Welcome back, Adventurers.

We have delved into several of the characters exploring the world of World of Warcraft: the Adventure Game. We have explored the fury of the warrior , the finesse of the warlock , the deadliness of the hunter , and the skills of the mage . Now we shall look at the combat and level building aspect of the game.

I shall start with the basics. Every encounter card only requires a character to survive for one round of combat. Knowing this we can start to look at statistics and ratios. For instance, the average grey level encounter has between a 1 and 2 attack value, a 5 defense value, and does 1 damage. That means if you are playing a melee character all you need on average to beat a grey level encounter card is a defense value of around 5, giving the character a chance of avoiding the attack. For ranged attacks, it shouldn’t matter if you can pull off a high enough attack to defeat the encounter. Almost all grey level encounter cards use a melee attack value, so for a ranged user all you need to focus on is landing a hit, because if you hit a melee attacker with a ranged attack, then they are defeated before they hit you.

Any character that begins the game with a good hand has a chance against any level up grey space. Keep in mind that all green level up spaces are melee attacks, so a ranged attack just needs to hit. However, a melee character needs to watch their health and make sure they can risk being hit by the encounter. If you know you have the ability cards to handle the green level up space, then you should forget those quests for now and head right for it. If you have not rolled enough movement to get to a green level up space, your best bet is to head for a space that allows you to draw discovery tokens. Depending on the type of token drawn, you should either place it to help you with the level up space or hinder and slow down an opponent. For more about where to place discovery tokens, refer to The Thrill of Discovery . If the other characters get to green level before you, do not feel rushed to level up. If you were in the middle of completing a quest, you should finish it, because valor points are what win the game.

Green level encounters get just a bit tougher, but not by much. Green encounters still maintain the average 1 or 2 attack value, so a melee character with 5 defense will still do well. Where green encounters differ from grey is in the amount of ranged attacks. Almost 2/3 of the green encounter deck have ranged attacks. Having more ranged encounters thrown into the mix makes winning for ranged characters a little bit harder if they are low on health. About half the green level encounters also have a 6 defense value, so you can be sure that if your opponent is ranged based and has few to no cards in their hand that they will be spending the next turn or two gathering good weapon replacement cards.

Hint: If an opponent appears to be gathering cards, then perhaps they are not ready for player versus player combat. If you have something to gain by eliminating them (from a quest, or to take a really nice item from them), this is your chance to do so with little reprisal.

Don’t think that being melee means a character has it any easier than ranged characters, because many green encounters also have a damage value of 2. The higher damage value offsets the higher health value of the melee based characters. So before attempting green encounters, make sure you have a fair amount of health, a good set of armor, and a good attack value. Ranged characters will not have that slight upper hand against the yellow level up space encounters that they shared with the green level up spaces, because two of the level spaces are ranged attacks and the other has a 7 defense and benefits from low rolls.

Just as one would expect, yellow encounters are tougher than green encounters. Unlike the slight difference in difficulty that grey and green encounters have, the progression in difficulty from green to yellow is significant. Yellow encounters have an average attack value of 1 and 2, a defense between 6 and 7, and still deal 1 or 2 damage. For the early levels I suggested that characters should have certain things in their possession before taking on encounters, now they must have them. A ranged character must have a high weapon replacement card or solid ranged weapon at his disposal in order to guarantee a hit. A melee character must pay attention to their health and needs a very good set of equipment to overcome those attack values of 2 and defenses of 6. Most characters will spend most of the game at yellow level, because yellow encounters reward really good equipment that will stay helpful for defeating red level encounters. Another reason character may find themselves stuck at yellow level for so long, is because many yellow encounters have attacks specifically meant to delay the characters rather than damage them. Prepping for red level up spaces is hard for both melee and ranged character types. Both red level up spaces are ranged attacks with high defenses and deal 2 damage. Knowing what powers you have in your hand, how much health you can afford to lose, and what gear is equipped, one should be able to used that knowledge combined with the information gathered in my other articles to discern if they are ready for red level up encounters or attacking another character that may have exhausted all of their resources.

Upon hitting red level the character should be ready to head right for the overlords and claim victory. The best part about red level encounters is how much less of a threat they are compared to yellow encounters. Only one value average stat changes from yellow to red and that is the defense value, rising to an average of 7 and 8. Another good thing about the red encounter deck is that it houses very few ranged attack encounters. Red level is just like the grey level. The two levels that the characters should spend the least amount of time in are grey and red. Their single purpose is to slow down a character on their way to an overlord.

Player versus player is encouraged at this point in the game. Watch carefully what cards opponents have played. Take note of things such as if the mage played water elemental and lost it due to taking damage. Maybe even try to coax them into wasting abilities on your character while you keep your key abilities to defeat the overlord. Above everything else you have read, my most important advice is to pay attention and keep mental notes on all opponents’ progress, discovery tokens, and the chart below. Following this simple ratio and statistics layout you should be able to come out on top as the victor, unless your opponent has also read this. In that case who ever does better with mind games, mental notes, and risk taking will come out on top. 


World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game Encounter Stats with every expansion added

As always, thanks again for your time. Up next the first wave of expansion character articles!

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game puts you on the path to renown. 2-4 players take on the role of fledgling adventurers seeking to become legendary warriors. Each turn sees players completing quests, fighting vicious creatures, and above all, vying for glory!