The Daily Deal

I have a Shieldripper, and I'm thinking the best use for it would be one of the leagues that encourages 2x or 3x warrior builds, with more emphasis on blocks. Say Triple Duel or Chess Madness?

(Although in Chess Madness, I think I'd rather flank my opponents)

 

It's not that good in Chess Madness—as you seemed to guess at the end of your post. Triple Duel is the best place for Shieldripper, and buying one in order to have it for Triple Duel is a perfectly legitimate choice.

@Ector, @peonprop, I love you guys and you're hilarious but maybe you've said enough things about Shieldripper for one thread. Cheers.

 

Elemer's Diadem
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
I've covered mixed archetype arcane items like Elemer's Diadem before as well as Glob Of Flame and Stone Spikes so here are my thoughts on Force Cone. You will rarely be able to hit more than 2 enemy characters with it so it is less powerful than Gusts Of War. However, being a cone spell has some slight advantages. One of a wizard's biggest fear Smoke Bomb. Being able to push enemies away while they are still out of sight goes a long way towards buying time for the smoke to clear. Being a less powerful bronze quality card also means that you can shove a lot more copies on a wizard. The biggest downside of Force Cone is the lack of control you have over where targets end up. If your opponent can maneuver a character so that there is impassable terrain behind them your wizard turns into a sitting duck. The current map rotation for instance is littered with walls making Force Cone hard to use effectively. Overall, Force Cone is a solid card but vastly favors wide open maps. As for Elemer's Diadem itself, unfocused blah blah synergy blah blah TPS report. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Force Cone is pretty sweet for keeping zombie hordes at bay. Faster mobs are a bit trickier but Force Cone still performs admirably if you make sure to avoid getting surrounded. Force Cone is also a nice block checker against magic blocking mobs like goblins. I generally prefer damage cards though as a slow movement based retreat usually buys enough time to do what you want to do. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Rod Of Palver Pree (E), Bloodfoot Wand (E) , Glowing Jewel (U) , Runestone (C) , Wand Of Seared Air (C)

Mithril Mesh Slippers
Mouse Boots- Anyone running ranged characters should consider picking these up.
Sharp Shell

 

+1

And also - they are GREAT (maybe even a must have) for 1HP Quests.

 

Sticky Slippers (R) is also here and is best-in-slot for deck thinning. Immovable is pretty good making these a solid option if you don't need other things from your boots.

 

St. Sebanna's Armor
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
With Reliable Mail plus Team Heals, St. Sebanna's Armor is geared towards shutting down wizards. Against melee, warriors in particular, you are more likely to have one critically injured character as opposed to a wounded team in which case Team Heal is a waste. The major token cost isn't as big of a factor for priests since many of the best divine weapons do not require double major tokens. So it pretty much boils down to what you expect to be facing. Melee focused teams are the most popular at the moment but just last season burst wizards were en vogue. St. Sebanna's Armor is not the sort of item I would bring to a random battle but it is a handy tool to have when the day of the wizard uprising occurs. Purchase if you have spare gold. For the broke people, you can always just devote a few divine item slots to healing if suspect widespread sorcererery.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
This isn't a bad item to have but there are a few things going against it. Tlaloc's Stormplate prevents and heals the same amount but has the added bonuses of electricity immunity and lowered token cost. Electricity immunity is particularly useful against those annoying teleporting wisps. As always, the major token limits the amount of use you can get out of it. Finally, Team Heals are hard to come by but there are relatively few mob attacks that hit multiple targets. You can usually maneuver one character forward to be the whipping boy with armor, Impenetrable Nimbus, or healing backup. St. Sebanna's Armor is essentially inferior to another legendary and largely unnecessary. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Cintxotl Mail (E)

Jaguar Buckler
Staff Of Chask- Oops, I left my wizard out in the open. You better not attack it with that warrior. Short range attacks and melee only blocks is a double whammy against other wizards so take that into account.
Yoloxl's Staff- Strong staff for a control wizard.

 

I'd also like to point out that Punishing Bolt is an amazing card for thinning out mobs in certain singleplayer levels. I highly recommend getting Chask if you play a decent amount on your own, especially if you use a non-control wizard.

 

Brightblood Glaive
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
There aren't any particularly weak cards on Brightblood Glaive but the 2 support spells are a bit risky. If you are or are up against a wizard based team or can hang back with your priest, Inspiring Presence becomes a souped up Healing Pulse with occasional card advantage. On the other hand, if your priest is the thick of the battle using the Inspiring Presence becomes a liability. Similarly, a well placed Consecrate Ground offers a fistful of cards and sometimes displaces damaging terrain netting you a 4 for 1. This can also backfire if your character needs to retreat, gets killed, or gets shoved off with a card like Violent Spin. You're also glued to that spot unless you're willing to risk handing it over to unwanted squatters. In general, it is best to avoid swingy cards like these unless your build is set up to abuse them. If building around those cards seems appealing to you knock yourself out, but Brightblood Glaive does not slot well onto any priest and doesn't have any of the marquee priest buffs. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Inspiring Presence and Consecrate Ground are very effective against ranged mobs. They will always move away and give you more than enough room to work with. As always, the double major token cost is the deal breaker, limiting usage to level 14+ modules. Combining the two further limits the amount of play you can get out of Brightblood Glaive. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Inkdark Halberd (E) , Godtouched Spear (E) , Pearl-Handled Glaive (R)

Bniff's Boots
Icicle Shield
Trog Melter- Besides Trog slaying, Trog Melter is notable for being the only item with Melt Armor

 

Demigod's Hammer

Fingerbone Of St. Ob
Quornic's Armor
Untouchable Plate

A repeat stinker and 3 underwhelming epics. What a perfect time for...

Peon's 100th Review Extravaganza

Spoiler: All previously reviewed items

Absolem's Leather Boots
Amulet of Blades
Axe of the Titans
Azgul's Orb
Barnum's Burning Bauble
Beater
Bleneth's Frenzy Charm
Bleneth's Skull
Bloodchopper
Bloody Stoutness
Blue Destruction
Bolg's Club of Evasion
Boxton's Red Pendant
Brightblood Glaive
Brin's Spiked Rod
Clovidian's Mail
Clowen's Boots
Czint's Buckler
Darune's Dagger
Demigod's Hammer
Ekkerg's Amulet
Elemer's Diadem
Evasion
Eye of Wicna
Fabrian's Shield
Ferocity
Forval's Chain
Garalem's Boots
General Gideon's Helm
Glasod's Dark Thighbone
God's Rage
Hand of Melvelous
Hand of Wicna
Hawkwind's Moccasins
Hawlic's Handy Axe
Igneous Scorchstaff
Juniper's Boots
Kazmir's Staff
Kelharin's Clogs
Kelvim's Buckler
Kristoph's Skull
Knife of St. Blenko
Lenora's Prayer Beads
Lewin's Boots
Mandaeus's Aegis
Mathilda's Locket
Miligar's Dragon Tongue
Mindshrinker
Mokad's Reeking Skull
Mokad's Unholy Tome
Og's Boots of Peril
Oskar's Pine Shield
Overheated Staff
Perfect Footwork
Perfect Stoutness
Perrio's Kinetic Robes
Phantom Pain
Quornic's Battleaxe
Red Flame
Robes of White Wylla
Rolf's Reliable Platemail
Shield of Ultimate Dodging
Shieldripper
Skull of Savage Iljin
Smoag's Bucket of Pitch
Spear of the Cozqui
Spear of St. Qaith
Spear of St. Qaith Again (because I forgot I reviewed it already it's just that awesome)
St. Gwendolyn's Armor
St. Malaj's Cuirass
St. Pascal's Torch
St. Portia's Mail
St. Sebana's Armor
Staff of Embers
Staff of the Misanthrope
Superb Flexibility
Superb Toughness
Suvv's Boots of Escape
Swiz's Circlet of Elements
The Lunginator
Troll's Ire
Ulrin's Scuttling Socks
Unholy Nimbus
Vibrant Pain
Vinorkin's Cuirass
Vira's Shimmering Robes
Wenham's Leather Cap
White Flame
Wild Trickery
Wym's Fiery Bangle
Xemu's Crown
Yvette's Buckler

91/271 Legendary items reviewed

The Peonys
Favorite Expansion

Spoiler

Attack of the Artifacts
Awesome new cards, a rare Volcano arcane item, a rare Firestorm robe, Attack of the Artifacts has it all. What's not to love?

Least Favorite Expansion

Spoiler

Attack of the Artifacts
Why does everything have to be so difficult to spell? Oh sure, most of the legendary items are fine but if I have to look up how to spell Spiked Tlahuiztli one more time I will lose my mind. I'm watching you ETTSC.

Most Awful Legendary People Seem to Love

Spoiler

The Lunginator
Nope, still don't see it. Do I need beer goggles or something?

Legendary I Feel Most Awful About Giving a Poor Review

Spoiler

Hawkwind's Moccasins
Hawkwind's Moccasins simply gives you a huge amount of largely unconditional movement for tokenless boots and occasionally even draws you a card. Sometimes you just want to go fast.

Legendary I Feel Most Awful About Giving a Lukewarm Review

Spoiler

Vibrant Pain
I stand behind every word I said but I failed to recognize how good it can be when you are massively buffed up. I mean ridiculously buffed up. So buffed up it'd make Barry Bonds blush.

Legendary I Feel Most Awful About Giving a Great Review

Spoiler

Shield Of Ultimate Dodging
Dodge really sucks now. The difference between 1/2 and 1/3 seems so small on paper but it really changes how you and your opponents play. I often found myself discarding Dodges in favor of armor or good attacks because waiting to accumulate 2 copies just isn't worth it. Also, no one gives Dodge any respect anymore. They'll just blast their best attacks into you instead of taking the time to reposition optimally.

Give Me a Hand

Spoiler

Hand Of Melvelous
The first legendary item most of us get is still the best hand of the bunch...for now.

Skullduggery

Spoiler

Kristoph's Skull
Legendary skulls are some of the best items in the game. Except for poor Kristoph's. Like fumbling a touchdown pass.

Peon's Desert Island Item

Spoiler

Blue Destruction
Might not be the most powerful item I've reviewed but it certainly is flashy and the next best option, Whorl, doesn't even come close to replacing it.

Fun fact
The first ever Peon review had a misspelled legendary. Makes me wonder why I put so much effort into linking everything if you're not going to click it.

If anyone has any suggestions for future Peony categories I'd love to hear them. Thinking about and reviewing an item everyday has been interesting. I'll admit, there were days I was praying for a repeat item but for the most part it's been a blast. Here's hoping a fricken The Strongarm shows up before the next hundred.

 

OK, I guess bragging is more pleasant than writing the correct reviews Demigod's Hammer is "stinking"? Untouchable Plate is "underwhelming"? Such misleading reviews do only harm IMHO.

Demigod's Hammer 3/5? For multiplayer, this is much worse than Healing Hand Mace, since you cannot wait for the healing, and Controlled Overswing both deals less damage than Mighty Bludgeon and forces you to sacrifice the card. That's obvious. But for SP things aren't that clear. There are scenarios where you can hide your wounded mage behind the wall and wait until he heals, and for such scenarios Soothing Darkness is much better than Team Heal. After all, you get to heal 15 damage total compared to only 3. Note that Soothing Darkness is extremely rare; there are only three items in the game with two copies, and all these items cost yellow tokens. If you farm with a priest-wiz-wiz Savage Curse party like me, you should consider buying the Hammer, since it will really help a lot on some high-level maps. The Controlled Overswing disadvantage is minimal, since your priest isn't going to fight a lot anyway, but the Soothing Darkness advantage is essential. You may prefer a Giasod's Dark Eye, but there are sooo many great divine items and only three slots... I'd better take a second Skull Of Savage Iljin or Jygpin's Healing Ring Thus, I am buying the Hammer today!

Fingerbone Of St. Orb 3/5. My favorite zero-token item for the same priest-wiz-wiz party. Why not? Greater Heal is often a difference between a victory and a loss, and Sapping Spear is weak, but it can be launched from safe distance; plus most monsters on the low-level maps have low health, so 2 damage may be enough to kill them.
Quornic's Armor. Crap. Don't buy armor with the armor-pumping harnesses; buy boots and helmets with them instead.
Untouchable Plate 5?/5? One of the best divine armors in the game. You cannot have more than two Arrogant Armors for your cleric, and Holy Armor is great al least versus burning/Firestorms. If you doubt in my rate, try playing versus the burning mages Nothing stops them as completely as Arrogant Armor. My priest in the same SP party wears this armor all the time.

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 (or a special map). '!' means the best item for its cost, in its category or essential for the build.

 

Okay, so I'd have settled for "terrible," even for the SP party you mention. I get to spend two major tokens on three attacks that I try to avoid even at no token cost, plus a single Team Heal, all for the privilege of reducing my dwarf wizards' base move to one for three rounds, even when they're likely in no danger of dying for most if not all of that time? Where do I not sign up? The benefits of Soothing Darkness over Greater Heal etc. in that situation lie in more healing per card and not needing to maintain LoS constantly—but I'd still rather save my tokens, make the exceedingly minor LoS sacrifice if I know my wizards will be taking significant damage, and put the healing where I need it when I need it. Anything else is a waste of healing and mobility alike.

 

I'm not even going to argue with the Demigod's Hammer stuff. Pretty sure people can see how terrible it is.

Fingerbone of St. Ob is not better than a pure vamp item such as Wuuna's Vampiric Shroud or Hand of Melvelous for low level singleplayer. If you have a vamp priest and 2 wiz send the priest out front. You get more damage in, soak up all the hits, and heal at the same time. Much better than having 2 weak vamp attacks and a Greater Heal.

Untouchable Plate is crap in multiplayer. There aren't any Firestorm decks running around anymore and a plain old Reliable Mail armor will do just as well if not better without shutting down priest traits and buffs. Marginally better against burning wizards, possibly if they have traits going. Worse in every way against everything but encumber spells, absolutely. Same goes for singleplayer actually. Sure, you might get hit with a few extra attachments but for Firestorm farming the ability to buff yourself and get draws from Altruism is better most of the time. If you want to buy an epic just to beat Secret of the Elder Mind be my guest.

 

Thanks for your consistently great and carefully put together reviews, Peonprop! I think your title should be upgraded to at least Journeymanprop by now. The effort you put in every time has already earned you a place in the Card Hunter community annals. Here's looking at the next hundred!

 

+1 to Jarmo's remarks!
Although my Demigod's Hammer isn't stinking, just collecting dust in my "Absurd Weapons" display.
It would be interesting to be able to sort our collections by user-assigned ratings. Especially if we could import templates from other players for comparison.

 

I think Untouchable Plate got much worse with recent changes, as it represents tremendous opportunity cost now that all but one priest buff self-target.

 

True, a vamp will want a full vamp item, but the Fingerbone is still a very good way for a healing priest to free up a token.

If you're making an Arrogant build, you'll want this item. It's debatable if Arrogant builds are useful (outside of Elder Mind), but I'd buy this if I didn't already have 2 of the Christmas version.

 

Save your tokens compared to what? Healing Hand Mace costs the same two yellow tokens. Yes, Controlled Overswing is much worse than the Mace attacks, but your cleric isn't your primary damage dealer anyway - your two wizards are. You overswing only to deliver a coup de grace after many damaging spells, and you don't care about the card loss in that situation.
As for "reducing your wizard's speed" and "putting the healing when you need it", you've obviously never played a Firestorm/Flash of Agony SP party with seven Savage Curses. Your wizards are damaging themselves every turn! Every damned turn!!!

Hmmm. I cannot even invent a proper title for a person who wrote "would not purchase" about The Lunginator. Lieprop maybe?

 

Sacrificial Axe, Gloomthirst ... pretty sure those're the best SP priest weapons.

 

Not for the priest-wiz-wiz party with Savage Curses. You need healing and drawing there most of all. Attacks aren't that significant. Thus, Godtouched Spear, Healing Hand Mace and Demigod's Hammer are all good variants for the party; each of them has its own advantages and drawbacks.
Please don't make a troll of me: I've always thought that a reviewer should do his best to find a good use for the reviewed items. It's easy to write "would not purchase", but finding a reason to purchase is more difficult. There are many cornercase items in the game that can really shine in the right hands; Demigod's Hammer is clearly one of them.

 

I use the former for trait cycling and the latter for card-drawing. I almost always discard my attacks. Those weapons have worked better for me in the kind of build you're describing than any other.

I'll also note that when I'm playing pww in singleplayer, and my wizards are raining fire down on everyone, attachments tend not to last for more than a turn. I can't speak for you but between trait cycling and self-damaging attacks I don't think Soothing Darkness would stay on for more than a turn, making it a very poor man's Inspiring Presence (wouldn't Knife Of St. Blenko be better than Demigod's Hammer, then?)...

Skull Of Savage Iljin