A guide to buffing

[Truper]

Nice work, QM.

I'll just add a couple of how-to examples. If you'd really like to see the power of buffing, try the following:

Play Caelum. Choose a Ghost King for your pretender. Give him 3-4 air, 3-4 earth, 1-2 water. Begin the game by researching Alteration 3. Once you reach it, position your GK at the back of the battle board, have him cast Quickness, Mistform, Ironskin, Mirror Image and attack closest. There are very few indy provinces that can stand up to this. If there are a lot of crossbows in the province, add Air Shield before or after Quickness. Caelum is a good nation to try this with since you get 120 design points from taking cold 3, and the ghosts your pretender occasionally spawns are more effective in the cold since they have a chill aura. Also, researching Alteration 3 gets you closer to Alteration 6, and the infamous False Horror spam - a topic for another tutorial

If you'd prefer a less expensive and somewhat quicker-out-of-the-gate pretender, we can take a look at the Astral Wyrm QM mentioned: one of my favorite pretenders. Play most any nation. Slap a few astral on your Wyrm. I like 3. Research to Alteration 1. Position him fairly close to the front of the battle board, have him cast Personal Luck, and attack closest. This works against most anything except heavy cavalry or large numbers of crossbows. The Wyrm is a nice choice for this sort of pretender since he has regeneration, which reduces the chances of afflictions, and has 2 attacks per turn without needing quickness - and therefore without needing water magic. His attacks do a lot of damage since he has great strength, and are also very poisonous. Once you're out conquering, begin Researching enchantment. When you hit 2, you can add Astral Weapon to his script, and when you hit 3, add Astral Shield.

[Chazar]

• Ironskin: is the +3 bonus really worth casting for creatures already having more than 20 protection in total? Does it matter how this 20 points of protection are achieved (i.e. can the spell raise protection by more than 3 points despite already having a end-total of 20 due to other buffs, items, etc.)?
• Mixed-mode-buffs:What about mixed path buffs? E.g.: I just discovered that my pretender could cast StrengthOfGaia (Conj4) and wonder whether it is a useful spell I did not notice before (I fear that its protection component will destroy my pretenders fire immunity)?
• Area Buffs for Solos:Is it sensible to script area buffs like Strength of Giants for Solo-Fighters or is there always a better non-area spell at hand?

Sorry if some of this questions are stupid, but they just came to my mind without much thought when thinking about buffs...

[Boron]

Maybe we should only discuss based upon Zen's mods since almost nobody plays MP nowadays without these mods anymore.
There are now some important changes, like soul vortex is now so expensive that it is probably rarely used with a SC anymore. Then the GK is nerfed a bit, while other Chassis like the Father of Serpents are now better SCs .

If you are so kind you could base your further posts solely upon Zen's mods and not upon vanilla, QM

[Endoperez]

If someone needs guide to buffing, they are new to multiplayer. That probably means they aren't yet playing with Zen's mods. Also, if someone has just arrived to this forum, they probably don't yet know about Zen's mods. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think people at Quarter to Three use Zen's mods much.

[Oversway]

Nicely written. I would mention that even if you don't have all of these spells, many items give the same effects, so take that into consideration.

[Bummer_Duck]

Endoperez said:
If someone needs guide to buffing, they are new to multiplayer.

This was extremely helpful! I haven't used a mod, yet. Thanks all! QM and Truper especially. It's helping my race design and expansion strategies already.

[quantum_mechani]

Chazar said:

• Ironskin: is the +3 bonus really worth casting for creatures already having more than 20 protection in total? Does it matter how this 20 points of protection are achieved (i.e. can the spell raise protection by more than 3 points despite already having a end-total of 20 due to other buffs, items, etc.)?
• Mixed-mode-buffs:What about mixed path buffs? E.g.: I just discovered that my pretender could cast StrengthOfGaia (Conj4) and wonder whether it is a useful spell I did not notice before (I fear that its protection component will destroy my pretenders fire immunity)?
• Area Buffs for Solos:Is it sensible to script area buffs like Strength of Giants for Solo-Fighters or is there always a better non-area spell at hand?

Sorry if some of this questions are stupid, but they just came to my mind without much thought when thinking about buffs...

Ironskin past 20 prot is another of those that is likely worth it if you have a free slot, but there are higher priority things. Strength of gaia is certainly often useful. Particularly underwater where you don't have to worry very much about fire. Strength of giants is iffy, but again, with nothing else to fill the slot you might consider it.

I consider this topic mostly mod-neutral, the only changed buff I can think of is soul vortex, and what I said about it still applies.

As for buffs/semi-buffs I missed (holy avenger, eagle eyes, aim), they do not for the most part fit into super combatant strategies, which is what I'm trying to clear up. Also note that I did not say anything about the various elemental resistance spells, it is fairly obvious that you should use them if you expect to face that kind of magic.

The chill aura is fatigue damage only. I do not know the exact damage of BoW, but as a rough guide, in a cold climate it might kill a 10HP troop in one turn, in warmer climate they could survive maybe three or so turns.

[FrankTrollman]

I would like to point out that I personally play multiplayer without Zen's Mods. I agree and disagree with Zen's choices and rebalances in roughly equal measure, thereby making the addition of that mod a complete waste of time on my part.

-Frank

[ioticus]

FrankTrollman said:
I would like to point out that I personally play multiplayer without Zen's Mods. I agree and disagree with Zen's choices and rebalances in roughly equal measure, thereby making the addition of that mod a complete waste of time on my part.

-Frank

I would guess most people are in the same boat. Why on earth he increased the power of the Vine Ogre, for example, is beyond me.

[quantum_mechani]

ioticus said:

I would guess most people are in the same boat. Why on earth he increased the power of the Vine Ogre, for example, is beyond me.

I would say everyone seems to be in thier own boat.

Among multiplayers I would say most enjoy the pretender mod, the other mods vary in popularity.

As for the vine ogres, the changes were for thematic, rather than balance reasons. And with the improvement of other ways of spending nature gems, they are probably used less than in the base game.