Posted February 28, 2011
Does anyone have a link (or a great list) of the different sets you can make out of the artifacts -- what they do,what they're called, and what goes into 'em?
After playing a long time, I still only know for sure how to put together two sets, and transferring all the *supposedly* necessaries pieces back and forth between characters and switching it in and out of slots is not something you can do every game plus it's tedious as all heck.
I'll start by describing two sets that are incredibly awesome and suggest a couple good (though mebbe obvious) uses. THIS WILL MEAN SPOILERS BELOW for some people. Not much IMO, but whatever.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
SET NAME: Armor of the Damned
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: Necro set, but good for any
PICTURE IN SLOT: Black Mask on a rope
SLOT: Chest
REQUIRED:
1. Shield of the Yawning Dead (Defense +3)
2. Rib Cage (Power +2)
3. Blackshard of the Dead Knight (Attack +3)
4. Skull Helmet (Knowledge +2)
EFFECT: All opponents have these spells effective on them for 50 turns: Slow, Curse, Weakness, and Misfortune
WEAKNESS: None of these items are high-end. By the time you assemble this artifact you might be able to wear things that give you much better stats. So there's a trade-off here.
COMMENTS: This is great for anyone because these are all very solid spells, though you usually don't have time to cast them all. Slow is one of the best spells in the game, and this armor casts a mass slow before battle even begins. This means the wearer effectively has first spellcasting move even if he is up against phoenixes!
For the necro especially, it is exactly what he needs, as his top unit, the Ghost Dragon, is not one of the fastest out there, and his other troops aren't too fast either. If his opponent goes first and casts mass slow on him, he has only one shooter to fight with and won't be doing much that round, if anything. Slowness is a killer on necros, so reversing the tables is a huge boon.
Also nice is that the necro can equip this set while still wearing Dead Man's Boots (+15% necromancy), Vampire's Cowl (+10% necromancy), and Amulet of the Undertaker (+5% necromancy). Now he can get a huge head start on enemies AND turn them into his own soldiers!
I like to use this set against tough opponents even if I have equipment with better stats or effects, because getting mass slow in as a first spell is incredibly good.
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SET NAME: Cloak of the Undead King
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: Necro by far
PICTURE IN SLOT: Brown cloak
SLOT: Shoulders
REQUIRED:
1. Dead Man's Boot's (+15% necromancy)
2. Vampire's Cowl (+10% necromancy)
3. Amulet of the Undertaker (+5% necromancy)
EFFECT: "30% of battlefield dead are resurrected as skeletons. If hero already has the skill, then the percentages are added to the skill, and the level of skill determines what type is resurrected." Basic skill: zombies. Advanced: wights. Expert: liches.
NOTE: This effect this appears to work the same way as necromancy normally does: an empty army slot gets filled with a lower level unit, but if you are all full up and one of your slots is taken by one of the advanced units you can get (warrior skeletons, wraiths, power liches), you will get the advanced unit when dead soldiers are rezzed into your army. You will, however, get a lesser amount of them than you would of basic versions of the same character type (skeletons vs warrior skeletons, for instance).
WEAKNESSES: Any character but a necro adding even a single stack of undead to his army can start to have his armies lose turns due to loss of morale in mid-battle. That's very costly and can effect more than one troop at a time. This set is a great way to amass huge numbers of troops, but they are probably best handed off to a secondary hero or set to guard castles unless you're a necro. Morale-boosting artifacts and the leadership skill can help morale, but I find undead in a living army can still have the occasional profoundly bad effect.
COMMENTS: Any character can use this set, and it is incredibly powerful in its effect while giving up few slots, and ones that are don't generally hold your best in-battle items (cape of velocity (+2 speed in battle) and necklace of celestial bliss (+4 all stats) being notable exceptions though rare finds).
A necro wearing this set can quickly acquire game-changing numbers of troops. This is much more the case when he is acquiring liches and power liches, as they are very strong, have reasonable battle speed, and can even effect multiple troops per shot. The effect on slowed troops packed next to each other in a starting line-up can be devastating. In fact this set can be a bit like hitting the "I WIN !!!" button. However, it's somehow pretty fun to use anyway.
This artifact is the perfect reason to leave weak, quick-breeding troops around, as much as possible, when starting the game. When they build up to huge numbers, they can still give experience late in the game, so I save as many pixies and centaur etc. stacks as I can. But as a necro with Cloak of the Undead King, you can turn those massive pixie armies into masses of power liches! Just a few stacks like this can build you an army of immense strength, sometimes adding over 100 power liches or more power liches at a time to your army.
SPECIAL NOTE: You can wear this set WHILE YOU WEAR the other great necro set, Armor of the Dead. This makes wearing all those low stat items more than worthwhile, to say the least. On my last turn, I discovered this for the first time. Fighting an enemy hero, I started out auto-casting slow, curse, weakness and misfortune on my first turn, and when it was done, after reanimating some lost troops, I had no losses and 453 extra power liches.
While fighting a tough enemy, you may prefer to not use Cloak of the Undead King and swap in something else. While running around, you'll prefer to take it apart so you can wear boots of speed, if you can get them. My ideal thing, once I have this set and even in hopes of getting it, is to try to build up a strong second or third character when possible, so they can hold down the fort a bit while you go and fight huge stacks of weak troops to collect power liches.
This artifact is so powerful that it is worth buying an artifact merchant building, or capturing a castle type with it, and religiously clearing out all its merchandise in case parts of this set appear. Don't let the enemy get there first! Go for broke; Cloak of the Undead King is a game winner if you get it.
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Forgot about this one. I've done two others but forget what makes them.
SET NAME: Elixir of Life
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: All but necro
PICTURE IN SLOT: Indescribable gray/yellow thingy with 3 prongs
SLOT: Carry-along artifact slots
REQUIRED:
1. Vial of Blood (+2 life to units, goes in artifact slot)
2. Ring of Vitality (+1 life)
3. Ring of Life (+1 life)
EFFECT: All creatures get 25% health bonus plus gain regeneration ability. Regen does not work on undead or unliving creatures. ALSO: they don't get the extra health EFFECT either.
WEAKNESSES: Very valuable ring slots used which could be giving two stat bonuses each -- attack/defense or morale/luck. "Carry-along" artifact slot used may or may not matter much to you.
COMMENTS: This artifact is very powerful for people who get a lot of use out of masses of low level troops with scant hitpoints, like gremlins and pixies. It is very welcome all around, though losing a morale slot is always nothing to be thrilled about.
For the necro, as for everyone, the combined value of the item slots (without the EFFECT) is 4 hitpoints, which adds a lot to skeletons for instance. 500 skeletons going from 3000 to 5000 hitpoints is a big deal in survivability. But necros miss out on those lovely extra bonuses. With them, to be fair, necros could easily be ridiculously overpowered, though.
Nicely, this set can be worn with so many other sets.
Even a necro sneaking a living creature into a slot can be benefited by this set. (I will often sneak in a faster dragon slot or a phoenix slot to pick up spell casting speed, then add a morale artifact somewhere so they don't freeze from low morale.) My fairy dragons, with this set, go from 500 to 629 points, for instance. This would be just a wonderful help to for those using pixies and phoenixes, too, as both top and bottom ends of the conflux castle are a bit light on hitpoints.
After playing a long time, I still only know for sure how to put together two sets, and transferring all the *supposedly* necessaries pieces back and forth between characters and switching it in and out of slots is not something you can do every game plus it's tedious as all heck.
I'll start by describing two sets that are incredibly awesome and suggest a couple good (though mebbe obvious) uses. THIS WILL MEAN SPOILERS BELOW for some people. Not much IMO, but whatever.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
SET NAME: Armor of the Damned
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: Necro set, but good for any
PICTURE IN SLOT: Black Mask on a rope
SLOT: Chest
REQUIRED:
1. Shield of the Yawning Dead (Defense +3)
2. Rib Cage (Power +2)
3. Blackshard of the Dead Knight (Attack +3)
4. Skull Helmet (Knowledge +2)
EFFECT: All opponents have these spells effective on them for 50 turns: Slow, Curse, Weakness, and Misfortune
WEAKNESS: None of these items are high-end. By the time you assemble this artifact you might be able to wear things that give you much better stats. So there's a trade-off here.
COMMENTS: This is great for anyone because these are all very solid spells, though you usually don't have time to cast them all. Slow is one of the best spells in the game, and this armor casts a mass slow before battle even begins. This means the wearer effectively has first spellcasting move even if he is up against phoenixes!
For the necro especially, it is exactly what he needs, as his top unit, the Ghost Dragon, is not one of the fastest out there, and his other troops aren't too fast either. If his opponent goes first and casts mass slow on him, he has only one shooter to fight with and won't be doing much that round, if anything. Slowness is a killer on necros, so reversing the tables is a huge boon.
Also nice is that the necro can equip this set while still wearing Dead Man's Boots (+15% necromancy), Vampire's Cowl (+10% necromancy), and Amulet of the Undertaker (+5% necromancy). Now he can get a huge head start on enemies AND turn them into his own soldiers!
I like to use this set against tough opponents even if I have equipment with better stats or effects, because getting mass slow in as a first spell is incredibly good.
-----------------------------------------
SET NAME: Cloak of the Undead King
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: Necro by far
PICTURE IN SLOT: Brown cloak
SLOT: Shoulders
REQUIRED:
1. Dead Man's Boot's (+15% necromancy)
2. Vampire's Cowl (+10% necromancy)
3. Amulet of the Undertaker (+5% necromancy)
EFFECT: "30% of battlefield dead are resurrected as skeletons. If hero already has the skill, then the percentages are added to the skill, and the level of skill determines what type is resurrected." Basic skill: zombies. Advanced: wights. Expert: liches.
NOTE: This effect this appears to work the same way as necromancy normally does: an empty army slot gets filled with a lower level unit, but if you are all full up and one of your slots is taken by one of the advanced units you can get (warrior skeletons, wraiths, power liches), you will get the advanced unit when dead soldiers are rezzed into your army. You will, however, get a lesser amount of them than you would of basic versions of the same character type (skeletons vs warrior skeletons, for instance).
WEAKNESSES: Any character but a necro adding even a single stack of undead to his army can start to have his armies lose turns due to loss of morale in mid-battle. That's very costly and can effect more than one troop at a time. This set is a great way to amass huge numbers of troops, but they are probably best handed off to a secondary hero or set to guard castles unless you're a necro. Morale-boosting artifacts and the leadership skill can help morale, but I find undead in a living army can still have the occasional profoundly bad effect.
COMMENTS: Any character can use this set, and it is incredibly powerful in its effect while giving up few slots, and ones that are don't generally hold your best in-battle items (cape of velocity (+2 speed in battle) and necklace of celestial bliss (+4 all stats) being notable exceptions though rare finds).
A necro wearing this set can quickly acquire game-changing numbers of troops. This is much more the case when he is acquiring liches and power liches, as they are very strong, have reasonable battle speed, and can even effect multiple troops per shot. The effect on slowed troops packed next to each other in a starting line-up can be devastating. In fact this set can be a bit like hitting the "I WIN !!!" button. However, it's somehow pretty fun to use anyway.
This artifact is the perfect reason to leave weak, quick-breeding troops around, as much as possible, when starting the game. When they build up to huge numbers, they can still give experience late in the game, so I save as many pixies and centaur etc. stacks as I can. But as a necro with Cloak of the Undead King, you can turn those massive pixie armies into masses of power liches! Just a few stacks like this can build you an army of immense strength, sometimes adding over 100 power liches or more power liches at a time to your army.
SPECIAL NOTE: You can wear this set WHILE YOU WEAR the other great necro set, Armor of the Dead. This makes wearing all those low stat items more than worthwhile, to say the least. On my last turn, I discovered this for the first time. Fighting an enemy hero, I started out auto-casting slow, curse, weakness and misfortune on my first turn, and when it was done, after reanimating some lost troops, I had no losses and 453 extra power liches.
While fighting a tough enemy, you may prefer to not use Cloak of the Undead King and swap in something else. While running around, you'll prefer to take it apart so you can wear boots of speed, if you can get them. My ideal thing, once I have this set and even in hopes of getting it, is to try to build up a strong second or third character when possible, so they can hold down the fort a bit while you go and fight huge stacks of weak troops to collect power liches.
This artifact is so powerful that it is worth buying an artifact merchant building, or capturing a castle type with it, and religiously clearing out all its merchandise in case parts of this set appear. Don't let the enemy get there first! Go for broke; Cloak of the Undead King is a game winner if you get it.
---------------------------------------
Forgot about this one. I've done two others but forget what makes them.
SET NAME: Elixir of Life
IDEAL HERO FOR IT: All but necro
PICTURE IN SLOT: Indescribable gray/yellow thingy with 3 prongs
SLOT: Carry-along artifact slots
REQUIRED:
1. Vial of Blood (+2 life to units, goes in artifact slot)
2. Ring of Vitality (+1 life)
3. Ring of Life (+1 life)
EFFECT: All creatures get 25% health bonus plus gain regeneration ability. Regen does not work on undead or unliving creatures. ALSO: they don't get the extra health EFFECT either.
WEAKNESSES: Very valuable ring slots used which could be giving two stat bonuses each -- attack/defense or morale/luck. "Carry-along" artifact slot used may or may not matter much to you.
COMMENTS: This artifact is very powerful for people who get a lot of use out of masses of low level troops with scant hitpoints, like gremlins and pixies. It is very welcome all around, though losing a morale slot is always nothing to be thrilled about.
For the necro, as for everyone, the combined value of the item slots (without the EFFECT) is 4 hitpoints, which adds a lot to skeletons for instance. 500 skeletons going from 3000 to 5000 hitpoints is a big deal in survivability. But necros miss out on those lovely extra bonuses. With them, to be fair, necros could easily be ridiculously overpowered, though.
Nicely, this set can be worn with so many other sets.
Even a necro sneaking a living creature into a slot can be benefited by this set. (I will often sneak in a faster dragon slot or a phoenix slot to pick up spell casting speed, then add a morale artifact somewhere so they don't freeze from low morale.) My fairy dragons, with this set, go from 500 to 629 points, for instance. This would be just a wonderful help to for those using pixies and phoenixes, too, as both top and bottom ends of the conflux castle are a bit light on hitpoints.
Post edited February 28, 2011 by Blarg
This question / problem has been solved by DarrkPhoenix
