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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