[X] My Assistant

I can do the arenas without mace, just use a club instead! (not recommend for sanity)

varst I meant is there a complete listing of equipment in the hv or is there a way to search for certain items like an ethereal mace?

Also how do players get stuff like ethereal weapons and power armour? from enemy drops?

I can do the arenas without mace, just use a club instead! (not recommend for sanity)

Once I've heard buktore recommending a void club for EOD arenas, and I do agree with him.

And what items do melees need to clear EOD?
Basically I have seen 3 successful methods: soul stone method, infusion method, and spirit attack/soul harvest method.

varst I meant is there a complete listing of equipment in the hv or is there a way to search for certain items like an ethereal mace?

Also how do players get stuff like ethereal weapons and power armour? from enemy drops?

Currently there's no complete list of equipments in HV that players own.
It's mainly due to:
1. Most weapons are useless and are thrown into bazaar.
2. Players should be given the choice to conceal what equipments they have.

Right now there's the equipments thread which players can post what equipments they've got, but be reminded that this is not the complete list.
Pirko did a HV knowledge database based on equipment links posted in this forum by players, but it hasn't been updated.

As for how players get those rare stuffs....
Luck should be the most important factor, but playing through lots of rounds/playing at high difficulty certainly helps.

Trophy dumps into shrine also help.

So i'm lvl 37 with 33 in each stat since I heard that you should try to balance your stats for a while. Currently I'm Two-handing a scythe and I was wondering when a good time to switch to Mage is (I love to aoe things but when i was lvl 10 it just took too long to kill things :<). Also should i purchase armor later or sooner since I know high level weapons make a difference at low levels but i'm not quite sure on armors. (and most of them are out of my price range :/)

Also what are all the exp things you can do to level faster (currently training "adept") since i have seen a couple post that say you can reach 100+ in a week or something realitively fast :/ (not feeling it)

This post has been edited by penelope_hope: Dec 6 2011, 08:43

Few things, post 10 times a day for the equivalent of 100 adept learner levels. this bonus takes 1 hour to take effect. Other then that, it just takes time and effort if you want to level fast.

Shadow Veil > Protection unless you have 80% mitigation from gear alone. Why?

Shadow Veil always provides 20% evade.

Protection provides 1/4 of your mitigation from gear. So at 80% it will give an extra 20% mitigation making your total 1-(1-.8)(1-.2)=84%

Also Shadow Veil is cheaper then Protection on a per turn basis

You'll notice the difference between having or not having Protection a bit before you hit 40 mitigation. The choice is between using plate and having your spells last less time, or using light and having less mitigation.

As far as Protection versus Shadow Veil goes, Protection is currently better, if you have enough mitigation from armor. It's because SV's protection is streaky. Using it you'll have runs where nothing hits you for several rounds, and runs where everything constantly hits you. It may last longer and stop all damage when it works, but that doesn't mean anything if it not working enough kills you.

Protection on the other hand works every time you're hit. You're still taking damage with it up, but it's less damage than otherwise. And you'll know that as long as it's up that the lesser damage will allow you to survive getting hit by six monsters in a round, with two crits, versus those same hits killing you if you use SV.

When I was playing melee I tried using SV a few times. The mana saved by casting SV was more than lost by the extra healing I had to do when I got hit.

This post has been edited by Drawde: Dec 6 2011, 09:43

I've also attached additional screenshots
[attachmentid=10254][attachmentid=10255][attachmentid=10256]

I'm not able to switch to mage (max out my AP currently & I just spend my credits training on additional Aura slots), but it does look I'll have to travel down that path eventually.
Likewise, it will take me awhile to regenerate enough Cr to get light armor. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

To dcherry, skillchip, & rawrpies,
Thanks very much for your inputs, I'll be applying them in my future rounds. Are there any other things I should take note of?

Whoa, there's no need to max out all your spirit tanks. Melees put points into spirit tanks to get access to the overcharge boosts, which increase your attack power. It looks like you've got 33 points tied up in spirit tanks, so use those to fill up the first four levels of spirit tank + OC.

Has anyone tried mixing different types of EDB phases? (like fenrir+heimdall)

I just tried that once, though I would like to hear opinions from you guys.

I use a Heimdall staff with a Fenrir suit and it works decently well.
Pestilence takes care of most enemies, and Purge deals quite a good blow to Undeads, Daimons and the remaining Giants.
Plus the boost to Cure is really nice on BT/IWBTH.

Has anyone tried mixing different types of EDB phases? (like fenrir+heimdall)

I just tried that once, though I would like to hear opinions from you guys.

Yeah.
And as a follow up, for best damage, should you switch back and forth between holy and dark spells on bosses, in order to explode the status effects and gain use of the decreased resistance the status effect gives?
Including for bosses such as FSM, who has a high resistance to dark but weakness to holy?
Or should one stick only to holy?

I use a Heimdall staff with a Fenrir suit and it works decently well.
Pestilence takes care of most enemies, and Purge deals quite a good blow to Undeads, Daimons and the remaining Giants.
Plus the boost to Cure is really nice on BT/IWBTH.

I tried with destruction staff + fenrir/heimdall.
The boost in cure makes it a bit better when you can't kill any of your enemies with your initial blow, though I can't see any improvement in the damage output.
If there's a chance you can kill some of the monsters (like in hell/nintendo difficulty), I guess pure fenrir/heimdall should be a better.

Yeah.
And as a follow up, for best damage, should you switch back and forth between holy and dark spells on bosses, in order to explode the status effects and gain use of the decreased resistance the status effect gives?
Including for bosses such as FSM, who has a high resistance to dark but weakness to holy?
Or should one stick only to holy?

I want opinions/ideas, not yes/no answer.

Switching between holy/dark spells depends on the situation.
If you're facing FSM (which is known to be weak against holy spells), spamming banish should be a good idea.
If you're playing at high difficulty where monsters with high resistance just don't die, then alternate pestilence/purge should be better.

Horray for the 500th page.
I have a bad feeling about this "random drop" system. It seems that Tenboro set Longswords+Estocs+Katanas+Scythes chance to 99,7263% and the rest went to maces. Non-Eth ones, of course.

I tried with destruction staff + fenrir/heimdall.
The boost in cure makes it a bit better when you can't kill any of your enemies with your initial blow, though I can't see any improvement in the damage output.
If there's a chance you can kill some of the monsters (like in hell/nintendo difficulty), I guess pure fenrir/heimdall should be a better.
I want opinions/ideas, not yes/no answer.

I can usually one-shot some monsters on BT (Sprites, Celestials, Humanoids when I get a crit); Undeads take 2-3 turns, the strongest Giants up to 3-4.
In the latter rounds (6-8+ enemies at once) it doesn't really matter though, you're gonna get hurt anyway; some of the enemies will always survive (unless you have a Legendary Destruction, 50% Evade or you're facing a gang of Sprites you can kill with a single Ragnarok).
I do use a Fenrir stick for Legendary marathons though.

I have a bad feeling about this "random drop" system. It seems that Tenboro set Longswords+Estocs+Katanas+Scythes chance to 99,7263% and the rest went to maces. Non-Eth ones, of course.

You'll never get what you want.

If you want Kevlar, you'll get Shade. If you want Shade, you'll get Kevlar. If you do get what you want, you'll get the wrong suffix. If you want Phase, you'll get Owl Phase.

HV Murphy trollface.

Horray for the 500th page.
I have a bad feeling about this "random drop" system. It seems that Tenboro set Longswords+Estocs+Katanas+Scythes chance to 99,7263% and the rest went to maces. Non-Eth ones, of course.

Meh... Maces drops fine from the Shrine for me, but what to do with them? I have 3 Exquisite and 6 Fine/Superior maces in my shop since Sunday and nobody wants to buy it... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) Everybody need ethereal maces, usual ones are rarely interesting for players nowadays. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

This post has been edited by Evil Scorpio: Dec 6 2011, 19:19

Sushilicious did the same but I don't know what he was using.

Magic or melee, doesn't matter, both equally easy. Guess I should also clear up some misconceptions while I'm here.

If you are a melee player, you can do the following without a mace:

1) All arenas up to Trio on BT with a scythe, estoc, longsword, etc (I used to clear the higher end arenas regularly on BT with a bleeder).

2) As for IWBTH, with the current gear that we have, it's not possible to clear any decently long arena on this difficulty.

If you are a melee player, you can do the following with a mace, i.e. easy mode.

1) You can do anything.

2) See point #1.

Yeah.
And as a follow up, for best damage, should you switch back and forth between holy and dark spells on bosses, in order to explode the status effects and gain use of the decreased resistance the status effect gives?
Including for bosses such as FSM, who has a high resistance to dark but weakness to holy?
Or should one stick only to holy?

On schoolgirls you can alternate between Corruption/Banish or Condemn/Pestilence (depending on gear) to maximize mana efficiency if you have to (also keep in mind elem. debuff won't 100% stick). On IPU/FSM stick to a single element, with their HP it's faster (real-time) to just hold down R rather than alternating. On IPU stick with Pestilence, Ragnarok is too mana inefficient (I only use for the 100% debuff application in arena).

Switching between holy/dark spells depends on the situation.
If you're facing FSM (which is known to be weak against holy spells), spamming banish should be a good idea.
If you're playing at high difficulty where monsters with high resistance just don't die, then alternate pestilence/purge should be better.

I don't like mixing elements if you don't have to. For lower difficulties it's definitely better to stack a single element. Haven't tried mixing for IWBTH. What I did was Weaken high PL mobs, X-Nerf on CM proc, Ragnarok CM mob > Purge/Banish (depending on how many mobs in round) > Ragnarok. Breached Defense allows for 100k Ragnarok crits which'll finish off most anything (eg: Wreched Egg, Lord English). Usually anything still up has Weaken + Nerf on it, so it's safe to ET on it (max 2 mobs at a time). Later rounds (6 mobs+) will take another 1-2 AOE. Blunted Attack stacked with Weaken + Nerf really helps with the incoming damage.

Sushi, when you say it's not possible to clear IWBTH arenas on decent length, does it include using some ethereal estoc of Illithid, together with soul harvest?
That's the best option I can imagine.

This post has been edited by varst: Dec 6 2011, 19:48

Sushi, when you say it's not possible to clear IWBTH arenas on decent length, does it include using some ethereal estoc of Illithid, together with soul harvest?
That's the best option I can imagine.

I think on IWBTH the most important thing is not to kill faster, but to prevent enemies hitting you. That's what the mace does. Estoc is not a very good replacement... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

@ Tiap
I should try BT on Trio when I get my destruction staff to my current level.
At least it's more interesting.

@Ballistic9
Well, somehow I think it's easier to ET than to alternate between holy/dark spells, but that's my personal preference.
I also don't like mixing elements, but trying that won't hurt (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
And yes, mixing won't help for lower difficulty.
Strategy for IWBTH and BT should be slightly different (no weaken/nerf, for example), but I agree to your observation.

@Evil Scorpio
Well, if I have to choose among estoc, longsword, katana and scythe....
Scythe of Illithid with high ADB may also work.
And the debate topic is 'without using a mace', so mace is out (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)