Arena death match

[Rick L]

Is there any advantage to competing in the arena death match? Besides the champion's trident, are there other rewards for winning?

[lch]

A truckload of experience.

[Endoperez]

Champion's Trident grants Quickness, and you get lots of experience for winning the match. In early game, the victory guarantees a heroic ability, and sometimes Quickness is worth losing both hand slots.

Most of the time, especially in competitive multiplayer, this isn't enough. There are many reasons for this.

1) The Trident isn't good.
Quickness gives twice as many actions per round, which also means twice the fatigue every round without doubling the reinvigorating effects of other equipment. Generally anything with encumberance over 0 will start suffering very quickly, which lowers both attack and defense directly and allows for armor-piercing hits and increases the chance of them occuring.

2) You need hand slots for other stuff
In addition, the champion can't use a shield (and thus can't get Fire Shield or Awe from Charcoal Shield and that Shield of Glittering Gold or whatever it was) or a weapon that affects an area (Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Shadow Brand and few others). Fire Shield and Awe are both excellent abilities against chaff, and AoE weapon might be enough to make quickness worth it if you can afford the other equipment you need.

3) Mages get nothing

4) The Arena is dangerous
Not only do you have to survive against everything else sent to the arena, but your opponents might decide to send guys equipped with items that disease (bane venom charm, rod of the leper king), curse (eye shield, knife of the damned) or cause afflictions to the user (eye of aiming) - and are picked up by the winner. I'm sure some guy in multiplayer has been really screwed over by "winning" the arena.


I made a mod (Mark of the Champion, see sig) that changes the prize like so:
- it only requires head slot
- the trident is a bonus weapon, like dancing trident or stone bird
- it grants a special helmet that also increases body protection by 5
(- it still grants quickness)

Even with these changes, several people thought it didn't do enough to improve the arena. There's a poll in the mod's thread, but it didn't get much attention.

P.S. Sorry for advertising my mod.

[Gandalf Parker]

Everything has its pros and cons.
It can be a nice boost if your champion has an Heroic Ability you would like improved, or the number of troops he can lead, or other experience factors. No matter where he is on the map he gets a free trip to the fight and a free trip back. He only loses one turn.
Of course, its also a gamble.

[Stavis_L]

Note that if your emissary doesn't have hand slots, they can avoid the negatives of receiving the trident while still competing for the bonus experience. The Ophanim angels of Ashdod, for instance, are great for this (if a bit advanced.)

Another strategy is the kamikaze combatant. They probably won't win, but they might take out another player's hero (e.g. load up with medallions of vengeance, cursed items, disease causing ability, etc.) This is probably only feasible in the early game, as if anyone sends in combatants later on, they'll be high-end thug or SC caliber. Still pretty much a gamble.

Note that due to lack of participation, it can sometimes be worth sending in a mediocre combatant that would greatly benefit from increased experience; if the risk of losing them is not too great, the potential reward might be worth it. Who knows; you might win by default

[Aezeal]

Endo I'm thinking of using your idea of mark of the champion (probably slightly adjusted) in my dom 3000 mod. Actually I'm gonna look it up right now and put it in, refence to you in the mod. If you have objections plz send me a PM and I'll... well ehm do something similar but almost completely different

[Micah]

I think it's just a comment by the devs on the pointlessness of bloodsports.

And with that comment I must be off, gotta get back to conquering the world and banishing my opponents to the depths of Tartarus. =)