[X] My Assistant

So what's the new mages build now that mobs have 3x hp? I can't one-shot them anymore. I'm lucky to get 3 with tier 3 aoe. I was thinking more strength/dex/endurance for more hp? idk.

Same build as before, I use tier 2 spells and there's no much of a difference in normal difficulty, I hit for 8-10k normally (Main AoE Target, non crits) and most monsters are around 4k HP.

IWBTH got easier, so if you are looking for exp that's the way to go, with 30k HP the monsters fall down pretty quick.

Does absorb work? All it ever does for me is expire.

Does absorb work? All it ever does for me is expire.

It works but a lot of things have to line up for it to do so.

1) The attack must be a magic/spirit spell, not a physical one.
2) The spell must hit.
3) It cannot be a crit.
4) There is a 25% chance it won't work even if the above are true.

Elemental is the only now-regular custom mobs that can do magical attack, and they aren't really too common. So Absorb pretty much useless to cast when no boss around.

Elemental is the only now-regular custom mobs that can do magical attack, and they aren't really too common. So Absorb pretty much useless to cast when no boss around.

WTF wetfhjwdsiofjdl;vkds;sdf
Okay. Thanks for the explanation. I was wondering why ever since I came back, it never works.

Well there's also bosses (who can do elemental attacks), but that requires you to Bewilder them or they'll just crit you tp oblivion.

Elemental are not rare though, they're the 4th most common monster type (PL 250+), almost tied with Dragonkins who are 3rd.

Well there's also bosses (who can do elemental attacks), but that requires you to Bewilder them or they'll just crit you tp oblivion.

Elemental are not rare though, they're the 4th most common monster type (PL 250+), almost tied with Dragonkins who are 3rd.

But elementals are also the weakest monsters when it comes to how much damage they can withstand (with the exception of sprites possibly), at least vs melees. And vs mages, they just don't have enough HP to survive long enough to do their special attack.


But shouldn't absorb have it's place in boss fights anyways? Hopefully the order of defenses should be set up so absorb activates before spirit shield/spark of life does, so casting absorb would still be beneficial since if absorb doesn't catch the incoming spell, spirit shield will tank it.

But elementals are also the weakest monsters when it comes to how much damage they can withstand (with the exception of sprites possibly), at least vs melees. And vs mages, they just don't have enough HP to survive long enough to do their special attack.
But shouldn't absorb have it's place in boss fights anyways? Hopefully the order of defenses should be set up so absorb activates before spirit shield/spark of life does, so casting absorb would still be beneficial since if absorb doesn't catch the incoming spell, spirit shield will tank it.

I wasn't really making a case of which type is better, though they're probably the most dangerous threat for a melee the moment they don't recognize/forget about them (which may happen, since they go down easily).

About Absorb: personally, I wouldn't bother using both SS and Absorb, the cost is quite high and it's pretty much redundant since they both aim at keeping you HPs intact.

One might resort to Absorb in a scenario where there's no SP left, but even then you're done for if they crit (which cannot happen if you Bewilder).
To be fair though, some cast are so powerful that they might nail you even without a crit, so even with Bewilder + Absorb, you'd be betting on that 75 % chance...

I dunno, cannot really find many uses for Absorb, at least in my gameplan (which lacks RoB though, I'm just stashing tokens atm).

The only real use for absorb now is for schoolgirls arenas if you have problems with spirit (mostly for high difficulties) and ring of blood before you get spirit shield if you take too much turns killing and proc too much spark of life.

I wasn't really making a case of which type is better, though they're probably the most dangerous threat for a melee the moment they don't recognize/forget about them (which may happen, since they go down easily).

About Absorb: personally, I wouldn't bother using both SS and Absorb, the cost is quite high and it's pretty much redundant since they both aim at keeping you HPs intact.

One might resort to Absorb in a scenario where there's no SP left, but even then you're done for if they crit (which cannot happen if you Bewilder).
To be fair though, some cast are so powerful that they might nail you even without a crit, so even with Bewilder + Absorb, you'd be betting on that 75 % chance...

I dunno, cannot really find many uses for Absorb, at least in my gameplan (which lacks RoB though, I'm just stashing tokens atm).

Actually, Absorb should give you back quite a bit of your mana when it does kick in.
I don't use it so I don't know if the numbers are correct but the EHwiki says absorb costs 30% of your lvl, and it returns 7,5-15% of your MAX mana, with 5 APs in it, when it absorbs a spell.

For me, that would mean a cost of 78 mana if I had 0 interference and no spirit stance, and it would return between 133 to 267 mana when it absorbed a spell.

So not only would the mana cost not be a problem, but you could actually get more back than you invested.
Providing of course that it does kick in and absorb something, and not just run out of duration without ever having done anything (which is what I did when I tested it).
Spirit shield on the other hand will work guaranteed, but it will cost you spirit points as well as taking off 1/4 of your health.

So using absorb means protecting your spirit and health for really no cost at all, as long as absorb does anything. You shouldn't rely on it to save your life, because it won't work against crits and won't work at all 25% of the time, but you could rely on it to save you some spirit points for really no cost at all except the time it takes to cast it.
And if you put it in a IA slot against an enemy that uses magical attacks fairly often, it would actually be really nice and would give you mana instead of costing mana.

Actually, Absorb should give you back quite a bit of your mana when it does kick in.
I don't use it so I don't know if the numbers are correct but the EHwiki says absorb costs 30% of your lvl, and it returns 7,5-15% of your MAX mana, with 5 APs in it, when it absorbs a spell.

For me, that would mean a cost of 78 mana if I had 0 interference and no spirit stance, and it would return between 133 to 267 mana when it absorbed a spell.

So not only would the mana cost not be a problem, but you could actually get more back than you invested.
Providing of course that it does kick in and absorb something, and not just run out of duration without ever having done anything (which is what I did when I tested it).
Spirit shield on the other hand will work guaranteed, but it will cost you spirit points as well as taking off 1/4 of your health.

So using absorb means protecting your spirit and health for really no cost at all, as long as absorb does anything. You shouldn't rely on it to save your life, because it won't work against crits and won't work at all 25% of the time, but you could rely on it to save you some spirit points for really no cost at all except the time it takes to cast it.
And if you put it in a IA slot against an enemy that uses magical attacks fairly often, it would actually be really nice and would give you mana instead of costing mana.

It's not the mana return not being decent, it's the contest where it can be beneficial that is practically absent...

With arenas it seems out of question since you should be killing Elementals before they get a chance to cast on you, thus resulting in a waste of mana; Schoolgirls are gonna rip you apart even with Bewilder - got hit, not even crit'd, by Yuki for 5700+ on Normal, and that was with 75 % damage reduction from Darkness Infusion, plus Nerf and 47.2 % base mitigation.

On grindfests, you simply cannot afford to use that mana since at later stages is basically kill or be killed, and you're much better Silencing/Bewildering Elementals in the first place, if you know they're gonna cast and you can't stop them - unless, again, you're totally out of mana and you're willing to bet on that to be able to continue for... 3 rounds.

What's left is RoB and... well, we all know how much that matters - especially now that FSM's HP got about halved or something.

This aside though, the thing triggered quite badly despite the 75 % chance in my experience (or simply expired because monsters didn't bother casting lol), so I decided to scrap it altogether.
May have been pretty unlucky with the trigger chance, but sure as hell I'm not gonna do FSM and risk my tokens on a 75 % chance.

This post has been edited by wr4st3r: Jan 24 2012, 15:15

Can't stick Absorb in IA, returns 62-125 MP for me (99 MP cost, 5 APs invested, level capped supportive prof).

Actually, Absorb should give you back quite a bit of your mana when it does kick in.
I don't use it so I don't know if the numbers are correct but the EHwiki says absorb costs 30% of your lvl, and it returns 7,5-15% of your MAX mana, with 5 APs in it, when it absorbs a spell.

It's base max mana.

Then even the mana return isn't good enough :E

It's not the mana return not being decent, it's the contest where it can be beneficial that is practically absent...

With arenas it seems out of question since you should be killing Elementals before they get a chance to cast on you, thus resulting in a waste of mana; Schoolgirls are gonna rip you apart even with Bewilder - got hit, not even crit'd, by Yuki for 5700+ on Normal, and that was with 75 % damage reduction from Darkness Infusion, plus Nerf and 47.2 % base mitigation.

On grindfests, you simply cannot afford to use that mana since at later stages is basically kill or be killed, and you're much better Silencing/Bewildering Elementals in the first place, if you know they're gonna cast and you can't stop them - unless, again, you're totally out of mana and you're willing to bet on that to be able to continue for... 3 rounds.

What's left is RoB and... well, we all know how much that matters - especially now that FSM's HP got about halved or something.

This aside though, the thing triggered quite badly despite the 75 % chance in my experience (or simply expired because monsters didn't bother casting lol), so I decided to scrap it altogether.
May have been pretty unlucky with the trigger chance, but sure as hell I'm not gonna do FSM and risk my tokens on a 75 % chance.

Never said it was good or even worth it, as I said, I tried it out and for me it never kicked in.
But the potential is there, it could be good.
And you shouldn't rely on it, you should have something else protecting you (like spirit shield), but it could work as a cheaper way to catch some of the attacks, without it costing spirit points and 1/4 of your health.

And if you would get back mana equivalent of what it costed you to cast it, then you aren't losing mana on it, you're just tying some of it up until the spell activates.
And then, you can just not recast it, if you need it for something else.

But that is all based on the premise that the spell actually does it's job. If it just runs it course without activating, that is a loss of mana for no gain. Especially since you can't use it as a safety "just in case", like with spark of life, since it isn't guaranteed to work when you really need it.

Can't stick Absorb in IA, returns 62-125 MP for me (99 MP cost, 5 APs invested, level capped supportive prof).

It's base max mana.

As I said, I don't use it, and when I tried it out it never once activated on me.
And base max mana doesn't make sense, nowhere else is that used, it just means the text on the ehwiki is misleading and should be changed from "max mana" to "base mana", just like it is everywhere else for the same mechanics.

As for the numbers, 62-125 mp gives and average of 93,5, compare that to the casting cost of 99 mp and the actual cost in mana would then be only about 6 mp on average.
Providing that it absorbs something of course. And 6 mp for no hit to health and spirit, compared to if it had hit the spirit shield instead, sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

But that's based on the spell actually absorbing something, which it never did for me. And without that very important part, it's a cost in mana and AP without any returns for it.

This post has been edited by Randommember: Jan 24 2012, 16:53

But the potential is there, it could be good.

If it just runs it course without activating, that is a loss of mana for no gain.
I don't use it, and when I tried it out it never once activated on me.

the actual cost in mana would then be only about 6 mp on average.
Providing that it absorbs something of course.
But that's based on the spell actually absorbing something, which it never did for me.

It helps with getting the Dovahkiin title as 4EverLost has suggested, but other than high difficulty legendary runs it's not really worth it atm. Might see more action when monster lab gets upgraded.

I use Absorb - Scrolls when running out of mana.
But about how harder this version is...
I'm censoring the bad words here to keep it clean.
I think the changes in this update ****** **** **** **** ********* tenboro must have ***** **** to ***** such ******** update to melee folks-

But about how harder this version is...
I'm censoring the bad words here to keep it clean.
I think the changes in this update ****** **** **** **** ********* tenboro must have ***** **** to ***** such ******** update to melee folks-

... I'd like to buy a vowel.