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Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Since I didnt know what Death Curse did but figured it would be really groovy, I made a Mictlan Fountain with the appropriate stats and went for some sacred action. Boy was I dissapointed.
Am I correct or alone in thinking that this is truly a very very very dissapointing blessing effect to spend 9 blood on? I *never* thought I would revert to the Beavis and Butthead dictum in Dom II (I think a wise person said: if it appears to be one-sidedly bad, think again), since everything is just so cooly balanced, but... "Blood 9 blessing sucks". Ok I said it. |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
You are correct. It is not even 1% as good as any of the level-4 blessings=)
Death-9 is very weak, too, unless you go through some strange exploits involving deliberately suiciding your sacred mages to avoid upkeep. I wouldn't mind a completely new Blood-9 and Death-9 blessing effect. Blood: How about "Blood Vengance -4" ? Meaning opponent makes an MR save versus penetration 7 or gets hurt instead of the blessed unit. Or else, "Blood Poison": Any melee attacker that draws blood is poisoned. Death: Keep the unit EXACTLY THE SAME after death, just add the "undead" flag, refill its HP, and give it 0 base encumbrance. |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
OTOH, Lava Warriors, already strong and with berserker ability, become outrageously strong with a high Blood blessing. They're pretty much the epitome of pure-offense at that state. Perhaps not the most efficient or practical thing to do, but it can be fun.
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Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Yeah - Blood 9 is weak. The strength bonus has uses, but the Blood 9 part is just blah. If you are going to 9, the Fire, Nature and Water blessing almost always make for better offensive power units. I wouldn't mind giving them blood vengeance instead, or maybe life stealing attacks (similar to vampire life drain but no armor piercing - all holy melee attacks gain the attacker back life).
I was thinking of suggesting something similar to Saber's idea of the undead to make the Death 9 nicer. Keeping the unit the same makes sense, and add the undead attribute and 0 encumberance. If possible, all holy commanders should have some undead leadership, or give the reborn commanders some at least (or both). As a totally cosmetic but cool change - I'd really like a color palette shift on the unit similar to what happens for when the unit is paralyzed in battle to give them that "28 Days Later" zombie look. (Obviously new sprites for every unit to have an undead Version would be cool, but too much work). This way every unit would have an "undead" Version of itself that looks undead-ish, and the undead Versions of grunt troops will be worth something. |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
"a color palette shift on the unit similar to what happens for when the unit is paralyzed"
That is a great, great, great idea geo98101. I really hope the Devs consider it. Any comment from the Devs? |
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Great other suggestions so far. |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Hm, yup. A warning to those thinking of trying the "kill the mages so you no longer have to pay upkeep" idea -- even before any possible afflictions gained during their murder, Soulless have a wonderful MR of 5, have the 'never heals' flag, and are no longer sacred.
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The strength effect is rather powerful at high levels and the curse is fun. Undead is not a flag. It is an intrinsic of a unit and not changable (like stealth). An entirely new stat would have to be introduced. Not impossible, but not quickly made either. Otherwise it's a good idea. It was discarded ages ago in the development of Dom 1, but the current development of Dom2 with easy modding etc might have opened new possibilities, to some extent at least. Hmm, I just got an excellent idea derived from your undead flag. I must ponder this. Thanks! |
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Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Hmmmm. I sense secrets that I was not privy to. You say 'blood blessing becomes strong at high levels'. Does this mean that blessings 'scale up' as the god's stat increases? So at blood 8 you dispense more than a 'mere' +2 strength?
This inquiring mind definitely wants to know. |
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Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Well, Taqwus, few claim that there is no down side to dying... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
The loss of holy status (I hope) is a bug. If at least that was resolved, it'd be nice - those Dancers/etc that get converted will come back with a hefty Fear aura, so although they still will fight like beserkers armed with wet noodles, they could still cause some fear in the enemy. Plus then secondary bless effects would be viable. But the MR itself isn't too bad if you plan around it. Most global spells that require an MR check don't work against undead, so you are safe there (Mind Hunt, Vengeance of the Dead. In fact, are there MR Global spells that work on undead?). In battle, if you keep them in the way back they are out of range of banishment and Control the Dead as long as the priests don't break the line. Also, get some fodder for enemy priests to shoot at - your pretender can summon some higher MR and HP undead for the mid line, and enemy priests will bLast away at the closer units first. If your line gets penetrated bad enough for them to get past that, well you probably would have lost anyway. Since the undead status gives you immunity to a host of other battle spells (all mind spells like Soul Slay, Enslave, mind bLast, Fear etc, cold spells, poison spells) that have longer range, the Soulless is usually safer than the pre-dead Version. Particularly for Pythium, you can then play with some nasty communion combos to get battlefield wide enchanements that aren't hurting your precious commanders (Astral Tempest, Soul Drain, Grip of Winter, Foul Vapours (need Jade amazons)). In the end game, Solar Brilliance and Undead Mastery would be a problem, but at that point any real mage has a chance to seriously hurt a big army, especially if you are just a one trick pony at that point. Mainly because of the 0 encumberance, I would rather have soulless Versions of certain mages than the normal Versions of that mage, even with the current drawbacks. Just have to be careful with your new undead buddies! |
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Ahh, thanks! Ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously! Mmm, feels good. Feels like I was 12 again. |
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[ February 12, 2004, 22:31: Message edited by: geo981010 ] |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
What does Blood Vengeance do that is powerful???
Of course, not all level-9 blessing need to be equally powerful, just like none of the other effects of same levels of different paths are identical. You get a lot more with Blood-9 than just another blessing effect. Blood-9 gets you a Strength +4 blessing, which is quite nice. It also gets you an enormous bonus when your pretender casts battlefield blood spells, which ordinarily cost 100 or more fatigue per casting, and at Blood-9 get very hard for the target to resist. There are also many blood-empowering items which can be stacked on top of that. Another example is Cross-breeding, which yields more results the better your blood skill is. Now, on a fountain, that doesn't do you very much good, since you're stuck in one place, but a high blood level on your fountain, which already has a blood hunt bonus, means a very large increase in the blood slaves gathered each hunt. PvK |
Re: Blood 9 Blessing: Beavis and Butthead for the first time
Blood poisoning would be fun, but not overpowered... or how about "Unholy Thirst": Blood-9 blessed units gain an insatiable desire for blood, manifesting itself as an additional "Bite" attack=)
Oooh! I love it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif "Life After Death" with just an undead flag might be overpowered, though keeping afflictions caused by combat, or gaining a new affliction, or lowering the MR a couple points (easily banished) should make it OK. Also, with a mere undead attribute gained, the unit would require full upkeep, so no more "Kill the mages and make them free" tricks. PvK: Blood Vengance is strong because low-MR attackers automatically kill themselves in droves. Summon or wish for a vastness, send it against an indy province, and just watch... [ February 12, 2004, 23:40: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ] |
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