There's been a lot of interest, it seems, in ISO strategy, so, I thought I'd go a bit deeper and show you mine. I do not profess to be a master of ISO strategy, as it's personal your style of play. As you know, my style for most characters involves fast aggression and tries to avoid prolonged fights. Let's kick off this new feature with some P5 suits. I have earned Magik and purchased Cyclops (tactian), Emma (tactician), Phoenix (tactician), and Colossus (bruiser... betcha thought I was gonna say tactician). This is part 2, everyone who's not Cyclops and Emma.
Phoenix (Tactician)[]
This is what my Phoenix, basic suit, Blaster, looked like. She is only Level 11, so not a full compliment of ISO:
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I think this demonstrates a few things, so is worthy of comment. The first thing you might notice is that my Phoenix only has 1 bar of Defense, while the brand new Phoenix from the store has 2. Well, here's a dirty little secret (that isn't that secret). As you level your heroes, their stats increase. And the threshhold for bars increases as well. I haven't ISO'd anything to Phoenix's defense (more on that later), so, with the increase in stats and the more than proportional increase in stat ranges, she lost a bar. In fact, She hasn't really gained a bar except in the Health and Stamina realm as I've Iso'ed her.
The point of the previous paragraph is this: As you increase in level, the ISO crystals become less relevant. This is okay at lower levels, when you have new ISO crystals to get. After you pass Level 150 or so, the ISO does less, and there's no new level (short of gold purchase crystals) to replace the outdated shards. I would really appreciate it if Playdom could see into their hearts to introduce new research for a fourth level of ISO, for those of us over 150, where we're at the point of diminishing returns. I can't imagine what this is going to look like in 11 levels when I hit 200.
To get her into this kind of shape, I ignored her defense (her evasion is high, so why bother building it) and made sure that every crystal I added built Health and Stamina. The only really stamina intense move that she has in Phoenix Fire, which, due to it's cool up, you almost never use. Quel domage. So, build her ATK to remain 5 bar and build her Accuracy and Evasion as high as they will go.
I refined this approach a bit in my new build:
Old Build - New Build
- 3 Robust - 2 Robust
- 2 Steadfast - 3 Steadfast
- 2 Flourishing - 2 Flourishing
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What I'm trying to get at here is as close to five bars on the three stats I'll use (ATK/EVA/ACC) while building the Health/Stamina as high as possible. I stole one ATK to build one EVA. One thought. Given her passive, maybe I don't need to build ACC as high as all that, so maybe I will build the EVA to 976 instead of the accuracy to 960. But, since the P5 effects are fairly random in application, I can't just chuck Accuracy.
Side Note: I kind of except the Buff Buffer to come to White Crown Phoenix, regular Phoenix and by extension P5 Phoenix at some point before I get bored with the game and move on. That will make this look like a very savvy purchase. At the moment, she's, uhm, okay.
Colossus (Bruiser)[]
For the sake of this conversation, I will be using Modern Colossus (Bruiser) as the base case. I use him exclusively, and I will probably go back to him when they fix Colossus's P5 Guardian power. I have belief that Guardian Power isn't working the way it was intended.
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Obviously, he's never gonna be Spiderman with the dodge, so let's not worry. Less obviously, I spent some gold here. And I spent it half wisely (2 Refined Violents - ATK-ACC) and half stupidly (Refined Tireless and Refined Nimble +42 to Evasion?!?!?). Smack my head. Whoops. (In my defense, I use a TON of Mod Colossus). Any rate, since I'm kind of done buying gold crystals, I had to build a little differently (and maybe smarter... like not waste time with Evasion). I would not buy a gold crystal for P5 Colossus, because I think the Fix Hammer is gonna fall on him and he will be less useful than Mod Colossus.
So, what to do with our new focus.
- 5 Masterful (Stamina, ATK, ACC)
- 2 Steady (Health, ATK, ACC)
- 1 Resilient (Health, Defense)
I think this might be a bit controversial, as the natural inclination would be to pump his health and his defense and let him tank. But this Colossus doesn't have Mod Colossus's Steel Fortress buff, so he's not the tank that Mod Colossus is, not by a long shot.
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What have I done? I've spent less gold, gotten more health, more stamina, very close to the same attack, more defense, very close to the same accuracy, and I stopped wasting time with evasion. In my opinion, this is a much better build, and I should probably think about redoing my Mod Colossus in the same manner.
Magik[]
There is no before build for her, because she's always been P5. So, let's talk about build.
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To get her to look like this, I just chunked her with 6 Steady Isos (Health, Attack, Accuracy). As I level her, the question is to improve her accuracy (key because she doesn't charge if she misses and no charge = slower damage dealing) with Health, Stamina, Accuracy crystals, or her defense (key to keep her alive) with Health, Stamina, Defense. You will note that I haven't built her stamina yet. Her first three moves are low to moderate stamina users. Her Soulflare, on the other hand, is stamina intensive. And I've come to like hitting people with it as it's a KO kind of move. So, yeah, gonna juice her stamina.
That concludes the discussion of the P5 costumes I've gotten already. If I add more costumes (seems possible), I will add more articles. What do you all think? Share in the comments.