Latest Jewelry/Artifact meta?

[Lampros]

So what are people toting in terms of jewelry and artifact these days? I think I've got a good grasp of weapons and armor - which doesn't seem much changed - but I am clueless about jewelry and artifacts. Any suggestions?

[Frenetic]

most important for early game rush out amber charms for your gatherers :)

and later it depends on its role and what materials you have an abundance of.
i like to research just the jewlery quite early on if i have access to coal because crafting alot of jewlery is really useful for generating science. and if you use the right decent materials they have actually quite the impact. though most of them except for amber are tier2-4, so theyre quite sparse in the early game.
for medic (can be the one who gets the medic boost from the icy princess, doesnt need to be medic class), he needs ruby rings and a ancient wood/spidersilk artifact for sure. make those as soon as you can get your hands on that. it really boosts medic skill tremendously, up to +8 from jewlery and artifact. medics without that arent real medics imo^^

other than that, my personal preference is to play with alot of stealth in my team and my strategy is about almost never getting hit, and in my gear i dont really need enchanted bones, so any excess gets made with silver into rings. (better to combine with silver in the first slot than use 8x enchanted bone)
the equivalent artifact is glove of the assassin, uses steel as primary material.
so most characters who arent gatherers or dont have naturally high stealth get that.
so they have something really good to do if they land in the support hand.

also its really highly beneficial to try to get 1-2 characters with ~5 magic asap for some events (elven wanderer in particular) so first ancent wood goes into that, can combine with dryad wood in the first slot for a nice +2 magic buff that helps hex challenges more than 8x ancient wood.

if you have excess dragon bone, diamonds and mithril, those also make really ncie trinkets. especially one ring with diamonds in the first slot are really good on jewlery for polearm ability in many challenges.

if you have a character thats lacking strength, there also is an ancient bone artifact or monster bone jewelery. but that mostly applies to normal medics.. which means they cant use those ruby rings anymore.. which makes them useless^^

[Lampros]

Originally posted by genius912:

most important for early game rush out amber charms for your gatherers :)

and later it depends on its role and what materials you have an abundance of.
i like to research just the jewlery quite early on if i have access to coal because crafting alot of jewlery is really useful for generating science. and if you use the right decent materials they have actually quite the impact. though most of them except for amber are tier2-4, so theyre quite sparse in the early game.
for medic (can be the one who gets the medic boost from the icy princess, doesnt need to be medic class), he needs ruby rings and a ancient wood/spidersilk artifact for sure. make those as soon as you can get your hands on that. it really boosts medic skill tremendously, up to +8 from jewlery and artifact. medics without that arent real medics imo^^

other than that, my personal preference is to play with alot of stealth in my team and my strategy is about almost never getting hit, and in my gear i dont really need enchanted bones, so any excess gets made with silver into rings. (better to combine with silver in the first slot than use 8x enchanted bone)
the equivalent artifact is glove of the assassin, uses steel as primary material.
so most characters who arent gatherers or dont have naturally high stealth get that.
so they have something really good to do if they land in the support hand.

also its really highly beneficial to try to get 1-2 characters with ~5 magic asap for some events (elven wanderer in particular) so first ancent wood goes into that, can combine with dryad wood in the first slot for a nice +2 magic buff that helps hex challenges more than 8x ancient wood.

if you have excess dragon bone, diamonds and mithril, those also make really ncie trinkets. especially one ring with diamonds in the first slot are really good on jewlery for polearm ability in many challenges.

if you have a character thats lacking strength, there also is an ancient bone artifact or monster bone jewelery. but that mostly applies to normal medics.. which means they cant use those ruby rings anymore.. which makes them useless^^

Thanks a bunch.

I noticed also that it looks like now there are 2 jewelry slots? (!!!) If I am not mistaken, then that's a huge advantage - though I guess that's partly to compensate for the fact that opponents get tougher with the DLC.

[Frenetic]

yup. which is also the reason why fighters suck in the lategame imo ^^

[Lampros]

Originally posted by genius912:

if you have a character thats lacking strength, there also is an ancient bone artifact or monster bone jewelery. but that mostly applies to normal medics.. which means they cant use those ruby rings anymore.. which makes them useless^^

I used the Monster Bone one with great effect the last game; it almost seems necessary on Medics/Sages/Witches and sometimes on Craftsmen as well. But it only gave +1, so I often needed 2, as the Dragon Leather ones that give +3 or +4 are not easily obtainable. Anything in-between Monster Bone and Dragon Leather? Something that gives +2?

Also, I did not find much of anything by the way of new ingredients. Very disappointed on that score.

[plockets]

In general, for jewelries the primary material sets the majority of the bonus types, and the second material may or may not add a small bonus of it's own while setting the strength of the primary material bonus (ancient wood is an amazing second material, as it always adds +2 magic, and gives a medium-strong boost to the primary bonus)

best primary jewelry materials:
silver: stealth, divination, find weakness
enchanted bone: dex, sixth sense
amber: +1 gather, concentration, +1 craft (if amber is also second material)
mbone: +1 str (if mbone is also second material), divination
diamond: concentration, clear mind
ruby: medic, concentration
dark wood: folklore, feint
dryad wood: attractiveness, backstab, sixth sense

cheapass but okay jewelries:
iron: armour
steel: damage

best secondary jewelry materials:
ancient wood: +2 magic, decent primary boost
amber: +1 gather, weak primary boost
ruby: +1 medic, decent primary boost
silver: +1 stealth, decent-strong primary boost
ebone: +1 dex, weakish primary boost
dryad wood: +1 attractiveness, decent primary boost
diamond: +1 will, strong primary boost (but kind of wasted when it is so much better as a primary material in both jewelry and artifacts)
mithril: +2 tactics, strong primary boost (but wasted, tactics largely suck and mithril is the best xbow/artifact material)

For artifacts, the entire type of bonus is set by the primary material, and the secondary material only sets the strength of the bonus

best primary artifact materials:
mbone: dex (+3 max)
dragon bone: str (+4 max)
steel: stealth (+4 max)
ancient wood: medic, will (+4 max)
diamond: attractiveness, will, int (+4 max)
ruby: medic (+4 max)

secondary materials: mithril ALWAYS maxes the primary bonus, silk makes light artifacts with high (sometimes maxed) bonuses, and silver, scaled/dragon leathers, vine are often okay options

[Frenetic]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by genius912:

if you have a character thats lacking strength, there also is an ancient bone artifact or monster bone jewelery. but that mostly applies to normal medics.. which means they cant use those ruby rings anymore.. which makes them useless^^

I used the Monster Bone one with great effect the last game; it almost seems necessary on Medics/Sages/Witches and sometimes on Craftsmen as well. But it only gave +1, so I often needed 2, as the Dragon Leather ones that give +3 or +4 are not easily obtainable. Anything in-between Monster Bone and Dragon Leather? Something that gives +2?

Also, I did not find much of anything by the way of new ingredients. Very disappointed on that score.

from jewlery you can only get strength from combining 8 monster bones,
with artifacts you can get up to +4 strength though if you use dragon bone and mithril as secondary material. but thats more of a lategame thing, i dont research artifacts until the lategame and dragon bones and mithril are both invaluable for weapons(bones) and heavy armor(mithril).

[Frenetic]

but a very valuable and relatively cheap artifact i discovered recently is that monster bone + scaled leather as secondary material already gives the max +3 dex bonus.
and those resources are really easy to get, i can highly recommend making alot of them around the midgame

[Lampros]

Originally posted by plockets:

In general, for jewelries the primary material sets the majority of the bonus types, and the second material may or may not add a small bonus of it's own while setting the strength of the primary material bonus (ancient wood is an amazing second material, as it always adds +2 magic, and gives a medium-strong boost to the primary bonus)

best primary jewelry materials:
silver: stealth, divination, find weakness
enchanted bone: dex, sixth sense
amber: +1 gather, concentration, +1 craft (if amber is also second material)
mbone: +1 str (if mbone is also second material), divination
diamond: concentration, clear mind
ruby: medic, concentration
dark wood: folklore, feint
dryad wood:

cheapass but okay jewelries:
iron: armour
steel: damage

best secondary jewelry materials:
ancient wood: +2 magic, decent primary boost
amber: +1 gather, weak primary boost
ruby: +1 medic, decent primary boost
silver: +1 stealth, decent-strong primary boost
ebone: +1 dex, weakish primary boost
diamond: +1 will, strong primary boost (but kind of wasted when it is so much better as a primary material in both jewelry and artifacts)
mithril: +2 tactics, strong primary boost (but wasted, tactics largely suck and mithril is the best xbow/artifact material)

For artifacts, the entire type of bonus is set by the primary material, and the secondary material only sets the strength of the bonus

best primary artifact materials:
mbone: dex (+3 max)
dragon bone: str (+4 max)
steel: stealth (+4 max)
ancient wood: medic, will (+4 max)
diamond: attractiveness, will, int (+4 max)
ruby: medic (+4 max)

secondary materials: mithril ALWAYS maxes the primary bonus, silk makes light artifacts with high (sometimes maxed) bonuses, and silver, scaled/dragon leathers, vine are often okay options

Very helpful, indeed - thank you so much!

As an aside, what do you give to Warriors for their paltry single Artifact Slot? And what of other combat-types like Dwarves and Elves? Do you try to make them more versatile in non-Fighting Challenges or just make them even more formidable in Fighting Challenges?

[Lampros]

Originally posted by genius912:

but a very valuable and relatively cheap artifact i discovered recently is that monster bone + scaled leather as secondary material already gives the max +3 dex bonus.
and those resources are really easy to get, i can highly recommend making alot of them around the midgame

Really? +3 Dex is a lot from such cheap material.

[Frenetic]

yep. its really nice

[Frenetic]

i usually get 10 stealth on everything. however i actually suicide my warriors in the midgame and let them scout alone. because my strategy is around getting out buildings that attract high tier creatures like dwarves, elves and demons early on. and the more people you have the lower the attract chance is. so once i dont need my first warrior anymore (i only have one with 7 people start) i let him go to make room for something better^^

[Lampros]

Originally posted by genius912:

i usually get 10 stealth on everything. however i actually suicide my warriors in the midgame and let them scout alone. because my strategy is around getting out buildings that attract high tier creatures like dwarves, elves and demons early on. and the more people you have the lower the attract chance is. so once i dont need my first warrior anymore (i only have one with 7 people start) i let him go to make room for something better^^

Read my thread on "Suggestions for Improvement." This is the issue I highlight there perhaps most. Warriors are just so damn awful that I am suiciding them later so I don't waste population slots.

[plockets]

Originally posted by Lampros:

As an aside, what do you give to Warriors for their paltry single Artifact Slot? And what of other combat-types like Dwarves and Elves? Do you try to make them more versatile in non-Fighting Challenges or just make them even more formidable in Fighting Challenges?

I just 100% max my single warrior for health/armor/shielding. All I am going to do with him in throw him in line at the right spot to absorb hits, and kill everything in front of him before it attacks using First Actions on everyone else, so it doesn't even matter whether he is Offense or Support.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by plockets:

Originally posted by Lampros:

As an aside, what do you give to Warriors for their paltry single Artifact Slot? And what of other combat-types like Dwarves and Elves? Do you try to make them more versatile in non-Fighting Challenges or just make them even more formidable in Fighting Challenges?

I just 100% max my single warrior for health/armor/shielding. All I am going to do with him in throw him in line to absorb hits, and kill everything in front of him before it attacks using First Actions, so it doesn't even matter whether he is in Offense or Support.

Hmmm, so you use them purely for Fight Challenges and not give stuff like Magic or Will to make them somewhat more versatile in other Challenges?

I guess this is why Warriors are so awful :(

[plockets]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Hmmm, so you use them purely for Fight Challenges and not give stuff like Magic or Will to make them somewhat more versatile in other Challenges?

I guess this is why Warriors are so awful :(

I also give him/her +magic sword/shield/armor (providing they also have high armor/shielding, of course) ASAP, and combined with possible stat bonuses gained from events, he/she is usually not completely awful at non Fight challenges by T100-150.