Very strong IMO, 9speed allows for a turn faster captures. For example on lava plains you can get to the bottom font in 1 turn. He is also very diverse in the uses of portal blast.
Because Knockback and terrain interactions are probably my favorite interaction in the game, I'm going to continue experimenting w/ him. I'm a bit underwhelmed after a day or so, though. At TP 3 (pseudo 9 speed), you're paying 79 nora for a fast font-capper (assuming you select recoil for his other upgrade path). That's not too different from Sonic Elemental at pseudo-8 speed at 10+ fewer nora (although, as you point out, 9 movement can be the difference between a turn 2 cap and a turn 3 cap). And his knockback-on-relocate ability is very unique, but it will usually be no more than 10 damage for 4 AP--pretty underwhelming--and a follow-up attack at 6 damage (since the champ took knockback damage and will be at minimum range), totaling at most 16 damage for 7 AP. Alternatively, his teleport is worth 2 spaces of movement on up to 4 champs (but likely 1). If it's friendly, that's 4 AP for 2 AP of movement (an upside down Invigorate). If it's any enemy, that's a single slam attack (without the damage) or 2/3 of a pull (4 AP vs. 2/3 of 3 AP). I'm sure there are some dream plays where the Blast Mage teleports, knockbacks one champ for damage, attacks another at maximum range, and then recoils into a third for another 10 pts of knockback damage, but I suspect those will be rare. I'll keep toying with him, and will see whether I change my mind. Rather than Kinetic Impulse, I kind of think slam would suit him better, but I haven't thought about it's power level.
@Raikan It's important to note that Portal Blast works on friendly champions, meaning you can use it to disengage your stuff or make it work as pseudo-invigorate by letting your champ move 2 spaces for free etc. Blastmage's kit also means the enemy wants to kill him ASAP unless they wanna get knocked into oblivion. The tag is pricey but the value is outstanding.
I hadn't considered disengagement. Thanks for pointing that out. And 2 spaces can be only 2 spaces of movement, or it can be moving a champ into an AOE spell that you're going to cast anyway, into pull range, into a position where crescendo hits 3 champions instead of 1, etc. And paying 4 AP to teleport and cause another champion to move 2 might be spending 4 AP to get 2 AP of movement, or it might be 4 AP that you were going to spend to move there anyway, and another 2 free points of movement that let's you cap a font that you otherwise wouldn't. He's proving to be more useful than I experienced in my first game or two. I still have to test his ability with relocate: ally on transporter and see if it works when Blast Mage relocates himself or when he is relocated, when he pounces from paper wings, or when a champion is relocated next to him (e.g., avalanche or pull). I expect the answers will be yes, yes and no, but we'll see. And maybe most importantly, it seems like a rare form of knockback, which is less likely to be anticipated.
Any sort of relocation effect will trigger Portal Blast. This includes Relocate: X abilities, Pull, Swap, Teleport, Pounce and Leap. Knockback effects are not relocation effects for the purposes of portal blast.
exactly, he is not meant as a dmg dealer, but as as a font runner. he can also in one turn go to the top enemy font on the ironfistpass. his threat range is just HUGE meaning you can rip your enemy apart forcing them to waste resources to guard potential side fonts. then you all of a sudden have a unit advantage where you like.
Gnomes runs him with Recoil particularly for the fact it also lets him disengage from a melee champion while hitting something in the backline. It also keeps him cheap.
Thanks. I think that’s probably the right way to go—although it makes it difficult to double tap. As much as I like traps, one trap isn’t threatening and they are too situational for their cost. I might experiment with Phantom Dash, which boosts his one turn movement to something like 11-15 spaces and gives him a 2nd relocate.
How frequently do you deploy the speckled fesh and why? Do you run him as a nora link counter to marsh song, sacrifice/flame siphon, miners/nora beasts? As a global AP drain? Or a cheap champion that allows double deploys and who can stall a side font w/ punish at very low cost because of nora/hp gains from nora miner?
It's purely for countering nora gen. If you're lucky enough to deploy it right after a marsh song it's a 15n champ. If it's an even game, I'll just let it sit in a font somewhere but it is surprisingly effective helping out the front lines. Impenetrable + punish lets it live a lot longer than a 25hp champ has any right to.
Anyone use armored fesh x1 or have thoughts about armored fesh vs. terraced slag? Fesh is very hp/nora efficient; swap 3 is a great ability to have; and he can contest a font a long time solo w/ regen or take a lot of damage in a mid font w/ calcify. I'm going back-and-forth on armored fesh vs fire case vs speckled fesh, but like having 2-3 low cost champions so I can double deploy on certain maps (although fesh is on the high end in the mid 60s). On the down side, he's not threatening.
Armoured Fesh is a lovely rune. I use him for double deploy, font contesting and target for horn of order / slavers whip
Will you explain your thinking on Angel? I use her—but feel like I’m biased because I worked hard to get an Angel with a gray border—much like I’m biased towards Shallaxy. Assessing her objectively, Pull is best on a low damage, low range, front-line champion whose AP can’t otherwise be spent very well. That maximizes the threat range on pull; encourages the opponent to focus fire a lower value or resistance champion before Pull’s CD ends; and uses AP that would otherwise be spent moving the melee champ too far forward or on lower damage attacks. Put differently, if you were going to put a Vicious Harpoon on a 70 Nora melee champ on a font or a 90 Nora ranged damage champ, which would you choose? Similarly, Intensify adds a lot of durability but not a lot of threat. That’s changed from old intensify, and I feel like a large HP buff on a ranged damage champ isn’t the best use of nora. What do you think?
Re Symbiot: Even outside of a BG design to maximize his cyclops/construct passive? Re Conqueror: With what upgrades would you run him?
ya, all of the logistic things are pretty bad, they either need to give it a better discount or make it after 2 champs not 3