User blog:Fairingrey/Thoughts 7-29-14: Partially Comprehensive List of Tips to Ranking, Sending and Slapping

''I-I have to do...WHAT!? ー Delusion, Romance 5-4 Boss Intro''

Opening
Oh my lord, I've tried drafting a new post so many times but again and again I've just scrapped them. Scrap scrap scrap. I really apologize for this, but I don't know. It's just probably the lack of motivation to go through with something like this even after finishing my course and then ranking in first my first time every in an event. But ranking first in an event was exhiliarating! It's just on the other hand... well... it gets you attention. I'm not particularly against the attention and I do appreciate the positivity, but there are just some people out there...

Anyways, to follow up on that, thank you ALL, readers and players alike, to helping me get Rank 1 in the leaderboards. It was a long stretch but I finally did it and I'm very overjoyed to have the company of some of the most loyal senders in this game. And you know who you guys are!

This post is part of two blogposts I'll be writing about concerning about ranking, sendingm and card slapping in this game. I've covered some mild tips about ranking in the past and even described a sort of 'classification' system in my very first blogpost.

I'll keep this short, but this post will be concerning tips and ranking in the game. This post was inspired by Samomo's [http://valkyriecrusade.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Samomo_50su5/Few_tips_to_acquire_more_pt. tips post], and I hope this helps out some of you guys willing to give ranking a spin... as fun as it may, or may not be.

Requirements
I've covered requirements in the past and you can read that post since its still relative to the current meta. However, I'll skim through this quickly again.

Kingdom
My alliance helped agree with me on a consensus that a ranker should probably have at least a lv 3 MS and 2 yggs. Any less and that could incur some suffering.

To go over the reasons quickly: The higher bp cap you have, the more bp you can get out of swords and twitter and the more breaks and rest you can get without having to worry about your bp hitting the cap. A lv 3 MS gives you two BP and a very helpful increase in archwitch appearance, and each Ygg you have will net you 2 extra.

As of what is known right now from levels, you can earn up to a maximum of 20 BP at lv 122. Levels 122, 100, 50... they all give you 1 extra BP, but this comes nowhere to compensating for what you can get if you buy the relative jewel buildings concerning BP and AW appearance.

Why specifically this combination? Because you want to be able to hunt AWs on your own if you can't get any sends from your senders. It costs 700 jewels to get the lv 3 ms, and 1000 extra jewels to get the 2 yggs from base price. A worthy investment, and one you MUST have at the minimum before even beginning to get 'serious' in this game ranking.

Team
Some particular anon writes a very good guide about decks. Enlighten yourself by giving it a read.

As I've said before in my old blogpost, the faster your team is, the faster you're in and out of FAWs. Thus, you can attend more FAWs, and get more points!

Usually good decks can get rid of a FAW in 8 to 15 seconds, and the essentials are usually at least 1-3 team buffer (2 is preferable) 1-3 damage dealers or damage buffers such as Lilim, and an extra support card if allowed. Check out the cards here, in addition to the guide I've linked above.

Tips
Wha, finally.

Actually it wasn't too long. I'm trying to keep things concise now, see? I'm getting better. Anyways, let's begin.

TIP 1: SHARE YOUR FAW every single one of them or else, baka
This is the biggest thing you should know. Not being selfish is good. Very good. In fact, in our own alliance we've changed our policy to now send full so that as much of our members can enter and get a net gain of points if they're not having any luck with procuring active senders.

But that's for another story. In short, share your faw. Forgetting is fine every once in a while, but there are some things to keep wary of while you're sending, and especially if you're sending to traders. The last thing I want to say is that if you're a trader and you actively look for FAW sends back, then don't be a penny pincher on sharing ratios. Be tactful about who you determine as worthy, but just be aware of the fact is not everyone is available all the time. Some may just be in a different timezone or have other things going on with their life that keeps them busy. Whatever the case, sharing should encourage a form of camaraderie, not the opposite.
 * 1) FAW HP
 * 2) *This is probably the number one determining factor out of whoever you're going to add as a primary trader. How much HP do they send remaining on the bone? Is it half? Full? Or are you being a bully and sending under 1 million HP?
 * 3) *HP helps determine two things: How fast a send disappears, and how much net points can you get possible out of it. Subduing a nearly full HP FAW with some fair 750k overkill will secure you around 21k points, and doing the bare minimum damage greater than 0 gets you the 10.4k floor points. You don't get either if you don't make it.
 * 4) *A LOT of traders will opt for the "Ace and flee" modus operandi, where they subdue some amount past 1/2 of the HP of FAW and then send the rest to their traders or senders. This is acceptable... if you can make it, that is. Depending on who you have added, these will disappear quite quickly.
 * 5) **Aces get you better rewards, and securing the ace on your own FAW is a surefire way to get better rewards from FAW, such as non-event SRs. This is a reason the ace and flee method of sending FAW is popular.
 * 6) *On the other hand, there are some REALLY BAD TRADERS who will send FAW with less than 1 mil HP on them on a regular basis. AVOID THESE PEOPLE. THEY SUCK. I won't list any names, but its conniving of them to do this. Sends usually disappear very quickly and it seems as if they want to exploit your side of the trade so that they get more points, and you have a riskier time getting in and securing those points.
 * 7) *And lastly, there are members like my alliance mates that will always send full HP FAW.
 * 8) **The great benefit of full HP FAW is that there's a lot more love going around. Anyone who attends from the getgo will usually have the grand start of starting from almost full HP.
 * 9) **People who send full HP FAW also get out of their own FAW a lot faster, so they can attend other peoples' FAWs.
 * 10) **Only problem is some people rushing for the ace, but it usually works out if you're aiming for a lot of points and don't care too much about FAW rewards.
 * 11) How fast do your sends disappear?
 * 12) *Not many people like snipers. That's one. As oxy as it may be to a lot of us, we hate seeing sends get snatched away at lightning speeds. Sometimes we'll be at terms with the fact that we were too slow to attend some sends, but other times sends will disappear ridiculously fast and leave us questioning who that sender or trader might be.
 * 13) *This falls in with factor 3.
 * 14) Who do you send to?
 * 15) *Another determining factor. Some "traders" put the added gimmick that they'll send to the "first 5 people" on their list, regardless of who it is. This is a bad habit. Don't do it, and don't add people who do this. Send to senders and traders who you like, want to keep around, and want to earn the respect of. This is how you build good friendship and reputation.
 * 16) *There is definitely a correlation between snipers' and leechers' performance in sends. Both tend to be selfish and commit to a rat race for the ace of a FAW, and/or to lock out other members in competition with each other. Sometimes a FAW attendee can be observed to snipe, but the thing to ponder is how often do they do it. Almost everyone makes the mistake of being way too fast, but its up to one's own judgement to determine who's to keep and who's not.
 * 17) *As for pure senders, you're getting leeched on only because you want to share. If that's the case, look for friendly traders and sharers, and make a judgement as to whether they're worthy or not of receiving your patronage.

TIP 2: DONT BE A CHEAPSKATE
Sorry, Samomo, for copying this straight outta your book.

In my previous tip I've pointed out that to some extent there are "traders" out there who send out REALLY LOW HP FAW. Do not add these people. They will tick you off and make you feel annoyed and want to deliver a flaming bag of doodoo to their front door.

Conversely, don't be the guy that does those things. Being a cheapskate is more than just sending low HP FAW. It's low because of what reason? You invited senders and you don't trust them to subdue the whole thing on their own? That's why we have alliances, right? And trustworthy traders?

So on that note, if you really have to settle for the ace, then send it out at no less than 1 mil. Otherwise you are seriously risking your relationships with senders and traders alike.

One more thing I'd like to say concerning cheapskating is that just because a person can subdue their own AW and send out FAW, that doesn't make them a good trader. A good trader makes it an effort to have a team that can subdue FAW in addition to sending out FAW with healthy HP at healthy amounts. You would be surprised to find that these days, a lot of people claim to be a trader only because they want to try their hand at ranking without a good FAW team. This is fine, but it seriously brings something to question if a "trader" is actually legitimately trying hard to rank when their peak rank is pretty bad (less than 2000, usually). Most active non-ranking sender players have a peak rank somewhere between 600 and 1500.

Really. It kind of bothers me, having players try to add me with FAWK or FAWT in their name with some really low peak rank, expecting to receive sends back like its some sort of free tailgate party outside a venue. Things don't come that easy, you know. Work hard for them, get a good FAW team, and then give ranking a serious try once you're in league with some very friendly traders after graduating from regular sender status.

TIP 3: CHECK AND UPDATE YOUR STATUS  please?
Don't think bad of people who change their name frequently. Changing your name to include a status actually means something very helpful while sticking hours into this game as it tells who's on or not on. I make it a responsibility of mine to let my comrades know what's up if I'm not online.

Names stick out. That's one. For some of the most popular rankers or implied rankers, they don't need to put something like "on" in their status because they're usually on unless otherwise indicated. I'm an example of one: a player that doesn't stick "on" very often in their status anymore unless they notice they are not getting anything at all.

But otherwise, its important to update your status frequently so as to let your senders and traders know that you indeed are available and ready to kick butt at whatever they're going to throw at you.

In addition, please please PLEASE check your online status. It's hard to find people if you don't relog back into the game or reset your status by collecting resources, switching kingdoms, or trying to build something in your kingdom. If your status does NOT say "logged within 1h" you are probably going to experience a lack of sends. In any case, if you're suspicious, check.

The way you check is:

Go to your alliance board, click on members, and check under your name to see your online status.

TIP 4: KNOW EFFICIENT WAYS TO CHECK FOR FAWS, AND HOW TO SUBDUE QUICKLY.
Check this stuff out here.

TIP 5: LOOK FOR GOOD SENDERS (RANKER TIP)
Same post from before. Check here now.

TIP 6: PRIORITIZE (RANKER TIP)
This goes for rankers only. If you're making an attempt to rank, then no doubt you are going to encounter multiple FAW at one time in your archwitch screen. If you're prioritizing sends, here's what to keep in mind.
 * Be aware of your senders and traders' trends. If a sender sends out stuff that won't disappear for a while, you can ignore it in lieu for a more high priority send from a trader whose sends tend to disappear fast.
 * Always prioritize lv 400 FAWs first over lv 300 FAWs. Whenever 2 kinds of FAWs are available, pick the one that holds the higher yield, unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure that the lv 400 FAW won't disappear on you because of the sender.
 * In conjunction with the first thing to be aware of, when encountering FAWs of various HP, prioritize in this order:
 * High HP FAW with many attendees.
 * Low HP FAW with many attendees.
 * High HP FAW without many attendees.
 * Low HP FAW without many attendees.

TIP 7: QUANTITY IS BETTER THAN QUALITY
If you don't have the fastest FAW team ever, then this is of something to take note of.

A FAW will give you the point floor of 10400 points if you do any damage above 0. Not counting the minions, of course. If it so happens that your team is either too slow and you're spending more than 20 seconds in a FAW you know you will not get finishing points on, flee it. Attend other FAWs that you might potentially miss.

The only exception to this case is if you're in a FAW from a sender that doesn't get a lot of attendees. In this case, if you're one of the only people that your sender can rely on, try your best to finish the FAW off and be a nice guy. Nice guys are かっこいい and stuff.

TIP 8: RELAX (AND ENJOY THE GAME)
This game isn't supposed to stress you out. Sure it takes a lot of time but in any case if you get really tired one day or you just want to do something else, then go do that. Otherwise, ranking might not be suited for you.

It's a drain on everyone's energy. The matter is how much fun can you have with it? Talkative alliance, maybe? Friend? Watching videos or anime or reading a book? I can tell you right now that this game is hard to play for some of us if we don't multitask while playing it. I listen to music and read novels or manga when I'm feeling bored and out of my mind, and that's how I manage to be okay with this game as I'm not a very... social person in person?

Though, in etiquette, if you have to put your device down, please put it down. It's rude to be in a situation where you're always tapping away at your device like your phone if you're having a personal conversation with someone (unless they're okay with it).

And enjoy the game! If you're excited to get the UR Ranking Reward, work hard for it. If you're not interested enough and feel like you'll be forced to, don't. In the end a game is for fun, so relax and play it.

Oh, and also, avoid drama. Please. Some people make mistakes, other people might callously say stupid and shallow things, and some might even go on a witch hunt but the best thing you can do is to remain calm and ignore those who seek to bother and harass you if they do. This is a mobage. Last place where drama should be in a casual game. I've been in much more stressing situations as an officer in one of the most popular clans on a US TERA server, and all I can say is that if the situation suggests you walk away from it, then do.

Closing
As this is a tentative draft, I'd like to cut things short and read this over later. Sorry I have no images today, but I plan to cover images as I review this tomorrow morning. I'm actually trying to prepare for the new event by opening all these boxes. I'm pretty excited to be honest. Leaks from Kelerik suggest that the UR ranking reward for the next event is going to be another dark team element buffer like Therapy and Nureonna, but the question is... is it Spinner? Or Shadow Magician?

Have a good one peeps! Sorry for making this so short (or fairly long). And once again, THANKS EVERYONE FOR HELPING ME AND KEL RANK 1ST! I hope we can enjoy your company once again in the coming of the next event later in the day tomorrow.