The Ghost King

Blitz · #1 May 4th, 2004, 11:31 AM

After a heated discussion about the VQ, the GK and their strengths and weaknesses, I started tinkering with a pretender chassis, and came up with what I think is a pretty good one. It's for Acroscophile, but I'd imagine it would work for just about any race save a few. What I have now is a problem. I can either have death 4, which opens up a lot of neat later game stuff, or I can have 40 more points for scales. This is what I came up with:

Water 3
Air 3
Earth 3
Death 2
Dominion 6
Fortress (60pt)
80 points for scales

40 points for death 4 or more scales? Tough one for sure.

IKerensky · #2 May 4th, 2004, 11:34 AM

Death 4:

Blessing weak fear effect.
Access to nearly all good death spells.
Better effect and less fatigue for drain and thus...

1 more scale:

Well can help if magic for research otherwise could be helpfull for the province that will be in your dominion... The more province you have the more efficient it is but the less important overall.

Frankly I will buy Death 4.

AhhhFresh · #3 May 4th, 2004, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Blitz:
After a heated discussion about the VQ, the GK and their strengths and weaknesses, I started tinkering with a pretender chassis, and came up with what I think is a pretty good one. It's for Acroscophile, but I'd imagine it would work for just about any race save a few. What I have now is a problem. I can either have death 4, which opens up a lot of neat later game stuff, or I can have 40 more points for scales. This is what I came up with:

Water 3
Air 3
Earth 3
Death 2
Dominion 6
Fortress (60pt)
80 points for scales

40 points for death 4 or more scales? Tough one for sure.

You definately want at least Death 3 for Soul Vortex later on...

Why Water 3, though? Is it for site searches/clam hoarding? Because I would think knocking that down to 1 and bringing Fire up to 2 (Phoenix Pyre)... would make him more of a force against other SC's in the late game... and cost almost exactly the same amount (gotta love 20 point paths).

EDIT: I was going to suggest, scraping up enough points for Nature 2 for Personal Regeneration... but then I realized that you're playing Arco, so it's not nearly as important. But for others considering a GK... the affliction protection inherent in regeneration is pretty vital IMHO.

[ May 04, 2004, 16:33: Message edited by: AhhhFresh ]

Norfleet · #4 May 4th, 2004, 05:33 PM

The GK really doesn't play to Arcoscephale's strengths: Priestesses can't remove afflictions for undead units such as the GK, so you'll still have to pursue conventional affliction removal aggressively.

I'd suggest more air, as it improves the defensive effectiveness of Mirror Image, less Water, as water magic is mostly useless past level 2 (Quickness(1), BoW(2)), and more Death. Don't be afraid to take some negative scales to kick loose more points.

AhhhFresh · #5 May 4th, 2004, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
The GK really doesn't play to Arcoscephale's strengths: Priestesses can't remove afflictions for undead units such as the GK, so you'll still have to pursue conventional affliction removal aggressively.

I'd suggest more air, as it improves the defensive effectiveness of Mirror Image, less Water, as water magic is mostly useless past level 2 (Quickness(1), BoW(2)), and more Death. Don't be afraid to take some negative scales to kick loose more points.

Ah, didn't know that Priestesses couldn't heal undead...

You'd forgo Fire 2, to put more points into Death and Air?

Though I guess you quickly run out of slots for scripting spells... so more paths has a diminishing returns affect for SC useage.

Gandalf Parker · #6 May 4th, 2004, 06:36 PM

I like Ghost King with blood nations. Give him a Black Heart and he makes a freaking good assassin

Blitz · #7 May 5th, 2004, 12:56 AM

Quote:

The GK really doesn't play to Arcoscephale's strengths: Priestesses can't remove afflictions for undead units such as the GK, so you'll still have to pursue conventional affliction removal aggressively.

Crud. That was the whole idea. I just played a whole game against the AI where my GK never picked up one affliction. Guess that was just luck. I guess that explains why my Wraith Lord never healed either heh.

Quote:

Why Water 3, though? Is it for site searches/clam hoarding? Because I would think knocking that down to 1 and bringing Fire up to 2 (Phoenix Pyre)... would make him more of a force against other SC's in the late game... and cost almost exactly the same amount (gotta love 20 point paths).

Well the idea was that if the GK died somehow it wouldn't be completely useless. I'm kind of used to a "half rainbow" mage with arco (F3 W3 E3 A3 S5), this was my attempt at a hybrid SC/Rainbow without totally destroying scales.

But losing the affliction removal really changes things. I'd probably be better off with a Wurm or a Nata if I went the SC route. Sadly this all but closes the death path when playing Arco. Ironic that my favorite race (Arco) and magic path (death) are not compatible.

Norfleet · #8 May 5th, 2004, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Blitz:
Guess that was just luck. I guess that explains why my Wraith Lord never healed either heh.

Wraith Lords are immortal and automatically heal afflictions. If yours didn't heal, it was probably either one of the sticky ones, like Never-healing wound, and/or you were unlucky.

Quote:

Sadly this all but closes the death path when playing Arco. Ironic that my favorite race (Arco) and magic path (death) are not compatible.

Arco and death are not incompatible. They just lack any special synergy as of 2.11. The Ghost King is still a valid choice....it's just not inherently synergistic with Arco's healing ability, and you will still have to pursue conventional affliction removal.