How bogus is it that the first time you fired up Mafia Wars you had to select a character type even though you had no clue about leveling up strategy in Mafia Wars?  Unfortunately, you can’t change your Mafia Wars character selection anymore.  There once was a way to alter Mafia Wars character type by paying reward points, but that opportunity has been eliminated.

You hear rumors about Zynga bringing that Mafia Wars character change option back, yet so far no dice.  I wonder if Zynga has calculated how much dinero they’d earn if they offered players|the character change chance again?  Plenty of Mafia Wars gamers would love to buy a different character type.  It’s not like Zynga to leave money on the table.

For now you are stuck with that initial character you picked while you were still ignorant of Mafia Wars strategy for leveling.  There are three possibilities for character type in Mafia Wars:

Mogul
Maniac
Fearless

Associated with each character is 1 major benefit, a top mafia spot, and a intermittent power.  Here are the character explanations so you can follow the Mafia Wars leveling arguments that follow.

Mafia Wars Mogul Character
Major benefit: receives the 60 minute take every fifty four minutes.
Top Mafia position: Bagman
Unique power: If you get promoted into Bagman in another’s mafia, you sometimes rake in 2xs the money on jobs

Mafia Wars Maniac Character
Major benefit: Energy returns at 1 point every 3 minutes, rather than one point every five
Top Mafia spot: Button Man
Bonus 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.

Character: Fearless
Primary benefit: Health rebuilds faster - 1 point every 2 minutes rather than one every three.
Top Mafia position: Wheelman
Unique Power: When a fearless occupies the Wheelman position in another gamer’s mafia, a Fearless can complete a certain percentage of jobs without losing energy.

I don’t know any Mafia Wars strategy experts who think the Mogul character helps you level more quickly when you are pursuing job-based leveling.  A Mogul has perks in Mafia Wars income because of the extra 2.4 hours of take they get every 24 hours.  And that’s nothing to dismiss during about the 1st 25 Mafia Wars levels when cash can be tight.  But whether you are a Mogul or not, odds are you’ll master the money objective pretty early on in the game.  A Mogul will always make money more easily, but  that won’t be as meaningful in the upper levels.

Mogul character out of the argument, you get into a heated argument about the most advantageous character for strategic Mafia Wars leveling when you start talking about Fearless and Maniac.  Here’s how the debate sounds:

The Pro Maniac Side

Speed leveling is all about energy, and Maniac is the character with the fastest energy regeneration.  In Mafia Wars, you can’t ever have enough energy.  And although the Maniac’s intermittent power doesn’t help you much once you achieve a certain level and only attack when you know you can win the fight anyway, the energy augmentation of the Maniac is always helping you level faster.  And that’s why you want to choose a Maniac character when you want to get to top boss rapidly.

Arguments in Favor of Fearless

The best Mafia Wars leveling character is Fearless.  While quick health recovery is deemed a throw away quality by most, the bonus power of completing some jobs at no energy cost is so good that speedy leveling is a lock for Fearless.  The key to this speed leveling strategy is that someone has to promote you into their Wheelman top mafia slot, even if your character isn’t too advanced yet.  While you are acting as Wheelman spot you complete 3-11% of the jobs with no energy expended.  Leveling up while in Wheelman will go much more quickly.  When the jobs start costing more energy as you advance into the higher tiers, the Fearless intermittent power gets more meaningful.  And Fearless’ faster health refills actually are pretty helpful after level thirty-five because the fightlist in Cuba tends to use up your health rapidly, and who wants to pay for hospital stays with pesos?

So, what’s the answer - is Fearless or Maniac the best leveling character in Mafia Wars?  As long as you can get into the Wheelman spot in someone’s crew, I say Fearless is going to level fastest for you.  Regardless, you can carry away this insight from the leveling debate.  The main determinant of your success with Mafia Wars strategy for leveling is the intelligent management of energy.  Regardless of if you regain energy at a faster rate or if you don’t have to use energy in order to do a certain percentage of your jobs, the key to Mafia Wars is energy.

Maybe you’re bummed now that you see that you’re initial character choice will limit your leveling speed.  There is often room for improvement in Mafia Wars leveling, regardless of character, if you get the most from your energy!  Another avenue is to open an additional Facebook profile you use just for a Mafia Wars speed level up character.  You can still use your current Mafia Wars character to promote your new character into top spots, run preparation jobs, and gift items to your new character, too!  Just don’t get so many characters going that you can’t keep track (yeah, don’t get me started on that story!

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