[X] My Assistant

Hello experts! I am not really all that new but I can definitely say I am inexperienced. For the time I've been playing, I've just kind of moseyed along without really looking into how to properly stat, build and gear myself. I have recently started looking through threads to catch hints of how I can improve my play but I just thought I'd ask directly.

My style of gameplay is pretty much tank and auto-attack. I used to wear full plate and started to struggle at 'growing storm' arena level barely completing it even after having to exhaust all potions. I used to cast five-point shadow veil and protection whenever they came off and depleted my MP rather quickly. Never really bothered to use spirit until very recently since I didn't find it necessary to use. I usually just hop on to do arenas hence the very low proficiencies.

Some of my questions are:
-Is 3x heavy, 2x cloth ideal? What would be a good mix otherwise? Light any good?
-Which prefixes and suffixes should I look out for/is purchasing from the bazaar worth it?
-Is mace the best 2h?
-Which abilities should I be using?
-Which abilities should I get? Should I max any buffs/debuffs or just keep one point?
-What should I stat?
-What is a good tip towards leveling up?
AND
-What are some generally useful tips you can pass down?

I am open to all criticism, suggestions and the like. Any assessment of my situation is welcome and greatly appreciated. (And of course if you have equipment you think I can benefit from and you tire of, don't be afraid to sell it to me!)

I will answer your questions in order first.
Usually a full set of one gear is the ideal mix because of set bonuses, if you are in full plate you will take less damage from crushing/piercing/slashing attacks and get bonus endurance and decreased burden, but you pretty much sacrifice all your evade. I am in the camp that believes that light armor is the best, specifically shade, because it provides good evasion and decent mitigation, without making your spells cost a ton.

Maces give the best survivablity because of the stun, and do good damage because of the 50% increased damage to stunned mobs, but unless that mace is ethereal it isn't going to be the "best" because of all the giants in the hentaiverse. Scythes are a good alternative because they can give a very very strong bleed that can do more damage per tick then you can normally because it bypasses mitigation.

Abilities, you should keep your tanks, hp and mana, near maxed. You used to be able to get by with just pumping exp and leveling fast, but now you won't survive long because of how powerful monsters are. As for spells, weaken can be helpful if you want to do higher difficulties. Poison and slow are helpful if you run into Bosses like Manbearpig, and haste/shadow veil are good to increase your surviveablity if you can afford points in them. Finally, spirit tanks are only mildly helpful for you because you don't have spark or spirit shield, but overcharge boosts may be nice for longer spirit stances and stronger skill attacks, but I suggest not dumping into them unless you have a lot of ability points to spare. Protection isn't very good unless you have extremely high mitigations (80% from gear), SV is cheaper and more effective.

Try to keep your stats balanced, but let Int trail behind a bit compared to the rest. Wisdom is always good because it means more mana.

If you want to level "fast" do IWBTH and cast weaken on everything and then just bash their faces in. You will get a lot of experience and not use much stam. If you can cast slow on them they will go down with even less difficulty. Also to level faster, post 10 times a day on the forums, it is the equivlent of 100 trained levels of adept learner, and put some points in exp tank (I know this goes against what I said earlier, but you have to find the right balance).

I will answer your questions in order first.
Usually a full set of one gear is the ideal mix because of set bonuses, if you are in full plate you will take less damage from crushing/piercing/slashing attacks and get bonus endurance and decreased burden, but you pretty much sacrifice all your evade. I am in the camp that believes that light armor is the best, specifically shade, because it provides good evasion and decent mitigation, without making your spells cost a ton.

Maces give the best survivablity because of the stun, and do good damage because of the 50% increased damage to stunned mobs, but unless that mace is ethereal it isn't going to be the "best" because of all the giants in the hentaiverse. Scythes are a good alternative because they can give a very very strong bleed that can do more damage per tick then you can normally because it bypasses mitigation.

Abilities, you should keep your tanks, hp and mana, near maxed. You used to be able to get by with just pumping exp and leveling fast, but now you won't survive long because of how powerful monsters are. As for spells, weaken can be helpful if you want to do higher difficulties. Poison and slow are helpful if you run into Bosses like Manbearpig, and haste/shadow veil are good to increase your surviveablity if you can afford points in them. Finally, spirit tanks are only mildly helpful for you because you don't have spark or spirit shield, but overcharge boosts may be nice for longer spirit stances and stronger skill attacks, but I suggest not dumping into them unless you have a lot of ability points to spare. Protection isn't very good unless you have extremely high mitigations (80% from gear), SV is cheaper and more effective.

Try to keep your stats balanced, but let Int trail behind a bit compared to the rest. Wisdom is always good because it means more mana.

If you want to level "fast" do IWBTH and cast weaken on everything and then just bash their faces in. You will get a lot of experience and not use much stam. If you can cast slow on them they will go down with even less difficulty. Also to level faster, post 10 times a day on the forums, it is the equivlent of 100 trained levels of adept learner, and put some points in exp tank (I know this goes against what I said earlier, but you have to find the right balance).

Firstly, thank you for your input but I have some follow up questions stemming from your comments.

-When you suggest light armor, do you suggest full light? No mix and matches?
-For abilities, would 1/5 points in a skill suffice or do you suggest maxing skills out always?
-What does keeping my stats balance accomplish? Shouldn't I put more points into skills that benefit my playstyle (2h-tank) more?

Again, truly grateful for the suggestions.

@AHCHEEZE

Re-learn the game. Things are different now...

Love that buktore!

Don't mix and match, you lose quite a bit if you do so, look up the set bonuses in the patch notes or the wiki.

Max the abilities always, it makes them last longer, which in turn makes them cheaper and saves you mana.

Stat balance increases surviveablity because of how fast stats get expensive. You probably want str/dex>wis/end/agi>int from what the majority says. Personally I like having lots of mana and HP so I kept my wis/end/str>dex/agi>int, but really it doesn't matter much how you put it as long as you don't just try to pour it all into one stat.

My funds are limited right now, so I'm not sure what I should be focussing the funds on. Should it be for training, buying new materials, or exchanging for hath so that I can buy Hath perks far off in the future? Anyways, I have very limited sources of income other than HV itself, so I can't just grab 200+ Hath from doing a bounty or run H@H (Computer upload speed doesn't meet the requirement). So far, here's what my spread looks like:







My Two-Handed Weapon is:
Fine Mace of Slaughter ()

My DW set:
Fine Club of Slaughter
Fine Ethereal Shortsword of the Ox

My Armor:
Average Shade Helmet of Negation (Head)
Fine Kevlar Gauntlets of Protection (Hands)
Fine Shade Breastplate of the Fleet (Body)
Fine Leather Leggings of Warding (Legs)
Superior Shade Boots of Negation (Feet)

Any tips on where to proceed from here?

I would get more training done.
Adept Learner up to 120-130
Ability Boost 40-50
and then work on maxing out Refined Aura and Pack Rat

All of those things (especially if you use your Ability Boost points in exp tanks...which I think you should) should help you level faster/stay alive longer which will eventually leave you with more money.

tl;dr higher levels make more money, so level more.

Is there like a particular breakthrough level where I start earning a lot of credits or is it just because more Arenas Challenges are open for me to do?

Is there like a particular breakthrough level where I start earning a lot of credits or is it just because more Arenas Challenges are open for me to do?

Maybe after 150/200, I don't know for sure. But higher level generally affects your credits gaining: you grow stronger -> can do more round in arenas and grindfest,... -> more credits. More arena also means more credits, especially the ones after lv 100 when you also get a trophy after clearing each challenge. You also die less -> less potions and items to waste -> saves credits. Higher arenas also seem to have better chance of having artifacts which turns into good credits.

This post has been edited by LangTuTaiHoa: Feb 20 2012, 08:07

Higher arenas also seem to have better chance of having artifacts which turns into good credits.

This is not particularly true aside from the fact that there are more monsters in the later arenas. The probability of getting an artifact from any given monster is the same.

Higher level gear also sells for more, which is a big chunk of my income

Ah, alright, that makes sense. I have a really hard time seeing the value of my items. In that case, would it better to just post all of my extra items in an auction and set a starting price to about 5k or so and see how high it goes?

Won't cost you any money, only time. They would have to be pretty good items to sell though.

They would have to be pretty good items to sell though.

Not necessarily. Some people buy junk because 1) they don't know any better, and/or 2) because its an auction. But still, most drops aren't even worth looking at.

Few items meet the cutoff for me now a days, ever since I made the equipment range page.

So generally, I should keep items with high base attack, proc chances, or ones that are ethereal, right? I know that a Mace of Slaughter with high proc chance and attack would sell for 40k+ if it's high level, but you slap an Ethereal onto that and its value increases by at least 10x.

EDIT: Also, why are Non-Ethereal Scythes desirable over Ethereal ones?

This post has been edited by wrinty: Feb 20 2012, 09:21

They are more common, and why waste an etheral tag when you only want it for the bleed

Not necessarily. Some people buy junk because 1) they don't know any better, and/or 2) because its an auction. But still, most drops aren't even worth looking at.

Don't forget the stupid people like me that collect ethereal and exquisite weapons for the sake of collecting/hoarding useless pieces of data.

Does Fenrir set give extra damage boost Soul spell or not ?

Some of my views on low-level melees (from melee friends):

1. If you're not wearing shade, then protection may be a better choice against SV.
I think aeridus have once tried that with kevlar (as a light melee), and protection works much better for heavy melees than SV practically.
I said may be, because it's a purely practical matter.

2. Scythe seems to work better with heavy melees, and mace seems to work better with light melees.
Main reason:
-> scythe's bleeding requires you to move slower, and with light armor you're going to move faster
-> mace gives you better protection, but heavy armor usually gives you enough against most mobs

3. (This one's purely personal opinion). Slow isn't worth it against normal mobs.
No I tried that as a mage, and you know we don't have interference.
Still it doesn't worth it against normal mobs, especially when you're using that with scythe.
It's a spell that's for gods, when they're out-speeding you.

P.S. And my friends are now testing estoc vs scythe. Complicated result right now as there's so many variables.

Does Fenrir set give extra damage boost Soul spell or not ?

No they don't. Only demon-fiend will give extra damage boost to soul spells.

This post has been edited by varst: Feb 20 2012, 09:46

No it does not, demon-fiend does