[X] My Assistant

We'd need more context here please. We can't judge what decision is right when we don't know what else you have as equipment and how you're playing. That leather, while not ideal, is decent for what it does, but at least, considering your current level, it's fine to keep it as is. You don't need or want to soulfuse it unless you're really swimming in soul fragments.

This is my current gear.

Magnificent Club of Balance
Exquisite Wakizashi of Slaughter
Exquisite Shade Helmet of the Fleet
Magnificent Reinforced Leather Breastplate of Deflection
Exquisite Shade Gauntlets of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Leggings of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Boots of the Fleet

I only use Frenzied Blow for mass attack and damage. Imperil for bosses. Thats basically it. I can only do Nintendo level on lv 225 Arena at best atm.

Is there a more in-depth mage gear guide somewhere? The mage advice on the wiki is pretty minimalist, and while clothes is pretty intuitive:

all Phase or 4+1 Cotton at beginning and if you're resisted a lot; Radiant is best and offensive, Charged is second best and defensive, Mystic is 2nd tier offensive and Frugal is for when you want to drink less potions, so technically defensive?

Staffs are a bit more difficult. It's easy to figure out best Holy and Dark mage staffs. But while I figured out why Fire/Ice is 4th tier for example: Oak is not an option due to lack of relevant damage/prof suffix and Fire/Ice Redwood is 4th tier due to no counter-resist and low Depreciating bonus, making Elec/Wind 3rd Tier with Willow. I couldn't figure out how much worse Katalox is than Oak and Willow, for example (especially with Oak, where there's Destruction vs. pure damage and Depreciating prof. vs. counter-resist). And I could figure out which suffixes are better and worse (Destruction > relevant element > relevant element prof > Curse-weaver > Focus) but couldn't figure out how MUCH better and worse.

This is my current gear.

Magnificent Club of Balance
Exquisite Wakizashi of Slaughter
Exquisite Shade Helmet of the Fleet
Magnificent Reinforced Leather Breastplate of Deflection
Exquisite Shade Gauntlets of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Leggings of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Boots of the Fleet

I only use Frenzied Blow for mass attack and damage. Imperil for bosses. Thats basically it. I can only do Nintendo level on lv 225 Arena at best atm.

U think you're doing quite well. You could maybe use weaken (is that already available at your level?). Or sleep once per round. That way, you may be able to do IWBTH already. But really you're not doing too bad at all.

For survival, you have to start forging a bit, I think. Forging stuff to level 5 is almost free (well... cheap at least). Forge the evade on your shades, and the parry on your weapon. Try to find better weapons (no rush, just keep an eye out for them) and then IW those to 10:

Then, shalt thou IW to ten. No more. No less. Ten shalt be the number thou shalt IW, and the number of the IW shalt be ten. Eleven shalt thou not IW, nor either IW thou nine, excepting that thou then proceed to ten. Twelve is right out. Once the IW ten, being the tenth level, be reached, then equipst thou thy weapon and useth it towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Is there a more in-depth mage gear guide somewhere? The mage advice on the wiki is pretty minimalist, and while clothes is pretty intuitive:

all Phase or 4+1 Cotton at beginning and if you're resisted a lot; Radiant is best and offensive, Charged is second best and defensive, Mystic is 2nd tier offensive and Frugal is for when you want to drink less potions, so technically defensive?

Staffs are a bit more difficult. It's easy to figure out best Holy and Dark mage staffs. But while I figured out why Fire/Ice is 4th tier for example: Oak is not an option due to lack of relevant damage/prof suffix and Fire/Ice Redwood is 4th tier due to no counter-resist and low Depreciating bonus, making Elec/Wind 3rd Tier with Willow. I couldn't figure out how much worse Katalox is than Oak and Willow, for example (especially with Oak, where there's Destruction vs. pure damage and Depreciating prof. vs. counter-resist). And I could figure out which suffixes are better and worse (Destruction > relevant element > relevant element prof > Curse-weaver > Focus) but couldn't figure out how MUCH better and worse.

https://forums.e-hentai.org/index.php?showtopic=246193 here you can find all info on mage gear. There is no tiers. Just matching stuff an not matching stuff when it comes to staff and suffix. And prefix, you have 'with bonus' or 'plain'. Either works. Don't go for perfection. Just go for full matching and a good prof factor.

And I could figure out which suffixes are better and worse (Destruction > relevant element > relevant element prof > Curse-weaver > Focus) but couldn't figure out how MUCH better and worse.

there are actually no suffixes that better and worse, only those who really work:
of Destruction on Redwood for Fire/Ice
of Destruction on Willow for Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind/Dark
of Heimdall on Oak for Holy
everything else = trash

Charged > Radiant for IW / Fest due to survivability
Mystic = meh
Frugal = trash

This post has been edited by ikki.: Jun 4 2024, 18:47

This is my current gear.

Magnificent Club of Balance
Exquisite Wakizashi of Slaughter
Exquisite Shade Helmet of the Fleet
Magnificent Reinforced Leather Breastplate of Deflection
Exquisite Shade Gauntlets of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Leggings of the Fleet
Exquisite Shade Boots of the Fleet

I only use Frenzied Blow for mass attack and damage. Imperil for bosses. Thats basically it. I can only do Nintendo level on lv 225 Arena at best atm.

You've got a good start there, there are a couple of things you can do to bump up difficulty:

• Slot the Faster & Better Weaken abilities & use it in difficult battles
• Switch your main-hand weapon to a Slaughter club (preferably Ethereal) for better damage
• Switch your off-hand weapon for a Balance rapier for better damage, or a Nimble Wakizashi for increased parry chance
• Using Spirit Stance to enhance Frenzied Blows doubles its damage; use Imperil as well if needed to one-shot enemies
• Try to hold overcharge towards the end of rounds to start the next with a spirit stance Frenzied Blows

Is there a more in-depth mage gear guide somewhere? The mage advice on the wiki is pretty minimalist, and while clothes is pretty intuitive:

all Phase or 4+1 Cotton at beginning and if you're resisted a lot; Radiant is best and offensive, Charged is second best and defensive, Mystic is 2nd tier offensive and Frugal is for when you want to drink less potions, so technically defensive?

Staffs are a bit more difficult. It's easy to figure out best Holy and Dark mage staffs. But while I figured out why Fire/Ice is 4th tier for example: Oak is not an option due to lack of relevant damage/prof suffix and Fire/Ice Redwood is 4th tier due to no counter-resist and low Depreciating bonus, making Elec/Wind 3rd Tier with Willow. I couldn't figure out how much worse Katalox is than Oak and Willow, for example (especially with Oak, where there's Destruction vs. pure damage and Depreciating prof. vs. counter-resist). And I could figure out which suffixes are better and worse (Destruction > relevant element > relevant element prof > Curse-weaver > Focus) but couldn't figure out how MUCH better and worse.

Yes: https://forums.e-hentai.org/index.php?showtopic=246193

Katalox is mostly a non-option these days: willow & oak's boosted EDB & counter-resist vastly outperform it for holy & dark mages, especially as monsters have higher mitigations & resist chances than at the time at which these staves were balanced, making Imperil much more important to a modern mage.

As for the suffixes, because the counter-resist is so important, there's not really much choice: there are no EDB or element prof suffixes on willow or oak staves, so it's just heimdall for holy and destruction for everyone else.

in addition to what's said above by ikki, fiery redwood of surtr/arctic redwood of niflheim aren't trash either, almost identical damage output with destruction (mb ~2-3% less using non-radiant pieces and ~1% using radiants)

This post has been edited by uchimatan: Jun 4 2024, 18:54

Thanks for all the answers! And https://forums.e-hentai.org/index.php?showtopic=246193 really should be updated to modern meta and added to that spartan mage guide in the wiki.

Thanks for all the answers! And https://forums.e-hentai.org/index.php?showtopic=246193 really should be updated to modern meta and added to that spartan mage guide in the wiki.

it is fully up to date to the modern meta.

Quick question! I got a void damage axe from Arena and I'm wondering if I should use it. I think I'm at the level where I can still do/wear whatever but I figured there's no harm in asking for opinions from people who actually know what they're doing (unlike me). Pretty much the only thing going for it is the Void damage but I heard that void is the best damage type so I'm wondering if that's enough to justify using it. Thanks in advance!



This post has been edited by Sweet Breaker: Jun 4 2024, 20:11

void is good, but problems are
1) axe = worst 1h weapon
2) vampire = useless suffix

and iw10 makes every weapon void
just go for rapier/shortsword of slaughter and you'll be fine

Pretty new here. Is there a guide that shows how weapon and ability targeting works? I've noticed switching between 1H/shield and Katana that the katana randomly cleaves adjacent monsters and skyward sword hits 2 up and 2 down from the target I think. Should I be paying attention to who I target more?

it is fully up to date to the modern meta.

Oh, OK. The way he said "Katalox is mostly a non-option these days" got me a little confused. It's already mentioned as a poor choice in the linked post, but I thought it became completely unusable at some recent point.

Oh, OK. The way he said "Katalox is mostly a non-option these days" got me a little confused. It's already mentioned as a poor choice in the linked post, but I thought it became completely unusable at some recent point.

Well a Demonic Katalox Staff of Destruction will do just as well as a Demonic Willow of Destruction if you don't mind using gum and vase with it.

This post has been edited by Hinoka: Jun 4 2024, 21:29

Well a Demonic Katalox Staff of Destruction will do just as well as a Demonic Willow of Destruction if you don't mind using gum and vase with it.

LOL that's true but not very good advice for most players

Probably a stupid question, but would a low-end lego imperil dark mage (geared with unforged stuff that usually stays unsold or gets sold for a couple hundred k tops in the auction) be considerably more time-effective at farming arenas than a high-end lego 1H Heavy build?

Also how does imperil work on negative/no resistance? Is it useless, or does it reduce it further?

Probably a stupid question, but would a low-end lego imperil dark mage (geared with unforged stuff that usually stays unsold or gets sold for a couple hundred k tops in the auction) be considerably more time-effective at farming arenas than a high-end lego 1H Heavy build?

Also how does imperil work on negative/no resistance? Is it useless, or does it reduce it further?

Imperil is always effective:

The target is imperiled, reducing physical and magical mitigation as well as elemental mitigations.

Base Physical and Magical defense reduction: 25%/50%
Base Fire/Cold/Elec/Wind resistance reduction: 10%/40%
Base Dark/Holy resistance reduction: 0%/25%
This reduction is multiplicative (ie, a monster with 80% physical mitigation would be reduced to 60%, or lower with Abilities.
The Penetrated Armor multiplier is layered with this reduction (ie 0.8 physical mitigation * 0.5 imperil reduction * 0.25 penetrated armor reduction = 0.1 physical mitigation)

Dark mage would be faster but more expensive to play, as you'd need elixirs at least.

Probably a stupid question, but would a low-end lego imperil dark mage (geared with unforged stuff that usually stays unsold or gets sold for a couple hundred k tops in the auction) be considerably more time-effective at farming arenas than a high-end lego 1H Heavy build?

yes, especially on schoolgirls arenas

but why dark? already have a good staff? if not, better go for the elementalist -> much cheaper if your goal is fast arenas cleaning
and before switching to mage, spam some spells while you're playing on your 1H to get some prof

Also how does imperil work on negative/no resistance? Is it useless, or does it reduce it further?

Imperil is always effective:

Specific mitigations can't be lowered below 0. In the case of the schoolgirl bosses who have -1 to a couple of mitigations, it's still not useless - because of the physical/magical mitigation reduction.

Dark mage would be faster but more expensive to play, as you'd need elixirs at least.

The way I look at it, it's still going to be a net positive, because if it takes less time, I'll actually have motivation to clear more Arenas and so earn more credits overall even if it's less per clear.

but why dark? already have a good staff? if not, better go for the elementalist -> much cheaper if your goal is fast arenas cleaning

Like I said, I'm not going to go for any of the good gear, and the meh gear is cheap regardless of whether it is for Elemental or Dark mage, so why not go with Dark that plows through SGs faster?

Specific mitigations can't be lowered below 0. In the case of the schoolgirl bosses who have -1 to a couple of mitigations, it's still not useless - because of the physical/magical mitigation reduction.

Thanks! I did suspect that reduction won't work past zero because of its multiplicative nature, but I totally forgot that physical/magic mitigation are their own separate stats.

Like I said, I'm not going to go for any of the good gear, and the meh gear is cheap regardless of whether it is for Elemental or Dark mage, so why not go with Dark that plows through SGs faster?

not sure that meh dark will be faster than meh elem
at least, there will be more problems with mana (dark spells cost more) and imperil (less resistance reduction)

i don’t insist, it’s up to you, but i recommend finding a good willow first and go for fire/cold/elec/wind based on it