Import - The Necronomicon - An encyclopedia of the Forsaken Wastes

Discussion in 'Forsaken Wastes' started by KTCAOP, Feb 27, 2014.

  1. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Importer's Note - This is not my work, I, KTCAOP, am only importing the work done by another user - Xarios - who is the original author.

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    "Let the fallen rise; the end has come for all!"
    - Serkan, Lich King
    Rune Guide: Pages 1-2​
    New releases/buffs: End of page 2​
    Theme guides: Page 3​

    If you appreciate the guide, feel free to drop a like on it somewhere!​
    The Necronomicon - A guide to the Forsaken Wastes
    So, why play FW? To begin with the very obvious, because the faction is awesome - undead creatures of every variety, twisted monstrosities and mutants, and the living servants of the Lich King, Serkan. Along with this we have potent spells that go through many counters other factions struggle with, one of the defining features of our faction, many death-based mechanics, and the best attrition-based lategame play in the whole game, thanks to some deadly relics and our faction bonus.​
    Forsaken Wastes bonus: Necromancy
    Our faction bonus reduces the cooldown of all champions by 60% (30% in splits). It is important to know how rapidly a champion of a certain Nora cost will cool down, and to assist with this here is a chart made by LordSerkan in the distant past which details this:​
    Nora: turns​
    1-24: 1​
    25-39: 2​
    40-49: 3​
    50-64: 4​
    65-74: 5​
    75-89: 6​
    90-99: 7​
    100-114: 8​
    115-124: 9​
    125-134: 10​
    Forsaken Wastes themes
    Themes will be listed here based on several factors - race/class defined ones and playstyle/mechanic defined ones.​
    Racial themes:
    Skeletons​
    Skeletons are arguably one of FW's more potent themes at present. They have several common aspects - hyperefficient cheap champs boosted up to monstrous stat levels by various means, and swarming the field with lots of weak summons for the most part, along with some Nora control, sacrificial elements, and an Ichor module. Skeles are also our theme BG, which is a reasonable place to begin with our faction if you so wish, and they are fairly straightforward to play initially though they still have quite a lot of depth.​
    Zombies​
    Zombies are quite possibly our most feared racial theme. They combine slow, cheap, disease-ridden zombies with massive AP generation potential that can generate fearsome powerturns. But most importantly, their racial allows them to Swarm their foes, turning any fallen enemies into additions to your ranks - which can rapidly spiral out of the foe's control. They can be a little tricky to play well, but are very fun and very effective, even if countered fairly hard by IS Constructs and other FW players.​
    Liches​
    Liches are not our most viable theme by any means, lacking in melee and non-champ support, and being Magic damage heavy. However they are a reasonable BG, relying on the Surge mechanic to buff their champions damage sky-high. Other common mechanics include death-benefit, some spirit synergy, and Curse support. They may not be the best BG out there but they offer an interesting alternative.​
    Spirits​
    Spirits are one of our more unsual themes, focusing on stealth and the Incorporeal condition, with elements of death-benefit, Soultap, and Surge: Spirit in addition. The BG used to absolutely centre around the Insubstantiate ability, relying on it to stealth often your entire force, but spirits have also gained some very viable champions, and as such are no longer as reliant upon it completely.​
    Creepers​
    Creepers are arguably in the worst state of any of our racial themes at present, with no non-champ support and champions that do not synergise well together in all but a few cases. However, what overcomes this is the potency of the Creeper racial, which enlarges your shrine deployment zone as you play more Creepers and make more kills - allowing you to eventually begin dropping new champions right into the battle. They are very map reliant as such, but can be a fun BG to play.​
    Witches​
    Witches are our only Class-based theme, and are one of two non-undead ones. As such, they are somewhat different to "typical" FW. They centre around Curse and DMZ heavily, but also have a strong synergy with Forsaken Conduit and AP denial elements, both of which can spark offshoot BGs. Unfortunately they are somewhat powercreeped and buoyed up by a single spell, but they remain a very interesting BG, if not the most viable.​
    Vampyres​
    Vampyres are enabled as a theme by two things - Greater Vampirism and Blood Crest, and are a unique theme in that they disregard our bonus entirely, instead leeching life from the foe to keep themselves alive. As such, Champions are expensive but have great staying power. Unfortunately, this brings a number of weaknessess, including relatively costly champions and antihealing, which keep the theme out of the meta - but it is very fun, and can be adapted into a potentially much more versatile Siphon BG.​
    Playstyle/mechanic themes:
    Attrition​
    Attrition is the playstyle most benefitted by our bonus, and its principle is simple. Wear the opponent down with passive damage and durable champions preventing your loss, and the foe will run out of options. Winning with it takes forever, so wear your flamesuit if you plan on taking it for a spin, but it is a very effective playstyle should you enjoy running with it. The only defining features of an attrition BG tend to be their suite of relics to wear down the foe, but durable high-HP champions and ones with passive damage tend to also feature heavily.​
    Death Benefit​
    DB is perhaps the most FW theme out there. Things dying, and other things benefitting from it is one of the core aspects to many of our themes and fitting for our faction of necromancers. There are a number of ways in which this can be done - Vengeful champions, Czars of the Void, Death Harvesters, and similar being lynchpins to the theme. As expected there are many variants of this style of BG due to its broadness, but perhaps the best is a style utilising Vendettas.​
    Disease​
    Finally, we come to the least developed themes in all of FW. Disease is one of the core tenets of our faction, and is especially common in Zombies, but a pure Disease BG is not really all that viable. The only benefit it gives you is to trigger Black Death, which is on very few champions, and the damage type is rendered useless against undead and constructs. As such, a Disease BG is a pretty poor idea - we don't even have anough Amp champs to buff it by 50%.​
    Fear​
    Fear is in a similar boat to Disease, though it has a good deal more development, with Unspeakable, Psychological Warfare, Frightful Blows, etc. On its own Fear is a more potent condition, preventing retaliation and debuffing damage - but as with Disease it suffers from a number of factions having total immunity. Prestige and Undead are the banes of this type of BG, and are now so common that it is really pretty much unviable as more than a module.​
    Soultap​
    Soultap is perhaps the newest small theme to FW, with the addition of several Backlash champs and Soul Feast. It is a spirit-themed BG for the most part, dealing more and more LoL damage each turn as you deploy more backlash champions. It is surprisingly effective, certainly far more so than Fear or Disease BGs, but still lacks a great deal of theme development. The other issue is that after playing one it soon becomes clear you may well be better off splitting with UD or ST..​
    Dread​
    Dread is a peculiar "theme", in that it really isn't a theme, just a debuff-themed BG, of which Dread has become the title due to its colossal AOE. Essentially the idea is to reduce the foes' damage down to a point where they can barely hurt you with default attacks, aided by you running fairly defensive champions/ones who can selfheal to some extent. Debuffs like Fear, Curse and things like Cursed Blade are common fare in Dread BGs. They are incredibly expensive to create but actually fairly effective if built correctly, so if you have a lot of FW stuff feel free to give it a shot.​
    RMH​
    Relocate-Mobilize-Harvest. I hesitated to include this, as it isn't a theme as much as a BG built around supporting Corruptors to Harvest enemies for massive Noragen. This is done by relocating via Relocate:Foe typically, then casting Mobilization to generate the AP on Corruptor for the harvest. The BG is surprisingly effective, though very much out of fashion as our relocators have not aged all that well.​
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2014
    Gnomes and OriginalG1 like this.
  2. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

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    FW Rune Ratings
    Here I will rate each rune individually, and discuss them with regards to potential uses and applications. Ratings will be overall and for BGs I believe the rune is a potential include in. THIS SECTION INCLUDES RUNES UP TO PLAGUE OF BA'LAH ONLY - SEE "NEW RELEASES" FOR OTHERS.​

    Champions

    Abomination​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Since he's slightly shoeboxed, he's not even that great an include in Zombies, but feel free to try him there if you want to try some epic powerturns.

    Overview:
    The Abom is an interesting champion, famed for one thing - the insane levels of burst damage he can produce. With the typical build of Pulverize & Berserker, he can put out 39 damage to any unit within 3 spaces with a Blood Rage and Pulverize - or 7 with a Mobi. This is an incredible amount of hurt to be putting on anything, and is his primary use - a relatively frail (for his cost) but deadly beater. The real issue, however, is Vulnerability: Electricity. With a majority of BGs having some form of Lightning damage these days, this downside has spiralled into an enormously bad one - though to be honest, with Coragh sitting at 3 more Nora, he certainly needs a cost decrease to be a viable include. However, he is by no means a bad include for a starting player - his burst is never to be sniffed at, you just have to babysit him a bit more around Electric attack champs.

    Upgrades:
    Alll his upgrades are possible. Regen and Pulverize increase his threat range noticeably, allowing you to do 33 damage to anything 6 spaces away on burst turns, which can be very helpful (and Regen allows easy offsetting of Blood Rage damage). Pulverize and Zerker is the typical build due to highest damage potential and decent threat range - and zombies' AP gen means his threat range is rarely as short as 3. Taking Zerker 2 and 3 is also an option, however, giving him the most AP gen, allowing him to attack anything adjacent with either 2 hits+Blood Rage or one attack and a Pulverize. His threat range here is very low, but if you can somehow manage to get him into the midst of the enemy then with a little AP gen he will be able to do enormous amounts of damage.


    Afflicted Corpse​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    Obviously he is auto in Zombies, but outside of that he sees little play. If you're going for a cheapmeat BG he will likely be a good choice, but they're not viable really.

    Overview:
    The Afflicted Corpse is one of the Zombie theme's core champs. He has a big toolbox devoted to Disease support - Rabid, Disease Aura, Death Nova: Disease, and Amplify: Disease - allowing him to deny healing, counter perseverance, and boost your other auras if a second Amp champ is out. His Nova, meanwhile, gives him great damage potential, and forces the enemy to play carefully, especially if you can latch him onto a weakened champ. You can also use the Nova in conjunction with Goresplosion for a potent AOE - especially if you have other Amp: Disease champs out. However, his main feature, if you will, is undoubtedly his Nora cost. He is only 38 Nora - so low due to his lumbering status, and is thus an amazing deploy to defend fonts thanks to his decent survivability and Nora:HP ratio. If the enemy has to even cast a spell to deal with him he's already been worth it, and in any case he'll be redeployable in a miniscule 2 turns to annoy them once again.But the most useful interaction with him is Fleshweaver's Zombie Herder - removing his only downside and allowing him to become even more hyper-efficient. As such, it's often best to drop him as you plan to cast Herder with her, giving yourself what is essentially a massively discounted 6 speed champ - but he can also be a cheap way to make up the 5th Zombie for your first swarm. He is essentially 2x auto in zombies for being such a cheap contribution to Apoc numbers as well as for his amazing Nora:HP ratio.

    Upgrades:
    Disease Aura 3 is typically chosen to allow him to hurt things too far away to hit when lumbering, as is Death Nova to make him much more of a threat to anything not undead/a construct. HP is viable to make him even more of a lump of meat, but in general is less beneficial than the other upgrades (unless the meta is full of undead and constructs) - you ideally will have a swarm of Festerings to be hunks of meat in any case.


    Angel of Death​
    Rating: 8/10​
    BGs:
    She is one of the lynchpins of the Dread BG, and is also a decent include in anything with a hefty focus on debuffing and/or Disease DoTs that can proc Black Death.

    Overview:
    Our Angel is a fairly bland champion, but one who does the job well. Black Death, gives her insane damage output when Rabid is on the foe, and she also brings nice mobility with Flight and speed 7, Dread for a potent debuff and ranged Magic damage, which can be useful. Using any Angel comes with a degree of risk, however, as they are essentially overcosted until they intensify, but luckily AoD has a decent degree of survivability assisting her in living until this point. Dread effectively boosts her Def by 2, as does Aerial Supremacy against non-flying enemies, giving her a healthy effective Def 5 (7 when Intensified), and Lifedrinker allows her to selfheal if she scores a kill. Once intensified she becomes a fantastic beater with great survivability - easily hitting for 19-21 damage at range 6, with Stab to deal with anything engaging her. So good includes if you have them in a BG that supports them, but not essential.

    Upgrades
    You definitely want Lifedrinker for survivability, and typically Black Death else her damage output is disappointing, but Horrific Aura for more survivability is an option.


    Animated Blade​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons are the only place that could concievably run it, and even there it's outclassed by Bonewing.

    Overview:
    The Blade rose slightly in viability as Skele's shatter champ with the change to Boost, removing +1 Spd. This means that Bonewing is now a 6 Speed champ, and its threat range is not quite what it was - whilst Blade recieved a +1 Speed buff. Whilst slightly upping its combat potential in comparison to other Skeletons losing speed, this is still not enough to make it playable, as it costing more than Bonewing is a huge downside when one of the two has Boost and other tricks besides hitting things.

    Upgrades:
    If you do run one, pick Multiattack for better threat range and Dmg (Rend is covered by other Skeles and is less useful with Multiattack).


    Anthropomancer​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    He's fairly shoebox, and as such only really playable in Liches if you want the Divine Favour.

    Overview:
    The umbrella wielding Lich is an unusual creature. A melee Magic damage unit is in itself not common, and would usually be great - but Magic is a damage type far too common in Liches, where this fellow(?) will most commonly be seen. Stats wise, he's nothing special - sub-par for 67 Nora if anything, 6 speed being particularly hindering for a weak meleer. He has a couple of interesting abilities however - Curse, enabling some damage dealing from range; Expedite, revealing an additional rune whenever he attacks; and most importantly, Divine Favour. This gives a global 8 HP heal upon playing the Anthro, which can be very potent especially later on in the game (though unfortunately this clashes with Expedite). In general, this is the only reason one would want to include him, and the ability being most useful only late in the game means a 1x include is the most you would want to use him as - and even then there's probably better options for a slot, as he just doesn't have enough impact for his cost.

    Upgrades:
    On upgrades, Divine Favour is a must, and damage is probably the next best option, giving him a little more ability to actually hurt things.


    Archfiend​
    Rating: 6/10​
    BGs:
    Not an auto by any means, but a possible 1x in Vampyres. If running any form of Siphon with Stitched, he's 2x auto due to Ally: UD.

    Though typically seen in FW/UD splits, Archfiend also provides some unique tools in full faction, though he's not the best champ overall. His main benefits are Stealth and Possess (especially the two combined) - allowing him to necessesitate a detector's deploy and potentially steal/cliff an enemy on top of this. In combat he isn't terrible at all - but other Life Siphoners slightly outclass him in general, being tankier for their cost. Frightful Blows is his final unique trait, allowing him to lock down a side font fight 1v1 fairly nicely - and if you desire to use him as a pure combat champ then his damage and HP upgrades can make him very bulky. This is typically used when running Stitched, as his Ally: UD will give them AP and he will be buffed up to colossal stats and becomes very efficient for his cost.

    Upgrades:
    Upgrades wise, Stealth and Possess allow him to carve a potential niche for himself. His stat upgrades are far more viable if using with UD runes.



    Arctic Beast​
    Rating: 3/10​

    BGs:
    Please don't run this..

    Overview:
    The Arctic Beast is very shoebox indeed, probably even if we get a Beast theme. It's a shame, because he has interesting abilities in Mountaineer, Snowball, Hostile and some decent debuffs, but his overcostedness and poor stats let him down.

    Upgrades:
    Uhhh, Snowball and I guess one of the others depending on what you hope for him to do?

    Aspect of Death​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Any as a charge counter should you desperately need it. Possibly a Dread BG?

    Overview:
    The Aspect of Death had a few things going for it - a potent global debuff in Unspeakable, Soulstrike to counter superchamps, and arguably our best anti-charge mechanic. It lost Unspeakable a long while back, Warspirit was released which was by leaps and bounds a better user of Soulstrike, but at least it still has a very slight niche in destroying anything with Charges. Death Knell gives Shortlived 1 to every foe with 6+ charges by spending four of your own, and as such you can deploy it and instantly condemn any opposing champ with 6 or more to death, which is ofc a very effective counter. However with charges being fairly rare - on one or two champs in most BGs, if that, there is generally no need for this, especially in a faction that is so good at instagibbing whatever it wants to. It is possible to run two and some other Charge giving champs and attempt a gimmicky charge propagation mass Death Knell, but I wouldn't advise it if you enjoy winning consistently. Aside from the discussed, it does have Dread, so can be a 1x include there if you so desire, though most have dropped it for appliers of other debuffs which are simply better runes.

    Upgrades:
    Since its prime role is to use Death Knell, Charge is pretty auto. Dread is usually chosen as a secondary upgrade, but Horrific Aura is an okay alternative


    Bile Zombie​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies if you're feeling daring.

    Overview:
    The loveable exploding bag of bile is sadly no longer the include he once was. His limited toolbox - some minor rushing potential with Exertion and Initiative, Blind, and Bile Explosion, are frankly not enough for a unit with 25 HP that costs 44 Nora. This isn't to say he's without uses - charging a font, Blinding something, then exploding to Blind others and deal a nice portion of damage is situationally excellent, but zombies have better rushers in Thrall and Dead Fairy, and better font defences in Afflicted and any number of tanky Zombies. He is somewhat useful as a roadblock, but being able to be dragged out of position if latching onto an enemy to ensure something gets hurt isn't especially helpful - and if you don't latch on there is no guarantee you'll get his explosion to do what you want. It is possible to compare him to the Goresplosion spell, however, and he comes out fairly decently there, especially if you run Death Harvester, so it might be better to think of him as a spell with limited rushing/roadblock capabilities. Not the worst include, but generally you can find something more reliable.
    Upgrades:
    You want Blind for some utility, and HP to allow an extra Exertion.


    Bladed Corpse​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs: Zombies if you really, really want Shatter.

    Overview:
    Zombies' in-theme Shatter option is sadly not very good. He has nice damage output, but is dangerously frail and pretty slow - and thus hard to get to the enemy to do said damage. He's also a tad too expensive to consider putting in solely as a budget Shatter option, which is unfortunate - with a cost decrease he'd be a viable choice. He is runnable, Dodge giving him some survivability, but generally a Librarian is a better choice as you'd only be dropping him for Shatter in any case, so the impact on Apoc numbers isn't often going to be relevant.

    Upgrades:
    I'd take Dodge and Damage - Rend and Pummel are only very minor upgrades on his abilities, whilst Dodge is auto for survivability and Damage is going to be more generally helpful than any other upgrade.


    Blinking Creeper​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers.

    Overview:
    Blinking is one of the better Creepers for sure. It spots flying, decent alt damage, Creep Master to substantially buff the Creep zone when it scores a kill, detection, some range hate with Evasive, and excellent CC in Petrifying Gaze, along with a strong pool of upgrades. It's essentially a ranged supporter and finisher, and is solid at the job, though it does have some issues. For one, Petrification renders a foe immune to several creepers' attacks, which is unfortunate and an example of the poor synergy within the Creepers. It also doesn't sport phenomenal stats, having very low defences in particular, which can rapidly become an issue. But even so, it is absolutely one of the better Creepers and 2x auto in the theme. It's arguably even close to being include worthy for detect in meta BGs, as it has a potent CC mostly.

    Upgrades:
    Favour is the weakest of the three, not adding to the Blinking's survivability at all and being weaknened by Nora Leech on Phantasmal. The other three are mostly down to personal preference. Escape and Horrific Aura are its defence mechanisms, assisting it in staying on the field longer, whilst Speed makes it a better early drop and raises its threat range. Any combination of these three is pretty arguably viable, so use your own preference.


    Blood Fiend​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Vampyres and Creeps, if you provide the right support.

    Overview:
    The long-shoeboxed Blood Fiend is yet a champ rocketed to viability through shoebox buffs. Though not quite as deadly as when he carried Reinforcement, he is still a very cheap and hard-hitting fast beater. He does however absolutely need a theme with lots of support to function - Siphon boosts his healing and allows him to recover off the immense amounts of self-damage he does with Blood Fuelled and Exertion, whilst Creepers allow for him to be dropped straight into the fight. The reason this is worth is it that he generates 8, then 11 AP per turn with these abilities. Arguably he is stronger in Siphon themes than Creepers, which provide not only a boosted heal through damage, but also Blood Balls to heal as he charges around - whereas in Creeps he can be dropped as a wrecking ball but has much less survivability. Mobilization is a handy spell to have when using him, allowing him to surprise enemies who leave him at sub 8 HP, and Repurpose can be very handy to make use of one that gets stuck at a font far from the front lines. Remember to run Tome of Hate to prevent his Scorn killing your shrine (this unfortunately limits his use in a Vampyre BG as Tome clashes somewhat with Crest). Be careful not to include him without a means to use a spent Fiend, and a decent number of champs that can make Blood Balls - he's tough to use, but can certainly be worthwhile if you play him carefully - and beware of Distract.

    Upgrades:
    Siphon and Exertion are musts.


    Bloodbinder Count​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Vampyre and Life Siphon, but he is not auto.

    Overview:
    The legendary Vampyre splits opinion amongst the community as to his usefulness. Many say he is too expensive and not tough enough, but he does have a unique toolset with a lot of potential. Packing a good alt damage at range (useful for Siphon themes), a DMZ and the potent Cast: Dead Zone Voodoo (though with a long cooldown), along with a varying range of upgrades, he can fit into a few roles. Ranged nuker builds are possible with Fury pumping him up gradually, relying on his healing and DZV for protection, whilst Phase Shift allows for better defenceand it is generally a good choice due to his frailty). Finally, Ignorance and Distract allow for a measure to counter the potent abilities now on a high number of champs, which is fairly absent elsewhere in FW. So whilst not an autoinclude, his unique abilities do allow him some roles which little else in FW can fill - though in general there are better ranged utility champs out there. If running Mysian Lamia, he becomes a potentially stronger include, as DZV can trigger Shrinking Scion, and Lamia can otherwise discourage other foes from hitting him, assisting with his relative frailty. Generally you will be including him as a wincon - once Fury scales up enough - or to make use of Cast: DZV, which can be put to phenomenal use with some practice, but in general he's a little too costly to be auto-include.

    Upgrades:
    All upgrades are viable, but Ignorance and Distract overlap a lot. Fury gives him his role as a snowballer, so is commonly used.


    Bloodtracker​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    2x Auto in any Siphon theme and arguably module, same with Vampyres. Also a solid tank in any BG that needs one.

    Aside from badass flavour text, this champ is one of the best Vampyres out there. Primarily, Bloodtracker is a solid cheapish tanky champ - with both ranged and melee damage reduction and Life Siphon with Bleed. It also brings a pseudo-detect to the table with its namesake ability, as long as you have a vague idea where the stealthed champ is, which can also act as a spot damage booster for a Bloodworm. Range 1-2 is of course highly useful for avoiding damage reductions or blocks - as well as making picking up Blood Balls easier. Finally, Bloodtracker can pick up either Melee Specialist, to allow for excellent ability to solo two champs at a side font, or Impenetrable, to avoid various nasty abilities from the enemy. An excellent include in Siphon BGs, only not auto due to the large number of great meleers they have - but with Bloodworms or no true detection in your BG they become incredibly valuable. The only real downside is being a little bland aside from his signature ability, but for 75 Nora you can't really complain. He's a highly effective tank overall, and viable just about anywhere.

    Upgrades:
    Reflexes is auto and either Melee Specialist or Impenetrable are your next best options.

    Bloodworm​
    Rating: 8/10​

    The latest Creeper is also Siphon's most potent beater, thanks to Bloodlust and Multiattack - meaning he can attack more often and deals 50% extra to Bloodied champs. Bleed with high damage acts as another source of strong healing, and Evasive adds a nice little bit of range hate, increasing its durability a little. Creep and 7 Speed makes him a relatively good early drop in Siphon, and can also be a small help midgame when you kill stuff with him. Its final ability is Aggressive, meaning that as an enemy engages Bloodworm makes a basic attack, which will apply Bloodied and heal itself, setting up for a massively damaging doubleattack the next turn. Essentially, it means that very little will be attempting to get into melee with one in a hurry, and that your opponent will be falling over themself to one round a Bloodworm. For this reason, supporting with Lamias, Ancient's Protections, Shroud and similar are great ideas to keep it on the board doing tons of hurt as long as possible. Bloodtracker and Elders are great support for it, as they can both apply Bloodied from long range. In Creepers, it hits even harder, as it can swap out Aggressive or Multi for Surge: Mutant, and it's their best melee beater as a result, though its Blood Balls do annoyingly hurt most other Creepers.

    Upgrades:
    Aggressive is excellent to keep melee away, and Multi likewise for dealing more hurt. Surge is amazing in Creeps, and you will probably want to drop Aggressive for it, as Multi assists its beater role more. One extra rank of Evasive is pretty weak in comparison to these other upgrade options.


    Boghopper Zombie​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, Deathbenefit (good luck getting hold of one though).

    Overview:
    One of the two hardest to get runes in our whole faction, Hopper Zombies, though by no means essential anywhere, annoyingly are pretty solid runes. For a bargain 30 nora, you get a small Bodyguard unit with Disease Aura, Leap for mobility, Resist: Physical for durability or Vengeful to necessitate them being targetted by the enemy. Furthermore, they are an incredibly cheap way to boost Zombie Apoc numbers and will cooldwon very rapidly, allowing for more Bodyguarding. So if you have them, then they're a solid include at least 1x, but don't feel the need to hunt them down as a Death Guard is a fine substitute.

    Upgrades:
    Bodyguard is auto, and Vengeful or Resist is the obvious choice, depending on how you want to play them (Resist most likely given their awful speed).


    Bone Elemental*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    The Bone Ele is, in my opinion, one of the most badass looking runes in all of FW. And 78 Nora for a rune with a statline of 14 Dmg, 6 Spd, 5 Def, and 71 HP when fully boosted (Cloak of Bones, Banner, Boost: Skele 3 + Def upgrade) is great in anyone's book. Aside from this he has one other crucial ability - Bone fracture, spawning Lesser Bonemaulers upon behing hit by basic attacks. This serves as an incredible source of free meat, inclines foes to attempt to take him down via other means, and gets him ignored in favour of less dangerous targets - all of which can be exploited. Free meat obviously ties up enemy resources, and needing to be killed via other means than attacks often results in a lot Nora being spent to remove him. The Assault upgrade can be used to exploit your enemy's desire not to hit him and create Maulers - simply barge into the fray, blocking the path to your squishier units, and force the enemy to disengage or kill Bone Ele (and the subsequent spawns) to be able to save whatever he's staring down (no point in entirely overextending however). Charge aids him a little in this effort, whilst Deflect serves as an excellent way to prevent enemy hard-hitters dealing too much damage to him - target the most threatening unit to him with it as opposed to just blocking the next attack - as being hit and getting a free mauler is not a bad thing. However, after saying all this, he is not actually auto. He is a decent include, but the main issue is his being a large unit along with three other very helpful Skeles - Hoarfrost Dragon, Raider, and Boneshredder - including too many of them being a bad idea for your ability to position. Further, Boneshredder's sheer excellence as both a contestor and a tank, and Reaper's use as a tanky cheap beater squeeze Bone Ele out of the role of tank somewhat - though its still a good rune, especially with Mindflayers and a focus on summons.

    Upgrades:
    With regards to upgrades, Def and Assault are by far my preferences. Consume is good to keep him alive, but wastes AP and prevents him getting all up in the enemy's face, as well as removing the meat you can turn to your advantage. There are alternative means of healing him which, in extremis can be used, but to be frank he's not that expensive and his death is usually chaotic enough that you are fine letting him die when his time comes. Charge 3 can be helpful in conjunction with Assault to reach further away enemies, but his large size means it is too easily blocked for my liking.


    Bonecrusher​
    Rating: 2/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, if you dare.

    Overview:
    Bonecrushers are one of the worst choices for a champ in a Zombie BG, let alone anywhere else. Low damage, speed, HP, all contribute to making him by far not worth his cost. His abilities are too situational to be beneficial on such a slow champ - Stun, Pulverize, Execute and Siege, whilst decent inherently, all rely upon him attacking something - which he's not likely going to be able to do as he is entirely without defences. You can get a Fleshblight for 4 More Nora, and a Behemoth for less - he's simply horribly powercreeped.

    Upgrades:
    If for whatever reason you run him, take Execute and Damage. 1 Def is hardly helping anything, and Pulverise adds 1 less damage than taking Damage would.


    Boneshredder​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Skeles, especially with Ichor modules. Useable outside but nothing special.

    Overview:
    The Boneshredder is one of the best Skele champs around. 75 Nora gets you a decently tanky statline with 1-2 range, which is very useful on a 2x2. Calcify contributes to tankiness, whilst spell Aegis gives Skeles some built in anti-spell utility, which is excellent as swarms of summons tend to attract AOEs. Deploy: Bone Trap is where he really shines however, as it is absolutely amazing for contesting enemy fonts, given it spawns free splitting meat and Frightens the foe, as well as dealing a little extra damage (see relics for more info). Being 2x2, the places he could drop it are less obvious, making it somewhat easier to force the foe to trigger it. Overall, a 2x auto, pretty much - he's a fantastically tanky champ with antispell utility and a trap. His only real downside is being 2x2, which can really interfere with your hordes and reduce the effectiveness of his contests - but clever play with the trap should be able to help with this.

    Upgrades:
    Typically in Skeles you will want to pick up Bulwark, as it combos excellently with Cloak (which he is an amazing bearer of) and his trap, along with summons and spawns in general, making him exceedingly bulky and have some self-healing capacity. Speed is the obvious next choice, bumping him up to a 7 and allowing for better contesting on several maps. Zeal seems better to the untrained eye, but it is too backloaded and lessens his earlygame effectiveness. Ichor: Tough is however a very viable choice, making him unbelievably hard to kill if you include enough of an Ichor module, which isn't hard. Typically, I run Ichor and Bulwark for max tankiness.

    Boneguard Infantry​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    Skeles, cheapmeat should you try and make one.

    Overview:
    The Boneguard is one of the release set Skeles, a very cheap champ that is a relic of a bygone era. He was beaten out of BGs by Decayed Merc, for being better for slightly more Nora, and Broken Bones, for being cheaper and having Split. He was (and is) a very bland champ, with Weary and Block as his only abilities, which gives him some extra survivability but little else, and the more useful Merc and BB pushed him out of "cheap" Skele spots even in the occasional cheapmeat BG. However, he recently gained Logistics: Speed, which has given him some new life - Broken Bones has split, Merc has Riposte, and now Boneguard has potentially greater speed than them both, making him after a few more deploys a more effective combat champ in that he will actually be able to reach things (5-6 speed really makes a difference). As a cheap, spammable meatshield he's now a viable option, being able to keep up with your front lines - but he's still not great, being such low HP, but at least he may occasionally be seen. Logistics seems it would really shine in a cheap focused Skele BG, where he hits 6 speed asap, so that is likely the best place for him.

    Upgrades:
    Both Blocks are probably better than 1 of any stat, so they would be your choices.
     
    rambo09 and OriginalG1 like this.
  3. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Bonemauler​
    Rating: 2/10​

    BGs:
    Skeles if feeling daring.

    Overview:
    Bonemauler is an interesting rune. Seemingly an improvement on the Animated Blade formula, but making the champ more combat worthy and less supporting - 7 Speed, 1-2 range, Multiattack, Rend and Splintering all point to his intended usage as a point and fire beater. However, there are big issues. A subpar staline for a skele intended to get into the thick of things (7 Dmg, 1 Def and 46 HP) is not helpful. Splintering seems like it'd improve his damage output, but in cutting his HP it only manages to assist the enemy in one-rounding the 76 Nora champ you just charged in with after managing a measly 10 damage or so, as does the unwarranted inclusion of Vulnerability: Magical. Essentially he's a champ whose role just doesn't quite work - but it doesn't help that even Berseker is a better suicidal melee-er, nor that Skeletons are oversubscribed on the melee beater front as a whole. Until something changes he probably isn't worth it.

    Upgrades:
    Multiattack 2 and Damage seem most helpful to his beating, though HP 3 might be useful to help keep him alive a tad longer.


    Bonewing*​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, potentially Dread.

    Overview:
    Bonewing is a great rune in Skeletons, and is helpful for so much more than just Boost, though that does alone make it a highly valuable include. At a glance it seems dangerously frail for such a crucial unit, but Elusive helps massively in keeping him alive behind a wall of meat (bones?), though you have to beware of enemy spells and AOEs. Flanking is a minor boon in comparison, but combined with the versatile range 1-4, does make his damage output respectable against any engaged enemy. He is a good early deploy, due to being able to evade hurt from several sources if need be, and also due to flying and being a reasonable bearer of the Cloak of Skulls (whilst it doesn't do anything VS ranged it means he is less afraid of melee combat, and he's a huge target for bombs and cones anyway so you aren't increasing his chances of being targeted by them) - which you want out asap to buff as many Skeles as possible. It's also recently gained Ichor: Multiattack in a stealth buff, which is actually very nice indeed given Reapers are a great cheap source of the ability. With Flanking and Multiattack, the Bonewing can actually deal some decent damage, and given Reaper's strength Bonewing's viability is buffed as a result. His final on-base ability is shatter, which whilst putting the final nail in the Animated Blade's coffin, is undoubtedly helpful to your BG.

    Upgrades:
    You will be taking Skele 3 no questions asked, and generally Dread for the huge AOE damage debuff to all enemies, which indirectly helps all your champs survive. Rebuke is however an option if a lot of AP gen is present in the meta, though less reliable overall. The damage shield goes well with Cloak, but since he has boost you do not ever want to put him in harms way - he will only head there is necessity dictates it, and so the other upgrades are more helpful. In a Dread BG, you may want to run both Rebuke and Dread for max utility.


    Bridal Ravenwraith​
    (This champion is an alternate skin of Ravenwraith, see that entry for analysis and ratings)​

    Broken Bones​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, potentially cheapmeat.

    Overview:
    Broken Bones is the cheapest champion, Nora wise, in all of FW. And as a consequence, he has an appalling bad statline and no abilities on base. Now, interestingly, this does not put him in the same absolutely-don't-include-ever category as Carrionling, because of one ability on his upgrades - Split. This triggers whenever he is hit with a basic attack, cutting his HP half and splitting into two seperate champions. Given that he is only 29 HP and 1 Def (40 HP and 2 Def with Boost and Banner), it is naturally incredibly hard to prevent these low-HP splits dying. However, if you can pull it off, then you have a potentially huge amount of amazingly cheap roadblocks that you simply do not care about dying, that can be boosted up to a reasonable level in Skeles. Essentially, if you can prevent him dying immediately, you can cause an amount of trouble for the opponent out of proportion with his tiny cost, since any splits left alone will either be able to do some damage, block enemys' paths, threaten or defend fonts , and/or require AP or nora to kill off. By no means the best champ, and one who has issues in the current meta with all its auras and alternative damage (try Mindflayers), but a fun include at least. If you do want a very cheap champ to cycle repeatedly (to feed Vengeful or Death Harvest perhaps) then he is also a good option. Just bear in mind that if the enemy spends any resources on taking him out they are not using them elsewhere, and he has likely paid for himself multiple times over. Sadly, with the release of Bone Trap he's become somewhat less viable as a champ as the trap is simply so good, and is essentially spot Broken Bones wherever you want it for a miniscule amount more Nora. It does not have reduced CD, however, so the champ itself is not entirely shoeboxed, and of course if you want to bury your opponent in Broken Bones, then by all means run 2 traps and 2 of the champ itself...

    Upgrades:
    You NEED split, and Speed is necessary for him to be anything but absurdly slow and hard to maneuver.

    Cackling Witch​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Witches.

    Overview:
    The cackling witch is one of the newest additions to the witch theme, and at first glance is uninspiring. Sonic damage is helpful, but things like Cackle, Deafening Aura and its upgrades are less potent than say, Deep Wounds or Magical Bomb. As such, I see many people who run witches look over her, which I think is a mistake. For one thing, she sits at 10-20 Nora less than the majority of other witches, and so if short on being able to drop one of them, she makes an excellent deploy. With Cackle she fits into both Attack prevention and AP denial builds, whilst Deafening Aura can be used to deny abilities which could otherwise give you problems. But her upgrades are what makes her interesting: Ignorance is a great way to deny a good portion of champions their abilities passively - which when facing a Magic damage heavy KF Wizard BG might well be desired, whilst Distract serves similar purpose for all enemies but requires an attack, making it essentially a more reliable and controllable Deafening Aura. Exploit serves as both a means of AP gen, letting you double-tap more often and/or move further to trap something in her aura - and it is the best combat upgrade for her given it provides extra damage VS debuffed foes as well. Council: Spells meanwhile functions as both witches' best source of Nora gen and a detector for hidden spells. With AP denial focus in your witch BG, the former two upgrades are less necessary, as if your plan is working enemies will not have AP to use abilities anyway, but all are perfectly viable in most situations. Whatever you choose, her purpose is the same in your BG - a cheap deploy who is worth it whether ignored, due to having some potentially very nasty abilities, or attacked, as she is a cheap and less valuable link than other champs in your BG.

    Upgrades:
    They're all good choices depending on your aim with her.

    Carrion Colossus​
    Rating: 1/10​

    BGs:
    Creeps if you really want?

    Overview:
    Anything costing 118 Nora has to have huge impact to be worth it. With his spawns no longer being real, he doesn't even have a role as a combo with Sac Altar anymore. Not worth it anywhere.

    Upgrades:
    Probably Disease Aura and Def?


    Carrionling​
    Rating: 0/10​

    BGs:
    ...

    Overview:
    This champ is more expensive than Afflicted Corpse, yet has 2 dmg, 4 speed and 5 HP. It's like a bad joke...

    Upgrades:
    ...

    Cleric of Unrest​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Liches, though is a reasonable supporter elsewhere.

    Overview:
    The grinning Cleric is one of FW's most famous support champions, and the shoebox buff it recieved gave it a great deal more viability. It's a fairly weak combat champion, with poor damage and range, 5 speed, and low defences, meaning typically you'll be attacking with it mostly to scout for Righteous Deflection and similar. It does carry a number of great support skills, however - Curse, lasting a decnet 4 turns; Gift of Scrying, which is absolutely fantastic to burn through your runedock much faster; and most importantly, Invigorate, a 2AP, 2 range, CD 2 ability that gives 4 AP to any champ - the same as a Mobi, and every FW player knows just how valuable that can be. Clerics also have an excellent array of upgrades, with every single one being very viable. Speed is perhaps most immediately tempting, bringing both greater AP gen but also greater AP cap and thus greater threat range/Invigorate range. The move from 5-6 speed can allow the champ to cap several fonts on a few maps it would not be able to otherwise, and given Gift of Scrying pushes you to play it early, this can be a good choice. There are also two spell-related upgrades - Weaken Spells and Council: Spells. Weaken is a potent option, giving all champs in AOE5 around the champ a 5 damage reduction from all spells (note that some FW spells do LoL damage that this bypasses, however). Especially with two Weaken Spells Clerics out, this can be incredibly useful in countering AOEs hitting your champs. Council: Spells, meanwhile, generates you 5 nora for each spell the foe casts, which can be incredibly lucrative against spell-heavy BGs, as well as dissuading spellspam to some extent. Further, if on the ball, a player can notice hidden spells through the noragen from this ability, warning you of spellblocks the foe puts up. The final choice, only viable in a Lich BG, is Leverage: Lich, reducing the cost of the next Lich you deploy that turn or next by 10 Nora. This seems like a negligible boon in comparison to, for instance, the potentially infinite gains from Council: Spells, but this overlooks a few key aspects. It is not vulnerable to backlash, and most crucially can affect the board as early as the first or second turn - whereas typically spells are not cast until a turn or few later. This earlygame advantage can be incredible, as with a Shadestriker or similar Lich under 71 Nora in cost, if you go second, you can drop two champs on your first turn - giving you a board presence advantage very early on and potentially assisting you in getting fonts a turn earlier - effectively enlarging the benefit from Leverage significantly.

    Upgrades:
    It's really a personal choice as to what to take. If running lots of DMZ, countering AOEs with Weaken Spells may be less essential, and moreover, if running Backlash then Council: Spells may be undesirable. Speed is a less tangible benefit than the other abilities, but can save you in a lot of situations, and Leverage is hard to judge - and is reliant on drawing Clerics early for the greatest potential benefits. In Liches I run Leverage and Speed, elsewhere, Weaken and Council.


    Collection of Souls​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    A daring DB one.

    Overview:
    The Collection of Souls is a champion I badly wish was viable - it's such a cool concept. The gist of the champion is that it can become huge if played when the foe has a large number of champions on the board thanks to Soul Linked, which is fantastic, and grows even bigger and nastier when stuff dies with Soul Siphon. Essentially it's a big hunk of meat that can grow to hit very hard, but it also has an interesting, if weak clerical ability in Impart, which transfers dmg and HP to another champ, which is nice if not that powerful. The real problem, however, is Soul Link's drawbacks - if deployed with few foes on the field Collection is pathetically weak, you need about 4 or so to start getting to a decent size, and more importantly, if you wipe the opponent's field then the Collection instantly dies. In general, there are far more potent snowballing champions now we have Vendetta, and even before it was too situational to be used.

    Upgrades:
    Speed is auto, the other is personal choice.


    Contained Thrall​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in Zombies.

    Overview:
    Our new Common Zombie is one of the best champs in the theme. Thrall is reasonably tanky, with 3 Def and Nokan Do (Block and Dodge 1), not too pricey at 71 Nora, and a great rushy champ (for this theme in any case) with excellent utility. Crushing Charge increases his mobility significantly, Binding Chains is simply amazing both as AOE damage and a Snare to deny enemies the chance to get away as your rotting hordes lumber up to them (bear in mind that it is on the attack chain, however), and Assault is fantastic to keep enemies in place likewise for fear of the damage upon disengaging. It's very hard to portray the usefulness of Thrall in writing - you do have to see him used, but essentially he brings several things the theme really needed - another relatively fast and cheap meleer, along with slowing of foes. Finally, Arctic can also assist as AP gen, but is most useful in preventing damage and slowing from any number of ST effects. Overall, he's a fantastic champ, and arguably the most 2x auto of all the zombie champs in his cost range, and possibly all the melee Zombies but Afflicted.

    Upgrades:
    All are viable, though Crushing Charge is best for rushing and Assault for pseudo-slowing of foes (these being the most reliable options for his role). Regen is straightforward durability boosting, very nice on Thrall as Dodge and Block can delay incoming hurt long enough to recover a good amount of HP, whilst Slam is situationally incredible - champs near each other can be forced to take knockback damage, those near lava burning damage, and those near chasms potentially instakilled. In more typical usage, however, depending on the angle of engagement you can potentially save other attackers two AP if you knock them closer to your force, force enemies out of fonts, or simply waste Thrall's AP having to re-engage.


    Coragh the Two-Headed​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, Death Benefit.

    Overview:
    Annoyingly for all but long-time players, our 150k rune is a fairly good include in Zombies. His signature ability Double Trouble alone is enough to make him a potent one to be honest - dropping two Zombies on death is a fantastic way to boost Zombie Apoc numbers outside of giving him an amazing Nora: HP ratio. Coragh is a tanky beater, with good stats and Bold (and maybe Frightful Blows) making him fairly hard to kill in initial form as long as you keep him on the move - with Disease Breath (and maybe Aura and Berserker) giving him good damage dealing potential and threat range too. His final quirk is Brain Eater - if he kills an enemy with any of his abilities then he gets one of their upgrades, giving the enemy a dilemna - leave him alive and risk him snowballing out of control, or kill him and have to deal with two more spawns. In general however this is simply more of a cool bonus than reliable benefit, due to the randomness of it. Coragh's death spawns are worth a mention, as they have some interesting abilities of their own. Cory has Resistance Physical and Shatter, making him good to delay and enemy as well as potentially valuable shatter, whilst Bragh has Weaken Spells, very nice to reduce AOE hurt on your bunched up hordes, and Disease Aura, good for additional damage. In general however, with only 5 speed, 8 dmg and 20 HP they are merely a small roadblock. He also has Shielded, which makes him even tankier as he resists spells, though means the only thing that can resurrect him is now Gravewatcher (see entry). Overall, Coragh is a great 1x include in any Zombie BG, but despite having Mythical and only being able to be on the field once at a time, he can be a good option to 2x include there and in any DB BG if you have the money. This is primarily due to his interaction with Death Harvesters, as he dies three times due to his death spawns, generating a decent amount of Nora per Coragh without including benefits from globes. If you lack the finances for him however, don't worry - with his recent nerfs he's much easier to replace.

    Upgrades:
    Personally, with his recent nerf I would go for Aura and Initiative unless running Necrotaurs and/or Dooms with Psych Warfare, when I would grab Frightful Blows. Berserker, whilst previously nigh on auto, is now pretty crippling - Breath now taking AP means his threat range and movement speed (thus also Bold) are awful if you pick it up, though it is helpful to make his breaths hit harder and Brain Eater easier to proc. Disease Aura is naturally a good replacement, however, as the extra passive damage is great to be able to move around to proc Bold and still hurt enemies. Frightful Blows is clearly helpful for his self-preservation, but given that Bold is pretty much entirely wasted if you frighten an enemy, it is somewhat counter-intuitive and is thus probably the weakest upgrade after Zerker. His new upgrade, Initiative, is a strong upgrade on any champ, and allows him to either get Bold procced on deploy or shoot off a Disease Breath immediately (as long as you drop him somewhat late in the game).

    Corpse Golem​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies.

    Overview:
    Corpse Golem was once once of FW's premier tanks, and how things have changed, with the poor Golem rarely being seen even in its own theme. He is still a reasonable include as a cheap tank - he has Absorb to prevent ranged hurt, and Consume for regaining HP from almost-dead friendly champs. It also has Disease Aura and as such is able to dish out some hurt despite its low dmg. Its main draw, however, is Hunter: Prot, meaning that against 1/2 of the factions in the game it takes 30% less damage and deals 50% more - becoming a steal for his 68 Nora cost. Admittedly this isn't always reliable, but if included 1x he can be a valuable tool against Prot and simply not deployed the rest of the time. His one drawback is Lethargic, giving him Lumbering 1/3 of the time - so you have to be careful where you leave him on the turn before he becomes sluggish. Overall, a reasonable 1x include, but generally outclassed somewhat by things like Thrall, who have no drawback and are consistently reliable.

    Upgrades:
    You definitely want Absorb for survivability, and Disease Aura is typically the most useful form of extra damage, though if short on Rabid and wanting to use Black Death champs or something similar, Rabid isn't the worst option.


    Corrupted Guardian​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, but by no means necessary.

    Overview:
    Guardian is an interesting beast. He's obviously a tank - 60 HP, 3 Def, Calcify, Unstoppable, Life Siphon on demand along with DMZ and Hold the Line on upgrades make for a tough champ to take down. He's no slouch offensively either, with Disease Aura, Ancient Corruption giving him extra speed and damage along with Siphon, and Charge and Exploit on upgrades. His 1-2 range is actually especially valuable for a 2x2 in a swarm theme, meaning he can attack over the horde of allies you may well have on the field, whilst being a large champ in itself means he can counter Colossal enemies nicely in a theme of mainly small champs. When to use Ancient Corruption is a big dilemna when using him - using it early guarantees max AP gain from having 8 Speed, but Siphon on demand generally wins out, so only popping it when you need the damage or healing is typically best.

    Interestingly, he has four good upgrades. Hold the Line is most attractive at first glance, providing hefty damage, range and defence upgrades whilst making him un-relocatable, buffing all friendlies within 2 spaces Def by 3, and giving him Defensive Strike. This makes him a very potent roadblock, able to lock enemies down and get a free heal with Defensive Strike if Ancient Corruption is up, whilst buffing all his allies, which is obviously potentially very potent. The issue is that zombies don't especially need a Hold the Line champ. They can generally defend fonts well enough with the hordes of meat they can put out. Further, he often does not have enough AP to use both Ancient Corruption and Hold the Line and to hurt things - which is a more practical downside. As such, picking up Hold the Line is generally not advised unless you want a very defensive Guardian. Even without HtL, however, AP can be an issue, which makes charge a great boon - enabling him to attack from much further away and output more damage. His other offensive upgrade is Exploit, which is a nice way to up damage and generate extra AP, offsetting the cost of activating his selfbuffs, in a theme with lots of Disease and/or Curse - and Zombies has a substantial amount of the former. It will often fail to net him an extra attack however, as you'll be spending a lot of his AP on ability activation, so its value is somewhat less than the other upgrades overall. DMZ is the final upgrade, and it's always a great option on a 2x2 champ, denying spellcasting over a wide area as well as preventing him from being targetted by spells entirely. It also has the nice side-effect of Cursing anything coming within his melee range if you have a Fleshweaver out. Overall, any of his upgrades are viable in just about any combination - Charge and Exploit for max offensiveness, DMZ and HtL for most tankiness, HtL and Exploit to become a defensive tower of death, DMZ and Exploit for most advantage of a Curse BG, but in general I prefer Charge and DMZ - to not put pressure on his AP gen, whilst giving him longest threat range, not relying on enemies being diseased, and giving some spell protection to my force.

    In general, he's a decent 1x include, but by no means essential - Zombies have enough tanky champs out there that don't cost an arm and a leg to acquire. I hesitate to say he's a 2x auto - whilst good, he is pricey and 2x2, and having a wide variety of options for your tanks can be very helpful, though Guardian is undoubtedly the fastest tank Zombies has thanks to Ancient Corruption and Charge and thus does help negate the slowness of some of the theme.

    Upgrades:
    All four are viable.


    Corruptor​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    RMH, decent in meta BGS if you support him well.

    Overview:
    Corruptor is a rune to be feared for one reason - Soulharvest. Whenever he kills a foe, you gain Nora equal to half of its cost, which can make for phenomenal Noragen. Despite his 4-5 range he is rather good at doing this thanks to Corruption, which turns his damage to LoL, and being in a faction full of instagibs also helps. This is not to say he doesn't need support however, as he is very frail aside from his DMZ, and is a colossal target for the enemy. You will need to be very careful positioning him, as the foe will put everything they have towards slaying him. To this end, the RMH strategy comes in, letting him sit further back and things like Sarinda or Soul Siren draw in foes, then a Mobi be casted to get the harvest. Essentially, he's incredibly potent but requires a lot of support to work out. Only a cost increase pushed him out of the meta, but he is by no means a bad rune.

    Upgrades:
    Speed and Damage are auto given his role as a Soulharvester.


    Crawling Corpse​
    Rating: 5/10​

    The crawling corpse is an interesting champion to be sure. Overall he fits somewhat into the same niche as Decayed Mercenary, Berserker, etc - slow, cheap skeletons who are best used to defend fonts as opposed to outright offensively. His lumbering is a pretty big drawback in this regard, giving him a movement range of 5 at full AP, and a melee threat range of 3. Luckily, he does also have Disease Breath, and thus can deal some damage to ranged dancing around him (and potentially with Curse if picked as an upgrade), but he excels at dealing with enemy melee. An entangling attack (and maybe Bind) prevents them escaping him if he does get a hit off, and Bile Explosion is excellent as a Death nova, Blinding the enemy on death as well as doing damage.

    Essentially, best used for defensive duties to mitigate the issue of his awful speed, and like Berserker and Merc better at dealing with melee than ranged contestors - but he can actually hit from ranged to some extent unlike both of them, though once the threat is gone he's not much use as it'll take him a month to get to the frontlines (similarly to the shortlived Berseker). Upgrades wise, Curse allows him to attack from range every turn, whereas Bind allows for saving up 10 AP then engaging enemy ranged to deal at least some extra damage and waste their AP. Multi increases his threat range by one, helping get off Entangling attacks, which can be even more helpful than Bind against ranged - issue being a font is just slightly too big to be able to guarantee hits on anything contesting even with it, whilst Bind always allows you to engage with 10AP. Bile Explosion is self-explanatorily good, especially against melee, with Blind allowing for easier reinforcing of a taken font the next turn.


    Crossbone​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, especially with Ichor.

    Overview:
    The alteration to Crossbone recently has breathed new life into the budget ranged option for Skele BGs. Whilst he now competes with Rifleman for a slot, who is almost as cheap, he has some excellent attributes that make him more reliable and hard-hitting if the situation is right. He lost Poison for Rabid - which is fairly scarce in Skeles, so is nice - and instead got Ichor: Poison, which gives him back a rank of Poison for each other Ichor champion (Grekin, Reaper, maybe Shredder) within 6 spaces. This means that he will deal 15-17 damage on hit to a no-Def enemy (as well as debuffing their Def with Poison), rising to 20-22 after the foe's turn - very impressive for a 64 Nora ranged champ - and bear in mind this is without boost. Interestingly, his Ichor is the opposite flavour to Reaper's - you want lots of Ichor champs with Crossbone, not none, making simply splashing them into a BG somewhat dubious, you need to think about how best to combine the Ichor champs to benefit you most. It may even be worth running Grekins as support if you try this out. The other caveat is that he will be much weakened against other Undead or Constructs, who are immune to his DoTs. In general, a good, cheap option for ranged, with some drawbacks and support needed to work optimally.

    Upgrades:
    You want Precision for sure - never missing is simply invaluable in a meta with Righteous Deflection, Elusive, and similar. Dmg is probably near auto too - not taking it risks Evasive and high Def champs being immune to him entirely.
     
  4. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Crypt Guardian​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, if relic heavy.

    Overview:
    Crypt Guardian is a unique zombie, though he techically fits into the melee beater/tank archetype so many other Zombies do. This is for a couple of reasons - Rotting Blows on base, meaning anything he attacks is hurt if healed for 8 turns, a ridiculously long and painful debuff, and his interactions with Relics. He has Relic Guardian, meaning he becomes pretty amazingly efficient when close to a relic, and Relocate: Relic, the only full-faction champ we have with the ability, which can be very useful to drag Corpse-a-Pults, Scouring Jaspers, Grim Wells and more about, buffing him as he does so. He also has Resist: Physical on upgrades, making him a very decent tanky unit, if a little more expensive than most in the theme at 72 Nora, and Curse, giving him some means to hurt enemies at range. Finally, he has Immunity: Sonic, which has never been more useful with Broken Shard proliferating Horrific Howl on Yetis. However, he does have a drawback - Faithless, meaning he has no spell presence, which can bite you very hard on occasion (and makes him a bad lone contestor). In general, he's just a little too pricey to be mindlessly included without taking full advantage of his Relic shenanigans-enabling - so you need to build your BG a little differently (more relics) if you plan to take advantage of the Guardians - but he's certainly viable.

    Upgrades:
    You definitely want Resist: Physical, and HP is generally the next best option for increased tankiness.


    Czar of the Void​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Death Benefit, Spirits, Liches, Siphon maybe.

    Overview:
    The Czar is a champ intended as support for spirit and death benefit BGs, but can be incorporated into Liches and Siphon somewhat. His stats are sub-par, but makes up for it with very interesting abilities. He has Phase Shift, excellent for survivability and helpful for contesting, and Surge: Spirit, which is somewhat useful to gradually bring his Dmg up to very respectable levels - Shadestriker being Lich/Spirit is very helpful to this, as with its illusions a single Striker can boost Czar's (and its own) Dmg by 4. Czar's main ability and signature, however, is Restless Souls - an ability that, for the cost of 5 of Czar's HP, summons a Lvl 1 Revenant champion next to the Czar whenever an enemy champion within 6 spaces is killed. Revenants are very weak and are short-lived, but have Initiative and thus become potent in lategame, en masse, as well as serving to fuel the Czar's Surge. Whilst such a source of free meat is in itself very valuable, the spawned Revenants being short-lived also means that they fuel Death Benefit aspects of FW very, very well as long as you make headway in killing foes - Czar's release revitalised the theme. Typically, Death Harvester and Vengeful are the methods used for this, with the former generating 3 Nora per Revenant's death - not amazing, but perhaps worth it if other DB aspects are present, and the latter rapidly boosting champions' damage to terrifying levels. Even without a Death Harvester however, the Nora globes dropped by Revenants can be a potent source of Noragen, as they each hold 10 Nora - especially if you secure them with a Soul Collector unit. It is however worth noting that Czar is very weak earlygame, because a great deal of his value comes from his spawns, and with few deaths occuring he is simply a sub-par champion, and similarly against BGs using superchamps or very high cost champions few Revenants will ever be created, killing his value to a great extent (inversely, come up against Moga and he will be creating entire armies of free meat on his own). Finally, a tactic to be aware of is the ability to instantly spawn a Rev as soon as Czar is summoned - if you are about to kill something 6 spaces from a deployment zone, drop a Czar down and get an instant Revenant. As to whether to actually include Czar - despite his complexity, he's actually far from auto in Liches, though pretty much 2x auto in Spirits. This is primarily because he's simply more of what Liches have too much of already - a combat-weak, magic attack, supportive champ, and he doesn't directly offer much to Liches. If you run DB he is most likely 2x auto, but Liches and Siphon can make do without them just fine.

    Upgrades:
    All upgrades are fairly viable. Two serve to counter the damage incurred from summoning Revenants - Life Siphon and Consume. The former is reliant upon Czar being able to get off attacks successfully, meaning he has to be close to the front lines, and somewhat also reliant on Surge being fairly well fuelled, but it does not suffer the inherent penalty Consume does of forcing you to do kill one of your own units. Whilst this fuels DB elements and can be easily used on Revenants, it still loses you board position, and the cooldown can sometimes backfire on you. In general, use only one of the above, but which is down to personal preference and the BG. Its final two upgrades are Teleport 1 and Rabid - the former being great to assist the Czar in staying alive through greater mobility, as well as making the champ a better earlygame drop due to effectively having 7 Speed, whilst Rabid is helpful to fuel Conduit, deny enemy healing, and allow the Czar to deal out significantly more damage (as Rabid is rank 3). Once again, which of the two you choose is a toss-up, but normally you will only want one, as Restless Souls makes using a healing upgrade nigh-on essential.


    Dark Apprentice​

    UPDATED - SEE NEW RELEASES​

    Dark Enchantress​
    Rating: 3/10​

    BGs:
    Daring Vampyre ones.

    Overview:
    At first glance, the Enchantress has an impressive toolset - Charm, Fear, Magic Nova, Possess, and Phase Shift. Unfortunately, she's such a low priority target that Charm is pretty useless when not one on one, Fear is in a similar boat, and Archfiend does Possess much better (and still not that well). Magic Nova is pretty neat, but given her pathetic Dmg stat it's the only way she'll be hurting much, though Phase Shift is admittedly a strong ability. Essentially, she suffers from a poorly synergising toolkit, poor damage (a big issue for a champ healing from their own attacks) and generally being far less useful than a ton of other champions. She needs her stat upgrades on base at the very least before she'll be close to a good include. Thanks to the release of Seeker of Blood, not even worth considering in a Vampyre BG for her magic attack any longer.

    Upgrades:
    Phase Shift and probably Possess to try and carve out more of a niche for herself.

    Dark Knight​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies potentially, Liches. Possibly even DB.

    DK is one of our faction's oldest premier tanks, and is a decent include on his own merits - Physical resist, a solid ranged attack as well as melee, a DoT, and immunity to targeted spells are a good toolset, more so with two lives. His second form gains Flying, Immunity: Magical (making it resistant to the two most common damage types), boosted stats, and Life Siphon. Having Warding makes him very hard to remove in this form, and he is basically even more formidable - more so if buffed up by any other means to even greater levels. His 7 Speed also makes him a potentially helpful early champ for a slow theme, but this is pretty much countered by his cost severely affecting second turn deploys. So why not include him? Primarily, his cost - 92 Nora, significantly more than most other melee tanks. He also damages the shrine in his second form, and the first can simply be ignored or CCed by a foe, preventing you from utilising his full potential. If you want a pure tank, something like Bloodtracker, Putrid Creeper or similar is likely a better first choice, but if you really want to max out DB synergy, or need a Magic damage counter and dealer in Zombies, he's still a solid choice. Where he really shines is Liches, where Surge buffs his damage up to frightening levels, and here he is practically 2x auto because of it.

    Upgrades:
    Rabid and Throw Axe are auto typically, but Rabid can potentially go for Phys: Resist 3 if you really want or are brimming with the DoT already - the 15% extra is minimal however. In Liches, you will want to ditch one upgrade for Surge: Lich, typically Rabid.


    Dark Messenger​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    None, really.

    Overview:
    Sadly the Messenger has been massively powercreeped as a ranged detection unit, just compare it to Blinking Creeper. It's incredibly frail and costly, exacerbated by its entirely unwarranted Vulnerability, and not all that hard hitting either, nor does it slot well into any theme, so it lacks a niche entirely.

    Upgrades:
    Surprisingly, all its upgrades are pretty decent, but they don't really help its issues. Speed is likely auto, but the second is a toss-up.

    Dark Seductress​

    UPDATED - SEE NEW RELEASES​

    Dead Fairy​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies.

    Overview:
    One of the "old" zombie theme's only two ranged options, Dead Fairies have somewhat fallen from favour due to their frailty and prohibitively expensive cost. Due to this, they require a certain finesse to get the most of, but they certainly have potential, and they remain the theme's fastest rusher, with Flying, Speed 7 and Initiative 2. Their Magic attack is also a source of welcome alt damage in the physical-heavy zombies. Whilst very statistically frail, they have some ranged mitigation in Dodge and Horrific Aura, so if you can keep melee away the frailty can be dealt with. Finally, there are a few cool tricks to try with the Fairy. First off, as a flying champ, it's unaffected by latch on - so you can clamp a Lumbering zombie to it, swoop over to an enemy, and allow your slow friend to go to work on the foe, something few will see coming. Secondly, the Fairy is a fantastic bearer of the Reaper's Blade, especially if you haven't taken Rabid. Good speed and range, flying, and low damage are pretty much the optimal conditions for a bearer (more tankiness wouldn't go amiss, but nothing's perfect). So overall, a uniquely useful but frail and perhaps prohibitively pricey option - overall a potential include, but no more than a 1x at this cost.

    Upgrades:
    Whilst Dodge is fairly auto as an upgrade for defensive purposes, there are some cool options for the second slot. Rabid is very nice on a fast ranged champ, allowing for spot application of Inhibited (though this means the Fester upgrade becomes almost entirely useless), whilst Defiling Aura in conjunction with Horrific Aura (as you have to get within 3 spaces of foes) can allow you to guarantee your debuffs stay on enemies, especially in conjunction with Hungry Dead, Latch on, or Binding Chains. This is very nice for factions with a lot of cleansing ability where you want to 2-round very tough foes.


    Deadwood Strider​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Attrition, maybe.

    Overview:
    The Strider is a cool champ, but is normally a better include in KF trees. He has a good ability set, but speed 5 really holds back his viability. Rabid, Entangling attack, Punish and Tormented paint a picture of a nasty debuffer, but he's unlikely to get close enough to hit things. The only theme he might go into is an attrition one, since Take Root and his low cost makes him pretty efficient, and the speed is less of an issue.

    Upgrades:
    Resist: Physical and Absorb are probably the best options to turn him decently tanky if you run him.


    Death Guard​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Any, ones with a DB module especially.

    Overview:
    Death Guard is arguably the rune that makes best use of our faction bonus, being 33 Nora and cycling in a meagre 2 turns. This means you can actually run him 1x and have him up just about every time you would want to use him, a boon our bonus supposedly gives us that we rarely get to exploit. But in any case, the reason to run this thing is simple: Bodyguard with 48 HP and 4 Def for an incredibly low price. He is a phenomenal way to keep runes like Serkan alive in the face of all but LoL damage and relocation, and even better synergises fantastically with Death Benefit due to his Short-lived "drawback". When he dies you can get a huge proportion of his Nora back with a Death Harvester out, and he buffs Serkan via Vendetta, making the three runes a nice small module to run. There's not really much else to say about him - he has knockback which can situationally be handy to cliff something, and is fantastic Repurpose fodder (again often onto Serkan) right before he would die from short-lived. A very nice 1x include, the drawback being you will need a Tome of Hate to counteract his Scorn.

    Upgrades:
    HP and Def for max survivability.


    Death Harvester​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    DB, Zombies.

    Overview:
    Death Harvester is one of the coernerstones of Death Benefit and a decent include in Zombies. Detection is one reason why, especially on a Flying champ, but Death Harvest is also a great boon for theme with many cheap, weak champions that are most likely going to be dying regularly. Per death, you gain 7 Nora for each champ with a cost of 59 nora or more (8ish deaths to make back his cost), with 6 more for each globe he picks up, easy if using him for frontline detection. In general, given most BGs need detection and adding things like Death Guards and Czars to fuel his Harvest is very easy, he is often a good include in anything with a DB element - if you get your DB module going he's pretty much guaranteed to refund himself. Given his low cost he can be a helpful grabber of back fonts early in the game.

    Upgrades:
    Take Detection and Dead Eater for most utility.


    Deathcaster​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    None, really.

    Overview:
    The Deathcaster is a rune I badly want to be viable, as Death Pact is such a cool ability to have. However, the rune suffers from a Vulnerability, high cost, and slightly conflicting design. Two of his upgrades are geared towards healing back up after Death Pacting, whilst he has Death Nova and Sacrifice on base - which alone are very odd for a 70+ Nora unit. If he had these abilities removed and became a cheap Death Pact platform he may become more viable, but until then he really doesn't fit in anywhere.

    Upgrades:
    Disease Eater seems a good idea to try and heal him up some. Assimilate may be good to support this, or damage is a decent option too.


    Decayed Mercenary​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    The Decayed Merc has already been mentioned as a slightly pricier version of the Boneguard Infantry. For a 6 more Nora, you get +6HP, +1Spd, Sunder, Unstoppable, and Riposte, but lose out on Weary. Sunder is an excellent ability, stacking to tear away enemy defence and increase all your units' damage output on the debuffed champ as a result, whilst unstoppable is nice to allow him to run through Energy Thief, Grim Well, and be unaffected by Punish, but is situational. Riposte, however, makes him an excellent cheap anti-melee unit, as with Block he can avoid one attack per turn, and retaliate for damage and a stack of Sunder, and this is what means he is still useable as a nice cheap font defender. Enemy ranged is naturally going to have issues facing a melee in a font battle, whilst melee without alternate attacks are dealt with handily by Riposte, Block and Sunder, allowing him to more than recoup his worth against champs potentially far priceier than himself. The main issue, however, is that there are such a huge range of champs with such alternate attacks out there now, so he is by no means a fantastic include. If however you are specifically looking for cheap champs, and ones to counter opposing meleers, then he is still a very solid choice, just be aware of the limitations.

    Upgrades:
    Block and Riposte allow him to do his job, so they are auto.


    Defiler Knight​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits, Siphon, but non-essential in both.

    Overview:
    Defiler Knight is an expensive rune - so you'll be glad to hear that he's by no means essential to the running of a good Siphon or Spirit BG. The bad news is that he is a pretty handy rune, and if you do have them then they'll be interesting includes. He is a pretty good tank, with strong stats and Vaporise, as well as being a 7 speeder with 1-2 range, giving him versatility in combat too. Being a 2x2 is a drawback for mobility, but his range lessens that to some degree, as does being able to use his Cast ability to get over obstacles - and he is the only 2x2 in Siphon and Spirits, so can be useful VS the occasional Colossal foe. He has also got a veritable pool of situational abilities - Cast: Ghostly Visage, good to protect a champ for a few turns, let one bypass terrain, or similar; Defiling Aura, a nice passive to keep Bloodied or SOultapped on the enemy; Decaying Blows, causing healing to hurt (try a Crown of Nightbarbs to benefit from this more) - even better when the champ applying it also gives defiled; and Relieve, an emergency method of cleansing something. Finally, Quest: Kill Enemy can be used as an emergency heal, but due to Defiler already having Siphon, is more valuable for the nice buff it gives, making the Knight an offensive monster as well as a good tank. The real issue with him is that he doesn't really bring anything all that necessary to either spirits or Siphon, though the former appreciates a good tank - at least since Nightbarbs was nerfed. You will be perfectly fine including something else over him, but he is a solid rune and fun one to play around with if you have them.

    BGs:
    Upgrades wise, you definitely want to take Vaporise and Life Siphon, the others are outclassed. Frightful Blows is more of a possibility in Spirits where Siphon will not be buffed and he may end up invisible, but even still selfhealing is likely far more valuable.

    Disturbed Spirit​
    Rating: 3/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits if you really want.

    Overview:
    Disturbed Spirit has one role: Possess things. Uniquely, it can do this to relics as well as champions, which is fun but generally not especially useful. Aside from this it is entirely useless, and is a unit that seems very frail were it not for the fact that only magic damage can harm it thanks to Ghost. A fun rune for sure, but not terribly viable at 4 Speed simply because it takes so damn long to get anywhere near the foe to possess them, and the enemy has time to prepare. A Domination is likely a better option, and cheaper to boot.

    Upgrades:
    Possess and Haunt, since that is all the rune can do.


    Draco-Lich​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Liches, potentially in a BG utilising Conduit.

    Overview:
    The Draco-Lich is one the most impressive champs in terms of base Dmg in our whole faction, which when you think about it is kind of depressing. But regardless, he's one of the only Liches aside from Serkan with Surge (without having to be ressurected to gain the race, anyway). He's also a flying champion with a cone in Disease Breath, making him useful to bypass defensive abilities, spread AOE inhibit, and trigger Conduit, as well as essentially being a much more versatile attacker for having the ability. Aside from this he's very unremarkable, however, having merely fairly high base HP and Dmg with a physical attack (only notable as Liches are so Magic heavy) as other noteworthy features - so essentially, he's a beater, able to achieve immense Dmg with Surge, who happens to have a handy cone. He used to be 2x auto in Liches, but the arrival of Shadestriker and Reaper has to some extent squeezed him out - he just doesn't bring much except a breath to the BG, but he's by no means bad and you may like him personally. He's also a good triggerer of Conduit in other BGs using it as a theme, where he is not locked into using the Surge: Lich upgrade.

    Upgrades:
    Surge is essential in Liches, but the second choice is a tough one. Conduit is an excellent ability, giving Draco the ability to heal off damage when Cursed, Diseased or Hexed foes are hurt - which is especially potent when the champ the ability is on has a Disease cone. Unfortunately, you have to inflict 16 damage to a foe to get more than a 3 HP heal off, but with many foes Cursed, this can easily recover substantial amounts of HP every turn, increasing Draco's survivability somewhat. The issue is that aside from high HP, it has no defensive abilities to speak of, so 1-rounding is still probable and even likely, which devalues Conduit. The next viable upgrade is Speed - which is fairly self explanatory, and gives Draco-Lich a bigger threat range, faster movement (great because when his breath is on cd, Draco can be too slow to engage the enemy with ease - a big problem for a beater), and higher AP cap - but does not allow for any self-healing. The choice between these two is immensely hard, as they both do very different but very valuable things, so try both and determine your preference. Regen 2 is the final upgrade, but it is both susceptible to Decay and far less impactful than Conduit overall, so it is the least useful of the four options.


    Dusk Creeper​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers.

    Overview:
    Dusk Creeper is one of the three ranged Creeps and an essential supporting champion to the theme, due solely to Improve: Range, which makes everything in the theme noticeably deadlier and eases the melee heaviness somewhat. It also packs a great alt damage in Sonic, a DoT and Tormented for decently hard hitting attacks, and Vaporise for survivability. Aside from this the champion does literally nothing else though - it's 2x auto in Creeps purely due to Imp: Range however.

    Upgrades:
    Rend and Tormented are best since they consistently improve its damage output. Impatient is a downgrade, and Surge: Shadows is useless without many stealth champs.


    Elder Bloodbinder​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in all Vampyres and Siphon BGs.

    Overview:
    The theme enabler for Life Siphon themes, for one reason: Greater Vampirism. This ability, even on this champ alone, is enough to provide for an entire theme. Fortunately, beyond this the Elder Bloodbinder is actually a decent champ - with good range (rare in Siphon) and a nice damage type, along with Vaporize for some defensive utility. Furthermore, she can transform into a Dark Raven to provide detection, to cleanse herself, or to fight in melee (though this is generally only a last resort). Bleed on her is also very handy, as she can serve as a spot applier of Bloodied for Bloodworms, or setup a heal for another champ off the blood ball. With Vaporize being auto, one upgrade slot is left - typically Shroud for great range countering, and its impact cannot be understated, turtling VS range is much more easy with Evasive 3 on all your units. Blood Magic is the alternative, acting as a pretty nice AOE, an easy way to apply Bloodied to an additional champion (but with Bleed this is less useful), and generally souping up her offensive potential. Given her value to the theme however, I typically find Shroud the better upgrade so she can stay behind the lines. Overall an excellent support champ whilst by no means a slouch offensively - and of course 2x auto in all Siphon BGs thanks to Greater Vampirism.

    Upgrades:
    Vaporise is auto, as is Shroud typically, though Blood Magic can be tried if anough Vampyres are used.


    Elsari Magelord​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, on occasion Liches.

    Overview:
    The one non-witch included in Witch BGs the most, and for one simple reason: Pain Curse. Every two rounds, Magelord can deal 8 magic damage to every single enemy on the field which is cursed - healing conduit champs 3 for each enemy hit. This is an incredibly potent source of global damage, and one of the key strengths a Witch BG can field. Other boons he brings include Soul Collection, a useful utility, and Rabid and Curse, both useful debuffs for the BG. Spot Curse can be particularly helpful to hit anything your other means of cursing has missed. There are numerous ways to propagate Curse enough for Pain Curse to be a significantly potent skill - Soulbane, which if used to kill an enemy globally Curses foes for that turn, helpful for an earlygame Pain Curse or for a spot one later on; Defiling Spinel, which both gives board presence and applies Cursed in AOE4, which is typically enough to hit a good number of foes and will continue to apply Curse as long as the Spinel survives; Oblivion Hex, which guarantees Curse on a single target for 3 turns, long enough for two guaranteed unhealable Pain Curses, which can be useful; by foes attacking a champion with Ritual of Ashes on it, which is too passive to be helpful normally; Curse from the ability Curse on Magelord and several other champions, or from the same ability granted by Stitched Hex Doll; and finally, by champions moving in DMZ when Elsari Coven units are on the board - and whilst this is the most passive application method, it's by far the easiest to spread widely and for a lengthy duration. Typically Liches get a number of champs with Curse by default - Magelords themselves, Clerics, Anthropos, and maybe even Lich King, but this is not enough to rely on for Pain Curse. With Shadestriker being so excellent at propagating DMZ, a few Elsari Coven units are probably the best option to guarantee heavy Curse application in Liches, with some backup from things like Soulbane or Spinel. When opting to use Magelords, however, you have to be somewhat careful, as they suffer from being very weak in combat and their main effect being far more useful lategame, when there are more foes to hit with Pain Curse. They are in fact so heavily biased towards lategame and so very frail, that even in Witches or Curse BGs they may only be included 1x as they are simply not needed or wanted until much later on.

    Upgrades:
    Rabid and Soul Collection are typically taken, the former supporting antihealing as well as boosting Magelords' damage output slightly, whilst Soul Collection gives them something to do whilst hiding behind the lines Pain Cursing away. The other two options are Doom, a superchamp counter/Noragen ability (depending on whether use on the foe or a friendly) that works well with Soul Collection, but forces the Magelord to come far too close to the frontlines for comfort and is generally less useful than Rabid; and Cloak, which stealths all champs in AOE 2 around the Magelord for 4 turns - which can make for some interesting combos, but typically is too short duration to be worth it.
     
  5. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Elsari Mason​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    The Elsari Mason is a Skeleton not often seen, but he has potential. He is pretty cheap, coming in at 59 Nora, and incredibly speedy - Shrine Exertion allows him to essentially become 9 Speed without cutting into his own HP - making him an amazing font grabber, arguably better than Grekin after the Exertion nerf. Of course, the caveat is that he deals 8 damage to your shrine per exert, which combined with his Scorn, use of Graveyards and Scrying will rapidly blow it up - but given that Tome of Hate is a decent rune anyway, the only issue is drawing it early enough to enable lots of scrying and exerting with a Mason. He does assist somewhat in this regard however, as when in combat every attack he makes heals the Shrine for 6, and in extremis you can retreat him back to the shrine and use him as per a Scorched Dwarf, to heal it up with the Mason ability. The main issue with him is that Plague of Ba'lah brought with it 3 fairly rushy Skeletons who excel elsewhere too - Boneshredder, Rifleman and Reaper, meaning both Mason and Grekin are rendered somewhat obsolete.

    Upgrades:
    I would say Bone Mason is the best option, allowing him to help heal your shrine in combat more, but all are possibilities. Def and Assimilate assist him in staying alive, whilst Mason 3 allows more rapid emergency shrine healing.


    Elsari Siren​
    Rating: 2/10​

    BGs:
    None..

    Overview:
    Siren is a rune with godawful stats and a single gimmick - Body Jumper. After death, this gives you Possession of the closest foe for 3 turns, which is pathetically short, and very easy to avoid by putting an Iron Will champ on the front lines. Essentially it's not worth it. And Sonic damage and a death nova do not make up for the fact this is a 64 Nora rune with 38 HP.

    Upgrades:
    Death Nova and HP.

    Elsari Swordmage​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Witches.

    Overview:
    The swordmage, unsurprisingly given his art, is witches' premier melee beater. Forsaken Exploit, Teleport, Loyalty and Encouraged all contribute to this, respectively helping him double-attack, get around the map, raising his dmg to 15 before banner, and then further buffing his damage as your other champs attack. He is also surprisingly tanky, given his 3 Def and 55 HP with Loyalty, and Fear, which can allow him to leap into combat in remote fonts without worry of retaliation from a lone defender. Having teleport makes him a fairly good early deploy, but without witching hour up you'll have to save AP to be able to use it and then attack - the spell really helps his offensive capability. Magical Bomb is his main other tool - an excellent tool both for the AOE it provides, being able to deal dmg from a safe distance, and for being able to remove all Def from those hit, which is very valuable in today's meta. The issue with it is that is does not provide extra AP from Exploit, and due to the def-stripping clause it is best to cast it first, wasting the Encourage boost, so you need to be somewhat savvy at making damage calcs to see when best to cast it. Overall, one of the better witches out there, certainly in terms of combat potential.

    Upgrades:
    Encourage and Exploit are fairly auto to enhance his damage output pretty massively. Immunity: Disease can be helpful when running Wretcheds, but careful positioning can avoid this issue, and Fear 2 is potentially good if you want to use him as a more tanky champ that throws Magical Bomb out from range.

    Elsarin Reaper​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    None, really.

    Overview:
    Reaper's main boon is Soulstrike, an ability better provided by Reaper's Blade and Experimental Warspirit. He has Defiant, giving him Rock Eater after being attacked once, which can be reasonable against piles of Physical attack champs, Evil Aura, a good Pereverance counter, and Dead Eater, which is nice for some more Noragen. But essentially, he is a Soulstrike platform - and Warspirit is far, far better in this role, he is outclassed and as such sadly shoeboxed.

    Upgrades:
    Def and HP for maximum survivability.

    Essence Devourer​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Kinda requires its own BG to work, but fits aspects of Zombies and Deathbenefit.

    Overview:
    Devourer is a unique creature that requires a certain degree of build adjustment to accomodate - here because of its signiature ability Devour Life, which will kill your lowest HP champ every two turns to feed its hunger. Though this is a huge downside, if you can get past it the benefit is huge - for a miniscule 62 Nora you get an absolute powerhouse of a champ - 15 Dmg, 7 Spd, 1-2 Rng, 2 Def, and 64 HP, with Horrific Aura, Rabid, Berserk Attack, and Blood Rage - essentially, a monstrous beater with some survivability. So, how to get past this downside of him eating his own allies? There are many options, centering around two concepts - profit from the eating he does with Death Harvesters or Vengeful champs, and/or generate low HP champs that are expendable. The first part is straightforward enough, but there are a wide range of options to assist with the second. Corpse-a-Pults, Haunt, Graveyard, Czars, Wake the Dead, Dark Rising and similar spawn generators all provide easy meals for the Devourer. Note that DR and Corpse-a-Pult will not generate nora with Death Harvester as they create summons, however. Whilst Graveyard is the most reliable source of meat for ED, it is also the one with least additional benefit, as Haunt and similar can all provide help on the frontlines before being eaten. Overall, it's worth mixing up GYs and other methods of meat generation. Another consideration when making a Devourer BG is how to prevent valuable champs left at low HP being devoured - means of healing are essential for this purpose. Steal Lifes, Sac Daggers, and even Repurpose to not waste a high-damage champ are good options to assist in this. So essentially, Devourers are runnable, though one must bear in mind they make awful first turn draws and have a collateral upkeep cost over their initial Nora cost, but you have to tailor a BG almost entirely around them.

    Upgrades:
    Rabid and Damage will assist his damage output the most, Berserk Attack is outclassed - though the additional Def is an option.


    Eternal Lich​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Liches, but is outclassed.

    Overview:
    The E-Lich was the first FW champion to get the ability Phylactery - which spawns a 10HP relic next to it upon deply that the champion will resurrect from if killed. This second life serves to make the champion very efficient, though it loses you board position upon dying, as well as fuelling death benefit elements to your BG. Phylactery champions are basically necessary to play in at least pairs, as if one relic dies, either champion can use the remaining one to resurrect. As for other abilities, E-Lich has a couple. Scry gives you two bonus reveals upon playing the champ, which can be helpful earlygame to find key runes faster, and stat-wise E-Lich is fairly good, being 7 speed and long range - though it suffers from being yet another fairly frail magic damage ranged champ. So far a fairly rosy picture has been painted of the E-Lich, so you may be asking why its not seen very often. This is for a couple of reasons. Chiefly, because Hoarfrost Lich exists, a Phylactery champion who is only 6 speed and 1 less range, but is a colossal 21 Nora cheaper. With the E-Lich's drawing power being of minimal impact in Liches, its only remaining boon is Dark Favour, which whilst potent, has to compete with an excellent alt damage type in Frost, and some limited capability to selfheal/provide support for allies. E-Lich is not explicitly outclassed, but is certainly heavily overcosted - 1 range, 1 speed and Dark Favour 1 VS Frost damage and extra supportive ability should not equate to as big of a Nora difference as it does. But whilst admittedly you should always pickup H-Lich before E-Lich, why not use both 2x? Primarily because the champions are too bland to be able to do so - they're both bastions of efficiency, but they have little use outside of hitting things and returning from the dead. Your BG may well be short on support and similar roles if you stuff in four plain simplistic champs like this, and generally you cannot afford that. E-Lich is not unuseably terrible, but it's a sub-par option, sadly.

    Upgrades:
    E-Lich has some interesting options, chiefly Dark Favour 1, which deals 3 damage to all foes upon entering the board (including when resurrected). This can be an excellent finisher, though it clashes with the utility of Scry, which is best played early, as the later you play E-Lich the more foes will be hurt. This is pretty autoupgrade, and the the other options are Expedite, Health or Damage. Expedite also clashes with Dark Favour, so is not ideal, but Phylactery itself and 7 speed does make the E-Lich reasonable earlygame, so it's not necessarily awful. Both stat upgrades are only rank 1, and thus minimal in impact, but either is potentially a good option if you already have lots of drawing power in your BG, which normally in Liches you will have.

    Ethereal Soldier​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in Spirits.

    Overview:
    Ethereal Soldier was always an option in Spirits, but now it has become a veritable powerhouse with a recent buff. It has a massive 17 damage combined with Psychic Aura for more passive damage, and Ethereal, Tough 2, Hex and Void Shield to prevent damage to itself, making it fairly tricky to take down - and still cheapish at 73 Nora. On top of this, it has Reinforcement, allowing it to get into the thick of the battle very rapidly if deployed a few turns in, which is amazing for a tanky beater. Of course, the champ's main facet is Ethereal, meaning that every other turn it cannot attack and cannot be hurt by anything but magic damage - though Hex cannot be utilised on this turn to get off some more damage, sadly - that and sliding past foes to contest fonts. Essentially, in a single buff E-Soldier became possibly the most combat-worthy Spirit out there, though becoming stealthed does damage his tankiness - as well as being a very tricky rune to deal with thanks to Ethereal - so he's a very worthwhile include 2x.

    Upgrades:
    Reinforcement is auto. Hidden: DMZ is obsolete when running Spectres, leaving Aura and Strike. Assuming you attack once per two turns and get an aura off every turn, unless you're hitting a champion with 5 defence the aura will come out ahead, as well as potentially hitting more than one champ.

    Executioner​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    None in particular, but Exec is a reasonable meta champ.

    Overview:
    Execs are great damage dealers, with high Dmg, Exertion and Execute, meaning you can commonly doubleattack then Execute on alternate turns once in the thick of combat for great damage. Aside from this, Execs are mostly a meatshield that can rush fonts well earlygame due to Exertion, and for their cost they do do this well. Their final facet is Aggressive, meaning that upon being engaged by something, they smack it in the face, which is always nice and makes for a cool form of area control/dissuasion of enemy melee. They may see more use if they did not have Scorn, hurting the shrine, but they remain a solid if somewhat bland option for a cheap melee beater, especially if running with BG elements that can exploit Aggressive, like Tempest Crowns, Lamia, Moragen, and similar.

    Upgrades:
    Exertion and Aggressive are fairly auto, but Curse can be taken over Aggressive if you value the ranged tap. Mobility is an option should you want them to be more rushy.

    Experimental Warspirit​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits, Witches, Soultap, Dread.

    Overview:
    The Warspirit is a KF/FW split rune, and the first new Witch FW has gotten in some time. Its a reasonably fast (7 speed) 1-2 range unit with Soulstrike, its key ability, allowing it to be the ultimate superchamp counter, but rendering it unable to harm relics or shrines. It also has numerous fear based abilities, though there is little synergy for them in Witches, Unspeakable, a reasonable debuff; and Distichous, meaning it will typically always have Frightful Blows, which is nice. On base it also has Phase Shift, which is very helpful to its survivability, and Vuln: Psychic, which is very much not (and makes it a risky first deploy against FS or UD who may have Psychic Jab units). The Warspirit is invaluable as a superchamp counter, but doesn't really bring all that much that you need 2 of them, or even HAVE to have one in either spirits or Witches - you can do without, though it's a decent champ.

    Upgrades:
    Ignorance is situational and is thus not all too valuable; Soul Channeling is a decent upgrade for some Noragen, dmg, and healing; Frightful Aura debuffs enemies in 3 spaces by -2 Dmg and buffs undead allies +2 Def, which is great in spirits or in Dread, just not so in Witches; and Horrific Aura is a great upgrade to allow for pushing out into dangerous situations without fear of dying due to overextension. In general, Soul Channeling and Horrific Aura are auto, though Frightful is workable if you run many undead.

    Eye of Serkan​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers, maybe Death benefit or Soultap/Spirits.

    Overview:
    After a very rocky release, the Eye has now been buffed to a reasonable state. It is a somewhat similar rune to Blinking Creeper, with Psychic Attack, Flying, Detection and of course, is a Creeper. But aside from this it has very different abilities. Soultap and Soul Channeling are foremost, giving it some Soultap synergy and better damage output (at a range higher than any other Creeper). But Horrifying Delusion is the most interesting ability on base - if your foe EVER has over 60 Nora in the bank at the end of their turn, the Eye gains Soul Feast (50% more damage to Soultapped champs) and Frightful Blows, making it both fairly damn hard hitting as well as preventing retaliation, which is excellent. However, getting this to trigger is the tricky part, since 60 is a LOT of Nora and it's easy for a foe to cast a spell to avoid it - unless you force him to want to get a pricey champ out asap or they're saving for a powerturn. Playing the Eye early is as such a good idea to maximise the chances of this happening, as early on you often do have to save Nora when you can't deploy what you have drawn. The issue for Soultap BGs is that without Soul Feast, the Eye is not that great an include, so you need to be sure to get Delusion to trigger - and as such you may want to consider playing Lerpers with it to force your opponent to give one of the two the buff unless they keep 40-60 Nora in the bank. It is unfortunate Creepers lack any other Soultap synergy, but it works fairly well alone boosting its own damage output with Soultap, and with 4-6 range with Improve it becomes a very potent 7 range beater with Surge in its racial BG. Aside from this it is fairly frail, and does need protecting as its defensive mechanisms are Soul Channeling, letting it be healed somewhat, though in Creeps this will be for very low amounts, and Absorb, which does give valuable staying power. So how does this champ fit into DB, as Spirits obviously have the Soultap synergy and some potential need for detection? Via its upgrade Soul Vitality - which gives it 2 AP whenever a real champion dies, and 1 when a summoned one does. This has potential for collosal AP generation with runes like Haunt, Wake the Dead, and Czar of the Void - allowing the Eye to often doubletap and zip around the field to contest, or just back away to a safe distance after attacking. It makes the Eye very versatile if well fuelled, in a way that is hard to explain without playing it. Even then however, this does not make the rune auto in DB, though should you want detection it is a decent choice at least 1x, especially if running other Soultap.

    Upgrades:
    The Eye has good upgrade options. Speed is commonly thought to be auto for the threat range and AP gen/storage increase it provides, but in Creepers you will want Surge and most probably Absorb as well as it absolutely needs the survivability (and with 7 range you can get by with 6 speed). In Death Benefit, you want Soul Vitality, and Speed/Absorb as secondaries. Typically, given the nature of Horrifing Delusion and its cost you want it to stay alive however, so Absorb may well be the better option.


    Fallen Draksar​
    Rating: 5/10​
    BGs:
    Sadly, doesn't really fit anywhere. Is a budget shatter option however.

    Overview:
    The Fallen Draksar has fallen (pun intended) by the wayside with the advent of new and better shatter options, which was its main niche. If it had a race, it might be able to squeeze into something like Zombies, but alas. But anyway - the Fallen Drakkie is a very cheap champ at 53 Nora, and aside from Shatter has very little going for it. Violent with Race: Undead means it will pretty much always have Fury, which is decent (though not great on a 5 speed unit), and it has Regen for some survivability. Hunter: IS is typically better done by Skeletal Raider if you really need it in addition. Overall, squeezed out of BGs by Stitched Librarian, who both detects and shatters for a slightly higher price, which is sad considering how his sprite looks like a Xenomorph, which is bad-***.

    Upgrades:
    Regen 3 and Dmg barely impact the rune so I would go for Hunter: IS and HP.


    Fallen Hero​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Doesn't really fit anywhere, fairly shoebox.

    Overview:
    Fallen Hero isn't really a bad rune per se, he just doesn't really fit anywhere very well. Overall the rune's role would be that of a cheap tank, with Block, Melee Specialist and decent defensive stats for his cost. He also has Curse, which is cool for a ranged hit when needed, and Immunity: Disease, which can come in handy in FW, but neither are anything special. Hunter: Hero is however pretty nice, since most BGs will be running at least one Hero - however it's unlike the other Hunter abilities in that it cannot really be used to hard-counter problem factions. Via upgrades it gets a better Block and Riposte, which make it more combat adept in melee, where he specialises in tanking. So why is he not used? Executioner is a better damage dealer by far for the same cost, and is faster, whilst on the tanking front, in today's game merely mitigating melee damage is simply not enough, and other tanks are better.

    Upgrades:
    Riposte and Block 2 make him a much better Melee tank, so they are probably best. Spell Resist is strong but on a cheap unit it isn't so vital, especially when we have DMZ, and Defensive Stance is sub-par.

    Festering Corpse​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies if you want reaaaaally cheap meat in addition to Afflicteds.

    Overview:
    Festering is Afflicted Corpse v0.5, in a nutshell. It has pathetic damage and speed (along with Lumbering) for 7 less Nora, but has decent Disease abilities in Rabid, Disease Aura and Death Nova, as per Afflicted. Its uses are essentially the same as its bigger brother - be a roadblock and a very very cheap deploy that explodes upon death (possibly with Goresplosion thrown in). And since it is not as good as Afflicted, you should only ever include them after including 2x Afflicteds - but most often you will simply not want 4 incredibly slow and overall fairly weak Zombies in your BG, especially when Afflicteds cooldown after 2 turns dead. If you do wanna try cheapmeat Zombies then by all means go for all four, however.

    Upgrades:
    Disease Aura and Death Nova are fairly auto. Rabid gives less damage output and can be cleansed, and 1 Def is minimal in impact.

    Fleshblight Zombie​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies.

    Overview:
    Possibly the archetypal Zombie, Fleshblight is Lumbering with two specific and very potent benefits - Manic, and Reconstitute. Manic increases its mobility and offensive capacity by a great extent, allowing to to attack things 7 spaces from it as opposed to 3 with full AP, and get additional attacks for free once engaged. Black Death and Rabid means his damage ramps up to a solid level once the DoT is applied to a foe as well, which never goes amiss. Reconstitute, meanwhile, forces the enemy to one-round him or allow him to tear through them, as he heals to full HP at the start of each of your turns. With Absorb, this is often no easy task - and more so with a DMZ on him, AP up, and/or a Repurposed champ giving him a pile more HP. These abilities contributing to him being focused on can be a huge boon for your other champs - they get a free pass a lot of the time when a FB is out, and/or the enemy spends a huge pile of Nora to allow them to 1-round the Manic Zombie, making the investment easily worth it. You don't always need to be upset if he ends up being killed, as the enemy may well have over-extended/over-invested to do so. As with any unit with Manic, however, you have to be aware of the functioning of the ability when running something with it - essentially, Manic picks the nearest unit to target (if a tie, the one chosen is whichever is closest to the NW, NE, SE, then SW). This means you can be sent charging over lava, impeding terrain, chasms, or just into threat ranges you didn't anticipate, and whilst Absorb mitigates the impact of this, it can bite you as foes love nothing more than to 1-round Fleshblight. As for the actual direction FB moves towards its Manic target, it proceeds somewhat in the same manner as selection - it moves first NW if that would bring it closer to the foe, if not, then NE, then SE, then SW. To put this more clearly - unless you are directly aligned with the closest enemy (could hit them with a linear attack), then Fleshblight will move to attempt to put itself in direct alignment with them, according to the order stated, and only after that will it move directly "toward" an enemy as we'd perceive it. In general, a great include 1x at least, but possibly not 2x - a lumbering champ for 66 Nora is a situational drop in a sometimes slow BG. Bear in mind that in mirror matches he is a notably weaker deploy - as an Anathema dropped on him at 28 HP is essentially an instakill thanks to Reconstitute automatically firing through Decaying.

    Upgrades:
    Black Death and Rabid most probably to boost his damage output - which is wise seeing as he can somewhat be ignored if not percieved as a threat. Swarm can theoretically be helpful earlygame, but in general he's only going to be getting a kill off then with AP gen, and dropping cheaper champs would simply be better. Exertion could be nice for extra AP, but typically he's such a target already that you don't want to cut his HP at all and help the foe 1-round him.

    Fleshweaver Witch​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in Zombies, also decent in Witches.

    Overview:
    Fleshweaver is the centerpiece of Zombie BGs, thanks mainly to one ability - Zombie Herder. This AOE5 ability gives all affected Zombies 3 AP and crucially, removes Lumbering and Lethargic for a substantial 8 turns - turning Fleshblight, Festering and Afflicted into incredibly efficient monsters, removing Golem and Behemoth's drawback, and providing a fantastic source of AP gen for all other Zombies. Essentially, she enables huge powerturns in combination with Moragen or a Mobilization, which are often instrumental in getting off a swarm and giving yourself a big advantage earlygame by propelling a horde of otherwise slow Zombies directly into the enemy at a mid font, for instance. Typically, you will want to deploy her as perhaps a second or third drop after your initial font-grabber, then on the following turn drop an Afflicted ideally whilst using her summon ability to generate yourself a free meatbag (be sure to drop these as far forward as possible to increase their threat range). Then on the following turn, you can use Herder on both the summoned Festering and the Afflicted to rid them of lumbering, and hopefully hit your other champs with it too for some free AP - and then you can charge the point of conflict with a large number of champions and usually be almost at the 5 zombie count to get a swarm off. Of course, this is an earlygame scenario - Herder's power becomes enormous as the game goes on and you get more swarmed Festerings out, be sure to use it on cd if not saving up for a powerturn to break the enemy. However, this is far from all Fleshweaver can do. Her secondary utility in Zombies is as an excellent cleric, with Charged Heal and Death Charged 1, as for every 2 deaths there is she can gift something 10 HP without spending her own AP. In every situation but early on, this generally equates to one heal per turn with some ease, allowing you to top up key pieces of your force, or simply spam it on Festerings if you have a ton of charges, to make your force even more resilient. The other thing she can do with her charges is throw out a Charged Disease Breath for 2 deaths worth of charges - less common to have in the earlygame, but a nice way to raise her threat range significantly as it doesn't cost AP, and do minor damage along with proc Black Death, Conduit, etc, or just prevent healing. Be wary when using it or her basic Magic attack (again nice as alt damage) to attack first with her so as to allow your Zombies to finish things off and get a swarm. As minor additional utility, she has Disease Eater - great to heal her up by surrounding her with Zombies without having to spend her own Charged Heal to do so, and Elsari Coven. This has the effect of applying Cursed to enemies who enter DMZs, which typically is of little impact as it will not last long unless running lots of Coven units, but is essentially a cool bonus to have - the Def reduction does add up when attacking with lots of 5 damage Festerings. Overall, 2x auto in any Zombie BG, more so than any other champion.

    Fleshweaver is, of course, a witch, however, and brings one main boon to the BG - an excellent source of healing via Charged heal. Such a source of healing would be good in most BGs, but when the champ in question can keep herself alive through use of friendly auras, summon some free meat to slow enemy melee, add to the duration of Coven's curse and either relocate or use a cone that applys a useful DoT, that champ becomes an excellent choice. Fleshweaver isn't a good early draw, as she is frail and has to spend AP to summon a zombie to protect her from melee a little (as well as likely gaining no charges), but dropping a single one right before you make a kill in mid-game can be excellent.

    Upgrades:
    Her most usual upgrade is typically Charged Heal - the others are all viable. Repulsion is unfortunately a poor choice in Zombies, as its main functionality is to disengage enemies from ranged allies, allowing them to save AP from not having to disengage, but in a slow-moving Zombie BG this is a terrible downside. In Witches it is a little better as they are more ranged and synergise well with Grim Well and similar. Disease Breath is a 7 Range tap that applys Inhibited as well Diseased, which is helpful to proc Black Death, Conduit or Exploit from a long distance away. However, in Zombies you will have many other sources, and in Witches you may well not have the charges to fuel it. Swap, is as such a potential Disease Breath replacement as it allows you to both get Fleshweaver out of trouble and swap a Lumbering Zombie into the fray when Herder is on cooldown, or save an ally from death in any BG, which is fantastic - and as such Swap is likely the best option.
     
  6. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Forsaken Doombringer​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    Our Doomie is fairly meta but not really a necessary include in many places. He is 2x auto in Fear, and a helpful applier of spot Disease wherever that may be needed. Fits very well into Conduit BGs in addition.

    Overview:
    Our Doomie is in my opinion one of the better-done ones, as when they were revamped most factions' became incredibly auto in just about every BG. Ours is a very strong rune by all accounts, but is not auto in all that many BGs. So what does it bring to the table? First of all, like all Doomies, it has Flight and Initiative 2 for pretty amazing mobility off the deploy, as well as Doom which serves as a potent superchamp deterrent. Aside from this, it has Unspeakable, a decent 1-turn debuff on deploy, Conduit, which is great for maintaining HP, and Rabid and Loyalty which give the Doomball good stats for its cost, and great damage output at its fantastically versatile 3-6 range. Due to Initiative and long range, it is a fantastic applier of spot inhibited/diseased with Rabid - and pairs fantastically with Angels of Death for this reason (and they both have -dmg debuffs too). In general, if it synergises with a BG you are running it is likely a good option since it is a very efficient rune, if not all too exciting. It also has a role in a Death Benefit variant centring around dropping a Vendetta on a champion with long range and survivability - Doombringer being a prime choice.

    Upgrades:
    Conduit is auto for survivability, Loyalty for great stats. Frightful Blows and Psych Warfare are options if running a Fear theme, but even then the others are tempting options.


    Forsaken Follower​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, but isn't a great option.

    Overview:
    The second cheapest witch, clocking in at 69 Nora, Follower brings a few interesting abilities to the table. Heal Mass 2 allows her to heal your force for 6HP every other turn, whilst Pawn makes her a nice ranged tank in conjunction with her summon and Conduit. Her range and need to use AP to summon to become a viable tank makes her a bad early deploy, but midgame she can be a decent cleric/tank. The issues with her are her summon's low HP - banner is often required to prevent it being killed in one hit, Vulnerable, which cuts her Def if she attacks, but primarily that others do her job better. Inkblight is a far better tank, not needing to spend AP to summon nor stay at range, and Fleshweaver is a far better cleric in this age of one-rounding. This is not to say she is useless or bad, and as Pawning an attack activates Vaporise, with Hour up she can be as near-unkillable as an Inkblight, but often you will not be able to find room for her.

    Upgrades:
    Heal Mass and Conduit are pretty much auto since they are the things enabling her tanking and cleric abilities.


    Frostvein Witch​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, AP denial in particular. Also a good meta option.

    Overview:
    As frail as Cackling but noticeably pricier, Frostvein is one of the two long-range (4-6 range) champs witches have. She both hits fairly hard (with a nice alt damage too) due to Chill 2, and is a debuff machine, applying Debilitate upon hits. This stacking speed debuff is enough to keep most foes well away from her threat range, and also make her a prime target for one-rounding - so she is definitely a champ to keep safe. She also brings a very meta global ability - Blockade, preventing all ability use and AP gain on an enemy's first turn in play, which can be incredibly potent, and makes her one of the more splashable witches. In addition, Arctic is occasionally useful for extra AP here and there. Her upgrades are pretty potent and give her numerous different options for how she plays (see below). But overall, a very solid Witch, both in and out of the theme.

    Upgrades:
    Debilitate is arguably auto due to how potent permenantly reducing AP gain is. Weary is the worst second option, the single damage debuff being of considerably less impact than either other option - Snow Blast or Drudgery. Snow Blast is the more standard choice, adding another AOE to the BG and being able to slow down enemies caught in it, and deny attacks from melee since she can still move over it (though your other champs will have issues). Drudgery meanwhile, is perhaps of most use in an AP denial focused BG, helping massively to set up the initial lock by removing stored AP on enemy champs, but any of the three can be combined if you so wish.

    General Korsien​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Chops mostly, can be run in meta if you wish.

    Overview:
    Korsien is a pretty awesome-looking champ, and as per many cool-looking champs in this game, is not all that fantastic. Happily though, he has some uses, primarily due to being a hard to kill mofo with a pile of HP. Having a death spawn is the prime reason for this, giving him at least 90 total HP over the course of his lives. His Def is nothing great, so the rest of his survivability comes from his upgrades and Shielded (see below). Unfortunately in his second form this cannot be relied upon, as his upgrades bizzarely randomise, but he's still a big wall of HP, and this is the reason he's such a common choice for Chop BGs. Anyway, he also has Charge 3, which is pretty helpful on a 2x2 unit, and Secure Fonts, an immensely potent ability that can in certain situations be game-winning due to the Nora advantage it gives you, especially if you can steal an opposing font or few. His second form becomes 1x1 and gains Chain Lightning and a Lightning attack - and like any ranged hit, is a nice thing to have. In general, he doesn't really bring all that much to the table except being a wall for the foe, so he's a generic meta include if you desire (or are trying to exploit Secure Fonts), and as mentioned he fits well into Chops/Attrition.

    Upgrades:
    At first glance, Heavy Charger looks appealing, but given his role as a tank and the fact that Charge is cooldown 2, it isn't the most effective choice. The choice between the three defensive upgrades is tough - HP 3 is usually auto but equally resists to the two most common damage types are very helpful as well. It comes down to preference really - but if facing Magic or Physical foes the resists will typically come out ahead.


    Ghoul​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, perhaps. Disease.

    Overview:
    The Ghoul suffers from being a bit of a bland specimen amongst the more pricey melee Zombies, but he is certainly not entirely outclassed. He has a very nice mechanism for staying alive - Forsaken Conduit combined with high Def and his Damage Shield. Essentially, when attacked in melee by a diseased or cursed foe, he has an effective 7 Defence, making him very hard to kill, along with being able to recover health on your turn as said debuffed foes are attacked. He is further geared to be included in a fairly disease heavy BG by being our only bearer of Amp: Disease outside of Afflicteds. However, it's worth noting that aside from Lost Queen's attack and Death Novas, only Auras and Breaths are affected by Amp, making it a small boon at best. Ghoul does also have Essence Capture, giving him some small Noragen, which is nice. Overall, Ghoul is a reasonable choice, but the issue is there are simply more impactful options for anything but a very disease-focused BG - and their usage is less than advisable given that it's the worst damage type in the game.

    Upgrades:
    Def and Conduit are best for tankiness. Decaying Blows is good, but Decaying is useless on Inhibited enemies, so its usefulness is limited, and though Dead Eater is nice, Death Harvesters have it and generally it isn't amazingly helpful to have multiple bearers.


    Gravewatcher​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Anything with Coragh in, DB especially.

    Overview:
    Gravewatcher is a simple champion, with one use - ressurecting allied champs with Exhume. He's dreadful at combat, so you'll be hiding him near your shrine as he waits to do this, most likely. Typically, it's not worth including him, but Coragh changed that somewhat, especially with a Death Harvester in the mix generating Nora for Gravewatcher and the ressurected Coragh's multiple deaths. You can also utilise him for Gravetend to reduce a champion on cooldown to 0 when he's deployed, allowing for quick reuse of something like Coragh or Xulos if you need them, which is situationally handy. You do have to be aware that when he resurrects your champ, he will reduce your enemy's highest cd champ to 0 cd - so if you've just killed something huge and horrible, be aware you'll be seeing it again soon. In general, Coragh is the ideal champ to target with him - Angels of Death are a possible alternative as they Intensify, and Xulos is somewhat for a second Dark Favour, though situationally other champs might be helpful Exhume targets. Overall, usage of Gravewatcher is better with 2x Coragh as this maximises the chance for ressurections to occur. Practically, very few of us have 300k gold to spare, so most people will be running him 1x, however. It should be noted that you may as well think of gravewatcher as a spell, as his board presence is limited, so don't worry about including over 16 or so champs if you run him, and thus not affecting Zombie Apoc numbers too adversely if in that BG. Typically however you will see him in DB BGs using 2x Coragh, and very few places aside from that.

    Upgrades:
    HP and Def seems more obvious, but since he should never be in combat the 2 HP upgrades may be better to help counter global damage.

    Grekin​
    Rating: 6/10​
    BGs:
    Skeletons, perhaps, but Ichor ones especially.

    Overview:
    The Grekin was formerly Skele's premier rusher, with 7 Speed, Exertion 3, and a pile of HP, for a very reasonable 68 Nora. Using one early-game to secure fonts was a nice idea, but Exertion's nerf has raised Elsari Mason's profile, and now he is slightly faster then the undead cow-dog-thing, generating 18 AP every two turns as opposed to Grekin's 17, and being slightly cheaper too. Grekin still has its good points, however - the foremost being it doesn't run the risk of blowing up your shrine. It also has a pile of HP and either a rank 3 charge, or a rank 1 charge and mobility, assisting it in stealing fonts with a contest if enemies are in the way. It was also recently buffed with Ichor: Resist Physical, meaning that for every Ichor champ nearby it gets a rank of the resist, giving it some survivability later in the game; and Logistics: Speed, also giving him some decent lategame potential, but in general you're better off running runes that start off more potent - as neither of these abilities are going to impact the earlygame much (which is the reason to include him). Perhaps the biggest issue is the new Reaper, Rifleman and arguably Shredder are all very fast champs/great contestors, cutting the need for dedicated rushers like the poor cow-thing. The best use for him now is seemingly to enable Reaper and Crossbone's Ichors in a BG running that type of module, where he will do decently, though he is an option in any Skele BG.
    Upgrades:
    Exertion 3 is a must, and Mobility is technically the best option for contesting, though Charge is better to help deal some damage once his primary job is done.

    Haunting Spirit​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits, perhaps Dread.

    Overview:
    THE hardest rune to acquire in our entire faction, Haunting Spirits are both a highly effective and uniquely built rune. They are very simple - very slow and frail at 4 speed and 30 HP, with no attack. However, they have 4 abilities which combine to make them an incredibly potent contesting and harassing tool: Ghost, Sonic Aura, Latch on and Depression. Ghost is key - meaning they cannot be killed by any damage type but magic (or LoL). Sonic Aura is how they deal their damage, 6 per turn in a nice AOE around themselves, and Latch On allows them to stick to foes to continue to damage them, as well as slow them. Depression is least crucical, but is a handy debuff that protects your other units a little, and is what allows them to be handy in Dread. So they are a fantastically annoying rune, nigh-unkillable by some BGs, that is brilliant for contesting fonts (don't latch on if you need to contest) and being a huge pain out of proportion to its incredibly low 40 Nora cost - if somehow you can get hold of them, you will want to run them where appropriate. Chiefly, however, this will be Spirits, as Spectres stealth them permenantly, adding to the annoyance/hard-to-counter factor immensely, as well as being very cheap Surge fodder.

    Upgrades:
    Speed and Ghost are very auto.


    High Warlock​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies 2x auto, perhaps DB or Chops.

    Overview:
    The Warlock is one of the key pieces of any Zombie BG, due mostly to being a potent ranged option - something the theme otherwise severely lacks - but is also a veritable swiss army knife of utility. First off, Loyalty, arguably the most auto upgrade, boosts them to a pretty strong statline, and they can drop nice 15 damage hits off on the enemy from 6 range, notably with Attack: Fire, a damage type other than Physical, Disease or Magical - and as such for this alone they are worthy 2x includes. Their toolkit features Flamethrower - potentially allowing them to hit multiple foes, but generally best reserved for dealing with melee foes; Blood for Nora, a theoretically very nice ability making clutch spellcasting easier, but in practice rarely used as Warlocks are a valuable piece of your BG; and Cast: Repurpose, their best ability, allowing them to recycle low HP champs, heal themselves or others up, or create superchamps of sorts (see Fleshblight zombie and Dark Knight) whilst fuelling Death Harvester. This is also mostly what gives them a potential place in Death Benefit or Chop BGs, recycling near-death champions to buff others up. Warlocks are 2x auto in Zombies as ranged support alone - which sadly means the theme is a little prohibitive to new players, as without them you may have big issues with enemy range.

    Upgrades:
    All their upgrades are viable - Loyalty is auto; Paralyse a situational but potent stun, generally not taken as ideally Warlocks should be further than 3 spaces from the enemy; Ignorance is an excellent counter to K'thir's Fae, Wizard and similar BGs, as well as giving a lot of other BGs (notably mirror matches) issues, but at times can be completely useless; and Council: Spells is a universally helpful noragen/hidden spell detection ability.

    Hoarfrost Dragon​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons for the most part, somewhat meta to counter flying BGs.

    Overview:
    The second most expensive Skeleton nora-wise, Hoarfrost Dragon is a solid champ. 7 Speed with Flying, 50 HP with resistance to magical and frost attacks, and 12 Damage alone make him quite appetizing, but his ability-set is what sets him apart. He has two very useful alternate attacks - Swoop, a Physical one as opposed to his Frost default hits, which relocates him next to an enemy 5 spaces away, and more importantly, Frost Cone - one of Skeles' only sources of champ-based AOE, and a great benefit to any BG. These two forms of attack allow him to either charge right into the thick of things (you can equip a Cloak of Skulls to get some summons off if you do this), or hit enemies from 7 spaces away with Frost Cone. Perhaps most importantly, however, he has Windstriker - which on deploy deals 6 physical damage to any flying enemies, possibly entire BGs for some themes, and most non-full-flying BGs run several flying runes. It also gives him a +50% bonus to damage against other flying enemies, which can be incredibly effective both at keeping them at a distance or tearing them to shreds, giving him a role in meta BGs whenever a Flying theme is doing well. Given his high cost he is by no means a 2x auto, and you can get by without him, but his AOE, Magic resistance and anti-flying abilities make him a great include for countering aspects of enemy BGs. As with other 2x2 champs, you must be careful not to have too many in your BG and make positioning incredibly difficult.

    Upgrades:
    Windstriker and Swoop are by far the best options.

    Hoarfrost Lich​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeleton, Lich, Death Benefit, possibly in some meta.

    Overview:
    The Skele/Lich is a steal for its nora tag for one main reason - Phylactery Bound. If you can keep the relic it spawns with alive, it will ressurect the H-Lich upon death at its location, making it a good cheap double life champion for death benefit. Since any unit with this ability will respawn at any Phylactery relic, running two H-Lichs is much more reliable in getting respawns than using just one. You do need to be careful exactly where you spawn the champ, as its Phylactery can drop anywhere beside it. With no threats, putting it on the edge of a font zone to hopefully avoid Font Eruptions is a good idea, but otherwise just play safe and keep it well inside the DMZ away from AOEs. Aside from this the champ is fairly bland, but the sheer amount of meat this can bring to the table is worth it alone, though both Skele's and Liches ranged options have somewhat reduced the necessity of running H-Liches. Other benefits he brings include Evil Aura, good for killing off Perseverance units, a nice alt damage type - Frost, and Chill, for a Frost DoT. In general, the H-Lich is a great choice for purely as his ressurection makes his cost-efficiency enormous, but he can be done without by use of other ranged champs, which is fortunate considering his rarity.

    Upgrades:
    Chill is the best upgrade. The others are up for debate - Frostburn is very situational, so only take it if Savage Tundra is beating on you, Acolyte is good but with only 2-3 frost damage champs in a BG it's not especially useful, and Crystallize is imo the most useful - as it can shield the Lich or a valuable unit from all damage for a turn, saving a key link in your BG or perhaps contesting a font for a turn safely. Acolyte is certainly an option for a little passive healing, however.


    Infected Zombie​
    Rating: 3/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies if you want..

    Overview:
    Infected is a pretty dreadful include for one main reason - you can spawn it champ from Corpse Piles on demand and anywhere you have a champ. For the same cost, you could get a Thrall, Fleshblight, Festering AND Afflicted, etc - it's simply outclassed by far. It isn't irredeemably awful like Carrion however - Plague has some earlygame utility in feeding Apoc (but play right and you shouldn't need it) and another Death Nova is nice, but in general, if you want one, run a Corpse Pile.

    Upgrades:
    Death Nova and Disease Aura if for whatever reason you include them.
     
    OriginalG1 likes this.
  7. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Inkblight Witch​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, Conduit.

    Overview:
    The premier tank in Witch BGs, and by no means a shabby choice for one in many other FW BGs either. Whilst her statline is not too tanky, she has Oblivion Shield, preventing an attack each turn, and allowing you to hit her with your own AOEs once per turn; and DMZ, preventing her being targetted by spells. Oblivion Shield also synergises fantastically with Witching Hour (making her practically impervious to all but Magic damage for the duration). She has conduit to allow you to readily heal her up each turn, and also boasts some excellent support capabilities. Her DMZ serves two functions - reapplying the Coven curse to enemy champs after they're deployed without you having to let them contest your fonts, and preventing targeted spells on friendly champs inside it. Shroud is the other main boon she brings, adding Evasive 2 to all friendlies within three spaces - which can be incredibly helpful for stalling through ranged bombardment. In truth, the DMZ is perhaps the primary reason she is quite so good for witches, as it is one of a few sources of easy reapplication of Curse, a key debuff for all Witch BGs. In general, she is a great 2x include in any witch BG, and can be just as good where Curse application is needed, such as a Conduit BG.

    Upgrades:
    Subsume assists her tankiness VS many ability-heavy BGs, whilst Blind allows her to shut down a specific foe much more effectively. Shroud is just fantastic support - Blind could be taken over it but frankly the former will prevent more damage in most situations. Curse seems fairly unecessary given her DMZ, however. Typically you will use Shroud and one of Blind or Subsume.


    Lich King​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    1x in Liches.

    The original Lich King (in lore now turned into the Reaper's Blade, but nevermind that) was the original FW ranged powerhouse champ. As such, he has one main feature - immense threat range. A very versatile range 4-8, Speed 7, and Teleport 2 give him a huge potential attack range of 18, 13 for a double-attack, at full AP. Aside from this, he's really quite bland - he has good stats thanks to Loyalty, and also Immortality, which is fairly unhelpful given out faction bonus, and forces use of Tome of Hate. However, in the recent buff, he got both Oblivion Shield AND Surge:Lich - making him MUCH more durable, as the odd attack chipping him down is simply no longer an option, and MUCH harder hitting in a Lich BG. The King is back - and he's a decent 1x include in Liches (with Immortality and Serkan you only need one), very pricey but potentially devastating.

    Upgrades:
    Teleport 2 is by far the most useful, and damage, HP and Curse are the other options. Dmg would be good was it not Rank 1 - HP is a little more impactful, but he should really be far from combat anyway, and Curse suffers from being much shorter range than his default attack. It's personal choice which you take - Curse may be a better option now he has Surge to smack anything that engages him for a decent amount of HP.


    Lich's Servitor​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Liches.

    Overview:
    The Servitor is in the strange position of having gone from really not all that good to 2x auto in theme without actually having changes made to it - simply as a result of the rise of the Lich theme. It's a 75 Nora champ whose main feature is a second life (the same second form alterations as the Dark Knight - becomes a Lich, and gets buffed stats and a Magic attack, flying, Life Siphon, Scorn, Warding, Immunity: Magic and Evil Aura) - but this is conditional. It only triggers if you have Serkan or Xulos out - meaning you have to be very careful about playing them early or they will die and be "wasted" somewhat if you cannot afford or have not drawn either Hero. Aside from this, they have a handy cooldown 2 range 4 Magic attack, Surge: Lich, and a Worship power. This used to be the main reason to include a Servitor, as Worship gives all Liches Regen 3 for the cost of 6 of the Servitor's HP and it remaining immobile. This is quite potent alone, especially in the lategame, and works nicely to cancel out the inevitable -2HP from max Evil Aura will cause, but keeping a 75 Nora unit still is pretty situational even so. In general, a 2x auto in Liches for the ressurection alone.

    Upgrades:
    Magic attack is auto, the second personal preference.

    Lost Queen​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies?

    Overview:
    Lost Queen is a bit of a sad case - very interesting design, but it pretty completely fails to work. She has Disease Attack - which is Ampable (but only to 14 damage), Final Word to kill whoever kills her (unless they use a spell or aura, both of which are very easy to come by), and Fading Light, stealthing her when she picks up a Nora globe (the most unreliable form of stealth in the whole game). Essentially though, her meagre 36 HP is simply far, far too low for 62 Nora, and as such she never sees the light of day.

    Upgrades:
    Fading Light, Damage and HP are all options.


    Mairdreth of the Rot​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies if you focus on her, Disease.

    Overview:
    Our Broodcall Dragon is another Zombie that requires a BG somewhat tailored to her, this time because she is a colossal 104 Nora investment. She is a strong champion - with excellent stats, big disease propagation with Aura, Rabid, and Foul Strike (effectively an AOE Rabid); Flight for mobility; DMZ for spell hate; and snowballing ability in Spellswallower and Black Death. Essentially, she's a nasty beater with decent survivability - the issue being that for 104 Nora she is such a huge target that you need additional defence for her. This can come in several forms - healing from Fleshweaver, Sac Dagger (also good to prevent negative equips), or Repurposed allies; ranged defence from Shroud, Lamia, or similar; Spell hate from other DMZ sources and AP; and a screen of cheap zombies bogging down enemy melee. Multiples of these are pretty much necessary to have a hope of running her effectively in this one-round heavy meta. The other possibility to assist in mitigating her enormous cost is to run Wretched Witches - who reduce her cost by 10 Nora per Witch on the field. This isn't too significant, so generally isn't worth it in a Zombie BG with Mairdreth, but is certainly a great option in a Disease BG. Overall, she's not a typical include at all - her huge cost is very counterintuitive to Zombie Apoc, and as such you have to run a BG tailored specifically for her, whether full Zombie or otherwise.

    Upgrades:
    You typically want Black Death and Rabid 3 - her stat upgrades are minimal, thought the extra durability from Def is potentially more useful than an extra 1 duration on Rabid.


    Mindthief Creeper​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers, Chops, also in meta.

    Overview:
    Since its releace, Mindthief has done an excellent job of contesting Planeshift's crown as out go-to font harasser. Whilst Planeshift has pure speed and is fairly combat-worthy, Mindthief is not that quick, its speed bolstered only by Initiative 1 (though it does have Creep, making it a nice early drop), and it doesn't even have an attack. It deals its damage through Psychic Ping 1, hitting for 4 (8 per round), and is Shadowspawned, making it hellish for the foe to work out where it is until it steals a font or begins to whittle down their units, and even then, there is a huge area it may be in. This makes it a fairly unique unit to learn to use however, as you need to place it where the foe least expects but still be able to get a ping off on your desired target, so as to be able to contest fonts for the most time without being discovered. Perhaps the best part of the unit, however, is that once it does take damage after being discovered, it re-stelaths thanks to Escape, meaning you can repeat the font dance yet again, to your foe's extreme annoyance. Finally, it also has adaptation, which is nice to grab the occasional Bomb or similar alternate attack - but bear in mind using them will destealth you. Overall, 2x auto in Creepers (strangely it isn't that good there since they already lack combat-savvy champions, but there are no better options), and similarly in Chops/Attrition as the ability to do damage without taking it is excellent there. Meta BGs also make great use of the champ, though combining with things like Tomb does mean its health will slowly fall, which is something to bear in mind.

    Upgrades:
    Ping is auto. Escape is also - some people do however attempt Energy Thief builds, which give you only the initial stealth but allow for AP stealing. This is very unforgiving since a single mistake means you are forever out of stealth, but Energy Thief is a very potent ability IF you can use it right - which I admit I cannot. In general, Escape is the more reliable option.

    Moragen the Lost​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, Dread, somewhat meta.

    Overview:
    Our third hero is a great champ in her own right, and a fantastic include in every Zombie BG. She's relatively fast for a Zombie, somewhat durable with Absorb and Demoralising Descent and has a fantastic alt damage in Sonic at an even more excellently versatile range 1-4. But her signature abilities provide her main value - Siren's Song is one of the best ways to screw over the enemy, preventing anything close to her from being able to escape, which is incredibly helpful for slow Zombies and allows for potent combos with Shrinking Scion on Lamia, Grim Well, and similar, as well as denying enemies the ability to proceed in certain directions to attack your other champs. Meanwhile, Battle Hymn is an excellent form of AP gen for the theme - a global 2 AP and +1 Damage can be crucial in allowing 1-rounds, especially if enemies are 1 space outside doubleattack range. On upgrades, Dread is fairly auto - the huge damage debuff is very nice in reducing hurt to your allies, and can stack with Demoralising Descent to reduce enemies' effectiveness significantly - and this can be compounded further if you take Hex as the second upgrade. This also gives her a nice LoL damage attack at 6 range, and fuels Conduit and/or Exploit if you have any champs with those abilities, but costs AP to use. Deafening Aura is more usually taken, as it is passive and has excellent utility - enabling you to lock down enemies with abilities in close proximity to Moragen due to it distracting them. Horrific Aura is a good ability, but generally, with Absorb, it's unecessary and other abilites are more impactful. Her alt damage, good range, AP gen, escape denial and debuffing essentially combine to make her auto in any Zombie BG, and having Dread alone necessitates her in that BG. Her potency in general means she can be a good include in any BG, however.

    Upgrades:
    Dread and Deafening Aura, possibly Hex.


    Mute Stalker​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies.

    Overview:
    The Mute Stalker was buffed to compensate for the reduced durability Zombies got from the nerf to Death Charged on Fleshweaver - and got some interesting alterations - but Shroud providing excellent ranged defence is still the main reason to run it. It gained Race: Elf and Ally: K'thir, but they're really only relevant for Split BGs. It also got its Evasive buffed to rank 3, making it very tough to kill from range, and recieved some interesting upgrades. It still has Stealth, which is great for the obvious shenanigans, and protecting it from targeted attacks - and also because Zombies have no other Stealth units so it forces detection. It has now also got Motivate - excellent in a swarmy BG since you get more net benefit from it (and often Festerings really need it to get past resists, tough etc to apply Rabid. Preparation meanwhile assists with the real issue with a melee Shroud champion - that it will often not be on the front lines to provide max Shroud coverage, and thus will be unable to hit anything (let alone through hordes of lumbering Zombies), and it also boosts its damage to a fairly hefty amount. Finally, Wizard Foe is an interesting option to help counter certain factions and champs, but is outshined by the other more reliable options. The best options for personal survivability and utility are Stealth and Preparation, but Motivation is a compelling ability to buff all your units. Overall I would probably take Motivate and Preparation - so it can attack from range sometimes, and buff my units - Stealth being dropped as Shroud gives it away when stealthed and Evasive 3 is good defensively anyway.

    Upgrades:
    Any 2 of Preparation, Stealth and Motivate.


    Mysian Lamia​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Vampyres, anything with an area control focus, and Meta.

    Overview:
    The Lamia is our newest legendary, and arguably one of the best runes in our whole faction. She brings great ranged damage, incredible ranged hate with Blindfire, and just as amazing melee hate with Shrinking Scion, on top of being able to self-heal, all for the bargain price of 75 Nora. And she is very splashable due to this. If you need something to deal with melee or ranged champions, Lamia is probably the best option, due to her strength as a counter to the majority of combat runes in the game. Shrinking Scion is perhaps the key ability with regards to how she is played - using it extends her range and ups her damage, whilst halving both the speed and damage of anything coming within 4 spaces. Essentially, with it she functions kind of as a deployable turret, which you pop down to secure a position, wait for the cooldown, then advance forward and repeat - giving a style of play that FW really does not have anywhere else, where we can push the enemy back with her threat range. With regards to upgrades, Soultap and Pawn are those typically chosen - Cripple takes too long to kick in, and Arcane Dance costs valuable AP. Pawn can be dangerous with squishy units, however, and is buggy, so in order to better predict what your units will do I like to take Arcane Dance just in case I feel I'm about to be spell-spammed. She comboes very nicely with other Area control aspects - Moragen, Grim Well, Count, and similar, so combining any of these elements can make her even stronger. She does, however, have a few weaknesses that you should be aware of, aside from the obvious Pawn exploitation. For one, she is very vulnerable to Arrow Eater champs, as she cannot hurt them, but will attempt to Blindfire them down if they go for her, simply boosting their damage. Further, you can potentially get a Lamia killed in one attack against a CA:Ranged Arrow Eater, so beware VS UD. Enemies with 8 range also really screw over the turret-advance play she likes. And thirdly, be aware that the Blindfire attack from Lamia is Physical. This can be helpful to get past Psychic immunity, but against Rock Eaters or Physical resistors you'll need to be aware that she won't be as effective. But overall, she is a rune unlike any other, and one of my favourites in the faction. She fits into far more BGs than the list above shows, and is a great include in many such places.

    Upgrades:
    Fairly entirely up to you - Cripple is arguably the most lacklustre.


    Mysian Necromancer​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, perhaps.

    Overview:
    The second Mysian rune, our aquatic Necromancer is a good addition to Skeles. She is the fourth Boost: Skeleton champion, and is unique in not being a Skeleton and thus unable to benefit from Boost and other mechanics. But does this make her not worthwhile including? Not really. She's a steal at 70 Nora, and has a great 4-6 range - letting her sit back and Boost safely. This also makes her a good recipient of Train: Strike from Pyro/Rifleman. Aside from this, she's fairly bland - she has Nora Burn as her final ability, which is generally not too useful as rarely do opponents store up a lot of Nora, but does put them in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation if you have a Lerper out thanks to Haunting Visions, as well as helping to punish/discourage saving for powerturns. Overall, a decent 1x include Booster, but Tomb Lord and Bonewing provide fierce competition and are far more combat-worthy.

    Upgrades:
    Her second upgrade choice after Boost is a bit of a dilemna. Summon Skele is very attractive as it's rank 3 - meaning a 7 Speed summon, which is pretty potent when boosted and can protect her from melee somewhat. The other options are Corrupted Nora, which is great to punish noragen, but she kinda already does that with Burn, so its not absolutely necessary. Telekinetic Thrust, meanwhile, gives her a good knockback (useful for all the usual cliffing, and disengaging foes) that can be used to disengage foes from her and do Physical damage rather than magical, for a low 1 AP. In general, however, the Summon is default for Skeles, though by all means try the other upgrades, Corrupted Nora in particular having good utility.


    Necromancer​
    Rating: 2/10​

    BGs:
    None..

    Overview:
    The Necromancer's sole value is for being a Soulharvester - and in aany BG Corruptor is the better choice for that role. There is no reason to include her over him, sadly.

    Upgrades:
    Soulharvest and one other.

    Necrotaur​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, Fear, maybe Disease?

    Overview:
    Though nothing is cooler than an undead Dragon, sadly Necrotaur is a little lacklustre. His pricetag is prohibitive, and speed 6 range 1 2x2 champs have significant mobility issues normally, let alone in a swarm theme - and flying doesn't really get around this adequately. He isn't dreadful, especially with the recent buff - with good defences in Horrific Aura and strong stats, and nice selfhealing with Lifedrinker. Being flying, he can also pull the same latchon shenanigans Dead Fairy can (see Dead Fairy analysis). Essentially though, the real issue is that any Zombie over 70 Nora really needs to pull a lot of weight to be worth it in a theme so reliant on numbers - and Necrotaur doesn't quite deliver, as tankiness can be found for cheaper elsewhere. The recent buff to him has also given him a role as somewhat of a beater, giving both Black Death and Psychological Warfare on upgrades - enabling a pretty huge damage output and hence more easy procs of Lifedrinker. Overall no longer a totally sub-par choice, but not especially exciting and increases a BG's reliance on disease - and there are still the 2x2 6 speed 1 range champ mobility issues, so he's not the best option.

    Upgrades:
    Black Death is an excellent upgrade since Disease is so prevalent in Zombies, and as such is fairly auto (not least because it makes Necrotaur slightly unique and gives it more of a niche). Other options are more problematic. Rabid is helpful to give self-synergy and allow Black Death is Necro is alone, whilst Psych Warfare has self-synergy with Horrific Aura and can give Necro colossal damage output. Fear 3 is probably the least viable option, on a 2x2 actually has a very large AOE and is thus reasonably valuable, and it is the most helpful option to increase the dragon's tankiness (but you can probably get better tanks elsewhere).Overall, I'd typically be likely to go for Black Death and Rabid unless I had multiple sources of Fear from elsewhere, and then I'd pick up Psychological Warfare (ie in a Fear BG).


    Nether Wraith​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits.

    Overview:
    The Nether Wraith is a pretty cool little guy. For something that costs only 62 Nora, it has a good bag of tricks, if a less than stellar stat-line. It has Fading Light, giving a sitational stealth, Hex, a great long-range tap with a potent debuff, Solidify, which prevents Incorporeal and is even more situational, Surge: Spirit which buffs its damage output to a good level in theme, and Trickster, perhaps its key ability. This allows it to Stealth whenever it uses a non-attack ability, which doesn't sound too awesome until you realise that Spectre gives every other unit the 0AP Destealth ability - so Wraiths on the field when you drop one can destealth then instantly restealth at will each turn. Not only this, but they gain what is essentially a 5 space Teleport that removes Rooted (whilst stealthed), which is fantastic for mobility. Essentially, the Wraith is a cool cheap include for Spirits - perhaps not all that impactful but very fun and by no means a poor choice.

    Upgrades:
    Trickster is auto. The other three are down to your own preference - damage for a pure attacker, Energy Thief for harrassment and greater speed, and Soultap if utilising Backlash most likely.


    Obsidian Venger​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Meta, chops.

    Overview:
    The Venger was formerly the premier tank for our faction. Great stats, Oblivion Shield and Multiattack make him extremely combat-worthy, if pricey, whilst Desecrate Earth is a useful large AOE attack that does LoL damage that lets him hurt things at range too. This is pretty much the extent of what he has on base, aside from Magic damage as his base attack - but it is his upgrades that make him stand out. Decay is a generally amazing one, cutting ALL enemy healing by half whilst Venger stays on the field. This is a perhaps the default option, as healing is so prevalent, but with lots of Rabid or Decaying it may not be as good. Punish is next, a fantastic ability to increase both Venger's damage output and dissuade foes from storing AP. More importantly, it also enables Steal Life - which combos fantastically well with a t5ank like Venger and as such Punish is a strong option if running the spell. Conqueror is decent, but since the buff only applies whilst in a font zone it is typically seen as the weakest option. Death Pact, finally, is also a very good option. It gives Venger a very powerful ranged attack, and the cost to his HP is slightly lessened by having a lot of it to begin with. Essentially, it's an ED on a champ (with a drawback), which is situationally amazing to deal with very tough champions - not to mention it can let Venger solo many things in one turn if engaged and at full AP/you use a Mobi. To heal back up a Sac Dagger, Steal Life, or Tempest Crown is a decent idea (and arguably Venger is one of the best bearers of the Crown due to Death Pact + Multiattack shenanigans). Overall, Venger has not lost any viability as a tank really - other tanks have just been released. He's still fantastic in Chops due to his high HP, and synergises well with AP denial and lifestealing mechanics, giving him some other tricks, whilst remaining a decent meta option.

    Upgrades:
    Any two, but not Conqueror.


    Phantasmal Creeper​
    Rating: 6/10​
    BGs:
    Creepers.

    Overview:
    Phantasmal is arguably the worst Creeper, which is saying something. However, this is probably due to it being a second passive champion in a theme in dire need of combat-savvy ones - it has a somewhat interesting design and some interesting tricks. Aside from the standard Creep, its main facet is Magic Aura and Grant: Magic Aura, giving it the potential to contribute 12 damage per turn to the fight, which is reasonable. Its other main facet is Ethereal, making it a pain in the neck to kill half the time, as well as able to slip past foes and into fonts, etc. Paralyse is typically used in conjunction, as a great shutdown to an enemy unit that can be used whilst Corporeal. Portal is also a great ability on a Creep, as they have colossal deployment zones and as such the spot 12 damage Phantasmal can apply can be put onto any opponent near it, as well as letting the Creep hop around to contest fonts. Finally, Nora Leech is its last ability, which is annoying if using Favour as it reduces the amount you get, but without Noragen functions to steal some of the oponent's. In general, purely because it is passive it is not necessarily a 2x include like most Creeps due to lack of champs in the theme, but it is their only Magic damage source and does have some helpful utility, so 1x it at least.

    Upgrades:
    Grant: Aura is auto. Paralyse is typically chosen, but Curse can be instead to do some pitiful damage, or Favour for some Noragen, which is a better alternative.


    Pox Harbinger​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    None, really? Guess it could go in meta.

    Overview:
    Well, this is the most expensive rune in any faction.. so there probably isn't all that much point reviewing it. But hey, I've done every other one.. Anyway, the Harby is pretty straightforward, deploy with lots of AP and hit things. It's overcosted now for what it does, but efficiency is hardly why you'd be running it, you would be to show off you have piles of money, so yeah.

    Upgrades:
    Init is auto, and the other is preference.


    Putrid Creeper​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers, Siphon, Conduit, even Meta.

    Overview:
    Potentially the best pure tank champion in FW right now. With a huge HP pool, high Def and Tough, Putrid Creeper is very hard to kill without considerable commitment - especially if in the shrine deployment zone. Life Siphon and Conduit further provide the ability to heal to full if he survives an attack fairly easily. Hex can help negate the attacks of one enemy pretty nicely too, whilst offensively he isn't too much of a slouch, with the defence reducing Scour to assist his team and a unique damage type for this faction. Creep is a slight bonus to your first few deploys if you draw him early (and makes him effectively 7 speed over the first 2 turns), and Creep Master can assist you midgame on several maps if he scores a kill. Generally you want to pick Tough and Life Siphon to keep him alive, but DMZ is a potential upgrade to resist spells and apply Coven Curse if needed. His main downside is not being Undead, so losing an immunity and a resist, and being damaged by Blood balls and UT - which can be harmful to synergy with Bloodworm in particular, which is unfortunate as both are Creeps, and Meta BGs in general - possibly being the reason we don't see him more commonly used, along with his fairly high cost. But overall Putrid is a fantastic rune, I would say one of the strongest in our faction. It is 2x auto in Creepers, viable in many forms of Siphon build, and great in anything making use of Conduit, as well as being perfectly useable in Meta BGs.

    Upgrades:
    Tough is auto. Siphon or DMZ are the next choices - Siphon typically for the self-sustainability, but if there is a lot of opportunity for Conuit heals you can do without and use DMZ instead.
     
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  8. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Pyro the Patient​
    (This champ is a slightly altered version of Skeletal Rifleman, see that entry for ratings)​


    Ravenwraith​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits possibly, Death Benefit, Soultap.

    Overview:
    The Raven is an interesting champ for sure. She provides Shatter, a valuable utility, Vengeful, which is excellent with DB elements, Stealth, and durability via Vaporise and Souldrinker. So, surely she must be an excellent rune included in many BGs? Sadly, not so, since she has a very expensive Nora cost of 85, a cost higher than a Venger, Doombringer, or similar - and she just doesn't match up in terms of power level. Even her niche as in-theme Shatter has been contested by Lerper in Spirits, though it too is not an ideal include and the far cheaper Librarian looms as a better option. What she does still have, however, is a niche in Soultap BGs (and indeed as a general Noragen counter), as she is one of our Backlash champions. But even here she can feel like an unworthy deploy as she does not apply Soultap herself at all. Essentially, she's just a bit too overcosted to feel worth it in most places, though she is still a decent champion. I'd say the best use of her is probably in a dedicated DB BG with a ton of stuff dying, as well as Backlash. Finally, there is one more use for her - the SuperRaven. This involves equipping her with a Stitched Hex Doll for Shielded (and a ranged attack or two) and Repurposing an Essence Devourer onto her, turning her into one of the most potent superchamps in the game, that continues to grow as stuff dies - and certainly one of the easier to construct.

    Upgrades:
    Shadowstrike is auto. If not using Backlash, Def is typically my preferred option over Magic resist, but either is viable.


    Revenant​
    Rating: 4/10​

    BGs:
    Erm.. Psychic Amp??

    Overview:
    The Revenant is the champ Czars spawn for free.. meaning the rune is even less likely to be used than it already was. Awful stats and Short-lived 1 are not exactly selling points, though Initiative is nice. The only possible reason to run them is possibly in a split utilising Death Benefit that runs a lot of Psychis damage I guess, since they Amp it and are very cheap and recyclable.

    Upgrades:
    Speed is auto and Amp gives it its potential niche.

    Rip Witch​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, perhaps meta.

    Overview:
    Rip Witches have been known as a deadly long-range beater since the days of their release, but their range nerf and Nora hike knocked them from FW goodstuffs BGs of the time, to see play mostly where Punish was desired. However, with Witches becoming viable as of Endless Wonder, they have become the theme's premier ranged beaters. Deep Wounds is the main reason for this - making attacks by them after the first increase to 150% and then 200% damage, which easily deals out close to 30 dmg combined with Punish or their DoT. She is well-protected from range, thanks to Counterattack: Ranged on upgrades (which is affected by Deep Wounds), which if stacked with Shroud makes it a terrible idea to range her in general. Admittedly she is vulnerable to melee, but having flying assists her in positioning in places where she can be relatively safe from them, and a Witch BG offers reasonable defence to spells and other abilities. Her low HP and high damage potential does dictate some babysitting, however. They synergise with each other to a huge extent, so always run them in pairs - and despite their high cost and being ranged they can be an alright draw on a couple of maps where Flying is useful in grabbing fonts. She is not an essential include, but she is a fantastic ranged beater if you can find the space for her in your take on Witches, and does well in other BGs too (in pairs of course). Try a Tempest Crown or Sac Dagger to keep them alive if need be.

    Upgrades:
    CA: Ranged is auto. Generally Punish and Rabid are both useful - Rabid fuelling Exploit and Conduit as well as preventing healing, whilst Punish can assist hugely in setting up AP locks or just decreasing enemy threat ranges. Piercing Shot is simply outdone by the other choices.


    Risen Moga​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies.

    Overview:
    The Risen Moga is in a bit of a unique spot in terms of cost - it and Behemoth are the only viable Zombies between 38 and ~60 Nora cost, and as such can be valuable deploys when you lack the Nora for a more expensive zombie to supplement number for Apoc. Moga is primarily valuable for his Disease Breath, which is great for spot Inhibited and increases his threat range enormously, but also packs Curse for another ranged hit on Breath's cooldown turns - essentially meaning you can mitigate his low speed to a large extent. His drawback aside from this (and somewhat low HP) is Vulnerability: Fire, making him a poor deploy VS UD, but in general it isn't too much of an issue. Overall, a decent 1x include - generally low speed and fast cooldown means 2 are not necessary, and more options from other champs are helpful.

    Upgrades:
    You absolutely want to take Protective - this makes his damage essentially permenantly 12 as opposed to 7 as long as your champs are being attacked, and generally Curse is the next best option to prevent him being unable to attack entirely. Entangling attack is potentially an option - though with Latch on it becomes somewhat obsolete.

    Risen Yeti​
    [UPDATED: See buffs & new releases]​


    Rotmaw Creeper​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Creepers.

    Overview:
    Rotmaw is an interesting creature. It's very affordable at 61 Nora, and fairly fast for a Creep, if typically frail. Its ability set is most interesting however - aside from the obvious Creep, it gets Rabid and Assault on base, allowing you to deny enemy movement fairly nicely, especially with the Creep zone allowing you to drop Rotmaws into the fray directly, or pin down foes whilst other Creeps advance. Its upgrades give it some further options - potentially Sword Breaker, which functions like Rabid with Assault, so you can force foes to remain engaged or lose their equips as well as Shred Defence, which is excellent support for Creeps and slows the foe down as well (remember to use it before attacking with Putrid). The real issue with Rotmaw's role is that it is very easy to just 1-round it when it's stuck to a foe to free it up.. but for 61 Nora, it's still decent enough in theme.

    Upgrades:
    Shred Defence is arguably auto. Sword Breaker is a useful next choice at least 1x, but Rabid can be nice for better damage output. I wouldn't bother with Regen as Rotmaw is so frail it won't live to see the benefits.


    Sarinda​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, RMH.

    Overview:
    FW's 75k gold rune is first and foremost a big threat to superchamps, able to draw in a foe with Relocate then halve their health with Deathstrike. With perhaps two other attacks, this is enough to kill the majority of enemies thanks to the DoT on Deathstrike. In other roles, she has a heftier attack than most witches, and her Charged Blast serves well as a very potent AOE (it not being able to hit adjacent enemies has hurt her solo 1-rounding potential quite a bit, sadly). Her damage shield is somewhat inconsiquential unless you pick Pawn as an upgrade, which I would probably not, or leave something you Deathstruck on under 6 HP, whilst Dark Healing is nice as a means to cut enemy healing and give yourself some, but it is currently bugged to not work on Divine Favour or charged heals, which cuts its value significantly. As for whether to include her or not, she brings little to the majority of synergies witches tend to utilise, and with the arrival of Warspirit has unfortunately been usurped as the premier superchamp countering Witch. She is still a critical piece of RMH, due to relocate, however.

    Upgrades:
    Relocate and Deathstrike obviously enable the combo above, whilst Pawn is a great defensive choice given her value, and Shielded can also be helpful to prevent kills on her utilising spells. But without Deathstrike she has little to make her worth her cost, arguably, though with Warspirit's arrival I'd be tempted to see if she has a niche as a more durable champion? It seems unlikely however, and I'd say it's best to run her as a superchamp killer who needs support - though Pawn's interaction with Vaporise does make her temptingly hard to kill under Witching Hour.

    Seeker of Blood​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Vampyre.

    Overview:
    The Seeker is the newest addition to the Vampyre race, being an interesting champion for a Vampyre BG. For one thing, he brings invaluable Magic damage the theme previously lacked, enough to make him pretty auto on his own, but he also has a range of Bloodied related abilities despite lacking Siphon. He has Blood Magic, the useful AOE bloodied application and/or lifesteal, but for him it serves a greater purpose - enabling Blood Knowledge. This ability sucks 2 nora from the opponent per bloodied enemy it hits, and the Seeker gains 1 AP and 1 Dmg for each in addition. Earlygame this isn't too good, but once a good deal of champions are out he can fairly easily use this to doubleattack with fairly nice damage. He also has an excellent 1-4 range, making him very versatile and also lending to the use of Tempest Crown on him, both helping him stay alive and drawing enemies into his range. Only worth it in a Vampyre BG, but a reasonable choice there, if only for Magic damage.

    Upgrades:
    Phase Shift is nigh on auto to help keep him alive as he is relatively squishy, but the other is pretty much your choice. Essence Capture is the most obvious, as it can net you some nice Nora gains, but Fear can be useful in all but VS FW matches to aid his survivability, and Spellswallower allows him to act as a snowballing champ, but is arguably the least useful as it takes a long time to have significant effect.


    Serkan, Lich Master​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Liches, Death Benefit, Siphon, Meta (can fit in most).

    Overview:
    The Lord of the Wastes is one of the deadliest heroes in the game, in a similar long range powerhouse role to the LK but hugely updated (and at a lower cost, somehow). He boasts a fairly monstrous statline supplemented by Surge: Lich which can easily push him up to 20+ in theme, and excellent 3-7 range. He also boasts a good alt damage type in Electric, and a fantastic AOE in Frost Cone (fantastic to the extent that all AOEs are excellent), giving him excellent damage-dealing potential. His attacks also apply some minor debuffs, Cripple and Weary, which respectively reduce Def and Dmg over time - not especially useful given the tendency to one-round, but certainly not bad abilities. Defensively, Serkan is actually somewhat lacking for a Hero. He has good HP and reasonable Def, sure, but little in terms of true defensive ability. Teleport is helpful to avoid bad situations, and in general for mobility, threat range and increased movement speed. He also gets Life Siphon, which is great to recover life on attacks (and does prevent him being worn down over time fantastically) but cannot prevent one-rounding. The Lich Master's main defensive boon is Defensive Strike, triggering an automatic attack for free on the first enemy to enter his range after activation. It lasts 2 turns but has a CD of 3, so the optimal time to activate it is the round before the turn before you forsee a foe triggering it initially. You can simply put it up as soon as it comes off cd, but ideally you want to hit a key enemy champ, or one on low HP to secure a kill, as opposed to a full HP Evasive champ or similar, so it can be worth waiting depending on the situation. This is probably the most nuanced aspect to Serkan, as knowing when to activate it and how to position is crucial - you can force foes to stop moving for fear of a Strike by putting them in the middle of your range with nothing else near, or zone foes out of his range likewise. Given how people avoiding Serkan's hits on Defensive Strike is his main form of dissuading them from attempting to kill him, Surge: Lich and other damage boosting abilities make this discouragement all the more potent, as well as allowing a greater heal with Siphon.

    I'm going to include discussion of Serkan's equipment here, as he's pretty much the only Lich likely to wear it, and it feeds into the concept of a "super-Serkan". Vendetta is Serkan's hero equip, and as per any equipment that costs an effective 10 Nora, it's pretty horrendously efficient if not downright OP on its designated bearer. It conveys Essence Capture, allowing for both some fairly potent Noragen and the recovery of the Equip's entire cost after 2-3 attacks; Vengeful, which assists Serkan's snowballing potential significantly, especially when combined with DB modules; and Lightning Blast, which gives Serkan's default attack a potent splash damage potential, giving him amazing AOE damage potential and forcing your foes to not bunch up or suffer the consequences. Typically it's a little too backloaded to warrant an include solely on Serk, but in a BG where Surge or DB will put his Dmg at massive levels, Essence Capture makes it a strong include purely on basis of noragen potential. Now the other issue with Vendettaing Serkan is that it increases your investment in him, which is already substantial, but has no effect on his survivability (aside from more Dmg -> more healing from Siphon and stronger deterrent with Def Strike), especially since he can now no longer be Soul Reavered if hit with status effects. You are probably going to want some other means to support Serkan and assist him with the giant target painted on his back - and arguably Death Guard is the best option to do this for Vendetta Serk. For 3 turns, a DG provides a huge ~50Hp buffer to Serkan before any damage can be dealt to him, for a miniscule 33 Nora (that refunds a sizeable amount in its globe) - and upon being about to expire thanks to Shortlived, can be repurposed onto Serkan for +6 damage (Vengeful included) and +25 HP or so (less if the DG was hurt - but given that burning through 50HP to get to the desired target is far from ideal, you can get a lot of HP from DGs more often than you may expect). This further fuels the snowballing Serk already has from Vengeful and Surge, and adds HP, which will make 1-rounding ever more tricky. Whilst the "full" super-Serkan chain is pricey Nora wise, it can be rewarding despite the risks inherent in superchamping, and you can simply include Serkan alone, or Serkan+any number of elements of the combo, and still reap some of the benefits - he's a good enough rune that he works with a great number of things. Overall, Serkan is an excellent include in many FW BGs, but should be included where he synergises as opposed to everywhere because you can.

    Upgrades:
    Siphon is auto, and Weary is typically next best, but it is possible to use Dmg Shield: Frost over it if you really want, as it does dissuade melee attackers to some degree (and can trigger Frost Acolyte on H-Liches), but in general you should not be putting your 99 Nora Serkan in a position for it to be triggering, so Weary is the default pick.


    Shadestalker​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Perhaps Spirits and Fear.

    Overview:
    Shadestalker is a champ with a weird role. It's very poor in combat, but has a range of interesting abilities. Flight and decent speed/exertion make it a reasonable cheap contestor, especially due to Phase Shift, but Energy Thief is its real niche, allowing it to be fed AP to reach far across the map and steal fonts, as well as being harder for melee to reach and attack. Aside from this, it has Soultap for some more damage and Norasteal, and Unspeakable, a nice global debuff. It isn't a fantastic rune, and you may well prefer to use Wraiths or similar as a cheap font contestor, but it's another interesting option for Spirits nonetheless, and thansk to Phase Shift can more reliably stealth.

    Upgrades:
    Phase Shift and Speed most probably, though Exertion + Speed for a very rushy champ is an option, or even Exertion and Phase Shift.
     
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  9. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Shadestriker​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in Liches, Spirits and Soultap. Also very helpful in Witches.

    Overview:
    Shadestriker is Liches' saviour - the champ who single-handedly rocketed them from being possibly the worst theme in FW to a viable one. The champ himself is actually fairly simplistic (though I prefer to think of his design as "elegant") - he has sub-par stats, a low cost of 64, and a fairly small pool of abilities. A lightning base attack is a welcome addition , but the striker's signature ability is far more interesting. Each time the Shadestriker makes an attack successfully, spaces in AOE3 around the target become DMZ for 3 turns. This has a few effects - serving to propagate DMZ massively if you can continuosly get attacks off with strikers, which can assist your champs in protection from targetted spells, but also propagate Curse to any enemy moving through it if you have Elsari Coven units on the field. This makes him essential in Witches, as moving through DMZ becomes unavoidable in many cases. He also recently got Surge: SPirit, making him hit quite hard even with just his own Illusions, let alone in a Spirit BG. His final on-base ability, Hidden:DMZ, allows him to stealth whilst in any DMZ, which means he will be stealthed after deploy, and can stealth anytime he attacks a foe at max range with 2 AP remaining. Unfortunately, the nature of the stealth from Hidden means that a foe even remotely on the ball will know exactly where your Striker is, and whilst unable to initially target them with anything, can easily destealth you if they so desire. It's still not a bad ability, however, and can force detection from your enemy. So overall, Shadestriker is a 2x auto in Liches and Spirits purely thanks to Deception, and also in Soultap thanks to Backlash, and Witches thanks to the DMZ.

    Upgrades:
    This is where the Shadestriker gets interesting. All four options are viable and allow him to fit excellently into several BGs, but one stands out - Deception. This ability splits the Striker into 4 - 3 being illusions, and 1 the real champ, which are initially indistinguishable to your enemy (and can thus on occasion save him from a hit or so). The illusions are not especially useful in themselves - generally being helpful to block foes movement somewhat, collect globes, or drop contesting relics in enemy fonts, but crucially, they fuel Surge abilities. This means that for Shadestriker's cheap Nora cost, you can pump the damage output of all Surge: Lich or Surge: Spirit units by 4 (and the Stalker itself too). Especially earlygame, this is a fairly huge boon, and is essentially just an excellent help throughout a match. As such, you may want to keep the illusions somewhat out of harm's way unless needed elsewhere, to preserve the boost to Surge (though in Liches they can feed your real units HP via Evil Aura). His other upgrades are also all great, which means you have a tough choice in picking one to run alongside Deception in Liches or Spirits. Soultap is a nice DoT, doing 2 LoL damage to afflicted champs and gaining you 2 Nora for it, and is overall the default second pick, a reliable but not especially exciting choice (though in Soultap, it becomes immensely powerful with stacked Backlash). Distract is an alternate debuff choice, and is notable mostly because it is very rare in FW. Disabling foes' alternate attacks and abilities is a subtle but potentially crippling power - anyone who's faced SP and SL using it heavily knows as much. The final option is Backlash, which is the power that most relies upon you building the rest of your BG around it. Whilst an immensely potent counter to all Noragen, Backlash means you should probably not include Noragen abilities in your BG elsewhere - so Vendetta, Unholy Tomb, etc are all pretty much non-viable unless you can deal with the damage it may incur to your own units. This trade-off may be worth it - many BGs have powerful forms of Noragen that you can shut down with ease with the ability. Overall: Liches and Spirits, grab Deception and Soultap/Distract; Soultap, grab Soultap and Backlash; and Witches, grab whichever upgrades you desire.

    Shadowshank​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Possibly Death Benefit?

    Overview:
    The Shadowshank is one of those immensely cool but not all too practical champions. It has one role - instakill anything you desire, typically that big nasty champ advancing menacingly towards you (preferably with a Nora cost more than Shadowshank's), thanks to the ability Killing Stroke. To this end, it has Shadowspawn, allowing it to get close to the enemy without being utterly destroyed by ranged attacks due to Easy Target and 33 HP... This is all it has on base aside from Scorn, so pack a ToH. You'll always want to grab Shadow Shift to be able to advance to the foe quicker, and either Stealth to have some margin for error, or Knockout to give him at least some small utility. So, why is he not taking the meta by storm? I'd say it's cos he's just a tad too slow to be able to easily spot kill things with. 7 Speed would make a lot of difference on him, but his cost is also pretty prohibitive and he is high risk - fail and you are WAY behind. If you do run him, beware of IS and Unobstructed View, and be sure to try to grab the globes he leaves (Soul Collection is a good option) - typically other Death Benefit elements are helpful too. Overall, he's best with some DB elements, but in general if you are new they will serve you very well - you will come up against things you cannot kill that they can take out, and the foe will not realize what is happening until it's too late.

    Upgrades:
    Shadow Shift is auto, and typically Knockout, but Stealth is an option.

    Skeezick Boneblade​
    Rating: 5/10​

    BGs:
    Ichor Skeles (maybe).

    Overview:
    Boneblade was, up until very recently, on a par with Bonemauler for uselessness. However, the addition of +2 damage and Ichor: Multiattack has given the champ a slight chance at being included. The Boneblade packs Block for some survivability, cleave to force enemies to split up, Hunter: SL which is situationally nice, Ichor: Multi which is excellent to increase damage output and threat range, and Skeezick alliance, which is irrelevant. Ichor: Multi is potentially excellent in an Ichor-heavy BG, pushing his attacks down to 6AP for 2; 5AP for 2; and 4AP for 2 with each rank, which can be very potent especially if you can proc Cleave. Unfortunately, this is all he really has - his upgrades are boring (except for Riposte, which is nice, but not as effective as on Merc as Boneblade only has Block 1), and he's not going to push anything out of a typical BG when for 6 more nora you could be packing a Lerper. Ichor themed BGs seem to be the niche he may actually work in, but even there he's the Ichor champ I'd hesitate to include 2 of, as he is still very pricey for what he does in comparison to Merc or similar.

    Upgrades:
    If you do run them, grab Riposte and then either HP or Dmg on upgrades.


    Skeletal Berserker​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Bgs:
    Skeles, but somewhat outclassed.

    Overview:
    Berserker is a cool champion. A 48 Nora champion with Berserker 3, Multiattack, 15 damage, and Blood Frenzy is a combat monster. He is however, balanced with two main drawbacks - Scorn, hurting your shrine, which isn't a huge issue as it means you can simply drop a Tome of Hate to heal it up; but also Short-Lived 2, meaning he only gets 4 rounds on the field before he blows himself up, leaving double Nora in his globe. This too can be turned to your advantage with things benefitting from champs dying - Death Harvester and Vendettas spring to mind, whilst to ensure you get the tasty 14 or so Nora from his globe, you can utilise Repurpose, giving Blood Frenzy boosted stats to another champ, Sac Altar, or even something like Throw Bones to save Nora. In general, however, the main drawback he has is not so obvious - primarily dying without being able to do anything, due to a relatively short threat range and the opponent being able to simply fall back and ignore him. To this end, both upgrades I recommend increase the range at which he can clobber things - Berserker 3 and Multiattack (others being good but when a champ is short-lived you need to raise the chances of him doing something), and you need to be very mindful of when you play him to make use of his face-smashing talents best. Dropping him at a threatened font is a good option, as he is very cheap and will be able to cleave a chunk out of anything attacking him, whilst otherwise planning for a Mobi powerturn, use of Sac Altar and Dark Rising, or in otherwise defensive positions where the enemy is pushing on you hard will make it harder for the opponent to entirely avoid him. It's worth mentioning another upgrade here more for discussion than anything else - Blood Frenzy 3 does exponentially serve to increase his damage output, but any opponent worth their salt will either ignore him or 1-round him, making the entire ability worthless. So in general, if your BG has a module making use of death, or need a cheap font defender, then try him out, but be warned that he is not easy to use. Unless you plan to make use of him in such ways, in general you'll probably be better off with something more reliable that doesn't have the bad habit of dying after 8 turns on the field. Further, when using Masons, adding more Scorn to your BG may not be the best idea.. In general, Reapers are a better include, sadly.

    Upgrades:
    Berserker 3 and Multiattack.

    Skeletal Lerper​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    2x auto in Skeletons, also Spirits possibly.

    Overview:
    Our new Exo may have a sprite that looks like a dead chicken, but is in fact a pretty remarkable champion. It takes hyperefficiency in Skeles to a whole new level - 69 Nora for a decent statline, Flight for mobility, Shadowstrike to force detection's deploy, Magical damage, and Arctic, giving occasional free AP, all of which becomes even better when Boosted. But Haunting Visions is its main ability, forcing your opponent to save up Nora (to subsequently be cut away with Toll-Taker) or give your Lerper 2 free AP and 4 extra Dmg for 4 turns. Though it no longer stacks infinitely, it still buffs lerper to substantial damage levels. And Shadowstrike makes its high damage potential all the more dangerous - after an initial attack it's hard to predict where the Lerper will strike next. Overall, one of the best champions available to Skeles efficiency wise, is their only means of forcing detection, and is a great harasser, so if you can afford them, be sure to run them. Spirits is a dubious question, as he's a great champ but not as efficient - typically he will be used for Shatter.

    Upgrades:
    Shatter is not needed if running Bonewings, so Rend and Evasive are the best options to increase damage output and survivability. Banditry is reasonable, but probably less useful as Rend may assist in you winning font battles more - though it assists Visions slightly. In Spirits, Shatter becomes more viable.


    Skeletal Raider*​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, meta for Detect.

    Overview:
    The Raider is one of the most enduringly good Skeleton champs, for several reasons. Firstly, he drops a Decayed Merc upon death, giving him an incredible HP to Nora ratio, and as such is an excellent damage sponge. Secondly, and most importantly, he has detection - a nigh on essential ability for any BG not wanting to be ruthlessly murdered by stealth units, and this is the main thing that sets him apart from other tanky skeletons. He is the only Skeleton with it, so that basically makes him an essential include - as though Death Harvester can detect in extremeis, you really don't want it on your front lines. His tankiness makes 2x a fair possibility if you're short on money, but as mentioned previously, the existence of other good 2x2 Skeletons means you can run the risk of killing your mobility with too many in your BG. Overall, an auto champ, if only 1x, for detection, and a decent meta detect too.


    Upgrades:
    Mobility+Charge goes nicely to serve to increase his damage, and let him slide past enemies to try to detect things or cap fonts. Hunter: IS can be a great choice to give you an even tankier unit against enemies which may well have physical resistance and thus pose an issue for your champs, and 1 Def is obviously the best choice for upping pure survivability. Essentially, all his upgrades are good choices, depending on your own preference.


    Skeletal Reaper​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Bgs:
    Skeletons, Liches.

    Overview:
    The Reaper (though the sprite looks like it has pickaxes, but whatever) is a phenomenal rune. For a pricetag of 52 Nora, you get a reasonable statline - notably with 52 HP, giving him excellent HP:Nora. His main feature, however, is Initiative 2, which simultaneously makes him the best font defender Skeles have ever had (sadly screwing over Merc, Zerker, and Crawling a little, but hey), and allows for unpredictable hits on anything close to a font - or to rush an enemy one. The downside? His Sole Purpose means he loses up to 12 health per attack, unless he has adequate charges - a very hefty chunk. When he spawns, he only has charges for a single attack - and Death charged 2 means 3 deaths = 2 attacks, which is a tough rate to keep up with, so he will likely be killing himself somewhat regularly. This brings up the debate as to his second upgrade - Race Charged or Rend? Rend of course provides immediate hitting power, and if you lack Lerpers is a useful DoT nothing else provides, but Race:Charged potentially mitigates his self-inflicted damage to a great extent, so it's probably the better choice for a longer-lived Reaper (especially if you only run one). A final feature to note is Ichor: Berserker, giving Reaper extra damage (and eventually speed) per Ichor champ nearby (Grekin, Bonewing, Crossbone, maybe Shredder). Generally you will be using this to add a few bonus damage to his hits, then trying to escape Ichor range so he retains his AP, but this is not always possible, so is can be another drawback. Due to being only 6 Speed with Boost's change, the viability of running an Ichor module to give multiple ranks of Zerker, or very few Ichor units at all to avoid proccing it at all, is greatened. With Bonewing getting it, you're more likely to be having Ichor proc, so splashing some more Ichor to max out Zerker ranks is a more viable idea. Overall though, the strength of a boosted Initiative champion really cannot be understated, especially one as cheap as this - though the drop in Speed on Boost was rather painful for them, Reapers are still one of Skeles best champs, and a welcome return to cheapmeat - and Surge Lich is enough to make a them a valuable cheap meleer there too, perhaps 1x.

    Upgrades:
    Initiative is auto. In Skeles I would go for Race: Charged, but Rend is an option. Surge is obviously the necessary option in Liches.


    Skeletal Rifleman/Pyro the Patient​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    Pyro2k's rune concept is a fantastic addition to Skeletons. For one thing, it's the longest range Skeleton there is, at 4-6, with the ability to get even longer. It has a slightly random Resist: Frost, which is kinda cool, and Aim on base. Aim is probably what makes the rune most interesting - as aside from its range it has fairly unremarkable stats. It gives +1 range (4-7), +3 Dmg (12 unboosted), and Precision on the turn after its use. Typically, you will want to try and reposition on one turn, using Aim to increase your threat range, then doubleattack the next turn for more damage if possible, but this can be fairly easily screwed up by the foe, especially if you lack a screen of Skeles in front of your Rifleman, so it takes some planning. Obviously, if the foe has Elusive or similar, use it at every opportunity. His upgrades are where things get interesting, and where the difference between Pyro and the normal rifleman kicks in (aside from his +2 Nora for "Hero", which is fair enough). Pyro has Accrue on base and Enrage on upgrades, whilst Rifleman has the two switched. Given Accrue is pretty much auto - as Aim lends to turns setting up where you won't be attacking, and because earlygame he is effectively 8 speed and a decent fontgrabber due to this, Pyro thus has more versatility in builds. Enrage is still a decent option on him, however, as it dissuades the foe from attacking him, lest they proc a massive damage boost. Of the other options, Train: Strike is the standout. Ignoring Defence is a potent ability indeed, and being able to apply it to any champ you choose is simply great, and outside of you needing to save the Nora, its probably worth slapping it on anything fairly durable for the boosted damage output. You can also apply it right off the deploy, which is situationally handy. Train: Damage is cool, but fairly pricey for a 2 damage boost - compare it to Cloak for 30 Nora, which gives +2 to all Skeles. Finally, Forsaken Exploit is a great ability, but falls down in Skeles as their only sources of Disease are Crawling and Crossbone, and they lack Hex and Curse entirely. Its for other BG types, essentially, and not really worth taking in Skeles. I would take Train: Strike on both, with Accrue on Rifleman and Enrage or Train: Damage on Pyro. Overall then, Rifleman is a cool but frail and somewhat tricky rune to make work. One is certainly a great option for the range, speed, and Strike, but two frail and low damage (conditionally) runes that tend to prefer to attack every other round may not be ideal. If you can work around this, then 2x Rifleman will definitely be worth your while, however.

    Upgrades:
    Accrue is auto, Train: Strike next best, and then on Pyro either Enrage or Train: Damage.


    Soul Collector:​
    Rating: 2/10​

    The Soul Collector is one of the worst Liches or Vampyres out there. His main boons are a DMZ (done immeasureably better by Shadestriker), and Soul Collection (better handled by Magelord or Bokor). Aside from these abilities, he's a champ with fairly abysmal stats outside of 7 speed, and as such a reasonably useless Life Siphon (he's not gaining much life back with 1 Range and 10 Dmg). He has Soultap, which could be utilised with Backlash on Shadestrikers, but frankly he's just a huge waste of a slot. One of the worst possible options for a Lich or Siphon BG.

    Upgrades:
    DMZ and Damage.
     
    OriginalG1 likes this.
  10. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Soul Siren​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits perhaps, RMH.

    Overview:
    The Siren is one of two champions in our faction to have Relocate: Foe, and is the only one who is not a 75k Gold rune. Aside from the incredibly valuable relocate, she has poor stats, very low speed especially, a nice alt Sonic attack, and a rank 1 Sonic Aura on base. She doesn't seem amazing, but for 55 Nora it's actually a remarkably good deal, and she can repay her cost in setting up powerturns fairly readily. Her upgrades give her two possible builds, with Phase Shift being auto. You can either take Sonic Aura 3 to do more damage yourself to the relocated foe, or pick up Warcry to give all adjacent champs free AP, perhaps letting you get off a few more hits, which again can make for great powerturns - though it is very tricky to setup right given her tiny AP cap. Either is equally viable, but overall she's a bit of a risky include, being so slow and squishy - though she has a massive payoff when she enables kills for you.

    Upgrades:
    Phase Shift and either Sonic Aura or Warcry.
    Spectral Emissary​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, Siphon.

    Overview:
    The Spectral Emissary is a solid Skeleton. For a reasonable 75 Nora, you get a reasonable statline with excellent mobilty - Speed 7, flying, and 1-3 range, along with a control ability in Stun. He also has Annex, but given you're running a banner in Full faction that's essentially a non-factor. But it is his upgrades where he really begins to shine, as he can pick up Life Siphon to increase his survivability vastly, +2 Def to increase tankiness noticeably, +3 damage to become a solid beater, and Phase Shift to allow him to become immune to most damage - great for contesting fonts. All these upgrades are viable, bringing him a good degree of versatility. He can be built as a pure tank with Phase Shift and Def, or as a dangerous self-healing damage dealer with Siphon and Atk, or as anything in between. I will point out that he makes a good bearer for the Cloak of Skulls, however, as little else is as survivable as him thanks to Life Siphon, whilst also being a front-lines champ likely to proc some spawns off of. I run him with Def and Siphon - so he has maximum tankiness but can also selfheal if threatened. Phase Shift is good, but prevents spawns, which is not ideal, and damage is less necessary than Def to be a tanky champ as opposed to a better selfhealer. In general, he's an excellent and very versatile rune, and with Life Siphon can be easy to keep alive as you boost him up, turning him into an utter monster of a champ. If you can get hold of them, then I cannot see reason not to try one, as they are mobile, tanky, good beaters and provide a stun. Sadly their viability has dropped, as Boneshredders make excellent tanks, harassers and bearers of the Cloak for the same price, but he's still a decent option.

    Upgrades:
    All are viable - typically Siphon is auto, with any other.

    Stitched Anathema​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Meta to some extent.

    Overview:
    Anathema is a decent stitched, for one main reason: Sever Summons. He's great against summon-heavy BGs as a result, single-handedly screwing them over. Aside from this, he's a mediocre ranged unit with Absorb for some survivability, and Repulsion, which can be amusing to mess with enemy's positioning/occasionally cliff them, so isn't used for much else.

    Upgrades:
    For Severing, Energy Thief is normally the best second upgrade to allow for more range on said Sever.


    Stitched Blackguard​

    Overview:
    Blackguard isn't seen all that often in full stitched, let alone FF FW.


    Stitched Concealer​

    Overview:
    Concealer is a very cool rune, but sadly isn't all that amazing. He relies on runes being concealed for his strength, which is normally contrary to what you want, and fits the rusher role that Planeshift or Mindthief can also do. He is a reasonable alternative, especially as he does hit very hard if you draw him early, and has a Stun, but lategame he becomes nigh on useless.


    Stitched Dreameater​

    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Sometimes Chops and attrition.

    Overview:
    Dreameater is a similar rune to Mindthief - stealth, and sit in fonts Pinging things to death. It differs in that it only pings whilst stealthed and has a 1 smaller radius, but hits EVERYTHING in it. Understandably, this makes them hilariously good contestors, or even just stealth champs wreaking havoc against a foe's forces - but they are completely screwed by detection, higher risk, higher reward. Up to you if you wanna try them.

    Upgrades:
    Stun is auto, and probably Shadowspawn. Evasive is an option to help make 1-rounding more troublesome if detected, however.


    Stitched First​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:

    Overview:
    First is one of the better Stitched. He has access to all the Reconstructs (except Mangler, but who cares), along with Reconstitute which makes him problematic if you don't 1-round, Immortality so you only really need to include 1, saving space, and Psychic Ping, making him a huge annoyance at decent range. He is however very expensive and quite frail, so you have to be careful with him, but still. His upgrades are what make him most worth using, arguably, in a Stitched module. Death Pact is immensely powerful, as Venger's example shows, and First can easily recover from the damage if you keep him far enough back, whilst Transfer Life can be great as a spot heal. Perhaps most importantly for his role in FF, however, is Relocate: Relic, something only Crypt Guardian outside of him has - so if you need Relics moving, you may want to consider a First (Blood Crests in a Siphon BG, for instance). But in general, his price is prohibitive.

    Upgrades:
    Transfer Life and Death Pact typically, but Relocate is excellent if needed. Spell Resist is viable if desired too.


    Stitched Hexer​

    Overview:
    Hexer is one of the better Stitched for FF, mostly as Drudgery can potentially be nice in some weird AP denial/Stitched combo, and she does carry some good debuffs. If you run a Stitched module, she is a reasonable space filler option, being cheap, fast, and fairly handy in terms of debuffs and being a Reconstructor.


    Stitched Librarian​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    Any.

    Overview:
    Librarian is one of the best support runes in the whole game. He brings the fabled combo of both Detection and Shatter (well Recycle, but close enough), the two key utilities often touted as "necessary" in a BG, and for this reason alone he is a worthy include, since he saves a BG slot as you don't have to run one champ with each. However, he still continues to bring helpful utility - chiefly with Favour, generating decent Nora when you cast spells, but also from Nora Hex, slowly debuffing the foe's Noragen as the game goes on. He's pretty dire in combat, but Teleport and Portal make him nicely mobile, meaning he can be utilised to grab side fonts if need be, then jump back to safety. And as with all weak attackers, he's good to check for Righteous Deflection. Perhaps the best thing about him, however, is his miniscule cost - a mere 59 Nora. Not only does this mean he cools down pretty fast, but he also is a much less of an investment to counter stealth of equips than say, an Eye or Ravenwraith, and this is partly what makes him such a fantastic include in many FW BGs.

    Upgrades:
    Typically, Teleport, with Favour as auto. Death Charged is an option, however.


    Stitched Magearm​

    Overview:
    Magearm is one of the worse Stitched, not being used in those BGs, let alone FF. It is too costly for too little benefit outside of hitting things.


    Stitched Magician​

    Overview:
    Magician is closer to being viable than many Stitched, thanks to a very long range and the intruging Grant: Flight, along with the potent Metamorphosis as a CC ability. It is horribly frail, however, so is not seen all that much. If you run a Stitched module and need a superchamp counter, it can be reasonable.


    Stitched Mangler​

    Overview:
    Mangler seems to have been made to be reconstructed, so the actual rune isn't seen even in Stitched, let alone FF.


    Stitched Merged​

    Overview:
    Merged is pretty pricey even in Stitched - outside of there he's simply overcosted, though he is a monster on the field.


    Stitched Mesmer​

    Overview:
    Mesmer is a pretty good rush-stopper, with Majestic, Absorb, and Energy Thief, but unless your Bg with a Stitched module really needs this, you're better off looking elsewhere.

    Stitched Mirrorskin​
    Overview:
    Mirrorskin seems like he'd be a decent tank, as our only Mirrored champ, but rarely is this as great as it seems on paper, and he brings little else to a non-Stitched BG.


    Stitched Monolith​

    Overview:
    Unless you're attempting a gimmicky shrine burn BG, don't even think about these. And even then, be sure to bring Magicians for Flight.

    Stitched Seamstress​

    Overview:
    Seamstress is a similar champ to Fleshweaver, sharing Charged Heal. She does also have Disease Breath and a stronger Death Charged, but lacks an attack.. making her not really useable in FF, though she is more viable than some of the other Stitched for sure.

    Stitched Shaman​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Probably ones with a Siphon component.

    Overview:
    Shaman is arguably one of the best Stitched for FF, primarily because he can single-handedly enable a module, having both Re- and De-construct abilities. He also works quite nicely in Life Siphon, as he has that ability, sparse Magic damage, and has Evil Aura as a handy Pers counter. He triggers Archfiend's Ally: UD as well, which can be useful. I would say that the majority of Stitched modules (which there really aren't any of, but hey) would run Shamans as a key part in FF.

    Upgrades:
    Life Siphon and Evasive typically. If feeling daring, try Essence Capture.


    Stitched Tyrant​

    Overview:
    Tyrant is a good Stitched supporter/tank, but brings little to anything without the race, so isn't used in FF.


    Stitched Warlock​

    Overview:
    Warlock is reasonable in Stitched, but outside his frailty really hurts, and his Deconstruct is not as valuable.

    Stitchling​

    Overview:
    Stitchling is a pretty poor champ, awful stats and such - and as such is only really worth it in dedicated Stitched.


    Toll-Taker*​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, perhaps Liches.

    Overview:
    The Toll-Taker is Skele's second Life Siphon champ. He is somewhat sparse ability-wise, having only Evil Aura to counter enemy perseverance champs, and Tariff - which is very useful, as it cuts 8 from the enemys Nora pool each time you kill a champ. This doesn't stack and as such is not incredibly overpowered, so the usefulness of two Toll-Takers is somewhat diminished, but he is an excellent champ to include anyway. Due to Life Siphon - as a ranged user of it, he is a safe drop for Cloak of Bones, very unlikely to die and as such helping your Augment Creation to endure throughout the match. His recent buff with Logistics: Speed means that if (as he should) he survives a while, he will become even faster, pushing him to become the fastest ranged champ Skeles have with the Boost changes, which improves his viability a little. He can be run in Liches, but there are a ton of other ranged Magic damage options, so he will not commonly be seen there. Perhaps not a 2x include, but Tariff's sheer utility makes him an excellent choice at least in one of your Skele BG's slots.

    Upgrades:
    HP and Damage are by far the most useable, though Fear has limited utility in countering attacking melee - but behind a screen of cheap Skeles you should not need it.


    Tomb Lord*​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    The Tomb Lord is the archetypal Boost: Skeleton unit, and he endures as a solid choice to this day. He has recently gotten a cost decrease, making him a ton more useable for his main purposes - Boosting everything in your BG, and summoning up additional Skeles to fight for you. His stats are reasonable, but he isn't especially tanky, so be careful when you go to attack with his short 2-4 range. His Psychic attack can prove valuable in a BG with a lot of Physical and Magical damage - especially lategame when Surge: Skeleton begins to bear fruit. Upgrades-wise, Speed is a must, as you may well want to drop him early-game as your booster, and without it you can end up a little short of a font. This is actually a major advantage of him over Bonewing, who is slower in the earlygame. The real dilemna is between Summon: Skele 2, or Inspire. The former increases his summons' stats significantly, including +1 speed, whilst the latter transfers 2 of his damage to a friendly champion. Inspire can be useful for maximising damage output when Tomb Lord has AP left after attacking - use it to gift something yet to attack some damage and hit for 2-4 more than normal depending on how many times it can attack. However, oftentimes you'd be better off using the AP it takes to retreat after attacking at his fairly poor 2-4 range, or to summon more free meat and boost surge. Def is useable as an upgrade since he needs to survive, but its impact is minimal if you look after him. He does make a decent bearer of Cloak of Skulls - the bonus Def doesn't go amiss, and he's already a big target, so getting something out of him being attacked is never a bad thing. Overall, his being a Boost unit makes him a valuable include - but his speed, alt damage and lategame potential with surge are the main reasons to run him.

    Upgrades:
    Speed, and one of the others, typically Summon Skeleton.

    Tormented Priest*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Skletons, perhaps..

    Overview:
    Tormented Priest is the last Boost: Skeleton unit we have, and sadly there is a reason I have not mentioned him as of yet. At a glance, he appears at least comparable to the Tomb Lord - longer range, slightly lower cost, Dark Healing to lower enemy's regeneration, Devour Skeleton as a self-heal, and Evil Aura to counter perseverance units. However, there are a few big drawbacks. First off, both his upgrades have to be Boost: Skele 2 and 3 to be any use in his role, preventing use of Afflict or Tormented, which would make him a little more useful. Secondly, Dark Healing is bugged at present, not functioning on Divine Favour, or charged heals - decreasing its worth significantly. Finally, and most importantly, he has the worst attack type in the game - Disease. Every Undead in the game, all constructs, relics and shrines, and Salaman are immune to it, making it unreliable at best, utterly useless at worst - and a drawback of this magnitude is enough to warrant using any alternative. Since four Boost units are all you really need, potentially less, he rarely sees play, despite not being truly dreadful - there are simply better options, as is the case for so many Skeles.

    Upgrades:
    Both Boosts.

    Tortun Bokor​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Witches, splashable for Soul Collection.

    Overview:
    The newest and most peculiar of the witches, Bokor's awesome rune art isn't the only reason to include him. As a start, his stat-line is far superior to the majority of witches, in tankiness especially, thanks to Turtle. He makes a poor attacker due to both sub-par range and ponderous, but he can certainly dish out a decent hit when needed, and thanks to Stab doesn't mind being engaged. However, the main unique factor Bokor brings is his signature ability Cursed Treasure - so that any nora globe collected within a huge radius of 8 sqaures either curses enemies within two squares of it, or if already cursed deals 5 disease damage to them - which can both set up for more widely-damaging Pain Curses, or assist them in dealing "free" damage at great range. Soul Collection is thus an auto upgrade thanks to this ability and the usefulness of Curse. As for the second upgrade, Exploit is of significantly less value than on other Witches thanks to Ponderous, but is still free AP which is very nice. His inherent tankiness combined with Hour makes Resist: Magical an solid choice, especially considering the rest of the theme's vulnerability to magic heavy BGs. Tortun's Trade is a terrible choice unless running full Tortuns. Overall, a good choice if you focus on Curse a lot, but unless making full use of Cursed Treasure another rune may be a stronger option, though he is by no means a bad include.

    Upgrades:
    Soul Collection and Exploit or Resist: Magic.


    Undead Magister​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons, Death Benefit.

    Overview:
    After a long campaign of prodding the Greens that "this guys' art really kinda looks like a Skele", we FWers emerged victorious and magister was granted Race: Skeleton. After the initial celebrations died down, we realised this really didn't do all that much, as he was intended to die and be cycled, so little really changed for him - but he does nonetheless have a niche as a spellblock with added utility. With Spell Blockade having such a colossal CD, it's often advantageous to kill off the Magister after it goes off so you can redeploy him sooner, meaning he goes nicely with Throw Bones, Sac or Bone Altar, etc. He also has Add: Charge, which is only really useful with Reaper, but is excellent there to prevent uneeded HP loss. He has a potential debuff/equip blocker in Carouse that may occasionally be used, but otherwise is just a very weak combat champ that is useful for the spellblock and adding to Surge and Bulwark. His upgrades give him a few more tricks, Charged Magic Bomb and Death Charged being one, his main way to do damage without getting dangerously close to the foe (though his default attack is great to proc Oblivion Shield, Dodge, etc) - and it annuls Def for a turn which is excellent. The other option is to build him with Magic Acolyte and/or Adaptive: FW, meaning he can stick around after proccing his spellblock and actually maybe eventually become slightly combat-worthy, but generally sticking with magic Bombing things then killing him off is more reliable. On the whole, a good utility champ for 50 Nora, but you may want to class him as a spell when including him as he will be mainly used in that capacity, the issue is his higher initial cost than AP and being visible, making him trickier to use as effectively as the spell.

    Upgrades:
    Charged Magic Bomb and Death Charged.
     
    OriginalG1 likes this.
  11. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Utterdark Fadewisp*​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons.

    Overview:
    The Fadewisp has very high burst damage - against a typical 2 Def enemy, it can output 29 damage with relative ease, becoming 38 with Boost: Skeleton, and even more with other modifiers. Its entire toolset is designed around allowing it to do this, as it has Attack Charged 1 and Charged attack - so every 3 attacks you get one extra free, Soultap and Poison 2 as DoTs, and Multiattack. Thanks to its charged mechanics, it's best to only single-tap if needed on one turn, then swoop in for a double hit + charged attack the next, doing maximum damage. Aside from this it offers little - Flying is nice, and whilst it does have Phase Shift and Poison Aura on upgrades, it is in no way something that should be in harms' way, or spending AP on something other than attacking. So as one of Skele's only ranged units, and an immensely powerful one at that, you might think it would be auto, but there are drawbacks that mean it can be overlooked. Primarily, Attack: Poison is the issue. This attack type, whilst a nice alt damage, is resisted by all Undead and Elementals, and all constructs and many FS champs are immune to it, along with shrines and relics. Essentially, it can be unreliable, and even in the best case, when no opposing champs are immune, it will not be able to attack an enemy shrine or relic, which is a fairly large handicap. However, if you can deal with it being a situationally bad deploy, the Fadewisp will not let you down in any situation where it can hurt things, as it does so fairly spectacularly.

    Upgrades:
    Multiattack and Poison.


    Utterdark Planeshift​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits, Meta.

    Overview:
    Planeshift is the original FW font rusher. 7 Speed with Teleport 2 gives him 9 spaces of movement per turn, which is pretty fantastic - and this is the reason he is used in meta BGs. Aside from that, he has little else - strong stats thanks to Loyalty, Evasive for a little range hate, and Ensnare, which is situationally handy to slow a foe. He's got some competition from the much cheaper Mindthief, but that plays a more stealthy role in font harassing, so either is perfectly viable. Overall, a very solid rune that does its job well, but not much else. Pretty auto in spirits as a harasser, but brings little synergy.

    Upgrades:
    Teleport is auto, the other personal choice. If you want defence, I tend to go for HP over 1 more rank of Evasive, as it can deal with ranged reasonably well by engaging and ensnaring them is need be.


    Utterdark Soulrender​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits, Soultap perhaps.

    Overview:
    Soulrender used to be auto in the rushy meta BGs of the day when I started playing the game, but has since been nerfed somewhat. It's main boon is probably Initiative 2, making it a nice fast champion a little into the game. It's also a good harasser thanks to Phase Shift, which means it can stealth at will with a Spectre out. On base it also has Soul Channeling, which is handy for some minor healing and to propagate Soultap. In spirits, Surge:Shadows turns it into a very hard hitter, which is all the more potent thanks to Initiative (be sure to attack with Soulrender before you destealth other champs), so it's a strong include there, whilst it brings decent combat worthiness to Soultap. Another final boon is Soulsift, which refunds you 20 Nora when he dies, a nice chunk of Nora to have back in the bank, that mitigates his up-front cost a tad.

    Upgrades:
    Soulsift is auto, Surge is typically best in Spirits, and in Soultap either Soultap or Cloak depending on your preference.

    Utterdark Spectre​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits.

    Overview:
    Spectre is a colossal theme enabler in Spirits, being the cornerstone of their stealth mechanic. Two abilities contribute to this: Insubstantiate, which stealths all Incorporeal champions; and Murk, which prevents damage de-cloaking any allies within a huge 8 spaces - necessitating the enemy to deploy detection. Insubstantiate is the key really, and Murk a great extra - as it allows any Ghost, Ethereal, Phase Shift, or Ghostly Visage'd champions to become stealthed - a huge proportion of Spirits and FW more widely, so it is very potent. Often, your entire Spirit BG will be able to be stealthed by it. Aside from this, he has a few other tools. Soultap is nice for a little extra damage, and Adaptive gives him some snowballing potential if you include a lot of cheap spells, which is a viable option. Aside from this there is little else to him however - just keep him alive and stealthing everything you own and the win should be forthcoming as long as you keep your foe's detection off the field.

    Upgrades:
    Murk is auto, and Speed is the seemingly obvious next choice. If going for a snowballing route, Spell Resistance is a reasonable option, meaning you cannot be AOE spammed down (and it's decent if you prefer to be cautious with the Spectre anyway), whilst Surge is reasonable if you'd like it to be more on the front lines hitting things, which seems a less sensible option given how crucial it is to the BG.

    Utterdark Voidhowler*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Skeletons with Ichor.

    Overview:
    The second Utterdark Skeleton is an interesting champ indeed. Improving off the idea for Skeezick Boneblade, it packs Cleave, but this time with a much needed 1-2 Range, allowing him to engage something, hit something a space off, and effectively get a free attack. Combined with high damage and Essence Capture and/or Call to Arms, this can be pretty dangerous for an opponent to ignore, but it is his signature ability that makes him such a high-priority target for the enemy - Void Howl. When the Voidhowler dies, this ability releases an AOE3 blast of Sonic damage, and any enemies killed by the howl spawn a Voidhowler under your control, ready to rinse and repeat with their own Void Howl. Effectively, he's a swarming champion due to this, and as such a very dangerous champion who can easily turn a battle in your favour - and thus will be targeted rapidly by any enemy worth their salt. Another facet of his only on death swarming function is that a competent enemy will be sure not to finish him off if one of their own champs will be swarmed, so you cannot rely on getting free Voidhowlers this way, you will often have to take matters into your own hands. Either denying the enemy an escape with something like Hungry Dead or Grim Well, meaning Voidhowler likely lives a few more turns, or through killing him of your own accord - generally with something like Throw Bones (Goresplosion, Altar of Bones, Repurpose and Sacrificial Altar sadly do not work) after a turn of combats to, ideally, get multiple swarms off with him. Having to dedicate a little non-champ space to aid his functioning mean that he tends to work best with other runes that rely on death - Vendettas, Death Harvesters and the like, to take advantage of you killing him off. The addition of Ichor: Evasive has given him a new lease of life, as if you can get off multiple kills with Void Howl you can boost Ichor levels on your other champs fairly significantly, which is excellent (as well as giving howler some survivability and the chance to get into the foes' lines a little easier). Overall a decent choice, if one that needs support to work best. He is excellent at making the enemy think twice about deciding to push, both thanks to his cleaving hits and Void Howl potentially swarming several foes, but is frail enough that you do need to be aware of potential one-roundings and use him perhaps as a tool to hold off pushes temporarily instead.

    Upgrades:
    You probably want Essence Capture as with Cleave it can really generate a decent amount, but you can use both HP and Dmg if you prefer pure stats. Call to Arms is a secondary option to increase his potential for Noragen, but isn't countered by anti-noragen whilst giving less net benefit than Essence Capture. You can run both for more Noragen potential, or instead choose some pure stats, Dmg typically being the better choice as you do want him to die at some point.

    Vampyre​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Vampyres.

    Overview:
    The original Vamp, Vampyre himself made a return to near-viability with a round of shoebox buffs. He is one of those rare champs where every single upgrade is a viable choice, depending upon what your BG needs. Phase Shift is one of the best options, allowing him to contest a font without hurt for a turn, whilst HP is excellent to push him up to a very nice 60 (65 with Banner), and Damage as usual is solid on a Siphon champ to enable greater healing. Blood Magic meanwhile is his distinguishing factor - only the Elder Bloodbinder has it, so he is naturally an excellent choice if you fancy making use of this good AOE ability to apply spot Bloodied, or do wide ranging damage. To some extent this makes him less of a good choice than some others as he's a jack-of-all-trades, facing severe competition from Emissary especially who can fly and stun, but he still just about manages an OK niche in Vampyres. Not the best choice in general Siphon, but great if utilising Blood synergy.

    Upgrades:
    All are viable, Phase Shift probably most useful, and in Vampyres Blood Magic too.

    Wandering Zombie​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Bgs:
    Zombies, maybe.

    Overview:
    The Wandering Zombie has one of the best Nora:HP values in FW, thanks to his headless ability - which respawns the champ on death without the ability to move - it just lumbers 2 spaces at a time towards the enemy shrine. Whilst this seems a huge drawback, you can position his place of death to threaten the enemy formation or fonts, etc when Brainless, necessitating them spending resources to remove him. Aside from this, he's a pretty simple hunk of meat champ, though an especially meaty one, but he does have one other boon - Resistance: Physical. This can be pretty valuable for one main reason - it counters the main damage type of constructs, one of zombies' toughest matchups (thanks to tons of defensive abilities and disease immunity) and is cheaper than the other option to do so - Dark Knight (though he does additionally resist their secondary damage type of Magical). In general, this is a bit of an obscure niche to occupy unless you are facing a LOT of construct BGs, so typically he isn't worth running, especially as he has Vuln: Fire and thus can compound your weakness to that damage type if running the generally more helpful Risen Moga or Behemoth. If you do run him, you really don't need more than 1.

    Upgrades:
    You probably want HP for pure survivability (as it endures into his second form and becomes effectively +12), and then Resist: Physical 3 as that is his primary niche.


    Wretched Witch​
    Rating: 7/10​

    BGs:
    Witches (AP Denial), Disease possibly.

    Overview:
    The old Broodcall Legend was fairly unattainable for most players until a recent re-release, more than halving their value. She is a passive champ, always a sign of something with an unusual and interesting ability set, and Wretched is certainly not lacking in this department. She has Disease Aura 3 and Poison Cloud as ways to deal damage, and the latter doubles as excellent area denial. She also boasts two potent anti-combat debuffs: Charm, debuffing Dmg by 2 and preventing hit enemies attacking her in an AOE3 around her, and Mindwipe Aura, on a longer cooldown but prevents any and all attacks being activated, is uncleansable and works even through Iron Will. Combining these it is easy enough for her to prevent damage, but her signature ability Wicked Aura is the main reason to run her as the focus of AP-denial builds in Witches and various split BGs - it reduces all AP gain by two (so gains of one AP result in a net -1 AP!). This can be vastly useful to prevent enemies hitting your champs, especially combined with the rest of her toolset, but adding on Curse, Debilitate, Awestruck and/or Shackles can create a full AP lock on your foes - which is a win condition in and of itself. Her other ability is Revere: Mairdreth, which generally will not come into play because champs as pricey as her are vulnerable to instakills, and Mairdreth herself does not fit well with Wretched's AP denial - but means she is a viable option in a Disease BG, especially as with Mairdreth out she gains a "rabid aura" in effect. In Witches I like to use a Shield of Darkness on her sometimes, to help keep her alive since she's so key to my AP denial BGs. In general, a very potent champ, but one you pretty much have to build around and/or play with a degree of finesse to make work, as the centrepiece to an AP-denial BG or module.

    Upgrades:
    Mindwipe is an excellent choice - the broader AOE is just incredibly useful given the sheer power of Pacify. It's then a toss-up between Immunity: Disease and HP, of which I used to choose Immunity: Disease as with things like Fleshweaver, Shield of Darkness and Witching Hour keeping her topped up isn't too hard, but immunity to disease will allow you to stack two Wretcheds on top of each other for a period of time without causing damage, which is very useful in generating the full AP lock mentioned previously. HP can certainly be argued for, however, not least because the "typical" Dmg values for champs are around 11 - and her base HP is 44, so an additional 8 may well be the difference between life and death, and if you are careful with positioning you will not need Immunity: Disease. If not using a second Wretched, HP seems likely the best choice in addition, but equally in a Disease BG you will for sure want the immunity.


    Xulos, Undead Sage*​
    Rating: 10/10​

    BGs:
    ALL OF THEM.

    Overview:
    The first FW hero, Xulos has endured as the one champ in full faction worth including in every BG (and even some in splits). In Skeletons, he is even better than usual, becoming an even more potent beater thanks to Boost and bringing much needed range. There is little to be said about him really, as you should save him for when Dark Favour will be most helpful, and go from there, looking for opportunities to use Mindwipe and Death Touch to screw over your opponent.

    Upgrades:
    Typically Grace of the Dead and Damage, but Drain is a possibility for some self-healing.

    Zombie Behemoth​
    Rating: 6/10​

    BGs:
    Zombies, maybe.

    Overview:
    Behemoth is an interesting Zombie. One of the handful of 2x2s, he also occupies the niche with Risen moga inbetween 60 and 40 nora, making him a nice cheap deploy. He has an excellent statline, but has big mobility issues - being 5 speed, Lethargic (Lumbering 1/3 of the time), and 2x2 with 1 range all compound to make him unlikely to be able to attack much if at all without outside AP gen, though obviously if the enemy comes to him as he defends a font this is isn't an issue. He has several other benefits - Knockback, enabling situational cliffing and potential for knocking foes out of fonts, etc; Unstoppable, making him immune to AP loss; Sunder, making any hits he does get off increase your entire force's damage potential significantly; and Exertion, for some additional AP gen, very helpful for such a slow champ. Unfortunately, he also has more drawbacks beyond his slowness - Faithless, meaning he has no spell presence (don't run him with Crypt Guardians as it compounds this), and Vuln: Fire, making him a less than awesome include with the other Vuln: Fire zombies. Overall, he's a potential 1x for his huge tankiness at a low cost, and Sunder, but there are many other options if you don't want to have a slow, 2x2, Vuln: Fire, Faithless champ.

    Upgrades:
    You definitely want Sunder to make him a threat, and probably Exertion to increase his mobility some - but Knockback 3 is an option to give him some more situationally dangerous knockback opportunities. Def is the only means to increase his survivability, but being rank 1 is probably too low impact to justify.
     
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  12. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Spells

    Absorb Magic​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Absorb Magic is a spell that steals beneficial single-target spells from the opposing faction, to put it simply. This can grab some pretty awesome things - Mimic, the various Prot refund spells, Transfusion, etc, but the spell is rarely seen, simply because it's a very situational spellblock and Ancient's Protection is far more consistent and only slightly more costly. The slot simply isn't worth it at present, and the rune too expensive in my opinion - but it's certainly fun. I'm also unsure on this, but if it refunds a prot spell that expires to you, it might be more useful to steal Nora that way.


    Anathema​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Anathema is one the more auto spells for FW - being arguably our best AOE, an understandably very useful spell type. It's main boon is the application of Defiled and Decaying, preventing all healing on those hit for 2 turns, which can be invaluable if you cannot 1-round a champion - apply Anathema, and finish it the next turn as long as it doesn't get away. Decaying also deals half healing as damage, so on things with Reconstitute and Regeneration you can utilise their own healing to finish them off, which is always rage-inducing. Don't be afraid to drop it to finish off a key kill if need be, even if you would only hit 1 champ. It does have a few downsides - dealing Magic damage is annoying for the many who resist or are immune to it, though good VS incorporeal stuff, and not being able to hit relics can be exceedingly annoying. But regardless - we lack a better option for AOE, and as a potent antihealing rune it is often very, very handy.


    Ancient's Protection​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Ancient's Protection - the standard cover-all spell block for our faction. An excellent rune, and a strong competitor for a slot in most FW BGs. In general, it's a truly excellent spellblock - drop it when your champs are clumped up or out of position and you expect an AOE or finisher and watch the enemy panic as he realises his plan has just failed, or when you anticipate something like a powerturn. The drawback is 15 shrine damage, which is hefty, and may result in you sitting on uncomfortably low HP for much of the game if you've scryed a lot, unless Tome of Hate is packed. Regardless though, for reliability it cannot be faulted, and as such it is the go-to spellblock for our faction just about everywhere.


    Black Ops​
    Rating: 0/10​

    Quite possibly the worst rune in the game. Knowing what your opponent's stored Nora is is alright, but not worth a rune slot and a Nora cost at all, especially as with some practice you can infer it fairly well.


    Blight the Holy​
    Rating: 3/10​

    Blight the Holy is a pretty potent Nuke - hitting for 20 damage, as well as applying Inhibited. But the damage is disease, rendering it useless against constructs, and the spell only works against Prot, making it useless in half of all games (and even then, IS reduce the damage to 14, where you may as well use Soulbane).. As such, a less than ideal include.


    Chain Lightning*​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Chain Lightning is perhaps the default single-target finisher for our faction, and it certainly used to be. 15 damage for 40 Nora is reasonable, and it has the added utility of punishing the foe for clumping up (though most foes worth their salt will not allow multiple chains to happen). It faces fierce competition from Soulbane, which deals more reliable LoL damage, but if you prefer the AOE component chance, then CL is certainly a decent choice.


    Chains of Corruption​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Chains of Corruption, with its recent Shoebox Buff, is a new and improved Hungry Dead that is mostly used in Witches. The base effect is larger than Hungry hands for the same price, AOE3, and hits for 5 LoL damage - LoL making it very valuable as a finisher of the many things with strong defensive abilities - as well as applying a handy Ensnared 2, serving to delay enemies' advance or retreat for a turn. However, if a Human is in the AOE, the the LoL damage is boosted to 8, and the Ensnared effect lasts another turn - making it both a potent AOE and a potent snare, as opposed to merely a decent budget one. Definitely worth an include in Witches if you can find space, AOE LoL damage is excellent and the Ensnared effect works well with AP denial and typical play.


    Corpse Collection​
    Rating: 5/10​

    For a budget 25 Nora, all Undead gain Assimilate for the turn it's used on. Whilst this seems nice, in general there will not be enough globes out in the right places to make this worth it, and it sees very little play. The main place I could forsee it being used is in conjunction with a Sac Altar and Wake the Dead/Haunt/Czar Revenants, all of whom drop globes on death - and here it could potentially provide a hell of a lot of healing. Again the issue would be spending yet more Nora on spells when you're playing so many other nonchamp combo components, however.
    Dark Rising*​
    Rating: 7/10​

    The signature Skeleton spell, Dark Rising ate quite a nerf with the changes to Vengeful - the summons it creates no longer give anything with the ability extra damage. However, in Skeles it is still useful, though you have to be mindful of a number of variables when casting it, to be sure you are making good use of it. The summoned Skeles can be used for a number of things - Sacrificing at a Bone Altar for a global buff, at a Sacrificial Altar to deal up to 50 LoL damage to a nearby foe, to delay enemies' retreat through careful positioning of them (AP must be spent to avoid or kill them), to finish off a foe on low HP, to drop a relic in a font at distance, to score a kill with a +5 damage Tomb Lord (thanks to Surge) or several of the above. Generally including both it and a Sac Altar can ensure its usefulness, but be inventive and you can manage to find it a place for other reasons. Notably, it now gives Boneshredders with Bulwark a temporary +10HP and +1Def upon casting, which can be nice.


    Dead Zone Voodoo​
    Rating: 6/10​

    DZV's main use is to facilitate drawwins on midfont maps. In these maps, if you get there first you can cast it to rebound a would-be contestor, allowing you to deploy there safely next turn and secure the area. Aside from this, there's not too much reason to run it - it does do some nice damage and knockback, but it's a tad too pricey when you could do more damage for the same cost, without the delay, though it it very cool for control purposes. It can also save you contests on other fonts before deploying there, but this is only really delaying the inevitable. Also, beware that after its first use the foe will often contest with a relic, so drop your banner asap, and also that Unstoppable champs will still be able to contest if they had over 4 AP left before the knockback.

    Decay​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Decay has sadly been hit pretty hard with the antihealing nerf, taking a full 50% decrease in effectiveness with no compensation. It now deals 50% of all healing for 6 turns as damage, which is still a potent effect indeed - but it is costly at 40 Nora. This is especially since you must forgo all healing in your own BG or risk killing your own champions, meaning you really have to specialise your BG when running the rune, something not many people are prepared to do. Active heals are okay, as you can choose not use them, but passives may well screw you over - Xulos' Grace of the Dead being the worst, be careful not to let him die under Decay. Still a potent rune, but requires so much BG specialisation and has lost synergy to the point where it isn't run all that often.


    Delay​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Delay is a disappointing rune - the animation is awesome, but the effect lacklustre, even for 25 Nora. Putting a foe's first choice of champ on cd for 4 turns is only very situationally great, and otherwise mediocre, as the foe will just deploy something else. If there are very few options for the opponent it becomes better, but it's still hard to justify the slot.

    Desecration​
    Rating: 6/10​

    The main selling point of this spell is the MASSIVE AOE it impacts - a huge AOE 5. Everything in this area takes 5 Disease damage, which is minimal (and useless against IS) but can be a helpful finisher, and more importantly, Shrines and Relics eat 10 Magic damage. This is enough to completely kill many relics, and bring most others down to 1-shot range. Perhaps most importantly, this will kill all Minefield relics entirely, and thanks to its 25 Nora cost, put you 15 Nora up. It's certainly not a bad rune, just a tad low impact, so using it is more as a personal choice in many cases.

    Despoil​
    Rating: 6/10​

    One of our two spell-based sources of DMZ, Despoil is the one most often seen (though still not often). It gives a decent AOE3 of DMZ, which lasts for 8 turns and grows one square on each of your own turns, collecting all Nora globes within it automatically. This makes it best placed, typically, over the site of conflict, where it can both deny AOEs and save you AP by collecting globes. In witches it has another function - force any enemy entering or moving in the area to eat a lengthy Curse, as well as enable Bokor's Cursed Treasure with him 7-8 spaces away. Globe collection admittedly overlaps with Soul Collection, but in all honesty that is just a boon, the DMZ is the meat of the reason to use the spell - it functions as a pseudo-spellblock as well as an enduring means to reapply curse without having to spend AP to do so, and one less easy to avoid than a Defiling Spinel. A worthy include in Witches if you can find room, and less good elsewhere - but if you badly need Globe collection it can be utilised.


    Disintegrate​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Simply put, this is our hard counter to enemy relics. 35 Nora to destroy any relic isn't too bad, and replacing it with a 2HP one of your own is eh, reasonable - better if that relic was contesting your font or securing a foe's. It goes without saying that its viability increases exponentially with any sort of Stitched module, where the spawned remains can be put to great use, but elsewhere a more versatile relic killer like Desecration may be a better option.


    Domination*​
    Rating: 8/10​

    One of those runes our faction is most hated for, Domination is THE possession rune. Stealing any non-Iron Will champion and gaining three Nora lets you do a number of things - attack enemies, good if the rune is high damage; run across Lava or just generally waste the champion's AP getting out of position; and most infamously, by cliffing the foe, instakilling it for 50 Nora - which is almost always worth it. The disadvantage is primarily map dependency - not all maps have cliffs, and those without will make Domi significantly less impactful, perhaps even a wasted slot. For this reason I don't actually run it anywhere, but I do not doubt its potency, and even without running it I reap the benefits of its existence - players will still pair up their champs and keep away from cliffs when playing any FW player.

    Doom​
    Rating: 7/10​

    For 40 Nora, you can have any non-Shielded champion die. The drawback, of course, is that this happens 6 turns after you cast the spell. The main reason this sees little play is that with this knowledge, the foe can do one of several things - be much more aggressive with the champion, sacrifice it in some manner, or at the least fall back and let themselves take the larger globe. Beware against UD and IS in particular, who can Sacrifice and Blink the champion to counter you somewhat. However, the rune is by no means bad, only situational - and if you can prevent the foe from being able to be aggressive with the rune, you have won half the battle - and as such, the tactic of running them in Spirits where everything is stealthed has been concocted - they also go decently in any slow paced BG.

    Drain the Earth​
    Rating: 2/10​

    The earlier of our spell-based DMZs, DtE affects an AOE2 for 4 turns - so it is both one square less in radius and lasts half as long as Despoil, without the utility of growing and collecting Nora globes. Literally the only good thing about it is its cost - only 20 Nora, but given that it cannot even prevent an AOE and as such is mostly only good for stopping single-target spells, frankly Despoil (which itself is of dubious impact on the battle) is a better choice.


    Elsarin Night​
    Rating: 6/10​

    One of Endless Wonder's much griped about Exotic Spells, Night is rarely seen outside of its intended theme - Zombies. Its primary effect is fairly potent - granting Elusive to all allies in AOE2 for 4 turns, preventing all ranged attacks against them for a reasonably cheap 35 nora. This makes it seem like a defensive spell, which it indeed can be, but Zombies also gain potent offensive benefits from it - +2 speed and Crushing Charge whilst in the AOE (2x2s need only be in one square of the effect). This means the spell has a few additional uses - as a pseudo-powerturn, as Crushing Charge gives an effective 2 free AP to users if positioned right (though in reality due to the ability to knock enemies out of the way this is actually potentially more than 2); or as an increase to your champs' threat range by sitting them in it along with gaining Elusive, likely forcing the enemy to back off or face immune to ranged +2 Speed zombies the turn after the spell is cast. It's worth noting that combined with Ancient Corruption, Guardian can hit 10 Speed with this spell active. Generally you will not want to include more than 1, as Crushing Charge powerturns can be map dependent and the base effect is not good enough to justify 2 slots - and outside of Zombies the effect is a little pricey in all honesty, though ranged immunity is pretty awesome.


    Essence Drain*​
    Rating: 9/10​

    The staple superchamp-killer spell is a great option in most FW BGs. Halving any champion's health on demand is fantastic for those hard-to-kill targets, and even if 50 Nora is quite pricey, disrupting a key part of the foe's strategy is often worth it. It comboes well with Soulstrike or Reaper's Blade, the latter facilitating an instakill for under 100 Nora on anything as long as you have a champ with 8 AP in range. Sadly it doesn't work on Avatars, however. In general, it's better for Zombies because it can facilitate an early swarm well, and worse in Siphon since they would rather hit for the HP damage to steal life from it - but it's potent enough to use anywhere.


    Execution Order​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Exec Order is a fallen powerturn spell. Once great, it is now sadly lying in the shoebox, forgotten by pretty much everyone. It gives all your melee units Mobility, Execute and Exertion 3 until the end of the turn - allowing them to move 3 more spaces and hit stuff 50% harder, which understandably is pretty powerful. It seems like it could still be decent in a melee-heavy BG like Zombies, but it's really just squeezed out by the plethora of other options that are far more versatile, effect ranged units, and don't rely on expending HP to use.

    Festering Wounds​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Festering Wounds isn't too viable, which sucks, as the effect is really awesome. Diseasing and Inhibiting everything is a great effect, both for things like Conduit and Exploit, as well as Black Death - and moreover it prevents healing unless a cleanse is used. It deals 11 damage over 4 turns, which is pretty solid. So why is it not viable? For one thing, disease is a damage type resisted by many - all of FW and constructs are immune. Secondly, with the proliferation of cleanse, its impact can be drastically reduced, and worse, since it Inhibits all of your champions (and diseases them if not Undead), we will often have more trouble cleansing it than the foe. Finally, it only hits things that are not at full HP - so without something like Tome of Hate its effect is somewhat diminished. If you're looking for wide damage, Desecration is a better option, and if looking for antihealing a Skull of Decay is likely better.


    Foul Rite​
    Rating: 2/10​

    Foul Rite seems like a cool spell for Witches. However, it is really pretty terrible - killing ALL undead is a very nasty drawback, since you will be running Magelords, Bokors, and Shadestrikers for instance, and moreover the benefit you get from each sacced Undead is pathetically small. Without alterations, not really worth it, unless you very specifically run only cheap summons, and even then, not advisable.


    Ghostly Visage​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Visage is a simple spell, turning one champion Incorporeal for 4 turns, for a fairly hefty 40 Nora. The only real usage for this has been in a BG centreing around superchamping something up - if an opponent attempts to 2-round your very valuable champion, or CC it, you can Visage it to keep it alive, most likely. The other utility is in preventing a foe from attacking for a short while, if need be, or safely contesting a font. In either case, it isn't that useful a spell in most BGs, and sees little play.


    Glimpse into Utterdark​
    Rating: 4/10​
    Glimpse is somewhat like Visage, in that it gives champs Incorporeal. Here however it's an AOE 3, where everything gets Phase Shift, which can be nice to mass protect a few units (from AOE perhaps) or similar. If something has Phase Shift, it's activated for free, which is good, were it not that you're spending 35 Nora to do so as opposed to AP. The final effect is stealing up to 15 Nora from the foe is cast on Liches or Spirits, but even this isn't enough to make the rune worth it really - it's too pricey for a fairly minimal effect that is rarely all that helpful.
     
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  13. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Goresplosion​
    Rating: 7/10​

    At first glance, Goresplosion seems a lacklustre AOE - whilst cheap for an AOE3 at 40 Nora, it deals its 12 damage as Physical, the most resisted type, and requires a sacrificed champ (which much also be in the position you want the AOE to be cast) to activate. However, in Zombies, with a huge amount of free meat, finding something to sacrifice is not an issue. Whilst being Physical damage is still a bit sucky, the spell's secondary effects are very useful - Scoured 3 increases effective damage of the AOE to 15, and the Def reduction the condition applies means that you can actually get a lot more damage out of it if you attack with other champs over the next 2 turns. The spell's final effect is to cause all affected champs to lose all charges, so whilst you have to be aware not to get Fleshweaver caught in the AOE, it can counter a lot of foes, and catch them off guard as Goresplosion is rarely seen (worth noting that with Broken Shard a LOT of potent champs with charge mechanics have been introduced, so Goresplosion is more valuable for its charge elimination than ever). As mentioned, it being a rarely seen spell makes it great as a surprise tactic - people virtually never anticipate it. Champs to try and target the spell on are obviously free Festering Corpses along with anything near-death (which also allows you to collect the globe), but Death Nova champs are especially good choices. This is because the two explosions stack, so anything within two spaces of a Goresploded Afflicted will take 26 damage (29 with Scour factored in) - a pretty impressive total that can halve the life of many foes with ease. Overall, not essential, as killing your champs is somewhat of a situationally useful tactic, but a solid 1x thanks to the incredibly dangerous interaction with Afflicteds.


    Haunt​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Haunt is a very interesting rune, with two main functions - destroying/recycling relics, and generating a decent amount of free meat. After casting, the relic selected is dead in 5 turns, and combined with the summoned real champs, you can steal an enemy's font that has a relic in with this spell alone. The champions summoned are great harassers due to flying, and have a nice range 1-2 as well, if they're weak, frail, and fairly slow. Unfortunately they now spawn on your enemy's turn, so they're liable to be killed off before doing anything unless you present a higher priority target, but even so they'll soak a few hits at least. Their main value is in feeding DB modules (and Surge: Spirit), arguably, as they are real (though this does mean the enemy may steal their globes), and they can also be used to deal 45 damage with a Sac Altar. The spell is also great to recycle things like Corpse-a-pults, and relocate things like Blood Crest on occasion, as well as providing a big AOE4 DMZ which is always nice. Overall, a pretty decent spell, but even better if you have DB synergy.


    Haunting Grip​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Grip summons a Haunting Spirit next to the targeted enemy, which instantly latches onto it. This makes it Lumbering (immobile if Latched onto twice), which in itself is handy, as well as dealing 6 Sonic damage via the Spirit's aura, which again can be useful, especially if it hits multiple things. There's also a minor debuff via Depression. The Spirit can be killed easily, but the 30HP will waste a decent amount of the enemy's resources getting rid of - which can again be beneficial - especially when the spell can move down to 25 Nora cost with 5 Spirits out. Downsides include it not being able to be stealthed due to a lack of Incorporeal, and 1 Speed, which understandably is rather crippling. A reasonable include in Spirits (more so if you have real Hauntings to enable spot 2x Latch ons), but too costly elsewhere without the refund.

    Hungry Dead*​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Formerly the premier AOE of FW, HD has slipped from viability. It is a small AOE2, and deals only 4 Physical damage per turn (8 in total before the enemy can move), which is easily mitigated by IS or physical resistors. Ensnaring foes caught in it is very useful however, allowing it to be used to catch fleeing enemies, or slow attackers. But since it persists for some time, perhaps the best use is as area denial, especially as after initial hit foes can simply avoid it. It isn't bad, but is a little low impact and hard to find a slot for - especially as it doesn't affect enemy Undead or IS, and hits your own non-Undead.



    Mobilization*​
    Rating: 10/10​

    Without a doubt our best spell, and one of the best in the entire game. 4AP, globally, for 55 Nora, makes it one of the best powerturn spells out there. 4 more AP gives you numerous more attacks, often enabling a kill or several you would not otherwise have been able to grab. AP is the most valuable resource in the game, governing movement, attacks, and other abilities - and Mobi's versatility is that with it you can choose to do any of these. It is quite hard to use when you start playing, I found, but you will begin to see situations where more AP on several champs would be amazing, and even set up for powerturns after a standoff with practice. A 2x Auto in just about every FW BG, it's that good.

    Necrosis​
    Rating: 1/10​

    Necrosis is not worth it. For 25 Nora, one champion gains Undead - and that's it. Speaks for itself really.


    Necroweave​
    Rating: 2/10​

    Necroweave is a weird spell, because it goes entirely against our bonus, giving Undead no cooldown for 6 turns. Perhaps this would be good if running a lot of expensive champs, but not for a whopping 40 Nora...


    Obelus*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Obelus is an interesting one. It deals a big LoL hit, putting it on ground with Steal Life and Soulbane, but doesn't do this instantly, instead triggering when a foe uses a non-basic-attack ability. This essentially means it is not a finisher, but a way to persuade the enemy not to use their abilities on pain of a massive LoL hit (though it can be used to finish if desperate). The real issue is that cleansing it is possible, which is less than ideal - but even so it's resources invested for the enemy, so it's a decent rune, if not the best. Mindflayer gives it pretty good competition in the ability prevention area.


    Oblivion Hex​
    Rating: 6/10​

    This new spell is not the most potent out there, but it is the purest, cheapest spot Curse out there, which means it has potential utility in Witches. If you simply need to hit a single tough enemy with Curse, then this is the best spell for the job. Given its refund clause, it's wasted on weak enemies, as you will almost never get the refund and the other abilities go to waste - spot Inhibited and Defiled can be helpful against in healing heavy BGs, to allow you to not be forced to oneround stuff or watch it heal to full the next turn (but this is very much a secondary role given Anathema exists). In general however, Spinels for 5 more Nora with board presence are generally more useful, though by all means give this spell a try if using a Curse based BG.


    Plague​
    Rating: 3/10​

    Plague is a weird spell. It diseases your own champ, which is stupid, and gives it Infectious, which will propagate Disease in an AOE around the affected champ. A minimal effect that is simply not worth it.


    Reanimate​
    Rating: 5/10​

    With Coragh getting Warding, there's little Reanimate is good for. 65 Nora is far too pricey a backloaded cost to be putting on something, when you could get a whole other champ on the field now for the same or less.


    Reflesh​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Reflesh is an AOE3 10HP heal for Undead, which removes Boon for 2 turns. Be sure to use it after collecting Nora globes. It's 40 Nora cost is quite prohibitive, however, which is unfortunate.


    Repurpose*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    The go-to sacrificial spell in FW, Repurp is strong in several BGs. It's main boon is that it turn a champion into a substantial buff for another - passing on half its HP and Dmg. It can also be used simply on any champ you do not need or that is low on health, to make use of its stats for another champ to deal some extra damage with, or pseudo-heal up a damaged one. The other use in making superchamps - see Ravenwraith and Serkan's entries for examples. If you include things like Blood Fiends or Death Guards, it can be much easier to find a target for, as in general spending 35 Nora to kill a unit for a buff on another is honestly somewhat situational, so it isn't seen all that commonly, you have to plan for its use.


    Ritual of Ashes​
    Rating: 5/10​

    The newest spell-based source of Curse, Ritual clocks in at 30 Nora, fairly cheap, and is hidden. It causes both a reflection from the first damaging effect on its target back onto all enemies within 6 spaces (at half strength), and them to get cursed for a fairly lengthy 6 turns. Situationally, this can be incredible, finishing off several low HP enemies and cursing others who Curse has worn off, if you have a low HP unit you cannot heal. Issues, however, are many - the enemy may choose to finish off your target after moving other champs around, he may hit it with some pitiful amount of damage, or it may be finished from great range. Above all, your lack of total control makes this a dubious source of curse at best, and a somewhat iffy surprise move - however, as noone runs this spell noone will see it coming the first time you pull it on them, which you may be able to work to your advantage.


    Serkan's Touch​
    Rating: 4/10​

    This spell's effect is nice, inflicting a stacking debuff on Dmg, Def and Spd, but the rune is absurdly expensive - for the same price you could be playing Mobi (let alone the possibility of cleanse). Not worth it at present.

    Setback​
    Rating: 3/10​

    Setback is an interesting rune, with the effect of concealing 15 runes in one player's runedocks. Naturally, this has the effect of severely restricting a foe's options, and may be decent to play after you drop something that absolutely needs countering - a stealth unit for instance, or one with a potent immunity. You can do it to yourself to buff Concealers, but this is horrendously inefficient.. Overall, pretty gimmicky and not amazing for its cost.


    Snuff​
    Rating: 6/10​

    One of the only spells specifically designed for Zombies and Creepers, sadly Snuff is typically too low impact to warrant a slot, despite only costing 15 Nora with enough zombies or Creeps out. it has a variety of small, situational effects applied to its target for 6 turns - Lumbering, nice to slow an enemy but no use in one-rounding - and AOE slows are available; Liability, an AOE Def debuff to all champs, which can be nice for some extra damage for cheap - getting a swarm off with it is a possibility; and Pariah, preventing friendly targetted abilites and spells - decent to stop non-AOE healing and similar. These effects are pretty nice for 15 Nora in all honesty, but they're still low impact so the rune is not auto. One is fun however.


    Soul Cage​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Soul Cage is a reasonable rune, paralysing a foe for 4 turns for 30 Nora. It can also be helpful for the spot +2 damage, but in general you will want to not break the paralysis prematurely. The main issue, however, is that it is cleansable, making your Nora entirely wasted except to prevent AP gain - which is a huge problem in today's gain. Unless you run a lot of Defiled, and I mean a LOT, I would not really consider using this over another source of slow.


    Soul Corruption​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Coul Corruption is our other Possession spell, causing possession 5 turns after casting. The problems with this are threefold - first, the huge 55 Nora unfornt cost; second, the possibility of the foe simply saccing the to-be possessed champ; and finally, that the possession can be cleansed even though the pre-possession condition cannot. As such, it is not worth it.

    Soulbane​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Soulbane is the most reliable source of curse via spells, and is also an excellent finishing spell. It deals LoL damage, does not have a restrictive use condition like Steal Life, and ony has to kill the target to Curse ALL enemies on the field (admittedly only for 2 turns). As such, it is worthy of an include for both finishing duties and to enable easy setup of powerful Pain Curse casts or Cursed Treasure procs, but in general if you need to use it a lot whilst playing a near-full Witch BG, you are doing something wrong as you should have a lot of curse output once enough witches hit the field. It is perfectly viable as a finishing spell with a minor bonus debuff elsewhere however, and I would probably recommend it over Chain Lightning since LoL damage is so potent, avoiding all sorts of mitigation most damage has to contend with, notably the IS bonus.


    Soulreave​
    Rating: 10/10​

    Soulreave is invaluable to allow you to hit through immunities and resists, along with varying other abilities, like Reflexes, Evasive, Arrow Eater, and similar. It does have some drawbacks to bear in mind - it will not hurt shrines or relics, and prevents application of DoTs and similar debuffs, but the situational utility outweighs this. In a ton of situations you come up against one or a few foes that are incredibly hard to kill - and Soulreave gets around it amazingly well. As such, it's an auto in I believe every FW BG, and is incredibly valuable in Siphon BGs to prevent yourself insta-losing if you get Decayed. A final drawback to watch for is actually it lasting two turns, which the foe can plan for and abuse, by dropping relics or similar.


    Spell Trap​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Spell Trap deals 10 damage to the foe's shrine when they next cast a spell. Essentially, its only real use is in shrine rush BGs - for 30 Nora it's not a good enough effect to splash, though if you manage to drop a foe's shrine low enough it can be neat to finish it when otherwise you would eventually have been forced back and lost. The main reason I do not rate it it that Desecration does the same shrine damage, and has an additional effect, for less Nora. Generally absolutely not worth it outside of trickdecks.
    Steal Life​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Steal Life is another faction-defining spell - because it exists, good players know not to leave their champs on 0AP against FW. It's hugely powerful - docking 15HP from a 0AP foe, and granting your nearest champion that 15HP in healing, which is simply fantastic to turn the tides of battle, especially when fighting over a font. In a pinch, you can even steal HP off your own champion to donate to another. Despite its situational nature, it's still my "finishing" spell of choice, simply because the heal is so helpful in so many situations, especially since you typically have to choose a dedicated healing rune otherwise in order to have some available to your BG. It's a great 1x in any BG, but I would not 2x it unless I had AP cutting support from stuff like Punish, Drudgery, Grim Well, Shackles, etc - all of which are viable in certain BGs.


    Stitched Possession​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Possession is a forgotten sacrificial spell, most likely as it only works on the Stitched. It does have a decent effect - giving the nearest opposing champion Depression as a small AOE debuff, and a self-harming Psychic Ping. This has the effect of forcing this champion to break from the enemy's formation or keep harming their other units, which is decent, and makes it a little more than just a low-impact rune. But even still, something like Repurpose may well be better should you be using Stitched.

    Throw Bones​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Throw Bones seems of much lesser impact than Repurpose and other sacrificial spells. However, it does have several boons. Firstly, it is noticeably cheaper, allowing it to be cast with considerably lesser tempo repurcussions, and secondly, it is not dependent on being cast upon a champ with good stats - you can kill a summoned champ with this spell and not make it effectively useless, as Repurpose would be. The main thing making all this worthwhile, however, is less the global 4HP heal, which can be nice, and more the global 1 AP - if your opponent leaves his units one space away from a double-attack, that one extra AP can be all you need to finish his units off, and Throw Bones supplies that at bargain price. I find that in a summon-heavy BG one can be useful alongside a Repurp, though it is somewhat personal preference as Sacrificial Altar competes for its spot. One final thing to consider is the "hidden" benefit of Throw Bones - despite not saying so in the rune description, it also reveals two runes upon its use. This can be somewhat helpful earlygame to assist you in drawing that Cloak of Bones or Boost unit you needed, though cheap summons/spawns to kill with it to do this may be in short supply unless you have a Tomb Lord out.

    Touch of Death​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Touch of Death is a delayed 15 damage spell that also gives the target disease aura, which can be nice to make it break formation a little. However, up front damage is infinitely more valuable, and as such it has fallen by the wayside, especially as it lacks stellar secondary effects.
     
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  14. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Vampirism​
    Rating: 4/10​

    The only vampyre-themed spell in FW is sadly not a great include in Siphon. Giving all your opponents Siphon is typically not something you want to do, but there are ways to minimise the benefit if running a fair few non-Siphon champs yourself - run Decay on a Venger or two; cast Decay yourself after attacking with everything then use Soulreave next turn (WARNING: Very gimmicky!); or in general just use any means you can to prevent the enemy being able to attack you and heal themselves on the next turn. Anathema or Decaying Blows can thus be invaluable here, allowing you to benefit from a turn of Siphon on some champs whilst denying your enemy the ability to attack for a turn unless he wants to hurt himself - and Anathema isn't a bad 2x choice in Siphon anyway due to a lack of Magical damage. The last use is as a pseudo-counter to Decay, forcing a standoff for a turn by inflicting the same hurt on your enemy, but this is generally not worth it. Essentially, Vampirism is at the heart of some potentially hilariously cool combos, but they're just way too situational to pull off with any reliability, and as such there are better includes out there.


    Wake the Dead​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Wake the Dead is our newly shoebox-buffed Skele themed spell, despite the undead on the art looking rather too fleshy to be Skeles. But in any case, it is essentially a companion spell to Dark Rising - for 30 Nora, you get three spawned weak Skeletons, but the effect only triggers when an enemy picks up a Nora Globe. This is both a good and a bad thing, good because it can throw a spanner in the enemy's plans, especially if one of the spawns appears next to the enemy ranged champ (odds are about 50% of one of the three spawning adjacent if all potential spaces are unoccupied), more so if the enemy cannot easily get rid of them, and it may cause them to be more conservative when planning to grab globes, wasting AP and getting out of position in order to collect them with a meleer, perhaps. It can be bad because the three frail spawns can be incredibly easy to deal with - often a single AOE can finish them if they are out of Boost range and/or you don't have a banner up, and the spell can have minimal impact. However, for 30 Nora the potential for great susprise board presence, even from three weak spawns, is often going to be worth the investment even if they are immediately killed, as you've forced the opponent to use up AP or Nora to deal with them. And the potential for slightly slowing an opponent due to hesitancy in collecting globes can help you boost up other Skeles a little. The final, and biggest boon of the spell to consider is that its spawns are real, unlike Dark Rising's. Thus, they trigger Vengeful, Death Harvest, and leave globes on death (with 6 Nora per globe) - thus if you have a Death Harvester out, you gain a decent amount of Nora when they die, reducing the spell's cost, and if you can grab all the globes with the Harvester you will make a fairly sizeable Nora gain - and this serves as a huge incentive to the opponent to sink their AP into killing the Skeles and denying you the globes, which can be exploited. The issue, of course, is that you are giving the enemy 18 Nora in globes in exchange for spending their AP to grab them - so you have to be sure it's worth it and be savvy with the spell's use. Definitely not a bad include, especially when combined with Sac Altar.

    Weaken​
    Rating: 5/10​

    An original FW spell, Weaken has sadly fallen by the wayside a little. It applies a -1Def, -2Spd, and -10Dmg debuff for 4 turns, rendering a champion pretty neutered for that time - but for the same Nora or slightly more you would be finishing it off with a Soulbane/Steal Life, and for less Nora you could have a Cursed Blade on it until it gets shattered. Essentially, there are better options, especially as a dead champ is better for you than a debuffed one.


    Witching Hour​
    Rating: 10/10​

    The spell that arguably "makes" Witches as a viable theme. Costing a low 30 Nora, this spell gifts a global +1 speed, Vaporise and Flying to ALL witches on the field when cast - an amazing buff, and it persists for 6 turns, meaning if you have both copies of the spell revealed you can have +1 speed for 2/3 turns and permenant flight and vaporise, if you so desire and have the Nora to keep casting the spell. Whilst it may be tempting to overlap your casts of Hour so that you don't miss out on a turn of +1 Speed, unless you really need the speed to threaten something crucial, and/or your enemy can get past Vaporise with ease, I would say wait - as if the enemy lacks magic damage then one-rounding any champ in your entire force will become incredibly taxing with perma-Vaporise. Due to it only affecting those Witches out when you activate it, it's best to attempt to deploy only witches earlygame and then begin dropping things like Magelord, Xulos on the turns just after, to make the most out of it for your Witches. Witching Hour is easily the most autoinclude of any rune in a Witch BG, it's just that good. Pack two, and scry until you find one so you have it when needed.
     
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  15. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Relics

    Altar of Bones*​
    Rating: 7/10​

    This Altar used to be the key tenet of Skeletons - supplying the powerful lategame buffed-up champs which will eventually steamroll an opponent. As such, it was nigh-on essential to include two for maximum boosting potential, but given their lesser helpfulness earlygame, the increasing pace of the meta, and finally the nerf to Death Harvester, it has been hit in viability enormously, as its Noragen potential is crippled and you likely will simply not have the Nora to spend near 150 Nora on relics until very late on. The old use involves dropping an Altar and Graveyard somewhere safe, a back font or your shrine zone normally, and summoning with the GY, then immediately sacrificing with the Altar for a boost (do this first in your turn so you make use of the extra damage), but you by no means should be this rigid in its usage, and it is these extra utilities that allow it still some viability. Dropping it elsewhere to sacrifice a summon from a Tomb Lord or Dark Rising, or a low HP Voidhowler, Magister or Berserker is perfectly viable if you need the extra damage for a kill, and at 20 HP and 25 Nora it isn't a bad contestor. Sadly nowadays Skeletons have become faster paced and stretched for include space - which is the main barrier to a backloaded include like Altar. Its not a bad rune, the ability is quite nice and useful to make use of nearly dead runes or useless summons - but the stat bonus is not especially impactful until you sac a few things. Competition with the instakill utility Sac Altar and Stealthed Bone Trap does not help matters, but it may be worth a try, especially if you're summon-heavy.


    Ark of the Elsari​
    Rating: 5/10​

    FW's Spell Seal rune, it is also the third and final main source of non-champ DMZ. It is AOE4, bigger still than Despoil and as such fantastic at blocking AOE spells. It also grows, but upon spell casts by your opponent, so less reliably than Despoil. A permanent DMZ relic seems like a fantastic idea, given that you only need pay once and forget about it - but in being a relic it can also easily be destroyed, as it has a not-too-high 20 HP, and if it does so before being on the field for 8 turns as Despoil lasts for, then you most likely have not got your Nora's worth out of it. Being a relic would mean that it could be a good font contestor, but you needing it to stay alive for some time means that this is only viable if desperate, really. In general, Despoil is a better choice if you want DMZ, but Arks are by no means as bad as Drain the Earth.


    Blood Crest​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Blood Crest is the new theme enabling rune for Vampyres. This rune prevents Vamps within 6 spaces of it from dying at the cost of 3 of its own HP (of total 15), adding to the "preserve your champs" mentality Siphon has fairly heavily. Though its range has been doubled from the 3 it used to be, the use of Mason's Spires to shore up your Crests' HP from afar can be very useful, else your opponent may be able to simply down them in 2 or so attacks and then kill your champs (Spires also make the Crests a little cheaper too, so drop them first). Since Vamps entirely lack relocation of relics, this means that their play has to either stride out and setup a Crest nearer to the enemy to engage them, which is not too wise as it allows for their easier destruction, or play somewhat defensively around these relics - which Lamias work excellently with. You have to be exceedingly careful where you play your Crests, as even with a Haunt it'll take 8 rounds for you to be able to replay one, so try and consider good spots in advance depending on your own and the enemy's forces - or include a relocator. In general, the rune is 2x auto along with a Spire or two in a Vampyre BG, but in any Siphon BG with some Vamps it can be a helpful clutch utility rune - and aids Vampyres contesting fonts against enemy melee to a huge extent as long as they don't have an AOE. And of course, don't run Tome of Hate with them..
    Bone Trap​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Bone Trap is an excellent relic, and quite probably our best contesting one. For 35 Nora, the trap, when triggered, does 6 Physical damage and Frightens for a rounds, spawning a 20HP Broken Bones at Lvl 3 where the trap was. This is great for font contesting - the spawn is a pain to kill thanks to Split, the trap being stealthed in itself causes major issues especially earlygame, and the Frighten can prevent the triggering foe from hitting the spawned Bones for another turn. This trap can keep a font contested for 6 turns with ease without outside interference. Whilst Boneshredders can drop them for free, including the relic allows you to put one wherever you wish, which is valuable. A final note is that a Broken Bones hit once and split but not killed can then be sacrificed at an Altar for 25 total damage, a pretty reasonable nuke that can come in handy if running the Altar already. It can also be worth running WtD in conjunction, as the globe its Broken Bones provides will often end up being collected by the opponent, and you can lengthen your contest significantly by creating yet more Skeles in an enemy font with it.


    Chopping Block​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Another of FW's most infamous runes, Chopping Blocks spawn a BG in their own right - attrition. They cut 5 HP from the lowest HP target at the end of each of your turns, giving you control over who they hit in many situations - and 5 damage per round adds up incredibly rapidly. Combined with an Unholy Tomb and Tome of Hate, the damage over time adds up very rapidly, wearing down the enemy and putting them at a big disadvantage most commonly. Chops can be dropped safely earlier than the other relics, however, since they cost much less, and can be used to secure a kill, which is excellent - but regardless, you tend to want them behind your shrine to prevent their destruction. They tend to be used only in attritive BGs due to the necessity to plan for their drawback of hitting your champs if very low on HP - by including high HP champions, self-healing ones, and things like Steal Life to create HP swings - outside of this you have to be exceedingly careful they do not hurt you more than they help. But they are without a doubt a very potent relic, and one of our most iconic.


    Corpse Pile​
    Rating: 7/10​

    The Corpse Pile is a relic often compared to the Graveyard, as it is a champ producing relic. The champ spawned is an Infected Zombie - a sub-par rune as an actual champion, but the ability to reinforce your force for less than a champs cost with the additional board presence of a relic AND a champ on the frontline can be invaluable. Whilst Infected is not the best combat Zombie, it does have Plaguebearer - meaning if you get an attack off, the infected champ will always spawn a Festering on death - a good way to get pseudo-swarms if you're having trouble making it past the 5 Zombie barrier, and frees you up to use any method to kill them to get said spawn (a notable facet of this is it is the only way to swarm Stitched). Infected foes will often also be safeguarded if they can't be cleansed, as foes are loath to give you free meat, so it can act as a way to force enemies to back up both to avoid infection, and to avoid death if they are. The relic will spawn 2 Infecteds if left to its own devices - which makes it well worth the cost, and it also has a Disease Aura, which combined with the Infected (which will spawn NW side of the relic, then clockwise if that space is taken) can add 10 damage to something you need to kill, another situational use. There are issues with the relic however - one is its low HP, only 5 once its deployed the first Zombie, meaning any stray attack or AOE will kill it. This reduction in usefulness for contesting wouldn't be so bad if the summons it created were real - but they are not, and as such cannot contest fonts either. This essentially means you will want to use them as backup to another champ, else a Pile will often fail to contest a font. The other use for the relic is simply as a Zombie/Shade farm in your own lines - drop one and Haunt it right before the second Zombie spawns, giving yourself a little engine of meat and a nice source of half-price Plaguebearers, but typically you will want to deploy any other Zombie as opposed to an Infected, even with a relic in the bargain. A possible 1x include, but non-essential.

    Corpse-a-Pult​
    Rating: 9/10​

    The Corpse-a-Pult is one of the most commonly seen relics in a Zombie BG, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a great ranged damage option in a theme very lacking in that department - its actually 2 higher range than anything else, despite having a somethat low 8 damage, this hit is not counted as an attack and is not mitigatable, making it a great means to finish off enemies with defensive abilities that would otherwise give Zombies trouble. It's also very cheap, at 50 Nora, and adds to the Zombie count (just be sure to use it before swarming as you need the summon on the field) - meaning that in earlygame you almost force your opponent to waste AP on the minimally strong summon (again, spawns NW then clockwise if not of the targetted champ) lest you allow free adding to the Zombie count next turn. The relic is also a decent contestor with its high HP, though its range can be somewhat problematic against other contesting champs. You do have to be aware that there is a large blind spot, and due to immobility the entire relic is very easy to avoid in a standoff situation (drop it only when needed for defence or an engagement) - as well as that it does become useless once used 4 times. There are a few ways to mitigate these drawbacks - as mentioned, you can Haunt spent or out of position Pults (though bear in mind this loses you board presence), or those with 1 shot left if you're sure you can use it next turn. Another option is to run them with Crypt Guardians - repositioning them makes them much harder to avoid and doing so buffs the Crypties themselves, even when the relic being dragged is a spent Pult. In general, one of the best options for a relic in a theme short on range, and 1-2x Auto.


    Cursed Temple​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Cursed Temple is not a great rune. It has the effect of halving all Noragen but that applied to globes - which is potent, but given we have Backlash in spades on champions that are decent aside from this, it really isn't often seen. Not a terrible rune I suppose, but low impact.


    Defiling Spinel​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Defiling Spinel is useful for a few reasons, typically in a Witch BG. First, and most obviously, it's a source of Curse, in a broad AOE4, which can enable great pain curses even if your coven curses don't last too long. The relic is also a pretty decent contesting relic, not amazing but it has a good HP to Nora ratio, but it also brings Defiled, which can be helpful to prevent cleansing of a stacked up Debilitate, along with a pile of other debuffs if need be - so they make a great drop for anything with lots of debuffs, and Witch BGs fit both bills. If you want more contesting power you can run Scouring Jaspers alongside them, and amp the Acid damage through Nora Gem, but in general other relics will take priority over that. I would say Spinel is probably the best source of spot Curse we have, purely because of the board presence it gives.


    Elsari Bazaar​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Bazaar is undoubtedly strongest in Siphon themes, as it provides 2 forms of AP generation (helping get that extra attack off for more healing), and the downside of Exertion is offset by being able to suck life from your enemies - though it is still a very good relic even outside that theme. The one bonus AP pot is the less useful effect, but Exertion can be fantastic on a beater like Bloodworm or Count, or any Siphon champ in fact, giving them much greater potential to double-attack and collect Blood Balls with the AP from it - it can be used to both finish a kill and save your own champs, a great effect for 31 Nora (be sure to include the cost of the pot(s) you will buy when dropping the thing). Overall one of the best relics out there for Siphon themes, and almost a definite auto for the strength of Exertion on self-healing champs. Outside of it, it is great for any BG that needs some more spot AP gen, especially if they have means to heal off the exertion damage. Its final minor effect is a small discount to other relics and equipment, which is handy but not a reason to include it.

    Elsarin Vex​
    Rating: 10/10​

    The best rune in FW! Global 5HP and +1Dmg, along with Annex on a 21 HP relic for 20 Nora is OP, frankly. Good thing all factions have one. Auto in every FW BG.


    Forsaken Giving Tree​
    Rating: 3/10​

    The giving trees give a number of bonuses to AP, Nora, and such, but can also hinder them. A fun relic, but not the most practical (or easy to acquire).


    Graveyard*​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Obviously the other side of the Graveyard/Altar of Bone engine that used to be the source of Skeles' lategame potential. However, Graveyard has more utility than the Altar outside of the initial combo, being a source of recurring Vengeful-fuelling cheap meat that whilst weak, is persistent, and more importantly allowing any unit to contest a font from two spaces away, as the summons from Graveyard are real. Death Harvesters are good to use with Graveyards despite the nerf, given the nature of the summons, and Tome of Hate is another excellent choice with them, as each summon hits your shrine for two damage that needs to be healed eventually. Due to the usefulness in contesting and supplying meat, a more useful include than Altars earlygame, but the rise of Bone Trap as a contestor has lessened its usefulness quite heavily. Its other main use is a consistent source of "food" for Essence Devourers in that subtype of DB BG.

    Grim Well​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Grim Well is a good meta contesting relic. Their potential for AP denial means that Grim Well can easily negate attempts to stock up AP over a number of turns, whilst also acting as an emergency roadblock to melee units that get in amongst your fragile ranged and support champs (or can be placed next to ranged units to shut them down. Further, it enables Steal Life, and is possibly our best contesting relic against a single champ/several melee ones, as it can shut a champion down for a number of turns simply trying to kill it off. Obviously enemy ranged do reduce its effectiveness significantly, however. Overall, a worthy include anywhere, potentially even better in BGs focusing on AP denial.

    Mason's Spire​
    Rating: 5/10​

    The spire has one purpose - buff other relics' HP. It ate a significant nerf when its range went from unlimited to 8 spaces, but is still useful at times - commonly in Stitched or Vampyre BGs with Blood Crest, though anything very relic heavy can make decent use of them. The 10 extra HP it adds is best when stacked twice - so a useful tactic can be to deploy both Spires at once to make them each harder to kill off. Also, since they refund some of other Relic's costs, they are best deployed first, before any other relics you may plan on using that turn. Situational, but they have a use in at least a few BGs - though even there they are not necessary.

    Mist of the Dead​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Mist is one of our least useful relics. 40 Nora is very pricey for an ability that is not permanent and reduces nearby units' ranges down to their minimum for 6 turns. This is unlikely to prevent them being able to attack should they wish it, and the relic is easily killed off by a melee unit - it's not worth it, essentially.

    Plague Trap​
    Rating: 2/10​

    For the same price as Bone Trap, you get 2 more damage of a more commonly resisted type, and a DoT that does a further 6 damage over time, as well as the Infectious condition propagating Diseased in an AOE around anything hit. However, you do not get the free Broken Bones, which makes it a lot less viable, without mentioning that Bag of Filth gives you multiple Plague Traps for a similar price, should you ever want them. Not worth the slot.
     
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  16. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Sacrificial Altar​
    Rating: 8/10​

    Sac Altar rose to fame due to the combination of itself with Dark Rising - a 90 Nora drop that deals 50 LoL damage to any enemy within 6 spaces of the altar itself, an excellent damage to Nora ratio if the combo itself is pricey. It has other uses outside of this, however, with summons from GY and Tomb Lord being sacrificeable, so it can function as a spot 10 or 15 damage (or more if you kill multiple champs). It requires some setup to use successfully, but can be an excellent means to sacrifice anything but Voidhowlers, who cannot be killed with it. It is worth noting that if running it, you will almost certainly want both a Dark Rising to enable the spot 50 LoL damage, AND multiple sources of sacrifices from other areas, to increase the chances of useability and make using two slots on it as opposed to a Reaper's Blade or Essence Drain worth it. Summons from Wake the Dead are real, however, meaning that you can over several turns summon in a ton of champs cheaply, then drop an altar for close to 100 damage on whatever you please - a pretty horrifically potent combo. Slots can be scarce with all the theme-supporting non-champ runes, so you have to be sure you can make best use of a Sac Altar before you commit several slots to supporting it. The last drawback to consider when using it is whether you are simply freeing your enemy up to kill other things instead of those you sacrifice - so saccing very low priority or HP targets should be focused on, and you must be sure to kill off enough of the enemy with the Altar to not increase the danger to your more valuable champs the next turn. Again, its use as a means to sacrifice things is fairly down to personal preference, as it, Repurpose and Throw Bones all serve different roles. Outside of Skeles, it can be a valuable include in anything with lots of free meat and/or DB elements - chiefly Zombies, Czars, and perhaps anything running Haunt - and its use is similar in all of these.

    Scouring Jasper​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Jasper is a great contestor, with high HP, and a decent AOE damaging effect that also drops Def. It's handy as that little bit extra damage, as well as to contribute to a fight in an area over time - if your champs are there the foe is unlikely to view Jasper as a priority, and quite often will try and keep back away from the damaging effect. It's also surprisingly handy as a spot destealth, especially in a font contested by a stealth unit - drop it anywhere next to the font hub and it will find you your stealth champ. As such, it is especially handy in a BG with little detection, but regardless it is one of our most reliable generic relics, alongside Grim Well.
    Skull of Decay​
    Rating: 8/10​

    The Skull is a bit of a sleeper relic, not being included by that many people, but I believe it's one of our best. Cutting all the enemy's healing in half is immensely potent in certain matchups, and the relic has a decent 25 HP, so makes a reasonable contestor in a pinch. It's hard to judge its effects, but over the course of a game this relic can have huge impacts, making it a good meta include, especially if you lack other counterhealing. As a word of warning - it halves the effectiveness of damage from other Decaying sources, so if you use that then be careful not to overestimate the damage you'd do.

    Tome of Hate​
    Rating: 9/10​

    The Tome is one of our archetypal relics, being another of the Attrition group. It deals 2 LoL damage to everything in play at the end of each of your turns, and heals your shrine 1 for each 2 damage. This is naturally amazing for any BG utilising Scorn or other shrine damaging effects like AP (or just ones that like to Scry). The damage is of course the other key effect, being a fantastic Perseverance counter (allowing you to laugh at Barbarians) and just generally being useful for a final 2 damage here and there. It makes a good include for either of these reasons, or both. Some warnings however - it's very low HP, so drop it behind your shrine or similar, and it also will begin to kill itself if your shrine hits max HP, so remember to Scry to keep it hitting things. It's also fairly pricey, so don't drop it early when you can't afford it in an attrition BG.


    Unholy Tomb*​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Tomb is perhaps the most infamous of our many infamous runes. It's effect is simple - hit every non-undead for 1 life at the beginning of each of your turns, and give you 2 Nora for each foe hurt this way. 25 ticks on enemies make you back the cost, more begin to make you a potentially huge profit - and this is what makes it so potent in the lategame, often single-handedly giving you the Nora needed to win games that go on a while. It's also amazing against swarmy BGs, generating a huge amount of Nora against them, and is a decent counter should they be dominating the meta. Should you need something to secure you a strong lategame, this is the rune for you. It's also great in attrition as expected, but can be slotted in just about anywhere but Backlash BGs to great effect.

    Witches' Hourglass​
    Rating: 6/10​

    The only Witch-themed relic, Hourglass is a bit of a dilemna when deciding if you include it or not. It is incredibly cheap, and as such makes an amazing cycling font contestor, but the relic's abilities seem to want it dropped in a back font to remainn active the whole game. Either use is viable depending on the situation, of course, and this does make it somewhat versatile. Its effect, in any case, is to add to the length of Coven curse, and put an enemy rune in the runedock on cooldown whenever you make a kill. The former effect is basically just a nice boon, but it does make first turn drops of the Hourglass in conjunction with a champ possible to slow enemies and prevent them grabbing a font on their first turn (though you rely on them not having any AP gen, which is of dubious likelihood). Sands of Time, however, the cooldown forcing effect, is an interesting effect that, combined with FW's own fast cycling champ cooldowns, can give you a potent lategame when two Hourglasses are out and kills are being exchanged regularly, for an incredibly cheap Nora cost that has minimal benefits throughout the game too. The main issue with them is that these benefits are so often minimal until much later on, and as such the Hourglasses, whilst good, find getting slots in Witch BGs somewhat tricky. If running a combat based BG, they are definitely worth a consideration, but if you have a decent lategame already there is probably no need for them.
     
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  17. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Equipment

    Ancient Elsari Helm​
    Rating: 5/10​

    The Helm is a rune I badly want to be able to use. It has a neat effect, cutting all AP after an attack or ability is used, which is great at screwing over multiple ability champs, and hurts just about anything. It also jumps to the nearest enemy after its bearer dies, so keeps annoying the foe until shattered. Unfortunately, shatter is common, and this is a 45 Nora investment, which oftentimes is just far too much to be risking. In addition, the opponent can move a cheap summon or similar to take the equip after the first champ dies, reducing its power. Not a great include mostly because of its cost.

    Bag of Filth​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Bag is one of the two sort-of Zombie/Disease themed equips - it generally functions as a negative equip, with the effect of forcing an enemy to reduce its movement or suffer disease damage if no detection is around (Disease damage can be amped somewhat with Afflicteds). Typically, however, there are much better options to slow enemies, and with the commonness of shatter, it doesn't feel worth it. It can be used as a positive harassing equip on a friendly champ, which allows you to place the traps where you want (especially fun on something stealthed). Overall, not the most practical equipment, but a very entertaining one, and given its fairly cheap cost it can be made to work reasonably well should you really want to try.


    Blight Ring​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Once a standard of attrition, Blight Ring now falls into the category of "not enough impact to justify a slot". 3 HP loss per turn, on a single champion, is not fantastic even for 25 Nora. It can be used as a cheap finisher, but I'd rather have Desecration for that role in all honesty, even though the Ring does LoL damage.

    Bracelet of Mirrors​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Bracelet is one of those equips that really needs to see the refund go and be costed down appropriately - it provides Spell Charged 1 and Deflect, very nice abilities, but not for a whopping 40 Nora. Can be used on the Matriach in a split, but even then Murder is sometimes preferable.

    Cloak of Skulls​
    Rating: 10/10​

    The latest piece of the Skele BG, the Cloak is an excellent equip. It gives any champ +2 Def and Splintering, spawning lesser bonemaulers upon being hit by regular attacks - serving to dissuade the enemy from targetting whatever is wielding it, which you can use to your advantage by putting the champ in a situation where normally, killing it would be a priority. However, on a Skeleton, the equip also gives Augment Creation, giving all new friendlies hitting the field (real or summoned) a permenant +2 to Dmg, an excellent bonus, creating a dilemna - does the wielder wade into combat to take advantage of the spawns, or hang back in safety and ensure that your damage boost remains intact? This is mostly down to the situation (whether the opponent has alt attacks) and the equipped champ (obviously melee champs are a waste to hold back), but having two Cloaks in your BG means you can be taking full advantage of one whilst one stays secure in your back lines, though in general you lose nothing by not dropping the second until the first is destroyed, so that is perfectly valid as well. Mostly due to its usefulness early on - you want as many Skeles to have the bonus as possible - two Cloaks are almost essential for Skele BGs.


    Crown of Corruption​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Our original Crown rune is interesting for sure. Upon dealing damage to a foe, the Crown causes a turn of Possession, which can be used to great effect to cliffdive, attack others, of generally annoy the foe. Where it benefits over Domination, however, is that it's re-useable, and can possess multiple champs even on one turn, though the foe can counter by not leaving AP on their champions. The drawbacks are numerous however. Firstly, it is a big 45 Nora, a huge investment that will set you back hugely if shattered. It also causes 5 damage to the bearer upon possessing something, which adds up fast, and perhaps worst, prevents 1-rounding, which can be devastatingly bad in certain situations. It's a very intruging rune, but sadly doesn't fly that well in practice.


    Crown of Nightbarbs​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Crown was originally a bugged rune, whose description was edited to match its functionality. Normally, it has no net effect - when a spell is cast, it hits for 10 damage, then heals for 10. However, you can exploit this via Decaying or the spell Decay, so an equipped decaying champion takes an extra 15 damage per spell cast - which for 30 Nora is not half bad. However, the necessity to combine it with Anathema, Decay, and/or a source of Decaying Blows (Defiler Knight, Ghoul, Crypt Guardian etc) makes it very situationally helpful, so you need to really be stacking these effects to make including it worthwhile. It used to be the case when it dealt 20 damage that it was 2x-able in meta, but not so much with its nerf, unfortunately, though by all means try, as an Anathema over two Crown'd champions deals a ton of hurt, though the Nora cost is high. Obviously you will want 2x Anathema when using it, but Decay can be considered, as can cheap spammable spells to cause another 15 damage - Desecration being a prime contender. A very interesting rune, but sadly a little tricky to make worthwhile now.

    Cursed Blade*​
    Rating: 8/10​
    The Blade is one of our old faithfuls. It has a simple effect - halving Def and Dmg of the bearer, our stereotypical negative equip. It's great to slap onto beaters to neuter them somewhat, allowing you to delay dealing with them, as well as in a pinch to get rid of a lot of Def on certain high Def opponents. I find it most useful to deal with Shielded champs I cannot Essence Drain or similar, Menalaus especally who is also immune to Magical - simply drop it on and ignore the champion for a while. Beware of UD and IS, and now SL, and their spot shatters, however - as they can make your Blade worthless very quickly. It can be nice to run 2 for this reason, but you will rarely have the space. A decent include to debuff your strongest foes, in most BGs.

    Darkmarsh Blackstaff​
    Rating: 6/10​

    The Blackstaff is a rare sight in BGs with a lot of champs that go Incorporeal, as a hard counter to potential Magic heavy BGs like Wizards. Unfortunately the Magic immunity it conveys will not extend to your other champs, so best to put it on a very attractive and likely target. The main issue with it is that for what it does, providing the admittedly useful immunity to Magic (and Disease, less useful but means you can stand in your own cones/auras) and at its cost (35 Nora), you may well want to use something more reliable unless the enemy BG is very magic heavy - like a second Soul Reaver, a Shield of Darkness, or similar. Were it a little cheaper it would be much better, but at the present cost it's a dubious include.


    Elsari Shackles​
    Rating: 5/10​

    One of the more obscure FW equips, Shackles is primarily useful in an AP denial Witch build. When equipped, it cuts speed by one, and makes the enemy lose all AP at the end of their turns, which can be crippling for melee especially as their threat range drops dramatically, and they have to get much more in harm's way to be able to attack anything. Best dropped either very early on on something hard to kill, to neuter it, or as a spot speed debuff on something to prevent double-attacks or similar, and at 25 Nora it's affordable for either role. A useful tool for AP denial Witch builds, but not an autoinclude.


    Ethereal Mindshank​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Mindshank is in a similar place to Shackles, useful again for a spot speed debuff. In truth, if using it solely for this, to perhaps save one of your champs from death and proceed to kill the equipped enemy, then Mindshank is a more economical choice. It costs 5 Nora less, and debuffs Dmg so the initial hit from an enemy is softer, and thus is less of a strain on your resources. If you fail to kill the enemy, or don't intend to, then the effect wears off after two rounds and you are refunded the 20 Nora the spell cost, which of course doesn't go amiss. As such, you can simply include 2 and spam them for persistent effects, should you desire - as long as you make sure the equipped don't die whilst wearing it. A fun combo to try can be including a Bazaar, which will slowly earn you Nora as your Mindshanks refund. Overall, a decent equip, just a little low-impact.

    Fleshsewn Helm​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Like the Bag, Helm is the second Zombie-ish themed Equip, and appears more to dissauade people from thinking it a good option. The Helm conveys three benefits for 30 Nora - Resistance: Physical 2, admittedly nice for spot Phys resist; Disease Aura 2, sadly generally obsolete in Zombies thanks to most things having the aura, though not in all cases; and Boon of the Undead, which is totally useless except on Fleshweaver (who will find the other benefits minimal and is Disease immune already). Typically, the few times I've used it I've found it somewhat nice to beef up a Fleshblight somewhat, but frankly Repurposing something onto him accomplishes much the same with a better impact on damage output. Not worth an include most of the time.

    Ghost Pendant​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Ghost Pendant is a weird Equip. It gives Ethereal, which is a strange ability, generally not worth paying 20 Nora for when you could protect your unit any number of other ways, and can also be dropped to apply Curse, which doesn't synergise with Ethereal at all. You could try it on something that doesn't attack like a Wretched Witch, but even there I'd prefer a Shield of Darkness. Too low impact to include, and there are better ways to protect your units - not to mention it takes a turn for Incorporeal to kick in, and on drop does not remove the condition either.


    Lichbone Staff​
    Rating: 3/10​

    The Staff's main effect is giving Chain Lightning, a decent mini version of the spell Chain Lightning - but that obviously costs AP to use, which is not great. It also grants Immunity: Electric, but this damage type is rare enough for this to be situational at best. Not worth it anywhere, really.


    Mind Shackle​
    Rating: 4/10​
    Mind Shackle is a similar rune to Soul Cage, giving Paralysed. However, it only does it for 2 turns, but re-occurs every other round, so the equipped champ spends half the time paralysed. It seems decent, but the enemy can just pull back after the intitial paralysis and let the equip be shattered - meaning a lot of its intended effect goes to waste. As such, typically not seen - spending Nora to kill something is often a better option.

    Mindflayer​
    Rating: 7/10​

    The Mindflayer is an interesting, and bargain equipment, at 25 Nora. The main benefit it provides is Restraining Aura - great to punish use of all abilities, which is amazing in today's ability-heavy game (though you can still be hit by Cones). Nora Burn is also somewhat handy to boost damage and dissuade storing Nora (thus punishing powerturn saving). After 4 attacks have been made, it refunds a nice 10 Nora, and grants Psychic Aura, which is great in BGs that can have issues with perseverance if not running a Tome. The main issue is finding a slot for it, but it's certainly not as much of a low impact rune as many others. A melee unit would seem best, given both Auras have limited range, and anything with Multiattack to proc the refund easier. An equip that is not necessary, but may well be worth a look if you're interested.


    Reaper's Blade​
    Rating: 8/10​

    The Blade is probably our coolest looking equip, so it's nice to be able to make good use of it. The Blade grants Soulstrike - making attacks cut 25% of a foe's base life as LoL damage, essentially meaning it is a great means to take down otherwise ridiculously hard to kill foes (especially those resisting Physical, for instance). Combine it with an ED, and you can instakill anything not Shielded for 95 Nora, though part of Reapers' usefulness is in being able to deal with Shielded champs very well on its own. Further utility includes making avatars practically laughably easy to kill. There are issues - aside from not being able to hurt relics and shrines, you won't proc Rabid or Swarm anything, along with similar effects, but in general these are easy to get around when you pick a champ to bear the Blade - the other problem is this makes the champ an enormous target. Good bearers of the Blade typically include relatively long ranged champs, but virtually none have no drawbacks. In Zombies, Warlocks lose damage when equipped and access to their valuable fire attack, whilst Fleshweavers are short range and like to use their AP for other things. Arguably, Dead Fairies are the best possible bearer, not losing damage, being a versatile 3-6 range, and being incredibly mobile with decent ranged defence. You can simply drop the blade on anything with enough AP to doubleattack your chosen champ, however weak - I've on occasion dropped it on a festering in absence of any other decent bearer. In Zombies I consider the blade almost auto along with Soulreave, though elsewhere I would usually only ever run 1 or the other - simply because the theme is so inundated with weak Physical attacks and finds dealing with resistors very tough, but you may find alternative ways to deal with enemies yourself.

    Sacrificial Dagger​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Sac Dagger is a simple rune - if the champ it's on makes a kill, it heals half the champ's Nora cost - often well over 30, enough to top up most champions to full HP. As such, it's great as a healing rune, probably one of the best we have - especially since you can drop it as you need it, not before like many equips, and instantly have it pay back its cost. It's a very nice meta equip, and one I'm honestly surprised we don't see more of - probably because we have a lot of self-sufficient champs already, and not that many expensive ones worth saving with it.

    Shield of Darkness​
    Rating: 8/10​

    The Shield is a very old rune, and one that has always comboed well with any BG featuring a large amount of Vaporising champions.. and now FW has a BG full of them - Witches. Essentially, like Oblivion Shield, SoD negates an initial attack (the former any, the latter only basic ones), but it "hits" the champ, so Vaporise activates. For foes without means to do magic damage, this can make anything with a Shield nigh on unkillable in Witching Hour. Due to the restrictions it has, however, I find it best to equip to a reasonably tanky champ - ideally Swordmage, who can tear things up if teleporting unscathed through enemy lines - or to an immensely valuable one, such as a Wretched when you have an AP lock set up (they are valuable in AP denial BGs to prevent any attacks, quite often, as only a few champs will have the AP to even try if all is going well). Including two of these can be a good idea in Witches, but they can certainly be done without if you prefer not to invest heavily in your champs and instead spend Nora on other things. Outside of the Witch BG, they are rarely worth it as it's easier to pick another target or get around its effect.


    Soul Reaver​
    Rating: 10/10​

    One of the most auto runes in our faction, Soul Reaver is our spot cleanse, a utility immensely valuable for keeping valuable champions alive. If you have one, it should be run in just about every BG for this reason alone. It also gives off a Defiling Aura, which is great for debuff-heavy BGs, as well as being a Perseverance counter in a pinch if you have a DoT on something with Pers. It can be worth shattering it after use, so as to have it available for spot cleanse again asap, but otherwise there's not much to say about it.


    Stitched Hex Doll​
    Rating: 6/10​

    Another recipient of a recent Shoebox Buff, the Hex Doll simply had a nora reduction and Witches allowed to be equipped with it. The equip can be given to Priests, Wizards and Witches, (pretty much everything in a full Witch BG) and for 30 Nora, gives the bearer Hex 3, Curse 2, Shielded, and Depression. Hex is excellent for a spot long range LoL finish, or to spot cripple an enemy beater as Cursed Blade would. Curse is primarily useful for getting a spot curse on something to hit it with Pain Curse (be sure that attacking as opposed to Curse+Pain Curse wouldn't do more damage), and Hex Doll is the cheapest form of spot Curse in addition. Shielded is helpful for some spell protection, and Depression for a further damage debuff to the enemy.. But even with these minor drawbacks, the toolbox of varied benefits it brings can be very handy, even if some aren't used. By no means essential, but a reasonable swiss army knife include in Witches if you like the equip. Outside of this, it's primarily useful to give Shielded to superchamps (see Ravenwraith), or to provide more debuff power in Dread.

    Tempest Crown​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Tempest Crown is a good choice for Siphon for one main reason - granting Siphon to any champ not already with it (see Rip Witch, Executioner, Obsidian Venger). Psychic Magnetism can also be used on several control based champs to draw enemies closer in (Moragen, Xulos, Lamia, Executioner), but it is very much a secondary function when compared with the huge survivability Life Siphon gives. The Crown is a nice cheap equip at 25 Nora, making it fairly easy to play, but you have to consider that this is still pricey compared to a champ who has Siphon on base - an Exec and the Crown costs 89 Nora in total, more than a Bloodworm. The other main issue with the equip is that it is backloaded - you do not gain any benefit upon equipping it, it has to earn its value over time - and if the equipped champ dies immediately then the nora has been wasted. This is not to say the rune is a bad choice - simply that you may often find other, more immediately impactful runes more valuable includes. Generally also more valuable in a BG with a Siphon module as opposed to full Siphon, but splashing a Venger or two to wear the Crowns can be perfectly fine in such a themed BG - as such champs that gain Siphon become incredibly potent. Outside of Siphon, Sac Dagger is a better option by far most of the time.

    Vendetta​
    Rating: 9/10​

    Vendetta, Serkan's equipment, is a very interesting rune. It grants two abilities: Essence Capture, for some Noragen, and Vengeful (see Serkan's entry for how it works on him). Whilst nigh on auto in a BG with Serkan since it costs 10 Nora that is quickly refunded by EC, it also has uses outside of this. Generally, it isn't a great idea to splash it into just any BG with a bit of death benefit - since it is VERY backloaded and takes ages to pay off - but when built around can become a key part of one of our post potent BGs. A DB variant developed by Yobanchi saw Vendetta used on long range, self-sustaining champs like Doomies, who sat in DMZ to prevent nasty spells (and were supported by a ton of runes to protect them). Fuelled by WtD, Haunt, and similar, their damage grows to absurd proportions as you play conservatively with the Vendetta'd chmapions, until you can flatten all comers. This is their greatest use off of Serkan, and typically they're not worth the cost outside of something similar.

    Wraith's Tear​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Wraith's Tear is a fairly shoebox equip. Firstly, it gives Magic resist, which is potentially more advantageous than full immunity as an opponent may still try to focus down its bearer as opposed to being forced to ignore it and potentially pick other targets (but don't expect this to work at high levels). The other benefit is that if this champ is occupying a DMZ, it gains Weaken Spells - and as mentioned in the Cleric's entry, this is a great boon for any BG, adding a great degree of spell hate that serves very well against enemy AOEs in particular. Due to the restriction mentioned above, however, it is best on an Inkblight Witch, who will always be in a DMZ, or perhaps a Putrid Creeper. The problem with the Tear is mainly its cost, or the restriction. Were it not restricted to DMZ occupying champs, or if it were cheaper, then it may see play, but as is 30 Nora is a hefty amount to pay for a single resist and a conditional Weaken Spells.
     
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  18. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    NEW RELEASES & BUFFS
    PoB Exotics:
    Polluted Martyr​
    Rating: 7/10​
    BGs​
    Death Benefit, perhaps Creeps.​
    Overview:​
    The Martyr is a rune with unique design. Typically, Short-lived champions have been cheap and cycle quickly, but the Martyr is a 90 Nora monster with a host of other interesting abilities. Propagate Carrionling is the first, and gives it its Creeper synergy via potentially fuelling Surge: Mutant nicely. However given it is a detriment to the Creep racial aside from this, and default attacks are the only thing that create the pathetically weak Carrionlings anyway, I'm unsure I'd run it even there. In general, the ability is reasonable as a roadblock creator, but is a big drawback against swarmers, so be wary. Rotting Blows is the next, and is very nice to completely deny enemy healing for a very long time, whilst Rover: Accrue assists the Martyr in getting across the field faster, great on a Short-Lived unit - but be aware it means the central font hub, not the font zone. Combined with great stats, 1-2 Range, Initiative and Flamethrower, the Martyr is a potent offensive force on the battlefield. He also has Death Nova Disease, which compounds his being unable to hurt relics or shrines due to having Attack: Disease, but is very very powerful on a 2x2. His final ability is Soulsift, giving you 40% of his Nora back when he dies - and if you grab his globe he ends up costing less than a Broken Bones in total, the issue being tying the Nora up intitially. As such, he will actually generate you Nora if you ressurect him with Gravewatcher or Reanimate. You may also want to include Soul Collectors or Despoil to be able to secure his globe, and of course some means of benefiting from his death. Some tout his having Short-Lived as a deal-breaker, but I believe it forces the foe to make a choice - invest to kill this champion, ignore it entirely and allow it to die, or invest somewhat to crowd-control it before it expires. Either way we can benefit - getting our Nora back sooner, repurping the untouched champ onto something, or forcing the foe to invest even a little. Not everyone's cup of tea - he needs specific support, and being swarm bait and unable to harm undead much hurts, but if you can look past this he is practically swimming with potential.​
    Upgrades:​
    Init is auto. Flamethrower is the next best, but Choking Stench is reasonable. It increases vulnerability to other Undead and constructs however, which is a big issue, and Flamethrower is incredibly potent on a 2x2 with Init, so usually it's overlooked. Running Start is pretty much worthless compared.​


    Shoebox Buffs:
    Dark Apprentice​
    Rating: 8/10​

    BGs:
    Liches, splashable for Despoil & Detect.

    Overview:
    Dark Apprentice is similar to Cleric - a Lich themed total support rune. However, whilst it lacks Invigorate, Curse, Scrying power and potential spellhate, it has a ton more support abilities to accompany Leverage, which is a great ability (See Cleric). Worship: Lich, from Servitor, allowing you to make the Apprentice stationary to give all Liches Regen 3 is situationally nice, especially around the end of its lifespan. Lich Apprentice, meanwhile, gives all Liches +5 HP at the cost of 10 of its scarce own. Lategame, this is pretty damn potent a buff, but you'll be using it sparingly due to low CD and the huge squishiness it gives Apprentice. Outside of this, the rune has Detection - a great asset to any BG and one Liches sorely needed, and Cast: Despoil, a fantastic ability akin in function to Soul Collection that also generates huge DMZs. Both of these make the rune very viable outside of Liches. Aside from this, the rune offers very little. It's poor in combat, with Vulnerable exacerbating bad stats, and slow. However, it is 6 Nora cheaper than a Cleric, a potential factor in including it, but is not a Lich itself, meaning not fuelling Surge or benefitting from Leverage. I would say that thanks mainly to detect and Despoil, it edges out Cleric. Invigorate is still potent, however, and in my Lich BG I'll likely remove 1x Cleric (of 2) and 1 Librarian for it. As a last word, it really is important to note just how pathetically little this rune contributes to actual combat compared to a Cleric - Invigorate is amazing to facilitate doubleattacks, whilst Apprentice has nothing of the sort. You have to be very aware when running them that they will not be actual contributors to the battle much if at all.

    Upgrades:
    Detection and Cast: Despoil seem auto. Should you be fine with 1 detector, feel free to use Favour or Spellswallower, both very decent upgrades. Favour is typically preferred, but Spellswallower gives it a chance to generate some small offensive presence, which is pretty valuable if using two slots on a useless combat rune.

    Dark Seductress​
    Rating: 4/10​
    BGs:
    Witches perhaps..

    Overview:
    The Seductress was a mess of a champion. The shoebox buff, sadly, merely made her slightly better than pretty much unusable - ie still not very good at all. Aside from the standard Witch Magic attack and Coven, she has Stealth and Veiled Flight, which are quite nice for mobility, and Unspeakable, a decent on-entry debuff. She also gets some reasonable upgrades, and most notably, Rover:Assassinate, which gives her the ability when 5+ spaces from a font. Unfortunately, this is her undoing, as being unable to threaten anything closer than that is pretty damn crippling especially against a competent foe. But to nail her coffin shut, pathetic base damage that means Assassinate will virtually never kill a full HP foe alone and Vuln: Magical, rendering her even more of a glass cannon (more like pistol). She isn't worth the slot, sadly.

    Upgrades:
    Domain: DMZ is probably wise just to try and buff her damage a tiny bit, since it scales up with Assassinate nicely. Charm is probably the next best to give her some other use. Immunity Disease is probably unneeded in Witches, but Escape is a decent option - though she's so pathetically frail it may well come to naught.


    Birthday Buffs:
    Ghost Stalker​
    Rating: 8/10​
    BGs:​
    Spirits.​
    Overview:​
    Formerly a KF rune, Ghost Stalker got FW factionhood with Alpha's birthday buffs. It initially had Surge: Spirit, making it absurdly OP, but has since been reigned in. It's not an especially combat-worthy rune, with Range 2-4, and low defences and mediocre damage, but more than makes up for it in support. Its main draw is Projection, a combined Teleport + Deception ability, that generates up to 3 illusions as well as shifting the champ 4 spaces for 3 AP, making it effectively 7 Speed on its first turn. This ability comes with the caveat that Projection is notoriously hard to predict where the illusions will spawn, and pending further testing, I'll advise players wanting all 3 to teleport in straight lines and make sure all 4 "corners" of the teleport region are unobstructed (deploy it on the diagonal edges of shrine deploy zones to make this easier and save AP moving before teleporting). Of course, these illusions fuel Surge much like Shadestriker's, making them invaluable to buff your champs' damage - and they also fuel Reinforcement, making E Soldier incredibly speedy as a second turn drop. It also has Soul Collection, incredibly valuable for grabbing globes (though as it lacks Boon of the Undead you're losing out on a little) and Fading Light, which combined make it very easy to stealth on demand, a mantra that fits nicely with Spirits. Overall, definitely worth a 1x for Soul Collection alone, and if using a lot of Surge absolutely a 2x auto.​
    Upgrades:​
    Stalker's upgrade set is very interesting. You have Phase Shift, invaluable to protect the champ from damage and stealth it if a Spectre is out (though with Fading Light this is less valuable); Cast: Ghostly Visage, which is similar in purpose but longer lasting and can be used offensively (though still stealths foes) or on other allies; Illuminate, nice for some Noragen and to bypass high Def champs; and Swap, a fantastic mobility spell that works wonders when stealthed. I'd probably say Illuminate is least viable purely because the champ is so frail and short range, but all 3 of the others are very useful indeed. I'd be tempted to use Swap and Cast for most utility supporting, but then you become somewhat reliant on using globes to stealth when needed. All in all, none are bad choices though.​

    Risen Yeti​
    Rating: 6/10​
    BGs:​
    Dread, very slightly splashable for Knockback?​
    Overview:​
    Risen Yeti's buff wasn't quite an Ethereal Soldier case, but has made the rune no longer totally shoebox. He gained ST as a faction, along with Knockback 2 from 1, and Unspeakable base, and a host of nice upgrade options. For Dread, the premier is obviously Frightful Aura - like with Warspirit, it provides a nice -2 Dmg to foes and +2 Def to allied Undead, and combined with Warspirit, this makes for a reasonably nasty debuff combo, though one that has to get into close quarters to work. He can dish out nice damage with his other upgrades, but being 2x2, 6 speed and 1 range hinders him getting into combat somewhat. Knockback further combos well with Lamia's Shrinking Scion or Bloodbinder Count's Cast: DMZ, opening up some combo usage for him. Not an auto anywhere, especially due to his relative frailty outside ST, but a reasonable option where there is synergy.​
    Upgrades:​
    In Dread, Frightful Aura is auto. Tormented and Enrage both boost damage - if choosing one I would go with Enrage, since it forces the opponent to choose when to attack him, but Tormented is going to more reliably make you hit harder. Both are an option together if not in Dread. Assimilate is a reasonable means to heal slightly, but given he's somewhat frail he'll often be getting one rounded and it will prove useless.



    Bonds of War:
    Blood Banshee​
    Rating: 7/10​
    BGs:​
    Vampyres, Spirits.​
    Overview:​
    The Blood Banshee is a very cool rune themeatically. Sadly, it's arguably one of our weaker champs this expo - but is by no means a bad one. She sports a decent statline, nice Range 1-3 and Sonic attack, along with Domain: DMZ to buff her in our "terrain" a little. Key to her however, are her relocation abilities: Fascinate, which draws in foes, and synergises very well with both her ability to stealth and mess with enemy positioning, and Sonic Aura; and Relocate: Blood Ball, which lets her swoop to Blood Balls in Vampyres, getting into combat faster, or out of it in a pinch (this also works very nicely against UD). Overall, she is solid, but not an essential in Spirits, who now are spoilt for choice - but she goes fantastically with Lamia, Bloodworm and Count in Vampyres, or indeed any positioning-centric BG.​
    Upgrades:​
    Her upgrades are all very interesting. Sonic Aura is a good staple for bonus damage, whilst Phase Shift is excellent for defence - and stealthing her in Spirits. However, Hidden: DMZ is a tempting alternate stealth in Vampyres, though it needs Haunt or similar support to be made best use of. Defiling Aura is nice, but the other options are simply superior in most cases, as she is not in debuff centric themes. I would run Phase Shift all the time, with Hidden in Vamps, and Aura in spirits.​
    Lichling​
    Rating: 8/10​
    BGs:​
    Liches, Spirits.​
    Overview:​
    Lichling is absurdly cheap - 56 Nora, 46 if Leveraged. This is the main draw of the champ, as it has a sub-par statline in general, though it does have a handful of other tricks up its sleeve. Gift of Scrying and Leverage on itself make it pretty fantastic earlygame, and both Initiative and Rover: Accrue assist in making up for Speed 5, and make it a nice font runner for its cost. Multitude, its cheap cost and Leverage all compound to make it excellent for fuelling Surge and Vendetta once they die - great for Lich BGs, and somewhat for DB. For spirits, you can pick up Phase Shift and have him stealthed, which is nice - and even in Liches it is still a great choice to protect him, and make them annoyingly durable for their cost. Finally, the ability to conceal runes on capturing fonts is nice, but only situationally going to assist you outside of making the opponent's life hell if you can pull one earlygame. In general, a very neat little rune, pretty helpful in Liches, but not too amazing elsewhere.​
    Upgrades:​
    Init is auto. Either Rover or Phase Shift is the next best - Rover for mobility earlygame, and Phase Shift for durability/stealth in Spirits. Worship is pretty dreadful as it doesn't stack and Servitors have it.​

    Mindflayer Queen​
    Rating: 8/10​
    BGs:​
    Creeps, DB.​
    Overview:​
    Having gained Creep within a day of release, the Queen is the centre of our hopes of springing the theme to viability again. Regardless, she's a very interesting champ - a reasonable statline for her cost, Flight for mobility, Creep to boost earlygame deploys slightly, and Brainless for amazing HP: Nora ratio are not bad alone. However, she also has some snazzy new abilities in that she spawns with a Mindflayer, which serves a few purposes - increasing her damage nicely and serving to dissuade the foe hoarding Nora; ability hate, excellent in this age of the game, and a nice 10 Nora refund and Psychic Aura after some attacks. Mindflayer Jumper, if it doesn't bug out, transfers the equip to a second champ - giving a second chance for a refund and the same abilities on someone else (though good luck trying to predict where it goes before it gets hotfixed). This is a 25 Nora equip and you essentially (should) get two for one Queen - which is pretty damn awesome as well. Anyway - having Bile Explosion and Brainless makes it a great DB rune, though it doesn't fuel Vengeful as it isn't undead. However, a 20 dmg Blinding Death Nova, being a wall of meat that is excellent repurp fodder, and fuelling Harvesters nicely still means they are solid. Sacrifice is less useful as only the second death triggers Nova, but is situationally very handy to pop the champ into second form when needed.​
    Upgrades:​
    Assault is arguably auto, as it synergises with a ton of its abilities and can be exploited by the rest of your BG. Bile Explosion I would say is auto in DB IF running Warlocks, as you can Sac the first form, then Repurp it for a nice stat boost. In Creeps, it is still reasonable, but Brainless makes positioning it properly nigh on impossible, so it becomes more of a deterrent. You may want to simply take another upgrade - Warding seems best, given Mindflayer already gives some abiliy hate, though both are solid, and if you have lots of DMZ Warding may prove obsolete.​

    Whisperghast​
    Rating: 9/10​

    BGs:
    Spirits. Potentially some utility in RMH?

    Overview:
    Whisperghast is a very interesting rune. For an Exo, it's remarkably simple, with but a handful of abilities, but those it has give it a well defined role. Stat wise, it's very squishy, but has reasonably nice ranged damage potential (and is the highest ranged Spirit), and a useful alt damage in Frost. On base, its only other ability is Utterdark Wormhole - a relocate Ally in DMZ, essentially. Whilst somewhat limited, it's still very nice to suck a friendly back out of harm's way, or pull something just deployed closer to combat - and it adds to Ghost Stalker's Swap in forming something of a relocate module in Spirits (though it can always relocate a Corruptor, making it potentially good in RMH). Its upgrades give it a fairly potent possess option, Voices in Their Head, a mini Domination that also gives Manic, and as such can be very useful to finish off foes and protect the fragile Ghast. A nigh auto include in Spirits, but doesn't offer all that much elsewhere unless running a very DMZ heavy BG.

    Upgrades:
    Voices is auto. Phase Shift is typically the next best option for Stealth and added durability, but Cast: Despoil is a great ability and very helpful for Wormhole. Typically survivability comes first however. Drain is nice, but much less effective than other abilities in general.


    Depths of Despair​
    Rating: 5/10​

    Overview:
    Depths is a rune with great art, but a less than stellar effect. 8 Magic damage for 25 Nora isn't awful, but is subpar compared to Desecration's huge AOE and relic hate. If the +2 dmg stacked effectively it may be slightly better, but it doesn't ever reach more than 8 +2 dmg - and as such is pretty much relegated to being Adaptive/Favour fodder.

    Grim Harvest​
    Rating: 7/10​

    Overview:
    Harvest is a rune with interesting potential - as the damage it applies is global. If you fill its AOE with globes, you deal 50 global damage and get the spell fully refunded - a long shot ofc, but an indicaion of the spell's potential. 5 Globes in the AOE result in a 30 Nora 10 global damage spell - good value and an excellent finisher against all but IS. To make the most of this, obviously you need a lot of things dying - and not to immediately collect them. Sac Altar is the obvious combo piece, working with Czar, WtD or Haunt nicely, but Graveyards are also possible. Despoil or Cast: Despoil are nice to collect the globes after a Harvest's use. A seemingly solid rune in DB, but not amazing elsewhere.

    Statue of Xulos​
    Rating: 4/10​

    Overview:
    The Statue is a very cool idea, but is way too low payoff for its cost. +1dmg and +2HP is a tiny benefit for every 10 HP (5 turns), even with Spires cutting their cost and boosting their effect. Not to mention Xulos' main value is in his on deploy and death effects, so you hardly mind if he dies and cycles.
     
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  19. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Forsaken Wastes themes
    Aside from the previous rune overview section, I aim to cover as many FW themes as I'm able in more depth here, possibly with contributions from others. Naturally, the place to begin is with our theme BG's theme - Skeletons.​
    Skeleton BGs
    [​IMG]
    A Skele BG relies on several abilities and runes targetted solely at champions with Race: Skeleton. As such, any non-Skele being included into a Skele BG has to have a very good reason to be put there, as your entire BG aims at boosting the efficiency of Skeleton champs to monstrous levels - enabling a powerful endgame in which pretty much no opponent can withstand your attacks. The list of main Skeleton-related boosting methods is as follows:​
    - Boost: Skeleton 3: This ability is held by four champions - Tomb Lord, Tormented Priest, Mysian Necromancer and Bonewing. In a radius of 6 around the boosting champ, all friendly Skeletons gain +3 Dmg, +6 HP, +1 Def. Boost units will be the glue holding your force together, making many Skeles from subpar units into hyper-efficient ones, and having to be so aware of your positioning due to the radius is an excellent way to become more aware of that aspect of the game. This is by far the most important boosting mechanic in Skeles - you could get by without others, but not this one. With the loss of +Spd on Boost, however, it's no longer as essential as it once was. You still want 3-4 Boosters in your BG purely for the excellent efficiency gain it provides, but you don't have to have them deployed covering absolutely all your champs at all times - and if you lose one, chances are you're not completely screwed as you once were. Overall, Skeles have become less tied to Boost and more reliable with the new champs they got, which is overall definitely a good thing.​
    - Altar of Bones: This relic, every other turn, allows you to sacrifice a Skeleton to gift all others +1 Dmg and + 4 HP. This serves one main purpose - it increases the efficiency of your Skeles further. Unfortunately, with the speed of the game these days, and the sheer strength of many Skeles off the bat, you will simply not have time to setup a GY/Altar engine in many games. Death Harvester's nerf reducing its nora-efficiency fairly notably didn't help either, but the rune can still be utilised generally on its own for the odd stat-boost/contest.​
    - Cloak of Skulls: This Equip, when on a Skele champ, grants the wearer Augment Creation - giving every subsequent champion you play a permenant +2 damage right out of the gate. This both serves to increase the potential of the Skele lategame even more, and gives them a much needed earlygame boost.​
    Aside from this, there a a few other mechanical techniques common to Skeletons - sacrificing units, and summoning lots of cheap, frail skeletons to the field for the most part, so these may add to the appeal of the theme for you.​
    Champions (by role) [for lack of a better place to put it]:
    This section (suggested by Ragick) will list the Skeleton champions by role, in rough order of effectiveness in that role. A champions overall rating under its picture is an aggregate of its effectiveness in, most probably, several roles - these lists indicate how good a champion is purely in a single role with no looking at secondary ones. Some champions may be tied with others, indicated with a ~. Dashes indicates distance between champs in effectiveness at a given role.​
    MELEE BEATERS (Damage dealing):​
    Lerper --- Reaper - Emissary --- Voidhowler -- Animated Blade - Zerker ---- Boneblade - Mauler​
    TANKS (Being able to take damage and survive):​
    Bone Ele -- Shredder -- Raider --- Emissary --- Dragon ------ H-Lich -- Toll-Taker​
    RUSHER/HARASSER (Fast and decent at contesting fonts):​
    Mason - Grekin -- Shredder - Lerper -- Reaper - Rifleman/Pyro​
    SUPPORT (Boost, or other utility abilities):​
    Xulos --- Bonewing~Mysian Necro -- T Priest - Tomb Lord - Magister --- Rifleman/Pyro -- Emissary - Animated Blade --- Gravewatcher​
    DEFENDER (Cheap and good at holding up the fight at a font):​
    Crawling Corpse - Decayed Merc --- Zerker -- Reaper --- Raider​
    CHEAPMEAT (Cheap and fast to redeploy):​
    Broken Bones --- Decayed Merc -- Boneguard ----- Reaper -- Crawling Corpse -- Zerker​
    RANGED BEATER (Damage dealing from range):​
    Rifleman~Fadewisp -- Crossbone - H-Lich - Xulos~Toll-Taker --- Tomb Lord​
     
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  20. KTCAOP

    KTCAOP I need me some PIE!

    Bonesaw Theme BG
    Here I'm going to look over the Bonesaw BG and suggest what I think some good early alterations to it may be, on the way to a top-tier Skele BG. Bear in mind this is my own interpretation, and if you want to do things another way then by all means experiment and do so! Further, remember that not all expensive Skeles are essential - if you cannot afford them, lacking H-Liches and Emissaries will not overly harm your BG. To assist with the wordy instructions, in the post below I have some sample adjusted, fairly budget Bonesaw BGs to look at.​
    The Bonesaw BG:
    2x Bone Elemental
    1x Bonewing
    2x Skeletal Raider
    2x Toll-Taker
    2x Tomb Lord
    1x Tormented Priest
    2x Utterdark Fadewisp
    1x Utterdark Voidhowler
    1x Xulos, Undead Sage
    2x Chain Lightning
    1x Dark Rising
    1x Domination
    1x Essence Drain
    2x Hungry Dead
    2x Mobilization
    1x Obelus
    1x Repurpose
    1x Altar of Bones
    1x Elsarin Vex
    1x Graveyard
    1x Unholy Tomb
    1x Cursed Blade
    [Runes in this BG are marked with a * in the main guide - use CTRL+F to find them.]

    Priority changes:

    - Remove Obelus, 1 CL, 1 Hungry Dead. Add in 1 Anathema for nigh-on essential antihealing and a strong AOE, and 2 more champions (see below).

    - Good cheap (irl wise) Skeletons are: Reaper, Boneshredder, Dragon, Rifleman, Crossbone, and to an extent Lamia. Get some of these from PoxBox and try them out over some of the less helpful champions (a Toll-Taker, a Raider, perhaps Eles, T-Priest, maybe Fadewisps and Voidhowler).

    - Be careful not to include too many 2x2 champions, as they will hinder your ability to position.

    - Gradually replace some of Cursed Blade, Chain Lightning, Essence Drain, Hungry Dead, Domination, Unholy Tomb as you prefer.

    - Add in 2x Cloak of Bones. These give your theme much more support and coherency. Consider removing the slower Bone Altar and GY.

    - Add in Soul Reaver - nigh-on essential as our faction's only source of cleanse and Soulreave - nigh on essential for dealing with immunities.

    - If running sacrificial stuff you will need to find room for runes to make use of them - Sac Altar normally, and more spawners - Bone Trap, Wake the Dead, etc. If not, then you can likely remove the Repurp and Dark Rising even to make space for other, more reliable runes like Steal Life, Grim Well, Ancient's Protection, etc.


    CAN'T AFFORD BONESAW? (Ie. want to go fully free to play?)

    Try this budget BG - not as good as Bonesaw by some margin before this expac, but with Plague of Ba'lah probably actually quite good, and the majority of runes are very cheap (priciest being Xulos, Boneshredder, Cloak and the Banner from PoxBox, and those and Toll-Taker, Mobi, and Tomb Lord from gold). From here you can work to something in the post below. Be sure to use a combination of gold buying (for Xulos typically) and buying from Poxbox (Elsarin Vex in particular) to get the most for your money.


    Example Skele BG
    This is the Skele BG I currently run. It's quite Ichor-heavy, which makes both Bonewing and Boneshredder more potent as well as allowing Reapers to reach max Zerker ranks. Sac Altar and Bone Trap are my main departures from standard FW in nonchamps, but they work very well in Skeles.​

    If I lacked Lerpers, I'd probably sub in Emissaries, and one Bonewing can be replaced with a Mysian Necro.
     
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