Beast Master Tips

[GD360]

Can someone lay out the best way to play as a Beast Master?  A friend of mine played a Beast Master earlier but seemed to get trounced by the Warlocke.  It seems like the Beast Master is missing creatures that give special effects like Burn and Rot like the Warlocke's creatures. Also the Beast Master is lacking spells to use against Flying creatures. We only have been playing with the decks recommended in the book.  We haven't tweaked them so far.

Thanks

[Klaxas]

i would recomend using the lair early.  try to summon 2 or sometimes 3 creatures a turn.  the beastmaster wins by over whelming the enemy with creatures.

(you can cast one creature from the lair, one from your full action, and the beastmaster can cast a level 1 creature as a quickspell, thats how you can summon 3 a turn)

also your mid level creature, the timber wolf is a great one to beef up.  make a timber wolf your pet, then cast bear strength on him and you have a force on the battlefield.

[paradox22]

I agree w/ Klaxas.  I've lost to the beastmaster twice now and both times he got the lair out early along with a couple mana flowers.  He was summoning no less than 2 creatures per turn.  ...And, after saving mana on cheap creatures, out came the steelclaw grizzly for the K.O.

[Shad0w]

Timberwolf, Red Claw, Bitterwood fox, and Lair are a great start. I would also add Rouse the beat and Call of the wild. This is a good start for a build. BTW Timerwolf is one of the most efficient creatures in MW.

[Mobius]

I have been theory-crafting a spellbook for my Beastmaster (have yet to be able to test it out in an actual game, but that will change this weekend).  I call it the "Wolf Pack" because it implements Redclaw and Timber Wolves as the main source of damage, though I still include heavy-hitters/tanks such as the Grizzly and Mountain Gorilla.

I agree with what has been said above, but make sure to not focus ONLY on creatures.  It's important to still leave yourself plenty of points for those enchantments you need to counter anything an enemy might have in their spell book.  With the "Wolf Pack" spell book, I lack a lot of flying creatures so I need to utilize Maim Wings and Eagle Wings to be able to fight any flying creatures my enemy might use against my primarily ground-based forces.

I'd like to include my spell book composition below not only for reference for your original question, but also to present it for constructive criticism for those who have had the opportunity to play a Beastmaster in a live 1-on-1 match of Mage Wars.

Equipment:
Bearskin
Elemental Cloak
Enchanter's Ring
Gauntlets of Strength
Mage Wand (my intent is to bind Minor Heal, Perfect Strike, or Rouse the Beast - whichever suits the situation)
Moonglow Amulet
Regrowth Belt
Ring of Beasts
Staff of Beasts

Attack:
Geyser

Creature:
Bitterwood Fox (x3)
Emerald Tegu (x2)
Fellalla, Pixie Familiar
Feral Bobcat (x2)
Mountain Gorilla
Redclaw, Alpha Male
Steelclaw Grizzly
Thunderift Falcon
Timber Wolf (x3)

Conjuration:
Animal Kinship
Lair
Mana Flower (x2)
Mohktari, Great Tree of Life
Rajan's Fury
Tanglevine (x2)
Tooth & Nail
Wall of Thorns (x2)

Enchantment:
Bear Strength (x2)
Block
Bull Endurance
Cheetah Speed (x2)
Cobra Reflexes (x2)
Eagle Wings
Maim Wings (x2)
Marked for Death
Mongoose Agility (x2)
Regrowth (x2)
Retaliate
Rhino Hide (x2)
Turn to Stone
Teleport Trap

Incantation:
Banish
Battle Fury
Call of the Wild
Dissolve
Minor Heal (x2)
Perfect Strike
Piercing Strike (x2)
Rouse the Beast (x2)

Again, the intent of this spellbook is to be well-rounded in a variety of situations, but also to specialize in using the wolves for my main fighting force.  (I've been toying around with the idea of removing a few zone-exclusive conjurations (like Tooth & Nail and Mohktari) to make room for Dispels and Purge Magics.  My logic, though, is that with the amount of creatures I have at my disposal and their attack power, I will be killing enemies faster than they will be killing my forces should the enemy have build a spellbook that focuses on damage over time (DoT) curses.

[wtcannonjr]

Timberwolf, Red Claw, Bitterwood fox, and Lair are a great start. I would also add Rouse the beat and Call of the wild. This is a good start for a build. BTW Timerwolf is one of the most efficient creatures in MW.

Shadow, can you share with us your criteria for evaluating efficiency?

Is it just a comparison of casting cost vs. attack dice?

[Shad0w]

Well since that was posted in Sept several things have changed into our play tester spreadsheet. One of the reasons I can not make the full thing public is it does contain cards that are currently under NDA. Since I posted that I think our evaluations have gained more in-site and accuracy. At the time it was the most efficient when factoring number of turns it lives verse the amount of damage it will put out against an average armored target.

In order for us to figure this out we needed to look at casting cost, health, armor, number attack dice, number of targets per attack, Speed ( Normal, Fast, Slow)  

Also we needed to know how much damage 1-10 attack dice versus 1-10 armor.

[Kytan]

I guess it depends on ur play style if ur aggressive use the lair spam like the previous posters have said, or If ur more like me and prefer a slower more methodical; I usually focus on a war of attrition with my beastmaster focusing on the wolf pack and pet timber wolves to wear down opposing forces efficiently. Like shadow said timber wolves are one of the most efficient creature out there.  Ring of beasts and quick casting lvl 1s also helps here, and the totems that buff animals like tooth and nail and Rajans furry are nice too since they are a  one time cost bonuses that just make it harder to deal with the constant onslaught of creatures. Also I use jet stream for fliers and to push mages through wall of thorns.

[wtcannonjr]

Well since that was posted in Sept several things have changed into our play tester spreadsheet. One of the reasons I can not make the full thing public is it does contain cards that are currently under NDA. Since I posted that I think our evaluations have gained more in-site and accuracy. At the time it was the most efficient when factoring number of turns it lives verse the amount of damage it will put out against an average armored target.

In order for us to figure this out we needed to look at casting cost, health, armor, number attack dice, number of targets per attack, Speed ( Normal, Fast, Slow)  

Also we needed to know how much damage 1-10 attack dice versus 1-10 armor.

Thanks for sharing!

That certainly sounds like a comprehensive evaluation methodology.

I find myself evaluating creatures for their ability to operate more effectively against specific threats in the arena. For example, Skeletons work well against Poison Clouds and Poison inflicting Creatures due to their Poison Immunity as Non-Living Creatures. At this stage it is more intuitive than quantitative.

[cchilds]

To address how a Beastmaster can deal with flying creatures:

1. Jet Stream is great against flying creatures, unless they have a Defense.
2. Geyser is great against flying creatures with Defense.
3. Knockdown will ground a flying creature for a round.
          (followed by Perfect Strike to negate the Defense.)
4. Sleep is the generic response to any creature that is troublesome.
5. Teleport the flying creature will help (a little).

[sIKE]

Don't forget Maim Wings

[cchilds]

I also forgot to mention you can do Knockdown and then Tanglevine to ground a flying creature and keep them grounded.

[Koy]

A buffed Skyhunter does wonders for air superiority too!

[cchilds]

One flying creature I have issues with is the Wizard's Familiar, Huginn. With a 6+ Defense, it is really hard to hit. I wish that defense only worked when it was flying, but even knocked down, it is hard to hit.

[Tacullu64]

One flying creature I have issues with is the Wizard's Familiar, Huginn. With a 6+ Defense, it is really hard to hit. I wish that defense only worked when it was flying, but even knocked down, it is hard to hit.

Find a cheap (or expensive if you must) unavoidable attack spell you can spam from your elemental wand. I always try to have a couple unavoidable attacks in case my opponent uses creatures with defense.