Stacking guides: Part III, Ascendant

[flyingfox417]

White mages have the best defensive units in the game, so defense really isn't much of problem.  It is the lack of offense that make it unattractive to most people.  In the other site "The reincarnation", the white's ultimate spell "The holy light" is made to increase unit attack power and accuracy, thus making white one of the strongest color.  Here however, "the holy light" only kills some undead units in battles, making it almost useless unless the nether mage runs a heavy undead army, which is usually unlikely.  Still, let's start with the defensive stackings. 

There are a few typical ways of defense for a white mage.  These include:

-   pure archangel (strange metalic can + platinum of healing) <- early in the game, while the mage is researching

-   pure dominion (strange metalic can + resurrection) <- middle of the game, when the mage would like to geld for money and not attacking

I don't like the above defense.  While it's very hard (not impossible) to defeat those stackings, it would be impossible for the white mage to convert it to an offensive stacking.  There's no future in your mage if you cannot use a decent attack stacking.

[flyingfox417]

A more flexible and better stacking would be:

Archangel
Unicorn/Spirit Warrior/Knight Templar
Unicorn/Spirit Warrior/Knight Templar
Unicorn/Spirit Warrior/Knight Templar
Titan
Mind Ripper
Medusa
Werebear
Nymph
Dryad

A few things to point out here.  A lot of people like to put dominions top stack on defense in a deep stacking (10 stacks).  That is a BIG mistake.  While dominions have better resistances than archangels do, their HP/NP(net power) ratio is a LOT worse than that of the archangels.  In other words, archangels are superior in defense.  Dominions are offensive units.  They should not be used on defense for a white mage.

Now, archangels at top stack should not need any explanation.  The more debatable part is the 2-4 stacks.  A real headache for white is green's treants.  White mages have almost no ground unit that can withstand the powerful treants, and spider's web might not be available always.  Unicorns, spirit warriors, and knight templars, are the most popular (as they should be) ground units for a white mage.  Let's now compare them.

unicorns: HP/NP = 6.67; melee resistance = 30%; have abilities swift and beauty

spirit warriors: HP/NP = 5.47; melee resistance = 35%; have abilities charm and beauty

knight templars: HP/NP = 6.25; melee resistance = 75%; have abilities large shield and healing


In terms of defending against treants, knight templars are the best.  However, unicorns have the best overall resistances, and spirit warriors can deal the most damage.  Also, though both unicorns and spirit warriors have much inferior melee resistance than knight templars, they have swift and beauty and charm and beauty, respectively, to help them out defensively.  People usually have their own preferences as to which unit to put at top ground depending on their own experiences.  Also, for the sake of defending, you should vary the order of these 3 units once in a while to make your stacking less predictable.  This is why I put them in between slashes as Unicorn/Spirit Warrior/Knight Templar.  These 3 units should be at your 2-4 stacks always, but the order should vary from time to time.  IF you use unicorns or spirit warriors as top ground, I suggest you use Spider's Web as your defensive item to halt enemy treants.  If you use knight templar, a much less expensive item Brooch of Protection (+50% melee resistance) is enough.

Let's now go over the next 6 stacks briefly:

Titan: Titans are VERY useful units.  These are the best offensive units for white.  However, on defense, they can still be effective in the middle or down low.  Their attack types of ranged lightning and melee holy are some of the best attack types in the game.  Titans will kill a lot of enemy complex and fodder for you.  Notice that titans are not great defensively, so never put them in the top 4 stacks.

Mind Ripper: At this position, MR can kill a lot of enemy fodder for you.  Notice that, with white's awful spell level, you will often fail trying to summon these.  But they are well worth the mana and turns.

Medusa: Another fodder killer.  Since these are average units, white mages have a better success rate summoning these.

Werebear: Not a great unit.  Initiative 1 sucks.  These are here for 2 reasons. 1, white mages have few options in terms of the units they can use; 2, werebears are here to push down and protect your own fodder.  Plus werebears have pretty good AP/NP ratio, so they could serve as a fodder killer as well.  These are best when Sword of Light is used (attack type changed from melee to melee holy).

Nymph/Dryad: Not much to say here.  Pretty much every color should use these 2 as their lowest stacks to aim at enemy top stacks. 


For a white mage, the best defensive item is always Spider's web.  However, these don't come by often in the market as other colors are competing for this great item to stop the dreaded treants as well.  When you can't use Spider's web as your item, try some other cheap items like Brooch of protection, Satchel of Mist, and Bubble Wine.  BoP, as mentioned, increases all of your unit melee resistance by 50%, Satchel of Mist reduces all unit accuracy, and bubble wine increases your HP while decreasing your AP.  For your defensive spell, do NOT use a healing spell like resurrection or platinum hand of healing.  The former works best with ultimate units, while the latter works best with complex/average/simple units.  When you have a mix of all types of units (ultimate and others), the best spell is actually Blinding Flash, which decreases enemy accuracy evenly. So, combinations of Blind Flash + Spider's web/Brooch of protection/Satchel of Mist/Bubble wine can all work pretty well for white.

[flyingfox417]

Again, we can come up with an all-flying stacking for white mages.  A possible one is as follows:

Archangel
Dominion
Djinni
Griffon
Angel
Pegasus
Sylph
Sprite
wraith
wyvern


The top 4 stacks are your main stacks.  From 5-10, 1 cast of each is enough.  These 6 stacks should not be more than 10% of you army.  This stacking, due to the nature of the units, is purely defensive.  Use Blinding Flash and Satchel of Mist as your defensive combo.  You should not lose many battles, if at all.

Again, full barrier is vital for any color.  Treants with Rust Armor or Carpet of Flying can wipe out an entire stack.  You simply cannot let that happen.

[flyingfox417]

With white's limited spell level, there really isn't a whole lot of variations of stackings that they can have.  Still, white is the best defensive color.  This also makes white the perfect color for beginners.  With a healthy stack of archangels, they can safely test and find out things in the game.  I find a disturbing trend in the mega blitz server where there are only a handful of white mages in the entire server.  I hope that this guide can at least help encourage people to try out this color.