UnbrokenFlow's Free Player Journey

Hello All, this is going to be a record of my free player journey. My name is UnbrokenFlow, I played Pox Nora briefly in 08/09. I unfortunately don't remember my previous account. As someone who grew up playing with Mage Knight's I've loosely followed the game over the years so I am up on the history. I saw the game on Steam and under new management and am now looking to give it another chance.

My inspiration for this endeavour are freebie219's thread and Dreamweaver's thread.

I enjoy challenges and I am planning on playing the game for 100 hours as F2P. I will not be accepting donations as I want to keep this as pure as possible. I'm curious to see how well I will do.

Milestones:

• Day 5 ~18 hours of play: Traded with Poxbox and built my first deck. UD Minotaurs.
• Day 6 ~18 hours of play: Bought my first Avatar/Banner. UD.
• Day 8 ~30 hours of play: Joined the guild Pox Academy. Lot's of cool people and very active chat. Traded with Poxbox and built my second deck. UD C/UC Meta.
• Day 10 ~34 hours of play: Joined a C/UC Guild Tournament. Maxed my Avatar's Level. Built a Spider Deck for the tournament.
• Day 14 ~46 hours of play: Joined a one night improtu Guild Tournament and won! Prize was a Voil Infernal and Token Pack.
• Day 19 ~54 hours of play: Started playing ranked.
• Day 20 ~57 hours of play: Finished first place in the C/UC guild tournament. Built my UD Meta deck.

My Decks:

• UD Spiders
• UD Meta
• UD Minotaur

 

Day 1 - 10/19/2014

Created my account, downloaded the game, and completed the tutorial.

Bugs:
There was a glitch in the 3rd part of the tutorial. There was a unit "Forsaken something" she had the ability Pawn. When I was surrounding the shrine to destroy it and I put a unit in the space where "Forsaken something" originally spawned. The tutorial text activated again and wanted me to hover over the Pawn ability. My unit did not have pawn and I could not get out of this. I had to restart the tutorial.

Time Played: 1hr
Progress: 1hr/100hrs.

 

Day 2 - 10/20/2014

Researched on the forums for about 3-4 hours. I've chosen Forglar Swap as my faction. I plan on completing the remaining beginner events and then purchasing my avatar.

I will try farming when I get there using this guide: Euan's Last Stand

I plan on trying to put together this deck: Forglar Swamp Meta from this thread: Common and uncommon only Battlegroups.

Things that aren't smooth:
Because I want to maximize how I spend my gold, I am reluctant to purchase any of the beginner decks as they are not customizable. I find myself holding out and grinding 3k gold for an extended pack just so that I can trade for some commons/uncommons and begin leveling "my own" deck.

Bugs:
Picked up nora globe. Sound died.

Games/Purchase Flow:

1. Shattered Peaks Walk through Campaign. Reward: SP Public Deck
2. Forglar Swamp Walk through Campaign. Reward: FS Public Deck
3. Beginner Protectorate Battle: Forglar Swamp Normal Difficulty.
4. Training Grounds Barbs(Me) vs. ST. Opponent friendly quit when I was winning. I accepted not knowing what it was.
5. Training Grounds: Barbs(Me) vs. Dwarfs. Win. Reward: 500g
6. Beginner Protectorate Battle: K'thir Forest Normal Difficulty. It looks like a fast way to beat these is to just kill all the champs. The AI surrenders then.
7. Beginner Protectorate Battle: Ironfist Stronghold Normal Difficulty.
   
8. Beginner Protectorate Battle: Savage Tundra Normal Difficulty. Shrine rushed this one. Reward: 500g
9. Crazed Beasts - Forglar Beasts. This one was weird. I'm not sure what the baby tads were for. They all wanted to go back to my base. Perhaps a secret reward or alternate victory? One died so I just ended up smashing the shrine.
10. Crazed Beasts - Sundered Lands Beasts.
11. Crazed Beasts - Savage Tundra Beasts. Killing the giant ice worm is pretty fun. It's also the win condition.
12. Crazed Beasts - Shattered Peaks. Killed the Giant Cyclops. Rewards: 500g & Elemental Warstaff(First Exo!)
13. Skirmish: Barbs(Me) vs. Ironfist Normal. Reward: 500g
14. Visiting the Marketplace. Rewards: 500g, Tome of Hate & Helm of Chaos
15. Unranked PVP vs. Motion (UD Spider Deck) Loss. Reward: 500g.

Summary:
Did a lot of grinding today. Got up to 3,700 gold and now I have a few old Exotics. I'm planning on trading my Tome of Hate into Poxbox in 3 days to get a full C/UC deck of my choosing. Then I'll finally be a real player.

Time Played: 6hrs.
Progress: 7hrs/100hrs.

 

Indeed, the sound dying is a known issue and will be addressed. I assume you are using the steam version?

You can see of the packs in my beginner's guide. I feel that the free decks are pretty good, it's the public decks are pretty cheap, but yes, you cannot alter them in any way.

If you have any questions or feedback, please continue to deliver!

 

I'm actually using the website download.

After some thought, I'm choosing to avoid the public deck/free decks because eventually I'm planning to get my own cards and those decks/gold spent on them is unfortunately a dead end. I'm rushing to get my own upgrade able cards.

It would be nice if there were only 8 beginner decks. The first one is free say after around 2-3 hours of tutorial play. You get to choose the faction of your choice. It includes C/UC that you get to keep, upgrade, and could trade. The other 7 factions C/UC decks are then available for 1000 gold a piece. Update these decks with every xpac/balance patch. Sure this would kill the market for those C/UC but at least it would offer something usable to the noobies. Could even make it a 1 in 8 choice thing and once you choose those decks are no longer available.

Appreciate the support! Cya guys tomorrow.

 

Day 3 - 10/21/2014

Progress:

1. PVP Not Ranked Barbs(Me) vs. Barbs(ibleedcandy1989) Win. Rewards: 500g
2. Daily Skirmish 1/2
3. Daily Skirmish 2/2 Rewards 500g I've cracked 5000g at this time.
4. PVP Ranked Barbs(Me) vs. Dwarves(A7XSoldier) Loss. Rewards: 500g & Divine Dispersal I've completed the beginner walk through at this point. I've got 6,000 gold and 4 Exotics. I am second guessing my choice of FS as my faction of choice.
5. PVP Unranked Cavernkeepers(Me) vs. Barbs. Win.
6. PVP Unranked Cavernkeepers(Me) vs. ST. Win. Completed my dailies at this point and cracked 7,000 gold! I'm planning on saving until I can purchase an extended box.

Time Played: 4hrs.
Progress: 11hrs/100hrs.

 

Just wanted to show some support as well. I love this type of thread, and the feedback regarding the new player experience is valuable.

 

Thanks for the support guys. I have 3 questions.

1. Could someone explain the new LE's to me?
   1. Are they obtainable as F2P?
2. Could you offer your opinion on which faction(s)/deck(s) are the most competitive on the cheap?

 

If you're talking about Moog, badgerwulf, etc. The only way to get them as F2P is to sign in through steam with your account and you get one randomly. They were meant to be untradeable, but as of now you can still trade them if you don't get the one you want. Other than that, you have to spend money to buy the new packs to get them.

 

Day 4 - 10/22/2014

Goals:

1. Create Euan's Farming Deck - Didn't complete. On second thought it might be more beneficial to just farm Skirmishes.
2. Create UD Minotaur Deck - Didn't complete. Was unable to trade...

Progress:

1. Logged into Pox Nora via Steam. Reward: Spring Dragon LE
2. Reviewed most of the C/UC decks from the sticky in the Training Grounds forums. I like the looks of the UD Minotaur one.
3. Attempted to setup a trade with Pox Box. Still not allowed to trade even after contacting support and verifying I should be allowed. Contacted support again.
4. Underdepths Walkthrough. Wanted to unlock the public deck to try out. Damn that damage is impressive Reward: 25g and Grimlic's Legion deck
5. Skirmish: UD vs. SP/XX Reward: 55g and Goblin Archer
6. Skirmish: UD vs. ST/KF Reward: 60g and Retribution! Really enjoying these skirmishes. The fact that you get a card also make it way more fun then campaigns.
7. Skirmish: UD vs. KF Reward: 57g and Deep Elf Fanatic! 2 exos in the last 2 games, what?
8. Skirmish: UD vs. KF Reward: 42g and Acrid Smoke
9. Skirmish: UD vs. IS Reward: 42g and Deep Elf Priestess!
10. Skirmish: UD vs. ST Reward: 57g and Shield of Flame
11. Skirmish UD vs. KF Reward 47g and Demon Shield*

Bugs:
Deployment bug lag. Had to try a few times to put a champion into a square. This eats up precious time.

Time Played: 3hrs
Progress: 14hrs/100hrs.

 

Day 5 - 10/23/2014

Goals:

1. Dailies

Progress:

1. Unranked PVP: UD vs. FW. Win. Rewards: 560g & Goblin Archer!
2. Ironfist Walkthrough: Rewards: Drunken Dwarves deck & 25g
3. Skirmish: Dwarves vs. Leoss Rewards: 402g & Forge Hammer!
4. Daily Skirmish 1/2 Rewards: 200g
5. Daily Skirmish 2/2 Rewards: 400g
6. Skirmish: UD vs KF Rewards: 57g & Superiority!
7. First Trade! https://www.poxnora.com/trader/viewtrade.do?id=3643660&fb=0
8. Second Trade, forgot a rune: https://www.poxnora.com/trader/viewtrade.do?id=3643664&fb=0
9. Built my First Deck! http://www.poxbase.com/deck/CuOC5tC-Ch1Ch2Ch=Ch0ca9Cqs2qs4@s7FS2ls7ds3os86sAs1lR3pr20
10. Skirmish: Minotaur Deck vs. KF Rewards: 55g & Imp
11. Skirmish: Minotaur Deck vs. Stiched Rewards: 735g & Hellfire Cracked 10k gold
12. Skirmish Reward: 47g & Retribution!
13. Unranked PVP: UD vs. SP. Win. Rewards: 554g & Rust Demon
14. Skirmish 54g & Deep Elf Assassin
15. Skirmish 55g & Shatter*
16. Skirmish 54g & Hellfire*

Bugs:
Stitched Skirmish BG on the map with the two parrallel canyons kept deploying champs into the pit the whole game. Easy win.

Notes:
Built my first deck. UD Minotaur. Those portals are pretty fun.
What does the * next to a rune mean?

Time Played: 4hrs
Progress: 18hrs/100hrs.

 

* means you cannot trade it (these were part of beginners bgs at some point). Hellfire should not have a non tradeable version.

At one point these will be converted to the regular version, but it takes quite some effort from the developers so it is not a priority.

 

This is an excellent thread, UnbrokenFlow. You're offering great feedback; I hope the greens can fix all of the issues that you've encountered.

Also, one or both of those Retributions will be an excellent fit in your Minotaur deck. Enjoy

Another note to the greens, if they're watching: UnbrokenFlow is already using some of the best player-designed tools, poxbase and poxbox. I think it shows how essential these things are to having a smooth Pox Nora experience. It's great that someone new can find these things, but I don't think it should be taken for granted. If anything, it likely indicates what improvements are necessary for the Rune Manager, Checklist, and Trader.

 

Day 6 - 10/24/2014

Goals:

1. Buy UD Avatar/Banner
2. Dailies
3. Design Deepelf/Meta Deck - http://poxbase.com/deck/C4_CzC5@C3BcxC4@C-c60C33s2qs4@s7FS2ls7ds86sOsDs1lrAr20EN

Progress:

1. Skirmish Rewards: 54g & Thunderhoof
2. Skirmish Rewards: 67g & Deep Elf Fanatic*!
3. Skirmish Rewards: 74g & Demolish*
4. Skirmish Rewards: 50g & Shattered Nerves
5. Skirmish Rewards: 65g & Grimlic's Treachery
6. Skirmish Rewards: 67g & Deep Elf Summoner!
7. Daily Skirmish 1/2 Rewards: 200g
8. Daily Skirmish 2/2 Rewards: 400g
9. Skirmish... I actually lost! Kanen are strong.
10. Skirmish Rewards: 50g & Retribution!
11. Skirmish Rewards: 54g & Thunderhoof
12. Unranked PVP. Win. Rewards: 550g & Deep Elf Summoner*!
13. Skirmish Rewards: 405g & Nefari Shipon
14. Unranked PVP. Win. Rewards 90g & Thunderhoof
15. Unranked PVP. Win. Rewards 75g & Grimlic*!!!
16. Unranked PVP. Win. Rewards 40g & Shatter*
17. Skirmish Rewards: 52g & Protect the Nest

Bugs:
Skirmish: Blackstone Gargoyle: Once in Stonefrom, they never come back out.

Notes:
I've decided to go with UD as my faction. They are straight forward and big damage dealers which is a lot of fun. I'm enjoying all of the relocate mechanics. I bought the avatar so that I could begin leveling it asap

Today I also learned that on PoxBox you must maintain a 65% in to out CUR ratio. Mines currently 5% haha. 39 out and 1 in. Time to farm more skrims so I can get another deck traded out.

Time Played: 5hrs
Progress: 23hrs/100hrs.

 

Day 7 - 10/25/2014

Goals:

1. Grind Skirmishes
2. Dailies
3. Build UD Meta/AntiRange deck

Progress:

1. Skirmish Rewards: 35g & Acrid Smoke
2. Skirmish Rewards: 47g & Ash Demon
3. Skirmish Rewards: 47g & Magma Bunny
4. Skirmish Rewards: 35g & Abyssal Fiend
5. Skirmish Rewards: 40g & Cauterize

Time Played: 1hrs
Progress: 24hrs/100hrs.

 

Really enjoying this! Keep it up, you are really inspiring me to do a Journey to limited thread or video uploads on YouTube. Just wanted to let you know you still have my support

 

Thanks, I appreciate the support.

Could you explain what you mean by journey to limited? I am not familiar with the ranking system at all.

 

Sure, once you've played ranked games you get a rank there are many different ranks such as, uncommon, rare, exotic, limited. Limited is the top rank other than poxbattler, I will be making videos of me playing ranked games as a journey to limited

 

Day 8 - 10/26/2014

Goals:

1. Grind Skirmishes
2. Dailies

Progress:

1. K'thir Walkthrough Campaign Rewards: 25g & K'thir Dawn Deck
2. Unranked PVP: K'thir vs Barbs. Win. Rewards: 1335g & Thorn Trap
3. Skirmish Rewards: 45g & Nefari Messenger!!!!
4. Skirmish Rewards: 70g & Nefari Siphon
5. Bought 3 Extended Set Packs. Nothing notable. Down to 137g now.
6. Traded with PoxBox and got a bunch more Minotaur's. Gladiator's are hilarious. Portal walkers have great synergy with the gates, these guys are my special ops.
7. Skirmish Rewards: 57g & Nefari Siphon.
8. Unranked PVP: Mino vs. Kanen. Win. 75g
9. Unranked PVP: Mino vs. SP. Win. 90g
10. Skirmish 35g & Fire Elemental
11. Skirmish 55g & Demolish*
12. Skirmish 45g & Nefari Messenger*!! lolx2 in 1 day.
13. Skirmish 55g & Nightblade
14. Skirmish 45g & Grimlic!! Getting some nice profit to get those Mino Battlemages.
15. Skirmish 450g & Protect The Nest
16. Skirmish 387g & Ash Demon
17. Skirmish 504g & Bok Gatekeeper
18. Traded to create C/UC Meta deck - https://www.poxnora.com/trader/viewtrade.do?id=3645288&fb=0
19. Used the Forge to Create 2x Scorched Dwarfs
20. Skirmish 60g & Protect The Nest
21. Joined Pox Academy Guild for Beginners.
22. 2v2 Ranked PVP with Guildmates. Mino/KF vs FW/FW. We lost. Skeleton attrition.

Notes:
Going to work towards Minotaur Battlemages. Then a mindslicer obelisk possibly.

Questions:
Am I able to upgrade the champions with * at the end of the names?

Time Played: 6hrs
Progress: 30hrs/100hrs.