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Author Topic: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.  (Read 10068 times)

silverclawgrizzly

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New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« on: January 04, 2014, 09:40:03 PM »
Hello all first I'm loving Mage Wars. Been playing just under a week with my roommates and friends. Currently I have access to the core set, Druids VS Necromancers and Forcemaster VS Warlord. We all decided to focus on different mages so I choose Beastmaster. This is my current spellbook and I'd love some constructive feedback. Note Battle for Kumanjaro is coming to the apartment soon.

Staff of Beasts
Ring of Beasts
Bearskin
Mage Wand
Lightning Ring
Elemental Cloak
Elemental Wand
Moonglow Amulet
2 Mana Flower
Lair
Tooth & Nail
3 Timber Wolves
2 Bitterwood Foxes
2 Thuderift Falcons
2 Feral Bobcats
Steelclaw Grizzly
Spitting Raptor
Fellella, Pixie Familiar
Redclaw, Alpha Male
Emerald Tengu
Tarok, the Skyhunter
Cervere, The Forest Shadow
Sosruko, Ferret Companion
2 Rhino Hides
2 Bear Strengths
2 Cobra Reflexes
Cheetah Speed
Bull Endurance
Hawkeye
Regrowth
3 Call of the Wild
Rouse the Beast
2 Agony
2 Fog Banks
2 Bloodspine Walls
Poisoned Blood
Group Heal
2 Minor Heals
Teleport
Dissolve
Dispel
3 Tanglevines
Lightning Bolt
Thunderbolt
Chain Lightning

Once I get some more cards an extra Ring of Beasts is getting put in for sure. Also Harmonize is being used by the roommates or else it'd be in here too.

Thoughts and suggestions? Like I said I'm brand new at this game. Right now I'm fighting a Priestess and Forcemaster a lot. The Necromancer is also being used.
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Aylin

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2014, 11:12:11 PM »
What sort of direction do you want to go in? Your current books looks like it's all over the place.

Have your opponents experimented with early rush yet? It looks like you're not too prepared for that with your present book, especially the focus on so much +channeling.

silverclawgrizzly

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2014, 05:19:09 AM »
Honestly I have been sort of trying to be prepared for everything which I admit isn't always the best plan. So far the Forcemaster has started trying to rush early and that was annoying but I managed to hold them off with the walls for a bit while I regrouped and brought out some bigger guns like my pet timber wolf and Redfang. I guess I could spam cheap defenders to act as speed bumps.

What would you recommend I add/remove to deal with the early rush? I admit most matches my opponents have built up for about 4-5 turns so far. Thanks for bringing that up Aylin.
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Kharhaz

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2014, 09:07:10 AM »
Staff of Beasts
Bearskin
Group Heal
2 Minor Heals


These are the 4 big ones I would recommend changing.

Regeneration is better than on demand healing.
For less spell book cost than group and 2 minor heals you can run a highland unicorn and that will go much farther for you. You can also pet it to increase it's overall performance.
With Fellella however you can run a healing charm (Kumanjaro) and then she can heal (which is currently the very best way to heal aside from regeneration and vamp)

Staff of Beasts is also a bit underwhelming. 90% of the time you would be better off using his battle skill with a mage staff than giving a beast melee +2 / healing.

Bearskin will be more realistic when frost effects are in the game. Right now I would say pay the extra spellbook points for either fire or lighting protection.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2014, 09:15:50 AM by Kharhaz »

webcatcher

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2014, 11:57:58 AM »
If you tell us what your in-game strategy is we'll be better able to give good advice. The book you posted is fine, but it's very generalized, so without knowing where you want to go with it it's hard to say anything really helpful.

silverclawgrizzly

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2014, 07:01:53 PM »
I honestly don't know which way to go with beastmaster if that makes any sense. I guess my best description is I want to bring out a ton of animals and keep buffing them. My current spell book is somewhat generalized so I'm not weak against any particular one thing that I've seen so far. The Lair and Fellela help with my current goal there. Is there anything else I can do to help me send out a wave of super beasts?
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Sailor Vulcan

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2014, 12:12:22 PM »
Try to think about how much mana you have available each round and how you're spending it. It takes a full action and 12 mana to summon Felella. After that she can only cast one enchantment each round, and your mage can only cast one enchantment each round. With your full action being used to summon a creature each round and your quick cast and Fellelas action being used to enchant the creatures you summon, your strategy is going to get predictable very fast and you will be too inflexible to respond to threats, and you certainly won't have enough mana to swarm.

My advice is that instead of powering up your swarm individually with enchantments, try using zone conjurations with arena wide effects. I'm actually currently working on a Beastmaster build that uses Rajan's Fury. Low level animal creatures, especially those at level 1 are what you need most for a beastmaster swarm. The beastmaster can summon a level 1 animal as a quickcast, which means he can summon up to two animals per round. Add in a lair and that makes three animals per round. Of course, it might be more effective to try summoning a bigger creature in the beginning to distract your opponent while you setup your swarm, rather than using a lair.

Another thing you could try is a few big strategy. Try summoning one or two more powerful creatures and buffing them with enchantments. Fellela can be useful here. If you plan to move your mage around a lot to help support a semi-toolbox few big strategy, you might like Animal Kinship, since that buffs your mage just from the types of animals you have out in the arena.
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Aylin

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2014, 02:12:36 PM »
If you want to summon lots of creatures then you could try the following cards as your buffs:
Rajan's Fury, Tooth and Nail (situational though especially after DvN), Marked for Death, Sacred Ground/Fortified Position + Shift Enchantment (zone-wide defensive buffs, Shift Enchantment lets you move them as the fighting moves), Call of the Wild (situational, but can be used to finish off a mage/other big creature).

silverclawgrizzly

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2014, 05:37:31 AM »
You know Sacred Ground is a really good idea actually Aylin. So is Fortified Position(and hey it's not like I'm using that Warlord stuff anyway.) That's a clever idea thanks!
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Alexander West

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2014, 06:03:40 PM »
I am also new to the game, and have been focusing on building Beastmaster books.  My current goal is to make a very aggressive rush, swarming over the opponent with many L1 creatures.

My basic plan is to cast Lair in FC if my opponent stays in the corner, or NC if they come out.  If there's time I will Ring of Beasts, but otherwise my Lair and I spam either Foxes or Falcolns (depending on opponent) until the math makes sense to mass pump them with Rajan's Fury or Tooth & Nail, or protect them with Etherian Lifetree or Fortified Position.  Everything else is a tactical tool to facilitate the funamental gameplan.  Mana management just barely works out, but is tight.

Mage Wars deck (built using OCTGN deckbuilder) 1/8/2014 12:00:00 AM

Spellbook points: 120 used of 120 allowed

1 Beastmaster

---  Attack  ---
1 Geyser

---  Conjuration  ---
1 Lair
3 Rajan's Fury
2 Tooth and Nail
2 Wall of Thorns
1 Mohktari, Great Tree of Life
1 Etherian Lifetree

---  Creature  ---
6 Bitterwood Fox
1 Redclaw, Alpha Male
6 Thunderift Falcon
4 Timber Wolf
2 Spitting Raptor
1 Emerald Tegu
1 Steelclaw Grizzly
1 Galador, Protector of Straywood

---  Enchantment  ---
1 Falcon Precision
2 Fortified Position
1 Divine Might
1 Agony
1 Bull Endurance
1 Cheetah Speed
1 Eagle Wings
1 Maim Wings
1 Mongoose Agility
1 Bear Strength
1 Marked for Death

---  Equipment  ---
1 Ring of Beasts
1 Eagleclaw Boots
1 Gauntlets of Strength
1 Mage Staff
1 Regrowth Belt
1 Dragonscale Hauberk

---  Incantation  ---
2 Sleep
1 Minor Heal
1 Group Heal
2 Call of the Wild
2 Dispel
2 Dissolve
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silverclawgrizzly

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2014, 05:55:23 AM »
Alexander your creatures certainly look good but why the multiple copies of the Totems?
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jacksmack

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2014, 06:34:18 AM »
Alexander your creatures certainly look good but why the multiple copies of the Totems?

because they stack?

silverclawgrizzly

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2014, 01:17:25 PM »
Do they really? Learn something new. Been playing this game for a little over a week btw.
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Kharhaz

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2014, 12:07:32 PM »
Do they really? Learn something new. Been playing this game for a little over a week btw.

One thing to note about the stacking totems.

Animal kinships stack for multiple copies of kinship

So 1 fox gives melee +2 if you have 2 Animal kinships

You can however only get the bonus once from Animal kinship:

So 2 foxes only give +1 melee if you have 1 Animal kinship

Aylin

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Re: New Beastmaster player. Here's my first spell book.
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2014, 12:21:22 PM »
Anything that is Trait +X stacks.
Anything that is Trait X does not; just use the highest value.