[X] My Assistant

Level has nothing to do with it. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

The reason is much simpler than that: Player got buffed + RoB monster got nerfed... It took me about a thousand turns to kill FSM on normal at 122 using specialize equipment, and this was after he got nerfed (resist bug was introduced when Tenb upgraded HV a few weeks before this fight) ... I didn't even try to fight him before this nerfed, since my chance of winning is so slim... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

Player's level still have the influence. Think about Nerf, Spirit Shield and Heartseeker/Arcane Meditation for example. It was a pain to deal with FSM without this things (Nerf and Heartseeker for me).

*Which of these is best for a lvl 200+ mage? Should one go for elemental for the cheaper spells, or go straight to holy/dark/soul spells? Or is it almost a must to get all, and vary your gear depending on the type of battle?

Elemental for non-bosses. The rest for bosses.

Too bad, I ran out of token... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

and ways to make it faster is always appreciated.

DW: Club & Rapier + a few Infusion of Divinity.
Armor: Shade with high damage bonus or Shadowdancer. You don't have to care about defense stats.
Spells: Haste, Weaken or Silence, Slow, Poison.

What to do

- Buff & Debuff
- Use Infusion of holy
- Keep whacking him
- Once his SP is almost full, use Scroll of life / Spark / Silence
- Regen & Cure when needed
- Use Infusion of holy
- Keep whacking him
- Use Infusion of holy
- Keep whacking him

** This is for low lv. player. For higher lv player: add more buff-debuff to your liking.

I second lowering your INT. Since you are not caster, you get more benefits from putting points into all your other stats. But because INT does increase your mana for every 4 points, it's still good to invest some in it. I usually keep my INT around 30-35 points below my WIS. The reasoning is because at 30-35 points below, the cost of 4 points in INT would be equal to 1 point in WIS in terms of increasing your mana. If you want to be really accurate, just make sure you invest points in the cheaper of the following two choices:

1. Total exp cost for 4 points of INT
2. Exp cost for 1 point of WIS

Example: If it costs me a total of 60,000 exp to increase INT by 4 and it only costs 58,000 exp to increase WIS by 1. Put the exp towards WIS. Now the next WIS point will probably cost more than 60,000. So the next time I have the exp, I'd put it into 4 points of INT.

(Sorry to butt in while you guys are so busy discussing FSM.)
I've been browsing and saw this. Which is wrong I believe.

I get the reasoning, and you're probably right while being a little off. I've been arranging my stats as well these days and I came to the conclusion to leave it at a 1:3 ratio not 1:4.
Because every WIS point raises your Magic Points by 1, except for every fourth point (before MP Tank Modifier). So you get 0.25 MP per INT and 0.75 MP per WIS. Which puts it to a "3 points of INT would be equal to 1 point in WIS" instead. In terms of mana points anyway.

I've been allocating my stats evenly for hundreds of levels so I'm trying to optimize them instead.
(rounded down for convenience)

evenly distributed:
STR 16%
DEX 16%
AGI 16%
END 16%
INT 16%
WIS 16%

And what I'm doing now is to optimize this without losing any stats I need. (Well quite frankly I could go lower with INT, since WIS gives better bonuses like mitigation, regen and resist. But this isn't a good idea. Lowering INT beyond a point to increase WIS even further will result in lower mana points. You'll start to trade more and more INT points for 1 WIS. Which isn't worth it. Obviously.)

So lowering INT and increasing WIS to a point where 1 MP from INT costs the same as 1 MP from WIS is the ratio I want.

current distribution:
STR 16%
DEX 16%
AGI 16%
END 16%
INT 8%
WIS 24%

What I need next is to do something about END. Unfortunately I can't lower either DEX or AGI, I'm phase melee so I need the avoidance stats. My defences are like.. non-existant.
And END is kind of useless to me. Except for HP.
There's no health regen in battle, so that's out. Physical and magical mitigation are low priority with my equip.
So should I decrease END and put the exp in DEX and AGI instead? I'd be losing HP though. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

So should I decrease END and put the exp in DEX and AGI instead? I'd be losing HP though. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I too, feel like spending 5 mil+ exp on a mere 10 HP (and 0.07% damage mit) just isn't worth it anymore. I've left my END where it's at, since I'd rather take the action speed and 0.04% evasion bonus over the tiny health and mitigation bonus. The growth of END HP relative to your HP just gets lower and lower, whereas additional Action Speed is always welcomed.

This post has been edited by CrazyFlame: Nov 2 2011, 20:16

I prefer single element focus to frontload as much damage on the first strike as possible. If you're building a new set though, you'll probably be mixing and matching anyways as you won't be able to fill all slots.

Sorry for the necro-quote, but is it possible to front-load as much damage on the first strike as possible that you can clear rounds in one turn on higher difficulties--say, Nightmare and up? Or is the idea to kill as much as possible on the first turn?

At this point, it takes me about two turns to clear a round. So for End of Days and higher, and maybe even lower arenas, I was thinking about making an all-Fenrir suit with the idea that the money shot happens on the second turn. On the first turn, I would cast the relatively cheap Purge (ideally against a monster weak to Holy), and on the second turn, I would cast Pestilence or Ragnarok on a monster with CM. The second spell would be backed by EDB from the suit, Breached Defense, and trigger additional damage by exploding Breached Defense. Hopefully that would be enough to clear most rounds, barring cleanup with Magic Missile or the presence of a Legendary or something. But if it's possible to stack your damage to such a degree that you can clear rounds in one turn, then it's probably safer the safer option.

Oh, and when making an EDB suit, should the staff's suffix be Destruction, or should it match the suit's element?

I wouldn't really expect to consistently 1-shot on any difficulty other than normal. And yes, more kills -> less incoming damage.

I haven't used my Fenrir suit too much, but I prefer Ragnarok > Purge. Ragnarok has a 100% chance to apply the dark debuff, so you have a mini AOE Weaken in addition to a guaranteed explosion next round.

As far as damage potential goes, Destruction > EDB-suffix > Proficiency-suffix, but it really depends on the staff's stats and the rest of your gear.

Pestilence has a 80% chance of causing Blunted Attack, which is usually enough for most things.
I only use Ragnarok as the opening spell on BT and higher, where virtually anything can kill you.
Using Ragnarok constantly will drain you of your mana very fast, though.

@n125:
Add some words about front-load damage.

For your strategy you'll need to achieve either of these two conditions; otherwise you're at risk of some easy deaths.
1. You're way faster than most of the monsters, so you're not getting many counter-attacks after you've casted the weaker spell.
2. You're playing at a difficulty that you won't die even if you get counter-attacks after casting the weaker spell.

For the first condition, I would say it's fairly difficult to achieve right now after lv.200; with those user-made monsters dominating, it's a task to achieve. (and you've to consider the haste nerf)
And considering that purge is a tier-2 spell (which requires more time to cast that tier-1 elemental spells), it seems to me that it's not a good choice to back-load damage.

For the second condition, it may actually work in IW. But then I can easily go through a 200-level IW on hard with pestilence, there's not much reason for me to try back-loading.

About one-shot everything;
I would say it's fairly impossible now for higher-difficulty (nightmare or above), since monsters have way more resistance than before.
For heroic or below....well sometimes I can one-shot with pestilence on heroic in IW, but it's an unstable strategy.

@Ballistic9
About staffs:
Remember what Ichy/sushi0 have once talked about that EDB staffs have higher actual damage output? (I mean those with very good status)
I may have some reasoning behind.

Now, before that base damage is introduced, INT/WIS affects your magical rating, staff affect a magical damage multiplier, and EDB clothes gives you EDB bonus.
It means that INT/WIS and staff has separate effect in the magical formula, which looks like this:
(magical rating)(1+ MD multiplier)(1+ EDB)(1+elem. prof.)
And since we don't naturally gain that MD multiplier and EDB bonus, it's better to use EDB clothes and high MD multiplier (destruction staff) in order to gain the most cross-term effects in the damage formula.

After the introduction of base damage, however, INT/WIS and staff MDB now directs to the same modifier called 'base damage'. The formula now looks like
(base damage)(1+EDB)(1+ elem. prof)
Notice that base damage and elem.prof. now grows naturally with your level, while we still don't have any natural EDB.
It probably means that at some level, the effect of increasing base damage (from destruction staff) may be smaller than the effect of increasing EDB, because of that cross-term effects.
At what level? I have no idea right now. It may require tons of calculations and assumptions.

Fiddling around in my spreadsheet, Exq. Destruction staves still look pretty good @ Lv315. Though I must say it's nice to know what INT & WIS actually do now.

the only exception would be magni+ edb staves imo. the MDM's are actually decently comparable with destruction staves and the EDB covers the rest

Suggestions please, I have no idea which way to go...

And my attachment didn't work.

[postimage.org] (IMG:[s3.postimage.org] http://s3.postimage.org/aaogtqdnz/stats.jpg)

This post has been edited by zeh_lp: Nov 4 2011, 00:26

I'm nearing completing 60% of training (I'd be there now if it weren't for my current massive amount of assignments) that relates to drops (so Scavenger, LotD, Archeologist, and Quartmaster), and I can't really decide what to train afterward.

My options are:
Ability Boost (currently 40/100)
Assimilator (currently 0/10)
Adept Learner (100/300)
Scavenger (30/50)

I list Scavenger because it seems to rise in cost at a much lower rate than the other 3, so I could probably squeeze another 2-3 levels in there before I think it's getting "too expensive for now". Ability boost for Spirit Tanks and Overcharge, Adept Learner... just cause, and Assimilator for raising my Supportive Proficiency faster. So, suggestions on which to train first after reaching that 60% mark?

Don't waste your time with Ability Boost?

Don't waste your time with Ability Boost?

Let me guess, Artifacts?

Assimilator for at most 2 ranks. Then go for AL for another 30-40 ranks. Once you get all the things you need from level 200's abilities, AB gets increasingly pointless.

Is this coming from the perspective of a mage? Cause I'm pretty interested in having physical damage boosts from Overcharge (while they last) and they take a bit of AP to complete, even without Ability Boost.

This post has been edited by HaliZorat: Nov 4 2011, 05:49

Yes but the damage boost is fairly weak and it's expensive given the amount of AP needed. You get slightly less results from the extra proficiency gains of Assimilator but it'll also boost all other profs. You can get AP with AL training whilst getting faster levels.

Either way AB seems to have the least benefit from where you are atm, IMO.

This post has been edited by Maximum_Joe: Nov 4 2011, 06:06

A few levels in AB goes a long way early on. Once you start hitting the range where there isn't a new ability tier every ten levels and you can get a good number of Artifacts, it becomes a less profitable investment.

@zeh_lp Personally, if you're keeping up the melee way, everything except Int and Wis should be the same as your level. Int should be way lower then Wis. Int is only useful for mana points. As a rough guide, only increase Int when the exp for 3 int is smaller than 1 wis. Ability point wise, dump everything into HP and Mana tanks, and those item/aura things at the end of every tier. Shadow veil is also nice