Little Empire
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

+3
Threshen
DoeWoe
Akichi
7 posters

Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by Akichi Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:35 am


I. Introduction

II. Three Paths to Glory.. But Three Very Different Paths
  1. Behemoth, The Tank Leveling God
  2. Berserker, The 1v1 Master
  3. Succubus, The End Game Goddess
III. The Portal Hero - The Great Equalizer
  1. The Succubus Combos - (Beserker/Behemoth+Succubus)
  2. The Double Melee Combo - (Berserker+Behemoth)
IV. Conclusion


----------------------

I. Introduction

The Hero. Nothing else in the game is as permanent and as dominating as your hero. Units, Resources, Mojo, Gear, Friends, Guilds can come and go, but your hero will always stick by you no matter what, and no other game mechanic will define your play style as much as your hero.

I wrote this guide mainly for two types of players. The first being the newer player who just started out. Perhaps they resetted a few times to try out all 3 heroes, or maybe they found their favorite hero and is starting to level seriously with them.

The second is the mid-level player who are close to building their portal. Unlike the low level player, there is no reset in regards to your portal and whatever hero you pick, you're stuck with. Perhaps that is weighing heavily on your mind and delaying your portal building.

The inspiration from this guide comes from Azyle, who is the pioneer for writing English guides for Little Empire. I definitely recommend you check them out for further reading. Keep in mind though, that his guides are dated (mostly written pre-portal patch). A main reason I made this guide is to make a more contemporary guide for the current patch.


II. Three Paths to Glory.. But Three Very Different Paths

The three heroes are NOT the similar by any means. Each has its own perks and downfalls. If you are a new player that can still reset, I strongly urge you to consider what I have to say about each one. If not, this should at least give you insight to how your hero will fare as you level higher. It's okay if you don't get every single thing that's written (I use a lot of late-game meta terms), it's fine as long as you get the general idea of every hero's strengths and weaknesses.



Behemoth, The Tank Leveling God

Primary Role: Front Line Tank
Strengths: HP
Weaknesses: Range
Unique Ability: Can melee both squares in front of hero at the same time

If you, like me, tried all 3 heroes in the beginning. It becomes glaringly obvious that the Behemoth just outclasses the other 2 heroes in every way. It takes up so much space on the battlefield, drawing range attacks from four lanes, while hitting two units with each attack. On top of that, he rarely dies due to his high hp and defense. He also happens to be the most effective hero to utilize the starting spell - Shattering Strike.

Of all the three heroes, by far you will level the fastest if you choose the Behemoth. You will, of course, have to utilize good formations in tandem. However, you will take the least amount of losses per battle as the Behemoth compared to using similar strategies with the other 2 heroes. Less units to replace lead to less resources used and less building time spent.

As you level and fight other heroes in the arena, you'll wonder why anyone would choose a different hero. Well, the downside to the Behemoth is that it is arguably the weakest late game hero. The biggest cause of this: its 1 Range. As gear levels climb the Berserker simply outclasses the Behemoth in a head to head battle. Not only does the Berserker's offensive capability outstrips the Behemoth's defensive power, but its 2 Range makes sure it will land the first strike 95% of the time.

While the Behemoth fares better than a Berserker vs a Succubus's attacks, you cannot simply stick him on the front lines vs a well-geared Succubus thinking that you'll simply break through the lines to her to beat her to a bloody pulp as you did in the past. You'll have to utilize formations to its fullest potential, but not even then it's a guarantee.

Now before you complain how you're screwed as Behemoth player, I'm here to tell you it's not all as bad as it sounds. I did say it was the weakest hero in the late game, but not by that much. While you may be the most vulnerable in regards to hero damage, a fully geared tier 6 Behemoth can sport 17-20 defense based on your build. While the Berserker can get also get a respectable amount of defense, its HP will always be lower. You're basically immune to any normal unit in terms of raw damage. In addition the Behemoth's inherent ability to hit 2 lanes means you get double the lifesteal power.

More importantly though, even if he is the 'weakest' hero, I'm only really talking about PvP. The Behemoth remains a BEAST when it comes to anything PvE, even more so with gear. In fact, in those crazy task / adventure battles when facing multiple heroes, the ability for the Behemoth to straddle 2 heroes and hit them both at once keeps this hero ahead of the curve compared to the other 2.

So although the Behemoth is easiest to level fast, you might surprisingly find yourself suddenly outgunned when you take to the field in PvP, after being dominant for so long. And you WILL be forced to take the field unless you don't mind your empire being robbed dry.


Berserker, The 1v1 Master

Primary Role: Melee DPS
Strengths: Attack
Weaknesses: HP
Unique Ability: Increased Critical Strike chance

The good old Berserker. Appearing as the hero with the most 'balanced' stats and wielding dual wielding swords, I know A LOT of people that picked this hero just based on that alone.

In the early game you'll find that you are FAR inferior to the Behemoth. While yes, you do start out with highest offensive strength, it's rendered meaningless when you're faced with 2 units. The extra damage you do will never out-DPS a Behemoth in the same situation.

(An important note on formations from Azyle) "Another pre-late game issue the Berserker has is its 2 range attack, which, is actually detrimental to your formation. It effectively means that unless a range 1 melee unit is attacking him who will close into range, the units behind him are pushed back an entire space of range as he will stop at range 2. This means Trolls and any ranged unit he is fighting will sit at range 2. This is something that must be considered in lineups with the Berserker as far as the units that are behind him. Luckily there is no range 3 unit that exists, so it really does not fully mess him up, but it does mean that Priest, Mage, Archer, Iron Wheel, etc stacked behind him does not work when he is fighting ranged units, including Trolls. All the units behind him are effectively at range +1 than if it was a Behemoth. So it is not possible to have the Priests behind him and have the deeper ranged units firing. If you keep the Priests, must drop the mages in order for the archers and Iron Wheels firing throughout the battle. This ends up being a long term problem to the Berserker especially when you're fighting at the mid levels where maximum DPS is so critical to maximizing your leveling speed, stacking effective firing ranges extremely important."

After trodding through the early game mud and emerging in the late game, you'll find that all the leveling disadvantages you had vs the Behemoth suddenly gets minimized as you quickly slice apart your targets with your high attack speed and critical hit chance. If you can get the Behemoth or the Succubus in an even 1v1 position, you will win 99% of the time, hands down, and often by a good margin. Behemoths have to close in on you, subjecting him to many free hits from both your hero and your army, which can last even longer the more critical stuns you get. Against the Succubus, simply getting any melee hero into melee range seals your victory. I say "simple", but in reality is easier said than done.

This brings me to address the Berserker's biggest weakness, the Succubus. Most Berserker players in a pvp formation will stick the Berserker in the back, and hope their spells will match the field clearing the Succubus will do. The goal of this is to give the Berserker an eventual clear path straight to the back of the enemy's lines to cut the Succubus down. The problem with this is that the Succubus is attacking while you're not. And while you both may cast the same spells at each other, the Succubus's lifesteal will heal her up while you're stuck with your natural hp regen. If all of this ends up together with your Berserker finally charging in when there's still units alive tanking for the Succubus, Mages slowing down your charge, and Shamans supporting her from the rear, it gets... ugly.

Yes, the Behemoth has the same problem. But unlike your hero, the Behemoth can clear his lanes quickly with dual lane attacks and 2x lifesteal to try to get to the Succubus, while you must single hit, with half the lifesteal power. In addition, the Behemoth's High hp makes it both a better rusher and back row spellcaster than the Berserker. Don't get me wrong, it is still a hard fight for the Behemoth to win, which is the reason why the Behemoth is considered the weakest pvp hero. The advantage the Berserker has over the Behemoth greatly overshadows the advantage the Behemoth has over the Berserker vs a Succubus.

So although you will level slower than a Behemoth by a non-insignificant margin, you can take solace in the fact that you will show the Behemoth who's boss when you get to the late game. At the same time, though, you'll probably shout several expletive words every time you go up against that lady demon flipping a dragon head on one hand.


Succubus, The End Game Goddess

Primary Role: Range DPS, Spellcaster
Strengths: Range
Weaknesses: Defense
Unique Ability: Lowest spell cooldown time

"There she stands, back of the line with her dark evil looking gear and flipping a red dragon's head in her hands, laughing away, knowing how funny it seems to watch you try and charge through her line, desperately flinging spells at her and praying she will somehow die before you do." - A Behemoth Player

If you're a level 30+ playing as a melee hero, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. If not, just keep that quote in mind and read on.

The Succubus is by far, hands down, the absolute weakest hero out of the 3 when you start the game. If you selected her as a newbie, you probably thought to yourself "Hey, I can place this hero in the back of my huge army and she'll never take a hit!" Well, I can't say you're wrong. But, as you grow past the level 8 divine protection, you'll quickly find that it's not exactly the most effective hero role. Replacing those units that tank for you costs you money, and more importantly, time.

This point is very important - the key to keep a decent leveling pace with her is to USE HER AS A TANK. Yes, you heard me right, stick her in the front row like a boss while having 2 priests support her. Yes she has the lowest stats out of the three heroes, and only starts with 1 Defense. But raising HP is cheap, +4 defense isn't too taxing, she still has hero type armor, your starting spell is a melee strike, and your starter armor ONLY has +HP on it. You have to take what the game gives you, right?

Of course, she's still the weakest hero even if you use her in this role. While she can attack more rows than the melee heroes, her attack power is still initially very low and only really effective on enemy heroes. More importantly, she will not move forward because of her 7 range. This means that your other rows will take the hits instead of your hero when your lines push forward.

She also cannot tank heroes with equal or superior gear later on. Of course, that's when you place the Succubus "where you're supposed to do", all the way in the back.

Being the least effective at tanking means that she naturally has the slowest leveling speed due to replacing your dead units, costing time and money. If you have the patience to stick through it for 30+ levels however, you can end up arguably with the strongest hero in the game.

Once you hit level 35 to fully deck out your Succubus, your power grows exponentially higher than the Behemoth and Beserker. The Succubus is the best hero for survivability (7 Range), damage (can hit 6-8 rows depending on unit size), and spellcasting (has the lowest spell cooldown time in full armor). She'll constantly deal damage and sling spells to the bitter end as she'll likely be the last unit to die. Also, while support cloth (Priests and Shaman) behind a melee hero tend to die fast at this stage of the game, your support casters will constantly assist your Succubus as they are tucked away in the back.

In fact, a very popular formation tactic is to have a constant stream of Shaman supporting the Succubus with their attack speed buff. 4x Level 6 Shaman on your hero would increase your attack speed 160%... on top of what your gear provides you. You can literally laugh in the face of any melee hero charging you if your shamans are still alive. And this is all before factoring in what spells you have!

It will be very difficult to kill you with spells alone when you're geared, as your hp will be AT LEAST in the high 900s, while the lifesteal you have will help heal the damage back. So, the only real threat is if a Behemoth/Berserker are able to close in for some melee.

------------------

Choose your "path" wisely. Although each has its strengths and weaknesses, there is no "wrong" choice, as you will see later. If there's a certain hero in your heart that doesn't seem to cut it for you gameplay wise, I'd like to share an old MMO adage: "In the end, what matters is whose a s s you want to stare at for hours."




III. The Portal Hero - The Great Equalizer

At Level 24, you can build a new building called "Portal", which costs 500,000 gold and 100,000 crystal. It is the most important building you can build, so you will want to plan to have those resources on hand asap. With the portal comes a second castle which you can build up from scratch - along with a second hero.

Once upon a time, PvP in Little Empire consisted of simply your hero and your army on your 42 space grid, vs their hero and their army on the same size grid; Exactly the same as those countless arena battles you went through. The end-game Succubus was the queen of the battlefield, as her attacks and spells literally wiped out the battlefield once the global spell cd was up.

The addition of the portal (and defense assist which came with the same patch) not only extended these skirmishes to large-scale wars, but allowed 2 heroes to share the same grid for each player. All of a sudden, the balance of power shifted from "What hero did you pick?" to "What gear and formations do you use?"

The explanation is simple. Having 2 heroes means one can compliment and cover the weaknesses of the other. Your Behemoth that gets owned by that Berserker? Let's see what he thinks if I add some Succubus support fire! That Succubus that your Berserker can never get to? Let's see how she handles two angry heroes spell spamming and rushing her! That unkillable Behemoth that can actually reach your fragile Succubus? Well let's see how he feels if I have a Berserker as my last line of defense!

Of course, your opponent can field a 2nd hero against you as well, but that's what makes formations and strategy as important as ever.

Just like how it is with a single hero, there are 3 combinations you can select in regards to two heroes. If you've been reading this whole guide, you might be pressured to pick up a Succubus no matter what. Before you give in to those thoughts however, I would like to mention that the Berserker/Behemoth combo is just as viable as the two Succubus combos. I'm not saying it's completely balanced (the Succubus combos will probably always have the pvp advantage), but the balance gap is MUCH closer and you can pull victorious with proper tactics. So if you just don't like the Succubus's playstyle or looks, it's okay to pass on her.

Because of the very different playstyle, I've divided this section only in half; The combos with the Succubus, and the combo without one:


The Succubus Combos - (Beserker/Behemoth+Succubus)

This is the most common path that players choose because of the Succubus's perceived sheer strength in the late game in addition to being the only ranged hero. It's quite a versatile combination too. You can split your heroes to take advatage of their 1v1 strengths when going against a split top+bottom formation; You can have your melee hero tank for the Succubus against stacked enemy heroes; Or you could have them in a staggered formation for unknown battles, with your heroes covering almost every row of the battlefield.

The difference between the melee heroes is that the Behemoth is better for tanking or rushing into the enemy army, while the Berserker is better in the open field and 1v1 hero battles.

Because the Berserker nearly hard-counters the Behemoth, the slight edge would have to go do the Berserker/Succubus combo. In contrast, the PvE edge would go to the Behemoth, as it's the fastest leveler and the best adventure/task hero.

It goes without saying, but both combos are severely underpowered if you don't invest mojo into an end game Succubus. You can sort of get away gimping on the melee heroes as long as you get the T6 weapon and EDH, but not the Succubus.


The Double Melee Combo - (Berserker+Behemoth)

When experiencing first hand what an end game Succubus can do, it's natural to think that you'd be crazy and gimped to not pick a Succubus as one of your heroes. Indeed, compared to the amount of Succubus combinations, this combo is in the minority.

With all the offensive punch and army clearing ability the Succubus has, there is ONE aspect of the battle system that she's horrible at compared to the melee heroes - Wall Rushing. She takes the longest to get to the wall: She often has units, friendly and enemy blocking the path; She has to clear 3-4 lanes because of her attacks instead of 2, and she has the slowest movement speed on her gear.

This effectively gives you 2 strategies compared to Succubus combos - Defeat their heroes the normal way, or bypass one or both heroes and go straight for the wall. Going into details would probably take another article, but the general idea is to stack and overwhelm one hero in an isolated formation, while straddling their heroes in tank or staggered formations.

For you to pull off these strategies, having Mystical Blast and Deep Purple on both your heroes is pretty much a requirement. While these two spells are a very important piece in any hero's arsenal, you will simply lose 95% of the time if you don't have these spells vs end game Succubus combos. Any end-game spell will do for your 3rd slot - the most common being Angry Bones.

When you're on defense, NEVER EVER EVER place a hero out in front. Unless you vastly outgear them by several tiers, you just leave yourself open to a pulling formation where the enemy will isolate one of your heroes in the middle of their army. No formation will make up for a 2v1 hero deficit right from the start.

I would say the greatest perk you have is that these 2 heroes are the strongest when it comes to PvE. Adventures and tasks will be easier, but more importantly this is the combo that levels the fastest, since you have no Succubus to slow you down.




IV. Conclusion

So there you have it. Hopefully I will have helped a newbie to make an informed decision, or a veteran looking for insight and advice. Thank you for reading and look forward to my next guide!


Last edited by Akichi on Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:25 am; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : grammar)
Akichi
Akichi
S-Mod
S-Mod

Posts : 171
Gold : 216
Mojo : 23
Join date : 2012-07-24

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by DoeWoe Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:13 am

Awesome guide. Thanks for posting Akichi!
DoeWoe
DoeWoe
Ninjas
Ninjas

Posts : 430
Gold : 463
Mojo : 27
Join date : 2012-07-29
Age : 43

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by Threshen Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:31 pm

i can't wait to get my portal, totally going sucubus.
Threshen
Threshen
Trolls
Trolls

Posts : 200
Gold : 220
Mojo : 14
Join date : 2012-08-14
Age : 37
Location : Philadelphia, pa

https://www.facebook.com/mandy.leigh.kearns

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by Akichi Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:50 am

But but... everyone and their mother has a Succubus.

SCREW THE ESTABLISHMENT, be different Exclamation
Akichi
Akichi
S-Mod
S-Mod

Posts : 171
Gold : 216
Mojo : 23
Join date : 2012-07-24

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by setluks Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:38 am

I can't believe that you're saying behemoth is the weakest PvP Hero....
C'mon, zerk is like a piece of paper at the battle field.

Facing a full geared succubus, behemoth got chances to kill her, perhaps, zerk dont even get near her.

And if you're good at formations, you'll know that 1 mage makes a zerk an stupid useless hero. ;x

I'm experienced in defeating these guys who think zerk is a god, coz his is not =x
setluks
setluks
Warrior
Warrior

Posts : 25
Gold : 26
Mojo : 9
Join date : 2012-07-30

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by tcasindit Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:14 pm

u can chose 2 succubus?????
tcasindit
tcasindit
Footman
Footman

Posts : 8
Gold : 10
Mojo : 10
Join date : 2012-09-28

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by chiodo Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:45 pm

tcasindit wrote:u can chose 2 succubus?????
No, if you pick the succubus as your castle hero it will not give you the option to pick it as your fort hero as well.
chiodo
chiodo
Trolls
Trolls

Posts : 198
Gold : 231
Mojo : 19
Join date : 2012-07-26
Age : 31
Location : Pennsylvania

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by tcasindit Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:07 pm

oh ok ty
tcasindit
tcasindit
Footman
Footman

Posts : 8
Gold : 10
Mojo : 10
Join date : 2012-09-28

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by gitgronostaj Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:36 pm

Great article. Now we wanna read what gems are best for this heroes Smile
gitgronostaj
gitgronostaj
Warrior
Warrior

Posts : 47
Gold : 52
Mojo : 11
Join date : 2012-08-08

Back to top Go down

Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide Empty Re: Three Paths to Glory - Hero Selection Guide

Post by Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum