[X] My Assistant

Back when I first got "Cure", it costed 6 MP. Then it went up to 7, 8 and now 9.

Is there a reason for this?

Spell MP cost scales up with your level. It costs a percent of your base MP, not a flat amount.

Yes this is intentional. D: D: D:

I switched to a full-on mage and I have leftover AP I don't know what to do with (6 exactly). I have maxed HP, MP, EXP boosts. I have all of the Holy spells, the dark, and the highest level of the elementals, including the Elemental bonuses. I have all of the useful Supportive and Deprecating spells. Should I get SP tank, even though I need 15 points in it to get a third Spark activation? Should I get Soul spells? Should I sit here twiddling my thumbs?

I'd suggest working on picking up as much Elec rating as you can. Elec is your most important elemental spell, since only 2 monsters are resistant to it: Blue Slime and Mind Raper. I can do item world with nothing but Thunderstorms because my elec rating and elem prof is so high.

I'd suggest working on picking up as much Elec rating as you can. Elec is your most important elemental spell, since only 2 monsters are resistant to it: Blue Slime and Mind Raper. I can do item world with nothing but Thunderstorms because my elec rating and elem prof is so high.

Eh, so I'd probably be better off saving my AP for the next tier when I get the next level of Elec.

Current Level: 114.

Character Class: Switches between Full Plate Tank (usually for Grindfests and the Arenas), and All Cloth Tank (for now, reserved for fighting Bosses/Legendaries one-on-one in the Blood Arena; not sure if I'll ever have the nerve to take all Cloth to a long Arena).

All Stats, including "non-Tank" stats like INT, are now kept to at least my current level; one of my questions comes from the fact that HV usually leaves you plenty of extra XP to play with afterwards.

• Now that the really long Arenas are right around the corner for me, not to mention the Bosses after Mikuru in the Blood Arena, which Stat, or Stats, do you Tank Grandmasters think I should dump the most extra XP into??
  
• I have the following spells: Blind, Bewilder, Weaken, Shadow Barrier, Absorb, Silence, Regen, Cure, Cure II, Spreading Poison, and Sleep (I accidentally put a point of AP into this one instead of Slow).
  
  Which additional Spells, if any, should I as a Tank start investing into now and into the future?? And while we're at it, since I already (accidentally) have Sleep now, did I just waste an Ability Point, or should I develop this Spell further??
  
• Will any sort of other, offensive Spells ever do me any real good as a Tank??
  
• Will my PA Rapier main-hand/High parry Dagger off-hand combo continue to serve me well from this point forth....or, in your opinion, is it time for me to start looking at other Weapon Combos??
  
  (My current setup gives me approximately a 35% Parry rate, and I successfully used the PA/Poison tactic on Mikuru -even though I accidentally left the settings on Hard and she had over 180 000 HP and it took me over 400 rounds, even with Spirit Attacks.)

Has left me scratching my head because of the burden...

Mainly going rapier + dagger which is the lightest melee set I use. That or I start swinging dual handed weapons instead of duel wield.

My problem is, the burden seems high, and if I use a duel hand weapon, the burden is higher. around 50-60.

For the current defence that I included in the picture, is it worth using my current set or should I swap out something?

Monsters are getting in double hits, and it hurts. :/

Is 40 burden normal for duel wield? I don't even know if my current physical absorption is counted high or low for my current level. I even reach 50-60 burden when it comes to dual hand.

Has left me scratching my head because of the burden...

Mainly going rapier + dagger which is the lightest melee set I use. That or I start swinging dual handed weapons instead of duel wield.

My problem is, the burden seems high, and if I use a duel hand weapon, the burden is higher. around 50-60.

For the current defence that I included in the picture, is it worth using my current set or should I swap out something?

Monsters are getting in double hits, and it hurts. :/

Is 40 burden normal for duel wield? I don't even know if my current physical absorption is counted high or low for my current level. I even reach 50-60 burden when it comes to dual hand.

You're wearing light armor, so you're still going to get a bit of Burden. Your level is also too low for proficiencies to make much of a dent against it. Also, higher level gear will have higher level interference and burden than lower level gear, just like any other stat. Try switching in another piece of cloth, like silk gloves. They provide less defense, but usually give accuracy and evade bonuses and the occasional AGI/DEX since silk is the melee-type Cloth armor. I've got about 40 with my DW set with 2 cloth, 2 light, 1 heavy and I'm not optimized, I'm just wearing whatever I had in my inventory (granted, my heavy is exquisite, I have a Phase piece, and my lights are Kevlar).

The thing is. Is 9.5 absorption decent at someone my current level?

And also even if I went one heavy + 4 cloth.

I'd assume the heavy piece is normally body armor.

I haven't seen any body armor lighter than 18 burden. And most cloth pieces go atleast 3-5 burden.

3-5 burden x 4 = 12-20 burden + 18 burden from heavy = 40-48 burden, which suddenly doesn't seem a whole lot better off than what I am doing right now? Or am I assuming something wrong?

The thing is. Is 9.5 absorption decent at someone my current level?

And also even if I went one heavy + 4 cloth.

I'd assume the heavy piece is normally body armor.

I haven't seen any body armor lighter than 18 burden. And most cloth pieces go atleast 3-5 burden.

3-5 burden x 4 = 12-20 burden + 18 burden from heavy = 40-48 burden, which suddenly doesn't seem a whole lot better off than what I am doing right now? Or am I assuming something wrong?

I'm at less than 30 absorb, so that 9 sounds reasonable (I was a plate tank at your level, which was a long time ago in the age of invincible plate tanks, so I'm only extrapolating based on scaling). But at the same time, remember that I'm wearing Kevlar and Phase. Phase has no Interference or Burden, and Kevlar basically has about as much as Cloth.

And again, for every point of proficiency you have, you take off 0.25% from your Compromise (I'm knocking about a third of it off) and you gain 0.1% for your positive stats. So as you level and your proficiency goes up, Burden will have less of an effect so long as you get quality equipment with reasonable Compromise stats.

The thing is. Is 9.5 absorption decent at someone my current level?

And also even if I went one heavy + 4 cloth.

I'd assume the heavy piece is normally body armor.

I haven't seen any body armor lighter than 18 burden. And most cloth pieces go atleast 3-5 burden.

3-5 burden x 4 = 12-20 burden + 18 burden from heavy = 40-48 burden, which suddenly doesn't seem a whole lot better off than what I am doing right now? Or am I assuming something wrong?

Ok, time for a midlle-expert/amateur advice (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
First of all, I recommend anyone (no pure mage) under l50 to just level up with 1H-S set,since you can't just specialise on such low level.(because of the low proficiencies, having few XP points, and don't have spells like haste and SV which are fundamental for getting less hits)
Another thing is, cloth armour at low level, give so little mitigation/absorption/evasion points that it's almost as if you're naked.
A good block shield gives more protection than another piece of armour. At your level you can't get enough evade/parry, speed and bonus stats to make 2W/2H set being better than a 1HS set.
You're giving burden to much importance, if you are using your ethereal dagger, forget it and just level it up.
An ethereal have worst stats comparable with their "normal" twins, and just for the less burden/interference doesn't make up, their just good for engaging on non normal mobs (legendaries), because of their soul weakness. In other words, a battle-caster is better for battle-caster users (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
What I suggest is:
Get a good shield (about 25% block sounds good for your level),get a good high damage/acc rapier with, let's say 2-turn ~18% chance (don't worry about parry), and get to pieces of cloth of your hands and feet. You can have easily get ~30 interference and ~50 burden which is good at your level.
Go on high level flimsy IW/cake and just get the items for C and gain the XP.
For the 2W/2H configuration just trade the last light piece for a cloth,and use it to raise the proficiencies, nothing more. (shoot spells to raise their proficiencies as well)
At level 50 you can serious start working with 2W/2H because around this time you finally get some decent evasion and mitigation from the cloth, plus the bonus from proficiency/primary stats like cmal said.
Something like this:
(IMG:[i46.tinypic.com] http://i46.tinypic.com/6z55ie.jpg)
The plate alone have 21,33 interference and 19,98 burden, but as you can see I'm still under 25 interference and ~40 burden, and this is only a "decent" set.
For 1HS:
(IMG:[i48.tinypic.com] http://i48.tinypic.com/2mgk32f.jpg)
That's another "decent" set. (this is actually my normal 1HS), and still my Interference/Burden is lower than yours, despite my shield have 9.42 Burden and 12.88 Interference, against 0.0 from your ethereal on the off-hand.
If you somehow clone my equipment, believe me your interference and burden would raise (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

You can still try 2W/2H if you want, but you need a extremely good set to overcome a normal/good 1HS set,
that's why recommend 1HS until you get l50.
I hope this will help you, and sorry if it's a long explanation, but normally for explain something, I write that much.

Just a side note: at level 40 the mobs gonna start hitting harder (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

My best shield is a kite shield my buckler only goes up to 13-15% block. the kite only reaches just barely 20%

Kite shields are heavy. And i'm guaranteed to get double hits in. (tried and tested, 60 burden hurts)

The dagger serves the purpose of blocking hits, and not for double hits. If the second hit actually "hits" something, that's a bonus, not necessary.

It's mainly because the parry would tradeoff in return for the spectacular weight/burden a normal kite shield would give me.

My best parry dagger gives me 12% parry alone.

My best battlecaster dagger gives me 8% parry.

Scaled up (offhand bonus) gives me 18% or 12%

My best buckler is 13-15% and a buckler has the same burden more or less to a dagger. Which seems to justify the reasoning to not use a shield.

Like your gear, you have a full set of fleet silk cloth. Unfortunately, I'm missing the last gossamar piece for my shoes. I have one high evasion silk for the head, two pieces of good evasion gossamar for the body and legs, a mediocre for the hands and terrible for the feet.

In regards for 2H, it's just to get my profs up, incase I ever decide to switch to Niten. Which I never managed to test it out due to the Wakizashi problem...

The 2W was chosen not for it's high firepower (offhand striking) but rather the parry part. I rely on the 21% processing chance of PA to get the REAL firepower out, and not really the dagger offhand part.


High acc rapiers doesn't exist with high damage. Not that I've ever seen one made like that. PA proc chance and duration parts I've got covered already.

This post has been edited by hybras: Feb 5 2010, 17:33

My best shield is a kite shield my buckler only goes up to 13-15% block. the kite only reaches just barely 20%

Kite shields are heavy. And i'm guaranteed to get double hits in. (tried and tested, 60 burden hurts)

Yes, they are heavy and sure you gonna get some double hits at 60 burden.
An 1HS set is supposed to being slower, but you can take more damage. (more STR prefered)
An 2W set is to be fast and accurate and have more evasion, but each time you get a hit you take a lot of damage. (more AGI and DEX prefered)
At your level you don't have enough XP to raise some primary attributes without hurting another attributes a lot.

The dagger serves the purpose of blocking hits, and not for double hits. If the second hit actually "hits" something, that's a bonus, not necessary.

It's mainly because the parry would tradeoff in return for the spectacular weight/burden a normal kite shield would give me.

Block >>>>> parry, if %parry is about the same as %block, and you clearly haven't enough speed for to compensate the loss of protection.
Don't forget the most important stat is END and daggers don't give END like shields (also they can give STR).
END is very important since it gives you more HP points, shield, barrier,attack rating.

My best parry dagger gives me 12% parry alone.

My best battlecaster dagger gives me 8% parry.

Scaled up (offhand bonus) gives me 18% or 12%

Again, don't try specialise now, level up first (give your battlecaster dagger a rest for now)
Ok, you have 18% parry, there's 23-25% range of block in your level and that's better

My best buckler is 13-15% and a buckler has the same burden more or less to a dagger. Which seems to justify the reasoning to not use a shield.

Don't use a bucker, use a kite.

Like your gear, you have a full set of fleet silk cloth. Unfortunately, I'm missing the last gossamar piece for my shoes. I have one high evasion silk for the head, two pieces of good evasion gossamar for the body and legs, a mediocre for the hands and terrible for the feet.

I said before: "you need a extremely good set to overcome a normal/good 1HS set"
Gossamer have less evasion than silk don't use it for now (again don't try to be a battlecaster now)

In regards for 2H, it's just to get my profs up, incase I ever decide to switch to Niten. Which I never managed to test it out due to the Wakizashi problem...

It's good to maintain your prof up, and don't worry someday you're gonna find some Wakizashi.

The 2W was chosen not for it's high firepower (offhand striking) but rather the parry part. I rely on the 21% processing chance of PA to get the REAL firepower out, and not really the dagger offhand part.
High acc rapiers doesn't exist with high damage. Not that I've ever seen one made like that. PA proc chance and duration parts I've got covered already.

Maybe I was clear in this point, when I said high damage/acc, I what talking of acc +-= damage, not superior (the weapons with highest acc are "of balance" type and yeap, they don't have much damage power)

Look, shown me a picture of your stats,and your 1HS/2W set (with the weapons) so I can help more.

I'll wait and try to find a satisfactory shield of 25% then. Though like you said, I am far too low level to gain and satisfactory bonuses from my equipment to make a real difference.

A shield wouldn't give nearly enough STR/END bonuses to probably make only 0.5 of my stat bump up.

My gossamar body and head is 5.5-6% evasion at about lvl 100. scales down to 5% which is actually nearly as a decent as any silk of fleet. My pants are actually silk pants of flying already so I can't get any better there either. It's a 5.80% something scaled down to 5% again.

The thing about gossamar or silk, it's not like I'm buying gossamar on purpose. But yet again, I have emphasized I haven't found any gossamar OR SILK for the hands or shoes. It's not like I ignore the silk and only go for gossamar, it's because I haven't found ANY at all for evasion higher than 5%.

So yea. if anyone has spare 5.5-6% evasion silk or gossamar hand/shoes for sale, I'll gladly buy them. But I haven't found anything that is good enough.

From what I read, I'd assume you tell me to get a Rapier of balance to go along with a decent kite shield of 25% block and go full silk/gossamar for maximum evasion. Am I right or am I wrong?

Because the only piece of decent leather I have for protection will replace my body piece. It's a Leather of Protection which has 2.7 physical absorption and 2.4% physical mitigation. However 1% evasion. And my gossamar gives me about 4.8% evasion. I'd lose quite a bit of evasion for only a little bump up in the physical absorption department. Your ten cents on this?

I'll wait and try to find a satisfactory shield of 25% then. Though like you said, I am far too low level to gain and satisfactory bonuses from my equipment to make a real difference.

Believe me, it will make.

My gossamar body and head is 5.5-6% evasion at about lvl 100. scales down to 5% which is actually nearly as a decent as any silk of fleet. My pants are actually silk pants of flying already so I can't get any better there either. It's a 5.80% something scaled down to 5% again.

2 things here:
1-gossamer is better for casters, so between silk and gossamer at the same level of evasion you get much better results with the silk if you're gonna only mellee.
2-gossamer with good evasion but without other good stats like elemental proficiency bonus is not good.
So keep your gossamer for later, and for now in terms of cloth, stick only with silk.

From what I read, I'd assume you tell me to get a Rapier of balance to go along with a decent kite shield of 25% block and go full silk/gossamar for maximum evasion. Am I right or am I wrong?

No, for 2W you don't need a Rapier of balance, you can use someone like this or this, but 1HS it's better damage than acc.
And you still didn't listen:
2W you want maximum evasion and high speed and acc, because each hit you get, will hurt you a lot.
1HS you don't rely much on high speed/evasion/acc, you rely more in absorb and mitigation, because your get hit more often, but each will hurt you much less.
It's 2 different ways, you can use high speed/evasion/acc on 1HS but it will be worse, the same can be said in 2W if relied more in absorb/mitigation.

Because the only piece of decent leather I have for protection will replace my body piece. It's a Leather of Protection which has 2.7 physical absorption and 2.4% physical mitigation. However 1% evasion. And my gossamar gives me about 4.8% evasion. I'd lose quite a bit of evasion for only a little bump up in the physical absorption department. Your ten cents on this?

The helm and body are the parts that gives you more absorption (also more interference and burden) so I recommend 1 heavy plate piece for the body (with good stats, under ~l100 because of the interference/burden), 1 leather for the helm.
The rest high evasion silk, but attention you can lose 1% evasion if that can have more than 1 point of absorption.
In your level absorption is more important evasion/mitigation, because the mobs hit you few points (in my level a mantra can give me 400 damage which his skill, so yes, to me mitigation and evasion much better than absorption)

Like I said ~30-35interference 50-60burden is good for your level.

Now ,you didn't show your primary attributes, but just for remind you: STR,DEX,AGI,END must be on your level, END I recommend to be 2 more levels, but not more to don't hurt INT and WIS.
If their are lower, you toasted whatever configuration you have (unless pure mage), especially if your END is low.
(I'm talking without counting the equipment bonus).

I only got several double hits if I was under 80 burden, in 60 only a few, so if you get several double hits under 60, your AGI must be low.

This post has been edited by cmdct: Feb 5 2010, 22:52

How do I link to a HV item?

How do I link to a HV item?

You mean an equip?
It's easy just use the key c when you have the mouse over the equip, then allow the popup to appear (if it's still blocked).
In the new window with the equip, just copy the link to where you want to post.

How do I link to a HV item?

Didn't you read my PM?

How much burden before it would become "too much" for a tank?

How much burden before it would become "too much" for a tank?

There is no set answer to that question. It really depends on the quality (figuratively and literally) of the equipment you are using.