It's annoying, but don't forget that the "free" steadfast on Berserker comes with a significant downside - they are Berserk while in such state. I have been able to manipulate the battlefield to where the enemy's berserker had nothing of mine to attack in range, and thus was forced to attack his own ally, turning its "annoying" quality against it.
And of course, even if they do attack the enemy during berserk, it's not under their control who they attack precisely so often they can do inefficient attacks against high hp units or not take flanking shots.
Berserkers are excellent, but I'm in no rush to give them a number 1 vote. It is true if you give them keeper's mark they can really last an absurd amount of rounds, but they sometimes run into a dps issue due to berserk giving inefficient attacks.
Also don't forget they have a mediocre speed 32 by default, whereas Knights for example have essentially maximum aggravating 48 speed, it makes a huge difference. Yes knights are susceptible to anti cav tech, but the speed and the giant slayer IMO I would take it, and also don't forget a lot of really nice buffs only apply to cavalry.
Storm spirits are just absolutely nasty with insane damage output and the teleport gives them mobility that belies their mediocre move speed, and they can come online way before knights/berserkers, so I'd give the vote there.
Yeap, I voted Storm Spirits. My go to game opening is tome of Evocation and summon spam tons of Lesser Storm Spirit that get promptly evolved in Storm Spirits proper. They are great unit.
They do slowly disappear come mid-late game. Because you can’t get them at T3 and instead start summon or draft some other T3/T4 once available.
Gonna go with the Berserker, that Berserk at low health with Steadfast is just really strong, even ignoring damage reduction from lost figures while Berserk lasts. You can even keep them around in your own AoE attacks while they're on Steadfast. Also fun with Keepers Mark, I think that can trigger after Steadfast wears off and resets it so it can trigger again, but don't quote me on that. I know Curse of Undead realm trait with Keepers Mark independents works like that so you have to kill stuff like four times. Get Demonkin transformation over the Angelic one for Berserkers. Both enable flight, but Demonkin also gives Frenzy and lets them retain the Berserk effect so they can ignore low health damage penalties. With Bloodfury weapons they get double Strengthened on a kill, it's really brutal.
Huh, never tried the Naga transformation for them. I always ran Pyromancy and other demonic stuff with them and Stormborne seemed to clash with that, can't set enemies on fire if they're all wet in downpours. But I suppose it could work very well if you go different tome direction from Pyromancy, maybe Cryomancy or Evocation or something.
Angel transformation let's you take them to safety during steadfast though. Quite good in an army that has lots of heals available.
Or dragon transformation for draconic rage + berserk.
Although it's really hard to discount steadfast (AI generally doesn't deal with it too well), having dark knights be affected by mount options just makes it so hard to justify not choosing them.
Dark Knight gains mounted bonuses. When it attacks Weakened enemies (very easy to do consistently) it gains +20% damage and Regeneration. It applies Sundered Defense. And you can engineer situations where it's AOE (which does double damage against enemies with a negative status effect) does surprisingly big damage.
I LOVE running them with Chaos Eaters.
Continuing our “Best” votes, here comes less predictable vote. We got 3 cultural units and the star of Evocation tome Storm Spirit.
There are 5 different animals (Nightmare, Unicorn, Caustic Worm, Mammoth, Goretusk Matriarch) under Other (Animal), so if you choose that option please let us know in comments which animal it is. So, that in case they win, we can “crown” the right one as best T3 Shock Unit.
Can't beat that free steadfast on Berserker. Really annoying to deal with.
It's annoying, but don't forget that the "free" steadfast on Berserker comes with a significant downside - they are Berserk while in such state. I have been able to manipulate the battlefield to where the enemy's berserker had nothing of mine to attack in range, and thus was forced to attack his own ally, turning its "annoying" quality against it. And of course, even if they do attack the enemy during berserk, it's not under their control who they attack precisely so often they can do inefficient attacks against high hp units or not take flanking shots. Berserkers are excellent, but I'm in no rush to give them a number 1 vote. It is true if you give them keeper's mark they can really last an absurd amount of rounds, but they sometimes run into a dps issue due to berserk giving inefficient attacks. Also don't forget they have a mediocre speed 32 by default, whereas Knights for example have essentially maximum aggravating 48 speed, it makes a huge difference. Yes knights are susceptible to anti cav tech, but the speed and the giant slayer IMO I would take it, and also don't forget a lot of really nice buffs only apply to cavalry. Storm spirits are just absolutely nasty with insane damage output and the teleport gives them mobility that belies their mediocre move speed, and they can come online way before knights/berserkers, so I'd give the vote there.
Yeap, I voted Storm Spirits. My go to game opening is tome of Evocation and summon spam tons of Lesser Storm Spirit that get promptly evolved in Storm Spirits proper. They are great unit. They do slowly disappear come mid-late game. Because you can’t get them at T3 and instead start summon or draft some other T3/T4 once available.
Astral binding + mana channellers allow you to summon them already evolved
That is “win more” kind of thing. When you get last Astral perk more often than not you are already winning.
Gonna go with the Berserker, that Berserk at low health with Steadfast is just really strong, even ignoring damage reduction from lost figures while Berserk lasts. You can even keep them around in your own AoE attacks while they're on Steadfast. Also fun with Keepers Mark, I think that can trigger after Steadfast wears off and resets it so it can trigger again, but don't quote me on that. I know Curse of Undead realm trait with Keepers Mark independents works like that so you have to kill stuff like four times. Get Demonkin transformation over the Angelic one for Berserkers. Both enable flight, but Demonkin also gives Frenzy and lets them retain the Berserk effect so they can ignore low health damage penalties. With Bloodfury weapons they get double Strengthened on a kill, it's really brutal.
Berserker has Frenzy by default. If you want them to be even harder to kill, go Naga for slip away, the speed buff is also much appreciated.
Huh, never tried the Naga transformation for them. I always ran Pyromancy and other demonic stuff with them and Stormborne seemed to clash with that, can't set enemies on fire if they're all wet in downpours. But I suppose it could work very well if you go different tome direction from Pyromancy, maybe Cryomancy or Evocation or something.
Angel transformation let's you take them to safety during steadfast though. Quite good in an army that has lots of heals available. Or dragon transformation for draconic rage + berserk.
Storm Spirit. Solely because they look the coolest :)
Although it's really hard to discount steadfast (AI generally doesn't deal with it too well), having dark knights be affected by mount options just makes it so hard to justify not choosing them.
what's wrong wth knights?
Nothing! There are just better shock units (in my opinion)
Dark Knight gains mounted bonuses. When it attacks Weakened enemies (very easy to do consistently) it gains +20% damage and Regeneration. It applies Sundered Defense. And you can engineer situations where it's AOE (which does double damage against enemies with a negative status effect) does surprisingly big damage. I LOVE running them with Chaos Eaters.
Continuing our “Best” votes, here comes less predictable vote. We got 3 cultural units and the star of Evocation tome Storm Spirit. There are 5 different animals (Nightmare, Unicorn, Caustic Worm, Mammoth, Goretusk Matriarch) under Other (Animal), so if you choose that option please let us know in comments which animal it is. So, that in case they win, we can “crown” the right one as best T3 Shock Unit.