Blessings balance?

[BigJMoney]

Since this thread is about blessings balance, I'd like to bring something up. Unless B9 has changed, it's really lousy now. You see, you've got a choice. Take D4 which will increase your chance of immediately dealing afflictions, or take B9 which will curse units and thus increase their chance of receiving afflictions in some later (maybe to never come) battle. Hmmm, which one will I be taking?

I think it's time to change B9. If increasing afflictions is seen as a proper level 4 bless, then it doesn't really belong to be blood's level 9 bless anymore. Or, has this one changed already? I'd like to find out before I start making personal suggestions to what B9 could be instead.

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[Endoperez]

BigJMoney said:
That's wonderful. Combine the increased affliction chance with the increased damage, and you have guerilla tactics that death nations can use. They can send smaller, expendable armies of undead and priests earlier in the game to attack enemies, dealing a lot of damage and afflictions before they die, ruining the larger defending armies.

Cheap sacreds like flagellants might also be good for something like this.

I don't think it makes a good raider force. They aren't good at pillaging, or even much better at conquering provinces, but they can make enemy armies less powerful. That's rarely useful against national units, but against Jotunheim, or thugs or SCs, it can be worth it. And the 100%, or doubled afflictions, are just for Death 4. Every pick after 4 increases it by further 50 percent. At Death 9, we're talking of +350% afflictions.

[DominionsFan]

Daynarr said:
Death magic 9 gives Death weapon to sacred troops. Death weapons have a CHANCE to do additional death damage to the target. Not the same thing as fire weapons. Both are magical though.

100% affilction chance is basically double chance to cause affliction to the target.

Devs can correct me if I misremembered.

Awesome...especially because Ermor is my favourite nation.

[Graeme Dice]

JaydedOne said:
Personally, I agree that the Nature 9 berserk bless is suboptimal compared to, say, fire weapons and don't think I'd buy up to 9 with the vast majority of strategies I might use.

I'd agree that Fire 9 was the most generally useful of the blesses in Dominions II. Nature 9 was only useful for those troops that have enough hitpoints to survive enemy attacks, and both high enough protection, and low enough defense that the protection bonus and defense penalty works out in favour of protection. Pangaean white centaurs and Jotunheim sacred troops are probably better off with N9 than F9, but I'd usually pick F9 for most other nations.

[DominionsFan]

Graeme Dice said:

I'd agree that Fire 9 was the most generally useful of the blesses in Dominions II. Nature 9 was only useful for those troops that have enough hitpoints to survive enemy attacks, and both high enough protection, and low enough defense that the protection bonus and defense penalty works out in favour of protection. Pangaean white centaurs and Jotunheim sacred troops are probably better off with N9 than F9, but I'd usually pick F9 for most other nations.

Yes, N9 blessing for Jotun is a must have. F9 was the "best" blessing in Doms 2. However the new D9 blessing looks very powerul in Dominions 3. Well we will be more clever, after we've tried the game.

[BigJMoney]

I dunno, I think it could be good against units that are hard to crack but small in number, like ulmish infantry and cavalry. A lot of hits don't go through the armor, and those that do usually only deal minimal damage that will be healed afterward. I can also see it being good against creatures with Regen because at +350% affliction giving bonuses, even regenerating creatures that live through a battle will probably pick up a few afflictions. In my personal experience playing Ulm, I've had armies that I overestimated because I didn't realize how badly wounded they had become over time.

One good use of flagellants, I think, would simply be to use them as light infantry. The usual role of wearing out the enemy would be supplemented by their ability to deliver hampering afflictions. They'd be a walking affliction bomb.

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[JaydedOne]

Nobody's saying the Death bless is a bad one, particularly when you contemplate mixing it with, say, the Water 9 bless.

I'm really more concerned about the Nature bless and, of course, curious to see what's become of Blood.

[BigJMoney]

Well, I'll weigh in on why I think the Nature bless, if not as powerful as fire, is still in good standing.

#1 You don't need level 9 for it to be useful.

#2 Level 9 is useful though, because an increase in Regen percentage coupled with the l9 ability is worth the points.

#3 I am crossing my fingers, hoping that having sacred/holy commanders with easy berserk potential will turn out to be very practical.

I'll counter all of that, however with this: if it's easy to get access to a spell that causes all friendly units on the battlefield to go berserk, then the bless is redundant. Actually, this is a good point by itself. When designing l9 blesses, it seems a good idea to stay away from things that can be battlefield cast (or even mass cast) anyway. Another example of why f9 is so great.

So, we'll see. If all three of my above points stand true with the game, I will be happy with the Nature bless. I'm a bit curious as to why everyone has been so silent about the Blood bless, though.

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[Ballbarian]

I haven't considered the balance implications, but what about a blood bless giving a slight life drain effect to the blessed units attack. Nothing fancy, just a point or two of blood sucking damage to the defender and a point or two of hp benefit to the blessed attacker?

[Ighalli]

Afflictions in DomII worked like this:

Chance = (damage)/(remaining HP before damage)

The chance was doubled (or +100% if you prefer) for cursed units, and only happened 10% of the time if you were regenerating.

I think the B9 effect definitely needs to be changed. It causes a curse (only D4 as was mentioned) to the killer of the unit only if they fail a MR check. I think B9 should involve horror marks, either getting one from killing or perhaps injuring a blessed unit or when a blessed unit hits an enemy.

Edit: Argh! My fomulas are wrong. Thanks for the correction!