Blink

[Illuminated One]

What is this spell good for?

I always see my communion slaves cast this spell when I go to easy on them. They end up next to the enemy archers and get killed.

Are there any non-suicidial uses for this spell?

[Zeldor]

No, rather not.

[Tifone]

If you've an almost untouchable SC and a battlefield damaging enchantment cast (even through item) - it can be useful to give him the sandals of the crone (correct name?) which spam blink so your SC goes around making a little harder for the enemy hordes to swarm him while they get damaged.

Well, that's absolutely "niche" but it was the only thing that was in my experience ^^

[DonCorazon]

I actually have been experimenting with sandals of the crane, which autocast blink - and find it can be useful on a strong thug with lots of action points as there are a number of times when i have blinked in to the rear flanks and taken out key magi. It also can cause infantry to run around without getting any attacks in and mess up enemy formations. Best used with some other form of offensive units as well so you don't blink around endlessly causing an auto-route and also can target the enemy combatants chasing the blinker.

[Sombre]

Well there are fun uses for the sandals, that's for sure.

But for the spell blink? I can't think of any.

[thejeff]

It's a shame. It would be a really cool spell if the AI was smart enough to use it well.

Imagine a mage fighting infantry who would blink randomly away whenever they got too close to him. Or an SC who would blink whenever he wasn't close enough to fight an enemy (OK flight works better there)

But as it is? Yeah it's a waste. And usually a suicide if the AI decides to cast it.

[Poopsi]

Indeed. Most of my communions dont die of fatigue. They die because the slaves start casting blink.

One workaround I found is giving them a crossbow and having them on a script of "Comm slave, hold, hold, hold, hold, fire closest". This gives you 28 spell turns after the comm slave spell, before they start blinking.

[Nikelaos]

if it was AOE or battlefeild wide it could be useable, i can see something like that used as a sorta regenerating thug rotation wheel, some thugs will be blinked at the enemy, some will be blinked far and for those five turns you would see some thugs getting an all important rest to regenerate and others brought in to the action when they were blinked far away before and so are fresh and ready.

however this doesn't exist right now so oh well.

[Hadrian_II]

Just take a banner with you, so your S1 mages wont blink and die :)

[Nikelaos]

having a banner for each communion member is quite expensive don't you think?

surely it would be better spent put into summons and other rituals?

[Stavis_L]

having a banner for each communion member is quite expensive don't you think?

surely it would be better spent put into summons and other rituals?

You only need the one banner; the effect is battlefield wide.

[Ironhawk]

Actually... does anyone know the exact mechanics for the spell Blink? Does it teleport you completely randomly? Or is there actually a pattern. If there is a pattern, it might be possible to exploit it with a single casting of Blink. For example, if it wouldnt blink you within a range of AoE 10 of your starting position, then putting a lbinker in the back of your field drives up the probability that it will appear in the rear of the enemy field.

[lch]

If you've an almost untouchable SC and a battlefield damaging enchantment cast (even through item) - it can be useful to give him the sandals of the crone (correct name?) which spam blink so your SC goes around making a little harder for the enemy hordes to swarm him while they get damaged.
In my experience that only means him always running around to get to the enemy troops and racking up more fatigue while doing so. If it's a SC, it doesn't need to blink, it needs to hit stuff.

[lch]

Just take a banner with you, so your S1 mages wont blink and die :)
Alternatively, have the communion master cast Power of the Spheres. Best use of one pearl.

[sum1lost]

If you've an almost untouchable SC and a battlefield damaging enchantment cast (even through item) - it can be useful to give him the sandals of the crone (correct name?) which spam blink so your SC goes around making a little harder for the enemy hordes to swarm him while they get damaged.
In my experience that only means him always running around to get to the enemy troops and racking up more fatigue while doing so. If it's a SC, it doesn't need to blink, it needs to hit stuff.

Unless it is an SC that is relying on a battlefield enchantment, like he said. In which case surviving is the name of the game.

[K]

Just take a banner with you, so your S1 mages wont blink and die :)
Alternatively, have the communion master cast Power of the Spheres. Best use of one pearl.


I always get Evo1 pretty early, so I've never had a problem with Blinking slaves. They seem perfectly happy to spam Starfires.

[lch]

Unless it is an SC that is relying on a battlefield enchantment, like he said. In which case surviving is the name of the game.
Fatigue is one of the enemies of SCs, so running around and attacking which I think gives more fatigue than just attacking is not that much of a help.

[vfb]

I think it's the other way around. You don't normally gain fatigue from just running around (there are exceptions eg. if you are berserk).

[Sombre]

If you use a BE that takes a turn to cast so you're only casting blink 4 times max anyway. Not exactly very useful.

[Endoperez]

If you use a BE that takes a turn to cast so you're only casting blink 4 times max anyway. Not exactly very useful.

The suggestion was combining BE with Sandals of the Crane. Not the spell Blink.

[vfb]

How about blinking in a storm castle? Vanilla flyers cannot get over the walls if there's a storm, but if a few golems are scripted for 'buff,blink,attack rear', a couple might manage to get past the gate and into the back lines. Not exactly something you'd want to depend on though.

[Sombre]

If you use a BE that takes a turn to cast so you're only casting blink 4 times max anyway. Not exactly very useful.

The suggestion was combining BE with Sandals of the Crane. Not the spell Blink.

True, but this thread is about Blink. I'm just pointing out even the limited but possibly cool things you can do with the sandals won't work well with Blink.

[Dedas]

Blink is a really wacky spell but it's also extremely useful. Where it really shines is when you combine it with numbers. Having 10 or more cheap blinking warrior mages scripted with a close combat magic spell and ritual of returning means that at least one or two of them will severely damage the enemy rear. Imagine what one or two Flame Eruptions or Shock waves can do that a cluster of enemy artillery mages.

[Sombre]

Blink is a really wacky spell but it's also extremely useful. Where it really shines is when you combine it with numbers. Having 10 or more cheap blinking warrior mages scripted with a close combat magic spell and ritual of returning means that at least one or two of them will severely damage the enemy rear. Imagine what one or two Flame Eruptions or Shock waves can do that a cluster of enemy artillery mages.

How many cheap astral and combat magic mages are there? Have you actually successfully used this tactic? It sounds pretty unreliable and easily disrupted - I mean you aren't going to be teleporting with these mages, so how do you know you aren't going to run into a handful of chaff troops? You'd lose several mages and probably quite a few gems they had for the returning.

[Edratman]

I used Sandals of the Crane a few times on SC's. After watching several battles where they blinked to a location without a single opponent within 3 squares I put Sandals of the Crane into the "niche" category.

[Tifone]

Probably blink would be nicer and exit the "99% useless"... ehm I mean "niche" :D category if it was somewhat regulated. Like, if it always brings a mage "to a location without a single opponent within 3 squares", it could be still niche but good for casters (communion slaves i.e., but even battlefield enchantment casters) to delay the moment they will get caught by the enemy flankers if they manage to pass through the "blockers".

[Ballbarian]

I was distraught enough by blink that I made a small mod to add a gem cost to it.

Ah, here it is:
Blinking Monkey Spell Mod (aka God's Will) (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=35421)

[Hadrian_II]

Just take a banner with you, so your S1 mages wont blink and die :)
Alternatively, have the communion master cast Power of the Spheres. Best use of one pearl.


I always get Evo1 pretty early, so I've never had a problem with Blinking slaves. They seem perfectly happy to spam Starfires.

They spam starfires, when enemies are in range, but when the enemy is routing they will blink (and if you have lots of S1 mages one will blink in the path of the routing PD). Also power of the speres will only trigger, if the AI considers the enemy army strong enough, so your mages will still blink into PD.

[Kristoffer O]

Once upon a time there was a ... SCATTER.

In the early stages of dom-ppp there was a scatter spell. Essentially a 50 AoE blink that would target enemies. It was devastating, unresistable and quite fun and equally unfun. Fun to watch, but not fun to be targeted by. It prolonged battles and made them unpredictable and boring as it disrupted battle plans more than an equal amount of death. It was quite fun to watch the first couple of tires though.

You might be able to reproduce the effect in a mod if you want to see how it worked.

[Tifone]

I'd actually like the opposite more to try, but I'm not that good in modding ^_^ The one you mentioned seems very dangerous mr. O :shock:

[Aezeal]

you could probably make an attack for 50 AoE, MR negates, 0 damage and blink as 2nd effect damage.. if it exists as damage type.. .. maybe AoE 3-5 would be better though.. would be a somewhat balance spell for astral 2, no direct damage but still damagerous for some troops.. might convince some pplz to use it instead of the alternative on that level of astral

[Zeldor]

The only real thing you could try is blinking communion with phoenix pyre and some shields [astral,fire] and some way to get fatigue down from kills. But that would stop after 5 turns :( [I wonder if you'd get whole communion blinking if you put sandals on master]

[Gandalf Parker]

I would like to see a Blink be non-fatiguing altho I can understand why fatigue on such a spell would be thematic. But blink, AoE, blink, AoE would be fun to watch. Or possibly using Blink, Charm, Blink, Charm to make charm actually more useful on the battlefield.

I also wouldnt mind seeing Scatter re-implemented. It would be fun to come up with tactical use of it. Seeing the AI use it against me might be interesting also. Possibly just not make it so huge an area of effect.

Maybe add it as a national spell to someone. Too many national spells seem to be Summons. But I can see why doing summons as nationals is easier to come up with thematically. And what nation would Scatter fit? The only only I can think of is maybe Arcos which I always thought of as the leading magic research nation and would likely come up with "new" magics not based on historical summons.

[chrispedersen]

What is this spell good for?

I always see my communion slaves cast this spell when I go to easy on them. They end up next to the enemy archers and get killed.

Are there any non-suicidial uses for this spell?


Hmm. I wonder if Phoenix Pyre works as part of a communion....
That sounds like a lot of fun actually. Use the communion to keep the mage exploding for as long as possible....

Also, I wonder if a high regen, low prot trampler would work....
It would generally work if blink was done at the END of a turn, or at the beginning of the opponents turn - instead of at the start of yours.

[Zeldor]

Yep, Phoenix Pyre works in communion, but fatigue is a huge problem here [you get a lot of fatigue for casting and resurrecting, and you don't resurrect with 100+ fatigue].

Fun would be to add Blink for some sacred unit - they would Blink if blessed :)

[Gandalf Parker]

Thats an interesting thought.
What if Blink could be added as a bless. Not added to the bless unit but added to the god. A particular god modded to grant their blessed followers the ability to blink. In fact, it might be real interesting if Johan added a mod command to grant gods special bless abilities. I can think of many that might be fun.

[Tifone]

Hey, nice idea Gandalf! :)

Probably overwhelming balancing issues but the idea is very, very funny.

[Edratman]

I think that is a brilliant idea Gandalf! :up:

If nothing else, it would be a fantastic "Fun Factor" multiplier.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well balance does not have to be strongly considered in whether or not to provide a mod command. All of the mod commands have the capability to throw things way out of balance. Some will use it responsibly, and others (like me) would use it wildly. :)

[Kuritza]

Cast power of the spheres with your communion master, or light of the northern star with some mage outside the communion on turn 1. Or both.

[Ylvali]

How about a "ritual of blink" triggered by melee damage.

The mage lay bleeding by the assassins feet. He raised his dagger to deliver the final blow, but the blade cut through thin air. Confused, the assassin looked around just in time to see the fireball...

[JimMorrison]

Endo made an interesting comment about Blink in another thread, and it made me think -

Blink needs a later counterpart, maybe 1gem/100 fatigue, 2 Astral, that is a persistent effect on the caster, duplicating the Sandals of the Crane.

[Tifone]

Well, with CBM Sandals of the Crane can become an extremely forgeable item so I don't really feel the need of that :)

[Meglobob]

I have used blink successfully once when I was La Agartha and at war with La Ermor. I had cast Inner sun on a lot of my mages and blinked them around the battlefield to be killed by some of the 1,500 undead army I faced. The effects on the undead army were truely devestating! It was sometime ago but I believe I destroyed most of the undead.

Other than that, I have never used blink successfully.

[JimMorrison]

Well, with CBM Sandals of the Crane can become an extremely forgeable item so I don't really feel the need of that :)

Sure there is, so you can have Boots of Quickness, or use Boots of Flight to Blink away, then fly back in to strike before Blinking again. ;)

But the Sandals are so cheap, they would be an effective tradeoff in some cases. ie- use Sandals where appropriate, but units such as Golems may just want to cast the spell.

[Tifone]

Meh, I've tried the Sandals of the Crane on thugs for continuous blinking but never had great results personally.

[JimMorrison]

Meh, I've tried the Sandals of the Crane on thugs for continuous blinking but never had great results personally.

I had a Heliophagus with the Sandals (built in Flying!), and until he ran into a couple of Tarts, he was amazing and hilarious. I wouldn't say it's effective and/or useful in all scenarios, but it can be a good tool, allowing less physically robust thugs to use hit and run tactics on smaller forces, with less chance for the defenders to strike.

[Olm]

Could Sandals of the Crane be used on anti thugs to fatigue out flying thugs?
The enemy thug will will try to follow the blinker by flying and rack up huge amounts of fatigue until he is unconscious.

Problem could be to damage him, when he is unconscious.

[Corinthian]

I would like the sandals of the crane much better if they were not boots. A caster thug needs his boots for Boots of the Messenger to not fatigue out. A helmet of the crane would be much more useful.

[Soyweiser]

perhaps a interesting suggestion for CBM.

[GFSnl]

Oh, Yeah I like a Helmet of the Crane.

The head spot is the least useful. (except for spirit helmet but that's expensive)

Can we change graphics though? Having a Grendelkin wearing an old sandal on the head is rather disturbing