[Corinthian]

I think you are all misunderstanding the purpose of thugs and gargoyles in general. They are not supposed to beat every kind of enemy. They generally have a specific task in mind and things that fall outside that scope should be handled in other ways.

For the gargoyle the main selling argument is that you get a flying raider that can knock over most PD and cant be mindhunted for 16 gems (in CBM 1.92).

Why on earth would i want to spend 35 gems equipping it with mr gear in order to block just one of the uncountable myriad of things that can kill a thug? I could get two additional Gargoyles for that cost! Thugs die all the time! Deal with it!

It would be much better to just get 3 Gargoyles, give them a frostbrand and hope that they kill and conquer more than they themselves are worth.

If you are facing an astral nation, dont give them mr items. No, give them a silver hauberk. Control and opposition have short range and if you stay out of that range the mages will switch to other spells. Just wait until the enemies comes to you. If an enemy comes within melee range the Gargoyle will automatically stop waiting and attack it.

From the astral path of magic the only other dangerous spell -(that I can think of right now)- is arcane bolt. And that's were the silver hauberk comes in. It cost 5A and gives you the spell effect Air Shield 80%. And because Arcane bolt is a "bolt" spell it can be blocked by Air Shield.