Better Know a Pretender: The Virtue

[aaminoff]

I think the Virtue is an awesome pretender, and I use the word advisedly. It works for me for Arco. However, you have to embrace the concept of Dominion-killing as what Arco is about. So pump up Dom to 9 or 10 (I think I did 10). This puts the Awe up to +7. This still was not enough, however, so I shelled out the points for Water 4. The boost to defence took it from getting hit once or twice in a fight with small-medium indys, acquiring an affliction, and needing to come back to be healed, to getting hit never. You can also very quickly research Ench-1 for Grip of Winter.

That is a lot of points, but Arco can have the points to spend. The only disadvantage is the bless you get is anemic, so you cannot throw your Oreiads around with quite the same lack of concern as you can with a bigger bless.