Plaguebearer/Pestilence

[alex1234321]

I don't have the Coven DLC, so I've never played as Plaguebearer except maybe once or twice on the PTR. I'm curious about what it's like to play as Plaguebearer since its concept is similar to FM Bomber. As Bomber, it's relatively easy to trigger a fuse but very difficult to survive for three days. Is Plaguebearer similar? In other words, is it substantially easier to become Pestilence than to win once you transform? Also, is the Plaguebearer winrate comparable to NK or is it substantially different?

[Ezradekezra]

It's been a while since I've rolled PB, but I find that it's definitely easier to infect everyone than it is to kill everyone after doing so. I think that this is because nobody cared about a potential PB until they infect everyone, at which point a major witch hunt starts because Pestilence is the top priority at that point.

I find that the winrate is similar to, if not lower than, that of NKs.

If you want to grind PB wins, Lovers mode is the best place to go because it has a guaranteed PB and having a Town Lover makes things way easier. There's also a guaranteed PB in Mafia Returns iirc, but that mode is dead.

[EqsyLootz]

I don't have the Coven DLC, so I've never played as Plaguebearer except maybe once or twice on the PTR. I'm curious about what it's like to play as Plaguebearer since its concept is similar to FM Bomber. As Bomber, it's relatively easy to trigger a fuse but very difficult to survive for three days. Is Plaguebearer similar? In other words, is it substantially easier to become Pestilence than to win once you transform? Also, is the Plaguebearer winrate comparable to NK or is it substantially different?

I personally think Pesti is practically more powerful than NK if played correctly. PB basically spreads a plague among the town and they spread it when

A) A player visits them
B) They infect someone
C) The infected visits someone else
D) Someone else visits an infected

So overall it also relies a bit on RNG who visits and who doesn't. Then when you become Pesti you are the strongest role in the game. You can only die by lynching so just try to act calm and get as many kills as possible. Pestilence has a powerful attack with rampage so similar to werewolf if you strategically plan your kills you can get a large KPN. Typically Pestilence is similar to FM bomber due to the fact that as soon as the pestilence has awoken message occurs everyone tries to stop the pesti before things get out of control.

It's probably my favorite "NK" role. Technically it is NK but BMG decides its more chaotic which is true.

Honestly spend the 10$ just get coven try out the roles. Very fun.

[Ezradekezra]

Infections aren't determined by RNG

There's a bunch of strategy that goes into maximizing infection speed (go on whoever gets the most visitors, infect transporters, etc.)

[kyuss420]

Depends.... If you have a bunch of non visiting roles in game, or a vet or medusa that needs to be plagued, Its actually quite hard to become Pest, and could take 5-6 nights. But since you know who needs to be infected, you can always sway the town into voting non visitors, to cut a day or night off your time.

If you have 3 transporters in game, you could become Pest night 2. Or if everyone is a visiting role, and you pick a good target, its easy to infect 5 people per night.

Once you become Pest, you have everyone gunning for you, which makes it hard late game, especially if an evil faction is close to majority. The evil faction can confirm their own members, and has a decent clue to who the townies are (especially coven.. PM, CL, necro) So by late game, you are kind of obvious to them, and town will follow when they push.

Also Pest has a powerful attack, so doc/crus, crus/crus, doc/doc TP combo, will both survive Pests attack, which always leaves you in 2v1 situation.

Many smart townies (and RM/RC) wont even bother visiting while theres a Pest in play, in case they lose majority overnight, so even tho you have a rampage attack, its still very hard to get more than 1 kill per night, and everyone you kill, is 1 less suspect town has to mislynch. So late game, you should only be killing confirmed players - which gives evil factions a majority advantage if they have numbers, which leads to you getting lynched.

So winning as Pest is a balancing act, if you want to strategize it, or its just pure luck if you dont.... or its up to the nuetral kingmaker.... or the townie kingmaker in 1v1v1s. Either way, you better have a better claim than Tracker or LO, with a half accurate will.....

[alex1234321]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

[Ezradekezra]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

Massclaims pretty much always happen

Evils will sometimes out themselves, especially if they get upped instead of Pestilence

[EqsyLootz]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

Massclaims pretty much always happen

Evils will sometimes out themselves, especially if they get upped instead of Pestilence

Lol. easy Guilty in trial.

[EqsyLootz]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

Often times people would just do whatever they can to get pesti gone. Same thing with Fully maxed out Jugg. they are both too powerful to be kept alive.

[Ezradekezra]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

Often times people would just do whatever they can to get pesti gone. Same thing with Fully maxed out Jugg. they are both too powerful to be kept alive.

Fully-maxed Jugg generally isn't considered to be as dangerous as Pestilence, since it only has basic defense and can't rampage at home, meaning that it can be fucked over by roleblockers

If you get both in the same game, people will usually try to get the Jugg/Pest achievement before killing either of the two though

[kyuss420]

After the Plaguebearer transforms, how willing are other evils to work with the Town? Do massclaims happen often? Does it ever get to the point where evil roles reveal themselves in order to get the Pestilence killed?

Massclaims pretty much always happen

Evils will sometimes out themselves, especially if they get upped instead of Pestilence

Lol. easy Guilty in trial.

Not neccesarrily.... sometimes its pays to out yourself as NK when on trial. Ive been innoed a few times and gone on to win cos ''Yea Im pest, but theres 3 maf alive and 4 townies, so theyll have majority tommorow if you lynch me'' Basically voting me as NK at that point is a guaranteed town loss, so as long as you hit a maf to keep that majority point in balance, you good ^^


Tho I wouldnt say its any harder or easier than any other NK. They all require different styles of targeting, which can change depending on what situations arise. Theyre all prone to their fake claim being called out and their fake will being scrutinised. All susceptible to nuetrals siding town...

[Ezradekezra]

A thing I didn't mention before:

The most common fake claims for PB/Pest are Tracker and Investigator, since they're in the same category of Investigator results. While I find that Investigator is generally an easier role to fake, most PBs end up claiming Tracker for some reason. Sometimes they'll end up claiming Doctor instead.

I usually try to fake Exe as PB, since most people in Coven All Any won't vote up an Executioner who already won, but it can easily backfire if you end up getting an evil lynched instead. It's usually the easiest to get your "target" lynched if you claim Tracker and say that you saw them visit one of the dead people. Additionally, if everyone else seems trustworthy, you'll probably be one of the first people voted up when the Pest panic hits.

You can also try faking Psychic to get people to visit you, but that can be risky if you're attacked or if a Tracker or Lookout sees you visit.