[X] My Assistant

Whooo! Just cleared Longest Journey! (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I'd be happy with an ethriel tooth pick

New Wings Cleared. Used a bunch of Greater Mana Draughts and a Shield Scroll.

Feast for Crows cleared! I forgot to take a screenshot, because it didn't feel all that epic. My new mage build (that includes Tier 3 Fire and Cold with my usual Elec and Holy spells) made it a total joke. I used only 5 Superior Mana Draughts, and I didn't really need the 5th one.

My original objection to doing arenas a mage, which was that the bosses took too little damage from spells, was pre-mature. By picking up all different different spells that bosses are weak to (everything but Wind), I can deal 1500+ dmg per cast to all of them. Combine that with Slow so that Coalesced Mana stays up indefinitely, and I can kill them on the cheap, too.

I'm actually fairly amazed at how much better a mage build is at everything, compared to a melee build. As a mage, I can clear every arena faster and cheaper than as a melee, and I can go as deep as I want into IWs of any quality.

Maybe it evens out at higher difficulties, though. I do have a harder time in Hard+ IWs, since the monsters don't all die instantly to my AOEs, meaning I take a lot more damage.

About 35-40 in grind... kinda scared to do harder arenas...

Feast for Crows cleared! I forgot to take a screenshot, because it didn't feel all that epic. My new mage build (that includes Tier 3 Fire and Cold with my usual Elec and Holy spells) made it a total joke. I used only 5 Superior Mana Draughts, and I didn't really need the 5th one.

My original objection to doing arenas a mage, which was that the bosses took too little damage from spells, was pre-mature. By picking up all different different spells that bosses are weak to (everything but Wind), I can deal 1500+ dmg per cast to all of them. Combine that with Slow so that Coalesced Mana stays up indefinitely, and I can kill them on the cheap, too.

I'm actually fairly amazed at how much better a mage build is at everything, compared to a melee build. As a mage, I can clear every arena faster and cheaper than as a melee, and I can go as deep as I want into IWs of any quality.

Maybe it evens out at higher difficulties, though. I do have a harder time in Hard+ IWs, since the monsters don't all die instantly to my AOEs, meaning I take a lot more damage.

I find it easier to use a staff on lower settings and a rapier+shield on higher ones, mainly due to the sheer amount of mana required to kill something with lots of HP. (The shield helps too, when I'm facing a group of 5 monsters on Battletoads and desperately trying to put all but one to sleep before they kill me.) I still find that bosses are a pain in the arse to kill with a staff, despite having all the required spells and a ton of Elementalist gear, so they get the rapier build. My staff prof sucks btw - I really wish you could raise it by casting.

By the way, I'd just like to brag a little about something I achieved recently. Note the absence of the word "Normal". (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:[i703.photobucket.com] http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww39/sayoaisaka-EH/hard.jpg)

ENDGAME CLEARED

(IMG:[gannonman.com] http://gannonman.com/image/The%20HentaiVerse_1264373052300_428019011.png)

TWISTED PLOTS CLEARED

(IMG:[gannonman.com] http://gannonman.com/image/The+HentaiVerse_1264379035087_686144001.png)

This post has been edited by mr daniels: Jan 25 2010, 02:25

302 9 You gain 25364 Credits!
302 8 You gain 2353.35 EXP!
302 7 Your HP and MP have been fully restored!
302 6 Arena Token Bonus! Received: [Token of Healing]
302 5 Arena Clear Bonus! Received: [Fine Cotton Robe of Warding]
302 4 Mikuru Asahina dropped [Bunny-Girl Costume]
302 3 You are Victorious!
302 2 Mikuru Asahina has been defeated.
302 1 You unleash Fuuko on Mikuru Asahina for 8292 soul damage.

First try, used 2x God in which only 1 absorb triggered and 1 Avatar. Used Soul Stone for some damage which worked pretty well, since my low damage would of probably have been low w/o using SS.

I find it easier to use a staff on lower settings and a rapier+shield on higher ones, mainly due to the sheer amount of mana required to kill something with lots of HP. (The shield helps too, when I'm facing a group of 5 monsters on Battletoads and desperately trying to put all but one to sleep before they kill me.) I still find that bosses are a pain in the arse to kill with a staff, despite having all the required spells and a ton of Elementalist gear, so they get the rapier build. My staff prof sucks btw - I really wish you could raise it by casting.

Ya know, I tried that method once, and didn't like it. The ease of killing PA'd monsters didn't make up for the enormous loss of elem prof from not using a staff, and the inability to manually proc Channeling. Maybe I'll give it a try on higher difficulty, though.

Raising staff prof is easy. Wearing a staff and whatever type of armor you most want to get prof with, go into a high-level Flimsy IW on Cake, start a movie, and mindlessly mash your numpad. That's how I got my staff prof from 20 to 80 in a day. Don't forget that you get a huge chunk of your +elem prof from a good staff, so getting the stats bonus from prof really makes a difference.

By the way, I'd just like to brag a little about something I achieved recently. Note the absence of the word "Normal". (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Got you beat (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
(IMG:[i47.tinypic.com] http://i47.tinypic.com/15xmxj4.png)

I started Longest Journey on Heroic by mistake last week. It took 5 Geater and 6 Superior mana draughts, and a Mana Elixir, but I cleared it. And this was before I'd gotten the right spells to use against the boss, which is why I needed that elixir.

New NormalFest achievement: Round 169
(IMG:[i49.tinypic.com] http://i49.tinypic.com/evdifr.png)

Items used: 2 Greater and 4 Superior Mana draughts/pots.

I started using Shield, Haste, and Shadow Veil on auto-cast, for the extra chances at supportive prof gains. It seems to have also helped a lot in terms of reduced healing requirement. I cast a total of maybe 10 regens over all 169 rounds. Of course, I've also built up a base Elemental prof in the mid 120s. With my gear I'm at around 200 prof, which makes my Thunderstorms kill half the field instantly, and the other half on the next turn, all for 14-18 mana. I only get attacked about 4-6 times per round, and half of them don't hit me.

I even ran into White Bunneh on round 162. Fucker hit like a ton of bricks, but Weaken + Slow + Poison helped me kill him with Fimbulvetr spam before he charged up for any specials. Two of those Superiors were dedicated entirely to killing the two bosses I ran into (spamming Banish and Fimbulvetr is expensive!!), so I could have gotten quite a bit further on the same items, if I hadn't run into bosses.

Once the 3000 cred/day limit expires again, I'm gonna try for 200 rounds.

Longest Journey Completed!

It was easy too! (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) I love you Silence! Will you be mine?
What? Just friends? O-okay, if that's the way it has to be... *grumble*

My next goal is Mikuru. She's beaten me twice, but now I know I can't use my steamroller tactics on her.

Edit -
Mikuru Defeated!

This fight wasn't pretty. I used four godly mana draughts and FIVE mana elixers. That's just too much.
I used an ax with 256 dmg/4 turn bleed for damage and it took 650 rounds to kill her.
I kept up silence, haste, and shadow veil up (and regen most of the time). I wonder if it would have
been better to spam holy magic? Banish only did around 180 dmg, but that's without PA (and with a low divine prof).




This post has been edited by torotuna: Jan 26 2010, 02:39

Longest Journey Completed!

Mikuru Defeated!

I used an ax with 256 dmg/4 turn bleed for damage and it took 650 rounds to kill her.

Grats on Longest Journey!

Out of curiosity, why'd you go with bleed damage against Mikuru, instead of Rapier + Shield/offhand? She's not melee immune like Ryouko and Yuki are.

I got to about 35 in grindfest. I burnt through a few strong healing items, but it taught me the virtues of bringing MP healing items. 200 HP being healed < 6 uses of heal = 400 HP healed.

HEROIC DREAMFALL CLEAR!
(IMG:[i47.tinypic.com] http://i47.tinypic.com/qpp43l.png)

Items used: 10 Godly Mana and 2 Mana Elixir

This was pretty easy, up until the last 5 rounds or so. Fighting 4 heroic minibosses at the same time is nasty.

I needed both Mana Elixirs just for Mithra alone. She's got so much HP that even Banish only takes off about 1/60th of her bar. 60+ Banishes is expensive. I think I'm gonna bring an Infusion of Gaia to the next arena I try on heroic, for the bonus spell ratings against every possible boss.

I did learn something pretty interesting, too. Arcane Meditation ran out right before Mithra died, so I got to see how much of a difference it was making in my magic damage. I started dealing 800-900 per Banish, rather than my usual 1000-1100. So it makes a bigger difference than I thought (~20%).

Grats on Longest Journey!

Out of curiosity, why'd you go with bleed damage against Mikuru, instead of Rapier + Shield/offhand? She's not melee immune like Ryouko and Yuki are.

I wanted to evaluate it's effectiveness. It worked, but it took forever (with my ax at least).
I fought her twice using my rapier and had trouble dishing out any significant damage, but that
was using my standard grindfest/IW tactics. I'm tempted to fight her again using PA and holy magic.
I'm embarrassed at having used all those elixirs. It seems so sloppy.

I wanted to evaluate it's effectiveness. It worked, but it took forever (with my ax at least).
I fought her twice using my rapier and had trouble dishing out any significant damage, but that
was using my standard grindfest/IW tactics. I'm tempted to fight her again using PA and holy magic.
I'm embarrassed at having used all those elixirs. It seems so sloppy.

Honestly, I've found that elixirs are overkill for everything except RoB bosses, and to a lesser extent, attempting arenas on high difficulty levels. So using a bunch of them to kill Mikuru is entirely justified.

What did you mean by "standard grindfest/IW tactics? I'm interested to learn why you had trouble dealing enough damage.

Twisted Plots Cleared.

So I got it into my head that going full mage might work, since it did with Endgame recently. But I forgot that time was made easier by the fact that I got Mithra, who is weak to Holy, which made her easy prey for my new Holy damage + staff. No such luck with Dalek. Ate up a lot of Mana Potions, since my elec damage was all over the place (mostly 600ish, sometimes jumping to 1100+) but I got him in the end. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

my elec damage was all over the place (mostly 600ish, sometimes jumping to 1100+) but I got him in the end. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

You know, I ran into the same unusual inconsistency with Dalek as well. My Chain Lightnings would usually hit for ~1700 and crit for ~2200, but I'd occasionally get ~2100 dmg non-crits. I wonder what's up with that?

Regardless, I've found that arena is a LOT easier as a mage now that I have spells of all 4 elemental weakensses that the bosses have (Holy, Elec, Fire, and Cold). All of them except White Bunneh also supposedly have Soul weakness, but it seems to be a minor weakness, at best. That could just be my difference of 130 prof points between Elem (210 with gear) and Forbidden (80), though.

You know, I ran into the same unusual inconsistency with Dalek as well. My Chain Lightnings would usually hit for ~1700 and crit for ~2200, but I'd occasionally get ~2100 dmg non-crits. I wonder what's up with that?

Regardless, I've found that arena is a LOT easier as a mage now that I have spells of all 4 elemental weakensses that the bosses have (Holy, Elec, Fire, and Cold). All of them except White Bunneh also supposedly have Soul weakness, but it seems to be a minor weakness, at best. That could just be my difference of 130 prof points between Elem (210 with gear) and Forbidden (80), though.

Huh. And I was about to lay the blame on my staff having a low elemental prof. bonus. But it may just be that I'm so used to using Elementalist ones that using anything without the hefty elemental bonus screws with my style, at least with bosses. I switched to a Heimdall because most minibosses were weak to either Holy or Elec, and I have been able to one shot a couple of minibosses since I got it. Manthras are still annoying with Wind maxed, so I might try a staff with a big Wind bonus next time.

I find myself using Soul mostly in IW, because there getting 60 or so HP back every few turns actually helps. A typical hit in the arena on me is around 120 as a mage, so there's really no point unless I get my Forbidden prof way up.

Manthras are still annoying with Wind maxed, so I might try a staff with a big Wind bonus next time.

I find myself using Soul mostly in IW, because there getting 60 or so HP back every few turns actually helps. A typical hit in the arena on me is around 120 as a mage, so there's really no point unless I get my Forbidden prof way up.

When I was doing Dreamfall on Heroic, the biggest drain on my mana was the damn Manthras. They have very high Barrier Rating, so even Wind magic is still not very strong.

In IW, I use Elec almost exclusively. Since you run into minibosses very rarely, and the only monster that is strongly resistant to Elec is Blue Slime, I just point 2 Thunderstorms at the Blue Slimes (the extra damage from targeting them directly helps to overcomes their resistance), and the rest of the field just fries along with them. However, I'll always point the second one at a Coa'd target, to save mana. Most of the time, the Blue Slime will either die from the splash damage, or be so close to death that one staff smack takes it down.

This post has been edited by coredumperror: Jan 26 2010, 22:58