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I wouldn't be able to give you good advice on that since it's been forever since I last melee-ed on IWBTH.

4ever would probably give better insight.

The usual speel for a 300+ melee should ring true still though.

+(positive) mana regen even with full repertoire of IA up (definitely must have protection spell here). Feather shards (yay more mana regen) + void shard (200+ accuracy+void = must, use the void if you lack *either*) + aether (yay more mana regen) would be good as well IMO

Estoc of buttsecks

Getting a good balance of survivability+damage (use 1 or 2 awesome pieces of protection if that helps)

Absorb spell is beautiful in high level schoolgirls, esp if you melee.

As for your comments:
Not sure if Orbital really helps you since I assume the main thing slowing you down are the schoolgirls themselves. Great Cleave while stanced on them sounds good. (I forget if PA helps skill damage or not, an experience melee should verify)

Imperil probably wouldn't be necessary since PA... unless you're sporting some elemental damage... You may want to look into weaken/silence/xnerf. Finding a balance with those spells may grant you more leeway in survivability and allow for more aggressive gear.

Magic won't help you

Edit: PS. Great Stamina.

This post has been edited by Slobber: Jan 3 2013, 05:06

What's the best way to beat the schoolgirl arenas on IWBTH if you're over 300 and a 2 handed melee player, at the moment all I use is Spirit Stance and Imperil and sometimes I'll use the Friendship Cannon and Great Cleave (I don't use the other Skills cause they do almost nothing)

Surely there must be an easier way though cause doing it that way takes forever should I invest in some other spells? Maybe some Holy or Dark spells or is that pointless for a melee?

A mage with a billion upgrades should be fastest if you can get a magic score of ~75k. DW will come in 2nd as long as you only fight 1 girl at a time, 2HD seems faster when you start fighting 2 or more at a time.

It doesn't seem it makes much difference what attack I use, they all seem to take about the same number of turns/round. Going power/slaughter + estoc I cast imperial and then use spirit stance + normal attacks or OC + great cleave, they both take about the same time. Tossing in an OFC doesn't speed things up much until I fight 2-3 girls a round.

What should make a difference is doing more damage, using infusions or getting a holy/dark estoc. Having a +200% hit chance and a very high % for PA should cut 5-10 or more turns per round

(I forget if PA helps skill damage or not, an experience melee should verify)

it does, you always want to get PA before you use skills or OFC

This post has been edited by 4EverLost: Jan 3 2013, 06:07

I have 1 featherweight charm. Should I use it on armor or weapons? Or look for a piece of equipment with the most Burden & Interference stats?

I have 1 featherweight charm. Should I use it on armor or weapons? Or look for a piece of equipment with the most Burden & Interference stats?

sell it for +1000c (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

save it for when you want to try something hard

if you use it, use it on what has the most B/I.

The Orbital Cannon with Spirit Stance usually brings a schoolgirl down to about 2/3 health and followed with a great Cleave does quite a bit of damage which is what's been working best for me but even with that finishing the last bit of health and then having to restore the Overcharge makes finishing them take quite awhile.

Is a void shard gonna help any when you have 200+ accuracy already with an ethereal weapon?

Also for a Heavy armoured 2 handed melee is having all the IAs on a good idea or are some like for instance Haste a waste of time?

At the moment I have no problem with defence all I want is to be able to finish off the schoolgirls quicker but I guess maybe there isn't much you can do in terms of actual combat strategies to defeat them quicker. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

A mage with a billion upgrades should be fastest if you can get a magic score of ~75k. DW will come in 2nd as long as you only fight 1 girl at a time, 2HD seems faster when you start fighting 2 or more at a time.

You say DW is decent would you recommend Niten with a decent pair of weapons cause I've thought about trying that? and if so what would you recommend for the minimum proficiencies for DW and 2 Handed at the moment I have 200 for the lowest

This post has been edited by homicidalsage: Jan 3 2013, 05:37

The Orbital Cannon with Spirit Stance usually brings a schoolgirl down to about 2/3 health and followed with a great Cleave does quite a bit of damage which is what's been working best for me but even with that finishing the last bit of health and then having to restore the Overcharge makes finishing them take quite awhile.

Is a void shard gonna help any when you have 200+ accuracy already with an ethereal weapon?

Also for a Heavy armoured 2 handed melee is having all the IAs on a good idea or are some like for instance Haste a waste of time?

At the moment I have no problem with defence all I want is to be able to finish off the schoolgirls quicker but I guess maybe there isn't much you can do in terms of actual combat strategies to defeat them quicker. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

you shouldn't need OFC until you fight 2 girls at once. If you cast imperial, then get PA then use GC with Spirit stance + Great stamina you'll do the most damage without using too much mana. If you want to use OFC then use a full power great cleave first then use OFC or build your OC before you use OFC. 2 great cleaves then an OFC should do a pretty good job of killing her, but using 3 great cleaves could be faster.

using a void shard on an ETH weapon is still a good thing for the 50% accuracy.

having the 5th IA will help in mana costs but isn't needed. If you do have them all then use them, the only one i wouldn't put in there for melee is spirit shield since I don't need it most of the time, everything else I would and then also cast absorb, regen II, HS, and a spike that helps your element strike.

other then that stuff if you want to go faster you need to have little to no lag, don't use scripts that slow things down & use keybindings for the skills/spells you use the most.

using a void shard on an ETH weapon is still a good thing for the 50% accuracy.

Unless of course you already have 200+ Accuracy without the shard, in which case +50% accuracy doesn't do anything for you, you've already got 100% counter-evade.

By the way, if you Void Shard a Staff, does it get +50% Physical Accuracy or Magical Accuracy?

This post has been edited by PK678353: Jan 3 2013, 05:44

sell it for +1000c (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

save it for when you want to try something hard

if you use it, use it on what has the most B/I.

So there is no right or wrong? Just depend one own's preference?

other then that stuff if you want to go faster you need to have little to no lag, don't use scripts that slow things down & use keybindings for the skills/spells you use the most.

Keybindings for skills/spells? Don't you need scripts for those?

You say DW is decent would you recommend Niten with a decent pair of weapons cause I've thought about trying that? and if so what would you recommend for the minimum proficiencies for DW and 2 Handed at the moment I have 200 for the lowest

Well I need want to max my DW before 400. So doing the first 3 schoolgirls on IWBTH works great for that. My DW is @348.45 and just using an axe/rapier (they haven't been IW much and don't have much in the way of upgrades) + full power/slaughter.

DW is fast because its setup to fight 1 monster, just kill off all the other ones first.

200 prof isn't great but it will go up quick if you start using DW for the first 3-4 schoolgirls arenas. I'd still use the estoc for DwD.

Keybindings for skills/spells? Don't you need scripts for those?

ya, but it depends on what ones you use. some are slower then others.

The scripts I use are the next round one and the show gems thing. If I want to use FUS RO DAH or skills I'll use the keybindings one too. tiap's HV - Minor Additions is good for skills but i would like to turn more stuff off so its a little faster but it works.

HVstats just seems too slow even with just about everything turned off, the skill buttons are kind of nice.

Unless of course you already have 200+ Accuracy without the shard, in which case +50% accuracy doesn't do anything for you, you've already got 100% counter-evade.

By the way, if you Void Shard a Staff, does it get +50% Physical Accuracy or Magical Accuracy?

you use the Aether Shard on staffs for magic accuracy & to lower spells costs.

So there is no right or wrong? Just depend one own's preference?

yep, I only use Featherweight Shard to lower mana costs when using plate but I don't need them for most things i do. If you can do a run and still have mana pots left you shouldn't need to use the shards. (pots cost less then shards)

This post has been edited by 4EverLost: Jan 3 2013, 06:05

nvm

This post has been edited by fishinsea: Jan 3 2013, 06:27

if you're using an ethereal (new generation) weapon so you already have void damage + you already have 200 accuracy, then no need for void shard.

i think 4ever addressed it all (more/less) in post 27847

@PK i believe the void will only help with whacking

edit: as for HVstats, it is probably the script i like least simply because it's so large. it's good for statistics though. but if you want to "play", it's the worst (unless you have some godly comp)

This post has been edited by Slobber: Jan 3 2013, 07:11

I just found a the ../wiki/Equipment_Advice page so I'm reading that now but some input from a veteran wouldn't hurt.

That equip advice page is old and outdated.

If I want to use FUS RO DAH or skills I'll use the keybindings one too.

Speaking of which, will FUS RO DAH + maging work against IWBTH DwD (or any other arenas)? I just want to know if that's a probable way to do that without much hassle.

This post has been edited by varst: Jan 3 2013, 07:31

would probably be very "safe" just mages will hate having to build up 100 oc (was it?) every round they want the stun

That equip advice page is old and outdated.
Speaking of which, will FUS RO DAH + maging work against IWBTH DwD (or any other arenas)? I just want to know if that's a probable way to do that without much hassle.

anything could work but doing that is going to be slow i think.

you would have to start with max OC so you can use the skill the first turn. its damage would suck but you would be able to get in a few attacks before stun is gone.

FUS RO DAH
cast imperal (on schoolgirl)
cast weaken (if needed)
cast attack spells (target the schoolgirl)
when SG is the only monster left hit it with staff to get OC while also using ET

that seems slow to me.

how many turn per SG considered to be efficient enough?

That equip advice page is old and outdated.

I'll go make the warning bigger. . . Those 'excellent' staves in that article are bazaar food today.

Silly question but, is Heartseeker a spell that melees (heavy+estoc specifically) strive to have on all the time, or is it only used in certain conditions, like IWBTH FSM?