Post by awall on Feb 14, 2008 18:34:20 GMT -5
In my final tournament game with Spacca, I hit him with a Lightning Bolt. Then I hit him with a Troll. Then I hit him with light wounds twice. Then my Troll hit him again. Then I hit him with another Lightning Bolt. Somewhere in there, I hit with a pair of missiles as well. He eventually surrendered with four life remaining. For those of you who don't want to do the math, that amounts to Spacca casting DFPW five times (and DFW once)! I'm not sure, but I want to say that this was the deciding factor in me taking the final match.
I severely dislike DFPW; it seems like the biggest waste of initiative in all of forever. DFF is a powerful set of gestures to start from, as the dual Bolt/Para threat exerts a lot of control over your opponent's spellflow (especially if it's coming right off of a successful Charm). PW, on the other hand, is very situational. Unless you have a credible FoD threat, you wind up pretty staunchly on the defensive. The two health you get back from the cure is nice, but I'd rate the initiative swing as being worth 2.5 to 3 health. Being on the defensive tends to get you sniped by goblins and missiles, and even if you can counter all of the big stuff, those two life will go away fairly quickly.
For a different perspective, consider WPFD. This is the same four gestures, comes out of a much more defensive position, creates a three health swing instead of two, and is still considered to be not worth it until the endgame. On top of that, the three health taken away by WPFD is more likely to drop the target into range where it would have actually mattered, whereas when I see DFPW on my opponent, I hardly ever take notice.
When defending against monsters, DFPW has the seeming advantage of continuing into DFPWWP (presumably while your other hand does something like xxWPPS). This seems better than it is. Even if the DF came off a successful charm, by the time you've mucked around for two turns to get a cure off, your opponent will have regained a bit of momentum and prepare a disruption to stop your next charm(s). Then you're back to continuous shielding while his other hand starts working you around, looking for a gap in your defense. You'd never follow Charm with PWWP in normal play; why is it any better an idea to do so when you're defending a monster and frantically trying to regain initiative (if you really want the Protection, DFWWP is much better).
To be fair, there are times when DFPW has its place. I have been known to use weaves such as PSDFPWP/xxFFFFF. If my opponent manages to un-null the hand that got charmed and prepare a decent FoD defense, I can usually get away with continuing LH:PWPS or LH:PWPFD, in the latter case using para to keep my opponent from preparing an effective counter to the wounds. Successfully casting DFPW also sucks all the advantage out of an opponent's Disease (although this is less due to DFPW being good, and more because Disease is awful).
The rest of the time, if I have DFP lying around, I'll probably continue DFPS. It just feels a lot better.
I severely dislike DFPW; it seems like the biggest waste of initiative in all of forever. DFF is a powerful set of gestures to start from, as the dual Bolt/Para threat exerts a lot of control over your opponent's spellflow (especially if it's coming right off of a successful Charm). PW, on the other hand, is very situational. Unless you have a credible FoD threat, you wind up pretty staunchly on the defensive. The two health you get back from the cure is nice, but I'd rate the initiative swing as being worth 2.5 to 3 health. Being on the defensive tends to get you sniped by goblins and missiles, and even if you can counter all of the big stuff, those two life will go away fairly quickly.
For a different perspective, consider WPFD. This is the same four gestures, comes out of a much more defensive position, creates a three health swing instead of two, and is still considered to be not worth it until the endgame. On top of that, the three health taken away by WPFD is more likely to drop the target into range where it would have actually mattered, whereas when I see DFPW on my opponent, I hardly ever take notice.
When defending against monsters, DFPW has the seeming advantage of continuing into DFPWWP (presumably while your other hand does something like xxWPPS). This seems better than it is. Even if the DF came off a successful charm, by the time you've mucked around for two turns to get a cure off, your opponent will have regained a bit of momentum and prepare a disruption to stop your next charm(s). Then you're back to continuous shielding while his other hand starts working you around, looking for a gap in your defense. You'd never follow Charm with PWWP in normal play; why is it any better an idea to do so when you're defending a monster and frantically trying to regain initiative (if you really want the Protection, DFWWP is much better).
To be fair, there are times when DFPW has its place. I have been known to use weaves such as PSDFPWP/xxFFFFF. If my opponent manages to un-null the hand that got charmed and prepare a decent FoD defense, I can usually get away with continuing LH:PWPS or LH:PWPFD, in the latter case using para to keep my opponent from preparing an effective counter to the wounds. Successfully casting DFPW also sucks all the advantage out of an opponent's Disease (although this is less due to DFPW being good, and more because Disease is awful).
The rest of the time, if I have DFP lying around, I'll probably continue DFPS. It just feels a lot better.