Best PvP Equipment - Invade & War

The best Equipment (Blacksmith items and Magic items), Generals, and Soldiers for Dueling and Invading.

Notes:

 * The current total attack equation uses 100% attack stat + 70% defense stat.
 * The current total defense equation uses 70% attack stat + 100% defense stat.
 * The general area is still up for personal opinion as the total attack does not take into consideration abilities.
 * Though some items are farmable, they may not be easily farmable like with Spartan Phalanx or Items recovered from Chests.

General (Attack)
(All generals' level 4 stats used)

Easiest to just get Keira, the Dread Knight and then hope for the best with the other generals if you wish to gamble with your favor points.

Generals (Attack)
(All generals' level 4 stats used)

It is mostly recommended to equip army limit generals for invasions. Mephistopheles will increase your invasion score by about 8% while the Chase, Crom and Artanis will give you a boost of about 4%. However, they only work if you have a complement of 541+/521+ army members (depending on the general). If not, then their ability would become useless and it would be better to equip other generals which enhances your defense stat. Savannah is an alternative if you don't have at least a 501 army. She is useless if you have though.

Soldiers (Attack)

 * Don't combine the Hydra Heads unless you have a very small army or can afford to lose the soldiers. The rationale behind this is given in the Castle Age Spreadsheet
 * One Cronus and four Valor Knights have a total att/def value of 148/132 while the five different Hydra Heads have a total att/def value of 121/132. As long as you have access to Valor Knights, combining a Cronus is ALWAYS worth it. Even four regular dragons and one Cronus has an att/def value of 124/116, 3 more attack and equal defense to the five separate heads. Once you have access to Archangels this value increases, and if you've purchased enough of them, only Atlas and Prometheus will even be a part of your army (The archangels are more powerful than the other three heads). At this point you should definitely combine Cronus whenever possible.
 * It is not recommended to form Volcanic Knights and Blood Zealots for your soldiers. Their stats does not make up the gear you have to sacrifice in order to make them. Particularly the Volcanic Helm, which is the 2nd best in slot and will be a cornerstone of your War Council setup. Blood Flasks and Hellforge Gauntlets will also be key WC gear until you've done an immense amount of farming to replace them with the Legendary items that create the best gloves and amulets.
 * Spartan Phalanx takes a while to get but serpents, especially Amethysts and Ancient Reds, have a good rate of dropping FP that it maybe worth your while to pursue them.
 * Pursuing Alpha Bahamut for the Alpha Serpents is generally not recommended unless you can get into the Legendary threshold within the time limit with no problems.

Weapons

 * Celestas Devotion
 * Fight in the War of the Red Plains for Virtue of Justices. Zenarean Bow and Zenarean Dagger are good compliment rare weapon drops.
 * Go for Genesis, The Earth Elemental as an alternative for Genesis Sword, which is technically tied with Virtue of Justice. He is easier to beat and has lower epic damage threshold but his other drops are not so appealing compared to the Red Plains loot.
 * Hellblade is a nice looking prospect but getting into the epic threshold against Alpha Mephistopheles is a tall order for most players. It's better to concentrate on Virtue of Justices and/or Genesis Swords as they have almost similar stats anyway.
 * Rank up to Corporal in War to be able to bulk buy Ornate Axes. They are cheap and requires no upkeep cost.

Equipment

 * Sword of Redemption
 * Moonfall Amulet
 * Plate of the Ages from War of the Red Plains. Farming maybe a bit difficult since the fight has 6 other legendary drops to dilute your chances of getting it.
 * Helm of Dragon Power farmed for as much as you need. However as this can take a long time, buy as many Commander's Battle Plates as you need simply because this is the easiest way to fill up the slots and not take away precious time from Dragon Slaying. If you can battle to High King without difficulties, replace Commander's Battle Plates with High King's Crowns.
 * Purgatory is an equivalent of Helm of Dragon Power. However, you may have to commit a whole lot more resources against Azriel that it's not really recommended to pursue for most players.

Magic

 * Beat Ragnarok, the Ice Elemental to farm Frost Bolts.
 * Angelic Rebirth is a good magic but being a summoner only drop of the tough Azriel, it's not worth the farming time and resources.
 * Skullfires from Bahamut, the Volcanic Dragon is a decent alternative but his fight is a bit tougher than Ragnarok's.
 * Fight Gold / Ancient Red Dragons or Serpents for Atlantean Forcefields and other magic if you think the 2 World monsters above are a bit stingy with drops for you.

General (Defense)
(All generals' level 4 stats used)

This list does not take the generals' abilities into account. Were they taken into account, Sylvanas would be rated as the best defender in dueling (but not invading), unless you have enough total heroes to give Ambrosia a large defense bonus.

Easiest to just get Keira, the Dread Knight and then hope for the best with the other generals if you wish to gamble your favor points.

Alternately, Celesta offers a decided advantage when defending with a total of +22(fully leveled) to defense from her ability, which even makes her a better option than Keira.

Generals (Defense)
(All generals' level 4 stats used)

It is mostly recommended to equip army limit generals for invasions. Mephistopheles will increase your invasion score by about 8% while the Chase, Crom and Artanis will give you a boost of about 4%. However, they only work if you have a complement of 541+/521+ army members (depending on the general). If not, then their ability would become useless and it would be better to equip other generals which enhances your defense stat. Savannah is an alternative if you don't have at least a 501 army. She is useless if you have though.

Soldiers (Defense)
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 * Don't combine the Hydra Heads unless you have a very small army or can afford to lose the soldiers. The rationale behind this is given in the Castle Age Spreadsheet
 * One Cronus and four Valor Knights have a total att/def value of 148/132 while the five different Hydra Heads have a total att/def value of 121/132. As long as you have access to Valor Knights, combining a Cronus is ALWAYS worth it. Even four regular dragons and one Cronus has an att/def value of 124/116, 3 more attack and equal defense to the five separate heads.
 * Once you have access to Archangels this value increases, and if you've purchased enough of them, only Atlas and Prometheus will even be a part of your army (The archangels are more powerful than the other three heads). At this point you should definitely combine Cronus whenever possible. Of course, four dragons and one Cronus are still better than the five separate heads, so still make cronus whenever possible.
 * It is not recommended to form Volcanic Knights and Blood Zealots for your soldiers. Their stats does not make up the gear you have to sacrifice in order to make them. Particularly the Volcanic Helm, which is the 2nd best in slot and will be a cornerstone of your War Council setup. Blood Flasks and Hellforge Gauntlets will also be key WC gear until you've done an immense amount of farming to replace them with the Legendary items that create the best gloves and amulets.
 * Spartan Phalanx takes a while to get but serpents, especially Amethysts and Ancient Reds, have a good rate of dropping FP that it maybe worth your while to pursue them.
 * Pursuing Alpha Bahamut for the Alpha Serpents is generally not recommended unless you can get into the Legendary threshold within the time limit with no problems.

Weapons

 * Celestas Devotion
 * Fight in the War of the Red Plains for Virtue of Justices. Zenarean Bow and Zenarean Dagger are good compliment rare weapon drops.
 * Go for Genesis, The Earth Elemental as an alternative for Genesis Sword, which is technically tied with Virtue of Justice. He is easier to beat and has lower epic damage threshold but his other drops are not so appealing compared to the Red Plains loot.
 * Hellblade is a nice looking prospect but getting into the epic threshold against Alpha Mephistopheles is a tall order for most players. It's better to concentrate on Virtue of Justices and/or Genesis Swords as they have almost similar stats anyway.
 * Rank up to Corporal in War to be able to bulk buy Ornate Axes. They are cheap and requires no upkeep cost.

Equipment

 * Sword of Redemption
 * Moonfall Amulet
 * Plate of the Ages from War of the Red Plains. Farming maybe a bit difficult since the fight has 6 other legendary drops to dilute your chances of getting it.
 * Helm of Dragon Power farmed for as much as you need. However as this can take a long time, buy as many Commander's Battle Plates as you need simply because this is the easiest way to fill up the slots and not take away precious time from Dragon Slaying. If you can battle to High King without difficulties, replace Commander's Battle Plates with High King's Crowns.
 * Purgatory is an equivalent of Helm of Dragon Power. However, you may have to commit a whole lot more resources against Azriel that it's not really recommended to pursue for most players.

Magic

 * Beat Ragnarok, the Ice Elemental to farm Frost Bolts.
 * Angelic Rebirth is a good magic but being a summoner only drop of the tough Azriel, it's not worth the farming time and resources.
 * Skullfires from Bahamut, the Volcanic Dragon is a decent alternative but his fight is a bit tougher than Ragnarok's.
 * Fight Gold / Ancient Red Dragons or Serpents for Atlantean Forcefields and other magic if you think the 2 World monsters above are a bit stingy with drops for you.