I agree. You probably don't need it. I don't think it's a particularly powerful card. But that's the kind of build that I think would get the most value out of it. From my point of view, warriors in particular need both of their end-of-turn cards. Blocks, armour, movement, and attacks can all be high-priority cards that the warrior wants to keep, but can't immediately use. Wizards and priests can usually use their cards somehow before the end of the turn, but warriors often can't. So I'd usually target warriors with Mind Worm if I get the choice.
I'm going to be fairly busy next week so I'm going to give the next card a head start. I was really looking forward to Whirlwind week and at last it's finally here. Why? Whirlwind catapulted me into the top 20 of PVP season 1 the week I finally decided to jump on the Whirlwind bandwagon. If it were not for a ruffian who's name rhymes with Schlaxitive stirring up all kinds of trouble, I might have been able to ride Nimble Strike and Whirlwind to a prize finish. Instead, I decided winning wasn't worth all the grief I was causing my opponents by playing such a controversial strategy so I promised I'd boycott those two cards. My rating tanked but my conscience was clean. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Limiting the range of the Whirlwind placement has all but convinced everyone of its unplayability. Maybe some of you already tried out the old pre-nerf builds and know they're terrible but it's time for me to see for myself. Viva la Whirlwind! Spoiler: The Nerfable Suspects Marroo Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Pearwood Staff Staff Of Chask Rod Of Winds Rod Of Winds Rod Of Winds Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Thin Sparkling Cloak Sliding Boots Solid Rock Electroporter Novice 1 x Team Walk 1 x Spark Generator 3 x Punishing Bolt 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Vulnerable 3 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Stone Spikes 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Mighty Spark 1 x Toughness 2 x Pushback Parry 2 x Telekinesis 1 x Frost Jolt 3 x Whirlwind 1 x Immovable 1 x Slowed 2 x Winds Of War 1 x Parry 6 x Whirlwind Enemies 1 x Fright 1 x Acid Jet Gitkhrum Level 20 Dwarf Warrior Bejeweled Shortsword Bejeweled Shortsword Lochaber Axe Perilous Ringmail Parrying Buckler Crusty Helm Hawkwind's Moccasins Raging Battler Savvy Attacker 1 x Traveling Curse 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 5 x Vicious Thrust 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 1 x Slicer 1 x Thickened Mail 1 x Hardy Mail 3 x Nimble Strike 1 x Unreliable Block 3 x Reliable Mail 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Escaping Run 3 x Parry 1 x Team Walk 1 x Impaler 1 x Obvious Maneuver 6 x Powerful Hack Khrumzorn Level 20 Dwarf Warrior Bejeweled Shortsword Bejeweled Shortsword Lochaber Axe Perilous Ringmail Parrying Buckler Crusty Helm Hawkwind's Moccasins Raging Battler Savvy Attacker 1 x Traveling Curse 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 5 x Vicious Thrust 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 1 x Slicer 1 x Thickened Mail 1 x Hardy Mail 3 x Nimble Strike 1 x Unreliable Block 3 x Reliable Mail 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Escaping Run 3 x Parry 1 x Team Walk 1 x Impaler 1 x Obvious Maneuver 6 x Powerful Hack For anyone that wasn't around during the Dark Ages of Card Hunter, the game plan was to use Whirlwind Enemies to isolate 1 member of the opposing team and pounce on it with both warriors, preferably from opposite ends. If you didn't like the layout after the first Whirlwind you flipped the board again...and again. The wizard is pretty standard aside from not using Trembling Staff. I'm even sticking with the retro Thin Sparkling Cloak to see how much worse it is with the Vulnerable "buff". I used to run Vibrant Pains instead of Lochaber Axes but now that Nimble Strike doesn't move 4 they're definitely not as necessary. Lochabler Axe might not even be the right call but I'd like to see if they're still playable. I have a feeling that this isn't going to be enough movement on the warriors though Whirlwind doesn't send things flying across the map anymore so who knows. For now it's time to party like it's 2014.
Hmm. Whirlwind has one advantage in the current meta, it doesn't do any damage, so maneuvering elves don't get to draw another card from it. Winds of war and gust of wind are weak against the cult for exactly that reason.
This seems like overstatement. More like Elven Maneuvers allows counterplay to slide effects than that it completely obsoletes them...
This is why I tend to value Winds Of War over Gusts Of War. Nimble Strike and Dancing Cut are relatively common, and if you need to move two people at once at that range, something is probably going wrong for your wizard already
Well, yes. But from playing the cult myself, I was often actually happy when those got played and triggered to give me more moves.
I'd like to see Leadership on your list. At first a seemingly bad card, it's actually pretty worthy. It helps alleviate bad card draws, can be used for drawing trumps, and can be used to turn stuff like armor cards into key attack cards. Turning an extra Officer's Harness or a Parry/Cause Fumble when against mages into an attack card or even a buff card like Savage can be critical. You can even switch out your racial move card to something useful if you don't need to move or team moves are good enough. I've actually tried using Leadership together with a control wizard to great effect; if I need more Illusory Barriers I can swap out control cards, and if I need more control cards I can swap out Illusory Barriers.
I use Leadership a lot when I run weapons that have some very strong attacks but weak filler like Double-edged Sword or Overloaded Staff. It sees less play because most people prefer using command skills on human support characters, not because Leadership is weak.
When I was a newbie, I used to immediately resign when my opponents played Leadership (because it meant they had much better items than I did). Of course, back then it could draw 14 cards at a time...
Oh okay. I guess all the negative comments about Leadership that some of the opponents I faced before (but now that I think about it that was about a month ago, and I've learned a whole lot since then) were untrue. I guess I simply had a sample of the public's opinion that did not accurately represent the population. Since I'm already in the business of suggesting cards... I haven't really seen an effective range 8-10 mage build play out aside from basic cold control stuff (i.e. Frost Jolt[/CARD][/CARD] and Freeze). I've seen someone try playing Elven wizards with a lot of Sizzling Bolt along with some Unholy Wellspring and I actually enjoyed watching him play long distance positioning. The problem with range 8 though is that Fireball would give you the same results without needing direct LoS and Burst 1 attacks are only one square away. Another idea would be a build that revolved around the use of Touch Of Death. I know it's a pretty decent card, but I don't see it too often. It gets by parries because it's a Magic card, so that's a plus, too. I might also suggest melee attack cards on mages, but that might be too far-fetched (though I see whackapple has a pretty decent "combat mage" build hanging around the 1500s... so it might actually be totally viable). EDIT: You tried an Advanced Battlefield Training build for AoA warriors, right? I actually tried a variant of it with mages to transfer Arcane Auras, and it was a ton of fun. I don't have Deadly, Deadly Staff or Arcane Shell items, but I think you can do pretty amazing stuff with it. My personal bests are Arcane Aura x4 + Mighty Spark + Spark Generator and Arcane Aura x3 + Obliterating Spark + Spark Generator, but I think using Arcane Shell and Deadly Spark would be far more consistent and viable. I also tried transferring spells to a warrior/priest, but that didn't justify using a gold quality card.
Finally got 10 games in with Whirlwinds and it was the best result I've had with any build thus far. Went 9-1 and finally broke back into 1600s. What I've been able to tell from the matches is that Whirlwind is risky but gets you out of binds and Whirlwind Enemies will inconvenience your opponent like nothing else. They make victory square grabbing nearly impossible and movement spent getting closer can be undone just as easily. Lochaber Axe performed admirably. You can switch to a Vibrant Pain but I didn't have too much trouble chasing down isolated character with only a few Nimble Strikes. I think you benefit more from having higher damage to quickly take people out before they can run away. I'd only make the switch if the metagame shifted heavily towards wizards. Speaking of wizards, that was my one loss. It took me too long to cross the map and I took a buffed beating. Overall, Whirlwinds are good with Whirlwind Enemies in particular being incredible, maybe even too good. All I know is that I really hope no one is reading this so I never have to face it from the other side.
Whirlwind Pros Does what you want most of the time (move enemies away from your wizard, move enemies out of position) Makes holding victory squares difficult for opponents Draws out blocks, most importantly Defender's Block Cons There's a small chance you will get screwed by the RNG gods The Whirlwind wizard doesn't do much on its own Unless you're a psychopath or an emotionless robot, you will feel dirty playing them (lots of rage quitting and cursing)
Ah Dodge. You were so good but add one little pip to the dice in the corner and people avoid you as if it were a tumescent pimple. I did play with Dodge a little after the nerf but I dismissed it fairly quickly. It is quite possible that I was spoiled by how good it was before but I wouldn't rule out that it truly isn't worth playing anymore. A week of testing should sort it out. Jump Back I kind of covered back during cold spell week and it was fantastic. However, that build was really dependent on Nimble Strikes and I want to see it's possible to use with normal attacks. Reflexive Teleport was Dodge before Dodge was cool. By before I mean after and by cool I mean crappy. This one I've never even tried building around so it should be interesting. But enough with the rambling, on to the build!. Spoiler: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge (Plus Jump Back and Teleport) Danfinwecir Level 20 Elf Wizard Hotglass Staff Hotglass Staff Reflex Stone Reflex Stone Reflex Stone Reflex Stone Robes Of Avoidance Sticky Slippers Nimble Scouting Focused Pyromancy 9 x Reflexive Teleport 2 x Sizzling Bolt 2 x Immovable 4 x Penetrating Zap 1 x Elvish Scamper 1 x Rusty Armor 3 x Firestarter 1 x Hover 1 x Wild Run 1 x Pathfinding 4 x Combustible 4 x Hot Spot 1 x Dropped Guard 2 x Magma Spray Curtoruer Level 20 Elf Warrior Bejeweled Shortsword Bejeweled Shortsword Rageblood Dagger Peasant's Plate Shield Of The Frog Crusty Helm Bouncing Boots Cautious Mobility Novice Impaling 1 x Reliable Mail 2 x Impaler 1 x Dancing Cut 1 x Obvious Maneuver 1 x Hardy Mail 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 6 x Powerful Hack 2 x Ill-fitting Armor 4 x Jump Back 2 x Penetrating Cut 2 x Elven Maneuvers 1 x Raging Strike 1 x Blind Rage 1 x Hard To Pin Down 1 x Scouting Run 1 x Arrogant Armor 7 x Vicious Thrust Maedhel Level 20 Elf Warrior Reaper's Scythe Reaper's Scythe Bolg's Club Of Evasion Perilous Ringmail Shield Of Ultimate Dodging Party Leader Hat Goat Boots Cautious Mobility Novice Slicing 1 x Weak Chop 1 x Immovable 3 x Strong Bludgeon 2 x Pulverizing Bludgeon 4 x Obliterating Chop 1 x Thickened Mail 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Scouting Run 1 x Sprint, Team! 11 x Dodge 2 x Slicer 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 2 x Blind Rage 2 x Elven Maneuvers 1 x Reliable Mail 1 x Weakened Armor 1 x Traveling Curse [/INDENT] All three are about jamming as many Dodges, Jump Backs, and Reflexive Teleports as humanly elvenly possible. Elves have all the skills that get you movement cards so it only seems fitting to use them. An elf wizard? Well if I'm not planning on getting hit who cares what my hp is? I'm using Pathfinding to see if it'll work better than Elven Maneuvers. Don't think the elf wiz can afford to take hits anyways. For Jump Back I opted to use Ill-fitting Armor to turn all those jumps into hops. That should be enough to hop back with Vicious Thrusts. The Dodge warrior is just all Dodges all the time. Dodge might be better as a value card rather than a full on crutch but we'll see. Both the Dodge and Reflexive Teleport characters are banking on having 2-3 copies at a time. If all goes as plan my team will end matches at near full health. What could possibly go wrong?
