[X] My Assistant

First of all, my apologies for making another thread and not adding this to the ask the experts, but I actually want to be able to view any responses easily (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I am at the point where I could start moving toward the mage class soon...
But the mindless buff and smash has sort of grown on me and I am probably too impatient for any complex planning that magery might require.

I was hoping you would give me your opinions on a few things...
Equipment: Pros/cons for the following? power armor (slaughter) vs kevlar (protection) vs shade (fleet or shadowdancer).

What do you consider the most important buffs to keep up on yourself? (for me it is protection as #1 and haste or regen as #2)

And on the topic of mages: Do you regret not switching to mage or are currently considering it or jealous of their speedy AOE-spell round clears? or have you tried being a mage and switched back to a trusty mace? (if so, why?)

Cheers

This post has been edited by Zip: Dec 7 2011, 09:33

Equipment: Pros/cons for the following? power armor (slaughter) vs kevlar (protection) vs shade (fleet or shadowdancer).

Haven't really tried heavy armor, the increased burden and interference makes it inferior to kevlar IMO.
The interference alone and it's effect on supportive and curative spells duration will be an increased mana cost.
Kevlar helps me stay alive, and does it good.
Shade is harder to get really decent stuff, and as far as I have tested just doesn't match up when it comes to decreasing the damage done to you.

What do you consider the most important buffs to keep up on yourself? (for me it is protection as #1 and haste or regen as #2)

I got haste in my auto-cast slot. It is cheaper than protection, which is a main selling point especially when I made the switch, since it then meant I got a slow mana regen instead of slowly losing mana every turn.
Haste means more actions for me, or if you want, less actions for them. Meaning damage taken decreases because they don't attack as often.
But the really important spell I always have up is heartseeker.
And regen when it is needed, usually regen 2, but sometimes regen 1 which is actually a little bit cheaper compared to the duration, but also heals less per tick.
But if you aren't taking that much damage, and there is a gap between when it runs out and when you need to recast it, you can save a few points of mana here and there.
Although protection is good, far better than most give it credit for. At least when you got 50% physical mitigation from a decent armor set, you definetly notice the decrease in damage taken.
Too bad that it's a bit on the expensive side.
If they made it into a 5 AP ability (doubles the duration), that would make it a lot better.

And on the topic of mages: Do you regret not switching to mage or are currently considering it or jealous of their speedy AOE-spell round clears? or have you tried being a mage and switched back to a trusty mace? (if so, why?)

Currently trying to slowly make the transition over to mage. But hard to get decent gear and need to train up proficiencies etc.
As well as having all my aura points into melee-oriented auras and my AP locked up into overcharge tanks.

So doing most things still with my trusty mace. Or in light armor and staff.
Since the squishiness is a real problem, when you can't clear out the mobs in one or two AoEs.

Equipment: Pros/cons for the following? power armor (slaughter) vs kevlar (protection) vs shade (fleet or shadowdancer).

- Power armor: + High damage, OK defense / - High Burden & Interference, A good piece is quite rare
- Kevlar: + Pretty good defense, Easy & Cheap to buy-get, Not so high Bur & Inf / - Doesn't increase damage
- Shade: + Increase DMG & Crit, No burden on SD suffix, High resist / - Quite rare & expensive, Unreliable & Not so good defense

What do you consider the most important buffs to keep up on yourself?

- Heartseeker (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
- Haste

Does anyone else have some opinions? I want to go make a WTB thread and am still conflicted on equipment choices.
And on the topic of buyng: How can I tell if the piece has decent base stats, and what is it worth?
(I do have the equip compare userscript but I don't know what the perfect base stats are)

I use two-hand and shade armor. The damage bonus and lack of compromise more then offsets having slightly less protection (and I do mean slightly). I play through all arenas (trio and the tree is my current highest) on at least heroic difficulty without survivability issues.

Haste is my innate slot.
Then main spells to maintain are Regen II and Heartseeker.
Throw on Shadow Veil and Protection when needed.

Do everything you can do increase your damage output (weapon, strength, dexterity, armor bonus, auras, Heartseeker).
Keep up your training of wisdom/intelligence so you have enough mana to maintain your healing and support spells.

As far as buying gear goes... I'll be honest, I've not once bought a piece of gear in this game.

Everything is from loot, or turning in artifacts (always turn in for the type of gear you plan to use, you can get some good stuff from time to time)

Damn, looks like I need to get myself an innate slot. But I spend all my credits on training and my internet is probably barely able to run H@H :<

Damn, looks like I need to get myself an innate slot. But I spend all my credits on training and my internet is probably barely able to run H@H :<

Truthfully, the first innate slot is a nice convenience to have, but it's not all that game changing.

Also, I think it is relatively cheap (50 hath?). I got mine after a couple months of turning in artifacts, and buying a couple (I do not get any daily hath nor do I do H@H myself)

Oh and I forgot in my earlier post.. train overcharge boost (abilities) for more damage as well.

Truthfully, the first innate slot is a nice convenience to have, but it's not all that game changing.

All it does is remove the 1 turn cast time right? (and forgetting to keep it up) it doesn't reduce mana cost until you get the second innate slot right?

All it does is remove the 1 turn cast time right? (and forgetting to keep it up) it doesn't reduce mana cost until you get the second innate slot right?

Yes.

When melee I use Shade gear because I hate Heavy.
2hand with mace seems to be the by far best today.

Yes.

When melee I use Shade gear because I hate Heavy.
2hand with mace seems to be the by far best today.

What kind of Shade gear? do you put a high priority on haste like the others?

This post has been edited by Zip: Dec 8 2011, 10:23

Nah I mostly look for Evade and ADM.

Any ideas of how to switch to battlecaster?

Any ideas of how to switch to battlecaster?

Use a staff instead of a melee weapon.

You still have the survivability of your armor, and without changing your stats you can do a bit of damage just whacking the mobs with your staff, and train up your staff proficiency like that.
Get some cheap offensive spells and cast that and follow up with staff hits to get ether theft whenever coalesced mana procs, and you can keep up your mana.
Will go a lot slower, but you'll gain proficiencies that you'll need relatively quickly.

Not really a high level player (and still figuring things out), but I'll share my thoughts.

Playing with 2H Slaughter Mace + Power Armor (mix of Slaughter, Protection, Balance and Warding, just went for the best stuff I could get my hands on), essentially trying to kill things with fewer hits possible.

Protection is my go to buff when I'm facing less than 5 monsters, it nullifies the chances of a cheap death (basically mage crits when exagitated, but that's very rare), and using a heavy armor the mitigation seems to benefit enough. When there's more enemies, adding Shadow Veil becomes a necessity.

With Interference being off the charts (106+) and Burden being pretty high (76+), somehow Haste doesn't seem to pay off, at least not when you just got 4-7 monsters in front of you. Keeping it up also really kills the mana. After that, you just want to have all of them up to incapacitate (stun) them as fast as possible, or it's gonna be hit -> heal (some better physical mitigation items should help though).

This on Heroic, Hard for 50-70 rounds arenas where it just takes more swings and time.

Pretty sure Kevlar would give better results (or at least several better plaers seem to agree), but having only recently switched from 1H to 2H, it'd be pretty tough to start from 0 and level up Light. Will probably try to switch when I get like 5/10.

Was wondering about Innata Perk: would a lv 1+2 be better than a 200 hath aura? Since I'm not always playing with 2 buffs, it seems a bit like a waste of mana, at least till you get -30 % upkeep cost...

This post has been edited by wr4st3r: Dec 10 2011, 15:57

You're forgetting to mention how annoying it is to constantly be respelling up especially with the higher interference of stronger armors and the weapons/shields. Haste and either protection or shadow veil is my preference but I usually melee in heavy armor. Yeah, I'm still around 30 light armor proficiency - I suck as a melee fighter! (LOL, at least my AGI+END is great)

A trick I've found is that if you're using up a lot of mana on spells that run out too quick, is to use the Channeling effect to have less pain. The catch is that you have to get lucky on your initial spell ups and get the effect. Saving almost 200 mana points on heart seeker will make you use 1 less potion which is well worth it, though! This applies to mages even more so since they're constantly spamming spells. I just wanted to mention it to people just starting in melee as well.

When I did a lot more melee fighting, the one thing that really annoyed me was the supportive proficiency. That is your absolute priority to increase if it's low. It makes a world of difference if you're getting 5-6 turns with slow and getting 8-10! Healing is important as well. If you have the money, go into a battle where the enemy can't easily kill you and spam the heal spells. Use up a ton of mana potions to get at least 50-80% of your level. Sadly, this can be really expensive! If you can get a staff with a good ET chance and turns, then you can also train up staff proficiency very easily by using both magic arrow and melee hits. ZAP ZAP *proc effect* KNOCK KNOCK *get free mana to heal with* ZAP ZAP...

The proficiencies that work for both melee and mage are a great reason to switch back and forth every so often. Mages level up some things a lot easier but so do melee fighters.