This is just some personal thoughts on Loki after playing roughly 80 games with him in 1vs1 ranked. This is not about him being good or not. But rather it is about how I think the god is somewhat of a mess or counter intuitive if you will.
First of all. Loki has always been about Hersirs and them being able to spawn myth units. While I appreciate the change that makes Loki’s human soldiers able to contribute to the mythic unit spawning it feels kind of strange at the same time. You want to build Hersirs, but have next to no bonus helping hersirs. Not from minor gods, and not from the inherit bonus of Loki. I do appreciate the push towards mixing your units more though.
Seccondly, I do not really understand why we are pushed towards Berzerks, while at the same time being pushed towards counter units with his “+25% counter damage”. In every age you have a minor god that helps Berzerks, yet Berzerks have no counter damage at all. In essence, It feels like i got 3 or 4 different ways to play Loki, which all of them just seems subpar. Or average at best. The alternative that players seem to have settled on is going Heimdall → Njord → Hel where neither of the choices actually help berzerks. Making his ability to turn vills into berzerks not really play into his kit here as well.
Maybe I am wrong on this? I did like to hear some thoughts. Loki just feels very strange to me. Most of the other pantheons have a synergy between the god bonus. But here, it just seems all over the place.
Loki Hersir have more bonus damage against Myth units because of his bonus (used to get more speed) when you compare to Thor Hersir. Hersir for Loki,Thor and Odin are limited in techs to upgrade which isn’t new for Loki and Thor but it is new that Odin has a tech to upgrade them. Loki has Hall of Thanes for more movement speed after researching that tech from Forseti which is it.
Damaging enemy units can spawn myth units. (Human soldiers contribute 10%; Hersirs 50% of damage dealt.)
Human soldiers and heroes +25% counter damage.
Buildings are constructed 25% faster.
Ox Carts are 50% cheaper.
Transforming Gatherers and Dwarves into Berserks is free.
Tech:
Eyes in the Forest: Gain the Line of Sight of those nearby units of Mother Nature (trees, mines, Forage Bushes, and animals), which are within the Line of Sight of the player’s units and buildings. The effect continues to persist temporarily when the natural objects go out of view.
Dwarven Breastplate: Berserks’ hack vulnerability reduced by 10%.
Cave Troll: Trolls have 25% more hitpoints, 20% more attack, and +2 range.
Hall of Thanes: Hersirs have 10% more HP and +1 more speed.
Call of Valhalla: Berserks gain +10% hit points and grant 1 favor when they fall in battle
Swine Array: Hirdmen gain +10% damage and deal triple damage against cavalry.
Thurisaz Rune: Myth units gain +10% movement speed and 0.25 HP/sec regeneration.
Long Serpent (since Retold): Longboats gain +10% more hit points and fire +1 more arrows when attacking enemies (stacks up to 5 times).
Rampage: Decreases myth unit training time by 95%.
Granite Blood: Mountain Giants gain +20% hit points, Frost Giants gain +40% hit points, and upgrades Fire Giants to Sons of Muspell, granting them +40% hit points.
God Power:
Spy
Healing Spring
Flaming Weapon
Nidhogg
Myth units:
Troll
Battle Boar
Mountain Giant
Frost Giant
Fire Giant
Nidhogg (by God Power)
In my opinion, it is a quite straight forward myth units army protected by Hersir and Godi, and heroes protected by throwing axemen, while allowing main base lower the garrison need, to focus more pop on economy and main force.
Since this setup is myth unit focus, meaning you are going to have lots of myth units followed by lots of Hersir and Godi, and then followed by throwing axemen to deal with heroes and cavalry, while standing behind a wall of myth unit. Then you need some regular infantry units to maintain bases and protect bases at the same time.
Gatherers and Dwarves can transform into Berserks for free, more than enough reasons to power-up berserks, as you need to train throwing axemen only basically and build wall to protect base, and Hirdmen if enemy cavalry becomes a headche. In the worst case, you can call some extra berserks for extra hands without extra cost.
