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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:38 am
by warpwizard
A couple questions about Mazz V:
What does aura of command do?
What does bless do?
Do any of the Paladin’s specials refill people’s mana bars? I thought I noticed this happening, but only after the fact so I could be wrong.
I’d also like to express my appreciation for this amazing plugin. The special effects are incredible. The supply of roots as supplemented by the Forest Giant seems to be just right. It doesn’t skimp on the supply of artifacts, which I love, as finding magic treasure is the best. Every unit is useful: I love using barbarians as errand boys. Fetch that orb for me! I love how the two mages now feel like REAL wizards, as opposed to just guys who happen to know one trick. Same with Mazz: he’s tough, he does good damage, and when you hit T, he doesn’t accidently blow up everyone around him because his mana bar is fully charged. The system they have with him using the sparkly orbs as spells works great, it should be standard for all Mazz plugins. I like the new enemies, as annoying as they can be.
Criticism:
When a barbarian picks up a Dispersal Dream, it doesn’t show up on his status bar at all. This should be fixed.
The two mages should regain mana over time. Having extra mana boosters lying around is fine, but they shouldn’t be totally dependent on them. Sometimes there just aren’t very many boosters and the mages become useless, plus it’s kinda lame that you have to “pump them up like a tire†as a friend of mine put it.
Most of the magic bows are pretty wimpy. There are a few really cool ones, but by and large they’re weak. I guess this is balanced out by the fact that they’re so common.
Other than that it’s an A+ plugin. Thanks to all who worked on it.
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:07 am
by Brainbug
first of all, you can recharge the macers manna by selecting the "0" inventory item, it's slower then with the crystals though
afaik aura of command improves attack of units near mazz (untill he switches to another item or it runs out)
and no, paladins can't recharge manna
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:19 pm
by Death's Avatar
The special bows can be wimpy at times, but If you notice arcs as a whole are beefed up. In Mazz 4 I almost never got an arc fully vetted, but in MV just two nights ago I had 2 full vet arcs. You'll notice their full vet rate of fire is pretty awesome as well. I guess it never bugged me that the lightning arrow is no where near as powerful as in mazz 4. Something...
-DA
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:48 pm
by ChrisP
Thanks for your comments, warpwizard.
Aura of Command does several things, including slowing down the melee attacks of most - though not all - types of nearby enemy units, increasing the damage of Mazzarin's sword attack, and increasing Mazzarin's resistance to most types of damage. It's most powerful effect, however, is speeding up the attacks of nearby friendly units, and for this reason is best used early if possible, before most friendly units are fully vetted and are already attacking at, or close to, thier maximum speed anyway.
If cast on a friendly unit, Bless grants a permanent 14 point increase to their maximum health. It has more of a pronounced effect when cast on "weaker" units. For example, if cast on an archer, it will raise the archer's maximum health when fully healed to 40 points from 26, which is almost a 50% increase. If cast on a Heron Guard, it will increase his maximum health to 66 from 52, or roughly a 25% increase. If cast on most enemy units, it will decrease thier maximum health by 14 hitpoints, but that's generally considered a waste of the spell.
None of the Paladin's spells increase other units' mana directly, however, Holy Armor will cause nearby friendly units to attack slightly faster, and since Berserkers regain mana by attacking, they can get mana back faster.
You're right, I should have edited the proper collection to have dispersal dream orb icons show up when carried by zerks.
"Pumping up like a tire" (lol!) was the method I wanted. As Brainbug mentioned, you can get back minimal mana (enough to keep weaker spells going) without a recharger by selecting '0: None' in inventory and... pumping.
Even the weaker bows can be very useful if you have the time to micromanage your archers. There are six types of bows (Strength, Fire, Lightning, Paralysis, Slaying and Justice) and four classes of each of the types: Common, Mega, Ultra and Celestial. Common are boring, Mega are nice though, Ultra are pure joy, and if you ever find a Celestial, it will make up for all the common bows you ever risked a zerk's life to recover.
Edited By ChrisP on 1129431075
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:09 pm
by pompey
Alright, since someone broke down and asked about Mazz V first, now I can be weak and ask a follow-up question.
As a preface, I and two friends have been playing Mazz V twice a week since it was released. We've beaten timid and simple, and can consistently get to mithril on Normal, but haven't secured a win yet on that difficulty. That's just to say we've put some time into it, so I'm not asking without having tried to figure it out.
What is telekinesis intended for?
Everything else I can determine great uses for, but given the power of Mazzarin's other abilities, telekinesis stands out. Being able to long-distance magnetize a pile of myrmidon swords and deal 2 damage to a wight, or explode a pile of satchel charges is okay, but seems like a waste. Every time I select a special item with telekinesis, it sends it flying somewhere horrible, so I can't see it useful for collecting things without berserks. At any rate, contributions are welcome.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:24 pm
by Brainbug
[quote="pompey"][/quote]
telekinesis:
u can use it to blow artifacts towards you that are on a slope
archers: trick is to give the bows that have a constant special (as in u dont need to hit T) to 10% of ur archers or so
those will vet very fast as they leech (steal) most kills of your other archers, once they are over 100 kills ey are FAAAAAST and you can do same to other arcs...
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:51 pm
by Wismuth
Telekinesis creates a "negative explosion". With some skills it can be used to move an artifact pretty much where you want it. In the diagram below, * is the artifact.
*abc-----------C------------------B--------------------A
If you click on ground at "a", you'll send it to A. If you click on ground at "b", you'll send it to B. Similarily for c and C.
Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:15 pm
by ChrisP
Yeah, what Wismuth said. The primary use of Telekinesis is to pull an artifact in the direction you want it to go by clicking near it - not on it.
If you want to pull a crystal to Mazzarin, click on the ground between the crystal and Mazzarin, keeping in mind that the closer you click to the crystal, the farther it will move. With some practice, you can grab a far away artifact and bean the unit you want to give it to on the head. It beats sending a zerk halfway across the map.
A secondary use, as you seem to have discovered, is as a long distance emergency attack on a wraith or wight that happens to be moving near a pile of sharp debris.
The third, and surely most fun use, is to wait till your teammate casts fire swarm with the pyromancer and then click on the ground between the spell and the rest of your teammate's units. :laugh:
Have fun and good luck beating the tougher difficulty settings.
Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:45 pm
by warpwizard
One more thing to fix, if you ever do a revision: the special for the pyro's "fireball" setting should be "swarm". Having it be "wall" is counterintuitive.
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:14 pm
by Archer
Agreed! That one trips me up regularly.
~J
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:06 am
by ChrisP
Mmm... I can definetly see how one would expect Fireball and Fire Swarm to be in the same inventory slot. The reason they're not is that I felt that in terms of balancing spell combinations so that no one inventory slot would be much better than another - or that the combo in any one slot had a pair of spells that were too similar tactically - the current system worked best.
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 12:51 pm
by Archer
I'd agree with that logic if switching were difficult, took time, or was limited, but as it stands I don't see a need for sets to be tactically diverse—being conceptually similar seems the better choice. Diversity can come from inventory-switching.
~J