Guild Wars (GW) information and strategy

[reckoner]

Guild Wars wiki page:

http://castle-clash.wikia.com/wiki/Guild_Wars

Basic Info:

Our guild will be put into a group with 4 other guilds, all

with similar guild might. GW lasts all day, from 00:00

to 23:59.

Each player can do 5 raids on players from the other

guilds. Each raid will earn you points. The total points

earned by our guild will determine our guild rank among

the 5 guilds. After GW is over, your point total will be

converted to Fames, depending on our guild rank. Also,

your point ranking within the guild will determine how

many HB's you earn. There is no coordination needed

between players in the guild, unlike TB. So, each

player has 24 hours to do 5 raids. It's not a big time

commitment.

The goal is for each player to earn as many points

as they can. This will not only give you more rewards,

but it will affect the Fame multiplier for everyone else

in the guild. Doing well as a guild is very important

for us to retain good guild members.

Fame rewards

1st place guild: your fames = your points * 0.45

2nd place guild: your fames = your points * 0.39

3rd place guild: your fames = your points * 0.36

4th place guild: your fames = your points * 0.33

5th place guild: your fames = your points * 0.30

HB rewards are in the wiki link shown above.

How GW raiding works:

You will use the heroes that are currently on your hero

bases, plus any troops that you have. You cannot use

magic spells.

When you view an opponent's base, you can see the

maximum possible points that you can earn if you

successfully raid them and earn 3 flames (100% kill).

If you earn 1 or 2 flames, you will get a small fraction

of those points.

The points per raid is based on 3 factors:

1. your might (the higher the better)

2. the opponent's might (higher is better)

3. the # of flames (3 flames = max. pts.)

See my post about why and how people should boost

their might:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/bossplease/gpmSJNN82uU

Whether you are just viewing someone's base, or

actually start raiding them, you can always exit before

you kill 50%. If you do this, you won't lose a GW turn,

and any heroes/troops that may have died will be

automatically revived.

If you read nothing else in this post, just read these

two lines:

There are no consequences to

exiting to before 50%.

It is EXTREMELY important to get

3 flames on every raid.

Basic Strategy:

To gain more points, choose higher might opponents.

However, high might players often have a GW base

design and strong heroes, making them harder to kill,

esp. since you can't use magic spells. If you don't

think you can kill them, don't waste a turn risking a

1-flame or 2-flame result.

It's far better to look for slightly lower-might or easier

bases to attack. Some high or medium players will

sometimes forget to change their base design, or may

temporarily have an HBM base or they may be

sweeping dungeons/HBM with 1 hero on their base and

no garrisons. These bases are easy to snipe with

long-range procs (use heroes like Aries, TG, GR, WL,

DD, SM, HQ, Siren, etc.).

It is never worthwhile to 2-flame a high might base

as opposed to 3-flaming a slightly lower might base.

One strategy for medium/smaller players to use is to

look at all bases that are above 160k might. Attack

any that are easy. If you still have turns, look at the

next range: 150k-160k. Attack any easy ones. Keep

going down to the next range until you are done.

If you find any higher-might bases that can be killed

easily, share that intel with other guild members by

announcing it in guild chat. Sometimes the enemy

may only temporarily have a weak base, so having

other guild members attack them quickly can really

help the guild as a whole.

When attempting to attack a stronger base, that you're

not sure if you can 3-flame or not, one good strategy

is to ALWAYS exit before 50% on the first run, no

matter how well or marginal it seems to be going.

This will give you more time to think about the raid.

Since there's no cost when you quit before 50%, you

can simply try again, or adjust your strategy, or pick

an easier target.

Pitfalls:

Beware of strong towers and garrisons. Magic Towers

with high garrisons (5-5-7, for example), can stun your

heroes while the enemy heroes slaughter them. Troops

like copters can be used to help mitigate this risk, by

lowering the odds that your heroes will be hit and

stunned. Also, Arrow Towers with high garrisons can

cause a lot of damage to your heroes from a long

distance.

Beware of strong heroes. Evo1 or Evo2 heroes are

stronger... learn how to identify them (Evo1 heroes

have a yellow aura around them, Evo2 heroes have a

yellow aura with white lines around them). Some heroes

like AC and SK can be extremely difficult to kill,

ESPECIALLY SK since it is both tanky and has very

high DPS, and people often put strong talents on SK that

make him even more overpowered, like Life Drain,

Deadly Strike, Scatter, etc. To kill it, you may need

Aries and/or stun heroes with AOE or multi-hit procs. It's

quite common for a high-powered SK to kill all 6 of the

attacking heroes by himself. If you are unsure whether

you can kill an SK, it's better to skip that base entirely.

Auto-proc heroes can damage your heroes even if

you try to snipe them from afar. Beware of heroes like

WL, HQ, DD, and CK. Using Aries to snipe these bases

can prevent enemy heroes from proccing.

Expect Hero Traps. These can cause a lot of damage

to your heroes if many of them are placed in the same

spot, and your heroes walk through them. Look for

"empty spots" in the enemy base where traps might be

hiding. If you can't avoid them, perhaps using flying

heroes may be more effective. Using a healer can also

help, so Druid or Ghoulem can be useful in this case.

If you are using heroes with long-distance procs that

can hit buildings, make sure you exit well before 50%

if you plan to exit. These heroes include DD, SM, HQ,

SB, etc. If you hit the exit button before 50%, but these

hero procs are still in the air, the procs can hit some

buildings and push the percentage over 50% after you've

hit exit, causing you to get a "Victory!" screen with only

1 or 2 flames. If you are using these heroes, you should

always exit much sooner than 50%.

Be aware of the time remaining. If you are sniping a 

base with only 1 or 2 heroes, it may take a while to kill

all of the enemy heroes, especially if they are evolved.

By the time you kill the enemy heroes, there may not

be enough time for you to send in your remaining heroes

and troops to kill all of the buildings.

Advanced Strategy:

Some GW bases have flaws that allow your heroes to hit

the walls, proc several times, and begin to damage their

heroes. Look for long runs of 3-deep, 2-deep, or even

1-deep walls. Sometimes there may be buildings that

can be attacked without drawing out the enemy heroes.

Some people use wall fragments or decorations to block

you from dropping in certain spots, but sometimes they

leave a small "hole". If this is in a vulnerable area, you

may want to try dropping heroes/troops there to see if it

gives you an advantage.

If you don't have an Aries, or if the enemy has revit5

heroes with Psy Shield, you may be able to use troops to

make the enemy heroes proc, before deploying your

heroes.

If you are attacking any well-defended bases, always

bring troops. They can be useful for reasons stated above,

but you may also want to reserve a few of them in case

all of your heroes get killed. If that happens, you may be

able to use these extra troops to finish off any remaining

buildings and salvage the 3-flame victory, instead of

getting only 2 flames.

Many opponents forget to change their base when GW

starts, so the best time, by far, to look for easy high-might

raids is right when GW starts (server time 00:00). Also,

if you have the patience, you can keep re-checking the

high-might opponents to see if you can catch them

sweeping dungeons or HBM. Announce it in guild chat

if you find any of these, since high-level players won't

keep a weak defense up for very long.

[Jim Richards]

Good post Reckoner.  Remember that if your heroes and troops die quickly enough, then they automatically revive, so throwing everything at a base to test the base out can allow you to not incur losses and/or revive time.  Just make sure you die quickly if you are going to try this out.  Please also announce marks in the Line App's "Boss Please GW" group.  There is an applet that you can add into the chrome browser that allows you to chat on the "Line" app without having to look at your phone.

[reckoner]

Addition:

I forgot to mention that after GW ends, you should

claim your GW rewards before the next GW starts,

or you will lose those rewards.

[reckoner]

Here's a Reddit thread i found with some GW tips from

nugjuice (we may have been grouped with his guild

in GW before). I already mentioned many of these tips

in my original post, but it never hurts to see someone

else's opinions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmik/comments/47afm9/guild_war_guide_nugs_12_golden_rules_for_winning/

[reckoner]

addition:

GW Defense:

In my original post, i completely forgot to talk about

GW defense. Players with higher might, approx 120k+,

should set up a GW defensive base before GW

starts, and keep it up for the duration of GW. We don't

want to give away easy points to our medium/weaker

opponents. High level players can probably kill anyone

easily, so it doesn't help to worry about them.

While GW is active, if you have to sweep dungeons

or HBM, or do Hero Trials (HT), change your

base/heroes/garrisons, get it done, then change it

back quickly.

I haven't been able to find any good guides on GW

bases, but the basic idea is to keep your TH and 

hero bases near the center, surrounded by your

stronger buildings (vaults), and towers, and then some

walls to control enemy pathing. Army camps can be

placed outside the walls since they take up so much

area, and you want to have your TH/bases/towers

all close to each other in the center. Place the 

weakest of your buildings outside the walls (arena,

warehouse, mines, mills, etc.). Make sure your walls

are thick enough to force the enemies to walk

around them. The longer the wall, the thicker it

needs to be. Make sure your base doesn't have a

spot where an enemy sniper can be dropped, where

he will hit the wall repeatedly instead of walking

around it.

Also make sure you garrison your towers. Magic

Towers should have 1 of each color. For Arrow

Towers, purple garrisons are a lot more important,

but a green garrison can be used to increase the

tower's range.

Personally, i don't like having troops on my base.

They will usually help an enemy PD get his stacks

going, or they provide more targets for enemy

snipers to keep hitting, and killing your heroes.

Use decorations (flowers, statues, etc.) or wall

fragments to block the enemy from dropping

heroes/troops in the more vulnerable spots of your

base. These vulnerable spots are typically inside

your walls, or just outside of the openings in the

walls.

There are several categories of heroes that can

be effective in a GW base for defense:

1. Heroes that can be really hard to kill: SK, and

also DD and AC. These heroes can tank a lot of

damage while your other heroes fight the enemies.

2. Heroes that auto-proc: WL, HQ, DD. These can

damage snipers.

3. Heroes that do lots of AOE damage, preferably

ones that also stun: VD, IMMO, SB, GLM, even

SM, GR, and Siren. There is a preference for

flying and ranged heroes since they are less likely

to jump over walls, and they tend to stay behind

buildings instead of moving out and getting picked

off.

4. Miscellaneous annoying heroes: Aries, esp. with

revit 5, Val (counter to Aries). I might put PD in

this category, if your PD has high Berzerk or 

Revitalize.

Evolved heroes have a lot more HP that non-evo

ones, so they may be preferred for their extra

tanking ability.

Heroes not to use: obviously, don't use heroes

that are killed easily, and/or don't provide a big

enough benefit to your team: CU, Dru, Pix, Tree,

Ork, etc.

As for base designs, look at the top players to see

what kind of bases they are using during GW (you

can see them by looking at the rankings on the

bottom right of your screen).

We can also test each others' bases by attacking

each other without using magic. Since we can't see

who is attacking each of us in GW, and whether

they're successful or not, all we can do is

experiment among ourselves. You can also leave

your GW base up during non-GW days, and see

the attack reports afterwards (these enemies will

probably use spells, however, making this less

reliable as a measure of a base's strength).

If i see any links to good GW base guides, or 

base designs, i'll try to post them here.

[foobar74]

Over the past few guild wars, I'm sure everyone has noticed:

1. Our opponents have been up'ing their games.  There're very few (sometimes, 0) gimme bases in the higher (150k+) ranges.

2. Even in the medium ranges, you see opponents setting up strong bases with strong heroes, even down to the 100K range.

3. As a result, our scores have been trending lower due to a combination of

 A) settling for lower might opponents which grant lower scores (score =~ Your might ^ 0.45 / 1.05 + Opponent might/7000 )

 B) failing to 3-flame when we risk challenging higher might opponents

In the interim, however, our opponent scores are trending UP.  There really is a very simple explanation for this:

* Some members are setting up very weak defenses.  Each of last 3 GW, we've observed within our guild, among > 140K high mights

A) ungarrison'ed towers

B) corner bases, sometimes with 1 hero 

C) weak defense heros, as Reck listed prior (such as cupids and druids)

D) combination of some/all of the above

It's hard to overstate how damaging this is, if the goal is to do well in guild wars.  In the last event, I saw about 3 140K might bases in our guild I'd deem as easy or even trivial to 3-flame.  I didn't even look into the 120K and 130Ks and wouldn't be surprised if many opponents used all 5 challenges against our guild.

In the interim, all our opponents had good set ups down to the 100K range for all their members.

The formula is known so we can do the math, with some assumptions.  Although the formula is not perfectly linear, to keep things simple I'll treat it as such to provide an approximation:

1. At our might range for GW, the total might is about 6400000, around 70 guildees.  So the average might is around 91K

2. Our 3 weakest but highest might bases averaged to around 145K might.  So 3 cheap 3 flames resulted in 3 * ((91000^0.45/1.05 + 145000/7000) = 162 + 207 = 369 ) = 1107 points each.

3. 1107 flames * 70 = 77490 points, given away

What if we didn't provide the freebies?

Let's say 

* half of those enemies went for the "safe bets" around 120K 

* half of the others went for similar 145k ish mights, but they are much tougher.  In my experience, about 1/3 of risk taking ends up 1 or 2-flames.  So let's estimate using 1/6 and 1/6.

1. the "safe bets" half would've ended up with 3 * ((91000^0.45/1.05 + 120000/7000) = 162 + 171 = 333) = 999 points.  X 35 = 34965 points.

2. the "risk takers"....maybe 25 still got the full 1107.  The other 10 would 1-flame and 2-flame at 30 and 70% penalties, getting just 775 or 332 points.

   25*1107 + 3875 + 1660 = 33210

Total = 34965+33210 = 68175

A 9215 point difference.

So basically, we spotted all our 4 opponent guilds a 9000+ point handicap.   Even ignoring the attendance issues, that's really hard to overcome.  That's also ignoring the snowball effect of seeing ourselves trailing, forcing our high mights to take greater and greater risks to make up for the gap  = getting more 1 and 2 flames.  Morale is hard to quantify, but it is real.  If anything, the ~9000 estimate could be conservative.

If you are a 140k+ high might and don't bother to set a strong base, effectively you'd have to score 3000 points just to make things break-even due to the damage/handicap you've dealt the guild.  Since no one scores 3000, to put it harshly, the guild actually would do a lot better without you in guild war, no matter how high you score, if you ignore defense.  Since not only would you be functionally scoring zero, you are offsetting other high scores by another 1K points or so.

So, please please pay attention to defense.   At the end of the day, we are a top guild and as such we attract members who are very invested in the game, and want the camaraderie of everyone working together and derive enjoyment via achievements in the game.   So, it would force us to make changes we would prefer not to make, if members continue to not take guild war seriously.

   

[reckoner]

Great analysis, Foo.

In much simpler terms... if any one of our higher-might members

has a weak defense, every one of the members in the other 4

guilds can easily get "extra" points by attacking them. 4 other

guilds, times 75 members each, so the net effect of having one

high-might weak base in our guild is multiplied by 300! Even if

the opposing guild members only get 20 or 30 extra points by

attacking this one person instead of someone easier, with lower

might, the cumulative effect is thousands of points going to

the other guilds.

In my opinion, everyone with 100k might or higher should have

a GW base set up before GW starts.

[reckoner]

Now that we have totems... here's more info...

For defense...

Place totems near your heroes. The totem will

activate once per battle. Place a hero inside the

totem, and when an enemy (troop or hero) gets

near it, the hero's skill will activate. The level of

the skill will be the lower of the hero's skill level or

the totem level. You can't have the same type of

hero in more than one totem (you can't use 2 PD's,

for example). However, you can have a hero on a

hero base, and another hero of that type inside a

totem.

Best heroes to use inside a totem (in my opinion):

PD, CU, Aries, Pixie, Champ, AC, Ice Demon, 

Molt and Arctica. Maybe Vlad, Immo or TG just for

the stun and a little damage.

Heroes that have AOE damage may not be so

great because (1) totems are currently limited to

level 6, and (2) only the hero's base damage is

used for the totem proc (not inscriptions, crests,

talent, etc.)

When attacking...

It should be pretty obvious where the totems are.

If they left too much space around a totem, or 

put traps/bombs around it, there will be a 

drop-able spot where the totem is. You can take

advantage of this, by dropping a troop there,

which will trigger the totem. Then attack with

your heroes without worry that the totem will

affect your heroes.

[reckoner]

A few more tips...

When attacking, and your heroes will

directly engage enemy heroes at some

point, it's pretty important to know

where and what type of totems they

have on defense. An Atlanticore or 

SK totem can be especially devastating

to you, for example. You can use

troops to trigger a totem before you

drop your heroes. Alternatively, you

can do a test-run by dropping heroes

to at least trigger the totem, and see

what's in there. Then abort before 50%,

of course, and plan your attack and

re-try, or move on to a different base.

Aries is especially useful when

attacking. He is a good sniper because

his proc only damages enemy heroes,

More importantly, his proc will disable 

enemy skills and most talents,

including revive. If you are sniping a

base, time your heroes' procs so that

enemies are covered by Calamity

while your other snipers damage them

with their procs. If done correctly,

you will only need to kill an enemy

SK once, as well as any other heroes

with revive talents/crests. You can

control the proc timing by dropping

your heroes in the right order, at the

right times, based on their revitalize

levels and attack speeds. It may take

several tries, but it will be worth it, if

it means a much higher chance of 

success.

Just like disabling revive, you can also

use the above technique to reduce

the amount of auto-procs that happen

against you, so your heroes take less

damage. For example, if you are

sniping with Aries WL and GR, try to

time your drops so that WL and GR

will proc while Aries' Calamity is active,

so that you won't get hit as much by

an enemy DD HQ WL, etc. Some

heroes have different attack speeds,

so this may take some practice and

several attempts to drop your heroes

in just the right order and at the right

times, but if done well, it can reduce

your risk and increase your chances

of success.

If your heroes will directly fight enemy

heroes, try to time your attack so that

Aries' Calamity is active right as your

heroes engage the enemy. This is

especially important if there's an SK

on defense.

This should be obvious, but it's highly

suggested you don't use heroes whose

procs will damage buildings. This can

easily and quickly get you over 50%

before you have a chance to abort.

Heroes that fall into this category are

Mino, Santa, Vlad, SM, and to some

extent, Ghoulem and Dread Drake.

The safest strategy is to kill all of the

enemy heroes before you reach

the 50% mark, so you have the 

option of safely aborting your attack.

Treantaur can be a savior, and if you

use him, it's suggested you only

deploy him AFTER all your other

heroes are dead, and you wish to

continue with the attack. Deploying

him while other heroes are still fighting

may cause him to get sniped before

he can proc and revive your heroes.

Here's a decent GW raiding video

from Aevatrex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G7KOaEwyL8

He has very strong heroes, but some

of the techniques he's using may be

useful to anyone.

[reckoner]

More raiding tips...

Aries' proc does damage first, and then

silences second. If an enemy hero has

revive (like SK), and Aries provides a

killing blow with his proc, the enemy

hero will still revive. In order to properly

prevent a hero from reviving, you need

Aries proc to be active before a killing

blow is delivered.

Here's some great youtube channels

with GW raiding videos...

Kripsak:

https://www.youtube.com/user/kripsak/videos

Panderio:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA87ZKHsW41KGdvscAKy7KA/videos

I think these channels provide good

examples of "safe" raids, which means

they allow you plenty of time to assess

the situation and back out well before

you reach 50%. Kripsak's channel is

especially good for GW raids, since he

doesn't use SK and and he does a few

analysis videos as well.

Since many people defend their base

with auto-proc heroes like DD and HQ,

it would be wise to bring guardians into

your GW raids. Drop guardians outside

of their base to take some of the

damage from defending auto-proc

heroes. As i mentioned earlier, having

a few copters can also be useful to 

trigger a totem or 2 before dropping

your heroes, or for getting rid of

revitalize 5 from any key defending

heroes (Aries especially).

Depending on what type of towers

the defender has, you should adjust

which artifacts you are using. If

there's a lot of arrow towers, use

goblet. If there's a lot of magic

towers, use lightning. These will

help your snipers to be more

effective and/or survive longer.

[reckoner]

I've been seeing lots of people with really poor defensive

bases on GW days. Some people leave their HBM

bases up, which are really easy to snipe. Others have

somewhat of a GW base, but they're not constructed

that well, so they, too, can be easily sniped.

Even though you may not be attacked very often,

we should all have a proper defensive base up

on GW days, so we don't give away easy points.

Stronger players will always try to attack the

strongest targets, but every guild at our might level

has some weaker accounts or smurfs... just like we

do. The better our defensive bases, the fewer points

we will give away to all four of our GW opponents.

What are the characteristics of a "good" GW

base?

High level hero bases give your heroes a better

boost to their stats, making them stronger.

I prefer hero bases to all be close to each other,

in the center of the base, so the enemy can't

isolate 1 or 2 heroes at first, and kill them easily.

This is especially important if you have strong

defensive heroes like SK and DD.

Don't allow the enemy to take advantage of

a stalemate, which will allow them to snipe

your entire base safely. Stalemates can occur

when Ghoulem fights a Ghoulem, or Dread

Drake vs. Dread Drake, etc. If you use these

heroes on defense, try to place them on one

of the inner hero bases, so they can't be

drawn out and engaged in a stalemate.

Towers should be as high level as possible and

should be close to the center of your base to

prevent them from being destroyed early in a

raid. Use either magic or arrow towers, or a

combination of both. The higher level your

towers are, the more effective arrow towers will

be. Towers should be well garrisoned. I

recommend level 5-5-7 (green-blue-purple), if

possible, especially if you use magic towers.

In my opinion, well-garrisoned magic towers

are the toughest to raid against, but against

mid-range or weaker opponents, strong

arrow towers can kill snipers before they

cause too much damage to your heroes.

Use walls to limit the number of attack angles

than an enemy could use. Most people have

two large walls on two sides of their base, so

that there's only two openings for ground

heroes and troops. This can improve the

effectiveness of your base because this

gives you obvious places for your totems and

hero traps (and bombs).

Walls can also help limit the amount of

sniping that happens, before enemy heroes

get in range of your towers and heroes.

Make sure that snipers can't shoot over your

walls and hit the internal buildings. If your

walls are 4-thick, there needs to be 1 space

between the wall and your internal buildings.

If your walls are 3-thick, there needs to be

2 spaces.

Also make sure that enemies won't attack

your walls to try to break through them.
Otherwise, this is another opportunity for

them to snipe your heroes. The longer the

wall, the thicker it needs to be. You can

test your base by having a guild member

attack it for you, or you can observe what

happens when you run Hero Trials. I prefer

testing it with a real human opponent

because they can experiment with

different drop points, especially right next

to your walls.

The majority of your buildings should be

inside your walls. Obviously, any buildings

outside of the walls present opportunities

for snipers to do their work. This is the

main reason an HBM is especially weak

for GW defense. Keep the weaker

buildings towards the outer edges of your

base, and the stronger buildings closer

to the center. Army camps should be

outside the walls because they just

take up too much space.

Placing the right heroes in your totems can

help stifle an attack on your base.

Atlanticore, Aries, and Valentina are

probably the best totems. Santa, Immortep,

and Vlad can be good at causing damage

to enemy heroes. Make sure totems are

close enough to the center of your base so

they can't be triggered easily with troops

like copters, before the attacker drops their

heroes.

Make sure there are no spots inside your

base where the attacker could drop troops

or heroes. You can have AT MOST 2 hero

traps directly adjacent to a totem,

otherwise the enemy can drop a single

troop there to trigger the totem, rendering

it useless when they drop their heroes.

Other gaps inside of your base can be

covered by decorations.

Don't keep troops in your Army Camps

if possible. I do recommend using troops

while you are doing your GW raids, but you

should remove them after you are done.

Here is the GW base i use on my smurfs.

The Town Hall is level 22. It's been

thoroughly tested and i believe it works

well.