Acid Storm, What counters it?

[Fal]

Under what cicircumstances would you use Acid storm? it appears to be such a potent spell but I can't think of a way to counter it. or to cast appropriate protection spells on my army to counter acid damage.

I suppose it would be useful to cast this spell on an advancing heavily armored army with your lone mage, which would destroy their armor while sacrifice your mage. But maybe there are more obvious use of this spell?

[lch]

The acid spells don't immediately destroy armor IIRC, the armor has to receive a "strong blow from a weapon", too.

[Fal]

Oh is it true? I seem to remember armor gets destroyed right away from a previous SP test. And the armor remains unrepairable unless enough resources are avilable in the province.

[Dedas]

I use Acid Storm when I have warriors and summons with reasonable HP and no armor as it affects both your own and the enemy units.

I also use it without fielding my own army on the battlefield, only attacking with a mage scripted with acid storm and retreat. This way it affects even more enemy units.

The obvious way to counter it is to use units not depending on their armor, like high HP summons. This is not impossible as the spell is quite high level meaning that it won't make an entrance until later in the game. Another thing, creatures with natural protection is not affected by this so they are a good counter. Magical armor is also an exception.

A tip.
You can repair/replace lost armor in any friendly fortress with enough resources available.

[Dedas]

lch said:
The acid spells don't immediately destroy armor IIRC, the armor has to receive a "strong blow from a weapon", too.

Nope, that is Rust Mist.

[sum1lost]

Dedas said:

Nope, that is Rust Mist.

Rust mist and acid storm have the same affect on armor.

[Fal]

If memory serves, acid storm reduce normal (not magical) protection to 0, or maybe I casted other spells in that test? I have to double check.


So Is acid storm affected by magic resistance and penetration bonuses?

[Dedas]

sum1won said:

Rust mist and acid storm have the same affect on armor.

No, Acid Storm has the same effect as Armor of Achilles, and Armor of Achilles destroys armor. You can either test it or read it in the manual (p. 260). It even states that it destroys armor.

[atul]

Hm, didn't test Acid Storm, but at least Rain of Acid creates the rusty armour syndrome, where the armour goes away after a good strike, i.e. identical to Rust Mist. Perhaps the effect from Storm is stronger than from Rain?

[Chris_Byler]

Since it only affects armor prot and not skin prot, not only are high natural skinprot creatures like Trolls and Crushers unaffected, but units affected by protection buffs like Wooden Warriors, Marble Warriors or Army of Lead lose only their armor, not the protection provided by the buff. This can be useful either for the Acid Storm caster, or for the opponent.

Assassins, Mind Hunt, remote assassination rituals, flyers, etc. can also be effective counters to Acid Storm depending on who or what is casting it