[X] My Assistant

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)

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)

Hmm... Ethereal Katana? Well, everybody can dream. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Same goes for scythe, I suppose... As for others, I've used this before I've got my ethereal mace, and it wasn't bad. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

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 can't answer that question unless such a weapon exists. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Even if it does, I'd doubt it'd be viable anyways.

@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.

Yeah, lemme clarify: what I meant by only if you have to (vs. schoolgirls), is if you're trying to kill them when you don't have a holy/dark EDB phase set yet in the arena.

I haven't done BT arena in a while, used to use Heimdall set with 1 Mana Elixir + Spirit Elixir as backup (for To Kill A God - Trio). Needed to Weaken the higher PL mobs when I started, eventually didn't have to. Monsters are tougher now so maybe that won't work anymore, I'll try a few with the Fenrir set. I guess my argument against having a mixed set is that (with Holy/Dark at least) you can use the elemental debuff to negate resistance. The debuff explosion damage is nice but you shouldn't depend on it for the majority of your damage (too little).

This post has been edited by Ballistic9: Dec 6 2011, 21:55

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)

People don't care if its not an auction. I once Bazaar'd a max PA ass-kicking Slaughter estoc and I see an auction with shitty ones getting bid on.

Problem is not enough customers and ease of interface between them for when it comes to selling stuff

what should I do if I want to play at higher difficulty? at my level I don't have access to regen and other awesome magic, so if I want to do higher difficulty how should I go?

Also for those who play mage, what status spells are worth it? like sleep, silence, etc etc.

what should I do if I want to play at higher difficulty? at my level I don't have access to regen and other awesome magic, so if I want to do higher difficulty how should I go?

Also for those who play mage, what status spells are worth it? like sleep, silence, etc etc.

Weaken, Silence, Bewilder, Blind, Slow, Nerf, and X-Nerf are great. I'm not there yet so I could be wrong, but I think I remember hito or someone mentioning that Magnet is useful for the Dragons. You might want to add Poison to the mix, but I never use it anymore; for that matter, I don't use Bewilder and Silence anymore either, but they might be useful on higher difficulties like BT and IWBTH (I wouldn't know).

As for Supportive spells, Arcane Focus, Haste, Shadow Veil, Spark of Life, Regen II, and Spirit Shield.

This post has been edited by n125: Dec 7 2011, 03:17

Ok, I've got two questions to ask and depending on the answer, then I may or may not require a better explanation of Action Speed. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

1. Does Action Speed in the Derived Attributes section of the Character screen account for the decrease from Burden?
2. Does Effective Proficiency in the character screen account for the decrease from Interference?

No and yes.

Alright, thanks. Now I don't have to panic from the fact that my action speed looked like it decreased from switching to Ethereal Weapons.