[X] My Assistant

Once you get up there, 3 tokens a day will go surprisingly quickly and a week later you wonder what happened, since it seemed like you had many more.

I've been getting a lot more token drops post-patch, think I might be able to do daily IPU + FSM now.

FSM is also weak to holy, so bring holy infusions, those will really kick up your damage. I'd imagine using one in combination with starting spirit mode will give a good result.
Or, you do what I do, you get a staff and get the two holy and dark spells and just alternate between casting them, making the status proc they do explode, and stop to use ET whenever your mana runs low.
That's how I decided being a mage was better, cause boy does that go faster and simpler, and even without a good staff and still wearing light armor and with low proficiencies....

Didn't think that'd work for FSM, he should be impervious to dark damage. Last time I recall trying that the dark damage was hitting him for 300-ish damage, which destroys the element switching's mana efficiency. Works fine on schoolgirls though, they're weak to both.

But there isn't all that much point to it. The tokens will still be there waiting for you, and you can do it quicker and more efficient later, and with less risk, and the trophies are quite possibly even more valuable the higher you are.

Grind arenas with that time spent instead, for more cash.

I can understand doing it the first time for that first time clear bonus, but after that, the bonus is the same as for most arenas, which can be done quicker, give more drops and more credits from each individual round.
Not to mention that bosses tend to give very low xp in return for the amount of time and effort it takes to kill them.

True true, later on you should be able to do it faster, but after 70 levels of being able to have a swing at FSM my speed has increased with... 10 rounds or something around that. Although I now don't use infusions/scrolls unlike my first kill.

But for example, every day I do every arena for my level possible, usually I get atleast 2 token of blood, somedays even 4. I indeed stopped doing FSM for a while after doing him at 110. After a while I had 20+ token of blood laying around.
Now let's say I had waited untill I reach 250 to even start doing FSM again, by that time I would have had around 200 tokens. That is more than 2 months of doing FSM day in, day out. I'd rather do it now once every 1-2 days than having this humongous stockpile of tokens laying around which barely goes down.

Kill FSM now, save the trophies for later.
Every time a Magnificent+ under level 200 is generated, somewhere a kitten dies. Horribly.

Guess I killed a kitten

Kill FSM now, save the trophies for later.
Every time a Magnificent+ under level 200 is generated, somewhere a kitten dies. Horribly.

This is what I've been doing, and I'll probably use turn them in even later lol.

Still it's very doable pre-190, I figure mages with full Holy just break him. I did it today too on Heroic, went down from 625 turns to 540.

Wonder how much faster will it be with Spirit Shield + Weaken, it's advisable to bring some spirit pots right?

just wondering, every post I see you guys recommendation, I notice that you say to train adept to 120/300 and ability 40/100. Any point for being this number exactly ? maybe from this point will cost a lot ?

Most likely because I stopped there (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Yeah, they aren't that cost-effective once passing that vague value.

For adept learner, it costs 1 million credits to train that from 120 to 170.
And since they only have about half the efficiency (counting in 120% from adept learner, 100% from exp tank, 100% from posting bonus) when comparing with arua's exp bonus, the credits are better spent on refined aura and black/whit auras once that mark's passed.

For ability boost, it should cost around 10k at 40/100. From that point onwards it's more efficient to get AP from artifacts.

Haste is also one of the cheaper buff spells, much cheaper that protection and shadow veil.

Just thought I should add that Haste costs the exact same as Shadow Veil. Provided that the same amount of AP is invested into both of them anyways.

Am I just unlucky or are the last 20 attribute bonuses insanely hard to get?
I think I got one from the last 60+ Artifacts.

just wondering, every post I see you guys recommendation, I notice that you say to train adept to 120/300 and ability 40/100. Any point for being this number exactly ? maybe from this point will cost a lot ?

No point for exact number, but it's somewhere around there that it starts getting too expensive to really be worth it.
But that's a personal thing.
Personally I got adept learner at 152/300 and ability boost at 69/100.
Next level is 23'446 and 33'816 credits respectively.

I've been getting a lot more token drops post-patch, think I might be able to do daily IPU + FSM now.
Didn't think that'd work for FSM, he should be impervious to dark damage. Last time I recall trying that the dark damage was hitting him for 300-ish damage, which destroys the element switching's mana efficiency. Works fine on schoolgirls though, they're weak to both.

The dark damage is really low, yes.
But it explodes the status effect on him, which explodes for holy damage.
And then it places a dark status effect on him, which explodes for dark damage. That explode does about the same damage as the spells, which means that the dark damage explode and spell are essentially bonus damage, while the holy spell and the holy explode are the main damage.

Kill FSM now, save the trophies for later.
Every time a Magnificent+ under level 200 is generated, somewhere a kitten dies. Horribly.

I saved all my trophies for level 200, I had like 100 each of the boss trophies and probably 20 or so each of the legendaries.
Didn't really get much valuable from them, but it sure gave me a boost in credits when I sold all the crap off.

Guess I killed a kitten

Murderer.

Don't know if it's the right place to ask, but I could really use some insight from our veterans on Innate Arcana...

At the moment I got Haths for the first two level of the skill, but was wondering if investing in it really was the best option.
I've yet to switch to Light equip, and with my current gear (Power) and gameplan, there's no real buff I need to keep up 100 % of the time (I'm assuming that's how IA works).

Protection is my go-to buff, but during first rounds of arenas, if a spell channels I'll just go for Regen II and forget about higher mitigations - unless I fall asleep, I won't die even on Heroic with Regen II + Heartseeker when I'm facing < 4-5 monsters.
Heartseeker is what I cast right off the bat (with the 0.6.3 nerfs I cannot afford to have it down anymore, my damage is arse), but it is also my first choice when I'm about to use channel (assuming it's not still up or it'll take some time to expire), so I feel using a IA slot on it would kinda result in a waste of mana.
Haste & Shadow Veil, I only use them during late rounds because interference is just too high, so just like Heartseeker, it'd feel kind of a waste to use the slots on them since they wouldn't be needed on the first rounds.

If I were to use Light, I'd probably just put Haste & Shadow Veil on those, but as my set is not complete (Boots and Gloves I'm not sure they're even decent) and that'll probably take a while, I was really worried about what to do with my Haths - maybe getting a black/white aura, or a better ethereal mace?

Any thoughts/tips on this? I'd really appreciate it. :]

In b4 reroll mage lol.

Kinda related: I'm still lacking the final aura (the INT one, which I passed on being a melee). Do you guys suggest to get it asap?

I know it boosts exp considerably given how it works, but bonuses are somewhat lackluster for a melee.
At the moment the plan was to get to lv. 190 (Focused Aura IV) and grab some much needed +1 % evade, mitigations and some physical hit chance.
Should I just ditch one of those and invest 100k on the last aura slots?

Don't know if it's the right place to ask, but I could really use some insight from our veterans on Innate Arcana...

At the moment I got Haths for the first two level of the skill, but was wondering if investing in it really was the best option.
I've yet to switch to Light equip, and with my current gear (Power) and gameplan, there's no real buff I need to keep up 100 % of the time (I'm assuming that's how IA works).

Protection is my go-to buff, but during first rounds of arenas, if a spell channels I'll just go for Regen II and forget about higher mitigations - unless I fall asleep, I won't die even on Heroic with Regen II + Heartseeker when I'm facing < 4-5 monsters.
Heartseeker is what I cast right off the bat (with the 0.6.3 nerfs I cannot afford to have it down anymore, my damage is arse), but it is also my first choice when I'm about to use channel (assuming it's not still up or it'll take some time to expire), so I feel using a IA slot on it would kinda result in a waste of mana.
Haste & Shadow Veil, I only use them during late rounds because interference is just too high, so just like Heartseeker, it'd feel kind of a waste to use the slots on them since they wouldn't be needed on the first rounds.

If I were to use Light, I'd probably just put Haste & Shadow Veil on those, but as my set is not complete (Boots and Gloves I'm not sure they're even decent) and that'll probably take a while, I was really worried about what to do with my Haths - maybe getting a black/white aura, or a better ethereal mace?

Any thoughts/tips on this? I'd really appreciate it. :]

In b4 reroll mage lol.

Kinda related: I'm still lacking the final aura (the INT one, which I passed on being a melee). Do you guys suggest to get it asap?

I know it boosts exp considerably given how it works, but bonuses are somewhat lackluster for a melee.
At the moment the plan was to get to lv. 190 (Focused Aura IV) and grab some much needed +1 % evade, mitigations and some physical hit chance.
Should I just ditch one of those and invest 100k on the last aura slots?

I'd say yes on the int aura, first level of an aura gives that 7% xp bonus, which stacks multiplicatively with adept learner, xp tanks and post bonus, so it's more valuable than 3 AP into xp tanks.

As for IA. IA1 makes the cost the same as if you had casted it, counted in mana per turn, but gives no chance for channeling.
It is on you from the start and it stays on you until your mana drops below 10% of total. At which point it disappears to reappear when mana gets above 25% of total.
You can still cast the spell manually, which will then replace the IA, version, and the IA version will then reappear the turn after the casted one runs out (one turn without it inbetween), as long as your mana is above 25%.

The big kicker is that you can't place heartseeker in a IA slot for some reason. And not arcane focus either.
And of course not regen either.

With higher level of IA, the upkeep cost decreases, so for IA2 you will save 15% mana compared to if you had casted it manually.

I have IA1 and I don't really think it's all that awesome for a melee.
It's really good for mage though, since it is on you right from the start and you don't have to waste a turn to buff up but can get to work immediately (except for arcane focus, see above).


Personally, given the choice, I would have gone for one of the hath auras instead.
I got IA1 and rainbow aura, and saving up for black&white.
Rainbow aura was really nice IMO for the added regen rate.

The dark damage is really low, yes.
But it explodes the status effect on him, which explodes for holy damage.
And then it places a dark status effect on him, which explodes for dark damage. That explode does about the same damage as the spells, which means that the dark damage explode and spell are essentially bonus damage, while the holy spell and the holy explode are the main damage.

That's wrong.
If you know a monster's weakness, it's better to use spells that target its weakness, rather than going for burst route.
That's especially valid on holy spells, which breached defense can increase the following holy spells.

At the moment I got Haths for the first two level of the skill, but was wondering if investing in it really was the best option.
I was really worried about what to do with my Haths - maybe getting a black/white aura, or a better ethereal mace?
Kinda related: I'm still lacking the final aura (the INT one, which I passed on being a melee). Do you guys suggest to get it asap?

IA is almost always better for melees.
Just think about the chance of chanelling by maging, and the extra turns per round for a melee, and you will reach that conclusion.
That 1 turn from the beginning isn't that important.

If you haven't got all the basic auras from training refined aura, get them first.
But this point doesn't interfere with your planning on hath perks.

As for IA1+2 or black/white aura, that's some difficult matter.
I would say it's better to get black/white aura first.
Though they both gives a boost to melee playstyle, aura also gives exp bonus, which means you can level up faster.
And in HV, leveling faster is always a good thing.
Also, not trying to convince you into mage style, but as I've said, IA works better for melees.
So if you wanna be a mage in the future, black/white auras would give you more benefits.

The dark damage is really low, yes.
But it explodes the status effect on him, which explodes for holy damage.
And then it places a dark status effect on him, which explodes for dark damage. That explode does about the same damage as the spells, which means that the dark damage explode and spell are essentially bonus damage, while the holy spell and the holy explode are the main damage.

Hrm, I see. Once you get some decent proficiency & gear, Banish recasting is superior. Did some quick testing on BT FSM (dropped a nice hat XD) and the number's don't quite compare. I have a sneaking suspicion that the debuff explosions crit but aren't explicitly stated in the combat log (numbers may be inflated). Using the AOE dark spells for element switching is of course a huge waste of mana. Crits are also wasted during element switching, and you also have the problem of the element debuffs not being up 100% of the time.

And it's also slow to alternate between dark and holy spells.
Pressing R is way more easy (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

This post has been edited by varst: Dec 30 2011, 13:36

Especially true when he has 32 million hp (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm actually even more unsure about what to get: Black and White Aura wise, the exp boost is great, but the other bonuses don't seem much of a big deal to me.

Regen bonuses from Rainbow on the other hand seem awesome, but it'll be ages before I get my hands on it (and I've gone 4 days without dropping a single artifact, on top of that), but I'm not sure if it'd be better in the long-run - leveling faster should grant me quicker access to better gear.

I guess I'll get to 200 haths and toss a coin or something lol - leanining more towards 200 haths auras though.

IA is almost always better for melees.
Just think about the chance of chanelling by maging, and the extra turns per round for a melee, and you will reach that conclusion.
That 1 turn from the beginning isn't that important.

I'm not sure I get it, IA spells can proc Channeling?

This may be total bullcrap, but for some reason the spells I use on round 1 (especially Heartseeker) seem to have a higher chance of triggering Channeling - to the point that it happens almost every time.

Cure I and Protection on the other hand don't seem to channel that good, a couple hours ago I went 40 rounds with only those two and it never triggered, that was ass.

This post has been edited by wr4st3r: Dec 30 2011, 15:06

I'm actually even more unsure about what to get: Black and White Aura wise, the exp boost is great, but the other bonuses don't seem much of a big deal to me.

Regen bonuses from Rainbow on the other hand seem awesome, but it'll be ages before I get my hands on it (and I've gone 4 days without dropping a single artifact, on top of that), but I'm not sure if it'd be better in the long-run - leveling faster should grant me quicker access to better gear.

I guess I'll get to 200 haths and toss a coin or something lol - leanining more towards 200 haths auras though.

The recommended order has always been Black -> Rainbow -> White

I'm not sure I get it, IA spells can proc Channeling?

This may be total bullcrap, but for some reason the spells I use on round 1 (especially Heartseeker) seem to have a higher chance of triggering Channeling - to the point that it happens almost every time.

Cure I and Protection on the other hand don't seem to channel that good, a couple hours ago I went 40 rounds with only those two and it never triggered, that was ass.

IA spells don't proc Channeling.

Channeling chance is dependent on the spell's mana cost. Higher cost = Higher chance.
So Heartseeker will have a higher chance to proc it.

The recommended order has always been Black -> Rainbow -> White
IA spells don't proc Channeling.

This is interesting, is Mana pool the reason for getting Black aura before White?

Wish arenas would still refill mana, post 0.6.3 I don't even start with full hp/mana pools anymore :E

Channeling chance is dependent on the spell's mana cost. Higher cost = Higher chance.
So Heartseeker will have a higher chance to proc it.

I see, makes sense! And it's actually written on the wiki I see, I totally missed that lol...

This is interesting, is Mana pool the reason for getting Black aura before White?

Yes. 10% more mana is infinitely better than 10% more HP.

The recommended order has always been Black -> Rainbow -> White

I think i went white/black/rainbow. but at the time I think white added to holy damage, black added dark and rainbow added elemental.