Ohhhhhh I get how it works now. I started a new game to make sure as well. The reason I could not advance past level 2 adrenaline level is because I was never able to accumulate more than 20 Adrenaline.

Adrenaline level is a reflection of your currently accumulated adrenaline pool, perhaps 1 level per 10 adrenaline..

You must be playing a warrior, or put a talent into Rage Control. (Certain skills now additionally affect your ability to accumulate adrenaline).

Edit: Oh additionally a bug. The spirit linked companion you can summon with an Orc Tracker, if your orc tracker leadership is too low you will summon 0 units. Thats right 0. It pretty much just gets one shot by anything, including taking the damage from the spirit link.

Yes, I started with a warrior.

Quick question - Rune Mage ability depends on runes stockpiled that you haven't used yet? Because that'd be a big waste of talent runes, IMHO...

Yes it does depend on how many runes you havent used yet.

so it seemed to me. not a very wise idea.

It seemed to me that IF you started a rune mage strategy and started hording massive stockpiles of runes instead of spennding them on skills, they would be EXTREMELY good in that it would result in a quadratic expansion of power.

The only problem with this theory is that rune mages are 2000 leadership a pop, so one side of that formula would only expand about 10 times without specialized items throughout a game. Also, this is dependant on there being NO CAP to the amout bonuses you can attain through rune hording. Even still on paper, they appear to be VERY powerful.

The way I would execute a rune mage strat: It would probably be worth going for skills early in the game when your leadership gain is paltry and won't be able to get more runemages more quickly. When leadership comes by hundreds and thousands in the late game, you can switch to a rune mage strat.

Anyways I posted in a different thread that Rune mage benefits cap at 20 unspent runes for each rune type.

Also, be sure to try the Chaos Dragon and Summon Phoenix spells.

Phoenix now scales it's stats according to your int, and has a new ability called Tears of the Phoenix which rezzes for about 400-500 points 1 charge.

The small rez and the extra survivability go a long way in making it more of a viable end-game option.

Update - please add to the beginning of the thread!

Skeletons now have TWO new Talents:

-Sow Bones: Scatters across the arena 3 piles of bones, which can then be used for magical movement.

-Undead Gate: Moves to the selected pile of bones. After arriving, 1 action point remains. Attack is increased by 10, but Defense is decreased to 1 for the remainder of the round.

Nice Talents, making the otherwise not-really-used Skellies more effective. This is essentially a low level version of Teleport. Still, the AI needs tweaking - when I faced them once, the two troops of Skeletons both used Sow Bones, instead of the second one teleporting to one of the gates.

The teleport animation is funny - it is the same as the Skeletons dying and being resurrected, so they simply fall apart and reintegrate at the selected spot.

EDIT: Also - New Guard Droid Talent

- Beam of Light: Droid produces a beam of bright light in any given direction, up to a 3 cell distance. Undead receive 5-20 Damage, soldiers with Night Vision and Beholders are blinded, all other creatures below level 5 have their defense reduced by 30%. The effect lasts for 2 rounds.

Anyone think assassins will actually become useful with the new talent? Are there any new items to make them more viable?

For those who don't know, the Assassin, when he executes someone with a backstab or critical, gains a +5% damage bonus that gets carried over to other battles.

I plan to use them because these +5% not only stack, but stay for all units the Assassins have backstabbed... In my current game I only found 2 so far, but even those have now +15% against Goblins, +10% against Orcs and so on. Definetly worth using them, just have to take care never to lose them all.