skull amulets..WTF!!

[Twogun]

lol. they no longer let you summon skeletons? when did this happen???

[Nombrilist]

Acorns are almost certainly still useful for assassins. A spamulet and a handful of acorns was brutal on assassins in Dom4; those extra three troops (non-undead for variety) right at the start was frequently enough to push through bodyguards when a spamulet alone wouldn't do it.

[meglobob1]

Originally posted by Nombrilist:

Acorns are almost certainly still useful for assassins. A spamulet and a handful of acorns was brutal on assassins in Dom4; those extra three troops (non-undead for variety) right at the start was frequently enough to push through bodyguards when a spamulet alone wouldn't do it.

Nah...vine men are terrible in a fight...3 vine men is nothing, only things they got going for them is 50 morale (so at least they never run away), 0 upkeep and cheap. I use them for manning fortress walls / meatshields / place them at back in a battle to improve overall army morale, so your real troops less likely to break morale (cause we still got those hordes of useless vine men in reserve...lol).

[Nombrilist]

Nothing you said negates their value in assassinations where the assassin is skellispamming. They're a meatshield veggieshield: you get three of them on turn 1, and they'll take a bit of time to die (and aren't susceptible to the same things as your skeletons). Their job is not to kill off the enemy commander or their bodyguards; it's to make sure you have time to produce enough skeletons to kill them. And for that, they work perfectly well.

[Hasefrexx]

If you do the math then the amulet gives as many longdead worth in retinue in 16 battles than does the reanimation spell, so I don't see how it's worse than reanimation spell. Longdead don't heal and so are short lived anyway.

[Twogun]

i always looked at it as a assasin item really. in a real battle, it has almost no real effect.

[jojeck]

The main reason for using the Skull Talisman is for giving the +5 Undead leadership to a commander you want to lead some powerful undead units like Ghosts. The free battle summon longdead is incidental. Useful early in the game before much research has been done.

Once you have Construction 4 the Amulet of the Dead is usually more useful and gives +5 Undead leadership and the ability to spam a skeleton each turn. A few indy commanders spamming skeletons for many turns can be quite useful in long running battles as each cast with an item is only 5 fatigue.

[wilson.max]

Originally posted by Hasefrexx:

If you do the math then the amulet gives as many longdead worth in retinue in 16 battles than does the reanimation spell, so I don't see how it's worse than reanimation spell. Longdead don't heal and so are short lived anyway.

In MP you're unlikely to have sixteen battles with the same commander. Even in SP, sixteen is pushing it.

But the Skull Talisman is a trinket. It's not surprising if a trinket is extremely niche. In Dom4 it was crazy overpowered for a trinket; now you get pretty much the same power but only at Constr-4.

[meglobob1]

Originally posted by wilson.max:

But the Skull Talisman is a trinket. It's not surprising if a trinket is extremely niche. In Dom4 it was crazy overpowered for a trinket; now you get pretty much the same power but only at Constr-4.

What's better a trinket that players liked, used & forged, so saw play or a unloved trinket that is never used, never forged and forgotton about forever.

[Lailah]

Trinkets are supposed to be forgotten about. They're zero research. The entire point is that they get outmoded.

[2spooky4me]

It could be worse. It could be one of those no research weapons that no body ever makes.

[wilson.max]

Originally posted by meglobob1:

What's better a trinket that players liked, used & forged, so saw play or a unloved trinket that is never used, never forged and forgotton about forever.

That's like complaining about how Horde of Skeletons completely obsoletes Raise Skeletons.

If you have only Constr-0, Skull Talisman will still boost (double?) the effectiveness of your assassins. If you have Constr-4, Amulet of the Dead will boost it much more.

[Twogun]

i think that encapsulates it. i recently got bum rushed in a game very early and went with the talisman(before i knew about its limitations). but even if i HAD known, it would have been my only option. and i did have a little bit of success with it.

[meglobob1]

Originally posted by wilson.max:

Originally posted by meglobob1:

What's better a trinket that players liked, used & forged, so saw play or a unloved trinket that is never used, never forged and forgotton about forever.

That's like complaining about how Horde of Skeletons completely obsoletes Raise Skeletons.

If you have only Constr-0, Skull Talisman will still boost (double?) the effectiveness of your assassins. If you have Constr-4, Amulet of the Dead will boost it much more.

Nah it isn't.

Because Raise Skeletons will still be used until you get Horde of Skeletons, so is a useful step by step progression.

NO player worth is salt will EVER waste 5 or 3 D gems to forge a skull talisman, so there's no step by step progression, just another useless, pointless, waste of space trinket, where before it was nerfed you had a useful trinket used alot.

[Nombrilist]

Before it was nerfed, you had an overpowered, disproportionately cheap trinket that was used frequently because it never became obsolete. And that's not at all what trinkets should be.

[meglobob1]

Originally posted by Nombrilist:

Before it was nerfed, you had an overpowered, disproportionately cheap trinket that was used frequently because it never became obsolete. And that's not at all what trinkets should be.

So why not give it the reanimation bonuses instead instead of 1 useless skellie?