Many of the items are very oddly constructed (the aforementioned armor oddities) and even more curiously priced.
Legendary boots (9 armor) far better than the master heavy plate ones (8 armor -0.1 combat speed).
Elementium Karrazan (20 attack +1 combat speed) costs a 2250g to make and a hearty investment into the magic tree while the "non-magic" equivalent is similarly "hard" to get to in warfare, but it is far cheaper at 900ish and has double the combat speed (12 attack +2 combat speed).
Almost all of the magic armor is pretty easy to get to and cheap as hell for the sovereign (hard to get for troops unless you invest heavily into the adventure tree early and get to level 5 goodies) versus the far pricier, in terms of how far into warfare you have to, and at best equivalent quality plate versions. Sure, some of them are better for a "tank", not that such a beast exists with no real special abilities... but that's pretty damned situational.
