Hurt and Heal: Leaders

[The_great_new_thing]

* Drake Flare 10
* Drake Thrasher 6
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 2 (-2)
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 4

[Aethaeryn]

* Drake Flare 10
* Drake Thrasher 7 (+1)
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 2
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 3 (-1)

The Drakes must win this!

[Espreon]

* Drake Flare 10
* Drake Thrasher 8 (+1)
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 2
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 2 (-1)

The Drakes must win this!

Indeed...

[Thrawn]

* Drake Flare 10
* Drake Thrasher 8
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 1 (-1)
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 3 (+1)

I'm a bit early, but won't be voting in this for enough time after to equal out

[Aethaeryn]

Also, I understand why many people prefer the Slasher over the Gladiator in 1.6 and before. The Slasher has better art. However, the Thrasher looks awesome in 1.7, and is more luck-proof (more strikes > less strikes, more damage types), which makes it more useful in general situations, and better at defense. It also has more HP. It's a tank, with a good movetype. A great leader. Again, I'd rather have a leader with 5 strikes than a leader with 1 strike (or in this case, 2).

The Slasher/Arbiter improves on one vital aspect of the Clasher: anti-horseman. Still, you don't want to put your leader in a position to be charged, anyway. Again, more generally useful > niche for a leader.

EDIT: At 66 HP, the Thrasher has the most HP out of any lvl 2 Drake, and the best resistances. Your leader isn't going to get rushed, and luck isn't going to kill your leader early. If you don't want luck to ruin your day, the Thrasher is the best anti-luck-dependent unit. The leader is never expendable, either.

The Flare is a great unit, but usually is the first thing I promote a burner to. You just don't get to use leadership with your actual leader unit that much in standard multiplayer, it's just the way it's set up that you lose out in recruiting reinforcements, etc...

The only alternative to the Thrasher on this list I'd choose is the Warrior (that's almost dead) because it's the fastest leader out there: 6 MP and really good movetype.

Also, the Trasher is the best pure tank unit out there because it doesn't suffer from mobility problems that other tanks (especially human shock troopers) suffer from. Yes, it is immobile for a Drake unit, but that's still more mobile than any other faction's non-scouts.

[Yoyobuae]

Level 2 drakes are just too uber.

They finally deliver the high HP and high damage which is supposed to be drakes advantage. There's hardly other leaders that can match them on both fields (only steelclad is close), but then drakes still win on mobility.

[Aethaeryn]

Level 2 drakes are just too uber.

They finally deliver the high HP and high damage which is supposed to be drakes advantage. There's hardly other leaders that can match them on both fields (only steelclad is close), but then drakes still win on mobility.

Yes, the one thing Drakes can't do is dodge (they also are pretty damn expensive). Other than their obvious and easy weaknesses, they're pretty awesome.

[Yoyobuae]

[...]
EDIT: At 66 HP, the Thrasher has the most HP out of any lvl 2 Drake, and the best resistances. [...]

Ehem, Slasher/Arbitrer has +10% pierce resistance.

[Lizard]

* Drake Flare 9 (-1)
* Drake Thrasher 9 (+1)
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 1
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 3

[StDrake]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 9
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 1
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 1 (-2)

challenge! who will you finish off first? :>

[Yoyobuae]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 9
* Drake Arbiter 5
* Drake Warrior 2 (+1)
* Elvish Captain 4
* Elvish Sorceress 0 (-1)

Dunno, how the Sorceress managed to survive this long, all the other mages were gone long ago.

[uzy5o]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 8
* Drake Arbiter 6
* Drake Warrior 2
* Elvish Captain 4

The arbiter does better damage overall than the thrasher. The only units the thrasher are better against are skeletons and HI, both of which can be dealt with by fire anyways. And +10 pierce resistance is useful, probably moreso than 4 HP.

[Zigg]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 8
* Drake Arbiter 6
* Drake Warrior DEAD! (-2)
* Elvish Captain 4

[Zarel]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 8
* Drake Arbiter 4 (-2)
* Elvish Captain 4

Aetheryn just said pretty much everything I wanted to say about why Thrasher is more awesome than Arbiter.

So I guess I'll just be terse: The Thrasher has three melee weapons. One of them is in his left hand. One of them is in his right hand. One of them is on his head. Let me repeat that. On his head. He uses a ram. In addition to a different weapon in each hand. You can't tell me that's not awesome. You just can't.

[Exasperation]

* Drake Flare 9
* Drake Thrasher 8
* Drake Arbiter 4
* Elvish Captain 2
One of these things is not like the others, one of these things does not belong...