MA Ulm Pretender

[JimMorrison]

Doing an SP right now with a Virtue, cause I love her. Something that occured to me when she came out - whatever you take, must have Earth on it, or you will require an immense investment of gems to get anyone ready to put up any of the globals that you have access to.

Honestly at this point, I'm trying to figure out what to even go with, that suits my playstyle and what I'd want from a pretender for Ulm, that is affordable with the kinds of scales that I like for them. The problem with the Virtue there, is that she is 80 path cost, which is insane - that's 152 just to get to 4E, but you'd want to spend the 192 for E5 so you can do Deep Well with just boots, but? That's 5 scales right there, kinda rough.

So really, seems to me the only pretenders that can be in any way cost effective (assuming that you -want- E5 along with whatever else) -

Oracle
Wyrm (probably with nothing but E5?)
Titan
Great Mother
Forge Lord
Lord of War (only in CBM, at 0 cost?)
or a Rainbow chassis with whatever combination of paths you prefer.


Honestly, looking more and more to me like Rainbow is your only real answer, but you can't really Imprison, because you need to be out to increase your diversity.


So, what I get then (with CBM) is a Dormant Enchantress, Dom6, Prod3/Luck3/Drain3 - F3/A2/E5/S5/D2. Obviously you can swap the Luck for Order, but I figure since your baseline expenses are low, and you want to minimize unlucky magic events, this is probably a better way to go.

Hmmmm. Compared with (bear in mind, in CBM again), a Dom7 Virtue (it hurts me to not boost her Awe, makes me saw "awwww") with the same scales, with 4A/5E/4A. So, less cost effective to boost her Astral, and you don't get the synergy of high Fire access via Skull + Helmet, but..... it's a Virtue with very useful paths. The lack of an Awe boost isn't terrible since you're not using her for your primary expansion. (Going Dom10 with her Awake is -not- even remotely doable.) You can drop her to A2/E5/S2, and dip into Turmoil2 if you really want her Awake, but I don't think that's necessary, and I think it's scary to use Virtue for expansion with only the Awe4 and no buffs, she's too fragile.

[vfb]

You've got Boots, Blood Stones, and a Ring of Wizardry from your Virtue. With an E3 mage (10%), that's all you need isn't it?

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

So really, seems to me the only pretenders that can be in any way cost effective (assuming that you -want- E5 along with whatever else)

So, what I get then (with CBM) is a Dormant Enchantress, Dom6, Prod3/Luck3/Drain3 - F3/A2/E5/S5/D2. Obviously you can swap the Luck for Order, but I figure since your baseline expenses are low, and you want to minimize unlucky magic events, this is probably a better way to go.

Ulm should have access to AT LEAST two Earth boosters. Besides boots, the pretender should be able to forge Blood Stones, Stave of Elemental Mastery, or Ring of Wizardry. I wouldn't go higher than Earth 4, and if I'm taking a rainbow, I won't take any Earth unless I take Astral too.

I thought Ulm could do well with Luck, but I was told otherwise. Ulm's baseline expenses are low, but it's better to use that to build several forts in the first year. The goal is to recruit troops and mages from several castles and still have enough money over to build one more. Even Order1/Luck3 doesn't get the first fort up fast enough.

I'm still experimenting with Ulm pretenders, trying to find something that's more suitable for multiplayer. I try to get access to the kind of magic that makes the build-everywhere Master Smiths more potent in whatever I want to do with them. I usually try to get at least F3 A3 W2 D2 B2. Death or Blood can be dropped to 1 if you're hungry for points, but it slows down diversification into that path. This lets you:

- build Staves of Elemental Mastery with the pretender (F/W: flaming skull, water bracelet, robe of the sea) and Master Smiths with Air randoms. The first Smith requires the F/W staff, Earth Boots and two Air boosters, and he can't use Dwarven Hammer since the staff takes both hands. Still, it does free the pretender for other duties.

- hunting 50 blood Slaves, to empower a young Master Smith to continue hunting. This gives you access to Blood Stones (Earth booster AND produces gems!) and, eventually, high-level Blood items such as contracts.

- Flaming Skulls. A F1 Smith with a Skull gets to F3 with Phoenix Power, and the pretender can forge a Flaming Helmet to give better forging ability as well. F2 Smiths with both Fire boosters can be quite a surprise for your opponents, and you can use a Staff of Elemental Mastery to reach F5 rituals.

- Revenants/Black Servants. Revenants can cast Dark Knowledge, and Black Servants are ethereal life-drainers with enc 0, and one of the better options for early thugs - and can be equipped by the Master Smiths.

- Water has some nifty items, and Water/Fire even more so. Staves of Corrosion are excellent, Rune Smashers make Petrify Spam even more deadly. Ability to forge Rings of Tamed Lighting/Shock Resistance, Copper Plates, Frost Brands etc is also a great help early on.


I'd also like to mention that Master Smiths get more out of empowerment than most other mages. 50 gems for a single-level empowerment isn't cheap, but you can get some incredible discounts this way. Water gives Staves of Corrosion and Rune Smashers mentioned above, Nature gives ultra-cheap Fever Fetishes. Just remember that two-handed boosters won't work with Dwarven Hammers, so it's hard to get e.g. Standards of the Damned at 50% price.