Ablative Shield Newb Question (in General)

I've never used Ablative Shield before, but took the new CB2 as an opportunity to try it out. Just wondering why I'm losing spell effectiveness as shown here: Ablative Shield: 818/1,083 (402).

My minion is wearing no armor, or weapon, but does have one other spell trained. I'm assuming that this is what is decreasing the effectiveness of Ablative Shield, but before I untrain it, I want to make sure that this is what is causing it.

Is there anything else that affects effectiveness of Ablative Shield?

faqs -> magic

This is the only spell that has a (slightly) reduced effectiveness when you have more than two minions.

Not sure on how things stand in CB2, but in CB1 you would have had "normal" effectiveness when cast on one or two minions.
On a single minion it's better to go with HP training instead (that is, unless you have a familiar-spawning tatoo and really want your familiar's HP increased).

On two minions, the AS/HP training seems to be about the same in total HP, but this way you could focus a larger DD on the second mage while "spreading" the effective HP on two minions. However, you are very vulnerable to DM this way.

On three or four minions, the AS was too effective as an alternative to training some HP on each minion, hence the overall effectiveness is reduced. You still get more HP (in total) compared to spending the same amount of XP on 4 separate HP trains (well, usually, and when not facing the dreaded DM EO).

As a reference, you get:

- 70% of spell's level worth of HP for 1 minion (HP better)

- (?)70% of spell's level worth of HP on each of 2 minions (if 70% on each, then for a total of 140% it is 40% better as training HP alone)

- no ideea on effect on 3 minions

- around 37% of spell's level worth of HP on each of 4 minions (for a total of around 148% total effectiveness, 48% better as training HP alone)

NOTE: The things change radically when you face an enemy which sports the Offensive Enchantment "Dispel Magic". In this case, you are much better off if you only have AS trained for max XP on a single minion... a large enough DM affects each AS individually instead of cummulatively, so if you have 2 small AS both could fizzle, while a single AS of roughly same XP trained would work roughly at half-power.

For the case of 4-minion teams and a single AS enchanter, you have the following figures (given as example):

- your enchanter has a Level 10,000 Ablative Shield, which would normally give you roughly 3700 HP on each of your minions ; you could get only around 2500 HP (maybe a bit more due to point cost increase) on each minion if you use the same XP to train HP

- if the enemy DM enchanter has (roughly) a Level 4,000 Dispel Magic (effect 3200), it will reduce your AS to 6,800, which will give you about 2500 HP on each minion -> you're still "on par" on the AS/HP variant

- if the enemy DM enchanter has (roughly) a Level 10,000 Dispel Magic (8,000 effect), it will cause your AS to cast at only Level 2,000, giving you only 740 HP per minion - you are clearly at a BIG disadvantage

- if the enemy DM enchanter has a Level 12,500 Dispel Magic (or higher), it will cause your AS to "fizzle", and you get absolutely NO HP whatsoever !

Tibike, have you ever heard the term "long winded"?

Not sure about the info but I will point out that having a familiar makes AS much nicer. Also, keep in mind that exp efficiency isn't everything, not just because of DM but also because AS HP goes in evenly and it is possible some of your minions will use HP more effectively than others due to dmg-dealing and due to AC.