Looking for Squad advice

Hi Guys!
I have been playing for a long time, but very on and off. I am looking for advice on how to build my squad for all three events: PvP, Raid, and Tower. I am more than willing to start with whichever one is best suited to my current Mercs, and then go from there. I guess I will start here by listing the main Mercs in my possession at the moment:

Leader: Kennedy

E4's: (all various evo's, from NPE to avg.)
Graff
Dual Barrage
Corporate Bouncer
Uber Astro
Mammoth Mech
Oathbreaker
Volt Reaper
Wicked Dynamaniac
Power Lancer
Batty & Snide
Inamorata
Cannonback Battlemaster
Sunbeam Harvester
We Three Kings
Giga-Primarch

E3's of note:
Incinerate
Overlord Zealot
Thornspike

In progress: (none finished or parts missing)
Lucion (r2, r1)
Abaddon (2xr1)

Which event or events do you all think I should focus building a squad for first, based on what I already have? Next, which mercs do I keep, trash and focus on getting a hold of?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Greetings,

As you start to enter events, please consider checking out Team Fug Bug (TFB).  I’m kind of the defacto leader and TFB is a good place to find event allies.  Our Charter is here.

Regarding events/squads here’s the basic low down.  Note make sure you read the Event Stickies as well!

PVP is run by yourself, no event allies.  The main thing that you want to do is strike first, so AGI mercs are the favored ones.  High agility means you get to hit them first.  Another tip is to set all 3 of your squads, both front and back lines, to only 3 mercs.  The game tends to think you are “weaker” and match you up against (usually) non-lethal containing opponents.

Tower is basically a marathon grind and you have event allies.  The general idea is to have a squad which can wipe out all 5 of your opponents at once.  WIS based mercs can be good at this since the tend to “nuke” everyone at once.  You will also need some ERK’s to keep you going as the levels get harder, until your squad improves.  Another tip is that when you encounter a Gatekeeper, you can just exit the game without fighting him.  As long as the game doesn’t update or crash, you can wait until your energy gets back up to 30.  That will let you slow play your way through 3/5 of the Nexus levels without needing a powershot or level up.

Raid has event allies.  Essentially it is your whole squad vs raid bosses of various power.  This event type is the money maker for the game so it is skewed towards forcing you to buy event savages.  Essentially lower stat mercs that get a multiplier ONLY for the event.  So they are kind of a one shot deal.  Raid mercs should be multi-hitters so this favors ATK mercs along with attack buffers.

In summary, to even have a shot at a Lethal you will need to spend money.  You will also need a lot of free time.  Finally you will need a team of good allies.

Regarding the mercs you need, I will send you a PM to discuss more.

Thanks Zoar. I have been around for quite a while, and have run through most events at least partially (as you can see by my mercs), but have never been very successful at any of them. Just looking to build a solid squad for a shot at "not sucking" so badly, lol.

FYI ... Tower also partially sterilizes your ATK mercs on floor 10 (and maybe earlier, I just haven't checked). So use your ATK mercs early, then change the lineup for the later rounds.

Thanks for that advice Hep!

sharkguy wrote:

E4's:  (all various evo's, from NPE to avg.)
Graff
Dual Barrage
Corporate Bouncer
Uber Astro
Mammoth Mech
Oathbreaker
Volt Reaper
Wicked Dynamaniac
Power Lancer
Batty & Snide
Inamorata
Cannonback Battlemaster
Sunbeam Harvester
We Three Kings
Giga-Primarch

E3's of note:
Incinerate
Overlord Zealot
Thornspike

In progress: (none finished or parts missing)
Lucion (r2, r1)
Abaddon (2xr1)

Which event or events do you all think I should focus building a squad for first, based on what I already have?  Next, which mercs do I keep, trash and focus on getting a hold of?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Also, hang onto Incinerate & Cannonback as those 2 are some of the best. Many of the others simply get overpowered by the newer mercs.

Let me know when you can post the trade we discussed.

The E3 Incinerate is useful to others with non E4 incins as well as people wanting to run incins with niobe in Raid. So, don't let someone convince you it isn't worth much because it's an E3....

Looks like you have quite a few ATK with a smattering of WIS & AGI.

In general, ATK-oriented mercs are best suited for Raid. Given that assumption, use mercs that hit multiple times / attack rather than all-hitters or clusters as they would only strike the boss once. The exception is Oathbreaker - keep her around as the "All-in" attack pulls everyone still alive.

Have to consider the 20% proc rate on Oathbreaker though, low proc chance during events.

I didn't realize her proc rate was so low, she seems to proc often enough when I've used her.

Sharky: remember that the upcoming Tower event penalizes using ATK mercs on the higher floors. You will want to swap out to AGI/WIS to avoid getting hammered, or just use a bunch of ERKs to revive everyone after the battle.

Most of the newer attack mercs do quite well in tower as they have all around pretty high stats.
Also the market for attack mercs is kind off inflated and Primarch is one of the easiest buffers to get.
Lastly your collection doesn't really show to much synergy to me yet.
So my suggestion would be to focus on a mid tier attack squad first. Maybe a bit late, but getting some tower bosses after this event may be a good start.

Am I right when I assume that it's highly unlikely for you to finish your Incinerate?
While I agree that this may be your most valuable merc you should consider getting a good trade for him. That alone could give you a significant boost in strength.

Else look on lesser valued mercs from the last events. Kidaij or Abysmall Emperor (no idea why that one is so cheap), maybe even Prawn are good examples I spot pretty cheap on the X every now and then.
Those, the new tower boss and some Primarchs and you should be set to do solid in future towers and even more raid.
From that point on just try to “shuffle” the rewards you get from those events.
Some month ago for me the rule of thumb was that for each round of events I used the rewards from 2 of them to build a 8*1 (200 crystal) of the third one.
Once you did that for 2 or 3 cycles, snatching a good trade every now and then you should reevaluate what you have and make a new plan from there.
And like Zoar already said make sure to check the TFB threads for future events.
It makes a hell of a difference whether you play with random allies or play with allies you perform on the same (or close to the) level you do.

Ofc. that's a pretty casual way of climbing the ranks. More money or more effort can bring you there much faster.

Looks like you have some good mid-tier mercs. Think of pairing mercs with complementary skills (e.g. Primarch with ATK mercs on either side, Tigrey with WIS mercs on either side, etc.). Also, use you healer to keep other mercs "alive", rather than having to use med-kits or ERKs. When some of your mercs get damaged, push them back for a few steps and let them heal some, or pair them with an all-hitter and / or demoralizer to sterilize the opposition.

Carpe Diem!

bspervy wrote:

Am I right when I assume that it's highly unlikely for you to finish your Incinerate?
While I agree that this may be your most valuable merc you should consider getting a good trade for him. That alone could give you a significant boost in strength.

Right after the Incinerate event, I started to look for a single Blaze to make my E3 into an E4.  It took about 3 months as a free player before I traded basically a Blue Bot for one (before the great nerf blue bot that is).  Now with the way the Exchange is, you can find one here and there but they only want RES.  I really doubt that you could ever find more than one or two, even with RES.

Needless to say, I would still trade for your E3.  I'm a hoarder of "spare parts" and I'm very patient.  Just ask Hep.  But not to be self-serving, but bspervy is right.  Getting a few good mercs now for one pain in the arse to finish Incinerate may pay off more/faster for you...see my TitanFist wanted post for an idea of what I have...

^^^ Very True.  If Zoar & I actually updated the trusted trader list with the number of trades we've done over the last 6 months I have a feeling the number would be very close to 4 digits (1000 or so).

Well it certainly feels that way ... if you are playing without opening your wallet you must be patient.

Pick a few mercs and go after them.  That's what I did several months back with Archangels, F9's, and some others.  

If I had your list, I'd keep Incinerate, Cannonback, Primarch, Sunbeam, Bouncer (if you still have him), and this tower's floor boss - the ban hammer guy   .  Trade for more of these hammer guys or other mercs that do either heavy or very heavy damage.  Wait for the more expensive mercs as there are several 1 res mercs out there that would give most squads issues.  Rinse & repeat while keeping your eye on the X for your Blaze mercs to pop back up.

Carpe Diem!

BTW ... anybody remember this old listing >> https://fatalfrontier.forumotion.com/t1383-the-general-store-is-open