The Vanguard- Basic Analysis:

Introduction:

Hello guys this is Zachary Snow bringing you a basic analysis of the new Vanguard class in the Free to Play game Nosgoth. This will go over the pros and cons of the Vanguard to see if he is a good class and so you can know if he is worth using an artifact or runestones to unlock. Also, you should not need any prior experience with this class(including viewing his skills) to understand this analysis, but you may so be prepared for that. Also, thank you again to my friends Tryer and Shadow for h

Pros:

Strong at Mid-Close range combat:

The vanguard is no stranger to close range combat at all. With his skill line-up and his weapon he defiantly excels more at close range and mid range combat. All of his skills have short-medium ranges and his throwing kamas are quite easy to hit at close range and somewhat easy for medium range. He also can use his shield to reduce melee damage he takes by 90% and can block a few vampire skills such as the Reavers pounce.

This picture showcases a range where the Vangaurd can use almost all of his skills effectively and should have no problem landing hits with his throwing kamas. He does however have one skill that requires him to be in melee range to land successfully since it is a close range shield bash that staggers vampires, but even if that is the case this range can let him get in some nice hits before he gets to use that skill. His medium distance travelling charge can hit close and mid range plus knocks them down, and his AoE move can hits vampires in a medium AoE around him and instantly kills them if they have 30% HP or less. So as you can see his moveset allows him to excel in closer quarter fights.

Good healing/support/offensive skill:

Now there is one other move that I did not mention in the previous pro and that is his Rousing Cry ability because it provides a strong mix of healing,support and offensive potential for your team. This move gives yourself and allies around you 3%HP/Sec and increases movement speed by about 15% for 5 seconds.

Firstly, the move heals 15%HP for all allies assuming they do not die before the effect ends. This allows you to heal allies and yourself after taking a small or moderate amount of damage such as after a Air Strike from a sentinel, and allows your team to not have to worry about supply stations as often. Also, it increases movement speed which has 2 possible benefits being either to run to a better location/regroup with other humans, or it allows you to chase down vampires that are either out of position or are trying to run away.

Can stagger,knockdown, or execute vampires:

The vanguard has some very strong CC and team-fight potential depending on what primary ability(Q) he decides to use. He can either do 275 damage and stagger(brief stun) a vampire at close range, do about 150 damage and knock-down a vampire at close-mid range by charging at them, or do 200 damage to all nearby vampires and instantly killing them if they have 30%HP or less.

In this picture I knock-down a Tyrant by charging at him, and if you think about it doing that or using the other moves can provide very strong outcomes in fights. Firstly, the shield bash can do a strong 275 damage, stagger a vampire stopping them from doing anything for a quick moment, and give you or team-mates the needed damage/stun to finish off a threatening vampire. Secondly, the charge can provide the knock-down to further stop a vampire and allow your team-mates or yourself to finish off the vampire at the cost of about 125 less damage from the skill. Lastly, the execute can take down vampires instantly if they have 30%HP or less, which can be great especially if your team is using a lot of AoE abilities.

Strong against vampire melee attacks:

I will be honest this was one of the things I was looking forward to with the Vanguard and so was my friend Tryer. Anyone who plays Nosgoth knows how annoying it can be to spammed to death by a vampires melee especially when you are very new to the game. Well stop the presses baby because the Vanguard can hard counter vampires who like to spam their melee attack all day everyday. Instead of aiming down sights the Vanguard holds out his shield to reduce damage from melee attacks and certain skills by 90%, but he can only block a few attacks before his guard is broken and it does recharge over time while not in use.

In this example I am able to block several attacks from this beefy Tyrant and I only take about 86 damage from several melee attacks! This can be great to do things such as stalling to get your abilities off of cool-down, stalling to wait until your team can help, or even wait out melee enchaining abilities such as the Reavers haste and the Tyrants enrage. All of this also allows him what seems to be the best odds of winning a 1v1 amongst most humans.

Cons:

Fairly poor at long range:

This one likely comes as no surprise given one of his pros is he is strong at close-mid range combat. Now in the right hands he can be pretty ok at long range combat but that is only his throwing kamas and not his skills. Also, just like Alchemist grenades the Vanguard has an arc to his kamas so they are nearly impossible to hit at long range for most players.

In this picture I found it some-what hard to hit this Tyrant due to his elevation and due to the fact his quite the far range away from me. If the vampires are using elevation and distance frequently you will likely not be throwing your weapon until they break out a fight.

Unable to block certain skills:

Earlier I mentioned that the Vanguard can block some skills;however, as far as current testing goes he is unable to block a fairly large chunk of skills. This can be quite the problem especially in team-fights where the vampires will likely use most or all of their abilities.

An example here shows that he is unable to block the Tyrants charge ability which means he must roll out of the way unless he wants to be at a disadvantage. He is also unable to block skills such as Choking Haze and Abduct/Kidnap. If you want to get good at Vangaurd I reccomend you test out fully what skills can and can't be blocked so you know in real games what to do. From what I have tested it seems he can block most likely just under half(40% i'd say) of vampire skills that intend to do damage. So make sure to do your testing!

Slightly-Moderately slower than other classes:

This con is not extremely noticeable but can make the difference in certain situations. From testing the vanguard seems to move slightly slower than most classes expect the Tyrant by about 5-10%. If this is the case this means the Vanguard needs to keep even more an eye out of where the team is since he will have a slightly harder time catching up.

In this example I was able to keep fairly close to a team-mate if we were both walking or sprinting. However, I was never able to get very close to him and sometimes found I would fall behind a fair amount. So keep close to your team or you might be a lone wolf or have to pop your Rousing Cry just to catch up!

Conclusion:

Overall, I would say the Vanguard is a very strong class if used right. He can provide plenty of healing,utility,and damage to your team if used properly. However, he is fairly slower, unable to block certain skills, and can not contribute much to long range engagements. So all in all I would say he is a could pick if your team needs someone with good short-mid range damage,utility and healing, but if you do not need that choose another class. Also,if you love a closer range minded Humans this man is the way to go! Thank you for reading this analysis of the Vanguard and I hope to see you soon! 

Nosgoth Basic Guide: Vampires

Introduction:
Hello everyone this is Zachary Snow here bringing you yet another basic guide for Nosgoth. This time we will be tackling some basic tips for how to play well as a Vampire. Just like my Human guide this will be mainly for newer players, but veteran players may find some use for these tips as well. Also, thank you to my friends Tryer, Shadow, and MistWolf19 for helping me take the pictures used in this guide and my earlier Human guide.

Use Vantage Points Often:
Unlike Humans with the rare exception of the scout(who needs the grappling hook skill) vampires get the great advantage of utilizing high altitude vantage points. This is extremely important to utilize as a vampire as it can give you consistent views of where the humans are at or where they might be heading to.

In this example I was a Reaver crouched  on a high tower as a result I was able to spot a Alchemist far off into the distance, and could inform my team-mate where she was at. Knowing where the humans at is crucial as vampires as it can give you the needed information to perform successful attacks that catch the Humans off guard, and can make it hard for the Humans to find where you are at.



Communicate Attacks With Your Team:

Now this is a tip I see Vampires either doing really well or not at all. I am guilty for note doing this one to much if I am playing with randoms(matched up with random people instead of making a party). This is ABSURDLY important as vampires because if you are unable to coordinate strong attacks the humans can just keep you at bay easy peasy and win the game due to their strong ranged abilities. 

In this example my Tyrant friend told me was going to engage on the 2 humans on  the bridge so in preparation I placed down a Choking Haze as his used his ground slam. This resulted in the humans being forced to stay in the toxic cloud for a few crucial seconds, and they did survive very long due to our teamwork. Make sure you do this as much as you can as it can make or break your teams chances of winning.

Stay Close To Team-mates:

Just like the Humans staying fairly close as vampires is quite important, but as vampires you do not need to be as close to your fellow vampires. With vampires you generally want to stay close enough to team-mates that you can see them or can at least get to them fairly fast. This is because if you are to far from your team it is near impossible for your team to make a strong imitation due to the lack of a vampire or two. The vampires may be good 1v1 but a 2v4 or 3v4 is not ideal for vampires.

In this example I am sticking close to my Tyrant because if he wants to initiate a fight I will be able to fight with him instead of being near useless on the other side of the map. Just like humans do not stay to close to team-mates especially in team-fights where the massive Area of Effect abilities the enemy will use may turn the battle in their favor. 


Know what to do with dead humans:Now this is something that I find is very simple but knowing what to do with this is very important. So of course when a Human is knocked out the vampire may execute them to get HP which takes a few seconds, or may drag the body to a safer location to execute afterwards. This is quite important as in some situations it may be better to leave a body despite that you are in dire need of one, or it may be smarter to drag a body away from an open area despite you not seeing any humans nearby.

In this battle I recently killed a Hunter who got me down to half health, and I was planning on executing him to get full HP. However, another Hunter showed up so I decided to leave because I would of died trying to execute the body, drag the body, or 1v1 the Hunter at half HP. In this situation that was smart to do since he could very easily burst me down at half HP and I could drag the body fast enough to get away from him, nor could I have found a good spot to execute him even if I could. This is important as a vampire as it could save your life or at the very least a moderate amount of HP after a fight.


Don't stay in one spot for long:

This tip I also find me and other Vampires either not doing at all or doing it quite a bunch. Staying in one spot can make it easy for the Humans to know your exact location, and lets the Scout get a nice charged arrow shot aimed right at your skull! Keeping a move on keeps the Humans on their toes and it makes it hard for them to know your exact location even if they manage to spot you moving around.

In this battle I was staying on top of this tower for a good amount of time, and this aloud a Hunter to easily spot me simply because he was looking around at rooftops. Moving around will keep the humans on their toes and can save you quite the large amount of HP. So just keep a move on from time to time and the humans may never you see you coming at all.

The End:

Hey thanks for reading my Basic Guide on how to play the vampires in Nosgoth. If you want to comment below feel free to tell me what you thought because I am always open to your opinions. If you want to keep up to date with this blog feel to subscribe to the blog, like/follow my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter. Also, you can check out my Google+ page for updates as well and you can go to my Youtube for the occasional video guide or maybe even a simple Lets Play.

Nosgoth Basic Guide: Humans

Introduction:

Hey guys this is Zachary Snow here bringing you yet another basic guide. This weeks guide is how to do well/survive as the human faction in the Free to Play Game Nosgoth. This guide will tell you helpful tips on how to perform well as the humans and this mainly towards more new people,but experts may find some helpful things they might overlook from time to time.

Stay close but not to close:

When you play as the humans most people will figure they should stick close to their team-mates so they do not get destroyed 1vs1 against a vampire. Now this is a good idea for the most part, but staying to close can have its own problems

This picture is a golden example of why you should not stick to close to your team. In the picture I was sticking to close to my other team-mate allowing the tyrant to land a shock-wave on the both us,thus leaving us vulnerable to his fellow vampires. Additionally, this is also true for all other vampire classes such as the Reavers choking haze, the sentential's air strike, and the deceivers infect. Staying close to team-mates does allow you guys to work together to kill the vampires, but don't stick close or you will regret it SO HARD!

Eyes up high and on the sky:

The vampires can be very sneaky running around on the rooftops and even flying around the map. It is critical that you at least keep an eye up high every few seconds to ensure something doesn't surprise you or your team. Not doing so can result in a game that heavily favours those sneaky vampires.

In this game I was a scout and by keeping my eyes up high I was able to notice this sneaky summoner running around in an attempt to flank me. Not doing so could of resulted in the summoner having free reign on me by spamming her spells resulting in my death without me knowing any better. It is very important to do these even if you do not have the massive zoom of the Scout because not knowing where the vampires are for a long period of time will result in your team losing an upcoming fight that you had no idea was going to happen.

Use your sprint and roll:

This may sound weird at first but it will make sense soon. So the humans in Nosgoth have unlimited sprint and can roll not to long after a previous roll or sprint. It is important to utilize your sprint to do things such as catching up to your team,pursuing a injured vampire, or running away from a losing fight.

Also, using your roll is very important to dodge attacks that the vampires send your way and can make the difference between life the death in many cases.

Anticipating an attack I role once this summoner walks towards me, she did attack once I started rolling so I managed to dodge her attack and was able to cloak and run out before she could do anything else. So make sure to use your roll or else you may regret it.

Keep an eye on your mini-map:

Here is a tip I personally do not enough my self. So the mini-cap contains very useful information such as supply station locations and the location of your team-mates. Keeping a close tab on this very important to know where your team is or if you need a supply station.

In this example from looking at the mini-map I am able to tell where my team-mate is, that he is taking damage, and that their is a nearby supply station for me to heal up at. Especially, in heated situations looking at the mini-cap can make the difference.

Stock up on Health and Ammo Often:

I am also quite guilty of not doing this one as often as I should be. This is very situational as it depends on your current ammo,health, where the vampires are at, where your team is at etc. However, I find that it is better to stock up on HP and ammo sooner rather than later in case of a long fought out fight.

In this picture I decided to heal up even though I had a good 75% of my HP left and had near or completely full ammo. I did this because having the full health and ammo would be critical for an upcoming fight since if I ran out of ammo or got low on HP I would not be in fighting condition. Keep this in mind any time you are even starting to get sort of low on health or ammo IT COULD SAVE YOUR VIRTUAL LIFE!

Focus fire frequently:

This one can make one HUGE difference in a variety of cases. If during a fight each team member is attacking a different vampire the team is bound to fail in many cases since humans usually lose a 1v1 against vampires. Focusing down vampires can give the humans the edge they need especially against vampire classes that are being annoying or even a specific vampire who is playing way better than his or her team mates.

In this scenario me and my team member were focusing down a tyrant who decided to show his face to us, we got in some good damage and we forced him to pop his ignore pain when he was not to low on HP. Even if you do not do a lot of damage to a vampire focusing fire can make them waste abilities or retreat from a fight they otherwise would of stayed in. This tactic works better if your are communicating with your team such as in-game voice or text chat or you are skyping with 1 or more team members.

The End:

Thank you guys for reading my latest guide to playing as a Human in Nosgoth. Comment what you thought about it or any suggestions you have. Go out there and MOW DOWN SOME VAMPIRES!

Brave Frontier Guide- What Unit Types are good and which ones are bad?

Introduction:

Hello, this guide is a simple guide in which I will analyse each unit type such as anima and lord and tell you which ones I believe are the best and worst. For this guide you do not need to know what types do what because I will be saying for each type what stats are affected, but you will have to know what each stat does. After reading this guide you should be able to figure what units you have that are good unit and bad unit types. As always this is ultimately my opinion only, so if you disagree with my reasoning that is completely fine. Also, if you do not wish to read this guide but still are interesting in this topic then please watch the video I made just below the introduction. Lastly, this guide extends from my previous guide on how to analysis a units usefulness so check that out to further understand where I am coming from.

Video Guide:

Anima:

This unit type increases the amount of HP a unit gets and decreases how much REC. This is the best typing for a unit in my opinion. This is because HP increases a units survivability more than DEF since it is not affected by things such as DEF ignore and counters flat damage attacks better. Addtionaly, most units hit the REC soft-cap of about 1.3-1.5K, so the REC drop is hardly noticeable. This example of my Anima Elza will help emphasize how good an anima is stat wise.

The stats make me drool a little bit....

Breaker:

This unit type increases the growth rate of ATK but decreases the growth rate of DEF. Since, Brave Frontier is mainly focused on making sure your units have good defences this typing is not that great(but not the worst). The increased ATK is very nice on attack focused units, but is not very good in support or healer units since they do not do a lot of damage to begin with. Additionaly, the DEF drop is really bad for any unit role no matter what. However, unlike a typing we will get to later, this typing stat boost is at least a little useful worst case scenario. Here is an example of a unit that having Breaker on is quite annoying.

I cringe a little bit every time 

Guardian:

How about we move on to a type that won't make me cringe a little bit? Guardian increases the growth rate of DEF, but lowers the growth rate of ATK. This typing is quite good because the DEF boost is very useful in almost any scenario for any unit role. However, the ATK drop can be a bit annoying for units that do a lot of damage,but the DEF makes them more survivable so it is made up for in most cases. Here is an example of attacking role unit with guardian as his type.

SNIPER NO SNIPING!

Lord:

The lord type knows how to keep stuff simple for us. This typing does not affect a units stats AT ALL. So, this means it will not makes your unit do more damage,less damage, be more tanky, be less tanky etc. This means the Lord typing is the kind of type that you can't get to happy or mad for getting due to this. I will be honest it is really hard to complain or be happy about getting this type. Here is a Lord type unit.

Cant go wrong or right with a lord can ya?

Oracle:

Oh boy now this is where it will get interesting. This typing increases the growth of REC, but decreases the growth rate of HP. This typing is so bad that it almost feels like I get cancer every time I see this word on a unit. Most good units hit the REC soft cap even with anima! Also, HP is the most reliable form of survivability stat wise so decreasing it is begging a unit to get wrecked every time they battle any tough enemies. Overall, this typing is the worst typing you can possibly get on any unit, and unless it is the only unit you have of it, you will likely want to get rid of any units that are oracles and that you have at least another one of it that is not oracle. Here is an example of cancer incarnate......I mean an oracle unit(keep in mind he is only 5 stars at the moment) 

MY EYES THEY BURN!

Preferred Order:

Here is the order of overall usefulness of each unit type from best to worst going from left to right

Anima>Guardian>Lord>Breaker>Oracle

End:

Thank you as always for watching my latest gaming guide on brave frontier. Please feel free to comment on what you thought about it. My next post will be a basic guide for playing Humans in the Free to Play Game Nosgoth. Make sure to check out my twitter for the time and date of which it will be posted.

Brave Frontier- Basic Guide to Analysing a Units Usefulness

Important Note!:

This guide is for Brave Frontier Global so this means 7 star units will not be factored into this guide, and any other units that are currently only available in the Japan version(which is ahead of the global version in terms of content) will also not be factored into this guide. 

Also, this guide is ultimately my personal opinion on how to tell if a unit is good or not, and is not the must do way of analysing a units usefulness.This guide assumes you know the basics of brave frontier such as what are brave bursts and super brave bursts, what each stat(attack,defence etc) does, what a leader skill is, what brave crystals and heart crystals do, what each unit type does to a units stats(anima,lord etc.) and the roles units can have(support, attacker, healer etc). 

If you do not know the basics of Brave Frontier either check out the official wiki at http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/Brave_Frontier_Wiki or ask me your questions in the comment section of this blog post.

Introduction:

Hello, welcome to my basic brave frontier guide on how to analyse a units overall usefulness. After this guide you should be able to tell what units you have that you should keep, get rid off, or what units you want but don't have to best fit your squad. This guide will be looking at the following aspects of a unit: Stats(attack,defence etc), leader skill, and Brave Burst(BB)/Super Brave Burst(SBB).

Analysing a units stat line:

This is the very easy part of this guide because we are just looking at number and comparing to what I consider is good for the stat[s] in question, so lets take a look at each stat individually, expect Attack and Defence since I believe they have the same range for what I consider good.

Health(HP): 

This is what I consider the most important stat in the game because health is more reliable than defence due to things such as defence ignoring attacks and attacks that do fixed damage(an attack that always does 4000 damage). Just about every strong/good unit will have close to 6000 HP or so before any kind of stat boost(including spheres) if they are not an oracle. I say this because HP much lower than 6000 tends to result in the unit being an easy target for late game bosses to destroy in just a single turn even if they have gotten a nice boost to their max HP.

Please note that some very good units that are oracle will have an HP stat much lower than 6K so be lenient in that case.

Here is an example of a unit with HP that would be considered good and notice how he does not have any spheres on.

I would hope a beast this big would have good health :p

Attack(ATK) and Defence(DEF):

Having good attack is extremely important for your damage dealing units, but if your unit is not an attacker this stat is not very important. If your unit lacks good attack as an attacker unit he might as well be trying to tickle the late game bosses with a feather duster at that point. So, with that said the number I find to work well overall is about 1700-1800 or greater for attack because this is enough along with typical stat boosts such as leader skills and spheres to give your attacker unit solid damage output, and for other roles such as support it gives them the ability to do at least slightly noticeable damage so that they are not completely useless without their BB or SBB.

Furthermore having good DEF is super important(just slightly less than HP) to have on all roles because if this is low even if the unit has good HP they will still get wrecked hard but high damaging dealing bosses. Just like ATK around 1700-1800 or more is great to have before stat boosts because it will allow a unit to at least take some fairly heavy punishment before getting killed.

Now this Elza is a very good example of a unit with strong ATK and very good DEF, and she is super adorable so I can't complain :)

The adorableness is REAL!

Recovery(REC):

This stat in most cases is a stat that you do not have worry about most of the time on good units. This is because the soft-cap for REC starts somewhere around 1300-1500, so this means that if a units REC goes over the soft-cap that means all the REC past it is not as effective. For example if a unit had 1700 about 200-400 of its REC would be affected by the REC and be mostly wasted.

Also it should be noted that most good units will hit soft-cap for REC in most cases and sometimes WAYYYYY over it such as the Beast God Exvehl I used as an example picture earlier.

Here is an example of a unit that has in the best case scenario just went over the REC soft-cap

I recommend you do not pet the dogs xD

Leader Skill:

Now this is where it can get quite complicated in some cases. When it comes to leader skill some are almost always good, some are sometimes good, and some are near worthless, and a good chunk of this depends on your current squad. It may help to know that this what a squad should consist of:

1. A way to produce BC effectively
2. Keep your squad good on HP
3. Boost squads offensive potential and or help with damage
4. Boost squads survivability  

So being able to tell if a leader skill is helpful is to figure out if the leader skill will help achieve one of the 4 goals mentioned above, or will at least add to one of them if all 4 are achieved. For example Beast God Exvehl leader skill can be helpful if you need to achieve the goal of being more survivable and keeping up their HP, otherwise if you do not need that his leader skill won't be much help.

Here are some good leader skill examples that can fit the 4 goals 

That pose though 

Keep a close tab on your wallet when this dude is around :p

However, some leader skills do not achieve one of the 4 goals or does not do a very good job of doing so such as adding attack to units of a certain element because it means in order to be effective it requires a team of one element.

Here is an example of a not so helpful leader skill

DON'T STARE AT IT!

Brave Burst/Super Brave Burst:

For the last section lets talk BB and SBB. This is ULTRA important for any unit as even with good stats a unit with a bad BB and or SBB is about as helpful as a holding a metal rod in the middle of a thunderstorm. Just like leader skills BB and SBB they help with achieving the 4 main goals of a good squad.

Keep in mind that most BB and SBB have more than 1 effect such as doing damage and increasing all units ATK for 3 turns, but if a BB just does 1 thing don't assume the SBB will be bad. Some good BB include Beast God Exvehl who removes status ailments and nullifies them for 3 turns and Thief God Zelnite who does damage to all enemies and adds several brave crstyals to all other allies

Also, an example of a bad BB and SBB is a unit named Gravion because his BB is only a 10 hit combo on all enemies and his SBB is a 12 hit combo BUT DOES NOTHING ELSE!

The End:

Thank you so much for reading my basic guide on analyzing a units usefulness. If you have you wish to say about this guide such as what you liked, what could be improved etc please feel free to make a comment about it below(just keep it reasonable ok?). All pictures used in this blog were taken on samusung galaxy s4 phone and were my own units,therefore I own the pictures used on this blog post.