Two questions

[Gandalf Parker]

OK you forced me to give this up before I could utilize it.

the Arch Mage of Oceania
Not only is it very efficient in gaining that double bless but you also gain 10 extra research points in making great use of all of that magic. And Oceania is able to handle some harmful scales to pay for it.

By the way, for other people reading this we maybe should mention that these are NOT the best pretenders for dual bless. They are only recommendations for a Fire 9 and Water 9 bless strategy. Other bless strategies can make use of some other very useful pretenders.

I also find it interesting that there seem to be all kinds of dual magic pretenders but no fire and water ones. Maybe Kristoffer should make a mental note to keep an eye out for a pretender that would fit that just to fill that hole.

[Zen]

What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

[dirtywick]

Zen said:
What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

It's probably near as good as most other pretenders going for a F9W9 bless simply because the Archmage is really cheap and the new path cost is cheap. I haven't done the math, but I think you'd probably wind up with around the same cost or more with most other pretenders, and in any case it's probably the best choice if you want to use that bless with Atlantis.

[Gandalf Parker]

Zen said:
What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

He has it. It seemed to cost the same. It took me -3 -3 -2 scales to get it either with Solar Disc or Oceania Mage. the OM costs 0 to get and 10 to add a magic path so that might be the balancer.

I remember testing blessing strategies in Dom2 and being surprised that sometimes a 0 cost 10 to start pretender was better, and other times a pretender with a head start was better. I might run those experiments again one of these days

[mivayan]

Gandalf Parker said:
I also find it interesting that there seem to be all kinds of dual magic pretenders but no fire and water ones. Maybe Kristoffer should make a mental note to keep an eye out for a pretender that would fit that just to fill that hole.

An acid pretender? (that's the only water + fire spells iirc).

Could be that they dont want F9W9 any more popular/powerfull than it already is.