[X] My Assistant

I play nintendo to IWBTH depending on expected round count. While I am not at 200+ where spirit shield comes into play, I am aware of the tremendous costs of each combat round (buffs, healing, etc). And grasp the theoretical costs of spirit shield (I read all about it)

The first problem with your assertion is that you are looking only at the mana reduction and ignoring the to hit.
Destruction adds very little actual damage compared to the damage bonus of other staves, definitely not enough to HALF the rounds needed to kill enemies.

Monsters surviving and longer combat is most often not due to dealing 5% too little damage... but due to missing them with the AoEs. A focus staff gives both a reduction in mana consumption (on every spell, including healing, buffs and debuffs) AND simultaneously gives better to hit which is also an effective way of reducing monster survival and shortening combat.

As I've said, maging is all about choosing the correct difficulty. Wrong difficulty and you may as well choose to be a melee.

The hit chance is ignorable with arcane focus. If you can call 200 damage at lv. 300 as small difference, I may as well call the difference between 98% and 99% small difference. And you know, you should also include the round count you cast curative/supportive spells.

How can you justify '1 more hit per 100 hits' as effective against miss? Not to mention you're going to miss anyway because of the high PL monsters, thus clearly other mobs ASAP is important.

The only thing that matters is the conservation bonus.

But then I'm not here to CONVINCE you. If you don't think so, so be it.

This post has been edited by varst: Jul 8 2012, 21:49

The hit chance is ignorable with arcane focus.

Not really, arcane focus is nice but it doesn't nullify other bonuses and I still miss with it. (#1 cause of battles taking longer)

If you can call 200 damage at lv. 300 as small difference, I may as well call the difference between 98% and 99% small difference. And you know, you should also include the round count you cast curative/supportive spells.

1. of Destruction does not add 200 MBD compared to other staves at level 300.
2. MBD scales poorly with level. I am currently using a level 286 staff I bought, MBD scales down to my level linearly (I get 63.1% of staffs value), mana reduction does not scale down at all (I get 100% of staffs value), accuracy and critical chance scale down very little (I get 95.0% and 95.2% respectively).
3. At level 300 (the point at which you are actually getting this full amount) +200 MBD should be about a 10% bonus to damage. Which is simply not enough to cut down rounds from 6 to 3.

How can you justify '1 more hit per 100 hits' as effective against miss?

No clue what that is saying.

Not to mention you're going to miss anyway because of the high PL monsters, thus clearly other mobs ASAP is important.

Yes you are going to miss anyways some attacks... But that is no reason to not improve your to hit chance.
You are also going to do damage anyways, so why bother damaging more? because its MORE and more is better.

And you clear mobs ASAP by actually hitting them. Can't deal damage to what you can't hit.

But then I'm not here to CONVINCE you. If you don't think so, so be it.

Now I am insulted. 2 posts with actual reasoning why I disagree with you is enough to convince you I am sticking to it with religious fervor and will never listen to logic?

I am actually very open to persuasion.

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:11

Focus will save you mana but more mobs will survive and rape your Spirit bar. Just saying.
mrttao has not even reached Level 200 and does not know Terror yet.

This post has been edited by Ichy: Jul 8 2012, 22:12

Focus will save you mana but more mobs will survive and rape your Spirit bar. Just saying.

Did you read any of my arguments?

First of all, what you said is flat out wrong. Focus saves you mana and ALSO increases your to hit and to crit[i][u]

Second of all, destruction adds very little bonus damage while focus adds a lot of bonus accuracy and crit chance and a ton of mana saving. The the sheer magnitude of those bonuses makes them better.

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:15

Nope, wrong.
because[i][b] focus also increases your TO HIT and TO CRIT which increases your kill ratio. and because destruction adds VERY LITTLE damage (not enough to compensate for lack of to hit).

Come back after you actually faced E1la, Beth and Pals (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Nope, wrong.
because[i][b] focus also increases your TO HIT and TO CRIT which increases your kill ratio. and because destruction adds VERY LITTLE damage (not enough to compensate for lack of to hit).

You don't get it do you? A focus staff will increase you hit chance by like 1% in total and your crit chance by a few more percent, but a destruction staff will increase your MDB by 10% ALL THE TIME. Much more reliable.

Come back after you actually faced E1la, Beth and Pals (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Irrelevant, you made an outright false statement and I called you on it.

If you wanted to make an actual legitimate argument you should have said that you believe the to hit and to crit chance bonuses are insignificant for reasons A, B C.

Instead you made the false statement that focus only saves mana. This is patently false, it also boosts to hit and to crit.

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:17

I have the Absorb skill maxed out. Supposedly it should trigger 75% of the time against non-critical magic attacks, but it hardly ever seems to go off. Shouldn't any enemy attack which consumes MP or SP be considered a magic attack?

I have the Absorb skill maxed out. Supposedly it should trigger 75% of the time against non-critical magic attacks, but it hardly ever seems to go off. Shouldn't any enemy attack which consumes MP or SP be considered a magic attack?

Nope, only attacks where it says "X casts Y" and "Y hits you for Z damage" will trigger absorb. All other attacks are basically skills instead of magic.

The casts is the important part.

This post has been edited by Kaosumx: Jul 8 2012, 22:20

I have the Absorb skill maxed out. Supposedly it should trigger 75% of the time against non-critical magic attacks, but it hardly ever seems to go off. Shouldn't any enemy attack which consumes MP or SP be considered a magic attack?

The only custom monster the can trigger absorb before level 200 is an elemental's mana consuming attack. Every other custom monster's mana consuming attack will be a physical one before level 200. After level 200

Regular monsters (half of them) and bosses can trigger it though, but you are not going to encounter any regular monsters past level 100 (well, like 1 regular monster per 10 combat rounds)

Nope, only attacks where it says "X casts Y" and "Y hits you for Z damage" will trigger absorb. All other attacks are basically skills instead of magic.

Actually the vast majority of X casts Y attacks are physical and cannot trigger it.

Every monster has a base attack. Regular monsters have 1 special attack (about 7 of 12 are magical)
http://ehwiki.org/wiki/monsters
Bosses and above also have a spirit attack.

http://ehwiki.org/wiki/Monster_Lab#Skill_Editor
Custom monsters on the other hand, they have a basic attack (always physical). Then they also have 3 "X casts Y" attacks they can use.
At PL0 they get their first one which consumes 50% of their mana
At PL200 they get their second one which consumes 50% of their mana
At PL400 they get their third one which consumes 100% of spirit.

The only PL0 custom attack that is magical is an elementals.
The only PL200 custom attacks that are magical is elemetnal, sprite, celestial.
The only PL400 custom attacks that are magical are elemental, sprite, celestial, and dragon.

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:25

Irrelevant, you made an outright false statement and I called you on it.

If you wanted to make an actual legitimate argument you should have said that you believe the to hit and to crit chance bonuses are insignificant for reasons A, B C.

Instead you made the false statement that focus only saves mana. This is patently false, it also boosts to hit and to crit.

You are full of shit. just saying.

Actually the vast majority of X casts Y attacks are physical and cannot trigger it.

You sure think you know it all don't you? casts means its magic. The stuff that doesn't trigger absorb will say uses

Actually the vast majority of X casts Y attacks are physical and cannot trigger it.

No. ALL attacks that read as "X casts Y" in the log are magical in nature, regardless of the actual damage type they deal.

Come back after you actually faced E1la, Beth and Pals (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

You know, Sakurai Kei is actually the most annoying one just because I'm a dark mage (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)
Elia may be dangerous, but she's dangerous to every style anyway. Kei is just pure annoying because of her HP (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I have the Absorb skill maxed out. Supposedly it should trigger 75% of the time against non-critical magic attacks, but it hardly ever seems to go off. Shouldn't any enemy attack which consumes MP or SP be considered a magic attack?

http://ehwiki.org/wiki/Monster_Lab#Skill_Editor
http://ehwiki.org/wiki/HentaiVerse_Bestiary

Only a few monsters actually has magical attacks. Absorb's more effective in EOD in my opinion.

(Well, you can't predict which monster will 'cast' something, but at least you can scan that/refer to the monster table if you're high level enough (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif))

This post has been edited by varst: Jul 8 2012, 22:24

You know, Sakurai Kei is actually the most annoying one just because I'm a dark mage (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

You should try a Focus staff and test how long it takes to kill that fucker (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

No. ALL attacks that read as "X casts Y" in the log are magical in nature, regardless of the actual damage type they deal.

Wanna bet?
Arthropod, Avion, Beast, Daimon, Giant, Humanoid, Mechanoid, Reptilian, or Undead simply do not have magical attacks, period. All their X casts Y attacks are physical and cannot trigger.

See http://ehwiki.org/wiki/Monster_Lab#Skill_Editor

You are full of shit. just saying.

You sure proved me wrong there.

You should try a Focus staff and test how long it takes to kill that fucker (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[en.wikipedia.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_ridicule

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:31

Then they also have 3 "X casts Y" attacks they can use.
At PL0 they get their first one which consumes 50% of their mana
At PL200 they get their second one which consumes 50% of their mana
At PL400 they get their third one which consumes 100% of spirit.

The only PL0 custom attack that is magical is an elementals.
The only PL200 custom attacks that are magical is elemetnal, sprite, celestial.
The only PL400 custom attacks that are magical are elemental, sprite, celestial, and dragon.

PLEASE, read those battle logs carefully! :facepalm:

You should try a Focus staff and test how long it takes to kill that fucker (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Why should I do this mother fucking thing when I can simply blow everything up on IWBTH with estoc?

Mage is all about speed. Why should I be a mage if it can't save my time?

As a newbie, more or less, it appears to me that the "Focus" staff is the conservative and the "Destruction"
staff is the power house of the staves

Neither is relevant when your Spark of Life fails and the monster is in sniper mode, "One Shot, One Kill"

At least at my current level, but I'm working on that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

PLEASE, read those battle logs carefully! :facepalm:

Hardly a facepalm moment.
But yea ok...
X uses Y = physical
X cast Y = magical

An important distinction. He should have actually pointed out that distinction.

As a newbie, more or less, it appears to me that the "Focus" staff is the conservative and the "Destruction"
staff is the power house of the staves

The issue with that is:
1. Bonus from focus are HUGE, bonus from destruction are small.
2. Bonus from focus scale excellently to lower levels allowing you to purchase a staff higher level then you for great success.
3. Focus increases to hit and to crit which increases the average damage you deal to monsters even though they don't increase the base damage you deal.

This post has been edited by mrttao: Jul 8 2012, 22:39

Hardly a facepalm moment.

But yea ok...
X uses Y = physical
X cast Y = magical

An important distinction.

I love how you seem to parts of posts when its convenient for you (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Or my posts entirely since I already pointed the casts vs uses out.

An important distinction.
The issue with that is:
1. Bonus from focus are HUGE, bonus from destruction are small.
2. Bonus from focus scale excellently to lower levels allowing you to purchase a staff higher level then you for great success.
3. Focus increases to hit and to crit which increases the average damage you deal to monsters even though they don't increase the base damage you deal.

1. Only at lower levels. By the time you get arcane focus, the bonus from focus staffs will only get you 1% more accuracy.
2. See #1
3. Lol, relying on the RNG? Especially when you'll hit 1% more often and crit 3% more often meaning you average damage doesn't even increased by more than 3% in total while a destruction staff increases your damage 10% ALL THE TIME.

This post has been edited by Kaosumx: Jul 8 2012, 22:41