Hero Wars Dominion: March 2025

Folio Event (continued)

February 24 - March 2

It's the final day of the Folio event and I did the unthinkable (based on past events). I actually tackled the Triumph of the Mind bosses. I was hesitant at first because it didn't look like I was going to get far.

Took the leap, while using the tutorials, and made surprising progress. In hindsight, probably should have held off on the artifacts but at the time of spending, things were looking bleak. Fortunately I checked back in time to see that I could actually get some attacks in.

I fought all boss waves and stopped at 250 on my FB account. Interestingly I missed some days on my web account and stopped at 240. I say stopped because I ran out of materials and ink energy.

It was a long time ago, but I still remember when buffs weren't needed to fight bosses. Not only that, I also remember when having a lot of buffs translated into a positive outcome rather than a negative one. Moreover, it was also possible to get a new hero to 6-stars during the designated event from the themed shop.

For most of the recent new hero releases, I've gotten the new heroes to either 4 or 5 stars during their event. On the rare occasion do I get them to absolute. As far as rank upgrades, TMNT is the only event where I managed to upgrade a new hero to Red rank (the highest required for the ranking task).

The Folio Event (Way of the Truth Seeker), the Path to Glory, Triumph of the Mind and the Oasis Shop were decent. The Treasury and the Archaeologist's Tool were passable. No comment for the Workshop as it started to get difficult to keep up with how much materials were needed.

Chrometal was needed for everything and not in small quantities. Despite seeing that the buffs required small amounts at a time, I started upgrading the ring and bowl to get more resources. That said, I didn't upgrade any of the artifacts on my web account and was still able to fight the 230 boss - even with the missed days.

Major Lesson Learned with the Boss Fights

Don't get attached to a preferred team. I was stuck on a very specific team because they were actually putting a dent in the 190 boss battles. Not only that but the fights were interesting to watch.

In fact, I tried to recreate my campaign team that defeated Khornak, but a key member wasn't available plus someone would've been replaced by Folio. The team:

The preferred team.

I used this team on my FB account and then went to my web account to do some buff testing. I went all the way to 40 buffs - knowing there was a confirmed team for that amount - to see if anything would come of it. While the amount of damage increased, progress towards defeating the bosses didn't.

Finally switched over to the tested and confirmed team. Of course I tried the team again with the next level boss and it ended in the same manner.

The Phantom Orchestra - Level 65

February 28 - March 2

Some improvements have taken place with the heroes since their last fight with Maestro in mid-February. Instead of having 1-million HP left I'm not at have 655K HP left. I'm still getting to the 10-million damage mark which is great.

That said, I'm still some ways away from having solid teams for this particular boss. I've already selected a team to remove but am still working on a new team composition to take this teams place. Of the five, only one is doing over 3-million damage while the rest are in the 2-million range.

One thing I'll have to keep in mind is to make sure I don't assemble a team that has heroes from any of the established teams; did this with Osh but that miscalculation worked out for the better. Something I know for certain won't work for Maestro.

The Great Storm and Cosmic Battles

March 4 - 6 and 4 - 7

Cosmic Battle and Great Storm will both begin on the 4th. CB ban phase will take place on the 4th with the actual event starting on the 5th.

Was able to compete with Cosmic Battles up to Challenger 1 and then stopped. Was able to do some of the Great Storm tasks but gameplay came to a halt as I ran out of resources to further participate and to get the remaining two chests. I was so close to fighting the Boss but didn't have enough action points to continue.

Legacy of the Great Ones and Guardians of Outland

March 6 - 8 & 7-9

Not much was done in way of participation as I was still gathering resources. Likely did the minimum by way of daily tasks that coincided with event tasks.

Area of Conquest

March 9 - 12

For the love of sanity, let us upgrade the castle one level at a time. Lump leveling is a pain especially with the current season format; minus the hidden requirement for each level. This time around, Area of Conquest got a revamp.

Less coins needed to upgrade castle, pattern chests for ranking and more rewards for the reward paths. Less coins for leveling was welcomed but the other two mentioned improvements wasn't what some were expecting. The pattern chests were filled with gray patterns and for whatever reason 4th place went without.

The increased rewards weren't visible to the non-paying players so likely the rewards increased for those that purchased the golden ticket. Seeing as how the castle leveling was put within reach, I decided to see what was what for leveling. Using one of my web accounts and my main FB account I went to work to see what was needed.

A major pain point that is still present is the inability to upgrade the castle one level at a time. So that meant spending the coins as soon as I got enough to do a level. I'm serious, I had timers set so that I could do this.

I had the 32 settlement so that sped some things up plus a fellow guild member came back after a long while and helped out; they had an 8 settlement.

Castle Leveling

Castle Level on FB Acct.

At the start, there was a consistent pattern between the superior coins needed and the corresponding levels. To go from Level 1 to 6, the SCs increased in increments of 250. From 6 to 15, the coins increased in increments of 500. 

From 15 to 23, the coins increased in increments of 1,000. From 23 to 30, the coins increased in increments of 2,000. From 30 to 34, the coins needed increased in increments of 5,000.

From 34 to 36, the coins increased in increments of 25,000. From 36 to 38, they increased to 50,000. Now, this leveling experiment started on one of my web accounts and then it was continued on my FB account. With the two of us, we were able to reach 25 castle level.

The rewards didn't feel any different and I didn't see where the increase took place. The valuable rewards were located on the paid path. Moreover, the ranking rewards weren't what many were expecting.

There are 4 guilds participating in this event, so surely they can grant flag patterns and golden thread for the 4th guild as well. Despite me stopping at Level 25, there were some players that kept going.

Possible Improvements

Instead of putting health potions and move recovery items on the reward path, just give them to the players outright. Give 3-5 of each and have the quantity replenish after x-amount of time. This will free up spots on the reward path which leads to the next possible improvement.

Make leveling the castle worthwhile for everyone. Replace the skin stone chests with large skin stone chests, include explorer's moves in the slots that use to hold the event items, and include a Blue or Violet Gift of Dominion at Level 24 on the free path.

Next, modify some of the settlements so that they can produce more coins. Or, have the amount of coins earned increase by x-amount with each castle upgrade. In addition to this, add some PVE (player-vs-environment) elements to the map. Fighting these PVE elements will help with coin earnings as well.

Last but not least, ranking rewards. All four participating guilds should be receiving rewards; not just the first three. War Flag Patterns/Pattern Chests and Golden Thread can be distributed as follows: 1st - 4,000 threads and 16 War Flag Pattern Chests, 2nd - 3,000 threads and 12 War Flag Pattern Chests, 3rd - 2,000 threads and 8 War Flag Pattern Chests, 4th - 1,000 threads and 4 War Flag Pattern Chests.

The rewards are based on the revamped rewards. If they revert to the former reward system, the thread amount stays the same while the patterns could be Orange, Violet, Blue and Green respectively. Or - I'm dreaming on this one - Red, Orange, Violet and Blue.

Titan Brawls and Iyari's Event

March 12 - 14

A rare moment where I was actively participating in the brawls and titan event. My eyes were set on the shop as there was a major need for Gleaming Seals. Iyari is the only Light Titan that I have in use that is mostly built up.

Earned enough brawl coins to get enough Gleaming Seal chests to max out Iyari's seal. The remaining coins were used to get regular seal chests which were used to upgrade Moloch's Defense Seal. Now that I think about it, Iyari and Moloch are my two strongest titans.

Celebrating 9-years of Hero Wars Dominion

March 17 - 23

Like prior years, Archdemon is out for some cake. Fight him and get slices of cake to complete the big day tower cake. A new addition to the event is the daily puzzles which were hidden in campaign chapters.

While the puzzles were easier this time around, the reset time messed me up a lot. Depending on the time you came on, you will either get a new puzzle complete or realize that you completed the puzzle already (which happened a couple of times since I sign on late).

Also during this time, we got the Strongford Quiz which was hit and miss for some players. The main issue is the ranking system. You can only obtain event rewards if you successfully meet the stated objectives.

So if you have to place in the Top 3, you have to be in the game within a few minutes of the event starting. While this doesn't sound like much, there are players that will shoot for high scores right out of the gate. Though interesting, they should consider doing away with the scoreboard.

Tournament of Power

March 17 - 20

Like last ToP, players came out of nowhere and shot the minimum high score through the roof. The event ended with me getting 5th. As an added bonus, I was able to complete March's To Do List for hero upgrading. Focus this time around was on heroes that I use to fight Maestro and The Phantom Orchestra.

Guild Raid Bosses

The Galahad team is the experiment team (again).

The last two boss fights of the month were something else. Defeated the Osh 115 boss during March 21 - 23 session and progressed to Level 125. Super excited and did a little happy dance.

During the March 28 - 30 session, I fought and defeated Maestro 65 which allowed me to progress to Level 75. This was like a little bonus especially with the difficulty I've been having with this particular boss. Of the teams used, the experiment team dealt the finishing blow.

This is big because I have 4 established Maestro teams that have consistently deal 10-million damage. The 5th team has been a wild card since I started changing the lineup to get better results. So now, I have 2-teams that are dealing 3-million damage.

If performance stays the same during the next iteration, then I can shift my focus to adjusting one of the other teams. This is the 3rd modification to the Galahad team. Augustus and Sebastian were replaced with Folio and TMNT.

Looking Ahead to April

No major plans at the moment but focus will still be on upgrading heroes that I'm using in Maestro teams. While it looks like March was lacking in events, it's far from fact. Had to take breather and ignored some of them.