So just as you're getting used to playing the game the developers go and change everything! That sweet Bronze Protectorate you saved up for thinking it would last you forever now only gets you through a few divisions!?!?
Blasphemy!
Madness!
The negative reviews have been flooding in since the most recent change. Anytime you give players EZ mode and then take it away a large group of them figures to cry foul.
Indeed the change is rather unfair to anyone who bought a Gannicus, who figured his Legendary Spatha would be an unlimited use item.
Even with 150 uses the sword will break eventually, rendering Gannicus just another gladiator with nothing to seperate him from the others.
I'm not a particularly big fan of the change either, seeing as I already had a few gladiators with the best gear and plenty of Denarii and Influence saved up.
Ultimately it is the developers game to do with as they please and although they need to balance this change and probably add a repair option, the change isn't as game breaking as some would have you believe. It does add an element of strategy in gear selection which I will address presently.
It used to be you could just buy these three items and then forget about gear altogether. In the event you had a Gannicus you didn't even need the sword. Now everything has an associated cost per fight.
Bronze Spatha: 1340 Denarii/18 Uses = 74.4 Denarii per fight
Bronze Protectorate: 2094 Denarii/25 Uses = 83.7 Denarii per fight
Spiked Bronze Scutum: 150 Influence/21 Uses = 7.1 Influence per fight
Total = 158.1 Denarii + 7.1 Influence per fight, OUCH!
Here is a list of all the items in the game:
Item - Attack/Defense Value - Weight - Cost - Uses - Cost Per Fight
Weapons
Bronze Spatha - 15 - Light - 1340 - 18 - 74.4
Bronze Sica - 15 - Very Light - 1260 - 16 - 78.1
Bronze Gladius - 13 - Light - 1120 - 18 - 62.2
Iron Spatha - 11 - Very Heavy - 360 - 14 - 25.7
Iron Sica - 11 - Heavy - 325 - 12 - 27.0
Iron Gladius - 9 - Heavy - 300 - 14 - 21.4
Copper Spatha - 7 - Heavy - 154 - 9 - 17.1
Copper Sica - 7 - Light - 120 - 7 - 17.1
Copper Gladius - 5 - Light - 95 - 9 - 10.5
Wood Spatha - 3 - Light - 35 - 5 - 7.0
Wood Sica - 3 - Light - 16 - 4 - 4.0
Wood Gladius - 1 - Light - 2 - 5 - 0.4
Armor
Bronze Protectorate - 11 - Heavy - 2094 - 25 - 83.7
Bronze Armor - 8 - Heavy - 1149 - 21 - 54.7
Copper Armor - 6 - Heavy - 490 - 17 - 28.8
Leather Armor - 4 - Light - 128 - 13 - 9.8
Linen Armor - 2 - Very Light - 64 - 8 - 8.0
Shields
Spiked Bronze Scutum - 3/8 - Very Heavy - 150 Influence - 21 - 7.1 Influence
Bronze Scutum - 0/8 - Heavy - 996 - 21 - 47.4
Bronze Parma - 1/5 - Very Light - 694 - 27 - 25.7
Spiked Iron Scutum - 2/6 - Very Heavy - 720 - 20 - 36.0
Iron Scutum - 0/6 - Very Heavy - 480 - 18 - 26.6
Iron Parma - 1/3 - Heavy - 144 - 18 - 8.0
Copper Scutum - 0/4 - Very Heavy - 160 - 14 - 11.4
Copper Parma - 1/2 - Light - 64 - 14 - 4.5
Wood Scutum - 0/3 - Heavy - 38 - 10 - 3.8
Wood Parma - 0/1 - Light - 12 - 10 - 1.2
Which brings us to item weight...you might ask yourself:
"What's up with all this Heavy and Light business anyway?"
My theory is that there is a speed bonus or penalty associated with your gear. Based on my own experiments with gladiators with high Brawn/low Speed, high Speed/low Brawn, and different mixes of Heavy and Light gear I have come up with the following ideas:
Speed seems to affect not only the rate at which you make attacks but also the rate at which you block attacks.
Light gear seems to give a speed bonus, while Heavy gear seems to give a speed penalty.
If I had to make an educated guess I would say that per item:
Very Heavy = -10 Speed
Heavy = -5 Speed
Light = +5 Speed
Very Light = +10 Speed
If you assume a speed penalty/bonus, some items go way up in value. For example the Bronze Sica, and not the Bronze Spatha would now be the best purchasable weapon in the game, since both weapons have 15 Attack Value, but the Bronze Sica is Very Fast, while the Bronze Spatha is Fast.
Other items such as the Bronze Parma shield and even the seemingly modest Leather Armor would seem to go way up in value. Considering their modest per fight costs of 25.7 for the Bronze Parma and 9.8 for Leather Armor, these items could serve you well in all but the toughest of arena battles.
Here is an example of a fight in Capua Division 23. My opponent is wearing Bronze Spatha, Bronze Protectorate, and Spiked Bronze Scutum. The combined per fight cost of my opponent's gear is 158.1 Denarii and 7.1 Influence.
My gladiator is equipped with Bronze Spatha, Leather Armor, and Bronze Parma. The combined per fight cost of my gear is 109.9 Denarii with no Influence cost.
Although my opponent has superior gear, my gladiator still wins with relative ease due to superior Speed and Brawn.
My purse roughly matches the cost of my gear for the fight, which means I'll be gaining Denarii only from Division rewards and gifts from allies.
This gladiator is up to 780 wins. A large number of those wins were farmed painlessly in Pompeii even after having cleared into Capua.
Here is an example of another gladiator, a Healthy Slave who has 70 wins and is in Division 4 Neapolis, going back to Pompeii to farm an easy win and some Denarii.
I have intentionally equipped him in the least expensive gear possible, Wood Gladius, Linen Armor, and Wood Parma. The combined per fight cost of this gear is 9.6 Denarii.
The result is an easy win due to superior Speed and Brawn. The purse is 39 Denarii, and keep in mind for every 4 wins in Pompeii you get an additional 40 Denarii and 10 Influence, so it is more like 49 Denarii per win.
You also get +8 Vitality for ALL of your gladiators for every 4 wins in Pompeii so this will help to heal the occasional plink damage you will receive during your fights.
So if you are having trouble in Neapolis, Capua, or beyond or you just want to increase your Max Stats and earn some easy Denarii, falling back to Pompeii and using cheap gear is always an option.
The new gear change may suck but you just have to deal with it as best you can. Follow these simple rules and you will be better off than most:
1. Use the right type of gear for the situation. The bigger your stat advantage, the lesser your gear needs. Don't use expensive gear to farm easy wins.
2. Make good use of your Division Reward gear. Free gear = more Denarii saved. Don't buy an expensive item right before you get a free one of that type.
You've seen these signs before. You've got the advantage. Your gladiator has better stats AND better gear...but once the fight starts, somehow, someway, the other gladiator BEATS THE LIVING HELL OUT OF YOU!
How does this happen?
Well How does Buster Douglas knock out Mike Tyson?
How did the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2008?
Why does this always happen to my Pocket Aces on Pokerstars?
The fact is sometimes the underdog wins. I've probably participated in somewhere around 1000 arena fights in this game and I am convinced that there is some sort of random number generator that determines arena fights right at the beginning.
Now that said I think there are different versions of "Easy Win"s. If you took a gladiator with straight 100's and the best gear into Pasteum I don't think he would lose if you fought him a million times. But some of those "Easy Win"s in Capua he is probably going to lose. And you will lose your "Slight Advantage"s a decent % of the time as well.
I'll just guess at approximations based on past experience:
Easy Win - 65% - 100% win rate
Slight Advantage - 56%-64% win rate
Evenly Matched - 45%-55% win rate
Tough Match - 36%-44% win rate
Underdog - 0%-35% win rate
So how can you tell when the random number generator is working in your favor, or against? Well I think you should have a pretty good idea after the fight begins by the time you get to the first cut sequence:
By the time you see this picture there should have been 3 attacks.
If your opponent has landed 2 attacks and blocked one of yours, that is a REALLY BAD SIGN.
Conversely if you have landed two attacks and blocked one of theirs you are likely going to win in a route.
In fact blocked attacks are a very good indicator of how a fight figures to go. In most fights the one that is blocking attacks will win. It is rare that both of you will be blocking attacks.
If you are getting very bad results like two attacks against you by the time the first cut sequence pops up, you can do what I do when I have a "bad feeling about this".
I simply press the red X button that closes the window. If I'm in an arena fight and it goes I get hit, I get hit, I get blocked I just click the X, open a new window, and try the fight again. If I get another bad result I do it again until I get a positive result.
I guess you could call it "cheating". When I do this and reopen the game it acts as if the fight had never occurred. My gladiator is back at whatever Vitality he started the fight with, and I even get my energy point back. I just like to redo the fight until I get a random number generator I like!
If you plan on trying this yourself you might experiment with a cheap gladiator in Pasteum and see if this method works for you. If you try this on a computer that is TOO FAST, it might not work for you.
I tried this on my friends computer that was very fast and had a T1 connection and when I reloaded the game my gladiator was actually dead!
Now that I think about it when this happened I did click the X right before the likely killing blow, and it was well after the first cut sequence, so if you have a bad feeling and X out by the first cut sequence you should be OK.
This still could be a somewhat risky tactic if you attempt it too late in a match or if you have not experimented with it at all with throwaway gladiators. Don't lose a gladiator you have a lot invested in testing this method.
If you followed my advice and made a lot of new allies and bought a Desperate Roman (47-40-65, 160 Denarii) as your first main gladiator, you shouldn't be having too much trouble advancing through Paestum.
As your arena wins and gifts from allies accumulate you will be left wondering how best to spend your Denarii and Influence.
Well you definitely want to save your Influence to purchase the Spiked Bronze Scutum (3 Atk, 8 Def). It is easily the best shield in the game and you can only buy it with Influence.
I don't really recommend spending a whole lot of Denarii on lesser shields, 150 Influence really isn't that hard to come by if you are getting regular gifts from allies and arena wins. If you find yourself coming up short, it is probably a good idea to add more allies.
Since the Desperate Roman comes with the worst shield in the game, the Wood Parma (1 Def), it is justifiable to spend a small amount of Denarii on either the Wood Scutum (3 Def) or Copper Parma (1 Atk, 2 Def).
They are inexpensive and are probably worth the Denarii to speed up your trip through Paestum. I wouldn't bother going for the Copper Scutum (4 Def), Iron Parma (1 Atk, 3 Def) or Iron Scutum (6 Def) though, they really don't give all that much more bang for the buck and you need to start saving for a weapon.
Your Desperate Roman will start with a Wood Sica and you definitely want to upgrade from that relatively quickly.
I'd recommend going for the Wood Spatha (3 Atk) or Copper Gladius (5 Atk). The gladius is 60 Denarii more expensive but the cost is not intolerable.
Ultimately you will want to save up for the best weapon within your immediate reach, the Iron Spatha.
It gives a big boost to Attack (11 Atk) at the cost of 360 Denarii. After the Iron Spatha there is a huge 760 Denarii increase in price to the Bronze Gladius (13 Atk) and it doesn't hit all that much harder.
You'd be better off using that 760 Denarii to upgrade from the Desperate Roman gladiator to the Healthy Slave, who boasts better Max Stats overall.
Once you've bought your Healthy Slave I recommend buying him the Iron Spatha (11 Atk) and then as you gain arena victories and Denarii gifts save up and upgrade directly to the Bronze Spatha (15 Atk), which is currently the best weapon you can buy.
As far as armor goes I recommend buying Leather Armor (4 Def) for your Desperate Roman and your Healthy Slave, and once you have the Denarii saved up, upgrade your Healthy Slave to Bronze Protectorate (11 Def), which is the best armor available.
The only way your Desperate Roman should upgrade from Leather Armor is if your get Copper Armor (6 Def) or Bronze Armor (8 Def) as arena rewards and your Healthy Slave is already wearing as good or better armor.
There seems to be no point in spending Denarii on either Linen Armor, Copper Armor or Bronze Armor. They don't give big enough upgrades for the cost.
If you don't mind spending $5.50 or doing a bit of online shopping, by all means buy yourself a Gannicus to be your Champion.
His starting Max Stats add up to 258, which means he will have 100s for Speed, Brawn, and Vitality after 420 arena wins.
More importantly he comes equipped with the Legendary Spatha as his weapon. It has an attack value of 19, which is 4 higher than the best weapon you can buy at the moment, which is the Bronze Spatha with an attack value of 15.
As far as Barca goes he costs $5.00 and his Max Stats add up to 262, which means he will reach straight 100s after only 380 arena wins, 40 wins faster than Gannicus. Unlike Gannicus however, he does not come equipped with any special gear, in fact all of his gear ultimately needs to be upgraded.
If you are like me and you don't feel like spending real life money on a Facebook game (regardless of how many hours you spend playing it), then you are going to want to buy the gladiator to the left, the Healthy Slave.
His Max Stats add up to 188, which is the best of any gladiator you can buy with Denarii. Sure it will take 1,120 arena wins to reach 100's in all three stat categories, but the game is all about the journey anyway...right?
I believe I have seen this Healthy Slave sell for as low as 766 Denarii, so you might want to reload your screen a few times to see if you can find him at a lower price.
As you advance past Pompeii to Neapolis, you are going to want this Healthy Slave (or Gannicus or Barca if you bought them) to fight the majority of your arena battles. If you bought the Desperate Roman (47-40-65, 160 Denarii) as your first gladiator, you will notice he doesn't really cut it once you get past Pompeii.
When you get to the more difficult cities of Neapolis, Capua, and beyond, if you focus on one gladiator he will become stronger as his Max Stats increase with every 10 victories. This will allow your ludus to advance more quickly to Rome than you would if you sent inferior gladiators to slaughter wasting precious energy.
Here is an example of a fight between two Healthy Slaves in Capua Division 7. Hephaestus has 592 wins under his belt and the best gear available.
Achilles is a freshly bought gladiator with less than 10 wins, hasn't finished maxing out Speed and Brawn and is equipped with inferior armor and weapon.
The match ends with predictable results. In spite of landing one less successful attack, Hespaestus does over twice as much damage, and deflects nearly twice as much damage with superior armor and Brawn.
This goes to show the importance of putting a greater investment into a single gladiator as opposed to spreading the gear and arena fights around evenly among several.
What do the gladiators to the left all have in common?
THEY ARE ALL TRASH THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BUY.
Why? They just don't have much upside in terms of stats.
The way you should measure a gladiator when making a purchase is consider how many wins would it take to get that gladiator to 100 Max Speed, 100 Max Brawn, and 100 Max Vitality, 300 total.
The gladiators pictured have current Max Stats that add up to 61, 79, and 64 respectively. So they are 239, 221, and 236 behind in terms of Max Stats. Max Stats increase with every 10 wins, so they would take 2,390, 2,210, and 2,360 wins to reach 300 Max Stats!?!? These gladiators are definitely bad values.
Now consider the two gladiators to the left. The Desperate Roman's Max Stats add up to 152, while the Untrained Secutor's Max Stats add up to 126. Yet the one with the worse Max Stats costs over twice as much?!?!
Your first gladiator purchase, besides the garbage you are forced to buy during the tutorial, should definitely be this Desperate Roman for 160 Denarii.
If this gladiator is not available for sale right off the bat, simply reload the game until that gladiator is for sale at that price.
Realize I've seen the exact same Desperate Roman for sale for 235 Denarii, so don't get robbed, just reload the game until you get this deal.
This Desperate Roman should be good enough to smash your way through Pasteum with relative ease once he is fully trained.
Once you've bought the Desperate Roman it isn't a bad idea to sell off any inferior gladiators and leave yourself with just the one for a while. The reason you should do this is because it will force your allies to train the Desperate Roman, and not some inferior gladiator that you don't plan to use much.
When you start playing you should add lots of allies right away.
The best places to add allies are:
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - The Game Application Page:
http://www.facebook.com/spartacusgame#!/spartacusgame
and
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena - The Game Add Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spartacus-Gods-of-the-Arena-The-Game-Add-Page/189897487703035
Go to these pages and you'll see lots of people who want allies. It isn't hard to add friends so just go out and get them. You can also put up a post so that other players can add you.
While you are adding friends it is not a bad idea to change your profile picture to something Spartacus related like the one at the top of this blog entry. That way you don't have to waste time typing in why you are adding someone, they'll just see the picture and know it's for the game.
Why do I need allies?
Basically allies make the game a lot quicker and easier.
The perks of having allies are:
Increased Maximum Energy, up to 20 maximum. You need Energy to train your gladiators or fight in the arena.
Free training for your gladiators, increasing their Speed (up to 3), Brawn (up to 3), and Vitality (up to 9). This is per ally, per visit.
For the gladiator to the left his Speed is already 19/19 and his Brawn is 14/14, but his Vitality is only 10/58 so if you were visiting you would want to Massage him three times to give him 19/58 Vitality.
Free gifts of Denarii (30), Influence (5),Vitality (+4 to all gladiators), Speed (+1 to all gladiators), Brawn (+1 to all gladiators).
You can do the same for your allies by visiting and training their gladiators and sending them gifts. While you cannot go wrong with any gift, gifts of Denarii and Influence are probably the most helpful.
How many allies should I add?
The more, the better. More allies means more gifts and more free training for your gladiators. At the bare minimum add enough allies to get to 20 Maximum Energy.
