Equipment for Elemental Royalty

[DonCorazon]

What do you use for Air, Fire, Earth and Water royalty (non-artifact)?

Gleaming Shields seem nice to ward off the masses of peasantry along with Fire/Cold brands to slaughter more folks with one blow. Wraith Swords, Charcoal Shields, things with Regeneration, Magic Resistance, Reinvigoration...so much good stuff I am not sure where to begin...

I am looking for general purpose SC type gear for pending endgame showdown.

Thanks, DC

[Micah]

For all: Luck and resists (elemental and magic) as appropriate to what you're fighting.

Air: Marble armor or something else that will bump their prot value above 20, just in case. They can get away with less if you need the body slot or can't lose the CR, but it's a great choice. Regen if you can spare the slot. A damage shield for chaff killing helps a lot here.

Earth: Stymphalian wings (or flying carpet). These guys are pretty good to go out of the box with regen and invulnerability and summon earth power, so give them a flight item to help their mobility and go to town. The wings will also up their kill rate against small troops since you get 0-enc trample.

Fire: Depends which, Pyri really wants some marble armor due to his 0 base prot, whereas rhuax gets a great boost out of a blood stone for all the good earth magic...both could use some reinvig to combo with phoenix pyre, though rhuax can get that from summon earth power...give pyri a resil amulet if you can. Both get a kick out of flight items as well, although make sure to provide them with escape routes in case they take an unexpected beating, since phoenix pyre probably means they'll get off the field (especially if you give rhuax flight with the wings)

Water: a shield to pimp their defense...the 2 water-only queens are kind of a crappy investment for above-water fighting, as they have no base prot, no regen, and limited buffing magic...they can survive on their high defense against limited opposition, but I'd seriously prefer a golem for most purposes (alchemize for 25 of the 30 pearls, or make some clams instead) Underwater just stack a char shield or stymph wings with resist gear and their high defense and ridiculous regen should be plenty to keep them up...you just want a way to do a lot of damage with them (hence the shield/trample)

[DonCorazon]

Thanks Micah - I am looking over the turns in Rand - on 10 now (I was your hapless neighbor C'tis) and will be interested to see how the endgame played out. Looking forward to the next one.

[Sombre]

Just bumping this for someone.

[Wrana]

I must say that I didn't find Earth Knigs with Stymphalian Wings a good combo even in SP. Maybe area-effect swords and/or char shield could be more useful? Or just making them shoot away with, say, Earthquake - but here Rainbow Armor would be better...
Considering Air Queens I have found them quite useful with Rime Hauberk (chill aura) & Storm Staff. The latter could probably be replaced with some sword & char shield, but they already have additional attacks, & Storm increases their power. Armor could be relaced with Bone breastplate, of course.
Agree about Fire Kings.

[MaxWilson]

Earth Kings also like Bone Armor. Built-in Soul Vortex but low Prot, so you need someone with high base Prot or the ability to cast Ironskin or Invulnerability.

-Max

[Psycho]

I saw this from Baalz: Earth kings with hydra armour and ring of regen. having their innate regen. are ridiculously hard to kill.

[MaxWilson]

In melee, yes. Watch out for mages spamming MR-resisted spells like Disintegrate, Charm, and Petrify. Also watch out for creatures with Fear--I don't believe Earth Kings are immune to Fear, and if he's raiding deep in enemy territory routing could get him killed.

-Max

[Psycho]

Well you would obviously put an AMA as well (although that leaves you with no flying), maybe a starshine cap as well and cast iron will.

[MaxWilson]

I didn't think AMA was cumulative with Iron Will, is it? Neither one is going to help much against Petrify spam, but you do the best you can...

-Max