Jarl vs Oni

[Xavier]

Is twist fate better than berserk, though? Because I'm pretty sure you can argue that 5% more regen (3-4 more hp/turn) is going to buy you more than +1 MR. And you don't need the S9 for late-game astral, since that chassis has a misc spot for a booster.

Oh yeah, and yes you can stick a berserker pelt on them, but that's a spot that has a lot of other potential uses.

For that matter, is e4 worth it on that pretender? By fiddling with scales you can pretty easily get S9/N9, but then you could E4/S8/N8 or E4/S9/N6 or S6/N9 (though then you give up on arcane nexus and wish on your pretender).

Foodstamp said:
With Jarls, you can get a great bless and have good scales.

An imprisoned monolith gets you:

nature 6/ astral 9 bless
order 3
productivity 2
cold 3
growth 1
luck 1
drain 2

Alternately you can juggle some of the scales around, lose the luck, get rid of the drain etc or even get some earth magic in there for reinvigoration.

My point being, I don't understand why people take nature so high on Niefelheim blesses, I think you lose out on quite a bit just to have some giants go berserk. If you want it that bad, just slap a berserker pelt on them.

[vfb]

Tuidjy said:
I would not launch anything sacred against the new guardians. Keep in mind, the
fatigue effect triggers always, they do not have to land a blow. Any sacred
SC, including a Seraph will get swamped and will faint in two-three turns. Of
course, those standing over his corpse are likely to be burned and blinded...

But a few naked Skrattir will have a good time (Quicken self, breath of winter, change shape)

By the way, casting Breath of Winter with a Niefel Jarl is impossible.

Maybe your Jarl was wearing a Rime Hauberk? That would make it impossible, because it's the same effect. But a naked Jarl has no problem casting Breath of Winter, and gets +6 to his Chill aura when he does so.

[Foodstamp]

Xavier said:
Is twist fate better than berserk, though? Because I'm pretty sure you can argue that 5% more regen (3-4 more hp/turn) is going to buy you more than +1 MR. And you don't need the S9 for late-game astral, since that chassis has a misc spot for a booster.

Oh yeah, and yes you can stick a berserker pelt on them, but that's a spot that has a lot of other potential uses.

For that matter, is e4 worth it on that pretender? By fiddling with scales you can pretty easily get S9/N9, but then you could E4/S8/N8 or E4/S9/N6 or S6/N9 (though then you give up on arcane nexus and wish on your pretender).

Really it depends. In single player I would probably take the higher nature bless. BTW with your preferences, you can still hit Wish and Arcane Nexus with two rings your pretender is able to forge out of the box.

On Niefel Jarls you can go several directions with your bless, the monolith was just an example. I play a variety of pretenders and blesses with Niefelheim.

The ones that I think don't add much value are:

Any level of Fire: Your already one shotting enemies, fire is not needed.

Any level of Air: Air shield is ok, but some of your jarls can cast the best version of it from turn one of the game.

Any level of death: There is not much difference between an enemy that just got one shotted and one that just got one shotted and now has a limp.

Any level of blood: Instead of hitting that militia guy for 30 damage, you just hit him for 33.

The ones that give the most value to jarls are:

Low/mid nature: Yay, regen.

High Nature: Berserk can be a death sentence to jarls in certain situations, but in single player this added bonus is pretty handy.

Any level of Astral: Yay, Magic Resistance.

Any level of Earth: Reinvigoration, +4 protection is pretty damn nice as well.

Mixed feelings:

Water bless: The most uber of blesses, but I normally cast quicken self, so I dunno. If I use the Son of Fenrir pretender often I will double bless with something like 9 water/6-8 nature.

Xavier, I guess the point I am trying to make is, I am not trying to compare berserk against twist fate. I don't like berserk personally. I like twist fate as an added bonus, but not something I would base any bless strategy around, its just a side effect of that particular pretender design.

[Tuidjy]

Damn. I just tried it, and the Jarl in question will cast it if it is the
second or third spell, but not if it is the first one. What the Hell?

His buddy will cast it every time. Hmm... the only difference is that one
is empowered in Astral. Anyone got any idea what is going on? Why bother
testing before you post when the test is messed up.

By the way, for Niefelheim, I prefer a low key combination of nature and earth.
Level six at most. I usually end up with a S6 pretender, but I do not think
that the Jarls benefit from the +2 to magic resistance from the blessing.

[Xavier]

ok cool, that all sounds quite reasonable. But keep in mind the monolith only has 1 magic item spot, for a misc - so no you can't get up there with 2 rings. 1 is your max.

Also...I was just doing some testing with astral...in the first few turns with a self-blessed jarl...MR wasn't going up? It said:
Base Magic Resistance: 18
Blessed +3
Current Magic Resistance: 18

What gives?

[Foodstamp]

What is your magic/drain scale?

[Xavier]

-2...but 0 in one of the provinces and -1 in the other. same turn, both jarls gained 0 MR after blessing themself, although it says +3 blessed, the total is the same as the base amount.

[ryo_akashi]

+MR from Astral blessing does not go above 18.

[Xavier]

orly? so...astral bless is...useless on jarls, which have base 18? is that documented somewhere, or is it a bug?

[Foodstamp]

That's lame.