Commanders: Vitality, Healing, Defy Death

A cannon fodder in the Thunderdome training program asks:

Is there any reason to raise vitality on commanders when their damage is a percentage of troop casualty?

The short answer: my defensive PvP commanders have 3 levels of Vitality and Healing. I don't bother with much for my attack PvP commanders.

The long answer:

In a standard battle, the victor takes hit point losses equal to a percent of the army lost. The loser has their commanders killed, regardless of hit points. For large PvP attack commanders, there is one of two scenarios. 1. They succeed, in which case 100 hit points is sufficient, or 2. they fail and die, in which case all the extra levels in Vitality and Healing become extra resurrection hours. I don't launch big attacks that often, so Healing 50/day is more than enough.

I do use Vitality and Healing on my defense commanders. In particular, a siege camp or blockade will take many hits. You don't want your commanders to die from hit point loss, or your entire army will lose 10-15% defense effectiveness, and will lose the +50% speed bonus from Forced March. Losing that speed bonus is painful, especially if the survivors must march home over a long distance. I put 3 levels in Vitality and Healing for my PvP defensive commanders. That's enough to weather several hits. Losing over 200 hit points means your army has lost 75-90% troops, in which case the commanders will die anyway. I personally feel that it's useless to have a commander with 600 hit points. There aren't realistic scenarios where you could lose that many hit points and not have the army destroyed.

Take note, I do consider the siege commander to be an exception. While that commander is an attack PvP build, they are part of the siege camp. I would go as far as Vitality 5 and Healing 5 on that single commander, just because they are carrying the banner for a million troops.

Before anyone asks: Defy Death is junk. If I just lost 100000 kobolds in a particular army, there is no point to my commander having a 10% chance to survive. I can spend the two days on resurrection, because it will take a lot longer than two days to rebuild that particular siege army.

Until next time, cannon fodders:

Misbehave. Kill lots of stuff.

<^^^^^^^^||==O    Skint Jagblade