City Siege Talent build

There are three types of talents. Some talents makes the most sense to run in any combat scenario, some depend on your army composition and then there are some you only want in very specific situations. In this guide we will ONLY focus on city sieges. If you need a combo siege-PvP build, you can read my PvP talents guide and create a hybrid.

In this article I shall go through the Military talent tree step by step and explain what you want to put in your Siege loadout.

1. Crit versus dodge

Unless you are playing without a magic damage dealer (and therefore not using the passive “Chase”) you always want crit.

2. Physical versus Magic attack

This choice dosen’t matter for the siege. So you want to choose something that works with your army just in case PvP will occur. I run Knife Through Butter (phys). If you are relying on e.g. Merlin to deal the damage in your water or wield double mage fire (Baldwin + Wu) you want to use Rage (magic).

3. AP conservation versus March speed

You always want march speed. Life it too short to save 3-4 AP per hit. Also speed is important to make sure you defeat city walls and garrisons before siege timer ends!

4. Attack versus defend

You want to run Ruin here always. It is a very strong siege talent that allow you to melt garrisons.

5. Relocation speed versus reduced troop losses

Per default you want to be running Survival Methods for the reduction in troop losses. Only in an IB scenario is relocation speed important.

6. Berserking versus healing versus honor

This talent doesn’t matter for our siege. So choose based on other activies you might want to do before you shift out of this build.

(6.1.) If you are fightning in a closely matched battle, Last Stand is a VERY powerful talent adding streight up 8% more damage to your army. This means you can beat opponent even at a significant power disadvantage! However, it comes at a properity cost you must be wary of. It is my go to talent in heavy PvP situations (SvS or Norheim). Last Stand is also a must have, if you are ratting.

(6.2.) Aid is a decent defensive talent if you are taking a lot of hits as the target of rallies or just the center of enemy frenzy. If you are low on healing speedups, this talent can save you a lot of trouble. I never run this per default, but see its value.

(6.3.) Rank Advancement is an amazing talent! If you overpower your opponent you want to run this talent to maximize your honor gain and climb that Nobility Ranking. It is a must-have when you farm honor, e.g. using alts.

7. Weaken enemies versus boosting defense

You want to default to running Domination and weaken your enemies.

8. Another attack versus defend

9. Energy regen versus attack speed

You want to run Owl Guardian for its energy regen. All Immortals benefit greatly from increased energy regen, where as only very few and highly specific builds values attack speed over regen.

10. Another attack versus defend choice

Dosen’t matter for sieges. The first talent it weakest, so exclude that one. Making it a decision on when you want the power of increased energy regen. If you are attacking more than defending you want Excitation (marked above), if you are on the defense Energy Burst can be activated with the same buff (plus a debuff if your attacker runs a tactic in the attack).

11. Resilience versus Accuracy

You want to run accuracy most of the time. Versus garrisons we need consistency. We are trying to beat as many garrison marches as possible, and don’t want RNG dodges to mess it up. If you rely on physical damage = run Target Locked and boost our accuracy.

In very specific cases where you have built an army that relies solely on magic damage, you want to run Strong Will (e.g. running double mage fire with Hippo and William as supports) OR if you are playing a niche defense-prolong team.

12. Hospital queues versus scaling walls versus defense energy reg.

This is an odd choice and useless for your siege loadout – I personally think all three talents are terrible. I default to the third option, Skillful because it is the only one I find slightly useful in PvP (energy regen in defense battles).

Honestly, I usually spend my talent point in development instead – this way I can maintain 5/5 Plentiful Gold even while waging war or in SvS.

Published: 28-03-2022