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« on: September 15, 2014, 05:20:23 pm »
Yeah, I'd echo the mistrust of higher misfortune. On the net it usually isn't that bad, from what I've seen, but it adds a definite extra level of micromanagement (and/or higher investment in PD) to get by with. And that "not that bad" tends to be on a more... statistical level? I guess you could say? It's easy to run the numbers and say, "It has this or that % chance to do such and such" (such as run down your available gold by blowing up temples and labs and entire provinces), but in the field that can translate into a very direct "You just got hard screwed by losing a lab at a critical moment*" or something along those lines. And then there's needing to keep priests/casters/etc. on tap just to handle the bad luck explosions... it can get nasty, or at least very inconvenient. High order keeps it on the down low, a bit, but it doesn't make it go away (and gods help you if one of your enemies is able to artificially raise turmoil and cottons on to the possibility.).
I'd personally consider the dom a little high for someone without major blessings, too, but that's a to-taste thing. Dropping a point or two from dominion and either picking up the minor N bless or cutting out some misfortune would be more to my own taste. Having dominion high just for the dominion spread always feels a little wasteful. Your sacreds are still pretty decent if you're intending to use 'em, though, even if the blessing isn't going to do terrible much for 'em, so if you were intending to mass up chosen it would be helpful-ish. "Massing" the sirrush would both be financially ruinous and a hideous waste without a stronger bless, imo -- N9, at the very least. That much gold per critter and you can't let it be something that's going to go down relatively easy.
Only other potential worry I'd have is what you'd be getting out of its paths -- Ur looks like it already has pretty decent E/N access,** and you've got the casters to manage most of the low-tier air battle spells as well... 4A for boosters is actually a pretty good idea (then you could have a mass of 3A casters, for happy fun zappy time), but I'd arguably want to swap that N out for blood (which would entail a chassis switch, iirc, but blood stones***) or somethin'. And now I notice the main point of the 4A/E -- I keep forgetting the staves are a thing.
As for SC potential, I'd almost suggest taking the Annuki of the Morning Star, instead, with basically the same paths except 3S instead of 3N -- despite the lack of innate awe (which is kinda' meh -- plenty of stuff ignores awe in D4), she's arguably more SC-capable (has boot slot and already flies) and while the S would leave her vulnerable to duals, the lack of S leaves your entire nation vulnerable to Mind Hunt -- and let me tell you, a decent mind hunt assault on your capital or something else important would leave you in metaphorical tears, heh. That would depend on your opponents, though... if you've got a high S nation in the fight with you, I'd almost certainly suggest a pretender with at-least S3, to keep the mind hunts away. Otherwise, more flexibility in what can be built. E: Morning Star would actually let you squeak in a minor astral bless, with the exact same dominion and scales.
*Oh hey, your throne castle under siege just had its lab go up in flames. You can't bring in more supply items. Or summon things to shore up the walls. Welp :V Sure, there's no guarantee something like that will happen, but you know what they say about murphy...
**Actually tops out at 4 or 5, on rare shaman, with around a 1/3rd chance of a 3E or 4N -- guaranteed 3N, which makes the 3N on your pretender somewhat of a waste of points. Would be like taking 3S on a MA R'yleh pretender, which you probably don't want to do.
***And the ability to basically make your every E random shaman an E5 caster. E6, if you grab up the staves of elemental mastery as well. You can do nasty things with a handful of E6 casters >_>
