What is the best equipment for an E9 Cyclops?

[moderation]

I'm toying around with a few configurations and I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for improving it:

Vine shield
Fire shield
Horned Helmet
Rainbow Armor
Behemoth Boots
Antimagic Amulet
Regeneration Ring or Reinvigoration Amulet

One of the shields can be swapped out for a Frost or Fire Brand as needed. I was thinking of adding Luck or Etherealness, but it doesn't seem as important as MR considering his huge protection.

[Jazzepi]

Luck is super important. I'd rather have a lucky coin than a vine shield any day.

Jazzepi

[moderation]

Even with 35 protection? Actually I think fear magical attacks more than any kind of physical damage. But maybe a high damage SC killer would change my mind.

[Jazzepi]

moderation said:
Even with 35 protection?

Yes. Fatigue reduces the effects of protection, and luck helps protect you against critical strikes as well as AP attacks from things like crossbows.

Jazzepi

[moderation]

Hmm, maybe swapping out the Rainbow Armor for Robe of Shadows would be worthwhile. Giving up +3 MR and reinvig is a tough choice though.

[Jazzepi]

I'd rather have the +3 MR and reinvigoration.

I don't see any reason for you to keep vine shield when you could have lucky coin. They serve the same purpose. Vine shield immobilizes people so that they can't attack the pretender, but the lucky coin provides a much better layer of defense by making 50% of all attacks miss. It also helps against some magic attacks.

Jazzepi

[PvK]

Isn't anything that incurs fatigue going to fall to fatigue if it tries alone to trample 300+ foes who don't rout?

[Jazzepi]

PvK said:
Isn't anything that incurs fatigue going to fall to fatigue if it tries alone to trample 300+ foes who don't rout?

Not if you have enough reinvigoration.

Jazzepi

[Saxon]

Flying will help your retreat from the battle field if you are not fatigued, but it will not help you if the provinces surrounding you are enemy provinces. It is a great way to kill a low HP SC that has a put a decent PD in the province. Once you kill the PD, the SC retreats and dies.

That said, the advantage of strategic mobility is huge, so the Winged Shoes are a very attractive choice. It gives you more flexibility, makes it easier to acheive surprise and makes it harder to predict and counter your unit.

On the items question, it does depend a bit at what point of the game you are at. The later in the game, the more important MR is. As such, the Rainbow armor is almost always going to be more useful than Robe of Shadows, but early on, you might get away with it.

I would think reinvigoration is more important than regeneration. Once you tire, the hits will come in. If you go over 100, you are dead. I took out a high protection Cyclops with a death bless. As the fatigue mounted, I got in more hits, which started afflictions. It was a nice cycle for me, but deadly for them. Regeneration would not have helped, more reinvigoration would have.

Think of the ways people are going to try and kill your SC and prepare for them. Think of Vengeance of the Dead. Late in the game, you want to resist it, not fight it, as you will have killed many, many units. Think Soul Slay or Paralyze, think the other SC counters.

[thejeff]

More reinvig than you spend attacking is, of course, crucial, but having some regen drastically reduces the chances of getting afflictions. Sure it won't save you when you're exhausted fighting death bless sacreds, but what will?

Without it, you're likely to pick afflictions even from the occasional weak hit that gets through.

Especially important for SC pretenders in the early game, when you won't be able to replace them easily and there are less instant kill counters.