Is Stanley attuned to an Arkentool?

After reading the most recent summer update, I suddenly realized that Stanley may not actually be attuned to the ArkenHammer.
Here's my basis for hypothosis:

Stanley, unlike Wanda, has no idea what he's doing with his Arkentool. He learned to turn walnuts to pidgeons after, what, years? Wanda was making decrypted warriors moments later.

The only real reasons people thought he was attuned was possession and the command of dwagons. Seeing that Ansom was in possession of Wanda's Arkentool, possession =/= attunement. Also, Parson commanded a dwagon pretty handily, though he is much larger than any Erfworlder, and can't really be expected to ride a dwagon successfully.

...Buh?

Wanda still hasn't worked out all of the Arkenpliers' powers either. She just decided to see if she could use them in uncroaking, because, well, she's a Croakamancer and that's what she knows how to do.

Parson can command dwagons because those dwagons belong to his Overlord and he's a Warlord. Warlords can command any troops belonging to their Overlord.

The Arkenhammer's 'dwagon taming' ability just means 'you can pop dwagons at your capital'.

I wish I had .jpgs to show how you've dashed my dreams on the shores of your reason.

I believe one of flaws with arkentool in character page is "choice of friends". That statement wouldn't mean much if Stanley wasn't the "friend"/attuned.

Stanley specifically says that Ansom wasn't attuned to the Arkenpliers. If Stanley didn't know whether he was attuned or not, how would he be able to tell if Ansom was? For that matter, how would he even know it was possible to attune to an Arkentool?

Additionally, in the prose updates on the erfworld site, he instantly recognizes that Wanda is attuned to the Pliers, even saying the she carried them like he did the Hammer.

Note: Ansom used the pliers. Just not to their full potential. He was able to slay uncroaked in a single hit with them. Wanda, being attuned, can also Decrypt with them.

The real question is... Is Stanley using the Hammer to its full potential? Could anyone with the hammer tame dragons? Or are the abilities Stanley uses representative of the Hammer's power for the Attuned?

Note: Ansom knew he wasn't attuned. Ansom stated Stanley was. Perhaps Attunement is something that is visible to the characters.

Judging by This
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0155.html
Attunement certainly seems to be a visible effect.

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Originally Posted by spectralphoenix

Stanley specifically says that Ansom wasn't attuned to the Arkenpliers. If Stanley didn't know whether he was attuned or not, how would he be able to tell if Ansom was? For that matter, how would he even know it was possible to attune to an Arkentool?

Additionally, in the prose updates on the erfworld site, he instantly recognizes that Wanda is attuned to the Pliers, even saying the she carried them like he did the Hammer.

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You are not a Firefly, by your logic does that make me one?

Part 2: Could be bluffing

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Originally Posted by Ledeas

Part 2: Could be bluffing

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In context it really couldn't

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Originally Posted by Yuki_Akuma

The Arkenhammer's 'dwagon taming' ability just means 'you can pop dwagons at your capital'.

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Do you have a source on this? I don't remember Rob or Jami mentioning it, but then I don't know everything...

Stanley has also been shown using the hammer to fly and blast bolts of lightning, so he has a pretty extensive use of it beyond just hitting people.

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Originally Posted by BRC

Judging by This
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0155.html
Attunement certainly seems to be a visible effect.

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Yeah -- it's not the sort of subtle phenomenon that leaves you wondering "did it happen or didn't it?".

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Originally Posted by SteveMB

Yeah -- it's not the sort of subtle phenomenon that leaves you wondering "did it happen or didn't it?".

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Judging from the 33th update, it appears that probably an arkentool can form a link very deep with the unit under control.
Totally speculative, but I think that the uncroaked units are "loyal" to their king, or the warlord (not to the croackamancer), while the decrypted units are more directly tied to Wanda...


And the Holy War is starting!

howdy new friends, i'm new here but i've read a lot of erfworld...i totally think stanly is attuned...just 'cause he doesn't use the arkenhammer to it's full potential doesn't mean he's not attuned to it...he doesn't even use his own forces to their full potential...parson is sidelined, sizemore is treated like...ummm, dirt?...you see what i mean...

erfworld rocks!

I think I remember Stanley went up through the ranks and became warlord *because* he could attune the Hammer. That was basically the key to him advancing.

It sounds like attunement is a seriously big deal, and rare. For example it's possible that you have to be a croakmancer to attune the pliers.

Taming means that he can, if he encounters feral dwagons, capture and convert them to be totally loyal to him, in addition to being able to pop them through normal city production.

This is made clear in Summer Updates #35.

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Originally Posted by Killer Angel

Judging from the 33th update, it appears that probably an arkentool can form a link very deep with the unit under control.
Totally speculative, but I think that the uncroaked units are "loyal" to their king, or the warlord (not to the croackamancer), while the decrypted units are more directly tied to Wanda...


And the Holy War is starting!

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As far as we know she can't actively betray Stanley due to the whole "Thinkamancy" thing.

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Originally Posted by Burley

After reading the most recent summer update, I suddenly realized that Stanley may not actually be attuned to the ArkenHammer.
Here's my basis for hypothosis [snip]

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Well, Ansom has said that Stanley is attuned to the hammer.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0022.html

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Originally Posted by Burley

After reading the most recent summer update, I suddenly realized that Stanley may not actually be attuned to the ArkenHammer.
Here's my basis for hypothosis:

Stanley, unlike Wanda, has no idea what he's doing with his Arkentool. He learned to turn walnuts to pidgeons after, what, years? Wanda was making decrypted warriors moments later.

The only real reasons people thought he was attuned was possession and the command of dwagons. Seeing that Ansom was in possession of Wanda's Arkentool, possession =/= attunement. Also, Parson commanded a dwagon pretty handily, though he is much larger than any Erfworlder, and can't really be expected to ride a dwagon successfully.

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he learned the dwagon taming ability like, right away.

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Originally Posted by Dixieboy

As far as we know she can't actively betray Stanley due to the whole "Thinkamancy" thing.

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Except that, having already betrayed the king of Faq to further her own ends, she presumably has a very low loyalty rating... and could in theory turn on Stanley at any time. She's achieved the end that required her to stay loyal to him (attuning an Arkentool), and now has equal or greater power, and might break away.

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Originally Posted by Mercenary Pen

Except that, having already betrayed the king of Faq to further her own ends, she presumably has a very low loyalty rating... and could in theory turn on Stanley at any time. She's achieved the end that required her to stay loyal to him (attuning an Arkentool), and now has equal or greater power, and might break away.

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While Wanda probably has a very low loyalty rating to Stanly (she is loyal to fate magic), she actually didn't betray Banhammer. She thought that Stanley was an idiot (he is, but a powerful idiot is the problem) and that Faq's forces would make mincemeat of him. She was VERY mistaken, but she never intended Banhammer or Faq to come to harm. And it would have netted Faq a Arkentool if it had worked.

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Originally Posted by HandofShadows

While Wanda probably has a very low loyalty rating to Stanly (she is loyal to fate magic), she actually didn't betray Banhammer. She thought that Stanley was an idiot (he is, but a powerful idiot is the problem) and that Faq's forces would make mincemeat of him. She was VERY mistaken, but she never intended Banhammer or Faq to come to harm. And it would have netted Faq a Arkentool if it had worked.

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I sit corrected on that front.

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Originally Posted by HandofShadows

While Wanda probably has a very low loyalty rating to Stanly (she is loyal to fate magic), she actually didn't betray Banhammer. She thought that Stanley was an idiot (he is, but a powerful idiot is the problem) and that Faq's forces would make mincemeat of him. She was VERY mistaken, but she never intended Banhammer or Faq to come to harm. And it would have netted Faq a Arkentool if it had worked.

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An Arkentool wich she had no assurance that would actualy be usefull to them.

An Arkentool in the hands of a warlod wich was quickly rising in position due to series of victories.

If "Atracting lighting-shooting veteran of war enemy with angry dwagons at his back to your secret capital wich relies mostly on illusions to stay safe and has actualy very few competent soldiers" doesn't count as betrayal, then it's at least complete incopetence.

Granted, Wanda isn't a warlord, so she probably didn't know much about military basics (she still doesn't, as we can see how she dealt with Unaroyal).

Like Maggie pointed out, Wanda is very talented at everything, but doesn't really bother to give her best at anything. She never prepares contigencies, trusting that her lewt skillz will allow het to get out of any mess she finds hersel into, always improvising. She almost died a lot of times thanks to it, one would expect she would've learned her lesson, but she's kinda of the arrogant type (Jillian breaking my mindrape spell? Please, not even in a million years! Hey, why is she butchering our troops....AAAYEEEEE).

Anyway, Wanda isn't loyal to fate magic. She's loyal to herself first of all, altough it seems like she has taken a liking to Stanley, puting her life on the line for him more than once.

Did you forget that he can use his arkentool to rock out, the official music of the titans and is stronger than dance fighting?

I believe the Arkentool is the natural counter to the arkenpliers. Where the arkenpliers seem to create perfect replicas of those slain (and other things perhaps, but this is pretty potent for starters) The arkenhammer creates what seems to be the most powerful unit in the game so far (dwagons) and gives specific leadership bonus and abilities.

So while wanda can create a massive army, Tool can just lead a flight of dwagons over top the army and slaughter her or her castle quickly in a blitzkreig like strike with a relatively small but perhaps the most powerful unit.

Essentially it allows them to have the most elite strike force since with the lighting, rocking out and dwagon taming the only thing that can engage him is range and non dwagon fliers.

As the Tool said, sometimes you gotta tame a dwagon, other times you just gotta bust a nut.

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Originally Posted by Necrus Philius

Did you forget that he can use his arkentool to rock out, the official music of the titans and is stronger than dance fighting?

I believe the Arkentool is the natural counter to the arkenpliers. Where the arkenpliers seem to create perfect replicas of those slain (and other things perhaps, but this is pretty potent for starters) The arkenhammer creates what seems to be the most powerful unit in the game so far (dwagons) and gives specific leadership bonus and abilities.

So while wanda can create a massive army, Tool can just lead a flight of dwagons over top the army and slaughter her or her castle quickly in a blitzkreig like strike with a relatively small but perhaps the most powerful unit.

Essentially it allows them to have the most elite strike force since with the lighting, rocking out and dwagon taming the only thing that can engage him is range and non dwagon fliers.

As the Tool said, sometimes you gotta tame a dwagon, other times you just gotta bust a nut.

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Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Archons are actually the strongest unit. I don't have the exact page, but I seem to remember 3 archons demolishing a stack of dwagons.

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Originally Posted by Burley

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Archons are actually the strongest unit. I don't have the exact page, but I seem to remember 3 archons demolishing a stack of dwagons.

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This may depend on the unit stats of the individual archons and dwagons, because we know that different units have different stats and that archons get a whole load of stuff as they advance (information courtesy of summer update #47- I would link, but their server is in dire need of healamancy right now)

That huge stack of dwagons was actually already severely hurt. They had been performing hit and run operations on the coalitions siege the entire turn in hopes that they would be able to do lots of damage, get really injured back but not actually lose any units so that when the next turn started they would all heal back to full. I'm guessing there wasn't a single dwagon in that stack that was over 10% health... hell probably not over 5% (seeing as Parson is good with the mathamancy and could probably cut it really close)

The dwagons were severely hurt and were led only by an undead warlord. Even then they only had a slim chance to win even with the barbarian girl's leadership. Then ansom showed up.

Besides, archons can "level" whereas dwagons are awesome when they start, so we don't even know if they were the powerful archons or not.

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Originally Posted by Burley

After reading the most recent summer update, I suddenly realized that Stanley may not actually be attuned to the ArkenHammer.
Here's my basis for hypothosis:

Stanley, unlike Wanda, has no idea what he's doing with his Arkentool. He learned to turn walnuts to pidgeons after, what, years? Wanda was making decrypted warriors moments later.

The only real reasons people thought he was attuned was possession and the command of dwagons. Seeing that Ansom was in possession of Wanda's Arkentool, possession =/= attunement. Also, Parson commanded a dwagon pretty handily, though he is much larger than any Erfworlder, and can't really be expected to ride a dwagon successfully.

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I'll list the abilities that the tool has with the hammer.

First thing was the dwagons, pops at capital and can tame wild ones, possibly enemy ones too.

Can attack with lightning (shown in his attempt to escape and in the flashback when wanda tells of leading him back to her city).

Can turn walnuts into pidgeons.

Can rock out, the official music of the titans and stronger than dance fighting.

That's 4-5 abilities (depending on if you count the dwagon as 2 since spawning and taming are seperate). Wanda has only shown 1 so far. So yeah the Tool is attuned.

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Originally Posted by Necrus Philius

The dwagons were severely hurt and were led only by an undead warlord. Even then they only had a slim chance to win even with the barbarian girl's leadership. Then ansom showed up.

Besides, archons can "level" whereas dwagons are awesome when they start, so we don't even know if they were the powerful archons or not.

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Dwagons can level too, which was why Parson divided them into A Dwagons and B dwagons during his bid to destroy Ansom's siege. He was delineating between dwagons of differing levels and capabilities...

obligatory link to source material

Stanley was fairly smug that Ansom wasn't attuned, and seems to be able to do a variety of tricks with the Hammer. Unlike Ansom and his pliers, which he could only use as a weapon (that we saw, anyway).

I think this is one of those "the author thought it was so obvious from art and implications that it's never explicitly stated" kinda things.

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Originally Posted by Mercenary Pen

Dwagons can level too, which was why Parson divided them into A Dwagons and B dwagons during his bid to destroy Ansom's siege. He was delineating between dwagons of differing levels and capabilities...

obligatory link to source material

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Possibly. Parson divided them by move. Higher move may be due to a higher level or due to different types.

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Originally Posted by snoopy13a

Possibly. Parson divided them by move. Higher move may be due to a higher level or due to different types.

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Yeah, I would have assumed that was due to breed. Leveling, to me, seems more likely to bring about a boost to other stats in a heavy like dwagons, Although I suppose it could vary by breed, so Pink Dwagons are better skirmishers, Blue are Heavy hitters, and Red is all-around, which would change what happened when they leveled.

I would guess at a combination of breed and level or just level, considering that all of Parson's carefully orchestrated dwagon attacks featured dwagons of multiple colours.

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Originally Posted by Oslecamo

An Arkentool wich she had no assurance that would actualy be usefull to them.

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Whether she had the assurance of it or not is irrelevant. She believed that the prophecy meant that she would get the Arkenhammer. She interpreted it incorrectly and is arrogant, as you rightfully point out.

That still doesn't speak against the fact that Wanda broke the "natural magic" of Loyalty. And we're not even entirely sure about what that means. But if personal judgement counts for anything, then Wanda didn't think she was betraying Faq.

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Originally Posted by Burley

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Archons are actually the strongest unit. I don't have the exact page, but I seem to remember 3 archons demolishing a stack of dwagons.

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Wounded dragons. Fighting against three warlords and an artifact.

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Originally Posted by LurkerInPlayground

Wounded dragons. Fighting against three warlords and an artifact.

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Not at first. Thought, your point still holds: these are the dragons that were too wounded to continue taking one or two hits: they were really low on health.

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Originally Posted by Tavar

Not at first. Thought, your point still holds: these are the dragons that were too wounded to continue taking one or two hits: they were really low on health.

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And against an artifact and three warlords.

Parson explicitly made a point about how bonuses are important in Erfworld:
http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=/125.jpg

Jillian's leadership bonus alone made her Parson's first target once she decided to attack the dragons:
http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=/071.jpg