*Please note- If you have not read the previous post "What is Mage Wars?", or do not have a general understanding of how the game works, this post will not be useful to you. It will most likely confuse you unless you understand how the game plays. I will not be going over the types of spells or mechanics of gameplay in this post. Instead, I will be referencing cards, images of which can be found at the bottom of the page, and talking about the usefulness and details of said cards.*
Today we will be taking a closer look at the Priestess. Including general strategy tips for using her. As you can see from the photo above, she has the generic 120 spellbook points, 32 life, 0 armor, and a channeling rate of 10. She also has the basic quick melee attack of 3 dice.
The Priestess worships Asyra, a holy God who protects the people of the nation of Westlock, who look to Asyra for guidance and protection. The Priestess is "Asyra's will manifested on Etheria" (http://www.arcanewonders.com/the-mages-of-etheria/the-priestess-of-asyra). Because of her devotion to Asyra, she is trained in the Holy school of magic. This also means that any Dark spells cost her triple because they are completely against her nature. She is able to summon Angels, Holy Clerics and Knights, and other Holy creatures to help her in her battles. She also focuses on other Holy spells that are mostly used to heal and protect her companions.
The Priestess has two abilities, both of which improve upon her healing/support capabilities, Divine Reward and Restore.
Divine Reward:
This ability adds to her life total every time she casts a Holy enchantment or incantation. It does not remove one damage from her, it adds one to her actual life total. This ability is very useful, because the Priestess will be casting many holy spells. She will be protecting her creatures, meaning that she will be healing them when they are damaged with Heal spells, which are holy. She will also be casting enchantments that grant her creatures holy protection, or adding holy vengeance to their attacks. All of these will be increasing her life by one. You could even attach a incantation spell to the Mage Wand card and cast it every turn, adding to her life total every time you do.
Restore:
Where Divine Reward is focused completely on making the Priestess herself stronger, Restore is completely about supporting the Priestess's creatures. As a quick spell, she can remove one condition marker from a friendly creature, or she can do it as a full spell to remove as many as she wants, paying the removal costs of course. Oh, your Knight of Westlock has a rot marker on it? No problem, just use Restore and get rid of it. He has 4 burns on him? It's still no problem, now you just use the full action version of it and he's as good as new.
Today we will be taking a closer look at the Priestess. Including general strategy tips for using her. As you can see from the photo above, she has the generic 120 spellbook points, 32 life, 0 armor, and a channeling rate of 10. She also has the basic quick melee attack of 3 dice.
The Priestess worships Asyra, a holy God who protects the people of the nation of Westlock, who look to Asyra for guidance and protection. The Priestess is "Asyra's will manifested on Etheria" (http://www.arcanewonders.com/the-mages-of-etheria/the-priestess-of-asyra). Because of her devotion to Asyra, she is trained in the Holy school of magic. This also means that any Dark spells cost her triple because they are completely against her nature. She is able to summon Angels, Holy Clerics and Knights, and other Holy creatures to help her in her battles. She also focuses on other Holy spells that are mostly used to heal and protect her companions.
The Priestess has two abilities, both of which improve upon her healing/support capabilities, Divine Reward and Restore.
Divine Reward:
This ability adds to her life total every time she casts a Holy enchantment or incantation. It does not remove one damage from her, it adds one to her actual life total. This ability is very useful, because the Priestess will be casting many holy spells. She will be protecting her creatures, meaning that she will be healing them when they are damaged with Heal spells, which are holy. She will also be casting enchantments that grant her creatures holy protection, or adding holy vengeance to their attacks. All of these will be increasing her life by one. You could even attach a incantation spell to the Mage Wand card and cast it every turn, adding to her life total every time you do.
Restore:
Where Divine Reward is focused completely on making the Priestess herself stronger, Restore is completely about supporting the Priestess's creatures. As a quick spell, she can remove one condition marker from a friendly creature, or she can do it as a full spell to remove as many as she wants, paying the removal costs of course. Oh, your Knight of Westlock has a rot marker on it? No problem, just use Restore and get rid of it. He has 4 burns on him? It's still no problem, now you just use the full action version of it and he's as good as new.
Strategy Tips:
The Priestess excels in the mid-game and long-game portions of the game. In general, the longer the match goes, the better odds she has of winning. This is partly due to her Divine Reward ability. The longer the game goes, the more chances she will have to cast Holy spells which increase her life.
She is also able to get a great "mana train" going if set up correctly. Her Temple of Asyra card allows her to use Cleric creatures to place a mana on the Temple up to twice per round. This means that she can bring out a couple of Asyran Clerics and essentially channel 3 mana per round on the Temple. She could even throw a Harmonize on it to make it channel 4 per round. This makes it one of the best spawnpoints in the game when set up well. Combine that with her already high channeling of 10, and you've got some serious mana.
The Priestess has some seriously strong creatures too. The strength of Asyra has blessed the Priestess with powerful followers. Brogan Bloodstone is one of the best creatures in the game. He costs 15 mana, has 11 health and 4 armor. He has a quick attack of 4 dice with a piercing of +3. But the nice thing about his attack is that it's Unavoidable. That means that if the creature you're attacking has a defense, you bypass that. You automatically hit whatever you're attacking. If your opponent has a hidden Block enchantment on them, it gets discarded without being activated when you attack with Brogan. He also has Lightning +2, which means lightning spells are more effective against him, so be careful when fighting Wizards!
The Knight of Westlock is another very solid holy creature that the Priestess has access to. He costs 13 mana, has 10 life and 3 armor, and has a defense. His defense is an 8+ roll, once per round. He has a quick melee attack of 5 dice. Like Brogan, the Knight has a Lightning +2 trait, making him more vulnerable to lightning.
Finally, the Priestess has access to a variety of powerful Angels. Which one you use just depends on your strategy, but the one I find myself using the most is Valshalla, Lightning Angel. She costs 21 mana to summon, but it is well worth it. Valshalla has 14 life and just one armor. Doesn't sound like alot right? Well, her traits are where her true strength lies. She has the Flying trait, which means that she cannot be hit by melee attacks unless the creature attacking her is also flying, or the attack has the Reach trait. Valshalla also has the Aegis 1 trait, meaning that all attacks made against her roll 1 less attack die. Valshalla's attack is a quick melee attack of 4 dice. Not impressive enough? Well, it's a lightning attack with a d12 roll for a status effect. On a roll of 7-8, the attacked creature gets a Daze marker. On a roll of 9+, it gets a Stun marker. That's a 33% chance to Stun and a 50% chance to either Stun or Daze. But wait, it gets better. Valshalla also has a special ability. While she is on the board, if one of your creatures gets destroyed by an enemy creature, she gets a Wrath token. Each Wrath token gives her +1 melee and she can have up to 4 of them on her. That means she could have a maximum melee attack of 8 dice. That would make her one of the most powerful creatures in the game, if not the most powerful. Of course, losing a creature is never a good thing, but at least with Valshalla, you gain something out of it too.
These are just some of the creatures that the Priestess can use. She has many other good creatures as well. The great thing about the Priestess is that she has a variety of healing spells that she can use to keep her creatures alive after they've been summoned. Incantations like Heal and Lay Hands can be used to remove damage from her creatures and keep them alive, while enchantments like Divine Protection and Sacred Ground can give either a creature, or an entire zone of creatures, Aegis 1, respectively.
Sometimes, however, a more direct approach is needed. Sometimes, the Priestess needs to head into the battle and smite Asyra's enemies herself. When that is needed, her Holy attack spells are there to do the job. Blinding Flash is a zone-wide Holy attack spell which hits objects except the one who is casting it. It costs 7 mana and rolls 2 dice of Light damage against each target separately. It also has a d12 roll for each target. If a 4-9 is rolled, the target is Dazed. If a 10+ is rolled, it is stunned instead. This means there is a 75% chance of rolling either a Daze or a Stun. "Two dice? That's it?" You might be thinking that. But the attack has other traits as well. It is unavoidable. We talked about what that meant before with Brogan. It is also Ethereal which means that is does normal damage to Incorporeal objects and creatures. And to top it off, it gets a +2 bonus vs Dark or Nonliving creatures. Combine with its high chance of an effect roll, and the card isn't so bad after all.
There's another Holy attack, Pillar of Light. This one costs 5 mana instead of 7, and targets one creature instead of the whole zone, rolling 2 dice. It also needs an 11+ to get a stun, but the daze roll has the same numbers (well, 4-10 instead of 4-9. Slightly different).
Maybe you don't want to cast attack spells though. Maybe you want your Priestess to be up in the face of the opponent. Well, for that, I would recommend the Staff of Asyra. It's an equipment spell that goes into the weapon slot. It costs 9 mana and has a quick attack of 4 dice, inflicting Light damage. In addition to that, it has a d12 roll. 5-10 = Daze, 11+ = Stun. It is also an Ethereal attack and gains +2 when attacking Dark or Nonliving creatures, just like the Holy attack spells. If you're gonna go for this strategy, you'll want to equip the Dawnbreaker Ring as well. Actually, you'll want to equip it pretty much all the time when you use the Priestess. This ring gives Melee+1 and Ranged+1 to any attacks that deal Light damage. So, with it and the Staff equipped, you would be rolling 5 dice of damage against normal creatures and 7 dice against Dark or Nonliving creatures. That's some serious power!
I hope you all enjoyed this breakdown of the Priestess! A more in-depth strategy article for her will be coming out in the future! Keep your eyes open for it, and hope to see you in the arena!
The Priestess excels in the mid-game and long-game portions of the game. In general, the longer the match goes, the better odds she has of winning. This is partly due to her Divine Reward ability. The longer the game goes, the more chances she will have to cast Holy spells which increase her life.
She is also able to get a great "mana train" going if set up correctly. Her Temple of Asyra card allows her to use Cleric creatures to place a mana on the Temple up to twice per round. This means that she can bring out a couple of Asyran Clerics and essentially channel 3 mana per round on the Temple. She could even throw a Harmonize on it to make it channel 4 per round. This makes it one of the best spawnpoints in the game when set up well. Combine that with her already high channeling of 10, and you've got some serious mana.
The Priestess has some seriously strong creatures too. The strength of Asyra has blessed the Priestess with powerful followers. Brogan Bloodstone is one of the best creatures in the game. He costs 15 mana, has 11 health and 4 armor. He has a quick attack of 4 dice with a piercing of +3. But the nice thing about his attack is that it's Unavoidable. That means that if the creature you're attacking has a defense, you bypass that. You automatically hit whatever you're attacking. If your opponent has a hidden Block enchantment on them, it gets discarded without being activated when you attack with Brogan. He also has Lightning +2, which means lightning spells are more effective against him, so be careful when fighting Wizards!
The Knight of Westlock is another very solid holy creature that the Priestess has access to. He costs 13 mana, has 10 life and 3 armor, and has a defense. His defense is an 8+ roll, once per round. He has a quick melee attack of 5 dice. Like Brogan, the Knight has a Lightning +2 trait, making him more vulnerable to lightning.
Finally, the Priestess has access to a variety of powerful Angels. Which one you use just depends on your strategy, but the one I find myself using the most is Valshalla, Lightning Angel. She costs 21 mana to summon, but it is well worth it. Valshalla has 14 life and just one armor. Doesn't sound like alot right? Well, her traits are where her true strength lies. She has the Flying trait, which means that she cannot be hit by melee attacks unless the creature attacking her is also flying, or the attack has the Reach trait. Valshalla also has the Aegis 1 trait, meaning that all attacks made against her roll 1 less attack die. Valshalla's attack is a quick melee attack of 4 dice. Not impressive enough? Well, it's a lightning attack with a d12 roll for a status effect. On a roll of 7-8, the attacked creature gets a Daze marker. On a roll of 9+, it gets a Stun marker. That's a 33% chance to Stun and a 50% chance to either Stun or Daze. But wait, it gets better. Valshalla also has a special ability. While she is on the board, if one of your creatures gets destroyed by an enemy creature, she gets a Wrath token. Each Wrath token gives her +1 melee and she can have up to 4 of them on her. That means she could have a maximum melee attack of 8 dice. That would make her one of the most powerful creatures in the game, if not the most powerful. Of course, losing a creature is never a good thing, but at least with Valshalla, you gain something out of it too.
These are just some of the creatures that the Priestess can use. She has many other good creatures as well. The great thing about the Priestess is that she has a variety of healing spells that she can use to keep her creatures alive after they've been summoned. Incantations like Heal and Lay Hands can be used to remove damage from her creatures and keep them alive, while enchantments like Divine Protection and Sacred Ground can give either a creature, or an entire zone of creatures, Aegis 1, respectively.
Sometimes, however, a more direct approach is needed. Sometimes, the Priestess needs to head into the battle and smite Asyra's enemies herself. When that is needed, her Holy attack spells are there to do the job. Blinding Flash is a zone-wide Holy attack spell which hits objects except the one who is casting it. It costs 7 mana and rolls 2 dice of Light damage against each target separately. It also has a d12 roll for each target. If a 4-9 is rolled, the target is Dazed. If a 10+ is rolled, it is stunned instead. This means there is a 75% chance of rolling either a Daze or a Stun. "Two dice? That's it?" You might be thinking that. But the attack has other traits as well. It is unavoidable. We talked about what that meant before with Brogan. It is also Ethereal which means that is does normal damage to Incorporeal objects and creatures. And to top it off, it gets a +2 bonus vs Dark or Nonliving creatures. Combine with its high chance of an effect roll, and the card isn't so bad after all.
There's another Holy attack, Pillar of Light. This one costs 5 mana instead of 7, and targets one creature instead of the whole zone, rolling 2 dice. It also needs an 11+ to get a stun, but the daze roll has the same numbers (well, 4-10 instead of 4-9. Slightly different).
Maybe you don't want to cast attack spells though. Maybe you want your Priestess to be up in the face of the opponent. Well, for that, I would recommend the Staff of Asyra. It's an equipment spell that goes into the weapon slot. It costs 9 mana and has a quick attack of 4 dice, inflicting Light damage. In addition to that, it has a d12 roll. 5-10 = Daze, 11+ = Stun. It is also an Ethereal attack and gains +2 when attacking Dark or Nonliving creatures, just like the Holy attack spells. If you're gonna go for this strategy, you'll want to equip the Dawnbreaker Ring as well. Actually, you'll want to equip it pretty much all the time when you use the Priestess. This ring gives Melee+1 and Ranged+1 to any attacks that deal Light damage. So, with it and the Staff equipped, you would be rolling 5 dice of damage against normal creatures and 7 dice against Dark or Nonliving creatures. That's some serious power!
I hope you all enjoyed this breakdown of the Priestess! A more in-depth strategy article for her will be coming out in the future! Keep your eyes open for it, and hope to see you in the arena!