Friday, September 19, 2008

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

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