I don't have DvN yet, but I think in Warlock books I'd stick with Elemental Cloak...just because I'm going to be too close most of the time for Obscured to do anything (and Light damage is pretty weak at the moment regardless).

For a Necromancer it would depend on if my strategy involved closing with the enemy or staying back more like a Wizard. I'm not sure which strategy is more effective though.

Warlord isn't my favorite, but I actually like him quite a bit. He has very powerful creatures like Dwarf Kriegsbiel, Iron Golem, Sir Corazin, and Thorg. (The use of Earth Elemental is debatable. I always include him for the "wow factor".) Contrary to what most people seem to use, I ditch Horn of Gothos nowadays and stick to the Warlords sweeping hammer. Sweeping really saves your a** in swarm matchups. Helm of Command + Battle Fury can be devastating, and I like Fortified Position quite a bit.

But that triple arcane cost. 6 mana to include 1 Teleport? I shudder...

The Warlord was packaged as a swarm mage when he is anything but a swarm mage. I think a lot of people were instantly disappointed by the Warlord because of this. Hopefully people realize now that the Warlord's started spellbook was atrocious and that the best way to use the Warlord is NOT with a swarm strategy.

I also think that the hammer is better than the horn. However, I know that the Hammer also compares unfavourably to almost all other weapons, just by virtue of it being two-handed. Almost no one will use it after the one-handed War weapons are released.

First, to everyone but the OP:

The OP mentioned skeletons. While mentioning zombies is important too (the book should be able to handle both zombies and skeletons), ignoring the skeletons in all of your responses just implies that you aren't actually reading what the OP is having a problem with. Really people, we can do better.


To the OP:

It sounds as if I need to revise my Wizard to Fire-trained, and include more higher-damage and/or flying creatures. Or go with the Warlock with big fire creature(s) as mentioned in another thread.

I also wonder if Psylocks won't come in handy now also... flying with the Critical Damage trait (and others). Maybe I can also consider a Forcemaster now... or just add a couple Psylocks to another Mage's book.

Thanks for the quick feedback.

Psylocks aren't very good at all. Their attack is Psychic, and I believe that most undead are Psychic Immune. Plus their attack is a full action with only 0-0... Yeah, useless for everyone unfortunately.

For your Beastmaster build, I almost think you have too many creatures. Casting them as fast as you could (using your quick cast ability) it would still take you 11 turns to get them all out. That seems a bit unreasonable to me, and I think you should remove some of the ones you don't use much. The Spitting Raptors are excellent (being good against possible zombies, plus increasing damage from all of your other animals), but you should include Galador, Protector of Straywood (the 0-1 stun attack is what makes him awesome). I'd also be included to suggest including a Steelclaw Grizzly; the high dice attack will work well against either type of undead (not to mention the piercing it has will cut through any armour they're likely to have).

As for things to remove, I'd start with the Direwolves. I don't have a copy of DvN yet, but I think they're immune to Bleed and don't trigger Bloodthirsty. Add to that the all-too-popular Iron Golem builds and I think they're just too weak when compared to the Timber Wolf. Honestly I'd also remove Kralathor as well. The only time it would be worth summoning over Galador or the bear would be against undead...but knowing that your opponent would have prepared Fire spells to burn it to a crisp. Going a bit further I'd probably also take out at least 2 of the Thunderrift Falcons, since with Redclaw you're more likely to want to use the foxes. If you find that you're not often using a creature, take it out. Having too many is just space that could be used to handle certain deadly situations.

Stranglevine is in DvN. It's Tanglevine, except it grows a bit and damage to the restrained creature. Maybe remove 1 Tanglevine and 1 Wall of Vines for it?

I'm not a big fan of Mokhtari personally, just because it can't move around the board as needed. I'd prefer a Unicorn. Only Regenerate 1, but it can move around and it is an animal, getting the bonuses you could provide for it. Though do you really need either? Just using the Regrowth Enchantment for certain creatures would probably be preferable.

Do you use the +2 melee or 2-die heal on your staff of beasts? If you don't switch it out for a Mage Wand - same price to include in your book but you also get Ethereal and Reach on your attacks. Plus you save 2 mana casting it.

Mostly I'm surprised by how few Dissolves and Dispels you have. 1 of either is not enough, even with a Dispel Wand. 2, preferably 3 or 4, of each is a minimum, regardless of mage.

Bull Endurance isn't that great; the main use for it is to give familiars the ability to take more than 1 Unavoidable attack. You don't use any it looks like in this book, so I'd remove them. Increasing Armour and Regeneration is better.

Add another Teleport too. You can Bear Strength the Grizzly (which is also your pet), and QC Teleport it right to your Opponent's zone...only to immediately activate the Grizzly and hit your opponent with a surprise 11 die attack.



I'm too tired to look through your Wizard book right now, but I will say this: Remove 1 Gorgon and replace it with a hydra. The Gorgon isn't that great against Undead or golems, but the Hydra can make short work of skeletons and isn't too shabby against zombies either.

The Warlock can use Curseweaving with Rise Again, letting that mage reuse the spell multiple times. He's also a bit better set up than the Necromancer to use Sectarus to attack an enemy, so there is that.

On the other hand, the Necromancer has higher channeling, so that mage can more easily afford to pay the reanimation cost.

Overall I think the Warlock can get more use out of it, but it isn't as if the Necromancer is bad with it.

When Critical Strike comes into play, I think killing an Iron Golem will be much more reasonable. At the moment it just isn't worth it (Acid Ball isn't worth casting on it unless you have +3 pierce already).

A level 2 Water attack spell that's Acid type might also work, if/when they ever release one.

I'm going to limit my response because I think we're getting off the topic of "love for the Warlord" and onto a topic of "gender stereotypes." I will say, that I doubt they specify the new Warlord's gender. That's not a statistic tracked anywhere on the cards. Just play it however you prefer.

We are a bit off-topic true. So I'll also limit: I know it isn't on the cards (aside from Priestess/Priest), but it is in the new rulebooks for each expansion.

I really hope Forged in Flame has new War school stuff in it. A Warlord that's actually worth playing would be awesome.

My only issue with it (from the limited information available so far) is the artwork for the Dwarf Warlord. I believe their plan was to have male and female versions of all of the mages, yet both Warlords look to be male. Dislike of gender stereotyping.

Quote

Forcemaster
47 spells, 120 spell points

1 Battle Forge
2 Battle Fury
2 Bear Strength
1 Brogan Bloodstone
1 Charm
1 Cheetah Speed
1 Colossus Belt
2 Dispel
2 Dissolve
1 Eagleclaw Boots
1 Elemental Cloak
1 Falcon Precision
1 Force Crush
1 Forcefield
2 Force Hold
3 Force Push
1 Force Ring
1 Galvitar, Force Blade
1 Gauntlets of Strength
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla
2 Mage Wand
1 Mind Control
1 Mordok's Obelisk
2 Piercing Strike
1 Psi-Orb
2 Regrowth
3 Sleep
1 Suppression Orb
2 Surging Wave
2 Teleport
2 Thoughtspore
1 Vampirism

I tend not to like the Mind Control + Mordok's Obelisk combination very much. It's 1/12 of your total spellbook and isn't effective against too many things (notably golem pit or undead via the Necromancer).

I'd suggest a 3rd Dispel and a Steal Equipment. I also don't see any Decoys or Seeking Dispels in there, so I'd put in a Decoy at least. I'm also not seeing any Nullifies... I like at least 2 per book.