Good idea?(archer priests)

[Hugh Manatee]

I kinda want to have some fun with the bows you can construct, and I got this idea for self blessing archer priest artillery. I'm thinking of trying this with the tien chi, they get masters of the way and masters of the dead, cheap self blessing sacreds and making the pretender the enchantress for the free pearls(and build in construction), going high death and maybe high astral or fire.... Basically I want to see how much pain a sniper squad can cause, maybe with bless>fire>retreat or something.

(this has nothing to do with that episode of samurai jack with the archers on top of that tower.... nothing at all... nope... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img])

[sum1lost]

Death would be better for causing damage.

[Cor2]

Fire bless does not apply to ranged weapons. Only the first part of death does (the afflictions).

You can still do a elite sniper squad but it will have little to do with bless.

You could take you highest precesion commanders and outfit them with cheap bows: bow of war, banefire, etc. Boots of quickness allows two attacks with a regular bow but not a cross bow.

My version of a dom 3 sniper is the cheapest commander i can find with a rod of the phoenix and reinvig items.

[Potatoman]

I think I read somewhere that the water 9 bless alows archers to fire twice.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I would think archer mages would be overall better than the priests. Putting aside all the other spells they might be able to cast, Eagle Eyes or Aim (not sure on name, equivalent, non-stackable air counterpart), boost precision by five- in most case an effective precision boost of ten.

I think the manual has an interesting little calculation on the effects of precision. You'll still have a huge problem if you face tower, kite, or other high parry shields. Flaming arrows will definetly help - but so will focusing on one target.

[sum1lost]

Windguide is the battlefield wide aim.

[Chris_Byler]

Some nations can use mage-priests with air or nature. Tir n'an Og (and possibly Eriu), Fomoria, Vanheim (at least EA and MA), Helheim, Mictlan (all ages) and Marverni all have air or nature mage-priests IIRC. Arco Priestesses used to have N1, I don't remember if they still do. I think Serpent Acolytes have N1. So do some of Sauromatia's amazon priestess-mages (I forget the exact name).

If you're going to allow more expensive options, Nagarajas, Theurgs, Raksharajas and many others also have some air or nature combined with priestly powers. For a strength-dependent weapon you could even use a Fomorian King (although it might be rather a waste).

If you have those, you can combine EE/Aim with a death bless and forged weapons. I don't know if there's any way to deal with shields or Air Shield though. (AN bows like Vision's Foe might get through normal shields; I don't remember if a shield-blocked missile still gets to roll against prot+shieldprot, which if true would make a shield block irrelevant just like it is against an AN melee attack).

[NTJedi]

Hugh Manatee said:
I kinda want to have some fun with the bows you can construct, and I got this idea for self blessing archer priest artillery. I'm thinking of trying this with the tien chi, they get masters of the way and masters of the dead, cheap self blessing sacreds and making the pretender the enchantress for the free pearls(and build in construction), going high death and maybe high astral or fire.... Basically I want to see how much pain a sniper squad can cause, maybe with bless>fire>retreat or something.

(this has nothing to do with that episode of samurai jack with the archers on top of that tower.... nothing at all... nope... [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img])

If I was to try using this strategy I'd first make sure I had forge of the ancients casted. Then with forge hammers I'd build the bows, boots of flying, and bottle of water. The bottle of water would protect them in battle and for most assassinations while the boots of flying would increase survival of escaping the battlefield and allow all to more easily target one enemy province. In multiplayer the mind hunts and seeking arrow would be a weakness.

[duke_commando]

sauromatian warrior sorceresses make pretty good archers, with a base prec of 12. 17 with eye of aiming and they can cast eagle eyes. They're also priests but I don't think that'll do much for them in terms of archery.
If you get a water pick they can cast quickness too, with a bow of war that might be pretty cool since commanders have that fire rear ability.

[Humakty]

Talking about weakness : an isolated commander is very vulnerable to both of strat map fire attack spells. With Pyth, had two mages operating in remote forts killed this way, before any dome could possibly be up.