OP MYSTIC ASTRAL ATTUNEMENT Build Guide - AGE OF WONDERS 4

[@user-ir4yk3jb5q]

I really like how the change to star blades really opened up mystic attunement. Now just about any combo will work and they all have their ups and downs. Want to create a circle of druids nature astral with animal or plant magic and lightning. Chaos astral for some pyromancers. Alchemists materium and nature. You don't even need to go astral for mystic any more. The cool part is each one has their own benefits that really help mystic when you play to their strengths. Chaos and materium provide gold and production discounts. Nature provides food and larger cities, order and shadow provide a bit of everything from vassals and shadow and astral provide magic and research. Then you have the tome bonuses. Tome of the horde gives you a really strong military start. Spawn kin gives you a 20% damage boost, you get a spell for summoning tier 1 units that allows you to bypass the gold and draft cost of producing the unit yourself. Blaze of the horde is a nice fire damage spell that scales, but the real hero is fury of the horde. A buff spell for all tier 1 units giving them strengthened 1 and applying star blades chaos for 1 extra fire damage. The cool thing about star blades is that it buffs base damage so percent buffs scale really nice with it. Normally an arcanist deals 9 damage split between fire frost and lightning. With one star blade that number just to ten damage. 30% of ten is an additional 3 damage. If an arcanist gets off all three attacks then that is an extra nine damage. That is equal to giving an arcanist an extra attack. Tome of enchantment gives you awakened tools for a nice production boost at the cost of stability, copper golems and buffs for your front line. tome of zeal has something similar. so I do want to point out that constructs, animals and dragons do not count as magical origin units. This means they are not great for school of summoning builds. They can however benefit greatly from star blades. You can make a mystic attunement school around studying frost dragons and with star blades every unit you get deals frost damage on top of its normal. Or a cult of wizards or alchemists that wish to spread plague with their defiled constructs. Or a mad mage who decided to imbue animals with the power for fire for giggles. As for mystics slow start, I imagine thats because of the hero. champions and dragons are going to have a stronger gold economy than wizard kings and eldritch sovereigns. The champion would give you the most well rounded start. The extra gold and stability would allow you to grow your cities faster while the extra draft and exp gains would keep your army competitive. A wizard king feels slow because if the hyper focus on magic. You only get the extra mana, casting points and over channel. So a wizard king is only as strong as the spells he has access to. Dragons are good for those that want a strong early military presence. You take a 30 gold hit of the bat but get a very powerful hero and an extra way to scale your gold economy. All it takes is a few good items and your economy will really start to take off. The caveat is that you have to be proactively scouring the lands and stripping heroes of their valuables. The cool thing is since mystic isn't as reliant on their crypts and prisons as dark culture is you can easily kill, strip and sell the hero bodies for an influx of gold when ever you need it. Eldritch sovereigns also need to be proactive as they need thralls for their unique spells. The only bonus eldritch sovereigns get outside of a strong hero is those unique spells. If your not making use of those spells then your better off with a wizard king. The interesting thing is spells that require thralls do not require mana to cast. So your less mana dependent than a wizard king but you need lots of food or vassals in addition to combat to produce enough thralls. The spells are pretty useful. Things like scouting info, research, draft, damage and movement spells and even some nasty summons that heal your units when they die and stun attackers. The astral siphoner is a stand out as its can disrupt enchantments which is normally reserved for the tier 4 tome of severing. One thing is clear, regardless of your leader a wizard tower should always be a priority for mystic culture.

[@spiritwolf963]

I love the mystic culture, even though I may be overusing it a bit since the update.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah lol, I totally hear you :D I think the devs really need to give the other cultures that same treatment. It rewards specialization so much more than ever and I love it ^^

[@horrido666]

You keep doing this, I'm gonna have to buy this game.

[@Ic0nGaming]

It's my replacement drug for Master Of Magic from my childhood. This games combat is getting closest to what I miss from oldschool MoM

[@Jabberwokee]

I do love me some AoW4 Hope they do more DLC since season pass 1 is over now

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah me too! For now I'd be happy though if they'd rework the rest of the OG cultures like they did rework Mystic. There's still tons of potential hidden there!

[@Jabberwokee]

@@Ic0nGaming I’d be happy with that, actually, perhaps subcultures for everyone?

[@HobGobMob]

I find mana addicts and powerful evokers to be great combo for mystic heavy on casters build, both give battle mage or support unit and both give ranks to them.

[@khufure]

Did not expect these tome choices!

[@scavenger6268]

So did you like anything?

[@Ic0nGaming]

Hey there! Haven't had found time to analyze your gifts yet, but I'll write you back once I did =) Currently in the middle of vacation preparations, everything is a bit busier than usual, forgive me ^^