A birds eye on the progress of my Gladiator card collection.
My guild The Anti Social Club has been doing consistently well for a good while. Our Arena is currently at level 5, so we brawl in tier 3. And most of the time we come in at first place. Thus I get a good portion of Merits to spend on Gladius Cases every five days or so, resulting in a fairly decent collection of Gladiator cards by this point. So I figured it would be fun to do a sort of overview post of how the collection of these special Soulbound cards are doing.
I'll mention that not the best player in my guild by far, but I do quite well most of the time (well above 50% win rate), so it definitely feels like I'm helping.
Since we upgraded our Guild Store to level 8 half a year back or so, we finally got access to the coveted Power Stones that increase chances to get Gold Foil cards. I make sure that I have 5 of these + 5 Blood Stones (increases chance to get Legendaries) to maximize my chances at good pulls.
Now, both Blood Stones and Power Stones cost 135 DEC each, meaning 1,380 DEC are required for every single pack opened. As I'm getting about 4 Gladius Cases each brawl, that totals at 5,520 DEC per brawl. That's not pocket change in length. Good thing I'm lucky enough to be in probably the only guild where the guild leader actually pays out DEC each brawl based on your win rate.
Anyways, let's have a look at some Gladiators!
Even common gladius cards are serious foes when encountered. Looking over the ones I have in my collection, I notice that they are almost all level 6. And when these guys reach level 6, they tend to get some pretty crazy skills in addition the ones they already have.
Take Chimney Wallstop for instance. Repair combined with those other stats are pretty insane. This is likely my most used common card. Alva's Retaliate and Bertrol's Poison are also sporting some serious upgrades. Not to mention Hugo Strongsword and his self Heal costing only 5 mana.
Moving on to the rares, we see that there are still some level 4's left, but most are at level 5. Like the commons, once they reach a certain level, they get an additional skill with some pretty game-changing factors.
Relenor Cleaver gets Inspire at level 5. Just wow. 5 melee damage, Reach and 9 Shield +1 melee damage to all monsters on our team! Looking at these cards, I realize I use most of them actually, depending on the situation and type of battle I'm submitting for.
All Epics have reached level 3! Nice. Though these cards are all pretty damn amazing, my favorite is Trapp Falloway. He's maybe not the best gladiator skill-wise, but is he the coolest character in the game? Most certainly. I only use him in Super Sneak Ruleset and Equal Opportunity Ruleset matches, but when I do use him - I usually win. I love this guy.
Each legendary gladiator is in a category of it's own, and they all work really well in the right situations. Fina is probably the one I've used the most - with the Piercing ability at level 3+, not even armor will stop her. In situations where Larissa doesn't get sniped off, her Double Strike attack combined with Bloodlust can quickly become an insane end stats.
Back when the Gladiator series was first announced, I was pretty excited to see how they would affect existing gameplay. Now that we have some experience with them, I'd say they fit into this complex ecosystem like a glove.
I remember some were worried they were too OP, but in my opinion, they balance out the brawls really well, while making these battles a lot more interesting too. I also really like their soulbound nature, making it so they can only be earned through persistence and skill, and not by deep pockets.
So how do you feel about the Gladiator series? Is it working as intended or should it never have been implemented (or something in between)? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading and until next time.
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