Why The Lunginator is one of the best weapons in the game

Thanks!

Haha! "The Lungination"! A nation of Lunginators! I love it. It competes in catchiness of "Cult of the Bejeweled" (I love cultish names more than regime-like names though...)

 

The Lungination! Best pun ever!

 

Are YOU a LungiNationalist? Sign up here to serve and protect! Technology and Strength! Uncle Lungi wants YOU!

 

Infatuation with Lungination

 

First of all, I have to thank you for posting your build. This helps a lot.

I've never liked the 1/1/1 teams (probably just because they're much more difficult to play properly, and I am not as good player as you), and I think that is the reason of the most losses. Your party is too inconsistent. The wizard is trying to both move the enemies and damage them, so he may get no Telekinesis when you need it, or no damaging cards when you need them. Your priest is trying to support both the warrior and the wizard, so, again, you may get no Savage Curse when you need it, or get two Savage Curses when your wizard is already dead. BTW, you have almost no ways to prevent killing your wizard if you encounter a strong wizard-based party: a human wizard has little HPs, and your priest has almost no healing. Looks like you've lost a lot of games after losing the wizard.

Just a few words on item selection. I really like the Diamond Moccasins on the Beast, and Trained Command looks amazing in this build (it even creates an extra crushing attack for the Beast!). I don't like Defensiveless at all, though, since it may prevent your priest from casting Mass Frenzy if the opponent is chasing him, and that may cost you a game. I also don't like Demon Charm Of The 7th Circle since Bad Luck is just plain bad, and the Beast rarely needs another attachment, even Unholy Wellspring. He already has two Blind Rages, three Crushers plus possible Mass Frenzy and Unholy Frenzy. I understand he isn't going to have all this every time, but chances of having 2-3 attachments is pretty high even without the Wellspring.

From the pure theoretic point of view, a party of two warriors + priest would be much better for the Lunginator warrior. The reason of this is simple: Lunginator excels at taking the victory area and guarding it. But this is hard to do single-handedly; the best tactics would probably be "divide and conquer". I mean trying to concentrate all your troops at the victory area if needed or to kill an enemy warrior with two chars, and so on. The key card for this is Violent Spin. It acts as a mass move, it allows you to push the enemies out of the victory area, including pushing two enemies at the different directions. Now let's see what we can build with it..

The Spinning Stabber
Level 18 Elf Warrior

Crazy Sal's Halberd
Crazy Sal's Halberd
Flashing Longspear
Xander's Mail
Snitrick's Shield
Captain Cedric's Helm
Pergop's Slippers (use Zachary's Boots if you don't have Slippers)
Cautious Mobility
Savvy Attacker

Polearm Slash * 6
Blind Rage * 7
Impaling Stab * 2
Puncturing Stab
Perforating Strike * 2
Reliable Mail *2
Officer's Harness * 4
Icy Block
Wounded Block * 2
Toughened Hide Strips
Violent Spin * 2
Elven Maneuvers * 2
Scouting Run
Impaler
Slicer
Team Walk

The idea is quite simple: the Stabber has four great moves: two Violent Spins, one Scouting Run and one Team Walk that can be fetched by Elven Maneuvers. Every time he is hit you get one of these wonderful moves. Use them to position your chars as needed, push the enemies where they need to be and scout their hands. This will generally provide you an easy victory versus wizards, since your warriors are going to have enough movement to reach them and more than enough damage to kill them. And the warriors aren't going to be a problem with your superior weapons and tech.
As long as almost all his attacks have range 2, the Stabber makes a wonderful combo with the Beast: bash your opponent from the victory area and then stab him to death from a safe distance. Or just Spin the enemy away and stab him. Special note for haters of mine: yes, this warrior has only 11 attacks, which is unusual. But he also has 11 traits, which is even more unusual and should compensate for the low number of attacks.

Alternatively, you could build a dwarven warrior with Ferocity and some Reap The Whirlwinds. Something like this:

The Nimble Spinning Death
Level 18 Dwarf Warrior

Reap The Whirlwind
Vibrant Pain
Porior's Nimble Mace
Xander's Mail
Hexagon Shield
Captain Cedric's Helm
Lewin's Boots
Ferocity
Savvy Attacker

Violent Spin * 4
Disorienting Block
Strong Hack * 3
Nimble Strike * 6
Lunging Bash * 3
Able Bludgeon * 3
Surging Shield Block
Pushback Parry * 2
Reliable Mail *2
Officer's Harness * 4
Dangerous Maneuver * 2
Blind Rage * 2
Impaler
Slicer
Team Walk

Nothing new here. A lot of mass moves (five total), plus two extra Dangerous Maneuvers to chase the wizards (IMHO, when you really need to kill a wizard, you can even ignore 3 damage). This warrior should be faster than the Beast to quickly gain flanking and kill the enemy character with both your warriors. That's why he needs Nimble Strikes. He can even bash an enemy back to the Beast... wanna play some football using enemy as a ball?

 

I figure I might as well post my (very similar) deck. I'm climbing a bit since the beast got fully fledged, am near 1600 right now.

Spoiler: My beastly setup

Beastinator
Level over 9000 Dwarf Warrior

The Lunginator
The Lunginator
The Lunginator
Xander's Mail
Hexagon Shield
Captain Cedric's Helm
Diamond Moccasins
Raging Battler
Focused Crushing
​

Buffinator
Level 666 Human Priest

Huetotl's Firebrand
Chalchu's Hammer
Savage Plates
Aegis Of The Defender
Sliding Boots
Skull Of Savage Iljin
Bleneth's Frenzy Charm
Demon Charm Of The 7th Circle
Trained Command
Untrained Piety
​

Controlling Burstinator
Level 0 Human Wizard

Staff Of A Million Embers
Blue Destruction
Ring Of Appropriation
Ring Of Appropriation
Asmod's Telekinetic Chain
Rod Of Palver Pree
Robe Of Lightness
Kelharin's Clogs
Trained Command
Electroporter Novice
​

 

I don't see why I shouldn't post my builds. I'm not one of those guys who think hidden-tech is superior to just playing better than your opponents.

1-1-1 is the build I've played the most and feel more confident about. It does suffer from lack of consistency at times, but I do like how flexible it is. It's all about compromises. In reality, the way I've built my team makes it so I have several ways I can deal with many of the nasty things my opponent could be throwing at me. A hand full of TKs is something I can very much work with, they key-word here being, again, flexibility. I can go more into the tactics behind my current setup, if that's interesting to anybody.

It's not like I haven't thought changing the party composition, but I prefer making the smallest possible changes to my current build rather than drifting it in a completely different direction.

As for the items: Diamond Moccasins are great with this style of build. I've been looking into a possible replacement, but I always end up discarding any possible alternative pair of boots. In my experience, Defensiveness is not a huge deal. The priest is pretty much built to be almost completely dedicated to buffing/support, so he very rarely gets up-close-and-personal with the enemy anyways. And yes, it can lose you games on very rare occasions, if you draw it at the worst possible time. But again, compromises. Interestingly that you brought it up at this exact time, as I've recently swapped out Untrained Piety for some other skill.

Bad Luck... just sucks. But you're wrong when you say The Beast doesn't need more attachments. I can 100% confirm you can't rely too much on Blind Rage/Crusher popping up exactly when you need them. With this setup, you only have 5 of those traits in your entire deck. Nope, Beast definitely wants as many buffs on him as humanly possible: The Lunginator offers great tech, but it definitely lacks the damage needed to keep up with other popular kinds of warriors (Crazy Sal/Infused Greatclub/Bejeweled/etc.) and glass-cannon-style wizards. Pushing guys around with Lunging Bashes is great and all but, at the end of the day, you need the damage to kill your opponent whenever you get the chance. (I do mean this in an entirely non-dismissive way, btw).

Savage Curse: it just works great with this build. Beast is loaded with Officer's Harnesses. The Wiz has a couple of his own too. Unholy Wellspring is overall much better than Savage. But the great thing is, you can have both Savage and Wellspring on the same guy, if you need to. A 12+ dmg Lunging Bash or a 12+ burst attack can do wonders, if you can pull it off at the right time. Combos like these make the entire build tick, and my current strategy is very much dependent on setting up for such combos in order to come out victorious of otherwise very one-sided instances. I'll state this one more time: where 1-1-1 lacks in consistency, it does shine in flexibility.

And yes, the wiz (or priest, for the matter) dying early on in the game does prove to be a very tough eventuality to recover from. I guess every build has his weak spots, so I've adapted my positioning game to account for that.

All of that being said, it's not like I've stopped experimenting with new stuff. As already mentioned, I've been trying out some small tweaks on my priest. Nothing extra fancy, just minor adjustments, as you can imagine. I'm also fancying the idea of swapping out one of The Lunginators for a different weapon in order to try and address an entirely different concern (more on this soon, hopefully), but that'll have to wait a tad more.

Sadly, I didn't have much time to write the reports these days. Work commitments + other stuff made it so I had to chose between playing a couple very quick games every now and then and only playing a single game that I'd then write a report for. As I'm in an experimenting phase, I opted for the former.

I might or might not post a super condensed summary of what's been going on with my build, if I can find enough time to put my thoughts together in a presentable fashion. But I'll at the very least post the up-to-date build as soon as I'm happy with the direction this is going.

 

I would like to know what cards you're experimenting with and why, along with a condensed version of how that is going. For instance: "Today I swapped out one of the Lunginators for a Crazy Sal's, to get some stabbing action going and more trait cycling. Won 5/8 games."

 

Okay this is what I've been trying out in the last 2-3 days. This mainly concerns the Priest. Beast and Wiz are unchanged.

I equipped Novice Ablution in place of Untrained Piety. This is not in order to get rid of Defensiveness, but rather because of how little Altruism was accomplishing. Not entirely sure if I'll stick with this, but I'll keep experimenting a bit before any final judgement.

I've also got rid of Bleneth's Medallion and opted for Bleneth's Skull, as I think the ability to cast MF more often and in a more consistent fashion is preferable to having a larger array of buffs in the deck. At some point, I tried going double Demon Charm of the 7th circle, but that didn't last long.

So yeah, experimenting a bit with my priest atm, I can see this easily going on for quite some time still.

 

Got to 1700 for the first time yesterday, woo!

Part of it included using the demon charm, it's not so bad, 2 fantastic cards and one bad one.

 

Yes.

 

Where did you get the gold token from? And what did you put where you got the gold token from?

 

I think I swapped out the Sliding Boots for Captain Cedric's Boots. Sparkling Cloth Armor is great, but all I really care is the Team Walk. The additional Flanking Move is nice to have too.

Spoiler: Up-to-date priest setup

Fredon
Level 18 Human Priest

Huetotl's Firebrand
Dark Drewg's Mace
Savage Plates
Aegis Of The Defender
Captain Cedric's Boots
Demon Charm Of The 7th Circle
Skull Of Savage Iljin
Bleneth's Skull
Trained Command
Novice Ablution
​

1 x Attack, Soldier!
1 x Purge
2 x Holy Presence
1 x Triple Heals
1 x Demonic Power
2 x Strong Bludgeon
1 x Thickened Mail
2 x Strong Hack
1 x Inspiring Presence
1 x Bad Luck
1 x Team Walk
2 x Fiery Stab
2 x Unholy Frenzy
6 x Mass Frenzy
1 x Sundering Strike
2 x Flanking Move
3 x Savage Curse
1 x Weak Chop
1 x Dash, Team!
2 x Defender's Block
1 x Unholy Wellspring
1 x Walk, Team!
​

 

The one change I would seriously consider is swapping out Huetotl's Firebrand for St. Olf's Fiery Pike and upgrading to a Perfect Command. The priest rarely wants to get in on the fighting so unless you specifically want the miser's copy of armor removal I doubt you would notice the slight downgrade in attacks.

 

100%

 

Just a quick update: I'm still somewhat short on time b/c of work, so don't expect detailed reports anytime soon. I do try and squeeze as many game as I can each day though.

Just managed to hit the 1700s, again, on the current map pool. The build I'm using is exactly the same from last time I posted it, no changes whatsoever.

It took me quite some time to get used to the new pool, and I don't think they favor the Lunginator Beast build in any meaningful way. The 2xStab-Stab/1xPriest builds which are very popular on these maps can prove to be quite painful (especially if of the really optimized kind) but they are doable. I've also seen volcano/blesscano and burrft being played quite a bit, and these can too be a bit of a hassle depending on deck/draws/luck, though you can wing it if played correctly.

In short: you gotta work your ass off. Will first talk about the maps and how the build behaves on them.

Arena Crescent: this is probably my fav map out of the bunch. The wizard is particularly important on this one (managed to get back from impossible games only thanks to keeping her alive). Most players don't expect you to TK their bloodlust warriors behind a wall, and even experienced players can move one of their chars in the wrong spot while in the midst of an intense game.

Forgotten Temple: the map allowing for the most aggression. In my experience, battles on this map tend to be determined by who gets the best draws in turn 1-2. An opponent drawing Sprint, Team! or Wild Run early is something you can do very little about on a map like this. As long as "normal" games go, the middle is obviously very dangerous, but the Beast can usually withstand facing two opponents via smart positioning and support from the other guys.

Summoning Race: very similar to Forgotten Temple, though the abundance of VSs allows for a variety of situations. Since both the Wizard and Priest are pretty fragile, you gotta keep hem as safe from enemy incursions as possible (i.e. save mobility/control cards for when things go awry). If the wiz manages to stay alive and gain a relatively safe position, she can usually deal substantial damage while the Beast engages with the enemy.

Maztec Melee: this map is fun. Its topology clearly gives the advantage to stabber teams, but you can work around it by not being too impatient. Nimble Strike and good ranged teams are way, way more of a concern on this one. Winning matches on this one usually involves heaps of patience and playing it out the smart way.

Vs assorted builds

3xWar teams: these maps offer very little room for escaping mobility-heavy aggro teams, so yeah. Hope they don't get terribly good draws early (Sprint Team, multiple Defenders and/or tons of Parries). If the wiz can be kept alive and the priest draws his buffs, just concentrate on taking one of them down as fast as possible. Tons of armor can also be a problem in this match-up, as my build has close to zero ways of dealing with it.

2xWar + Priest (often of the 2 maneuver-elf warriors, either Double Edged or Bejeweled variety). Be patient, stay out of stabs range if you sense the opponent drew tons of attacks. If the Beast is fully buffed, just wait for the right time to demolish one of the warriors at a time (players who go for this build are usually extremely aggressive and will often go too far w/o realizing they're putting themselves in a thight spot). This can get awful pretty quickly if lots of mobility is involved and/or the enemy priest draws buff/martyr blessing/nimbus, but control spells helps dealing with it.

burfft (and other ballistics-style wiz teams): spread your guys out, concentrate on getting the Beast on top of the enemy as quickly as possible. Basically kill them faster than they can. This match-up can go very badly if no mobility and no buffs are drawn early on, but it's not as bad as on other MP pools.

Assorted Volcano builds: save your moves, wait until you have tons of team moves and control spells, then rush your opponent. If you play this correctly, Volcano (and other terrain-heavy builds) usually aren't that big of a deal. Extremely well put-together builds of this kind, though, can be a nightmare and you'll need tons of luck with draws + perfect play to have a chance (yes, I'm looking at you @Pastor ).

Other builds:

• Cult of the Bejeweled, you don't see being played a lot on this pool. I do wonder why, as I don't see a specific reason why it shouldn't be as effective as ever. I do get stabs are trendy on these maps, but a Bejeweled-focused team should be able to make short work of those, given the difference in damage output and more or less equal mobility.
• Impenetrable Nimbus builds also don't see lots of play. These can usually be dealt with as usual.
• Vibrant Pain/Crazy Sals builds: interestingly, these aren't being played a whole lot either (probably because not a whole lot of people has multiple copies of the required items). I think this pool favors the style a lot, so be on the look-out for it and plan accordingly.

 

Given the size of the maps I think a there are a lot more dwarf warriors being played. Which makes elves harder to win with. I also see enough nimbus that I feel a priest with some purge is better then a 3rd warrior. Just my 2 cents. I look forward to hearing more beast exploits in the future!

 

You have a point, although I don't think dwarf warriors are all too common either, which is why I find it strange almost nobody plays CoB anymore. The vast majority of warrior builds I see this days involve elves, with humans/dwarves a long way behind. Given the current meta, I would have expected much more variety.

But maybe that's just me playing almost exclusively vs elf builds, not really sure.

As for nimbus, I don't even bother bringing purges anymore. I just take advantage of the lowered damge output of the enemy team, keep away from the nimbus-ed dudes and take down the other guys instead )

 

Love reading the in-depth analysis.

 

The Lunginator currently on sale @ the Daily Deal