Machaka screwed more than ever ?

[chrispedersen]

It removes all the fatigue, and, iirc it ends the berserk.

[Verjigorm]

That's a 6 gem per battle thug and it means that the Black Sorcerer can't have any items in slots other than the 2 Misc slots. Is there really that much advantage over just buffing a hunter spider?

[chrispedersen]

Even without the elixir, berserk means the spider will not route upon transformation.

[Verjigorm]

I have discovered what I think is probably a bug with the Colossal Fetish. If the fetish is in an army when it routs, it dies instantly kinda like a regular mindless unit.

[chrispedersen]

Well, I happen to agree it is not the kind of behaviour I'd like to see in a pretender.

But its well known behaviour. Still if you send it in to illwinter, maybe they'll fix it.

[Verjigorm]

Here would be a similar pretender based on the Titan chassis that works strangely well in this build. He gets a good boost to air magic over the fetish but isn't quite as capable an SC.

Titan (Body 602, 90 hits)
Magic: Air 5 Earth 6 Astral 4 Nature 4
Dominion 4
Scales: Order 3 Sloth 3 Heat 3 Growth 3
Dormant

Still... I like him. Not as thematic though which is why I took the fetish initially. The Air-5 is a welcome addition both for battle magic and interesting rituals.

I suppose the Lords of the Desert Sun and Summer Plague would be thematic, but their basic magic paths aren't as useful as the Titan.

[chrispedersen]

There are a few other ways to handle the problem with the fetish.

Berserker pelt works pretty well.

I dont know if you read my take on machaka ver, but I like giving berserker pelt, and trample boots to the fetish.

[13lackGu4rd]

an SC with S4 is just asking for magic duels. even lowly S1/S2 mages will often times get through thanks to the RNG. astral is important alright, but Lizard Shamans, Onyx Sorceresses, etc aren't too uncommon, and there are the more uncommon ones in Loremasters, Enchantresses, Metallic Orders, etc. so finding astral mages shouldn't be too much of a hustle. than just empower said mages in whatever magic combination you need, assuming they don't already come with it, and you can remove the astral component from your pretender to make him much more reliable while SCing.