Hey all! I'm fairly new but I know the only way I can improve reliably is having someone critique what I'm doing terribly with my MP decks -- my winrates have gone far down since I deviated from the default adventurer basic build and I don't think I'm really understanding -why-, so any help would be appreciated! I'm still working through gaining items. https://i.imgur.com/kZXGAoi.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ByK6jvu.jpg https://i.imgur.com/S0WPstX.jpg
You're new so you don't have enough items yet, and are trying to put builds together with what you have, which is cool but explains why you are struggling. You need to grind league and loot fairy for a bit to build up your keep: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/new-players-fastest-way-to-good-loot.11092/ Note that the last couple of posts have a list of good common and uncommon items. Normally I would say to keep your gold to buy epics and legendaries, but you could read through some of the 'peasant builds' (https://bit.ly/2Jr5vXA), pick out one you like the look of, and buy the items as the shops refresh daily. Also look to see what each of those peasant builds do. Good builds are good at doing a specific thing. Your war tanks for damage, sure, but the priest is very unfocused and the mage has a heap of different cards too. I'd never run an elf wiz outside of campaign quests or replicating Rinco's ancient grudge/pathfinding meme build - they're just too fragile. Good luck!
You had asked me to take a look in the world chat the other day (Campaign3), so here goes: Warrior: Infused Greatclub looks tempting, I know, but when picking weapons remember that damage only counts if you can offload it. You have way too little movement, which means you probably get stuck discarding attacks or other cards too frequently. Also consider average damage of your weapon; its more important over the course of many rounds. Infused Greatclub has an average damage of 7.6 per card. Use Bejeweled Shortshort at 9.6 damage per card and 2 powerful movement attacks. This common weapon is one of the best heavy hitters in the game even in the top tier of players. Master's Battleaxe is a fun pick. You could make a case that it has a place on your warrior. The issue with Chop attacks is that they're overpriced. This is because they're valued with consideration for the fact that they can hit multiple opponents. If you are using your chops on only one opponent then you are not getting your token's worth. Considering how little movement you have, its probably difficult for you to maneuver into position to use these chops. Balanced Rapier is bad. Its overpriced. Penetrating Stab is arguably the worst Gold card attack. It does too little damage, it helps you get through armor but it doesn't remove it for your other attacks. Hard to Block attacks are also overpriced because while they avoid proc'ing blocks, they don't force the opponent to discard them, rendering your other attacks still useless. You're also paying extra for range 2 attacks, which don't synergize with your range 1 attacks. In general, you want to pick: range 1 warrior or range 2, not both. If you want to go range 2, consider Double-edged Sword. Its only an uncommon so it should be easy to find, and running 2 of them together is the way to do it. A good general rule of thumb for helms and armor: don't spend a major token. You will never get your token's worth. Try not to spend a minor token either, but sometimes this is necessary. Also, use the helm and armor slot to get more traits into your deck. Traits are very good, even the bad ones, because they thin your deck, making your draws more consistent. Traits help you get to your attacks and movement quicker -- the two things a warrior needs. Chapeau Of The Afflicted Artist, Galvanized Zombie Helm, Crusty Helm are very good tokenless helms. Perilous Ringmail and Spiked Tlahuiztli are the best early game armors hands down. Spend a token on your shield instead. As a warrior, you're in the face of other characters quite frequently. You want reliable blocks. Flimsy Blocks and Weak Blocks are not the call. If you get more movement from your weapons, consider Parrying Buckler. If Wizards are your bigger issue, or if you go attack heavy with your weapons, the shield is a great way to get extra movement. Look at Twisting Shield, Shield Of The Frog, Hexagon Shield or Ancient Heirloom Shield. The boots you have are okay. Just remembering Sparkling Armor is not reliable movement. Try using boots with 2 movement and a trait, if you feel the need to switch things up. Dodge, Escaping Run, and all of the Charge moves are good cards to look out for on boots. Again, don't spend a major token here, and try to avoid a minor too. And TRAITS. If it comes down to your Martial Skill and your Racial Trait and you have one minor token left, always spend it on your Racial Trait. This is the place for warriors to get extra blocks and traits. Don't try to get armor or movement out of this slot, they're overpriced here. Consider switching to a Human. Their block options and trait options are superior to Dwarves. They'll also net you a Run each turn instead of a Walk. Their signature trait, Vanguard, is arguably the best trait in the game. If you must go Dwarves, use a Dwarf for all 3 slots and use traits with Dwarven Cry. For Martial skill, pick something with 2 or 3 traits. Try to match the trait buffs to the types of attacks that you're using (piercing, chopping, bashing, etc.). Wizard: Wizards are very hard to build early game. They are the most "expensive" builds to make, meaning a good Wizard usually requires all legendary and epic items and often multiple copies of the same item. I would avoid them all together until your item collection is bigger. Also, a "1/1/1" build (one of each class) is generally bad. Switching to a second priest will allow you to support your warrior better. Switching to a second warrior will allow both of them to be more potent, unpredictable, and unavoidable with their attacks. A 1/1/1 of races is also not a focused build. Try using all Humans or all Dwarves first, only subbing in an Elf after you play test and decide "this character would be much better if they had more movement instead of its traits". Priest: A good priest does one or two of these four things: provides draw power, provides buffs, provides healing, provides attacks. Draw power, half of the buffs, and healing all utilize Holy cards. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, you want to using a Divine Skill with 2 or 3 Altruisms. If you opt for draw power, buffs, or healing, the objective of your weapon slots is: get as many traits and Holy cards as possible. Sacrificial Axe is the most reasonable item to suggest. There are some epic and legendary weapons worth talking about but using two Sacrificial Axes is a top tier strategy. Conveniently, the two of them offer enough big attacks for this type of priest to dabble in damage dealing. If you opt for one of these first three focuses, your Divine Items should be hyper focused on Holy cards. Tome Of The Martyr, Amulet Of Inspiration, Dirty Bundle, Shielding Token, Incense Of Roiled Air, Auric Charm to name a few. If you want to be mainly an attacker, the objective of your weapon slots should be: big power and/or movement with traits. Let your Divine Items give you the healing vampiresque attacks you're looking for. Also use those Divine Items for extra blocks (if you have items with Cause Fumble) since you'll be up close fighting. Here you want to avoid Holy cards, as they'll only distract from the mission of attacking. A priest can't be a good attacker and a good support player. Again, don't spend a major token on boots, and only spend a major token on your shield if its Aegis Of The Defender.
Derek's one of the top players in ranked (Campaign3 in game), so his analysis is spot on and very insightful. Definitely look into Happenstance's post as well. I'm not going to comment on your build because Derek did a good job of analyzing your item choices, but responding to the part of your post about winrates.... I want to remind you that you shouldn't worry about winrate that much as a new player. Just focus on building a solid collection and enjoying/ learning from your game. Why not focus on winrate? The matchmaking system (however flawed it is in practice) is designed to give you opponents that make you hover around a 50% winrate. If you win a bunch, your rating will improve and you'll get matched versus higher ranked players, so unless you are at the very top, your average winrate over the course of a week or a month isn't likely to improve past 50-55% (number is slightly north of 50% because you can get predictable AI players such as Mom, Cardotron3000, etc). People get discouraged by the 50-55% winrate and perceive it as low, and some people avoid ranked because naturally, people get affected more by losses than their wins. But it's useful to remember that the vast majority of players also "struggle with their winrate", and that's completely normal until you get past the 1500-1600 ELO range (which by the way, is very doable with cheap builds, but requires some maturity of play), and that just takes a bit of time and experience. Knowing this, you should never focus on winrate. In the end, focus on building your collection, learning from your matches, and keeping positive! P.S. Also, it's totally fine to be changing your builds and experience periods of "low-winrate". I personally made so many bad builds before they became better. You can also click on opponent cards and check out the items they are using if you find yourself liking a certain opponent's combo and want to learn from their toolset.
I agree with above assessments with only a few caveats: another reason to play elf wizard is fey silversmith but to get that to maximize you need many legendaries, 1-1-1, though varied, does allow you to use the very best items that you have in a small collection. Also check out this helpful thread for playstyle tips: https://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/how-to-become-a-better-player.7033/
