ya the wraiths do 22+2, I was looking at their air to air missiles.

Maybe if it was changed so you get experience for using constrict? There is really no motivation to use it unless you're being swarmed.

For epic long-range chainable stun locks?

Just wondering, can constrict's stun time be extended by upgrading power?

Edit: No use for constrict? You gotta be kidding me. Constrict is something like a pre requisite when pulling an l3 or l4 or both on another player. Also, in spawn rushes, you can spam constrict on a hero, making them vulnerable to spawn attacks. This is very effective since it was pulled on me once >.>

No, Constrict is the same potency at all Spell levels. So is (unburrowed) L1 and L4 spells as well as (burrowed) L4. The rest of serpent's spells scale with power upgrades. Also (a slightly less obvious thing) something that people don't know is that buying the energy upgrade for serpent not only increases max energy, but also increases the amount of energy restored by the enchantment spell.

The energy thing is something I've known for a long time haha

Why doesn't Serpent L1 and L4 scale with spell power? D:

Huh? I thought Serpent L1 scales with power

Some spells just don't. 9/10 I don't have a reason for making it like this. However in some cases (normally with ultimates) it's just a bonus to the player (incentive) to get the ultimate because it is for example already at maximum power.

If anything, serpent is one of the most OP characters in the game. All it needs to do is stay alive and exp slowly. Assims from allies helps A LOT.
However, the Serp needs to exp early game, and usually needs an allies help to fight. Chained swarms + uL2 = death. If your opponent is a fast hero, who can't be caught, then just rape their base. Cannons target spawn before you.

Some tips:
Get MP ups till you can effectively feed and still gain mana, slowly. Then get a power level and stop farming, start PKing. By that point, you should have enough exp to start raping them. The exception to this is if they spawn rush/spawner rush, or they are splash feeding.
If you random the serp, use one civ on $30; if you did not random, use two civs on the $30.
Do not upgrade defense unless they spawn rush. Even then, you probably won't need it. Maybe, just maybe, against necro (not CoM).
uL3 (unburrowed level 3) does less than uL4, but is more cost effective (unless you have, i think, 20+ air attack ups). For PKing, just dark swarm, uL3, dark swarm, uL3 till they die. If you run out of swarm, use L2. However, if you are base killing, and want to hit em with a lot, then run, combo L3 and L4. It maximizes dps.

Also, with late game Serp w/ max mana, I start using l3 to train instead of L1. There are some counters to Serp, but some of those require the element of surprise. Ninja has to hit Serp first with his Shadow Stitch, rendering the Serp useless until the effect is gone. The only downside when attacking Serp is, you have to attack is when there aren't much spawns around it, so all/most of your spell damage will fall on the Serp.

Gotta disagree with the rest. I always use Serpent. Indeed, he utterly sucks early-game. It's more about luck than anything. If your wraiths are smart and target low-hp units, you can come out on top. Even if he doesn't, your main concern for early-game is survival.

When I play as him, I always mass mana until I have around 150 exp, then I get my l3/l4 spells. As soon as he gets enough mana to consistently farm with, he does very well. He owns in pvp late-game.

Utterly sucks!?!?! If you have at least 1 shrine up from an ally and put your first stat points into magic, you will be well on your way to being able to exp fairly well (like 3-4/5broods per wave). Although this isn't as high as most characters, it's a small price to pay for once you reach the l3+l4 breakpoint. Once spawns progress to late lings / ghosts, one l3 takes out an entire wave of them with ease and suddenly serpent goes from slowest exp gain, to above average (better than most except CoM, Alchemist) and on par (maybe slightly better) with AI [vulture], Sam, RM, Illu.

If you are having hard time using serpent in early-mid game (late broods-lings) I would suggest investing more heavily in MP and getting plauge and energy up before you buy new powers (using shrine money is strongly recommended because you shouldn't put more than 2-3 points into Strength until late game when your magic is maxed. Anyway, high rate of cast for unburrowed l2 + constrict + plague is deadly mid game because most opponents don't bother to invest in vitality until either they have excess exp gain or they have a Sigil to compliment it.

One last tip for using serpent is that you shouldn't forget that at dusk or night you can burrow to avoid getting attacked (won't save you from everyone, but most people early game won't be able to see or attack you) You can also use venom on them to prevent them from having the MP needed to stun you.

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One last thing I want to say is that I made a mistake earlier saying that serpent's l1 (unburrow) is not scale with power. I think that it is effected by Elixir, but don't remember exactly so don't quote me on it.

how so? If the spawn die in one hit, you can't chain the locks, and you don't get exp for dealing damage to heros. How will exp for killing with it change that?

Constrict's primary use is to stun heroes. You don't get any exp for that. Constrict, also has a chance of killing spawns, either yours or the enemy. You don't get exp from that. (I don't think)

Correct. Constrict has a 100% chance to stun all characters (excluding yourself) at the point of aim. In addition, it has a 25% chance to kill allied spawn, 25% chance to kill enemy spawn, 25% chance to kill all spawn, and 25% chance to not kill any spawn at the point of aim. Therefore, it can be said that constrict has two primary uses: 1. Stunning Enemy Hero (stun-lock capable) and 2. Killing enemy spawns.

is there a message telling AI when his "controls" are reconfigured yet? its abit of a hassle constantly pressing your spell button seeing when you can use spells again

Count to 5 Mississippi because 1.04 does not tell you. 1.05 probably won't either just because I'm trying to eliminate as many string/trigger as possible to reduce map size in future versions.

Well if you're in an intense game with the adrenaline rushing, then your perspective of time will be slightly off

I played with the M&M last night and noticed that I accidentally mined some minerals. I'm not sure if that was the cause but I couldn't collect resources from steel and my extractors weren't making steel for me either. This was in 1.04.
When I died, I could mine on my second life, but the shrine still didn't produce steel.