Violet Box (Essenses) Drop Rates v1 - 587 Boxes

Hey guys, here I want to share with you my drop rate analysis for Violet Boxes and Violet Essences (Version 1 with 587 boxes of data), which is a sort of a new item / item exchange for us in Wartune, we didn't have something exactly like this before and the findings which you will see below on my analysis are amazing!!

So I got 1 person more to send me data of 187 boxes in addition to my own 400 boxes opened, so together that makes 587 boxes (remember you guys can send me data anytime so don't wait for an invitation).

What we see is that 68.3% of the time we got 1 Violet Essence from the box, then 24.5% of the time we got x5 then it drops rather fast to 6.1% chance for a x10 Essence drop and we got in total of 6 pieces of x100 and none at all of the x500 (and I haven't even seen it in the chat window) so this must have some insane low % probably bordering on cheating :P hehehe

Now counting things up is showing amazing things, which you also see under the heading "Analysis" on my picture report. The 587 boxes cost 14.675 balens and for those we got 2.081 Violet Essences. Now if we use the exchange table where you can get a Fashion Core for 20 Essences we can see that this will give you 104 Fashion Cores, which are worth 395 balens each, so in total that makes Fashion Cores worth 41.100 balens, which is ~3 times more than the cost!!, so the conclusion is (if you are interested in Fashion Cores) = BUY BUY BUY! (I am also putting the exchange table below)

Of course most people who go for these boxes are probably going to buy the clothing and wings, but efficiency-wise these are totally badly priced. You will only win big if you don't buy the clothing and wings, but still :)

And here is the Exchange Table:

Flying in the Cloud City on the Azure Dragon

Hey guys, did you know you can fly in Wartune? Well it is actually possible! Only thing is you need to have the Azure Dragon, which unfortunately is out of reach for most people, but if you have it then you can fly around in the Cloud City -- check out the picture below (thanks Ian) Azure Dragon and Hercules sylph sitting on the cloud :)

Sylph Series Part 2a: Gaia

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Edit (Oct. 2014): When this was originally written, what is now called Eve was then called Gaia.

Hey you guys, in the second enrollment of my sylph series, we're talking about the ever-popular Gaia! Just an FYI about your man Cosmos, Gaia is his absolute favorite sylph, because she's so pretty and pink and flowery -- like a corsage and he's Ken at the prom. Hehe :P

Squeesquee! Ohhhhhhh, COSMOS! ♥.♥

Before we get started
I'll specify in advance that this is a guide for Gaia, and not her refined form, Hercules. I'll definitely try to do posts on the refined sylphs, but that may take a bit, as I'll need to at least see each in action before I go saying anything about them :\

Who should have one?
Gaia is a valid option for players of all classes. Whether just a secondary sylph for World Boss and other single target play, or as a main PvP sylph (the sylph you put the most resources into), there are reasonable justifications for anybody to build up a Gaia.

Which are the best skills to get for her? (In order of priority)

1. Jupiter's Wrath - Step one to single target DPS glory.
• Description: 225% + 225 damage to a single back row target. 80% chance to make a random skill unavailable for 2 rounds. 
• Powerful and with only an 8 second cooldown, this is an awesome skill. It prioritizes players, which means even if troops are still in play, this should be your lead PvP move with Gaia, to take a chance at removing one of your opponent's important skills.
2. Unstable Voltage (Passive) - Single target DPS glory.
• Description: Increases attack by 5% everytime damage is taken. Stacks up to 50%, lasts 2 rounds.
• This is an extremely powerful passive. Put yourself in front of your troops for World Boss to take full advantage. During group battles it can stack up to the full 50% quite quickly for huge delphic power! 
3. Flash Storm - Extra single target DPS glory.
• Description: 240% +265 damage to random single target (prioritizes players) and deals 20k damage to troops.
• Powerful, but with a 45 second cooldown, can only be used once per awakening, which is why Jupiter's Wrath is more appealing.

What about the other skills?

1. Roll of Thunder - Just don't bother.
• Description: Deals 150% + 100 damage to a random target. Floating damage +20% for 2 rounds.
• I think this is supposed to be a potential replacement for Thundering Strike, Gaia's most basic attack, but it's not at all worth the balens. I'm always a bit iffy about the benefits of floating damage.
2. Jupiter's Blessing - High cost for questionable return.
• Description: Crit rate and crit damage increased by 10% for 3 rounds.
• There aren't many of the 500 Awakening cost blessings that I like, and this is no exception. The skill comes at a really high awakening point cost for what it is. 
3. Master of Thunder (Passive) - A nice passive, but not an imperative purchase.
• Description: After taking damage, chance to increase crit rate by 15% next round.
• While I like this passive, especially when it procs as I'm about to delphic, it's chance-based and probably triggers at best once per awakening. Also, for obvious reasons, this is only for players with a crit build.

When are the best times to use Gaia?

• Single Target PvE -  World Boss, Sky Trail, Necropolis, Spire -- any time you want to hit one monster, Gaia's your girl.
• 1 vs. 1 PvP - Gaia is a great single PvP sylph, particularly for players that set themselves up well before awakening. Unlike Iris, Hades, or Apollo, Gaia has no defensive or healing abilities, so it's better to go into sylph form healthy or at least shielded.

What are the cons to building an Gaia?
There are very few drawbacks to choosing Gaia as your main sylph, but I'd say if anything, her popularity is the biggest issue. Since it's well-known that Gaias are all over the place, most people will stack up a lot of electro resistances to counter her -- you won't have that issue if your best buddy is a Pan. Another notable downside to Gaia is her fragility -- she's very "Kill or be killed" So, if that mentality suits your personality and playing style, that's great. If not, you may want to consider a creative alternative.

For Mages picking Gaia
Also, if you're a mage choosing Gaia as your primary sylph, and plan to use her in Class Wars as well, you really have to commit your resources -- don't get caught up putting sepulcrum into other sylphs until she's in really good shape. Enchanting her a lot will help your HP and refining into Hercules is an urgent project. While Gaia is great against knights and archers, cracking mage MDEF is another story. I'm sure there are lots of tales about how much people can crit mages for, but it's simply very high risk to bring this sylph to mage Class Wars. Since he has a skill to reduce MDEF, Hercules is a much more viable option, to even out things out against the PATK pet users.

Gaia naming contest!
Here's my Gaia, Hoegaarden (Who-gah-den), what a cute Belgian white beer (witbier)! Comment with the best name for a Gaia (doesn't have to be the name of your Gaia), and I'll name my mine after YOU for a week :P

Iris naming winner!
Winner for the Iris naming contest is Michael Aldrete (tell your parents they're awful for not keeping your name under 12 characters) for suggesting Katara! Avatar's an awesome anime and it's Iris-appropriate :)

Next up, Amazon Queen!

Check out the other Sylph series post!
Sylph Series Part 1: Iris

Elia's June Class Wars Videos

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, I had a lot of fun in Class Wars this month. This was my first time doing it with commentary. I felt a little shaky about the whole thing, but got more comfortable as things went on. Looking forward to doing more :)

Preliminaries

Finals

Really happy for Solara -- it's been quite a few Class Wars since our section has had a new Sorcerer!

Any epic moments in your Class Wars? Share with everyone! I had some ridiculous number of deflects in the finals this month and loved every second of it xD.

Brazil World Cup Cloud City Wartune

Hey guys, check out the Brazilian World Cup Cloud City. This is not just a design or a "wish" but this is what they did int he Brazilian version of Wartune, which is, at least according to me, an awesome "thumbs-up" :)

Is it awesome or what? Put down your thoughts in the comments below. (click to enlarge the picture if you want)

God's Gift Drop Rates v1

Hey guys, here I made for you the drop rate report for the God's Gift box (June 2014 event box) which includes the Loyal Steed mount as well as the Hero's Medals, which can be exchanged for nice prizes. So you will see I have opened up 230 boxes in this Version 1 report (i'll make a V2 report if people send me at least 100+ more boxes) and I actually got the Loyal Steed in the first 30 boxes, so it is a good practice that if you are going only for the top prize to buy the boxes in packs of 20 for example.

Generally speaking the 230 box sample is good enough for the first rewards but not good enough to have accurate information for the last 3 rewards since they are very rare. I actually think those drop rates are around 0.2%.

So not surprising result with the Hero's Medals which come out 50% of the time from the box. This is fully in line with previous month's boxes' event item.

Also to highlight that there are plenty of people who opened hundreds of boxes and did not get the mount as well as there are people who opened just some boxes and got the mount, so buying boxes does not guarantee anything.

With that said, here is the report, check it out and if you want to support with the data you can always send me anything interesting from Wartune. Put in the comments your thoughts or your experiences.

Magic Pot Temptation!

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, Magic Pot is out again! If they do it right, Magic Pot tends to be one of those events where cashers "magically" find themselves taking a crack at losing all sorts of money.

I was able to resist the last time this event was around, but I need someone to ban me from my own PayPal account to not at least try this one. I'm not super into glittery stuff (wings), but the x100 Fashion Cores O___O dayum, that's a lot of clothing refinement.

My guess is that if you do this event, you'll end up with a bunch of gold, daru, gem packs, and EXP scrolls. I'm also going to assume that knowing my luck, I would get that x200 fate stones that I don't need at all. May be worth mentioning that I've seen the system chat announcement for the x200 lvl. 2 refinement crystals several times now -- WOOHOO You've received 1/9th of a level 80 refinement!

My soon-to-probably-be-hypocritical advice is to avoid this event like the plague, because 65 balens per activation is quite steep. Put a sticky-note where the icon is on your screen or something >.<

For those of you that did go for it, what big prizes (if any) did you get, and how many activations did you use? I have a guildie that got his first pair of wings for free when they gave hammers that let you try without using balens. He's the same guy that drew a blue Iris on the first day of sylphs. If you have that kind of devil's luck, maybe you should consider it -__-

Mounts by Category!

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

I'll let the post speak for itself for the most part. This is a small window into my bad sense of humor and what I think about when I'm bored.

Mounts by Elia-assigned Category

Horny

Good Enough to Eat

Chickens

I don't recommend the purple chicken to male players. That begs questions like, "Why is your chicken purple? Have you been choking it?" And it's all downhill from there.

Hawt Pussy(cats)

Personal favorite :P

Have a favorite mount for good (or arbitrary) reasons? Looking forward to any particular one in the future? Share! :D (I not-so-secretly favor Evilpaca)

On a completely separate note, once I get my audio stuff to work (soul crystal event footage ruined today T_T), I'm going to start posting videos to the DolyGames Youtube channel. Please let me know what you guys want to see or learn about from me! (Except BG ... gotten that request multiple times, and I'm super iffy about trolling through a battleground for the sake of a recording ...) Peace!

A Cool Brazil World Cup Outfit

Hey guys, thanks to my Brazilian friend Misty, check out this awesome Brazil World Cup Outfit - haha!! :) I love it! What do you think? Put down your opinion in the comments.

And thanks to my friend Alice the Wartune clothing for German World Cup supporters:

Holding Level Strategy and Why and How it Works

Hey guys, I regularly get questions for my mage's account "why are you holding level?" and so I want to explain a couple of things to help everyone understand the strategy of holding level in Wartune.

Why some people hold a specific level?

For Wartune Free Player:
Free players, who want to be active in PvP, are almost obliged to use the hold level strategy. This is because a free player cannot win against a casher on equal terms (and especially on top level PvP), so he or she must get stronger than the casher. To do this, get very familiar with the Battleground brackets (see above in menu Analysis or click here: BG brackets) and stop taking experience when you are on the top part of the bracket where you want to remain. And just keep getting stronger and stronger while not taking any experience. Yes, you will miss rewards, but this is the price you have to pay. For free players this might take few months, but you will get very strong for your bracket and therefore can enjoy beating more and more people and raising your honor, even all the way to Lord Divine. After getting this title you have 2 choices: stop PvP completely not to lose honor and this title or continue with this strategy so that you are always the strongest in the bracket before you move to a higher bracket.
Note: this also means quitting the Battleground when you are put into the higher bracket and rejoining until you are put in the lower bracket.

For Wartune Cashers:
Cashers also do hold level, but they need it naturally less. The more money you put into the game the less you need to hold level. However, cashers also enjoy this because the combination of cash and holding level makes you extremely powerful in your Battleground bracket. Here is an example of my casher mage account who is holding level 59 and made an awesome 30 kills in 1 Battleground even:

Why some people continue to hold a level?

Even if they become a lot stronger than 95% of people of their level some people decide still to continue holding level. There are a couple of reasons for that:

• They may want to be absolutely top and reach some record, like some players who are above 90k BR at level 59. 
• They may not have so much extra time to play (going to a higher level also means more responsibilities, more dungeon runs, need to collect new set, new enchants, new refines, etc)
• They may just enjoy winning even if it is against very weak people.
• They may be experimenting with Wartune, learning different classes.

What are the disadvantages of hold-level strategy?

There are, unfortunately, huge losses in rewards for those following the hold-level strategy. For example my mage is not eligible for Sky Trail to get daily rewards from there. Lower hold-level people are not eligible for sylphs or especially jewel or fishing and are therefore losing rewards daily from those. Also hold-levelers cannot participate in Spire or Tower of Kings because they are not allowed to get experience.
However, note that all of that is still worthwhile to follow this strategy because otherwise it is practically impossible, especially for free players, to get to the Lord Divine title and wear that awesome medallion (my Knight still does not have it).

Moreover, there is a new trend to put EXP rewards in the Hot Events and this means all the people holding level in Wartune are not able to collect those rewards which contain the monthly reward items. This is an additional blow, but still worth it to follow the strategy. (I hate not being able to pick up these rewards on my mage's account).

Why COSMOS Knight is not Lord Divine?

As some of you will certainly ask this I will straight away answer about my Knight. I started playing my knight almost from the beginning of the server and, not only I was not an expert of Wartune at that time, but I had and still have very nice friends in my guild. We all leveled up together and did dungeons together, so you see I could not hold back, because we grew together as friends.

My Knight actually managed to reach Imperial Commander after a very long time just by doing Guild Battles. And one day he will reach Lord Divine, but he, as pretty much a free account, has no chance to enter the level 80 Battlegrounds, so I don't even put my nose in there.

Are there any exceptions for the hold-level strategy?

Yes. There is only one exception and this is when a new server is launched. If you start on a server on Day 1 totally different rules follow (actually about many things). In this situation you have a race. You must try to get as high and as fast as possible and create as large a gap between yourself and all other players as you can. the higher you get the easier you can kill everyone (you have 50 set, others 35 for example). So a new Wartune server is an exception - you should not hold level in this case.

So Many Promotion Packs...

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, there are so many new promotions in the past couple days! Wartune needs to settle down and give me a breather lol -- I don't understand who is supposed to buy all these pricy promotions at once.

I'll start out with the big No-No's that really aren't worth getting into too much.

Sepulcrum Packs
Like I've mentioned before about Mahra Packs versus Limited Mahra Packs, if you really want to fill out your sylph's aptitude, I'd wait out for a better deal. At about 20 balens per sepulcrum, these are pretty steep.

Insignia Packs
Ew. The only way they'd convince me to buy something like this is if they put in a chance at a mount I don't have :\ I also find it a bit unbelievable that insignias and crypt tokens are being valued equally (the basic reward from these packs is x25 insignias, and the Crypt Token Packs it was x25 tokens).

Seed Packs
Doubly EwEw.

Onto greener pastures.

Pony-in-pajamas, Jingle sweater, Possessed chicken.

Mount Packs

The Cloudcaller, Ostrich, and Impala mounts are for sale. Though the prices are steep for small to medium budget players, in general, cashing mounts is the most direct way to obtain useful BR. These mount packs come with varying amounts of whips with them also, which puts them at a marginally better value than purchasing the regular +10 stat mounts in the shop.

Wing Sale
For Kabam servers only, in celebration of Kabam's 100th server launch, there are wing packs for sale. This isn't bad for a new player getting their first set of wings, though usually they're discounted to 1395 balens, so waiting for an event for all of the servers might be a better bet.

Please share your thoughts! Best analogy for how pointless cashing seed packs is gets my ever-grateful giggles.

Sylph Series Part 1: Iris

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, been meaning to start a series of posts on sylphs for awhile now, so hopefully I have my thoughts together by now lol :). I'll start out doing one post on each of the six, but please let me know in the comments if there are any sylph-related topics you'd like me to post about, and I can get to them in the future.

I thought Iris would be a good place to begin, since she's the most versatile.

Who should have one?
Everybody should have an Iris. Especially for archers and knights, if you don't have the option to use Iris, your overall utility is considerably less than it should be.

Which are the best skills to get for her? (In order of priority)

1. Rain Dance - Congratulations! You're super useful.
• Description: Restores 133% + 500 HP to all teammates. Similar to a mage's Blessed Light, this is the obvious first choice.
2. Master of Water (Passive) - Congratulations! You're exceptionally annoying.
• Description: Acheron Wave (Delphic) has a chance to bind target for a round. What this doesn't specify is that it's a very high chance to bind. More often than not, this passive skill will work if the person has it. It is so fantastically obnoxious when you're on the receiving end.  
• This is my 2nd recommendation for anybody who plans to use Iris in a lot of PvP situations (particularly good for group PvP). If you just want to use Iris for PvE support, forget about it and skip to (3). 
3. Ice Armor - Congratulations! You're a mage.
• Description: Cleanses debuffed allies. Equivalent to a mage's Purification, when combined with Rain Dance, you've made yourself a nice little faux-mage. This is especially great to have if your Spire team contains zero or one mage in it.

What about the other skills? (Edited in 7:48pm 2014-05-10)

1. Tsunami - I'm personally not a big proponent of it, though I think many believe this is the second choice after Rain Dance.
• Description: Deals 145% + 156 damage to all enemies and removes one debuff from ally with the lowest HP. 
• It's not all that powerful of an AoE, and its cleansing ability is pretty useless outside of single PvP play, which is not Iris's specialty.
2. Neptune's Blessing - High cost for questionable return.
• Description: Healing effects increased by 20% for 3 rounds. Consumes 500 Awakening points.
• This skill comes at a really high awakening point cost for what it is. And a 20% heal increase isn't worth spending a skill slot on. 
3. Spirit Well (Passive) - A luxury passive of uncertain value.
• Description: The target of Warm Spring has damage reduced by 5% for 3 rounds. Similar to the QTE on a mage's Restoration skill.
• It's unlikely that this passive is going to be the make-or-break buff in most cases. Best case scenario, it will land on your team's tank and help break the fall from big front-row delphics. 
• Not something I'd recommend to small budget players. At all.

When are the best times to use Iris?

• Any time you're short a mage.
• Group Anything - Unless you have 2 or more mages, whether it's PvP or PvE instances, groups almost always benefit from at least one Iris. 
• Tanking - Iris is the only sylph with passives giving both PDEF and MDEF increases (3% of each).  I really like knights that combine her and apollo shield in Arena or Guild Battle, where they just absorb damage and healhealheal, while everyone else AoE bombs the hell out of the enemies.

What are the cons to building an Iris?
Though Iris is incredibly versatile and okay in most cases, she is really not ideal for single PvP situations. Iris's biggest weakness is to electrical attacks. Since Gaia is rightfully one of the most popular sylphs, this puts Iris at a huge disadvantage if other players aren't around to help absorb some of those big electro hits. For these reasons, I wouldn't recommend that anyone build an Iris as their main sylph (the one you choose to put the most resources into), unless you really don't care for Class Wars or Battleground.

Iris naming contest!
Here's my Iris, StellaArtois, what a pretty Belgian lager! Comment with the best name for an Iris (that isn't ObamaCare, because I've already heard that one and think it's hysterical), and I'll name my Iris after YOU for a week :P

Next up, Gaia!

Check out the other Sylph series post!
Sylph Series Part 2: Gaia

Mahra, Clothing, and Limited Gem Pack Promotions!

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, there are a few promotions out, a couple of which I think are at a decent value!

Limited Gem Pack

Contains:

Lvl. 5 Gem Pack x1

Lvl. 1-5 Gem Pack x5 

Price: 999 Balens. Daily limit of 200 per server. Limit of 10 per person every 4 hours.

These gem packs are at a pretty good value compared to most other gem promotions that we see, but since they're 10 bucks a pop, "good value" and "within the average budget" are very different things. I'm judging the value mostly compared to what you can possibly get in Jewel Hunt. By the time you get the top prize in Jewel Hunt, you've collected about the equivalent of two level 5 gems (and other stuff) for around 3000 balens. From this event you can get the same number of gems for 2000 balens, just not all the extra soul crystals, whips, etc.

Clothing Pack

Contains: Poseidon's Tabard x1, Poseidon's Discord x1, Poseidon's Blessing x1

I really like that they do these clothing sales. It's a good discount for newer players to get a set of clothing, and gives people a chance to get outfits that were originally in Big Spender events at a considerably better price. The Poseidon outfit is particularly good because all the pieces are A quality, and will identify for an initial boost of +8.

Mahra Packs

Mahra Pack I: Mahra x10, Sylph EXP Scroll x2

Price: 269 Balens. Limit of 50 per day.

Mahra Pack II: Mahra x100, Sylph EXP Scroll x20

Price: 2,499 Balens. Limit of 10 per day.

I'm not particularly enamored by these -- there were recently Limited Mahra Packs that were discounted quite a bit more, and I'm sure they'll be back eventually. So, if you're really thinking about cashing that sylph of yours up, I say to you, "Somethingsomething. Patience is a virtue."

Let me know what you guys are spending or not spending on. Only thing here I've dipped into are the gem packs.

Mage Class Wars Vids

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, thought I'd take the opportunity to post up the recordings I did for Class Wars this weekend.

Preliminaries

Pre-finals Toon Overview

Finals
I'm trying not to beat myself over missing some of the earlier fights of finals. I recorded what I could, even though I didn't get the sound going for it. Big thanks to my guildies for equal parts poking fun at me and cheering me up, because I was pretty bummed about it at the time. I think I would've placed 5th if I had been there the whole time anyway; I underperformed pretty much all night. Flustered >.<
Big congrats to the winners and everyone that participated. There's always next month xD

Check Enemy Battle Rating when Plundering

Hey guys, it seems a lot of people don't know this about Plundering so you will be really surprised if you didn't know but you can check the battle rating of the person you plan to plunder without having to add them to your friends, etc. And for the less experienced players out there it is certainly a really good idea to check this otherwise you end up attacking someone much stronger and wasting your plunder attempt = no kyanite / gold for you like shown below:

So how do you go about checking your target before attacking? Simple, like I show you on the picture below, first click on attack so your character approaches the enemy castle and opens up the final confirmation window and once on that 2nd window the name of your enemy is actually clickable, so all you have to do is click his name instead of clicking on Attack and, voila, you can see his (or her) stats.

Gem and Card Pack Promotions!

(Posted by Eliatan of the DolyGames Team)

Hey you guys, there are some awesome events out today, and some not-so-amazing promotional packs in the shop to go with them. Here's my two cents.

Card Packs

I'm not even bothering with the description. Cashing cards is just ... no. Don't do it. 

Gem Packs

Lvl. 2 Gem Pack x2, Soul Crystal x10, Lvl. 1-3 Gem x1

Price: 79 Balens.

Lvl. 3 Gem Pack x1, Soul Crystal x20, Lvl. 1-5 Gem x1

Price: 129 Balens.

Lvl. 4 Gem Pack x1, Soul Crystal x50, Lvl. 1-5 Gem x5

Price: 499 Balens. 

These are very pricy for what they are -- really just a way for big cashers to complete gems they want to synthesize for the event. 

Limited Soul Crystal Pack

Soul Crystal x100

Lvl. 1-3 Gem Pack x10

Price: 199 Balens.

Though the limited soul crystal packs tend to be a lot better than the usual nonsense sales they put out, the gem event going on right now is unlimited and gives fantastic rewards. I think any and every semi-decent hoarder will make out well over the next few days, so cashing soul crystals isn't all that appealing.

That's all I've got! Have fun with the new events, and good luck to everyone in the West coast make-up Class Wars tonight :)