Monster Strategy: To max or not max: Water Splinter commons
The exponential nature of card combining in Steem Monsters leads to a requirement for a large number of cards to gain the last level of a particular monster, sometimes for very limited benefit. Some monsters are definitely worth leveling up, while others may not be. This is reinforced by Rare Summoners' ability to use second-to-top common, rare, and epic cards, and top legendary cards, when at level 7. Since Summoners are some of the more expensive cards to acquire, building a team that makes them effective at level seven can be very economically worthwhile.
In this post I'm looking at commons from the Water splinter.
Level 9 stats: 3 ranged attack, 6 speed, 2 health, snipe, inspire.
Level 10 stats: 3 ranged attack, 6 speed, 3 health, snipe, inspire.
The Pirate Captain is a bit of a glass cannon, if not a particularly high-caliber one. He has a pretty strange development curve, as he loses health at level 6 and level 8 before regaining one here at the end. You're going to want to protect him from attack with your formation rather than depending on him to survive, and going from 2 to 3 health isn't very useful in high-level play anyway. A clear choice of a card to stop leveling at level 9.
Level 9 stats: 3 attack, 2 speed, 5 armor, 6 health, thorns.
Level 10 stats: 3 attack, 2 speed, 5 armor, 7 health, thorns.
Another example of a unit just gaining health, but this one is a tank, and what's more a tank with automatic retaliation through the thorns ability. Surviving for one extra hit in order to get one extra set of thorns in can make a substantial difference in a close battle. Though Spineback Turtle isn't Water's best tank by any means, it's still surprisingly useful; a card worth leveling up all the way.
Level 9 stats: 2 ranged attack, 1 speed, 2 armor, 3 health, tank heal, protect.
Level 10 stats: 2 ranged attack, 1 speed, 2 armor, 4 health, tank heal, protect.
Another simple health increase, and this one's marginal. Crustacean King's heal power is so crucial that you'll usually want to protect it in formation, even though it's shielded and can take some heat from snipers and sneaks. But Water has a lot of those types of unit, and the increase from 3 to 4 health will often bring the ability to take an extra hit.
It's probably better to leave Crustacean King vulnerable than Pirate Captain or Sabre Shark or Medusa, if you have to expose one of them. Water Elemental is the only resilient member of Alric's back row, and it can only hold the sneak-vulnerable or snipe-vulnerable position, not both. So I would recommend leveling Crustacean King all the way.
Level 9 stats: 4 attack, 5 speed, 5 health, sneak.
Level 10 stats: 4 attack, 6 speed, 5 health, sneak.
Six speed is standard for sneaks. Kobold Miner is the only one who doesn't get there, apart from Shin-Lo. So unless you want your sneak to always be acting after your opponent's, level your Sabre Shark all the way to the top.
The one caveat to this is Sabre Shark might not see a lot of use in a splinter with five missile attackers and a primary summoner who buffs magic attack. Sneak isn't as important for Water as it is for the other factions, Sabre Shark isn't exceptional at it, and you might not need to use it at all. But if you're going to, go for level ten.
Suggestion on format, break the stats line by line, much easier to read that way, such as:
Attack: 2
Health: 5
etc.
Otherwise it's much harder to compare two lines.
I wish tables didn't play so badly with div pull.
Nice run-down... I haven't been leveling much yet and been waiting for more of the game to be released before making my leveling decisions. I am not sure if that is the best decision or not but thus far its the one I have stuck with. I may attempt to bulk buy some of the cheaper commons and level some to max to have just in case my strategy changes.
That's basically what I did - hang on to all of my level 1 alphas and buy up enough betas to compete.
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