Father of Winters

[rdonj]

It's also hard to name specific counters without knowing the gear of the FoW. That said I'm only going to be commenting on already discussed options anyway.

Vine Bow - Easy to test if it works regardless of shield check or not. I don't use these often because I don't generally like them very much, but vine arrows entangle regardless of whether they hit or not. Vine bows should be the same as the spell, in theory, but it is vaguely possible that they don't.

Vine Shields - IIRC these rely on an MR test to see if you get entangled. If they don't, it's a strength test (but I'm very certain it's not). Again very easy to test (just get someone with a vine shield and have an elephant attempt to attack them). In either case though, a FoW is not an ideal target.

Defense has 0 effect on missiles. Only shield parry values or air shield can block missiles, and then it's up to protection to absorb them if that fails.

[rdonj]

Trumanator informs me that what I said about vine shields is wrong. Well, this is why we preface with IIRC It's been so long since I've actually used them and had to know how they work that I'm not 100% sure of the mechanics. What I am sure of is that he has a very different idea of how they work than I do, and there have been wildly different theories on the exact mechanics in the past on the forums.

[Finalgenesis]

shield have a massive impact on the effectiveness of missiles, so I wouldn't bother with that if the FoW has a decent shield.

I'm under the impression that piercer can bypass shield parry as a special ability though (test it), and the vine bow I'm unsure if it can bind if it is parried in the current incarnation (1.92?). botulfs is an option if he uses a weak shield though, if not cost effective, but getting just 1 arrow to stick will feeblemind him which opens him up to a lot of MR spells and kills his casting.

And before I do anything I'd spirit curse him, if you can get some damage in and cause some of the more deadly affliction that would seal his fate. If piercer work through shield, curse + piercers with enough meatshield (undeads) up front should do it unless he's got windshield or similar.

If you want to try boulders be sure to practice and test formation, they aren't the easiest thing to use and will easily get engaged in hth if you aren't very careful and experienced. I'm unsure on how their damage work with FoW's prot either.

As mentioned, units swarms can tie him up well but that's somewhat gear dependent. If he's not fatigue neutral you can certainly swarmed him to death.

What sort of gear does he use?

I also seem to recall that EA Agartha has water magic, if you can get a some quickness buff on your elite troops (or SC killer equipped thugs) and chaff with swarm undeads you should pop him no problem.

If his armor isn't extremely high stellar cascade is very effective, but you need it to hit him (have the mage closer to the front) and you can only try it 5 times per astral mage. Getting a few shots on target though would drop his effective armor, def and att by quite a bit and make him pass out quickly.

[Finalgenesis]

There was a shield thread a long time along where extensive testing was done on vine shield, I believe the verdict was that it was definitely MR based. I'll dig it up and link if anyone is interested.

[Soyweiser]

Please do.

[Finalgenesis]

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45988

Actually reading it again now refreshed a few things about shields I forgot from my dom break.

[jimkehn]

ok he has a ring of tamed lightning a talisman that allows him to raise the dead (forget the name) and a light weight scale mail. Bow of Botulf was the thing I was thinkinng of cuz that will make him feebleminded and negate his buff spells. Also what about the eye shield or whatever its called. If I blinded him in both eyes will he be able to attack? and is it MR?

[Finalgenesis]

his equipment sounds pretty harmless, and no shields from the sound of it, a single botulf will feeble him.

He has no AoE attack (not even magical), lowish prot, no reinvig either, skelly spam, ethereal undead spam will end him pretty quickly. Assuming you have Ench 1, 1D mage can summon 10 skelly for 2D, based on the equipment description, 50 skellies can end him (10D worth) though you'll probably want a bit more as insurance. You can spam animate dead at the same time and be sure to stick a spirit curse on him. Of course if he has good spell access, experienced player control, and changed equipment you'll have to reassess.

It sounds like the game is still pretty early and research are weak, if that is not the case be sure to hold the undead back and scattered for 5 turns before letting them charge (or just use skelly spam spell), W has some scaled AoE anti-undead spell. A 8W cleansing water (evoc 4) for example could wipe out a big clump of weak undead.

Cold fearing, big, clumsy and trampler troops are pretty much the absolute worst thing to use against him.

eye shield is MR based, so you need something that can tank him for a few rounds, based on his gear I wouldn't bother arming thugs/SCs to counter him.

[jimkehn]

well I love the swarm spell....a lot cheaper on gems than 10D. I have taken down guys like this before with swarm....haah its kinda fun to watch him swat at those little bugs to no avail.

[Dahis39]

awaken FoW or Titan is what i gonna run on my next ma cealum mp XD.

As both natural air path Pretenders, air shield just counter all your bow tricks imo. Alos, dont forget mist or storm can be easily cast by cealum mages.