Ra Heroic Age is mathematically undertuned/bugged

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
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Ra in online play is considered the weakest god right now, and for good reason. The Heroic Age for Ra - namely Sobek and Sekhmet, offer little real advantages/power spike at all. Below I will break down some of the two issues with these gods:

Sobek:

  • Petsuchos effectively do not benefit DPS wise when Eclipse is cast, the damage done to the unit will be increased by exactly 1 damage. So say a unit takes 30 damage normally from a Petsuchos attack, during Eclipse it will go up to 31 damage.
  • Petsuchos have lost their multiplier vs other Myth Units since the older versions of AOM (it used to be 2x damage vs Myth Units)
  • Roc is attackable by Villager MELEE attack whilst the Roc is flying
  • Locust Swarm is exceptionally underwhelming for a Heroic Age god power, especially when towers/fortresses can garrison more units, and easier than ever.
  • Locust Swarm is the only god power in the game which hurts friendly targets as much as enemy targets, meaning any raid + locust attempt will inevitably hurt your own raiders significantly.

Sekhmet:

  • Force of the West Wind takes way too long to research, even with Pharaoh empowerment. By the time you have a siege works constructed, the technology researched, and a catapult trained, you may as well have just gone Mythic Age anyway.
  • Citadel is underwhelming, especially compared to previous Age of Mythology versions. An empowered Citadel with units garrisoned inside used to deter non-siege based units, where as now even regular units with no upgrades can dance around it.
  • Bone Bow does not provide any additional LOS, resulting in a situation where Chariot Archer range is greater than their vision. >>Son of Osiris also has 18 range, but only 16 LOS<<
  • Scarabs are significantly weaker than their original game counterparts. They do much less damage vs buildings, and also their blood has a much smaller area of effect.

More Scarab info:
Scarabs from the original games have an effective 30 Hack, 60 Crush DPS when attacking buildings.
Retold Scarabs have 10 Hack, 36.7 Crush DPS.
Assuming your objective was to take down an enemy Migdol with a Scarab, the Migdol has 2600 health, 30% hack armor, 5% crush armor.

Old Scarabs:
30 Hack * 0.7 = 21 Hack DPS
60 Crush * 0.95 = 57 Crush DPS
DPS to Migdol: 78 DPS

Retold Scarabs:
10 Hack * 0.7 = 7 Hack DPS
36.7 Crush * 0.95 = ~34.85 Crush DPS
DPS to Migdol: 41.85 DPS

Old Scarabs with Old Eclipse (50% bonus damage):
30 Hack * 1.5 * 0.7 = 31.5 Hack DPS
60 Crush * 1.5 * 0.95 = 85.5 Crush DPS
DPS to Migdol: 117 DPS

Retold Scarabs with Retold Eclipse (20% bonus damage):
10 Hack * 1.2 * 0.7 = 8.4 Hack DPS
36.7 Crush * 1.2 * 0.95 = ~41.84 Crush DPS
DPS to Migdol: 50.24 DPS

So you can see that overall, the old scarabs were about 2x more effective in all circumstances at destroying buildings. Right now they are underwhelming, especially given the expensive cost of the unit and how easy they are to kill.

Closing thoughts:
Maybe you can nerf Mythic Age perks of Ra – Mummies/Avengers/Tornado toned down a little, and instead allow Ra to have some strength in the Heroic age.

  • Make Petsuchos do bonus damage vs MU again
  • do bonus damage during Eclipse
  • Scarabs should be cheaper, or more powerful like their original game counterparts
  • and especially scary during Eclipse
  • Slight reduction in research time for Force of the West Wind, especially now Pharaoh can’t full strength area-empower on a monument.
4 Likes
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Sobek is hands down the worst minor god in the game. Good writeup. Ra has access to none of the powerful minor gods. Sobek should be reworked. Ra’s minor god choices in Heroic are laughable. Many other minor gods give huge power spikes when reaching Heroic, where as Sobek and Sekhmet have little impact. Locus swarm is laughably bad. Rain is nowhere near as good or useful as it was before. Perhaps rain could provide some other bonus when used.

Set is overpowered and Ra is underpowered. These too gods need to exchange some techs or be reworked slightly. Set has one of the strongest early games, but can also just meteor strike your whole base with Thoth in the Mythic age.