Quote:
Originally Posted by atlatea
I guess that Scrounger is an exception to all classes, not only mage, most of the time, scrounger need unusual tactic.
Pain mirror also seems to be the bane of archdemon, sometimes pain mirror
is your best friend if you got hit by that halving attack.
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Indeed, pain mirror is loads of fun. With a normal army, I wouldn't mind the usual Pain Mirror, Turn Back Time combo. Just that early on, my army is not that strong. I didn't actually try, I just figured it would be too annoying.
I didn't have Turn Back Time that early on, and I really really didn't feel like casting Phantom non-stop to restore back my Rune Mages or Black Dragons.
I'm not sure if it is a bad bad bad luck roll, but facing about 12 Archdemons in my first visit to Montero is not really easy for me. How the heck did it spawn that...
I can surely wreck it now, but I can't go island hopping for time.
I do have to go back, but not sure if it is worth the time lost to hunt for monsters in a cavern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlatea
Some suggestion, try most elves unit, it works best with direct damage mage. Your elves will crowd control all your enemies, effectively delaying them while you're having fun dooming them with your mass destruction spells.
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I agree with enough crowd control this can work, although even then, I would almost rather use debuff/buff. With sooo many thorns, and since thorns are sooo low attack rating, helplessness will result in a big damage boost. And ugh, the whole waiting for mana thing afterwards. I hate that.
Pygmy can buff damage by 66%, etc. I can probably 2X the damage of all thorns by casting one 6 mana helplessness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlatea
Summoner mage have more efficient control to mana, however you still need to think, while damage mage is pure no brainer once you have very high int and the right unit composition.
Main problem with pure summoner mage is they rely heavily on fire damage. Damage mage can deal with any kind of threat. With the right units, it offer more versality in exchange for mana efficiency.
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Ah, there that's why this new patch changes EVERYTHING for me. Dragon of Chaos, the former, laughable junky summon, makes it verrry possible to roll around with just dragons and rune mages.
Dragon of Chaos does partial astral damage, so he can wreck shop. Oil Mist weakens anti-fire enemies. It is pretty scary. Plague, Helplessness, etc, makes enemy dragons fall easily.
Not to mention, why is it that if you go Summon, you can't go other spells too?
I have plenty of other spells, they are just mostly useless.
I would like to think I got better since I last played, but clearly the strategy is much better than I am.
Considering I have played the SAME saved game twice, with different agendas (one was going for Demonic 100% Crit, yum), the other going for Dragons/Runes/Ancient Phoenix and Dragon of Chaos, the run with the new Dragon of Chaos is MUCH faster and smoother.
Put it this way, I demolished the last room of the Wizard Tower. Demolished. I was totally shocked. First try, just went in and wiped it all out. I usually have to do some reloads with some funky Phantom Rune Mage action and a few prayers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlatea
In case of warrior 100% ranged crit, direct damage mage slightly wins in term of resurrecting and damage wise (unless the warrior use goblins) at early turn. However on longer turn, warrior win, because mage will surely run ouf of mana if she keeps casting mass damage spells. But versality once again favor mage.
Why don't try hybrid mage?
I've tried this, mage with very high int, 50-70 ish, minimum is 50, unit is mostly elves and humans, reason? crowd control is caster best friend whether it is mage or paladin, having both summoner and destruction at lv 3, play style is damage spell and summoner, it depends on the situation.
From my experience, it's the most versatile of all mage, and probably the most powerful one. The only downside is you need insane amount of magic crystal 
Try pain mirror, i was once losing hope againts archdemon in montero caves, then i consider pain mirror as my last resort, and it works, especially if they do halving attack.
Honestly i didn't even think that pain mirror was that useful. |
I can do the damage style, it just isn't efficient for me. I just see it as, I can do more damage with less mana, so why would I use the most mana expensive solution?
I only see it as useful if you cannot risk engaging your units directly. ala Solo Black Dragons facing enemy heroes early on and you don't have enough mana for summons.
That's why the summon is so good for me. It engages, damages, and distracts all in one. Battles are much faster for me in real time and in "game time" than if I did my old battling.
The Mage Summoner build has become the analogy of my Warrior Ranged Build (Porc flavored). Very smooth, very powerful. I can most definitely hodge podge other armies up, but <shrugs> I've played this game too many times to do that again.
I suggest you consider looking into the Dragon of Chaos again.
The changes they did to him are FANTASTIC.
I used to rely on Phantom a lot in my previous mage games, now I rarely use it.
@Minecontrol
Yeah, I hate fighting orc veterans. I should make an army of units I really hate fighting against, give that AI a taste of his own medicine. I sort of did that with the Porc build, which ended up being a Goblin Fest.
Anyway, that's my next game. Inspired by re-watching Shrek, I want to somehow make Ogres my main unit.