[X] My Assistant

From the wiki:

Scrolls
These grant supportive spell effects when used and last a long number of turns. Can be used with their respective spells but the effects do not stack.

Can anyone confirm this?
After using a Scroll of the Gods and a Scroll of the Avatar I immediately noticed a tremendous increase in performance.

I can't confirm, but maybe it means the effects of the Scroll and the respective spells don't stack. Effects of different scrolls might still stack.

Avatar and Gods have different effects, they can't stack (or they always stack, depending on how you see it).

I have a question:

I think this item I just got from the Shrine is pretty decent, but can you grandmasters give me your opinion:

[Fine Power Helmet of Protection]

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

I just gotta ask a few questions, hope you guys do not mind.

Can people actually do the higher difficulty? IWTBTH Seems almost impossible even for just one fight.

Is burden below 100 still ok? With heavy armor I have had like 80-90 burden. Is that a problem?

Lastly my stats say I should hit an enemy 80 percent of the time and yet I do not seem to hit the enemy that often at times. Can someone explain?

At your level, don't even bother with IWBTH. At the very least, you should be able to handle Hard.

Burden above 20 means reduction in action speed for every point above that. Having low Burden is pretty difficult in Heavy Armor, but it's more meant for you to be able to take more hits rather than attack quickly.

Attack accuracy is not reflected properly by the stats of your character. I currently have 92.8% accuracy, and I still find myself missing far more often than I would like.

magic/attack accuracy becomes a complete lie at higher levels--there are a large amount of monster evades and parries (through DEX/AGI) and resists (through END/WIS) that register as "miss" and are not counted as part of your base miss rate. Heartseeker and Arcane Focus can reduce this from happening, but not by 50%.

I'd prefer if accuracy bonuses reduced miss rate and monster evasion simultaneously, but monster stat-induced misses are something that seems to be unavoidable.

This post has been edited by Bunker Buster: Nov 17 2011, 20:10

I have a question:

I think this item I just got from the Shrine is pretty decent, but can you grandmasters give me your opinion:

[Fine Power Helmet of Protection]

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

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

I just gotta ask a few questions, hope you guys do not mind.

Can people actually do the higher difficulty? IWTBTH Seems almost impossible even for just one fight.

Is burden below 100 still ok? With heavy armor I have had like 80-90 burden. Is that a problem?

Lastly my stats say I should hit an enemy 80 percent of the time and yet I do not seem to hit the enemy that often at times. Can someone explain?

Sorry for the double-post, but this question, I wanted to answer:

Before all of these updates, back in HV 0.5.0, people could easily do Battletoads on every playable arena and IWBTH on every arena before the Level 100 arena. People could get to round 3500+ in Grindfest with the right equipment and spells.

Now, it is much harder. I usually play on Normal for longer arenas and Item Worlds and Hard for Arenas and Item Worlds with fewer than 50 rounds because of the fact that if I tried it on higher difficulties, I would be in too much trouble. If I were you, I would stick to Normal for most everything you do that involves >35 rounds and Hard for everything involving fewer than 35 rounds. That should make you get good experience (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

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

Generally you want Balance and Slaughter power armor, but if the ADM/crit bonus is higher for you than currently go for it.

This post has been edited by Bunker Buster: Nov 18 2011, 00:58

Thanks for the help (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

'Sup guys?

Have been trying to get better at HV, but things look gloomy lol, so I decided it was time to ask some more experienced players.

Don't know really where to start, so I'll post my character's stats and equip.

Stats

[imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/20vEys.jpg)

Abilities

[imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/Wg5hEs.jpg)

Auras

[imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/qdlpVs.jpg)

Equip

Fine Shortsword of Slaughter

Superior Buckler of the Nimble

Superior Plate Helmet of Warding

Fine plate Cuirass of Protection

Superior Plate Gauntlets of the Spirit-Ward

Fine Plate Greaves of the Spirit-Ward

Fine Plate Sabatons of the Thrice-Blessed

So...

The idea when I started was to have some sort of tank, you know, sword and shield and stuff lol, so I totally forgot about nukes and offensive spells (not the deprecating ones though, I need those lol), and went instead for supportive magics.
This explain the stats, with INT being horrendous since its bonuses don't seem good enough for my gameplan.

The question here is: can this work? Or it's a "so bad my head actually hurts" build?

Asking because I don't really feel my character is good enough. Yeah I know I'm low level, my equip is some random trash from top players I picked from the Bazaar etc, but I really seem to struggle.

When doing Grindfest (on Normal, doing once per day since I don't really want to play without the 'Great' status), even if I'm not trying to get as far as I could (lately I've been bringing with me 1x greater health pot, 2x greater mana, 3x superior mana, 2x godly mana), I always seem to wall around the 80th round.
At about round 50 monsters begin ripping through my flesh, and my brainless tactic (cast Protection, slash your way through things paying attention to mana and casts, heal yourself, cast Haste or Shadow Veil if Channeling procs, rinse and repeat) becomes worthless.
So I start popping Haste and Shadow Veil too, but then I burn mana like crazy (heavy armor sure doesn't help, my Interference stats just kills my proficiencies), and by round 80 I'm out of restoratives and just die miserably. :E

Arena wise, I don't really have any problem, but that's if I don't go overboard witht the difficulty. Here's my poor record:

[imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/n5lMds.jpg)

I always do higher level arenas on Hard (I increase the difficulty level for lower ones, like less than 15 rounds), I can do them fairly quick, without vaporizing my mana potions stocks.
Hard seems good because I hardly ever die, and I can't really afford that on 1000 C arenas.
Atm I don't really care about setting better records, I'm sure there's room for improvement even with the current equip - but not when it comes to 40+ rounds stuff lol.

Don't really know what to do, for now I'm aiming at leveling, wanna challenge the legendaries (I'll have to ask in the legendaries thread for advice, I'm pretty sure they'd just annihilate me even on Normal lol).

So... Any kind of advice? Would really love to hear from the veterans!

Was thinking about trying some DPS (slaughter + power stuff) build, but I'm afraid I'll just get cut into pieces on longer runs, monsters hurt so much and that kind of equip seem to lack defense/mitigation.

Damn I'm sorry, wrote too much! (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

Just a quick question if someone's willing.

What are the exact circumstances for spirit shield failing to protect you? I'm sure I'll find out eventually but I'd rather just know now

-Vakuen

This post has been edited by Vakuen: Nov 18 2011, 05:59

What are the exact circumstances for spirit shield failing to protect you? I'm sure I'll find out eventually but I'd rather just know now

Take a look at the wiki.

This protective veil activates for powerful blows that damage more than 25% of your max HP, absorbing the remainder as spirit damage.
Any attack that hits for more than 25% of your max health will cause you to lose exactly 25% of your health, with the remainder absorbed as damage to your spirit.
The amount of Spirit damage depends on the power of the blow that was absorbed, and is 40% of base (reducible to 20% at max AP) for blows that would otherwise take off 100% or more health, linearly reducing to 0 at exactly 25% damage.
The spell will fail if you don't have sufficient Spirit.

See if you have further problems. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Spirit Shield itself only fails to serve its purpose when you don't have enough spirit from what I understand.

However, if by fail, you mean, under which circumstances does the Spirit Shield not help you, then it's when enough enemies hit you hard enough all in one turn. (So, 4 enemies hitting for more than 25% of HP or 8 enemies hitting for an average 12.5% of your HP).

EDIT: Annnnd, beaten again, of course. XD

This post has been edited by HaliZorat: Nov 18 2011, 06:09

It's happened to me a few times actually. For instance, say you have 10 spirit left. If the hit coming at you would normally take out 50 spirit and 25% of your health, all 100% of the damage will go through instead. Your 10 spirit will be *spared* and your shield will fail. I've died a couple of times because of this.

e: in the above example even if I had 45 spirit left (or 49 even) I'd still be fucked and I'd take that hard hit head on

This post has been edited by dcherry: Nov 18 2011, 07:45

So that's what it was. I was looking at the battle log several times and it showed that the spirit shield did not even activate even though spirit was left. I was somewhat displeased since I had removed my points from spark of life and I had expected spirit shield to take care of everything.

Four enemies is enough eh? Sounds like you still need spark if you want to do high difficulty and large mobs on long arenas.

-Vakuen

Why does nobody respond to actual newbie posts (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

I always do higher level arenas on Hard (I increase the difficulty level for lower ones, like less than 15 rounds), I can do them fairly quick, without vaporizing my mana potions stocks.
Hard seems good because I hardly ever die, and I can't really afford that on 1000 C arenas.
Atm I don't really care about setting better records, I'm sure there's room for improvement even with the current equip - but not when it comes to 40+ rounds stuff lol.

Don't really know what to do, for now I'm aiming at leveling, wanna challenge the legendaries (I'll have to ask in the legendaries thread for advice, I'm pretty sure they'd just annihilate me even on Normal lol).

So... Any kind of advice? Would really love to hear from the veterans!

Was thinking about trying some DPS (slaughter + power stuff) build, but I'm afraid I'll just get cut into pieces on longer runs, monsters hurt so much and that kind of equip seem to lack defense/mitigation.

Damn I'm sorry, wrote too much! (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/anime_cry.gif)

General:
Due to the simple fact that buffs expire, defense at the cost of offensive capability is usually a very bad idea.

Since you're a plate user, you generally want Power Armor as that makes more out of your slower swing timer and increases the chances for a one hit kill, preventing them from attacking in the first place. (level 150+ and above most monsters will get 2-3 hits out of your every turn easy.) Fine+ Power Armor that isn't Slaughter or Balance is typically priced well on the WTS forum and won't kill your credit account.

If you want to switch armor classes to light (good luck) I suggest going for Shade armor (preferably Shadowdancer/Fleet) first and Kevlar when you're short on cash (it's typically low priced on the WTS forum due to low demand)

Also, ditch the shield and get cracking on a 2H weapon, unless you're going for boss fights, in which case dual wielding can be better (but it completely lacks the round speed of 2H weapons, especially when your proficiency goes over 100, not to mention that DW's offhand attack benefit caps far, far earlier than Domino Strike does.)

As melee, you pretty much increase every stat equally except for INT, which you can lag about 50 points behind since it contributes nothing to your general use of spells and only serves to boost your mana pool (deprecating, curative, and supportive do not benefit from INT)

Bosses:
Once you get Silence (that's a fair bit away, mind) it's pretty much a matter of attrition between your items, weapons, and the bosses since they shouldn't be getting off any spell. On 1000c reward attempts you're going to want a void weapon of some sort to keep a high damage per hit without needing to resort to infusions or scrolls.

Difficulties:
I suggest only doing the earlier arenas on high difficulty (Nintendo and above), because there's typically only 1-3 enemies and they can possibly bring your equipment drop loot quality to Superior by cranking difficulty up to Battletoads. (IWBTH is generally not worth it due to it taking 2.5x the time for ~1.25x the loot quality)

This post has been edited by Bunker Buster: Nov 18 2011, 16:07

Why does nobody respond to actual newbie posts (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

Thanks for helping me out Bunker, it's great to hear from experienced players!

I know it's newbie stuff, but even having read a few times several pages on the wiki, there's still so many things I can't figure...

About the points you made:

General:
Due to the simple fact that buffs expire, defense at the cost of offensive capability is usually a very bad idea.

Luckily enoguh I've never done that since day one, tbh I don't get why one would waste a turn to defend...

I mean monsters are gonna try to hit you anyway, don't they? Maybe it might work in some desperation scenario, where you hope for a counter to get to the next round? I dunno, maybe I'm missing something... :E

Since you're a plate user, you generally want Power Armor as that makes more out of your slower swing timer and increases the chances for a one hit kill, preventing them from attacking in the first place. (level 150+ and above most monsters will get 2-3 hits out of your every turn easy.) Fine+ Power Armor that isn't Slaughter or Balance is typically priced well on the WTS forum and won't kill your credit account.

If you want to switch armor classes to light (good luck) I suggest going for Shade armor (preferably Shadowdancer/Fleet) first and Kevlar when you're short on cash (it's typically low priced on the WTS forum due to low demand)

Also, ditch the shield and get cracking on a 2H weapon, unless you're going for boss fights, in which case dual wielding can be better (but it completely lacks the round speed of 2H weapons, especially when your proficiency goes over 100, not to mention that DW's offhand attack benefit caps far, far earlier than Domino Strike does.)

Alright, I see.

I guess it really makes sense to switch weapon, even if I had full Power set I don't think I'd be able to oneshot stronger monsters (actually at times I even fail at one-shotting the older ones, like Cockatrices, Giant Pandas etc). Domino Strike bonus really seems to shine with lots of monsters around.

Any suggestion on what kind of 2H I should be aiming at?

I understand that stun is awesome in 1on1 and on tougher opponents, but is it the same when it comes to Grindfest/Item world?
My current weapon has Bleeding, but it feels kind of weak. I mean, even if the bleeding is gonna kill the monster, I've got to switch target (so that I don't waste an attack turn)allowing the dying monster to get one more hit on me (and I'm not sure whether they crit more when they are exagitated...).
Penetrated Armor seems a decent alternative, but Katanas (should be the top 2H according to the wiki) are Bleeding only...

Gah, I'm confused :E

Bosses:
Once you get Silence (that's a fair bit away, mind) it's pretty much a matter of attrition between your items, weapons, and the bosses since they shouldn't be getting off any spell. On 1000c reward attempts you're going to want a void weapon of some sort to keep a high damage per hit without needing to resort to infusions or scrolls.

Yeah I kind of figured Silence would be great and have been saving AP to max it out asap - well, it's great as long as they don't one-shot me with physical hits I guess lol.

Are void weapons that better against bosses? Are they worth it even outsides of Ring of Blood?

Difficulties:
I suggest only doing the earlier arenas on high difficulty (Nintendo and above), because there's typically only 1-3 enemies and they can possibly bring your equipment drop loot quality to Superior by cranking difficulty up to Battletoads. (IWBTH is generally not worth it due to it taking 2.5x the time for ~1.25x the loot quality)

I've been trying to figure out difficulty bonus, but so far I've just failed... Can't remember if it was on the wiki or in some forum posts, but I remember about IWBTH not being favorable when it comes to efficiency...

Is there some sort of table with the modifiers? The difficulty page seems to lack any credit/loot quality stat...

Maces are generally the best choice to use for 2-handed weapons. Bleed weapons tend to be not worth the effort since the amount of damage they do doesn't amount to much at higher levels. Stun is much more useful.

Void weapons are very much worth using over regular weapons, since there are no monsters (Boss or otherwise) that are resistant to Void damage. Of course, Ethereal weapons aren't exactly easy to come by.