Weapons with non-attack cards

Discussion in 'Deck Building' started by Ector, May 7, 2014.

  1. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    We all want the weapons for our warriors to have as many attack cards as possible. Powerful attacks, step attacks - any attacks will do. Still, there are some weapons that I consider good even with non-attack cards.

    Reap The Whirlwind. My favorite weapon for Chess Madness. Two Violent Spin allow you to push opponents out of the victory area and take their place - all in one action. Acrobatic Flip does essentially the same. So, you have three cards that allow you to grab the victory area - a serious advantage.

    Bolg's Big Iron Plate. Having more blocks may be more important than having more attacks. Surging Shield Block isn't very impressive, but it's still a block or movement, as you need.

    You should probably know the other examples of good weapons with non-attack cards. Or not?
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2014
    Finial likes this.
  2. tuknir

    tuknir #3 in Spring PvP Season

    I been using Quick Jon's Axe, an di must say im prety pleased with it, except when the damn rolls on dodge tend to fail aka EVER!!1
     
  3. Jacques

    Jacques Hydra

    Yeah, there was a nice mini-debate in the Randimar's thread when someone asked opinions about Reapier's Scythe. It is an amazing weapon despite having only 3 attack cards, because it also has 2 Dodge and a good trait, pretty much like the Reap The Whirlwind example you gave for Chess Madness.
    I found that, at least for my current build, 5 tend to be the right amount of block cards (I'm not counting Unreliable Block and I'm counting Toughness even though it isn't a block). So, I have 3 from the shield, but if I can't get 2 more from boots or from the racial (Solid Rock would cover this necessity), I like to use at least one weapon with a good block. That's why I like Warrior's Mace so much. And I've been using Bloodchopper as well for the same reason.
     
  4. Squidy

    Squidy Hydra

    Out of curiosity, are you asking in order to lower the impact of trickery on your warrior?
     
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  5. Jade303

    Jade303 Thaumaturge

    Trickery shmickery. I let those elves stroll right on up to my warrior, and laugh at them when nothing gets discarded.

    Why the heck would you use Bolg's Big Iron Plate and not use or mention Bolg's Club Of Evasion? (Note: pretty MAD that I was talked out of buying the club). They are both pretty "meh" legendaries unless you want the move cards more than attacks... and then they can be useful indeed. Not all warriors are focused on killing things.
    Speaking of which, I would like to nod for Reap The Whirlwind, Reaper's Scythe and Warrior's Mace. All quite good items; although RTW is really only great for Chess. Lochaber Axe is a great weapon with a non-attack card BUT it is used in spite of the Unreliable Block, not because of it.
    Other items: Blocking Mace, Opaline Hammer (great for fighting Trolls and such), weapons with Traits like Rageblood Dagger/Blackeye Hammer etc etc, Raxcotl's Hammer is nice (Bloodied Block is amazing).
     
  6. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    That would be as stupid as not driving the car to avoid possible accidents :) What else your warrior can do? Sprint to the victory area and stand there?
    You want the reason of my question? I've just got Bolg's Big Iron Plate from a purple chest (played more than 8 hours like a mad), and I like it - both the cards and the picture. Same about Reap The Whirlwind, though I have it for a long time. Honestly, guys, we pay tokens for the boots with the good movement cards - why we cannot pay a token for a weapon with good movement cards? :) Violent Spin isn't as obviously good as Team Run, but in the good hands it can be even more game-breaking (you aren't going to move enemies with Team Run, right?) I've won countless games having no attacks in my hand, versus a warrior full loaded with armor - just moved him from the victory area and captured it myself.
     
  7. Jacques

    Jacques Hydra

    I use Bolg's Club Of Evasion in Wicked Waterways (I play with a Wings Of Faith build), where you don't need too much attack cards, but you really need more blocks and movement. And Dodge reunites those two things in the same card, so it's pretty useful there. I'm not sure I would play with that item in normal mp though. Violent Spin is a good versatile card, but there could be situations where you draw it when you really needed some attack card instead, so I don't think choosing RTW for mp is good. It's a different thing if you get it from your boots. I played a long time ago in mp with this weapon, and it was good in the low and middle rank, where builds don't have too much consistency, so I could win several games with Violent Spin. But it's not so good at the high rank, where you really need to kill them before they kill you.
     
  8. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    Let me analyze the situation. The full deck is 36 cards + a move card, and 18 of them are from the weapons. A half of the deck. If you use the weapons with all attack cards, then you have 18 attacks. Now, how many move cards do you have in your deck?
    I've just inspected my two warriors; both have only one pure movement card. Yes, they have three Hard To Pin Down and some step attacks. They are packed with blocks and armor to overbash the opponent in the melee. There are at least three comments to this situation:

    1). Everybody fears about drawing not enough attacks, but nobody fears about drawing not enough movement. Isn't that strange? Step attacks are too good, as they work as both the moves and attacks.
    2). Having a lot of attacks is good only if you're guaranteed to hit with those attacks. Even in the current metagame this is far from being guaranteed. Encumbrance and movement effects from your wizard + bashing, Pushback Parry and Violent Spins from your warrior = you're stuck dead with all your attacks and just dying from your own Blind Rages.
    3). Actually, the only card creating the current metagame is Nimble Strike. Step 4 is too much. But not everybody has Vibrant Pain. I guess everybody has it at your "high rank" though.
     
  9. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Most people have one or more Lochaber Axe, which, it turns out, is already too many Nimble Strikes to be fair :)
     
    Stexe likes this.
  10. Jacques

    Jacques Hydra

    You said it, step attacks are the reason why warriors don't need pure movement cards, specially with NS. The only pure movement card I still like in a warrior right now is Team Run. If you can put some NS+ other step attacks and Team Runs in your team, then encumbrance shouldn't be a major issue.
    And no, not everyone has Vibrat Pain. I don't have it and I only got my 2nd lochaber a week ago. So I carry 3 NS per warrior, which is not very good at the high rank (still better than nothing though), so I can't play too agressively because many times I need to wait for a better hand that include at least one NS. Of course that traits also help. Paladin, for instance, doesn't have one either, but he uses 4 lochabers and has 4 NS in his priest too, so that would be pretty much the same as having a VP (he has 16 NS). On the other hand, there are players that have one and even 2 VP, but not all of them are at the top rank (I've seen 1400 and 1500 players with VP).

    Back to the issue, it would make more sense to include more movement cards in a priest or a wizard, as they have very few step attacks. Violent Spin would be better in a priest or in a wizard for this reason. They appreciate boots with 3 movement cards because they need more movility, while putting boots with 3 movement cards in a warrior is a bad idea, as they don't really need it.
     
  11. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    This wonders me even more. Lochaber Axe has 4 good step attacks, one bad attack and extremely bad Unreliable Block that's hard to get rid of. Having two clearly weak cards, it's still considered a great weapon, while Bolg's weapons are considered worse. I feel the reason is the false assumption that you can wait until you have a good hand and only then engage in battle. This is often false: sometimes your opponent engages you, and sometimes you have to compete for the victory areas.
     
  12. Lord Feleran

    Lord Feleran Guild Leader

    1 NS is simply better than any 2 cards on that Bolg item combined.
     
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  13. Jarmo

    Jarmo Snow Griffin

    Why does the getting rid of matter? What harm is there in having it in your hand after you've played all the cards you want for that round? It's a buffer from Short Perplexing Ray. Sometimes it even blocks. I can't think of any other downside than being hit with some Punishing Attack. There's no tax to be paid at the end of a round for all cards you have left as far as I know.

    P.S. I think PaladinGP does have a Vibrant Pain now. I'm pretty sure I saw him use one today. I've also seen 1,200 - 1,300 players with it. Having a Vibrant Pain guarantees no success.
     
  14. Lord Feleran

    Lord Feleran Guild Leader

    Noes!! :eek: Challange to get to top just went so much harder :eek:
    Actually every card has a value, no matter attack card or not. It's generally better to have cards with higher values, they don't have to be attacks. (Simply attacks often have higher values than blocks, move cards or armor.)
    :eek:
     
  15. Jade303

    Jade303 Thaumaturge

    Lochaber has 4 movement cards to Bolg's 2-3... and so does Rageblood... step attacks are basically cantrip move cards with an attack built in... so it's almost like having twice as many cards to play. Dodge, Parry, and Hard TPD have a 2-for one effect as well... without costing too much.

    Jarmo, having VP doesn't make you a good player or guarantee "success" however you define it. However, IMO, the 12-1300 players I have faced have the experience and skills of a very green player who should be around 1000 or lower. Again, IMO, having VP inflates/boosts your rating by a few hundred points regardless of skill. That being said, a very skilled player with VP and a very skilled player without VP can both potentially get to a very high ranking- but the player without it will need more strong items to compensate.
     
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  16. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    If that is true, then NS is overpowered and should be banned or nerfed. I don't believe in that, though.
    Pardon? It's a card you cannot play and don't need. At end of turn you either have two or less cards in hand or discard to two. At start of turn you draw 3 cards. If you keep the useful cards in your hand, then you will be able to play all 5 cards on the crucial turn. If you just collect the garbage like Unreliable Block, you will be limited to 3 cards. No harm? And "the buffer from SPR" is a flawed argument, since your opponent knows about Unreliable Block after the first attack. You may get lucky if SPR would discard it, but you may have just one Unreliable Block after SPR too.
     
  17. Jarmo

    Jarmo Snow Griffin

    Drawing Unreliable Block is never great, that's clear. It's a bad card. But I'm sorry, I can't see the Unreliable Block harm you reason about.

    It seems to me that if you have two good cards you want to keep for the next turn, you can just discard Unreliable Block. No loss there. If you have only one card you want to carry over, you lost nothing by having the Unreliable Block carry over too. You're not getting any more cards from anywhere whether you have Unreliable Block in your hand or not. It's not somehow crowding out other cards after it's been drawn. Of course everyone would rather draw something else, but sometimes having Unreliable Block in your deck is a price you're willing to pay to get some dynamite cards in there.

    As to the Short Perplexing Ray, having a fractional chance of it discarding Unreliable Block (or being blocked!) is better than always having it discard better cards. This is what I meant by the buffer. I see some gain but no loss. Again, other than the player rather having a better card at hand in the first place.
     
  18. tuknir

    tuknir #3 in Spring PvP Season

    Unreliable block,isnt that bad.. sure if you have something else better, you can discard it, but sometimes it pays off to discard a junk armor and keep it.. ive seen unreliable block bloking a obliterating blow..seen 2 diferent unreliable block (one in each of my 2 warriors) work at same turn blocking a wwe... etc
     
  19. Lord Feleran

    Lord Feleran Guild Leader

    Ah, I remember how I once discarded some a lot better card than that Unreliable Block against you, Tuknir, believing that I most likely need that block to trigger on the next turn to stop you from getting the last vp. And it sure blocked your WWE as intended :p

    Ah, and Jade, I meant Bolg's Big Iron Plate not his Club of Evasion. NS isn't better than 2 Dodges, alright :)
    "NS is overpowered and should be banned or nerfed." And this is old news btw :D
     
    Flaxative likes this.
  20. Ector

    Ector Hydra

    Guys, let's avoid turning this thread into a memorabilia of the great Unreliable Block cases :) I know it can suddenly trigger and save your butt, but I cannot rely on that. When I get Unreliable Block, my only wish is to discard it as fast as possible. Yes, it isn't the worst card in the game, some weak armors are even worse, but it's still bad.

    Only if you have 3+ cards at end of turn, which means you've played only 2 cards on that turn. Sometimes you can afford playing just 2 cards (especially at the beginning of the game), but generally you cannot. The opponent moves forward, takes the victory area and so on.

    Yes, but I'd prefer to have a useful card in my hand :) Having a card that's "as good as no cards" is bad, and your opponent knows that you have this crap.

    People are telling me that they need a lot of attacks for the consistency. If so, Unreliable Block decreases the consistency, and drawing it in the heat of battle is a disaster. But NS is obviously so good that people are taking this risk. Something should really be rebalanced here.
     

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