Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

What do you use for Air, Fire, Earth and Water royalty (non-artifact)?

Gleaming Shields seem nice to ward off the masses of peasantry along with Fire/Cold brands to slaughter more folks with one blow. Wraith Swords, Charcoal Shields, things with Regeneration, Magic Resistance, Reinvigoration...so much good stuff I am not sure where to begin...

I am looking for general purpose SC type gear for pending endgame showdown.

Thanks, DC

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

For all: Luck and resists (elemental and magic) as appropriate to what you're fighting.

Air: Marble armor or something else that will bump their prot value above 20, just in case. They can get away with less if you need the body slot or can't lose the CR, but it's a great choice. Regen if you can spare the slot. A damage shield for chaff killing helps a lot here.

Earth: Stymphalian wings (or flying carpet). These guys are pretty good to go out of the box with regen and invulnerability and summon earth power, so give them a flight item to help their mobility and go to town. The wings will also up their kill rate against small troops since you get 0-enc trample.

Fire: Depends which, Pyri really wants some marble armor due to his 0 base prot, whereas rhuax gets a great boost out of a blood stone for all the good earth magic...both could use some reinvig to combo with phoenix pyre, though rhuax can get that from summon earth power...give pyri a resil amulet if you can. Both get a kick out of flight items as well, although make sure to provide them with escape routes in case they take an unexpected beating, since phoenix pyre probably means they'll get off the field (especially if you give rhuax flight with the wings)

Water: a shield to pimp their defense...the 2 water-only queens are kind of a crappy investment for above-water fighting, as they have no base prot, no regen, and limited buffing magic...they can survive on their high defense against limited opposition, but I'd seriously prefer a golem for most purposes (alchemize for 25 of the 30 pearls, or make some clams instead) Underwater just stack a char shield or stymph wings with resist gear and their high defense and ridiculous regen should be plenty to keep them up...you just want a way to do a lot of damage with them (hence the shield/trample)

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Thanks Micah - I am looking over the turns in Rand - on 10 now (I was your hapless neighbor C'tis) and will be interested to see how the endgame played out. Looking forward to the next one.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Just bumping this for someone.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

I must say that I didn't find Earth Knigs with Stymphalian Wings a good combo even in SP. Maybe area-effect swords and/or char shield could be more useful? Or just making them shoot away with, say, Earthquake - but here Rainbow Armor would be better...
Considering Air Queens I have found them quite useful with Rime Hauberk (chill aura) & Storm Staff. The latter could probably be replaced with some sword & char shield, but they already have additional attacks, & Storm increases their power. Armor could be relaced with Bone breastplate, of course.
Agree about Fire Kings.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Earth Kings also like Bone Armor. Built-in Soul Vortex but low Prot, so you need someone with high base Prot or the ability to cast Ironskin or Invulnerability.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

I saw this from Baalz: Earth kings with hydra armour and ring of regen. having their innate regen. are ridiculously hard to kill.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

In melee, yes. Watch out for mages spamming MR-resisted spells like Disintegrate, Charm, and Petrify. Also watch out for creatures with Fear--I don't believe Earth Kings are immune to Fear, and if he's raiding deep in enemy territory routing could get him killed.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Well you would obviously put an AMA as well (although that leaves you with no flying), maybe a starshine cap as well and cast iron will.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

I didn't think AMA was cumulative with Iron Will, is it? Neither one is going to help much against Petrify spam, but you do the best you can...

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

AMA is cumulative I believe, but casting antimagic and iron will is not.

Jazzepi

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Did that thing ever die? I witnessed it in a couple battles and it just stood there and absorbed pain until the attacker auto-routed.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

I use vine shield, hydra armour, pendant of luck, and MR boosting item (can't remember name) plus an area damage weapon for Earth King (scrip to cast earthpower, iron will, invul before attacking) with good results - at least in SP. Should do quite well in MP too but may need adjustment in the misc slots to tailor against specific nations/threats.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

It died, but I didn't see how. I prepared a reverse communion with soul slay spamming but then he went south into new Sauromatia lands and I didn't get a chance to avenge my dead monkeys.

AMA is cumulative with either iron will or antimagic giving +8 MR. Petrify spamming isn't that easy - you need 5E, not every nation can do it.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

I'd advise that if you're facing a strong astral nation, you want at least two items with +MR. Mind Hunt is extremely cheap and fairly effective. 22MR will be decent protection from a basic S4 mage, but not an S4 mage with +3 penetration, which is easy to acquire. I'd suggest you should be looking at 25 or more MR for really important SCs.

If Earth Kings don't suffer encumbrance (I've never got round to using one) a lead shield would be cheap and do: with enough protec and regeneration a vine shield to trap attackers just isn't important.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Hmmm, what's the best penetration you can get? Eye of the Void + Rune Smasher + Green Eye + Ring of Sorcery = penetration +6. Of course he's blind but that doesn't matter for Mind Hunt. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif And of course most nations don't have three slots on their S4 casters, but Ashdod does on its Talmai Elders.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Actually Eye of the Void + Rune Smasher + Green Eye + Ring of Sorcery = penetration +7.
Rishis also have 3 mics slots.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Ooops, you are correct.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

From what I see Rishis have 2 misc slots. Didn't know about the Ashdod Adon and Taimai Elder though. It can be a good bonus for spellcaster as well as for sc.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Yeah. It took me a while to figure out what the line "being a King, the Adon adorns himself with enchanted jewelry" (paraphrased from memory) means but I think it's about the misc slot. Note also that Talmai Elders have Forgebonus (15).

So far I really like Ashdod. Except for the supply problems.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Then it's just the ones you receive as heroes with the worthy heroes mod.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Penetration +7 is doable (in which case you might want 3 +MR items to be absolutely sure), but rune smashers might not be available to the nation in question, and the green eye is I think unique, so that much penetration should not be *expected*. You should certainly expect +3 or so.

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

You can do without the Green Eye in certain cases by replacing it with a Ring of Wizardry + Starshine Skullcap, which is a net +2 penetration boost. I just thought the idea of having both eyes replaced with items was funny.

Agree about the Rune Smashers.

-Max

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Isn't Starshine Skullcap a magic RESISTANCE, not penetration, bonus?

EDIT: Or did you mean that the caster would total a +2 more above Mind Hunt minimum and get the penetration that way?

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

Endoperez,

Yes, that's it. Green Eye = +2 penetration. Starshine Skullcap + Ring of Wizardry = +1 penetration directly, +2 to S which adds another +1 penetration. This math wouldn't hold up if there were an opportunity cost to using the headslot, but I don't think there <font color="red">is</font> in this case: the Green Eye guy is just going to leave his headslot empty.

-Max

<font color="red">Edit: typo kill.</font>

Re: Equipment for Elemental Royalty
 

The Skullcap could be required to meet the Mind Hunt requirements. Other than that it does work out. Good thinking there.