Has Your Character Choice Sunk Your Mafia Wars Leveling Strategy?

How bogus is it that the initial time you logged on to Mafia Wars you had to select a character type even though you had no idea about leveling up strategy in Mafia Wars?  Sadly, there is no way to switch your initial character choice once it’s made, now.  It wasn’t always this way; you once were able to cough up Godfather points for a change in character type.

Rumors abound that Mafia Wars programmers at Zynga will reinstate that character switching option, but for now we are stuck with that beginner’s choice.  Although I’m amazed Zynga doesn’t bring back the character change option, because they could rake in tons of reward points.  I know lots of Mafia Wars gamers who would be happy to cough up Godfather reward points to have a different character.  It’s not like Zynga to leave money on the table.

As things stand currently, you are what you are as far as Mafia Wars character type.  These are the three character options in Mafia Wars:

Mogul
Maniac
Fearless

Each character type enjoys 1 character stat benefit, a top mafia spot specially intended for them, and a intermittent power.  In order to follow the leveling arguments that follow, read these character descriptions.

Character: Mogul
Major benefit: receives the 60 minute take every fifty four minutes.
Top Mafia spot: Bagman
Come-and-go power: When you occupy the Bagman spot in another gamer’s mafia, you have a chance to receive double the money on a certain percentage of jobs.

Maniac Character in Mafia Wars
Major benefit: Energy returns at 1 point every 3 minutes, rather than one point every five
Top Mafia position: Button Man
Come-and-go power: A Maniac in the Button man position can win a percentage of fights he or she initiates even though outgunned, outmanned, and outclassed by the attacked player.

Mafia Wars Fearless Character
Major benefit: Health returns more quickly – one point every 2 minutes rather than 1 every three.
Top Mafia spot: Wheelman
Unique Power: When a fearless occupies the Wheelman position in another gamer’s crew, a Fearless can perform a certain percentage of jobs without losing energy.

Many Mafia Wars strategists agree that the Mogul character doesn’t help a player to level up any faster in job-based leveling.  A Mogul has advantages in Mafia Wars income because of the extra 2.4 hours of income they get every day.  In the lower levels of Mafia Wars – and in Cuba, too! – the extra money a Mogul earns is a real help for a gamer.  Once you understand Mafia Wars property investment, though, you’ll have plenty of Mafia Wars income whether you are a Mogul or not.  A Mogul will always make money more easily, but  that won’t be as valuable in the upper levels.

Leaving the Mogul character aside, there is a fierce debate raging about whether Maniac or Fearless is the number one character for strategic Mafia Wars leveling.  Read the following blurbs to get a feel for how the arguments go:

Pro Maniac Character Position

The best Mafia Wars leveling character is Maniac, because energy is what gets you experience and leads to speed leveling.  Energy is the name of the game in Mafia Wars.  Sure, the Maniac doesn’t have the best Come-and-go power because once you know what you’re doing in Mafia Wars  you only attack when you can win anyway.  But the rapid energy refills are where it’s at for leveling.  So Maniac is the quickest leveling character to select.

Arguments in Favor of Fearless

If you want to level fast, select a Fearless character.  Even though the health refills are considered a moot point by most avid Mafia Wars gamers, the unique power of doing jobs for a 0 energy cost is a giant leg up for leveling.  The leveling strategy only works if someone puts you into their top mafia Wheelman spot, which can be a hard sell since your character may be inexperienced.  Once you get into that Wheelman positon, you can get between three and eleven percent of the jobs for zero energy cost.  Fearless can level up rapidly because he/she preserves energy and can do even more jobs.  When the jobs start consuming more energy as you advance into the higher tiers, the Fearless bonus power gets more meaningful.  Plus, Fearless’ health refills may be a bit meaningless in NYC, but in Cuba it’s aces because you take a beating on the fightlist and pesos for the hospital are pretty thin on the ground.

When you’re after Mafia Wars leveling, which character is best?  As long as you can get into the Wheelman spot in someone’s top mafia, I think Fearless is going to level fastest for you.  Either character will get you to the top spot, but what the debates highlight is one prime Mafia Wars strategy point.  The most critical element of Mafia Wars when you want to level up fast is energy managment.  Regardless of if you regain energy at a faster rate or if you don’t have to burn energy in order to run a certain percentage of your jobs, the key to Mafia Wars is energy.

The bad news is that you are saddled with the Mafia Wars character you selected on that first day.  There is often room for improvement in Mafia Wars leveling, regardless of character, if you get the most from your energy!  If you’re really in a rage to try faster Mafia Wars leveling and you aren’t a Fearless, you can just open a second Facebook profile.  Extra neat – you could make your new Fearless character as Wheelman in your 1st mafia crew, ha!  The risk is getting further addicted Mafia Wars and creating profile after profile so you can try out the different character types and leveling strategy arguments yourself.

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