The Dom1 guys are usually used as rainbow pretenders. They get very cheap magic paths so that means you can get a very diverse set of magic without using up a lot of designer points, good if your nation lacks a certain type of magic your pretender can cover or if you want to do a lot of early site searching. It's very risky to use them in a battle though because they die easily, and they are also vulnerable to assassinations. The Dom2 guys are usually expanders as mentioned in this video, good early game, but fall off mid-late game because they can't use a lot of magic gear so end up sitting in your base. It's risky to use them mid-late game to solo take provinces as enemy thugs who are geared properly can easily catch up to them and kill them without a problem. Dom3 guys can be turned into very dangerous super combatants late game because they have a lot of gear slots, and they sometimes get some other nice benefits. They aren't as useful early game because you lack the magic items they need, even though they have good stats they need magic items to help them survive in a battle. They're usually taken as dormant or imprisoned since they aren't useful early game. Dom4 guys are your immobile pretenders, they are good if you want to go heavy into a scales build, or you plan to use them to sit around casting a lot of ritual spells. The downside being they can't move without magical assistance. They are useful when you're playing a nation that can naturally recruit or summon very strong super combatant commanders, so you're fine leaving them sitting around in your base researching. These are all just generally speaking by the way, there are many different play styles and strategies in this game.

​​@@cinifiend I also love how this changes based on what nation you play. One of the reasons I love EA Ur is that, because they are especially good at reviving a dead pretender, you can take a Dom 2 monster for expansion and still use it casually in the mid-lategame. It dying doesn't make a blind bit of difference!

yeah i was actually thinking about that while recording, but still youre basically always going to get hit all the time :D

That sounds really funny. Have you tried it?

Think natural weapons (aka breath) arent effected by it sadly. You can stack strength though.

Yes I tried it works(Breath range and beating indies) The dragon is only combat speed 10 and windrunner doesnt work (so I guess double bugs) the Tien Chi dragon is a little faster so he can kite if you pick up swiftness in the bless. I have 2 short videos up showing them @@LucidTactics

Love that idea. Dracolich is tough as nails, definitely a top pretender. I was considering him for my LA Ulm game on that huge bozmos map.

Berytos is made for a Thelkine pretender :D

Seconding love for the golden lion pretender!!

If it's something you think you would benefit from, the Immersion discord server provides mentorship to new players and aims to facilitate entry into the multiplayer scene.

Thanks!!

I mean it's borderline impossible for a noob to differentiate between them, something that can also be said about gods. But here we are, with hour long video get them deciphered.

They're actually quite popular, but there's not much to explain about them: you use the fact that they have access to a lot of cheap magic skill levels to get a varied & effective bless and then when your pretender wakes up/escapes you have a very solid caster

just look up "rainbow bless" and you'll see them plenty

Yeah they were the most popular pretender in dom5. I'll make sure to cover them at some point!

Twist fate amulet, Mirror Image, Quickness, mistform, Great Sword of Sharpness -> attack. Maybe deploy 2-4 of those guys. They are cheap with only 10 gems of gear each. (might also need resistences - not sure bout that part)

Thanks, will try it out! It's the acid breath dragon, so I need to look up if poison resistance works for that (I havne't seen acid resistance).@@LucidTactics

That does sound fun!

Been enjoying the channel, back playing dominions 5 as Ulm atm. @@LucidTactics

Love me some ulm. @@reddragon4482

They probably are the best race to start out on but i'm pretty much a noob compared to most players. It's just hard getting my head around how to set mages and stuff up or what I should be researching. I have formations and stuff pretty much nailed so far. Do mages of particular races have a set auto cast they go for or do they just cast whatever they have available? it's a bit of a head melt lol.@@LucidTactics

IMPRISONMENT

I can hear the sound of hundreds of priests Calling God: "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

sorry I'm beyond imprissoned. Just uhhh get some nice scales or something@@MCSorry

Yes! So that is a pretender with a ton of HP and a ton of protection. That will make it immune to normal human troops. You have some options though that you can mix and match. Get very high damage non human troops. (Ogres, Giants, Trolls) If they do slash/pierce, Buff these high damage troops with earth spells that give armor piercing (steel slice warriors, weapons of sharpness etc) Buff those troops with strength buffs (strength of giants) Make 'thugs' take some of your commanders and give them weapons with the (armor piercing) or armor negating tag. (Great sword of sharpness, eye catcher etc). Then put strength, quickness, and protection buffs on that thug and send them in. Might take you a little trial and error especially if the pretender is protected by an army, but its very very possible. Oh a final option is mass water and/or air elementals.

Thank you so much for this comprehensive response to my desperate plea for help! I really appreciate it. I was very frustrated when I posted this! The learning curve in this game is huge, and I love it. But I couldn't find anything on the topic with google. Is there a resource you would recommend for newer players to the series? @@LucidTactics

Invul stacks with armor but not natural protection