Guide to Marverni

[Ming]

MaxWilson,

E9 bless would not help the boars as they have no armour but W9 bless would as the boars would then travel twice as far and so trample twice as many enemies (The extra defense is secondary). The smaller boars would trample size2 enemies and occupies the attention of others and so improve the survival rate of the Canute boars. Most opposition would break and flee before they can take down the Canute boars.

Furthermore, the Canute boars should be used in addition to the Druids, not to replace them. In the middle game summoning 10 Canute boars is certainly far easier than getting an EXTRA 4-5 equipped druids, so it is hardly a fair comparison (I would prefer to have 4-5 extra equipped Druids too ) The boars are more effective in combined arms than on their own and when used as such can be quite effective. They are also very effective defending castles.

[JimMorrison]

Ming said:
MaxWilson,

E9 bless would not help the boars as they have no armour ...

I think he was actually saying that for 5E gems you can put on Bracers, which are a piece of armor, and gain the bless bonus. The thing being that while Water bless is probably outright more effective - if you are running a boar focused strat - it does nothing for the casters, while the Earth bless gives reinvig, and the armor.

[Ming]

JimMorrison,

Thanks for the clarification. I actually forgot that bracers count as armour and stand corrected on my previous comments on the E9 bless.

However, I am not sure if an E9 bless provide that much help to the druids. So if one were to invest the points for a lvl9 bless, W9 might be better to give Marverni an extra threat in addition to their druids. The trade-off is not so much W9 boars vs druids, but W9 boars vs a wind guide/fire arrow casting Pretender plus some eye of aiming (mass produced if one gets lucky with indies). Unless one gets lucky with finding indie air mages, it is not clear to me that W9 is inferior - and if one gets so lucky, air mages can be found with W9 through mercs and then air sites too!

At any rate, I think the Canute boars are cost effective even without a W9 bless.