[X] My Assistant

I just got two mini-bosses in my hourly battle. On Hell. That was a long fight. I don't think I've ever had that before. Does anyone know if it's more likely to happen at higher levels, or if it's due to the difficulty setting?

You mean targets like Blue Hedgehog and Zombie Cow??


Or do you actually mean Legendaries like Bunneh and Dalek??

If you mean the former, it's quite common; as a matter of fact if you do the higher level Arenas relative to your Level, you're going to get 2 minibosses in the later rounds of a given Arena as a matter of course.

(And if you mean the latter, IIRC I have heard Grandmasters speak of more than one Boss/Legendary popping up in one battle although at 1-in-500 chance each it's supposed to be an extremely rare occurrence.)

Are the more valuable Infusions/Scrolls worth keeping to sell in the trade channel, or should I just sell them at the Bazaar? I've got an Infusion of Darkness and Infusion of Gaia, which sell for far more than the usual elemental infusions, as well as a Scroll of the Avatar and Scroll of the Gods. What should I do with them?

You mean targets like Blue Hedgehog and Zombie Cow??
Or do you actually mean Legendaries like Bunneh and Dalek??

If you mean the former, it's quite common; as a matter of fact if you do the higher level Arenas relative to your Level, you're going to get 2 minibosses in the later rounds of a given Arena as a matter of course.

(And if you mean the latter, IIRC I have heard Grandmasters speak of more than one Boss/Legendary popping up in one battle although at 1-in-500 chance each it's supposed to be an extremely rare occurrence.)

I mean none of those things. Hourly random encounter, up pop a Mind Raper, a Canuck and some normal guy (Peacock, I think). I was just wondering if this will happen more often as my level increases, or if it's because I turned the difficulty up, or if it's just some super-rare fluke of Randy's Number Generator.

I mean none of those things. Hourly random encounter, up pop a Mind Raper, a Canuck and some normal guy (Peacock, I think). I was just wondering if this will happen more often as my level increases, or if it's because I turned the difficulty up, or if it's just some super-rare fluke of Randy's Number Generator.

I think difficulty setting is what affects it the most.

Are the more valuable Infusions/Scrolls worth keeping to sell in the trade channel, or should I just sell them at the Bazaar? I've got an Infusion of Darkness and Infusion of Gaia, which sell for far more than the usual elemental infusions, as well as a Scroll of the Avatar and Scroll of the Gods. What should I do with them?

Well, the combo scrolls are useful for fighting in the Endgame+ arenas. Ward/Shield scrolls can be handy if you need to stack your shields for that extra layer of defense (an extra 25% reduction on top of the absorb? Yes, please). Infusions of Divinity/Darkness/Gaia, you might want to hang on to for the tough bosses since you might need to bolster your defense or increase your attack effectiveness. That's not to say that if you've got more than you'd ever use that you can't sell some off.

I think difficulty setting is what affects it the most.

I normally do my hourlies on Nightmare, occasionally Hell if I'm not gonna jump into battle right afterwards, and I very rarely see Minibosses. They do pop up from time to time, but its nothing to be worried about.

How do you set the difficulty specifically for Hourlies? Every time I've tried, it just shunts me directly into battle when I try to go to Character->Settings.

On a similar note, how are hourly monsters' power levels determined? From my experience, they're quite a bit stronger than equal-difficulty-level Grindfest mobs.

And speaking of difficulty levels: is there any significant advantage to running the easy arenas on higher difficulty? I figure that you'd probably get slightly more EXP, but are the arena prizes better? Since I use arenas to skill up my profs by blowing all my MP at the end, it'd make sense to run them on Normal if the Hard+ rewards aren't significantly better.

This post has been edited by coredumperror: Nov 13 2009, 03:29

How do you set the difficulty specifically for Hourlies? Every time I've tried, it just shunts me directly into battle when I try to go to Character->Settings.

You can't. Difficulty is global. I usually just leave it at Nightmare and only change it whenever I do something else and then change it back. Although sometimes I do forget to change it back up from Normal or Cake sometimes.

On a similar note, how are hourly monsters' power levels determined? From my experience, they're quite a bit stronger than equal-difficulty-level Grindfest mobs.

Grindfest mobs, at least until round 50, are weaker than ordinary mobs. In general, though, they're more or less the same. Its just that after about 20 rounds, you're usually fighting at least 6, so the difficulty seems higher even if they aren't hitting for that much damage.

And speaking of difficulty levels: is there any significant advantage to running the easy arenas on higher difficulty? I figure that you'd probably get slightly more EXP, but are the arena prizes better? Since I use arenas to skill up my profs by blowing all my MP at the end, it'd make sense to run them on Normal if the Hard+ rewards aren't significantly better.

I do it mostly for the experience bonus. I can still clear them fairly consistently and I usually still have plenty of MP leftover to spam a few spells. The rewards are supposed to be better as the difficulty increases, but it really isn't that much better.

I do hourlies on battletoads, and I'd say I don't see minibosses very often and if I do its usually not a big deal.

I have my settings page bookmarked so before I go to the site when I think its about time for an hourly battle I'll change the settings.

Do infusions still give rating boosts, or do they only change your attacks to the element of the infusion? The new descriptions would seem to indicate they no longer give rating boosts (not that they were actually working back when they said 50% boost,) but I thought I would go ahead and ask in case someone knows for sure. *coughtenborocough*

When, if ever, does the "absorb" Spell

A]] Become a good "investement" to cast it -that is, when if ever do you get back more MP from the absorbed Magic Attack than you put into the casting;

B]] Is it or is it not supposed to work the first time, and everytime a Spell hits you??

C]] If 'Absorb" isn't supposed to activate flawlessly the first time a Spell hits (the wording of the Spell seems to guarantee that it works that way), is there any way for me to improve my 'chances' of it working by increasing Supportive Proficiency.......or is the timing and activation of Absorb a wild card that I can't change or make better??

When, if ever, does the "absorb" Spell

A]] Become a good "investement" to cast it -that is, when if ever do you get back more MP from the absorbed Magic Attack than you put into the casting;

B]] Is it or is it not supposed to work the first time, and everytime a Spell hits you??

C]] If 'Absorb" isn't supposed to activate flawlessly the first time a Spell hits (the wording of the Spell seems to guarantee that it works that way), is there any way for me to improve my 'chances' of it working by increasing Supportive Proficiency.......or is the timing and activation of Absorb a wild card that I can't change or make better??

A) As far as I know, you'll never be able to get back more MP than what it cost to cast. That's how its designed. The average MP drained will be the median of the range/

B/C) I think it only works about 75% of the time. There are times when it'll trigger on the first spell that hits you, other times it won't. IIRC, proficiency only increases your trigger chance closer to the limit, which Tenboro probably mentioned in patch notes that I can't remember. Absorb isn't supposed to be like Silence; its not supposed to work every time.

Do infusions still give rating boosts, or do they only change your attacks to the element of the infusion? The new descriptions would seem to indicate they no longer give rating boosts (not that they were actually working back when they said 50% boost,) but I thought I would go ahead and ask in case someone knows for sure. *coughtenborocough*

This is what the most recent change said, didn't say anything about not having the elemental bonus, not sure why it would have been removed since that would make it useless to casters.

Infusion Changes
- Infusions have undergone the following changes:
-- Infusion of Darkness and Divinity now also last 25 turns.
-- Infusion of Gaia has been changed to use its own buff that gives +25% to all ratings for 50 turns. This stacks with the other infusions.
-- Running an infusion will now also change all your melee attacks to use the corresponding element for the duration of the buff. Gaia will change your attacks to Soul damage.
-- If you run more than one infusion, the most recently used one will decide the element of your attack.

Used an infusion of darkness, still says it increases rating just not how much... might only be 25% like gaia

Infused Darkness
You are cloaked in the power of darkness. Your dark rating is increased, and all melee attacks do dark damage.

When, if ever, does the "absorb" Spell

A]] Become a good "investement" to cast it -that is, when if ever do you get back more MP from the absorbed Magic Attack than you put into the casting;

B]] Is it or is it not supposed to work the first time, and everytime a Spell hits you??

C]] If 'Absorb" isn't supposed to activate flawlessly the first time a Spell hits (the wording of the Spell seems to guarantee that it works that way), is there any way for me to improve my 'chances' of it working by increasing Supportive Proficiency.......or is the timing and activation of Absorb a wild card that I can't change or make better??

This pretty much answers all those: from 3.0 notes

- Absorb has been modified in the following way:
-- On a successful trigger, the absorbed MP is now random between 5% and 10% of your current base max MP.
-- It will now absorb more MP the more points you put in it. The bonus returned MP is 12.5% per additional point. (So with 5 points you'd absorb between 7.5% and 15%).
-- The chance of triggering Absorb on taking an enemy spell now also depends on the number of points, starting at 15% for 1 point and increasing to 75% for 5 points. (used to be a flat 50%)
-- The scroll version of Absorb will trigger 100% of the time and gives a 50% bonus to absorbed MP.

I personally occasionally get 2-5 more mana then the casting cost of absorb, but that's gonna vary depending on your int/wis. And casting absorb is always better then taking a crit toddleguro to the face.

This post has been edited by uth: Nov 15 2009, 08:05

A) As far as I know, you'll never be able to get back more MP than what it cost to cast. That's how its designed. The average MP drained will be the median of the range/

B/C) I think it only works about 75% of the time. There are times when it'll trigger on the first spell that hits you, other times it won't. IIRC, proficiency only increases your trigger chance closer to the limit, which Tenboro probably mentioned in patch notes that I can't remember. Absorb isn't supposed to be like Silence; its not supposed to work every time.

So just how useful is "Absorb" in the real world, anyway??

I have it, and it doesn't seem to be of much real help at first glance despite its long-lasting effects (I have all 5 Ability Points put into it).

Its because you havent reached the higher arenas yet. I dont use absorb either until dreamfall and above and even then i probably only use it in the last 5-8 rounds. The proc chance is acceptable but i do wish that tenb would increase the regained mana a bit.

This post has been edited by Eutopia: Nov 15 2009, 15:16

I usually only cast Absorb when a Mind Raper pops up and I know I can't kill it before it gets enough mana to shoot a spell off, or I'm fighting multiple magic-casting minibosses.

As for how well it actually works....its burned me as many times as its saved me. There are times when it works as intended, totally sapping a spell that would have hurt like a bitch. Other times, it doesn't proc. There are also those times when two of the little bastards cast back to back and I absorb the shit spell and get owned by the one that hurts. But I'd still rather have it than not.

When, if ever, does the "absorb" Spell

A]] Become a good "investement" to cast it -that is, when if ever do you get back more MP from the absorbed Magic Attack than you put into the casting;

B]] Is it or is it not supposed to work the first time, and everytime a Spell hits you??

C]] If 'Absorb" isn't supposed to activate flawlessly the first time a Spell hits (the wording of the Spell seems to guarantee that it works that way), is there any way for me to improve my 'chances' of it working by increasing Supportive Proficiency.......or is the timing and activation of Absorb a wild card that I can't change or make better??

I acquired Absorb today, and of course I was eager to try it out. At first it seemed to be triggering all the time, but that turned out to be just beginner's luck. It costs me 27 points to cast, and occasionally returns 28 or 29, though usually less. So I looked it up:

- Absorb has been modified in the following way:
-- On a successful trigger, the absorbed MP is now random between 5% and 10% of your current base max MP.
-- It will now absorb more MP the more points you put in it. The bonus returned MP is 12.5% per additional point. (So with 5 points you'd absorb between 7.5% and 15%).
-- The chance of triggering Absorb on taking an enemy spell now also depends on the number of points, starting at 15% for 1 point and increasing to 75% for 5 points. (used to be a flat 50%)

The spell cost is (presumably) based only on your level, but the MP returned depends also on your INT and WIS. So if those are high enough you can sometimes get back a bit more than it costs to cast it. If they were stupidly high at the expense of all your other stats I dare say you might make an average MP profit... if you ignore all the Cures and Shields you'd have to cast to make up for having no defence against physical attacks, of course.

107 4 The effect Penetrated Armor on Cockatrice has expired.
107 3 You parry the attack from Cockatrice.
107 2 You gain 0.03 points of shield proficiency.
107 1 You hit Cockatrice for 180 piercing damage.
106 2 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
106 1 You hit Cockatrice for 236 piercing damage.
105 3 The effect Overwhelming Strikes has expired.
105 2 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
105 1 You hit Cockatrice for 237 piercing damage.
104 2 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
104 1 You hit Cockatrice for 276 piercing damage.
103 3 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
103 2 Cockatrice gains the effect Penetrated Armor.
103 1 You hit Cockatrice for 300 piercing damage.
102 4 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
102 3 Cockatrice gains the effect Penetrated Armor.
102 2 You gain the effect Overwhelming Strikes.
102 1 You crit Cockatrice for 222 piercing damage.
101 3 You block the attack from Cockatrice.
101 2 You block the attack from Cockatrice.

122 5 The effect Penetrated Armor on Cockatrice has expired.
122 4 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
122 3 You gain 0.01 points of shield proficiency.
122 2 Cockatrice misses the attack against you.
122 1 You hit Cockatrice for 268 piercing damage.
121 2 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
121 1 You hit Cockatrice for 188 piercing damage.
120 2 Cockatrice hits you for 1 piercing damage.
120 1 You hit Cockatrice for 211 piercing damage.
119 3 Cockatrice hits you for 0 piercing damage.
119 2 Cockatrice gains the effect Penetrated Armor.
119 1 You hit Cockatrice for 160 piercing damage.
118 2 You block the attack from Cockatrice.
118 1 You hit Cockatrice for 121 piercing damage.
117 2 You block the attack from Cockatrice.
117 1 You hit Cockatrice for 168 piercing damage.

Why did my Shield proficiency go up so many turns after I actually blocked? I've seen this happen several times, though I've also seen my prof go up right when I block, too. Maybe there's a bug with the shield prof code?

On a completely different note: does putting more points into deprecating spells reduce their mana costs? The tooltip doesn't say so, but something Tenb said about a bug he recently fixed makes me think that it does.

This post has been edited by coredumperror: Nov 16 2009, 03:37

don't think you need to actually block to gain shield prof...just need a shield on

Why did my Shield proficiency go up so many turns after I actually blocked? I've seen this happen several times, though I've also seen my prof go up right when I block, too. Maybe there's a bug with the shield prof code?

On a completely different note: does putting more points into deprecating spells reduce their mana costs? The tooltip doesn't say so, but something Tenb said about a bug he recently fixed makes me think that it does.

You have no control over when stuff like shield and armor gains proficiency. Shield especially rises slowly, and I hate it. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) As uth said, the only thing you can do is wear the stuff and keep your fingers crossed. It'll rise eventually. Also, Montages can help with that, to a point.

The only stuff that gains prof immediately after use is magic, from what I've seen.

I don't think deprecating spell costs can be reduced, but having more points in them (the few I have, anyway) should increase how many turns they last, and their overall effectiveness. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

This post has been edited by dap00: Nov 16 2009, 04:44

For the purposes of spamming them to level up your profs as efficiently as possible, what are the cheapest spells (in terms of MP/cast) in each magic category?