Sanctuary - A guide to honourable warfare

This guide is intended to share my point of view of strengths and weaknesses for the new Sanctuary faction.

Introduction

Sanctuary is a new faction in the MMH series as far as I know. I am not a lore master and there's plenty of resources for lore around the web, so I'm not gonna cover it. However, it is important to note that Sanctuary is a faction of water and air. They are heavily defensively focused, featuring a faction ability which grants additional life force and defenses.

The Units

Core Units

• Shark Guard / Wanizame
  The sharks are sturdy melee fighters whose task it is to hold back rushing enemies. Their abilities inflict a slow and a damage over time (DoT) on the enemy. Additionally, they deal increased damage against enemies which are wounded by their DoT. Especially at the start they are valuable to protect your priestesses from enemies. Later on the make a good defending line.
  
• Coral Priestess / Pearl Priestess
  The priestesses are your first ranged unit. They are not the best damage dealers compared to other factions core units, but they reduce the struck enemies' initiative. Additionally, the Pearl priestesses get two charges of Waves of renewal, a spell which works like regeneration i.e. regenerating health over the course of three turns. They are your first income of healing and it is advised to upgrade them to pearl priestesses pretty soon.
  
• Kappa / Kappa Shoya
  The Kappas are a funny unit. They are good for rushing your enemy and getting close to enemy shooters. They have an ability that allows it to jump 1.5 times their movement distance and deal damage to the unit they hit. The Kappa Shoya even inflict area damage. If used at a good moment or in a good spot, you can literally obliterate enemies with the splash attack. Also, they have a really high initiative and will most likely almost every time be the first unit to strike.

Elite Units

• Spring-Spirit / Mizu Kami
  The water spirit is a supporter unit and quite efficient in defending against damage. In my opinion, spring spirits don't really shine unless upgraded to Mizu Kamis. Mizu Kamis have an ability to create a link to another unit, which enables the both units to profit from their linked unit's spell effects. Because Mizu Kamis have a 15% damage reduction passive and a water shield ability, putting that spell on a tank makes it more resilient.
  
• Snow Maiden / Yuki-Onna
  Another ranged unit for the Sanctuary, the snow spirits are rather average in all aspects. They can create a trap on the battlefield which deals damage to enemies who walk through and every hit enemy is chilled. Other than that, they do nothing special.
  
• Kenshi / Kensei
  Okay, straight away: Please enjoy every statement about them with care because I simply love them. Those nagas are the perfect warrior. Not only do they retaliate against all attacks, they also have a good speed and initiative, high health and resistances as well as good damage. And one more thing: The enemy loves to target them. A ranged fighter will almost always target the nagas, especially if they are at least in the middle of the battlefield. The Kenshis bring it even to a next level: Every time they deal damage to a unit they dealt damage the turn before, they get a free second, third and even fourth attack against the target. The damage reduces by 50% per attack but still amazing. Furthermore, the first enemy hit by a naga is challenged and deals less damage against all own units except for the naga.

Champion Creature

• Kirin / Sacred Kirin
  The Kirin is a flightless dragon with amazing speed and good combat abilities. I personally never found them to be useful for more than stopping units, which made it past your main attack force. The sacred Kirin leaves behind an ice trail, which brings every unit that steps into it to full halt. This may be good to prevent it from getting anywhere near your back rows, but I've never actually managed to make use of it.

General Strategy

In this section I am going to cover what the basic actions in a fight might be regardless of skills, hero, blood or tears and might or magic.

Sanctuary are apart from maybe the undead the only faction who could consider creating two main armies instead of one. This is because they have very strong defensive and supportive capabilities and they only need three units for a fully functioning army even late game.

Main Army

The main army consists of Kenseis, Pearl Priestesses and Mizu Kamis. The Kenseis task is to rush to the front so he can be target for all enemy actions. The Pearl Priestess follows up with a renewal spell on the Kenseis in the first turn and when the first spell has worn out. The Mizu Kamis will Close with Creating a Spirit Bond between the Kenseis and themselves, which reduces damage taken from Kenseis by 15% and grants them a water shield reflecting 10% damage dealt to them. The Kenseis will be busy slaughtering your enemies in the front while the Pearl Priestesses keep shooting at valuable enemy units like ranged fighters as there is usually no space for the Kenseis to walk around the enemies to get to them. The Mizu Kamis function is to keep the area near your Pearl Priestesses free of enemies and recast the Spirit Bond if needed.

Side Army

Obviously, the side army consists of Sharks, Yuki-Onnas, Kappa Shoyas and Kirins. There is no general strategy to use those but generally they are large enough in numbers to clear out some enemies guarding resources.

Hero

Blood & Tear abilities

Might

• Initial: Calm before the storm (Passive)
  Whenever a Sanctuary unit does not attack in a turn they gain bonus might damage and initiative.
  
• Blood I: Prepare for strike (Passive)
  Every movement point unspent increases the damage of the unit stack by a percentage
  
• Blood II: Twin Fangs (Active, 1 Charge)
  Target stack receives an additional attack for a certain amount of turns
  
• Tears I: Eightfold Lotus (Active, CD 3)
  Target friendly creature retaliates an unlimited number of times to every attack for a certain amount of turns
  
• Tears II: Eye of the storm (Active, 1 Charge)
  Target friendly creature evades next certain amount of attacks completely

Magic

• Initial: Inner Eye (Passive)
  Whenever a Sanctuary unit does not attack in a turn they gain bonus magic damage and magic defense
  
• Blood I: Watery Grave (Active, CD 3)
  Summons a geysir to deal water damage under an enemy living stack, soaking it
  
• Blood II: Monsoon (Active, CD 3)
  Summons Thunderclouds in a 5x5 area first soaking, then dealing lightning damage to them
  
• Tears I: Serenity (Active, CD 4)
  Target enemy creature becomes peaceful, can neither attack nor move for a certain amount of turns. Effect is dispelled on receiving damage and they retaliate on attacks
  
• Tears II: Tsunami (Active, 1 Charge)
  All enemies are soaked and small enemies are pushed 2 squares backwards

Hero: Might or Magic?

My advice: go Blood and go Might. Tears abilities are not very useful to the key strategy as defined above. Eightfold Lotus is no use for Kenseis as they already retaliate an unlimited number of times and Tsunami is so situational, you will barely use it. Serenity and eye of the storm are awesome abilities, but having to skip one skill entirely does not make up for that. So it is advisable to go Blood. I favour Might over Magic because your Kenseis are going to need good support on the battlefield as often as they fight. This is granted better by Might abilities. One key skill is Resilience, which increases defense and health after receiving damage three times. Another one is Counterstrike III, which enables your Kenseis to retaliate before the enemy's strike. Further very useful skills are Reinforcement to prevent losses, Rush / Heroic Charge to get to the enemy lines quickly, Heroism for additional damage and Morale, Toughness for more HP and Taunt to force enemies to attack you with reduced damage.
If you decide to go magic, you should decide between buffing yourself and dealing damage. For buffing I find Stone Skin & Ice Armour rather inefficient. You have great healing potential with Regeneration and heal. A celestial armour and retribution aura might be really powerful, but in my opinion, the Sanctuary's alignment is with water, not with earth or light. For dealing damage you are rather limited to Water and Air. They deal good damage and synergise well, but I have found them to be less efficient in the end than Might.

Weapons

Might

• Perfect Silksword for it increases damage and critical damage
  
• Silksword of the Kirin for it generally synergises well with Sanctuary units and playstyle

Magic

• Staff of the Tides for it provides great damage and defense for your troops
  
• Thunder Staff for the same reasons

Skill trees

Might[www.celestialheavens.com]
Magic Blood[www.celestialheavens.com]
Magic Tear[www.celestialheavens.com]

Conclusion

Sanctuary is a very interesting faction to play. Deadly and powerful if played correctly but not overpowered. Unfortunately, the troops are kind of divided into a group of really useful ones and those who are more fo filler units. A must have for any martial arts fan anyway ;)

[Rangeclaw]

Nice Guide