If Presidential Candidates Were Pox Nora Runes...

Why is Obama like a Firk Diplomat? Well, for starters, everyone including the national media seems to be Awestruck of him, much like a celebrity. And he IS a diplomat. In his debates, he certainly pacifies any other diplomats. His attacks aren't just attacks, they are psychic multi-attacks from every direction, withering the opposition.

Firk Diplomat (Obama)

Obama would be...

Why is McCain like a Jakei Elder? Well, he starts slow with a really low speed, but builds momentum as he goes and winds up kicking with a super long-range attack on the opposition. He can put up a force barrier to block the opposition, or basically go comatose with crystallize. He is old and slightly crippled, but don't underestimate this strong scrapper - he's tough!

Jakei Elder (McCain)

McCain Would Be...

If Presidential Candidates Were Pox Nora Runes...

Forsaken Wastes Faction Bonus - Rune Cooldowns Explained

Forsaken Wastes: Cooldown numbers URL: http://forums.poxnora.com/showthread.php?t=341By LordSerkan

"The following is a repost I made on the old forums. The reference to rawk619's guide is no longer valid, as it was from the old forums, but the rest of the information presented is still accurate regarding FW cooldown times:
------------------------------Okay, as probably most of you have when first starting out playing FW, I read rawk619's sticky'd guide in this forum titled "The Guide to the Undead. Post your builds and strategies!" Unfortunately, I have found it has some incorrect data regarding full faction FW cool down times.
Here is what I found:- When talking about how long a cool down is for a given champ, you need to think in terms of the cool down representing how many of *your* turns it will be before you can play that champ again. What this means is that if a champion of yours has a cool down of, say, 2, and he dies on your turn (maybe he was a bile zombie that you sacrificed) then it will be two more of your turns before he'll be available to you again. That is to say, you'd have to finish your current turn that the champion died on, then your opponent goes, then you'd have your first turn after your champ had died, then your opponent goes again, then on your second turn after the champ died you'd be able to deploy him again.
- This also means that it doesn't matter whether a champion dies on your turn or your opponents turn... it will still be the same number of your turns after the champ dies before it is available again (e.g.: if that 2 turn cool down bile zombie is killed on your opponents turn, you will still have to wait for your second turn after it dies before you can redeploy it).
- You have to be careful when it comes to units that die due to "damage over time" effects, such as being charred or chilled. That damage occurs at the start of each player's turn, so if one of your units dies at the start of your turn, that turn does not count towards its cool down (e.g.: if your 2 turn cool down bile zombie dies at the start of your turn due to chill damage you'd have to finish your current turn and then 2 more of your turns later you could redeploy that unit).
- Special note for short lived units: Skeleton berzerkers and death guards both have the short lived attribute, where they live either 3 rounds or 6 rounds, depending on how you've upgraded them. A base death guard costs 30 nora and last 3 full rounds, which means it survives 3 of your turns (and the turn it is summoned counts as one of those 3) and 3 of your opponents turns. If it isn't killed by damage, it will simply die after your opponents 3rd turn following the death guard's deployment. Please note... it dies *after* the end of your opponents 3rd turn, which means it really dies at the very start of your 4th turn, which means that turn doesn't count towards its cool down and it will show the number 2 in your rune dock (you have to wait two more turns to deploy it again). If, on the other hand, your opponent kills the death guard by damage then your turn immediately following its death counts towards its cool down. The net-net is, if your death guard (or zerker) can't do anything useful for you on its last turn (setting it up to block your opponent so they are forced to kill it is something I'd consider useful though), you may want to jump it off a cliff or run it across lava or something else to kill it so that you'll get access to it one turn earlier than you would if it dies due to its short lived property.
The formula for determining the actual cool down for your units is very simple. It is their base cool down multiplied by 0.4 and then round down the result. I have confirmed this is how it works by capturing the cool downs from 23 champions with different nora costs and will include that data at the end of this post for those that are interested. What you will see is that the cool down turns are slightly off from what was posted in rawk619's guide (they are generally 1 turn quicker).
The base cool down for a unit is the truncated value of its nora cost divided by 5. You can see this value for each of your champions by mousing over their rune in the rune bar when you're in a battle. The first line shows you their nora cost, the next line shows you their base cool down. So you basically end up with the following base cool downs for any champion:
Nora cost range : base cool down turns15-19 : 320-24 : 425-29 : 5and so on
This translates into the following cool downs for a full faction FW deck:Nora cost range : FF FW cool down turns15-19 : 120-24 : 125-29 : 230-34 : 235-39 : 240-44 : 345-49 : 350-54 : 455-59 : 460-64 : 465-69 : 570-74 : 575-79 : 680-84 : 685-89 : 690-94 : 795-99 : 7100-104 : 8105-109 : 8110-114 : 8115-119 : 9120-124 : 9125-129 : 10130-134 : 10
This creates "sweet spots" in terms of how much nora you could potentially make a champ cost before it ups the number of turns it will take to cool down. These would be nora costs up to 24, then up to 39, then 49, 64, 74, 89, 99, 114, and 124. In other words, it doesn't matter if your champ costs 50 nora or 64 nora, it is still going to have a 4 turn cool down.
For those interested in seeing the raw data I collected, here it is:Nora cost of my champion : cool down turns when it died on my opponents turn17 : 130 : 239 : 242 : 344 : 347 : 358 : 463 : 469 : 570 : 571 : 572 : 573 : 574 : 575 : 676 : 678 : 679 : 686 : 690 : 799 : 7100 : 8115 : 9
I hope this all helps clarify how our full faction bonus works on our cool downs and helps folks design their champs with more insight into how soon they'll come back.
------------------------------
Someone then asked for data about 10/10 battle group cooldowns, to which I replied with the post below.
------------------------------
I don't play anything but FF, but I think the 10/10 bonus is a 30% reduction in cool downs? Assuming (yes, that word) the formula works the same you'd just substitute the 0.4 multiplier with 0.7, giving the following numbers:
Nora cost range : 10/10 FW cool down turns15-19 : 220-24 : 225-29 : 330-34 : 435-39 : 440-44 : 545-49 : 650-54 : 755-59 : 760-64 : 865-69 : 970-74 : 975-79 : 1080-84 : 1185-89 : 1190-94 : 1295-99 : 13100-104 : 14105-109 : 14110-114 : 15115-119 : 16120-124 : 16125-129 : 17130-134 : 18

LS"

How The Speed Statistic Works, And How to Make it Work For You

Basics Speed determines the amount of Action Points (AP) a champion rune recieves each turn. The amount of AP a champ has on a given turn is directly related to how effective that champ will be that turn. This makes Speed the most important stat on any champion.

Effective Speeds and AP The amount of AP a champ receives per turn is determined by their Speed divided by 2 (rounded up) + 1. For example, a champion with a speed of 8 will gain 5 AP per turn. Because of the rounding up while determining AP, the ideal speed for every champion are odd numbers, either 9 or 11. This allows the champion to gain the maximum benefit in terms of AP generation for nora / cp cost (given that speed 10 or 12 would make the champ cost more nora but give the same AP per turn).
Upgrading every champ to at least a speed of 9 is considered standard. Upgrading to 11 Speed is something that depends on individual champions and battlegroups. Some champs have an ideal speed at 13 speed, though this is something that only applies to champions in the K’thir Forest faction.

Basics of Counting Squares and APCounting squares is something that all good Poxnora players will intuitively do. To count squares effectively, remember that:
1. Moving a champ costs 1AP per square. 2. Attacking with a champ costs 3AP on the first attack and another 5 AP to attack again. 3. 8 AP is the magic number to attack twice. 4. Champs with speed 9 or 10 will gain 6 AP a turn. 5. Champs with speed 11 or 12 will gain 7 AP a turn. 6. Champs with speed 13 will gain 8 AP a turn. 7. There are many, many champs that cause exceptions to these rules. What these basic rules do is allow you to determine an opposing champ’s effective range or what champs it can be capable of attacking. So for example:
1.Look at the champ’s speed. For this example, say speed 9. 2.Look at how much AP it currently has. For this example, say 0 AP. 3.You now know how much AP it is going to have next turn. (0 AP + 6 AP generated = 6 AP). 4.The most important step is to look at any abilities the champ may have. 5.Put these numbers together to determine where that champ can attack. So our example champion will have 6 AP to move and attack. Since every champions first attack costs 3 AP, the champion can only attack anything that is within 3 spaces (i.e. 6 AP total – 3 AP to attack – 3 AP for 3 spaces moved). Note that knowing what abilities a champ may have is key to advanced Square Counting.
Thus, to avoid being attacked by that champion in the next turn, keep your champions at least 4 spaces away.
Counting squares and AP also applies to your own champions. Every move you want to make should either maximize your own AP (i.e. let every movement allow your champs to attack or allow your champs to gain 8 AP to attack an opponent) or mess with your opponent’s ability to attack (moving just one square out of range).
Counting Squares vs AP Management So you’ve counted squares and your champ can attack an opposing champion? Before you send your champ into the fray, know that there is a basic tactic of Poxnora: attacking twice is better than attacking once.
Understand that champions retain AP (with the exception of champions with the Berserker ability) so not all AP need be spent each turn. In fact, the maximum amount of AP a champ can store is equal to it’s speed. It is often advantageous to save AP if you want to change your plans next turn, or if you want to stay out of range this turn. Saving more AP is also a benefit of higher speed -- you have a higher maximum AP. Champions with 9 speed can spend until 3; 11 speed can spend until 4, and 13 speed can spend until 5 with no loss in AP next turn.
Thus, when you move a champ to attack your opponent, know how much AP they are going to have next turn. They do not waste AP in movement, meaning they have more AP with which to attack. Be wary of the number 8 especially, since that is the number that allows two attacks per turn.

Advanced Square Counting(To be completed)
Ranged Attacks:
Engaging/Disengaging:
Terrain:
Ability Modifiers:
There are a wide range of abilities that certain champions can possess that change the basic rules of movement and AP generation. (Notes will be added to each specific ability).
Abilities that have different AP costs of attacks
Multiattack
Frost Cone
Barrage and Pummel
Blood Rage
Abilities that cause different AP generation
Berserker
Drive
War Cry
Battle Drum
Invigorate
Initiative
Abilities that affect movement
Beckon Demon
Relocate Ally
Catapult and Leap
Mobility
Teleport
Spell Modifiers:
Mobilization
Speed Modifiers:
K’thir Forest Speed Bonus
Frozen

Pox Nora Conspiracy Theory!

Maybe it is old news, but just discovered this gem on Pox Wiki, quoted below. It's a conspiracy theory! Gotta love it! This just goes to show how fanatical some players get about their favorite game. Personally, I think the developers created eight very strong individual factions, each with their own strengths and weakness, but which together as either Protectorate or Wrath make for pretty balanced and diverse opponents. Plus, continuing development means constant tweaking, new rune additions, and new synergies, all of which contribute to an ever-changing power curve. I would take the following info with a grain of salt, but a fun read nonetheless.


"Lighthouse is a rumored secret society within the community of Poxnora.

Lighthouse was first mentioned in a thread started by Sarahzoe in reference to a group of prominent players that were behind the Nora Freeze nerf. The story is that Sarahzoe was contacted by Lighthouse to create a series of threads to try and sway the community to prevent the Nora Freeze nerf, and later to retract the nerf or "fix" the rune. phaeton426 and ssez are rumored to be at the head of Lighthouse, which is perpetuated by the creation of a guild called, Lighthouse by phaeton426 and ssez. Others feel that this was only an attention grabbing scheme by all three or one, Sarahzoe, phaeton426, and ssez. Whatever the truth may be one thing is for sure. Nobody knows as yet whether or not Lighthouse really exists.

As the original "Whistle Blower" on the Lighthouse, I do know a few things. I was contacted by a person who claimed to be a member of this organization. I learned that it was started by a group of 5 or 6 friends who lived in and around Chicago. The initial purpose was to make sure that Protectorate factions maintained some sort of playing advantage over Wrath factions. Their method of choice was to use the forums to alter popular opinion and thus persuade the developers to make changes that were advantages to the Protectorate.

Whether they still exist or not, it is likely that they did at one point. The evidence to support this is all over the forums. My guess is they are still around but are significantly more careful who they try to recruit. I also suspect that many if not all of the original members are no longer involved. When I was first contacted, I thought it would be cool to join but quickly changed my mind and declined. If you, the reader, ever get an invitation, I would think twice before getting involved."


From Pox Wiki, http://www.poxwiki.com/Lighthouse

I Purchased Four Exclusive Rune Packs!

Just purchased four of the exclusive rune packs at Target. They carry a $10 pack (no exclusive rune), and a $25 pack, which includes one exclusive (protectorate) rune and a 100-rune pack. Will edit my post once I enter the codes to let you know which runes I got!

Update: redeemed my four rune packs and here is what I got:

3x Dwarven Windfury (Exclusive)
1x Sacred Tundra Amulet (Exclusive)
1x Dwarven King
1x Faultbreaker
1x Carrion Colossus

This purchase was a great success, with two titans and three Windfuries, currently the most sought after rune in the game. The Windfury is very powerful, being ranged, with a strong melee attack and survivability, so this rune should hold its high value extremely well over time.

Beverage of Choice While Playing Pox Nora?

What is your beverage choice and/or snack while playing Pox Nora? My favorite is beer. Yes, I have an unhealthy affinity for the stuff. And gummy bears.

General Game Strategies, Part 1

For newer players, here are some game tips and strategies I picked up along the way. FYI: I consider myself a n00b and casual player because although I have in times past achieved around rank 500 with my Forsaken Wastes battlegroup, I play around with crazy deckbuilding schemes, play un-playable champs just for fun, and generally play all factions (though I mainly play FW, UD, ST, SP). Advice:


- Pay for a set of runes, at least a 100 pack, but I recommend spending what you normally spend on any good, new PC game, i.e. $35-$50. The bigger the rune pack, the better the value!

- The sample battlegroups are rarely updated and, depending on which faction you pick, may not provide a good enough deck to beat another trial player!

- The game has eight factions, play them all or you are wasting money by paying for 1/8th of a game. This also goes for playing all game types & modes, using the trader, chat, forums, etc.

- You should focus on building one main faction into your PvP winning deck, because runes can get expensive, and you need many rares and/or some exotics to make it to higher ranks. Once you have at least one competetive deck in any faction, then you can build another from any faction, and keep doing so.

- The more competetive (PvP), winning (PvP or Campaign), or fun (Any Game Mode) decks you have successfully built, the more fun the game as a whole will become, because switching to a new faction & deck will break any monotony or playstyle rut you are presently in.

- Build you decks with a sensible mixture of melee and ranged troops. While playing, use your archers to provide backup to the melee champions, but keep close so as not to be separated and picked off by spells, stealth units, etc.

- For PvP, always include some way of ridding the enemy of his pesky overpowered equipment. There are champion abilities and spells that do this, e.g. Shatter, Disarm, Recycle.

- Winning the game is all about Nora, plain and simple. Control the Nora, and you control the map, control the map and you control the game, control the game and you win!

- Before you do anything else, capture the Nora Font closest to your base (shrine). This will generate the Nora "income" per turn you need to summon units, play spells, etc.

- Always have a viable defense plan for your primary Nora Font (closest to your shrine), secondary Nora Font (any other you control), and shrine. Tides turn quickly, and you need to be able to swim with or against the current, and not drown. Think of your defense planning as your waterwings against Davey Jones Locker.

- Try to include units with varying movement abilities - leap, flying, teleport, high speed - in order to remain a threat on various maps with differing terrain.

- Never rush an enemy group of champions with a single champions of yours, no matter how powerful. Lone melee exotics can be killed easily by a group of ordinary common runes.

- Conserve Nora from turn to turn, do not use it all on any given turn. This gives you a "safety blanket" to cast spells from or otherwise surprise the enemy. One good surprise can change the direction of the game.

- Conserve AP on all your champions. Try to move and or attack, but keep at least 2-3 extra AP available per champion at the end of your turn. Next turn you may be able to move and attack twice if your speed is upgraded correctly, which is devastating to the enemy.

- Run champions that may attack at 9 speed, so that they may move and attack on the same turn, or move one space and attack twice if needed. Upgrade a few of your best champions to 11 speed, in order to guarantee two attacks per turn, but as this makes them cost a lot, do this sparingly, with maybe two or three maximum, like heroes, titans, exotics.

- Ten champions per battlegroup is a good rule of thumb, then I recommend 7 spells, 2 relics, and one equipment. One relic should be your faction's Battle Standard flag if you have one and play full faction, otherwise one offensive and one defensive relic.

- Use full faction, multi-faction, or multi-rune synergies to gain a power edge over your opponent before the game even begins, in deck building. For example, powerful combos like the Dragon Skull relic (SL) + Firestorm spell (US) make use of amplify fire damage plus a (now amplified) fire damage spell with damage over time, utilizing a multi-faction synergy. You can do this in full faction by using powerful synergies like Demon Champions and the Beckon Demon ability of the Darkelf Priestess to gain a lot of ground quickly.

- Equipment can turn the tide in any one-on-one champion face off. Place a shield or weapon equipment on any good melee champion, and you increase its power level considerably. Do this while contesting a font, and you almost guarantee yourself a win, short-term or even final.

- Play any combos, decks, or factions you do not fully understand, to learn their pros & cons.

- Upgrade all melee champions, at least with speed 9, but after that only with absolutely necessary abilities for your deck and rune synergy and overall strategy to work. A very nora efficient deck will usually win over a more costly, highly upgraded deck, due to faster respawn times, cheaper deployment, more units on the field, extra nora in reserve, etc.

- Have some means of Nora generation in your deck, in addition to shrines and fonts. Some faction bonuses help (SP or FW's Boon of the Undead ability), otherwise use relics (Unholy Tomb, Nora Mine), champions (Scorched Dwarf, Nora Beast), or spells (Marsh Song, Thorn Collection). Backup or extra nora can give you the edge.

- Keep track of respawn times and cooldowns when building your battlegroup, and also in-game while planning your strategy, or engaging in any battlefield tactics.

- Try out new battlegroups in the Anything Goes (AG) room prior to the PvP ladder. If you cannot win in AG, tweak your battlegroup and try again, or scrap it and build another.

- Have some type of stealth detection in your battlegroup.

- Have at least one highly specialized defensive unit handy, for emergency shrine or font defense.

- Use a relic offensively at an enemy nora font (place it in the nora font's zone and that font will go neutral when your turn ends to deny the enemy of nora and contest the font), in order to buy yourself some time for strategy and tactics. This works best when backed up by at least one champion, since relics are relatively light on HP and easy to destroy.

- Play campaigns or in AG in order to gain CP (experience points) to upgrade your champions for a viable PvP deck, or to add value to them in order to trade for other champions in the Trader.

- In the Rune Trader, almost all single same-rarity rune trades are denied or fail because outbid. As a general rule, if you trade a same-rarity rune as the one you want, then add at least two sweeteners (that don't suck), you will win the bid.

- Use the Rune Crafter to create any runes you might need or are missing. The cost is usually higher than what you receive, but in some cases crafting might be a lot cheaper than in the Trader.

- Purchase essential runes immediately in the Single Rune Store, rather than trying to trade for them. Trading for an entire battlegroup, especially for rares or exotics, can take weeks.

- If you can afford it, buy only jumbo 250 rune packs, because your return investment and value are much higher since you get many more rare runes, and thus 10% opportunity for exotics.

- Exotics are a strong trading commodity. Keep this in mind always.

- Learn rune trade values well before you ever use the Rune Trader.

- Don't ever, ever, ever, accept a trade based on promises or placeholders and not actual runes, unless you need to learn the lesson that not all people are honest and want to help you.

- Don't ever click a URL link in a trade offer, it may be a scam that you will regret greatly.

- Be polite and mature in chat, while in-game and out. Be a community leader, not loser.

- Help new players, because with each expansion, the game becomes increasingly complex.

New Exclusive Runes!

Bullseye
K`thir Forest
Nor Cost : 35

Rune Type: Spell
Cooldown : 7
For the rest of this turn, each ranged champion you control does 50% more damage on its next attack.

Sacred Tundra Amulet
Savage Tundra, Exclusive
Nora Cost : 30

Rune Type : Equipment
This equipment has different effects for the races it is equipped on. Jakei gain Provoke: Whenever this unit is attacked or damaged, it gains 2 AP. Lonx gain Readiness: Bonus to defense that is equal to triple the Champions current AP. Yeti gain Bestial Fury: When activated, Yeti becomes impervious to melee damage until end of next turn.

Dwarven Windfury
Ironfist Stronghold, Exclusive

Base Nora: 72
Attack : 8
Defense : 15
Speed : 7
Damage : 9
Hit Points : 45

Abilities:

- Attack - Physical

- Arrow Throw 1

- Dodge 1

- Sweep - All surrounding enemy units within 2 spaces take 8 Physical damage and are knocked back 2 spaces.

Upgrades:

- Arrow Throw 2

- Berserker 1,2,3

- Dodge 2,3

- Stun

Sacred Peaks Amulet
Shattered Peaks, Exclusive
Nora Cost : 30

Rune Type: Equipment
This equipment has different effects for the races it is equipped on. Equipped Moga gain Evasive 2. Equipped Cyclops gains Blood-Bond 2. (When an allied Cyclops is destroyed, this Cyclops gains 4 AP.) Equipped Voil gain Battlemaster 2.

Rapid Assault
Underdepths
Nora Cost : 40
Rune Type: Spell

Cooldown : 8
Your next deployed Underdepths champion is deployed free of charge and gains Short-lived 1 and Bloodless.

Dark Apprentice
Forsaken Wastes, Exclusive
Attack: 9
Defense: 9
Speed: 7
Damage: 9
Hit Points: 36

Abilities:

-Apprentice - This unit loses 10 max health and Lich champions you control gain an additional 5 health.
-Attack - Magical
-Call Master - When this unit is deployed, Liches you deploy in the same turn will cost 10% less nora. If no other Liches are deployed this turn, this unit takes 20 damage at end of turn.
-Immunity - Disease
Indentured: Lich - If you do not control a lich at the end of your turn, this unit is destroyed.
-Vulnerable - Whenever this unit makes an attack, its defense is reduced by 5 until the end of next turn.
Upgrades:

-Devour Skeleton - Destroy target Skeleton that you own within 5 spaces. This unit gains an additional 10 health.

-Fear 1,2,3

-Life Siphon

Six new runes have been released, exclusive tradeable runes that are only available in 100 packs purchased at either Target (Protectorate) or Best Buy (Wrath). You may ask why only six of eight factions are represented with the new runes, and I assure you, i have absolutely no idea, but Sundered Lands and Another do not currently yet have an exclusive rune. The runes are as follows (above):

Highest Non-Exotic Melee Damage Champions

Here is a roster of the "Highest Non-Exotic Melee Damage Champions." Very useful info when planning a battlegroup.

Zombie Behemoth
Forsaken Wastes, Common

Base Nora: 55
Attack : 15
Common
Defense : 15
Speed : 7
Damage : 15
Hit Points : 52
Abilities: Boon of the Undead, Knockback 1, Lichbound, Unstoppable

Upgrades: Constriction, Knockback 2, Vulnerability: Fire

Stone Colossus
Ironfist Stronghold, Rare

Base Nora: 60
Attack : 12
Defense : 27
Speed : 6
Damage : 17
Hit Points : 50
Abilities: Dwarfbound, Knockback 1, Unstoppable

Upgrades: Fearless, Knockback 2, 3, Vulnerability: Magical

Pit Dragon
Underdepths, Rare

Base Nora: 71
Attack : 16
Defense : 13
Speed : 8
Damage : 20
Hit Points : 55
Abilities: Attack - Physical

Upgrades: Resist Magic 1,2,3, Resist Poison 1,2,3

Gahlroon
Underdepths, Rare

Base Nora: 70
Attack : 14
Defense : 15
Speed : 7
Damage: 17
Hit Points: 50

Abilities: Blood Frenzy 2, Resist Fire 1

Upgrades: Blood Frenzy 3, Iron Will, Power Attack 1,2,3, Resist Fire 2, 3

Freeze Bug
Savage Tundra, Uncommon

Base Nora: 45
Attack : 10
Defense : 10
Speed : 6
Damage: 17
Hit Points: 12
Abilities: Death Nova Frost 3, Flght, Vulnerability Sonic

Upgrades: Death Nova Frost 4



Forest Giant
K`thir Forest, Uncommon
Base Nora: 60

Attack : 16
Defense : 18
Speed : 7
Damage: 15
Hit Points: 50

Abilities: Elf Bound, Knockback 1, Unstoppable

Upgrades: Pulverize 1, Vulnerability: Fire

Destroyer
Sundered Lands, Rare

Base Nora: 63
Attack : 12
Defense : 14
Speed : 9
Damage: 14
Hit Points: 49

Abilities: Charge 2

Upgrades: Charge 3, Execute, Regeneration 1, Rend

Cyclops Nemesis
Shattered Peaks, Common

Base Nora: 34

Attack : 11
Defense : 11
Speed: 8
Damage: 16
Hit Points: 52

Abilities: Nemesis - Earthmover

Upgrades: Lay Fire Trap 1,2,3

Death Guard
Forsaken Wastes, Uncommon

Base Nora: 35

Attack : 12
Defense : 20
Speed : 8
Damage: 15
Hit Points: 40

Abilities: Bodyguard, Boon of the Undead, Short-Lived, Knockback 1, Spite 1

Upgrades: Blood Rage, Short-Lived 2

Deck Archetypes: FW/FF Disease Attrition

For the second time in a row I have beaten Eaun's campaign on legendary using a FF/FW deck. The deck I used was a classic disease/attrition/low cooldown/global damage deck favored by many FW players. I did go all out, however, by adding many exotics, including the Carrion Colossus Titan, Tormented Priest, Xulos, and Unholy Tomb.

There are several key elements of this deck, however, that make it work, universally. From most-to-least importance:


1. Unholy Tomb for benign but global damage and nora generation. Even one point of damage opens the door for step 2.

2. 2x Festering Wounds. With a mere four turn cooldown, two of these spells create the deadly global disease damage cycle that whittle your opponent's forces down to weakened wimps.


3. Tormented Priest - Reduces healing globally by 50%, plus healing your own undead.


4. Amplify Disease - 2x Afflicted Corpses - Amplify plus great meatshields with rabid attack.


5. Other - Non-essential exotics, support units, etc.



The runes listed below are often included in this type of disease attrition deck:

Xulos - The only FW champion rune (and an exotic at that) capable of dealing global damage to begin the Festering Wounds disease damage cycle, and a killer hero on top of that. 13 base damage, 6 range, Mindwipe aura keeps pesky melee champions at bay, plus other useful upgrades. IMPORTANT

Tormented Priest - Dark Healing 2 upgrade ability effectively cuts enemy healing in half, plus heals your own champions as a result. Pulling the carpet of effectiveness out from underneath pesky healers is a critical factor in a winning attrition-style deck. If you have only two exotics in your disease deck, it should be this rune, plus an Unholy Tomb. MUST-HAVE

Carrion Colossus - The new FW titan, this rune dishes out massive melee damage, has a ranged disease attack, and Swarm: Carrionling. Also, he spawns a Carrionling every time he is hit. The Carrionlings are not undead, so they take disease damage, but they are also Disease Eaters, meaning they heal from disease damage - every time you cast Festering Wounds! This titan is the ultimate font contester, because no unit can withstand his massive damage plus his spawning Carrionlings increase in power (Surge: Carrionling) every time he is hit and another spawns, meaning that even if the titan fails and is killed, the Carrionlings will kill the enemy and win the shrine. OPTIONAL

Draco-Lich - Another new exotic, very powerful melee flyer with a ranged AOE disease attack with DoT. Also has regeneration, which adds a lot to survivability. Very useful for annihiliting groups of enemies stuck by a Hungry Dead spell. Not quite as valuable as Xulos though, because of Xulos' global Dark Favor which can be used to start the Festering Wounds global disease damage cycle. I tend to like this rune slightly better than the titan mainly because he is a 1x1 size rune and flying, so much more maneuverable, plus cheaper and survives longer with regeneration. STRONG OPTIONAL


Unholy Tomb - Nora generation, plus adds the basic global damage needed to start the damage over time (DoT) disease damage cycle. MUST-HAVE



Festering Wounds - If the Unholy Tomb is the cake, then this spell is the icing. Two of these spells are necessary to keep the constant cycle of disease damage going, due to a 4 turn cooldown. MUST-HAVE, TWO SPELLS

Afflicted Corpse - Ampflify Disease plus a whopping 55 hit points make this guy the ultimate meat shield. Low nora cost and a disease DoT attached to any melee hit make this guy even better. Lumbering is his main, albeit massive, shortcoming. MUST-HAVE



Ghoul -An Amplify Disease upgrade makes this guy mildly interesting, but disease is pretty low damage to begin with, and since it is global in nature or a low damage DoT rather than a high damage direct attack (like fire or magic), too many amplify runes are overkill and wasteful of rune slots, because you just cannot amplify low damage all that much. Also, while this rune is a pretty decent melee champion, he does not shine in any way is better replaced (for about the same nora cost) by two Afflicted Corpses, an upgraded Executioner, or really any other decent FW rune with more utility. EXPENDABLE

Crossbone - While I am not currently using these in my winning deck due to replacement by ranged exotics (Xulos & Titan), this rune is a great substitute and arguably makes for a stronger battlegroup in that they add a double DoT synergy (disease + poison) to the deck, in addition to being cheaper in nora cost with a lower cooldown. I usually upgrade mine to 65 nora, 9 spd, Poison 2, more HP, dmg. STRONG OPTIONAL

Festering Corpse - O Festering Corpse, where art thou? This rune is an incredible meat shield, my favorite in the game. With Lumbering, he is slow as molasses in winter, but get his within two spaces of an enemy, and let his disease aura wreak havok. These runes are great for holding fonts, contesting shrines, blocking map chokepoints, or slowing the enemy. Nora cost is super low, and cooldown is almost non-existant. 38 HP makes him no lightweight, and a Disease Explosion at death is useful. With other units Amplifiying Disease, you can easily stop exotics or boss units dead, then DoT and ranged attack them to death. Because he is lumbering and has no support abilities like Amplify, etc. he is rated a STRONG OPTIONAL

Animated Blade - Not in my current campaign deck, but a must-have in a PvP disease attrition deck since he is the only champion capable of Shatter to rid enemies of powerful equipment. This unit is vastly underpowered and weak due to super low HP for a 1 range melee champion without Block. Even with multi-attack he is more a melee-finisher or archer-chaser than front line troop. PvP: MUST-HAVE, Campaign: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

Infected Zombie - Useful rune to include in any disease deck, this newer rune is a fairly expensive melee champion that causes Zombie Plague on each successful melee hit. An infected enemy that dies spawns a Festering Corpse under your control - very useful swarm ability! Since FW is a nora-challenged faction, adding free champions (even if lumbering) is a huge bonus. Keep in mind, however, that FW is a nora-challenged faction, and having one stronger expensive champion as opposed to two weaker, cheaper, and lower cooldown ones (Festering Corpses for example) is not always better. Thus, STRONG OPTIONAL

My Favorite Underrated Champions: Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is one of my favorite underrated champions. This is an exotic rune, as you may know. Once upon a time, early in the game, he was a well-regarded powerhouse, but he is a rare sight.

Unfortunately, he starts off with similar weak stats to a Crossbone with 30hp, but costs almost twice as much nora. Pretty lousy for an exotic armored knight, eh? And he is too easy to kill. Much too easy. His saving grace is that he resurrects into a Lich Knight, so you are getting two good units (the latter being great) at about 40 nora each, un-upgraded.

Let me also say, as a caveat, that I cannot seem to effectively use or enjoy this guy at anything under a 120 fully-upgraded nora cost (11spd, 13dmg, 40hp, Resist Physical 2). This guy needs a large initial upgrade to survive. I have tried him at 99 Nora, which is about his absolute minimum cost in a playable state, because he absolutely needs more HP and Physical Resist 2 to survive. But at 99 nora, which necessitates no more than 9 spd, he just doesn't do enough on the battlefield to justify his cost.

Why do I like this guy so much?

- Surprising unit you don't see much, and I like surprises.

- Great rune card artwork, rune dock art, sprite animation in game.

- Physical Resist 2 or better - practically impenetrable to standard melee attacks.

- Two units for the cost of one, with the second being many times more powerful.

- In his second form he is one of the best units in the game, bar none. Hmm, Boon of the Undead, Physical Resist 2, Flying, Immunity: Magic, Life Siphon, +3 damage, and more.

- Life Siphon and Physical Resist both make two of the best sound effects in the game, which adds a lot to my enjoyment, and opponent's misery when I am playing this rune.

- He's a knight, and Lich-born at that, how cool!

Build Considerations: The absolute best build I have found for using this rune is as follows: 11spd, 40hp, 13 damage (crucial - dmg in second form must add up to an even number to best use Life Siphon, so at 13 dmg initially, at +3 dmg in second form he does 16 dmg and heals 8 dmg with every hit! He is still a bit frail, because any fire, frost, sonic, or psychic damage - so common in the game now - does full damage and he still only has 40hp.

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Equipment Recommended: Ultimately I recommend running him with a complementary piece of equipment, like the Lichbone Staff (Lightning AOE), Fleshsewn Helm (+2 ranks of Physical Resist, Disease Aura), or Shield of Darkness. Or if you are using a 10/10 cross-faction deck, try something like a Snaptooth Helm or maybe the best of the best, the Idol of the Elements (giving Fire and Frost immunity + standard champion poison, disease, magic in second form immunities).

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Note: Keep in mind that the FW spell Reanimate does not work on this champion, since the Lich-Born ability is already like a resurrection-type ability which won't stack with another.

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Conclusion: Altogether, this champion is quite amazing and fun to play, but does require some equipment backup to fully shine. With it, he is nigh unstoppable.

Best Runes: Champions, Part 1

Here are what I consider the best runes in the game, starting with champions. While the runes shown here may be subjective favorites, based on my gameplay experience using these runes, some weight is given to popular community opinion as well.


Melee Champions:


Avenging Angel - Flying melee champion with a base damage of 11, 38 HP, and 8 SPD. Heal Champion and Invigorate are must-have upgrades, plus specialty upgrades like Deflect, Divine Favor, and Smite the Unholy add a lot of utility.

Barbarian Commander - This guy is hard to kill, but easy to be killed by, based on his enraged attacks. Battlemaster makes him a great support unit as well. 13dmg to start!

Deepelf Priestess - Let's see, Multi-attack, Poison, Summon Demon, Shatter all in one champion? Great and useful mix, with a low starting cost for this champion.


Draksar Charger - This guy is one tough cookie, an example of why SL is such a great and versatile faction. First off, starting stats - spd 9, hp 50, range 0-3, dmg 12. Starting abilities charge, ranged attack (can attack melee too), Initiative, Regeneration. So basically, at 80 nora starting out with no upgrades, this guy is perfect!

Dwarven King - As you can see from the rune dock icon, this guy looks insane. And he is insanely hard to kill. 58hp, 14dmg to start with, sheesh. Add war cry and the surprise buff Divine Favor, and this guy is dangerous in a group, very dangerous. He is rarely seen without Righteous Deflection, letting him get up close and personal, unfortunately.

Ranged Champions:


Boghopper Shaman - this guy is insanely great. The two best healing abilities, period - Heal Champion and Heal Mass, plus Invigorate and/or Revitalize. Add a magical ranged attack, and Leap 2 or 3 to escape and ignore elevations, and you have one amazing rune.

My Favorite Factions: Sundered Lands

Sundered Lands

Sundered Lands is one of the most enjoyable factions to play, one which I keep coming back to for full faction play. I am sure part of that enjoyment comes from a well-rounded faction with tons of solid viable archers, melee, and support champions, great AOE spells, good support spells, relics, and equipment. Overall the faction is very well-rounded. The faction bonus is as follows:

10 Rune Faction Bonus: Dragon Hide: Units gain +8 defense.
20 Rune Faction Bonus: Greater Dragon Hide: Units gain +15 defense.

Another somewhat subtle reason to play this faction is that the base units are fairly well equipped in terms of base stats and abilities. Many have good DEF, HP, SPD, and DMG, plus adding a faction bonus makes for high-survivability champions. Easy mode. But why not?

This faction also has arguably the best flavor and theme to it, especially after the Skeezik Rebellion expansion. The Draksar / Skeezik units have great artwork and the storyline of disagreement between these races, plus various abilities or spells like Skeezik Alliance or Skeezik Rebellion, help to tie together story and strategy in an appealing mix. In-faction synergy is great with reptiles + poison, regeneration, and abilities like Draconic Force. Some champion abilities or spells are more fun to play than others, and this faction is replete with fun gems: trapper units, leaping reptiles, Charge, Skeezik Rioter, and Fire Storm to name a few.

Another plus is the fantastic way this faction marries to almost any other in 10/10 decks. Archers alone make a powerful argument for choosing this faction for play with any other. Some of the best of the best ranged units in the game originate from this faction, including: Draksar Archer (Farshot), Skeezik Cannoneer (Range), Skeezik Rioter (Swarm), Skeezik Sniper (massive Range), Dragonleech (Range + Nora Leech ability). Then you have some units like the Draksar Charger, a large, tough melee champion with Charge and a ranged attack!

Altogether, this faction has it all!

Pox Harbinger Sale

Octopi just announced a Pox Harbinger "sale" through the month of September and maybe through October, as long as it takes to sell thousands of Harbingers. I am really let down by the way this sale has been implemented. It began on Friday 9/5/08, and apparently only four Harbingers of each faction were stocked in the Rune Store. By the time I got home from work, only the SP Harbinger was in stock, at a cost of $96 each.

First of all, let me say that I already own two SP Pox Harbingers from a previous sale. I don't use them that often, but they are nice. Not exactly game-winning runes, but they are fun to play and fairly powerful. So you are not hearing the complaining voice of a bitter have-not...

I would like two more Harbingers, one each for two other factions that I play. But I work during the week, and Octopi does not work on the weekends. That have already stated that they will restock Harbingers every Friday. Why Friday, when most people who can afford a Harbinger are at work, not playing Pox Nora? Because it artificially inflates demand for the weekend. If they restock four Harbingers per faction every Friday, and they start at say, $50 each, after a few sell on Friday, the remaining runes will be $100 for the weekend, when more people will log in to play and or buy runes. If they restocked twenty Harbingers each time, there would be enough that on Saturday you could buy one for maybe $60 which is more affordable. Octopi does not intend for everyone to have a Pox Harbinger, and they want as much money as possible, so this sale works well for them.

Octopi is really treading a fine line between pleasing its customers, financing its active game development, angering customers, and outright greed.

Unfortunately, Octopi's use of artificial supply and demand will cause pricing to be very high for the Harbingers. Maybe after weeks of being on sale, demand will slack off and they will be available at or below $50. But this is still a ton of money for one virtual rune among 600 others in a game with active development where new units are generally better or more powerful than the old.

$50 still buys you a lot these days - another computer game for example, like the Half-Life 2: Orange Box which you would be hard-pressed to argue is not a better value by far and in the long run than a single Pox Harbinger rune. Even in the game of Pox Nora, some good exotic champions cost only $10, like Kilzik, a Jakei Elder, or a Draksar Lord. Is a single Harbinger worth 4-5 of these runes? As for me, I think the maximum value of the Pox Harbinger is $50, and I would not pay more.

Some Pro's and Con's of Octopi's Pox Harbinger Sale methodology:

Pro's:

- Harbingers available for sale again in large numbers.
- Contest to give away one Harbinger / faction / week based on expansion rune pack purchases.
- New players can purchase Harbingers, once the elite runes of original players only.

Cons:

- Extremely limited restocking of 4 Harbingers per faction per week introduces massive artificial demand due to virtual short-supply.
- Restocking every Friday ensures short supply by Saturday and Sunday, prime shopping hours for consumers who work or go to school weekdays, thus ensuring high cost for Harbingers.
- High cost of rune ($50+) is cost-prohibitive for many players.
- Power creep of new expansion runes (more archers, titans, ranged counters) make Harbingers less powerful than originally.
- Estimating a minimal cost of $50 for Harbingers, this single rune costs $4-5 times more than other good exotics and is not 4-5 times better, only rarer.
- Collectible nature of the game is somewhat suspect since it is a digital medium that expires forever the day Octopi ends support for the game, unlike physical collectibles like AD&D, Magic: The Gathering, or Warhammer figures which may be enjoyed forever even after the company goes out of business. The value in the collectible aspect of the game just isn't what it could be.
- Previous players who amassed early Harbingers which skyrocketed in value due to scarcity will be miffed to see their valuable $500-$2500 (estimated) runes drop to a $50 rune with thousands being restocked according to Octopi.
- Changing rune availability, artificially controlling supply, and power creep lead to extremely diminishing returns on rune investments, which is not good for long term collecting.
- No limited edition numbered print runs - unlike art prints, Steiff teddy bears, Hummels, or any other collectible available in a limited print run - Octopi continues to refuse customers requests (many threads in the forums) for numbered print runes on LE runes. This is a smoke and mirrors approach that does not inspire confidence and trust from consumers whose investments become devalued when an unavailable rune (like the Pox Harbinger) becomes available again.
Other companies "destroy the mold" or completely stop production on limited editions, preserving a customer's investment, respecting the "limited edition" premise upon which their sales are based, and add value for the consumer by creating investment quality collectibles.

Update (9/10/08): Octopi restocked the Harbingers on Sunday 9/7/08, allowing for some lucky weekend players to purchase one without paying the inflated pre-weekend prices. This is a step in a positive direction, but for the last few days no additional restock has occurred, leaving one to wonder whether Octopi intends to sell or just taunt customers with out of stock runes.

The Beauty of Global Damage

Global damage - the beautiful ability to simultaneously and universally damage all enemy champions on the map.

Forsaken Wastes Global Damage Deck Experiment:

In experimenting with global damage, I tried to create a Forsaken Wastes 10/10 battlegroup that maximized it, and was competetive against any foe. As it is almost impossible to find any combination of runes that is universally effective, this was no easy task. What I did find was impressive.

With the Nora Surge expansion, a new FW relic, the Chopping Block, was introduced. This relic does 5 damage globally to champion (friend or foe!) with the lowest HP, and you can deploy two of them for stacking damage. 10 damage per turn is great, and rips through low-HP units like healers and archers. So then I added an Unholy Tomb, 2x Festering Wounds, and a Tome of Hate. That is already six out of my 10 rune alotment for a 10/10 deck. The chopping block looks cool, and has a great animation and sound when it processes, which is after you end each turn, at the beginning of the opponent's turn.

Okay, I had some solid global damage, so I tried to round out my deck so it was not a one-trick-pony. I chose ST due to AOE bombs, high HP champs and the added HP faction bonus. I also took four AOE bomb spells - 2x Deep Freeze, 2x Ice Storm. The problem was that any global damage from the Tomb/Festering Wounds hit my ST champions and that was problematic. There was no way around it. I did try FW's Necrosis, but having one of those was not enough due to cooldown, and adding two took up too many rune slots.

I was also using Amplify runes - amplify disease for FW, amplify frost (Ice Shard) for ST.

Results:

The Chopping Blocks alone were okay, unless I got wounded, in which case they could target my own army. The Amplify runes did not help much, due to the fact that they were mostly support runes and not viable melee champions. Overall, there were too many support runes in this deck, and it needed more champions to combat shrine rushes, etc. I could not find a viable FW/ST mix using Unholy Tomb/Festering Wounds. Necrosis did not work, because it further bloated my deck with more support runes. The only way to use this combo with another faction would be to use all FW champions who are immune to disease, and the other faction for relics, spells, and equipment. Unfortunately, 1x Tomb, 1x Tome, 2x Festering Wounds only leave you with 6 extra FW rune slots, which is not enough total champions for a competetive deck. I had tried two Lich Kings with no cooldown (Immortal), and even that was not enough to stop rush decks.

Conclusion

I came to the conlcusion that FW is best used full faction for global damage, with the highest hit point champs available, when using the Chopping Blocks. Most enemies I faced crumbled quickly before this onslaught, without even challenging my nora fonts or shrine. Adding cheap, but heavy hitting Short-Lived champs like the Death Guard and Skeletal Berserker further helped on defense, but make sure all champions are upgraded or start above 45 hit points, otherwise your Chopping Blocks will be targetting you! Personally, I would add 2x Throw Bones to my deck so that I could remove any injured champ on the map (that had been inadvertently drawn the attention of my Chopping Blocks), plus boost the HP of my remaining champs by 5 HP.

Pox Nora Un-runnables Discussion

My Top Un-runnables:

Bat Swarm (nickname: Fail Swarm) - Incredibly expensive, super low HP, weakest swarmer. Impossible to keep alive.

Broken Bones (nickname: Brokenest Rune) - Slow, no ability upgrades, better cheap meatshields abound, like Death Guard. Might work in a 30 rune skeleton deck, but with the game currently limited to 20 rune decks, not worth the space it takes up. Any other FW rune, picked at random, would vastly improve your deck over using this single worst rune in the game. How it survives in its original form after five plus expansions is beyond me.

Draksar Broodling (nickname: Cute Cannon Fodder) - Weak flyer, impossible to keep alive long enough to get into range. Using it solely for shrine defense also hurts you. I have tried this rune in numerous decks using fire or dragon synergy to no avail.

Draksar Chameleon (nickname: Draksar Oaf) - Stealther, but 2x2 unit makes it difficult to stay hidden without hitting anything and unstealthing. Assassinate upgrade, but measly 7 damage needs massive upgrade to be useful or else Assassinate 2, one of the costliest upgrades in the game, making this oaf cost a as much as an exotic.

Dreadwing (nickname: Dead Wing) - Flying low-HP poisoner which, like Bat Wwarm, is impossible to keep alive. Should be renamed Dead Wing due to this inability at continued life. 30 HP and 5 dmg, sound the alarms!

Master Links List

Update: Link table added to blog on right side of web page; henceforce, this post will no longer be updated.


As follows is a list of quality sites referencing the game Pox Nora:

The game:
http://www.poxnora.com/

Evoke's old site, replete with analysis, statistics, game mechanics revealed. FYI: site is somewhat obsolete - lacking new expansion runes and some pages are 404's. For cerebral types:
http://www.melodyofcinders.com/

Datachild's up to date site, with the ability to lookup any rune or fragment, plus nora cost upgrade modelling for champion runes:
http://www.datachild.ca/

Pox Shop - Rune Valuator - somewhat obsolete with newer expansion runes missing.
http://www.poxshop.com/

Introduction

Welcome to The Lich King's Lair, a blog about the online strategy and collectible rune game Pox Nora. The blog is managed by the Lich King himself, a particularly old, pulchritudinous grump, who surprisingly mixes humor on equal terms with complaint. Enjoy the editorials, and as always, Happy Poxing!

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