Enlightenment of a SP Addict

[Vynd]

Some random responses to your random thoughts...

There's two ways to keep your Pretender from getting mangled fighting Indies. One is to take a Pretender with Immortality or Recuperation. Either ability means that they will eventually heal whatever afflictions they get. Regeneration reduces the chances of getting afflictions, I think, but doesn't prevent it entirely.

The other way is to keep your Pretender from getting hit very much. This is why most people who are building a Pretender for early game expansion give him/her air magic to cast mistform and mirror image. High protection or Earth magic to cast Ironskin is also important. Etherealness helps a lot too. Combine all of this stuff and you can get through battles with barely a scratch.

Wrathful skies is more effective if there's a storm. Try bringing a Staff of Storms along with you next time you want to use it.

Earth Attack is a just plain nasty spell.

[Boron]

Vynd said:
Earth Attack is a just plain nasty spell.

Yeah normally Ghost Riders is more effective because it can kill SCs too .
Earth Attack only kills the weaker commanders but e.g. Sauromancers / Dusk Elders / Demilichs who can cast drain life will very often defeat the Earth elemental as well as SCs of course

[Caseus]

I thought Ghost Riders attacked a province. If so, a SC inside a castle or protected by a decent army is likely safe. Earth Attack avoids the army issue entirely.

I haven't seen a lot of commanders that can withstand multiple Earth Attacks. I saw one Pretender, may have been Ctis, with Ritual of Returning and some spell that turns him into a wight when he dies. I cast 6 earth attacks that turn, and he died on the 5th. All it takes is a couple of hits per elemental.


Caseus

[Boron]

Caseus said:
I thought Ghost Riders attacked a province. If so, a SC inside a castle or protected by a decent army is likely safe. Earth Attack avoids the army issue entirely.

I haven't seen a lot of commanders that can withstand multiple Earth Attacks. I saw one Pretender, may have been Ctis, with Ritual of Returning and some spell that turns him into a wight when he dies. I cast 6 earth attacks that turn, and he died on the 5th. All it takes is a couple of hits per elemental.


Caseus

Yeah ghost riders only attacks the province .
But if there is no castle in the province or the SC is sieging a castle of yours etc. he can only escape via magical movement on his own .

Your earth elemental kills of course Ai pretenders etc. but on a human SC you can cast a lot cause they have only an attack rating of 9 so they won't hit often and with trampling this works not very well against high def and against etheral SCs it is almost useless .
A Vq e.g. is even unequipped almost impossible to kill by the earth elemental .

Normally ghost riders do more damage and they are lifeless too .
And most important with most nations Death 5 casters are easier to get than Earth 4 casters for earth attack :
Just a demilich with a skull staff with the sidebenefit that the demilich is a formidable unit on it's own too


For ultimate SP fun try the following VQ : Air 2 , Water 2 , Fire 2 , Death 3 , Earth 3 .
You can cast then Invulnerability , quickness , mistform , cloud trapeze for magic travel , mirror image , soul vortex , fire shield , phönix pyre .
For the ai this VQ is very hard to kill .





What is a RP ? Rainbow pretender ?

[Caseus]

I have had abysmal success killing VQs with Earth Attack. My record is 0 kills for 20+ attempts. I've never seen so many experience stars on a Pretender before....

After checking the manual I will concede that Ghost Riders are pretty damn disgusting. 5 death gems gets you 33 longdead horseman and a FREAKING WRAITH LORD??? Who cares that they're not under your control. For 30 death gems you can have 198 horsemen and 6 wraith lords running amuck in some schmuck's home province.

That VQ sounds pretty terrifying. What's soul vortex?

RP is rainbow pretender. As Gandalf said, they work great on huge maps.

[Boron]

Caseus said:
I have had abysmal success killing VQs with Earth Attack. My record is 0 kills for 20+ attempts. I've never seen so many experience stars on a Pretender before....

After checking the manual I will concede that Ghost Riders are pretty damn disgusting. 5 death gems gets you 33 longdead horseman and a FREAKING WRAITH LORD??? Who cares that they're not under your control. For 30 death gems you can have 198 horsemen and 6 wraith lords running amuck in some schmuck's home province.

That VQ sounds pretty terrifying. What's soul vortex?

RP is rainbow pretender. As Gandalf said, they work great on huge maps.

Soul vortex is alteration 6 . Needs death 3 to cast . It is a drain life damage shield . Works very well with Wraith lords too .

Because VQ is etheral trample hits only in 1/4 th of the cases or in 1/8 if the VQ has luck too . VQ has regeneration and not too bad DEF so no wonder that you had no success with earth attack .


With ghost riders it is 2 edged . If the defender has a castle and nobody on patrolling then you only wipe out his PD , the ghost riders disappear and the province converts back to his owner .
Ghost riders is an excellent spell to kill single SCs or smaller armies which attack you . Ghost riders is a reason why you should castle important provinces .

[Caseus]

Oh you're kidding. Wraith Lords can cast a drain life damage shield? That's just disturbing.

My Wraith Lords typically run around with wraith swords, chainmail of displacement, spirit helm, boots of flying, amulet of antimagic and pendant of luck. Their mission is set to Attack Rear. Should I script it cast Soul Vortex, Attack Closest Enemy instead? I could probably eat a whole lot of regular troops that way.

[Caseus]

Vynd said:
This is why most people who are building a Pretender for early game expansion give him/her air magic to cast mistform and mirror image. High protection or Earth magic to cast Ironskin is also important. Etherealness helps a lot too.

Well, I've used Body Ethereal. That works great. Mistform? Mirror Image? Umm...used those all the time! Yeah! *coughs*


Caseus