The Daily Deal

Today's Deal is:

Vibrant Pain 4?!/1. The classical example of the very specialized item. You will need it only for the special maps or "backstabbing" characters. The damage is low, but you can really surprise your opponents. I guess it will be the best for the elves, since the trick is to move close to your enemy and then jump behind him, preventing the retreat. Ideally, you "surround" the enemy with two characters and prevent the blocks too. Elven Trickery will do wonders with Nimble Strike, as you can "safely" jump to the enemy (works especially well versus the 11-attack warriors). Elven Maneuvers allows you to draw a lot of Nimble Strikes, which is good.
You can use Vibrant Pain just for the movement, if you wish to utilize your Infused Greatclubs and other weapons without any movement, but that wouldn't be the best usage for two yellow tokens. On the other hand, backstabbing with Obliterating Bludgeon should be quite effective
I don't recommend buying it to the new players and to those short on gold, but I've bought it myself after the rebalance since I like the unique/special abilities. Anyway, don't even think about Lochaber Axe - with two very bad cards it's total crap now.

Flashing Longspear 4!/2 Really one of the best Impaler weapons, if not the best. All 5 attacks are Penetrating, and 3 of them have range 2. Remember though that the weapon has absolutely no step attacks, so playing three copies wouldn't probably be a good idea, unless your warrior is an elf.
Stookster's Amulet 3/4 I don't know how good is Telekinesis in MP. But it SP it's really nice tokenless Firestorm item, though not the best one.
True Mail 3/3. It's hard to justify spending a token on this while you can get Reliable Mail from many tokenless items. But you could wear a worse armor, of course.

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

I have never seen a VP before outside the test server. About time!

 

Same here. Lousy timing.

 

Yeah, Vibrant Pain is pretty crappy at the moment. Really think NS should be put to 5 damage. Or keep it at 4 damage but add Stealthy to it.

Considering buying it just to have 3 in my collection (for a triple Warrior build), but will probably skip. Still waiting for Strongarm or Raging Battler.

 

Never had one, so I sold some toupees to buy it. It's still really cool, and I've seen some fun uses of it.

 

Would you buy the 3rd Strongarm? I have it at my Randimar's...

 

Probably not. I think having 2 is enough.

 

The new day brings the new Deal!

St. Malaj's Cuirass 4?/3? I know how popular is Volcano, and Cleansing Ray makes a great combo with it or against it. Here you can get two more copies for no tokens - but your cleric will have absolutely no armor. The SP rating indicates that it may be useful only against geomancers.

Bec De Corbin 3/3. Could be a great weapon if it had some attack instead of Flimsy Block.
Jaguar Buckler 4/4. A very very good shield. Not much worse than the best legendary shields. Well worth 500 gold.
Trickster's Blade. 4/3. A very focused weapon with nice tech, but a bit low on damage. Can be used to build a dedicated range 2 warrior.

Blackeye Hammer 5?/3. One of the best weapons for a blue token, plus all its attacks are Crushing. It will be very good in a Crusher build, especially elven, since it doesn't have any step attacks, but it does have Blind Rage which cannot be obtained with elven skills.

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

St. Malaj's Cuirass
Multiplayer
Cleansing Ray is the type of card that you should only play if you expect to get use out of it a majority of the time. While it has the potential to net you two cards there are too many builds that don't run any terrain attachments in which case you're stuck with two Minor Heals with greater range that can't be used to draw out blocks. St. Malaj's Cuirass is best used in setups where you run your own terrain attachments. It is particularly useful when used after moving characters to hide knowledge of an incoming Volcano. If you run other types of terrains chances are there will be a few useless squares you can use to cycle the Cleansing Rays.

Singleplayer
You have active knowledge of AI deck contents so Cleansing Ray becomes a lot more useful. However, there are a lot of items that have terrain clearing effects. While these draw cards you often just want to draw another cleansing card in terrain attachment heavy modules in which case Cleansing Burst and Cleansing Presence may be more suitable. St. Malaj's Cuirass' biggest advantage over most alternatives is that it doesn't cost tokens.

Peon's prescription for prodigious players- Terrain clearing effects are not only narrow but also plentiful. This combination makes St. Malaj's Cuirass a poor buy in most cases. Would not purchase unless you run your own terrain attachments and/or you need a tokenless source of cleansing.

Substitues- Cleansing Hide Armor (E), Armor Of Negation (E) minor token, Cleansing Mail (U) minor token

Bec De Corbin- The poor man's double Dodge weapon. Still requiring two major tokens makes it much worse than the legendary options.
Jaguar Buckler
Trickster's Blade

 

Kazmir's Staff
Multiplayer
Kazmir's Staff is one of only three staves with Freeze. Slowing everything to a crawl can be useful but the most popular race is dwarves. Against the vertically challenged that Freeze may as well be any frost spell. The Potent Sparks are great and the Flash Of Agonys can be fine but Missile Block is awful. As a wizard, your number one fear is big melee attacks. Missile Block only prevents damage from attacks that you can race against so it isn't necessary to have. However, it is quite useful against the increasingly popular Purge effects if you rely on traits and buffs.

Singleplayer
Having 4 multi-target spells is great. However, you are paying for a Freeze that is of limited use. Like all single target spells, using Freeze on one enemy will not help against the rest of the mobs. Most of the maps with low enemy counts have mobs that already have slow base movements. Look out for items with Cone Of Cold if you are seeking encumber effects to slow multiple targets. You will know whether or not Missile Block will have any use but it is still a dead card in many modules.

Peon's prescription for prodigious players- Kazmir's Staff has an odd assortment of cards of varying value. Unless dwarves somehow see significantly less play encumber effects will remain relatively unplayable. Missile Block is the worst type of block to have against an unknown enemy and it isn't even that great for a wizard when you do expect magic and projectile attacks. The biggest draws are the Potent Sparks for multiplayer and Flash of Agonys for singleplayer, both of which can be found on more focused staves. Would not recommend purchasing Kazmir's Staff.

Substitutes
Sub-zero Staff (R) : Freeze
Silver Fir Staff (E) , Voltstaff (E) , Black Walnut Staff (E) , Greenspark Staff (R), Staff Of Billows (R) , Staff Of Peril (E) : Linear spark
Mindsplinter Staff (E) , Staff Of Pain (E) : Flash of Agony

Red Jon's Boots- Fine pair of tokenless Flanking Move boots. Wait for Mouse Boots if you prefer more movement.
Rusty Healing Armor
Yoloxl's Staff- Awesome staff for a controlling wizard.

 

The new Deal is:

Kazmir's Staff 2/2. Very very bad staff. Freeze isn't popular nowadays, since you cannot freeze the enemy anyway. The rest cards simply aren't worth the price.

Red Jon's Boots 4/3. Good tokenless boots. Extremely good if you want some armor besides the movement.
Rusty Healing Armor 3/3. Not the best armor, not the best healing, but quite good for a tokenless item.
Yoloxl's Staff 3/3. This is what's left to controlling wizards after the rebalance. You have only 3 controlling cards, the rest are weak electro sparks, but you have to pay for that. If you want the real controlling staff, look for Illusion. I guess Ring Of Appropriation will be the better controlling item, and if you want electicity, play Oxha's Sparkspreader.

My rating shows only the power/cost ratio of the item in the right build (not necessary in yours!) '?' means the need of a special build. '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

I feel like the big freeze one should be like entangling roots, to make it as powerful as it should be.

 

I picked up a Yoloxl's Staff just based on the 2 Gusts. I have 1 Illusion but still learning has to properly play control and gusts are nice and simple.
Don't complete doubt the Jumpsparks, yes it is weak sauce, but it is hard to block 1 penetrating weak sauce which easily gets doubled AND is a great opening move to test for blocks with range 8. I beleive immunity overrides penetrating, so it is still negated by resistant and grounding plates.

 

I agree Freeze is kinda BS and for a Emerald card that is broken, perhaps making it stun Duration 2, but reducing the range, would put back where it belongs.

 

Stun duration 2? And you think people complain about Mass Frenzy and Impenetrable Nimbus. That would be something.

 

Stun is pretty unintuitive for an ice attack. After all, you can move around just fine. Halt 1 would be fair though IMO.

 

I agree. Maybe lower the damage slightly, but Halt duration 1 would make it work its price.

 

The new Deal is:

Clowen's Boots 3/2. I am a fan of pumping the armor, but these boots are worse than Nasrum's Moccasins or Absolem's Leather Shoes. Don't waste your gold on them.

Blazing Shortsword 5!/4. The best weapon with Fiery Stab in the game. I feel that The Strongarm is still better overall, but sometimes you want to strike from the safe distance.
Ephriam's Crazy Boots 3/3
Simin's Glowing Mirror 3/3

 

Clowen's Boots
Multiplayer
Chain Harnesses may seem like treats but they are filthy tricks in disguise trying to take away your precious candy. Even when you have a Grounding Plates in hand, Chain Harness will only give you an additional .67 point damage prevention while only providing 1 itself. If you really want to armor your booties pick up double Reliable Mail boots. Harnesses are only good for helping armors with a triggered effect like Barbed Platemail or for Officer's Harness heavy hands.

Singleplayer
I'm out of candy, go read the multiplayer section.

Peon's prescription for prodigious players: If you simply must get armor rolls to trigger and you can't spare a major token for Enchanted Harness and your judgment is still impaired from a sugar coma then go ahead and get Clowen's Boots. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Kerrick's Steel Boots (E) : Reliable Mail

Blazing Shortsword- Great tokenless weapon. Would highly recommend buying it if you don't own any.
Ephriam's Crazy Boots
Simin's Glowing Mirror

 

New players might be less confused if the extraneous "e" was removed from Clowen.