armor vs defense stat for SC

[Kristoffer O]

Quite effective. I wouldn't worry about being hit by weapons.

[Shovah32]

If your SC cant rout(not undead/mindless/berserking ect) its probably better to focus on protection unless they have very high base defence.

[MaxWilson]

Pretty effective. It means the first 10 enemies attacking you at once (or 5 enemies with 2 attacks each, like cavalry or flagellants) have no realistic chance of hitting, although someone may get lucky once every couple of rounds.

-Max

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I actually have to disagree with Kristoffer O.

Quite effective. I wouldn't worry about being hit by melee weapons. I would worry about being hit by ranged weapons.
Fixed.

[MaxWilson]

Agreed that Protection is generally less brittle than high Defense, ethereality, etc. The one thing you have to especially watch out for with Protection, though, is fatigue, since even a 30 Protection can take significant damage on a lucky critical hit at fatigue 45 or so.

I've found that Wraith Lords benefit from good Defense because 1.) they already have high natural Prot and Ethereality, 2.) beating good Defense requires swarm tactics, 3.) swarms are just more fodder for Soul Vortex.

-Max

[Ironhawk]

Yeah, high prot is better than high def in the general case. But keep in mind that a strong SC may never really get heavily surrounded, instead killing the majority of the troops that come against them and keeping the numbers reasonable.

Additionally, remember that if you sacrifice too much def to get protection, you could open yourself up to another player using a cheap anti-SC against you.

[Shovah32]

*Insert lifeless swarm here*

[Taqwus]

Mandragoras, say. Fear the sleep vines.

[vfb]

MaxWilson said:
3.) swarms are just more fodder for Soul Vortex.

-Max

Funny you should mention that now. I thought I'd get away with casting Gift of Health at a 50% discount site, with AC up. Umor was not amused. The Treelord who cast it was expecting something a little less exciting, so he was only armed with a few swarms and Ardmon's Soul Trap.

Umor managed to increase his HP to 75 (from base 55) by feasting on the little buggers. With MR3 they didn't last very long because of the blood vengeance, otherwise he might have been able to eat a few more.

[Boron]

Imho high protection is better than good def.

If you have high protection and the other goodies like body etheral, luck etc. most weapons get negated by your buffs and the few that come through are usually countered by protection.

If you have instead only mediocre or little protection but high def and be and luck etc. even less hits hit you but the few that hit you are much more dangerous and usually lead to afflictions also which cripple your SC. And if you encounter good enemy units, usually blessed units then usually the SC who focuses on defensive is easily killed whereas the protection SC has still chances to survive.

Some troops even have magical weapons, e.g. shadow vestals. They should easily kill your defense SC whereas the protection SC should have a fair chance.

The only condition in which in theory the Armor SC has a disadvantage is vs. Anti-SC-Thugs and such with AN weapons.
But imho usually Anti-SC-Thugs/SCs have a better performance if they are equipped with specific SC counter items which are usually not AN but do double/triple damage vs. the specific SC type like herald lances vs. demon/undead or moon blades vs. magic beeings.

So imho the protection SC is almost always superior to the defense SC.