Anyone playing with Orcs?

[Karlos]

I never really tried them in CW and didn't touch them in WoTN. The whole concept of adrenaline seems a bit silly to me - in order for my orcs to use their abilities they first have to melee the enemy for three rounds? Seems ridiculous.

But how is it in practice? Is it really as annoying as it sounds?

And although I can imagine they just steamroll over the enemy, you probably lose a good number of troops doing that. I guess it could be fun if the reserve had more than 2 slots so you can replenish your ranks after each fight. But as things stand they have little appeal for me.

[Mandea]

No, it's fun using them. You may not even get to the 3rd round :)
there some skills and artefacts that give you adrenaline, so you can start the combat with level 2 adrenaline (in many fights). don't worry just try them, they are fun. there is a small problem with losses, you have to have ressurection spell or you will lose some troops. they don't have a paladin-like troop. you can receive some troops after the combat, but it's different.

[tiberiu]

I never really tried them in CW and didn't touch them in WoTN. The whole concept of adrenaline seems a bit silly to me - in order for my orcs to use their abilities they first have to melee the enemy for three rounds? Seems ridiculous.

But how is it in practice? Is it really as annoying as it sounds?

And although I can imagine they just steamroll over the enemy, you probably lose a good number of troops doing that. I guess it could be fun if the reserve had more than 2 slots so you can replenish your ranks after each fight. But as things stand they have little appeal for me.

I would say orcs were quite good units in CW. Some were nerfed in Wotn it seems. It's hard to find reasons to play with them unless you have items, skills or other bonuses for them as mentioned.

I dunno if they still have the ability but in CW Goblins incrased their attack by 5 every time they attacked.(probably at lvl 1 adrenaline which meant first attack they didn't). This made them much better then human archers to use, and also you can get to morale 10 with them as with all orc units.

The goblin shaman in CW had extremly high damaging astral attack and could reduce all resistances of enemies that he attacked. This has been nerfed in Wotn. The same with Blood Shaman. Some extremely high damaging talent they had. Now they are nerfed and they are weaker.

Orc Veteran was reduced from lvl 4 to lvl 3 which makes him much less a threat then he was before.

Furious Goblins with their high initiative -8, and high movement and irascible ability (increases speed if receive damage from spells) can provide nasty surprises. Also have a form of no retaliation attack.

I think I hate fighting against orcs more then I like playing with them. So they seem good when you are against them but weak when u play with them.

[skycrow]

Try it , they are very interesting to use.


I still regard Orcs as one of my favorite races even after i played Vikings in WotN .

[Karlos]

Hmm, I know there are skills that give them adrenaline at the start of each fight but it's like 30 for all five stacks or so if I remember correctly? So it's 6 each? Doesn't seem much when their best abilities need 3rd level of adrenaline.

I guess I find the concept of adrenaline annonying because it's the start of a battle when you need your most powerful abilities and bonuses, not the end when you just mop up. It seems they're designed to build up and become extremely powerful - in the 4th round :) So they'd be fantastic in those five or six key battles that last more than 3 rounds.

But ok, I'll try them for my next Skald playthrough and see.

[Xargon]

I think I hate fighting against orcs more then I like playing with them. So they seem good when you are against them but weak when u play with them.

I share this feeling, orcs are annoying to fight (furious goblins are very fast, chieftains steal action points, shamans have that probably bugged thread of life ability, etc). I don't think I ever went with an orc army (at least not for long), many of their units are not really awesome when used by the player - like furious goblins.

Adrenaline will probably get nasty if you find some way to tie up the enemy for a round at the beginning.

[blacklegionary]

Orcs are annoying to fight but they are not that good when we are using them. Enemy orcs have high amount of adrenaline at the start, (at end game thay may start at level 3)

[ckdamascus]

I would say orcs were quite good units in CW. Some were nerfed in Wotn it seems. It's hard to find reasons to play with them unless you have items, skills or other bonuses for them as mentioned.

I dunno if they still have the ability but in CW Goblins incrased their attack by 5 every time they attacked.(probably at lvl 1 adrenaline which meant first attack they didn't). This made them much better then human archers to use, and also you can get to morale 10 with them as with all orc units.

The goblin shaman in CW had extremly high damaging astral attack and could reduce all resistances of enemies that he attacked. This has been nerfed in Wotn. The same with Blood Shaman. Some extremely high damaging talent they had. Now they are nerfed and they are weaker.

Orc Veteran was reduced from lvl 4 to lvl 3 which makes him much less a threat then he was before.

Furious Goblins with their high initiative -8, and high movement and irascible ability (increases speed if receive damage from spells) can provide nasty surprises. Also have a form of no retaliation attack.

I think I hate fighting against orcs more then I like playing with them. So they seem good when you are against them but weak when u play with them.

I'm using the latest steam patch and applied one of the .lua patches but Veteran Orcs are still Level 4 in my current game.

They used to have an ability where if you had either speed or init (I forgot which) higher than the enemy, they couldn't counter attack you.

This actually WORKED against bosses back in Crossworlds. :)

Now, it seems they can quaff the Potion of Rage and will "always counter attack" (this is new/different I think), also they can counter-counterattacks like berserkers. (I think they always had this?

Goblin Shaman -- Their "astral axes" are replaced with some "ghost" attack which seemed to be fairly high damaging.

[Nevar]

Thoughts on units:

Goblins: Zeroing in has been changed to increase their attack at a faster rate, but its now capped at something like double the base. You can't do the old trick of making Goblins take their turn over and over while their attack rises.

Goblin Shaman: Lost its 3xSpirit Attack. It still has a 1x version, though. Also, Ghost Axes now do full damage at any range, and ignore some defense. The debuff from it has been moved to only Adrenaline 3.

Goblin Catapult: The fire bomb attack seems to do full damage to the primary target at infinite range. It has the Goblin version of Second Wind now. Lastly, the explosive it plants is interesting. I've had enemies occasionally attack it for no good reason, as if it was an ice spike.

Ogre: Nerfed. Drain only has one charge now.

Orc Chieftain: Gained the Power of the Horde which used to be Blood Shaman's thing. This is an indirect minor nerf to the ability, because you will never get as much damage from the Chieftain as you would from Blood Shaman.

Shaman: Same as before.

Blood Shaman: Buffed in the sense that it receives extra adrenaline at the start now. That used to be only for regular shamans. Its active abilities, I have no experience with.

I have never used the other units.

OVERALL:
I would say orcs are a little worse off now, but not because of these unit nerfs. The reason orcs have lost some of their viability is because companion Moldok is not in this game. It becomes harder to gain adrenaline at the start of battle, which, as some have mentioned, is when you need your best abilities.