Looking for help with SC pretenders

[Vynd]

It's always seemed to me that the most crucial spells for your early expansion, indy-killing, SC are Mistform and Mirror Image. Ironskin/Invulnerability are next on my list. I've experimented with many of the chassis that people have mentioned (Ghost King, Wyrm, etc.) with some air and earth magic but none of this "1 point of fire for fire shield, 2 points of water for quickness and breath of winter." And they've mostly done just fine against all but the toughest indies. And this frees up quite a few more points to use on some non-SC related magic paths, or on better scales.

Have other people found that quickness, BoW, or fire shield, really make a big difference? I haven't been seeing it but I know there are plenty of folks with more experience than I have.

On a different note, one thing I have noticed is very helpful in cleaning out indies is a powerful Fear aura. When I tried a Carrion Dragon chasis with 7 Death magic on top of his naturally very high Fear, he would often rout high morale units with just a single kill. Regular morale units often ran without even getting close enough to fight. He had no air or earth magic at all but still had no trouble with indies, not even knights. A Prince of Death could probably do something similar, although I haven't tried it.

[Kel]

Vynd said:
Have other people found that quickness, BoW, or fire shield, really make a big difference? I haven't been seeing it but I know there are plenty of folks with more experience than I have.

I pretty well always build in quickness for an early indie clearer. I start with quickness, ironskin, mistform, mirror image. All the others you listed (+ a few others like Soul Vortex) can help later, against other players, but for non flying indies, that usually does the trick with pretty much any pretender.

Vynd said:
A Prince of Death could probably do something similar, although I haven't tried it.

The PoD is great for routing indies with fear. The only thing I run into with him is that if I don't give him the aforementioned spells, I occasionally lose him to some group that got lucky with their morale roles. I still use him but only when I really want the death magic anyway (as it should be). He is also one of my favorite choices for Miasma Ctis.

- Kel