So I don't play much MP outside of leagues and therefore my intuition on what works and doesn't work in ranked is fairly rudimentary. Two problems I'm seeing in particular are the tendency to build decks that are all over the place (the 'best item in each slot' syndrome) and an emphasis on tech over straight up damage. With that in mind, I'd appreciate some comments on the following deck and tips on deck building in general. Ginndan Level 1 Human Priest Nimbus Blade St. Olf's Fiery Pike Ritual Straps Aegis Of The Defender Skipping Boots Shielding Token Jygpin's Healing Ring Bleneth's Frenzy Charm Perfect Command Novice Piety Seabor Level 1 Human Warrior Nova Axe Flashing Longspear Double-edged Sword Wex's Mail Twisting Shield Angry Jack's Helmet Boots Of The Foolish Command Untrained Impaling Finenmaedhon Level 18 Elf Warrior Eixocl's Hammer Bejeweled Shortsword Nova Axe Gauntlets Of The Giant Hexagon Shield Angry Jack's Helmet Heavy Hide Boots Cautious Mobility Novice Bruising It's a fairly straightforward 2war1cler deck, with the priest staying in the back for buffs, some healing, commands and the occasional stab. Human warrior is built around stabs and penetrating attacks, and I put the bashes on the elf for protection and VP game. Problems I'm having are low damage against other, more hard-hitting warriors, and too much movement on unlucky draws. Stuff I'm open for: - make the human warrior a dwarf for the racials - switch out boots, armor and the like (especially on the priest, but i figured some purging would be useful) - replace the healing ring on the priest with some other, holy-card-based option - replace the bejewelled with something else - maybe a blocking mace? Any help would be hugely appreciated - I feel what's holding me back is a general cluelessness on how to build a focused and effective deck, as opposed to general knowledge on positioning and pace.
Take the following with a huge grain of salt, since I'm also rather inexperienced... Hmmmmm. Not a huge fan of Pushback_Parry; it's melee-only, unlike Block, and unlike the also melee-only normal Parry, it won't replace itself with a draw -- the only time it's better is when you were step-attacked. Regarding damage output, Tough_Leather_Cap provides an All_Out_Attack (along with the also useful Dash,_Team!), at the cost of a blue token; Angry_Attacker provides All_Out_Attack and two traits Impaler and Bruiser. You're spending two cards for the AoA-boosted attack, but the faster your target dies, the fewer opportunities he has to flee or hit you back, and the fewer on-hit card draws (Cautious_Mobility, Martyr_Blessing notably) that can happen. If you boost a Powerful_Hack or Powerful_Bludgeon and you're under a Frenzy or other boost, the victim might be killed outright from surprisingly high health. Incidentally, if you have *two* All_Out_Attack cards in hand with another melee attack and you use that melee attack, both will trigger and your damage output will be quadrupled -- turning a 7-damage Vicious_Thrust into a 28-damage step-1 attack burning all three cards even if your target only had 2 health and no cards. You can't save AoA except by not using melee attacks at all. Having extra movement isn't a terrible thing when you enter a match and your opponent has three dwarf wizards who immediately start hovering or dimension-dooring, incidentally. A not-particularly-enjoyable match saw my opponent cast three volcanoes and an accelerate-time before round 2 was over... The healing ring isn't super-impressive; at least, the heal 3 card aren't very. Maybe one of the items with Unholy_Wellspring would boost your damage output -- +4 isn't anything to sneeze at, and both it and Mass_Frenzy can be stacked.
Right off the bat on the Human War go with Novice Impaling, the Pen cut is better in than a weak strike. If not thing else it is 1 more damage and gets the impaling boost, add to that having a penetrating card sometimes can get you a kill versus a Barbed Enchanted Armor combo especially with buffs. Next I am not a big fan of the Nova Axe. I know it has 4 very strong cards, Violent Spin is a powerful card, but I am not a fan of moves on a weapon and the purgings are weak for a 2Y weapon. If the purgings were 5 damage instead of 3 this might make up for the lower damage. If you estimate the damage the L-thrusts average 8.5 the Oblit chop is 10-20, I would put in a value of 13 as in 1 in 3 attacks will have 2 targets, and 2 3 pointers = 36 damage on a 2Y weapon. You could go simple with a Bejeweled (by comparison 58 total damage) or try on of the other new high damage weapons. Hard to make suggestions without knowing your library. I am not a fan of bashing builds as you usually want to keep your warrior in range but the Ex. Hammer is a fun toy. I would replace the healing ring with a second shielding token. If you are going to go Nimbus got for it. If you have Mouse Boots they are ideal for a stabbing warrior (nothing like a Flanking Move - Impaling Stab combo). Boots of the Foolish are nice for no token, but Wild Run is often better for retreat than to close ground. I am not a big fan of Command on a Warrior, usually you want the Parry/AoA trait for Human warriors. Finally Wex's Mail is a an odd choice. Shimmering Aura is a hit or miss type of card. Yes it is a nice to get three high value armors for no token, but Crafted is functionally slightly worse than a reliable mail (both average 2 points of damage prevented but the higher value means you don't always prevent 4 with a successful roll) and if you really want Shimmering you are better off with the hood that has the movement boost for no token and use that token on a better shield or armor. But to truly make this build take off you need to decide if you want to use Nimbus or Buffs more, being split means you are not really strong with either. If you have any Force Field items (especially the Bubble Helmet) try them on. I know the token cost is tough, but Force Field is an interesting alternative to Nimbus.
Good specific advice so far. How do you like to play? If you are patient and like a combo deck, you could try going for a focused build around laser whip/all out attack combo. Hard to get, but immensely satisfying to one-shot an elf or human from behind. But I'm guessing you want a more competitive build. To be competitive you need to be focussed deck. For example I agree with doog it feels you priest is split between too many things: buffs, healing, and nimbus. This can be a problem for several reasons: 1. You can't be sure what you will -usually- draw in next few rounds, making it hard to know when to use and not use cards. 2. It's hard to synergies your warriors with your priest. To clarify, in my experience when playing priest/war/war you wat to buff them early on, when dishing out damage, and heal/nimbus later at crucial moments. No point healing when they're at full health, and no point buffing when you've used most of your attacks, right? So, it might be best to focus on more mass frenzy items, in order to draw it consistently in first few rounds, the decide if you want nimbus or healing for later. Although, I have also seen priests which focus solely on healing, or solely on nimbus. In these cases you usually want high damage attacks and/or blind rage items on your warriors to offset the lack of mass frenzy. All this also can also be influenced by the current map rotations, meta, your style of play, and your items. It's all about synergy. Main thing is to stick with a build a try it out a bit before you make changes, unless there are glaring weakness. Don't dismiss things after one round where you lose to a bad matchup. Be committed. Good luck! Edit- blocking mace is generally great against a warrio-heavy meta, average against wizds
Priest is mostly fine. I'd swap your boots there for something with a cycler though. Same goes for the warriors. I recommend Goat Boots, Hawkwind's Moccasins, or maybe Possessed Shoes if you want to stay tokenless (it's a good idea to). Don't run human warriors, you're just putting yourself at a disadvantage. Run a dwarf with Apprentice Ferocity or Raging Battler if you've got it, or another Cautious Mobility elf. Pay up for some Parrying Bucklers on your warriors. Going tokenless on your shield is a huge loss compared to the tokened options. I don't recommend it. Go tokenless on your armor instead; tokened armor is pretty much universally a bad choice outside of stuff like Cushioning Armor. It hurts to have to put a damaging trait on your elf via armor, but you'll work around it or give em' something like Xander's Mail. It's probably a good idea to go with one or two Crusty Helms to free up tokens for Savvy Attacker on your warriors (or tokened boots). Angry Jon's is good too, but the other way gives you some some much needed extra mobility. You might also need to pack some more step attacks on your warriors, but that's optional. This is actually a decent build you've got going though. You seem to have a good sense of what items are good/bad, what you've got here could probably get you around 1600 with good play.
