Air 9 bless: useless?

[archaeolept]

I think Blood 9 is arguably useful for Marignon Diabolic Faith in multiplayer.

dirt cheap auto-curses act as a deterrent, somewhat like miasma.

as well, the +4 str would quite help their dual attack...

[ March 19, 2004, 21:52: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[archaeolept]

[ March 19, 2004, 21:47: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by archaeolept:
I think Blood 9 is arguably useful for Marignon Diabolic Faith in multiplayer.

dirt cheap auto-curses act as a deterrent, somewhat like miasma.

as well, the +4 str would quite help their dual attack...

Except that you need to lose a troop for it to work

Still, I guess you might be right. While taking down a Knight of the Chalice is surely worth a curse, it might not feel so worthwhile with the flagellants. On the other hand, flagellants benefit much more from a high air or fire blessing than blood. The first allows them to avoid being mown down by archers, the second deals much more damage than the blood +4 strength bonus ever did.

At the end of the day, I think that, as your opponent, I would prefer my troops to end up cursed after defeating yours rather than dead after failing to do so because you used a stronger combat blessing.

Having my own troops cursed (yet victorious), while bad, is not very bad. The only troops I hate having cursed are my important commanders, and an enemy does not need blood-9 in MP to curse those, he can usually make do with totem shields.

That said, I have not tried actually facing a blood-9 Marignon blessing in MP. Who knows, the reality of it might change my perception.

[ March 19, 2004, 22:05: Message edited by: Peter Ebbesen ]

Blood 9 Blessing is what I'd like to call a joke. It's not even a guarenteed 'curse' but has a chance of cursing.

Even with +4 Strength a Blood 9 has no attraction outside of what you would be casting with the Blood (I don't see many low level Blood+ spells so only useful if you plan on getting Blood 8-9, which is quite a plan). Being able to rustle up some blood slaves is nice; but hardly worth the point cost of getting 9 Blood.

A much more attractive blessing would be one that includes a HP bonus. This I could see would have potential for use and abuse (which is the point of the 9 Blessings, right?)

[ March 19, 2004, 22:10: Message edited by: Zen ]

[archaeolept]

well, I certainly wouldn't want to argue that it is any good, really.

I know I never take it, and I like bless effects.
(Blood 4 is a nice addition sometimes, though. works well w/ W9 battle vestals or serpent dancers).

[ March 19, 2004, 22:19: Message edited by: archaeolept ]

[Saber Cherry]

I mentioned earlier that I thought "Unholy Thirst" would be a good Blood blessing, giving blessed units a life-draining "Bite" attack. But "Hemorrhagic Butchery", the art of striking an opponent to cause profuse bleeding, would be fun, too. It would be something like, "Any opponent wounded by a blood-9 blessed unit has a 25% chance of being affected by 'bleed', meaning they lose 1HP per combat turn until death."

[GavinWheeler]

But Air magic in general is certainly worthwhile - you get great direct damage spells like orb lightning as well as the precision to ensure they hit what you want them to hit. i.e. the 'indirect' effect of the school (improved precision) has a nice synergy with many of the spells of the school.

So it makes some sense that the blessing effect of the school is less powerful than those of some other shools. You don't want one school to have so many advantages as to overpower any other school, and balancing these sorts of issues is what the dynamic duo seem to do best.