[X] My Assistant

For monsters upgrading, should I just upgrade all the stats just as I get enough crystals or should I be selective of what I update? I just want to know if there's like a cap for total stats, otherwise I'll just upgrade as I get them. Thanks

There is no cap for total stat.
There are cap for individual stat. i.e. : Cap for Each Primary attributes 25; Elemental mitigation 100

For monsters upgrading, should I just upgrade all the stats just as I get enough crystals or should I be selective of what I update? I just want to know if there's like a cap for total stats, otherwise I'll just upgrade as I get them. Thanks

for better results you should invest on what a monster is already strong to begin with: for example STR and END for a giant or AGI and INT for a celestial; as for mitigations, raise as much as possible what the monster is weak against

So first of all, thanks to everyone who's taking the time to help me muddle through this.

Based on what I understand so far, in order to make the credits I need to buy gear, training, and hath perks, I should be playing Arena Battles at high difficulty. I was able to make it through the first three on IWBTH, but I'm frequently getting hit with things that kill me outright and I'm not sure what to do about that. Longer arenas I just can't seem to make it through, and I'm not sure if that's a gear problem or a gameplay problem.

For example, here's a shot of some random non-boss monster hitting me for more than my max HP in a single blow:
[gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64810c584efbc8767747b3e7656deace

What that shot doesn't explain is that I'd already been insta-killed 6 times previously, burning through my starting spirit and both of my spirit potions to keep Spark of Life going. I'm keeping Spark of Life up all the time in IWBTH, but getting hit so hard that it's just delaying the inevitable. The damage type here is void, so IIUC mitigation doesn't matter, and at any rate the only way to get more mitigation is to get better armor which requires more credits which takes me back to square one. Other than the frequent instant-kill attacks I seem to be fine playing on IWBTH.

I'm attaching a couple shots of my character and equipment sheets below. Am I just too weak to play IWBTH, or am I making mistakes in my play or gearing that are resulting in these fatal attacks?

Character: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/9b120ecf859018fc5645ae1c89c2bee9
Equipment: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64ed90b06b6cde3ad076fc926aabe219

Edit: Replaced "Spirit Shield" with "Spark of Life". ^^;

This post has been edited by kryori: Feb 5 2015, 22:46

So first of all, thanks to everyone who's taking the time to help me muddle through this.

Based on what I understand so far, in order to make the credits I need to buy gear, training, and hath perks, I should be playing Arena Battles at high difficulty. I was able to make it through the first three on IWBTH, but I'm frequently getting hit with things that kill me outright and I'm not sure what to do about that. Longer arenas I just can't seem to make it through, and I'm not sure if that's a gear problem or a gameplay problem.

For example, here's a shot of some random non-boss monster hitting me for more than my max HP in a single blow:
[gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64810c584efbc8767747b3e7656deace

What that shot doesn't explain is that I'd already been insta-killed 6 times previously, burning through my starting spirit and both of my spirit potions to keep Spirit Shield going. I'm keeping Spirit Shield up all the time in IWBTH, but getting hit so hard that it's just delaying the inevitable. The damage type here is void, so IIUC mitigation doesn't matter, and at any rate the only way to get more mitigation is to get better armor which requires more credits which takes me back to square one. Other than the frequent instant-kill attacks I seem to be fine playing on IWBTH.

I'm attaching a couple shots of my character and equipment sheets below. Am I just too weak to play IWBTH, or am I making mistakes in my play or gearing that are resulting in these fatal attacks?

Character: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/9b120ecf859018fc5645ae1c89c2bee9
Equipment: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64ed90b06b6cde3ad076fc926aabe219

too soon for you, i guess. you should lower difficulty a bit (better less EXP than nothing, isn't it?)
also, keeping up spirit shield at your level is quite demanding (leaving apart th fact that it isn't very effective yet), you'd better go with spark - eventually via scrolls of life, which are quite cheap nowadays and offer you many advantages if compared with the spell. also, personally i'd got rid of that cuirass and take a power armor

So first of all, thanks to everyone who's taking the time to help me muddle through this.

Based on what I understand so far, in order to make the credits I need to buy gear, training, and hath perks, I should be playing Arena Battles at high difficulty. I was able to make it through the first three on IWBTH, but I'm frequently getting hit with things that kill me outright and I'm not sure what to do about that. Longer arenas I just can't seem to make it through, and I'm not sure if that's a gear problem or a gameplay problem.

For example, here's a shot of some random non-boss monster hitting me for more than my max HP in a single blow:
[gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64810c584efbc8767747b3e7656deace

What that shot doesn't explain is that I'd already been insta-killed 6 times previously, burning through my starting spirit and both of my spirit potions to keep Spirit Shield going. I'm keeping Spirit Shield up all the time in IWBTH, but getting hit so hard that it's just delaying the inevitable. The damage type here is void, so IIUC mitigation doesn't matter, and at any rate the only way to get more mitigation is to get better armor which requires more credits which takes me back to square one. Other than the frequent instant-kill attacks I seem to be fine playing on IWBTH.

I'm attaching a couple shots of my character and equipment sheets below. Am I just too weak to play IWBTH, or am I making mistakes in my play or gearing that are resulting in these fatal attacks?

Character: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/9b120ecf859018fc5645ae1c89c2bee9
Equipment: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64ed90b06b6cde3ad076fc926aabe219

You have Spirit Shield at level 123? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) Did a secret HV patch come out reducing the level requirement? It used to be 200.

Right now, your main improvements will come from leveling up, and less so from getting better gear, although better gear is of course nice. Use at least Superior gear though - it can be found in the Bazaar for cheap. Power armor is good for high level players who don't need to worry much about surviving (with high level comes more mitigation, max HP, longer buff durations, etc), but not so much for lower level players who do have problems with survivability. Normal superior Plate or Shielding Plate if you manage to find it will probably serve you better until you know you can survive without much trouble.

Don't be afraid to drop down the difficulty if it increases your chances of finishing the arena. Right now, your main goal is XP - then once you get to 200 or so you'll probably have the strength to play on high difficulty (more credits) as well.

When you Focus, your block and parry chances go down to 0 until the effect expires. Even at my level, I only feel safe Focusing when all mobs are stunned and there are only one or two left. It's especially dangerous to Focus when there's one that not stunned and has a full SP bar - that's probably what's taken you down to 0 many times.

not to mention that you'd better use your OC for perma-spirit stance rather than for focusing...

but man, i didn't really know these things about focus. i guess it's clear how much i use it (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

You have Spirit Shield at level 123?

Er, sorry, Spark of Life. It's a shield that soaks damage to spirit and I guess I got the name mixed up with something I get later.

Er, sorry, Spark of Life. It's a shield that soaks damage to spirit and I guess I got the name mixed up with something I get later.

uhu. well, the matter about spark of life is that you really have to cure immediately after it triggers, and it literally devours your SP tank: is something like a last resort, so if you are already using it but can't really make your way through the arena you have two choices:

• lower your difficulty: as i said earlier, better less EXP than nothing - and IWTBH is quite high at your level. you can keep it for REs though
• use a scroll of life rather than spark of life spell: you will remain with 50% of your max HP and only 25% of base SP will be used (instead of 1 HP remaining and 50% base SP used; not sure about duration but it should be a little longer as well). they are single-use though, so every now and then you should buy them

i'd suggest you the first...

IWBTH for level 123?
darn, i am weak.

Second attempt to do hellfest. Now with enchants and 21k health.

610 rounds. A bit better, bit still not so much. Btw. It looks like game req very balanced strategy. Here is example which i saw many times, but didnt think about it much. Spirit shield threshold. That huge amount of small absorbing with 4-15 sp damage. Its quite hard to disable, because main use for ss is huge incoming damage reduction. I dont wanna deal with few 5-7k attacks at the same time, so i can reduce all to smaller amount. If i take lower lvl of ss than i ll take bigger damage, but with higher lvl its sometimes very common. It looks very low, but count it. Lets say 15sp damage once per 15 turns? Ok, you got double sp consumption. 1 for spirit stance and 1 for spirit shield low threshold. After that spend all sp pots, use spirit theft and spend all mp pots even faster. Also during cast get damage and spend additional mana for cure, get another damage and its something like small trap. Whole run suffers from only 1 unbalanced thing.

This post has been edited by nec1986: Feb 6 2015, 00:28

Oh, one other thing: if you have a lot of Pack Rat, Focus isn't necessary, except maybe on very long 100+ round arenas. If you train Pack Rat as high as possible (if you haven't already), that'll help you immensely, much more than spending the same credits on equipment.

Post your equipment links if you want.

Does anyone know what the option "Record monster skills" does in HVSTAT? I am assuming it is broken which is a shame.

It is supposed to write to a database but the file is always empty:

ID NAME SKILL_TYPE ATTACK_TYPE DAMAGE_TYPE LAST_USED_DATE

Oh, one other thing: if you have a lot of Pack Rat, Focus isn't necessary, except maybe on very long 100+ round arenas. If you train Pack Rat as high as possible (if you haven't already), that'll help you immensely, much more than spending the same credits on equipment.

Post your equipment links if you want.

My equipment is intensely uninteresting. Just the best junk I can scavenge from the junk heap.

http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...key=9f9690e78ac
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=b461d94775
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=8ab8238501
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=53e01e6f1e
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=6e163b567c
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=aa4b9c829c
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=9025938e45

The trouble is that Pack Rat is very expensive relative to superior armor and mana potions aren't very effective for me. With 140ish interference I'll blow through 25% of my mana on a single Regen, 75% on a full stack of buffs, and with low damage that stack of buffs wears off in one or two battles. If I'm going for more than 20-30 rounds I need Focus during the early rounds to make sure I have the mana potions left for later rounds.

I've tried a few things. Tried power armor replacements for my previous Crude/Average gear to speed up my killing speed and diminish the number of rounds those buffs are dragged out through, but 1h damage is low and single-target so it didn't help much. Tried getting some shielding plate to combine with that power armor to spread the love a bit but my 1h skill is low enough that I can only counter once per turn, and my block/parry/counter stats don't reliably get me a counter every turn.

If I don't use Focus I blow through all my mana potions in ~50-60 rounds at most - I can just barely manage Longest Journey and Dreamfall on Hell but I'm down to zero potions at the end, and that's with liberal use of Focus for the first 30 or so rounds. I could pay 30k for the next Pack Rat and get another 1-2 rounds in there, but I've been trying to get a new chest, helm, and feet instead since it seems like they'd make a bigger overall difference. I could see how the difference would be exponentially bigger once my Supportive proficiency is higher and my buffs last much longer, or if my interference weren't out of control due to the heavy armor / shield combo, but if I'm potting every couple rounds once there are 7+ monsters on the screen and it takes me 80+ turns to kill them all, is Pack Rat still a good investment?

Its more or less good, but the reason is other. You have low level (it means low stats, proficiency and so on) compare to high difficulty. F.e. for me regen cost only 182mp (13.3% of overall mp) and duration is 90turns (135 with haste). And i dont even use cure much. So you need better power (attack and defense and sup duration and so on) and mostly you ll get it with leveling.

And probably very soon with so high exp gain.

My equipment is intensely uninteresting. Just the best junk I can scavenge from the junk heap.

http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...key=9f9690e78ac
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=b461d94775
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=8ab8238501
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=53e01e6f1e
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=6e163b567c
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=aa4b9c829c
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=9025938e45

The trouble is that Pack Rat is very expensive relative to superior armor and mana potions aren't very effective for me. With 140ish interference I'll blow through 25% of my mana on a single Regen, 75% on a full stack of buffs, and with low damage that stack of buffs wears off in one or two battles. If I'm going for more than 20-30 rounds I need Focus during the early rounds to make sure I have the mana potions left for later rounds.

I've tried a few things. Tried power armor replacements for my previous Crude/Average gear to speed up my killing speed and diminish the number of rounds those buffs are dragged out through, but 1h damage is low and single-target so it didn't help much. Tried getting some shielding plate to combine with that power armor to spread the love a bit but my 1h skill is low enough that I can only counter once per turn, and my block/parry/counter stats don't reliably get me a counter every turn.

If I don't use Focus I blow through all my mana potions in ~50-60 rounds at most - I can just barely manage Longest Journey and Dreamfall on Hell but I'm down to zero potions at the end, and that's with liberal use of Focus for the first 30 or so rounds. I could pay 30k for the next Pack Rat and get another 1-2 rounds in there, but I've been trying to get a new chest, helm, and feet instead since it seems like they'd make a bigger overall difference. I could see how the difference would be exponentially bigger once my Supportive proficiency is higher and my buffs last much longer, or if my interference weren't out of control due to the heavy armor / shield combo, but if I'm potting every couple rounds once there are 7+ monsters on the screen and it takes me 80+ turns to kill them all, is Pack Rat still a good investment?

do you cast your spells while in spirit stance, and possibly the most expensive ones with channeling? it should already be enough to cut your mana cost by a good 25% overall
also, do you slot all the abilities you can take advantage of (especially HP/MP/SP tanks and better potions)?
and if you need better gears go visit either FreeSHop or the (almost) free section of my shop.

last but not the least, have you ever tried 2H mace? it should still be useful for you for some levels...

For example, here's a shot of some random non-boss monster hitting me for more than my max HP in a single blow:
[gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/64810c584efbc8767747b3e7656deace

Awww, good job, Erio-chan (๑❛ᴗ❛๑)♡ I'm sorry.

Awww, good job, Erio-chan (๑❛ᴗ❛๑)♡ I'm sorry.

How d'ya make something hit that freakin' hard anyway? o.o;

Most of my other "one shot" deaths were more "one round" deaths where two 2-3k spells went off at once. This one just came out of the blue. Barely even tickled with normal attacks, wait what's she doinSPLAT.

May as well learn monster design while I'm in here, right? Gonna need that later...

Lots of chaos tokens in Brutality.

do you cast your spells while in spirit stance, and possibly the most expensive ones with channeling? it should already be enough to cut your mana cost by a good 25% overall

Yeah, but if I'm going a large number of rounds I'm on a lower difficulty so it's really just a matter of casting Regen once or twice per round. The problem is less the casting cost and more the low duration (thanks to low proficiency) combined with my low damage (probably also thanks to low proficiency). I typically don't use anything other than Regen and Protection to keep my costs down, but my clear speed it just... molasses.

also, do you slot all the abilities you can take advantage of (especially HP/MP/SP tanks and better potions)?

The ones that matter, yeah. All the "tank" skills, better mp pots, the 1h and heavy armor skills, and my support spell buffs. Shown here: [gyazo.com] http://gyazo.com/c63482744d2463e3c44c89d313f34489

and if you need better gears go visit either FreeSHop or the (almost) free section of my shop.

Freeshop I tried a few days ago, nothing yet. Might've done something wrong there, don't know, didn't get banned, but also didn't get a response. Just checked your shop though so yay- didn't know there was anything under the million range on there, there are pages of people selling legendaries and I gave up after looking at the top 10 or so shops, figuring everything was way too rich for my blood.

last but not the least, have you ever tried 2H mace? it should still be useful for you for some levels...

I started with 2h mace / light armor. Actually have some rather nice gear for it, I think:
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=fec268697a
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=9d3c875bc5

Only one problem; I got the shit kicked out of me. It was bad. I don't mean like broken bones bad, I mean like someone get a squeegee bad. 1h I can just about manage IWBTH on, but 2h's reliance on evade / parry for avoidance made it hard for me to get past Nintendo without risking being outright splattered. The 2nd 2h skill did pathetic damage and eventually I just gave up on that strategy entirely in favor of getting my proficiencies up for 1h/heavy. 1h really seems to be the only workable option for melee - 2h would need to hit about 1.5x as hard in order to get the clear speed to the point where you could mitigate damage through offense. Maybe it's different when you get 2h parry at 250, but then 1h gets 1h block #soyeah.

The trouble is that Pack Rat is very expensive relative to superior armor and mana potions aren't very effective for me. With 140ish interference I'll blow through 25% of my mana on a single Regen, 75% on a full stack of buffs, and with low damage that stack of buffs wears off in one or two battles. If I'm going for more than 20-30 rounds I need Focus during the early rounds to make sure I have the mana potions left for later rounds.

I've tried a few things. Tried power armTror replacements for my previous Crude/Average gear to speed up my killing speed and diminish the number of rounds those buffs are dragged out through, but 1h damage is low and single-target so it didn't help much. ied getting some shielding plate to combine with that power armor to spread the love a bit but my 1h skill is low enough that I can only counter once per turn, and my block/parry/counter stats don't reliably get me a counter every turn.

If I don't use Focus I blow through all my mana potions in ~50-60 rounds at most - I can just barely manage Longest Journey and Dreamfall on Hell but I'm down to zero potions at the end, and that's with liberal use of Focus for the first 30 or so rounds. I could pay 30k for the next Pack Rat and get another 1-2 rounds in there, but I've been trying to get a new chest, helm, and feet instead since it seems like they'd make a bigger overall difference. I could see how the difference would be exponentially bigger once my Supportive proficiency is higher and my buffs last much longer, or if my interference weren't out of control due to the heavy armor / shield combo, but if I'm potting every couple rounds once there are 7+ monsters on the screen and it takes me 80+ turns to kill them all, is Pack Rat still a good investment?

Lower the difficulty some. On Battletoads the monsters will do 2x damage instead of 2.5x damage (quite a big difference) as well as having less HP.

Pack Rat is well worth it, even if it seems like just a few less rounds of Focus. You can get all the basic Superior/Exquisite equipment you want from Freeshop/Bazaar/other players for almost nothing.

How d'ya make something hit that freakin' hard anyway? o.o;

Most of my other "one shot" deaths were more "one round" deaths where two 2-3k spells went off at once. This one just came out of the blue. Barely even tickled with normal attacks, wait what's she doinSPLAT.

May as well learn monster design while I'm in here, right? Gonna need that later...

It's either a Sprite or Celestial - they have Void SP attacks, and those SP attacks also do significantly more damage than the SP attacks of most other monsters (150 and 120 power vs normal power of 100 for SP attack). Heavy armor users are weaker to Sprites and Celestials because they have next to no Resist (reduces magic damage taken) compared to players with other types of armor.

Chaos upgrades also increase monster damage by up to 50%.

Physical attacks of other monsters are less dangerous to heavy armor users because heavy armor has slashing/piercing/crushing mitigation, as well as a good amount of standard physical mitigation.

Freeshop I tried a few days ago, nothing yet. Might've done something wrong there, don't know, didn't get banned, but also didn't get a response. Just checked your shop though so yay- didn't know there was anything under the million range on there, there are pages of people selling legendaries and I gave up after looking at the top 10 or so shops, figuring everything was way too rich for my blood.

I had the same experience with Freeshop. For those who would like to get decent gear ASAP and play HV, Freeshop can take too long (they're run by only a couple volunteers after all).

There are a number of shops with heavily discounted / free gear, aimed for those under level 200/250ish like yourself.

Check your inbox if you haven't already.

I started with 2h mace / light armor. Actually have some rather nice gear for it, I think:
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=fec268697a
http://hentaiverse.org/pages/showequip.php...;key=9d3c875bc5

Not really... base pxp 278? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Attributes could be twice or 3 times higher.. still, there's a fundamental problem with the style compared to 1h - even high level players can have trouble on high difficulties if they aren't using 1h. Block is just so much better.

This post has been edited by Superlatanium: Feb 6 2015, 01:27