[Trumanator]

Okay, I went into SP to see what the Lord of the Gates was capable of. He is definitely a capable expander when given dom9, and likely would be even with ~dom 7. The shades do a lot to reduce hits to him, and are actually excellent units against indies. The main issue is that only Ermor and C'tis get him, and his paths aren't really anything they need. If I want more death with them I would probably go with a lich/ML. However, I might give him a shot as C'tis, since they have slightly more problems with expansion than Ermor. Past indy clearing, he does drop off in usefulness. Though he is still fully equipable, he just doesn't measure up to an E9 cyclops, or one of the multi-armed pretenders. Perhaps adding 1E? That seems thematic, and would make me seriously consider him for a low level E-D bless for my mages. Though even as is, you can get E4 D4, dom9, and decent scales without too much trouble.

After all the above meandering, I suppose I would conclude that his lack of use has more to do with his narrow availability than anything else, and I can easily see him as simply a pretender who just needs someone to take a second look at him.