How do you kit out your Elemental Royalty?

[sector24]

Do you guys use the Fire Kings in melee or as casters? I found Fire Storm to be pretty weak compared to Wrathful Skies. But in testing I also lost a Fire King to a single casting of Pale Riders. The fire shield kills the undead horseman instantly, allowing the guy behind him to strike (dies instantly) which allows the guy behind to strike, etc. Even ethereal status and a boost in protection doesn't help enough to ward off all those attacks in the same round.

[Baalz]

Well, undead horsemen are pretty darned good in such a situation, I have a hard time thinking of much that is better for exactly the reason you point out. Against a large number of charge bonus lances there's not much that is gonna be immune, the best bet is to have a couple bodyguards (or summon some fire elementals before doing anything else) to keep from being swarmed. Outside of that, as I mentioned Pheonix Pyre will give you a second chance if you do get caught with your pants down.

If you're fighting tough guys Heat from Hell might be a better choice than Firestorm (though they're not mutually exclusive if you've got the casting power) because it'll stack with the heat aura and doesn't matter what their protection or hitpoints are. Heat from Hell plus a couple castings of living fire followed by your fire king wading in and it should be almost incidental if you inflict damage... everybody is gonna pass out from the heat and never wake up - particularly those in the frontline trying to damage you and in the glow of several overlapping heat auras.

[Shovah32]

If you have nothing better to do with your fire kings you can always go with:
Faithful(for luck), other hand item(I like eye shields. If you need a certain resistance you could get it here), skullcap, stymphallian wings, heart of life(or amulet of resilence if you can't do this), ring of regeneration.

Script him to phoenix pyre, maybe hold once or twice, and then attack rear/archers. With flight and trample he will be on them rather quickly and causing damage, setting people alight with his heat aura and fire shield.
Should he die, which he probably shouldn't - flying gives him a better choice of targets. Teleporting SC killer squads can kill him, but they kill most raiding SCs so...

My preferred king for this is rhuax, with summon earthpower being great for this build(more reinvigoration) and ironskin making him tougher in many cases than ethereality.

[archaeolept]

the heart of life... lol, that doesn't come up often, but it is a perfect use for it.

you can do the same with Antrax - no summon earthpower, but soul vortex makes up for it

[Shovah32]

Yeah, I forgot Antrax in that post - hes my favourite phoenix pyre guy(other than the D3F2E2 tartarian I got one time).

The heart of life gives the same reinvigoration(after the chest wound) as the amulet, and means that a chest wound wont kill you as quickly.

[Baalz]

Shovah32 said:
The heart of life gives the same reinvigoration(after the chest wound) as the amulet, and means that a chest wound wont kill you as quickly.

Unless you're 0 encumbrance, isn't the Fire King?

[Micah]

Not so, the royals all have 0 enc, so outside of spell-casting the heart of life is a clear winner over an amulet of resil.

[Meglobob]

Shovah32 said:The heart of life gives the same reinvigoration(after the chest wound) as the amulet, and means that a chest wound wont kill you as quickly.

The heart of life is actually much better than the amulet. You only get fatigue when you do something. So if your SC has killed all his foes and none in range, he gains +10 reinvig and the chest wound is not a factor. The amulet only ever gives you +5 reinvig.

[Baalz]

keep in mind though quickness will screw you up with the heart, and sometimes you get quickness whether you want it or not (ie heroic quickness)