Agreed. It is a point of pride with me not to take 3order 2 misfortune. Certainly cannot argue against it from a strategic standpoint.
Why take a bless? Because it is FUN! And you can get some magic diversity easy enough with indy mages. Especially with nature(early on before pretender breaks free) and death. I typically find a wolf tribe shamen and make them until i get one with death magic.
You need to focus on mercenaries and hire the mages that have air or other paths you lack.
Besides you do not need many Burning Ones to win key battles. Why not take a bless? Your best mages are sacred as well. The Earth Bless means they can cast all day. So the main bless, the 10 earth, is for your mages. You add 4 nature for your Burning ones, plus it gives you magical diversity in nature. 4n also means you can slap a shroud on your old diseased mages and they will not die(regeneration).
In any event, I am sure there are much better Pretender set ups than the one I devised. Mine was primarily for sp and I used it for 2 blitz games. Much thought would have to go into it if I decided to play the race in a big mp game. Especially since without a d/f combo, you cannot get your national summons or make one of the fire boosters.
In addition to blood sacrifice, you also have level 3 priests for dominion raising, and strong income scales for building temples(guarded by insane pd).
But it is an enjoyable race to play. Especially if you like to play with matches.
