So far I'm 2-3 but already there are some glaring weaknesses, especially with the wizard. First off, Reflexive Teleport hasn't triggered once. Some of it was just bad luck like whiffing with 3 in hand. What really sucks is that burst attacks get around it. With burst attacks being so prevalent my team needs some counters. Arcane items are the most cost effective way of getting Reflexive Teleports so anti-wizard staves are the way to go. I could give Counterspell another shot or go with Smoke Bomb but I either won't be able to fit many copies in or will need to take out a lot of Reflexive Teleports. The best solution seems to be Illusion for Illusory Barriers. I will need to shave off a few Reflexive Teleports to accommodate them but they weren't doing anything anyways. Likewise, the Dodge warrior was drawing too many Dodges so I'm taking some out in favor of more attacks and card cycling. The Jump Back warrior seemed fine though Jump Back was awkward against wizards. I was using them up to avoid the mandatory trigger at which point Ill-Fitting Armor was actively bad. I'm going to give doing all 3 another shot but I might need to cut 1 or 2 of them to be more competitive. Spoiler: Once More Without Feeling Danfinwecir Level 20 Elf Wizard Illusion Illusion Eych's Amulet Reflex Stone Reflex Stone Eych's Amulet Robe Of Lightness Goat Boots Novice Insight Electroporter Novice 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Flash Of Agony 6 x Reflexive Teleport 2 x Penetrating Zap 1 x Weakened Armor 2 x Hover 4 x Stone Spikes 1 x Scouting Run 1 x Immovable 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 10 x Illusory Barrier 1 x Pathfinding 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Superstitious 1 x Spark Inductor Maedhel Level 20 Elf Warrior Reaper's Scythe Reaper's Scythe Rageblood Dagger Perilous Ringmail Shield Of Ultimate Dodging Crusty Helm Goat Boots Cautious Mobility Focused Slicing 7 x Dodge 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Immovable 1 x Obvious Maneuver 1 x Traveling Curse 1 x Scouting Run 1 x Thickened Mail 1 x Weakened Armor 2 x Pulverizing Bludgeon 3 x Blind Rage 1 x Dancing Cut 2 x Elven Maneuvers 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Raging Strike 1 x Hardy Mail 3 x Slicer 3 x Vicious Thrust 4 x Obliterating Chop
Latest build went 3-7. Reflexive Teleport was a bust. Either my wizard was out of the fray and they were useless or they were failing to trigger up close. Either way, Reflexive Teleport never prevented more than 1 attack per match. In fact, I'm pretty sure I only got the trigger once the entire time. I would much rather have guaranteed damage prevention from spells like Telekinesis. Dodge was about the same. It rarely triggered and I was wishing it was Jump Back every time. I would gladly trade the ability to pick the landing spot after triggers for for better odds of triggering. Drawing Dodges after accumulating 2 in hand was also a huge bummer. One less attack for the turn for another ticket in the Dodge lottery please. Would you look at that, the third one misses just like the rest. Jump Back was great as always though I wasn't impressed with the self encumbering. With only two copies of Ill-Fitting Armor I didn't reliably have both in hand and I had to pitch a second copy of Jump Back on multiple occasions. I think it's better to take a hit in the damage output department in favor of range 2 step attacks. Doing less damage doesn't matter when you aren't getting hit back. All three were pretty terrible against wizards but Jump Back made up for it by kicking butt against melee. To sum up, Jump Back is great. Reflexive Teleport and Dodge should slink back to the abyss of unused cards, forever roaming the lands in search of naive deck builders to disappoint. I'm going to spend the rest of the week with Jump Back warriors, one of each race to see if elves really are the best jumpers.
Its such a pity .. and a fail doing that nerf to Dodge. I was begging not to make worthless card out of Dodge (we had some nerf-suggestions, which would remove "keep" from Dodge, but make it a bit better than Surging Shield Block).. but "testing" has shown that its still playable .. I wonder, who did that "testing" and in how many games.. I also agree with you .. I was using Dodge in some of my games to test that myself .. and it's so unreliable .. having 2x dodge in hand and failing multiple times, and then rolling 3x in a row with 1 dodge.. (some will say, see it works ok) .. the problem is -> its not reliable enough to go into melee with it hoping it would slow opponent a bit.. parry is so much better .. Reaper's Scythe, Quick Jon's Axe and Bolg did not deserve that
If you have two Dodges in hand, isn't the probability of one triggering 57%? (So, better than one Skillful Dodge). I mean, that's not 75% that Skillful Dodge would give you, but it's better than even. The real bummer is when you get three, and that's only 71% to trigger.
Dice rolls shouldn't be a factor on Dodge or any variation of the card. That's just bonkers. It's a proven fact, that it's bonkers. It would be interesting - really, really interesting - if Dodge was always guaranteed to trigger on attacks from the front...but it had no Keep keyword. Now, THAT Dodge would be a fun card. Very fun indeed!
Replace all d6's with a d12's for tighter tweaking of the odds. I think our players can handle the math. D20 would also work, but it's somehow developed a bit of a bad rep.
The other day, I heard I was as old as Tom Cruise when A Few Good Men was released. Anyway, you want the truth? You can't handle the truth. Show me the money!
Dodge/Reflexive Teleport Pros Reusable damage prevention Doesn't care about Hard to Block or War Cry Doubles as movement when you need it Cons Not reliable enough to base entire defense around Does not work against untargeted attacks Not very effective against magic and projectiles Takes up valuable real estate, especially Reflexive Teleport Jump Back Pros Reusable damage prevention Doesn't care about Hard to Block or War Cry Doubles as movement when you need it Ridiculously high success rate Able to avoid range 2 attacks Cons Does not work against untargeted attacks Not very effective against magic and projectiles Cannot choose where you'll end up The mandatory trigger can be an inconvenience, both for holding positions and attacking back Enemies to your immediate right or left will still land hits
Curse Of Fragility is one of those cards that you get early on in the campaign, barely beat modules with, then toss to the back of the keep after you get better items. Well it's time to blow the dust off some of those items and take Curse of Fragility out for a spin. This week will be a bit different since I'll be starting off with a build heavily based on one by @Deepweed that you can find here. I'm missing a few of the legendaries but not anything that can't be substituted. This is what I'll be working with initially. Spoiler: Going Deepweed Zacwulffield Level 21 Human Wizard Illusion Illusion Cinnabar Ring Ring Of Appropriation Luke's Iron Hand Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Forceful Robes Corian's Boots Advanced Flexibility Electroporter Novice 7 x Telekinesis 1 x Spark Generator 1 x Boiling Armor 2 x Gusts Of War 1 x Spark Inductor 2 x Flash Of Agony 2 x Officer's Harness 1 x Slowed 1 x Dissolve Armor 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Force Cone 10 x Illusory Barrier 1 x Stone Spikes 1 x Force Bolt 1 x Quick Step 2 x Leadership 1 x Resistant Hide Geomancer Level 20 Human Wizard Staff Of A Million Embers White Flame Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire Rod Of Palver Pree Rod Of Palver Pree Forceful Robes Lt. Buckwell's Boots Advanced Flexibility Focused Pyromancy 2 x Telekinesis 1 x Force Bolt 4 x Glob Of Flame 6 x Ember Burst 2 x Leadership 1 x Officer's Harness 2 x Flanking Move 1 x Slowed 1 x Force Cone 2 x Boiling Armor 3 x Firestarter 2 x Stone Spikes 2 x Hot Spot 6 x Instant Burn 1 x Resistant Hide Ulfgav Level 20 Human Priest Initiate's Glaive Initiate's Glaive Unholy Nimbus Aegis Of The Defender Pergop's Slippers Mokad's Reeking Skull Oak Roots Green Lotus Root Advanced Flexibility Superb Cleansing 1 x Inspiration 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Unholy Frenzy 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Leadership 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Slowed 1 x Accelerated Thought 4 x Reaching Swing 9 x Curse Of Fragility 3 x Unholy Energy 2 x Strong Stab 3 x Entangling Roots 1 x Holy Presence 1 x Chain Harness I'm missing 1 Lt. Buckwell's Boots, 1 Asmod's Telekinetic Chain, 1 Berian's Locket, and I swapped out Wlakwa's Boots despite owning a pair. I'm using Corian's Boots on the Illusory Barrier wizard since I don't think cantrip movements will be as necessary for laying down walls. Two Rod Of Palver Prees end up nearly the same as the missing arcane items with a Hot Spot subbing in for a Glob Of Flame. Finally, I'm not a huge fan of Team Walk in wizard based parties so in comes Pergop's Slippers. You'll almost always use it as a reactive card whereas Violent Spin has a much wider range of use. I'm a little skeptical about running human wizards and I'd like the burning wizard to be more linear to lay on the hurt. I also think there may be a better way to incorporate Curse of Fragility on the priest. For now, I'm going to run with the original to get a feel for everything.
To be perfectly honest I was half expecting Curse Of Fragility to be almost as bad as Mind Worm going in. Taking out full health characters with a couple Instant Burn fueled burning spells quickly turned that around. To help with that I'm going to try to amp up the burning wizard by taking out the control spells. I'm concerned that there will be too many attachments so I'm going to try to limit the spell diversity by avoiding Flame Jet. I'm also going to switch to a dwarf since the game is essentially over if the burning wizard bites the dust. I wanted to add a smidgen of heals to the priest. Gonna try Inspiring Presence so I boosted the number of "attacks" on the control wizard with Short Perplexing Ray. Hopefully I didn't butcher the build too much. Spoiler: We Need to Go Deeper Zacwulffield Level 21 Human Wizard Illusion Illusion Cinnabar Ring Ring Of Appropriation Bewlin's Baffling Bauble Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Forceful Robes Corian's Boots Advanced Flexibility Electroporter Novice 1 x Force Cone 1 x Dissolve Armor 1 x Boiling Armor 1 x Dimensional Traveller 10 x Illusory Barrier 2 x Leadership 1 x Stone Spikes 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Officer's Harness 1 x Quick Step 1 x Slowed 4 x Telekinesis 3 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Resistant Hide 2 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Spark Inductor 2 x Gusts Of War 1 x Force Bolt Ulfgav Level 20 Human Priest Knife Of St. Blenko Initiate's Glaive Unholy Nimbus Aegis Of The Defender Pergop's Slippers Mokad's Reeking Skull Green Lotus Root Green Lotus Root Advanced Flexibility Superb Cleansing 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Violent Spin 2 x Defender's Block 2 x Spear Of Darkness 2 x Reaching Swing 2 x Leadership 1 x Inspiration 1 x Holy Presence 2 x Inspiring Presence 1 x Slowed 9 x Curse Of Fragility 2 x Unholy Frenzy 1 x Chain Harness 3 x Unholy Energy 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 1 x Strong Stab 1 x Accelerated Thought 2 x Penetrating Lunge Marroo Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Staff Of A Million Embers White Flame Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire Avakiria's Cup Azgul's Orb Firehide Robes Lt. Buckwell's Boots Raging Battler Focused Pyromancy 1 x Reliable Mail 7 x Glob Of Flame 2 x Flanking Move 2 x Boiling Armor 6 x Ember Burst 3 x Firestarter 2 x Blind Rage 4 x Firestorm 1 x Flame Jet 6 x Instant Burn 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Officer's Harness
I've been playing a variant of this and really enjoy it. The burst damage you can do catches many people off guard. I use Illusion and Moredecai's on my control wiz and stack the priest with cleansing ray (2 St. Pascal's Torch). I've found the ray really useful for card cycling, cheap heals and good synergy with volcano. Volcano also forces the opponent to move which allows me to set up my barriers, then move in for the fragility / glob of flame / instant burn combo. Those 3 will do 20 damage in one turn to an unarmored foe (without firestarter): Glob of flame - 1 + 2 fragile Instant burn - 2 + 2 fragile + 3 glob burn + 2 fragile End of turn - 3 glob burn + 2 fragile + 1 instant burn + 2 fragile Each extra instant burn adds another 9 damage, plus any damage from burning cards on other chars. Rantic's is really key here for the armor removal. My burn wiz uses Red Flame and Overheated Staff which saves a token and lets me run 3 Rantic's and Wym's Fiery Bangle. To make fragility shine you need lots of attacks in one turn. I'd avoid the Mokad's and just go full drawbot with amulet of inspiration or things with inspiring presence to try to get as many instant burns on the wizard as possible. My build is hovering around 1500. This build fares poorly against elf warriors with mobility. My best defense there is to stack burning cards to push off mobility, but I have to do some damage along the way. I've added some path of knives to the control wiz which sometimes help (since it's a damageless trait).
Ten matches in and I'm at 6-4. Crypt Sluice in particular was rough. Having one character separated from the others meant one part of my combo was out of the loop and the difficult terrain prevented the loner from escaping warrior rushes. Overall, I like how much damage Curse of Fragility adds and how easily you can get them with little to no tokens. I don't like how the short duration forces you go off on a critical turn. One Impenetrable Nimbus or even a Purge effect in the middle of that turn and you are screwed. Even a hidden movement card to get behind cover prevents a lot of damage. I think Curse of Fragility is an easy substitute for buffs when paired with a burning wizard but just not worth if for anything else. Burning wizards are very weak to melee so you need a defensive or tanking character to compensate. I'm going to try Curse of Fragility with 2 control wizards packing Path of Knives to see if burning wizards are truly necessary.
Yeah, I'm struggling with the new maps as well. Starting out with your formation split really hoses certain strategies and favors warriors. I wonder if you could you something with vibrant pain/elven manuevers and curse of fragility? Maybe I'll give that a try. 2 control wiz would be interesting. Best case you'd get 8 damage on two targets from a gust of war or 16! with Force_Cannon. Telekinesis would do 8 to one target. The current map rotation will mean that you'll start with one character isolated. Two elf warriors chasing down one control wiz will probably be bad news. Maybe load up on Sparkling Cloth Armor and hope you don't get cornered?
Remember, PoK doesn't do its damage incrementally - it does it as a lump sum. So Curse Of Fragility doesn't add +2 per space moved, just +2 damage total. Gusts Of War would do a max of 3+6 to two targets, Winds Of War 3+8, Force Cannon 4+10, Telekinesis 6, Force Blast 4+6, Force Bolt 3+4. Barge would do 7+6, which is pretty brutal. The Bash set would add 2+4 to their damages as well. Because of the necessity of forcing your opponents to move, I might almost consider a 1 Wiz, 1 Priest, 1 War team, where the Warrior and Priest are Bash/Barge-centric (with cards like Lunging Bash providing a little mobility), and then a Wizard to provide the PoK and a few supplementary movement cards to complement the priest's CoF. The trick with these builds is always balancing the number of combo pieces (PoK and CoF) with the number of other cards in the deck. This deck archetype would also benefit more than most from Pushback Parry, making Hexagon Shield an especially nice tokenless pick for your warrior and wizard.
