What SC do you wish for?

[chrispedersen]

Hmmmm

4 Communion master with phoenix pyre, well in advance of the 8-10 communion slaves. Cover the whole line of battle

Comm Ms - Com Mas, FireShield, Phoenix Pyre, hold, hold,

Com Sl - Body Ethereal, Personal Luck, Communion slave

[MaxWilson]

I'm not sure what the goal of the above communion is--is it a linebacker communion where you're going to send the slaves in on Attack Closest while the masters fire crossbows? In that case, why aren't the masters casting different buffs? (Summon Earthpower/Invulnerability/Personal Luck/Soul Vortex/Phoenix Pyre/Fire Shield/Resist Magic/Astral Shield spring to mind.) Each slave will get every buff cast by at least one master.

The sad thing is, in my experience, whenever Phoenix Pyre is relevant in this setup (i.e. you're facing something that can actually kill ultra-buffed communion slaves) it tends to become irrelevant, in that the slaves pick up lots of nasty afflictions from their deaths without the weak fire attack doing real damage to the nasties that are killing them. I dunno, maybe if I tried this on slaves with worthwhile weapons instead of random Ktonian Necromancers with quarterstaffs it would work better. Essentially you'd be relying on Soul Vortex + magic weapons to do the actual killing, with Phoenix Pyre as simply insurance vs. failing an MR check vs. Disintegrate/Soul Slay.

-Max

[AreaOfEffect]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Hmmmm

4 Communion master with phoenix pyre, well in advance of the 8-10 communion slaves. Cover the whole line of battle

Comm Ms - Com Mas, FireShield, Phoenix Pyre, hold, hold,

Com Sl - Body Ethereal, Personal Luck, Communion slave

I think the point was to have exploding communion masters who shared their fatigue with the slaves in order to explode again and again. Though I honestly don't think it works that way.

[MaxWilson]

It's been reported that Phoenix Pyre fatigue (from dying) is shared via a communion, although I don't know if it's pathlevel-adjusted like spells are. So I guess the point of having slaves cast Body Ethereal/Personal Luck is just to harden them against random arrows and such, while the masters wade into personal combat?

It could work. The problem I see is that 1.) Phoenix Pyre is a weak attack (10 AP although w/ AoE 50), 2.) since your damage strategy relies on dying a lot, you'll pick up lots of nasty afflictions like Mute and have to get new masters for the next battle. I see this having use mostly in desperate situations like "must retake capital from surprise attack without any chaff troops or skelly spammers." In most other situations it would be better to just rain Falling Fires on them, w/ Phoenix Pyre as an insurance measure and not your primary damage tactic.

-Max

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

It's been reported that Phoenix Pyre fatigue (from dying) is shared via a communion, although I don't know if it's pathlevel-adjusted like spells are. So I guess the point of having slaves cast Body Ethereal/Personal Luck is just to harden them against random arrows and such, while the masters wade into personal combat?

It could work. The problem I see is that 1.) Phoenix Pyre is a weak attack (10 AP although w/ AoE 50), 2.) since your damage strategy relies on dying a lot, you'll pick up lots of nasty afflictions like Mute and have to get new masters for the next battle. I see this having use mostly in desperate situations like "must retake capital from surprise attack without any chaff troops or skelly spammers." In most other situations it would be better to just rain Falling Fires on them, w/ Phoenix Pyre as an insurance measure and not your primary damage tactic.

-Max

The point of casting luck and body ethereal is so that you don't kill your slaves with random blink + explosions.

Plus to prevent your enemies from killing with stray arrows. AoE 50 is pretty big.

More to the point, this strategy requires really only a few F1S1 mages, and more straight S1 sages, for example.

There are also some other .. interesting possibilities - but they up the costs.

A. Script them to attack whatever class you want... Large enemy monsters.
B. Equip them with bows of war, script them to fire.
C. Include a Blood Mage with the Relief spell.
D. IF you have 2-3 of these mages, you can cause the enemy not to be able to conquer a territory, due to time out.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

More to the point, this strategy requires really only a few F1S1 mages, and more straight S1 sages, for example. snip

D. IF you have 2-3 of these mages, you can cause the enemy not to be able to conquer a territory, due to time out.

I don't think that would actually work in practice. Mages with nothing but Fire Shield and Phoenix Pyre are pretty fragile, and frequently get killed twice or more in a turn. Your only source of reinvig is the 5/turn from being > 100, so even with all the slaves to share fatigue I think you won't survive long enough to reach timeout.

-Max