Re: End game diversity mod
 

How 'bout this one, I summoned a Zmey, sent it against Jotun PD of about 10, there was a bane (which was a site summon, non commander) and the Zmey got torn into shreds?

I really like the other stuff doe, pretty much all except Shinsyas or whatever they're called.

EDIT: Also Llama, I had a Zmey die from BoT, I think they should have a little bigger age limit than 50. :)

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Mind Hunt could only cut one head of Zmey.And their mobility is good.When Abysia summon lots of Zmey,the war is hard to defend.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

I've been using the mechanical giant a lot, I found that they're very effective raiders against astral nations due to mind hunt+magic duel immunity.

My favorite setup so far is to give him boots of quickness+flying carpet so he can bring along some henchmen like mechanical men or statues, plus whatever weapons and shield fits the bill. Against undead chaff for example I used herald lance and charcoal shield so he could cast quickened solar ray spam from behind statue bodyguards and then soak up the rest with the fire shield.

Zmeys I used in my latest game. From what I heard they would die fast so I was surprised when they proved both extremely effective and survivable. I used them as army support rather than raiders, with lycan ammy and luck pendant set to attack monsters to take down tough enemies on the battlefield.

Wendigo is just awesome, super cheap for a w4d4 mage/SC. Especially considering it's water gems. I simply make a "farm" province to let them eat and send them out when fully grown. load up with gear and go Soul vortex/quickness/kick ***. It's a bit weird that it's cheaper than Kokythiads, IMO the wendigo could be upped to 35 gems or so and still be a great deal.

Shishis are ok raiders and anti SC (against undead), but quite situational now after the nerf. They were in the right spot power wise from the start IMO, though I do agree with dropping to A2. But the stats should have been kept as was I think.

Grendelkin and treeants I haven't used myself but my opponent in Warthog spams them at me. So far not impressed at all. I've killed them off easily with Risen oracles and GoR:ed Umbrals, but I suspect this is more due to their lack of proper equipment and poor deployment than any problem with the summons themselves. I'm looking forward to see what i could make of them if I planned a strategy around them.

As it stands now though, I could hardly justify getting a Grendelkin over two wendigos, or a treeant over GoR:ing two of something (like gargoyles etc)

Never got to try or even meet a Ember lord yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Oh man, I was almost thinking Grendelkin are overpowered. You just have to realize that they are not damage dealers, they're damage soakers. They're probably about right for the cost, but they're out of the box great raiders and just absolutely awesome if you put just a bit of effort into them. Any SC *should* go down to a crafted counter or anti-SC tactics, but with very cheap equipment Grendelkin aren't going down to anything short of that.

For big battles have some fairly cheap mages buff them and stick 5-10 gems worth of whatever resistance/immunity is appropriate. You can also stick a fear helm + lantern shield (or implement axe) for a substantial fear aura (+15) which nicely combos with a golden shield. Their hps are so high that having one with jacked up MR is a great lightning rod if you expect to need one. For anti-SC duties give them some gladiator gloves and quickness and there's not really anything with a prayer of living through that assault - that's 12 attacks at 41 damage! And it's not like there's much that can kill them fast enough to keep the pummeling from happening...

Re: End game diversity mod
 

I agree, Grandelkin are just nasty bastards when it comes to using them as anti SC.
He doesn't even need many items. Just something to pound with, like the gloves, and a regeneration item. I'm pretty sure any unaware SC that ran into his path would get slapped around.

Oh, and the Mechanical Giant is very nice as a raider or a support thug to an army, very cost effective.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

I like Grendelkin as well (though most of the comments I've seen haven't been impressed with them). A couple things I'd add to what has been mentioned above is that those high HPs come without an undead/demon/magic being tag (and the counters those tags open up). And that Grendelkin have darkvision 75, meaning they won't have their attack/defense cut in half when Darkness is cast, like so many non-undead/demon summons do.

But Wendigo do sound interesting - I'll have to take a closer look at them.

I really like Treants but I've only summoned one. I just can't justify spending N gems on them instead of forging gear, fueling globals, GoRing SCs.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

EDM is indeed a very nice mod. On Something Awful, where I play most of my games, it's actually probably more popular than CBM.

If anything needs a bit of work it might be wendigo, treants and ettins.

Wendigo might do with losing a few intermediate forms or starting more powerful. I could use them, but they're awfully annoying to get going and I'd rather spend W on grendels instead.

Treants I don't really know, I can't find them a proper role. They'd be fine as damage sponges if they weren't so hard to make invulnerable with their slots. I can't think of a solution for them, it would be nice maybe if they had more diverse magic (3 or 4 paths?).

The problem with ettins is I always end up ignoring them. I think ench 7 is too far up the tree for them, they'd do fine with a HP nerf (45 to 60?) at ench 5, but once you're at ench 7 you have much better things to spend gems on than vulnerable thugs. It isn't like Conj 6 or Thau 6 where you can hit those levels for other spells, Ench higher than 5 you go for a good reason or not at all.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

For those that don't know, Valarius has a cool twist on the tart and elemental royalty summons in Momentum3 (unsure if it has been done quite like this before). Nice attempt to blend those modded summons with EDM. See lead post in

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=46129

-ssj

Re: End game diversity mod
 

i've been rather disappointed in Asynja, and only ever bother to hire them for the chance at a RoS caster, since its marginally better than just chain-summoning tarts.

Really, in general i find the magic diversity provided by tarts to be more important than the SCs, and EDM doesn't really do much to alleviate that demand for tarts.

Re: End game diversity mod
 

Firstly, just thought I'd let everyone know that I read this thread (and others like it) about ten times per day, literally. Unfortunately (both for my job and for my dom3 responsiveness), that checking is while I'm at work, where it's difficult to reply. I don't have so much time in the evening.

This feedback, and the stories a couple of you kindly posted, are awesome! Thanks very much.

I was very worried that Zmeys and Grendelkin were too weak. It sounds like people have at least found uses for both of them, which is great. Perhaps Zmeys are still too weak - more feedback needed I think. And yes, Zmeys should have a higher #maxage.

I think perhaps the Shishis need a bit more attack skill. A number of people have said that I overnerfed them.

Glad to hear people have been using the Cyclops (Baalz) and the Mechanical Giant (Fantomen) - people almost never mention them!

Mixed opinion on Wendigos probably means they're about right I guess!

Shame if the Asynja's not very good. Titans are not that amazing really. Maybe she should be cheaper, I'll check the price again.

Has anyone ever successfully used a Treant? In my testing I found them pretty powerful, but I have not heard much about people using them.

Has anyone ever used an Ember Lord? Any good?