Arcane Wonders Forum
Mage Wars => General Discussion => Topic started by: Laddinfance on September 04, 2013, 12:45:15 PM
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http://magewars.com/jsite/newsblog/item/175-druid-vs-necromancer-preview-zombie-minion
Enjoy!
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Can't wait to get my hands on this set!
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Wow that resilient trait is going to make things tough. Even the an Angels +2 vs non-Living will not make much more of a dent.
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RELEEEEEEEAAAASE!!!!!!!!
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Awesome nice stuff! Getting me more excited.
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Resilient is effectively infinite armor... piercing doesn't even help. Though Akiro's Favor could.
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Contrary to the spoiler, there is indeed a trait that gets around Resilient: Critical. Are there any non-psychic attacks with the critical trait? Psylock has critical, but the zombie is psychic immune. I'm sure I'm forgetting one. It's a rare ability, to be sure. I wonder if we'll get a war command incantation "head shot" that gives critical.
14 effective health is pretty good for 7 mana. Interesting that there's no point in giving it armor, not that there's a lot of ways you could.
Killing it with fire looks likely to take 3 rounds, maybe. A burn token is good for about 3 damage (less if you're in a hurry) and they need time to work. That's enough to let it attack at least twice, so it'll probably be able to trigger its own Bloodthirsty, which is pretty good damage from a 7 mana creature, too. Focusing attacks on it reduces the time to kill it, but does let it act as a tar pit. It's got pest, so it's not a good defender otherwise, so it may be hard in practice to get your opponent to try to kill it.
Sadly for the Warlock, ghoul Rot only works on living creature's. Interesting
I think Zombie Minion competitive value is going to depend a lot on the quality of the Necromancer's spawnpoints. Spending a full action to summon this guy seems like the biggest cost to playing the card. Lumbering means that positioning the Spawnpoint well will be critical, and it's going to be hard to defend with the Zombies, again, because they're pests.
Still, non-living and psychic immune dodges a lot of control effects. Whirling Spirit is pretty okay here, but Gorgon Archer or Basilisk isn't that helpful. A lot to think about here.
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Contrary to the spoiler, there is indeed a trait that gets around Resilient: Critical. Are there any non-psychic attacks with the critical trait? Psylock has critical, but the zombie is psychic immune. I'm sure I'm forgetting one. It's a rare ability, to be sure. I wonder if we'll get a war command incantation "head shot" that gives critical.
Still, non-living and psychic immune dodges a lot of control effects. Whirling Spirit is pretty okay here, but Gorgon Archer or Basilisk isn't that helpful. A lot to think about here.
Demonhide Armor's damage barrier is Critical damage, but its limited to Dark Mages.
Corrode is a solid tool against resilient, as the ability "replaces" armor giving it a 0 rating..so its almost always going to have the direct damage applied. Burns work on them, and Chains of Agony will deal direct damage while they move. Force Crush deals direct damage past resilient too. Another consideration is Light Damage, while the +2 doesnt guarentee more crits it does add +2 to attempts to daze/stun him which makes Pillar of Light and Blinding Flashes very reliable.. and makes the Daze+Burn melee attacks from the Priest with Staff of Asyra great for zombie-busting.
Cripple doesnt work on them, but Stuck does.
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Contrary to the spoiler, there is indeed a trait that gets around Resilient: Critical. Are there any non-psychic attacks with the critical trait? Psylock has critical, but the zombie is psychic immune. I'm sure I'm forgetting one. It's a rare ability, to be sure. I wonder if we'll get a war command incantation "head shot" that gives critical.
14 effective health is pretty good for 7 mana. Interesting that there's no point in giving it armor, not that there's a lot of ways you could.
Killing it with fire looks likely to take 3 rounds, maybe. A burn token is good for about 3 damage (less if you're in a hurry) and they need time to work. That's enough to let it attack at least twice, so it'll probably be able to trigger its own Bloodthirsty, which is pretty good damage from a 7 mana creature, too. Focusing attacks on it reduces the time to kill it, but does let it act as a tar pit. It's got pest, so it's not a good defender otherwise, so it may be hard in practice to get your opponent to try to kill it.
Sadly for the Warlock, ghoul Rot only works on living creature's. Interesting
I think Zombie Minion competitive value is going to depend a lot on the quality of the Necromancer's spawnpoints. Spending a full action to summon this guy seems like the biggest cost to playing the card. Lumbering means that positioning the Spawnpoint well will be critical, and it's going to be hard to defend with the Zombies, again, because they're pests.
Still, non-living and psychic immune dodges a lot of control effects. Whirling Spirit is pretty okay here, but Gorgon Archer or Basilisk isn't that helpful. A lot to think about here.
Creatures with Critical strikes are Psylock, Screech Harpy, and (Promo) Oscuda. Only the Demonhide Armors damage barrier does Critical Damage. So, there are very few things out there that cause this kind of damage. The irony to all of this, is that most Direct Damage spells are from the Dark School. One point that hasn't been touched on, is that since it is a level 2 creature, only four are in allowed in the book.
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True you can only include four of him, but there are more Zombies than just him. There is quite a depth of creature options in this set.
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Show us some nature spells please
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sIKE makes a good point about direct damage spells: Drain Life may be the most tactically efficient way to kill Zombie Minion (though I'm not sure it really makes strategic sense to do it that way).
Zombie Minion, or perhaps a stronger zombie, might make a good answer to Wizard's Tower: it seems wasteful to spend lots of mana smacking Zombies when they're so cheep and damage resistant. A shame they rely on Bloodthirsty to get their damage up.
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sIKE makes a good point about direct damage spells: Drain Life may be the most tactically efficient way to kill Zombie Minion (though I'm not sure it really makes strategic sense to do it that way).
Zombie Minion, or perhaps a stronger zombie, might make a good answer to Wizard's Tower: it seems wasteful to spend lots of mana smacking Zombies when they're so cheep and damage resistant. A shame they rely on Bloodthirsty to get their damage up.
You can't target the Zombie with Drain Life because it is unliving. It is also going to be immune to lots of the direct damage effects such as Oscuda, Plagued (the new promo from Gencon), Malacoda, Idol of Pestilence, etc.
As the article on the Zombie states, Burn and Corrode will be the best way to deal with them.
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What about tainted? Can you toss tainted conditions on them for the -3 life?
Like from the spider or from Drain Soul. I know Drain Life wouldn't work, but would Drain Soul?
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What about tainted? Can you toss tainted conditions on them for the -3 life?
Like from the spider or from Drain Soul. I know Drain Life wouldn't work, but would Drain Soul?
No, Drain Soul only targets living creatures too. They are also immune to Tainted because it is a Poison condition and Nonliving creatures are unaffected by Poison effects.
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Oh, right, thank you, yes. I meant to check that.