Manipulative Hover Elves (need help to get 1100)

Discussion in 'Deck Building' started by brinkmanship, Jan 2, 2014.

  1. brinkmanship

    brinkmanship Mushroom Warrior

    Hi All,

    I have been struggling to get past 1100 with various builds that don't fit the typical molds. My current favorite is this party with two elf mages and a human healer. The elves are variations on a lava/winds/perplex concept and the human is as close to a pure healer as I can get to with my current equipment. The build is below followed by some of my observations and questions. I would LOVE any advice that can help me to tweak this and any suggestions on specific gear that I should look out for. Thanks!

    RAID 1
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    ​

    RAID 0
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    ​

    ZFS
    Level 1 Human Priest

    ​

    So here are my thoughts:

    The concept of this deck is to use two highly-mobile mage units to occupy key sniping regions and harass the opponent via perplexing rays (long and short), winds of war, and lava. The priest can either hang in the back with heals and nimbus or step forward with some medium-damage bashes.

    A few character-specific thoughts and questions:

    RAID 1:

    This guy is low-tech on staves so he can pack a punch with perplex and wall 'o fire on the arcane items. The items synergize with electroporter novice but there is work to be done here.

    RAID 0:

    The elf mages share multiple items: perplexing horn, firewall amulet, robe of lightness, untrained evasion and, of course, electroporter novice. RoL and UE are all about evasion. I question hover, as it gives me immunity to other elementals but is situational. I like slippery with superstitious. S is easily managed if you time things right.

    I like the staves on this character. It does reduce what can be used on arcane but I the chills are great with firewalls.

    ZFS:

    The thing that bugs me the most is the fingerbone of St. Ob. Nice item for zero but the vampirism makes me consider rushing into dangerous situations. I am also ambivalent about the divine skill. I have played with the triple talented heal and the triple altruism but arrogant armor causes issues with those. Arrogant armor makes traits less valuable so the trait is low-end and 2/3 heals. This brings up the armor question. Is there something better with heals or other cards that will pair better with traits?

    I am really curious to get feedback from players pushing 1100+ with non-standard builds. I don't have a ton of legendary items (Cudgel, Hand, two Lewin's Boots, Force Mirror, and Socks) and about 30 epics. I am curious what I should be on the look for, especially items in the non-rare stores, as there is a lot of noise down there :)
     
    brinkmanship, Jan 2, 2014
    #1
  2. Avarice

    Avarice Goblin Champion

    It may be that the ceiling is ~1100 for non cookie-cutter builds. To put it another way, it's possible that every build that has the capacity to run 1100+ has already been created. (Infinite monkeys and Shakespeare and all that.)

    I'm also of the suspicion that any real attempts at healing in MP are never going to rate highly -- the cards simply aren't strong enough.

    Having said that, kudos for trying to mix it up.
     
    Avarice, Jan 2, 2014
    #2
  3. Pilgrim Bailey

    Pilgrim Bailey Ogre

    If your goal is to fit a predetermined theme for fun, then I wish you the best of luck.

    Since you mentioned rating, I wanted to offer some tips on how to improve yours with the comp you are running.

    I found a pretty viable build that can counter 3CW (a plague at some of the upper ranks) and some of the wiz/warrior combos (the second of the two dominant builds).

    Dwarf priest with inspiring presence, purges, nimbus, glinting eye hammer, team move boots.
    Two dwarf wizards - control build with trait cycling until it's nerfed, both running toughness.

    If you have the items and the skill, I've almost hit 1700 with it without expressly trying for rating while cycling in new items each game.

    It's not really weak against many things except:
    1) wwe/ww - counter with slippery shoes and wws of your own
    2) elf slippery warriors - use priest to kill them with mighty bludgeons, short p ray them, etc
    3) any combo of wiz/war wwe Zerg combo where they camp, wwe you and isolate one person while completely controlling the map too.
     
    Pilgrim Bailey, Jan 2, 2014
    #3
  4. Avarice

    Avarice Goblin Champion

    The counter to 3CW is
    a dwarf priest
    and 2CW?

    I don't know what to say to that... yikes(?)

    I will say this though, I'm not going to assume that trait cycling is ever going to get nerfed, and if it does it'll just be the *next* most efficient deck compactor/card drawer that becomes dominant. And so on, and so on... The devs gotta draw the line someplace, maybe they've already done so.
     
    Avarice, Jan 2, 2014
    #4
  5. brinkmanship

    brinkmanship Mushroom Warrior

    Thanks for the ideas and advice! P. Bailey, I didn't try to fit a predetermined theme -- this idea emerged as I was looking for good card synergies off the beaten path. I feel like there is something nice about the way that SPR/WW and various bolts, bashes, freezes, TKs, and other spells can support a deck that is all about lava.

    I also like how I have packed in five useful traits on each elf (six traits total if you count superstition) for no cost. The hover works well with this because it helps to shut down other environmental deck and also can protect against hostile WW and other manipulators. DT and slippery also help with this, of course.

    The final thing that I am enjoying right now is the challenge of making mages that can actually make use of EPN as more than just trait cycling. I added a second hippocampal staff to RAID 1 via some creative boot switching, so now both mages are packing multiple 7 damage sparks that can potentially be upped to 10 with the right traits.

    I am inspired by your advice to retool my priest with your suggestions. Let me take a stab at it and I will post the results. For now, here is my (slightly modified) build which I am now referring to as 'red carpet' :) I am still very interested in suggestions for cards that synergize that I should be on the lookout for.

    RAID 1
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    RAID 0
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    ZFS
    Level 1 Human Priest
     
    brinkmanship, Jan 2, 2014
    #5
  6. brinkmanship

    brinkmanship Mushroom Warrior

    I took a stab at building an inspiring/purge/nimbus and this is what I got. It is pretty lackluster due to the lack of cards (glinting eye hammer looks terrific but I have none, also no team move boots), so don't expect much here but I am curious if you have suggestions on how to tweak it. I tried to make up for the lack of the other things by adding vampirism, which seemed to go nicely with it:

    LVM
    Level 18 Elf Priest
     
    brinkmanship, Jan 2, 2014
    #6
  7. Pilgrim Bailey

    Pilgrim Bailey Ogre

    If I can remember the code to copy the items in-game and upload here, I'll post a build I used for comparison.
     
    Pilgrim Bailey, Jan 2, 2014
    #7
  8. Kalin

    Kalin Begat G'zok

    partyanddecksbbcode
     
    Kalin, Jan 2, 2014
    #8

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