M&M 7: Chain or Leather expert for the Cleric?

[TheAnyKey]

Hi,

I have GrayFace MM7 Patch v1.5.1 patch installed. It shows the recovering time of attacks when using a chain mail on expert you receive a 10 point recovery malus. With leather on expert there is no malus but you have 12 points less armor class compared to chain expert.

1. What would you choose for the Cleric, Chain or Leather expert?

2. Does the malus from armor and shield only increase the recovery time of attacks with ranged or melee weapons or does it increase the recovery time in general, so for spells, use of potions, wands etc. too?

Thanks a lot.

[GreatEmerald]

I'm playing a party of ACCC right now and I've chosen Chain-Leather-Chain-Leather. Basically I'd say use whatever is lacking from the party - if you have many chain users, get leather, if you have many leather users, get chain. It's good either way.

Not sure about the second point.

[Macros the Black]

Yeah, choose whatever your other party members aren't already wearing. Aside from that, if it still doesn't matter, I say go with chain. You're cleric's main job is healing, and if he's dead he can't heal. That's why I think armor class is more important for him. But it's a theoretical advantage... it really doesn't matter that much.

[GreatEmerald]

If the answer to the 2nd question is yes, then it even more doesn't matter, since one way you will be able to heal more, the other - longer. But like I've said, I'm not sure if it's true.

[Macros the Black]

Oh damn, totally missed the second question. I feel so dumb now. Maybe I should stand in a corner for a while?

It's a good question. I realise only now that I've always assumed recovery time for spells is only affected by your magic skill rank and sometimes level, depending on the spell description. The MM7 manual says this about the speed statistic:

Speed is a measure of how quick a character is. Faster characters are able to perform more actions in a given amount of time and recover more rapidly from actions they perform.

Casting a spell would seem to me that it counts as an "action", so if we take this literally then yeah recovery time should affect spells as well.

However, I know that Accuracy does NOT affect spells, so a logical conclusion would be that speed doesn't either, however games aren't always logical as long as they're balanced.. And in the accuracy description it does specifically mention only melee and ranged combat is affected by it:

The Accuracy attribute reflects a character’s hand/eye coordination. A high accuracy rating gives a character a better chance to hit with hand-to-hand and ranged weapons.

All in all, I don't have a clue.

Edit: okay, some quick testing revealed that Resurrection (the spell with the slowest recovery time I could think of) has a recovery time on my priest of between 16 and 17 seconds with and without haste cast. That was with the stopwatch option on my phone btw, so I can't have miscounted. And that while the spell haste makes a noticeable differense when fighting.

So from that I think we can conclude recovery time (aside from that mentioned in the spell descriptions) has no impact on spellcasting.

Again, the Might and Magic 7 manual mentions "actions" also when describing the haste spell:

Haste: Spell Point Cost: 5.
Expert: Reduces recovery time for party actions. Duration is 1 hour plus
1 minute per point of caster’s Fire Magic skill. Party will be weak for six hours after spell wears off.
Master: Duration is 1 hour plus 3 minutes per skill point.
Grand Master: Duration is 1 hour plus 4 minutes per skill point.

Resurection description:

Resurrection: Spell Point Cost: 30. Grand Master: Brings a character back to life after their body has been destroyed. Resurrected characters will be weak. Spell caster takes a long time to recover, but this is speeded by increased Spirit Magic skill.

Just to be on the safe side, I also tried it with Enchant Item on my archer (for some reason I thought it had a slow recovery time), same result: without haste I got 6:41, with haste I got 6:48. The slight 0:07 differense probably has alot more to do with my reaction time than the game's recovery time

Enchant doesn't mention anything about recovery times in the descriptions so there's no point in quoting it...

[GreatEmerald]

Well, the reason why accuracy doesn't affect spells is that spells always hit with 100% accuracy, the target can only resist them or the spell itself could have some chance of failure, which usually depend on your character skills.

[Bandobras Took]

Pretty much always Leather. For most of the game, things are going to hit you no matter what your armor class is. Speed is the most important factor in MM7.

[Xfing]

In MM8 I don't care and give my Cleric an Erudine Chainmail, but in MM7 there are Blasters to think of, and the Chainmail drastically slows the Cleric's machinegun-like barrage when Hasted. The effect is even worse for Paladins with their 15 point penalty while wearing Plate (so I go for Chain instead).