Right, it would be great tech even if you don't want a bashing-only warrior. If you have Basher's Delight and Hammer Of Bashing, it's going to be mega fun I've played them both in a league and wanted the Hammer very much. Thanks for the input! I rate Bloodied Block very high since it often counters the popular "strike weak first" tactics. The opponent strikes with a weak strike, but doesn't trigger my Bloodied Block since I was at full health. What now??? Now he has a strong strike, but glares at my 100% chance block I can also predict the popularity of Unnerving Strikes, which makes Hard To Pin Down really bad. Bloodied Blocks are the good answers for the Unnerving Strikes. But I should say that the final argument to buy this shield is Acrobatic Flip. I like cards that can move your enemies, and this card does three jobs in one: blocks the attack, moves the enemy and moves yourself. It's quite rare - there are only 13 items with it, mostly epics and legendaries, and most of them are bad. I could probably play Jaguar's Buckler or Backflip Buckler, but this shield is obviously better. Plus, I already have Reap The Whirlwind, so I can build a "whirlwind warrior" now! There are only 15 items with it, mostly epics and legendaries, and only legendaries are better than Bimson's. I don't have them, alas. One of my warriors is using the uncommon Advanced Toughness now Why not? The more blocks, the better chances to survive.
I just want to hop in and say I think Bloodied Block isn't that great in the current environment. It automatically blocks Whirlwind effects if you're below full health, which is pretty atrocious in most cases (you lose a card in order to gain a 1-off immovable effect that, due to the randomness of whirls, might not actually be better for you than moving). Given how common whirls are in the 1400+ segment, I'm a bit loathe to run Bloodied Block.
I really cannot understand you here. Any "Block Any" card can block Whirl; do you advocate to play only "Block Melee"? I've always thought that disrupting opponent's plans is good. When the opponent plays Whirl, he wishes to break your party and either kill your chars one-by-one or grab the victory area and hold it while you assemble your party back. If you block his Whirl with one char, then you probably gain nothing and just wasted the good block, right. But if you have a lot of blocks, Immovables and Stone Feet you can probably resist the Whirl with two chars, and that may be enough to make the Whirl advantageous to you.
2 legendarys this week, Mindless Aggression - Atrocious. I mean really? If there was some buff that prevented card discard this might be playable... St. Osrim's Corona - mass frenzy is always nice but the other cards are not too exciting Some interesting epics Manifold Medic - seems like a decent item for FS team Novice Stoutness - maybe nice for wizard St. Oliander's Tome - again nice for a FS team, and seems good in general, but is it worth a yellow token? Staff Of The Fire God - First fireball item I have seen Sadly I only have 1500g to my name, so probabely will end up buying only the staff
I would pass on Manifold Medic and go for Manifold Healer Instead.. Similarily, I would leave the Tome and go for St. Ulrich's Bones or something else. Novice Stoutness? Nah, try Trained Stoutness. And yeah, Staff of the Fire God is good if you can afford it.
I don't advocate against hard to pin because it is so powerful. And normal block might be okay. But a card that will always be discarded when your opponent uses whirlwind? That is very dicey in my book.
So the way I look at this whole block thing: -On your first turn, if your opponent decides to WW you (after you move, for example), Bloodied Block is a 5+. So chances are you could get thrown somewhere closer to the VP, or thrown straight into your enemy's arms. It's better that a block fails in this situation since you get to keep the block instead of being stuck on your side of the map, while your other chars are thrown a random distance. -Later in the game when your character is sitting on the VP, Bloodied Block is most likely a 1+ when your opponent tries to WW you off. -Or after your character Nimble Strikes/runs into an enemy wizard, if they play WWE you could be very happy about that. I'm not denying that Hard to Pin Down is powerful. It's OP if anything (compared to other blocks; however it is kind of necessary for a warrior!) The thing about WW and WWE is that your opponent will always use it when they are in a bad situation (and you are in a good one). It's not like it's "Block whirls 100%", it's just "Block Any 100%". Simply based on the fact it will "always" block something makes it good enough for me. If you really want protection from whirls try Flimsy Block.
Very unsure of Sliding Boots, I already have a crapload of boots, including cedrec, nardoc, Red Jon. etc. But Sparkling Cloth Armor seems really useful on a warrior. Already purchased Mordecai's Staff Of Magma
Sliding Boots are the best boots for a dwarven warrior, no doubts here. SCA allows the warrior to move even while encumbered! Congratz on this! I'm very jealous
Having thought a bit about that, I can say that blocking Whirl may be good or bad, depending on the situation. Plus, the Bloodied Block may block something else; would anybody argue that blocking a Frost Jolt with a 100% chance is good? The only situation where Bloodied Block is really bad is when your opponent knows about it and can trigger it with a mass effect or a weak effect. But such situations are going to be quite rare.
Huetotl's Firebrand, Mindshrinker, Smoag's Bucket Of Pitch, Colossal Hammer, Spitting Flames, St. Amarack's Cudgel Which of these are worth the gold?
Well put! Bloodshield Of Xoc is good, I think we can agree. I had it turn up in Randimar's a couple weeks back after a long drought and I scooped it up immediately just because it is unique and playable. Of course, another one dropped from a League chest within a week. Worth having, but really dependent on your build and the meta of the moment. I really like Acrobatic Flip, too. The opportunity to turn an enemy attack into a free unblockable opportunity for yourself is great. Flaxative's points about Bloodied Block being easy to fish for (with Whirlwinds and even Firestorm) are valid. To me, Parry is still a superior block to Bloodied Block, not just for the card draw and the fact that it cannot be ferreted out by global effect wizard cards, but also because I often prefer to soak a wizard attack and block the much more damaging warrior attacks (exception for Hard To Pin Down). Still, Bloodshield Of Xoc is something I would definitely pick up for niche use. I put one on my warrior in my Benihana build because he wanted to be able to move attacking enemies via Acro Flip into the lava my wizards would be laying down in the vicinity (read: jank).
The first two Divine Weapons are essentially legendary versions of good Epic Divine Weapons. The Firebrand is mostly better than St. Olf's Fiery Pike, but costs one more (which should be fine!), whilst Mindshrinker is moderately better/different than Greyworm Mace. I would say that neither are necessary, use them if they drop or if you have loads of gold, but otherwise the epics are fine (if you have the epics). Colossal Hammer is pretty much pay a for Barge over Infused Greatclub. Not worth it. Spitting Flames, like most of the epic arcane skills is pretty useless, certainly not worth 500g. Why not just use something un/common or rare that's similar or tokenless? Having 2 traits is normally better than any two attacks. St. Amarack's Cudgel is nice, and I used two for a long time but if you beat the easy level 2-5 adventures every day for a month you will have about a half a dozen of them. Smoag's Bucket of Pitch is interesting, but it costs a and when you are looking at fire arcane items, Glob of Flame is fairly plentiful while Flame Jet is not so much. You can pass on it unless you are really crazy about it. As for Bloodied Block, I still stand by that a 100% block any is great and two is better. If you have the cash the Bloodshield is a very good, interesting item to add to your collection for when you only have a for your shield.
There are only a few mails which have MF on them. I think this one is rather good, but the other corona is better. There is another legend which have x2 arrogant armor and 1x mf. I have it, and each time i play it the arrogant messes with me! Lastly there is one with thick mail/savage curse/mf. However, regardless how interesting savage curse might seem its not worth it. Ever. These cronas are quite good with vamps (the heals are cantrip), and with the extra MF, you can spend your divine item slot on something else. Take it from someone that have all the MF armors and have tried em!
St. Tesrim's Corona is the slightly better version of St. Osrim's Corona. As for St. Portia's Mail...why play cards that are anti-synergistic (maybe I made that word up)? The coronas could be good, but Shimmering Aura...those m's should be t's. Limiting damage protection to magic attacks only is a serious detriment on armor. If I were playing a vampire priest, I would rock a tokenless Dark Chain Shirt over any junk with Shimmering Aura. Maybe I am wrong, though -armor tends to get discarded anyway...
It really depends on what your build and strat is. If your priest is meant to support/buff and only rarely (if ever) step toe-to-toe with the enemy, then Arrogant and its ability to negate enemy attachments is far more valuable than a +3 damage. Especially if a smart opponent is focusing encumber and other nasty attachments on the guy keeping the deadly warriors alive and buffed up.
Yeah, but the other options are thick mail and arrogant if you want MF on mail. Why you shouldnt use MF together with arrogant is self explanatory, and thick mail is just meh. The savage curse shall be discarded anyhow. So you have two playable/keepable items on the coronas, while only one on the others. Tokens are never a problem while playing vamp, so dont need tokenless. If you dont want to play with these specific armors, id go with the major token armor that have frenzy aura/team heal and martyrs blessing on it. ANYWAY! got a bit off topic now. my point is that there is only a few mails with MF on them, and he might want/need to use the mail slot for MF in the future! (not saying its the best for vamp per se)
Imo a support needs a bit extra power. There are only a few weapons with MF on them, and they are weak. Offense is also defense