A very powerful casting strategy

Soulburn, Dirge of Ceresa, Corruption

from Elemental Forums

I found that the death line, specifically the spells Soulburn (requires fire 2) and Dirge of Cicera, to be incredibly powerul. The strategy is to corrupt all nodes in to death nodes, which provides a huge buff on these spells in combination with evoker and the starting soul staff. Dirge of Ceresa and about 7 death nodes with the impulsive trait does 70-80 damage to every unit on the first turn, and about half that each successive turn for 10 turns. This even works on the dragons in the final quest for an easy win. Soulburn does about 80-130 damage on a single unit, which is useful for those immune to poison.

I like powerful strategies, this one may be a bit over the top. Nearly all living opponents go down in round one with a net gain in mana from the soul staff (+3 per kill). In some battles I ended with up to a 80 mana more than I went in with. For instance, 8 units with 4 troops each, which is a large army for the AI, each get hit with 280-320 damage and everyone dies in round one. The profit was 84 mana (32 x 3 from soul staff - 12 to cast with some - tactical cost buffs). 

Even though this was OP, it was a lot of fun to use. I hope this isn't nerfed too bad. 

 

3,515 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The strategy is to corrupt all nodes in to death nodes, which provides a huge buff on these spells in combination with evoker and the starting soul staff.
End of quote

Frankly, that sounds absolutely awesome!

Corrupting nodes should be a global event and should really really piss off the AI.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sweatyboatman, reply 1

Frankly, that sounds absolutely awesome!

Corrupting nodes should be a global event and should really really piss off the AI.
End of sweatyboatman's quote

That's a good idea. Corrupting nodes had no impact whatsoever on diplomatic relations. I tried to just keep peace in this game because no amount of troops my opponents could make could live through a casting of Dirge of Ceresa (if a single troop unit takes 80 damage, a 3 troop unit takes 240). For a few gold coins, all of the AIs would be happy to make peace even after I had taken some cities that had nodes conveniently placed nearby.

A single casting of Dirge of Ceresa, even without many nodes, kills an entire army of heroes and troops. It makes a conquest victory trivial.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Is there anyway to reverse it? Seems like there should be a countermeasure.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


I didn't even see the spell to corrupt a node. I must have missed that.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 3
Is there anyway to reverse it? Seems like there should be a countermeasure.
End of Lord's quote

It would have to be poison immunity, but I am not sure how to get that for living troops. I think the hardy trait only confers half- resistance to poison damage, so it would still kill someone, it would just take maybe a turn or two longer.

Dirge of Ceresa I believe is a Resolyn faction spell, so maybe I should explain what it does. It does 6 poison damage( +3 per death node) to all enemy troops and half of that damage to all troops for each turn for 10 turns.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I think the spell itself is probably op. Also it should be mitigated by spell resist. Like all damaging spells should be.