Defiler

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Description
The Defiler is a full wizard class that focuses on the powers of the Poison Magic sphere. The Defiler also bears skills which improve the XP of Plaguelord Units such as the Slime and Eye of Flame.

Stats and Skills
The attribute changes you get by choosing this class:

The abilities you get by choosing this class:

Overall
The Defiler is a somewhat mid-performing spellcaster class which is somewhat limited to only a select few races due to the prevalance of XP skills designed for the Plaguelords. Still, there is decent potential in the spells of the Poison Magic sphere. However, it must be said that although Poison Magic sphere fits the certain races such as the Swarm, it does little to help eradicate their inherent weaknesses. Play against the right race though, and the Defiler is a reasonably capable wizard class.

Races
There are only truly two races which the Defiler class can successfully go with.

Firstly, the Swarm can gain a nice collection of swarmy playstyled spells from the Poison Magic sphere. Access to summoning a horde of Wasps and/or Spiders is a very useful asset (particularly the latter). The Spiders work perfectly with the Swarm, as the Spider Queens lay eggs in their victims which hatch into a small collection of Spiders. These units can poison the enemy forces, which works perfectly with the Curse of Melkor research which doubles the speed at which poisoned units lose their health. The Swarm Defiler also has the ability to poison enemy units in the command radius, and cure units of poison/disease (in which some Swarm units aren't immune to, such as for some reason the Husk and the hero itself). There is a downside to the Swarm Defiler unfortunately, as Wasps are hardly capable of fending off the Swarm's biggest nemesis, the Dragon (any of them).

Secondly, the Plaguelord Defiler is a decent choice. The Poison Magic spell sphere is almost completely pointless here, so it may be a good idea not to invest too many points into it (the reason being units can't be poisoned and diseased at the same time and most Plaguelord units can't be poisoned/diseased). The only particularly useful spell available to the Plaguelord Defiler is Rot, since it can maximise the effects of disease. The main skills to invest in are Slimemaster and/or All-Seeing Eye. Unfortunately, both skills got nerfed big time since 1.03, and even the Slime lost its ability to resist piercing damage in 1.03.24, so Slimemaster is only a skill to invest in until the player can get All-Seeing Eye, which is superior in every way.

Counters

 * The Swarm Defiler is vulnerable to anything that has splash damage since Spiders and Wasps can get easily mashed by them. Other than that, the Defiler should be taken down with plenty of missile units since the combo of Poison Cloud + Rot can be pretty devastating.
 * If there's any unit that directly counters the Defiler, it's the Giant. The Giant is a horde-slaying machine with immunity to poison (like all Orcs), so the Defiler is almost helpless against them.
 * As always, Defiler's are physically fragile like all wizards. Get any band of units and then attack the Defiler with it. As a full support hero, the death of a Plaguelord Defiler could very well mean the game.