I've seen a few threads this week talking about how OP Vibrant Pain / Card Draw / Whirlwhind is, so I thought I would share my build: Magicbolts Wizardname Level 1 Human Wizard Staff Of Winter Staff Of Winter Runestone Runestone Locket Of The Gale Runestone Robe Of Lightness Mouse Boots Novice Command Electroporter Novice 2 x Cold Snap 2 x Cautious Sneak 2 x Flanking Move 2 x Chilling Rime 8 x Frost Jolt 5 x Winds Of War 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Ember Spray 1 x Run, Team! 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Hover 3 x Squeamish 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Vulnerable 3 x Wall Of Fire 1 x Spark Inductor Knifehands Elfblades Level 6 Elf Warrior Blocking Mace Bejeweled Shortsword Darune's Dagger Gauntlets Of The Giant Slippery Shield Weakling's Helm Goat Boots Insight Sharp Bashing 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 2 x Parry 1 x Mighty Bludgeon 1 x Immovable 1 x Frenzy Aura 1 x Weakened Armor 1 x Unreliable Block 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Penetrating Cut 2 x Elvish Insight 1 x Hardy Mail 2 x Vicious Thrust 1 x Walk 2 x Strong Hack 1 x Backbiting Strike 1 x Bruiser 1 x Impaler 3 x Penetrating Lunge 1 x Strong Bash 3 x Hard To Pin Down 3 x Powerful Hack 1 x Wimpy Dwarfo Blooddrinker Level 20 Dwarf Warrior Bejeweled Shortsword Bejeweled Shortsword Lochaber Axe Gauntlets Of The Giant Dueler's Buckler Shifty Skin Hat Goat Boots Raging Battler Savvy Attacker 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 1 x Rusty Armor 1 x Thick Hide Armor 2 x Unreliable Block 2 x Powerful Bludgeon 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 3 x Nimble Strike 1 x Weak Chop 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Immovable 5 x Vicious Thrust 1 x Block 1 x Slicer 1 x Impaler 1 x Parry 1 x Frenzy Aura 1 x Team Run 6 x Powerful Hack 1 x Weakened Armor Currently I am ranked 9th. I've been as high as fifth, and even when I am tired and keep making amazingly stupid plays and I really should go to bed but I really want to get one more gold chest I usually manage to maintain at least in the top 30. I don't own any VP, I've never used a card draw deck, and while I did use a few whirlwinds on my wizard to disrupt the firestorm decks before the nerf, that was never the point of the wizard, or the build. Here are some thoughts: - I just got the Lochlaber Axe last week. Prior to this I was using two elf warriors, but with the axe I finally felt like I had enough mobility to use a dwarf. I really like having the elf for the occasional insight, and I like having the dwarf because it slightly blunts the effectiveness of opponent Dwarven Cries. I have no strong feelings about the human mage being a human. It's nice not being as squishy as an elf, it's nice not being as slow as a dwarf. And Run Team plus a trait for no tokens is pretty good. - Prior to getting the Axe and Darune's Dagger, my "bad" weapons were Puncturing Dagger and Burnished Blade. The Axe is insane, but for the most part there are a number of items you can put here without it greatly harming your overall build strength. - The Slippery Shield is also very new. I am not sure about it yet. It's great when you need to close on mages, but I am not sure this is the right option given our current map rotation. It feels like whenever I don't use the SS I immediately get paired against nothing but triple mages, and when I switch back to it I fight warrior heavy teams. Prior to the SS I used a second Bejeweled Shortsword and Dueler's Buckler there. - Goat Boots are great! You get a trait and a move four for no tokens. Plus few enough people use immovable items that occasionally your opponent will forget it's there and waste a Winds of War on you. - Mouse Boots: Also very good. Being able to steal priority for the start of the next turn is wonderful, being able to move away from an enemy who has just closed on you then frost bolt them is wonderful, and being able to draw within line of sight of an enemy wizard and Winds of War them preemptively is also wonderful. Seven thumbs up, and both the mouse and goat boots are pretty easy to get. However I do feel guilty about the number of mice that must have been killed in order to get a boots-worth of material. - I don't feel like this build is dependent on a lot of rare items, and even before I had any Bejeweled Shortswords I was cracking the 1500 level. Sharp Spetum and Tango Spear are both very good alternatives, not to mention the easily purchasable options of Blocking Mace or Powerful Sword. I love Gauntlets of the Giant, and have been one of the few consistent pieces of equipment since I first came up in the rankings, but I don't think of it as essential. Frosty Staff can be swapped out for Staff of Winter, which is also a rare, but between running SP mode and Randimar's it shouldn't be too hard to get some. - I know this built is faaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr from optimal, both because I'm missing a lot of great items, and because I am sure I have made some poor items choices. I rarely have time to get more than the second gold chest on any given day so I don't have a huge sample size when I am trying stuff out. I would welcome any suggestions people have. - Don't get me wrong, Vibrant Pain is incredible, and I would use one if I had it, and I can't count the number of times I've cursed my opponent for ANOTHER NIMBLE STRIKE ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? But it's definitely not essential, and you don't need crazy epics and legendaries to succeed in multiplayer.
I used Axander's Twisted Circlet until fairly recently, then switched it to the Locket of the Gale. I never experience a situation where I think "I wish I had drawn one fewer Winds of War", but I frequently wish I had drawn more. Not to knock SPR. It's a great ability. But you have to be close (which my relatively squishy human mage never wants to be), they're only useful as long as the opponent still has cards in their hand, and with Winds I can move my own units.
Short Perplexing Ray is more a card for Wizard Control, which needs a way to handle things like Arrogant Armor, Resistant Hide and Warriors standing on their neck holding a fist full'a cards. Double Warrior has plenty of high damage means to handle all of those situations, so it's better to stack their support Wizard with stuff like WoW and WWE.
I've also managed to crack the Top 10(currently 3rd?) with no Vibrant Pain. While my deck is "fair" I imagine its infuriating to play against. Sleezy Level 20 Dwarf Wizard Staff Of Winter Kazmir's Staff Runestone Runestone Simin's Glowing Mirror Runestone Robe Of Lightness Greenguard Boots Untrained Toughness Electroporter Novice 1 x Spark Generator 4 x Frost Jolt 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Freeze 1 x Shrug It Off 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 2 x Potent Spark 3 x Wall Of Fire 4 x Squeamish 1 x Cold Snap 1 x Missile Block 1 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Hard To Pin Down 3 x Winds Of War 2 x Hover 1 x Zap 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Stone Spikes 2 x Flash Of Pain 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Chilling Rime 1 x Parry 1 x Teleport Self Antwest Level 1 Human Wizard Sour Staff Trembling Staff Axander's Twisted Circlet Runestone Runestone Bimson's Hard Stone Robe Of Lightness Greenguard Boots Inspired Command Electroporter Novice 1 x Mighty Spark 2 x Vulnerable 1 x Hard To Pin Down 1 x Weak Parry 1 x Dimensional Traveller 2 x Potent Spark 1 x Combustible 3 x Squeamish 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Flame Jet 1 x Big Zap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 2 x Wall Of Fire 2 x Winds Of War 1 x Inspirational Thinking 2 x Hover 2 x Acid Jet 2 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Cloth Armor 1 x Spark Inductor 3 x Acid Blast 2 x Wall Of Stone 1 x Teleport Self Healbot Level 1 Human Priest Healing Hand Mace Rapier Of Misfortune Dark Chain Shirt Black Cat Buckler Bertha's Big Clogs Medallion Of St. Vigus Jygpin's Healing Ring Medallion Of St. Vigus Advanced Flexibility Novice Piety 1 x Slowed 3 x Parry 1 x Fiery Stab 1 x Inspiring Presence 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Hardy Mail 1 x Walk 1 x Light Heal 3 x Bad Luck 2 x Nimble Strike 1 x Shredding Strike 4 x Impenetrable Nimbus 1 x Officer's Harness 4 x Team Heal 2 x Leadership 2 x Healing Blessing 1 x Minor Heal 2 x Mighty Bludgeon 1 x Sapping Touch 2 x Altruism
At the moment I'm at 8th place and I don't have Vibraint Pain and I don't run any nimble strike, card draw or whirlwind. My highest rating was 1673 and I was 5th place. People don't need to have great itens to be at top, just play well and do a good build with the cards you have, uncommon and commons should be enough but by playing you will get good rares and epics and you will adapt your build. During the week my rating go down a little bit because when I play at university I get some connection lost because the internet isn't good there. But when I go back home at the weekend I get the rating up again, but most of the time i'm between 1550-1650. At the moment I have 1635.
