Quote:
Originally Posted by llamabeast
You may well be entirely correct about W9 being better than E9 (you've obviously thought about it harder than me), however this bit
Quote:
|
The marginal utility of 20->24 is very small compared with 13->17 (even though the defense can degrade, but there are AP/AN...), the %gain in damage reduction is tiny going E9.
|
I don't agree with. That last extra bit of protection greatly reduces the probability of any damaging hits getting through. Adding bonuses to already high values is an effective thing to do (for defensive values that is) - it's the same reason giving a water bless to a mounted van is a good idea, because it takes their already excellent defense and makes them almost unhurtable. Similarly, I'd argue that a prot 20 spider will suffer occasional hits and get worn down, whereas against conventional troops a prot 24 spider will almost never be injured. |
Well its a question of what the nominal damage they are going to face is, and then whether its better to have an extra few %protection in the case of E (20-24) than extra attacks/defense from water. If you look at the % for making a roll where you have to beat 10 vs. 14 you see that the odds don't change by a huge amount. But on the defense side, the odds to beat 4 vs 8 are a very large change.
If you figure to have them running into big mobs and getting alot of arrows then E is probably going to serve you better, but if you try not to use them that way (or if you take an air bless, which isn't completely impractical in some designs) you don't need the extra protection as much.
Again, I'm focusing mostly on early game where the forces they will face are not going to have all the counters available. I really don't have a feel for the late game options though, and it may well be that these kinds of Machaka builds are not particularly effective late game, however, the idea is to leverage the rush and growth early game into enough of an advantage such that you have either hindered the true late game powers to where you can compete, or given yourself enough space to allow for some catchup with your assumed ability to leverage death mages into something.
If someone could enlighten me as to the effectiveness of these Machaka rush strategies vs. other MA rushers I would appreciate it.