Elf/Mystic vs. Elf Sage vs. Elf/Heretic

[Verbal Abuse]

Is MS still powerful enough of a reason just to choose this personality?
Will Amnesia's boost because of lack of experience now make it more powerful than MS?
Or is heretic the overall best bet to help the kd?

Thanks for your opinions.

[Kitzz]

I'm elf/mystic and i'm always afraid of RM'ing my own MS.
Always have to get our attackers to "test" for RM or MV orcs/faeries before casting MS lol

As long as you have enough coverage, you don't need anymore mystics.

[Bo To]

Lets wait for the finale changes :). With rogue getting back double tds I don't think elf is going to be strong pick like this age.

[StratOcastle]

I look at things from the breaker standpoint.

Efficiency is great if your chart position/destination is a clear goal...and your kingdom has a record of achieving a desired position.

If you're not one of those kingdoms, and I suspect you're not, then you look at what your abilities are in defensive hostile. This has more to do with critically injuring organized war kingdom/whoring so they leave your kingdom in peace. Very few unorganized kingdoms understand or have the wherewithal to practice good medicine.

Organization is overrated. Don't fear it. Just be prepared.

You need to break important provinces in organized kingdoms to let them know you mean business. Moshpitting with core is nearly useless, as most of these kingdoms rely on their sterling t/m core. Elf gets you there. This doesn't mean you only focus on t/ms. There are several ways to skin a cat, but you need the tools. You need the threat to be real.

Let's say you run a halfer rogue and an elf sage. The bully kingdom will want them out so these players shouldn't be anal, they need to be daring and adventurous. Yes, getting the right people in the right positions can make kingdom building much easier. You assassinate wizards. Less wizards and now your elf comes into play. One hand washes the other. If a province is well guarded against sabotage then dropping tornados on them can offer an opening. I like amnesia and I publicly let that fact be known.

Regardless of what you see, the efficiency of one race vs another, the raw ability to break the deepest defenses is key to lower kingdom peaceful coexistence. Everyone will say faery is better than this or that, and it is, but not against both. You won't win wars against organized kingdoms but you can offer them the choice to drag their entrails to fort or simply agree to CF.

Think about the alternative: you take faery and no one takes elf or halfer. You run into an organized kingdom. Your t/m core in all likelihood is toast. You could do damage if you could break them, but you can't. This has to do with organized kingdoms having certain advantages besides being organized. They have a better grasp of the field of competitors so they know who to CF(ceasefire). They also look intimidating from their kingdom page. This gives them the time to pump wizards and bottom feed other kingdoms, increasing their overall strength. Unorganized kingdoms don't have these luxuries.

I'm a huge advocate for player freedom in province building and management. I'm not against the crown contenders by any means, though I'm aware that they have to get acres and resources from somewhere. I'm an undead sage this age and it's been a relatively safe age for me.

To the point of which is better. I'm of the opinion they all serve a particular purpose and it's a matter of taste. You see, my undead sage can break t/ms with my army and cast amnesia on core. It's what you bring to the party no matter what the changes dictate. You might not believe how bad I wanted an active rogue by my side this age. It would've been glorious.

[StratOcastle]

I should add, the ability to overcome a defense is universally the favored ability in the many games I've played for nearly 4 decades. As an example, in D&D the abilities most of us took were bonuses to hit, not to damage.

Why is it different here? Faery is very solid defensively. I like faery just like I like all races and personalities in Utopia. I've even run faery cleric. But specifically, in Utopia and in D&D, we were hitting up. I'll clarify.

In D&D we weren't running through villages killing guards and soldiers, we were fighting dragons, demons and giants. We needed the ability to hit up because we had the will to embrace the challenge. We needed the ability to hit, more than the ability to do great damage on soft targets.

This is a global gaming truth. In Utopia I choose to play in lower tier kingdoms but my love of challenge is against those in kingdoms bristling with great power and knowledge.

Elf mystic - hard target, war bias.
Elf sage - hard target, hostile bias.
Elf hertic - soft target, equilibrium.

[Verbal Abuse]

Stratocastle you should run for political office. I have not seen someone say so much without saying anything at all related to the original question, lol. The thread is a question about which race/pers would be best for a kd from the offensive ops perspective. Just a compare and contrast thing. Thanks

[brandonc204]

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[StratOcastle]

I offer that at the end:

Elf mystic - hard target, war bias
Elf sage - hard target, hostile bias
Elf heretic - soft target, equilibrium

For example, to put this in some context, I just cast 14 amnesia spells on a province for 51,934 days of forgotten science. It was a soft target that could've been an abduction target prior to my spell run.

Now, you look at what elf offers as a race. You look at what the personality bonus's are and apply them to a likely scenario.

- Why elf sage? Because in hostile they can trump what I did vs harder targets and they defend against abductions that heretic and mystic can't.

- Why elf mystic? In war, their spell array is more appropriate to subdue opponents from a logistical perspective.

- Why elf heretic? Because they're spell and sabotage array match well with attacker objectives. They subdue core.

Elf sage can serve as support and be a mages mage by opening up a hard target to further ops. Once a breakthrough is established in the enemy defenses the standard ops can land more reliably. You have to see the whole picture to understand the center of interest. Elf is a support race. If they don't have a cast to follow up on their work they aren't great finishers.

[brandonc204]

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