Advisor Suggestions

Hi,

I have a few possible advisor changes if interested.

Greeks:
The 2 units almost never used are Peltast and Sari.

Peltast:
See this link, Peltast with even Alexander the Great has only 23 range, lower than many ranged units without advisors.

Alexander should give like 100% more range for Peltast to get to 38 range or so
Toxotes has already got a high amount of dmg in comparison to many other bowmen (the highest dps per pop by far), I think Alexander should also reduce some dmg for Toxotes. The 30% Attack speed is possibly not needed considering Toxotes also has so many other bonus vs.
https://unitstats.projectceleste.com/?build=bf860c8e925fce7f23aea8a9b0e743bf53c5a5e34a2c63e7a8b7d7a9

Sari:
Aristocrat Apollonius should increase the dmg of Sari by 20% because has a low dps per pop of any ranged unit.



Egyptians:
The 2 units almost never used are Slinger and Camel, but because Camel isn't used, then Chariot archer is not used usually.

Camel vs Podromos has almost 50% less dmg.
https://unitstats.projectceleste.com/?build=de3fb6ba495034370488b29cabd4624e899c473b6fe849c19f73ad8f

I would say Kephri should not be used to change elephant price to gold. War elephant is already almost the best and most used unit, use Kephri to improve camel and chariot archer dmg.

Note current Kephri with Lord Eochaid Muighmedon reduces the elephant price by 20% (75gold) and trains 5% faster...


Slinger:
Sobek gives spearman and axeman bonuses, but slinger comes from the same building and these 3 units complement each other.
Sobek should give 30 more dmg and range to slingers .



Celts:
Slingers are almost never used:
https://unitstats.projectceleste.com/?build=d1cfcee4d6d7abe3d3d961b7024a2ba4f8e32f716bbf5001ee623892

Ambiorix is only Epic, but if it could give them some more range...




Persia:
I think all these units are very good as they are



Romans:
Cretan Bowman, Balearic Slingers and Scorpios are almost never used.

Cretan Bowman, Balearic Slingers:
They are great units with nice dmg, but their range is why most don't use them.

In my opinion the advisor Mark Anthony is mostly obsolete once you have Pompey.

I propose to change Mark Anthony to give Cretan Bowman and Balearic Slingers 30% more range.
What you can do, if you wish is to have mark give all of the units Auxilia Camp something.
As in Leave Mark Anthony with dmg for Gallics while also giving Bowman and Slingers 20% more range.


Scorpios:
A good unit and does nice dmg, but the range is very poor and thus dies very fast.
Vitruvius is not necessary for Onagers. I recommend that Vitruvius only gives scorpios 40% range and LOS.


Babylonians:
Bowman and Slinger.

King Nebuchadnezzar does not need to give Lancer dmg.
Maybe instead it should give Bowman, Slinger and Mounter Archer 30% more dmg and attack and see 30% further.

Lancers still got Agamemnon.



Norse:
Raider and Skirmisher.

Raider:
There is no need to ever use Raider if you have Finnulfr.
Raider Champ Bonus vs Villagers is only good for the enemy AI, it does nothing for players, cos the AI usually has a ton of resources.
If that was 100% more bonus dmg Buildings, then this would be a fantastic anti building unit.
The Enemy AI, would not be improved, because almost always it will target units first.
Keep the Snare.

Skirmisher:
This unit is very complicated, because it is for a very specific role, anti-ranged and only anti ranged and sucks vs every single other unit cos it has like 20 max dps.
I would need major changes to everything for this unit to be viable.

 

I agree but i think Lancer need the damage. I even use Royal Guards more then Lancer in harder quest so dont need to nerf the Lancer

 

I have a few suggestions :

Seed-Master Agape :

Effect changed from Farms cost 30/45/60/75% less and build in 30/45/60/75% less time to :

Farms cost 30/45/60/75% less, build in 30/45/60/75% less time, and give 10/15/20/25 food upon being seeded

Celestial Magus Mehrab :

Effect changed from +8/12/16/20% heal/convert speed to +10/15/20/25% heal/convert speed

Because priest conversion rate was nerfed at one point, it was 5-10 sec before, now it is 7.5-10 sec

 

Age 4 advisors' rework suggestions

Though there are almost about 50 advisors which are at age 4 slots (excluding unique unit advisors), there are imbalance between legendary advisors and epic advisors. Some epic advisors share very similar buff to legendary advisors, which is a thing to be desired changing them to other buffs so that we can differentiate from legendary advisors but also select them in specific situation. So, I'm going to write my thought about each advisor and put my suggestion at last.
I'll write legendary advisors' suggestions first and then epic advisors later on.

<Greek>

Alexander the Great - Toxotai with alexander are doing great job in pve legendary quests. The intention to make toxotes be an alternative unit of gastra is successful. However, peltast is not strong enough to use it in quest, so I'd like to add a buff to make peltast viable to use. Having 75% additional range to peltast will grant 40 attack range, when we equip range-focused gear build.

"Toxotai and Peltasts attack 30% faster and can attack and see 20% farther. Peltasts have 75% additional range."

Aristocrat Apollonius - He is doing decent, but just like to add one more buff to make sarissophoroi to be used frequently. This will make sarisophoroi to use with other calvary units as well as not disrupting their attack as sari does range attack. My suggestion will make sari to have 16 attack range when we adapt range-focused gear build , which is just enough to make sari a backline dealer when prodromoi and hippikons are taking damage at the frontline.

"Cavalry units have 15% more health, attack 15% faster and are 20% more resistant to pierce damage. Sarissophoroi can attack 100% farther."

Grand Engineer Themistokles - I think he is just fine. Good buffs to ballistas which makes it good to use even in 5 stars legenday quests. He doesn't need any rework at all in my opinion. No change suggested.

<Egyptian>

Khepri's Coin Curator - While she has unique mechanic, she doesn't performs that well due to several nerfs done in the past, and her competitor, Hatshepsut, makes war elephants better in overall situation, as war elephants already have enough health, and slightly lacks dps. As a 'legendary' advisor, I think at least she shouldn't be pushed out from epic advisor. I highly suggest reverting some of her nerfs, but only small amount, as we don't want war elephants too overpowered it was used to be in the past.

"Changes War Elephants' cost to all gold, but increase their health by 12% and reduces their movement speed by 10% and train time by 12%"

Prince Sesostris - On previous advisor rework, dev team commented that they are curious to see how players are going to use Priest of Ptah afterwards. Well, almost none of the players doesn't ever use this at all. For priest itself is not a popular units to use and there are serveral quests that has no converting priests optional which makes this advisors so unpopular. He needs a complete rework, and I think it's good to give him a camel rider buff. I've searched for sesostris, and it says that he was a very agressive and impatience person. So I think buff mobile unit like camel suits him very well. This will make not only having synergy with usherhet advisor, it will make an alternative unit of war elephants in 5-star quests too.

"Camel rider have 50% more health, train 25% faster and have 25% chance to hit critical attack."

Sobek's Spear Sharpener - Though she is decent to use if lower star difficulty legendary quest, using spearman and axeman in 5 stars quests are somewhat hard to use because they feel slightly fragile to survive enemy's power. Giving small additional hp will be much helpful to strengthen their push. Also, I'd like to add slinger buff too, so that all barracks units are good to use! When geared range-focused gear build, slinger will have 45 dps and 36 range when this buff is adapted.

"Spearmen and Axeman have 60% more health, train in 25% less time and move 25% faster. Slinger attack 50% stronger and farther."

<Celt>
Brann the Bloodletter - He is doing very well in pve quests and in hard quests. I don't see any reason to have rework for him. No change suggested.

King Brennos - No change suggested.

War Chief Comontorios - While it is good to buff 2 units at same time for diverse unit composition, the celtic horseman isn't not used frequently, Even when using the full Carpentom + Horseman combo, it's just not as simple or effective as Woad or Champion spam overall in most scenarios. Their total dps is not as high as woads, and champion hp combined with all that splash is really strong. That is not to say Carpentom + Horseman is not a good combo. Carpentoms are one of the few sources of ranged dps the celts have. And for celtic horseman spam,we cannot help but to feel like a downgraded version of Finnulfr. So I'm making him buff more statss to both horseman and carpentom so that people are going to use him more often, but in exchange, nerfing its bonus damage to building to balance.

"Horseman and Carpentoms deal 30% more damage, 40% more health and deal 50% bonus damage against bulidings"

<Roman>

Crassus The Rich - Pretty decent advisor to use. No change suggested.

Julius Caesar - One of the best legendary advisors in this game. No change suggested.

Pompey The Great - He was a victim of the time when all roman 3 legendary advisors got nerfed. I still don't know why he got nerfed while other 2 advisors had a reasonable reason to do so. And I saw some other players were also curious why Pompey should be nerfed, as he wasn't overpowered at all not used that much than the other 2 roman legendary advisors. I suggest reverting the nerf back to original buff (and I'm sure this also won't hurt roman gamplay style as well).

"All military untis are 30% more resistant to bonus damage and deal 10% more damage."

<Persian>

Commander Esfandiyar - He is always good to use, but I want to point out that the Kayanid Bloodline (+50% bonus damage protection) upgrade does not really compete with other 2 upgrades, and is not being used often. I suggest changing the effect to grant more health too with adjusting its stats

"Kayanid Bloodline: +25% health, +25% bonus damage protection. Disables Pashotan's Strength and Tamarisk Arrow."

Xerxes the Great - War wagon is useful on general situation, as its dps is high enough to face off enemy elite units. But since we wargon takes lots of population and we also make melee units to prevent any enmey units coming to attack war wagon, we can't make pallintonons too much for taking down buildings. It is true that war wagon's basic purpose is a siege weapon strong against units, it takes time to take down buildings because its attack is pierce damage, not siege damage. I suggest giving slightly bonus damage to war wagon and remove line of sight buff for balancing.

"War wagons move 25% faster, attack 25% more farther, deal 20% more damage and deal 20% bonus damage against buildings."

<Babylonian>

King Nebuchadnezzar - No change suggested.

Amytis of Media - No change required (P.S. Amytis is also hardly used on overall (though there are a few people liking babylonian siege tower) I believe it's not amytis herself having a problem, but battering ram and siege towers' base stats problem.)

Chariot Rider Sargon - No change required. But PLEASE, I implore you, please buff war chariot. No one is using war chariot in any kind of situation, because chariot archer is just far superior than war chariot. Here is what Frogspoison and other players said in discord talking about war chariot, and I can't deny his opinions at all because all of his speech is true...

https://discord.com/channels/234105032381825024/234105032381825024/1097792673424867398
https://discord.com/channels/234105032381825024/234105032381825024/1098135315052515389

To use sargon with war chariot, war chariot needs complete rework immediately. I strongly suggest to change its stats to current pvp stats, as people also agreed that pvp war chariot is far better than pve war chariot (Don't worry about the enemy war chariot, as it doesn't even threaten players at all because unit itself is underpowered).

"War Chariot: Cost decreased from 150/120 to 140/100, health decreased from 800 to 500, pierce dps increased from 20 to 35, line of sight increased from 20 to 22, Base attack range increased from 18 to 20. War chariot champion upgrade now grants +50% crush armor." (Note: All stats have same stats to pvp, except slightly low hp (525 hp in pvp), no base pierce and crush armor at all (because of ai), but have slightly more dps in return (32 dps in pvp). I strongly hope that babylon war chariot be rework in this advisor rework session).

<Norse>

War Leader Beorix - No change suggested

Chief Vemundr - No change suggested

Horselord Finnulfr - Now this advisor... frankly speaking, he is overpowered. Any cavalry units can't compare to finnulr + horseman combo as the buff is too significantly strong. Specially giving one less population makes horseman very pop-efficient. Though I won't suggest any change to him, I won't be surprised to see him being nerfed when advisors get their reworked in next patch.

This is end of the age 4 legendary advisors. I'll continue to post age 4 epic advisors in next thread.

 

Moving on to age 4 epic advisors, I'll talk about civ-specific advisors first and then global advisors next.

<Greek>

Bolt-Carrier Seleucus- Because of themistokles, he is surely overlaps buffs and doesn't seem to use anymore when player gets themistokles. I'd like give him extra movement speed, so that it can be in line with themistokles.

"Ballistas deal 30% more damage and move 15% faster"

Riding Instructor Solon - Same as seleucus, because we have apollonius, this guy also overlaps buffs and overshadowed by apollonius because it's true that using him is better in every kind of situation. To make him better, his buffs must be substantial to match with apollonius, as solon only buffs hippikons. This change will make player to use him at least when going for hippikon spam.

"Hippikons has 20% more health, gain 20% chance to deal a critical strike and have 20% bonus damage against infantry."

Leather-Worker Ptolemais - Toxotai and gastraphetes already have sufficient damage against infantry, and giving more bonus damage to infantry is considered to be an overkill while splash resistant is hardly useful, siege unit attack can take down ranged unit in one shot no matter there is splash damage resistant or not. Moreover, toxotai is always use with alexander advisor. I'd like Ptolemais to be gastrasphetes advisor so that he can be considered to be in advisor's selection when playing gastras spam.

"Gastraphetes deal 30% bonus damage against calvary and siege units and move 15% faster"

<Egyptian>

Hatshepsut's Tusk Sharpener - No change suggested

Skehet's Elephant Whisperer - Elephant archer is food-heavy consuming unit that gold cost reduction is not insignificant enough to feel the change. I suggest just adjusting gold cost reduction to food cost reduction.

"Elephant Archers cost 30% less food and attack 30% faster"

Seth the Chariot Builder - The only problem about egyptian's chariot archer is that it lacks range. I'd like to give him significant range buff, but remove movement speed and los buff instead. Also, this will compete with camel rider's advisor set; either going usherhet- lohrasb- (reworked) sesostris, or gaiana- sohrab- seth. Player can play with stable units but will need to choose which unit they want to strengthen more.

"Chariot archers can attack and see 35% farther"

<Celt>

Ambiorix the Brave - no change suggested

General Acichorios - no change suggested

Warlord Vercingetorix - This advisor overlaps with brennos advisor, so I'm thinking if we can give him ignore armor to all celt's infantry.

"Infantry units ignore 10% armor"

<Roman>

Admiral Atilius - no change suggested

Mark Antony - Gallic horseman have enough damage and health that mark antony doesn't need direct buff of gallic horseman. Nevertheless, gallic horseman is very expensive and takes long time to make. It will be good to give him cost reduction but that will be same as garshasp advisor (cataphract +20% dmg, cost -10%), so instead of giving him cost reduction, I suggest train time reduction.

"Gallic Horseman deal 20% more damage and train 10% faster"

Siege Engineer Vitruvius - Onager have enough range to use in general, but scorpios doesn't. However, since scorpio's main purpose is taking down units, range is not a big issue here. But even if we gear damage-focused gear bulid, it lack dps compare to onager, ballista or catapult. I suggest making him specialize only scorpios and buff scorpios damage output as well.

"Scorpios can attack 30% stronger and gain +1 splash area"

<Persian>

Bahram, Master of the Trade - No change suggested

Blacksmith Kaveh - No change suggested

Grand Master Garshasp - No change suggested

I think Persian's 3 epic advisors are balanced. They don't overlap with legendary advisors, and they can be used in certain conditions.

<Babylonian>

General Zu - He gives decent buff to royal guard, but want to give him sighly more cost reduction, as royal guard is quite expensive unit to make.

"Royal Guards are 40% more resistant to bonus damage and cost 25% less"

Governor Zopyrus - Since sapper itself is not suitable in pve, I am not sure how to buff him to make attractive. But for now, since he is a damage dealer against bulidings, I suggest like this;

"Sapper are 40% more resistant to pierce damage and immune to snare"

Makru the Mad Median - Although 25% bonus building damage itself is good enough, it is not that attractive to select as age 4 advisor when we have better choice. Instead of buffing overall units, I suggest buffing bayblon's slingers. It's not being used at all ever since the game has revived, and I'm looking forward to see various unit combo after this.

"Slingers deal 50% more damage and attack 25% further"

<Norse>

Grand Chef Bjorn - Just buffing slight damage buff, as norse spearman and throwing axeman have low dps than other infantry.

"Spearman and throwing axeman have 15% more health and deal 20% more damage"

Shield-Maiden Ingrid- Raider falls heavily compared to other norse cavalry unit, horseman, and it will be not enough even we buff her a lot because horseman with finnulfr always perform superior... But to put an effort to made raider usable, I suggest move her to age 2 advisor and change the info as well. Raider needs a lot of health and dps to be added, but I will put just health boost to her only. Others will be done in next advisor. Removing health regeneration for balancing.

"Shield Maiden Ingrid moved from age 4 to age 2. "Raiders have 30% more health and gain 30% chance to deal a critical strike"

King Theode - This advisor overlaps with beorix advisor, so I'd like to change its buff to further buff raider.

"Raider deal 20% more damage and gain 20% bonus damage to infantry unit"

(P.S.) One thing that I want to mention is that it would be nice if we can change raider's champion upgrade. Bonus damage to villagers are only good for enemy ai, and player can't reach to enemy bases, because on most maps, enemy bases are always heavily fortified... Reworking raider's champion upgrade to pvp stats should benefit players as well.

"Raider Champion Upgrade change from +100% bonus damage to villagers and grants snare immunity to +25% bonus damage vs ranged, +25% pierce armor and +50% snare resistance"

<Global>

Trajectory Specialist Timo- No change suggested

Ship Engineer Tryphon- No change suggested

Queen Boudicca- While free resources income is good to save up vills pop, giving only 4 per second is pretty negligible in golden age. Moreover, there are many better advisors that are good to age 4 advisor. I suggest double the rate so that player can feel that resource trickle is coming in hand.

"All resources trickle in at a rate of 8.0 per second"

King Agamemnon - Slightly buffing its stats and adding critical strike chance as well.

"All military units have 5% more health, deal 5% more damage and have 5% chance to hit critical strike"

Fort Lieutenant Xanthe- this advisor is kind of niche advisors. Giving 100% los to fort is just a joke when it comes to think what fortress is meant to build for. As a heavily defensive buliding, it needs to be viable to choose it over the legendary advisors options at least. I suggest remove line of sight and attack range buff and increase his health and damage boost more.

"Fortresses have 100% more health and attack 60% faster"

Darius- No change suggested

Architect Tycho - This guy is the most useless advisor in age 4 slot, because wonder does not give any beneficial factors to players at all. For this, I was inspired of pvp wonder, which grants passive bonus to civilization once built. The number and info are may be subjected to change, but what I want to say is that, how about giving some passive bonuses when player build wonder, while the bonuses don't overlap bahram's.

"Wonder build in 50% less time and cost 50% less. When wonder is built, wonder gives +3 health regeneration per second and reduce unit's cost by 15% to all units"

That's it for my age 4 advisors suggestion. Thanks for reading long threads!

 

Hello

What about an Uncommon / Rare / Epic version of the Golden Hippikon ?

 

Regarding UNIT advisor units why not open them up and make them ALL cross-civ (i don't know why not? noone has even tried to argue against it yet - i've suggested this before), they are so niche and often(always except when starting out) weaker comparatively with a civ's fully geared units that it makes little sense to lock them into civs. You can write them off as hired mercenaries(they essentially are already), easily, it would make it exciting to experiment with units totally alien to your civ otherwise, even if they are weaker, it's different, an easy change and creates a whole new avenue of strategy across all civs (it might also provide an opportunity to gather data on which of them have uses and which really don't have a place - beside being a leveling up aid).

 

I think this would be cool

 

I have abused certain advisors and realized some things in an epiphany.

Supply Line Specialist Servilia - Millariums also increase Villagers and Caravans' movement speed by 6%/9%/12%/15%. Forum upgrades cost 8%/12%/16%/20% less.
In a simple way, Servilia can encourage early Forums in Age 2 allowing you to access SPQR and Bolster earlier than usual.

Grand Scholar Ormazdiyar - All upgrades research in 30%/40%/50%/60% less time but cost 6%/8%/10%/12% more Gold.
Hear me out, while Bardiya's buff last update has made a significant increase in his popularity and usage. There is only a downside of needing to increase wood and stone (if applicable) villagers and that's it! Bardiya's debuff can be mitigated as well with a Roman milestone as well as gear involving cost and build time. However, Ormazdiyar feels a weakness here where your "actual upgrade time" is related to the cost of getting there to research it which can vary from requiring more food, wood, gold, and stone. Instead, why don't we streamline it to require more Gold instead! If an upgrade doesn't require Gold, win-win for Ormazdiyar! I made a table to indicate how this buff could help Ormazdiyar regarding Persian technologies.

Upgrades	Change
All Unit Champion Upgrade (including Esfandiyar's upgrades)	No change, they cost only gold.
Barrack, Archery Range, Stable, War Academy Upgrade	Good buff, they will not cost more food/wood respectively!
Armory, Tower, and Wall upgrades	Great buff, they won't cost more wood and stone!
Age 3 and Age 4 upgrade	Super good buff, not costing more food, wood, and stone!
Aid Tent, Picker's Gloves, Pickaxe, Placer Mining, Hydraulic Mining, Loom, Town Watch	Fantastic buff! They research fast at no additional cost due to them not requiring gold. The Pickaxe Line upgrade is helpful since you'll need those technology to keep up with the Gold!
Hunting Dogs, Hand-Saw Line, Chisel Line, Plow Line, Market techs, and Net Lures	Minor buff, they will cost only more gold and this will be very helpful in helping to buff the Persian economy faster on-par with other economic advisors.

Berosus the Wise - Ziggurats cost 20%/30%/40%/50% less, train Priests and research upgrades 20%/30%/40%/50% faster. Gardens cost 20%/30%/40%/50% less.
This cost reduction will only apply to the base cost, so each Gardens cost 25 Wood and Gold less, letting you save up to 100-300 Wood+Gold! Berosus can be used to help players utilize early gardens to compete with other economic advisor slots.

Gladius The Glorious - All military units cost 30% less Food and Wood.
Caravans cost 15 less Food and Wood. Villagers cost 15 less Food. Fishing Boats cost 30 less Wood. Merchant Transports cost 45 less Wood. A decent buff to help economically. He shouldn't have to be resorted to being a general sergeant specialist that doesn't reduce gold cost. I believe a synergy involving Servilia and Gladius can be used here for Caravan users if they desired as well. There's a lot of skill expression with this change if passed.

General Seneb - Siege units attack and train 10%/15%/20%/25% faster. deal 10%/15%/20%/25% bonus damage against buildings
With Engineer Ligeia no longer training siege units faster, this gives room for Seneb to help dip into this place which helps with patching up the slower Egyptian siege training time compared to other Civilizations. I believe him letting the Egyptian siege attack faster would help with pushing while still keeping its "bonus damage versus buildings" DPS-wise.

Bahram, Master of the Trade - If you have a wonder built, all Military units move 8%/12%/16%/20% faster and train in 8%/12%/16%/20% less time
Because the bonus is only reserved to Military Units, this advisor becomes an expensive upgrade for ultra late game to utilize. Why not make him buff all units in general including caravans so there is an incentive to build a wonder asap!

Mark Antony - Gallic Horsemen deal 8%/12%/16%/20% more damage and are 8%/12%/16%/20% more resistant to pierce damage. train in 10% less time
There is the case of hearing Pompey is better for Gallic Horsemen in the long-run but what do Gallic Horsemen suffer with? Pierce damage, since they begin with nothing. An advisor adding a 0.17 pierce armor equivalent like the rest of their horsemen counterparts can help distinguish Mark-Antony as being better than a pompous Pompey. Now you can choose whether you want Gallic Horsemen to get BDP or Pierce Armor. Also combine with Hathor for more pierce armor!

Governor Zopyrus - Sappers are 25%/30%/35%/40% more resistant to pierce damage and attack move 6%/8%/10%/12% faster.
No comment.

General Zu - Royal Guards are 10%/20%/30%/40% more resistant to bonus damage and move 6%/9%/12%/15% faster. cost 10%/15%/20%/25% less.
Royal Guards usually don't struggle with their cost as much as their pushing speed.