Archfiend Guide: Murmur

How to be Murming and Squirming.

Overview

On the official discord, I see a lot of folks saying that Murmur is a bad archfiend. While I don't think they're among the strongest, I do think they do have some fun advantages and is hardly bad. Consider this my take on how to best utilize their abilities:

Murmur's starting loadout is as follows:

1 wrath / 1 prophecy / 2 destruction
Accused of Murmur, a 0/3/9 legion with 7 HP.
A stronghold with +1 destruction strength.
The Danse Macabre unique ritual, which summons a 2/1/2 legion with 4 HP. It cannot be equipped with anything and takes one damage every turn until it dies.

Of these, the stats and stronghold are your strongest advantage(I will elaborate on this later).
Your legion is quite weak, and without modifiers will die in a 1v1 to the starting legions of Astaroth if no one has stat bonus relics, and most other archfiends if they do have stat bonuses. If you're getting in early fights, you're going to need to boost stats or take advantage of destruction rituals.

Danse Macabre is arguably the weakest unique ability. I personally think it's only worthwhile if you need assistance taking cantons faster during vendettas, or if you're 2 stats short of taking a place of power, in which case the support bonus can make a difference. Otherwise you will probably never want to cast it. I've read that there is currently a bug where this will not benefit from stat boosting relics the same turn you cast it, which lowers its value immensely. If that's fixed this could become a lot better.

How To Play

Pick murmur if you want to be constantly blasting people. Destruction lets you threaten a kill on any legion with low max HP anywhere on the map. I wouldn't recommend picking too many fights early on, but if there's a good opportunity, pounce on it. Your best chance is after an opponent wins a battle but takes damage, as they will likely be low enough that a single Infernal Affliction can kill them. If you can time demands so that you're able to start the war the same turn they take the damage, you'll be doing great, but this is unreliable.

As with any archfiend, focus on getting the first prestige rank and 4 in a skill as fast as possible. Don't waste too much time on combat until you have those. A single POP conquered or vendetta one should achieve the first of those easily. Remember a tough POP can be blasted down to lower health if you don't have quite enough combat strength, or you can cast Danse Macabre. If anyone hits you with an early demand, think carefully on if you can afford to let it turn into a vendetta. Even if you win by blasting their legion, you're spending precious resources for not much benefit. There's little harm in accepting demands, and I like to avoid spending my crappy 1 value tokens if possible for demand chaff.

I won't focus on strategy past the early game except a short statement. Destruction is your strength but you need to be adaptable. If an opponent sinks promotions into a high HP unit or buys one, you're going to have to spend a long time whittling it down. Be prepared to switch to a combat or deceit focus if the circumstances are right, particularly if an opponent you want to beat is investing hard in destruction defense. As with any archfiend, focus on boosting your economy and getting as many orders as possible. Past the first 20 turns, keep a close eye on pandemonium in case someone makes a play to take it.

The last bit will go over the various destruction rituals and their utility.

Enfeeble
Unlocked at 1, upgrades at 3 and 5.
Good for making tough fights winnable, though I prefer it for neutral pops since they can't counterplay you. Against players, try to land it at the end of a turn before you attack, so they don't have a chance to respond. The first upgrade improves its power by 1, the second adds another one and lets it apply to two phases.

Infernal Affliction
Unlocked at 2, upgrades at 4 and 6.
Your bread and butter, turns legions into corpses. Each upgrade increases the damage by two. Try not to use this against high HP units unless it'll make the difference for a legion to win a fight. If you're trying to kill a legion over multiple turns, keep in mind that they'll heal one if they stand by a place of power, and more if the player is Erzsebet or has upgraded wrath.

Corrupt Tribute
Unlocked at 2, upgrades at 5.
I generally don't bother with this one. If I need to mess with an opponent's tokens, I'll raise deceit and just steal them. Still potentially good if you really need to slow someone down.

Raise Abyss Strider
Unlocked at 3. Summons a strider with two random promotions and melee first.
This is an interesting ritual. I wish you could guarantee that the strider would attack nearby opponents, as is this is nearly useless offensively. The true value is in feeding victories to your legions. Don't rely on it too much, you're not Beelzebub. Still, if you're one victory from a promotion it's not a bad idea to get it with this. This probably won't come up often but a fun potential play is to summon it in a spot you know an opponent will be moving through, if they'd lose a fight to it.

Pain and Punishment
Unlocked at 4.
You won't use this a ton, but when it's good it's great. A good sneaky way to turn a combat monster into a chump.

Banish Praetor
Unlocked at 5.
Just like corrupt tribute, you're generally better off with deceit instead. Still, if you haven't been able to upgrade deceit and an opponent has a nasty praetor, this can do good work.

Dire Dissipation
Unlocked at 5.
Your second blaster spell, this one is much nastier since damage won't heal. I need to test if the effect persists after a personal guard respawns. Whether it does or doesn't, stick to this over affliction against high HP targets. Or cast both!

Planar Lock
Unlocked at 6.
The nastiest ritual in the game. Be prepared for your target to hate your guts. Also be prepared for opponents to have raised their destruction defense by the time you can cast this. A smart player will see you throwing out afflictions and know what's coming later. Still, if you cast this and keep it running you're all but taking a player out of the game.

Relic Recommendations

Your main choice at relic selection is whether you want to improve your combat capabilities, your economy, or to improve your order count. You can mix and match these to a degree, or focus on one.

Combat:
Boosting legions will improve your ability to win fights at any point in the game, but most importantly early on. I consider them especially valuable if they make the difference in taking a place of power or winning an early vendetta to get enough prestige to rank up in the first few turns. Your options are:

Amulet of Sorcerer's Blight
Amulet of Soldier's Vigour
Amulet of Archer's Precision

Your starting stats let you benefit from any of these from the beginning. Blight is nominally stronger due to your 2 destruction, but infernal is also the weakest phase due to occurring last. It doesn't matter if you have 99 infernal if your legion dies before that phase. If you take Blight I would strongly suggest buying a praetor with infernal first, or ranged/melee last. Of the other two choices, I favor Archer's Precision, as prophecy is the easiest stat to level up and since ranged is the first phase.

Ring of the Loyal Servant

Always a safe pick with any build, a nice simple starting stat boost.

Ring of the Arcane

This doesn't directly boost legion combat, but it's still my favorite ring to take with any amulet. You want to be able to guarantee your rituals succeed at any point in the game, even when your opponents are able to boost their resistance. This makes accomplishing that much easier. The defense bonus will probably do nothing for you, but it doesn't hurt to be nigh-immune to other player's destruction rituals.


Economy:
Any relic that improves your tribute or prestige rank fits in here. Your options:

Crown of Authority

This will allow you to rank up prestige on the first turn of the game, and effectively saves you 90 prestige over the course of a game. Ranking up faster than your opponents provides a big economic advantage, but it also puts a big obvious target on your back.

Amulet of Nobility

Effectively a one time boost of 30 prestige and the one order you would have spent ranking up. Weaker than the crown in the long term but this is definitely the strongest early economy boost you can get.

Amulet of Opulence

It's tough to quantify the exact impact of extra tribute quality, but this is a reasonable boost that will last you the entire game.

Ring of Tyranny

An extra tribute draw makes you less likely to have to take weak tokens, and boosts your odds of getting the specific types you need.


Orders:
Crown of Bureaucracy

This is easily the strongest relic in the game. It's probably too good. Arguably you are weaker in the long term since you can hit 6 orders naturally over a game, but you are still getting 30+ free orders over the course of the game. As long as you can leverage those to get an early advantage, this is very very good.

Amulet of Charisma

Starting at two charisma effectively starts you off with a boost of 15 resources and two orders saved. Take this if you want to rush an extra order by levelling charisma. I don't think the other stat boosting relics are worth taking, as you're wasting benefit with every stat but deceit, and deceit will be tough to get to 4 early without charisma's convert tribute ritual.


I think other relics are generally not worth considering, though I'm sure there's room for experimentation.

Bazaar Recommendations

You don't want to plan your build around a single specific purchase, but you should definitely be prepared to take advantage of these if they show up in the bazaar. The right purchase can be a huge power boost, just be prepared for people to try to steal it or kill a legion with it equipped. Opponents rushing deceit to steal artifacts, praetors or legions is the biggest risk.

While they don't need to be prioritized, leveling deceit, prophecy and destruction(in that order) will improve your defense against losing important purchases. Arguably wrath too.


Artifacts:
Alien God in a Bottle
This doesn't do much to benefit you, but buying it will prevent opponents from doing the same. Not a high priority but you may regret letting someone else take it.

Black Heart
You can't go wrong with extra destruction strength, unless you're positive your opponents aren't investing in defense.

Key of Solomon / Lemegeton Seal / Scrolls of the Nephilim
A +1 boost to the three skills you're most likely to want to get to four early is very nice. Scrolls is arguably the most useful of the three, but all are excellent pickups.

Pseudomonarchia Daemonum
Get an extra order at considerably cheaper cost than four stat upgrades. Best as early as possible, I would consider doing nothing but rushing this if I see it in the starting bazaar selection.

Talisman of Greed
The next best thing to the Daemonum, a nice solid economic boost at a reasonable cost.

There are plenty of other great artifacts, but their power depends on the game circumstances.


Praetors:
Any early praetor can be nice for throwing out demands and will be useful for anyone, but less so for Murmur. Why bother with duels when you can use destruction? Still, one that gives a nice combat boost or resource income is always nice. My recommendations:

Xuul
Weak combat potential but the cheapest praetor that gives bonus resources, and crucially those are half wrath. Helps fuel your destruction rituals and leveling nicely.

Eligos
Extremely cheap, and melee last somewhat mitigates your starting legion's weakness. If you have enough ranged/infernal to wipe out an opponent before melee, it's time for a vendetta.

Valefar
While you don't strongly need the shadow income, they're the other cheapest resource provider. Never a bad pickup.

Xaphan
An extremely powerful combat boost, and also wrath income. Easily the best praetor for you to grab. Too expensive to grab early.

Astarte
The other way to counteract your starting legions weaknesses, but for a much higher price than Eligos. Still a great pickup if you have the spare resources.

Like with artifacts, other praetors depend on the game. Grab an early one if you need the boost to take a place of power, but infernal affliction or Danse Macabre won't take you over the edge, or if you want to land an early duel or three against opponents who haven't invested in a praetor.


Legions
There are no specific legions you need to aim for.


Manuscripts
You theoretically can benefit immensely from the manuscripts that boost your destruction or drain your opponents. Otherwise no particular ones to emphasize. With the current state of the Seek Manuscripts action, I still think these are usually not worth it unless you have an excellent economy and aren't at war.

[Lemurian1972]

The key to using Danse Macabre is to also use Witness the Martyr from the Wrath tree. Summon zombies, sac them, add their stats to another Legion for as long as you maintain the ritual.

[FOTCH]

Hah, I've actually faced the bug where Murmur's spawnling will not benefit from stat boosting relics the same turn I cast it ;d

Also summoning strider to mess with opponents seems fun, but the pain is their random stat upgrades... You never know if there will be 9 melee or something like that