Blessings balance?

[Endoperez]

Meglobob said:R the citadel of Pyriphelegeton (pyromancer,adepts), the glowing hill (Daoine Sidhe), moonvine circle (enchanters) and horses vale (horse brother) all examples of rare lvl 4 sites? Got all those before turn 20 in my current game.

Crown of Darkness (3 death gems, Thaumaturgy bonus 40, disease), Library of Time (4 Astral gems, allows recruitment of Shadow Seers), Prison of the Desert Sun (5 fire gems, increases Heat a lot) and The Factory (3 earth gems, an entering Earth mage will get one free Mechanical Man/turn) are some examples of level 4 sites.

Moonvine Circle is Nature 1. Horses Vale is Nature 0, so it's already visible when you conquer the province. The Citadel of Pyriphlegaton and The Glowing Hill are both Fire 2. These four are all Uncommon and Unique according to a list of all Dominions magic sites.


Rareness doesn't always mean the more rare site is better, either. Level 4 sites are all pretty good, but there are some level 3 sites that only give you one gem, and as you found out, there are lots of very good level 2 sites. As an example, Well of Pestilence is a common Death 3 site. It increases Death scale, which makes provinces with abnormal Death scale usually a good investment for a Dark Knowledge (which finds all Death sites) even if you only have Death through random picks, but a common Death 2 mage can't find it with normal searching even if you knew that something strange was going on. However, there are other sites, even non-Death ones, that could also cause Death scale.

One or two in most paths, 4 in one or two, works. In Dom3, you can't have that pretender in the early game. C'tis with Sauromancers is Early Age in Dom3, and has Heat Preference 2, so you'll have few more points to play with. Frost Father has Water 1 and Air 1. Because even one pick in a path makes a difference when you go to higher levels, he is probably the cheapest option for Water 4, and I didn't find any competitors who had 10-point paths and either Fire or Blood.
With only Heat 1 and otherwise same scales, and only Dominion 5, you could have four paths at 4, and one at 2. With 40 points from Heat 2, which you'd have, you could get F4A4E4W4B4. However, you don't necessarily need Earth blessing, and Air is quite weak. You could get F4W4B4, and spend the other points on A3E2S3N2. Now you have access to much higher Astral and Nature that you normally would (well, Nature isn't particularly high, but Nature/Astral has one more path booster, Moonvine Bracelet). E2 is enough for a booster, S2 and S2E2 get you two Astral boosters, etc. Nature 2 is also what is needed for the first Nature booster, and with a Thistle Mace, your Shamans can cast Haruspex, the site-searching spell for Nature sites. It finds every nature site in the chosen province.

This still isn't optimal, but it's pretty good. It's more cost-effective than your build. Of course, there are other builds which could use paths similar to those you used. Fountain of Blood, as an example, could be used for B4 or maybe even 6, and summon some demons with those varied paths. Demon Knights, Storm Demons, plain old Devils, Blood items... Fire, Water and Blood would help you a bit in the beginning, giving you more powerful sacreds. Earth also has its uses, if you use Shamans in communion, or as battle casters with path boosters.