Newbie Thought: Anointing The Rhuax

[DrPraetorious]

On the original topic - the annointed of rhuax is significantly tougher than other battle-mage chasis (except for giants, obviously), which *is* a big advantage, because it means he can run forward and then drop short-range fire zap spells.

Of these, Immolation (Alteration 3) is really worth the trouble. 14 points of AP damage with an AoE of 7.

The big merit of this is that you can do it early - late in the game you can rain this kind of fiery death from a distance. So I think forging stuff to toughen the guy up may not be the best use of your time. OTOH, if you have an enemy who manages fire resistance, you can convert them to effective thugs (not SC), especially if you have a sexy blessing like E9N9.

[Endoperez]

Immolation isn't really that good. It's AoE 7, true, but that AoE is centered on the caster... usually it only affects 2-3 enemy squares. It's decent for level 3, but Abysia doesn't get that much use out of Alteration.

[Managarm]

DrPraetorious said:
So I think forging stuff to toughen the guy up may not be the best use of your time. OTOH, if you have an enemy who manages fire resistance, you can convert them to effective thugs (not SC), especially if you have a sexy blessing like E9N9.

Thanks for the recommendation, now I'm planning to shift my strategy to achieve full Evocation support ASAP.

Bearing this in mind my Pretender design will be as follows:
Awaken Solar Disc (for early research), F9, Dominion 5 (higher dominion it's not important since blessed troops' cost), Order 3, Production 3 (Abysia needs tons resources), Heat 3, Death 2 (survival), Magic 1 (research).

I'd rather prefer to play offensively with a F9 blessing, it's just a matter of playstile, taking (even more) advantage of the two attacks that The Burning Ones have. Unfortunately they're quite slow but this is mitigated a bit in Heat-3 Dominions as Endoperez highlighted before.

Suggestions?

[Managarm]

Endoperez said:
Abysians only get increased Heat in warm provinces. Lava Warriors of later ages, and Burning Ones of Early age, are special and gain increased benefits from the warmth. Anointed of Rhuax are anointed of Rhuax, and get double the normal bonus.

Getting temperature bonuses is very rare. Just remember to stay away from cold provinces, and beware the Alteration spell Wolven Winter... It's a two-edged sword, a curse as well as a blessing.

Very good explanations Endoperez!!

Wow, I didn't realized Abysia's extreme heat dependance; cold/heat scales can make a difference between life and death for those lava beings!
Second Sun it's definitively a must and count on me for banning Wolven Winter!!

Due to Abysians natural heat tolerance, does Heat From Hell have a lesser impact on them?

Is there any formula how the "heat" ability from the Abysian units is modified according to heat/cold scales? Because I always read the same values!!
And how its damage works, is it AP?

Sorry for answering with more questions...

[Endoperez]

Manual has answers to the heat aura question. Heat increases the chance of making people catch fire, and perhaps the area the heat effect affects as well.

Read page 78 on rules for being in fire, page 57 for rules about heat, cold and poison auras.

[Taqwus]

Managarm said:
Due to Abysians natural heat tolerance, does Heat From Hell have a lesser impact on them?

Heat from Hell causes pure fire-based fatigue damage. That is, fire resistance/vulnerability applies in full.

[MaxWilson]

The one suggestion I have is that you might considered taking a dormant pretender and putting the points into your Dominion. Even though it doesn't increase the amount of sacred troops you'll be making, it pushes your heat dominion, and Abysia benefits a lot from fighting in heat.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Managarm said:
Unfortunately I have seen that the heat-3 dominion bonuses don't apply to the remaining Abysian units/commanders in the same way:
- Burning Ones gain +3 bonuses instead of +6 bonuses
- Anathemant Dragons get no bonuses at all!!
- Even my Solar Disc pretender just benefit from a +1 in Strength and +6 in attack

What's going on? I can't see a clear pattern here!

The Solar Disc pretender is probably getting bonuses from his dominion, not the heat scale. Disregarding that, it seems that Anointed get +2 to attack/defense/move/strength per heat scale, and Burning Ones get +1. Oddly enough, they don't get any bonus to Protection (like Caelian or Niefel ice armor).

-Max

[Shovah32]

The strength bonus the solar disc is getting sounds like dominion but i dont think dominion grants extra attack, thats either from his extra fire magic, experience or the heat.

[Managarm]

You're right, the +6 attack bonus is granted by fire's indirect magic bonus (Page 85 on the manual). I wrongly thought that this bonus was linked with a heat-3 scale

No idea about the strength bonus, yet.