How good is the new Warrior Priest? (Armenian unique unit)
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- In addition to their castle unique unit, Armenians have a second unique unit at the monastery, the Warrior Priest! It's a blend of an infantry unit and monk, and let's investigate how well it does both roles.
0:40 Overview
2:35 Castle Age
4:35 Counters
5:20 Imperial Age
7:55 Warrior priest vs monks
10:05 Final thoughts
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Patreon: / spiritofthelaw
Background music from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsou...
Game: Age of Empires II Definitive Edition
Imagine making a custom civ that uses Warrior Monks and has the Aztec bonus that boosts their health with each monastery tech
Hey Ferb, I KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING TODAY
Also the Roman bonus that gives infantry doubled armor upgrades and the Bengali civ bonus that gives monks +3 melee and pierce armor if you want to make them extra tanky
Aztec Warrior Monks would be amazing.
The aztec bonus doesn't apply to the WP
It works on the missionary however
Add Slavs' monk speed and Celts' infantry speed. :)
When Warrior priest grows old, he turns into a regular monk
Bro just becomes bald and loses his voice😂
@@nishthedudeHis voice is still good enough to vululu though.
yeah but he still became nicokado avacado@@idkputsomerandomname9657
That's why the monk training time is longer, lol XD
From what i see, they are meant to be used as healers that support militia line but are harder to pick off than regular monks, if you mess with this monk, you get the bonk
Additionally (I think you didn't mention it) - if you put them on stand-ground and they're not within melee range of an enemy they start healing each other immediately no matter whether there are enemies nearby
A upside that wasnt mentioned is that, thanks to tbeir speed, you wont slow down your army if you chose to move them all together as 1 group, unlike mobks who either slow down your army, or lag behind
They are a great splash in for a champion/composite bowman army. Champions deal with trash, bowmen deal with armor and the priests sprinkled in help sustain during/between fights without being the dead weight a monk would be.
It's support infantry. While it can be a standalone unit in castle, in Imperial and post its a support unit that is more cost effective and can hold up in combat unlike a monk.
do you not convert?
@@nathanrohde3440 it's a bit too strong for a support unit. Why does a support unit win a 1v1 against a pure fighting unit, why even against it's counters even?
9:57 That was my game!! I won that, by the way. We got to Castle age at the same time, and he did a siege/monk rush, while I just went for relics with the warrior priests.
Was a fun little, fast game.
Also… 9:06 is the same game as well, just a little earlier.
Just finished the Armenian Campaign and yeah, they feel pretty good to have in your army.
Atleast in the campaign, having all your troops healed up between engagements without being hampered by the speed of priests made the missions so much easier.
I really like how it falls off in the Imperial age. You can still invest in the unique tech to make your initial castle age investment last a little longer, but come the late game they don't look too overwhelming.
heh, i have almost the exact opposite opinion. I wish they had more of a role in imperial (and less in castle) so that castle age champions were more commonly seem
I think they just change purpose a bit, going from being a almost equal melee unit to the swordsman line, to being a better support to mix a few of into a swordsman line army comp, while also not losing damage output completely and a lot of mobility like you would if using monks (though this depends on how much you value conversions).
@@Booklat1 I mean the castle age champions will still be the main show, being 20 gold compared to the priest's 60.
So what if the priest can survive 1 more hit? 3 champions obv going to win.
Still the priests are great to sprinkle into your army. Really drives home the giant ball of death vibe. As long as you ignore mogonels
@@Booklat1 aren't most civs have stronger unique units and weaker everything else in the late game? Why make a copy-pasta of a roster when you can make sth different like this?
"they don't look too overwhelming" - only if you ignore the healing! The healing makes a huge difference!
6 or 7 of them in a champ+composite bow army keeps your troops healthy without a long healing pause. They even survive in a fight better than champs due to their larger hp so they need to be replaced less often.
I would not be surprised to see an all-in strategy around Warrior Priests, similar to the wagon and serjeant strategies.
I think that it would be countered by all in scout plays, like the wagon strat
Nah, the priest isn't an OP unit, it just has an OP effect. Even if you make scouts, forward fortified churches (either pop them in until reinforcement pikes come or garrison vils/relics for firepower) will handle that, and even a handful of priests make great raiders because they have high damage, decent speed, are resilient to a bunch of things, and can retreat and heal.
I just came up with a strategy that worked decently well. 20 villager push using Fortified Churches, 10 vills garrison in each. And then creating endless Warrior Priests. I built like 30 churches across the map 11.
Already did that twice. Lost to slingers the first time, won vs Persians second time
@@Ian-vu4ij
Add some pikemen?
they're even worse at being anti-trash when you consider they're 60 gold a pop while champs are 20 gold, so it's much easier sustaining champion production in a trash war.
given all the relics you're getting and all the food youre spending in early castle age though, they're arguably as cheap as the sword line in castle age tho
The thing is, monks are even worse against trash, light cav has bonus damage but still take some damage back at least
@@nikolacolic3783 i was comparing them to champions for their anti-trash potential, of course you don't make monks against trash
@@atoucangirl oh no, i actually think its quite opposite, they stand a chance against trash units so you can add them with less risk as healers for your champions, it greatly increases champion value against trash, but it needs to be tested in the end i guess
@@atoucangirl I think what he means is, it's really just about perspective considering the duality of warrior monk. SOTL compared combat capability of warrior monks and champion in a vaccum but in practice warrior monks do much more than that as he stated.
@@nikolacolic3783 oh i see what you mean. in a healer role for champs they obviously do better, the question being is it even worth doing that in the first place compared to just making more champions, which needs to be tested yeah.
Feels like the obvious comparison point here is the Centurion, it's impractical to mass them but you're definitely going to want to mix a few in.
Good point, because just like the centurion they are cavalry units
The centurion has very strong combat stat so they can serve as paladin
The strategy seems to be get warrior monks early in Castle Age to have the huge power spike while you get relics and spin up enough gold production to complete the tech switch into champion, then phase out warrior monks and replace them with champions as you take losses, having remaining warrior monks serving as slightly worse champions that can also heal in the late game.
So far I have tested in team games (where gold is not as big issue in late game) they continue to be great in Imp, as in early castle you can get ton of relics and then you have ton of extra gold for them + they can heal allies, maybe if enemy would go full hussar or eagle then halb or champion switch is in the order, but otherwise they are strong enough (tanky as hell, have to try if Byzantine bonus works on them, with that I can imagine them as stand ground ball of self healing madness that will not die without focus fire).
Warrior Priests as supreme Relic Collectors is the first thing I thought when I saw the unit.
Personally, I've been playing the Armenians a lot and I've been loving the Warrior Priest. It's definitely a good unit to throw in your army. For some reason, I didn't realise they could pick up Relics, which is an even bigger improvement to an already fantastic unit. If you can keep up with the gold coat, Warrior Priests, Halbs and Composite Bowmen make for a good army, add some Capped Rams and sprinkle in Champions as needed for a fairly decent push.
Warrior priests actually make Armenians the best civ in Arena, all relics can be easily collected. And you have huge gold income to cover late game champs against trash.
They are one of the best units you can put into a siege tower on arena.
- No barracks needed (saves wood for initial siege workshop)
- Can not be converted without atonement
- can heal themselves once inside enemy walls
- they get zoomy with squires and fervor
- They obliterate vills without loom
Edit: add in some vills to build churches
I like to switch them during a fight between aggressive and only attacking when attacked.
Since then they will heal the rest of my units, which means I can make an army really hard to kill..
They are absolutely great.
Ratha-style toggling?
One small thing I noticed in my last game is that 1 Pike and 2 Warriorpriests lose fighting 2 Knights, when the Knights focus kill the pike. But when the WP heal the pike you can win that engagement without loses.
You can also take fights vs meele units in chokepoints with standground. All idle Warriorpriest then heal the few frontlining units, giving you extremly costefficient trades. Used this one against a player on arabia who massed like 20 scouts vs my 15 WP. Simply ran into a chokepoint besides a pond and waited for my pikes to come.
They remind me of the Jedi and Sith knights from Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds which was like a spinoff for Age of Empire II back in the day.
Blockprinting gives them +3 range
+3 range to what?
@@zsoltmautner3250it should make them start throwing books at enemies
Conversion only, sadly @@zsoltmautner3250
Or it gives them polaxe! Not that it would make sense...
@@zsoltmautner3250+3 range to their RANGE! 🙃
id love to see a series where you go through and compare who has the best of the generic units eg best halbs best arbs best bbc etc
He's done a few, I think - Paladins, Cavalry Archers, and Trebuchets all come to mind, at least (Turks for CAs, I think Franks for Pals, and Trebs had a more subjective list that I don't recall the winner of ATM. I thought he did some other 'best of' videos as well, but they're probably older and not as relevant thanks to changes made over the years.
I think the imperial age weakness of the unit was understated in the video. Their high gold cost compared to champions, their lack of attack bonus means they don't actually counter anything particularly hard and the fact that they lose to hussars is a big blow to them and I don't think it's particularly good idea to try to use them as core of your army in imp. But I can see a scenario where you build warrior priests in the castle age to take advantage of relics and apply early pressure. Then you still have a relatively useful dual healer/tank in the imperial with what ever you have left while you transition to using champions.
Wonder if they start healing if you make them hold position while enemies are nearby.
I've had them on defensive near my trebs and composite bowmen and they started to heal, even when enemies were approaching.
@@zsoltmautner3250 This is great. People refuse to invest in Monks as healers simply because they're too squishy, but here we have a healer that isn't dying in 3 hits, even from counters.
@@zsoltmautner3250 defensive or stand ground?
I played the campaing and found out that my best combo was a mixed army of composite bowmen, all in defensive position, and warrior priests, all in stand ground, they heal a lot, like, my archers were seeing death face to face and were in full health just as fast. Then I micro them to atack siege while the archers deal with the rest. Sometimes other units might help, like the champions to have a push.
Using them in defensive stance can help a lot too, but you have to mind where to place them, like, a bit behind the frontline, otherwise none will be healing, since these priests do prefer to see enemy blood than anything else.
@@curlywhitesit’s stand ground, what is good though is unlike regular monks they can be assigned to guard, and that will allow them to follow around units and they will focus on healing the guarded unit first if their in stand ground stance, essentially making them a walking auto healer you won’t need to micro every 10 seconds like regular monks, have them guard archers and champs and your troops last ages, what I have been doing is assigning the whole army to guard trebs, the archers and champs will hunt down potential threats to the trebs while the monks follow them and heal while your troops also ignore buildings and don’t go too far from the trebs, makes it real simple
I think a comparison to the Two-Handed Swordsman would have been better fit since this upgrade is far cheaper than the Champion upgrade.
AOE II Dev 1: “Do you think we got all the balances for the new unit, right?”
AOE II Dev 2: “We won’t know until Spirit of the Law’s video comes out…”
Seems absolutely OP in castle age as a fast unit to snatch relics, very hard to stop and also continues to be useful as both a fighter and healer
He didn't even explicitly mention that they can chase down and kill enemy monks, something monks can't do in return and have no defense against.
Getting new mechanic units are awesome
I tried a fast castlle 3 monastery push yesterday, and it have a lot of good and cons compare to it's other option, the 3 barracks longsword push
Good:
-you can collect all relic during the time you mass infantry
-no need to upgrade in mans at arm and longsword.
-faster and better in almost everything. Still shred building pretty fast wuth arson
-less food intensive
-monastery, if placed well, make you able to defend easily against rush when you hit castlle.
Cons:
-the highest cost of monastery and the longest creation time make the timing to win in early castlle harder to reach
-ask a barracks to have all upgrades, making the wood eco a bit more intensive to be able to do it
-pretty bad if the opponent oppened with scoot and still have them alive
-can't start massing them in feudal
So basically, it's a clearly better strat in the long term (better unit, and relics compensating the eco issues of this strat), but a bit less powerful as an "all in" strat.
It seems like the intention is for armenians to lean on a champion/warrior priest/composite bowman deathball in the late game. Champions for holding the line and killing trash units, comp bows to soften up knights and other heavy melee units and warrior priest to both add extra damage and to heal in between fights
Also, one semi-related question: the text for fereters say "Infantry units (except the Spearman line) +30 hit points". Does that mean that condotieri (if you have an italian ally) also benefit from the tech?
Melee units that can heal others is something that I really looked forward to. And, after seeing them in action, I really enjoyed them and found them very useful mixed in with Champs and Comp Bowmen. These guys are fantastic and a welcome addition to the game for Armenians and I really enjoy having them in my army.
i see the warrior priest as an excellent unit to mix with spears, and champions later game.
if they bullzdoze an enemy they can reset their wounded super fast.
I just got through the Armenian campaign. I generally used them as a meat shield for archers that can heal.
that heal animation 🤘
"You can do it! I believe in you! Believe in the me that believes in you!"
"Thank you, I feel much better now."
@@SchemingGoldberg Row Row Fight The Power!
Great video as always!
Christ this civ looks like so much fun, I am gonna be sad when the inevitable nerfs happen. Definitely gonna pick this DLC up around the christmas sale for sure
the down side of Warrior Priest when comparing to monk is that wolves will target them.
I love them. I don't use Monks often because they're so slow and squishy.
I love that they can fight, take hits, and then heal the army.
I wonder if the Byzantine team bonus affects them and if they take bonus damage from Samurai?
Both yes
@3:00 - there is a typo, good sir. 'Prests' - thanks for the upload ofc
How do you turn this on
Choir boys
Vrooomm vrooooom
man, as someone who usually plays Clerics in DnD, I'm drooling with the idea of this and can't wait to mess around with it
Definitely felt slow when I tried them out, but I didn't realize monk techs impact them. Solid support unit, and I will definitely try using them for collecting relics.
The idea of a warrior priest type of unit sounds really fun combo. I imagine it would be cool to see a similar unique unit for an Asian civ in the style of Shaolin-like monks and other historical variants.
That heavy gold cost for Warrior Monks really empathizes getting as many relics as possible for better gold income since you need to make Fortified Churches anyway.
nice that castle age they are a big brute and then when imperial ticks over they can step back into a more support role for the champions that are more durable than regular monks.
Some people try to "snipe" the enemy monks, if they are present in the army composition. With all upgrades Warrior Priest is really good as a "second line" unit just behind the frontline as the secondary buffer between the archers and the infantry as they both heal the frontline and if the enemy starts to break through it they can reasonably well plug holes in the line to prevent the enemy from killing the Composite Bowmen.
The problem is that they will auto-target and run towards any enemy that comes within range, so they are more likely to be right at the front of a fight instead of always neatly waiting in the middle, unless you like a lot of micro and playing around with unit stances.
@@arcan762 Set them on Stand Ground if you don't want to running off to fight. They'll still heal from where they are but won't go chasing off after enemy units.
@@arcan762 Stand Ground or Defensive Stance usually does the trick
Sprinkling some warrior monks into your champ comp could be a nice bonus to keep your army mobile, AND topped up...and that unique tech ALSO helping champs? It's a no brainer to pick up, so the healing speed double is almost a given, while you don't get conversions, at the same point, healing your armies, or making for a fast castle age push, this unit will see some use.
In may opinion(as someone who has considered its possible uses while and after watching the video) the best use of them is as a A tanky generalist infantry(countered by a few things but a soft counter to everything else) and B a healer/relic collector that can keep up with ones army(and thus assist in a econ/healing supportive capacity). The main draw backs are opportunity/resource cost(and even that is mild given how well its synergy with other units and its relic collecting are) and counterplay(it relies on other units to counter eagle warriors, hussars, paladins, etc but soft counters enough things to be worth using in mixed infantry lines). Also converting war elephants and using warrior priests to support them can be a very funny yet hard to counter strategy.
I think the cost difference to chapmion shouldn't be underestimated. Warrior quite heavily weighted to gold cost. In practice this means they are easier to mass in early castle age, but you end up trading some of your long term power to ability to mass units faster in short term. And the faster massing/transition also come with the cost that counter units actually exist, though aren't paticularly strong, until hussar.
My favorite strategy atm with armenians is Dark Age Spearmen --> Feudal Skirms/pike --> early Castle WP (get them relics) --> Late Castle siege/halb/WP push (use WP to heal halbs/tank rather then fight knights)
This unit will make the scenario maps created to represent Warhammer Fantasy in Age of Empires 2 more fun, perfectly playing the role of "Warrior Priests of Sigmar" and if you raise their stats, they would be the ultimate heroes. XD
Set the civ as aztecs, and every upgrade would get you +5 hp as leveling-up gimmicks.... I love where this goes
The fact it has 40 gold discount on monks is kinda crazy already.
It can't convert units so I think it's pretty justified.
It would be interesting to see group battles where 1 or 2 Warrior Monk is held back for healing
Sounds like you could spec into priests at the start then transition into chaps in late castle/early imp. The leftover warrior priests could go with the chaps as a support unit/healer that can defend itself. Maybe use the composite bowman as a ranged support too.
The perfect fit for anyone who loves to micro, if the pathing can keep up.
Team up with Burgundians and get one "free" unit every 30 seconds after capturing your first relic.
I think Warrior Priest should be like Steppe Lancers and be a unit a limited amount of civilizations get, as opposed to a UU.
Man, I want warrior priest to have a conversion mechanic. I mean how hilarious it will be when your monk is fighting and healing and converting other units
What, wait, they don't? What is the point of Warrior Priest if he can't do war good and is not a priest?
@@hannibalburgers477they heal other units and can pick up relics, and they move much faster than a monk...
@@William-Morey-Baker AND cost less then one
He does have a conversion mechanic, he axe the enemy a question and they convert to being dead.
Well they do convert enemy units...converts them into corpses that is, but I suppose you can't send corpses into battle...this isn't a zombie game after all. :P
During campain I used warrior priest more as support. Their companions were champios agains every trash units and buildings and with halbadiers so they could counter cavalary.
Because of their 1 relic and unique castle tech that gives them more hp and faster heal I found when you defend some choke points they are pretty good with war by atricion
2 or 3 of them with hold position and they perform their role in a army perfectly, healing wounded champions at the back
In my 650-700 elo experience no one is using them and I love them. The fortified church is big and scary looking and always resists early pressure because it builds so fast and again, is scary. Warrior Priests are awesome as a army addition for passive healing for someone who obviously isn't microing to victory. Armenians are my new go to, suck it Letis no more hurting me I got yo relics!
with so much evolution in the game, with so many mods and so on
I always thought someone would make Byzantine flamethrowers, or a mage for a special map or something similar
That +30 HP tech makes their infantry so strong. T90 posted a game between daut and I think it was heart, and even hand cannons couldn’t hold back the champion push lol
Armenians are a great arena and water civ
I'd like to see japanese warrior priest with it's own gimmick someday.
Like these guys more than the composite bowman honestly
Another bonus with the Armenians not discussed is Armenians being able to train spears in Dark age and already have Halberdiers in castle age.
This works amazingly well with early monk play in castle age. Have yet to play a game with Armenians where I didn't have a great result making halbs in castle age.
Any cavalry civ just melts against you in castle age. Only thing that gives them pause is ranged units. Their Unique archer unit does terribly in most range vs range fights, so skirms/xbows is probably the better bet. Not having thumbring hurts though.
Comp bow doesn't need thumbing as they base 100% base accuracy
Perhaps mixed masses of champions and warrior priests? Champions covering for the monks weaknesses while the monks give healing during downtime.
They definitely look like a unit that you make throughout the entire game as you can, as an early power spike into castle, and then a fine utility/sustain unit in late Imp to give your champs and trash a healer that's a bit less free to pick off than a normal monk by the Hussar end of the trash wheel. Having a unit that can fight off things and heal during downtime at a good rate is massive for multiple engagements and would really pressure your opponent.
Hey guys Spirit of the law here!
I think the best way to summarise them is, "you wouldn't make them over champions or monks, you'd make them over champions AND monks"
I found out that if you manually target a wounded unit then you can have multiple priests heal, I used this to cheese castles with my friend by having a tanky unit run in and draw fire, then using my priests to spam heal him.
It was great
Calling this out : This unit is gonna be hell to balance. Either OP or trash for a few months, before we finally get a proper in-between.
I think it’s good to add some in infantry army as a supportive unit, they can soak damage, and heal when not fighting, and halbs can deal with hussars
that fereters has made me play them more than bulgarians since the amrenians seem more all rounded civ than just anti infantry and really nice unique unit that has double life
Cannot wait to play with The Armenians!! Going to be one of my top favorite civs, next to the Poles
SoTL could also test their power healing on the backlines in Stand Ground with their Unique Tech in some fight scenarios. How many needed in a certaing fight, etc
To know the real value though, you have to consider them in the field being micro'd to heal on demand while not being wet papers like the Monks.
In Star Wars Galactic BG, there is the Medic. Medic can only heal and take a few punches. But, at least against AI and people who don't micro, a force as small as 5 Mounted Troopers, a pair of Laser Troopers and 4 Medics can take down a 'Town Center' with 100% health. Of course this would never work against someone who targets the Medics, but it has its place.
BY SIGMAR, THE HAMMER AND THE EMPIRE!
Wait, wrong game...
Do they take anti-infantry damage from gunpowder/jaguar warriors etc, or just anti-monk?
They must take, given all the infantry upgrades they benefit from.
This unit is also very strong with Bizantines team bonus !
i love that it isn't the jedi knight from galactic battlegrounds, it can fight, but isn't that elite wrecking ball that requires a full squad to kill
having a few to heal your army between skirmishes can be really helpful and save you money on the long run, monks are always priority targets and have to be killed first, but the warrior monk at least can fight back and last longer
what i find really interesting is that he lifts his cross to attack people with and heal.
Favourite unit now. Earlier I must choise build some war buildings to build army for def or monastery and monks to collect relics and die from aggression. Now I can build military units that collect relics. And now church is my first defense building. 😂
Now that these are in the game I’d love to see Spanish missionaries pick up relics.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will give this video a thumbs up.
This unit is essentially an MMORPG Paladin class
And I love it.
Would have loved some tests about making use of their healing. Like, do Warrior Monks fight better, when have of them are on hold ground stance and heal the other half. Or whether they would heal during combat when they are on defensive stance.
so when are missionaries going to get a buff?
So I have been playing with having some of them on defensive stance during a fight so that they heal the rest while they attack. I suspect there's some math in there!! :) I've been taking out TC's with maybe 3/4 of them attacking and 1/4 healing. It seems pretty darned powerful.
They are the ultimate support warrior unit for your army…..fight and heal is op in your army…..and the cost is ok to have some of them
Priest: **wololo** "Come to our side, you will go to heaven"
Warrior priest: "So, I heard you're a Buddhist?" **draw axe**
By Sigmar, They shall be judged!
I think you dont get the whole thing here. When Armenian troops have a bunch of warrior monks in their army and get just a few seconds rest after a fight the whole army is at full health again... This is an incredible strong tactic!
I expect the Warrior Priest getting a nerf which makes it weaker only in Castle Age.
The strongest aspect about being able to heal is that a group of warrior monks can heal themselves.
At a rate this high Sotl should revisit that old to heal or not to heal video of his.
I played them in stacks, and the power healing you can get from them is absolutely busted.
I feel like the next updates/DLCs for AoE2 need to focus on diversification in some of the civs, maybe visually like giving each civ their own unique Castle design as well as perhaps villagers.
It’s so freaking strange to see “white” looking villagers with African or Middle Eastern civs. This goes as well to regular (non unique) units. A Champion fully decked in plate armor for the Aztecs is just bizarre.
I know people often talk about visual reading when it comes to combat in RTS and I think that is very important too, but it’s not like you have to completely redo each unit, just have the basic concept and design a civ or regional design for them.
I'm blasted and haven't played this game in months but this was a joy to watch. This now civ is extremely interesting and I'll suggest to my friends to play a good ol'round again though they don't want to play with me anymore because apparently I'm too good. I'm really not, they just play 2vme and what chance do I have there?
They sound like a Space Marine like Good at Fightinh but also HOLY EMPEROR PROTECTS!
I would've loved a comparison between Champions and Warrior Priests fighting against Crossbows. The Speed should make warrior priests much better? or do Champions have bonus damage against crossbows