Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread

[Nerfix]

Post your builds here. I'll start:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/Nerfix/fallenangel.jpg

Pictures say more than 1000 words, now don't they? Not perhaps the most optimal build, but Awe + Fear is quite funky. The Reinvigoration he gets might be over the top though, and I'm not sure which is a better weapon, that demon whip or heartseeker.

Anyway, his main advantage is that Awe+Fear+High-ish def+20 prot+Luck makes him hard to hit.

[Belcarl]

I usually use a few "artillery" banes. Equipted with a Bow of Thunder, Spirit helm and a bottle of living water.

The chasi for this thug really isnt that important, but banes are cheap in gem costs and generally gets more resistances then national bought commanders.

Five of these placed infront of my mages, but behind the normal infantry lines will make a good backbone to any none flying/stealth army. 5 Water elementals and 10x lightning bolts per turn.

[efelle]

Strong on paper but quite hard to create and useless : the SC Lord of War with Ulm EA !
All these item needs Construction 4 at this time it was already useless because there was no more problem with independant. The picture was taken on the battlefield after Ironskin and Body Ethereal.

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/193/pretendantsb3.jpg

[Nerfix]

Belcarl said:
I usually use a few "artillery" banes. Equipted with a Bow of Thunder, Spirit helm and a bottle of living water.

The chasi for this thug really isnt that important, but banes are cheap in gem costs and generally gets more resistances then national bought commanders.

Five of these placed infront of my mages, but behind the normal infantry lines will make a good backbone to any none flying/stealth army. 5 Water elementals and 10x lightning bolts per turn.

Sounds nice, but Firbolg is propably even better since they have a pretty high precision from what I remember. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Belcarl]

I dont have acess to the manual right now, but isnt Firbolg 10N gems and no resistances? So the banes should have a higher survival rate, and being cheaper. Except against nasty anti-undead spells. Low level banish is usually resisted though.

The thunderbow gives a slight precicion bonus, and I havent noticed any arrows going astray unless my banes need to hit something inside a castle. If that is a problem, and you dont have acess to nature magic, putting an eye of aiming on them should work.

Scrap the thunderbow, get an eye of aiming and the soulkilling crossbow (999 damage every second turn if it hits) and you got yourself a commander killing thug. Here the Firbolg would probably be better, since one will always be shooting at long ranges.

The demon whip, gleaming shield (the one that gives awe) and something that gives fireresistant. Is a good combo to clear low hp chaff with a Thug that has decent hp and protection. A charcoal shield could work, but then you would need to put regen on your thug since he is more likely to get hit.

[Nerfix]

Well, Bane's survivability depends on what he's fighting.

Does the Demon Whip have Area Fire or somesuch?

[Shovah32]

If we are trying to avoid nation pecifics then I like:
Poison Golem with:
1 Handed Weapon of choice
Charcoal Shield
Heavy Armour vrs most things or robe of shadows if you know you wont be facing any form of magic.
Horror Helm
Some sort of boots (quickness is nice)
Lucky Pendant
Any misc that will help him survive

Basically he runs it, uses his luck, shield, great health and prot to shrug off hits while his damage shields(fire and banefire) take advantage of his fear to rout the enemy.

If we can go national specific:
Angel of Fury (pythium and marignon)
Hands arent too important for this guy but i would go with a weapon chosen depending on enemy (multiple/AoE vrs hordes, herald lance vrs big undead ect) and a charcoal shield.
Horror helm for routing enemies or skullcap for extra mr
Again, heavy armour (i love robe of invunerability but its expensive) or robe of shadows depending on enemy
Boots of the messenger (cant remember if he has enc or not but other things can fatigue him)
Ring of regen (its the new lifedrain, even though i used it alot in dom2)
Lucky Pendant

He has blood vengance, fireshield, nice health, is sacred, good prot/decent prot+ethereal, luck, regen and reinvig.

[Graeme Dice]

Belcarl said:
Scrap the thunderbow, get an eye of aiming and the soulkilling crossbow (999 damage every second turn if it hits) and you got yourself a commander killing thug.



If it hits and if the unit fails a magic resistance roll.

[Amos]

I prefer Wraith Crown + Bone Armor a specially on assassin. Thats force multiplication to the max.

[Shovah32]

EA Abysian slayers are nasty assasins, i gave one a robe of shaodws, girdle of might, boots of giant strength (he will do fine with just girdle and boots vrs most recruitables) and a bearclaw talisman forged by pretender. Iirc he had a total of around 28 strength, flying, ethereal and 2 strongly poisoned attacks (each hitting at around strength 30).

Some other assasins i like (expensize but still..):
Void Spectre (national summon for dreamland) with black heart, starshine skullcap, spell focus and amulet of anti magic. He was expensive but deadly, he had S4 or 5, amazing mr and good penetration, i wished for the slaves though.

Heliophagi/harvester of sorrows with a black heart, lucky pendant and some high damage weapon with decent attack.

Any assasin with eye of aiming, boots of quickness and the instantdeath crossbow.


Some nice thugs/SC's:

Dai Oni with any sword you want, shield of gleaming gold, horror helm, robe of shadows, boots of quickness/messenger, luck pendant and some other misc (ring of regen?). Script him to cast: stoneskin/iron skin/invunerability, soul vortex(or whatever the lifedrain aura is), fireshield and then let him attack. Damage shield, damage aura, great prot, way to heal fatigue (soul thing), regen, ethereal, luck and great fear.

Niefel Jarl:
This ones pretty simple:
Sword of swiftness, shield of gleaming gold, horror helm, fire plate, boots of messenger, lucky pendant, ring of regen (if no/low nature bless) or reinvig item if low/no earth bless.
Script him to Soul Vortex thing, Quickness, BoW and send him in, high high prot, nice defence and damage and fatigue auras means he can just stand there freezing and draining his enemies while his buffs, regen and reinvig keep him at full strength

Golem:
High defence weapon, charcoal shield, starshine skullcap, heavy armour(i like marble personally), boots of quickness, bracers of protection, some other misc.
Send him in, cast ethereal, luck and possibly resist magic and astral shield depending on opposition. With nice defence, damage shield (see a pattern with my thugs/SC's?), high prot, great MR and a load of astral buffs behind him hes nearly unkillable. If you can then swap the high defence weapon for a bloodthorn, partial lifedrains better than nothing.


Some Annoying Things:
Get anyone who has astral and fire magic, a load of cheap s1 mages and a few units of chaff up front. Give the s1 mages items such as doom glaives and accursed shields and place them just behind the chaff. Send them in and have the strongest mage cast communion master, ethereal, luck, phoenix pyre, fire shield. The little guys are almost mini thugs for the ammount of damage they do, their weapons being extremely nasty vrs large expensive units (Other SCs/thugs, pretenders, expensive summons ect), they are very hard to kill (works even better with multiple masters due to speed buffing) with all their buffs, they have a fireshield (and with alot of them, the masters fire magic will be higher so their shield will be stronger) and when they die, they each cause a huge explosion and re-apper somewhere else.

Take the cheapest commander you can buy, fill his slots up with rubbish/annoying cursed items and send them against a non fully equipped SC/thug (or leave him there to catch assasins http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif) and watch their owner cry as all his valuable slots are filled with rubbish items (lycan amulets are worst as they can permanently destroy the unit)

[coobe]

Here is a tryout from me, his dominion 10 was really great to smash indies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
I used him with LE Atlantis

http://img318.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dagonmh1.jpg

[Shovah32]

Only one problem from this end, the image dosnt work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[coobe]

hmmm.... but why......

[Shovah32]

[image] is at the start, should there be a / in there somewhere?

[Taqwus]

Ahhh, the Firbolg sniper... if memory serves, in D2 they had a base precision of 15. Nice. They also avoid the Bane's cold aura that may be a problem for some armies... and an archer normally shouldn't be sent alone.

I'd favor either Botulf or Vision's Foe (preferred) over the Ethereal Crossbow, 'tho, as both ignore target's MR. And AN+eye loss is so evil.

If you're looking at assassins, Spirit Helm + Phoenix Rod is a nasty, expensive, 1-2 punch. Add a Rime Hauberk if you want to cover yet a third element. :p

Of course, if you're going REALLY profligate, the prize for funny (from the winner's POV) + profligate + unreliable might have to go with empowering an assassin until he can cast Gifts from Heaven.

[Endoperez]

Or give an Empoisoner a Treelord's Staff, and make him cast Creeping Doom.

[Nerfix]

Endoperez said:
Or give an Empoisoner a Treelord's Staff, and make him cast Creeping Doom.

*guitar riffs*

Die! By my hand! I creep across the land! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

[Shovah32]

lol, where did that come from?

[FrankTrollman]

That's Metallica. Or the Leprechaun as played by Warwick Davis. I'm not sure which is more of an embarrassment at this point.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

-Frank

[Shovah32]

Dont recall hearing that in any metallica songs but whatever.

[JaydedOne]

Ride the Lightning. Their second album. Cliff Burton. Huge Lovecraft fan. 'Nuff said.

[Shovah32]

Thanks for that.

[Nerfix]

Shovah32 said:
Dont recall hearing that in any metallica songs but whatever.

Metallica - Creeping Death

[Frostmourne27]

What about an assassin with high base precision (maybe ninja?) with the scepter of corruption? You can't quicken him anymore, but with a few surrvival items, you can kill just about anything.

[dirtywick]

Personally, I like to give assassins Bane Blades if they don't already have them. Most mages are old age already, so it doesn't really take that long for a Bane Blade to do it's job, plus it's a pretty cheap investment.

[Valandil]

One of my favourite assassins (no, not for mp.)

Star Child. with a horror harmonica, starshine, ritual of returning, and twist fate. And the oath rod, just for fun.

Actually, it works okay against armies to.

[paradoxharbinger]

don't have much experience with dom3 yet, but what i liked to do in dom2, and maybe this was a bug, was wait around until the eternal knights showed up and way over bid them. then when i got them i'd send them to thier death. orion always get 1000+ xp and usually got the heroic strength ability. once i'd researched the spell that raises heroes on the hall of fame, i would raise orion as a mummy and by then he would have 60+ strength. i would give him the wraith crown, shoes of flying, monolith armor, the scythe artifact, and a few other things. i'd usually make him my prophet as well.

[Valandil]

Monolith armor? Why?

[paradoxharbinger]

best armor there be and he was undead, so he wasn't encumbered by it. so what the ethereal-ness didn't take care of, the armor did. i suppose he would have been vulnerable to spells, but he usually had the army routed after the first few rounds anyway, so nobody ever got anything bad enough off to kill him

[Shovah32]

That orion seems like a bit of a waste. 60+ strength is wasted on almost anything other than pretenders, SC's and extremely costly, powerful units (ie, what the enemy wont let him near) and hes extremely expensive and hard to get for what he does. He does sound fun though.

[Morkilus]

Is awesome. I had no idea you could resurrect dead mercenaries to stay "on the team" forever.

[Shovah32]

Im pretty sure you can, aslong as they were working for you at their time of death.

[paradoxharbinger]

only bad thing is that you can't take the items back from them that you equip them with. the other thing that i did once was cast gift of reason on all of his minion knights, that was pretty bad ace, though i think that still had the equipment problem that orion had

[NTJedi]

The other negative effect of a mercenary brought totally under your control via spells is that they cannot be given troops.

[paradoxharbinger]

true, but i didn't go to all of that trouble to just make some guy to ferry troops around

[NTJedi]

paradoxharbinger said:
true, but i didn't go to all of that trouble to just make some guy to ferry troops around



Well in some of my games I've done ritual of rebirth on commanders with lots of astral or nature magic... these weren't mercenaries, but it sure would have been nice to use them in casting spells to teleport large armies. These were DOM_2 games.

[paradoxharbinger]

thought that only applied for mercs

[Gandalf Parker]

I may need to provide my build but my favorite assassin is still the Lord of the Night pretender. Mictlan gets him (not sure who else does). Titan, stealth, flies, summons aid during assassinations. And thats without equipment.
I think Id probably give him a bow.

The other thing Id like to try is giving a black heart to the many armed pretenders.

I also loved giving black hearts to Pans in Pangea. They would sneak into a province, and assassinate (usually by equipment or spells), and then they would throw a few maenads off. The maenads would instantly attack that province. Usually they would die fast since 3 or 4 maenads dont take a province very well but you at least saw what was there. AND if that assassination was the last commander then the enemy would route. It saves alot of trouble continually testing a province to see if the assassinations have made it weak enough to be taken.

[paradoxharbinger]

iirc, the pans just generate maenads each turn, so if you were to park a stelthy pan in enemy territory, he would keep generating them and they would attack right? sounds like a good way to drive unrest through the roof.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes.
A regular pan can be a real pain-in-the-back-provinces for any enemy that doesnt use PD. Just move him around alot and watch the provinces fall. When you take one; crank the taxes to max, buy some PD, recruit locals, generally make it hard to take back and worthless if they do get it back. If you are given time to recuit a local commander then pillage also.

[Shovah32]

Using the lord of the night as an assasin, i never thought of that! One question though: how can you make an assasin out of a 4 armed stealthless pretender(such as a nataraja)? Those pans also sound very nasty indeed (creeping doom, charm with some penetration help, swarm, various other useful spells) and, if im not mistaken they could bring some stealthy troops with them incase you need to attack in force after assasination.

[NTJedi]

Shovah32 said:
Using the lord of the night as an assasin, i never thought of that! One question though: how can you make an assasin out of a 4 armed stealthless pretender(such as a nataraja)?


Impossible... unless you create your own unit via mods.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ahh I forgot that that none of the natarajas have stealth.

And the Lord of the Night is already an assassin altho it doesnt say that he is.

Lord of the Wild could be one with a Black Heart and that might be fun to try since he tosses out maenads. And the ghost king would be fun. Are there other stealth pretenders that toss out units or get assistants in combat?

[PhilD]

Gandalf Parker said:
Yes.
A regular pan can be a real pain-in-the-back-provinces for any enemy that doesnt use PD. Just move him around alot and watch the provinces fall. When you take one; crank the taxes to max, buy some PD, recruit locals, generally make it hard to take back and worthless if they do get it back. If you are given time to recuit a local commander then pillage also.



I don't see too many players fall for this more than once, really. It doesn't take too much effort to figure out how much PD you need to beat the Maenads (not much, I'd say), and after that all they need to do is crank PD a little over the minimum in all provinces. You get a free peek at defenders, which isn't useless, but you won't get free provinces anymore.

And even the AI does build a little PD, right?

[paradoxharbinger]

but unrest would keep getting driven up due to constant attacks

[Gandalf Parker]

And in some games I invest multiple Pans. Ive even been known to use my pretender (Lord of the Wild). I was in a 3-pllayer game where my capital and home territories were taken midgame. I survived until endgame by harrassing the #1 player (that took me out) until the other guy could get up an army and sweep in. It might not have been a winning strategy, but it was a game-affecting one. (vengeance sucks, huh?)

It might just be because of the way I play but I find Pangaea to be massively useful as an ally. Flying scouts (quick reports on everyones location), stealth armies (able to move thru your partners territories), able to trade off mages with major support abilities, lots of tactics for harrassing and reporting. But like I said, I prefer playing a supporting role in an alliance so it might just be my viewpoint.

[Valandil]

Headless hoburg assassin?

[Action]

How would you guys use a mummy with 28 precision and 4 levels of holy (not unholy).

Prophet (Bakemono General) got killed after 40 turns in the hall of fame with heroic precision and brought back as a mummy and reprophetized (+1 holy).

I stuck him with a bunch of wights and unfrozen (cold and disease immune) and gave him a winter bringer (falling frost wand) and sword of injustice (for the automatic protection of the sepulchure), and just have him stand back and spam 28 precision falling frosts on my enemies.

But it sorta seems like a waste, anyone have a better build for a super high precision unit with a wind of leprosy? Maybe bow of war or thunder bow on fire rear to try and snipe commanders? I tried him with an ethereal crossbow and he didn't really hit as often as you'd think for such a high precision.

[Nerfix]

Bow of War or that Banefire Crossbow. Or Thunder Bow. Does he have high strenght? Ah, only if you could build that Sarlath rod...it would be so fitting for a mummy.

[Endoperez]

The Sarlath rod Nerfix mentions would enable him to cast Banefire.

[Action]

Nerfix said:
Does he have high strenght?


only 20


Ah, only if you could build that Sarlath rod...it would be so fitting for a mummy.



What is that? It's not letting me wish for it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[NTJedi]

Well the holy_4 and high precision would make him a great killer of undead units... not sure if any of your opponents are using undead. An item to increase his penetration would help too.

The winter bringer is a good setup, but you may want to pass that item to another commander you want entering the hall of fame. When you switch I would advise having the mummy use the bow of war with 'fire at archers' command.

Is this a multiplayer game or singleplayer game... what nations are you fighting? Any nations have their large pretenders walking around?

[Nerfix]

The "Sarlath rod" which real name I forgot is a Blood artifact that allows the caster to shoot Banefire. Perhaps some other stuff too. Let me check the manual...

Ah, it's called Sceptre of Corruption. Has it's drawbacks though, notably it curses the wielder and gives a slight chance of horror mark.

[Action]

NTJedi said:
Is this a multiplayer game or singleplayer game... what nations are you fighting? Any nations have their large pretenders walking around?



Single player, mighty AIs, but they're all a lot smaller than me now, so I'm just sort of playing around with the end game stuff to learn a bit. Haven't seen any large combat pretenders really.


Nerfix said:
Ah, it's called Sceptre of Corruption. Has it's drawbacks though, notably it curses the wielder and gives a slight chance of horror mark.



Ahh thanks I'll try it out.

I appreciate the suggestions guys.

[Nerfix]

Super-precise Banefire for 5 fat is worth it though I think. Your Shinuyama right? Slap Boots of Quickness on him and you're ready for Mass Destruction. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

[dirtywick]

Action said:
How would you guys use a mummy with 28 precision and 4 levels of holy (not unholy).

Prophet (Bakemono General) got killed after 40 turns in the hall of fame with heroic precision and brought back as a mummy and reprophetized (+1 holy).

I stuck him with a bunch of wights and unfrozen (cold and disease immune) and gave him a winter bringer (falling frost wand) and sword of injustice (for the automatic protection of the sepulchure), and just have him stand back and spam 28 precision falling frosts on my enemies.

But it sorta seems like a waste, anyone have a better build for a super high precision unit with a wind of leprosy? Maybe bow of war or thunder bow on fire rear to try and snipe commanders? I tried him with an ethereal crossbow and he didn't really hit as often as you'd think for such a high precision.



The Black Bow of Botuf could be fun to play with too, they only thing worse than a dead mage is a feebleminded mage because they still have to pay upkeep http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Nerfix]

BBoB had it's heyday in Dom: PPP where you could aim enemy mages.

[Shovah32]

That mummy with a bow of war and boots of quickness set to fire rear would be great at killing human mages. If you have alot of gems you could always empower for shadowblast spammage/other large AoE spells.

[Taqwus]

If you've got the gems for Wish, do you have the gems to empower the mummy to cast Gifts from Heaven? The -3 prec of that spell is nasty, but with the caster's prec of 28...

[Nerfix]

I wonder if the two meteors could hit the same square with high enough precision...

[Arameyan]

Gandalf:

How do you use the Lord of the Wild (EA or ME MP)? I tried to use it but I'm not sure how: as a pretender I dont want to risk him to sneak in bad dominion. Do you use blood Magic? Equip him as a SC?

However he is a really cool thematic choice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Corwin]

Taqwus said:
If you've got the gems for Wish, do you have the gems to empower the mummy to cast Gifts from Heaven? The -3 prec of that spell is nasty, but with the caster's prec of 28...



Yeah. It will be more like precise laser strike from the orbiting satelite, rather than some random rock from space. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

Arameyan said:
Gandalf:

How do you use the Lord of the Wild (EA or ME MP)? I tried to use it but I'm not sure how: as a pretender I dont want to risk him to sneak in bad dominion. Do you use blood Magic? Equip him as a SC?

However he is a really cool thematic choice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



I dont sneak him out unless it looks like Im going to lose my castle. But I use him as a fodder generator. Especially since I turn down order and production which makes him generate even more. It gives me a nice split between being able to create and send stealth armies, while still getting plenty of free non-stealth for local combat and patrolling.

[Arameyan]

Ok. Does it generate more maenads than a regular pan?

[Shovah32]

Im pretty sure he does but i cant verify.

[Zen]

Yes, he does.

[Gandalf Parker]

And having high turmoil increases it even more. It gets hard to keep enough commanders moving them around. Getting the ability to Awaken Sleeper helps alot

[Shovah32]

The only problem i have is that taking turmoil can give you a fairly large decrease to your income, although taking luck and a bit of growth might help.

[Arameyan]

I'm trying Turmoil 3 Luck 3 Pangaea. Sometimes luck gives money but I think I have to take an awake pretender able to figth just in case I'm against an Order 3 Productivity 3 High bless rush http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Other than Mass protection and Maybe mass regen (less useful) to boost maenads, I think theyre is a high blood spell that increase by 4 the strength of all your battlefield units. With Berserk the maenads would have a strength of 15, but at a high research cost. Any other maenad-boosting spell?

[Shovah32]

Weapons of sharpness? I though rush of strength only worked on demons?

[HoneyBadger]

Here's my SC idea: Void Lord with Earth 9-10, Water 9-10, armed with blood thorn, shield of gleaming gold, Wraith Crown, ring of regeneration, bear claw talisman (or whichever misc. item grants berserking), boots of stone, and hydra skin armor. Alternately, you could exchange the ring for an amulet of anti-magic or an elixer of life, and replace the blood thorn with a rat's tail whip or demon whip.

Along this same line, you could use a Destroyer of Worlds chassis and equip him the same, only with two hellswords for 2 life-draining attacks, +6 berserk, and 100% fire resistance, but I'd try to give him as much starting fire magic as possible in this case. My other idea for a 4 armed pretender is the Devi/Kali with 10 Dom for awe +2, 10 fire magic for the bonus to attack, and 4 rat tails, for 8 attacks, all of which cause fear.

Regeneration from forged items is cumulative, which is very very sweet, and which gives me an idea for a cheap (in terms of forged items) SC-namely to take that fertility goddess with regeneration and trample, give her nature 10 and equip her with a ring of regeneration and hydra-skin armor. Add boots of long strides for extra speed. Total cost is something like 20 nature gems and 5 earth gems. You can do the same to any large commander-the best is probably Basalt King with their size 5, sacredness, and fear +3, replacing the boots of long strides with boots of the behemoth.

A couple of questions though-is adding boots of the behemoth to a trampling unit cumulative in any way? Also, I haven't tried this yet, probably will tonight, but does anyone know if the Shroud of Saints' Blood can be equipped by pretenders, thus making them sacred?

[Nerfix]

Shroud doesn't work on pretenders.

[Reverend Zombie]

Nerfix said:
Shroud doesn't work on pretenders.



Well, it offers a bit of zero encumbrance protection cheaply if you can't get anything else.

[Shovah32]

Also remember that weapons with lifedrain (not natural lifedrain though) have been nerfed alot in dom3.

[Will]

I'm testing out something in my current game, more along the lines of gang thugs, and wanted to see what some more experienced players think of the setup:

I came across some independant Lizard Shamen (1S1N), recruited a group of 8 and I equipped each with Thistle Mace, Rune Smasher, Starshine Skullcap, Rainbow Armor, Boots of the Messenger, and Moonvine Bracelet, making them 2S3N. I script each of them to cast Communion Slave, Communion Master, and then one of each casts a buff to be spread across the communion (Power of the Spheres, Twist Fate, Eagle Eyes, Personal Luck, Elemental Fortitude, Resist Magic, Personal Regeneration, Astral Shield). I also bring along a priest with a Banner of the Northern Star (scripted to bless), so after the buffs and everything, I should have 8x 4S4N Shamen, each with +7 Reinvig in communion, which should bring their magic skills up to 7S7N for spellcasting and fatigue purposes. Then, depending on the situation, I script the last two spell slots to either Soul Slay or Charm.

So, other than the expense in gems to make all the equipment (75 gems for each! Less since I used Dwarven Hammers and have Forge of the Ancients active), is there anything I'm missing that is horribly wrong with this setup? For the Charm setup, I figure keep the Shamen up front with some body guards and a bunch of chaff troops set to Attack Closest, and for Soul Slay keep them behind a decent army.

[Shovah32]

The slave+master on each dosnt work, for one iirc when one of them casts a spell the rest (being slaves aswell as masters) wont cast that turn.

[Will]

Hmmm, well, I guess that throws out all the buffs spreading across all. I suppose I could switch them all to just do, say, Eagle Eyes, so at least that will go through and they will have higher precision for the Charm/Soul Slay spam.

[Zen]

You don't need eagle eyes for Soul Slay or Charm really.

Also you've made some very interesting 110g units, with no resistances, so if you get blasted by artillary, or flying screens to disrupt casting, you might be wondering why they are so fragile.

[FrankTrollman]

Most importantly though, if a comunion master casts a spell, each comunion slave takes fatigue equal to their encumberance. So outfits like Rainbow Armor actually bone you if you are a comunion slave.

-Frank

[Will]

FrankTrollman said:
Most importantly though, if a comunion master casts a spell, each comunion slave takes fatigue equal to their encumberance. So outfits like Rainbow Armor actually bone you if you are a comunion slave.

-Frank


Rainbow Armor is Enc. 1, +3 Reinvig. The messenger boots would also help with the fatigue. Communion would reduce the extra casting fatigue because of path skill boost. I haven't tried it out yet, but I would think that the +1 casting encumberance would be more than offset by reinvig and reduced casting fatigue. I would think that it would result in less fatigue than there would have been with each casting the spells individually.

Besides, I decided to equip with Rainbow Armor more for the +MR, and if I cast Elemental Fortitude (since Zen tells me now that Eagle Eyes isn't going to really help), then I should have decent coverage in fire/cold/shock/poison/magic resistances. This could be augmented by other mages in the army casting battlefield resistances.

[thejeff]

But it still doesn't work.
It's not just the buffs they won't cast.
Only one will cast the Soul Slay or Charm each round. The others will just sit there and take his fatigue.

More effective to use 9 (or 10) shamen. 8 for slaves and 1 or 2 masters. Equip the masters if you want, but they'll get 3 path boosts from the slaves anyway, so with your gear and without buffs they'd be at 5S6N anyway.

[dirtywick]

That's a neat trick.

[Will]

thejeff said:
Only one will cast the Soul Slay or Charm each round. The others will just sit there and take his fatigue.


Aha! I think this is the part I wasn't getting. So if there is a communion, a Master casting a spell would be kind of like the slave casting the spell as well, so the slave cannot do any casting in the same round even if the slave is a "Master" as well. Right?

Oh well, anyway, I was initially hoping that the communion would allow for the "speed buffs" spreading among all the members, and then allow for reduced fatigue for Charm and/or Soul Slay spam. I'll still try it out to be sure, but after I think I'll just have each cast outside of a communion.

[Azhur]

My endgame prophet SC. I wish-buffed him 'a tad'. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Azhur/SC.jpg

[Meglobob]

Thats one sick mother... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

How many turns did it take to get him like that?

[Azhur]

Having wished it, I propheted, wished twelve times (magic power, power) and finally forged 3 equips. So that's about 16 turns & -1300 astral pearls.

I just love the style, my precious prophet smites Bogus to smithereens with one strike. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Azhur/seraph.jpg

Here's Risen Oracle's opponent. Assuming I'm casting basic battle buffs (mistform, mirror image, soul vortex etc.), then just attack closest, who wins? Make a guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Epaminondas]

Azhur said:
Having wished it, I propheted, wished twelve times (magic power, power) and finally forged 3 equips. So that's about 16 turns & -1300 astral pearls.

I just love the style, my precious prophet smites Bogus to smithereens with one strike. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/firedevil.gif

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Azhur/seraph.jpg

Here's Risen Oracle's opponent. Assuming I'm casting basic battle buffs (mistform, mirror image, soul vortex etc.), then just attack closest, who wins? Make a guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



OMFG!!!

[PhilD]

"vast magical and priestly powers", indeed...

Still, Risen Oracle can go underwater. One point to him http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[HoneyBadger]

risen oracle doesn't have awe or medusa-stoning ability or flying or poison resistance, 2 less holiness and 4 less attacks per round.

Poor oracle http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Better stay in the water-preferrably the deep, deep end. For that matter, I'm kind of glad I live in a basement, at the moment.

[Sheap]

Give the Oracle an elf-bane and he will have better luck...

[Shovah32]

Im guessing these were made on borons test map? (where you get 1000 of each gem type per turn and start with huge numbers of seraphims/arch angels with all that magical power)

[Azhur]

Shovah, you would've guessed right, had I known of such map. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

I played with two human sides, which took some preparation time for the battle. Besides, it was fun to make SCs from scratch. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

And what comes to the outcome of the battle...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Azhur/Pwnz.jpg

[Shovah32]

lol. Go into the mods and maps section to find it (you have amazing research and gem producing abilities aswell as many kickass mages)