Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How, exactly, do you go about doing such a thing? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I suspect you could also Gateway them into the water. Or that Death-roads spell, which I have never used. With either of these, you wouldn't even need an ability to lead a lot of troops into the water, as you would if marching them into the sea.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pricey way to dispose of such chaff.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

If there's any unbalanced mage out there i would imagine its the Tien-Chi celestial master. The balancing formula just doesnt include the disadvantage that having low astral on an expensive mage is. 1F1A1S2W3H1? for 250 gold... The only possible 3 path (other than holy, of course) is water. And the most common use of W2, forging clams, is hard because there is no base water gem income. Abysia is doing just fine.

Blood mages cost more IMO because they are capable of producing their own gems in addition to casting spells, an ability more than worth its weight in gold.

If anything i would rather see MORE unbalanced mages, because so long as the nations are balanced it just adds more flavour to the game.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pricey way to dispose of such chaff. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Cheaper, imo, than marching them 3-5 turns to get them to water. If you have a high astral income, why not? ( In a MP game as Ermor, with no clams, I had ... 400 astral gems. Of course - I had no one to cast Gateway. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I would _gladly_ have burned astral gems to kill the upkeep on those blighters.)

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you don't have anyone else that can make vampires, it's pretty useful. Not really anything else that uses that combo (Bone fiends and maybe an item or two) but vampires are pretty nice.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can agree with that, having just started playing the game recently and with Tien Chi at that. I've been trying to find a good use for these guys. Classic case of jack of all trades and master of none. Are they meant to be used with empowerment?

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

Haven't had more than the barest minimum of experience with them, but I imagine that a pretender-made path booster or two could make them downright wicked searchers and item forgers. In that order.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

Cohen, to illustrate KO's point:

Both Tien standard and Tien S&A mages cost 250 gold, but the S&A mage gets TWO randoms AND a strat-3 flying movement! And this is a Good Thing. (Bad would be: if they cost more, or the standard CM cost less.)

btw, I think that S&A CMs are great, my favorite mage in the game bar none, and with good gear, they can cast almost any spell in the game. I love them.

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pricey way to dispose of such chaff. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Heh. Actually, pricey would be gatewaying the militia into the water with a mage who couldn't breath water. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Like when I found out yesterday that Void Lurkers don't like breathing air. Most expensive teleport to site search I ever did. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?
 

I like to get my free militia killed too, but it seems pretty useful as it dies, sucking attention from enemy attacks and spells and such, buying me time to do important things on the battlefield, adding to the number of unburied corpses which can be turned into armed soulless... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK