[MaxWilson]

Defense is great for line units, which generally won't be facing greater than 6:1 odds even if they're on the corner of a formation. Protection is generally better for SCs because of the swarm factor, although e.g. an anti-Jotun SC probably never faces more than 7 opponents at once and so a defense of 36 would still be quite nice. Note, however, that Protection drops with fatigue just like defense does, although the mechanism is different. Critical hits, page 76. At 60 fatigue, 25% of hits are critical, so it's vital for a melee SC to keep fatigue low through reinvigoration items and/or life drain.

I know that Phoenix Pyre leaves some afflictions in place. It may or may not have a chance of healing some afflictions, but you definitely do pick up afflictions. Also, the manual says it's 10 squares of 50 AP damage which sounds great; in practice I haven't found it to be anything near 50 AP. Perhaps 15-25, which is not bad but not good enough that I'd regard Phoenix Pyre + getting killed as a viable offensive technique. The damage is more a perk than the main effect.

That said, the idea of an Ironskinned, Boots-of-the-Messenger'ed, Phoenix-Pyre'd Anointed of Rhuax is kind of a fun one. I'd probably give him a Standard of the Damned instead of a melee weapon so he'll drain life instead of meleeing, to recoup his fatigue losses. [later] A quick test with Svartalfs (since that's what I have in the game I'm currently playing) shows that 1.) the afflictions you pick up from dying multiple times take a lot of the fun out of it (5+ afflictions gained just killing off a bunch of crummy militia and light cavalry, even with Invulnerability) and 2.) I don't know of any good way to force casters to use Drain Life instead of other mass-damage spells after the 5 scripted rounds are over. Their fatigue goes up and then they die.

Take that for what it's worth.

-Max