Which Hepl Ancestor Type?

[MainiacJoe]

I have a MfSu that found Hepl's altar early, so I went with it to double down on ally play. I've just gotten my second piety star and I'm trying to decide between the various types of ancestor. Here's my thinking:

• Knight: Can eventually get a demon trident to reach over summons like I can with my polearms.
• Battlemage: Definitely not Iceblast, Magma Bolt is not quite so necessary since I'll have reaching myself.
• Hexer: Badwiki says that the Metabolic Englaciation and Mass Confusion only affect foes, not allies. If so, very good.

I'm leaning towards Hexer, with myself and my summons as the melee bruisers and the ancestor in support. Knight would be a sturdy ally and the speed weapon is nice. Probably not Battlemage.

[HeideQueen]

The battlemage is pretty cool, with some strong spells and a lajatang of freezing, but the Hexer is a lot of fun, I was playing it with a DECj and none of the monsters could get into melee with me because the Hexer kept confusing/slowing them and then I could just use the Toxic aura spell and watch them run in circles and die. Then it's super useful in zot due to the antimagic quick blade it gets!

[Zhorgal]

I have the same conundrum. I have a GrIE myself. From what I gathered, you choose Knight if you want a tank or BM if you want a blaster to increase your damage.
Depending on the sources, the Hexer is either pretty good or only useful in the beginning of the game.

[Airwolf]

I haven't played Hep in a while, and I think the others have been buffed, but the Hexer was very strong. E.g. if you're fighting a mob, the Hexer will disable a decent chunk of them, maybe not the toughest ones, but still very welcome.

[NhorianScum]

There is no reason to take anything but hexer on hep.

[Sprucery]

There is no reason to take anything but hexer on hep.

I disagree. Battlemage is also good, especially if you're a caster or ranged attacker yourself.

[NhorianScum]

There is no reason to take anything but hexer on hep.

I disagree. Battlemage is also good, especially if you're a caster or ranged attacker yourself.

Non-hexer ancestors are still good. They're just completely redundant. Hexer has incomperables.

[MainiacJoe]

Well I took knight, mainly because I hadn't before. I found that I was leaning on the ancestor and not casting my summons as much as I might. I ended up dying on D:8 or D:9, I don't recall how. But I certainly liked the synergy between the ancestor and my polearm, and think that MfMo or MfGl will be my next Hepl attempt.

[mattlistener]

I have concerns about both battlemage and knight in corridors. BM and I block each others' casts, knight can't tank non-popcorn reliably enough and then does nothing if I step to the front to keep him alive. Hexer however contributes from the back in parallel with me. I just need to be able to handle things that get to me or prevent them from doing so -- or swap with him to cover my retreat, still good.

Hepl doesn't offer enough outside-corridor synergy to make me prefer engaging threatening situations in the open when corridors are available.

[severen]

I 15 runed an OpFi statuepode using Battlemage, for what I used it for I think it was the best choice.

[MainiacJoe]

I have a MfWr now that just finished Orc with a Knight ancestor. I'm treating it as a tanky summons to poke polearms over. It's working pretty well.

[rjrrt]

I have a MfWr now that just finished Orc with a Knight ancestor. I'm treating it as a tanky summons to poke polearms over. It's working pretty well.

The polearm-over-Knight strategy worked pretty well for my recent MiGl 3-rune win. I also trained axes a bit to handle getting swarmed out in the open. It was pretty cheap with cross-training.