Priests

[vfb]

By the way, there used to be a bug with Crystal Matrix and holy-only priests.

They cast 4 times per turn instead of 1!

I haven't tested since the last 3 or 4 patches, so it may have been fixed.

[vfb]

If you can make a crystal shield, then you can make crystal/slave matrixes, which don't care about paths other than holy. So, just use some of those. They won't bog you down with encumbrance like the shield does either. You really only need 1 crystal matrix if you have any astral mages. What nation are you playing?

[MaxWilson]

Hmmm? Crystal Matrixes do care about having real (non-holy) paths. If you aren't a mage, they don't work for you.

To OP: about prophetizing. Note that you can increase your H arbitrarily high by prophetizing multiple times. One way to do this is via Ritual of Rebirth (every time the Prophet dies, RoR him and re-prophetize). KO says this is thematic--a Prophet who comes back from the dead 4 times is obviously holier than a regular old Prophet (H7!). I don't know of any other way to do this other than maybe Charming someone else's Prophet (he keeps his H3) and prophetizing him yourself.

-Max

[vfb]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

Hmmm? Crystal Matrixes do care about having real (non-holy) paths. If you aren't a mage, they don't work for you.

-Max

Did you test that recently Max? They must have fixed it then, because 1 year ago it was broken:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37086

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by vfb

Did you test that recently Max? They must have fixed it then, because 1 year ago it was broken:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37086

Mmm, no, I haven't recently. I tried it long ago... come to think of it, what I actually remember testing is that you can't use regular old priests or indy scouts as *slaves*. I didn't test them as *masters*.

[Two minutes later] And... you're right. Crystal matrix on an H1 priest lets him cast multiple H1 spells per round. Fatigue from communion masters is not spread to H1 communion priests even if they have a Slave Matrix, so they don't participate in communions for fatigue-pooling purposes. I didn't check this time whether H1 slaves participate for path-boosting purposes, but as I recall they don't. So, interesting.

-Max

[vfb]

It doesn't just let them cast multiple H1 spells per round. They get the full communion boost. So your H1 with 4 slaves can cast 4 smites per round. It always seems to cast 4 per round, as long as you have at least 2 slaves. Of course, with only 2 slaves an H1 can only cast H2 spells.

[Trumanator]

This makes me think that it would be kind of a cool idea to have a nation with lots of E and S magic and have a human commander with reinvig 5 or something as a communion slave.

[vfb]

I think it's not intentional (4 casts per round for a communion-boosted holy-only priest), so it's pretty much an exploit if you choose to do it.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "human commander". Communion slaves need at least one non-holy magic path (except Pythium communicants).

Slaves usually rack up fatigue pretty fast so reinvig 5 is not going to help a whole lot, and there's probably better things you can use your gems for.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by vfb

Slaves usually rack up fatigue pretty fast so reinvig 5 is not going to help a whole lot, and there's probably better things you can use your gems for.

Regen for slaves is sometimes much better than reinvigoration 5 for slaves. Even better if you can get a master to cast Soul Vortex, so the slaves all Soul Vortex each other + their chaff guards.

-Max

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

Regen for slaves is sometimes much better than reinvigoration 5 for slaves. Even better if you can get a master to cast Soul Vortex, so the slaves all Soul Vortex each other + their chaff guards.

-Max

Interesting. I wonder if there is a nation built along these lines:

Really need nature on the pretender for regen
and then sacred, big HP units
with blood/astral mages.