Saga Guilds - Info and the Top Four Guilds

So there are alot of posts in the guild recruiting forums:
https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=28

I'm sure alot of people don't know what to think about all the recruiting. This blog is writen to clear up as much confusion as I can.

How do you know what guild that might fit your playstyle if you join the game by yourself?

Here are a couple things to think about:

1. The average Saga player is very causal. In most spam newby guilds you might have maybe one or two members online at once. So out of a 25 man guild you might see only a couple members in months online.
2. The main reason for most players to join guilds is resource sharing. Basically you can get an about 300 stone/gold/lumber per real day from the guild sharing. This is NOT ALOT in terms over overall production. You make more resource by finishing 1 or 2 quests. However if you have rank 3 university you get guild multiplier that turn your 300 a day into 500 or so. (But if you had enough gold to train up a level 3 university, then why do you need 500/day?)
3. Most players can solo quests pretty easily. I interviewed Vitaris on PvE, and he indicates that he solo's every mission except for the newest heroic: http://sagathoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Vitaris You don't really need guildmates to help you level. It is fun to get someone to run heroics with, but honestly you don't need a good guild to level to 35.
4. If your guild members pissed people off, that could lead to guild wars or getting your nation pounded by a faction of understandably pissed off power-gamers. This is a real penalty for gaining 300 stone/day :) You do NOT want to join a guild with someone who you do not want to back in a war.

So where do you find guilds?

http://www.playsaga.com/guilds.php - Current realtime list of all guilds.

This list is multi-purpose. First you can find guilds that have open spots. Guilds cap out at 25 members, this is why you see so many guilds with 1, 2, 3 etc. This limit is to prevent every player to be in the same guild for resource farming.

If you find a guild that is less then full (25), then you should ask a member about joining.

If you cross-reference members of a certain guild vs the economics rating list you can see where the guild members are in terms of city size: https://www.playsaga.com/mn_rankings.php

If you /who NATION in game, you can see players levels.

• You most likely want to be in a guild where most members are 20+. Level 20 gives your 4th territory, this maximizes your resources for the most part. (Excluding wilderness bonuses.)
• Many guilds won't take members <>

Top Guilds:

I've rated the top four guilds (currently) to give people an idea who's the best based on the top 20 players and economic rating. The first number is the Nations rank, the second the Nation name, the third the rating as of 7/1/08.

NUMBER 1 - The Einherjar (Order)

• 1 TWONSTERMONSTER 9670 - The Einherjar
• 3 KELETHIN 5160 - The Einherjar
• 5 VITARIS 3790 - The Einherjar
• 11 XEGNUM XEUS 2710 - The Einherjar
• 14 FAIRHAVEN 2182 - The Einherjar
• 161 THE SHOWSTOPPER 1062 - The Einherjar (Guild Leader)

Number 2 - Crusaders (Order)

• 2 ILLIAN 7418 - Crusaders - (Guild Leader)
• 16 KHELDARA 2125 - Crusaders

Number 3 - TEIMPD

• 7 CHALWORTH 3102 - TEIMPD
• 8 SALDAEA 2940 - TEIMPD
• 17 JORALUM 2039 - TEIMPD

Number 4 - True Power (Order)

• 6 IRONFORGE 3180 - True Power - (Guild Leader)
• 19 TONEOFWAR 1910 - True Power
  

Weblinks to guild websites: (If you want me to advertise your guild here, send me a in game or forum email. I'm happy to help anyone who wants to recruit.)

New Player PvE Tricks - Tanking

So I read the manual, and the forums, the new user guild at Saga Units http://www.sagaunits.com/sagaguide/Guide.html, and even the www.freewebs.com/sagaironforge by Ironforge.

One thing they never discuss is how to proper tank mobs with your units at mid-levels.

Early level quests are easy. You field 2 units, they field 3, you attack.

Mid-Levels quests are you field 3 units they field 6. Then when you kill the first wave, they hit you again. This can make is so you burn your entire CP fighting off the waves.

Advanced players know about tanking. I'm not writing this for you. Every machine player I see that Coops with me rolls a couple Mech Giants and Iron Tanks. That's why everyone says Machine is good for PvE, they have a tank that naturally supports them. On the other hand Light always complains about not having a tank for PvE.

Anyway:

What is TANKING?

• Tanking is where you raise a units Defense Rating so high that the mobs fighting it miss alot.
• This allows you to stick archers behind the tank, then you take very little damage from the AI, while you farm them for troop and nation exp.
• The Tank wont live forever, as often you have a mix of ranged and melee hitting it. But it sure takes less damage then a regular damaging troop.
• Also if you have long ranged archery, you can do alot of damage to the AI as it runs to you, making your tank have to take very little damage before the AI units die.
  

Tricks on Tanking:

If you read many guides on Saga, most people will not recommend EVER buying anything from the Item store. Saga is pretty good about giving you upgrades from quest, you rarely need items for your troop units.

HOWEVER, when setting up a tank, this is the one time that you want to shop.

Why? Because the difference between 40DR and 70DR can be huge in mid-game leveling.

So in this screenshot you see that I found a tanking bow with 19% DR bonus and hitpoints.

I love that combination, DR and hitpoints is pretty much what you need for your tanks.

In this screenshot you can find another item I found, which I stuck a 80 shard enchant on. A 80 shard enchant also costs 5k gold, so more gold wasted on tanking.

How many tanks will I need?

The problem is leveling tanks is pretty hard unless you start early. You should think about using your tank in EVER mission that doesn't involve alot of running around. You need levels, every level for the tank is 5% more DR and hitpoints. By the time you need the tank, you will have it leveled to 7 or 8, which is perfect.

How do I use a tank?

Saga is pretty simple. Stick the tank or tanks between you and the melee enemy.

If there is alot of ranged stick it in ranged defense stance, alot of melee stick it in melee defense. Both? Stick it in normal stance.

If you have melee up from and ranged in the back, I like to tank the melee on my tank, and run Heavy Cav through the melee to circle around to the back of the ranged. This allows me to tank the ranged on my Heavy Cav and the melee up from on my tank.

Tanks are slow, so it takes forever to get them into position.

Can I heal the tank?

Not really, the heals in Saga are excellent for healing big troop units with 1CP or 2CP per unit, and bad at healing 20CP units. Too bad huh.

What tank should I use?

One of the highest base DR's in the game is the new Armored Behemoth. For a few more weeks I am sure you can still get one or more for cheap on the Market. It has a impressive 35 DR.

If not, check out your factional units, find any like the Cherbus that has a 34DR or higher. Starting base DR is important, as the item and level buffs are multiplicative. The higher the base DR, the more the bonuses add.

Kheldara - Interview - Raiding and Espionage Focused

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview Kheldara. Kheldara and Illian are in my opinion the most dominate PvP raiders in both the forums and the Conflict channel.

As I am literally clueless about raiding, I figured to go directly to the source, and see how it all works:

General Questions:

How long have you been playing Saga?

Kheldara: "Since closed beta last year. My brother attracted me to the game."

Whats your favorite unit type and why?

Kheldara: "I'll be honest with you. I can't decide on a favorite unit or even a type. The unit on the field is my favorite if it is countering the enemy unit."

Raiding and Espionage Questions:
First of all is raiding fun as it's designed now for end game players?

Kheldara: "As of right now the raiding system is fine, or better put, 'It will do'. It is deficient in incentive and not as exciting as I feel it can be. The AI on the defense is quite subpar."

We all know that you are great raider, on the other hand tell us how often your frontier gets raided?

Kheldara: "When I first started raiding there was retaliation attempts that I experienced. They gained very little and I wouldn't say any of them succeeded. It's been quite a while since I've been raided. OUr gains are CONSIDERABLY higher."

What would be the number one change you would like made to raiding or espionage to make it more interesting?

Kheldara: "I hope one day they enable the ability to defend your own lands if you are currently logged in. As for espionage utilizing the card system for its success. Perhaps a certain card that can be customized. For example the Mercenary Assassins, they can be traded cards, and customized to increase their espionage success. Other than that the entire espionage system is missing that interactive aspect. Even increasing the gold spent for each espionage attack to increase its success and effectiveness."

Is espionage actually useful? I heard there was a cap to prevent you from espionaging more then once per day on a single player successfully?

Kheldara: "Yes there is a cap, but that's where consistency and teamwork can bring enough damage. Unless you are consistent with your goal to hurt with espionage, then do not even bother. It's useful in finding out enemy information yes, But actual damage to the enemy requires an anal determination."

I guess they tuned it down so you couldn't hurt economy PvE players?

Kheldara: "Yes possibly. But it's still possible with enough focus. The 'annoying factor' can be enough."

Everyone talks about Heavy Cav, Ballista, and Cav Archers as the best all around defence force, as an active raider, what do you find the trickist units to fight?

Kheldara: "A good mix is important to have to defend from different types of units being fielded. But with someone with good micromanagement skills a defense like that will only slow (a raider) down. Oh and strong and fast units are more effective."

Can you give an example of a mix that will work?

Kheldara: "If you wanted 1 territory to be well defended. You will need 2-3 units of your strongest factional units. That means level 8+ fitted for speed. Then add heavy Cav. A good defense must be worked for, not merely fielding level 1s and commons. Remember a good raider will not have a problem they will merely be slowed down. They are still fighting the AI."

So Chariots/Gryph Riders/Gold Dragons for Light?

Kheldara: "Your strongest and fastest. The Gold Dragon will never do in any situation other then PvE. Gryph riders will work, and chariots as well. For Nature, its bear riders, treants and eagles."

What raiding bugs are the worst for raiders?

Kheldara: "From the offensive end for a raider, the biggest bug is that inability to detroy buildings. Plunder is one aspect, but because we cannot raze buildings the incentive drops drastically."

Tell us about Guild Wars and the 250 points system. I haven't heard about alot of current wars, are they fun, and are they well designed?

Kheldara: "The current Guild Wars system is horrible. They need a full revamp. They are boring and are NOT rewarding. A war can be over before you even log back in the next day. A single person can win a Guild War. The system is really bad right now. 2-3 successful raids and the war is over. The team aspect of it and contributing to win the war does not even exist."

Specific Raiding Questions, (that I know I personally don't know), but that I'd

like to talk about in my blog:

You have four wilderness territories, isn't that alot of troops to have garrisoned?

Kheldara: "The gain from defending four territories is quite substantial compared to having 1-2 very well defended territories. Yes the amount of troops it takes to defend 4 territories is quite high, but that is where your ability to use the trading system to gather cards comes into play. If you want to feel the benefit of 4 territories it must be well defended. And all of that must be earned."

If a garrison army (the defenders) is defeated in a raid, do troops die and have to get rezd with god favor?

Kheldara: "Currently, we believe it is currently bugged. In our experiences of raiding the troops return full strength. They do not die and need to be resurrected at the temple. That is the current advantage for the defender as again their losses are not as great again reflecting the incentive loss for the raider.

I know the Army Size can vary from 50 CP to 150 CP, how big is the cooresponding force?

Kheldara: "The defending force will depend on your current level. The defender can deploy up to 1000 cp of troops during the entire raid. But the ammount that is deployed depends on the amount of CP the raider chooses to deploy. That is the range from 50-150CP."

For new raiders, what settings do you recommend for raiding? 3min - 5 min, 50CP through 150CP.

Kheldara: "For a new raider, inforamtion is the key to success. That means espionage data, assessment, planning and deploying what is needed to succeed. Spend no less than 5 mins and deploy 150CP. The more deployed, the better your chances to succeed."

Any specific things you want to say about raiding that I missed asking?

Kheldara: "Yes. Raiding requires skill on unit control. Micromanagement. Any defense can be destroyed, any territory raided, as long as you can control the field of battle. Where is this experienced gained? Player vs Player PvP! Get on the field, play other players. You will learn how to defeat the enemy when underhanded. When attacking, you are underhanded. They territory defense will always be stronger, unless the enemy does not deply correctly or at all. Learning to act when at a disadvantage is experience gained from real players. So go play real players."

Any shoutouts you would like to make to any particular players?

Kheldara: "All hail the Einherjar, but fear Illian and his Crusaders. I shop at SagaUnits.com."

THANKS KHELDARA!

New Player Quest List

Welcome new players. I am one too. I was lucky enough to get Sauron to answer some questions for me from the Saga Forums, so I figured to pass them off here on the Blog.

What quest do people farm for peasants? - Slow as a Chersus Up a Hill (Level 7)

What quest do people farm for all general resources? - Mithril Mines (Level 26)

What quest do people farm for stone? - Captain Wham (Level 19)

What quest do people farm for lumber? - Lumber Shipment (Level 14)

What quest do people farm for gold? - Haunted Hills (Level 17) - Twelve Trials: Part 1 (Level 30) - Gold Thieves (Level 17) - Labor Camp Liberation also drops a ton of gold, but takes time to beat. (Level 23)

What quest do people farm to level ground troops? - Stalling Tactics (Level 10) - Angor's Arms (Level 12) - Labor Camp Liberation. (Level 23)

What quest do people farm to level air troops? - Hunka Hunka Burnin Love (Level 18.) - Temple Defilers (Level 20) - Warlords of the East (Level 26)

What quest do people farm to level archers? - Hijacked! (Level 10) - Ashes to Ashes (Level 11) - Firebirds (Level 12)

What quest do people farm to get general experience? - Stalling Tactics (Level 10) - Angor's Arms (Level 12) - Labor Camp Liberation (Level 23)

What quest do people farm for leveling friends? - Mithril Mines (Level 26) - Warlords of the East (Level 26) - Age of Kynan (Level 35) - Hunka Hunka Burnin Love (Level 18.) - Stalling Tactics (Level 10) - Angor's Arms (Level 12) - Labor Camp Liberation (Level 23)

What quest do people farm for items? - Mithril Mines (Level 26) - Warlords of the East (Level 26) - Age of Kynan (Level 35) - Frigid North (Level 20) - Temple Defilers (Level 20) - Hunka Hunka Burnin Love (Level 18.) - Sacred Statue (Level 24) - Some more high level quests.

Team Covenant Writing Contest - Why do I play Saga?

So Team Covenant is running a contest to generate content for their site. I have no issues sending this in, but as I always struggle for blog content, I figured I'd cross-post it here as well.

However to plug their contest and their entry post, here are some links:

https://www.playsaga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6354

"Your Source For Everything Saga http://teamcovenant.com"

"Lowest Prices On All Units, Guaranteed http://store.teamcovenant.com"


Below is my Entry:



Player Nation Name: GOSLAND

Favorite Faction: Nature

Why do I play Saga?

General Answers:
Saga is by far the most relaxing RTS (real time strategy) or MMORG (Massively Multiplayer Online rollplaying game), or CCG (Collectible Card Game) that I've played in years.

Saga vs RTS:The feeling of building a city that is persistent, (doesn't go away when the game is over) is pretty unique. Unless you have alot of resources from buying gold or from transfering from another city, your city takes alot of work and efford to max out and make complete. This is both different than the normal RTS games, (whereas you can complete a build order city in several minutes), but it gives you something to plan offline.

Saga vs MMORG:In an MMORG you control a single player, and often can not stage massive battles unless you have lots of friends in a "Raid". This reliance on playing in large groups carries a level or coordination that Saga doesn't require. Saga give you an army of 100s of characters that you can general.

Saga vs CCG: In a CCG you play a game where each player has the same cards as soon as they can acquire them. So often people will post a strong set of cards on the internet, and everyone copies the "net-deck"immediantly. This results in alot of similar play, alot of mirror matches. In Saga even if you have the full set of all characters, you will have certain units that are leveled higher then others. I haven't seen the same exact army used in any of the games I have played. It adds a level of variability that you often don't see in a CCG.

Nature Specific Answers:

Nature is my favorite faction because of the following reasons:

Level of Detail for the Elven Characters: Saga Developers have definitely spent a great deal of time on designing the elven races. They have a much better look and feel then the War orcs. They seem to have been very well design. I quote Illian, "Elven Bear riders are Elfs riding on Bears". How singularly cool is that?

Treants: The first time I saw the treants I was in awe. 8 foot tall trees chucking bolders half a football field? Then after I got a few treants their strong utility in every quest I played. Such a good unit.

Elven Sabercat Riders: I loved the chicks on a cat. They make the best kiting unit for PvE I've ever seen. Human Cav Archers were my previous favorite kiter unit, but after I got some chicks on cats, my kiting was way more fun.

Walls around my main city are tighter: Compared to my Light army the Nature walls are very tight to the buildings. This is useful for pvp city battles as I can store my basistas in my town and they don't have to move very far to fire. If someone wants to nuke a city wall, they have to get closer with my city then with Light, which gives me more Stronghold archery fire, and makes them take more damage.

Four gatehouses vs two: I get four gatehouses with Nature on my city which is nice for City fights. Give me more directions to get to the battle, and makes my city looks much cooler.
Elementals: Fire, Lightning, and Earth elementals are way better looking then the light Giants. Their abilitiesare nice, anti-chain/plate, point blank area effect attack and a DPS melee ability. And they all look cool.

Quantity of Flyers, but not too many: compared to Light, (the best flyer faction), Nature still has good flyers. With the 4 unit limit, Nature can have 4 dragons, and 4 units of elven hawk riders, which is 8 units of flyerspotential. I've never seen a mission that I needed the 12 units of flyers that Light can field.

Speed of Flyers: The speed of the Elven Hawk Riders is one of the top flyers speed. This allows for very good pvp kiting. Many times my dragon has been smooshed in pvp because it has crappy range and slow speed. Having the ability to string the elven hawk riders around the map, gives me a speed advantage.

Cherbus's Special Ability plus Hawk Riders on a mass of Archers: Cherbus's can do a stacking Attack power buff on a group of archers. This stacking with Hawk Riders can give a 35% or more attack power bonus to a stack of Treants orlongbowman. Treants get a big damage bonus, so if you can buff their attack power and make every boulder count, you can basically make a high dps archer group that can spike incoming melee. In a large CP pvp game, my archer stackhas stredded a incoming melee group with this buff.

Druids: I started out assuming Druids were pretty weak like light Clerics. Fire and forget healers, no real utility after using the heal. Then for some reason I keep getting Druids in boosters, so I started playing them more. Druidsare pretty awesome. Main reason, SPEED. They can keep up with my Heavy Cav. Their heal is not single targetted, its instead a friendly AE with a large radius. I love it, makes it very useful. Also druids atack power is poor, but their ranged attack is pretty cool looking. They don't rock the damage, but they can help you take something down. Betterthen getting into melee and getting killed.


I think most armies are pretty well balanced. You definitely can play any army, but Nature has the main advantage ofsimply looking the coolest. This is why I like Saga and Nature.