[X] My Assistant

How is the amount of mana drained from an ET calculated? I tried to mage FSM for the first time, grabbing ET any time I could, but the mana returned was not living up to my expectations of draining a legendary.

Amount of mana depends on the monster.
Also, if you proc ET on them while their MP bar is zero, you will get much less.

I get 24-36 mana per ET, but usually are forced to use cure, when factoring lost ticks on buffs, I barely (if at all) break even. When I see minimum gain (8 for me) I just off the monster.

Ah thanks. Among other reasons, I don't leave my computers on all the time so I'd only be able to run it for a limited number of hours each session. Getting a good speed shouldn't be an issue though. I'll have to seriously consider H@H since getting Hath is pretty difficult these days and it feels like I'm falling behind on Hath Perks.

Getting good speed can be a bigger issue than you think.
I have a very good connection, with download and upload most people can only dream about (100 Mbit/s up and down, and I actually get that 100 Mbit) with very good ping values.
But my H@H still runs pretty slowly, and not using even a fraction of what I give it (put it down a bit now, but still only does on average 300-400KB/s

It seems to run it through some sort of bottleneck that isn't on my part, that limits how fast it can run.

That hath is difficult to get is easily realized once you notice the similarities between hath and H@H (h-at-h, hentai at home). It's a bonus for helping run the network, it's a smart system to share the load betwwen different servers on individuals computers instead of having to pay for dedicated server (although those are still needed and you can sponsor those as well, for hath, but that costs money while running H@H only costs electricity).

I don't have a lot of hath perks either, just IA1 and one hath aura.

This post has been edited by Randommember: Jan 1 2012, 16:04

Oi, little mage skimming the surface questions here but only noodling about a few pieces that aren't obviously posted or asked from a cursory search (non-refined). But before that, stats as with the OP:

Str 10 Phys Abs 10.7
Dex 10 Phys Mit 24.4%
Agi 60 Mag Abs 17.2
End 50 Mag Mit 25.6%
Int 100 Evade 8.1%
Wis 75 Resist 29.8%
Inter 34.4 Burd 37.3

Spells: T2 Fire/Ice maxed, T1 Wind/Elec/Holy maxed, Shadow Veil maxed, Shield, 1x Poison
Spare Points: Maxed all Exp Bonus and Magic Tanks to my level; T1 Fire/Ice still maxed, changing that with a reset when I get my next tier of spells at 70 in a few minutes. Also capped all Item/Aura, no infusions/scrolls.
Current Equipment: mixed leather of +resist and higher physical mitigation to help spread my squishy rump along less continents.
Training: Adept 66/300 (and growing), Ability 30/100, Scav 7/50, Luck 2/25, Quartermaster 1/20, Archeologist 1/10

Main questions are mostly about little differences as I get higher up in levels, mostly about armors. Mostly asking for mixed opinions as I know that small percentages don't matter terribly until around level 200.

1) Cloth versus Leather: are the later-on benefits of Cloth more useful to a mage over the physical resistances of light armor (and lowered burden/interference over plate) at the same point?

Mostly asking this one as I get murdered easily by any 50% MP ability of a monster on Hard and up anyways as I lack any Health Tank points which leads to my second question.

2) Has the Shield spell outlasted its uses, especially higher up?

With it on up to about level 50 it made it seem like I was taking far less damage than without it. As I hit ~55 and started trying other difficulties it felt like a waste of MP for the shorter duration and lessened feel of its effectiveness compared to Shadow Veil.

3) Aside from the Scroll of the Gods, are Scroll and Infusions worth the points and purchasing of/farming for them?

I've never liked depending on consumables in games, least of all RPGs. Are they really worth the time this early or are they a much needed or useful later, especially for bosses?

4) Simple one, keep my trophies until the later 100s as the Shrine gear is a level around your own at time of turn-in, right?

5) Recommendations of any sorts? Ability changes? Debuffs overlooked?

And now for a long wait in a cold winter. *sips coco*

1) Cloth versus Leather: are the later-on benefits of Cloth more useful to a mage over the physical resistances of light armor (and lowered burden/interference over plate) at the same point?

You focus on offense as a mage, using evade mostly. When you can 1-shot most monsters defense isn't as important.

I lack any Health Tank points

This is bad, remedy it. Also put more EXP into STR for cheap health and mitigation.

2) Has the Shield spell outlasted its uses, especially higher up?

SV and Haste are better for mages by a lot.

3) Aside from the Scroll of the Gods, are Scroll and Infusions worth the points and purchasing of/farming for them?

Not really. Infusions of Divinity are nice for fighting FSM but that's about it.

4) Simple one, keep my trophies until the later 100s as the Shrine gear is a level around your own at time of turn-in, right?

It's your level or up to 5 lower than that. It's up to you when you wanna turn them in.

5) Recommendations of any sorts?

Get phase gear. Also, invest in Weaken and Haste ASAP.

If you are short on cash, Gossamer of the Elementalist makes for some decent Phase substitute. You'll probably find some decent deals in the WTS subforum.
Also Interference reduces spell power, so Light Armor is a big no-no.

What spells do people prioritize for IA ?,

Mage player.

I put Haste and Spirit Shield in my IA slots. If I had a third slot, I'd put Shadow Veil in it. Regen II, Spark of Life, and Arcane Focus cost too much to cast manually (I make an exception for the first round) so they get Channeling priority when it comes to refreshing buffs, so I often have to cast Shadow Veil manually. I'd like to fix that one day..

I am using haste and SV in my IA slots.
Two reasons:
1. SV costs more mana to upkeep than SP shield.
With that 15% reduction in upkeep cost, it means I can save more mana.
2. I don't need to worry about my current mp dipping below 10% accidentally.
With SP shield that could be suicidal, but with haste/SV it's merely losing a buff.

i need to know which to keep and which to sell

Fine Kevlar Gauntlets of Protection

Superior Kevlar Gauntlets of Protection

i will most likely never level them up

Only having one IA slot, I put SV in it.

As a mage at my level SV is my most important protection. Haste is nice, but doesn't give as good of a survivability bonus at my level. Though that might change once I can oneshot monsters at a difficulty where the normal damage they can deal to me becomes threatening.

As long as I watch my mana I no longer have to worry about casting a spell which I keep up at all times.

How would mid-lvl mage go about killing RL? He seems impervious to everything, and resistant to staff, MM and soul reaper. None of last 3 seem particulary effective in burning through him.

How would mid-lvl mage go about killing RL? He seems impervious to everything, and resistant to staff, MM and soul reaper. None of last 3 seem particulary effective in burning through him.

The most effective method would be using soul harvest together with demon-fiend suit.
If you want a safe route, you can try MM+poison together with ET.

You will need hundreds of turns to kill them, so you also need to prepare some scrolls and infusions.
Infusion of gaia will give you boost to soul damage, while scroll of gods/life will give you spark effect.

This post has been edited by varst: Jan 2 2012, 13:23

judging by the replies so far, it seems SV and Haste are the favourites for IA

Just a simple question which I'm sure has been asked before: is there any point in saving Artifacts to be redeemed at a higher level? For trophies there may be an argument for getting higher level equips but what about artifacts?

No, since it's won't make any difference.
(Unless you want to save those artifacts till you get crystal perks, but then you'll lose those additional primary attributes/haths/APs...which isn't a good idea)

Don't know if it's the right place to ask but: any strats about creating monsters?

I created my first monsters about a week ago (PL 135 and 50 lol), and while I wasn't expecting to rack up wins, all they got was like, 3 wins lol and 0 KB.

Is there anything I can do to improve this, stat wise?
Since they are Humanoid and Beast type (I liked the combination of DEX and AGI, to get some skill kills - too bad this doesn't seem the case lol) I didn't put any point in INT, since according to the wiki that is just for Elementals (which I assume don't need DEX) special attacks.
Maybe not putting crystals in less common attack like Soul to keep the PL low can help?

I guess I'll make a Giant and a Elemental next and see how that goes...

any strats about creating monsters?

Have loads of credits. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

You usually want your monster to have as high PL as possible since they will appeared in battle more often and a successful implementation of the above strategy helps accomplish this. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif) ... Other 'strats' for monster lab are pretty obvious and straight forward IMO.

This post has been edited by buktore: Jan 2 2012, 16:20

1. Create Giant
2. ???
3. Profit!

Have loads of credits. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

You usually want your monster to have as high PL as possible since they will appeared in battle more often and a successful implementation of the above strategy helps accomplish this. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif) ... Other 'strats' for monster lab are pretty obvious and straight forward IMO.

level 35 Battles Won: 1383 Killing Blows: 727

making an army of little guys can be fun too