Fouling Nurgle Rotter:
- Normal: Dirty Player, Block
- Doubles: Sneaky Git
- Stat Increase:
For such a cheap player, becoming a dedicated fouling expert is a good career choice. Removing opposing players also can help your team out a lot with them being quite slow. Getting sent off also can help them live longer as they aren’t going to get hit for the rest of the match! So Dirty Player first up to cause as much damage as possible. Stopping here is fine as more skills means more team value being sent off. They aren’t likely to get any more SPP other than the MVP from this point either. If you do reach a second skill (they may live longer than most if they are being sent off a lot, so that is more chances of getting the MVP) then Block can make them more flexible during drives. You can use a single skilled fouler in the first half and keep the two skill one for the second half.
For doubles go for Sneaky Git and then you don’t need to worry about gang fouling as much. You don’t really want a stat increase bumping up their team value, but I would still take a strength or agility increase and look to change their role. There is nothing wrong with skipping either though. The extra stat and Dirty Player don’t exactly combine well and they have a fair chance of kicking the bucket before you can alter their development with further skills.
Block Fodder Nurgle Rotter:
- Normal: Block, Fend, Tackle / Dauntless / Claw
- Doubles: Dodge / Guard
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV / +AV
This is a quite common development route for all Linemen across most the teams. It is fairly versatile going this route with all your Rotters is a viable option. Start with Block for protection and to make them more reliable when hitting themselves. Follow it up with Fend to negate Frenzy and Piling On and it will also free them up from having to dodge away from opponents on occasion. If they reach a third skill then I would go for Tackle if facing a lot of Dodge opponents, or Dauntless could be preferred if there are a lot of stronger opponents. Claw could also be nice if facing a lot of high armoured teams.
For doubles go for either Dodge for protection, or Guard to support your team mates more, personally I prefer the latter. A strength or agility increase are useful to make them a bit more specialised. Movement or armour should be selected to suit you preference and fit your personal play style the best.
Wrestle Fodder Nurgle Rotter:
An alternative development option is to start with Wrestle for protection and then take Claw. It is an unusual combination to take together but it is more flexible against a range of opponents. Wrestle can get Block and Dodge players on the ground for you to foul. Also high armoured opponents usually have Block, so Wrestle counters that and Claw comes into play if you knock them over. Also if high armoured Big Guys with neither Block or Wrestle hit you, then you can sacrifice your player and both go down to get an armour roll with Claw against them. If they live long enough for a further skill then either take Fend for more protection, or perhaps Tackle if facing lots of dodge.
For doubles like the other fodder build, Dodge or Guard are your main choices. As far as stat increases go, the same logic also applies for this build.
Pseudo Elf Nurgle Rotter:
- Normal: Two Heads / Extra Arms, Block / Sure Hands, Fend / Kick Off Return
- Doubles: Dodge
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
If you want to have a bit more fun with the team then you can use the mutation access to build a kind of half Elf half Rotter player. Start with either Two Heads for better dodging ability or Extra Arms for better ball handling. Block offers them up some protection and you might actually consider it as the first skill, but the others will make scoring easier which speeds up development. If you have a devil may care attitude and leave Block for even later then Sure Hands can help get and keep hold of the ball. Moving onto dream land of a Rotter gaining a fifth skill then Fend or Kick Off Return for same reasons as the retriever build.
For doubles no Elf type player should be seen with Dodge. A strength increase makes them harder to hit, an agility increase pretty much switches them to the retriever build due to the similarity. It can also save you having to take those mutations. For a ball handler as usual movement is preferred to armour. I don’t really think this is a wise way to develop but it certainly is an option if you like to take risks!
Nurgle Rotters Summary:
You may have picked up from this article that Nurgle Rotters tend to die. Their development is slow as Nurgle teams don’t tend to generate a lot of SPP and most of those tend to go to the Pestigors. You may also not have many Rotters on the pitch either when at full positional strength. Four each of Warriors and Pestigors and a Beast of Nurgle as well means there is only room for two Rotters in your formation. If you put a Kick Rotter on the pitch then that only leaves space for one other build.
As you don’t have many on the pitch that slows their development down even more. You can really then appreciate that most Rotters will be lucky to even get one skill. So while I’ve listed all these development paths here, don’t be surprised if you rarely get a chance for a multiple skilled Rotter. It also means that you should pick your skills wisely on them as you want to get as much use from it while they live as possible. Remember that a poor skill choice could well be their last!
Foul Appearance! It’s like giving all his team bonehead when it comes to blocking. 😀 And the more of it you have the better it is. Fend is probably better for keeping them alive though in some ways.
Good point, I forgot to mention Foul Appearance, thankfully though most of them will die before anyone gets a chance to give them a skill so no one will notice my oversight!
With a quite fresh team I would also think about Leader at a Double.
Nurgle Teams are quite expensive so I´m happy to have a RR more until I have earned some money.
But be sure people are going to hunt this player so he will be dead soner or later.
Hopefully he dies later when you earned enough money to get some more Teamrerolls.
What about just going Block+Claw? I mean, sure there a huge target, but if you just kill everything in sight, they should be alright.
$0.02 of an inexperienced Nurgler
Rotters are for marking targets. Full stop. That said, do not invest heavily in them because they will just die, which is their job. Avoid stat increases on them since they raise your TV more than necessary. In fact, a 4tv Rotter is about as perfect as they can get for their job. If you insist on keeping them when they skill up, they are good for a couple of jobs:
-Kicker: The article mentions this and I agree with this one point
-Fouling: trading a rotter for a good position player is worth it. It’s easier to do when you’re a dirty player
-Leader: Leader is amazing when your Re-rolls cost 140k and 7tv. You don’t really want to waste a double on another position, so throw it on a Rotter.
-Marking: The real job of Rotters. They are even more suited to this when they have Prehensile Tail. You don’t take tail to cause failed dodges (but you’ll get some of those anyway), you take it to prevent the marked target from even trying to dodge. Sure, the rotter gets hit more, but that is its job.
I believe nurgle teams should be HEAVILY concentrated on INFLICTING DAMAGE. Trying to get a team like this to dodge or develop a passing game is just a recipe for disaster as they are simply not designed for it and as you reach higher team value you will be up against alot of guard,mightyblow and claw. I would focus on getting all of these early on instead of weakening your team by concentrating on block,dodge or some kind of a passing game. However increasing movement allowance would be nice.
Couldn’t agree more about taking Leader on a double skill roll.
I prefer taking Wrestle on regular rolls: by the time these cheap, expendable guys hit 6SPP, all the cool kids in the opposing teams ‘ll be Blodging or Fend-Side Stepping or other Elvish nonsense.
It helps set up Fouls, costs the opponent Movement (main stat in the game IMHO) just to get up and it might even every once in a while help to get the ball loose.
They are living on borrowed time though in an otherwise tough-as-nails team so good luck reaching 16SPP with them.
I treat them like Goblins on an Orc team. That Ag4 dude? Cool but he’ll be gone next match.
From a failed GFI.
It perplexes me a bit when people bring up “They’re fragile.” as a reason not to take stat increases on a Rotter. When a regular player takes an injury, he’s out for the match. Same deal for the Rotter. Their Decay skill doesn’t matter during the match, only after. A Str 4 Rotter is cheaper than pretty much any other Str 4 player you can get, and he’s really only paying for it with 1 MA. Yeah, he’ll die eventually, but at that point he takes his TV with him, so who cares? While he’s around he easily carries his weight.
You could point out lack of Apothecary as a slight downside compared to others, but even with Apoth there’s a good chance of an injured player being out for the match, so again, more of a strategic concern than a tactical one. Slight disadvantage that they make up for with their cost easily.
Agi 4 I’d have to think harder about, those are the guys that often end up scoring in a pinch, and I’d rather have the goals on my other guys.
I am playing online with an AG 4 Rotter and LOVE IT! With only 2 Pestigors, The AG+ Rotter can take care of the ball which frees up the Pesties to roam around blitzing. Once you establish control, handing off to Pestigors to punch it in is an option.
I think the crux of your argument (which I agree with) is take the boost when you get it, use it as long as you can, but expect that it could be gone.