[DonCorazon]

I enjoy Baalz guides which always introduce some off the beaten path ideas. That said, for raiding PD it is hard to beat the humble Frost Brand with an AoE effect, CR50 which will solve your fatigue issues in Cold 3 provinces (indeed I will sometime give surplus Frost Brands to mages, just for this), and nice combat stats, all for 3(w/hammer) W gems - one of the least useful types of gems IMHO so nothing to feel guilty about spending given they have less late game use then say S, D or E gems. AOE is hard to beat - not only does it wipe out squares of units but can help with high defense guys that would otherwise be unhittable. Speaking from experience, brands are one way to make use of blind units and Frost brands are cheap.

For shields, its hard to beat the Vine Shield. Awe is fun, but often needs Fear to be effective, and there are lots of high morale troops that can make an Awe unit a paper tiger - vine ogres, undead, skinshifters, anyone with a berserk bless, minotaurs, centaurs, etc. The Vine Shield can entangle most PD and basic units and has a decent parry value as well.

Thinking of anti-thug gear, I find SR is often the most overlooked resistance. CR/PR often comes with the typical undead chassis, and FR comes with commonly used Fire Brands, Charcoal Shields, and Dragon Helms, but SR is trickier to get. Most thugs will overlook it unless they are fighting a strong air nation. So as I think vfb alluded to, just giving a few Thunder Bows to some indie commanders, or to some high str/high precision unit if you have access to them, can be an effective and cheap deterrent. Pretty funny to watch 3 cheap indies with a 9 air gem investment trash a 100 gem investment while it sits their buffing itself up. I have been on both sides of that btw.