Gloomthirst This is the premier card draw weapon, but incremental card advantage from Accelerated Thought and Unholy Energy has fallen out of favour. For warriors, if they are in the thick of the action then they only have one extra card for the next round, and if they are away from the action the extra card is likely going to waste. Same for priests, apart from the pure support ones. The class which can utilise Accelerated Thought and Unholy Energy best is wizards, as they can fling their spells from afar each turn. However, they are also the ones that suffer the most from health losses from Unholy Energy, since they lack armor and the health loss is a higher percentage of their total health. Often, you have to keep movement cards and utility cards like Telekinesis, which then get revealed, reducing their effectiveness. There are also a number of Purge effects in the meta, especially from the commonly used Inquisitor’s Morningstar, which means you don't even get full value from the card draw. In spite of all my criticism, they are still fine cards for people who like long, grindy control matches, and there are also few good card draw options in the Divine Weapon slot, so if you need one for some reason, Gloomthirst can help fill that spot. Epics: Chask's Relief If you didn't pick up Silver Lightning yesterday but want to play with Inquisition Bolt, now’s your chance. Crespin's Shroud Best double minor Cause Fumble item. It’s useful in Chess Madness. Staff Of Pain Good top end, terrible back end. It's rare to hit more hostile than friendly characters which Flash of Agony. Notable Rares: Cape Of Dark Magic Only way to get Spell Skill which is a great draw card and the accompanying cards are good as well, Sparkling Cloth Armor to get away from warriors and a cycling trait.
St. Hongjin's Soulstone Generally, vamps don't want buff cards as they don't want to be drawing those in the thick of the action. Similarly, support priests don't want vamp cards as they won't be in the frontlines most of the time. St. Hongjin’s Soulstone is awkwardly stuck in the middle and nobody wants it. Would not purchase. Edit: This reminds of a rather bad joke. Avert your eyes. Spoiler: Bad Joke What do you call a vampire support priest? Buffy Epics: Mad Eskin's Pin Telekinesis is good, Arcane Spray is crap. Shield Of The Wraith Shifting Block is a little too inconsistent. There really shouldn't be a possibility to get Zombie Form, but unfortunately, it does. Vankenstein's Machine Comes with a suite of strong cards, as long as you have a way to utilise Spark of Undeath. Notable Rares: Ancient Linestaff Pretty strong cards all round for a major minor staff, and a decent addition to an acid mage. Excellent Rapier Cheap way to add mobility to your warrior at the expense of damage. Subtle Positioning Hands down, the best tokenless human skill. Two powerful traits and a good block. They say movement is king in Card Hunter and Vanguard goes a long way towards getting you into a good position. Highly recommend purchasing.
Chartwell's Ring Firestorm is not a viable strategy in multiplayer. Most of the time, you'll hit more of your characters than your opponents, and if your wizard can hit more enemies than friendly characters, then they are probably in a dangerous position. Even if you use armor to mitigate the damage, it's just not worth the trouble. If there is one place where Firestorm is king though, it's singleplayer. Firestorm items will speed up your farming like no other item. There are 3 Arcane Items with double Firestorm and Chartwell's Ring is one of the two better ones. The Short Perplexing Ray from Chartwell’s Ring can let you get into a better position for Firestorming, escape an enemy that's too close for comfort, or remove an annoying armor. If you play mainly singleplayer, want an easier time in singleplayer, or plan on doing some farming, I highly recommend purchasing this item. I myself have bought two in the past and I don't even play singleplayer that much. Epics: Banik's Bubbling Bauble There are more focused items for both control and Firestorm. Such as Chartwell’s Ring for Firestorm. Blessed Radcannon A random set of strong cards. Can be powerful if you can find a use for it. McKay's Energy Cube Radiation Bomb is inconsistent but can be a game changer. Unholy Energy is a fine draw card. Healing Blessing is what really kills this item. Notable Rares: Galvanized Zombie Helm Decent tokenless helmet. Mostly harmless cycling trait and a good controlling attack. The armor is pretty subpar though. I would only use this helmet if you want a cycling trait and the extra attack. Warp Robes Excellent tokenless robes. Cycling trait that's useful for getting your wizard into position, an armor that removes enemy attachments most of the time, and great movement.
Xlaka's Sacred Bundle Mass Frenzy is best used in a full melee team, though using it in a 1/1/1 is acceptable too. The question that comes is then whether you want the Inspiring Presence, which is the reason for getting this item. Inspiring Presence is a powerful card on paper. Best case scenario, it's a heal 15 draw 3. Of course, in reality it's not as simple as that. It is difficult to have all 3 of your characters together while not having an enemy nearby, especially so in a full melee team. However, it is definitely possible to pull it off with good positioning. In that sense, using items with Inspiring Presence can hone your positional play and rewards you once you have mastered it. If you want to try out Inspiring Presence in a melee team, Xlaka's is the best item for it. If you want to stick with safer cards like Greater Heal, then this item is not for you. Epics: Inkdark Halberd Another Inspiring Presence item, but this is pretty terrible because of the Bludgeons. If you want a double minor Inspiring Presence divine weapon, look out for Ripping Mace. Noral's Cleansing Relic One of many cleansing divine items. Would not randomly bring it into MP matches, since terrain isn't that common. Would only use if you're using a build that requires cleansing, like Volcano. Shimmerwing Robe Shimmering Aura is terrible, though more acceptable on wizards since the main damage they take will be from enemy wizards. However, there isn't much reason for Flight Aura on wizards. Notable Rares: St. Xarol's Axe Good minor token divine weapon for campaign. Chops are best in campaign, especially so when buffed by Blind Rage or Unholy Frenzy from this item. Traveler From The North If your wizard has a major token left over and doesn't know what to do with it, this is a fine option. Freeze is a powerful card but is usually found on items with bad cards. This is an exception. If you just want a powerful finisher, then Superb Electromancy will suit your needs better.
Caustic Pain If you want to spread acid terrain quickly, there's pretty much only 1 card for the job: Acid Jet. Acid Blast does it too slowly while Acid Spray is mostly useless. So let's see how many Acid Jets you can pack on one wizard. If you're equipping 2 Caustic Pains, you can only get 1 Acid Jet. If you're equipping 1 Caustic Pain, you can get 4 Acid Jets, which is a pitiful amount. So let's say you bring in another wizard that's completely focused on Acid Jets. The most that wizard can pack is 7. So if you have one dedicated Acid Jet wizard and another dedicated Caustic Pain wizard, you'll have 8 Acid Jets and 8 Hexes of Dissolution (2 from Ancient Linestaff) in total. Having the same number of Hexes as Jets does not seem like a winning strategy. And keep in mind this requires 2 characters. But anyway, let's assume you draw 1 Acid Jet a turn, maybe 2 occasionally. Each Acid Jet adds about 1 damage to your Hex of Dissolution. You'll probably have at most 3 Acid Jets on the board at a time before the duration of 2 expires, then you need to plaster the board with Acid again. With 3 Acid Jets on the board, Hex of Dissolution still only does 6 damage. You might as well play some Silver Bolts and save yourself the trouble. In conclusion, Hex of Dissolution sures looks good at first glance but it just doesn't hold up. It asks for too much and gives too little in return, especially with how difficult it is to get Acid Jets. Would not purchase. I would look for staves where it is not the main feature, like Ancient Linestaff. Epics: Helm Of Reinforcement Great for people who want to fool around with armors like Officer's Harness, Mimetic Armor, Barbed Platemail and the like. Ogre Plate Shimmering Aura is terrible and Enchanted Mail is overcosted. Spacedragon Warpcloak If you've got Mystical Wyrmhide on, the only thing you'll be purging from Warp Run is your own buffs. Rares: Automatic Shield Good for some campaign missions, like the Astral ones. Focused Pyromancy A must for burning wizards. Howling Steel Helm Two good cards and a cycling trait. Rust Creature Gland Now this is one acid item I wouldn't mind using. It competes with Armorbane Pendant for tokenless armor removal. Both have a mostly harmless cycling handicap and an armor removal that removes their oldest armor card. You have to decide if you want Acid Blast or Memory Loss.
Vira's Shimmering Robes Shimmering Aura is a bad card. Wizards are the least common class right now and even against wizards, Shimmering Aura isn't great. It's a bit too unreliable for something that's meant to counter magic. In a wizard heavy meta, I'll still wouldn't use this item. Of all the things to get on Robes, magic-specific armor is low on my list. And if you really wanted Shimmering Aura on Robes for some reason, you can get 2 for tokenless on Bimson's Glowstone Robes. Would not purchase. Epics: Bec De Corbin The worst double major token weapon with 2 Dodges. It has an interesting idea, Powerful Bash opponents away or Dodge their attack, then Polearm Slash them since they will be one square away. However, the damage is just too low. Tainted Vampirism Best minor token Vampiric Form item by virtue of being the only one with 2 Vampiric Forms. Vampiric Form is pretty hit and miss though, and people would rather have Talented Healer for vamps. Tochtli Boots If you want Brutal Charge, go all out with Boots Of Etzicatl. Notable Rares: Focused Electromancy Good for all kinds of wizards, including Deadly, Deadly Staff wizards and control wizards. Spacediver's Face Screen Both Force Field and Mimetic Crown are strong and hard to get cards. Lifesaving Block can be an unexpected surprise.
Gauixl's Sacred Maquah If there's a type of priest that needs armor removal, it's vampires. Armor is twice as effective against vamps as it both reduces the damage and healing from the attacks, which is why armor removal is in high demand on teams with vamps, especially with lots of Werewolves and Monstrous Hides nowadays. And the divine weapon with the highest density of Sundering Strikes is this maquah. Another good source of Sundering is on St. Xarol's Mace, but sometimes you just want as many Sundering Strikes as you can get, especially since vamps have no problem budgeting major tokens. As for the other cards on the item, they aren't half bad. Lunging Bash both helps with vampires' mobility and synergies with the draining spears that you often find on vamps. Team Heal is pretty meh but it's fine if you can spread out the damage across your team and at the very least, it can help you gain priority when you have Talented Healer. In conclusion, if you have a vampire that's in dire need of armor removal, can afford the major token, and there's no other source of armor removal in your team, from a wizard for example, then you may want this item. Epics: Draining Dagger Mind Worm is terrible. You can get rid of it and replace it with mostly harmless cycling traits to get pretty much a Vampire's Blade for the low cost of zero tokens. Galvanized Zombie Plates Very similar to Ozone Plates, but the crappy Chain Harness is replaced with a cycling trait. Glowing Gland For radiation lovers. Notable Rares: Ancient Heirloom Shield It's a niche shield, but sometimes you just want those Lucky Charms, for situations such as your character starting far away from the action, on a support character, or maybe even to Leadership. Club Of Devastation Best Devastating Blow item, if you can find a way around Vulnerable. Arrogant Armor, Gene Therapy and the like, perhaps? Staff Of Winter Very good cold staff for a major minor token. Pairs well with Instant Snowman.
An additional notable rare imho would be Ancient Heirloom Shield it is not a bad choice if you have a spare minor token, it is true that Unreliable Heirloom Shield gives you 2/3 of the benefits for no tokens. But there are times when the free card feature, and the all purpose block of Lucky Charm can be very useful. i.e. leagues where there can be lots of passing or you start some distance away, like wicked waterways or golden shrine.
I was debating whether to put it in Notable Rares, decided not to because like you said, Unreliable Heirloom Shield, and because I couldn't think of any situation where I would rather have this over Parrying Buckler, Yvette's Buckler etc. But you bring up sone valid points, I'll put it in. And Lucky Charm kind of is card advantage too.
@Gingrich Yurr , thanks for doing these again... I learnt a lot from Peonprop's reviews when I was first picking up the game. Let me know if you want to take a day off, I would gladly step in! heheh
Bleneth's Skull Mass Frenzy is a powerful card. Getting 2 extra damage on all your melee attacks is nothing to scoff at. Even in a 1/1/1, getting 1 extra damage on magic attacks is respectable. Mass Frenzy is especially good when buffing low damage, high mobility attacks like Nimble Strike and Dancing Cut. Another perk of Mass Frenzy is that it's sort of like a pass without passing. Sometimes, you just to want to see what your opponent does next so you can react to it, and yet you don't want to actually pass because your opponent might end the round. With all that out of the way, how good is Bleneth's Skull? If you just want to spam Mass Frenzys every turn, Bleneth's Skull is the item to do it with. If your priest doesn't just want to be a Mass Frenzy bot, then it's likely your priest may need the major token elsewhere, for divine weapons, Aegis Of The Defender, Stargod's Raiments, St. Ulrich's Bones, Venerable Positioning, and so on. Major tokens are in pretty high demand on support priests so if you don't absolutely need that many Mass Frenzys, then Bleneth's Frenzy Medallion may be more justified. Epics: Caustic Warper One of the best non-legendary Accelerate Time items. It even has synergy between Acid Blast and Accelerate Time. If you're on a budget and want Accelerate Time, this is not a bad option. Cohr's Black Scepter A mish-mash of random cards. Would rather have more focused items. Firehide Robes Best singleplayer robes, especially for Firestorm and Volcano farming. Notable Rares: Werewolf Hide For those who need more movement and don't mind having less armor in their heavy armor slot (aka dwarves)
Bohemian Ear Spoon Not much to say here. Low damage, no tech, no step attacks, double major token cost. Frankly, I might not even play this if it were a double minor token weapon. Would not purchase. Epics: Master's Battleaxe The only thing it gives is damage with a little bit of mobility. Oxha's Sparkspreader Cool concept but way too low damage. Also, it's rare to have even 2 enemy characters in sight, let alone 3, and have them all bunched together. St. Bethan's Charm Fine item if you want some heals to go along with your Mass Frenzy. Notable Rares: Blackeye Hammer There are few good single minor token weapons, and this is one of them. The 3 strong attacks are kind of canceled out by the 2 terrible Bludgeons but luckily there's a Blind Rage to tip the scales in its favour. If you've got movement covered, this can help add some damage.
Andrei's Chiropteran Bundle There is nothing wrong with this bundle. Vampire's Kiss fits a vampire and it can help with removing armor. Cause Fumble is a fine block. However, the main reason you would want this item is Swarm of Bats, which is like a beefed up Surging Shield Block, and it helps with vamps' mobility issues. However, there is one huge reason you should not buy this bundle: Relic Of The First Vampire. For just a minor token you get a Swarm of Bats too which is the whole reason you want the bundle anyway, as well as two good vamp attacks. If Relic of the First Vampire didn't exist, this bundle may be a good purchase, but currently it's just outclassed. Epics: Advanced Levitation Only way to get Arcane Burst on an arcane skill. Oakenheart Shield A downgrade from Steel-Rimmed Buckler. Vollmond Boots 2 move cards that allow you to move to practically anywhere on the map, and a cycling trait. Did I mention that it's tokenless? Highly recommend purchasing. Notable Rares: Diamond Moccasins Great minor token boots for a melee character. You don't see Quick Run often and it may take people by surprise.
Thanks for your input. It was an item I was not sure about personally since it seemed like all the high ranking players used it but I have not used it myself.
Juniper's Boots This has a good concept. Flanking Move into a perfect position to Brutal Charge. The problem is, with just 1 Brutal Charge, you'll be hard pressed to pull off this combo. And even if you do pull it off, the most you get from it is 10 damage, and you've spent 2 cards to do it. If you really like this combo, it would be more fruitful to equip Boots Of Etzicatl with Evasion. Or just use Rocket Charge boots, those are so much easier to pull off. Would not purchase. Epics: Badjeera's Black Relic Strictly worse than Hand Of Melvelous and generally worse than Wuuna's Vampiric Shroud/Flax's Thirsty Vial. Coven Raiments Walpurgis Night is too unreliable as a disruptive tool, because the Mandatory Action is likely to disrupt yourself instead. Novice Stoutness Duck is not worth paying a token for, especially when it comes with 2 mediocre/bad armors. Notable Rares: Lantern Helm Best minor token Sprint Team helm, courtesy of the cycling trait. Fire wizards are very rare nowadays, to the point that you should worry more about Fiery Stabs. Sacrificial Axe Great cycling item for support priests, and comes with a couple of good attacks to get away from people.
Rolf's Reliable Platemail Reliable Mail is one of the best armors in the game. Being able to shave off 2 damage from every attack is great, especially against Magic attacks as those are typically of lower damage. Usually, 3x of the same good card makes an item focused and powerful. However, this is not the case. One of the perks of Reliable Mail is that it can be found on good tokenless heavy armors (Perilous Ringmail), as well as 4 minor token heavy armors with 2 copies of Reliable Mail. Changing the last card to Reliable Mail simply does not justify the major token. Major tokens are difficult to budget on warriors as they are all typically spent on the weapons for warriors. If I were to pay a major token for a heavy armor, I would want something more impactful with armors that cannot be found on tokenless or minor token heavy armors, like The Softener or Ewix's Evolving Ensemble. Epics: Chadwick's Clogs Paying a minor token to upgrade a Walk on Vira's Shoes to a Run is not something anyone should do. And you shouldn't be touching Shimmering Aura either. Hrillia's Healing Ring When you need healing, it's usually one character being pummeled, not the whole team. Stick to Medical Kit for your healing needs. Supercooled Laser Made obsolete by Instant Snowman. Notable Rares: Focused Dervish For step attack warriors. Synergises with Leadership.
True for PvP, but Hrilla's is a very good item for a buff/healing priest on a campaign firestorm team.
Sven's Siege Shield Surging Shield Block is a pretty good block, especially against wizards. They think they're in a safe position and shoot something at you, you close down the gap and smash their face in. Shifting Block is less than stellar though. The most glaring problem with it is the possibility to get Zombie Form from it, which has decent attacks but so low mobility that you'll never catch anyone. As for the other forms, Werewolf and possibly Vampire are the only ones you really want. As a melee character, you do not want to be saddled with a Spirit Form. So half the time you're getting a good form, and the other half of the time it works out badly. Not really a block I would want. The nail in the coffin is that it costs a major token, something not many characters can afford, especially on a shield as bad as this. Would not purchase. Epics: Dusk And Dawn Pretty intriguing divine weapon, might be an interesting consideration if it weren't for the Walpurgis Night trying to hide itself in the corner. Flaming Sword Use Blazing Shortsword instead at a massively discounted no tokens. Flax's Thirsty Vial A reskin of Wuuna's Vampiric Shroud, which is one of the best tokenless vampire items, along with Hand Of Melvelous. Also, I just realised the label on the vial has a stylised "F" on it. Cool detail. Notable Rares: Ravager's Cudgel Several strong attacks, and some Howls which are always good. Not a bad major minor weapon choice, but could use with some mobility. Shielding Warp Boots Only way to get Force Field on boots, and only way to get Force Field for a minor token. I used to think these were the greatest boots ever as Force Field is a very powerful card, but eventually I realised movement cards on boots are pretty important. Still, these are some strong defensive boots when you've got mobility covered.
Hu La Houp's Vicious Circle This is the item with the highest quantity of Berserk Spins. However, Berserk Spins just aren't great in multiplayer. The two most popular builds right now are 1/1/1 and 2 warriors 1 priest. Against the 1/1/1 you'll pretty much only be able to hit one person at any time. Against the 2 warriors 1 priest, it's more likely that you'll have 2 enemies to hit, if the 2 warriors gang up on you. However, even when hitting 2 enemies, you'll still only be doing net 11 damage, 6 to two enemies and 1 to yourself. When you compare it with another Silver attack, Powerful Bludgeon, it also does 11 damage without needing to hit 2 enemies. And dealing all the damage to one character is usually better than spreading the damage out. You also better not have your characters next to each other or you'll be slicing yourself up instead. Lastly, the 1 self damage from Berserk Spin isn't negligible. It's not so much the damage that matters but the information that your opponent gains from it. The damage will reveal your armors, or your lack thereof, and they can use this information to get an advantage over you. One example is your opponent can use that Dissolve Armor without any doubt of whether you actually have armor. Another example is an enemy warrior can rush in, safe in the knowledge that you don't have another attack but rather, a harmless armor. So after all that rambling about how bad the card is in multiplayer, lets move on to where it is actually good: singleplayer. Singleplayer is where you'll actually be surrounded by enemies, so Berserk Spin will get a lot of value there. If you only play singleplayer, and want an easier time on the higher levels, then you may like this item. Epics: Bimson's Water Stone There are plenty of minor token arcane items with 2 Flash Floods and 1 other random card. See which one you like best. I will say this is one of the better ones. Sliding Boots Very strong boots, especially for a wizard. The main problem is the token cost, but if you can afford the major token these are one of the best boots to spend it on. St. Voral's Charm Two terrible heals means that something insane is needed to save this item. Spear of Darkness is not it. Notable Rares: Focused Piety For support priests with a spare minor token, either this or Advanced Piety are good choices. Perfect Ferocity Perfect for people who want to deal lots of damage. This is the only way to get Frenzy Aura on a dwarf skill, and the Blind Rage also helps with piling on the damage. If you're using this item you kind of need a full dwarf team though to get full value from the Dwarven Battle Cry.
I noticed you did not include Blinding Blade in notables; is it not good? It seems like if you're going to try to use an item with Daylight, this would be the item to try. But maybe Daylight is really that bad in PVP? I know I have not yet successfully made it work.