Force Armour & Self defence

[VandaMan]

The way armor points work, force armor is increasingly effective when used with better armor. If your conjurer is geared with level 60 gear, all very good against piercing, I would guess force armor can be quite helpful against archers. Personally I prefer to gear my conjurer for health and mana instead, and find that humping a tree, rock, or fort costs less power points than force armor.

[Phlue4]

Originally Posted by VandaMan

The way armor points work, force armor is increasingly effective when used with better armor. If your conjurer is geared with level 60 gear, all very good against piercing, I would guess force armor can be quite helpful against archers. Personally I prefer to gear my conjurer for health and mana instead, and find that humping a tree, rock, or fort costs less power points than force armor.

exactly.
But the more damage you get in, the less force armor serves.
Some players do 100ers on me, I can reduce them to 50 with force armor - but do I really need to? (rhetoric question )
Force armor gives you about ~~~~10% damage resistance against 400-700 dmg.
Definately not worth the skill points, I'd say.

edit. also read kitsunie's post. Noticed it too late - he more or less tells the same like me.

by the way, the reflected damage from karma mirror does definately not kill anybody, it's no danger for any enemy, that's true.
But 30% resistance against all kinds of damage is pretty nice.
Yes,

Originally Posted by kitsunie

Reducing a hit of only 100 by 30% is pretty insignificant

but if there are 10 archers making 100er norms on you (or just one barbarian doing a 1000 norm), you will only receive 700 damage instead of 1000.
Absolutely nice spell, if you ask me. Way better than material wall (apart from the duration), and everyone would skill material wall as a defensive buff if it were possible.

[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.)