You may have heard players discussing what tier their monsters are, or seen trading posts asking for certain tiered monsters, or even just wondered which monsters are best to put in your team. This posts aims to explain what tiers are, and how to determine the best passive(s) for that active that your monster has.
What are Active and Passive abilities?
You can find out more information about your monsters by opening your inventory and clicking on a monster. You'll then see a collection of information about your monster, like in the screenshots directly below. In the left screenshot the monster is in my inventory (passive ability turned off) and in the right screenshot the monster is in my zodiac matched sagittarius team, and its passive ability (Rogue) has turned on.
Fuzzbunny information with passive ability (Rogue)
turned off (left) and turned on (right)
turned off (left) and turned on (right)
PR refers to how much this monster contributes to your total power rating, and is only shown when the monster is in your current team.
The next three lines are the important statistics for your monster. ATK is its attack (how much damage it can do). HP is its health points (how much damage it can withstand). RCV is its recovery (how much it heals when you match hearts).
The base attack statistic for each of these is shown in blue. Any additional bonuses applied to the base statistic are shown in green. These bonuses include the passive bonus (+65% for rogue), troop bonus (+1% attack as my troop is level 8), zodiac bonus (+25% as I have Sagittarius level 60), etc).
Underneath the heading of "Abilities" you will see the monster's active ability on the left (in this case Snipe+) and its passive ability on the right (in this case Rogue). Clicking on either of these will bring up more information about that ability, and this is where the important information for tiers is found.
Information about the active ability (left) and passive ability (right)
In the screen shots above, you can see that this monster's active ability Snipe+, will do 550% attack when it activates. Looking at the passive ability, you can see that rogue gives my monster an extra 65% increase to its base attack statistic. This will make the damage done by the snipe considerably larger, and is what is sought by most players (tier 1). There will be a 10% small reduction in the monster's health when rogue is active, but in most situations (aside from defensive teams) high attack is what the majority of players seek.
Note: The description of "Rogue" explains that you need 3 other monsters on your team to have the same zodiac before this passive ability will turn on. All passives (aside from what are termed "old passives") require 4+ monsters on your team to have matching zodiacs before they turn on.
In the following example, this Shalemail has counter as its active and bruiser as its passive.
Shalemail with Counter/Bruiser
By clicking on "Counter", you can see that counter is a rather complicated active that we will break down into its components. Counter first reduces the "ability damage" 40%. Ability damage is referring to any damage done by your opponent's active abilities (like snipe, blast, sacrifice, etc.), and a 40% reduction can help keep your monster alive longer. Counter then reflects 100% of the damage back at the monster whose active hit it. The next sentence states that the "reflected damage cannot exceed 50% of health". This means that if your monster has low health, the reflected damage will also be low. However, if your monster has a lot of health then it will be able to reflect a lot of damage! For completeness, the last sentence says that counter will last for 2 turns and is cast on two of your monsters.
Information about Counter
As the limiting factor of counter is the monster's health, to create the best possible monster, we ideally want it to have a passive that increases its health.
In the left screenshot below, this shalemail has the passive "bruiser". Bruiser increases the monster's health by 35% and its attack by 20% (tier 2). This is helpful, but an even better passive for counter is bulwark, shown in the right screenshot below. Bulwark increases the monster's health by 65%, and reduces it's attack by 10%. This creates the strongest possible statistics for counter (tier 1).
Information about the passives Bruiser and Bulwark
You can increase the effects of your passive abilities by "passive leveling". In all of the examples so far, below the passive ability you'll see "LV 1". This means that these monsters are at passive level 1. By feeding a monster with the same passive to your monster, you'll have a chance at increasing its passive level.
In the screen shot below, by feeding my snipe/lethal monster to this ultra which also has lethal, I have a 24% chance of raising it's level from 5 to 6. The percentage chance decreases as you reach higher passive levels. It is also effected by the rarities of the two monsters.
Example of Passive Leveling
In this next screenshots, this monster's passive has reached level 10. (The highest possible level is 15, unless you have "old passive" monsters). At level 1, rogue increases the monster's attack by 65% and reduces its health by 10%. At level 10, the monster's attack increases by 155% and its heath reduces by 28%. This substantial increase in attack makes rogue one of the best passives to have on an offensive monster.
Example of level 10 Rogue
What Are Tiers?
As you may have noticed from the above examples, at level 1 the change to your monster's stats always add up to 55%:
Rogue LV1 - Increases attack by +65% and reduces health by -10%
Bruiser LV1 - Increases health by +35% and increases attack by 20%
Bulwark LV1 - Increases health by +65% and reduces health by -10%
As a summary (and ignoring old passives for now), the possible changes are:
+65%/-10%
+55%
+35%/+20%
Tier's are an easy way of referencing how much a monster's passive changes the statistic that the active is based on.
Tier 1: Either 65% or 55% increase to the active's statistic.
Tier 2: 35% increase to the active's statistic
Tier 3: 25% increase to the active's statistic
Tier 4/"Feeders": Either no change or -10% change to the active's statistic.
Tier 1 monsters have the best possible combinations of actives and passive abilities. Tiers 2 and 3 receive some boost to their active from the passive. Tier 4 monsters are considered the be "feeders" by most as their passive has either no, or negative, effect on the active. The term "feeders" comes from most players using these monsters as the "feeder" in an evolution (the monster that disappears), or to feed to a better monster to try increasing the passive level.
The table below summarises the tiers to make it easier to quickly look up the tier for any given set of actives and passives. If your passive doesn't appear on this chart, please look below to the "old passives" section for more information on your monster.
Click on this Tier Chart to see it at full size
There are many players who value Cavalry and Rogue (+65% attack) above lethal (+55% attack) for increased attack on offensive monsters. Then players who value Cavalry (-10% recovery) over Rogue (-10% health) for the preserved health. Similarly Gladiator can be preferred over Champion in tier 2 as it has a small health bonus. It all depends on how competitively you might be playing. ;)
Likewise there are many players who distinguish feeders (tier 4) in the same manner. It's difficult to trade away a monster with an offensive active and either Bulwark or Mender as a passive because these reduce the monster's attack by -10%, making it worse than a general feeder (0%).
While the tiers can be a good guide, they are not definitive rules. As Shao W. has pointed out to me, a lot of pvp players prefer matching knight or cleric with regen. Regen uses recovery in its active to heal 3 monsters. However Knight increases health by 35% and recovery by 25%, and cleric reverses these two. Adding in this increase of health (at the cost of a reduced recovery and therefore regen) can help keep your regen monster alive longer in defensive situations, and able to help you through more turns. Tiers can be a personal decision in many cases, so don't take them too seriously.
Are all Tier 1 monsters equally good?
If you're only considering the effects of the passive on the active, then most tier 1 monsters are often thought of as being equal.
However, as you advance in the game, you'll have less use for defensive monsters (those that heal or protect your team in some way) on your main team. As such, it can be difficult to try trading your healing/protecting monster (everything above Blast on the table above) for an offensive monster that you might prefer (Blast and below on the table above) as other players prefer them too! So offensive tier 1 monsters are considered much better than defensive monsters.
But the hierarchy doesn't stop there. Even among the offensive monsters there are some that are considered better than others.
Offensive monsters can spread their attack damage over 1, 3 or 5 opponents depending on the active ability. Advanced players are only usually only facing a single raid boss in either raid styled events or when they're working on crystal raids in Lost Temple. As a result, most players prefer the single target active abilities that direct all the damage to one target. (In these cases a multi-target active will only deal a smaller portion of the possible damage to the one opponent and the rest will be wasted). Single target offensives include snipe, drain, toxic, bane, and will be the hardest to find trades for.
Even among these single target offensive monsters, some actives are better than others. Bane+, for example, causes the most damage but only on monsters of the right element. Snipe+ does a significant amount of damage. Drain+ does less damage than snipe+, but has the advantage of healing. (For super monsters, the damage is equal to snipe+, but is less for higher rarity monsters). Toxic can cause more total damage over time, however it doesn't stack with other toxic/venom/blight monsters. Make sure to only have one of these on your team at a time as the additional monsters in this category will not do any damage.
What about Reward Monsters?
To further narrow down which actives are better, there are two versions of most active abilities in the game. Regular actives are the ones that you'll find most commonly in the game. There are also "reward prize" actives that have a "+" after their active name and are stronger than regular actives. For example, a super with snipe will do 500% damage, but a super with snipe+ will do 550% damage. Reward actives are valued above regular actives for this extra damage. Also, reward monsters tend to have better overall statistics and are more valued than regular monsters in the game.
And Event Monsters?
Finally, there is also the consideration of event monsters. Raid styled events (like 10 day raids, Celestial Towers and Arena) have monsters that have an event bonus during that event, and are unlikely to have a bonus again in the future. These event monsters have the lowest value once an event ends. Other events have reusable monsters that will have a bonus every time (or on a rotational basis) whenever that event is run again. The ability to use these monsters again in the future keeps their value higher.
Even among the reusable monster events there is another hierarchy, based on supply and demand. Newer events (like Crystal Siege and Exodawn currently) have a low supply of event monsters and a high demand of players wanting them. These event monsters are currently valued above even reward monsters. On the other hand, Troop Wars event monsters are the least valued as they're weaker monsters overall and their event bonus is so low that many advanced players can do well without them based on the way the event is structured (event monsters only have a bonus on the pet and not the flag).
Even within the same event, there can be another heirarchy. Using Battle Royale as the best example, there are two types of event monsters: defensive and offensive. Defensive BR monsters are ones that you place on your defense team to gain you some extra trophies if someone loses against that team. Offensive monsters are ones that you place on your regular team and gain you extra trophies every time you win a battle (and even while farming in between matches). As a result, players gain significantly more trophies with BR offensives monsters and are highly valued. Defensive BR monsters are unwanted by many players.
The tiers of event monster actually matter less when they're being used in their event as the event bonus itself is so incredibly high. All bonuses in the game only apply to your base stat. Using Dominion as an example, an evolved ultra event monster has an event bonus of 2100%. If that monster also has rogue (+65%), it's total bonus becomes 2165%. (For those who know Dominion well, the tower bonus of +25% would increase this monsters total bonus to 2190% and is also rather insignificant). That extra passive bonus is always useful, but is very small compared to the event bonus. (If you're going to be using your event monsters outside of their event, the tiers will still be important considerations).
Where do Old Passives fit into the Tier System?
If you have a passive that isn't displayed on the tier chart above, you will find it on the old passive chart below, also created by Alessandra Ameglio.
Old Passive Tier Chart
The old passives were once the only passives in the game. They were also divided into tiers by players. However, take note that these tiers are very outdated as a result. Also be aware that these old style monsters have very weak active abilities when compared to the new active/passive monsters, and their passives only increase slightly when you level them up. As such, the majority of players consider any old passive monster to be a feeder, and they're difficult to trade away.
There is a significant exception to this. Some old active/passive monsters are incredible in PvP or defensive situations. To find out which of these monsters would be valuable to PvP players, please refer to this post by guest writer Chanco21.
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