[X] My Assistant

Hi, so 10 years ago I stopped playing a lvl256 1h mage build with high agi and evasion and minimal burden and interference shade armor. Through a combination of stats and a highly upgraded illithid weapon it allowed trivial recovery of MP and allowed me to spam supportive and deprecating spells with no limit. Even though the play style was slower, it was reliable and I was able to do feats like 250 arena at 10x difficulty, or item world 500 rounds deep.

This character now drains 3 MP once every 5 attacks and can just barely sustain the protection and regen spells. He has a full skillbar of fancy max tier spells but can't afford to use any of them. Even doing arena 70 on nightmare is a struggle. I tried out isekai mode and after a few days I already have a lvl125 basic plate mail 2h bruiser that just chops through things in spirit stance. He has a similar issue in that he can't even sustain regen and has to chug a potion every now and then, but he clears rounds many times faster with just basic attacks. Though this character also seems to no longer be able to progress with this build as-is.

Is there a way to fix my character or is the build dead due to balance updates? Or am I completely misremembering and there was no such time where MP was easily sustainable?

This post has been edited by ultramage: Sep 20 2025, 13:33

...

1-handed Tower Mage This might help.

Although, currently (to my understanding) the issue is, that Mage is considered...inconvenient until around level 310 (Imperil at the very least) or level(s) 400~+ for a higher supply of available equipment. Until then, people play either One-Handed plus shield and Power armour or Dual-Wield plus Shade of the Shadowdancer. Check the Rental Store in my Signature if you wish to switch to a different build due to being unable to "fix" the one you are using now. Hopefully, this will be of some service.

This post has been edited by Ramaki: Sep 20 2025, 13:58

Oh! I might have forgotten how to play and your post reminded me. Maybe the key was not the mp drain weapon (though I'm fairly sure the efect wasn't as shitty back then) but in the use of Focus to rapidly regain MP near the end of a round. I'm not sure if ether theft also came into play, wiki says Drain is not very useful. I'll try this and see if things get any better.
EDIT: I'm starting to remember that this is kinda like it felt like before. I also remembered that you can chain a cheap debuff spell into Channeling into an expensive buff for free. The available curses neutralize both large crowds and bosses for cheap, allowing for a safe run. It just takes 2+ hours...

This post has been edited by ultramage: Sep 20 2025, 16:27

It just takes 2+ hours...

Stop whatever you're doing now and transition to a viable build like the ones Ramaki mentioned. You're literally torturing yourself right now. Do not play mage until you have 3 target imperil (level 310). It's more trouble than it's worth.

I don't get how to minmax in this game, and offensive spells felt too fiddly and were ineffective so I never really used them. 1h only has single-target skills so clearing 100 rounds of 8 enemies each takes a long time. It's always been like that. I can try to finally use the forge to do upgrades now that materials can be bought from the market, but it's only tiny quarter-percent improvements. Well, at least I managed to get a proper arena clear in so I'm satisfied.

I don't get how to minmax in this game, and offensive spells felt too fiddly and were ineffective so I never really used them. 1h only has single-target skills so clearing 100 rounds of 8 enemies each takes a long time. It's always been like that. I can try to finally use the forge to do upgrades now that materials can be bought from the market, but it's only tiny quarter-percent improvements. Well, at least I managed to get a proper arena clear in so I'm satisfied.

1H Heavy, as in a Shortsword/Rapier of Slaughter + Force Shield + full Power Armor (preferably of Slaughter) + imperil on boss monsters clears only about 75% slower than budget mage. Which means about 20 minutes to clear the level 225 and 250 arenas. The ones you're struggling with, I presume. On highest difficulty, obviously. And you only really need to forge Block on shield, and Parry on the weapon a bit for it to be completely comfortable with 0 dicey situations.

Started a while ago and followed a general guide, am going 1H heavy and was about to ask about gearing, so are force shields preferred vs bucklers then?

Started a while ago and followed a general guide, am going 1H heavy and was about to ask about gearing, so are force shields preferred vs bucklers then?

Yes. Bucklers would be for 1H Mage.

Yes. Bucklers would be for 1H Mage.

Gotcha, would you happen to know when rapier is preferred vs shortsword?

Gotcha, would you happen to know when rapier is preferred vs shortsword?

Everywhere i think, but some players think that shortsword is better in the tower but i have never tested it.

Gotcha, would you happen to know when rapier is preferred vs shortsword?

With my current Isekai equipment, the Shortsword is slightly faster than the Rapier in arenas. I also consider it to be more comfortable (read more brain-dead) in Schoolgirls arenas specifically. It was significantly "better" in The Tower as well. Noticeably quicker but less safe. Did not use the Shortsword past the 90th floor.

This post has been edited by Ramaki: Sep 21 2025, 13:52

I have a question about element type on weapon. Element prefix like Hallowed or Demonic or Fiery doesn't proc elemental defbuff like reduced mitigation for holy or reduced damage for dark etc, right? So then, Is it just better to always use Ethereal? If so, why is Hallowed or Demonic tend to get higher ticket count on lottery?
Also, isn't it better to have 4 base elemental over holy/dark since imperil reduces 40% for base element while it only does 30% for holy/dark

I have a question about element type on weapon. Element prefix like Hallowed or Demonic or Fiery doesn't proc elemental defbuff like reduced mitigation for holy or reduced damage for dark etc, right? So then, Is it just better to always use Ethereal? If so, why is Hallowed or Demonic tend to get higher ticket count on lottery?
Also, isn't it better to have 4 base elemental over holy/dark since imperil reduces 40% for base element while it only does 30% for holy/dark

Legendaries monsters (Konata, Yuki Nagato, etc) have much lower resistance against Holy and Dark.
Ethereal are better because they don't have Burden and Interference

I have a question about element type on weapon. Element prefix like Hallowed or Demonic or Fiery doesn't proc elemental defbuff like reduced mitigation for holy or reduced damage for dark etc, right? So then, Is it just better to always use Ethereal? If so, why is Hallowed or Demonic tend to get higher ticket count on lottery?
Also, isn't it better to have 4 base elemental over holy/dark since imperil reduces 40% for base element while it only does 30% for holy/dark

- No, ethereal is not always better as you can hollowforge any elemental strike weapon. And if you want dark strike or holy strike because it's slightly faster against schoolgirls, then IW to 10 will give you a random elemental strike and high chance of not getting dark or holy. Ethereal is always better when playing a style that depends on evade, like DW. And for 2h weapons it's basically the only prefix that works - albeit not very good.

Tickets are gabling. Not everyone participates. Some players have large passive income of GP, they buy a lot of tickets. Tickets sales do not exactly follow the price of the item.

less safe

Why was that?

brain-dead

Shortsword over a Rapier for maximum drooling on yourself.

Is this because rapier uses "spread style" (a name that always causes me to snicker) and maybe ss doesn't because it uses imperil so bleed damage hardly matters on player monsters? Or maybe ss doesn't vital strike? I've been coasting the rest of this isekai season and no-imperil rapier seems very knuckle-dragging to me, so I'm wondering how one could be more of a cave man than this.

Why was that?

Greed. The desire to keep three+ monsters awake and fully bleeding to maximise damage output with the Shortsword is...unwise in The Tower. Rapier forces me to "play it safe". There are some screenshots of my clears in the Isekai Chat channel of the (un)official HentaiVerse Discord server if you are interested in checking the numbers. (Nightbringer there.)

Is this because rapier uses "spread style" (a name that always causes me to snicker) and maybe ss doesn't because it uses imperil so bleed damage hardly matters on player monsters? Or maybe ss doesn't vital strike? I've been coasting the rest of this isekai season and no-imperil rapier seems very knuckle-dragging to me, so I'm wondering how one could be more of a cave man than this.

I do not really care about times in the non-schoolgirl arenas; I did feel the need to apply at least a stack of Penetrated Armour before using Vital Strike on a schoolgirl while wielding the Rapier, whereas using the Shortsword exerts slightly less strain on my two functioning brain cells. Imperil -> Schoolgirl stunned -> Vital Strike -> Bleed takes care of the rest or it outright dies. (When I see it written down like this...it does not really appear to be that much more straightforward now, does it. But I swear that it "is", to me, more simple than having to watch for Rapier stacks and "stuff..." when "playing"! Feelings and such...) Bleed, as you have mentioned, does not really matter that much in The Arena (regarding player monsters), but, Shortsword simply has higher raw damage, Strength, and Dexterity values; a likely secondary cause for the following.

Then there are the numbers. My Rapier runs, Post Game Content and A dance with Dragons, were approximately a minute slower. 19~ minutes and 15~ minutes respectively using the Shortsword setup. That is it. Perhaps I am merely unaccustomed to the "different" play-style. Also, No-imperil Rapier non-schoolgirl arenas felt...sluggish. As in mind numbingly listless. Obviously, the actual difference in clear times of those was negligible as well.

TL;DR: Player penchant. Shortsword is marginally faster and I find it preferable in The Arena. : ). Substantially more stressful in The Tower. Not worth it there past a certain point.

P.S.: Never underestimate humanity's ability to "Cave" even further beyond!

just realize that Random Encounter have cap at 24 battle. Is there any reason why it has limit ? why not cap at 47 or 48 ?

just realize that Random Encounter have cap at 24 battle. Is there any reason why it has limit ? why not cap at 47 or 48 ?

Are we talking about 24 max battles per day? If so, that cap came from a 30-minute timer between encounters.
As for why the timer is set for 30 minutes.... no idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

just realize that Random Encounter have cap at 24 battle. Is there any reason why it has limit ? why not cap at 47 or 48 ?

It used to be that Random Encounters could be triggered once an hour. When it was changed to once every 30 minutes in 0.78, the 24 REs per day limit was added. I don't remember there being an explanation, but I assumed that it was to keep the maximum number of REs in a day similar to what it was.

Are we talking about 24 max battles per day? If so, that cap came from a 30-minute timer between encounters.
As for why the timer is set for 30 minutes.... no idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean in 1 day it possible to do 47 battle. This make me curious

It used to be that Random Encounters could be triggered once an hour. When it was changed to once every 30 minutes in 0.78, the 24 REs per day limit was added. I don't remember there being an explanation, but I assumed that it was to keep the maximum number of REs in a day similar to what it was.

I look at 0.78 release and got clue my answer. There is post from Tenboro in another thread. It say that because of some recent and persistent large-scale abuse, a number of changes has been made to the Dawn Event and Random Encounters to make them less exploitable as far as automated credit farming goes.

thanks for the clue (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)