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One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

Last post 07-20-2009, 4:24 PM by Curaigh. 4 replies.
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  •  07-19-2009, 6:44 AM 1798391

    One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

    Chen Stormstout arguably has one of the most powerful abilities in the game, and no one seems to care. Karma is huge! Reroll ANY number of dice while attacking or defending, for any ally. You just need to get one little chi counter on the opposingfigures to get the benefit of Karma. Tack that on to Chen's base stats, a solid 2/2/10 with a 2 tick 5 dice attack and you have the ingredients for a great brew. The problem is, Chen has some serious drawbacks.

    #1 Legendary: The obligatory 10 Honor and double VP's if killed. Admittedly 10 Honor isn't as hard to swallow as it used to be. But you cannot use Chen with any other Legendaries, and for double VP's you need some really good mojo.

    #2 Classless: While the kung fu pandaren has plenty of class, he has no Class. This SEVERELY limits Chen's ABC's. Imagine Vashj without Boots of the Crimson Hawk, Soulseeker, Wrath of Air Totem, or Purge. Would Vashj still be Teir 1 material? Probably not.

    #3 Melee: I am going to assume that you are already aware of the problems facing melee, and won't try to beat  a dead horse here.

    #4 Counters: Cleanse, Dispel, Mass Dispell, Frost Purification, Iceblock.

    #5 Crit: Chen HAS to crit to justify his other drawbacks. Otherwise he is essentially worthless. OK, you say. There are lots of ways to get the job done. Not so fast. Chen is part of the Monster Faction. That means no Balance Druid for Moonkin Form and no Survival Hunter for Master Tactician. The other Problem is that Karma is so much better than Mark of the Wild, Strength of Earth Totem, Wrath of Air Totem and Blessing of Might (even of there were a monster Pally) that to run any of them as ABCs for team mates seems a little superflous. All that leaves is Arcane Flux, which isn't really a bad option, considering all that you care about is getting Chen to crit. The rest is gravy. Since Chen is Legendary that limits us to three monster mages: Blindlight Murloc, Bloodscale Wavecaller and Razaani Nexus Stalker. Out of the three I would take the Nexus stalker as the higer defense stats would be benefitted more by Karma. So for the purposes of this exercise, at least until SoV comes out, the Chen squad is CRX. We'll expore the X options in a bit. First come the ABC's of CRX.

    Chen Stormstout
    -Care for a Pint?
    -Attack of Opportunity
    -Fog of War

    Care for a Pint?'s 2 ticks for 2 health that any ally can use, with Recharge, is not all that bad of a deal as far as I am concerned, although I cannot say that I have ever tried it out. Attack of Opportunity increases the number of dice rolled by 20%. there is that little precondition, but with Arcane Flux you are essentially rolling twelve dice in order to get one little crit. Someone else can calculate the odds, but they seem pretty favorable to me. Honestly there aren't any outstanding ABC's for Chen yet. Hopefully future sets will remedy that.

    Razaani Nexus Stalker
    -Arcane Flux
    -Counterspell
    -Flamestrike

    Couterspell will hopefully help against bands with debuff removal. Flamestrike+Karma? Yes please!

    The X factor: The goal here is to capitolize on having lots of dice to roll for one thing or another.

    Enraged Fire Spirit
    -Flamestrike
    -Fireblast
    -Silk bandage

    Rethilgore
    -Lycanthropy
    -Silk bandage
    -Fog of War

    Crushridge Ogre
    -Magma Totem
    -Chain Lightening
    -Grounding Totem

    Deathwhisperer
    -Bulwark of Azzinoth
    -Doomfinger
    -Red Havoc Boots
    This is the monster version of the Great Wall I guess. Yeah, Doomfinger is a little silly, but not as silly as Hood of Primal Life+Silk bandage.

    That's all I got for today, tune in next week for Anchorite Christia, yeah I guess I have a thing for Priests.


    Sarcastic remarks should come in a different color. Then the forums would be more interesting to look at.
  •  07-19-2009, 8:29 AM 1798426 in reply to 1798391

    Re: One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

    When you said you were going to do Chen I made a squad up of my own and came out almost exactly where you did, CRD.  I think I had some side board differences, but for main ABC, the only other thing I considered that you didn't list was the Hand of Rag.  I know it starts to put the honor into orbit, but really, you have to do something with the DW's ticks and at that point, aside from the high honor cost, it seems like a really solid team.

    One thing I'd like to point out, a karma token takes your 70% dice and turns them into 91% dice!  With any given dice thrown against a karma enemy you have to miss twice in a row.  I love that.

    Master Tactician and Rexxar...
  •  07-19-2009, 9:07 AM 1798436 in reply to 1798426

    Re: One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

    Are you running the Bulwark and Sulfuras together? Or just replacing the Bulwark with Sulfuras? Sulfuras is a two hander so it cannot be used with an off hander like the Bulwark. I was thinking along the same lines and that is why Doomfinger is there.
    Sarcastic remarks should come in a different color. Then the forums would be more interesting to look at.
  •  07-19-2009, 1:43 PM 1798527 in reply to 1798436

    Re: One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

    Oh, damn, I didn't catch that...  Hmm, I don't know off hand then how I would run it.  I'll go back to the drawing board though...

    Master Tactician and Rexxar...
  •  07-20-2009, 4:24 PM 1799339 in reply to 1798527

    Re: One Man's Junk: Part Three, Chen Stormstout

    Did you consider the crits when you looked at X?
    You are more likely to get the crits with Karma, so it would influence my choice of X.

    Nexus stalker gets a second attack (and a move) which is good.  EFS is 2 damage to adjacent enemy, in many games I have never been able to use it.  Zoo makes it more likely, I suppose.

    Flamestrike, DW, Rethy, Sulfars are all +1 damage and worth it.  Crushridge (& Blinky) gives a second attack, thats a huge bonus considering both can use Karma.  I think a rip to shreds would be a good combo for this reason, bringing warpstrike, or protector (not sold on a beast X.)  Flamestrike and AoEs are hugely succesful with Karma (provided you can hit more than one critter). 

    Since you mentioned Fog of War.  Skeletal priest has undead gaze so a crit pushes target three away and healing itself one.  With shadow form, SP drops 6 dice.  I  would like to see this combo work, but even in theory it sounds a little iffy, but it would have the advantage of carrying heals and purges.

    I want Chen to work!

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