New Spells -- Review

[BB Shockwave]

I find it quite the opposite... Orcs can be quite powerfull, yes, but they only get there in 2-3 rounds or more. They start the battle with quite mediocre stats and abilities (The Orc Tracker especially, and the Shaman cannot use any totems early on). Which leaves you with plenty of time to debuff/counter them. A slowed Veteran Orc will never upgrade his adrenaline, if he never gets into a position to attack you, while you pick him off with Archers.

Glot armor as a spell, is nice. Does it mean you can cast it on more then 1 units? How long does it last, fixed or per intellect?

One of the disadvantages of making Time Back into a spell was that now, you cannot resurrect Black Dragons with it... I wonder if the Runa Mage or the Phoenix can. I have not used Blacks since my first playthrough in Legend, I like to experiment with different units on every walkthrough.

[Saiko Kila]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I find it quite the opposite... Orcs can be quite powerfull, yes, but they only get there in 2-3 rounds or more. They start the battle with quite mediocre stats and abilities (The Orc Tracker especially, and the Shaman cannot use any totems early on). Which leaves you with plenty of time to debuff/counter them. A slowed Veteran Orc will never upgrade his adrenaline, if he never gets into a position to attack you, while you pick him off with Archers.

Strange, in my games enemy orcs start with high adrenaline. I saw even like 33/40 for example, every orc has different stats. They can use their specials, at least level two, right away (and if I open with damaging spells, they can start their first turn with level three attacks). Enemy orcs are always better than my orcs. Runemages also start with assortment of runes, if there are two runemages stacks - both have different bonuses. If you have no runes then enemy runemages are better than your runemages, except bonuses provided by equipment.

[BB Shockwave]

Orc Shamans and Blood Shamans have the "Enraged" ability, meaning they start off with 15 adrenaline. Plus, if they attack, they increase the adrenaline of friendly orcs too...

You can increase the effectiveness of your own orcs with some Might skills - these not only give Rage, but adrenaline to your Orcs! I plan to do an Orc-Only walkthrough, but frankly the reason I am a bit against it is because I like to do no-loss and with their sacrifice-skills it is quite impossible with Orcs. It could be done, but it'd be tedious.

Thanks for the info about enemy Rune Mages - have not fought any yet, but I was wondering about this, without runes they'd be much weaker.

Does anyone know what the ability "Runic Armor" means? There is another overlap/slide in ability description so just hovering your cursor over it doesn't say.

[Saiko Kila]

Last time I was fighting and had first move - enemy shamans started with like 50/65 or 33/65 Adrenaline - I think they cheat!

About Runic Armor, from game files:
The armor's strength depends on the Talent Runes of the hero. The player's dominant Rune determines the bonus:
Might Runes: +30% Physical resistance
Mind Runes: +30% Resistance to Poison and Fire
Magic Runes: +30% Resistance to Magic and Astral damage
If the hero possesses more than 20 of the same Rune, then the armor's resilience will be increased by another 10%.

[stubbie]

With Runic Armour I'm guessing it refers to the number of unused runes you have and doesn't include runes you have already used in your skill tree?

[Saiko Kila]

Originally Posted by stubbie

With Runic Armour I'm guessing it refers to the number of unused runes you have and doesn't include runes you have already used in your skill tree?

Yes, it's unused runes, for all their skills and bonuses. And the description is inaccurate, runemages don't get astral resistance from runic armor. May be a bug.

[Puce Moose]

I'm having a great time with the rune mages; I've sacrificed my hero's own learning at the expense of the rune mages, which makes for an interesting commentary on units vs. hero. It's a conundrum I find I'm enjoying quite a bit. Pretty clever idea on the part of the developers in my opinion. Do I make myself tougher, or be a martyr of sorts and let my rune mages take advantage of my untapped resources to expand their functionality?

Thumbs up 1C! I like additions that present these sort of challenges.

[BB Shockwave]

I am using them too, but not at the expense of my own hero - I just always try to leave some surplus runes around and wait until 2 more levels to get a new skill, until that time they can kick ass.

I have found a new spell that so far I think has not been reported:



Totem of Adrenaline (Chaos): In place of a Fallen troop, raises a totem which on each move (round?) increases the Adrenaline level of Orcish allies, while at the same time decreasing the defense of those who stand against the orcs. Has no effect on creatures immune to mind spells.

[Saiko Kila]

I have been using this spell since the beginning, because I started with blood shamans and goblin shamans. I don't use it now after I dumped these stupid orcs. It gives some adrenaline at the end of turn if I remember correctly, but killing others is way faster, so it's mildly useful. Also, at least to me, it worked not exactly every turn, even if my orcs were running around near it. I wasn't paying much attention (and orcs get adrenaline on many occasions), but it has visible graphical effect to the units it dopes.

[ckdamascus]

I added Ice Orb in there.

I have mixed thoughts on it. One advantage it has over Ancient Phoenix is it can be dropped anywhere on the map, as opposed to Ancient Phoenix requiring a "spotter" to get it close enough to fly over to your target.

It almost seems too defensive though. To get enough intellect to make it super strong (admittedly, at merely 32 intellect it was semi-beefy), you aren't going to have enough leadership or damage boosting items to take advantage of the tank.

I can see this being useful for some armies. Maybe more for the solo Black Dragon type that uses spell nukes?