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sniffnoySo: Endgame. Marquis on my side vs Cornelius on his. (Equipped with the Phylactery and the Blood Vial, respectively, but neither of those is relevant here.) Marquis is at 48 health while Corny is at but 11. We're at close range when I intercept his last character and he has to put Cornelius in.
Now it looks like Marquis pretty much has the advantage here. Normally I'd say Cornelius has the advantage over Marquis, especially in the endgame, but the enormous health disparity changes that. Now a single Vampiric Touch will kill Corny (assuming it hits), so he has to stay far whenever I have at least 55 energy. Now he has 6 dark resistance but I can still at least chip away at his health with Teleport, as long as I have at least 55 left afterward. And since Blood Burn is useless against him, I start executing a loop - Teleport, Teleport, Rest.
Now 3 Teleports would kill him, except that he has Blood Burn. After the first Blood Burn, Teleport does only 2 instead of 4. After the second, it does no damage. And since Cornelius himself is immune to Blood Burn, there's nothing I can do to increase it back except wait for it to wear off, while he can do it pretty much as much as he pleases.
So while he doesn't start it immediately, he does do it; he's down to 3 health when Teleport is reduced to doing 0. OK, I figured, I'll run him out of energy. As long as I'm doing my teleport, teleport, rest loop, he has to spend 50 to change range, and resting only gets him 40 back. So eventually I'll run him out and he won't be able to escape. But then I realize - Blood Burn only costs 10. He's effectively gaining 10 when he uses it; he can hold me off indefinitely this way.
My only chance, I realize, is to get a free range change. I mean, I could hope he screws up the loop, but that doesn't seem to plausible at this point. So I start resting. Doing nothing. Just resting.
Now here's the thing: Really, I should have lost. At that point, all he had to do was Voidstream me enough and win. I mean it's simple enough for him to incorporate it into the loop - Voidstream costs 20 (effectively 0), so with a single rest and single Blood Burn, that leaves him room for a Voidstream, which will actually hurt me at this point with all the Blood Burns he's cast on me, every time through the loop - while meanwhile I'm doing no damage to him. And if I *don't* execute the loop, well, then he can Voidstream me to death even more easily!
But there wasn't really anything else I could do, so I rested. And he Blood Burned. And I rested. And he Blood Burned. And he just kept doing this! He didn't use this opportunity to actually, y'know, attack me. Had he, I couldn't have gotten a free range change. But he didn't, exactly as I had hoped but not at all expected. I got a free range change, and then he didn't bother trying to fight it; Vampiric Touch, gg.
-Harry
(So, uh, remember the Stalemate Sucka rule. It's important.)
Now it looks like Marquis pretty much has the advantage here. Normally I'd say Cornelius has the advantage over Marquis, especially in the endgame, but the enormous health disparity changes that. Now a single Vampiric Touch will kill Corny (assuming it hits), so he has to stay far whenever I have at least 55 energy. Now he has 6 dark resistance but I can still at least chip away at his health with Teleport, as long as I have at least 55 left afterward. And since Blood Burn is useless against him, I start executing a loop - Teleport, Teleport, Rest.
Now 3 Teleports would kill him, except that he has Blood Burn. After the first Blood Burn, Teleport does only 2 instead of 4. After the second, it does no damage. And since Cornelius himself is immune to Blood Burn, there's nothing I can do to increase it back except wait for it to wear off, while he can do it pretty much as much as he pleases.
So while he doesn't start it immediately, he does do it; he's down to 3 health when Teleport is reduced to doing 0. OK, I figured, I'll run him out of energy. As long as I'm doing my teleport, teleport, rest loop, he has to spend 50 to change range, and resting only gets him 40 back. So eventually I'll run him out and he won't be able to escape. But then I realize - Blood Burn only costs 10. He's effectively gaining 10 when he uses it; he can hold me off indefinitely this way.
My only chance, I realize, is to get a free range change. I mean, I could hope he screws up the loop, but that doesn't seem to plausible at this point. So I start resting. Doing nothing. Just resting.
Now here's the thing: Really, I should have lost. At that point, all he had to do was Voidstream me enough and win. I mean it's simple enough for him to incorporate it into the loop - Voidstream costs 20 (effectively 0), so with a single rest and single Blood Burn, that leaves him room for a Voidstream, which will actually hurt me at this point with all the Blood Burns he's cast on me, every time through the loop - while meanwhile I'm doing no damage to him. And if I *don't* execute the loop, well, then he can Voidstream me to death even more easily!
But there wasn't really anything else I could do, so I rested. And he Blood Burned. And I rested. And he Blood Burned. And he just kept doing this! He didn't use this opportunity to actually, y'know, attack me. Had he, I couldn't have gotten a free range change. But he didn't, exactly as I had hoped but not at all expected. I got a free range change, and then he didn't bother trying to fight it; Vampiric Touch, gg.
-Harry
(So, uh, remember the Stalemate Sucka rule. It's important.)
