Refess Strategies?

[Yurie]

Well, Falkow and Lawtia have strategy threads now. So, why don't we have a thread for poor, underappreciated Refess?

Post your Refess strategies here. Zagar demands it!

[CalebTheWise]

To be honest, I find white to be the weakest of the colors. I played it, and I only won during launch week when no one really understood how the game worked. They're meant to play the long game with Defense values, big HP, and Mana Gain, but Blue does the long game much better, and while white they can stockpile mana while drawing the game out, it's a futile pursuit because they don't have anything to spend that mana on. IF they had a really game-winning character for 6 or 7, it would be worth it, but as it is- they just build up to 10+ mana and then it just kind of sits there while the enemy runs them over. And while their Grimoire is good and they have nice support units, like Cassowary King and the mighty puffballs, on the battlefield they're just inferior. Their characters have 25 ATK as a matter of course, while most combat- ready units have at least 30 HP, so you do the math and you'll find they come up short. Really, the only steller unit they have is the Light Spearwoman. Blessed Acolyte rules the early game, but becomes baggage as the game drags on. Zagar can be a brick wall with aid from the Killing Machine, and can punish meatshields hard, but in the end he's one guy trying to hold together an army. The Ancient Spear Knight is useful only in specific circumstances, and trying to use him repeatedly drains even a stockpile of SP fast. And the rest are mainly filler characters.

It's a really, really sad situation for white right now. I expect the first expansion to give them a major boost in hopes of bringing them up to par, but even so my advice to anyone playing white right now is to play Blue instead- they do the same basic thing, and do it better.

[arkbeetle]

Yeah, i personally think Refess set is the weakest deck right now. Monster attack is weak, agi is really low compared with others, so their buff is useless (My Paladin is screwed because it got the last turn, even a 10atk monster is capable of damaging it)
the majority of Refess card is a high sp user, so Will'o wisp old open skill (+2sp) will really help, but now it replaced with heal/max 10hp; and the similiar open skill card, Shade, is still the same (-2sp).
That's make is really weak if battle with . The combo of Shade and mad priest will make Refess don't stand a chance
Sorry i complained instead of giving advice....

[Sarkath]

I don't really have any experience with Refess, but they are not bad. One of the key's I believe is to get the set up correctly in order to get that paladin guy a nice boost of attack power, and defense.

Refess have a lot of defense buffs and should be used That Magic Guard, or whatever. Let it be on the back row, it will give all units on the front +10 def. Then you have these guys who ups their def on their turn, which may prove not that good if you face higher agility characters. But I think that's why you have cure, and wisps and such.

This priest guy to increase the attack power, does it also increase the defense? I can't remember. It may be useable, when you have the front done, but you are going offensive. Then you put out a priest, give the guys attack boost, the priest will get a +10 def, and then you attack. I don't know the ability to take out mad priests, but remember that you have Soul Skills that you should plan with, like...take out columns, or rows of enemies? The back row, one swipe of 30 damage. All priests dead, or support.

You can make a pretty nice "defensive offense". That's the only thing I can say about Refess, I didn't like them at all.

[pauzai]

Refess dont have that magic guard that can +10 def to all the first row.....If we have then we will not suffer so much damage from other player from another card deck. We have ruby carbuncle tho which give +5 def.

I am scared of lebeau more then mad priest cause i can still kill mad priest with my troops but once its the soul skill for lebeau is activated then its a sure win for the opponent.

[Sarkath]

Ah, my pardons, I forgot that Falkow get the Sorcerer Guard, it's such a fitting card for Refess.

I am scared of lebeau more then mad priest cause i can still kill mad priest with my troops but once its the soul skill for lebeau is activated then its a sure win for the opponent.

Not necessarily, but you are at great disadvantage, indeed.
The first round that I got to taste LeBleau's SS, not too long ago. I had no idea that it could be used the way it was. He had buffed his unit twice with LeBeau's, I took it down with one attack, with the SS of this card: http://login.alteil.com/cardDB/detail.php?id=37

I'd say you might have a better chance if you use your Rapidshot Magic Archer soul skill, it has the same ability as the one I am using, I believe the starter deck has it.
That may be the easiest way to take it down for Refess.

That Will o Wisp has a very nice Soul skill, I haven't seen a lot of people using it.
http://login.alteil.com/cardDB/detail.php?id=20

[Phades]

Will o wisp soul skill "seems" nice, but if your opponent actually uses their SP regularly, then you are just hosed in the early game when you actually need it. Late game, you are still hosed, since you need the high level cards out already and waiting additional turns are only going to cause you to lose more LP.

As someone who plays refress, i would say that every game is different and no strategy is really universal for it. But, typically trying to rely on one or two units to win the game for you is doomed to failure due to the poor agl values and general low atk.

*edit* As far as soul skills go, i tend to use more damage in the first few slots. Personally i like bounty hunter elena in my opening slot in order to try and regain any lost ground initially due to facing higher agl units or SP drain via witch return or shade hits.

[Grain]

Refess dont have that magic guard that can +10 def to all the first row..

This is incorrect. Two Magic Guards are in the Refess starter deck.

It would cost a Refess Iczer 4 SP to play one. There may be no chance to do such against a Lawtia File.

That Will o Wisp has a very nice Soul skill, I haven't seen a lot of people using it.

The Will o' the Wisp soul skill can be a complete waste if your opponent uses all of their SP.

I wouldn't take such a risk with only one LP.

[Phades]

Refess dont have that magic guard that can +10 def to all the first row..

This is incorrect. Two Magic Guards are in the Refess starter deck.

It would cost a Refess Iczer 4 SP to play one. There may be no chance to do such against a Lawtia File.

It is simply too slow to get out. Remeber you need other units already in the front row to make it worth while and adding a support unit in a turn where your front line is being dismantled takes too long. Raise shields is cheaper and happens immediately. Yes the starter only comes with one, but *hopefully* more are obtained and 2-3 get added to a deck that sees the need for more defense and is able to keep 2-3 units out prior to using it.

[DanTheTimid]

As some one whose run Refess since closed beta, the best tips are:

- If you see your opponent is running any clan but Refess, click give up. This is especially true if their running gowen and play brave soldier followed by panther soul.
- Have you account deleted and start a new account with a different clan.

Ok thats a little harsh how about this:

- Spend real money to get lots of gran and then buy lots of packs. Pray to the goddess of luck that you pull alot of high rarity refess cards including multiple dragon riders, lapieres, and atleast 1 Dispell. If you do not, just buy the starter for which ever clan you did pull good stuff for and switch to them.

Ok still being harsh, how about I just do a break down about how I feel about their cards:

Grimoires:

Overal the only Grimoire I've found especially useful Refess has is raise shield. Cure is ok, not great but not bad, Holy Light is trash in my opinion, Defensive Manuevers is extreme trash. Dispell... well its useful right now but only because Killing Machine is ridiculous over powered so its appearing in every deck, should he ever become more balanced Dispell will be a bit too situational.

Cheap Units (1-2):

Blessed Acolyte is ok for the early game but in the late game he typically gets killed before ever making an action. Kessaran Passeran are ok, tricky to use but useful in the right situation. After that they don't have many 2 or 1 star options and the options they do have are terrible. Shield Knight has 0 attack, mediocre hp (same as Blessed Acolyte), ridiculously slow speed even for refess (not that it matters much when you have 0 attack) and no range (again doesn't matter). All this for 10 defense? He doesn't do much in the early game and does even less in late game. Will-o-Wisps effect doesn't help much and his stats don't let him fight at all. Combat priest WOULD have been useful if he he had some range but as a 1range unit he's either getting slaughtered on the front line or proving nothing more then a liability in your back row. Cassoway king isn't terrible but he's situational and easily dealt with by most clans where the situation he'd be useful is likely to occur. I don't have Verlaat or Abel so its hard to judge them, Verlaat seems bleh, Abel seems decent, but both are nearly impossible to acquire anyway.

Mid Level Units (3-4):

This is probably their strength, most of them are painfully slow and several of their best have SP costs further adding to the expensiveness of maintaining an army built on mid levels, but atleast most of them can take a hit and dish a little damage out.

High levels Units(5-6):

Pretty much trash. Dragonrider is decent if expensive, but Sphynx and Phoenix are both WAY too expensive for their stats and effects.

So yeah those are the cards and units I've found useful and which ones I didn't.