[X] My Assistant

Should I soulfuse this?

I realize it is an easy yes/no question, but I'd like to hear the why too.

This post has been edited by Cryosite: Sep 24 2017, 20:34

Should I soulfuse this?

Well, it has Str Dex and End
It has BLK 51%
It is Protection and Mithril
- I would say more "yes" than "no", but wait for more answers here. If you have lots of soul fragments in pocket - go soulfuse it, otherwise...

If you are 1H/Heavy, then in long-term way you should look for FORCE, not KITE shield, but for your level I don't think it is that critical anyway. =)

This post has been edited by f4tal: Sep 24 2017, 20:43

Should I soulfuse this?

I realize it is an easy yes/no question, but I'd like to hear the why too.

i'd say no. you won't earn that much block, and you'll be wasting many fragments. at this point, better to keep it as tradeable and earning a bit of credits when time to sell it will come. maybe only 50k, but whatever.

Not sure if correct, since low level items can still be soul bound by high level players. A lot of the record breaking items have been dropped by randoms low levels. However, low level items tend to be more expensive due to limited supply. This of course does not compare compare to when the game was actually difficult. Exq was rare, Mag was very rare Leg were almost non-existent.

hmm yeah i wasn't thinking specifically enough and gave a bad example. i guess in the 100% adb case it would still attract the attention of high levels. or as some would call it "this qualifies as good enough for high lvl use as well!"

so it'd have to be something more like 85% adb.

mmm the times have changed. in the past the market was a supplier's market (when a legendary was truly a legendary and an OWL staff had more MDB than my top 3 staff). right now it's more of a buyer's market since supply is a joke.

when a legendary was truly a legendary and an OWL staff had more MDB than my top 3 staff

lol. you made me remember when i was farming dark prof to use for spirit theft with owl phases...

Should I soulfuse this?

I realize it is an easy yes/no question, but I'd like to hear the why too.

Others have suggested it's not good enough, and I'd tend to agree. Use it as is and then sell it later.
I soulfused a kite shield with 90%+ BLK and then later a force shield with 90%+ BLK. Salvaged the former
to build out the latter.

IMO, at your level, consider getting a really good Mag Rapier of Slaughter and then soulfuse that. I traded an
amnesia shard for the one I used for over 100 levels.

The reason: from the upper 200s to the mid 300s, the equipment you can theoretically use improves markedly and you're likely to be buying and replacing armor almost constantly. The shield, not as much, but 90%+ force shields are not all that common and you could be trading out shields until you get an "end game" or near "end game" shield. Ideally you soul fuse end game equipment.

I spoke earlier to ALL MIGHT about my equipment gathering strategy, which I learned from this thread, and watching my elders handle auctions on limited budgets.

Μμ (.) (.) y

Does anyone have any long-term data for average returns of mostly unupgraded monsters? ie. a year's worth of data on all the materials brought by 50 monsters with 90% of them under level 100 with maybe a few gift upgrades?

Others have suggested it's not good enough, and I'd tend to agree. Use it as is and then sell it later.
I soulfused a kite shield with 90%+ BLK and then later a force shield with 90%+ BLK. Salvaged the former
to build out the latter.

Now that my font engine is set up correctly, hvtoolbox is displaying percentiles in equipment links properly. So I see that my shield is indeed 51%, though I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what that means in practical terms. Looking a page back, I noticed some players in the mid to upper 400's sporting links to their gear in their profile, and found these two shields to compare mine against:

This one is 48%BLK, soulbound, and upgraded block to 18. The result is 50.36% block stat.

This one is BLK 97%, which would be "end game" by your reckoning. It's showing a 58.16% block chance stat. It is also upgraded block to level 46.

If I am understanding the mechanics involved correctly, My shield would hit slightly above 50.36% if I soulfused it and upgraded block chance to 18. Mine is currently upgraded to level 5, and I'm in the process of buying the mats needed to get it to 10.

So what kind of block chance would I wind up with at level 10 upgrade, no soulfuse? How much if soulfused? "Not a lot" is a pretty subjective assessment.

In the forge, it appears my shield can only upgrade to level 27. Can legendary force shields simply upgrade higher than legendary kite shields?

IMO, at your level, consider getting a really good Mag Rapier of Slaughter and then soulfuse that. I traded an
amnesia shard for the one I used for over 100 levels.

The reason: from the upper 200s to the mid 300s, the equipment you can theoretically use improves markedly and you're likely to be buying and replacing armor almost constantly. The shield, not as much, but 90%+ force shields are not all that common and you could be trading out shields until you get an "end game" or near "end game" shield. Ideally you soul fuse end game equipment.

Weapon is my next main priority. Getting block/parry high feels to me to be the real cornerstone of the 1h/heavy build. Being able to shrug off punishment lets you have more turns to beat stuff up, making raw DPS less important to the build than, for example, DW or Niten. More DPS helps, but DPS is expensive. It is the thing end-game players compete over.

I recently switched from this rapier I've had for awhile now to this axe that I luckily a avoided swift strikes potential while IW'ing. So far I've only gotten to do some basic testing with it in Random Encounter. I'll take it into End of Days and Eternal Darkness to try out against SGs after Dawn in a couple of hours.

I've had my base damage up as high as 3600 using different weapons and power armor. I've had it as low as 2800 using my rapier and plate. Against regular monsters, it still takes me around 5 swings in average to kill with either setup. My initial testing of the axe shows the elec strike to only do about 250-300, due to hitting 68% resistant stuff all the time. The void strike hits for around 1k, and the main hit for 3-4k. So the elec strike is contributing a pittance of damage. I'm sure it will add up more on a longer fight against an SG, but I'm not expecting it to knock much time at all off of my total clear time. I'd need to lower the average number of swings needed to kill a regular monster down to 4 on average to do that.

Getting my hands on a magnificent rapier of slaughter, preferably with an electric/wind or ethereal prefix would be a big jump up from what I currently have. So I'm not saying I'm avoiding this advice.

But what I am saying is that a lot of the end-game thinking doesn't feel like it applies to the point in the game I'm at right now. The power armor I still have in my inventory gives about 150 damage per piece. I can't afford to upgrade them, as it would be prohibitively expensive to buy the same actuators end-game players are competing for in order to upgrade their end-game power armors. I might be able to salvage my gear to get back some of the upgrade materials, even most, but then I can't sell the castoffs to other players. If I upgrade them, other players my current level would be even less able to afford them.

But doing all of this expensive stuff the same way end-game players with end-game income do it just doesn't work without that income.

It takes me several days to build up the funds to buy mid-grade woods, bindings of barrier, and a few high-grade wood to upgrade my shield. It takes me a few days to build up the sort of funds needed to afford the pricetags on some mag/leg gear. In that time, just running arenas (and recently a lot of IW) levels me up to the point where my gear feels obsolete. I'm not trying to power level, but earning the credits to buy upgrades is slower than the exp earned leveling up.

Soulfusing a really good weapon and a shield feels like it would take a lot of burden off of that process. I know I'm going to be sticking with the 1h style for months, if not years. Some day I'll get into power armors as keeps getting suggested. But right now it feels like plate armor with shielding prefix, and not a lot of worry on DPS seems the better, noob-friendlier strategy to building up income.

This post has been edited by Cryosite: Sep 25 2017, 00:16

You don't have to soulfuse shields or regular tier armor because defensive stats don't scale up significantly with level. It's mainly attack damage and primary attribute bonuses that scale proportionately to your level.

I would not soulfuse any shield unless you plan to use it to the end of the game, or you are forced to soulfuse to use it because it is higher level than you.

I agree with you that I regularly see advice that is not quite applicable to our level. Kite shields and plate armor is great for the time being. I am using all legendary plate and don't even bother with a real shield and so far I can beat just about everything at a decent speed, although I am looking for and preparing some upgrades.

I think force shields have too much interference at my level, I don't use mine. They are better on higher level players after you've switched to pure power armor.

This post has been edited by BlueWaterSplash: Sep 25 2017, 01:17

Does anyone have any long-term data for average returns of mostly unupgraded monsters? ie. a year's worth of data on all the materials brought by 50 monsters with 90% of them under level 100 with maybe a few gift upgrades?

I'm approaching the six month mark with 42 monsters currently, mostly upgraded only when necessary (I have one over lvl 300, but the rest under level 200). The return of crystallized phazons alone makes it worthwhile.

Update: if you're not using pills to handle monster morale, and crystals instead (generally cheaper) most of your monsters will exceed level 100 after a while.

Mu (.) (.) y

This post has been edited by Muddybug: Sep 25 2017, 01:17

Now that my font engine is set up correctly, hvtoolbox is displaying percentiles in equipment links properly. So I see that my shield is indeed 51%, though I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what that means in practical terms. Looking a page back, I noticed some players in the mid to upper 400's sporting links to their gear in their profile, and found these two shields to compare mine against:

This one is 48%BLK, soulbound, and upgraded block to 18. The result is 50.36% block stat.

This one is BLK 97%, which would be "end game" by your reckoning. It's showing a 58.16% block chance stat. It is also upgraded block to level 46.

what i see is quite different from what you see. for example, in the second case i see ~62.3%. so...
protip: use links or base stats (percentile values are fine as well). scaled stats don't have that big of a meaning when you're comparing things at different levels.

So what kind of block chance would I wind up with at level 10 upgrade, no soulfuse? How much if soulfused? "Not a lot" is a pretty subjective assessment.

roughly 1.13x of what you see at lv0. or 1.05x what you see at lv5, if you already upgraded it to that point.

if you soulfuse it on top of that, you should also apply scaling equation
but block scales pretty bad with levels and the difference isn't too big, so even if i'm not in the mood to do math right now, answer is really "almost negligible amount".

In the forge, it appears my shield can only upgrade to level 27. Can legendary force shields simply upgrade higher than legendary kite shields?

no. what matters there is forge level: the higher it is, the higher you can forge. it'll raise naturally as you forge, so don't bother too much. eventually you'll reach lv50.
meanwhile, there's plenty of users out there with maxed level. if item isn't soulfused, you can send materials to them and they'll do the trick.

But what I am saying is that a lot of the end-game thinking doesn't feel like it applies to the point in the game I'm at right now.

obviously.

So I see that my shield is indeed 51%, though I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what that means in practical terms.

It is easy =)
Let's say that "the bestest of the bestest" legendary shield has base block equals to the 500 (don't mind the number, just get the idea)
Now, let's say that "the worstest of the worstest" legendary shield has base block equals to 200.

You got the shield that has 330. The question - how good it is compare to worst and how bad it compare to the best?
1. 500 - 200 = 300 // find the range
2. 330 - 200 = 130 // find your shield at that range
3. 130 * 100% / 300 = 43.3% ~43%

So now you can say that block of your shield is only 43% more than the bare minimum and still 57% away from the best shield possible.

Your real shield has 51%. Is is an ideal medium - it is neither bad or good block. You can soulfuse that shield if you have free soul fragments and you do lots of RE so you can restock them quickly.
On your place I would soulfuse it, but I believe people would not agree with me (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)
My opinion is - it is better to stay with any shield with relatively good block than wait for good force shield to drop/buy. It is not like your kite shield has 3% block and bad stats after all, and you should start with something. Nobody starts with full slaughter set and demonic rapier xD I played with shortsword until level 330 - then I got rapier.
If you have nice shield (not the best, not the force, but just nice shield with tolerable block) - why you should stay aside? I am not talking about forgetting about any other shield and stay with that kite until the end of the game - of course no - but spend few levels with it sounds fair for me.
But once again - it is open field for opinion and other might not agree.

Can legendary force shields simply upgrade higher than legendary kite shields?

Every type/prefix/suffix has their own advantages. The advantage of force shield is high block by default. Like the highest block for kite may be 350 (don't mind the numbers), but highest block of force may be 780. On other hand force shields are heavy, but if you are playing HEAVY armor/one-handed style that would not be that problem. However is still may be a problem on lower levels...

This post has been edited by f4tal: Sep 25 2017, 01:12

2.3% isn't that horrible, but optimal would be 0% (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Why is 0% optimal? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Why is 0% optimal? blink.gif

Well, mostly because of paradigm that heavy/1H should get as many hits as possible from counterattacking back instead of attacking monsters manually.
Because of how tick/turn system works in the game you may stuck at the situation when heavy/1H with high "attack speed bonus" takes more turns to finish round than sane bukd with no ASB.
The idea is that in a single tick monsters and player may do various number of actions, but if player has high ASB he may attack monster before it attacked him.
Imagine yourself an utopian situation when 1H/heavy has, say 80% ASB and nay attack monsters 15 times before any of them would attack him back. How many hits he would deal in 15 turms? The correct answer - 15, because he never countattcked.
Now, in same situation 1H/heavy with 0 ASB how many hits would deal in 15 turns? About 60 is correct answer, because he attacked 15 times and got 45 counterattacks. (mind me, 3x counterattack is a limit, isn't?)
So, slow heavy will take less turns to kill all monsters, but on other hand will get more hits. That is why he need shield with good block and rapier with good parry (counterattaxk triggers only after blocking or parrying, so higher their chances - more chances to save your HP and attack back) Oh, and this is a heavy - tankiest build ever - should he ever care about damage at all? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

And one thing more - every couterattack gives you a little OC. So with spamming counterattacks back and forth - heavy eventually may stuck in permanent spirit stance mode, which is keypart of that build.

I have asked because I thought that maybe there is gold medium for ASB for 1H/Heavy, but looks like 0 is a best option.
I got new shield with 84% block and it has agility pab. So now I am trying to reduce my ASB a little, but it would take long time given I can reduce only 10 points per day from agility pab =/

This post has been edited by f4tal: Sep 25 2017, 01:48

Now that my font engine is set up correctly, hvtoolbox is displaying percentiles in equipment links properly. So I see that my shield is indeed 51%, though I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what that means in practical terms. Looking a page back, I noticed some players in the mid to upper 400's sporting links to their gear in their profile, and found these two shields to compare mine against:

This one is 48%BLK, soulbound, and upgraded block to 18. The result is 50.36% block stat.

That's DFNoni's shield, who I suspect switched to mage rather than grind out a hard core 1h + heavy build.

This one is BLK 97%, which would be "end game" by your reckoning. It's showing a 58.16% block chance stat. It is also upgraded block to level 46.

more of an "end game" shield, yes, from a user with money for upgrades. Not really a 300ish shield.

In the forge, it appears my shield can only upgrade to level 27. Can legendary force shields simply upgrade higher than legendary kite shields?

When your forge levels rise, you'll be able to upgrade shields more. One additional level per two forge levels, in the case of block.

Weapon is my next main priority. Getting block/parry high feels to me to be the real cornerstone of the 1h/heavy build. Being able to shrug off punishment lets you have more turns to beat stuff up, making raw DPS less important to the build than, for example, DW or Niten. More DPS helps, but DPS is expensive. It is the thing end-game players compete over.

...

Getting my hands on a magnificent rapier of slaughter, preferably with an electric/wind or ethereal prefix would be a big jump up from what I currently have. So I'm not saying I'm avoiding this advice.

Check your WTB.

But what I am saying is that a lot of the end-game thinking doesn't feel like it applies to the point in the game I'm at right now. The power armor I still have in my inventory gives about 150 damage per piece. I can't afford to upgrade them, as it would be prohibitively expensive to buy the same actuators end-game players are competing for in order to upgrade their end-game power armors. I might be able to salvage my gear to get back some of the upgrade materials, even most, but then I can't sell the castoffs to other players. If I upgrade them, other players my current level would be even less able to afford them.

I didn't start seriously upgrading until around my current levels, actually. 390+ or so. You're going to be replacing armor too fast to worry much about expensive upgrades. You can worry about actuators when you're largely in legendaries. Upgrades are darned expensive.

Soulfusing a really good weapon and a shield feels like it would take a lot of burden off of that process. I know I'm going to be sticking with the 1h style for months, if not years. Some day I'll get into power armors as keeps getting suggested. But right now it feels like plate armor with shielding prefix, and not a lot of worry on DPS seems the better, noob-friendlier strategy to building up income.

Mag rapiers are easier to find than really good shields. I soul fused a mag rapier at about your level. Around 330 or so I bought its replacement, but wasn't in a position to actually replace it until 375 because of the soul fragments required to add the new weapon.

Gathering gear often requires getting that level 295 armor at 270 and that 325 armor at 295. I strongly recommend targeting pieces in auction and just offering the 'start' bid on the gear. If you get outbid, try again next week.

I got a good kite shield that way for 50k, and the modal value of my legendary power protection pieces was 50k. Some I paid between 150-300k for. A peerless piece went for 800k. Getting into the 300s offers more income, via GF arenas, and so it's not as onerous getting equipment as you level.

Why is 0% optimal? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

less speed means more attacks taken - as f4tal said - so higher chance to counter.

not that a 2% will make that big of a difference, though.

In the forge, it appears my shield can only upgrade to level 27. Can legendary force shields simply upgrade higher than legendary kite shields?

No.

You can only do the amount of upgrades up to the same level of forge you have (for "Physical Damage" and "Magical Damage" this amount is doubled).

Force shields have low burden but extremely high interference, which makes spells cost too much at low level. At high level your buffs last much longer so this probably becomes irrelevant. Also they are more synergistic with power armor, which also has high interference, due to how the interference adds.

I think Cryosite's legendary kite shield is great and I would use it myself. The reasoning is that it is not necessary to soulfuse, just use it as is until level 300. If you soulfuse it the block will not improve much.

A couple players here started 1H styles with all legendary rapiers and gear, although that's not normal. My philosophy was that I was only willing to switch to a new style when my gear was ready for the style. I didn't want to wear any plate armor that was not legendary because I could not tolerate the burden and interference.

Maybe this is the reason for complaints about low-level gear. There is a natural desire to switch to 1H at level 200 to 250 due to the ability improvements of 1H at this level (more counter attacks and more block). This is exacerbated by the fact that veterans possibly over-promote 1H to low-level players. But the desired legendary gear is not yet widely available at level 250. It is widely available at maybe level 350.

With lesser quality gears, DW is probably the best style, especially under level 200. I want to use DW again sometimes but I haven't been dropping the correct equipment for it.

not that a 2% will make that big of a difference, though.

Agreed. To see major difference one should compare 2% to 75% (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

By the way what is highest attack speed bonus may be? Is this any cap?

Also they are more synergistic with power armor, which also has high interference, due to how the interference adds.

only a tad bit more than Plates. the real difference is with Leather/Shade.

Maybe this is the reason for complaints about low-level gear. There is a natural desire to switch to 1H at level 200 to 250 due to the ability improvements of 1H at this level (more counter attacks and more block). This is exacerbated by the fact that veterans possibly over-promote 1H to low-level players. But the desired legendary gear is not yet widely available at level 250. It is widely available at maybe level 350.

personally i never suggested 1H below lv200. at most, i could've said it's still viable. but at low levels i tend to suggest 2H with Leather. also, between lv200 and 250 i think the best option available is 1H + those very same Leathers you used until that point. switch to Power armors at lv250, when Better Block ability would hopefully be enough to make up for the lack of Resist that Leather armors provided you. at this point Protection and Warding suffixes are still better than Slaughter and Balance.

and just wondering, who are the veterans that exacerbatedly over-promoye 1H to low-levels (which i guess you mean as lv << 200)?

With lesser quality gears, DW is probably the best style, especially under level 200. I want to use DW again sometimes but I haven't been dropping the correct equipment for it.

hmm... so-so. DW is surely viable at that point, but it'd be better later. you'd really better go with a longsword at the start, and eventually a mace later imo. or again, this is what i suggest.

Agreed. To see major difference one should compare 2% to 75% (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

By the way what is highest attack speed bonus may be? Is this any cap?

you can reach 30% with Rapier+Waki DW Shade without even caring about it, so i guess with good AGI rolls, decent forging and possibly Agile prefix 35~38 should be reachable at out levels. if you throw in a waki of swiftness with swift lv5 potency, well... maybe 45 or so?