[X] My Assistant

As barrier and shield rating goes up the relative effectiveness of the true damage from bleed goes up. Going back to the strategy I used to take out the IPU seems like it might work out, dual wielding a very high bleed weapon with an offhand rapier with the best parry you can find. At 200+ proficiency this axe would hit for over 1000 true damage per tick of bleed. That's pretty solid. If you use holy spells and poison whenever the offhand PA triggers it should give a pretty steady damage output, so you would just need enough dark mitigation and mana to keep up with the incoming damage. Supporting the dark mit with good parry and evade should help.

I'm happy ta lend out the axe to anyone that doesn't have something comparable to give FSM another go.

Is there something else I should be using against it? What items work best? I think I even used Bubble Gum but that didn't do shit.

Nope, FSM is just a harder version of IPU. Just bring a full load of Mana Elixirs, and power through it.

The deprecating and supportive magic you're using makes a big difference. I found that putting Haste on Autocast and strategically using Slow instead of Cure to work well against IPU, so it'll probably be decent against FSM too. If I wait to take him take him on until after getting IA 4 (which is likely going to be a while after I hit 150, since my Adopt-A-Servers are going to expire soon), I'll probably throw in Shadow Veil on auto-cast as well.

To get the best use out of a Bubble-Gum on FSM, pop an Infusion of Divinity first. Since he's weak to Holy damage, that will double your melee damage output for 25 turns (even if you're using an eth weapon). Then, using a Bubble-Gum will make a significant difference, especially if you also have PA up. You might want to use your spirit attack while that Bubble-Gum + PA is up, too.

Or you can try to use the effects of both a Flower Vase and a Bubble-Gum. That could help.

This post has been edited by EvolutionKing: Jan 24 2010, 20:35

I tried the FSM again last night and this time it killed me a whole lot sooner. As soon as my Silence expired, it was all over in an instant. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

This one is really hard. It shows no mercy.

Who's beaten this?

uth has at least once, and if you like to count cheaters, so has gillian.

uth has at least once, and if you like to count cheaters, so has gillian.

Who is gillian, and how could he cheat? He created some king of ultimate weapon/shield making him invincible?

gil used scripts to bot the hv and farmed ungoldy amounts of credit and equipment, back when certain pieces of equip could be truly epic.

Tens what strategy are you using currently for FSM?

Currently, I'm using some dark resist (of the Spirit-Ward) equipment on my hands, legs and feet and my usual bleed axe and rapier, which are good. But I don't know what mix of items to bring. The first time I tried it, I got halfway through and this time I was cut down almost immediately.

And Gillian doesn't count in anything concerning HV. Fucking cheater.

Item wise Mana/Last elixirs are the most efficient I would say. As long as you keep silence up there's no need for spark. I'd put mana regenerating elixirs in all available item slots, maybe a bubblegum or two if you feel like it. I'd advise against flower vases. For infusions, gaia for the mitigation boost, or if you use bubblegum a holy infusion for burst damage. For scrolls, scroll of the gods for shadow veil and a free absorb for emergencies when you can proc silence or just for a bit of breathing room and a small amount of mana.

Have you tried using mini-spirit attacks? How high is the bleed on your axe? What is your evade and parry?

Unfortunately, my spirit attacks do very little with these types of monsters. Why, I don't know. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

If I had a full set of dark resist gear I could probably beat it. The Infusions of Divinity and Gaia and Bubble Gum helped the first time I tried it, but they take up item slots and that leaves less room for Mana Elixirs.

I'm not hurting for credits or anything so I'm in no hurry to defeat it. Has Hito ever beaten it? He didn't say if he did or not. I'd be surprised if he didn't.

Has Hito ever beaten it? He didn't say if he did or not. I'd be surprised if he didn't.

If I recall correctly, Hito has said he can beat it using something like average mana draughts.

This post has been edited by Boggyb: Jan 25 2010, 01:38

He did.

Yes your full spirit attack does garbage damage for the cost,, I'm talking about using your spirit attack early and then using natural regen to use a spirit attack any time you proc PA with 2+ points of spirit. For a tiny fraction of your spirit pool you do a relatively large fraction of your max spirit damage. I easily got 25+ mini spirit attacks against the IPU, and I doubt my regen is anywhere near yours.

Use all your standard item slots on Mana/Last elixirs and a gum or two, but remember the designated extra infusion and scroll slots you get.

Are you finding you run out of mana because you are forced to cast cure, or are you just not doing enough damage to take it down before silence and regen eats through your mana pool? What arcana are you using?

If I recall correctly, Hito has said he can beat it using something like average mana draughts.

Wait, why does Hito have all these special abilities to take down these things so easily but I can't?

I always thought it was the cookie.

Wait, why does Hito have all these special abilities to take down these things so easily but I can't?

Possible reasons:
He has an eth weapon
He has a lot of absurdly good pre-nerfed equipment.

Possible reasons:
He has an eth weapon
He has a lot of absurdly good pre-nerfed equipment.

Honestly, the only ethereal weapon that would be any good is a high-bleed eth axe. When I was fighting FSM on a test run, the eth weapon I was borrowing from marcho hit for ~35-40 without PA, but only ~45-50 with PA. FSM probably has a Shield rating that's so much higher than PA's -500 debuff that it doesn't make nearly as much of a difference it does on everything else. Therefore, bleed is far better than soul damage because it completely ignores FSM's super-high shield rating, and it rises quickly with increased weapon prof. I think I remember Hito mentioning that the has a high-bleed ethereal axe, so that'd be one reason he has such an easy time with FSM.

I'd guess that the main reason the gods are so easy for him, though, is that his equipment is insane. He got it back when gear had the potential for truly ridiculous stats. For instance, earlier in this thread marcho quoted a PM he got from gillian in which he talked about having multiple pieces of phase with 15+ evade. And then there's Hito's 98% holy resistance set. Stuff like that used to drop, but Tenboro got rid of it when he cut Exquisite and Magnificent from the drop tables, and re-balanced gear stats so they didn't swing so wildly from one extreme to another.

If I recall correctly, Hito has said he can beat it using something like average mana draughts.

4 average mana draughts more specifically. I've beaten it about 15 times on normal.

I'd guess that the main reason the gods are so easy for him, though, is that his equipment is insane. He got it back when gear had the potential for truly ridiculous stats. For instance, earlier in this thread marcho quoted a PM he got from gillian in which he talked about having multiple pieces of phase with 15+ evade. And then there's Hito's 98% holy resistance set. Stuff like that used to drop, but Tenboro got rid of it when he cut Exquisite and Magnificent from the drop tables, and re-balanced gear stats so they didn't swing so wildly from one extreme to another.

Not really. Both of my DW weapons were acquired after the nerfing and my FSM gear is just the standard 15-25% spirit-ward type. Nothing special. The eth axe even only has 1 turn for bleed. The reason I'm so successful is because of 200+ proficiency on all magic, maxed heavy and DW, ideal strategy for conserving MP, and an optimized attribute/AP/aura balance. Part of the reason it's easy for me now is because I did all of this gearing up to beat the original FSM. The current version of FSM has about 1/3 as much HP and 1/2 as much attack and defense as the original.

There's anyone who beat or try to beat these gods as a mage?
I mean I noticed that everybody are using +- the same strategic: bleed and PA+poison.
I known that probably they have very high magic mitigation, even against it's weakness, and a mage is very vulnerable since don't have no block, and parry,
but using a staff "of the Priestess", raising curative/supportive proficiency shouldn't resolve the problem?
MP shouldn't be a trouble either, because of ether thief and coalesced mana?
(Well I'm asking that, because I've never was a mage)

This post has been edited by cmdct: Jan 25 2010, 21:09

There's anyone who beat or try to beat these gods as a mage?
I mean I noticed that everybody are using +- the same strategic: bleed and PA+poison.
I known that probably they have very high magic mitigation, even against it's weakness, and a mage is very vulnerable since don't have no block, and parry,
but using a staff "of the Priestess", raising curative/supportive proficiency shouldn't resolve the problem?
MP shouldn't be a trouble either, because of ether thief and coalesced mana?
(Well I'm asking that, because I've never was a mage)

Boggy's going to be attempting IPU as a battle-mage (PA+Dark spells), which I think has a decent chance of working, but I really doubt that a staff-wielding mage would have any chance. Without PA, even dark spells (his weakness) will hit IPU for so little as to not be worth their mana cost.

Before the change to Ether theft, it might have been possible to kill him without PA or bleed (it would have taken forever, though). Now that it requires Coalesced Mana to be on the target for ET to proc, it's nearly impossible to gain net mana from ET when fighting a single monster.

Boggy's going to be attempting IPU as a battle-mage (PA+Dark spells), which I think has a decent chance of working, but I really doubt that a staff-wielding mage would have any chance.

Going to? I already did and it worked. I was hoping to use the same strategy on the FSM, but if he has 50-60% more HP than the IPU was tough as it was, I'm going to need to refine that strategy a little (ok, a lot).

Before the change to Ether theft, it might have been possible to kill him without PA or bleed (it would have taken forever, though). Now that it requires Coalesced Mana to be on the target for ET to proc, it's nearly impossible to gain net mana from ET when fighting a single monster.

ok, I understand now, thanks (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Going to? I already did and it worked. I was hoping to use the same strategy on the FSM, but if he has 50-60% more HP than the IPU was tough as it was, I'm going to need to refine that strategy a little (ok, a lot).

Congrats on beating IPU (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Now, it's only a matter of time to beat FSM, good luck!