[X] My Assistant

Having SS on IA is a liability, if you drop below 10% mana you lose it and risk getting smacked hard.

Got IA2 just now. Haste and Shadow Veil seem to be a popular choice, but since spells cost more now and I'm not spending a majority of my turns in Spirit Stance, I'm wondering maybe if Haste + Spirit Shield or even just Spirit Shield alone with a lower cost is better. Opinions?

I would imagine I'd only need Shadow Veil to be constantly up in higher difficulties where dodging a hit really matters unlike Normal/Hard/Heroic, where I can easily heal off most of the damage taken with the Regens.

I personally have Haste and Spirit Shield on mine. Haste for the extra speed (so your debuffs last longer on monsters, particularly bosses/legendaries) and Spirit Shield for survivability. While it's true that if you go below 10% mana you will probably die... Well, I at least make sure that it stays above that. If I notice that it's at about 25% I'll use a potion and continue on.

Also, save up for the Rainbow Aura. The extra mana regeneration really helps. And get higher levels of IA as well. With my current set up I end up losing 1 point of mana per 8/9 or so turns. When i turn on Spirit Stance I actually gain mana fairly quickly. I'm hoping to get IA4 eventually, to further decrease the mana cost. I'm not adding on any extra spells; it's purely for the decreased mana consumption.

Anyway, you COULD use Shadow Veil, but with good evade (I'm assuming you use Shade) it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Regen2 is pretty much always enough to keep me alive, which is where Spirit Shield comes in. I get hit for a crapton of damage, my SS lowers the damage significantly, and I gain more health while the monsters are either dead or stunned.

Bleh. I typed too much. I'm gonna head to bed now, 'night people.

I just use Godly Mana Potions when I'm in the 200-300 MP range to stay out of the 10% range, so I have no trouble avoiding that situation.

Also, save up for the Rainbow Aura. The extra mana regeneration really helps. And get higher levels of IA as well. With my current set up I end up losing 1 point of mana per 8/9 or so turns. When i turn on Spirit Stance I actually gain mana fairly quickly. I'm hoping to get IA4 eventually, to further decrease the mana cost. I'm not adding on any extra spells; it's purely for the decreased mana consumption.

Ah, but you get 3 Hath a day + whatever amount to win for the banner contests, while I have only 1 Hath per day, so me getting further IA levels will take a long, long time. XD

I intend on getting Auras rather than IA3 next anyways. Black first for the extra MP, and Rainbow after that for the regen boosts. I can guarantee getting Black by the end of the year, but I've got to be absurdly lucky with artifacts to get enough hath for both by then (I could buy hath to speed it up, but I'm focusing on Trainings with my credits for now).

Got IA2 just now. Haste and Shadow Veil seem to be a popular choice, but since spells cost more now and I'm not spending a majority of my turns in Spirit Stance, I'm wondering maybe if Haste + Spirit Shield or even just Spirit Shield alone with a lower cost is better. Opinions?

I would imagine I'd only need Shadow Veil to be constantly up in higher difficulties where dodging a hit really matters unlike Normal/Hard/Heroic, where I can easily heal off most of the damage taken with the Regens.

I like the idea of putting different spells into auto-cast slots.
You may risk losing spirit shield or spark, but that's a risk that can be easily managed.
If you don't use SV, you may choose between SP shield and spark.
Well, the idea is....if you don't get SP shield activated, that's also some mana lost.
Spark won't lessen your damage, but it did gives you extra protection against death threats.

I thought people use some less mana costly stuff in their ia? I don't really know what the base cost of spirit shield is but I know spark is my most expensive one to cast.

I think it depends on how many turns your average round is. Then put those spells in. If you can do 20 turns a round, then you only need to cast spark after every 2 rounds.

But if you did have all the ia, I think then putting some expensive to cast spells would be more mana efficient.

You need more than the first IA to get the upkeep cost to go down.

Well, I'll ask for some advice too. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

1. The best way to gain more credits is to level up. Not only can you get better drops, you can also play through longer arenas/play in higher difficulty.

2. If you really have the need to grind for items, playing in grindfest seems to be a better idea.
You will also get some credits (so you can upgrade your armor/weapons), and playing in normal difficulty will give you better drops (easy/normal mobs have same hp).
The only downside is that you're going to spend twice the stamina, but you've said that stamina's not a problem.

3. I don't think you'll need to care so much about prof. at your level. Once your leveling speed slow down, they're going to catch up.
If you play normally, they should stay at around 50-75% of your level.

4. Your first set is very good at your level. Good job.
Not sure on the second set though, it seems you're using it to grind prof.
Won't be a bad idea to wear full owls for that purpose.
Don't level up that longsword in IW. You'll get things much better than that in WTS threads.
(It isn't that good anyway.

5. Yea, that's the thing I would like to suggest: you'll need either DW or one-handed against bosses/legends/gods.

Copying my own suggestion on DW...
Usually it's club in the main hand, as it has greatest damage potential.
You can equip different weapons in the off-hand to suit your purpose:
rapier -> have penetrated armor; good against bosses
club -> off-hand club can further increase your stun chance
dagger -> for its high parry chance
axe -> bleeding and okay damage potential
shortsword -> all-rounded but best-for-nothing

6 Other things.
You're doing quite well on stat/abilities. Good job on that.
A small advice is to take 1 infusion slot, so you can use the infusion against legends.
Otherwise it seems everything's okay at this moment.

I have Haste and Spirit Shield in my auto-cast slots. Spirit Shield is in there because I hate casting Supportive Spells without Channeling; if I were put in a situation where Spirit Shield expired, I'd have to spend MP to recast it immediately because it's that important to me. As for Haste, it's to help prevent dying on the first turn in the first round, which has happened a couple of times before. Spells like Arcane Focus, Regen II, and Spark of Life last forever, so I'm bound to get Channelings that I can use to maintain them for free. I'd like to have Shadow Veil on auto-cast as well, but I don't have the Hath for it (plus I want to get the Black Aura next).

Spirit shield actually lasts much longer than haste, shadow veil, protection and spark
Which means it's the spell which saves you the least mana when putting into IA

But since you dislike casting it without chanelling... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 14 2012, 08:03

Is it generally better to play in Grindfest, Itemworld or Crysfest? I just started training in IW today and I'm gaining EXP a lot faster, though my equipment isn't really matching my level if I do this =/. At what point should I actually worry about my equipment?

Spirit shield actually lasts much longer than haste, shadow veil, protection and spark
Which means it's the spell which saves you the least mana when putting into IA

But since you dislike casting it without chanelling... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

wiki says spark and spirit shield have the same base duration.

But, I thought protection ends earlier than haste? (atleast I think it did before I went mage).

Hey, something seems off. I know that flame spikes lasts as many turns as haste and shadow veil. I usually cast them all in order and they all expire right after each other. (unless I proc'd channeling while setting those up). Still, the wiki says spikes has a longer base duration?

Spirit shield is very cheap/turn while spark is the most expensive/turn.

Spark > SV/Haste > Spirit Shield

Most savings with high level IA with spells more on the left

@wrinty
it depends, for x25, from what i saw, seems that IW'mobs much weaker than crysfest's,

i played flimsy, crude, exquisite in item world, a shocking experince is seems even exquisite IW is still easier than crysfest

Is it generally better to play in Grindfest, Itemworld or Crysfest? I just started training in IW today and I'm gaining EXP a lot faster, though my equipment isn't really matching my level if I do this =/. At what point should I actually worry about my equipment?

You need to worry about your equipment when you can't find any better overleveled equipments.
Currently that would be around lv.250 and above.

As for different battle modes...
grindfest: you get credits and equipments, but you need to spend twice the stamina
Crysfest: you get crystals only, but it costs half the stamina
IW: you don't get credits, but mobs deal less damage

wiki says spark and spirit shield have the same base duration.

But, I thought protection ends earlier than haste? (atleast I think it did before I went mage).

Hey, something seems off. I know that flame spikes lasts as many turns as haste and shadow veil. I usually cast them all in order and they all expire right after each other. (unless I proc'd channeling while setting those up). Still, the wiki says spikes has a longer base duration?

Yea, but you need to consider that spark will go off once it's activated, while SP shield won't (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Protection and spike spells have half the duration, because you can only put 1 AP into them.
For those spells which you can put 5 APs, its duration will be increased by 100% (25% per AP)

Yea, but you need to consider that spark will go off once it's activated, while SP shield won't (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Protection and spike spells have half the duration, because you can only put 1 AP into them.
For those spells which you can put 5 APs, its duration will be increased by 100% (25% per AP)

Duh, that makes sense. Thanks.

But for the spark of life, I kind of hope that it doesn't go off. Because then you lose mana recasting it sooner and you lose spirit.

as far as using spark for ia, I think it can be a good idea depending on what you want to do. You ever play a game called farkle? I like to think of spark as the unfarkle bonus, especially as a mage. Basically just focus on offense every round until it goes off. Then heal up only for that round. Rinse and repeat.

Though this would be something I did once I could afford IA and have enough ability points to cover everything I want "and" spirit points. (currently I don't have any invested in it)

does spark always cost 50% of current total SP?. ie doesnt matter how much SP you have.

No, spark and SP shield always refer to your base SP when activating.

ah yeh, i meant base SP. but the question i meant to ask was will the cost always be 50% SP when it triggers

Drain = (4/15) * Min(3/4,DamageAbsorbed/HealthPoints) * BaseSpirit

Edit: nevermind, I thought you were talking about SS.

This post has been edited by (Cheater) Tiap: Feb 14 2012, 13:45

I use some 30 minutes to understand your formula (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Anyway, my version of formula:

Drain = Base SP * (0.4 - AP * 0.05) * Range (1, 4/3 * ((Damage Dealt/max health) - 0.25), 0)

Tiap's formula looks far more compact though (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

And yeah, spark requires 50% of your base SP every time it activates