The Simple Duelist: March 2013

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft Card Game: the next game I'll be playing?

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/

A new card game by Blizzard, the company behind Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft. This is based on Warcraft with its graphic style. It definitely looks cool. The game is not out yet but you can catch some videos on their homepage.

I've watched the "What is Hearthstone?" video and it sounds like it will be easy to pick up which is always a good thing to have. The game is close to Magic: The Gathering than Guardian Cross in my opinion and will be released on Windows, Mac initially with iPad coming a bit later. I'm looking forward to its release!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Guardian Cross: My Hunting ends

I've recently stopped logging on to the JP and Int. Guardian Cross app and probably stopped playing. I want to devote my time to other stuff in life. I was also getting tired of the "cycle" of the game; it's just endless weeks of coliseum and I cannot usually keep up to get a "Great" card and when I do, there's not much use to it. (I understand there is the new Coliseum in the next update but it will be back to the endless cycle of Coliseums week after week!)

For all future information on Guardian Cross, please check the Guardian Cross Forum. There are many contributors and valuable information there.

It's interesting how my trading card game history went from cardboard cards to digital cards. I'm not sure if I'll continue with a new card game. I hope my posts have been useful. Thank you all for reading!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

JP GC 1.4: New Coliseum Tiers

Update 10/03/2013: Next week's coliseum, courtesy of Tarothin from the guardiancross-forum, his post will be a weekly update of the Coliseum restrictions so it will be useful!

From the look of things, the Elite Coliseums are going to continue with the theme coliseum while Special is going to get the "extreme" themes. Next week is Fire only guardians!
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Update 04/03/2013: I was wrong about the 3* and below Coliseum rule continuing! It's no restriction Coliseum for special this week which means you can use any card and any number of repeated copies.
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Information in JP: http://cache.apja.guardiancross.net/info/30214008/record_20130225_2.html

Translation by Tarothin over at the guardiancross-forum: http://guardiancross-forum.com/Thread-1-4-version-notes?pid=683086#pid683086

Head over to the links above for more information. Lastly, I'll cover my thoughts on the new coliseum tiers.

New coliseums added

There are now 5 coliseums.

1. Elite coliseum - extreme

Coliseum for the most elite

2. Elite coliseum - master

Can use mighty and great guardians. Can win almighties. A coliseum for the upper ranks of the previous master coliseum and middle ranks of expert coliseum.

3. Master coliseum

Coliseum for the middle ranked master coliseum players.

4. Novice coliseum

Coliseum for beginners. In order to prevent multi account users, the rewards have been eliminated.

5. Special coliseum

Special conditions such as "Rare or lower". However the number of almighty slots are very small.

Comments:

Elite - extreme is the same as current Elite from what I can see; rewards and stat/skill stones and such.

Elite - master is the same as current Master except, S+ is Almighty card reward, A+ gets Mighty card reward, no skill stones here and slightly more stat stones than Master.

Master should be the same as current Master, I didn't compare.

Novice should be the same. Again, I did not compare.

Special is what I'm guessing to be the new home for special rules like "male/female/flying/Hunting Ground specific/etc" coliseum. It started with 3* and below only and below and I think it is continuing again next week. I'm guessing these 3* rule will be the usual rule whereas the other special rules will come by as and when. I think it is good as 3* finally get its own spotlight. The prize slots are really small though: 10 S+ slots getting Almighty, 40 S slots getting Mighty, 150 A+ getting Great. All ranks get 2 SHT, stat stones but no skill stones. This 3* coliseum seem to be more suitable for beginner than Novice.

iTunes App Store link: Guardian Cross - SQUARE ENIX

JP GC 1.4: "Improved" 5* drop-rate system

Information in JP: http://cache.apja.guardiancross.net/info/30214008/record_20130225_2.html

Translation by Tarothin over at the guardiancross-forum: http://guardiancross-forum.com/Thread-1-4-version-notes?pid=683086#pid683086

Head over to the links above for more information. I'll cover my thoughts on the new 5* drop-rate system next.

Hunt increased chance system

A system where when a certain number of special hunts have occured without catching any UR's, the chance of catching UR's raises. Once you've caught a UR, it is reset.

10-19 times => UR x1.5

20-29 times => UR x2.0

30~ times => UR x3.0

For 9 or less times, the chance is the same as version 1.3.

UR = 5* by the way.

Comments:

Basically, SE is telling us that the drop-rate is probability-based and individual system-based, not what some of us are thinking: 5* dropping when a certain quota is reached, etc. My experience using SHT do tell otherwise as I remember getting my 5* after a number of tickets used and then shortly another 5* will drop but there are also people claiming to catch multiple 5* in a hunt so... Oh well...

Once your drop-rate increases, there will be an indicator on the bottom left of the Hunting "entrance" screen. It should stay until you catch a 5* so you do not have to use many SHT at a go. I can't comment on that as I have not been using any of my saved SHT because I kinda given up on them.

Interestingly for the last line, I imply that a 5* should drop normally after 10 hunts. I used to get that in the early parts of the game but not since Stormreach original Guardians/Glaverow New Guardians.

For International version, the anticipated double drop rate event did not materialize. I'll continue saving my SHT there for this update or if there is any special/limited edition guardian hunting event.

iTunes App Store link: Guardian Cross - SQUARE ENIX

JP GC 1.4: New 5* and skills

Ability Lock

Chance of reducing enemy mp to 0

Comment: This is what Energy Drain was suppose to do! Energy Drain 2.0 Unsure if it takes place even before Quick Strike to prevent that.

High speed turn

Consume MP to dodge physical attacks

Comment: People are debating whether this is probability based. I think it might be a little broken if it is not!

Gigant slash

All or nothing one shot attack. When it hits it deals large amounts of damage regardless of defense.

Comment: Sounds like the physical version of Death skill. Nothing interesting except maybe the new attack animation.

Heaven's pulse

Dispels enemy buff abilities.

Comment: I think it only works on the first guardian. If it is the case, I don't think it is good. You are most probably only going to get a guarantee use if you are the first guardian.

iTunes App Store link: Guardian Cross - SQUARE ENIX