[X] My Assistant

I have no f'ing clue what I'm doing. I've been playing with it off-and-on for years, and never had a clear unified theory on how to play. I just want to kill stuff and have some fun with it >.>;

If it matters I don't usually play tank classes in most games. I'm typically a rogue-type, or caster-type.

I'm basically just looking for a unified plan that makes sense. Example:

Str:Dex:Agi:End:Int:Wis <-> 5:2:2:4:1:1
Use this Aura
Focus on this types of abilities.
Focus on this type of gear/fighting style.

I like the idea of being a dual-wielding aggressive attacker. Kill them before they can hurt me too much. That's why I've been doing hardest in str, with dex/agi/end slightly behind, and keeping some int/wis because I like to cure and save my godly health for final battles.

If it matters I've cleared First Blood in Hell,
Baby Steps in Nintendo,
Learning Curves-Test of Faith in Hell,
Road Less Traveled-Blazing Field in Heroic.

Thanks for any advise you can provide!

P.S. I plan to donate to make up for all of my leeching soon as well if it matters for how I make my build.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I haven't done anything with monsters

As a melee, you want to focus on strength and endurance as your primaries. Strength for damage and a bit of health and endurance for health and shield/barrier rating, which decreases damage (damage is decided by attack rating vs shield rating, or magic rating vs barrier rating for magic attacks). Then wisdom, which gives you mana pool and mana regen, as well as shield barrier. And you need that mana to keep your health up, especially since mana regens while you fight, but health doesn't.

Agi and Dex are less prioritized. And int isn't of very low value for a melee. You get 1 mana point every 4 int points, so you might wanna keep that in mind, so when you can buy 4 points of int for the same exp cost as 1 point of wisdom, that's where you got a good balance.

As for abilities, experience tank sucks, it does absolutely nothing. Tenboro claims that it works, but all tests made by players says that it is broken (including my own). As a melee, you want to put some points into needed buffs like shield, that increases your physical absorbtion and mitigation.
Cure is of course also vital.
You can also put some points into some deprecating spells, like weaken and poison. Both help you survive, the first one cuts enemy damage in half (more actually, since it slices it into half before absorbtion takes a bit extra off) and poison not only does damage, but also halves their mana/spirit regen so they can't use their magic attacks as often. And it also increases your chance to hit them.

Rest of your points should mostly go into hp tank and mp tank, in my opinion, with a few points shaved off here and there for various fun stuff (aura, item slots, maybe haste and shadow veil etc).
As for auras, you'll eventually get them all, but I'd say that green and red auras are best early on for a melee. But that might just be me (gives strength and endurance, and bonus physical damage as well as physical mitigation, all nice stuff for a melee).

Armor should be light or heavy, depending on preference. Probably light and go for kevlar, if going dual wielding.
Dual wielding does most damage to a single target, while 2-h can hit multiple targets and spread the damage around. And 1-h is more defensive.
A thing I did notice about 1-h though is that the counter-attack seems to do way more damage than a normal attack.

But yeah, there yah go.
Quick summary, if you got a short attention span.
Strength, endurance and wisdom as primaries.
Agi and dex secondary.
Intelligence dragging behind the rest.

Ability points into buffs, heal and some hexes for the tougher opponents (weaken does wonders against strong monsters), rest into hp tank and mana tank, to make you last longer.

Armor class that you want, and fighting style that you want.

When do monsters from the Monster Lab begin appearing in fights? I've got two, at PL 7 and 6 but can't see any evidence of them being used.

Monsters with low PL are very abundant, and so are not used a lot.
You have to get it up a bit before it starts to see action.

Players gets lots of chaos token drops, which can't be used for anything else (that I know of), so they create monsters but they spend most of their crystals on their primary one, meaning there are tons of low-PL monsters about.

Got a few questions about some abilities as I near Level 150.

Regen II: What's the difference between it and Regen? Higher duration? Heals more per turn? Or both? I'm guessing its MP cost is going to be extremely high compared to Regen much like Cure II was compared to Cure, so am I probably going to stick with using Regen unless I get Channeling?

Nerf: Since there's nothing saying that it can't stack with Silence/Weaken/etc., I assume that they can stack, but is Nerf any good? Will it make a noticeable difference, or am I better off spending 5 AP elsewhere?

Shadow Veil: Yes, I know. Not a Level 150 ability. I had long ago put a few points into it, but after not being satisfied with it, I reset my abilities and to this day, have 0 AP in it. Now that I have +20% evade with a Shade set, should put points into it again?

On a non-ability related note, which spells should I try to keep up constantly as a Light-Armor Dual-Wielder? I'm trying to conserve Mana Potions for now, so I'm not a spell heavy person. I usually just keep up Regen, while casting Haste or Barrier whenever I get Channeling and Cure when my health gets extremely low.

I'm starting to think I should go the path of a kevlar bleeder, at least for grindfesting. Shade armor is good one on one, but against multiple targets, it's easy to get shredded by the dozens (note - billions) of Giants roaming around.

Should I bother unlocking more Aura slots? I can't earn Hath on my own, so I'm going to have to eventually save up enough creds for a Rainbow Aura and the like (3 mil creds here I come!). But in the meanwhile, should I even bother with the other auras? Chances are I'm not even going to upgrade them until much, much later.

Also, how exactly do the autocast slots work? I'm interested in getting them since they seem to be made for grindfests, but at my level, I'd run out of mana by the 15th battle, easily. Is there any real advantage between casting them manually or getting autocast slots (aside from the reduced mana cost)?



HaliZorat: As a shade user wielding a scythe, I find I can keep my health steady as long as I have Shield and Regen up. Despite my very low physical mitigations (I have 20.7 physical mitigation/absorption), Shield makes a world of difference between mobs hitting me for 150-200 damage and 70-100. The high resist values on my shade armor (36.3% total atm) makes me marginally safe from magic attacks.

Still, there's just so many giants, I just want to have a kevlar set on just to keep myself alive longer in grindfests and arenas. Guess I'll have to start looking for some soon.

Now I wonder if I should spend a week or two to relocate my primary attributes to mage build and then reset my abilities to the holy mage. So, would it be of any good for me?

It depends if you can adept to mage style. If you can't, then you may need another week to switch the stats back.
Personally, I play through my arenas as a dark mage instead of a holy mage, and save my holy suits for schoolgirl marathon only.
Dark mages consumes less mana and receives less damage from monsters.

Got a few questions about some abilities as I near Level 150.

Regen II: What's the difference between it and Regen? Higher duration? Heals more per turn? Or both? I'm guessing its MP cost is going to be extremely high compared to Regen much like Cure II was compared to Cure, so am I probably going to stick with using Regen unless I get Channeling?

Nerf: Since there's nothing saying that it can't stack with Silence/Weaken/etc., I assume that they can stack, but is Nerf any good? Will it make a noticeable difference, or am I better off spending 5 AP elsewhere?

Shadow Veil: Yes, I know. Not a Level 150 ability. I had long ago put a few points into it, but after not being satisfied with it, I reset my abilities and to this day, have 0 AP in it. Now that I have +20% evade with a Shade set, should put points into it again?

On a non-ability related note, which spells should I try to keep up constantly as a Light-Armor Dual-Wielder? I'm trying to conserve Mana Potions for now, so I'm not a spell heavy person. I usually just keep up Regen, while casting Haste or Barrier whenever I get Channeling and Cure when my health gets extremely low.

Regen II: Nobody cast it without channeling, and it lasts longer and heals more per turn. Use cure when you don't have chanelling.

Nerf: It stacks with weaken/bewilder. Not sure if it stacks with silence. And nerf is useful, since it makes everything a bit better.

Shadow veil: It depends. I have about 30% evade and feels fine with it. It's a spell which works differently for different playing style, I should say.

Here i am with my stats in the order of agi/dex>end>>str>>wis>>>>int using full heavy/power armor, using a scythe. I seem to do well enough.

then again, my "effective" stats after equipment tends to be str/end>dex/agi>>>wis>>>>>>>int but hey that means i can put points in dex for hitting more often instead of in str for hitting harder. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

I generally just cure when i can, and only cast haste/regen when i get channeling (or am on the last round of arenas with one mob left, then i spam the absolute shit out of them)

Should I bother unlocking more Aura slots? I can't earn Hath on my own, so I'm going to have to eventually save up enough creds for a Rainbow Aura and the like (3 mil creds here I come!). But in the meanwhile, should I even bother with the other auras? Chances are I'm not even going to upgrade them until much, much later.

Also, how exactly do the autocast slots work? I'm interested in getting them since they seem to be made for grindfests, but at my level, I'd run out of mana by the 15th battle, easily. Is there any real advantage between casting them manually or getting autocast slots (aside from the reduced mana cost)?

Eventually you should unlock more aura, as it gives +7% exp when you get the first level. In some cases it's cheaper than getting exp training/rainbow aura.

Autocast works like: you get the spell at the start of your run, when you get less than 10% it disappears, and when you get back to 25% mana it will appear again.
The reduced mana cost is the main reason why you want that autocast as a melee.

Wait, so...it will keep draining mana per turn, or per round, or when the spell runs out and it has to recast?

Wait, so...it will keep draining mana per turn, or per round, or when the spell runs out and it has to recast?

Ah sor, I just forgot to mentioned that (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
It drains mana per turn, and you don't need to recast it.

How much mana per turn?

Monsters with low PL are very abundant, and so are not used a lot.
You have to get it up a bit before it starts to see action.

Players gets lots of chaos token drops, which can't be used for anything else (that I know of), so they create monsters but they spend most of their crystals on their primary one, meaning there are tons of low-PL monsters about.

Ah, thank you. I'll pump up the second one then. From scanning the forums it seems as though PL 25+ stands a good chance of being selected.

How much mana per turn?

Hm.....(mana to cast the spell)/(duration of the spell)
So it depends on your level and your supportive prof.

Ah, I get it now. I guess it would be in my good interests to (eventually) get those autocast slots open.

Are Soul magical attacks worth using on mass mobs? It seems kind of like a catch-all type of spell, where most monsters aren't resistant to it, but most aren't weak to it either. Seems to only be effective at blasting the Trio and the Tree.

It depends if you can adept to mage style. If you can't, then you may need another week to switch the stats back.
Personally, I play through my arenas as a dark mage instead of a holy mage, and save my holy suits for schoolgirl marathon only.
Dark mages consumes less mana and receives less damage from monsters.

The problem is: I tried to change to the mage build back @ lvl150 and it was plain bad. I could grind arena challenges on heroic like no problem as a 2H while I could not pass a single 110lvl challenge as a mage wasting all my mana potions. I dont get the Ether theft concept at all so I run out of mana VERY fast. Also I wonder if switching the element was a good idea (I used to poke Pestilence and then wipe out the whole round with Banish)

Either every goddamn monster up there has a 50%+ holy resistance already, or I am doing something wrong. My Ragnarok hits for twice as much as Banish does on almost any kind of target, and I've got 96,3% holy EDB vs 16,1% dark EDB. I burned four mana pots just to clear the Endgame on HARD and FSM on NORMAL wiped out my arse.

Please, next time I post something like "hurr hurr how'bout a holy mage" just quote me my own post and slap the grin off my face.
TY. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

i just noticed one thing

from when the interference of kevlar DOUBLED, without pumping their other stats?
it can be ok for shade items, which power acc and dmg
oh i noticed also that silk was removed....

how do you beat gods without low interference mixed kevlar-silk-gossamer armor? i hope that is not the only solution permastun them and click r for a week

well at least tenb didn't lose his habit to nerf good items ...
is meleeing still useless?

15 million EXP from Trio on Nintendo. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)
I should have made more posts yesterday. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

I dont get the Ether theft concept at all so I run out of mana VERY fast.

Kill enemies > leech from survivors > repeat
Best targets are Elementals, Humanoids and Undeads, but your mileage may vary.

I'm starting to think I should go the path of a kevlar bleeder, at least for grindfesting. Shade armor is good one on one, but against multiple targets, it's easy to get shredded by the dozens (note - billions) of Giants roaming around.

Should I bother unlocking more Aura slots? I can't earn Hath on my own, so I'm going to have to eventually save up enough creds for a Rainbow Aura and the like (3 mil creds here I come!). But in the meanwhile, should I even bother with the other auras? Chances are I'm not even going to upgrade them until much, much later.

Also, how exactly do the autocast slots work? I'm interested in getting them since they seem to be made for grindfests, but at my level, I'd run out of mana by the 15th battle, easily. Is there any real advantage between casting them manually or getting autocast slots (aside from the reduced mana cost)?
HaliZorat: As a shade user wielding a scythe, I find I can keep my health steady as long as I have Shield and Regen up. Despite my very low physical mitigations (I have 20.7 physical mitigation/absorption), Shield makes a world of difference between mobs hitting me for 150-200 damage and 70-100. The high resist values on my shade armor (36.3% total atm) makes me marginally safe from magic attacks.

Still, there's just so many giants, I just want to have a kevlar set on just to keep myself alive longer in grindfests and arenas. Guess I'll have to start looking for some soon.

Also got myself beat up by giants and other nasties in shade, so switched back to Kevlar and using shield spell (and weaken when doing random encounters and low arenas at higher difficulty).
And yes, you should unlock aura slots. You get 1 aura point every 10 levels, and there is a total of 7 normal in-game auras (not counting hath auras and stuff). Then you get the focused aura at I think lvl 60, 100, 190 and 250. Which means that at level 250, you would have 25 aura points and you would need 35 aura points to max out your auras. So you can max out the auras you want, and keep the ones you conisder less important at lower levels. But you get the bonus exp only once from an aura, that does not increase with levels.

As for auto-cast slots. I saved up my hath and was all giddy to get the perk. And then I ended up not using it.
Basically, you can put a buff spell to be auto-cast, which means that it will always be on you as long as your mana is above 10%. If it drops under that, you lose it and it gets "recast" when you get above 25% mana.
So you don't need to cast it yourself, saving you one round of action. And the cost is in upkeep, so for me, I was going negative on my mana, slowly losing it instead of gaining points.
The cost, at lvl 1 innate arcana, is just slighty cheaper than the cost per turn if you would have casted it yourself, if you divide the turns it last, with it's mana cost. With higher levels in innate arcana, this upkeep should decrease.
But for me, with just lvl 1 in it, the only thing it really did was remove the need to cast the spell, saving 1 round every 20 rounds or so.
The problem with that is, if you don't cast the buff spells yourself, you don't get any proficiency in supportive magic....

So I ended up casting it myself anyways.
But if you are lazy and doing long item worlds on low difficulty, and just need to grind through, then auto-cast makes it easy. You just need to hold down "1" for a sec, then "2", then "3".....
And no real need to cast any spells, since the buff stays on you and mobs generally don't hit hard enough.




And also, a general tip for all of you.
I'm using Firefox as my main browser. And maybe it is cluttered up with various stuff, but the load time between rounds i annoyingly long.
So I got google chrome for hentaiverse alone, since I checked around and it seemed the fastest.
Which it also is, the time between rounds decreased considerably and holding down the number button for a monster will really spam out the attacks now, making grinds go way way faster.

This post has been edited by Randommember: Aug 28 2011, 12:54

I dont get the Ether theft concept at all so I run out of mana VERY fast. Also I wonder if switching the element was a good idea (I used to poke Pestilence and then wipe out the whole round with Banish)

I only use Ether Theft for bosses and above, never for regular mob clearing (takes too long).

Either every goddamn monster up there has a 50%+ holy resistance already, or I am doing something wrong. My Ragnarok hits for twice as much as Banish does on almost any kind of target, and I've got 96,3% holy EDB vs 16,1% dark EDB. I burned four mana pots just to clear the Endgame on HARD and FSM on NORMAL wiped out my arse.

Please, next time I post something like "hurr hurr how'bout a holy mage" just quote me my own post and slap the grin off my face.
TY. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

Hm... maybe it was the Breached Defense debuff. If you were casting Banish > Ragnarok per round that might explain it. The Breached Defense (holy) and Blunted Attack (dark) debuffs lower the resistance of their opposite element (more damage) and your holy EDB improves the holy damage caused by the debuff explosion triggered by Ragnarok. Breached Defense also makes the target take more damage. And vice-versa for a Fenrir set, except the Blunted Attack reduces monster's attack damage dealt instead.

On Hard difficulty I'd be one-shotting with Purge spam, so mana usage should be relatively low. Above Hell I'd be casting Banish + Pestilence or Banish + Purge, so mana usage is pretty consistently first pot @ round 20, then 1 pot every ~10 turns after. Varies depending on gems.

Otherwise, perhaps grind proficiency and fix stat distribution. When I started my divine/forbidden prof was (current level - 10), and they capped pretty quickly. Staff and cloth profs were around 150+ (this takes forever, I've trained 5/10 Assimilator and don't bother with it). Staff MDM and auras might be a factor as well, can't tell. Great status and Arcane Focus should be up. IIRC my stat distribution at that level was (roughly):
STR & DEX: (current level - 40)
AGI & END: (current level)
INT: (current level + 30?)
WIS: (current level + 20?)

This post has been edited by Ballistic9: Aug 28 2011, 13:16