The Daily Deal

Luckily for us, you've already reviewed most of today's items:

I couldn't find any reviews of Vogel's Confusotron, so here's my opinion: there are cheaper and more effective ways to get Accelerate Time.

 

Let me try to step in...
Bloody Stoutness - 2/2. Duck isn't as good as it was before, when there were attacks for 21 or 18 damage. So this item is just mediocre, there are many epics or even commons that are on the same power level or even better. Would not purchase.

Axe Of Evasion 1/1. Probably the worst weapon ever. Dodge is weak nowadays, two blocks don't work versus melee.
Penteth's Orb 3/3. The Orb is OK, but there is nothing spectacular here. I believe there are maps where Teleport is precious; this may be the cheapest way to get it. Path Of Knives is usually good in SP, since the stupid AI takes heavy damage from it.
Vogel's Confusotron 2/2. Easily the worst Accelerate Time item, since the rest cards are short-ranged and not very useful.

 

Stone Of Shards is rare and tokenless for Reflexive Teleport, and there are two uncommon boots with Teleport Self.

 

OK, not the cheapest, but the most efficient way The two boots cost a yellow token each, which is too much, and Stone of Shards has awful cards with it.

 

I think the idea of Reflexive Teleport is great, but to me the poor triggering (5+) doesn't justify a quality rating of Gold (9).

 

Bloody Command 5/3. This is the best way of getting Sprint, Team!, which really does wonders in PvP. There are helmets with it, but you want your supporting priest/wizard to move the warriors, not vice versa. Flanking Move is also best for non-warriors, unless your warriors use Range 2 attacks. Bloodied Block usually triggers on the first bait, but at least it doesn't sit in your hand without any sense.
Overall, Bloody Command is the great item, highly recommended to buy. I've bought all three copies, since I fancy an idea to build a human vampire priest party some day. Just imagine a couple of vampires engaging their enemies simultaneously from a large distance!

Godtouched Spear 5?/3. This Spear has the best spell assortment for a priest supporting two wizards - even better than Healing Hand Mace. Unfortunately, the attacks are much worse, so the Mace usually gets chosen, but if you absolutely sure that your priest isn't going to fight, take the Spear.

Pirate's Rapier 4?/3. If you need to add movement and stabs to your build, this Rapier may help. Don't expect a lot of damage from it though.

Turnbull's Energy Vest 3/2. Yes, Arcane Shell is good, but that's all. Force Field is good theoretically, but it would be the best for a Volcano wizard where it could prevent really serious damage. Unfortunately, Volcano doesn't benefit from Arcane Shell, so the cards have really bad synergy. I don't like Wild Run on a wizard at all, since he shouldn't engage enemies or grab the victory area early like a warrior. Right, it can save his life, but I'd prefer something with shorter move, but without sacrificing cards.
If you really want an item for a Volcano wizard with Force Field and moves, get Shielding Warp Boots. Warp Run will not only move your wizard away, but also discard all pumps from the enemy warrior chasing him! Plus, the boots cost only a blue token, not the yellow like the Vest.

 

In my experience, Perfect Command is way better for vamps than Bloody Command, especially if you use elves. I guess it does depend on the current rotation though.

 

If you use elves, you cannot use both
But IMHO it isn't fair to compare a yellow token item with a blue token item.

 

I'd almost rather Overheated Force Suit than Turnbull's Energy Vest.
At least, comparing robes, with Force Field. Lava Pool is rarely a dead card, after all.

 

Elf vamps, human support. Normally I'd agree that you shouldn't compare items with different token cost, but in this case, the difference is so big due to priests' amazing mobility, that I feel it's worth addressing.

 

In this case you get one Perfect Command, while I was talking about all three Bloody Commands. Designating one of your priests as "support" is bad IMHO, since your team is going to perform well only while all three chars are alive. Lose the support, and the elves will lack movement and tech. Lose one of the elves, and the team will lack damage. Three humans win by being versatile; losing one still leaves enough attacks and support to win.

 

Apprentice Stoutness - Trained Toughness is 5 times cheaper... and just as decent. If you want Duck for a minor token for whatever reason, either Novice Stoutness or Bloody Stoutness are better.

Carver - It has steps. It has very good blocks. Why is it not used often? That's cause you usually want more damage for a weapon. Nevertheless, fun weapon to play around.

Flicker's Earcuff - Uhhh... One Counterspell is okay for an optional disruption for a wizard or even a priest. Two? For a Major? Nah...

Ogre Plate - I've already stated it in my latest deck building thread - Enchanted Mail is, in my opinion, at least slightly overcosted. It's just a tiny bit better than Reliable Mail. A SILVER card. Disregarding that, it's the better one of the items with Enchanted Mail, in my opinion, due to how good Lunging Bash can be. One copy of Shimmering Aura probably won't hurt, given how popular Burst from both wizards and priests starts to be. Well, it's always been popular, but more people have access to it and... you know.

Crazed Hermit's Gizmo - Pretty nice source of radiation tiles for a weapon. Probably the best. Not too bad on the attacks, there's a 50% chance of getting something below the Push The Button's value, keep that in mind.

Rod Of Falling Cinders - Single-player item for some control and Firestorm. Yes, there's a spray there, but given that most enemies move towards you, that probably won't be a huge problem.

Tough Leather Cap - Great item overall. Best source of All Out Attack, very good source of Dash, Team!. And the last card is a nice piece of armor. It's the more extreme version of Angry Jack's Helmet, which is also a good pick up should you ever get it in daily or randimar.

Vinewrapped Cudgel - I've seen the raise of popularity for that weapon, for a legit reason. Tokenless source of extra blocks? Great. The blocks are Pushback Parry times two? Damn that's a nice thing! Also, regardless of how harmful it is to the user, heavily buffed Controlled Overswing WILL hurt you too.

I was supposed to study, so pardon me for such a small review of daily, as well as it being late. I've been... busy.

 

Bern's Untouchable Mail 5?/5? This is the only item in the game with three Arrogant Armor, and that's essential, since you build your party either with attachments, or without it, and two copies aren't enough to justify playing without attachments, as the chance of getting one is too low. Thus, if you want to play an Arrogant party some day, you need at least two Bern's Untouchable Mails for the warriors + one of the dual-Arrogant priest armors like Holy Knight Armor.
What can Arrogant Armor do for you? Well, it will save you from the negative attachments like Vulnerable or Combustible. More importantly, it will save you from radiation, so your warriors will be able to grab the victory area heavily radiated by Radioactive Sprays. It will also protect from burning attachments. I believe that some SP scenarios are much easier when you're immune to the nasty things the bots are attaching to you. So I highly recommend buying it unless you have two copies already.

Greyworm Mace 2/2 Why would you need such a strange cards for your priest? There are no vampiric attacks, no powerful attacks, and there are two strange Mind Worms.

Staff Of Soot 3/2. If you are playing spells requiring LOS, you generally avoid smoke.

Vira's Shoes 2/5? Could be played in SP scenarios where there are many archers/mages.

Notable rare: Powerpike. See the reviews of it a few days ago.

 

If you run a smoke wizard (and not everyone does), I think Staff Of Soot is the best staff available. For me, it's a staple for my firestorm/smoke team on the first 3 maps of Citrene Demon Portal. Which is to say, it's a niche item in SP these days. I'll leave the MP evaluation to others.

 

I don't know how much you're played vampires, but the thing about them is that their survivability depends on them drawing attack cards. Vampire need buffs like mass frenzy and the ilk to perform well, but at the same time they don't want to draw them. You also need armor removal, but there aren't really any good sundering strike vampire items, which is why that role usually goes to the support. Therefore, in my experience, it's a lot easier to keep your vamps alive with 2 dedicated vampires + 1 support than it is to have 3 vampires with buffs spread around. If you're losing characters without them killing anything, then you're probably screwing up anyways. I main vampires by the way.

 

You say that... But I can't picture myself ever using that robe.

 

Salazar's Sandals and Sliding Boots... remember when these boots were actually good?

 

Don't need to, because they still are

 

I can't just abandon the game completely, so yeah:

Barnum's Staff - FANTASTIC burning staff. For a major and a minor token, you get 6 good burning attacks. 4 of them are somewhat easy to hit somebody with, and possibly multitarget, in Ember Burst, then there's another possibly multi-targeting Flame Jet and a Flame Spit thrown for good measure. I wouldn't say that many good things if that Flame Spit was, say, Ember Spray, but thankfully it's not.

If you want to build a burning deck, that staff can definitely help you. Here's an example of how did I build mine, just so you know what else should you look for:

Spoiler: Light my Pyre

Winjerrton
Level 23 Human Wizard

Barnum's Staff
Overheated Staff
Flame Warper
Flame Warper
Flame Warper
Akon's Amulet
Rockshard Robes
Skipping Boots
Inspired Command
Novice Pyromancy
​

1 x Combustible
8 x Flame Spit
1 x Shuffle, Team!
1 x Subtle Parry
1 x Inspirational Thinking
1 x Flame Jet
2 x Stone Spikes
4 x Ember Burst
1 x Flanking Move
3 x Accelerate Time
1 x Resistant Hide
2 x Boiling Armor
1 x Dissolve Armor
2 x Firestarter
1 x Healing Dash
1 x Reliable Hide Armor
4 x Instant Burn
1 x Ember Spray
​

Noteworthy: The Flame Warpers can be replaced with Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire and the Akon's Amulet might as well become something like Miligar's Dragon Tongue, Boxton's Red Pendant, Wym's Fiery Bangle.

If all you want are bursts (you dirty human being), then I can wholeheartedly recommend your usual Staff Of Embers or Staff Of A Million Embers. As well as the usual Blue Destruction, Searing Pain, yadda yadda. Basically all the options are legendary. Sorry, but that's how wizards live. They need all the swag.

Epics:

Oxha's Sparkspreader - Electricity is not the hottest thing around, but since I'm mainly playing the not popular stuff, I can be that item's advocate. You see, Electricity has a built-in Hard to Block mechanism. That means you're stepping onto the field of Defender's Block from a better position than most of the melee attacks and burning spells are. This staff right here is the electric cousin of Staff Of A Million Embers with small changes here or there.

1. You need to have vision. Maps with tons of walls probably won't be your forte.
2. When you do have vision, however, you can pretend the spell's linear and doesn't start from your position, or that it's burst 2... Basically, you can hit that formed themselves in the careful 3-steps-distance-between-us position with Arcing Spark.
3. The staff has a built-in armor penetration with Jumpspark.
4. Attacks' damage can be buffed directly (instead of the afterburn damage increase that Firestarter and its sibling traits offer).
5. Grounding Plates are a much bigger problem to the sparky sparks.

Luckily, the fact that you have no dangerous sparks in any arcane item slot (because there are no items with these), you can put many different things that will benefit from the second part of the Spark Generator and the like - Arcane Magic! Your telekinesis, winds and gusts, but also... Perplexion! Perplexing rays and other things that cause your opponent to discard cards are pretty nice in my opinion, because they punish your opponent for their overeagerness, and can bypass block to remove dangerous armor on the opponent, especially Resistant Hide and above-mentioned Grounding Plates.

TL;DR: Best staff for zapping people in an area. Buy it if you want to do that.

Salazar's Sandals - I like them. A good option for Dwarf Warriors or Dwarf Priests that want to have Team Walk and don't need Cantrip all that much. If you do need cantrip, wait for Captain Cedric's Boots and prepare yourself a bit of gold. But other than that, that lone copy of Energizing Move can go a long way in a fight. And if you can use a major token instead of a minor you can take...

Sliding Boots - ...these. Very good boots that provide you with both a team move and a continuous way to move you, the wielder... the wearer of these boots. Again, good option for... pretty much everyone. All around very useful boots. Maybe if I were a wizard I'd want more means of escaping, but that's about it.

So basically, if you're missing on any of the epics, I highly suggest you buying them if you can. They are all nice.

Rares:

Excellent Rapier - I love it. For a minor token, you get a lot. Tons of mobility and a great attack with a good range. I used to use it in Mimetic Armor builds to make up for its lack of mobility, and it really helped to have that weapon equipped.

Rod Of Falling Cinders - Singleplayer item mostly, Firestorm and Gusts Of War on a single card is always legit. Kinda makes me wish the last thing was a second Firestorm, instead of being kind of a meaningless Fire Spray.

Tough Leather Cap - Get it if you don't have it already. Angry Jack's Helmet's more extreme brother. Both in the team movement it offers and in damage it increases, provided you're using only powerful attacks. But if you are, well worth 100 gold.

 

Forrtesque's Feathered Cap 3/2. Having Sprint, Team! for a blue token is always good, but the rest cards aren't that desirable... if desirable at all. I always say that I don't like having the Sprint, Team! on a warrior, since the supporting char (priest or wizard) should move the warriors, not vice versa. But if you're playing all three warriors, maybe you'd like the helmets with such a great card.
Still, "would not purchase", as Peonprop says, since there is a better item, Wenham's Leather Coif. If you're ready to spend a yellow token on a helm, look for Zero G Combat Helm.

Aegis Of Aversion 5?!/5?! This shield has two fantastic blocks and a very serious Handicap. Equip it only on a character who shouldn't play Attack cards at all - a priest supporting two wizards is the best choice. For such priest, Cowardly is just a deck-thinning trait, and he becomes only better with it! Did I buy it myself? Nope, I've got three from the Citadel chests But if I wouldn't, I'd definitely buy it.

Impervious Panoply 5?!/5?! One of the best heavy armors with Arrogant Armor. May slow you, right, but protects you really well. It's worse than Bern's Untouchable Mail, since it has only two copies of Arrogant Armor, but you have to spend only a blue token instead of yellow.

Manhunter 3/3. As long as Subtle Parry is crap, any weapon with two copies of it is also crap.

Notable rares:
Demonic Manipulator. One of the best tools for a vampiric priest. You have a great melee buff and a great vampiric card here.
Perfect Ferocity. This can provide the key advantage to a team of dwarven vampires. Yes, Dwarven Battle Cry provides cards to the enemy dwarves too - but they cannot play several attacks in a row and are unlikely to have Frenzy Aura. You can kill some of them before they will have a chance to react.