[X] My Assistant

How exactly is that bonus applied? Is it +10% of your base mana or is it after the calculated totals of mana tanks?

After mana tank is applied.

All I really do is arenas on Heroic or Nightmare, so I would be tailoring a suit toward that purpose. I would imagine that End of Days and higher would require a different suit, but that's still too far away to worry about right now. It's kind of hard to decide not knowing how the proportion of monster types changes after 200. That chart makes Holy/Dark or Dark/Soul really tempting.

EOD's not that far away from your level. You probably need heimdall/fenrir suit to pass that.
Proportion doesn't matter, as holy/dark has one definite advantage over any elemental rotation: most monsters are either weak to holy or dark, and those who're resistant to both (elemental) don't have tons of hp.
Which means they're good for two-shoting pass higher-difficulty arenas.
You correctly point out the disadvantage though; holy/dark's so mana-demanding, you probably need to use more mana if you're trying to one-shot everything for IW/CF/GF.

It's a multiplicative bonus, it doesn't matter when it's applied.

After mana tank is applied.
EOD's not that far away from your level. You probably need heimdall/fenrir suit to pass that.
Proportion doesn't matter, as holy/dark has one definite advantage over any elemental rotation: most monsters are either weak to holy or dark, and those who're resistant to both (elemental) don't have tons of hp.
Which means they're good for two-shoting pass higher-difficulty arenas.
You correctly point out the disadvantage though; holy/dark's so mana-demanding, you probably need to use more mana if you're trying to one-shot everything for IW/CF/GF.

I see. Thanks. I guess I'll be shooting for that then.

Got a long ways to go in terms of hath collecting though. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

What would be the best loadout to kill FSM in Ring of Blood?
I normally use a kevlar of protection set, but I got a leather of Spirit-ward set just for the occasion.

But what to use for a weapon?
I'm normally 2H, using a non-ethereal mace, but 2H's biggest advantage is the domino strike, which is no value against FSM. 1H is out of the question, since that would require heavy shield armor, which I don't wanna train up in, to get full advantage of the block.
So I've been toying a bit with DW.
I've been going real classic, with rapier and dagger, for the simple reason that the rapier is the only really good 1-handed ethereal weapon that I have, and that void damage would bypass FSMs resistance to all other forms of melee damage, and the dagger for it's high parry value.

But the other day I played around a little with crysfest to gain some proficiency, and then I used a longsword of illithid, to suck some mana and cast a few extra spells.
And noticed that bleed does quite a bit of damage, since it is increased by your proficiency.

And I do have this little etheral longsword. Would the bleed damage make it do more damage than the rapier+dagger? Since the rapier+dagger would have not only the penetrated armor but also the off-hand strike, to increase it's damage.
And the parry, hit and crit chances are also lower for the longsword.
Also my 2H proficiency is much better than my 1H.

Or should I even go with my main mace, and that stun will still win out in the end, due to the bonus damage and no hits from FSM?


Or should I go with a pair of clubs instead, going DW with off-hand strikes but still have stun?

What would be the best loadout to kill FSM in Ring of Blood?
I normally use a kevlar of protection set, but I got a leather of Spirit-ward set just for the occasion.

But what to use for a weapon?

Ethereal club or ethereal mace are the best choice. FSM (like all other mobs) have no resistance to Void, and Stun keeps you protected from the attacks and increase your damage.

This post has been edited by Evil Scorpio: Oct 31 2011, 23:23

div infusion + rapier + club is best imo. club being on main hand ofc

Ethereal club or ethereal mace are the best choice. FSM (like all other mobs) have no resistance to Void, and Stun keeps you protected from the attacks and increase your damage.

Yes, that would be the best. Unfortunately, I don't have either, so I have to work with what I got until Snowflake feels gracious enough to give me a ethereal mace for the noodly appendages.
Which means I gotta kill a whole bunch of FSM before getting that which I need in order to get it. Catch 22.

div infusion + rapier + club is best imo. club being on main hand ofc

I go through too many divine infusions if I'm going to rely on them, since I aim to kill FSM daily.

This post has been edited by Randommember: Oct 31 2011, 23:34

Yes, that would be the best. Unfortunately, I don't have either, so I have to work with what I got until Snowflake feels gracious enough to give me a ethereal mace for the noodly appendages.
Which means I gotta kill a whole bunch of FSM before getting that which I need in order to get it. Catch 22.

You can try to get it from this auction. Tiap is selling ethereal club and rapier there.

If you have an Ethereal anything decent (Axe, Rapier, a really good Shortsword), then you could do that in your mainhand and a non-ethereal club in your offhand. If your Dual Wielding proficiency is good enough, you can keep stun on one enemy most of the time even on your offhand (although FSM's so fast you may need to slow him to get good uptime).

The PA and Bleed certainly don't hurt.

That's how I used to do FSM before I found an Ethereal Club.

the infusions just speed up the process. unless your damage is total crap, the club+rapier is the best combo since it'll give you huge damage on dw. cheapest way is to just bleed+block the fsm since he's so bloody fast. won't be a fast kill though

This post has been edited by dcherry: Nov 1 2011, 00:10

All this talk about FSM is making me very nervous about fighting him myself. Assuming I ever get the Tokens, should I hold off on fighting him until I'm at a higher level? I don't foresee having enough Divinity Infusions to take him down (currently have 16), and I'm likely not going to be able to get my hands on an Ethereal anything.

he's not that hard if you have spirit shield. but prior to spirit shield he's a pain. with spirit shield you can tear him apart easily with almost anything.

I remember doing him without spiritshield, was a pain having to recharge spirit with soul reaper so my spark of life could stay up. Atleast ET on FSM is really really high

Hey, I was going through the calculations for avoidance and I was wondering if shadow veil was really worth it? I use one handed with light armor and I was going through the wiki to see if all my parry/block/evade was worth it.

I know all the stuff is multiplicative, but I was wondering if its like that for each piece of equipment also. If not, then it seems shadow veil does give me an extra 10 percent to not get hit, So its like one in 10 attacks, I think its active for 24 turns, so if I round it out, casting it will save me from 2 and a half attacks. But if I have haste on, I won't get attacked as much anyway.

I am trying to switch to mage though, and I know it slows my action speed with the stronger spells, but I'm basically just wondering if it was worth the mp. If anything, I'm thinking probably not worth it now, but when I get the higher level magic it will be.

edit: also wondering how protection works. I'm pretty sure its still worth the 1 ability point, but I've been looking over the wiki extensively to see whats worth what. It doesn't exactly explain everything. Like should I add the 25 percent to each equipment? Is it for both absorption and mitigation? I know without it, I shave off about 40 percent of the damage. (only did calculations for crushing type damage).

Thanks everyone.

This post has been edited by smilejb: Nov 1 2011, 08:48

@coykili yeah when i first fought FSM it was without spirit shield. too me a *long* time since i constantly had to ripen him up to keep spark active.

@smilejb as a mage that can't nuke everything in 1 round, i rely heavily on my evade+shadow veil+spirit shield otherwise there's nothing stopping the monsters from tearing me a new one

e: *can't nuke everything on nintendo in 1 round. on normal i can more or less nuke everything 1 shot. can't say the same about hard (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

This post has been edited by dcherry: Nov 1 2011, 09:01

I can nuke everything in 2 rounds on normal. Still working on my proficiencies. Honestly, not really sure if a staff is really worth it. I know the proficiency gains are pretty good, but I'll do the calculations for that later. (kind of like being able to block/parry). Probably will use a dagger of the nimble to go with this set up later. For now, my ethereal will have to do because my interference is so high.

What are your stats compared to your level? I try to keep endurance at 1 higher than my level. Strength has to cost about a quarter of endurance (just for the health. Dexterity and agility are at 50 for the bonus, so I'm pretty much dumping them now. Whats left of my experience I spend on wisdom and try to keep intelligence a quarter of the cost.

Unfortunately, intelligence is still kind of low compared to my level, so I'm thinking about keeping it the same as endurance.

quick edit, just compared my one hander outfit to my mage outfit. As far as avoidance goes, the one hander is better. But that may be because I have spent some good credits on some of my one hander equipment where as my mage outfit is everything I found.

This post has been edited by smilejb: Nov 1 2011, 09:29

my stats don't go by level. i go by exp ratio...

currently trying out (amount = exp cost)

DEX = base amount
STR = dex * 1.5
AGI = dex * 4
END = dex * 3
WIS = agi * 2 (so it'd be dex * 8...)
INT = WIS * 1.5 (so it'd be dex * 12...)

in the end it's not like there's a magic formula that everyone should be going. just go with what you want, assuming you go with the general rule that Int + Wis is king for a mage and dex does almost jackshit

This post has been edited by dcherry: Nov 1 2011, 09:37

well I wasn't sure what to base endurance on so thats why thats to my level. And yea, dexterity hardly does anything for mages. I left agility and dexterity at 50 (equipment and artifact gains already included there), just for the extra 2 percent to evade and parry. Thinking about it now, its probably not really worth it.

I am a little surprised that your agility is higher than your endurance though. But as you said, there is no general rule except for int and wis.

Thanks, I think I have an idea of what I want to do. I mostly do the ratios too btw, but I mostly kept magic and physical ratios separate.

Oh, and as much as I want to be a mage, I think for the ring of blood I'll just switch back to melee. Extra health, save mana for cures, etc.

the agi is important if you value action speed. the +evade is a nice bonus as well. i'm currently sitting on 30%+ evade before SV which helps a lot in my nintendo arenas - especially since i'm a pin cushion (it's better for me to avoid things than to rely on my flimsy phase gear to protect me)

once you clear each RoB once for the clear bonus and establish some decent mage gear you can roast FSM daily with ease. schoolgirls/lower will only take a few shots from a mage with the right spells. mages benefit most from 1v1 against bosses since they have ET to "recharge" their mana

For FSM I just bring lots of good mana potions and keep it Silenced and poisoned. It takes a while but as long as you make certain silence is always on it's not much of a threat. Keeping it stunned a lot helps too.

My highest clear is only on Heroic, but I haven't had much trouble once I figured out Silence worked better than Spark of Life. Haste, Protection, Silence, Poison, and Cure are pretty much all I use on it.

Actually getting some good light armor would be nice, but that's not going to happen for a while. So I'm stuck with plate for now.

Though I'd like to get a good rapier/estoc of the banshee to see how good spamming Spirit Attack works.

This post has been edited by Drawde: Nov 2 2011, 00:25

(IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

Am I missing something here: Why would you want to keep Silence and Poison on FSM? Just for the reduction to its evade chance? I don't remember Poison's DoT being all that great, and halving its MP and SP regeneration rates is moot since Silence is on.