[X] My Assistant

Read about Soulbound items & item proficiency. When is it a good time to do either of these?

You should only soulfuse items that you know you'll be using for a while. That usually means Mag or even Leg quality, preferably with good prefix/suffix combination. Good examples would be Rapiers of Slaughter and Force Shield/Buckler of the Barrier with high Block (~36 base) for 1H players. It is generally advised to save your Soul Fragments early on and only spend them once you've settled on a particular fighting style. Also keep in mind that Soulfusing allows you to make use of equipment that is up to 100 levels above you (which will require more Fragments!), so I'd say don't soulfuse below lvl 200, preferably 250.

As for item proficiency, I'm assuming you are talking about Item World (IW): getting your weapon to IW10 will grant you Void Damage & Void Strike (Non-Ethereal) or an additional Elemental Strike (Ethereal weapons). Either will be a significant boost to your Damage output, so getting a weapon to IW10 is a reasonable thing to do (unless you will be replacing that weapon soon anyways). You can do the IW by yourself (suggested only if you can handle Nintendo or higher difficulty) or pay someone else to do it (item must be tradeable --> Soulfuse AFTER IW10 if you chose to go with IW Service).
In case of armors, IW will not be necessary in most cases, especially at low and medium levels. Getting potencies like Juggernaut (+2% HP per potency) will be both time consuming and expensive and should only be done if one actually needs it (read as: Mages, GF players), so don't bother with that fow now.

Out of the 4 drop chance training, which one should I invest in?

Out of the 4 drop chance training, which one should I invest in?

you can skip luck of the draw at first

The other 3 you can train all of them a bit. As much as you can affort.

Hello,

Reached 110 today, and I'm looking for some tips on my HV mage. As of now, I've been using mostly elemental magic (and cure, of course).

Here's my stats and gear: imgur.com/a/dzvgZ

My questions:

- Am I doing this right ? What I mean is, is Elemental magic ok in the long run, or to be effective later, I'll need to switch to Forbidden or Divine ?

- Should I try to get a decent gear and soulfuse it, so that I can keep it ? Gear is my real issue, I have no idea what kind of gear I should try to get. Most of the time, I get only crappy things as loot, and the Bazaar is selling only crap or items lvl 350+, that I can't wear...

- Still on gear, about the armor. What stats should I focus on ? Evade/Mitigation ? Or go full glass canon and try to get a boost to my offensive spells ? Or a boost to my attributes (Int/Wis) ?

Hello,

Reached 110 today, and I'm looking for some tips on my HV mage. As of now, I've been using mostly elemental magic (and cure, of course).

Here's my stats and gear: imgur.com/a/dzvgZ

My questions:

- Am I doing this right ? What I mean is, is Elemental magic ok in the long run, or to be effective later, I'll need to switch to Forbidden or Divine ?

- Should I try to get a decent gear and soulfuse it, so that I can keep it ? Gear is my real issue, I have no idea what kind of gear I should try to get. Most of the time, I get only crappy things as loot, and the Bazaar is selling only crap or items lvl 350+, that I can't wear...

- Still on gear, about the armor. What stats should I focus on ? Evade/Mitigation ? Or go full glass canon and try to get a boost to my offensive spells ? Or a boost to my attributes (Int/Wis) ?

Well... I hate to break the bad news for you, but...

No. You're not doing this right.

Element mage is good if you are at least lv 320. You need Imperil skill to make it work. And you need a 6m hath perk called eminent elementalist. and a staff worth at least 3m or so. Other styles of mages are the same story, only more expensive.

For gear: You need to play as high difficulty as you can. That will yield more credits. And better drops, which you need. So, at your level you can best go for 1h light or, as I did, 1h heavy. That means, you need a rapier. Exquisite if you can find one. And then at level 200 you need power armors.

But that's just advice, you can always play at low difficulty.
Good luck!

Hello,

Reached 110 today, and I'm looking for some tips on my HV mage. As of now, I've been using mostly elemental magic (and cure, of course).
[...]

As has already been mentioned, playing as a mage from early on comes with some serious drawbacks and is not the recommended way if you want to grind fast and efficiently. However, keeping in mind that HV is a game and you should choose whichever style is most fun to you in the first place, here are some pointers on how to make mage work:
- Firstly, stick to one element only. It may seem appealing to rotate between more powerful spells of different elements at first, but you'll get better damage output from focusing on a single Element and boosting its damage output.
- Secondly, pick the right staff: Redwood works for all Elemental styles, Willow can be used by Wind/Elec mage and Oak may work for Fire/Cold. Never use Katalox for Elemental mage.
- Staff prefix/suffix: prefix should match your element (e.g. Fiery for Fire Mage, Shocking for Elec Mage, ...) and suffix should be one of the following: Destruction, Elementalist or EDB-Suffix for your Element (Surtr, Niflheim, ...)
- Armors: Usually "4+1" for Elemental Mage, meaning 4 pieces of Phase gears matching your Element and 1 piece of Cotton with "of the Elementalist" suffix

You may also check the HV wiki for further info, a good start would be here

This post has been edited by Rhydin: Dec 9 2016, 23:20

Besides Archaeologist, Quartermaster and Scavenger, which one do you think I should upgrade first?

And should I max 300 Adept Learner before all of that?

Besides Archaeologist, Quartermaster and Scavenger, which one do you think I should upgrade first?

And should I max 300 Adept Learner before all of that?

I heard that adept learner gets some insane price increase past 250 or so. Try prioritizing adept learner then when it gets more expensive compared to drop chance, level those up too. Maybe up until half of the max level.

I think it was ppp or scremaz who said that spending too much on drop chance levels past a certain point isn't really worth it (like maybe before the halfway point? idk). It's only considered a credit sink for people with lots of creds. There's also grindfest so I guess you'll need Archeologist 7 or 8 + crystarium 3 or something

Besides Archaeologist, Quartermaster and Scavenger, which one do you think I should upgrade first?

And should I max 300 Adept Learner before all of that?

You should upgrade luck of the draw at least to level 10, one of these days you could get a nice piece of equipment for yourself or auctions

I heard that adept learner gets some insane price increase past 250 or so. Try prioritizing adept learner then when it gets more expensive compared to drop chance, level those up too. Maybe up until half of the max level.

Not gonna happen, ever.
AL MAX cost is 49.999, drop trainings get past 50k very early (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)
Just max AL and keep the drop trainings at the 50k threshold, at least.

I think it was ppp or scremaz who said that spending too much on drop chance levels past a certain point isn't really worth it (like maybe before the halfway point? idk).

A bit more.
But it's related to how much time you spend to pay it off.
Scavenger 50 pays off when you drop at least 51M worth of drop, for example.
Scavenger 30 pays off after a couple of millions.

Not gonna happen, ever.
AL MAX cost is 49.999, drop trainings get past 50k very early (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)
Just max AL and keep the drop trainings at the 50k threshold, at least.
A bit more.
But it's related to how much time you spend to pay it off.
Scavenger 50 pays off when you drop at least 51M worth of drop, for example.
Scavenger 30 pays off after a couple of millions.

Ah thanks for clearing that up.

Maybe once I'm done purchasing gear I guess I'll get back to levelling up my drop chances... if I ever complete my set :x 4 down, 3 more stuff to buy (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

just curious here , it's a good option or not to upgrade crushing mitigation for mage ???

This post has been edited by nobody_xxx: Dec 10 2016, 14:33

is parry % on slaughter rapiers an important factor in the value of rapiers around my level?

is parry % on slaughter rapiers an important factor in the value of rapiers around my level?

a nice plus imo. worth to lose a few ADB, if you can have a boost in Parry.

When going for the Æsahættr HatH series,

Do those percentage increases show up in your Attack Base Damage?
Or just calculated in during the attack?

When going for the Æsahættr HatH series,

Do those percentage increases show up in your Attack Base Damage?
Or just calculated in during the attack?

It's invisible, your stats screen won't change, but the battle log will have larger numbers.

When going for the Æsahættr HatH series,

Do those percentage increases show up in your Attack Base Damage?
Or just calculated in during the attack?

only during the attack. and they don't stack with each other, they are only the cumulative value you'll unlock.

just curious here , it's a good option or not to upgrade crushing mitigation for mage ???

I'm not too sure it'll be worth the investment. I'd assume the most common standard attacks would be Piercing type, as they exploit the weaknesses of both Mages and Shaders. Therefore, Crushing Mit would only apply in less than 1/3 of the attacks at all. It may hold some value against high PL giants, but I'm not too sure how much of an issue they really are with low AGI and WIS (-> low speed and resist).

Basically, for defensive options I'd go with Evade and pMit first and only worry about Crushing Mit after that.

I'm not too sure it'll be worth the investment. I'd assume the most common standard attacks would be Piercing type, as they exploit the weaknesses of both Mages and Shaders. Therefore, Crushing Mit would only apply in less than 1/3 of the attacks at all. It may hold some value against high PL giants, but I'm not too sure how much of an issue they really are with low AGI and WIS (-> low speed and resist).

Basically, for defensive options I'd go with Evade and pMit first and only worry about Crushing Mit after that.

nonetheless i'd still upgrade it until HG Cloth are needed. if nothing else, still a handful of cheap PXP

only during the attack. and they don't stack with each other, they are only the cumulative value you'll unlock.

Thank you! (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Edit: Also -> Thanks also to Super. I missed your post.
Considering it was before Scremaz, I don't know how. But I did just see it.

Thank you!!

This post has been edited by RoadShoe: Dec 11 2016, 22:56