Clerics and swarm-guarding

[TricksterHat]

I have so far thought the cleric to be pretty useless, but now I looked at it again rethinking my opinion.

The cleric can generate mana at the Temple of Asyra which is prette cool, but it is an early game move and the Priestess is often vulnerable in early game. It has a pretty useless heal of one die. It is pretty tough for a cheap creature, but has only a weak attack. So it can do different things, but non of them well.

Except in numbers...
Many clerics together might be strong force. With 5 clerics you have a minor heal per round. They can take turns at guarding and healing up and producing mana at the temple. With a Sacred Ground in their zone, they will be quite durable and almost impossible to one-shot. Later in the game, they become a portable minor heal or an alternative swarm.

It is a strategy that should be played early in combination with Temple of Asyra, once you have 4+ clerics (two turns) you can start doing other thing. Temple of Asyra+Harmonize+clerics will get you 14 mana a turn, which is pretty solid for building the counter-offensive.

It is not strategy that can be used against everything and using it in many situations will be fatal (aganist mana drain or AoE-heavie fast-moving Warlock), but I think I might finally have found a use for the cleric.

[sdougla2]

That's an expensive swarm with negligible offensive powers that's not particularly resilient.

I find the Temple of Asyra is way too slow.

[Shad0w]

In most matches I only even kill them if the are in the way.

[TricksterHat]

Let me clarify.

This is only relevant when playing with a Temple of Asyra opening and there sure are other ways to playing Priestess, especially if you want a quicker game.

That being said, it is a "guard-swarm", so its not meant for attack. Cleric vs. Bitterwood fox is an equal fight if you do the numbers. Having 5 clerics (25 mana) will give you 30 hitpoints of guards, two Knights of Westlock (26 mana) is only 20 hit points and are easier to focus fire (yes, they have armor and defense which is powerful, but both can be mitigated). If a knight dies you will lose tempo, if a cleric dies, it is not a big deal. One guard can be controlled, three guards is a bit more tricky. The clerics actually have the same number of attack dice as the two knights although it counts as less against armor. The trick is to keep the damage spread out, using other clerics to heal the damaged ones if able and generate mana when possible.

The whole point would be an alternative way to turtle-up untill you gain tempo. Once the clerics are out (around turn 3-4) you start summoning archers and angels (assuming you have your temples out). With 12-14 mana/turn you can summon one every turn and still have a bit to spare. Or you could cast Valshalla and watch her power up as the clerics die (because they eventually will). If your opponent instead focus on the new threat,  your clerics become a free minor heal/turn.

This is of course speculation, but looking at the cleric I can only see them being good in larger numbers.

[Fentum]

Hi TricksterHat,

I like your innovative thinking with the clerics, but surely that should be a 'congregation' of clerics rather than a swarm?

 

[piousflea]

Clerics have a better ratio of combined HP/Armor to mana cost than almost any other creature, and they can heal. Granted, their heal is weak, but adding together cleric heals and bimshalla heals can be a significant amount of heals per round.

That said, I would not rely on a "congregation" of clerics. Like any other cheap damage sponge (ie, Bobcat, Goblin, Imp), using a 5-mana Cleric on Guard as a substitute for "Block" only works when you have 1-2 of them. Once you get 3+ it becomes way too mana efficient to AoE them down.