We're here and there's a bunch crazy zombie bitches throwing knives. What now?!?!?

As many have noticed, we have walked into a situation where we will now have to contend with Kiera as an enemy combatant.  It sucks a little bit.  So, how can the situation be remedied?

Let's look at some counters.

• The Twins + heroes with high AoE
• Andvari - I know right?
• The Undead (Specifically Corvus, but you'll want Morrigan too
• Celeste
• Nebula indirectly
• Heroes that can stun and/or put her to sleep/silence her - Faceless, Lian, Thea, Kiera, 
• K'arkh as long as the enemy team doesn't have that Squid fondling asshole Andvari.

So why do these heroes work?  Who should I choose?

Well, that's going to depend on your base team.  There is only reason to raise a new team to fight Kiera is if you're planning on switching to that team full time.  Otherwise, look at situational heroes that can be added to your team.

Let's start with the Twins.

It just so happens that Kiera is extremely susceptible to Magic damage.  This makes the Twins an ideal offensive candidate for Zombie Hunting.  Krista is particularly bothersome to Kiera.  Krista's White skill will bounce around dealing a good amount of damage to the enemy team.  Her Green skill will hit the middle of the team, reduce their magic defense and apply a mark of water.  This sets Kiera up nicely for Lars.  Kiera also really enjoys sitting in the middle of the team.  Krista's blue skill will damage anyone that moves and apply a Mark of Water.  Kiera's going to move.  She can't help it.  She's a zombie, and they're just not that smart...  By the way, Krista is dealing damage the whole time, leading up to an entry from....

Lars! It's really only necessary to look at Lars's Violet skill here.  This attack stuns.  Zombies don't throw knives or any other kitchen utensils when they're stunned...  If this isn't enough add Nebula to the team.  She will boost their magic damage to an insanely high number with her Violet skill.

Andvari.

This tree hugging hippy weirdo is only added because he has stun.  See above for what happens to zombies when they're stunned...

Lian.

Lian will put Kiera to sleep, she will do her best to keep Kiera asleep.  You will want to take heroes that can do a lot of damage really quickly while Kiera is asleep.  Kill her fast.  When she wakes up, she'll start throwing shit again.  I recommend Orion and Nebula.  Keep in mind that Lian is only good for two things:  Bad crossdresser jokes, and fighting Kiera.  If you're tight on resources, she's a waste of time.

Celeste .

Celeste will also stun Kiera; though not as effectively as Lars.  She will also attack Kiera with a lot of magic damage.

For the other heroes that are able to stun, I'm not going to go into detail.  They stun her.  Zombies are easier to kill when they're stunned.  

Now, for the best available counter you can find...

THE UNDEAD

The best way to defeat zombies is to fight them with more zombies.  Morrigan isn't absolutely needed for this to work, but this duo will be stronger with her than without, so take her.  Corvus will absolutely demolish teams with his Blue Skill.  Often, if he summons the altar in a timely manner, this will kill Keira almost immediately.

Finally, if your heroes have an armor level lower than Kiera's armor penetration level, she will do extra damage.  In short, level up your armor.

As always hope it helps.  If you find these articles helpful, please consider making a donation with the little yellow button on the right side of the page.  You'll have my most sincere gratitude.

Showin' Some Skin - Part 3 of 3

So now we've seen a large amount of Heroes and the skins that they need.  How do you pick which to get first?  How do you know which you can live without?  That's what part three is all about.  Let's get to it.

To make our task a little easier here, we're going to group our heroes into a few different categories.  These will be our general guidelines, and there will be a final category of Notable Exceptions.

So, our Categories will be Tanks, DPS, Warriors/Support, Healers, and Critical Damage heroes.

Tanks:  These heroes will need Armor and Health Skins as a priority.  For these heroes, you should go after their armor skins first, and health skins next.  Examples include: Astaroth, Cleaver, Ziri, and Luther.

DPS:  These heroes will need Armor Penetration, and skins that increase Attack power.  Armor Penetration skins are the highest priority for these heroes.  Examples include:  K'arkh, Kiera, Astrid and Lucas, and Ginger.

Warriors/Support:  In general you're going to want to give these heroes Health skins as a priority. If the hero can act as a healer, then you will want to consider getting skins that increase the heroes attack level as well.  This does not apply to heroes that have DODGE ABILITY.

Healers:  These heroes will need priority placed on Armor/Health, with attack increase as a secondary priority.  One should consider Attack increase for healers because their healing abilities are all calculated based on their attack level.

Critical Damage Heroes:  The number one priority for these heroes should be their Critical Damage skins.  Almost all of them will benefit from any health or armor skins that they have.

Notable Exceptions:

Kai - Needs his Health skin as a priority.

Ishmael - Needs all four of his skins.  There is no way around this.

Galahad - Needs all four of his skins.  There is no way around this.

Elmir - Needs his Armor Penetration skin as a priority.

All Heroes who have Dodge Ability should have priority placed on their Dodge skins.  Elmir is a exception, his Dodge glyph should get priority to offset this.

Lars - Lars should have priority given to his Magic Attack skin.  You will also need to get his armor skin as well.

Krista - Krista should have priority given to her Armor skin.  You will need her Attack skin as well.

Jet - Jet's health skin should be top priority, his critical hit skin will be needed too.

There are probably others, if you think I missed something let me know in the comments.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that these skins only matter based on which you are using.  This is not the case.  Skins stack.  Meaning each that you have adds to the others.  

I would consider using the default skins for a hero in the Arena and Grand Arena.  If your opponents know that you have a certain skin on a team, they will likely adjust tactics based on this.  Much like Poker, using skins other than the default is like showing your cards.

Finally, don't forget that Critical Hit Chance and Dodge success are determined by how high a hero's main stat is.  This number can only be increased by adding to a hero's glyphs, and by leveling a hero's default skin.  Don't forget to keep up with them.

If you happened to miss part one and part two of this series, you can find them here:  Showin' Some Skin Part 1 and Shown' Some Skin Part 2.  I hope you all find this useful.

Showin' Some Skin - Part 2 of 3

Picking up right where we left off, part two of the series will start with:

• Elmir - For Elmir, there are two things that he desperately needs.  Dodge, and Armor penetration.  His Barbarian skin, and his Devil skin are must haves.  The Devil skin also became available for purchase recently.  Prior to this, it could only be achieved through Outland Chest pulls.  The Winter skin is optional.
• Thea - Personally, I don't use this hero.  If you plan on doing so, you'll need to get her Winter skin.  Thea is extremely light on armor.  The Winter skin will keep her in the fight much longer.  Thea's Angel skin is an optional purchase.  The same functionality is provided by her Champion skin, without using real world money.  It is a good idea to get the Champion skin as well.  All of her abilities other than her Violet skill are derived based on her Magic attack.
• Arachne - I wouldn't buy any of these skins.  Arachne will become increasingly useless as you progress.  There are some that advocate using her on a C team for Grand Arena.  If you choose to do this, you *might* want to get her Winter skin.
• Orion - You'll want both of his skins.  Period.
• Artemis - Artemis has Critical Hit Chance.  The higher you can get that stat, the more likely she will score a critical hit.  If you are using her, you should get her Angel Skin.  You will likely also want to get her Devil skin as it increases her physical attack. 
• Judge - Save your money and pass on this one.
• Lilith - Another hero that requires all of her available skins to be truly useful.  But in the long run, she's just not worth it.
• Jet - Jet will need both of his skins as you level him up.  They don't seem to be as important long term, due to his position in the team, and when paired with heroes that can do high amounts of damage, the fight doesn't last long.  I recommend getting them.  But, if you are trying to decide between multiple skins that you can afford, you should skip this one.
• Sebastian - Sebastian only has one skin.  This is his Romantic skin.  You REALLY want to get this one.  Currently, it is only available as an Outland Chest pull.
• Heidi - Just don't.
• Astrid and Lucas - Her most valuable skin by far is her Romantic skin.  Her other skins offer much needed functionality, but are not as important as he Romantic skin.
• Ginger - If you're planning on using this hero, you will need all of her skins.  They don't provide as much of a stat bonus as others, but you will need them if you're serious about winning with her.
• Satori - Yes, you need his only skin.  It gives him armor, making him much harder to kill.
• Helios - Helios has fairly weak health out of the box.  His Devil skin fixes that.  If you're going to build Helios (and it should be part of your plan), you will at least need to get his Champion and Devil skins.  Buying his Romantic skin is also not a bad idea.
• Phobos - Why? Why would you?  Just why?
• Aurora - If you are going to use Aurora, stop.  You are not Ghost Warrior.  If you are Ghost Warrior, then you'll need all of her skins.
• Qing Mao - If you are using her correctly to weaken enemy armor and backing her up with a really good DPS unit like *cough* Kiera *cough* cough*, then you need to get her Phoenix skin.  The others are helpful, but not needed.
• Andvari - You need his Winter skin.  It's the only one, and you need it.
• Fox - Just keep it moving.  Skip these.  If you're seriously using Fox, then as your friend, I'm asking you to stop.
• Daredevil - You absolutely need to get her Rowdy skin.  It increases her Critical Hit Chance.  Her Romantic skin isn't needed, if you're fighting battles with her where health is a concern, you're doing it wrong.
• Mojo - I think we all know the answer to this one.
• Peppy - Peppy receives substantial benefits from her Champion skin and her Lunar skin.  If you're using her in a Cleaver team, you'll want to at least get her Lunar skin.  If you don't have Cleaver, you shouldn't be using Peppy...
• Luther - If you're serious about using Luther, then you'll need to get all of his skins.  He will not hold up without them.  If you have to choose only one, you should get his Stellar skin.  He needs the Physical Damage boost the Stellar skin gives.
• Cornelius - You'll want to get the two skins that he has available.  If you get the chance to get his Masquerade skin (event only) you should get that one too.
• Dante - Stop where you are and put Dante down.  You are making a mistake here.

There you have it people.  There are six heroes missing from this list.  This list will be updated as.  I acquire them.

Showin' Some Skin - Part 1 of 3

This question seems to come up a lot, so I figured I'd share my perspective on skins, which to get, which aren't worth it, which to get first, etc.  So, let's look at which to get first.  This list will be incomplete since I don't have all of the heroes in the game.

• K'arkh - Get the Stellar skin.  It's absolutely essential for K'arkh
• Astaroth - You need all of the skins available.  He is the best tank in the game, and he absolutely needs all of his skins to be the most effective.  If you can only get one, you absolutely without a doubt need to get his Barbarian Skin. This will boost his armor, and battles with him will be decided based on the amount of armor he has.
• Dorian - I have never seen a need for his additional skins. Dorian can stand on his own without them.
• Nebula can benefit from her Romantic Skin and her Winter Skin, but by far the most effective skin for Nebula is her Spring Skin - it gives her Dodge ability a substantial boost.  Unfortunately this skin can only be gained through Outland.  But you can buy it by saving Outland coins.
• Cleaver - Cleaver has four skins available, all of which offer him needed stats.  His Barbarian skin is  the most important.  It increases his health.  Next up would be his Masquerade skin.  He gets a crucial armor boost from it.
• Faceless - Get the Stellar Skin and his Masquerade skin.  They are both worth it.  If you can only get one, then the Masquerade skin is the one you should get for him.
• Ishmael - You have to get them all, period.  His stats have been nerfed, and the way the devs made up for it is by selling skins to fix what they took out.  The skins should be free in my opinion, but that's an issue to take up with the devs.
• Jorgen - I have not found it necessary to get and of Jorgen's skins.  That said, his creepy ass Masquerade skin will be very useful to you if you find yourself facing a lot of Satori teams.
• Maya - You will want to at least get her Champion skin, and her Romantic Skin.
• Galahad - You'r going to want to get them all.  There's no way around it.  His skins turn him into a MONSTER.
• Lars - This one is sure to draw some debate.  You can avoid Lars's Masquerade skin if you team him with Nebula.  She will provide the same functionality with her magic attack boost.  Lars absolutely needs his Cybernetic skin.  This will give him sorely needed armor.  His Devil skin can be avoided.
• Krista - She will greatly benefit from her Devil skin.
• Rufus - His skins are not needed unless you are fighting Physical teams.  If you're fighting Physical teams with Rufus, you're using him wrong.
• Celeste - You'll want to get both of her skins.
• Kai - His health is weak, his Champion skin will fix that.  His Solar skin is also worthwhile as it will boost his magic penetration, and allow more of his magic damage to get to the enemy.
• Kiera - The goal with Kiera is to have her do as much damage as possible.  Both of her skins will help in this regard.  But if you're finding yourself limited, her Winter skin is the most important.
• Jhu - As far as he is concerned, his Solar skin is going to be far more valuable than any of the others.  It boosts his Critical Hit Chance, and this will give you more mileage than any of the other skins.

That's all for part one.  We will continue down the list of heroes in part two of the series, and close with some general rules of thumb to help you decide if a skin is really worthwhile to you.

Gumballs, Pokeballs, stupid little things that won't give me Super Titan stones Drop Rates

Titan	Drop Chance	Number of Spheres Needed
Sigurd	10.95%	10
Angus	10.95%	10
Moloch	10.95%	10
Nova	10.95%	10
Vulcan	10.95%	10
Sylva	10.95%	10
Avalon	10.95%	10
Igneous	10.95%	10
Mairi	10.95%	10
Hyperion	0.5%	200
Ajar	0.5%	200
Eden	0.5%	200

For every 10 spheres you open, you should pull at least one of the Support, Marksmen, or Guardian titans. For those titans this means 30 stones.

For every 200 spheres you open, you should be able to pull at least one Super Titan.  All data I have found indicates that it doesn't matter if you open the spheres one at a time, or all at once.  Personally, I disagree with that data.  I know that I have opened 200 spheres in the last few weeks, and I have not received a Super Titan yet.  So, I'm going to try to save 200 to see what happens.  

Archaeological Expeditions

For those interested, here are the drop rates for the different items found in the different chest levels.

Artifact Chest Item Drop Rates Based on Chest Level

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Chaos Cores	4.76%	4.76%	5.03%	4.76%	4.89%	4.82%	4.82%	4.85%	4.85%	6.34%
Artifact Coins	-	10.20%	9.43%	10.58%	10.86%	8.77%	8.77%	7.46%	7.46%	7.46%
Artifact Fragments	11.90%	10.20%	10.06%	10.58%	10.86%	9.64%	9.64%	9.32%	9.32%	7.83%
White Resources	71.43%	61.22%	40.88%	26.45%	12.5%	12.71%	12.71%	13.05%	13.05%	13.05%
Green Resources	11.90%	13.60%	18.86%	21.16%	24.25%	25.43%	25.43%	26.11%	26.11%	26.11%
Blue Resources	-	-	15.72%	15.87%	15.76%	16.66%	16.66%	16.79%	16.79%	16.79%
Purple Resources	-	-	-	10.58%	10.32%	10.96%	11.19%	11.19%	11.19%	11.19%
Orange Resources	-	-	-	-	10.32%	10.96%	11.19%	11.19%	11.19%	11.19%

0 - 25	624 White Artifact Fragments
26 - 50	1,050 Green Artifact Fragments
51 - 70	790 Blue Artifact Fragments
71 - 85	555 Violet Artifact Fragments
86 - 100	555 Orange/Gold Artifact Fragments

Meta Teams

There is often a lot of talk about META teams, but what exactly is a META team?  Basically, it is an acronym that stands for:  Most Effective Team Available.  This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible heroes/teams.  Rather, it is a starting point with the intent of giving the reader the knowledge needed to evaluate and create their own META team compositions.

So how does one create one of these fabled META teams?  A meta team starts with choosing one hero who can become an absolute Monster.  There are different forms of monsters, but for our purposes, we will group monsters into two categories: Tanks and DPS.  Healers, with the exception of Dorian Jet and Maya, will not be on this list.  Martha and Celeste are also excellent choices for any of these teams.

DPS Monsters (These are our heroes that can do over 50K damage magic or physical at maximum level):

Satori

Jhu - Jhu does not do over 50K, but his Critical Chance ability will allow him to deliver almost 60K physical damage when a critical hit lands

Helios

Orion

Ishmael - Again included due to Critical Hit Capability

Dorian

Maya

Lars

Krista

Kiera

Kai

 

Tank Monsters (Theses are our tanks with over 16K armor once fully leveled.)

Cleaver

Galahad

Ziri

Astaroth - Included because of his Last Word ability, it brings people back from the dead.

Once we have decided on a Tank and a DPS hero, we can choose the rest of our team.  For that it will be helpful to cover some effective combinations.

META Hero Combos (These are some of the best combinations you can create in this game)

Helios + Orion + Dorian

Kiera + Qing Mao + Nebula

Jhu + Sebastian + Jet

Lars + Krista

Lars + Krista + Jorgen

K'arkh + Faceless/Kai - There are some caveats here.  Kai delivers a much stronger Magic attack once he is leveled to maximum.  Faceless on the other hand, is much more versatile and can activate K'arkh's skill without using a full energy attack.

Cleaver + Peppy

Choosing a tank for any of these combinations is highly subjective.  With the exception of Galahad, the best tanks all provide increased armor with the activation of their first artifacts.  Galahad will provide increased physical attack, which makes him ideal for a physical damage based team that has heavier armor.  One final caveat in tank selection is Ziri.  She will abandon your team for a brief period of time when she buries herself to heal.  You will want a team behind her that can handle her absence.  

For support heroes, Jorgen, Nebula, Dorian, Sebastian, Jet, and Peppy*. Are our best options.

*Note that Peppy is not very useful unless she is in a Cleaver team.

Jorgen will always work better in a team that does Physical Damage due to his Blue Skill, Leper.

Nebula will be more effective in a Magic Damage team.  Her attack boost for Magic based attacks is almost twice as strong as her physical attack boost.

Dorian will be more effective in a team that specializes in physical damage.  His artifact boosts physical damage.

Jet will be most effective in a team that does Critical Damage, but he also has a place in a team with Kiera. 

Sebastian will be wasted in a team that doesn't have Critical Hit Chance.  He will only boost Critical Hit Chance for those that already have it.

With this in mind, some sample teams might be:

Cleaver+Peppy+Nebula+Jorgen+Dorian

Astaroth+K'arkh+Kai/Faceless+Jorgen+Martha/Dorian

Galahad+Qing Mao+Kiera+Jorgen+Martha/Dorian

Astaroth+Nebula+Orion+Helios+Dorian

Satori+Lars+Krista+Jorgen+Martha

Ziri+Elmir+Jhu+Jet+Sebastian

Please keep in mind that there really isn't a such thing as a "META" team.  There are many different mechanics involved here, and often times you will find that one team will not work against another due to a specific weakness, or timing issues, etc.  Also, if you don't have some of these heroes, then it does not fit the requisite of AVAILABLE.  

The Rarity Fair

The Rarity Fair can be a very good option for promoting your heroes to new color ranks.  The cost in emeralds to do this can often be less than what you would have to spend in energy to do so.  Items highlighted in yellow offer the best value.

Glyph/Stat Priority

There is an image floating around on the Hero Wars discord that suggests an order that glyphs should be leveled.  I will not be addressing the accuracy of that chart, though I will be reproducing it here:

I will say that I don't necessarily agree with everything that is written there, but if you want a simple solution that requires little effort on your part, this is a good rule of thumb.

I would add Elmir to the exceptions.  He needs to be leveled in the manner suggested for Aurora above.  As I said, I don't follow this exact guideline, but it is a good starting point.

Experience Wanted

One of the most constantly talked about things in this game are resources.  I have not seen any concrete information on Experience Potions, so I thought I would post the exp potion cost of taking one hero from 0 - 120.

300 Exp Points	1500 Exp Points	7500 Exp Points

1	0
2	25
3	55
4	85
5	155
6	235
7	335
8	465
9	615
10	795
11	975
12	1,185
13	1,405
14	1,625
15	1,855
16	2,095
17	2,365
18	2,645
19	2,935
20	3,225
21	3,525
22	3,835
23	4,155
24	4,485
25	4,825
26	5,175
27	5,535
28	5,905
29	6,285
30	6,675
31	7,075
32	7,605
33	8,285
34	9,115
35	10,095
36	11,195
37	12,595
38	14,295
39	16,295
40	18,595
41	21,195
42	24,195
43	27,495
44	31,195
45	35,295
46	39,795
47	44,795
48	50,195
49	56,095
50	62,495
51	69,495
52	76,995
53	85,095
54	93,795
55	103,095
56	113,095
57	124,095
58	135,095
59	147,095
60	160,095
61	174,095
62	189,095
63	205,095
64	221,095
65	238,095
66	256,095
67	276,095
68	297,095
69	319,095
70	342,095
71	366,095
72	392,095
73	419,095
74	447,095
75	508,095
76	541,095
77	576,095
78	576,095
79	612,095
80	650,095
81	690,095
82	730,870
83	772,995
84	816,445
85	861,195
86	907,220
87	954,495
88	1,002,995
89	1,052,695
90	1,103,570
91	1,155,595
92	1,208,745
93	1,262,995
94	1,318,320
95	1,374,695
96	1,432,095
97	1,490,495
98	1,549,870
99	1,610,195
100	1,671,445
101	1,732,945
102	1,794,695
103	1,856,695
104	1,918,945
105	1,981,445
106	2,044,195
107	2,107,195
108	2,170,445
109	2,233,945
110	2,297,695
111	2,361,695
112	2,425,945
113	2,490,445
114	2,555,195
115	2,620,195
116	2,685,445
117	2,750,945
118	2,816,695
119	2,882,695
120	2,948,945

Critical Hit Chance Teams For Offense

Critical Hit team, is a Hero team that deals a huge amount of damage based on Critical Hit Chance.  If you need a refresher on Critical Hit Chance please see the previous article here:  Critical Hit Teams

What a Critical Hit is not:

These are very expensive teams to build, both in resources and real world money.  You will have to buy some of the heroes for this type of team.  This is also not a team that you want to start as a beginner.  These teams take a while to put together, and should not be done before you finish your first solid A team. This as everything else here is my opinion, and may not be suited to every style of play.  Don't expect to be up and running with this type of team in a short period of time.

So who are our Critical Hit Chance Heroes?

• Daredevil
• Ishmael
• Jhu
• Fox
• Artemis

All of these heroes use the Critical Hit ability a little differently, all have their strengths and weaknesses.  Ishmael is a special case.  Ishmael requires an extraordinary amount of resources, and is best left as a long term project.  If you are prepared to spend the time and resources, Ishmael can be an absolute monster.

Like any other team, Critical Hit teams benefit from support heroes.  Though our choices will be a little different in this sort of team composition.  Our choices here include:

• Jet
• Sebastian
• Elmir
• Nebula

The four listed above are absolutely crucial if you want to have the most powerful team that can be built.  That being said some are frustratingly difficult to get, Jet being the most notable example.

Since Sebastian is the hero of the month this month, now is a great time to get him.  I'm going to give a brief run through of Jet and Sebastian as I don't have them yet.  Elmir and Nebula will be covered later in the team breakdown.  Jet is an offensive healer much like Maya, but his Violet skill is what we're after here.  Jet's Violet skill gives the entire team increased Critical Hit Chance.  It takes a large amount of time to gain enough soul stones to summon Jet, but it is worth the effort.  Sebastian is another hero who will boost Critical Hit Chance, but he only does that for heroes that already have Critical Hit chance.  

The composition for this team is going to be a little different than the tried and true format that we use in our regular teams.  The construction: Tank+DPS+DPS+Support+Healer doesn't exactly fit what we're trying to do here.  

Since the goal is to create a team that does a massive amount of damage in a very short period of time, we don't really need a tank.  Healers are also not something we don't exactly NEED, though there are some exceptions that conform very well to our goals here.  Since we want to do as much damage as fast as possible, we will weight the team towards DPS.  We will also make our support choices based on how much damage they can do vs. their support.  This will narrow our list of choices considerably, and will give us the following format:  DPS+DPS+DPS+Support+Healer/Support.

With that in mind, let's walk through a breakdown of the team that I am currently building.

The heroes that we will be working with are: Ishmael+Elmir+Jhu+Nebula+Dorian.  These are choices that I made for my team based on compromises and goals that I have.  So before we get to the full breakdown, here are some reasons for my choices:

• Ishmael:  Ishmael is a hero that I have always wanted to build.  I have been working on him since I first got access to the Grand Arena.  Since he takes so many already limited resources, I decided that I could benefit by working on him in parallel with this team instead of making a new selection.
• Elmir:  Elmir is a fantastic choice for a Critical Hit Team for reasons we will explore in much more detail shortly.  Though he DOES NOT have Critical Hit Chance, we can attempt to give it to him and make him even more lethal.  Even without it, Elmir has abilities that can behave like the tank that we discarded from our composition.
• Jhu:  Jhu is a no brainer here, and belongs on a Crit Team.  He also can increase Critical Hit Chance for his team via his artifact.  Jhu along with Elmir also give their team ranged attack capabilities which is very useful.
• Nebula:  Honestly, if you're at the point where you are considering building this sort of team, you should know well the reasons we would use Nebula.  She boosts attack, she removes debuffs, she provides some healing, and she has a very strong physical attack on her own.
• Dorian:  Dorian is on this team for one reason.  He can give vampirism to nearby team mates.  When Elmir jumps to the back of the line, he will gain vampirism.  This makes him harder to kill, and is a huge benefit since Elmir doesn't have much in the way of armor or health.

Elmir will be the first hero up in our breakdown.  

Looking at Elmir's stats, we see that his main stat is agility.  We also can see that he has dodge as well.  If you refer back to the first Critical Hit Team article (linked above), you will find that Dodge is calculated in the exact same way that Critical Hit Chance is.  For our agility based heroes, armor is always an issue.  Dodge can help us to work around this; after all, you can't kill what you can't hit.  This means that we have to level Elmir to a minimum of Violet +2.  At Violet +2, his dodge glyph becomes available.  We will want to get that one built up fairly quickly.  Dodge is going to keep him alive, we will build his Armor Penetration next, and finally his Physical Attack.

Shifting Sands will be the first ability that we examine.  This is the ability that will work in tandem with Dorian.  When Elmir executes Shifting Sands, he will jump to the back of the formation and carry out ranged attacks for 10 seconds.  He will also get a physical attack bonus that is a derivative of his physical attack.  When Elmir executes this skill he will jump to the back of the line and gain vampirism from Dorian's Aura.  This will help keep Elmir from dying too quickly.

The Final skill that we will examine for Elmir's use in a Critical Damage team will be his Violet skill.  Elmir uses his Green skill to create clones of himself, his Violet skill increases his chance to create two or four clones.  This is why we want him in our Critical Damage team.  If we combine him with Jhu, and (in our example) Ishmael, we can give these clones Critical Hit Chance through their artifacts, once Jet becomes an option, they will have Critical Hit Chance for the duration of the battle.  At this point, we begin to see the value of Jet.  We will not be constructing this team with Jet however, as I do not have him.

At this point we will move into Jhu.  I will not go into an exhaustive breakdown of Jhu's skills and abilities.  That is another article in and of itself.  The importance of Jhu in this team is his Critical Hit Chance.  He is also predisposed to doing a lot of damage on his own through his abilities.  He also has a little bit of health regeneration.  The main reason we want him in this team is for his ability to give others on the team Critical Hit Chance through activation of his artifact weapon.

Nebula is in this team for one specific reason.  Her Violet ability.  This ability gives a significant attack boost to her surrounding allies.  This is important in our Critical Hit team especially if one of our Critical Hit heroes gets this boost and a Critical Hit at the same time.  In essence, she is a damage amplifier.

So that brings us to Ishmael.  Ishmael is a very powerful hero.  He is the only hero in the game that is capable of completing the tower on his own.  He has to be fully leveled up to do this, and it is costly to get him there.  As I said previously, Ishmael is a project that I have wanted to undertake for a while now.  That is the only reason I have chosen him for my team.  His artifact gives Critical Hit Chance to the entire team, he's very difficult to kill when properly leveled, and he does an absolutely devastating amount of damage.  In order to get the most out of Ishmael, he has to be leveled to maximum on Gift of the Elements, and his Glyphs.  He starts to become very useful once he has acquired his fifth star.  Ishmael also requires all of the skins offered for him.  Only one of these can be acquired in game without the use of real money, and that is his Champion Skin.  As I said previously, you will need the other two as well.

I will not be going into Dorian in full detail here.  He is in this team because he can, under the right circumstances, give Elmir vampirism, and he has healing abilities.

So, now that we have gone over the team, I feel I should tell you that this is not the ideal team.  Some of these team mates will be replaced by other heroes.  Nebula and Dorian are a good fit within this team, but they are not optimal.  Nebula will be replaced my Sebastian and Dorian will be replaced by Jet in the final team.

So how do we level these guys and gals?  For our Critical Hit Heroes (Jhu and Ishmael), we will concentrate on their Critical Hit Chance Glyph first.  The next consideration would be Armor Penetration, and then Physical Attack, then Main Stat, then Health.  For Ishmael specifically, you will need all of his skins.  His Romantic Skin and his Masquerade skins should come first.  Then his Champion Skin.  For Jhu, his Solar Skin and Winter Skins should be priority, the Solar Skin being the most important.  

For Elmir, his dodge glyph should be leveled first, then Armor Penetration, then Attack, then Main Stat, then Health.  Leveling his dodge glyph is important because it will give him a better chance at survival in battles.  His Devil Skin is now available for purchase, and you should consider buying this one.  It will increase his armor penetration, this is key to getting damage through enemy armor.

For Dorian and Nebula, you can level their glyphs in the normal order.  

I do not normally advocate buying skins, but in the case of this team, it is needed.  

Hopefully, this will give you an idea of which direction to take when planning and building your own Critical Damage teams.