Starting Rez : choosing my first crew

[Necrosage]

Hi people. So I'm thinking about starting a Rez crew. According to some acquaintances of mine, they are a little harder to play than the nes of other faction. As such, I am seeking your advice on which Master and crew I should start out with. Right now, the 3 masters that interest me are McMourning, Yan Lo and Nicodem (I don't play in official tournaments, so DMH are allowed).

McMourning seems the most straightforward, but he also looks a little OP. I wouldn't want to be a bad sport for my fellow players.

Yan Lo seems to be rather difficult to use for a beginner. I am not sure how you are supposed to play him.

 

Nicodem seems the most interesting, but besides being a spammable source of summoning, is there more to him ? 

 

What is your opinion on these 3 masters and which would you recommend ?

 

Thank you for your time.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Nicodem can summon models from across the faction. I wouldn't recommend him just because he is a pain to fully collect. That said, if you buy Nicodem and one other crew, over time you will unlock more options.

Also Nicodem will sell out eventually and is not in production anymore, so worth picking him up early.

McMourning is considered one of the least competitive crews in the faction (though all our masters are strong, we are above the curve), but I personally think he is pretty strong. His crew is vulnerable to some tech (like poison removal) and REALLY vulnerable to some other tech (like anti healing). So be prepared to be forced to get creative. His crew also dies easily, so takes some skill to keep alive.

Yan Lo is probably the most forgiving of those three crews. The models are generically strong, you have movement tricks in case you make a mistake, and you have heals. The models are tough to kill.

So weirdly Yan Lo may be the easiest to start with (especially if you just have a set upgrade pattern you use).

But really all those crews are doable, so you should be fine no matter what you choose

[Necrosage]

Interesting !

 

I'll give a try to Yan Lo. Which upgrade would you recommend for the model ? I'm thinking Grave Spirit touch since he seems quite frail.

Also, does the regeneration from the grave spirit touch upgrade stacks with other source of regeneration ? For example, if I were to give this upgrade to Manos the Risen, would he end up with regeneration +4 ?

 

Thank you four your time.

[Arlos896]

Yan Lo is a very deceptively fragile model. Usually first turn he will activate early and throw out shielded on his crew and get some free movement. I will usually attach his spirit ascendant upgrade to make him incorporeal. Also ashigaru and komainu have take the hit which makes killing Yan Lo early very troublesome. Just my humble musings on the few games I've played with him. 

[Graf]

Yeah, Yan Lo doesn't always need a faction upgrade. Most models in M3E don't, usually you pick them to counter specific abilities you expect your opponent to have. Grave Spirit Touch is a bit of an exception, as it's largely for buffing your own crew, but being able to use the bonus action focus pulse is important - which you need a minion for. For his own, unique Ascendancy upgrades I also usually go for the Incorpreal one first, this gives him enough resilience until he is sufficiently powered up turn #3. If I'm worried about his survival I might add Izamu's or Manos' Reliquary on top during turn #1, making Grave Spirit's Touch unnecessary on him.

 

In terms of "what should I choose as a new player", I largely agree with Maniacal_cackle. Don't go Nicodem/DMH, once you get his keyword together (cumbersome and expensive) he is REALLY strong, imho too strong for casual games, your gaming group might not appreciate that. Between McMourning and Yan Lo: Pick whichever you like more in regards to their look or their playstile - whichever you will be more happy with long-term.

[Maniacal_cackle]

For Yan Lo, he really excels at keyword play.

If you just pick up his 3 keyword boxes, you're probably good to go

For McMourning, you can pick up his keyword boxes, but he may need tools from other keywords as you play him more. But keyword is a good place to start. Personally I bought his M2E box which gave a nice assortment of options for him, but does make getting the full keyword a bit awkward.

[Rufess]

One thing to note is that Nicodem is (probably) not receiving a title. Means that despite his huge summoning pool, he is relatively easy to be countered comparing with other masters who have 2 versions to choose from.

[Necrosage]

Yan Lo seems to lack some ranged options thought. What are your thought on the matter ?

[Maniacal_cackle]

11 minutes ago, Necrosage said:

Yan Lo seems to lack some ranged options thought. What are your thought on the matter ?

Ressers have the least ranged options of any faction I think, but yan lo himself has the best gun in the faction once he gets to turn 3.

[Graf]

Yeah, Ressers aren't a shooty faction at all. Sure, there are some high quality ranged attacks, but they are not the focus of the faction's gameplay. You need to look more at our melee options and the plethora of movement tricks. For an undead style faction, Ressers are very mobile, when compared to undead factions in other games.

 

50 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Ressers have the least ranged options of any faction I think, but yan lo himself has the best gun in the faction once he gets to turn 3.

I would argue, Seamus is the best (and only) true gun master (but not crew) we have. While Lo's gun is good, he often is busy with other stuff. Seamus on the other hand can leverage his gun each and every turn.

[Clement]

On 8/12/2021 at 8:24 AM, Graf said:

In terms of "what should I choose as a new player", I largely agree with Maniacal_cackle. Don't go Nicodem/DMH, once you get his keyword together (cumbersome and expensive) he is REALLY strong, imho too strong for casual games, your gaming group might not appreciate that...

Honest question.  Have you played a bunch of games with him to arrive there?  My (limited) experience with Nico was that he was an OKish master saddled with a DEEPLY mediocre keyword.  I'd love to be wrong on this, but I've literally never heard of anyone running any DMH master other than Collodi, and even then it was as a second (he's bonkers as a second master though).

[Graf]

4 hours ago, Clement said:

Honest question.  Have you played a bunch of games with him to arrive there?

No worries. I played against him a bit, the rest comes from (trusted) 2nd hand knowledge. I should have noted that somewhere. I would say summoners in general are strong (at least GG0-1) and Nico is no exception imho, though definitly no auto-win or something else ridiculous.

 

Of course, just looking at Collodi's and his crew, I'm assume he is worse to play against. ^^"