[X] My Assistant

Also, searches for the Soul mage query returns it as an obscure mage setup of some sort. Soul element is essentially the precursor to void element, and is the mage's equivalent of void element. Since there's no soul-elemental phases of any sort back then, they fell into obscurty even back then, only there to support holy/dark mages.

soul was discontinued and converted into void as long as i know it...

Guys have anyone of you started with a figthing style and changed to another one when you were at a higher level for any reason?

yes. i started as 2H longsword, thus converted into niten (because i thought: 'one sword, some damage, two swords FTW!'), then adopted DW to grind prof enough to give benefits to said niten. at that point i already switched to 2H estoc and mace, and was at a level high enough to have benefits from 1H, so now i use almost only 1H+power and 2H+shade (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Axe/Rapier is actually very good if you have high OP and if you're not doing PF. On BT difficulty, when using Frenzied Blow, my Axe can do ~30k (~50k if crit.) per hit on gc00018's gayish mobs but my Club can only do like ~20k (40k if crit.) on them. It takes 2 or more hits to kill a mob when using my Club too.
Maybe my Axe is a little too strong but I'd say that Axe deals like ~15% more damage than a Club of the same standard.

Club/Rapier might be the best and the most efficient combo for now seeing how Sir something and Sir etothex are using it. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Speak for yourself bud. I've been playing Axe/Rapier at the highest difficulty level from about level 225 on. The only time I change the difficulty is when I do IW.

I don't know whether the Club/Rapier is the most efficient or not but it's certainly more safer than Axe/rapier. Playing 1H (rapier) as Dovahkiin in order to use Fus Ro Dah, I can attest to the benefits of having Stun. I can be in the yellow/red zone of HP but if I can trigger the Fus Ro Dah in that moment, I can usually regain full HP without invoking Cure while attacking as usual.

about soul. It was useful for fighting Real Life. Since this was pre-ability slots, Soul magic had cheap single and an aoe that were easy to acquire. Had a separate proficiency, then later changed to be sum of half your holy and half your dark profs.

T1/2 procced a status effect that allowed you to regain spirit if you struck the affected mob (old style of today's ripened soul, without ability points cost, no multi-turn drain effect, just a simple siphon on any/every target you hit)

There was also a time when magic element explosions did massive damage so people would use the soul fire => soul burst as a combo.

Also, anyone can tell what was changed exactly to dark mages anyways?
GC-kun suggested the 'To forget the dark mages' as the next that-one bosses in mook's clothing.

the biggest hit to dark mages is the cost of spells. W/ imperil change, no mobs can have mitigations < 0. So damage across the board is relatively the same after imperiling, although Holy/dark have slightly better mitigation profile. Dark spells costs more than holy spells, and no cure bonus, so basically dark mages run out of mana faster for doing same damage.

oh yeah, another thing is more ability points needed, and higher levels. you get maxed imperil at 330, but you have to put more points for separate holy/dark imperil, and can't max that til much later. People generally expect when having to wait for such things that it'd actually be worth it.

This post has been edited by etothex: Apr 30 2014, 19:38

I don't know whether the Club/Rapier is the most efficient or not but it's certainly more safer than Axe/rapier. Playing 1H (rapier) as Dovahkiin in order to use Fus Ro Dah, I can attest to the benefits of having Stun. I can be in the yellow/red zone of HP but if I can trigger the Fus Ro Dah in that moment, I can usually regain full HP without invoking Cure while attacking as usual.

about that, exchanging your godslayer title to gain dovahkiin rank means to forget about 10% evade. but how is this evade counted? if i have 40% given by my armor, then with godslayer rank i'l have 50 or is 40% already including that bonus?

Dark mage was vastly superior but it has fallen behind a bit. Its now about third behind Holy and Wind.

I think it's last place TBH.

......and what was changed exactly to dark mages?

Before 0.76 dark was prob better than holy. There was only T1,2 for holy. But T3, Ragnarok, for dark.

There was elemental? explosions, so as elemental mage you could rotate through different elements. Start with Wind, which makes mobs weak to Elec; cast Elec, makes mob weak to Fire; Cast Fire, makes mob weak to Cold; Cast Cold, makes mobs weak to Wind. Repeat. Something like that. And Prof used to give magic damage bonus, so Staff/Cloth 'of the elementalist' was useful, and it was viable to do the elemental rotation thing.

So on to the dark story.... We used to just cast smite/banishment on mobs, which proc'd something that made them weak to dark. So then you cast Ragnarok, and the holy explosion made the damage much greater, which then proc'd something that made them weak to holy. Repeat. I would guess that smite then is today's modern-day imperil.

Speaking of imperil, dark/holy got weaker again in 0.77 after gc000018 had complained that imperil was too strong, so TEnboro kept imperil the same for elemental mage, and reduced imperil's effectiveness for holy/dark. So gc000018 basically shot himself (and the rest of us) in the foot. Oh well, I'm holy mage now. Long live the dark mage, I suppose.

edit: oh yeah, as etothex reminded me, having a mitigation floor of 0 really fucked us too. It used to be we could imperil mobs and they'd have -50 spec mit. Having a floor means there is no advantage for holy/dark in terms of mit profile.

This post has been edited by treesloth16: Apr 30 2014, 19:43

Guys have anyone of you started with a figthing style and changed to another one when you were at a higher level for any reason?

Note, this is just the information I gathered thus far and they're only for your reference. I'm not saying this is the right way (Sir Evil Scorpio please spare me) but for the cheapest, fastest, easiest, and most efficient way:

Starter:

2H - if you're doing </=BT difficulty, preferably Mace/Longsword at lower level and Estoc at higher level where you become very tankish. Domino strike is very awesome at lower difficulty where mobs are generally sitting ducks due to lack of evade and parry bonus.

1H + Light armors - if you're challenging >/=BT difficulty because the style is REALLY tankish. Though, it becomes slower and slower as you up to a certain level where mobs have shits tons of PMI (physical mitigation a.k.a. physical defense) and you need to switch to Power gears to offset that tremendous PMI.

Bandwagon Advancement:
Mage - Many high level Mages were once poor brave warriors until they become rich their PMI/EVD become high enough to be tankish to offset that natural squishiness of a Mage as their levels become higher. The reason why Mage is squishy is because Mage doesn't gain any Parry/Block bonus nor high mitigation from their setup but only some petty evade. Maging becomes exponentially harder somewhere at Lv. 200+ as you need maxed Imperil (mitigation debuff) to offset monsters' high magic mitigation. But once you get over that limit you can do much better than your melee colleague. "Mage is like a Magikarp." - LostLogia4

1H + Power - 1H is the only style that gains the access to PSS (a.k.a. pussy slayer stance permanent spirit stance). The most popular style thus far among high level melee players. They're similar to 1H + Light except that they deal much better damage at the cost of losing some evade chance which doesn't really matter since they have Block chance. Standard weapon: Rapier of Slaughter + Force Shield.

DW + Shade - Single-target killing machine. Close to 1H + Power except that it doesn't have all the awesome 1H maneuver (Counter Attack, Overhwhelming Strike, Perma-Stance etc.). Bad in doing Fest/IW but good in challenging the last 3 arenas where in half of the rounds there's 1 to 3 boss that has extraordinary huge HP pool. Standard weapon: Axe/Club of Slaughter + Rapier of Balance/Nimble

You can take a look at the damage my DW can do here:

[Condition: with 4236 ADB + 3x Penetrated Armor + Spirit stance + Dark infusion + Light infusion]
[Difficulty: Battletoad]

*A critical Frenzied Blow x 17 hits on a SG boss


*A critical and non-critical normal hit + offhand strike hit on a high Light/Dark resist SG boss


*A critical and non-critical normal hit + offhand strike hit on a low Light/Dark resist SG boss



2H/Niten + any armor - Fastest for clearing low difficulty given enough PMI (if heavy) or EVD (if light) to survive. I'm just a 2H part timer now but you can ask others about this style.

soul was discontinued and converted into void as long as i know it...
yes. i started as 2H longsword, thus converted into niten (because i thought: 'one sword, some damage, two swords FTW!'), then adopted DW to grind prof enough to give benefits to said niten. at that point i already switched to 2H estoc and mace, and was at a level high enough to have benefits from 1H, so now i use almost only 1H+power and 2H+shade (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Melee in a nutshell. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/duck.gif)

Speak for yourself bud. I've been playing Axe/Rapier at the highest difficulty level from about level 225 on. The only time I change the difficulty is when I do IW.

I don't know whether the Club/Rapier is the most efficient or not but it's certainly more safer than Axe/rapier. Playing 1H (rapier) as Dovahkiin in order to use Fus Ro Dah, I can attest to the benefits of having Stun. I can be in the yellow/red zone of HP but if I can trigger the Fus Ro Dah in that moment, I can usually regain full HP without invoking Cure while attacking as usual.

It might be part of the reasons why you switched to 1H perhaps? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/duck.gif)

As Sir etothex said, a stun is much better than slightly higher raw damage in highest difficulty to offset that Parry bonus from monster.
You land a critical hit, or when stun proc, mobs = sitting ducks and you can do a stun routine on them to charge up your Frenzied Blow / OFC.
You land a better critical hit, bleeding wound proc, mobs can still parry/evade your attack and attack you.

Again, I only speak from my experience, and I'd respect your opinion. I love axe for its sweet raw damage but my experience tell me that a club can do better in PF difficulty as rendering a mob unable to parry/evade is actually better than dealing 10~15% more damage or whatever closer.

This post has been edited by kos9494: Apr 30 2014, 20:32

Speaking of imperil, dark/holy got weaker again in 0.77 after gc000018 had complained that imperil was too strong, so TEnboro kept imperil the same for elemental mage, and reduced imperil's effectiveness for holy/dark. So gc000018 basically shot himself (and the rest of us) in the foot. Oh well, I'm holy mage now. Long live the dark mage, I suppose.

there's something i really don't understand about gc (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

Melee in a nutshell. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/duck.gif)

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) you may see it this way, yep. furthermore i also tried ethereal focus of maging for a (very) short period (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

though i was always quite 'standard' with equips, i guess the few things i miss to try are the most exotic combinations like rapier+axe+power, just to say a random one...

This post has been edited by Scremaz: Apr 30 2014, 20:15

About Soul Mages... Since I began playing after the 0.76.i... i don't know much about them too... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

But I think there's good info about them in The HentaiVerse Chat thread beginning in this post... also, this ancient page on wiki has the Soul spells listed... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

What I find interesting about them, is that never existed any equipment that boost soul damage... and the "Spiritual Proficiency" was not increased by casting Soul spells, but was the average of Forbidden and Divine proficiencies... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)


About Darks, I think etothex and treesloth16 explained all... also, I think Holy as bad as Dark... but Holy has Cure bonus and Holy spell proc make it faster than Dark...
So, in my opinion: Wind/Elec > Cold/Fire >>>> Holy > Dark... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

(this speaking about general playing... Holy/Dark still kings for marathons)

Guys have anyone of you started with a figthing style and changed to another one when you were at a higher level for any reason?

I started with 1H Light (Shield+Shortsword and Leather+Shade mix)... changed to DW Shade at ~60-70... begin to play as 2H Power ~200... changed to 1H Power at 250... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

While I was between 250-310 I was playing in all melee variants, including Niten... specifying more: 1H for PFUDOR, 2H for IWBTH & below, Niten for token farm on Hell & below and DW for RoBs & Marathons...

Meanwhile that I made 2 mage attempts at ~Lv.150 & ~Lv.265... Finally changed definitely to Mage at Lv.310 (Elec for arenas, Holy for marathons) (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Now I'm playing mainly as Holy Mage... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (but doing some tests w/ 1H at hellfests... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif) )

This post has been edited by e-Stark: Apr 30 2014, 20:49

<snip>

It might be part of the reasons why you switched to 1H perhaps? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/duck.gif)

As Sir etothex said, a stun is much better than slightly higher raw damage in highest difficulty to offset that Parry bonus from monster.
You land a critical hit, or when stun proc, mobs = sitting ducks and you can do a stun routine on them to charge up your Frenzied Blow / OFC.
You land a better critical hit, bleeding wound proc, mobs can still parry/evade your attack and attack you.

Again, I only speak from my experience, and I'd respect your opinion. I love axe for its sweet raw damage but my experience tell me that a club can do better in PF difficulty as rendering a mob unable to parry/evade is actually better than dealing 10~15% more damage or whatever closer.

I switch back and forth between 1H and DW. For any given Arena, or IW, 1H is certainly safer but also definitely slower.

I am all for it if I can cut down on my clearing time, but in order for me to do that the replacement club has to be within 5 to 10% of the axe' ADB. I've been looking for a suitable replacement club for the axe and this one as it is, is about 20% less damaging than my axe which with proper potency in IW should close the gap considerably but I am still on the lookout for a similar club with either dark or holy prefix to IW instead.

Guys have anyone of you started with a figthing style and changed to another one when you were at a higher level for any reason?

I've started with some crappy arena and gf drops, which I don't even remember now. Then I've collected some money and got a first set:

First complete set:

• Exquisite Shortsword of Focus (bought it from "Junk for IWs" section of hitokiri84's shop for 5k, lol)
• Fine Silk Cap of Protection
• Fine Silk Robe of the Cheetah
• Fine Silk Gloves of the Fleet
• Fine Silk Pants of Protection
• Superior Silk Shoes of Protection

(I bought all silk from EvolutionKing)

After some time I've switched to Dragon Hide and got a shield (finally put some money together to be able to buy some, damn it):

• Exquisite Shortsword of Focus
• Exquisite Kite Shield of the Barrier
• Superior Dragon Hide Helmet of the Frost-born
• Superior Dragon Hide Breastplate of the Spirit-ward
• Superior Dragon Hide Gauntlets of Protection
• Exquisite Dragon Hide Leggings of Warding
• Exquisite Dragon Hide Boots of the Wind-waker

(not sure about last two pieces, though, maybe I bought them later)

Between these two I've tried many different stuff, don't remember most of it.

After a while I switched to mace and kevlar (because bleed weapons started to suck really hard and kevlar was added). I've had fine ethereal mace of slaughter for a long time, but when I bought the mag one - I salvaged fine mace for materials:

• Magnificent Ethereal Mace of the Ox
• Magnificent Kevlar Leggings of the Stone-skinned (got it from noodly long before mag/leg drops and DwD addition, currently in museum with all the equipment above)
  (all other parts of the old kevlar set were salvaged for forge materials)

I used mace until ~200, after that is became too slow. I switched to estoc of slaughter, which lately was salvaged too, and then I've got my current bc estoc. Also I've slowly colllected Legendary Kevlar/Shade set, which I use now:

• Exquisite Bitchslayer of the Voidseeker
• Legendary Kevlar Helmet of Protection
• Legendary Kevlar Breastplate of Protection
• Legendary Kevlar Gauntlets of Protection
• Legendary Shade Leggings of the Fleet (dropped in the middle of T&T on IWBTH)
• Legendary Kevlar Boots of Protection

Note, this is just the information I gathered thus far and they're only for your reference. I'm not saying this is the right way (Sir Evil Scorpio please spare me) but for the cheapest, fastest, easiest, and most efficient way.

Looks okay to me.

This post has been edited by Evil Scorpio: Apr 30 2014, 21:15

On the topic of old gear. Does anyone have any filmsy clothe gear they want to get rid of?

Hey, could you please give me an advice what should I be training? Extra ability points? As well as how should I be raising stats as 2h? I know both questions prolly could've been answered via search(or even EHWiki in second case) but I honestly searched for the "Trainings" issue... No success so far :/

Yeah, case in point, here's my other Fenrir robe. Dunno why I kept spending for redundant exquisite phases...

That aside, I've scouted out Battlecaster-type weapons lately, and it looks like they lives up to their calling... except that they tend to have low EDB, not that it's common for elemental melee weapons to have high EDB in the first place, To out it in perspective, their EDB is much lower than the phase armors.

You wanna sell that? I'm hoarding armors with high PABs (4 or more)

What is PABs?

What is PABs?

Primary AttriButes: STRenght, DEXterity, ENDurance, AGIlity, INTelligence and WISdom.
the first three are tipically melee-oriented, while the last two are mage-oriented. AGI is like a jolly.

Hey, could you please give me an advice what should I be training? Extra ability points? As well as how should I be raising stats as 2h? I know both questions prolly could've been answered via search(or even EHWiki in second case) but I honestly searched for the "Trainings" issue... No success so far :/

Hath Perk:
Get Innate 1 if you have 50hath.

Training:
Raise Adept Learner if you want to rush level.
Raise Ability point if you need them.
Raise Pack Pat as much as you can.
Raise Scavenger to ~20, LotD and Quartermaster to as much as you can.
If you're after artifact, raise Archaeologist to ~Lv.6.
The rest are shits, for now.


Ability:
HP tank, MP tank, SP tank, 2H prof., Light/Heavy armor prof. (stick to one single type of armor!!!), Cure, Regen, Protection, Shadow Veil. The rest are shits if you go melee for now.


Stats:
Up your STR and DEX as much as you can. END comes second. AGI and WIS comes tier third if you're using Light armors. AGI becomes fourth if you're using heavy. INT... get it to your level-100.

Explanation on stats: STR and DEX are your primary stats to pump domino strike chance and damage, very crucial. END for HP pool and physical def, WIS for MP pool and magic def. AGI to pump attack speed/evade by utilize low burden from Light armor and to get a little more damage. INT purely for pumping your SP.

This post has been edited by kos9494: Apr 30 2014, 22:51

What's the fastest way to gain credits with HentaiVerse only?
I am worried that soon I might not be able to afford my Adept Learner upgrade.

What's the fastest way to gain credits with HentaiVerse only?
I am worried that soon I might not be able to afford my Adept Learner upgrade.

you're lv63 and lv100 costs 7k only, so you should be good to go for at least another 40 levels (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I think it's last place TBH.
Before 0.76 dark was prob better than holy. There was only T1,2 for holy. But T3, Ragnarok, for dark.

There was elemental? explosions, so as elemental mage you could rotate through different elements. Start with Wind, which makes mobs weak to Elec; cast Elec, makes mob weak to Fire; Cast Fire, makes mob weak to Cold; Cast Cold, makes mobs weak to Wind. Repeat. Something like that. And Prof used to give magic damage bonus, so Staff/Cloth 'of the elementalist' was useful, and it was viable to do the elemental rotation thing.

So on to the dark story.... We used to just cast smite/banishment on mobs, which proc'd something that made them weak to dark. So then you cast Ragnarok, and the holy explosion made the damage much greater, which then proc'd something that made them weak to holy. Repeat. I would guess that smite then is today's modern-day imperil.

Speaking of imperil, dark/holy got weaker again in 0.77 after gc000018 had complained that imperil was too strong, so TEnboro kept imperil the same for elemental mage, and reduced imperil's effectiveness for holy/dark. So gc000018 basically shot himself (and the rest of us) in the foot. Oh well, I'm holy mage now. Long live the dark mage, I suppose.

edit: oh yeah, as etothex reminded me, having a mitigation floor of 0 really fucked us too. It used to be we could imperil mobs and they'd have -50 spec mit. Having a floor means there is no advantage for holy/dark in terms of mit profile.

Nah, elemental rotation wasn't very useful after Imperil was introduced to the game. EDB contributed twice as much to damage as proficiency, so it was better to go full phase and just Imperil specific monsters. The damage multiplier for explosions also had a large range (0.5-1.5). I tried going back to my Elementalist set every now and then but the damage couldn't really keep up with phase and Imperil. Elemental's only advantages back then were very inexpensive equipment and T1 spells. Holy had T2 and T3 spells, while dark had T3 and T4 spells.

As for Imperil, it was nerfed across the board. Initially, it had -50 to elemental specific mitigation, and it was reduced to -40. Dark and Holy Imperil initially had -30, and they were reduced to -25. At the same time though, the effect of proficiency on specific mitigation was enhanced to compensate, albeit (I think) not fully for most people.

Dark really needs a special perk (like holy with Cure), or have its spell costs reduced, all the way down to match elemental, or sit somewhere between elemental and holy.

This post has been edited by n125: May 1 2014, 00:14

Dark really needs a special perk (like holy with Cure), or have its spell costs reduced

yep. pursuing the same path of HP the most similar to Holy/Cure may be Dark/Drain, would it be more useful also for melee?

This post has been edited by Scremaz: May 1 2014, 00:47