Wishing you all the best this holiday time!
Merry Christmas from Crits Happen... and the Deathwatcher!
Passion, Fun and the Battle Against Cynicism
18 hours ago
Hey guys and gals. This week will be a little light on the postings as I'm taking a much needed and almost downright required vacation with my family. For anyone who doesn't know me well, I have 3 kids, ranging from 16 all the way down to 2, so it's a pretty hectic life.
The only unfortunate part is it's not like Christmas in Hawaii or anything, where we are it's 22 degrees at the moment, but we're near family, which is what counts this time of year.
Happy Holidays from Crits Happens and we'll catch you next week!
Note: All apologies with no WWW yesterday. We're in the process of revamping some ideas and flushing out the bad ones, and as such, things are a bit wild.
Today, we're going to look at ABCs. Some of my favorite in fact. And, in the process, give you a new challenge! normally, we ask community members to grade a team, or help us with our regular 2 out of 3 articles and supply their third option. Today, we're gonna do something called Reverse Engineering and have some fun...
Today we're going to give you a set of Action Bar Cards and ask you who you would use them with and why...
Sounds easy right? Well, let's see. First, we'll break them down by class. Then we'll ask you toll bring 3 characters. They could Horde, Alliance, or Monster, but must be all of one Faction, and of course, only have one Legendary... here we go:
Shaman ABCs:
These all go together, and quite nicely. Chain Heal is potentially my favorite Shaman card. It's versatility is amazingly well rounded. You can heal one person cheaply, or you can heal your entire party for an amazing 2 ticks!
Chain Lightning on the other hand is the opposite of Chain Heal, and is the damage dealer of choice for Shamans. Lined up right, this is a potent attack...
Especially with a Wrath of Air Totem around. Sure, the WOA helps both our other two cards and it's going to be hard to cut in games when you may need it, but in reality, you'll probably have the WOA and X with X being Heal or Lightning.
Warlock ABCs:
Fear, Fire, and Corruption. Ah, these are the things that warm a 'Locks heart! Corruption is almost a staple of every good Warlock. Recharging, damaging people and basically leveling the playing field all by itself sometimes.
Fear on the other hand does it's leveling, by running someone scared in circles! Well, not circles, but far, far away as they say, leaving you, in most cases, with an upper hand.
Incinerate... what? No Jhuroon!? No, no auto adds of Mortimer here today... not to say he couldn't run these though... Incinerate will work nicely with Corruption on someone... as well as some more ABcs were' about to show you that could make it utterly powerful!
Warrior ABCs:
So Warriors don't always make a splash at tables, but here, they are bringing the ability to stop healing, and debuff pumping for Incinerate if you choose. Mortal Strike is ridiculously fun if played right, and in the hands of the right warrior, can outright wreck.
Sunder Armor is great for when you are mixing it up with a Paladin or 3 Armor character and need to push through, plus again, it pumps incinerate.
Finally, the Bulwark is s staple to protect our other two friends in the party. After all, you don't want you tanks letting your clothies die right!?
So what's your take? Which Shaman, Warlock, Warrior combo can you come up with to make a fun, exciting, and potentially competitive party out of all this?
The choice is yours... we hope you like this new take on Party building, and hope it inspires your creative juices...
So Vegas has come and gone. Cairne showed up big (props to Nick from Austin for his top 8 with the funkiest combo of the day, and MRW01 for showing us the power of it at BGs locally), Vashj was around, and Kael and Arugal were Magetastic, but in the end, two Legendary-less teams made the finals.
Congrats to all, and Nathan especially, the DMF: Vegas champion!
So now, what's next? Well, I want to look at a mini that was something, had I gone, I would have played with, and he's an oldie but a goodie.
Ta'zo was part of my first build for Vegas. I love this character, and have always felt he's just lacking that ONE thing. What's that ONE thing? Well, to me it was making him even faster than he is. In Tri-Faction, that means Savin. Hand's down, Ta'zo is begging for a Blessing of wisdom in the Horde.
However, this week, we're going to make a Ta'zo focused, normal, all Horde team. Hey, the boys in Blood Red can only play so nice with the other kids before one of them eats another... then it's on!
So, since Horde is EXTREMELY lacking in the Blessing of Wisdom marketplace... what can we do with Ta'zo to make him better in faction? Mages jump out, providing him flux, while allowing Ta'zo to bring two powerful mage cards himself, however I've noticed that playing him, Flamestrike and Arcane Flux go so well with Ta'zo's speed, it's hard to get another card in his bar without feeling like you are wasting his potential. Well, Thangal of course jumps out. Rerolls, at any time, are good. However, I think I'd prefer another Druid...
If I can't do it for 1 less, I'm gonna at least ensure I crit dang it:
Morova brings the more powreful option of 9s as crits with Moonkin Form and that's just what the doctor ordered here! This offers Tazo both someone who has the option of bringing heals for him, but more importantly, makes that pop shot crit ability more achievable. Additionally, Morova can bring many good Druid options to the table, and is a 3/3/8 as well (in Moonkin), not too shabby.
Now, what do we pick as our third here? Could it be a protector? Could it be a hunter slowing people in their tracks so they can never get close to us? Perhaps a epic to pump up our dice? Whatever your choice, if you haven't played with Ta'zo in a while, dust him off, he's super fun, and very powerful in the right hands.
Oh, and if you were wondering, my original plan for Vegas was Ta'zo, Savin Lightguard, and Ras Frostwhisper. It's fun, not as potent as I hoped, and Archmage Arugal proved to be better overll (see, Ben DOES know some things!) but it was still a super fun team to play with.
Let us know your third for our merry little mess of mayhem here, lest you get burned along the way by the fire of Ta'zo!
Congratulations go out today... Jim N. from Troy Michigan is the proud random winner of our Mortimer the Free contest! Jim can now sport one of the most popular minis in the game, just for getting his hands on some Crits Happen dice!
Jim, we'll be shipping you a Mortimer and a Character card shortly! Congratulations and thank you all for making Crits Happen Dice so popular!
If you haven't ordered yours yet... why not? Click here to order on eBay or click the link in our top bar to email us about custom colors today!
So Vegas is almost here, completely, utterly, RIGHT HERE! What are you going to do with Tri-Faction madness staring you in the face? No more re-rolls with Bloodscale Wavecaller and Lady Vashj together! No Savin protecting Prophet Velen! And most importantly, NO CELENIAS FIREMANE TO GO WITH YOUR DROKKAR OF THE FOUR BOARS!!!! WHAT WILL YOU DO!?
Well, most people honestly will be playing Vashj. She's ridonkulous with a capital K... which of course stands for Killing Machine. Put her next to Savin and it's usually lights out all by themselves.
However, I wanted to share a team with you this week, which I think is just as powerful, if not potentially more poweful. I was able to see this team move in person, first hand, across the board from me at Gencon and it's ridiculously fun and still solid.
Now, first thing to note is this team does not let you tick Savin by one to use Kael'thas's Flamestrike. Since his Legendary card isn't an attack, it can't work that way. However, it is still ridiculous, if not ridonkulous. Kael works his magic with 2 tick 7 dice attacks that either bounce his protecting paladin to him, or keep Thangal in the way, or primely set up for a sneak attack in kitty cat form. He also drops 2 tick regular flamestrikes which is nuts. Meanwhile, there is that BOMB thing to worry about when it does come out.
Thangal offers the Prince rerolls, dps in Cat form, and healing that is almost guaranteed every tick when using Tranquility in the game. Miss your one die? Who cares when you are Thangal the Reroller!
Savin of course is there to protect and battery charge, and it doesn't hurt to see a 3 tick Starfire either! Additionally he has his healing and can pack Cleanse when needed.
It is an all around team, with already tough to kill pieces, that can beat Vashj in this format. I've seen it with my own eyes and no, no one got lucky. I wish everyone luck going to Vegas, I wish I was there with you. Feel free to post your thoughts here, what you may be taking or looking forward to playing against, or, as the weekend progresses, how things are going.
Best of luck!
Keeping in our Jackpot Vegas Mode, let's look at another tri-faction possible duo this week, and see what we come up with shall we?
Last week we looked at the power of Varimathras along with Leader of the Pack. So this week, let's keep the same theme of trying not to use Vashj as an obvious third choice, and see what we can wreak havoc with, by aligning ourselves with another Epic, of a different flavor.
Let us begin with another Monster altogether:
That's right, Archmage Arugal! Arugal brings a bevy of options to the table, first and foremost is of course, You Too Shall Serve (YTSS). This card obviously is huge, and could be even more gigantic in Tri-Faction play at Vegas, as there is nothing quite like taking over an opponent's Savin and using his Flash of Light to heal yourself, or a comrade, let alone, swing 7 dice on his one-time allies, which if Savin is damage, and all three of your characters are damaged, it could potentially hit for 11! Not bad!
Additionally though, Arugal brings Flamestrikes, Arcane Flux, Counterspells, and probably the most to be used card at Vegas, Polymorph. Poly will be a staple as anyone playing wants to eliminate Savin, or a Savin-like character that is a back bone of the opposing army asap.
Additionally, teleporting 3 does NOT suck!
So, who can we put with our evil clothy of terror? Well, Savin is an obvious choice here, to protect and heal. Aleyah may even be a good option to go with for the Horde side, with some of the same benefits. However, let's go a different route:
Illiana!? Yes, if you haven't played with this Pally, I highly suggest it, she's very fun, and very versatile. Sure, she doesn't soak up damage like Aleyah, or allow you to lower your magic attacks like Savin, but, she does have on card Protector, brings a Flash of Light, and can bring a Avenger's Shield, which, in a game of wanting to tick people to get into ticks 6 through 10, could be very powerful!
Additionally, she can bring things like Crusader Aura if needed, or Blessing of Kings, either of which are beneficial. And finally, in a pinch, she has her on card heal, which isn't great, but can help as a last ditch resort.
so we have a powerful offensive mage, um, I mean, Archmage, and a healing, protecting, potentially ticking up paladin in tow. Who's the third? Your missing, is to go find us an alliance friend to bring to the party! Who should it be and why?
