Magic Items under CBM

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Maybe vine shield can be nerfed as well, since it is definitely the best choice for the shield by far. I'd put it higher in the research tree - constr 6.

Really? I almost universally prefer the Eye Shield, since even if you run into an unexpected thug it means you have a good chance of killing it.

[Psycho]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

Really? I almost universally prefer the Eye Shield, since even if you run into an unexpected thug it means you have a good chance of killing it.

Definitely. Vine shield is better against chaff, better against elite units as you can't get swarmed easily and better against thugs, since eye shield requires a MR check which a thug will often pass, but if he gets tangles by vines you get a free hit, which can be enough to kill him.

It's also better than gold shield, since it doesn't have problems with bersekers and undead. And charcoal and lucky coin are rarely used - you need units that can survive being swarmed to use them. Vine shield is the goto shield.

[Mardagg]

Ive never used the vine shield vs physically strong SC`s.
There is a strength check involved IIRC,so do you still get a free hit vs very strong units or do they instantly break free?

I like to mix in the eye shield vs chaff ...only a few turns and there is generally no one left that can hit you.Also,vs stronger units/thugs u can often do some serious affliction problems with abit luck,even if you lose.

generally,Nature gems are pretty sparse in mid to late game,thats something to consider when evaluating the Vine shield
vs the Earth/fire gem shields.

Also,the parry and protection value for the vine and eye shield are much worse than from most others.

I do like the scutata a lot,btw,its pretty good at what it does AND offers Lightning protection which can be useful as it is generally more needed than fire/cold protection which u often already have natural or via brands.

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Definitely. Vine shield is better against chaff, better against elite units as you can't get swarmed easily and better against thugs, since eye shield requires a MR check which a thug will often pass, but if he gets tangles by vines you get a free hit, which can be enough to kill him.

It's also better than gold shield, since it doesn't have problems with bersekers and undead. And charcoal and lucky coin are rarely used - you need units that can survive being swarmed to use them. Vine shield is the goto shield.

Eye shields inflict permanent damage though. If your guy runs, or theirs gets away, you've still done major damage. As for resisting the effect, its a pretty high check to make, like 18. I blinded a 32 MR Allfather once. Its also almost as good as the vine shield against chaff.

[Sir_Dr_D]

This reminds me of my most amusing Dominions blooper. I was playing Agartha and was being attacked by Man. Man's army consisted of lots of knights, and backed by lighting blasting mages. I tried to hold off the army with a a risen oracle. I equiped the oracle with the best that I could at the time, which included lighting proof armor, two shields, one of them being an eye shield, and boots of the behometh. I had the oracle cast stone skin, and then try to trample the knights.
The setup almost worked. The knights couldn't damage the oracle. My plan was to get the army to route. The problem, though, was my pretender slowly started to get fatigued. I couldn't figure out why. He was undead and shoudn't have been able to get fatigued. This caused him to route first. He was two fatigued however to actually move. As a result the army of Man didn't route like they should have. The battle got to turn 50. Since I counted as the attacker from breaing siege, I auto lost. Despite being immortal, the oracle did not come back.

It wasn't until a bit after the battle that I realized why the oracle was getting fatigued. I had cast stone skin. He was killed by his own chill aura.

I lost that game, but at least I had the satisfaction to blind a whole army of knights using the eye shield. It was a funny sight: a clumsy size four risen oracle with two shields trying to trample an army of blind knights.