle starts your class within the battle will be frozen.

Gaining Class Experience
Your character will gain experience points toward leveling up whichever class you have selected for them. A relatively small amount of class experience points will be awarded for completing a guild battle (100k points). For reference, it takes 10M class experience points to go from class level 1 to level 2. A much faster way to gain class experience is to fight class-based monsters (monsters that require you to choose a class). Every point earned during a class-based monster battle is applied directly to your class experience. Meaning if you score 3M points on Kromash as a Warrior, you will gain 3M experience points toward your Warrior class.

A listing of class-based monsters can be found here.

NOTE: For each class below, a [#] beside a power is my OPINION on the order of importance of each power within the class, and a [#] beside a general is my OPINION on the 2 most important generals to have for each class. The analysis bullet is intended to be a description of what that class is all about and a general summary of "how to play" the class (for those who are trying to decide which class(s) best suit their desired playing style).

Warrior:

 * Passive Class Abilities
 * lvl 1: 1 power slot, +3 to attack and +3 to defense
 * lvl 2: 1 power slot, +6 to attack and +6 to defense
 * lvl 3: 1 power slot, +10 to attack and +10 to defense
 * lvl 4: 2 power slots, +10 to attack and +10 to defense
 * lvl 5: 3 power slots, +10 to attack and +10 to defense
 * Powers
 * [1] whirlwind
 * [2] confidence
 * [4] leadership / shout
 * [3] sentinel / guardian
 * Associated Heroes
 * (whirlwind)
 * ameron
 * [1] deianira
 * (confidence)
 * [2] meekah
 * (guardian)
 * joan
 * tyrant
 * Analysis: There are 2 effective ways to play a warrior
 * 1) Tornado - Use whirlwind and confidence to do as much damage as possible to 3 targets at a time
 * opinion: use resistance 4 as 3rd power
 * 2) Bodyguard - Use resistance 4 and sentinel, have lots of health, and apply sentinel to lots of key allies
 * opinion: use whirlwind as 3rd power

Rogue:

 * Passive Class Abilities
 * lvl 1: 1 power slot, +30 bonus damage added to attack on victory
 * lvl 2: 1 power slot, +60 bonus damage added to attack on victory
 * lvl 3: 1 power slot, +100 bonus damage added to attack on victory
 * lvl 4: 2 power slots, +100 bonus damage added to attack on victory
 * lvl 5: 3 power slots, +100 bonus damage added to attack on victory
 * Powers
 * [1] evade
 * [2] poison
 * [3] backstab / ambush
 * [4] wound / lacerate
 * Associated Heroes
 * (passive ability)
 * [1] deshara
 * (evade)
 * raziel
 * (poison)
 * [2] aethyx
 * (lacerate)
 * rafaria
 * esmeralda
 * Analysis: There are 2 effective ways to play a rogue
 * 1) Eraser - make single opponents disappear by doing maximum damage. Use Deshara, resistance, evade, and ambush (even MORE damage to targets with full health)
 * 2) Softener - Using Aethyx, resistance, evade, and poison, you can apply even more damage per token than Deshara if the poison is allowed to run its full course. If not, you likely forced a cleric to use a token on Dispel. Aethyx should only poison. Change back to Deshara for attacks.
 * Notes: a rogue with evade CAN evade while polymorphed

Mage:

 * Passive Class Abilities
 * lvl 1: 1 power slot, +10 splash damage applied to all opponents in same tower on offensive victory
 * lvl 2: 1 power slot, +10 splash damage applied to all opponents in same tower on offensive victory
 * lvl 3: 1 power slot, +10 splash damage applied to all opponents in same tower on offensive AND defensive victory
 * lvl 4: 2 power slots, +10 splash damage applied to all opponents in same tower on offensive AND defensive victory
 * lvl 5: 3 power slots, +10 splash damage applied to all opponents in same tower on offensive AND defensive victory
 * Powers
 * [1] polymorph
 * [2] confuse
 * [4] mana shield / magic barrier
 * [3] illusion / mirror image
 * Associated Heroes
 * (passive ability)
 * alexandria
 * [1] zurran
 * (confuse)
 * [2] syren
 * (passive ability + confuse)
 * ephraline
 * (polymorph)
 * anya
 * felizia
 * (mirror image)
 * xelia
 * jaelle
 * Analysis: There are 3 effective ways to play a mage
 * 1) Facilitator - Use polymorph to allow anyone to claim victories on tough opponents. Opinion: generally it is best if the mage does not hit their own poly'd targets. Instead team up with rogues to inflict maximum damage
 * 2) Trickster - Use confuse, and illusion to frustrate opponents and keep them off balance
 * 3) Burn them All - Use Zurran and attack to cause tower damage. If fully powered up and attacking a enemy tower with 25 opponents, Zurran is capable of inflicting an incredible 600+ damage per token!

Cleric:

 * Passive Class Abilities
 * lvl 1: 1 power slot, +10 health applied to all allies in same tower on defensive victory
 * lvl 2: 1 power slot, +10 health applied to all allies in same tower on defensive victory
 * lvl 3: 1 power slot, +10 health applied to all allies in same tower on defensive AND offensive victory
 * lvl 4: 2 power slots, +10 health applied to all allies in same tower on defensive AND offensive victory
 * lvl 5: 3 power slots, +10 health applied to all allies in same tower on defensive AND offensive victory
 * Powers
 * [1] heal
 * [4] fortitude
 * [3] cleanse
 * [2] revive
 * Associated Heroes
 * (passive ability)
 * [1] sanna
 * (heal)
 * [2] elaida
 * (fortitude)
 * shivak
 * (revive)
 * tefaera
 * kothas
 * Analysis: Clerics are really only effective as support. Keep all actives alive and able to do maximum damage. As an offensive tower healer, a single successful attack can restore some health to stunned allies and let them attack for full damage again. Coordinating with another offensive tower healer in the same gate could allow you to revive your entire tower.
 * Opinion: use resistance and heal throughout the battle, and change between revive and dispel as needed.

Universal Class Powers:

 * There is only 1 ability available that can be used by any class - Resistance

Tips and Advice

 * You cannot change your class within the battle once it has begin, but you can change generals and powers.
 * Get all 4 levels of Resistance. They don't cost all that much and this power is extremely useful for extending your survival time in battle.