The Deities ; Thoughts on the Final Roster

[The Avatar]

Abundance of piety? You clearly don't prep him much. When you prep him he's a stingy little guy.

[Darvin]

No, I don't. I almost always go four-altar and take what I find. GG is a shadow of his true self if you prep him, as is Dracul and Tikki Tooki.

[Lujo]

Which is odd, because I don't ever prep 4 altars, and I don't know why... It's clearly the best non-specific prep, and my most prepped god must be Taurog, since you can really streamline him silly with preps.

On the other hand, I'm some sort of weirdo who only found out that the old TT prep penalty was considered insane on the forums. I used to prep him AND complain about how broken he was untill he got nerfed ^^

Oh, well, playstyles will be playstyles...

[The Avatar]

I prep basically all my gods for two reasons:
1. I don't like having to scum.
2. It adds extra challenge to vicious runs.

[Darvin]

It's clearly the best non-specific prep, and my most prepped god must be Taurog, since you can really streamline him silly with preps.

Taurog has by far the least intrusive preparation penalty and doubles as an excellent god if you can find him immediately. The only deity that's anywhere similar is Jehora Jeheyu, who is at his finest when you have a fortitude potion and burn cure at the ready and can begin worship from the word "go".

I prep 4-altar for two reasons:
1) I don't mind tailoring my strategy on the fly
2) I like to maximize my conversion and desecration options

Your odds of getting at least one of TT or Dracul with 4-altar is better than even, and you don't need the top-tier deities to have a well-rounded selection.

[gjaustin]

I always prep 4-altar as well.

I've thought for a while that the other altar preps should give you your selected altar as a 4th altar, in order to compete. Since they don't provide you anything that you can't scum for, you're sort of paying gold for a disadvantage.

[The Avatar]

I agree. The other unfortunate thing about three altars is if you score Pactmaker and prep a god you know you'll convert out of (like Binlor) you only have one conversion option.

[TigerKnee]

I don't prep 4 altar because

1) 50 gold
2) You might roll 4 poopy altars.

Although I fully realize 50 gold is the "balancing" factor for 4 altars, when coupled with luck I always feel iffy about paying for it.

Now if I had no use for money I would probably throw 50 gold down every time.

[sitnaltax]

By the way, I managed to successfully use Spirit Pact exactly once.

I was taking a dwarf rogue into Vicious Gaan-Talet. On one of the upper floors, I got the Curse floor effect, and didn't have enough popcorn left to clear it away. The lack of resistances dropped me beneath the threshold to take a single hit from the monsters on that floor. I had plenty of blood pools left, but couldn't use them.

By taking Spirit Pact and sacrificing potions, I was able to boost my HP enough to take a single hit, which was enough to take out that floor. Of course, I ended up spending too many important resources to finish off Horatio, but I was proud of overcoming that obstacle.

[Darvin]

I've thought for a while that the other altar preps should give you your selected altar as a 4th altar, in order to compete.

Be mindful of how the Earthmother would interact with such a change. The biggest problem is that she's way too easy to desecrate, and her prep penalty is non-existant if you don't worship her (or only worship her briefly before converting). This would essentially turn an Earthmother + burn cure prep into a super-powered version of the 25 piety prep the devs killed off for good reason.

1) 50 gold

If you're on a scenario that merits bringing your full force to bear, money is no object. If you're playing on other scenarios then this should be unnecessary, and playing the religious lottory with no church preps is more fun (IMO). While I can understand prepping JJ or Dracul for a "Ding Max" PQI or Taurog for a "Warmonger" PQI, for your average case scenario I see no reason to use church preps.

I will agree that the prep is pricey, but it's one of the more powerful preps so that's understandable. Please keep in mind that these are the comments of a veteran. I realize a less experienced player who has to deal with the meta-game economy and struggles with lower-difficulty dungeons may have a different experience.

2) You might roll 4 poopy altars.

Your odds of that drop substantially if you're even moderately flexible.

Let's break it down:
* If there's one specific altar you absolutely must have, there's a 44% chance you will get it.
* If there are only two altars you'd be happy with, there's a 72% chance you will find at least one of them.
* If there are three altars you would be happy with, there is an 88% chance you will find at least one of them.
* If there are four altars you would be happy with, there is a 95% chance you will find at least one of them.

The only time this gets really scummy is if there is one god that you absolutely must have no matter what. If you have two gods, it's moderately scummy. Once we move to "any of these three would be great" we're outside of scum territory; a 12% chance of being screwed over is much lower than a horrific glyph or shop pool.

I find by this point that pretty much every class I play has a variety of altars that can work, especially with the broader conversion and desecration options opened up by having four altars.