Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia - Page 3

DeathDaemon · #1 December 30th, 2008, 05:04 PM

Great guide Baalz! I would like you and/or the community to comment on the strategy of self-buffed combat sorcerers w/ little or none crafted items and then charging in to become spiders. I remember using them like that in Dom2, but not for years now...

Have you had too many losses for this strategy or do you not find them as effective as researching and then using them as mages?

MaxWilson · #2 December 30th, 2008, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeathDaemon

Great guide Baalz! I would like you and/or the community to comment on the strategy of self-buffed combat sorcerers w/ little or none crafted items and then charging in to become spiders. I remember using them like that in Dom2, but not for years now...

Have you had too many losses for this strategy or do you not find them as effective as researching and then using them as mages?

Quoting from upthread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baalz

@Thejeff - I find the black sorcerer thugs a bit of a fun gimmick rather than a very effective thug. You don't want to equip anything other than misc items if you plan on switching to a spider (you'll lose them), which doesn't leave much that's terribly effective. I'm certainly open to someone proving me wrong, but I haven't been able to make this effective yet.

-Max

MaxWilson · #3 January 2nd, 2009, 03:25 AM

Why does dominion matter for fever fetishing? Arco's dominion does automatic scrying, but it doesn't heal, as far as I know.

-Max

Sombre · #4 January 2nd, 2009, 06:43 AM

Yeah I was wondering that too. What does dominion have to do with it? How are arco better than machaka at it if they're just using scouts?

vfb · #5 January 2nd, 2009, 08:38 AM

Arco has priestess healers, so they don't have to keep hiring new fetish holders.

It's got nothing at all to do with dominion though, and Arco does not have FN mages anyway, so it's all kind of moot unless you're doing some weird nature-forge-lord thing.

I tried out a FWEN Forge Lord once and it's actually a doable strategy, pumping out cheap fetishes and clams. 2F2N for a fetish, 7W2N for a clam. Not a whole lot of fun though.

chrispedersen · #6 January 2nd, 2009, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfb

Arco has priestess healers, so they don't have to keep hiring new fetish holders.

It's got nothing at all to do with dominion though, and Arco does not have FN mages anyway, so it's all kind of moot unless you're doing some weird nature-forge-lord thing.

I tried out a FWEN Forge Lord once and it's actually a doable strategy, pumping out cheap fetishes and clams. 2F2N for a fetish, 7W2N for a clam. Not a whole lot of fun though.

Under CBM 50 pts for a forge lord. Plus 4F4W is reasonable bless for WindLords.

Regarding Arco and fetishes.. Once upon a time I did a test for 10 or 20 turns comparing recuperation in dominion and out of dominion - and as I recall I got 30% more recuperation in dominion.

Now, it could have been statistical variance. I didn't adjust for difficulty of affliction, I didn't only look at disease... - but ever since that I've always just jumped in and out of dominion when I want to recuperate.

MaxWilson · #7 January 2nd, 2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Now, it could have been statistical variance. I didn't adjust for difficulty of affliction, I didn't only look at disease... - but ever since that I've always just jumped in and out of dominion when I want to recuperate.

Heh. There are so many little hunches like that that I have about this game, and just play along with without ever really being able to verify for sure. It really is an amazingly complex game.

(And I should probably read the debug logs more thoroughly.)

-Max

MaxWilson · #8 January 2nd, 2009, 12:58 PM

I don't think fever fetishing is moot, it's just not something you can plan on in every game. From now on every time I find e.g. a Forest of a Thousand Streams, my first thought will still be "Oooh! I can clam now," but the second thought will be "And fever fetish!" Note that fever fetishing and then alchemizing the fire gems to pearls is slightly more nature-gem-intensive than clamming (4:1 instead of 3:1), but you're also not water-limited.

-Max

vfb · #9 January 2nd, 2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I don't think fever fetishing is moot, it's just not something you can plan on in every game. From now on every time I find e.g. a Forest of a Thousand Streams, my first thought will still be "Oooh! I can clam now," but the second thought will be "And fever fetish!" Note that fever fetishing and then alchemizing the fire gems to pearls is slightly more nature-gem-intensive than clamming (4:1 instead of 3:1), but you're also not water-limited.

-Max

Yeah, but you can't base a strategy on finding a particular magic site recruitable. Oh geez ... sorry to have gone OT with this Arco discussion, everyone. I'll refuse to discuss it in this thread anymore

.

MaxWilson · #10 January 2nd, 2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfb

Yeah, but you can't base a strategy on finding a particular magic site recruitable.

I never said you could. Or should. My idea of "strategy" says that you should have an early game mapped out, and know what you're capable of in the late game, but what you do in between and which late-game you aim for depends upon what happens early on. I'd rather know what it *means* to find an Enchantress site (clams!), or find garnet amazons (bloodstones!), or to find the Library of Time (Shadow Seers, teleporting Will of the Fates!), or to locate Caelum's capital (air gems!), or to start next to Niefelheim (research Ench-3 immediately!). Rigid nations are no fun IMHO.

-Max