Hey there everybody, I'm looking for a bit of advice on a decent build for MP. I am a treasure hunter of sorts and I never use common items, though I'm OK with uncommon though. Here's my deck: Jugorknot Level 11 Dwarf Wizard Staff Of The Misanthrope Staff Of Pain Magma Scepter Magma Scepter Xipil Ring Xipil Ring Firehide Robes Vira's Shoes Advanced Stoutness Focused Teleportation 1 x Walk 4 x Firestorm 1 x Absorbing Block 3 x Dimensional Traveller 4 x Magma Spray 2 x Burning Fingers 7 x Flash Of Agony 2 x Powerful Spark 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Hit The Deck 2 x Mighty Spark 4 x Volcano 1 x Sorcerous Bolt 1 x Immovable 2 x Shimmering Aura Hypocris Level 10 Human Priest Bynzer's Black Spear Vampire's Blade Dark Chain Shirt Buckler Rhood's Boots Draining Console Draining Console Hand Of Melvelous Perfect Command Focused Healer 6 x Spear Of Darkness 2 x Loner 1 x Reliable Mail 1 x Dash, Team! 1 x Mass Frenzy 1 x Run, Team! 6 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Draining Touch 2 x Consuming Spear 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Wild Run 1 x Team Walk 1 x Block 1 x Sapping Spear 1 x Rushing Aura 1 x Surging Shield Block 3 x Talented Healer 2 x Healing Beacon 1 x Touch Of Death 1 x Parry 1 x Hardy Mail Cain Level 10 Human Warrior Laser Broadsword Mark 2 Broadsword Adamant Shortsword Dependable Mail Halo Shield Shaman's Felt Cap Off-balance Boots Unskilled Human Trained Bruising 1 x Lunging Strike 1 x Shimmering Aura 1 x Reliable Mail 1 x Berserk Spin 1 x Nimble Strike 2 x Reliable Hide Armor 3 x Walk 1 x Mighty Bludgeon 1 x Desperate Block 1 x Powerful Bludgeon 2 x Able Stab 2 x Lifesaving Block 1 x Wild Run 2 x Bruiser 2 x Strong Hack 1 x Laser Whip 1 x Flaring Laser 2 x Run 1 x Bash 2 x Mail 1 x Purging Strike 1 x Shifty Stab 5 x Laser Strike Thanks in advance for giving your input. I know I'm missing a lot by not using common items, but that's what makes it more fun for me.
At this stage you're just having fun and that's cool. High ELO builds tend to be very focused, whereas your build here is a bit unfocused. Mage: A bit of volc, a bit of firestorm, a bit of LOS damage. Those 6 short range sprays are only going to land as your mage gets mowed under by warriors, so they're dead cards and if they attach to your opponent, he/she will be able to see which item they're from and then your chance of landing a volc is basically zero. Volc mages tend to rely on volume and being able to move the enemy chars back onto lava tiles, but you have no control cards. Hit The Deck is horrible, it's basically a trip without the card draw minus a bit of damage prevention. Movement in general for this mage is an issue, if the enemy finds away around your front line troops. Priest: A buffless vamp whose main problem is going to be armour. You have zero ways of removing armour (that I can see at first glance). The second someone draws a couple of reliable mails, this guy is going to be useless, and you'll be forced to chase that character around with your warrior to try a land a laser strike Warrior: He's okay, but you'd want to hang onto that one purging strike, because that's it for the entire game for all your characters. If someone plays martyr's blessing or elven maneuvres or nimbus or force field or unholy wellspring or savage curse then you've got no counters.
Mage: Change Tactics, Maybe to a new race even. I'll experiment a bit. Warrior:Probably to replace entirely for a priest. Seems like buffs and purges are my ticket to success. Priest: Perhaps I should look into synergy for two priests. Anyway, just my speculation. Thanks for the input.
I'd recommend not automatically shying away from common items, for starters.. *coughbejeweledshortswordcough* ... although, to be fair, among my ranked trio the only common items at all are two Bejeweled Shortswords whereas I'm using six legendary items among the trio. Flash of Agony isn't very good without buffs like Savage Curse on most maps... and it can be downright counterproductive to if Martyr's Blessing, Sparkling Cloth Armor, and Elven Maneuvers are in play since it can give your victims more cards and more movement towards you for only modest damage. Having both a vampire priest and a wizard, with a mostly-no buff priest, means that all characters are functioning somewhat less efficiently than they could. You lose heavily on buffs -- you have only one Mass Frenzy, and no Savage Curse, no Unholy Wellspring as well as a severe deficit of Purge (and while I don't play MP all that often, Force Field seems to show up often enough that to consider) and card draw. Force Field isn't unbeatable -- I won the last time two elf warriors with Force Field active charged me on Round 2 when I had none of my purging cards, by brute-force focusing one down -- but it's pretty significant. Impenetrable Nimbus is also strong since most players aren't running a lot of purge AFAICT. Your warrior is rather varied, and seems likely difficult to use efficiently as a result -- lots of different attacks, so at the end of each turn it's going to be very unpredictable as to whether you'll get step-attacks, or a stab, or range-1 laser strikes, or a bash. I would prefer a different minor-token shield since Lifesaving Block isn't useful at all until you've taken a substantial beating... and the odds of drawing your other LSB in such dire circumstances are low. Consider Buckler Of Protection, Parrying Buckler. For a less orthodox choice, Shielding Warp Boots is sort of incoherent (Warp Run and Force Field?) but it's the only way to get Force Field for a minor allowing you to spend your majors elsewhere. I happen to be fond of Throon's Quick Laser Shield, but eh.
I think one of the core aspects has potential, the pairing of flash of agony with an vamp ally able to not only recover, but to deal extra damage in the process. The peaks of FoA are that you can get a lot of them, hit multiple enemies and do so over unlimited range. I am kinda curious to build around that myself. Since most armors will cut the damage in half, some sort of boost is indeed in order though, or you supplement it steadily with armor discards, which benefits your vamp(s) greatly too. Volcano seems like a separate strategy here, but any way, both cards go well with heavy control, so you can ensure your opponents stay on terrain and move your allies out of sight for a flash without exhausting their mobility.
Especially since you're playing 1/1/1 with only mass frenzy buff, your wizard is hard pressed to play burst so high damage output and high control is vital. I would suggest using a highly focused cold staves or more high powered cold/lightning spell staves (can't think of the legendary with freezing + 2x potent spark). I would also suggest higher levels of cycling on your wizard and a luke's iron hand/ring of appropriation. Maybe some armor removal too with akon's or a cinnabar ring. EDIT: Also, maybe some smoke in case you run into 3x wizards and you need to advance/clear territory
