[thejeff]

Base protection would need to be significant to help, especially with the base vampires. Commanders can be given armor, so it's less of an issue there.

The original VQ abuse was by a cheater, but I think consensus was that she was overpowered anyway. Her cost was boosted in later patches to Dom2, which most people seemed to see as a good balance.

Boosting the cost and removing etherealness in Dom3, was a huge nerf to something that wasn't really a problem anymore. Ethereal vampires in general could have used a bit of a nerf, since if you could get Vampire Lords summoning them, they'd accumulate without limits.