QUOTE(Vinnems @ Nov 28 2015, 19:41)
Question regarding spells for melee classes. My general play style is at the start of a battle, I cast regen, then heartseeker, and if playing on Hell of above difficulty, Protection. The rest of the battle, I just keep those ones active, never really needing Cure. I see you drop other spells, though. I never really bothered with deprecating spells (such as Weaken and Imperil), but should I look into those? Are they a necessity for longer arenas at a higher difficulty?
Necessary? No.
Helpful? Hell yeah.
The main (for me) deprecating spells for melees are weaken / imperil / silence.
Weaken makes sure that the enemies don't get critical hits on you and they do less damage.
From level 150 to the point that you have gathered your equip to be able and clear whatever you need without fear of dying, you sometimes get those monsters that can 1shot you if they get a crit. During the last arenas high difficulty "Mikuru Asahina" and it's dark attack "time quake" for example has been trouble for me for quite a while (used to have 0% dark resist), or the "Invisible Pink Unicorn" had the tendency to get double critical hits on me (till i decided to put haste on 24/24).
With weaken you avoid the critical hits and you get less damage, so some heavy monsters become easier to deal with. It's nothing special, but it's the best deprecating you get early and for "free" plus it can be good to have on tough spots.
Personally now i never use it.
Silence is the one spell i don't like.
It doesn't allow the enemy to use spells or spirit attacks. But you need to kill that/those monster/s quickly since they get to accumulate their mana/spirit bar and once silence runs out they have a lot of power gathered to rape you.
Good spell when you have very high attack power so you get your time to deal with the monster without the fear of them launching onto you big moves (their normal attacks are mostly laughable).
It's good in some cases (you used an aoe move like ofc/Skyward Sword/Frenzied Blows/etc and some monsters survived with full mana/spirit and you don't want them to use their big moves on you in order to get into the next round at full health for example, or to keep boss monsters like yggdrasil from healing the other monsters, etc). Nothing special for my tastes, but it can come in handy in non few cases.
Personally i find it a meaningless spell to use, unless if you are playing high difficulty as Niten/DW. I never use it.
Imperil.
This is the major staff.
I got to lv 300 and never used deprecating spells. Now that i'm using it i have to say i regret not having used it cause it's DAMN WORTH IT.
Gives an instant debuff of armor/magic and consider that even as melee, if you are using an elemental weapon (fiery/shocking/arctic/tempestuous/hallowed/demonic) you get both the benefits for your attack greatly increasing your damage.
For lower levels and difficulty, it's a meaningless spell to use, but when you are fighting the school girls at the last arenas or when you are fighting high endurance/defense monsters at max difficulty, it greatly increases your clear time, specially if you don't have a slaughter set.
It's not a necessary spell. As i said i got well past the level 300 and never used it. For a mage it's almost obligatory, but for melee it's not. But it does help and a lot.
It stacks with "penetration" of rapiers and estocs, thought the sum is not so great, since they don't stack in an additive way. But consider that Imperil goes in in one move, while penetration needs to prok and be stacked.
Again.. It's quite helpful for the last 3 arenas when you face the schoolgirls, but not necessary. It helps your clear time somewhat, and after level 310 greatly (after that point you can train it via abilities to the point that it affects up to 3 enemies instead of only 1).
I would highly suggest to get it and use it, but again... YOU DON'T NEED IT AS MELEE. Plus if you are not playing PF difficulty you can totally ignore all deprecating spells for ever.
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Important:
All the above is just my own point of view.
This is the place where you ask the "experts" for advice but i am NOT one of them.
My opinion on what i stated above won't change, but you better wait to listen to an expert's opinion as well.
This post has been edited by Epion: Nov 28 2015, 22:30
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Nov 28 2015, 19:49
