Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Fighting two small quick battles my Pretender died from fatigue casting spells- lost almost all magic empowerments and now has a never healing wound -20HP's. Last time I ever use that piece of equipment!!!

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Maybe you should change the topic of the post to "Do NOT cast lots of spells when encased in heavily-encumbering armor"

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Ha yes point taken! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Marble Armor is one of the best mass-produced choices for Elemental Royalty and Tartarians.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Marble armour is best for units that don't suffer encumbrance and don't cast spells. If you use the unit to cast spells, make sure they only need to cast one or two.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Isnt that why that robe of invulnerability makes such a point in its description about being perfect for casters?

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Its far from perfect, being very expensive gem wise.

Marble armour and chainmail of displacement seem to the armours of choice in MP for thugs/SC's from what I have seen.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Since casters quickly get fatiqued the protection provided quickly becomes worthless. There's many other armors which are better for casters if you want them to survive.

Robe of Invulnerability is good for the fire king who already has ethereal if you plan on making him a SC. Due to the gem cost... there's a few better options.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

I figured it wasnt the best option. Just that the description on the item seems to be purposely trying to make the point that its more along the line of what you want to give a mage than some heavy rock armor. The devs liked to put things in the game for us to figure out (but later it all got charted which made the reading/thinking thing abit moot)

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Even with fatigue, Robe of Invulnerability still protects quite well against missile fire. 25/2 is still 12 Prot. More to the point, Robe of Invulnerability is (sometimes) good for thugs and SCs who need to keep their fatigue low on pre-battle buffing spells. Expensive, though.

-Max

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

Marble Armor: Head prot 15, Body prot 24 => ~ 23 prot
Robe of Invincibility: Head prot 25, Body prot 25 => 25 prot

4 times as many gems for as little difference as that? Marble armor is as cheap as a Black Steel Full Plate, the robe is more expensive than Aseftik's armor and the Monolith armor. You have fun with your robe while I'll kit out my four SCs... The Marble armor is just plain easier to forge and thus mass-produce, too. Combine with Frost Brand if possible.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

The real difference between the two armors is not the protection. It is the encumberance. It is 3 enc for marble armor and 0 for the robe. That is what you are paying for and that is what the OPs main issue was really about.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

I'm using it on Elemental Royalty and Tartarians as I said earlier, or put another way: On zero encumberance characters. Those ignore their armor's encumberance, too. When I build units that should fight alone and for a long time then I always make sure to have more reinvigoration than encumberance, anyway. In case of the Marble Armor, Summon Earth Power is already mostly enough to take care of the enc. And regarding self buffs and fatigue, I usually cast some buffs, then hold two times so that the unit can recover from fatigue. Yes, of course you should watch your encumberance/fatigue, but it isn't hard to do. And just because the Marble Armor has 3 enc doesn't mean it's bad.

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

I actually like rainbow armor for self-enchanting thugs or living SCs. That, and armor of souls (+5!!! mr), though I sometimes use rime hauberk (Breath of winter for castle chokepoint SCs who need to stop the enemy army is unbeatable)

Re: Do NOT use Marble Armor
 

I love this thread.

I say, don't use armor at all! Or shields, geez, that Lead Shield is a KILLER!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif

Do NOT hire troops
 

Do NOT hire troops.

They cost upkeep!!!

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Use shrouds if you have en earth bless, or rainbow armor. MR is always a good thing, along with reinvig and its cheap.

Even for undead the MR boost is worth it.

Watch out for Frozen heart if you use Marble Armor. I saw a fully kitted AQ lose to a pair of lowly Masters of the Way (90 gold LA TC priest with 1W) b/c the AQ had Marble Armor on. Brrrrr....

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Covering the cold damage hole in your defences from marble armour should be a bit of a no-brainer. That's partly why it's also so good on undead, as they generally have that resistance already so you don't have to cover it at all.

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Well in this case the player who was not a complete noob did not cover the cold defenses on a non-undead SC, which is why its worth mentioning. "No-brainer" depends on the knowledge base of the player, it sounds like the OP is pretty new to the game.

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Wouldn't it be better to lose immunity to poison than to cold, since poison has no 100 Prec direct-damage spell? It's a legitimate way in which the Robe of Invulnerability is clearly superior.

-Max

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Well of course it's superior. It's just not SO superior that it is often worth the extremely high gem cost.

Obviously part of gear selection, is based on your intended opponent, so you wouldn't use Invuln against Pythium or Sauromatia, and you wouldn't use Marble against Caelum or Niefelheim. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Taken from that perspective, "clear superiority" is not an easy delineation.

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

It also depends what your mages can actually make.

As long as fatigue and cold damage isn't a worry, marble armour gives only marginally inferior protection and saves you an awful lot of gems that can be put to good use elsewhere. Like making two sets of marble armour.

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

And whether two sets of marble armor is an improvement depends upon whether you have a ready supply of SCs. If you're LA Agartha and paying 30 death gems for each Tomb Oracle you may not be as interested in 4 sets of marble armor as Niefelheim would be.

-Max

Re: Do NOT hire troops
 

Two? Four!