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Messages - Aylin

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1
Player Feedback and Suggestions / Re: Johktari Weapon
« on: July 26, 2014, 12:20:04 PM »
What about this? "Frog Venom Darts" 6 Mana, one handed (only weapon slot) Quick Attack, poison, 1 dice range 0-2 Effect die, If 5+ the target is considered to be hindered. Critical Damage (it bypasses all armor) This weapon cannot roll more than one damage die per attack, regardless of other effects.

Or reduce range to 0-1 and daze on 9+

You could also pair it with an off-hand dagger like "Flint dagger" 7 cost one handed, any hand, quick melee 3 dice plus  7+ bleed

So...you want to make a weapon for the JBM, then make it incompatible with one of her signature abilities?

Plus it's poison on top of that, which is just horrible...

2
Spells / Re: Don't you think force bash is underrated
« on: July 20, 2014, 12:42:28 AM »
Force Bash is very situational, but in those situations it's extremely powerful. I'd put 1 in a Forcemaster book, but I don't think it would be worth a slot in another mage's book.

3
Strategy and Tactics / Re: My thought on Seedling Pods
« on: June 16, 2014, 02:12:07 AM »
Well to each his own. I can see why people don't like Samara Tree. You guys have surely made a lot of great points. This is why I love this forum. But as far as seedling pods go I think they are a solid choice in any druid spellbook regardless of what tree you are using. After some consideration I think I will play Druid with vine tree but with some seedling pods anyways (at least 2, no more than 4).

I doubt you would need 4. 2 seems like plenty.

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(Also I have never actually used seedling pods to cast mana flowers. Definitely not. I realize that would be a terrible play. I was just listing things that you could cast.)

o_O

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Now is Tataree completely useless when it comes to vine tree builds? Because to be honest his only benefit seems to be pumping up seedling pods.

Not completely useless, but definitely not as good as a Harmonize (easy death to zone attack/Idol of Pestilence), but you could use both I suppose.

I had Tataree in my book for a while, but quickly dropped it as it died before making the mana back.

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And one last thing: if we get future druid cards that only have the plant subtype and not the vine subtype would you then consider using the samara tree? Togorah doesn't have the vine subtype but he is so expensive that I'm not sure if it matters. I mean you could give a seedling pod channeling and boost it with tataree until it could cast Togorah? Just a thought.

If we get some good non-Vine plants I might consider it, though these hypothetical spells would have to be really good to make me even think of giving up Vine Tree's ability to quickly assault the enemy mage. (Using both wouldn't give me that either, since I'd be forced to use Meditation Amulet to get my mana back and I'd lose tempo anyway then).

4
Strategy and Tactics / Re: My thought on Seedling Pods
« on: June 16, 2014, 12:53:47 AM »
Mr. Saucy (and everyone else advocating for Samara Tree builds), just what advantage do you think Samara Tree has over Vine Tree?  I'm honestly curious, since the only reason I would use a Samara is if I wanted to shoot myself in the foot.

1) If you don't use a vine marker during a round it is doing nothing (other than allowing you to reach further with your spreading vines ability). But if you don't use a seedling pod during a round it continues to channel and becomes more powerful as the game goes on. I can give an example. There was a game where I had a seedling pod in a zone but later the action moved away from that zone. I thought the seedling pod was useless. But then that pod reached 6 mana and I realized I could spend just 1 mana from my supply to deploy Etherian Lifetree (I was playing against a Necromancer so this ended up being a good idea).

Vine markers do more than give you more reach with Spreading Vines if you don't use them in a turn.

They hinder enemy creatures (even if they are Elusive), and most importantly, give you tactical options (if your opponent thinks you might use them that turn, they're very useful as bluffs). The tactical options they give you should not be understated.

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2) Seedling pods work well if you want to go heavier on conjurations than normal, especially cheap conjurations like bloodspine wall, tanglevine, mana flower, etc. If you aren't big on conjurations and want to focus on creatures, which a lot of players understandably choose, then stick with vine tree.

The list of conjurations that are plants but not also vines are as follows:

Mana Flower
Mohktari
Etherian Lifetree
Samara Tree
Vine Tree
Wall of Thorns

I will grant that being unable to cast Wall of Thorns with a Vine Tree does suck a little bit, but the strategy of WoT + Force Push/Jet Stream has so many well-known and easy counters to it that the lack of this card doesn't really negatively affect the Druid. I don't even put WoT in most of my books anymore since I never have the opportunity to cast it.

4 of them are trees (one being irrelevant to this conversation), but I don't see how casting any of these off of a Seedling Pod would be good in most circumstances, since you'd have to either devote a Seedling Pod to it entirely or cast it after the Seedling Pod is no longer valuable for tactical purposes.

Casting a Mana Flower from a Seedling Pod is a terrible, terrible thing to do. Whenever you do this you are essentially throwing away 3 mana for no good reason.

Mana Flower from Mage:
1: -5 (cost of Mana Flower)
2: -4
3: -3
4: -2
5: -1
6: 0 (Mana Flower breaks even)
7: 1 (Mana Flower makes a profit)

1: -3 mana (cost of Seedling Pod)
2: -3 (pod = 1)
3: -3 (pod = 2)
4: -3 (pod = 3) -> pod destroyed to cast Mana Flower -> -5 (cost of Flower -3 on Pod)
5: -4
6: -3
7: -2
8: -1
9: 0 (Mana Flower breaks even)
10: 1 (Mana Flower makes a profit)

Even if you consider the 1 mana from Samara Tree to be "free" (and you really shouldn't), you're still losing 2 mana on this.

For the other conjurations (the ones both plant AND vine), Vine Tree is the better option as you'll have more options on where to cast them on any given turn.

The only argument you could make would be for a Tree-heavy build that extensively utilizes Wall of Thorns...but I really don't see it.

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3) Seedling pods can lead to "big" turns. For example, say a pod deploys a bloodspine wall (0-1 mana from your supply) while an adjacent pod spawns a thornlasher (0-4 mana from your supply) and then you use your QC to cast rouse the beast on the thornlasher. And after all of this action you still have your main action marker to perhaps meditate with meditation amulet, move into a better zone, summon a creature, stuff like that. Vine Tree doesn't offer "big" turns. Instead it offers consistency and speed.

4) As the earlier example demonstrates, seedling pods are excellent at saving actions. And there is plenty of evidence that actions are just as important a resource as mana.

These two are essentially the same point.

While what you said is true, it's not limited to Samara Tree builds. Vine Tree builds could easily have one or two Seedling Pods if the player wanted to bank an action for later.

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5) Seedling pods maximize your aggregate channeling (your tree channels, your pods channel, and you channel).

While the amount you channel on a given turn is higher, your expenses are as well. It only gives you a profit over Vine Tree if you wait longer than 3 turns to pop a pod. And then it looks a tempting target to your opponent, especially if there wasn't much else the creature could do (for example, a hindered creature moving one zone toward your mage/tree and attacking the pod in the new zone). That hurts a lot more than losing a Vine Marker in the same situation.

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6) This is the weakest argument but I think samara treed and seedling pods are "more fun" than vine tree, especially if you don't have to win to enjoy the game. Samara Tree and the pods really embrace the druid's themes, and if you are anything like me you enjoy playing thematically... maybe even when you realize it may not necessarily be optimal.

On the contrary, I think this is the best argument for using Samara Tree.

If you think it's fun, go for it. What I object to is saying that a Samara build is on par with or better than a Vine build when it gives you so many huge drawbacks for so few minor benefits.

5
Strategy and Tactics / Re: My thought on Seedling Pods
« on: June 14, 2014, 12:46:11 PM »
Mr. Saucy (and everyone else advocating for Samara Tree builds), just what advantage do you think Samara Tree has over Vine Tree?  I'm honestly curious, since the only reason I would use a Samara is if I wanted to shoot myself in the foot.

6
Spells / Re: Akiro's Favor effect die synergy
« on: June 08, 2014, 02:59:34 PM »
Using Akiro's Favor on the effect die is the better option, particularly because most people don't remember the averages of X d6s. Also since most rolls for several d6s are going to be near the overall average, it generally won't give much a benefit. I made a post about this a while back.

Even when this happens? :) (Flameblast vs. Barracks)



Perhaps I should have said generally. :P

7
Spells / Re: Akiro's Favor effect die synergy
« on: June 08, 2014, 12:35:23 AM »
Using Akiro's Favor on the effect die is the better option, particularly because most people don't remember the averages of X d6s. Also since most rolls for several d6s are going to be near the overall average, it generally won't give much a benefit. I made a post about this a while back.

Using it on the effect die gives you more noticeable benefits, and it's easy to tell if you should reroll or not.

Off the top of my head
Acid Ball to guarantee you get the 2 Corrode.
Surging Wave to get the Push as well as Slam.
Devils Trident for two shots at the sweet spot.

Not quite; rerolling doesn't guarantee success. The second roll has the same probability of failing or succeeding as the first one did.

8
Spells / Re: Cast Decoy with Familiar
« on: June 07, 2014, 07:33:43 AM »
I'll cast a bearstrength on my opponent to fish for a seeking dispel or a nullify. Yes, i know of the problems associated with casting duplicates on an object.

Except if you don't trigger a Nullify with that, you've "wasted" your action and the spell.

If you use a Decoy instead you can always reveal it for 2 mana later.

9
Strategy and Tactics / Re: Spells you never leave home without?
« on: June 06, 2014, 07:09:18 PM »
Battleforge seems to make it into nearly every book I make.

Still not in my Druid book though; no room.

10
Mages / Re: Priestess VS Priest.
« on: June 05, 2014, 12:16:52 AM »
I think of the priest as having 10 channelling but always have a 1 mana downpayment on his burn ability. The turns he can burn he is getting a burn marker at cost(2 removal cost), and the turns he can't he loses a mana.

Not the best way of thinking about it, since you can't use Malakai's Fire every turn (or ever against the new Warlock).

11
General Discussion / Re: Card spoilers so far.
« on: June 04, 2014, 11:12:35 PM »
Akiros Favor is obviously amazing. Nothing bites more than having your Pet Steelclaw Grizzly whiff after all, or firing off a Fireball and it doing nothing.

Slightly off topic, but in one game I flipped over a Force Field in response to a Fireball... Damn that felt good! :D

12
General Discussion / Re: Where is everyone?
« on: June 04, 2014, 11:10:12 PM »
I haven't posted much since I haven't been able to play a decent game in quite some time. I remember a couple months ago others mentioning that too.

13
Spells / Re: Togorath , a big fake?
« on: June 04, 2014, 11:07:37 PM »
Yeah, you cant Treebond with him. But he is still an amazing defender et he will see more plays in druid build to protect the Vine Tree with all the fire stuff coming in FiF

I think Guardian Angel would be a better choice. No Flame +2, 9 mana less to summon, same spellpoint cost for a Druid, Guardian Angel has a defense which Togorah lacks, and Guardian Angel will benefit more from Raincloud (netting Flame -2, heal 2 damage when guarding, and Regenerate 1 as opposed to Regenerate 2).

Also the Angel will get more benefit out of the Nature defensive enchantments, Rhino Hide and Regrowth, than Togorah will.

14
General Discussion / Re: Card spoilers so far.
« on: June 03, 2014, 08:09:31 AM »
Wildhorn,

If you exclude the Novice War incantations, then the War school currently has:

Level 1: Battle Fury, Charge, Evade, Sniper Shot
Level 2: Whirling Strike
Level 4: Akiro's Battle Cry

Except no one uses Akiro's Battle Cry and Whirling Strike is inferior to Battle Fury in almost all circumstances.

For comparison, the other schools:

Holy:
Level 1: Minor Heal, Purify, Renewing Rain (also 1 Water)
Level 2: Group Heal, Heal
Level 3: Lay Hands
Level 4: Ressurection

Dark:
Level 1: Reassemble, Vampiric Strike
Level 2: Unholy Resurgence, Zombie Frenzy
Level 3: Animate Dead, Drain Life
Level 4: Drain Soul

Nature:
Level 1: Burst of Thorns, Call of the Wild, Rouse the Beast

Mind:
Level 1: Force Push, Force Wave, Knockdown, Repulse
Level 2: Force Bash, Sleep
Level 3: Steal Equipment
Level 4: Mass Sleep

Arcane:
Level 1: Dispel, Seeking Dispel
Level 2: Teleport
Level 3: Banish, Drain Power, Purge Magic, Steal Enchantment
Level 4: Destroy Magic


Every school, with the exception of Nature (whose power lies mostly in enchantments), has more incantations than the War school. And generally, the incantations most commonly used in other schools aren't level 1 (Teleport, Sleep, Heal, etc).

That is why people say the War school is weak when it comes to enchantments. It really doesn't help that the War school is starved for enchantments as well.

15
Spells / Re: Bloodwave Greatbow
« on: June 02, 2014, 10:20:54 PM »
Not going to get into the "+1 Attack or +1 Piercing" debate

There is no debate; Melee/Ranged +X > Piercing +X in all circumstances.

In general 2 dice ~= 3 pierce, but only if the target has enough armour for all of the piercing to matter.

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