Best Mafia Wars Character and The Great Leveling Debate

How unfair is it that the first time you fired up Mafia Wars you had to pick a character type although you had no idea about Mafia Wars strategy for leveling up? Unfortunately, you can't alter your Mafia Wars character choice anymore. When Mafia Wars was first released, you could alter character type in exchange for Godfather reward points, but that option was removed from the game.

I've heard talk that Zynga will reintroduce the Mafia Wars character type switch option back into the game, but so far that's just what it is...rumors. Although I'm surprised Zynga doesn't bring back the character change option, because they could rake in lots of Godfather reward points. Many Mafia Wars gamers would be thrilled to pay the Godfather fee to change their Mafia Wars character type, I bet. Zynga must really be in the weeds with Moscow and the programming for Western US if they are passing up the chance to make easy money on this character choice thing.

Looks like for the time being you are stuck with the character that you chose when you were a rube without anyMafia Wars strategy for leveling. There are 3 options 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. In order to follow the leveling arguments that we'll examine next, read these character descriptions:

Mafia Wars Mogul Character
Major benefit: Gets the sixty minute take every 54 minutes.
Top Mafia spot: Bagman
Bonus power: If you get promoted into Bagman in another's crew, you sometimes receive 2xs the money on jobs

Maniac Character in Mafia Wars
Primary benefit: Energy rebuilds at one point every 3 minutes, rather than 1 point every 5
Top Mafia spot: Button Man
Bonus power: When Maniac gets promoted into Buttonman spot in another player's crew, you can attack a Mafia Wars player with superior stats, crew size, and weapons, armor, and vehicles and sometimes win the fight regardless.

Character: Fearless
Major benefit: Health returns more quickly - one point every 2 minutes as opposed to one every 3 minutes
Top Mafia position: Wheelman
Come-and-go Power: When you occupy the Wheelman position in another gamer's mafia, a Fearless can complete about 5% of jobs without using energy.

Many Mafia Wars strategists agree that the Mogul character doesn't assist a player to level up any faster. Mogul is a great character for Mafia Wars money since they earn more than two hours of extra money every day. It is a real advantage in the lower levels while a Mafia Wars player is trying to balance income and upkeep. But whether you are a Mogul or not, odds are you'll iron out the money objective pretty early on in the game. That makes the Mogul character's primary benefit a little useless before you get to far up the levels in Mafia Wars. Of course Mogul can become a fighting machine or a racketeering machine and level fast that way, but there's no advantage in leveling through working jobs if you're Mogul.

Even with Mogul out of the running, there is lots of disagreement about whether Fearless or Maniac is the better character for Mafia Wars strategy in speed leveling. These are summaries of the debate:

Arguments in Favor of Maniac
The superior Mafia Wars leveling character is Maniac, because energy is what gets you experience and results in speed leveling. Energy is the name of the game in Mafia Wars. While the Maniac's bonus power isn't as cool as it seems because you won't instigate fights you can't win once you understand fight strategy, recovering your energy fast is so critical to leveling fast that it outweighs any other aspect of character. Therefore, the Maniac character is the one to pick when you want the fastest leveling possible.

The Pro Fearless Character Position
If you want to level quickly, pick a Fearless character. Even though the health refills are considered a non-issue by most dedicated Mafia Wars gamers, the unique power of doing jobs for a 0 energy cost is a huge leg up for leveling. The Mafia Wars leveling strategy for a Fearless is to have another player put you in that Wheelman spot despite your lack of experience. While you are acting as Wheelman you do 5% of the jobs you attempt with no energy loss. Those preserved energy points allow a Fearless to level up much more quickly. That Fearless power means even more as you climb the tiers and jobs cost more and more energy. Additionally, Fearless' health refills may be a bit valueless in NYC, but in Cuba it's helpful because you take a pounding on the fightlist and pesos for the hospital are scarce.

When you're after Mafia Wars leveling, which character is best? As long as you can wheedle a Wheelman in someone's top mafia, I've got to select Fearless as the superior Mafia Wars leveling character. Either character will get you to the top spot, but what the debates highlight is one prime Mafia Wars strategy point. If you want to succeed at speedy leveling, you'll have to master handling your Mafia Wars energy. 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 cornerstone to Mafia Wars is energy.

Unfortunately, you can't change your character to one you hope might help you level up faster. The positive news is that you can always improve your Mafia Wars strategy, no matter what character type, by using better strategy for energy. Another choice - why not open a Facebook profile and start over again as a Fearless character to test out your new Mafia Wars strategy ideas? (Just don't access Mafia Wars from more than one FB profile...if you get caught doing that it's deactivation for you for breaking FB ToS!) It's too bad you can't have multiple Mafia Wars profiles, because a new Fearless character would benefit from promotion into top mafia Wheelman and receive gifts from your existing character, as well! It's just as well you can't officially open 20 profiles...you'd forget to sleep!