Form Traits Explanation and Tier List - Age of Wonders 4

[@trixie2558]

As someone who loves adaptation traits for singleplayer rp purposes, I know all too well that they are terrible. Getting info on what's actually good is a great help though. Thank you!

[@Xezarious42]

Not sure if this is mentioned in the video (haven't watched this one yet), but Arctic Adaptation has its use to speed up turning the world snowy in the "Tome of the Cold Dark" build, which gives you a ton of ever-precious Knowledge. It's a tempo play, but one that can be useful.

[@zakharpolikarpov2525]

Personally I think Adaptable is actually a good trait, considering it is just 1 point. Reaching higher levels 1-2 maybe even 3 fights faster would get you 2 more hp than Hardy for that duration. Since I've been playing Reavers in Campaign lately, I noticed that getting that Champion Rank on your magelocks really improves your clearing potential (on manual). You have good multiplayer experience, so I'll trust in Hardy being generally better, though I think there are some arguments for adaptable depending on your setup and that it should be very good on ranged focused builds (that apparently aren't meta)

[@simplythecat4068]

Adaptable is probably also just a crutch for Feudal to be a little less terrible, since you get to convert your peasants into defenders faster. But why would you do that?

[@voxkine9385]

100% play single player and 100% use random maps, so I love the adaptation traits. Getting stuck underground next to the sea is terrifying, which is why I take traits that make me more of a universal colonizer. Nothing I hate more than getting an underground start map and being instantly destroyed by it. It may not be optimal, but it’s fun! Same with the seafarers pick, not great, especially on non-water maps, but my economy isn’t devastated when it is. It’s honestly why I have 0 interest in mp strategy games. It so quickly kills variety and turns the game into a spreadsheet… that’s just me though, to each their own.

[@Xezarious42]

Loving the Age of Wonders videos! You are the best channel for this game right now.

[@Shinshinvariety]

Glad you like them!

[@emilsoderman3691]

Sharp eyes is one of those things that is immenseley hard to actually judge: +1 vision range is actually a pretty big increase in number of tiles uncovered, and scouting the map earlier means you know where to go earlier and that acn help you snowball earlier etc. These kind of scouting bonuses can be very handy but they're just about impossible to quantify.

[@kulovicz3152]

0:00 Introduction 2:40 Form traits explained 4:22 Adaption traits 7:22 Adaptable 8:46 Cheerful 9:45 Cold Blooded 12:03 Elusive 16:20 Hardy 17:30 Mount masters 20:23 Sharp Eyes 20:55 Arcane focus 22:47 Bulwark 25:50 Ceaseless cacophony 27:47 Empowered by magic 29:35 Fast recuperation 32:48 Ferocious 34:55 Herbivore 36:51 Inner Fire/Frost/Lightning 38:22 Keen-sighted 41:10 Light footed 42:44 Quick reflexes 43:57 Resilient 45:57 Resistant 48:49 Sneaky 50:21 Strong 51:57 Tenacious

[@AshenVictor]

The one mild synergy for Ferocious is that you can use the Taunt ability to force enemies to walk off of one unit to try and get at another, eating an opportunity attack from the unit that came and thumped them last turn. Bonus points if they can't actually reach the unit that taunted them (but have a technically valid path to it so they have to try).

[@HobGobMob]

10:40 Played feudal two days ago, and when I used CALL TO GLORY on my units with cheerful, they got +8 morale instead of +5, as the spell says. So I suppose cheerful works. If you're wondering why I played a feudal with cheerful, I wanted to see how much you can push tome archers in a solo game. I didn't care for cultural archers, but feudal gave me +20 dmg from stand together, overwhelm tactics gave another +20 while they stand together, but this time for my critical, I also took keen sighted for accuracy and cheerful for additional morale and crit procs. At last took Tome of Alchemy as starting tome for afflicators as starting archers. I was pleased with the end result.

[@cavalyn]

I feel like "Cold Blooded" is fairly important in multiplayer because an opponent can play a morale build against you. I've got friends who play chaos/shadow tomes and specifically make builds that will bomb morale to make 6-8 units run almost the moment our lines meet (with nightmare mounts ofc). There, cold blooded basically acts to counter them. But even beyond counter, you will eventually end up i 18vs 18 battles, even vs ai, and then morale is a big issue. It's also a 1 point trait that admittedly is for the late-game, but I'd argue it's such an important part of the lategame that it's risky to miss it out. Cheerful can work but it works by needing you to use action economy (like using a spell to raise morale) whereas cold blooded forces the opponent to lose action economy by needing twice as many debuff spells. Surely anything that causes that imbalance in action economy benefits you more, hence why cold blooded should be better than cheerful. And if you're winning enough that you can afford to cast buff spells on yourself rather than cc the enemy, then it's just "win-more" in the first place.

[@igncom1]

Buffs to vision range are exponentially good, as it reveals tons more tiles per +1 tile range. Of course how powerful the information you get is, can vary a ton.

[@MutatingManiacGarr]

Inner fire is really good when you know you wanna go undead with wightborne tho. S tier if you're going for that

[@adrienwarad]

im kind of maniac: - i always take "hardy", love more hp (and adds up to mounts traits) - i always take underground adapt because i love underground (i replace by elusive when i get primal culture) + i havent met players bothering me underground ^^ - i always take a mount trait (love 80% of them ^^, i got rare exeption where i replace by elusive + resistance) => i havent tested "cheerful" but i always take doomherald tome + celebration tome, i wonder how it would impact them (but i dont have points for this trait anyway) side note: you gain a lot of movements with desolation adaptation and underground adaptation, while you slow enemies if you paint grounds with primal cultures or abyss society

[@blackleon1708]

Yea, I thought you will do these after tomes, it needs it. You did it earlier, than I thought. Great aow4 content!

[@LordDevanator]

Tier 1 traits that I have played with/have an opinion on. 1. Desert is worse than you made it out to be. Starting cities usually have 3 cleared resourse nodes adjacent at the start. (iron, gold, and pastures) Desert doesn't start with pastures and doesn't get replaced with oasis(10 food is not a lot, but you're nerfing your start) Undergound on the other felt good to use(only 1 game, so grain of salt). You start with excavation(100 Imperium). Whenever you excavate a resource node is created in that province(can be magic material, but unlikely). Industrial pioneer can exploit and extract in the same turn(need to position corrrectly), which also creates more places to exploit. Adaptable is worth 2hp early game. First two rank ups is 10 hp each, 20% of 10 is 2. Will make more comments later.

[@earlkoh216]

A big problem with herbivore is that the ai likes to run away from a melee fight to go eat a tree, which can trigger a retaliation attack. For that reason, i usually go herbivor only if i picked swiftfoot raptors/ elusive. Another synergy with bulwark is tome of the construct. A chain defensive mode is bonkers. Mammoth/elephant mounts can combo with supergrowth, making all your units single model entities who always do full damage. Personally i think that the entire form trait should be reworked. Double the amount of points to 10, and double the number of points that the majority of traits give. Better traits can cost a point more, and worse traits can cost a point less, making it much easier to balance. Personally, i also think that the swamp adaptation etc should just cost 0 trait points

[@somenonsense7997]

A way to better describe defense and resistance: each stack of defense/resistance multiplies incoming physical/magical damage by 0.9 Or in shorter terms, stacks of defense/resistance scales multiplicatively. Notably, each stack of defense/resistance is a consistent effective HP increases of x1.111.... , which is equivalent to 10 HP on a 90 HP hero.

[@hypercasual6788]

Looking forward to this after work soon. Its nice to get another perspective that is different than mine on the game.

[@simplythecat4068]

You gave me exactly what I was wondering about under your shadow tomes video, thank you!

[@HobGobMob]

41:15 Poisonous is very strong, because what did poison counters? Regeneration! So if you immune to poison and use regeneration enemy will have to work harder to dispel it, also it threatens to remove regen from melee enemies. Also poison is very common debuf, and can be even more common in some realms with wild life traits (etc. Overgrown Realm, Wildlands, Rampant Flora and some others), helps in map swiping. Just pity other traits don't give immunity for other common debufs, like burning or electrified. Also inner skills not only can counter enemy, they can counter cons of your builds, for example inner lightning would help astral builds or those who take iron skin, inner fire helps your umbral demos or plant transformations. I suppose it something. Also keen-sighted very strong for maglock builds, heroes or units.

[@HobGobMob]

1:15:20 This one is important Graceful Judge Mount is actually very cool, yes it's not a dinosaur, but it is even better: it is based of Kirin - Japanese (asian) unicorn, with sometime described as dragon, stag and some other animal (like tiger or horse) hybrid and hi is considered as protector of the forest. Also in Japanese giraffe is called kirin. It's not a good choice in a game, but he looks and sounds cool enough to take this trait anyway.

[@giacomomasi8718]

In truth unless someone wants to go for flavor the best trait is the one about surviving more... Is kinda Universal in all games

[@marvinellis7221]

One thing about the flying mounts. It NEGATES the embarked debuff!!

[@АлексейТюрин-д3я]

So, Keen sighted. While all of you said is generally true (at least i can agree with it), you missed Reavers on that piont: With base 65℅ accuracy its almost impossible to annoy or scare people (because lack of damage, even with "Sneaky") to that point, where they are decide to rush you and lock you down. In that situation you are forced to move one hex closer, where you will find youseld in situation, where any 40 movespeed unit will reach you. Not a good spot. Second thing, bug it or not, but im not sure, how "proc on hit" Works on heroes, because if you use ranger hero ability with canceling defensive mode and retaliation strike, and it glance - it won't work. So, at least for now, keen sighted is stronger than it seems.

[@ciscoytube5352]

Great content bro.

[@GrayWolf1192]

@13:30 think youre looking for the term Effective HP.

[@dependent-ability8631]

how the hell did this become an hour?

[@Shinshinvariety]

Started recording and didn’t stop until it was over

[@mneri82]

Woah less than 2 hours?!?!! What sorcery is this?

[@vickent2475]

Tomes please🎉

[@syrathegreat]

Bulwark Honor Blades 😍😍

[@spacesui-t]

I am addicted to athletics. Cant create a race without it anymore pls send help

[@TheOmokage]

As i know Fumble do damage to attacking unit if proc

[@Runstrem]

.

[@klodpraisor]

first?

[@adagiotal5417]

Imagine if he gave pills of wisdom on the game in the form of Shorts, as a consideration to the adhd population! Instead 2 and 3 hours uncut rambling! You viewer sort it out! lol No bro, cant stand videos 5 minutes long, imagine this, no matter how much I love AoW4

[@Shinshinvariety]

Put it on your tv then just go read Reddit on your phone and pretend to pay attention like everyone else

[@itsZandr]

@@Shinshinvariety my man really called me out like that

[@rogaldorn9178]

It's democracy and majority likes it the way it is. Simplest answer to your comment is "Handle it."

[@dependent-ability8631]

the gen Z mind cannot comprehend paying attention to something longer then a minute

[@adagiotal5417]

@@rogaldorn9178 How do you know "majority likes it the way it is"? May be with "another way" he would have 10 times more viewers. No?