Essence+of+Power

toc **Essence of Power, Arcanist Totem**

=__Overview__= The Essence of Power is a spirit which has been captured by the Arcanists to act as a magical battery for their spells, giving a boost to spell damage flips. As the Master casts, the tortured soul is slowly and agonizingly consumed. The Master, of course, is blind to the being's plight preferring to focus on the spell bonuses they receive.

=__Mobility__= The Essence of Power has a relatively slow Wk of 4 and cannot charge. It can, however, be pushed along with the model to which it is linked which offsets this a bit.

=__Offense__= The Essence is not designed to hit hard by any means; with a low Cb melee strike with a Severe damage of 3, this totem is probably best left out of combat unless really needed.

=__Resilience__= The Essence has a very low Df and only two wounds, so most units in the game can one-shot it if they get a straight hit.

=__Tips and Tricks with Rasputina__= More than any other Arcanist Master, the Essence of Power works best with Rasputina. The positive flip on Spell damage means that Rasputina can still Cheat in even if she gets a negative flip on the damage after casting. This makes it a lot easier to get both the Mask for //Overpower// and Severe damage if needed.

Remember that to get the bonus the Essence must be linked (and so in base contact with Rasputina) which allows it to benefit from her //Ice Queen// ability giving it //Frozen Heart// and all the benefits thereof (//e.g.// //Bite of Winter//, pushes from Snow Storm, etc.).

Also with a Tome in its Ca, the Essence can cast Rasputina's spells with relative ease. This means that the Essence can cast //Ice Pillars// and save Rasputina's AP for more important things, such as annihilating the opposition.

=__Tips and Tricks with Ramos__= Ramos will benefit from taking this Totem if you think you're going to need to cast //Electrical Fire// often, but even then you'll probably want the Mobile Toolkit to make sure //Surge// goes off and because of its interaction with constructs.

=__Tips and Tricks with Marcus__= With no spells that deal damage, there is no advantage to taking this Totem over the Jackalope.

=__Tips and Tricks with Collette DuBois__= Another master with only one spell that deals damage, the bonus to damage doesn't outweigh the synergy she gets from her Mechanical Dove.

=__Tips and Tricks with Sonnia Criid__= What? This is a Arcanist model.. If you play with Hamelin the Ratcatcher, you can actually hire the totems out of faction aswell as they are Ht1. Hiring Hamelin just for this purpose is not very likely to be useful, but if you want to play with him anyway, this is an added perk that he brings. This goes of course for all masters, but one that possibly has alot to gain from using this totem is Sonnia Criid. None of the Guild totems have the Tome she so desperately needs for her spells, but this one does. It requires a 10 of any suit to do it, so while not very easy or cheap it can be done. And the positive flip to spell damage is just as good for Sonnia as it is for Rasputina.

Do not forget, however, that you cannot take the totem more than 10" away from Hamelin, or it will be sacrificed.

=__Playing Against the Essence of Power__= The Essence is not dangerous in itself, with low Df, low Cb, low Dg, etc., but its ability to boost the model it is linked to means it's a good thing to get rid of soon. A ranged attack or a backhand from a good melee piece should see it off in short order.

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