Death Bless

[MaxWilson]

It affects direct-damage spells (Blade Wind, Cloud of Death), Battlefield spells (Fire Storm, Earthquake, Bone Grinding), and overland spells (Seeking Arrow, Flames From the Sky). I've never tested whether it works on global spells like the one that sends lightning against enemies in your dominion, but it works great for everything else. In one test a D9-blessed Svartalf did a Rain of Stones on an army of 100 Ambibate Nobles. About 25 died and another 50 were afflicted. It's terrific for afflicting whole armies.

How much you like that depends upon how much you care about afflicting enemies, vs. actually killing them.

-Max

[Edratman]

I was pondering the effect of the death bless for mages as a means of crippling SC's, powerful rushes (such as Nefelheim or elephants, and high hit point pretenders in the home castle. It would also be potent for a mage raid on a powerful army with a blade wind and retreat script for example.

[Wahnsinniger]

Throw the Blood-9 Death Curse on there, and using cheap Sacreds like Flagallents or mictlan's, then the enemy army is doomed whether they win or lose.

[Kristoffer O]

My brother just pointed out that this probably means that the heroic ability 'legendary cruelty' also affects spells in the same manner (it gives some fear and increased affliction chances).

[MaxWilson]

Don't bother with the cheap sacreds. Use a single sacred mage and a spell like Earthquake or Rain of Stones. (Edit: IIRC, the death curse gives an MR resist roll.)

However, "Doomed" is a bit strong. "Annoyed" might be better. Much like the spell Leprosy, the main effect is probably psychological. People hate having their pretty armies messed up.

-Max

[PyroStock]

Kristoffer O said:
My brother just pointed out that this probably means that the heroic ability 'legendary cruelty' also affects spells in the same manner (it gives some fear and increased affliction chances).

Does anyone know how Legendary Cruelty scales? Does the Fear also increase over time? Unlike other heroic abilities there's nothing to show where this starts and how it scales up. I have it on a sacred unit (rainbow w/ 4Death bless) so I presume those both stack, but I'm wondering how good this heroic ability is... I'm tempted to retire him and let a new hero in (it's just SP so I control the Hall of Fame for the most part).

[Edi]

Legendary Cruelty is much like Heroic Agility in that it combines two different abilities in one package. Heroic Agility combines Heroic Battle Prowess and Lightning Reflexes with a bit of a bonus with the ambidex, Legendary Cruelty combines Battle Bellow (gives fear and increases over time) with the increased affliction chance.

[Kristoffer O]

I don't think the fear effect increases, but the affliction chance does.