Force Armour & Self defence

[ieti]

For me Karma Mirror is pretty good spell.

It is nice to stop dot's and if you add regen self you are pretty good.

It is pretty nasty to put when marks pew pew's you and if he uses recharged well it ticks twice on him.

If used properly and you have enough HP a low health barb can suicide in it - i have seen it several times.

As a plus it have less shiny animation compared to Force Armor.

Lastly it is not bound to gear and resists.

But again no matter how buffed and geared you are if there is no teamplay you are dead meat.

[Enitharmon]

Reducing hits by 30 or 50 may not sound like much, but as a high level conj you shouldn't be in danger anyway if it's just one player targetting you.
It's those cases where 3-4-5-6 or more gang up on you (which should be the usual case in a group fight, once you put your nose out in the open), where you start getting into trouble. And then even -30 on each hit means a great deal less incoming DPS.

And I used to feel the same way as Tamui about my dragon armour, it was not easy to stop using something I worked so hard for back then to get. But play around with Kitsuni's armour calculator abit and you'll have to face some tough truths.
Compared to that Great Healer hat, with VG resist vs slash/pierce and armour bonus. If I used the Alasthor hat instead, I would need Force Armour(5) to get back the same damage reduction for those types.
It would be more economical then to use that manaless hat, and put 2 powerpoints in Mana Pool instead of 5 into FA. Better still just get used to playing without those 175 mana, which is less than most lvl5 spells cost anyway.

[Tamui]

Originally Posted by Enitharmon

Reducing hits by 30 or 50 may not sound like much, but as a high level conj you shouldn't be in danger anyway if it's just one player targetting you.
It's those cases where 3-4-5-6 or more gang up on you (which should be the usual case in a group fight, once you put your nose out in the open), where you start getting into trouble. And then even -30 on each hit means a great deal less incoming DPS.

And I used to feel the same way as Tamui about my dragon armour, it was not easy to stop using something I worked so hard for back then to get. But play around with Kitsuni's armour calculator abit and you'll have to face some tough truths.
Compared to that Great Healer hat, with VG resist vs slash/pierce and armour bonus. If I used the Alasthor hat instead, I would need Force Armour(5) to get back the same damage reduction for those types.
It would be more economical then to use that manaless hat, and put 2 powerpoints in Mana Pool instead of 5 into FA. Better still just get used to playing without those 175 mana, which is less than most lvl5 spells cost anyway.

In that case, I guess WM armour would become more in handy, yes?

[Kitsuni]

Originally Posted by Tamui

In that case, I guess WM armour would become more in handy, yes?

Conjuror and Warlock WM armor is actually pretty good if you can deal with the lack of stats.

Many do wear them.

[Enitharmon]

If one spent some $ on slash armour enhancements to make up for the Bad resistance vs. Slash, WM armour would be very good for a conjurer. Probably slightly better than my current armour, especially against slash warriors.
Without enhancement gems, I think Great Healer G/VG vs slash & pierce is generally better. (As long as you hide their appearance... *sigh*)

(Since I am cheap, I do prefer my current gear which cost $0, ~100 mags and 4-5 mill gold total, including HP staff.)

[Kitsuni]

Originally Posted by Enitharmon

If one spent some $ on slash armour enhancements to make up for the Bad resistance vs. Slash, WM armour would be very good for a conjurer. Probably slightly better than my current armour, especially against slash warriors.
Without enhancement gems, I think Great Healer G/VG vs slash & pierce is generally better. (As long as you hide their appearance... *sigh*)

(Since I am cheap, I do prefer my current gear which cost $0, ~100 mags and 4-5 mill gold total, including HP staff.)

Honestly I rarely worry about slash resist on mage armor because their defense is so low to barbs to begin with (Knights tend to be spear/hammer unless knarb). In almost any case where a barb is attacking you involves the use of Karma mirror and/or Steelskin on Conju and complete avoidance on Warlock, rather than just bare armor. Sure, it helps, but in wars I find archers to be a far bigger problem, especially the ones that hit for 700+ damage per hit.

Ideally a Great Healer set is better; this is true for all classes. Assuming one can get a full set with decent resists and bonus. But WM gear still provides excellent base armor. the bonus on the gear is added to your final AP value (part-independant) and mages have the highest AP-to-reduction ratio of all classes. That alone can make up for bad resists as an equivalent Great Healer or Elite Conjuror set would require identical resists and at least +10 on all parts to compare.

When the resists vary between two parts the overall effect is greatly reduced as each part is only a portion of the equation.

[Tamui]

Well, I guess Force Armour is worth a shot after all.
I'm still thinking about my setup (Sounds additced )
I guess I have to choose between Force Armour and +700hp (Together)
Or Force Armour and Time Master (Together)
Or just plain old usual


Edit: So I've been messing around with Kitsuni armour calculator. Tried Karma Mirror and Force armour and then both. Karma Mirror always has an edge on Force Armour. Both of them together raised the reduction by ,an estimate, around 20% from no buffs with a Reference Damage of 500. I think I may fare well against OP geard Marksmen/Hunter.

Enitharmon, if my eyes served me well, having WM Tunic, Gloves, Great Healer Bracelet and Vesper Hat vs the same set except WM Hat, didn't prove a lot of difference, except for Piercing damage of course.

This question is more directly to Kitsuni rather than anyone else.When I go advance and increase the reference damage, the reduction decreases. How come?

[Enitharmon]

Originally Posted by Kitsuni

Honestly I rarely worry about slash resist on mage armor because their defense is so low to barbs to begin with (Knights tend to be spear/hammer unless knarb). In almost any case where a barb is attacking you involves the use of Karma mirror and/or Steelskin on Conju and complete avoidance on Warlock, rather than just bare armor. Sure, it helps, but in wars I find archers to be a far bigger problem, especially the ones that hit for 700+ damage per hit.

As for the Bad slash resist on conj WM armour, I would be concerned about archers actually.
With slash arrows and DS rings, they can have almost as high slash base damage as pierce. Even if only a minority wear dual DS rings, I think it is safe to assume that slash is the 2nd most common damage type from archers?

Regarding barbarians, a WM conj already have enough HP that Kick3/4 from one is not automatically a death sentence, unless they're overgeared/buffed. So slash resistance % would be quite helpful in those situations where you need to be at melee range, in my opinion

[Tamui]

So I've put Force Armour to the test. My equips were:
Vesper Hat
Master Conjurer Gloves
Elite Conjurer Tunic; +7 Const = circa 120hp, Resists: Very Good, Good, Very Bad, Normal, Very Bad, Good.
Great Healer Bracelet; 230+4: Very Bad, Good, Good, Normal, Very Bad, Very Good; 2%+ Physical Resist

307 AP -> 392 AP buffed
Got HP to 4.5k

Ok, maybe I didn't have the best of gear and resists.
I kept Vesper Hat, because I needed more mana for my style. Even with that, I felt uncomfortable.

So, it wasn't that bad, but not what I had in mind either.
Karma Mirror + Force Armour + Regen Self 4; I could keep a little from suffering from hullio fast high hits.
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Now I reskilled for my old setup. More Warju. However I've got Static Field(2), I'll see how I feel it, if it's enough to keep at least knights away.
Having that 300 extra mana, I felt very very comfortable.(3k mana rocked as well I might build a setup around that....hmm)

[Jardik123]

Originally Posted by Tamui

I've got Static Field(2), I'll see how I feel it, if it's enough to keep at least knights away.

They can probably Balestra you before the static field will apply its effect on them, because it has this bad delay as every aura (1s ticks?).