Pssst... runes that might be good, pt. 2

Discussion in 'Forsaken Wastes' started by kalasle, Aug 26, 2017.

  1. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Gravewatcher and Deathcaster. Was very pleased with that interaction in my most recent game. You get 2 Deathcaster lives for 54 nora round trip, without factoring Death Harvester.

    Serkan's Touch. Cleanse is on the out, and in some factions it is notably more expensive than Serkan's Touch. This spell basically nails a champion to the floor.

    Utterdark Fadewhisp. Ranged DoT has always been powerful, and Fadewhisp features two forms of DoT at a splendid cost. The 71 nora build is very cheap for such a high-damage ranged champ with flying, and the Phase Shift build keeps the champ more durable without costing AP.

    Nether Wraith. It used to be a surge bot, but Swap/Hex makes this a wonderful destructive support champ. Swap lets it profitably convert its AP into movement for the rest of your army -- especially good with Lumbering champs -- while Trickster and Hex make is exceptionally hard to pin down.

    Shadowshank. This guy fell off the map a while back, but man, if you hate ST and SL, this is ya boi. Plus, it can be targeted by Gravewatcher and Reanimate.

    Basically, I'm back in an experimenting mode, and I want to hear where everyone else is at.
     
  2. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Skeletal Reaper is nuts with Render, hit an 18 damage scythe whirl the other day and thats not including the dot.

    Corrupted Guardian is looking like a pretty legit tank nowadays with Calcify and Tough.

    I had looked at Nether Wraith myself, seems to have some good potential there but yet to try it out properly.
     
  3. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    I dunno, I was thinking Bulwark, especially as a mid-game play.

    Speaking of, the new Bulwark mechanics make Dark Rising a fair bit better.
     
  4. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Tried out this champ, quite impressed.

    Two others that I don't seen anyone run -- Skeletal Rifleman and Utterdark Fadewhisp. I have been desperate for years for the old Crossbone, and these aren't quite that, but they are strong in their own respects. Fadewhisp puts out a lot of damage. Rifleman doesn't benefit from a double DoT, but ranged Punish is good, and Aim helps it set up for great pokes or power turns, and that's for sub-70.
     
  5. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Skeletal Rifleman has ranged Punish and Aim for real cheap.
     
  6. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Speaking of other ranged champs, Stitched Magician has 7 RNG for sub 65 nora. The rest of its stats are mediocre to say the least, but it has Spellswallower and alt close ranged attacks. I liked it when I used it earlier today.
     
  7. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    I've never considered running them outside of stitched, was thinking they'd make a good Reapers Blade target though.
     
  8. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    That they would be, if you run it. They are made of tissue paper, though, so you could end up losing some serious value if your opponent snipes the champ. I have really liked how much work they can, despite their fragility. Another thing about them is that they, like other Stitched, set up Ally: Underdepths on Archfiend, which makes that champ a much more attractive include -- 60 HP, 15 DMG, 66 nora.
     
  9. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Archfiend doesn't strike me as that great, even with Ally proccing.

    Going to try out Corpse Golem, but I really have no idea where to start on upgrades. Absorb is probably worth it, right? I'm also drawn to the cheaper builds using Immunity -- you can get a 54 nora version with Aura 2, for example, or 56 with aura 3. Combined with Hunter, that could be some solid output.
     
  10. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    I run them at 56, they have very nice damage output for something so cheap.
     
  11. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    Arroyo Eye. Replicate means that they end up squishy, but you have a lot of little champions generating AP. As amateur as it sounds, I've also been using them with a Cleric of Unrest (Rite/Council) in order to heal the little things back up for 12, usually sacrificing the original champion once the second split has happened into four champs. But, leaving that little gimmick aside, the Eye is pretty good -- Detection, if you need it, and some ranged damage. They work best with Teleport and Vuln, in my experience. The big thing about them is Soultap, which does a lot of work to recoup their cost; if you tag a single opposing champion, you get 10 nora back over 5 rounds. Tag two different champs, and that's about 20 nora. Obviously if you re-tag a champ, or are running other Soultap options, that number will get reduced, but it's still pretty good. Because they split around and are fairly mobile, you can run interference or hold down a middling side-position with one of them while still using the others to back up the main force.

    Trying out more wonky champs -- I think the best thing for Gravewatcher is Coragh, rather than Deathcaster (mainly if you have Death Harvester out). You get some seriously backloaded tempo, where you'll take a hit, but Coragh's second life gives you a swing forward.
     
  12. super71

    super71 I need me some PIE!

    I've always run rifleman, at 70 nora now for sunder 1, and punish, he's very strong. He has always been under rated and very easily skeletons best ranged unit for a while now.
     
  13. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    I think he was mediocre for a while there before the most recent rebuild -- workable but not that great. Ranged punish for his cost, though, is something. Curious why you run Sunder over Strike? Do you think you get significantly more damage out of it to be worth the 3 nora hike? I'd probably run it were it Sunder 2, but with only 1 stack it doesn't feel like much.
     
  14. super71

    super71 I need me some PIE!

    I like the ranged punish for that extra kick, I run sunder because I run sunder on shredder as well, I run a lot of cheap skellys so sunder is more like an aoe damage buff for my champs whereas strike only affects rifleman. With all the summons from graveyard, bone mine, cloak of skulls, black blade baron, bone shredder's bone trap, problem is all those summons have low damage, but when you smack things with sunder a few times then the damage from those summons becomes pretty dang strong.
     
  15. super71

    super71 I need me some PIE!

    Spirits within, it's essentially 40 damage over an 8 turn period and then if cleansed or when it goes away summons 3 units.
     
  16. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    End of its turns, not every turn -- you get 4 triggers, not 8, so 20 loss of life, not 40.
     
  17. super71

    super71 I need me some PIE!

    20 damage and 3 summons for its cost isn't bad, especially considering their are spells that cost 40 Nora to do 10 damage or less with no summons.
     
  18. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Glimpse of Death is pretty good too, i just stopped running it because there was so much cleanse around at the time. Might give it another go.
     
  19. kalasle

    kalasle Forum Royalty

    I still need to get this durn rune. Any tips on how to use it? Seems like it would be pretty good even if cleansed (especially if you have favor out -- baiting cleanse for 20 nora and still chunking a champ seems solid).
     
  20. potatonuts

    potatonuts I need me some PIE!

    Well i struggle to justify it when i run 2x Essence Drain. It costs the same and the instant effect of ED means you can immediately finish the champion off without allowing a chance to counterplay. If you plan instead to let the champion die slowly overtime then you risk it being countered with cleanse or healing in which case Doom seems to be more effective. If you are able to let it tick for 4 turns then it works out very efficiently, doing more damage than ED and leaving them low enough to pick off before Doom would kill them but then you are relying on your opponent leaving the champion in a vulnerable position.

    Very good spell but it's caught right between Doom and ED.
     
    super71 likes this.

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