Editor's Note: Hello reader. In the quest to have a writeup by an expert on all Godtear champions, we present Woutjee. Woutjee has always been the biggest Rattlebone proponent on the discord and has the tournament ranking with the champion to back up his talk; currently ranked number one on longshanks with Rattlebone with an impressive 500 Elo. Widely regarded as one of the weaker champions by most of the Godtear community, Woutjee is here to set us all on the way of the Prophet.
The Prophet of the Ascending Past will ascend through the ranks!
“A feared shaman, Rattlebone’s reputation allows her safe passage among even the most troublesome of her people.”
Well, not so feared by the Godtear community. (Yet!)
Now why should you play her?
First of all and the coolest reason is that she has one of the best thematics in the game! A brutal orc shaman who will disrupt anyone coming towards her. (PEAK!)
Don't even get me started on the naming of her abilities: Rolling the Bones, Cursed Grounds; give the SFG team some credit.
You also should play her if, like me, you really enjoy having a support champion in your team who mostly weakens the opponent champions for your team to finish off.
I think that the biggest mistake “new” Rattlebone players will make is thinking that she is about trying to Boon-up your team, please just get Lily in that case. She is all about the blights.
Let's dive into the infinite blights throwing.
First, the Hexlings
Well, the Hexlings are Maelstrom fodder with some C-tier stats of 3 dodge & 2 protection. But they are strong in numbers with 5 totems strong.
And most of the time you only need 3 Hexlings anyway, but hold that thought.
I’ve seen people say on discord that the Hexlings are one of the strongest followers in a warband. And I would not argue against that.
With Hex Eaters or Attune Magic the Hexlings can take any boon in the plot, mostly I will get it for a speed boon, but I try to see what my champions are lacking. And Purge Magic those boons to any nearby friendly model in the clash. But these are the lowest priority abilities, rather move into position for an Hex Bolt to give your opponent any blight of your choice. Need 2 blights? Well no problem, use it twice in a round!
Coming back to the fact that you only need 3 Hexlings to be effective.Well most champions are 3 dodge, so with 2 Hexlings you can Hex bolt with a 75%, only you need 3 Hexlings in a hex to reliably hit dodge 4 or 5 models. And keep 1 Hexling close to a champion who needs/wants the boons of the Hexlings. Use the other Hexlings to block paths off.
Rattlebone
Secretly speedy orc, Rattlebone is honestly pretty fast! She got a plot speed of 3, and a normal speed in the clash 2.Which is really easy to get faster with some boon manipulation from the passive and hexlings. Surprise your opponents with just a faster Rattlebone to crush some banners.
Tanky? Although she is tankier than Titus & (base) Jeen with a 3 dodge, 3 protection, 6 health. She sometimes still gets one shotted and loses the whole game, other games she is the tankiest of them all and keeps on surviving on 1 hp and wins the whole game.
I would mostly like to use her in the storm of the battlefield, but not in the center, with a range of 2 she doesn't mind to be in a bit on the sideline. But still use her aggressively, because she can take some hits.
I will get your boon, you will get blighted! Again Rattlebone is the blight-queen of Godtear. But let's start with her passive Roll the Bones, thematic in the best way there is; like a real shaman you get to roll a die and either give the hexlings a boon or steal a boon of the fearful enemy or give your slayer’s protection blight to the opponents maelstrom.
Pro tip: get close, into range 1, so you always have an effect.
Plot
The second blight ability is Grasping curse, where Dodgy targets still will get hit and will get hit again or someone is in range of your banner? Well not anymore with an advance blight.
Use Call of Totems only in round 1 or you desperately need it, but don't forget that if you have any boon on the Hexlings and you remove them all, the boon will be gone as well.
I try to always plant my banner since that's 2 points and blighting if i'm first. When I'm second I’ll try to crush a banner.
Clash
Also the most important thing in the Clash phase is to crush a banner, you could have a 3 speed in this phase as well with that sneaky boon of the hexlings.And then the fun part can begin while deadly cursing and throwing dice. Rattlebone with a 4-6 attack which can go pretty easily to a 5-7 attack and if that hits while the target is blighted with a protection blight of the hexlings… that kinda hurts…anyone (RB secret slayer CONFIRMED)
And while doing that your target gets… Blighted of course! So they can’t hit you back as hard as they would like. Again, play that shaman aggressively!
Well than the most underrated ability of the game: Cursed Grounds The most niche ability, but it has won me a few games (or rounds at least).
The ability to block followers, the Dragons of Keera, Kailinn and her Virtues & mostly Styx’s Hound who try to get to my banners. But nah you got some unstable, unwalkable cursed grounds to block just that one Hound. I also use Cursed Grounds to just block off some creepy small followers who like to come close to kill my 1-hp champions.
When to use your Ultimate?
Well in all honesty I’m bad at pulling a Power Hex off. I’m always aiming for the perfect Round 3 5 blights on 3 champions ultimate.But that only happens in my dreams.I would recommend a 3 blight - 2 champions late in R2, early in R3, or in R4 to secure the win.It’s a really strong ultimate where the opponent champion(s) will get weakened a lot. Also again use it aggressively, blight them with speed, dodge & protection which can also be effective defensively with a 1 speed Titus or 0 speed Raith or setting up for a next turn to destroy a Skullbreaker with 3 dodge & 0 protection.
When to pick the shaper orc?
Well, I would say in all games, and in a game against no maelstrom she is really dangerous but that barely happens. The danger of constantly disrupting your opponent's plans, with the hexlings, is overlooked. It’s really frustrating to play against if you’re constantly blighted, because now you can not crush that banner or don’t have a good chance to hit or now you’re really easy to hit or you’re not as strong as you thought you were. Those blighted opponents can be just enough for you to survive or just enough for you to Knock Out!
Matchups I really enjoy!I personally like to steal all the boons that Lily has to offer or Raith, the Prophet can hurt the Lizardy Sea Monk by constantly putting out speed blights and when Raith has low dodge and low armor Rattlebones can hurt him. Anyone who loves some boons or doesn't get rid of blights easily, Rattlebones is a counter. I personally like to use her against:
Skullbreaker, get some extra blights on him;
Lily, I just steal the boons she just gave;
The Goblins in general, with the hexlings you can give reliably a Speed Blight, which ends up in no movement in the clash phase.
Raith is pretty easy to damage with a deadly curse and also Call of totems can block off the Splashlings.
Pairing
I like to pair her up with some strong hitters, since she isn't a big hitter herself with only one attack. I’ve had some success in a tournament with just Orcs. Although I wasn't a big fan of Mr. Skully, pairing him with the orc shaper… AUCH! All the blights Skullbreaker gets will get removed, he will get some extra speed instead and the opponent gets some juicy blights.
But overall she can fit any team if you know what your goal is! Again I do recommend some “ladder-scorers-by-knock-out” champs, just because you won’t hit the scoring ladder that often. So pick up a hard hitting Maelstrom like: Blackjaw, Luella & Kailinn
Also remember to make way so you can crush some banners, because Rattle is fast!
Or if you want to go full out and hit like you’ve never hit some weakling champions before? I recommend: Rangosh, Skullbreaker, Sneaky Peet. Although you will lack 2 followers who can’t attack in the clash in that case.
And for Guardians I like to pair her with Rodhri with his Answer the Call to sneakily recruit an extra hexling.
I don’t recommend pairing her up with:
Halftusk, Shayle, Lily and Goblins in general. Because you don’t have the strongest ladder power.
But again if you have a game plan and you need someone to just disrupt your opponent, pair her up and make her work!
Morrigan?
Well it's a theoretical dream to pair her up with Morrigan for the ultimate blight show.But again you lack pushing power and that is a.. well that's just THE problem. But I’m still hopeful that it can work, now that I’m getting more experience with Rattlebone.
Scenario
Basically, she can play every scenario. “Death” isn’t her strongest, but with a full team she can still be viable!
Gameplay
So we got an oposing Speedy Jeen and an allied Skullbreaker who just can’t reach a banner. But wait, we have an Hexling behind our slayer. (Which you can barely see)
So we start off with Rattlebone: move her 1 and target Jaak to throw some damage on him. Proc Roll the bones and steal the Speed boon off Jeen and give it to the Hexlings.
Next give the speed boon of the hexlings to Skullbreaker and target Jeen or Jaak with a Hex Bolt. Now Skullbreaker has 3 speed in the clash and can crush the opposing Jaak’s banner.
Try out the blight queen for yourself on the battlefield!
PS. she is more about the blights than the boons :)
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