Faction Wars Teams
Since the forums should always have a Faction Wars Megathread, I'm going to share my original FW21 teams from my Lydia grind. Hopefully it will be able to help out as people look to work on FW for themselves. I would encourage others post their teams too.... everyone's FW journey is very dependent on champs, and all of our teams will look different. Lets try and get some example teams up for folks!
A few caveats:
1) Some of these teams are not fantastic, but my champ roster was fairly limited then, and Lydia was such a huge reward for my account that I was willing to rank up whomever needed to finish. Don't judge me too harshly, I still use most of these champs in FW and about all of them in DT Secret Rooms now.
2) At the time of this post, it's been 16-18 months or so since I did much of this, so hopefully I can still remember some details for all of you. A picture says a thousand words, so I'll mostly stick to posting my pitiful teams. lol
3) If you've got an awesome team that works way better, lets see it! :) My 21s are all on farm now, and with much better champs overall, but this shows the teams I limped to the finish line with. haha
4) One of the major things I would recommend to people is to build a few gear sets and just swap them champ to champ. A couple of 220 speed/70k+ HP Immortal/Regen sets will make almost every FW crypt significantly easier to finish. And a little gear swap silver now is much better than 6+ more months farming.... more on this and the sets and such below.
Banner Lords could have been way better, and most people have an easier time with it. But I was hurting for viable champs to rank up until building Hellmut and getting an extra Giscard after the Brogni fusion. This was one of my last crypts to finish.
Demonspawn was a real struggle, as I had all the sustain in the world but absolutely no real damage in my builds or team. Building and booking Umbral Enchantress to lock down the Sethallias in Wave 1 was the real key here. Otherwise, my team was hard locked on the waves,
Ogryn wasn't bad at all. I had been blessed with two great Ogryn leggos in Big'Un and Ignatius, and had my Skullcrusher fully booked and built from my CB team. Still, without books on Iggy, and my Bellower being 107 speed for a campaign farmer, I found myself rebuilding him. Then it took 3-4 tries on the day to land an Uugo revive right before the boss died. This picture is from the finish day, I had to go back and get three stars from a previous run.
Orcs. Sheesh Angar is a terrible champ for 21. Great for the terrible waves in the earlier two levels, but just so bad on the buff steal/health swap boss. Two fusions in Kreela and Iron Brago really carried me over the top when combined when Vrask heals.
As the screenshot below would indicate, my Barbarian options outside of Scyl and Altan were terrible way back when. This, like for most people, was one of my first completed. Anointed in there for TM fills, freezes and buff steals, and he did fine, but I wouldn't recommend building unless you're just desperate. Ragemonger is still in my FW team now, and is a Stun Set All Star for DT secret rooms.
Skinwalkers. One of my last crypts. Yuck. Hoforees the Tusked put this over the top, the only part of the Hurndig fusion I was able to do. Cleanses from Hakk and Steelskull were huge in the fight here, with block buffs from Norog helping with wave clear.
Speaking of terrible crypts, lets talk Lizardmen. This crypt for sure would've been easier with that big fusable lizard Broadmaw. Ladies and Gentlemen, make sure you lock your Broadmaw. Don't sacrifice him thinking you're never gonna get Lydia anyhow, and just want to get your Seeker leveled up to make your first UNM Unkillable CB team going. When it came time to finish Lizards, I was not looking to spend the resources to go grind out rares for a few days or a couple weeks to fuse him again. So instead, I did it with Harsupex on the same day we did Skinwalkers to finish up. It took some serious gearing to make Haruspex work, but that little rare pulled us through at the last turn.
My very worst crypt of all, Knights Rev. Would have killed for a Rector Drath, or Miscreated Monster, or even a Skullcrown to get a Revive or more damage in there. Instead, we had to run with Hegemon RNG. Ran this over and over and over to get it locked in. Stun set and lockout RNG eventually carried the day in the waves. And after even more tries and even more eventually, the boss went down.
Undead Horde was another fun one that took some stun set champs to get it done. Even at 50, Suzerain's shield removal was huge. On my second attempt, Gogorab rez got it done for three stars,
Sacred Order was not too crazy. Locked this in on a full auto, slow but steady crew built from my Roshcards. Errol was a very early legendary for me. I would not build him, nro recommend it, even for FW now. Perhaps the affinity legendary most in need of a buff in the game. The same team run immediately after with my starter Athel in his place was significantly faster. lol
Brogni just trivializes the Dwarf Crypt, I can't put it any other way. If I didn't have a Bulwark 60'd for an earlier CB team, I would have run with a second 50 of some kind and it would have been just fine.
Shadowkin came after getting Lydia, but here is my team for any interested:
Dark Elves and High Elves: I don't have the fun completion screen of those two crypts, since I finished them much earlier than the others.
Dark Elves: Serris, Kaiden, Coldheart, Crimson Helm and Visix carried me to victory here. Kaiden reviving with a nice Regen Set + Serris buff removal + Visix lockouts meant this crypt went down with no issues.
High Elves: Having both Lyssandra and Arbiter meant this crypt was no problem, especially when paired with Apothecary. Royal Guard for damage and a level 50 Tayrel rounded it out.
A few thoughts about using a couple limited sets to clear 19-21 on all factions:
So for anyone doing FW, I wouldn't recommend equipping new from your gear each time. Look at all your spread out gear, then optimize or fitting room your team of 5 for 18-21, and equip them with the proper "sets" of best gear. Screenshot where it came from, and put it back after. That way you can mostly clear each 18-21 in one day, and one sitting, and don't need to farm new gear every week, or spend months trying to equip a full 60 champs with good gear.
It is much easier to hit basic setpoints of 200 speed, to hit 4.5k defense or offense (or 75k HP for HP champs), to max Crit, to hit 250 Accuracy, etc etc... if you are using your best stuff. Stealing from everyone also lets you more easily build a good Stun Set for your AoE A1s and a good 220 speed/70k+ HP Immortal/Regen set for your Rezzers and Healers.
It is just about making it easier to get through the FW19-21 with three stars for the ONE TIME it matters. When you finish Lydia, you can quickly go through and equip the 60 champs you used with "meh" gear. Because you no longer have to do 21. You can farm 20, or even lower, and you only need one star. No more "if someone dies, we restart."
Hitting basic stat setpoints across five really good gear sets means that with 10 million silver a day to swap gear, you can clear 90% of your 18-21s every day on the FW end run. You don't get stuck, you don't get hard stuck on Valk waves, you don't get hard stuck on Sethallia waves, and you don't get hard stuck on the annoying Fear and Fire Toxic boss. Sure you may need to take up some champs, especially as a F2P person like myself, and that can slow you down a week while you build, but ultimately you can get FW done in a single cycle.
While Dark Elves and High Elves were done already, I finished my last 11 myself in less than two months, counting leveling champs, once I had the gear sets done for the first crypt of my "end run"
What were everyone elses strats for getting FW done? How is the Lydia grind going for all of you? If you need help, feel free to post here!
