Beginner's Guide to Abysia MA

[dirtywick]

PDF said:
Lava Warrior enc is a bug (it should be 2+4, not 10+4, their enc and prec stats have been swapped by mistake), acknowledged by IW.
I've just made an Abysia "modfix" for them and EA Burning Ones, in the mod forum
With correct stats they're very good units (though costly !).

Oh, I didn't know that. Even better, although I still think they're good even with monster encumberance haha

Also, you omited the possiblity for a Fire 9 bless. Not only it is thematic the Lava Warriors are effective with it. Who care about encumberance when they can slaughter a knight charge with F-9 bless?

I listed it briefly in pretender design. I think, in this case, D9 is more effective, but don't let that stop you from being thematic and it's still a great bless. And really, they don't need any bless at all to stop a knight charge

[moderation]

Hmm, is a D9 bless really cost-effective? I thought death weapons only add 2MR+AN damage to your melee weapons. 2 damage seems a bit underwhelming to me unless I'm mistaken...

Also, the Prince of Death or Cyclops are also worthwhile, if generic pretender choices for MA Abysia.

[JimMorrison]

I'm under the impression that D bless will shine more in the late game, with many smaller sacreds, and to deter an enemy rush at the beginning.

The Affliction bonus can be a powerful tool against enemy thugs/SCs, especially as any nation that has Curse casters trainable anywhere.

[moderation]

How does the D bless shine in late game? It's still only 2 extra damage for the cap only sacred infantry.

I suppose having your sacred mages cause extra afflictions when casting Fire Storm is nice, but I'm not sure I would pay for D9. Wouldn't D4-D5 be more cost effective? I'm a little confused about how curse figures into the equation too...

[dirtywick]

In my opinion, there are few things they have problems killing and the things they have problems killing they can at least attempt to cripple with afflictions.

[JimMorrison]

Mod, it's potentially cost effective in MA Abysia's case because you get an SC pretender, you get magic weapons (not just on cap only sacreds, but any sacred summons or indies), you get Affliction bonus on ALL of your evocations, you get ready access to late game Death summons, and you get a little more damage.

You could save the points and do a lower level in the path, yes, but using the PoD for example, going from 3 to 9 is quite cheap for a major bless, and Abysia's troops expand fast enough you can go Dormant to make up for the cost. (obviously, I am not arguing that your theoretical strat is poor, just not necessarily better)

As far as the Affliction bonus, getting +350% chance nearly guarantees an affliction on any damage over 1, on nearly all targets. Reliable, frequent, and multiple affliction application can be an enormous boon, especially when fighting anyone who is using regenerating thugs/SCs. The +100% from D4 is okay, but it's obviously going to be far less reliable.

Obviously, the Cyclops can also be leveraged into a strong strat as well, as even going E6 will give you a very cost effective reinvig for your mages, and getting to E9 is again cheap enough to potentially be worth it.


(my apologies about the Curse comment, I feel that most people do overlook Death bless with most nations, and just thought I'd throw that in there as a general consideration )

[moderation]

I'm wondering specifically how much value the 2AN+MR damage from the death weapons has for your troops. If you just care about your mages giving afflictions, Death 8 could be a cheaper alternative. Also, I'm wonder about cases where a death bless could interfere with fire/frost brand effects on your demonbred thugs.

Is idea is that anything that can't be killed by your resource intensive capital-only sacreds will at least have afflictions? The downside is that your sacreds will also be dead and they are hard to mass. I'm a little skeptical, but I suppose it could have situational uses.

Which battlefield spells really benefit from an affliction bonus? Fire storm and a death bless on the other hand may be handy, but in most situations, I'd rather have the enemy dead rather than afflicted. It seems like the purpose of low and mid level evocations spells is either to kill the enemy or not. Maybe Heat from Hell is another candidate, but if you get to the point where fatigue is doing damage, they are probably all dead anyway... If you are struggling to kill the enemy this way, I think you may already be in trouble...

Maybe it depends on what you're fighting though. If you're dealing with giants, SC, or hydras afflictions could useful. When dealing with chaff, probably not as much.

Personally, I am not sure about the value taking blesses with Abysia. Good scales and a decent awake pretender for early expansion are probably more optimal, since their basic troops are powerful as is. My main concern of course is the question of what is most optimal.