Essence of Power?

[FertileSpade]

Wondering if Essence of Power's Empower & Amplify make it a worthwhile use of 3 SS for Rasputina's Ca? Is it a better totem than the Wendigo?

[bertmac]

Can be, gives her a positive flip when trying to trigger overpower. Very useful depends what you're up against.

[hippodruid]

With a kill-based strategy and scheme pool, you bet it's worthwhile.  Raspy rarely has to walk to be in range of at least something, and even if she has to walk once, she will still be in range of both auras.  I'll typically take this with a Shattered Heart build, because Ca 6 Overpowers from across the board are no laughing matter.  Bonus points for leaving an Ice Gamin behind to use Bite of Winter.

 

As for better?  That's really situational.  The Wendigo is one of the few significant totems in the game, and it has terrifying synergy with Rasputina if you decide to use Freeze Over instead of December's Curse.  It also has one of the best Wk scores in the game, and people tend to forget that it's significant, giving it a little room to scheme.

[AnythingBut]

I don't think there's a strat and scheme pool that would make me chose the Essence over the wendigo.

Far too many reasons to take the wendigo and raspy is plenty Killy enough without the help from the essence totem. A few of my personal reasons listed below.

- Raspy crews (if playing thematically with frozen heart models) is extremely slow and lacks scheme runners. The wendigo and acolytes deploying from the shadows are both great options.

- without a doubt Raspys best (or most versatile) upgrade is Cold nights with the ability to place impassible, blocking, height 5 markers to block charge lanes, LoS or objectives Etc from opponents. The Wendigo's magical extension gives you the ability to place 4 of there markers a turn which will more often than not offer you more opportunities to score VP and deny them from your opponent than an extra Ca and the aura.

- Great synergy for killing models in one shot if comb'd with raspys paralyse (often cast through the wendigo itself) or any Ht 1 model. Looking at you pesky gremlins!

[Fenton Crack]

- without a doubt Raspys best (or most versatile) upgrade is Cold nights

 

While I agree that the Wendigo is a great model to take, as having a Wk 6 (greased lightning for a Frozen Heart model)  that is both significant, and not a Peon, for 3ss, is a ridiculous deal.

 

However I would not necessarily agree with Cold Nights being Raspy's best upgrade.  I usually do not take it, as with taking Snow Storm, I longer feel that her mobility at getting out of trouble is worth the AP use to lay down the pillars, but then again, maybe I just play too many crews with incorporeal that it I am not getting their full benefit.

 

I feel her best upgrade is Shattered Heart, and practically an auto include, despite its 3ss expense.  Without it you suffer the -1 Ca on any ice mirroring, and you cannot declare triggers.  With Shattered Heart and a cache, you can often make six successful attacks against one to three targets by stoning for Masks when you do not have them, and Overpower, and still often hitting, as even at the Ca 5 you can hit many enemies. 

 

With the Essence of Power, you can go really killy.  She has a Ca 8, and Ca 6 even on the trigger, and if you are stoning for the Mask to get Overpower, you will get the positive flip on top of all of that.

 

Still, with objective grabbing strats and schemes in the mix, I would recommend the Wendigo, but if you had Assassinate, Reckoning and Make them Suffer, I could really see taking the EoP.

 

At the end of the day, of course, there is no "right build", and I would encourage people to try the different builds in several times, and just see what works well for your style of play.

[Math Mathonwy]

I think that an argument could be presented that an Ice Pillar chucking Wendigo is the best thing you can buy with your SS in the whole game (excluding 0SS models like Huggy, naturally). It's completely ridiculous - fast, deadly, significant and the ice pillars are a game changer. They can be used to waste huge amounts of enemy AP if your table has the suggested amount of terrain.

[dgraz]

I'm with Math and Anythingbut........I think the Wendigo is far too good for its cost, I would call it broken....it's stupid good. The fact that it's a quick Significant Minion for 3ss is enough.....but also being able to cast Raspy spells (and Pillars aren't the only one.....he can drop an armor on someone for some support too)....but it's Trigger gives Raspy Fast which is insane, and having Devour with a virtually irresistible stat.....in a crew that can spam Paralyze. The Wendigo crushes the EoP in every way. 

 

I remember during PT that people were kind've stuck in 1.5 and used the EoP over and over so the Wendigo kept getting buffed until people started using it.....now that people have finally really started using it it's showing how unbelievable it is.

 

I don't agree on any Upgrade being Raspy's best. I think it's more of a tie between a few. Cold Nights is great and because it isn't Limited, it usually goes in. But to me it's a toss up between Shattered Mirror and the Armor. If you're facing a fast crew, that Armor (combined with he Df trigger) is a game winner. A friend is starting to push/experiment with Raspy as more of a support caster rather than a missile battery......I don't think a lot of people have have yet figured out just how game changing Paralyze is....and Raspy can virtually spam it. Also, by taking some hard models and spamming the Armor around they become far more survivable than they should....(try facing a Coryphee Duet with that extra Armor......or a Mech Rider....they just never go away).

[FertileSpade]

Thanks everyone for the great advice! Lots of ideas to play with!