phenix pyre
 

Well i ve just lost a big battle because of this spell ... playing Abysia !!

So here is the situation

I m going to play a decisive battle with lot of abysian mages 2F + some nice invoc all with 100% resist fire from items or native resistance.
The shaff is mainly abysian ancestor so also 100% fire proof.
I took even the time to script some fire fend for the few foul spawn presents.

I'm facing Midgard.

Turn 1) i mostly cast my phenix pyre while he s casting Air power.

Turn 2) i eat few thunder strike, taking few loss no problem, but suddenly one of my F mage take a hit and the explosion of the phenix pyre killed everything by successive blow from the neighboring fire mages and their own pyre.
At the end of this turn2 i ve nothing left even troops who had 150% fire resist.

I am missing something ? I've played several times abysia using this spell and don't remember such a result.

Re: Bug with phenix pyre ?
 

Not a bug - working as designed. The Phoenix Pyre blast is an explosion, not a fire. It does physical damage.

You might be able to take solace from the fact that you are hardly the first person to learn this the hard (but spectacular to watch) way.

Re: Bug with phenix pyre ?
 

From the wiki :
The damage is half fire half physical damage Verify

I guess i've made the check :)

Thanks for such a quick answer RonD

Re: phenix pyre
 

Ow, the verify is there because of the fire part, not the physical part. Wondered how much of it was fire damage.

Yeah, the spell is set up in a way that always costs you at least one major battle :D.

Re: Bug with phenix pyre ?
 

Basically everyone learns this the hard way. It's a miserable spell if you aren't careful, but if you set things up properly it is absolutely wonderful.

Re: phenix pyre
 

I thought of this spell for an Ember Lord SC.
Is it worth it, as the Ember Lord will rout anyway if his HP drop below 25%?

Re: phenix pyre
 

It's worth it, particularly as the possibility of getting dropped from above 25% to 0% is very real. If they can't fly, there are even several turns in which to do this, plus, if more than one SC is in use it isn't even a problem.

Re: Bug with phenix pyre ?
 

Everybody's favourite when used in conjunction with with the Boots of Calius the druid on an SC.

My absolutely favourite use was on a LA Ermor Master Lich pretender wearing cheap defensive equipment (standard MR, luck, and reinvigoration), that had wished once for power and thus had decent combat stats, when I unleashed him on major attacking army that apart from ~1500 normal troops had SC, thug, priest, and mage support (~90 commanders total), a large portion of the attacking army being living and regenerating from blessing.

Invulnerability, Soul Drain, Phoenix Pyre, Elemental Fortitude, Summon Earthpower, SPELLS.

The Master Lich ended up wiping out ~80% of the opposing army including most of the SCs and commanders at the cost of 7 afflictions.

...Much better than the time I lost a small army of fire casting mages whom the AI chose of its own free will to cast Phoenix Pyre. The agony!

Re: phenix pyre
 

It synchronizes quite well with Soul Drain, really. Soul Drain is one of the more effective re-invigoration methods, and re-invigoration is pretty much key.

Which reminds me: Does the medallion of vengeance trigger every time you die, if you also have Phoenix Pyre up? If it does, it could work quite well.

Re: phenix pyre
 

Good question ! if both stack it can be very handy

Re: phenix pyre
 

Soul drain does have a very high casting cost, and you need troops surrounding you, so it is only situational. Or you need very tough fast close combat units. (Like reverse sabbathed wereform skrattir, with all the other nature boosts also activated).

Re: phenix pyre
 

You are thinking of soul vortex. Soul drain is quite another beast - a battlefield-wide enchantment. It also requires an uncommon path combination (3S3D).

Re: phenix pyre
 

Hmm, does any SC chassis have access to that path combination besides Pretenders?

Re: phenix pyre
 

Lucky tartarians.
Ether Lords (more a high-end thug, but anything with Soul Drain can act an awful lot like an SC).

Anything else?

Re: phenix pyre
 

Illithid mages, but they're not really SC material.

Re: phenix pyre
 

Ether Lords are the main one, and I'd consider them a light SC more than a high-end thug regardless. That said, Soul Vortex is broader, and also has some pretty nice used - Wraith Lords, for instance.

Re: phenix pyre
 

Ether Lords don't get fire though, so you can't take advantage of near infinite reinvigoration Phoenix Pyre, and you'll end up magic dueled to death.

Which I guess leaves really lucky Tarts or a pretender. Too bad, it sounds amusingly powerful.

Re: phenix pyre
 

I once got a Tartarian Titan (male) with fire, astral, and death... But that's one Tartarian out of many games.

For all practical purposes, to get a Phoenix Pyre/Soul Drain killer commander you need either to design your pretender to be capable of it or to take up empowering big time.

It is really a niche use, even in CBM, which made Soul Drain considerably easier to cast.

And without some sort of native reinvigoration, it can easily be countered by deploying only lifeless units.

But when you have an immortal pretender with multiple strong magic paths defending his own dominion against the invading forces of the three other remaining nations in the game, it can be a game changer if you hold it in reserve while forcing your enemies to concentrate their forces and then spring it as a surprise. :D

Re: phenix pyre
 

is it like soul vortex where it keeps going or is it a one-time cast. The wiki makes it look like a one-time cast, not a buff.

Re: phenix pyre
 

Doh. Thanks!

On the path requirements. If the sc has astral, you can probably reverse commune the phoenix pyre onto it. Just give the fire mage a matrix. (as you want earth+astral access in the endgame anyway).

Re: phenix pyre
 

It is a battlefield wide effect that lasts until the end of battle.

So long as there are a large number of non-lifeless beings on the battlefield, the caster will effectively be healed to full with zero fatigue every single turn, requiring him to be killed multiple times during a turn to overload the phoenix pyre effect.

Re: phenix pyre
 

Really? I thought this was pretty clear:

"All units on battlefield get 1AN fatigue damage unless they save MR. This is a battlefield spell. It remains active after casting."

I'm just Joking, I meant to say: Thanks, I fixed it when I read you had problems with the current description.

Re: phenix pyre
 

so what about a reverse communion with the master casting soul drain? Do slaves get the 'buff'?

Rapid fatigue for everyone not part of the communion? Like if you have 60 some-late game theurgs and a spectre as master and the master casting soul drain... does that mean +60 fatigue per turn for everyone who isn't getting fed with a ton of soul drain energy?

Hmmm... wonder if thats a useable strategy...

Re: phenix pyre
 

Soul drain is classed as a battlefield spell, and doesn't work in a communion - which is probably for the best, given balance concerns.