Should improving Arcoscephale Golden Era be a priority?

[Blitz]

My problem with TC is that the Celestial master, while versitile, lacks focus. I don't play TC much, but as I recall they only get level 2 water, is that right? I guess they scream for power of the spheres, but for my money I'll take a more focused mage any day. That's just personal taste though, and not really a weakness of the theme... just a big reason why I don't play it.

Master of the way on the other hand, is awesome. Too bad celestial masters weren't more like Theurgs or other more focused power mages.

Celestial Masters are one of the best mages in the game bar none.

Right near High Seraphs in my book for effectiveness. It's not uncommon in games with me to have 9 out of 10 of the slots filled with CM's laying down the unbridled punishment.

Unfortunately, their weakness can't be averted (I.E. 1 Astral). And when playing against people of any sort of skill, sending out throw away troops to Duel your masters is a common practice. And so either you are forced to take an Astral King/Queen which is dangerous in and of itself, or know that you can't use your mages.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Scott Hebert:
Since this is not a problem endemic to TC, but rather to Magic Duel, that suggests an imbalance issue with the Duel, not TC. That is to say, TC may be unbalanced, but it is Magic Duel that unbalances it. Therefore, any change should be made to Magic Duel, since this is not the only place where Magic Duel is warping the game (Pretender selection comes to mind).

Well, Magic Duel is the maker or breaker of Astral magic on a unit, and it DOES have a profoundly strong warping influence on the amount of Astral that is good....but whether this is an unbalanced thing or not, I dunno. Magic Duel is, however, a fairly potent attack against any astral mage that isn't ludicrously strong: It's totally accurate, and guaranteed to find the most powerful Astral mage on the battlefield and kill him if he isn't greater than +6 over the opposing duellists. Is Astral so powerful it needs such a hamhanded counterbalance? Hard to say.

[ June 21, 2004, 04:20: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Blitz]

Celestial Masters are one of the best mages in the game bar none.

Right near High Seraphs in my book for effectiveness. It's not uncommon in games with me to have 9 out of 10 of the slots filled with CM's laying down the unbridled punishment.

Yep, matter of taste though. I prefer astral magic and astrologers. They are damn cheap at 180 gold, and quickly get up to astral 5 with a cap each and a banner for the team. Yeah they are capitol-only, but it's not like they lack mobility. IMHO astrologer is right up there with Arch Seraph, and 60 points cheaper than the CM.

As if Vanheim needed any more toys, the Midgaard Volva are an even better deal at SS for 120. Nothing like a team of 30 of them mind deuling, soul slaying, paralysing, and stealing troops from the other side. Maybe not the bang for the buck of the battlefield that the fortune teller or seithkona are, but they've always been my personal favorite.

Originally posted by Blitz:

quote:

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Celestial Masters are one of the best mages in the game bar none.

Right near High Seraphs in my book for effectiveness. It's not uncommon in games with me to have 9 out of 10 of the slots filled with CM's laying down the unbridled punishment.

Yep, matter of taste though. I prefer astral magic and astrologers. They are damn cheap at 180 gold, and quickly get up to astral 5 with a cap each and a banner for the team. Yeah they are capitol-only, but it's not like they lack mobility. IMHO astrologer is right up there with Arch Seraph, and 60 points cheaper than the CM.

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CM's have spells that cannot be resisted, with Eagle Eyes can hammer into SC's that are trying to tear though them.

[tinkthank]

I'd say that boosting Arco GA would be about *the* lowest thing on my priority list, which is not to say there is no need for tweakings, but simply because there are soooo many more global issues I would rather see addressed first (bugfixes, interface fixes, AI tweakage).

And although I am not a competetive player, I definately agree with the assessment that CMs are the best mages around, bar none -- especially if we are talking about S&A. BK I don't play, so I can't say, but even in default they rock; together with imperial archers etc., they make insane support mages as well, basically being able to cast anything you really ever want with the right random and even minimal gear and power of the spheres / summon phoenix power/etc.

[Norfleet]

I'd say that there's nothing really *WRONG* with GE Arco, and that there are far more busted themes out there: RotR Caelum, BK TC, NE Pan, are themes that are very much unpopular and underwhelming. Let's do something about that first!