ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I've read posts on the forums that they're awesome anti-caster gauntlets, but they just don't seem all that great from what I'm seeing in-game, anyway. Right now I'm using them on my anti-magic Dwarven Berserker.

I've powered mine up to Tier 4. Right now they're got something like +10 to spell saves, +10 mindpower, +5 armor, +4 defense, and some mind crit I don't care about.

For a Tier 4 artifact, this just doesn't seem that great. Do they have some hidden bonuses I'm not seeing? Do you need to use them as a brawler to get their bonuses, rather than as a weapon-wielder? Do they just not become awesome until Tier 5?

They become awesome at Tier 5, mostly with their Disperse Magic ability. They're also tremendous for unarmed attacks (for Brawlers or users of Flexible Combat) but, again, really only once they hit Tier 5.

Precisely, at tier 5, they can be activated for a large breath that disrupts spell casting for several turns and removes a magical sustain. It is devastating on undeads that take arcane damage and are stunned for several turns. When used for a brawler or with the flexible combat prodigy, this effect is *always* applied on hit and there is probablility of mana clash, silence, etc... Hence after several hits, any caster will have lost all his sustains.

It is extremely powerful, but IMHO more for the melee project effect than for the breath (that has a large cooldown).

Darn, I just hit level 30 and took the +40 strength prodigy. I'd been thinking of taking Spellpower next, but it sounds like I'll be taking Flexible Combat if I live to take another prodigy.