[X] My Assistant

Trying to decide which spike shield to use... Of the four status effects (-10% dmg, -10% speed, +10% miss, -10% evade/resist) that can be proc'ed by spike shields, is there any that is generally "better"?

Just go with the one that can boost the damage of your weapon.
All four effects are useless to 1h. 2h is not useful right now. DW light have good defense so only attack power is needed.

Mage won't getting much hit so all four are same. In boss fight, you will use imperil on boss so there is no different.

This post has been edited by Colman: Dec 22 2014, 19:16

While making a WTB topic would be the right end, I fear I wouldn't have the credits to follow on it.
That's why I'm asking here.

I'm a bit weak and short on time to max out my equipment as far as possible through Item World.
So I would like to know how much do you think it would cost me to ask somebody to upgrade one or several of my equipments piece.
I know I may not get the best possible outcomes due to randomness, but requesting more is not at my level.

Here's my equipment:

Superior Ethereal Rapier of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Reinforced Buckler of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Cotton Cap of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Robe of Warding
Exquisite Phase Gloves of Heimdall
Exquisite Jade Cotton Pants of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Shoes of the Heaven-sent

1H with such gears? is it working? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

While making a WTB topic would be the right end, I fear I wouldn't have the credits to follow on it.
That's why I'm asking here.

I'm a bit weak and short on time to max out my equipment as far as possible through Item World.
So I would like to know how much do you think it would cost me to ask somebody to upgrade one or several of my equipments piece.
I know I may not get the best possible outcomes due to randomness, but requesting more is not at my level.

Here's my equipment:

Superior Ethereal Rapier of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Reinforced Buckler of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Cotton Cap of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Robe of Warding
Exquisite Phase Gloves of Heimdall
Exquisite Jade Cotton Pants of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Shoes of the Heaven-sent

Ewww. Eww, eww, eww. So you're still using that set. First, I'll copy/paste my lengthy PM from November about what I thought of your set in case you forgot about it:

Woah. This build looks horrible, and here is why:
- your attack damage is LOW because it's 1H style (can use just one 1H weapon, can target only 1 monster at a time), with battlecaster suffix (not as much attack damage as Slaughter suffix), and you aren't using any armor boosting attack damage (Power or Shade), rather you are using cloth armor which doesn't boost STR or DEX at all. Moreover, Overwhelming Strikes chance depends on STR and END, not found on cloth. At least the weapon is ethereal (void damage) and a rapier (Penetrated Armor)...
- your magic damage is LOW because you aren't using a staff and phase armor. Also, your base INT is low. Elemental explosion damage is ridiculous compared to focusing on one element with an appropriate staff and phase set.
- your defense is kinda low because you are using cloth armor, which has low mitigations and no END. On the good side, you have block+evade+attack speed+stun, so that's not so bad... Although stun chance depends on Counter-attack chance which is boosted by STR and DEX, not found on cloth armor, and you could get the same benefits from using Shade armor, which has better melee stats to boot. Also, beware of one-hit kills.
- your MP is high and your mana consumption low, but it doesn't matter that much. Because you are mainly a fighter, not a mage. Also, you don't get much benefit from the other cloth abilities.
- as your attack and defense are low, you will be SLOW. Slow at killing, and needing to heal often because of your low defense + monsters having time to launch their skill attacks. I'm not talking about attack speed, which is like making the monsters slower (and thus is a defensive stat), I'm talking about real time speed.

Seriously, don't use cloth armor if you use a melee style. Cloth is designed to give mages a freaking huge magic power they can use with AoE spells to nuke everything fast while making them frail but with some evasion, glass cannon style. If you use cloth with a melee style, you are still as frail but without the power.

Your build would be a bit better if you used a Shade of the Arcanist set, to boot. But even then, you won't have the same efficiency as Rapier of Slaughter + Force Shield + Power of Slaughter set.

Secondly, don't bother too much with IW at your level, maybe just raise a few levels on your weapon. Around lvl 300, you'll be able to clear IW much more easily.

1H with such gears? is it working? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

Hmm In my opinion on the 1h with wizard armor set . when i was using hybrid set of heavy and cloth armor . the apparent spirit boost due to intelligence and wisdom helped + supportive boost from cloth armor aswell as accuracy evade and little mitigation also helped . it is after your advice scremaz that i realize that melee primary contributing PABs are strength and dexterity with agility and endurance on 2nd level wisdom and intelligence on 3rd wisdom boosting MP bar and intelligence boosting spirit bar only if i remember.

With choice of armor i believe ureader is betting on holy and divine elemental spells as well as cloth armor ability perks with most investment in agility [fast moving] (implied) and supportive spells boost.

i would recommend to go with light armor for now for ureader and ask the experts for advice regarding it.

This post has been edited by derp-z2: Dec 22 2014, 21:13

Hmm In my opinion on the 1h with wizard armor set . when i was using hybrid set of heavy and cloth armor . the apparent spirit boost due to intelligence and wisdom helped + supportive boost from cloth armor aswell as accuracy evade and little mitigation also helped . it is after your advice scremaz that i realize that melee primary contributing PABs are strength and dexterity with agility and endurance on 2nd level wisdom and intelligence on 3rd wisdom boosting MP bar and intelligence boosting spirit bar only if i remember.

With choice of armor i believe ureader is betting on holy and divine elemental spells as well as cloth armor ability perks with most investment in agility [fast moving] (implied) and supportive spells boost.

i would recommend to go with light armor for now for ureader and ask the experts for advice regarding it.

actually i'd consider DEX and END a bit above STR, but oh well, it's also a matter of tastes (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

however my bet is that he heard 1H is a style with a high MP consumption, so he tried to build a cheap but MP-tanky build with low consumption due to battlecaster suffixes, though this game doesn't award hybrid builds at all. if he really is so concerned about his mana situation, i can't help but agreeing with dan and suggesting him to go for shades of arcanist at this point: he could have either a boost to his ADB and all pools without raising his ITR - which is still a less-than-optimal choice, but at least better than way-less-than-optimal

This post has been edited by Scremaz: Dec 22 2014, 21:23

While making a WTB topic would be the right end, I fear I wouldn't have the credits to follow on it.
That's why I'm asking here.

I'm a bit weak and short on time to max out my equipment as far as possible through Item World.
So I would like to know how much do you think it would cost me to ask somebody to upgrade one or several of my equipments piece.
I know I may not get the best possible outcomes due to randomness, but requesting more is not at my level.

Here's my equipment:

Superior Ethereal Rapier of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Reinforced Buckler of the Battlecaster
Exquisite Cotton Cap of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Robe of Warding
Exquisite Phase Gloves of Heimdall
Exquisite Jade Cotton Pants of the Earth-walker
Exquisite Cotton Shoes of the Heaven-sent

Look around for some shade arcanist pieces to complement the light armor...MP shouldn't be much of a prob.

Above 200 prof is where 1h excels below that is mixed fortune

Edit: Heavy Armour might not be best before lvl250

This post has been edited by Cinnac: Dec 23 2014, 01:47

nice avatar, btw. now, that is a serious belief!

Mage won't getting much hit so all four are same. In boss fight, you will use imperil on boss so there is no different.

Lol, but I'm the mage that does a lot of bashing with my staff.

If all 4 spike shields are the same for mages, I suppose I should choose based on the element of the bosses?

Question on spirit shield. At level 20x, I have just 600-odd Spirit with maxed SP tank and SS perk. Am I doing something wrong here? The only way I see to raise my spirit further is to invest uniformly in primary attributes, which is a bad idea.

How is Spirit Shield going to help keep me alive? Something that would've one-shotted me would probably eat through my Spirit easily. And maybe it's better to be killed and let Spark of Life consume 140 Spirit than than to let Spirit Shield deplete my whole Spirit bar.

Also, what are the usual ways to replenish Spirit? I've been using Spirit pots. An alternative I've read somewhere is to wait for Ripened Soul to proc on a monster, cast Drain and get Spirit Theft, cast Silence so that it doesn't use up its Spirit... But this takes too many turns / too fiddly, and by the time that's done, the monster is probably dead already (or I am).

Lol, but I'm the mage that does a lot of bashing with my staff.

If all 4 spike shields are the same for mages, I suppose I should choose based on the element of the bosses?

Question on spirit shield. At level 20x, I have just 600-odd Spirit with maxed SP tank and SS perk. Am I doing something wrong here? The only way I see to raise my spirit further is to invest uniformly in primary attributes, which is a bad idea.

How is Spirit Shield going to help keep me alive? Something that would've one-shotted me would probably eat through my Spirit easily. And maybe it's better to be killed and let Spark of Life consume 140 Spirit than than to let Spirit Shield deplete my whole Spirit bar.

Also, what are the usual ways to replenish Spirit? I've been using Spirit pots. An alternative I've read somewhere is to wait for Ripened Soul to proc on a monster, cast Drain and get Spirit Theft, cast Silence so that it doesn't use up its Spirit... But this takes too many turns / too fiddly, and by the time that's done, the monster is probably dead already (or I am).

You have two options when it comes to Spike Shields. The first is to go with a Spike Shield that helps you avoid damage in Storm or Frost Spike Shield. I don't like Flame Spike Shield because when everything hits you and you have low PMI, shaving 10% damage off each hit probably won't prevent a Spark trigger. The second option is to go with a Spike Shield that complements your chosen damage type, since it will reduce mitigation to that damage type by 25.

Spirit is hard to raise, so you aren't doing anything wrong. The Suffusive Spirit hath perk increases your maximum Spirit by 25%, and as you level up and forge your equipment, the PABs scale up and contribute as well. But with that being said, while you don't have to raise all of your attributes evenly, you shouldn't be neglecting them all.

Spirit Theft is the only other way to restore Spirit. Generally the way you want to do it is to isolate a monster (everything else is dead), and cast Weaken and Silence on it. At this point it shouldn't be able to kill you, so you can just defend until you get as much SP out of it as desired or possible. Even if you have Spirit Theft available to you, you should still carry a few Spirit Potions. Spirit Theft is more of a fallback option, or something to use to top up your SP in long battles.

Ugh.

CODE

6    14    You have been defeated.
6    13    Your spike shield hits Bagana for 17 points of fire damage.
6    12    Bagana hits you for 174 crushing damage.
6    11    Asimo-01 has been defeated.
6    10    Disintegrate hits Asimo-01 for 11609 dark damage
6    9    Bagana gains the effect Coalesced Mana.
6    8    Disintegrate hits Bagana for 4750 dark damage (50% resisted)
6    7    Twinsenzw has been defeated.
6    6    Disintegrate blasts Twinsenzw for 12295 dark damage
6    5    Mech-gouki has been defeated.
6    4    Disintegrate hits Mech-gouki for 12223 dark damage
6    3    Zerg Mutalisk has been defeated.
6    2    Disintegrate hits Zerg Mutalisk for 8981 dark damage
6    1    You cast Disintegrate.
5    31    You gain the effect Spark of Life.
5    30    You evade the attack from Twinsenzw.
5    29    Your spike shield hits Asimo-01 for 20 points of fire damage.
5    28    Asimo-01 crits you for 151 piercing damage.
5    27    Your spike shield hits Hecationcheir for 15 points of fire damage.
5    26    Hecationcheir hits you for 119 crushing damage.
5    25    Irochan gains the effect Searing Skin.
5    24    Your spike shield hits Irochan for 21 points of fire damage.
5    23    Irochan hits you for 150 piercing damage.
5    22    Your spike shield hits Zerg Mutalisk for 75 points of fire damage.
5    21    Zerg Mutalisk hits you for 642 crushing damage.
5    20    You gain the effect Cloak of the Fallen.
5    19    Your Spark of Life restores you from the brink of defeat.

I had 1 hp after turn 5, and couldn't use Cure at the time. So I decided to just kill the mobs and let Spark activate a second time (after double-checking that I had 459 spirit (about 130% of base) and plenty of mana (so Innate Arcana should've recast Spark).

Why didn't it?

Lol, but I'm the mage that does a lot of bashing with my staff.

If all 4 spike shields are the same for mages, I suppose I should choose based on the element of the bosses?

Question on spirit shield. At level 20x, I have just 600-odd Spirit with maxed SP tank and SS perk. Am I doing something wrong here? The only way I see to raise my spirit further is to invest uniformly in primary attributes, which is a bad idea.

How is Spirit Shield going to help keep me alive? Something that would've one-shotted me would probably eat through my Spirit easily. And maybe it's better to be killed and let Spark of Life consume 140 Spirit than than to let Spirit Shield deplete my whole Spirit bar.

Also, what are the usual ways to replenish Spirit? I've been using Spirit pots. An alternative I've read somewhere is to wait for Ripened Soul to proc on a monster, cast Drain and get Spirit Theft, cast Silence so that it doesn't use up its Spirit... But this takes too many turns / too fiddly, and by the time that's done, the monster is probably dead already (or I am).

For mage, spirit shield is supposed to reduce the damage of monsters' special attack if you cannot finish everything off in a few turns. If your SP is drained by normal attacks, and/or a normal round take > 20 turns, I think you should either lower your difficulty or greatly increase your output damage.

P.S: increase your base SP will not make your spirit shield and SoL last longer. They use the base SP as factor when calculating the required SP. You need to increase the SP tank (including the hath perk) to make them last longer.
e.g. SoL always use 0.5 * base SP; spirit shield will always used < 0.25 * base SP.

I had 1 hp after turn 5, and couldn't use Cure at the time. So I decided to just kill the mobs and let Spark activate a second time (after double-checking that I had 459 spirit (about 130% of base) and plenty of mana (so Innate Arcana should've recast Spark).

Why didn't it?

SoL will not triggered when hp = 1. You should use full cure/gem/hp pot/defense in that case.

This post has been edited by Colman: Dec 23 2014, 04:18

Full-Cure will also become available at level 220. It's expensive but you can use it to pick yourself up after a Spark trigger. Carrying a Health Potion in case both Cure spells are offline is also a good idea, as is carrying a Last Elixir for dire emergencies.

You have two options when it comes to Spike Shields. The first is to go with a Spike Shield that helps you avoid damage in Storm or Frost Spike Shield. I don't like Flame Spike Shield because when everything hits you and you have low PMI, shaving 10% damage off each hit probably won't prevent a Spark trigger. The second option is to go with a Spike Shield that complements your chosen damage type, since it will reduce mitigation to that damage type by 25.

Thanks for your tips. Yeah, I sorta felt dissatisfied with Flame Spike Shield without knowing why. You answer made me think that, even if all shields eventually average out to the same, shaving a bit off everything might not prevent me from getting killed, but getting avoiding some hits might. Going along this vein of thought, I would probably avoid Frost spike shield too, because slowing down all the mobs evenly might still lead to them all hitting me on the same turn. The goal is to take damage uniformly rather than in peaks and troughs. So, I'll give Storm Spike Shield a whirl and hope it has a chance of doing so.

Since I'm a dark mage, the only Spike Shield suitable for the second option would be Shock Spike Shield, but it would not be as good as if I were an Electric Mage. Still, would -10% evade and resist debuffs be more valuable at higher levels?

Spirit is hard to raise, so you aren't doing anything wrong. The Suffusive Spirit hath perk increases your maximum Spirit by 25%, and as you level up and forge your equipment, the PABs scale up and contribute as well. But with that being said, while you don't have to raise all of your attributes evenly, you shouldn't be neglecting them all.

My base attributes are at STR 113, DEX 136, AGI 205, END 206, INT 240, WIS 240. STR and DEX don't seem very useful for a mage based on the wiki description. I could increase STR and DEX a lot more with the same 1 million exp, which would in turn increase Spirit faster. But with higher base Spirit, Spark would also consume more. So I'm not sure if raising STR and DEX would be a good idea.

Spirit Theft is the only other way to restore Spirit. Generally the way you want to do it is to isolate a monster (everything else is dead), and cast Weaken and Silence on it. At this point it shouldn't be able to kill you, so you can just defend until you get as much SP out of it as desired or possible. Even if you have Spirit Theft available to you, you should still carry a few Spirit Potions. Spirit Theft is more of a fallback option, or something to use to top up your SP in long battles.

Thanks. Is there any option to top up Mana in long battles (since Ether Theft is not available to me)? I suppose I could isolate a monster and Focus. But mages really don't build up overcharge easily.

This post has been edited by mozilla browser: Dec 23 2014, 04:35

Thanks for your tips. Yeah, I sorta felt dissatisfied with Flame Spike Shield without knowing why. You answer made me think that, even if all shields eventually average out to the same, shaving a bit off everything might not prevent me from getting killed, but getting avoiding some hits might. Going along this vein of thought, I would probably avoid Frost spike shield too, because slowing down all the mobs evenly might still lead to them all hitting me on the same turn. The goal is to take damage uniformly rather than in peaks and troughs. So, I'll give Storm Spike Shield a whirl and hope it has a chance of doing so.

Yeah, Storm Spike Shield is a popular choice. Frost Spike Shield doesn't slow down all the monsters uniformly though. Freezing Limbs won't proc on everything at once, and monsters have different attack speeds anyway. So the idea is to just stagger their turns even more. Or something like that.

I think that, with all of these procs, the effects are so subtle that you won't really notice them. You just have to believe. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Since I'm a dark mage, the only Spike Shield suitable for the second option would be Shock Spike Shield, but it would not be as good as if I were an Electric Mage. Still, would -10% evade and resist debuffs be more valuable at higher levels?

Someone worked out the math, and the Counter-Resist from Deep Burns only works out to an average of around 2~4.6% more damage. Not that great.

When you're facing high-HP system monsters like FSM or the schoolgirls, you can also turn off their resist completely by using MagNet.

My base attributes are at STR 113, DEX 136, AGI 205, END 206, INT 240, WIS 240. STR and DEX don't seem very useful for a mage based on the wiki description. I could increase STR and DEX a lot more with the same 1 million exp, which would in turn increase Spirit faster. But with higher base Spirit, Spark would also consume more. So I'm not sure if raising STR and DEX would be a good idea.

Dexterity adds Parry. Not much, but every bit helps. Avoiding damage and everything. I have something like 27% Parry and it kicks in frequently enough that I appreciate it. Dexterity also contributes to physical hit chance, which helps with getting Ether Tap going.

Strength is the most useless attribute for mages. The only thing it does it increase the damage of Arcane Blow slightly. The only use case for that, which I can think of, is having an easier time triggering that guaranteed Ether Tap by using Arcane Blow to kill a monster that has Coalesced Mana.

Personally I keep Dexterity even with Agility and Endurance, and Strength is left lagging behind those.

Thanks. Is there any option to top up Mana in long battles (since Ether Theft is not available to me)? I suppose I could isolate a monster and Focus. But mages really don't build up overcharge easily.

Ether Tap. Funnel the Overcharge from that into Focus when safe. You could also use Ether Theft if you wanted to; you'd just have to deliberately cast holy spells to proc Soul Fire. Of course, the compromise with this is that Spirit Potions would become your only source of restoring SP.

How often do you get high-grade materials from 500+ monsters? I have 502 sprite for 2+ month and get none (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) I feed him well if you want to ask...

How often do you get high-grade materials from 500+ monsters? I have 502 sprite for 2+ month and get none (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) I feed him well if you want to ask...

It is in the range of (PL-500)/1000 (might not be exact since patch). So your 502 sprite probably gives you ~2/1000 HG materials. Compared with a 600pl monster giving around ~10%.

So I can finally go RE on PFUDOR without any problem, thank you VV hath perk. Now I am about to move on to Item World, but can anyone tell me of the minimal level needed to do IW?

umm can i get an advice

so i want to buy a shade armor
which is should i choose?

A. +1 evade than B
B. +8 point STR and 0.7 MMI than A

the other stat is more or less the same

thanks

So I can finally go RE on PFUDOR without any problem, thank you VV hath perk. Now I am about to move on to Item World, but can anyone tell me of the minimal level needed to do IW?

I would recommend 250+ unless you have really good gear.