Edit: after more play with spirits here is what my current BG looks like as well as some in-depth discussion material on the various spirits- Rune Discussion Spoiler: Champions Champions Arroyo Riftlwalker Upgrades: escalating rage; Purified/Magic Acolyte Tied with Riftlords for priciest champ in the BG. Majestic and Purified give decent survivability, Riftwalk and Escalating rage allow for excellent power plays. Magic accolyte can allow for quite a bit of healing with Rift Spirits. Lich Magistrate Upgrades: Inhibiting Touch; Consume Lich Magistrate is definitely a Must-Have for spirits bg. Restless Souls can create one-sided fights incredibly quickly, and there's almost always ample food for him to eat and stay healthy. I don't consider it necessary to run two, but definitely have one Arroyo Riftlord Upgrades: Encouraged; Oblivion Shield This champion is amazing and a complete necessity for a spirits bg, always run two. At least half of my games Riftlord will be one of my first three champions on the field. With Vitality and Oblivion Shield, you should have no problem keeping him alive. Dictate seems unnecessary since dealing damage is Riftlord's least important role. InkBlight Witch Upgrades: Curse/Shroud; Blind Mostly used because I love Oblivion Shield and coupled with blind makes her wonderful for contesting. Elsari Coven works really well with the ludicrous amount of DMZ this bg generates. Skeletal Lerper Upgrades: Surge Spirit; Shadowspawn This ghastly critter is wonderful for contesting sidefonts and sneaking in impressive amounts of damage. Haunting Visions procs incredibly often, making it easy to get Lerper to around 20 damage+ relatively early WhisperGhast Upgrades: Surge Spirit; Shadestrike Another neccessity. Amazing 75- nora champion with 5-6 range, shadestrike and a relocate. I always run two. Arroyo Echo Upgrades: Weary;Stall Echo adds Utility, which is otherwise lacking in this bg. Arroyo Shadestriker Upgrades: Riftbound; Surge Spirit Cheap , Fast Bruiser with two surge options. That's about it. Nether Wraith Upgrades: Stealth; Hex Cheap Stealth with surge. Mostly used for the simple fact I don't know what I would replace it with Shadestriker Upgrades: Surge Spirit; DomainMZ Throws Shade and Stealths in said shade. I roll with two. Wailing Banshee Upgrades: Vaporize; Life Syphon/ Defiling Aura Wailing Banshee is and always will be awesomesauce. Budget Snogvie. Arroyo Orbs Cheap 4-5 Range Champs each with their own useful utility. Arroyo Eye is the only Observer worth using, and Replicate is nifty with surge. Non-Champion Runes Whispers of the Vale 25 nora for an easy-to-obtain 30 damage bubble. Has a short cd so I only run one Spirits Within 40 nora for 20 damage over eight turns is a bit expensive, but it's won me enough middle fonts to prove usefulArroyo Portal 45 Nora makes for an expensive relic, but played early leads to a healthy amount of Rift Spirits and can prove useful in contesting side fonts. I keep one, but rarely sees use Other Notable Runes Arroyo Smokeform Elusive and Rift Nova makes Smokeform a good bang for it's buck, but with so many other ranged options he's often on the bench more often than not for me. UtterDark Leviathan Moderately beefy spirit. Could be useful with other soultap champions, but I personally don't consider soultap worth implementing into the bg UtterDark Spectre Insubstantiate coupled with ethereal soldiers and other UtterDark/ Soultap champions can prove effective and bothersome against the opponent. I don't utilize enough incorporeal champions to make it worth adding to my current bg More to Come, Hoping to add other players' inputs as the discussions continue
riftlords and whisperghasts are both definite x2 autos. Riftwalker is worth a ponential look as well. Also consider Haunting Spirit Wailing Banshee Defiler Knight Tomb Sentinel+haunt
Added second whisperghast and riftlord, added ayyoro riftwalker and defiler knight removed aroyo eye, smokeform, warspirit and x1 ethereal soldier. Avg rune cost is up to 76, is that too high for FW?
I enjoy all the globe shaped Arroyo. They are cheep range that can rock a reapers blade if need be. Detps of despair x2 can grant nip gibs. Do you have any summon counters? Bonecircle archmage could help out. That is a good record on ranked though so you are doing a lot of things right for your play style! Who wears the Enervating Collar?
This is what i'm playing with atm, its far from optimized, made it to test em out. I would definitely recommend at least one whispers of the veil, with how quickly you can get spirits on board it's a 30hp shield for 25 nora. And also a skeletal lerper for more surge and shadowspawn messing with your opponent. Other than that i guess it's down to preference really, i always run 1 reapers blade for problem champs or when someone sends their avatar in the fray. I like the arroyo flamewisp for cheap ranged dispelling blows and much prefer arcane enervation or chain lightning over anathema
I haven't seen anyone playing ethereal soldier lately, what would be a good replacement meatshield/font contender?
Wailing Banshee with Life Siphon + Vaporize is pretty annoying to deal with against the right decks. Riftwalker is also fairly tanky with Majestic and whatever second upgrade you choose. Here's my deck for reference, though I am considering dropping the Bloodbinder for Inkblight Witch, might be better utility.
Edited original post with current bg and some Rune discussions. will continue to add more as time permits. Thanks for all the contributions so far!
remove both arroyo smokeforms, replace with 2 arroyo riftlords. replace utterdark specters with utterdark soulrenders. remove glimpse into utterdark for essence drain, replace 1 haunt with arroyo portal, replace sacrificial dagger with reapers blade. you could probably get away with removing spirits within for unholy tomb as well
