Trying to improve my MA Abyssia Pretender Design

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by DeadlyShoe

Why are lava warriors crap? They have good hp, good prot, good AS, berserk, lotsa stuff. Their only real downside in my view is expense. (At least in CBM 1.71. Bear in mind the armor revamp.)

Generally, there are two types of good sacred troops:
(1) low resource troops that can be massed easily and given a big bless like F9W9 which multiplies their combat effectiveness. See MA Ermor (S9 is the key bless here), all Mictlans (often dual-triple blessed), EA TC, etc...

(2) Troops who can be given enough survival and net-neutral encumbrance to outlast almost any opposition. Nieflheim, many sacred cavalry, Ashdod, etc... EA Abysia's sacreds are good enough to qualify here, mostly because of their fire shield and powerful heat aura.

So what do lava warriors have?
Massability: no
Survivability: no. No shield, only 17 protection, abominable defense which berzerker only makes worse, impossible to get net neutral on fatigue because of berzerk.

Really, the moment you see 41 resources, its time to seriously reconsider using them.

And even if you were to use them, they would absolutely need an E9+N4+ bless. They're pointless without it. And MA Abysia cannot afford the pretender design points for that, nor does it really care to.

Which leaves lava warriors as just a crappy unit that should never see play.

MA Abysia is not about national troops. They're about demons, demons, and more demons. With a side of demons. National troops are glorified arrow catchers.

(Burning ones vs. Lava warriors: Burning warriors have 1.33x as many hp, more str, 1 higher attack, 2x as much heat aura, *fire shield*, and the exact same resource cost. They also belong to a nation that can't dive into blood as easily as MA Abysia can, so they don't really have an alternative strategy).