so - after my friend and i played hells out of the standard descent classes we now came to try on different playstyles and group-setups.

i want to play a spiritspeaker and for now am pondering with my options. was just curious whether anyone of you could give me a hint, talk about their experiences, point out malthinking or help me with my choice.

Note 1: I'm not playing mok, since i got really tired of him because EVERYONE tends to play him. as said, i want to try a different approach this time.

Note 2: also aurim is out, since i played him last campaign (which major success btw!)

Note 3: i know the other healer calsses are better, as said, i am pondering with the SS for some time now and am interested if i could make him work.

From what i have thought through i see my spiritspeaker going either 2 ways.

# 1 an aggressive semi-damage dealer with a supportive funtion

i'd go on shared pain and drained spirit (for the utility) and focus mainly on attacking, getting the little bit more damage to the party. also vigor comes to mind, which would be the long term goal.

heroes i thought of were:

1) Brother Gerhinn (i like his design, though i tend to rank him tier2-3). i would play this one because of his fixed (ok, it takes 1 wound) +1damage, which is really nice for straters, where damage often lacks. also this +1 damage could be the +1, which gets the engine going. 3 mps is a little low for a character which has to get to the minions and hit em (until i find a ranged weapon), and 3 fatigue is REALLY LOW =(

2) Avric Allbright seems really powerful. 4MP, 4Fatigue + he makes up for the lack of direct healing through passive and HF. 12 life is quite tanky for a healer.

3) Brother Glyr. he gets 2 mp every turn, which could result in 2 attacks every turn, which has a nice ring to it... . HF seems situational but ok, life is good

4) Andira Runehand, like avric has nice stats (12 life, 4 mp, 4 fatigue) and a more aggreissve passive + HF, not my number 1 choice but also in consideration... .

#2 a mage-like supporter

this time id go for tempest + ancestor spirits, to bomb my way free. in the unofficial errata it is said, that once activated, ancestor spirits will be applied to EVERY damaged/healed unit from the next source.

So it will be a 3fatigue, 1action (+willpower roll): 2 damage +poison to every enemy in 3 spaces and +2 woundrecovery + 1fatiguerecovery within 3 spaces.

2nd action then could be tempest or rest, or it could be used to get wherever the character was needed in the 1st place

this combo needs the following: good placement, good fatigue, and good willpower (im not discussing beyond 4!).

my hero choices would be:

1) Andira Runehand (again: good health, fatigue, MP) Willpower: 4

2) Jonas the Kind (4mp, 4fatigue) HF + passive REALLY works towards this playstyle! Willpower: 4

3) Serena (i know she is not yet released...) EPIC FATIGUE (6!!!) nice HF, which will help with the less healing i will have, only 3 MP =(, Willpower: 5 !!!!

so - has anyone of your played a spiritspeaker, and what were his experiences around him? can anyone point out something gone amiss?

urs

krawallbuerste

In my still rather limited play of this game the Spirit speaker have been VERY powerfull due to Cloud of mist.

In my experience, the players ahve to stay rather close if they split up, they die. So with a 3 space range you will nearly always have it up, this takes one of your actions, so in reality you only play with one action, which every few turns must be a rest action. Now, while this is very effective it means that basically all you do is walk, rest and use cloud of mist, bot its very strong.

If you can get a weapon that creates surges Vigor is great, if not it is useless. Vigor and either drain spirit or shared pain is a great combo, depending on what you need the most and assuming you can get that weapon with tons of surges.

As you mention, tempest/ancestor spirits is great together, Healing rain is also a great heling skill, but i do not heal that much, as it is AOE.

I think the spirit speaker is best in a 4 player group (i assume you play that) as he is dependend on that AOE healing if he should work as a healer.

While we are not in ACT 2 yet, some of this is theory, but cloud of mist works wonders, though kinda boring to play in the long run (luckly our SS isnt so good, so shes still thinks this is very advanced to play, and the rest of us often happens to have to tell her what exactly to do)

I have played the spiritspeaker and i did not find it an overly enjoyable experience. The class is sooooo fatigue heavy its insane, his abilities are also very action heavy - so i found myself constantly both not having enough actions to move around or rest enough and at the same time being constantly at 0 fatigue because there is not many opportunities for him to rest. I would definitely recommend getting any gear that adds to their stamina and picking a character with alot of fatigue to spend.

While Avric does not have fantastic fatigue his heroic ability is very good. His health means that he is slightly less likely to be picked on by the overlord and if he does he will not die so **** easily.

Edit: cloud of mist as stated above is interesting. It can be difficult to play with however as the healer always has to be the last hero to go one turn and the first to go the next turn, this is because the cloud also effects your heroes. So effectivly it can only be used every second turn (unless your group is constantly moving). It also adds to the dreaded fatigue drain and action drinking issue i talked about above. If i was to play this class again i would be more inclined to play the disciple along side another healer (like an offensive apothecary) and take up some of his more offensive class skills. That would greatly take away from the fatigue and lack of action issues with the class.

Have you considered Augur Grissom? 5 Stamina and an incredible heroic feat (no action!) plus a completely passive hero ability with no cost at all makes him a really great choice. He's tough and his might is very high as well.

he got out with 3 mp and 3 willpower

The 3 MP is less of a problem, due to how high his stamina is: you can move with stamina and rest more frequently with him, getting free movement out of his rest actions if you need speed. He does have a 3 willpower, but that's actually high enough that he won't be much of a target by the overlord compared to other characters: a 3 is reliable enough: it's slightly better than a 50/50 chance of passing (it's about 52%).

I would suggest the insane power of his heroic feat combined with his completely passive and no cost hero ability with his ridiculous stamina should make him a good option.

when played as the mage mentioned above he gets his combo off in 50% ofthe time - which is not something i'd rely on =(