FIF: Creative Corner

[Zuberi]

My apologies, echephron. Reading over the new Warlord's rune ability again, it is indeed worded very similar to Armor Ward, suggesting an extra cost paid during the Resolve Spell Step instead of simply increasing the initial cost paid during the Cast Spell Step as I had originally interpreted it. Good catch.

[Zuberi]

I am fully excited but somewhat sad at the same time. Old Green Warlord compared to New Dwarf should be renamed from Warlord to "playground skirmish lord"

Veteran ability Vs. Runesmithing
used occasionally XXX used EVERY game

Battle Orders ORC Vs. Battle Orders Dwarf
+1 ranged dice XXX +2 piercing
Charge XXX Fast
Armor +1 and Attack +1 XXX Armor+1 and Though -2

And his Battle Hardened ability is awesome too. When Mage doing Melee attack, he is not casting spell.

I hope that upcoming War and Earth cards will boost Orc in a same way it will boost dwarf

I hope that Dwarf would be not considered OP and be hated same way Orc is ignored.

I don't see that the two Warlords are all that different, honestly. A lot of people would value Melee +1 over Tough -2, actually. More aggressive people. I think the two traits are very comparable. In that same line of thought, I would consider the Battle Orders for the two to be equal as well. The main place where they differ, to me, is Veterans vs Runesmithing. As you stated, the Veterans ability is situational, depending greatly on what your opponent does, and is not seen in every game. Meanwhile, Runesmithing will always be of aid to you. That makes the new Warlord superior to the old one in my opinion, but not to any great extent.

The old Warlord looks to be better at dealing damage (both by himself and with his creatures), while the new one is better at defending himself, defending his creatures, and positioning his creatures. Both should be desirable depending on play style of the player in question.

To me, the great thing about the new Warlord isn't so much in how powerful his abilities are, which I stated don't seem much better than the old one's, but rather how thematic his abilities are. He really feels like a dwarf to me. Crafting awesome equipment and shrugging off magical effects are very dwarvish traits in my mind.

[ringkichard]

Remember that Runes are only useful if you want to run enough equipment to use them. Bloodwave can ignore some equipment to make room for other stuff in the spellbook.

[Zuberi]

All you need is one piece of equipment for the Runes to be useful. You don't have to use all of them. Just one makes them useful. How many games do you play where you don't cast any equipment at all? Granted, your point is still valid in that this is something that you have to want to do and plan for, but it is also something that you CAN plan for. It is completely in your control, and most mages would want to run some equipment (at least some armor).

Meanwhile Vet requires your opponent to summon creatures for you to want to take the time to kill. If he only summons one or two big then it may be better to just use crowd control or otherwise ignore them instead of killing them to gain the Vet ability. If he doesn't summon anything (not common but it does happen) then you CAN'T use Vet at all. Thus, the ability is situational and really out of your control.

But otherwise, I'm one of the people who would actually prefer the Orc's abilities. Extra attack dice to fuel my aggression sounds better than the defensive traits to me. This makes his Battle Skill and Battle Orders both more attractive to me than the Dwarf's. I would play either of them as long as the card pool supports them enough to make them viable.

[sIKE]

A lot of people would value Melee +1 over Tough -2,

The main difference I have found (and really come to appreciate) is that the Melee trait can only be used once per round (maybe twice with a counterstrike), however that Tough trait is applied to every attack. Now every game is not going to rely heavily on effects but for those that do, this trait really bends the curve a bit. More to say later.....

[Lord0fWinter]

A lot of people would value Melee +1 over Tough -2,

The main difference I have found (and really come to appreciate) is that the Melee trait can only be used once per round (maybe twice with a counterstrike), however that Tough trait is applied to every attack. Now every game is not going to rely heavily on effects but for those that do, this trait really bend the curve a bit. More to say later.....

This. Tough - 2 can be a lifesaver in many situations.

[Zuberi]

That is a good point. The Tough -2 is useful against every attack that comes your way while Melee +1 is only useful once per round usually (occasionally twice with Counterstrikes). However, you should also consider the percentages involved. Tough -2 only has a 17% chance of affecting the effect outcome, while Melee +1 has a 67% chance of adding an extra 1.5 damage. This means the Melee +1 will be relevant 4x as often as the Tough -2. Now, it is true that the effect die would have a bigger impact on the game, but the fact that the die has to be rolled 4x as often before the outcome is affected does quite a bit to balance it with the impact that the extra damage from Melee +1 has on the game. We're now talking about comparing avoiding one application of Burn, or Rot, or perhaps most damaging of all a Stun, with an extra 6 damage dealt from the Melee +1 trait. These two things are fairly comparable in my opinion. I probably would rather avoid the Stun than get the extra 6 damage, but I'd rather the extra damage than avoid any other Condition I can think of. Especially if I have ways to remove the condition (such as the awesome Healing Wand).

[Wildhorn]

I would take the 6 damage instead of the stun prevention. Since the stun most likely will just prevent an attack of 4-6 damage

[Zuberi]

(Not to mention Wand of Healing works on Stun also. Just use your Quick Cast and then take your action as normal. But I think they are close enough in impact on the game that it becomes a personal preference.)

[sIKE]

That is a good point. The Tough -2 is useful against every attack that comes your way while Melee +1 is only useful once per round usually (occasionally twice with Counterstrikes). However, you should also consider the percentages involved. Tough -2 only has a 17% chance of affecting the effect outcome, while Melee +1 has a 67% chance of adding an extra 1.5 damage. This means the Melee +1 will be relevant 4x as often as the Tough -2. Now, it is true that the effect die would have a bigger impact on the game, but the fact that the die has to be rolled 4x as often before the outcome is affected does quite a bit to balance it with the impact that the extra damage from Melee +1 has on the game. We're now talking about comparing avoiding one application of Burn, or Rot, or perhaps most damaging of all a Stun, with an extra 6 damage dealt from the Melee +1 trait. These two things are fairly comparable in my opinion. I probably would rather avoid the Stun than get the extra 6 damage, but I'd rather the extra damage than avoid any other Condition I can think of. Especially if I have ways to remove the condition (such as the awesome Healing Wand).

In a vacuum yes, but in the meta I see High Armor really blunts +1 Melee, however Tough -2 as I have learned during the FiF play testing it is a very synergistic trait. Can't say more though.....

[Zuberi]

Truth, I was comparing them in a vacuum and I kinda slipped back to comparing them on a one for one basis when your point was that Tough can apply multiple times per round. If your opponent is making 4 effect die rolls per round, then the Tough -2 trait will be coming in handy just as often on a per round basis as the Melee +1 trait and be having a greater impact on the game. Preferably though, your opponent isn't getting in more than a couple of attacks on your mage each round. If he is, then you're probably in trouble no matter which trait you have.

We could then jump into talking about stacking armor diminishing Melee +1, as well as counters to your opponent stacking armor, and how this would cause issues for both versions of the mage. We could also talk about the Synergy with the Colossus Belt (and perhaps some to be announced spells) and how those affect both versions of the mage. We could go into quite a bit of conjecture (conjecture for me at least since I haven't tested it, lol).

I wouldn't be surprised if the Tough trait does end up proving to be better, especially given your testimony of having actually used it (which I kinda forgot about people being play testers on here and was just gleefully indulging in playing with it in my mind). However, I haven't been shown any actual reason yet why they aren't both decent options. I am a fairly aggressive player myself, and the extra attack dice look very enticing to me (if the Warlord had the cards to back him up). I probably would gravitate to the Dwarf in the end because, everything else being equal I do think the Runesmithing is better than Veterans, and I really like Dwarves more than Orcs, lol. Besides those two things though, I think the extra attack dice on the Orc are still solid bonuses from my perspective.

[jacksmack]

Did steal equipment just get a buff in this expansion?

[Shad0w]

At Zuberi.

You must pay for the Dissolve during Step 1: Cast Spell

 I did some research and...

FAQ

Armor Ward(Conquest of Kumanjaro)
For example, if the opponent casts a Dissolve spell to attempt to destroy your Hunting Bow, he will pay the
normal 11 mana to cast the Dissolve. Then, when the Dissolve spell resolves, he will have to pay an additional 4
mana to destroy the Hunting Bow.
If you reveal Armor Ward at the end of the Counter Spell Step of a Dissolve, then the opponent will have to pay
the extra 4 mana to destroy it. (Thus, the spell will be wasted if the opponent does not have the 4 mana to pay.)

Seems that the extra mana is paid during the resolve spell step rather than the cast spell step.

I assume these runes will function the same as Armor Ward

Correct

[baronzaltor]

Did steal equipment just get a buff in this expansion?

Yes, a stolen piece of gear would keep its Rune.. just like a Mind Controlled Pet keeps its Pet token.

Steal Equipment will also bypass the 2 mana "destruction tax" (if you keep the item)


Also with the Dwarf Warlord, its noteworthy that Tough -2 stacks with elemental resists too.
Like, he has -2 to all effect rolls, but if you put a Dragon Scale Haubrek and Elemental Cloak on you have:
-2 to all effect rolls
-4 to lightning and frost effect rolls
-6 to fire effect rolls

Add in a Colossus Belt for  -4/-6/-8, Tough -4 means you're immune to effects that require 9+.

Im probably still a bigger fan of Vetern's Belt over Colossus Belt despite the stack ability.

Putting the Armor +1 Rune on an Elemental Cloak makes it a pretty solid package (2 armor, elemental resists, +2 destruction tax).

His +2 Defense Rune stacks with the +1 boost from Ring of Defense, so you can build up +3,

[echephron]

Upon reflection, I dont like how easy it is to take this guys "pets"(buff tokens to equipment) away. no other "pet" can be dissolved instantly for minimal cost. they only pay 1 mana more to dissolve it than you did to cast it(which doesnt matter as much for "reforging" i guess). Plus consider that dissolve is a very popular spell choice such that out of school, many people still pick up 4.

After considering that, it seems to me that Armor Ward becomes too important, which i dislike since it is 3 spell points and may have bad interactions with Harshforge stuff.