Seeking MP Serpent Cult Advice

[thejeff]

But with no dominion, the scales will fade away over time, right?

Or on the borders, never get established.

[Ironhawk]

Heretics will reduce good scales (Order, Prod, Luck, Magic) but not bad ones. So if your nation has a mix of good and bad and have heretics reducing your dominion then you will be left with only bad scales. Was really amazed when I found this. I thought that heretics acted like a Stone Idol, where they just totally reduced all dominion in a prov, good and bad.

thejeff said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "only reduce beneficial friendly dominion"?

[VedalkenBear]

Ironhawk: Heretics might have effects on good scales, but that is not their function. Their function is to lower the dominion rating as a whole. I have not noticed anything about Heretics changing the actual scales of a province they are in, and I generally play with very good scales.

[Ironhawk]

Vedalken - yeah W9 looks like a good idea on paper. But the speed increase is marginal (from 7 to 10) and the extra attacks from quickness only really helps when your hydra has 1-2 heads left.

I did notice tho that Serpent Priests (the main la pyth mage) do get an astral random, so thats pretty sweet actually. Since they are custom made to bless your hydras in the first place, now they can also etherealize them.

No, heretics really are useless. You say they are good for dominion cleanup - but there are plenty of other things that are better. Temples. Prophets. Cheap indy priests that dont kill your dominion. The "value" of heretics is supposedly magical versatility, but honestly I'm not seeing it yet. You get a 1/20 blood pick and an uncommon F2 at the price of magnifying your bad dominion. How can you justify this?

[Velusion]

Ironhawk said:
Oh wow. Thats even more vulnerable than I thought they would be Meglobob. Man thats depressing. Thanks for the information tho, that really confirms a lot of my fears.

Air bless could be useful, but its a huge price to pay in like 6-8 air just to get airshield on a handful of units :/

Could go strait for Arrowfend - which is also on the way to Mass Flight.

[Ironhawk]

Nah, LA pyth doesnt have the mages to support either of those spells.

Ethereal hydras really is the correct answer to the arrow problem. But none of the LA pyth mages with astral are poison resistant.

[Sir_Dr_D]

{Sir_Dr_D whoeas abysia is one of Pythiums neighbors in this game quiety takes notes.}