Picking your first ranged pair

Note

In the Overview, I explain my thinking. This is a fairly long article, but contains a lot of useful background information if you want to understand how I arrived at these conclusions. If you just want to be told what to do, you can skip it and dive right in here.

For Free to Play Players:

You should be using archers as your main PVP force.

Elektra will be your main general. While there are much better options, you will have trouble fully ascending any of them because

• they are all premium generals
• not only are they premium generals, but some are most event generals

Give her the following skill books:

• Ranged Attack Increase
• Ranged Troop Range Increase
• Ranged Troop HP OR Ranged Troop Defense

Your assistant general will initially be Gwanggaeto the Great. You can find him in the Tavern. However, eventually you will win Mehmed II from King’s Path. Switch to him when you can, unless you have already used rune stones on Gwanggaeto by that point (the difference is noticeable, but not huge).

Give your assistant the following skill books:

• March Size Increase
• March Speed Increase
• Whichever of Ranged Troop HP OR Ranged Troop Defense is NOT on Elektra

Light Spenders:

You will also use Elektra as your main ranged General, and this pair will be your main PVP march.

Keep your eye out for any of the following (this is a ordered list)

• Mihai
• Charles XII
• Eleanor
• Alfred the Great
• Douglas [D S]
• Charles XII
• Princess Kaguya
• Douglas [ND S]

These are all available for paying players. Particularly, Alfred is available in the Alliance Shop if you buy the Alliance Shop card. Once you have invested rune stones in any of these, stick with that one. Note, these will be your assistant generals because getting fragments for any of them (except possibly Alfred if you spend to get the Alliance Shop card consistently) will potentially be very expensive.

With any of these, you probably want to change the skill books on her:

• Whichever of Ranged Troop HP OR Ranged Troop Defense is NOT on Elektra
• Siege Machine Range Bonus
• March Size Increase

And if you pick Princess Kaguya or Eleanor, you may additionally want to replace that Ranged Troop Defense/HP book with a Siege Attack book. The March Speed book can be entirely offset by investing in monarch gear and so becomes a wasted skill book. Using a Siege Range skill book instead makes your layers more effective. Adding in the Siege Attack book lets you take advantage of the assistant general’s strong siege buff by mixing a higher percentage of siege type troops in, at the cost of more gems when you heal. Either can be well worth it in terms of damage done to the enemy.

Medium Spenders:

Evony is pushing hard to make us all pay for our generals. Elektra’s best pair is currently ranked 56 and scores a B+. That is honestly not really worth investing in at all. I am only recommending her for the light spenders because I am already telling them that they have to spend for their primary ground and siege generals, and their wall assistant. Having to spend to ascend a ranged general to start having a strong PvP march is not acceptable.

So for a medium spender, go ahead and start to ascend Elektra, but watch for fragments from the following generals. It is not clear to me how frequently they will be available and thus which you are best to go all out for.

• Mihai
• Douglas [D S]
• Charles XII

Note the difference in their scores here from their scores as assistants. That is because here they are being scored with having been fully ascended, and when taking into account their personal attributes and not just their skills and specialities.

All of them accept the same assistants:

• Eleanor
• Mason Weaver [D S]
• Vladimir the Great
• Edward III
• Winfield Scott
• Toyotomi Hideyori
• Mason Weaver [ND S]
• Gwanggaeto the Great

You really, however, want to pick one of the top four, and even then you might that choice temporary because Eleanor is simply that strong, and you might well want to hold out for her. Do keep in mind that [D S] notation on Mason Weaver. It means that even as an assistant, and despite the fact that you will not get the full benefit from it, you must assign either a dragon or a spiritual beast to her. Interestingly, even without that, she still makes the top ten assistants list.

If you do pick Eleanor, she must have the march size skill book for full effectiveness.

To achieve full effectiveness, Elektra, Winfield Scott, and Vladimir the Great should be using the Ranged Attack Increase Skill Book. For combinations with two (2) of them, to achieve maximum effectiveness, the primary general should be using the Ranged Attack Increase Skill Book.

To achieve full effectiveness, Edward III should be using the Ranged Defense Increase Skill Book.

Because of these considerations, you may need to adjust your skill books from the recommendations given above.

I do not consider the investment in Elektra and whomever you pick as her partner to be wasted resources. Firstly, an Elektra with three or four stars might well be stronger than Douglas with only one. Secondly because when you do eventually reach keep 35 or 36 and stop ghosting, you are quite likely to like having two strong marches for battlefield. Third, building off of point number one, these generals can be quite rare. You will need a strong general while waiting for fragments. Fourth, if you can fully develop Elektra, you have the choice of a really strong general for your Senate, or exploring the Soul Binding feature.