thread link
It's rather different from most of the RF builds in the guides written for it. It's also rather expensive, like wait why do you need to MF when you have a 6L shav, but other than that the gear requirement is actually really reasonable.
Every post-patch RF setup will be a bit different from how it's currently done (most of the time anyway), since snapshotting will be removed. Well, the above linked won't be, but that's out of my reach too.
I'll likely put Purity of Fire in a +2+1 wand with RM and Empower, to cheat it to 20 from 16. The classic spectre-summoner method of reducing resists applies, which is ele weakness + flammability + EE, and shockstacks on top of that. After all, I'll need all the damage boosts I can get.
The passive tree shouldn't change too much, but I'm holding off on that until post-patch because it might change again. (Grr. I get why they do it, but who likes change really?)
previous post link
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Friday, 13 June 2014
How do shrimp and gobies find each other?
It's been a while since guilds were introduced to Path, to great acclaim. It's a good thing, in the sense that more ways to connect with people is good for a multi-player persistent environment. It also serves a unique purpose that was previously absent of in-game support, that is, connecting groups of more than two people in the long term. Even better.
But there is another side to the story. Guilds have a large overlap of functionality with every other form of player interaction. This leads to the situation in which many players, upon finding a guild in which they fit, rarely or never interact outside of it.
All well and good, if that's what they want.
If it isn't? Well, global chat is full of trolls and rarely gives a good answer to anything, and good luck holding a conversation in there. Besides the PCs and things that should rightly belong in /trade. The public party board is full of trade parties, and anyway the docks and map parties are generally full of people who tend to either die or take ten thousand years to clear a map - or worse, get their partymates killed along with themselves. Trade chat is trade chat, no more need be said. Everything else involves the use of third parties, be it forums, reddit or even RL.
It wasn't always this way. My first few friends, other than the ones I already knew from other games, were out of /global. That was way back when. I also got a couple of good ones out of the friends-list network, which was the only reliable way to build a solid map group. Those were proto-guilds, back in the day, only infinitely more flexible.
The point is, a lot of people who had previously sought interaction by other (in-game) means are now confining themselves to the guild. Means the other channels of social interaction are becoming wastelands. Even if you wanted to make friends there, it would be pretty hard to do, since nobody else does.
I realise this is all a bit exaggerated. Certainly the situation is not as dire as I've made it out to be. And there are plenty of guilds with few or inactive members. On the other hand, is this the kind of multiplayer you want in a game?
(For an explanation of the post title, click here.)
But there is another side to the story. Guilds have a large overlap of functionality with every other form of player interaction. This leads to the situation in which many players, upon finding a guild in which they fit, rarely or never interact outside of it.
All well and good, if that's what they want.
If it isn't? Well, global chat is full of trolls and rarely gives a good answer to anything, and good luck holding a conversation in there. Besides the PCs and things that should rightly belong in /trade. The public party board is full of trade parties, and anyway the docks and map parties are generally full of people who tend to either die or take ten thousand years to clear a map - or worse, get their partymates killed along with themselves. Trade chat is trade chat, no more need be said. Everything else involves the use of third parties, be it forums, reddit or even RL.
It wasn't always this way. My first few friends, other than the ones I already knew from other games, were out of /global. That was way back when. I also got a couple of good ones out of the friends-list network, which was the only reliable way to build a solid map group. Those were proto-guilds, back in the day, only infinitely more flexible.
The point is, a lot of people who had previously sought interaction by other (in-game) means are now confining themselves to the guild. Means the other channels of social interaction are becoming wastelands. Even if you wanted to make friends there, it would be pretty hard to do, since nobody else does.
I realise this is all a bit exaggerated. Certainly the situation is not as dire as I've made it out to be. And there are plenty of guilds with few or inactive members. On the other hand, is this the kind of multiplayer you want in a game?
(For an explanation of the post title, click here.)
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Crit vs non-crit
It's a different feeling altogether, I swear.
I had this one character, an Aegis Rain one. She didn't get her passives forcibly reset, I made like 20% xp getting carried by the Mjolner discharge guy on my fl, and then I got bored of her and used the 1.1.3 respec. Exactly the same build, except where I had taken 1h damage nodes previously, I now took crit instead. Oh, and I went through Charisma this time, which allows me enough free mana to run my skill of choice on mana rather than BM.
Played solo: three maps this round, two before and one after the respec. The first was a nightmare damage map. Shocking ground, vulnerability, extra damage as fire, minus max, rolled cinder elementals. It was a sharp reminder that Aegis does not equal invincible. The last was a spider forest with Igna and Tinevin, call it play testing. Went off without a hitch, at least in the survivability sense. I'm going to have to work on damage some more.
So that's the story. What did I learn?
The noncrit double striker played almost like RF, in the sense that you walk in pressing a button, and their HP goes down slowly but steadily. The crit one was rather choppy - sometimes it moved fast, and sometimes it didn't. I value consistency, so it "felt" worse, even given similar dps.
Crit multiplier is important. Yes, really. So's crit chance, but given enough aps, it'll average out. I'm currently at 9~aps with 6 frenzies, but 150% multi. The route to advancement is pretty clear, I think! Only fear is it'll exacerbate the above mentioned problem.
To do:
Add crit multiplier. And crit chance? I can't really spare a PCoC unless I plan to use the same attack for single and multi target, and I'm bored of that anyway. So...change amulets, see if I can get enough resists from it to swap in a Romira's Banquet. Wonder if Tempest + PCoC would proc. Though I'd have to switch back to using BM for main skill, since it'll eat all my mana and then some.
And where do I go from here?
From previous post:
I'm sure there are ways to make aegis blocking characters that don't also bore me to tears. This just isn't one of them. More when I figure out what is, but Cybil's might feature, or something that takes advantage of Aegis WED.
I might start with flickermulti, that's always good for a laugh, at least until new leagues. The final destination probably isn't even Aegis Rain any more. Might be I'll make a LL character with a Solaris. Might make it a CDT/CWS character even. CI with a Lightbane or what the other one was, do a support character with that one sword. Maybe next reset.
I had this one character, an Aegis Rain one. She didn't get her passives forcibly reset, I made like 20% xp getting carried by the Mjolner discharge guy on my fl, and then I got bored of her and used the 1.1.3 respec. Exactly the same build, except where I had taken 1h damage nodes previously, I now took crit instead. Oh, and I went through Charisma this time, which allows me enough free mana to run my skill of choice on mana rather than BM.
Played solo: three maps this round, two before and one after the respec. The first was a nightmare damage map. Shocking ground, vulnerability, extra damage as fire, minus max, rolled cinder elementals. It was a sharp reminder that Aegis does not equal invincible. The last was a spider forest with Igna and Tinevin, call it play testing. Went off without a hitch, at least in the survivability sense. I'm going to have to work on damage some more.
So that's the story. What did I learn?
The noncrit double striker played almost like RF, in the sense that you walk in pressing a button, and their HP goes down slowly but steadily. The crit one was rather choppy - sometimes it moved fast, and sometimes it didn't. I value consistency, so it "felt" worse, even given similar dps.
Crit multiplier is important. Yes, really. So's crit chance, but given enough aps, it'll average out. I'm currently at 9~aps with 6 frenzies, but 150% multi. The route to advancement is pretty clear, I think! Only fear is it'll exacerbate the above mentioned problem.
To do:
Add crit multiplier. And crit chance? I can't really spare a PCoC unless I plan to use the same attack for single and multi target, and I'm bored of that anyway. So...change amulets, see if I can get enough resists from it to swap in a Romira's Banquet. Wonder if Tempest + PCoC would proc. Though I'd have to switch back to using BM for main skill, since it'll eat all my mana and then some.
And where do I go from here?
From previous post:
I'm sure there are ways to make aegis blocking characters that don't also bore me to tears. This just isn't one of them. More when I figure out what is, but Cybil's might feature, or something that takes advantage of Aegis WED.
I might start with flickermulti, that's always good for a laugh, at least until new leagues. The final destination probably isn't even Aegis Rain any more. Might be I'll make a LL character with a Solaris. Might make it a CDT/CWS character even. CI with a Lightbane or what the other one was, do a support character with that one sword. Maybe next reset.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
If I died in my sleep, you wouldn't know anything about it
but thankfully I'm not dead. Just out of town until end of July. No playtest updates until then. (7 May 2014)
EDIT: Something happened, the details of which I will not share, and I fly back tonight. Date of post has been changed to reflect this. (3 June 2014)
EDIT: Something happened, the details of which I will not share, and I fly back tonight. Date of post has been changed to reflect this. (3 June 2014)
Template for build (freeze lock)
courtesy of Lyralei
I don't always do that much math, but in the case of getting freeze chance sky-high and perma freezing, it makes sense to calculate cast speed, freeze duration, etc.
Everyone tries their hand at the coldsnap perma freeze build at one point or another. Sometimes it works. My attempt was nearly a year ago now, before Romira's, and it didn't. I haven't revisited the concept yet...actually IDEA. What ever did happen to coldsnap trapping? It'll probably work. I hope it will.
I don't always do that much math, but in the case of getting freeze chance sky-high and perma freezing, it makes sense to calculate cast speed, freeze duration, etc.
Everyone tries their hand at the coldsnap perma freeze build at one point or another. Sometimes it works. My attempt was nearly a year ago now, before Romira's, and it didn't. I haven't revisited the concept yet...actually IDEA. What ever did happen to coldsnap trapping? It'll probably work. I hope it will.
Sunday, 1 June 2014
Thinking of a lazy MF build
Given that I've already played straight spectre summoner twice, that one's out.
For the new leagues after Ambush/Invasion, I want to make a MF farmer in the HC league. For once I'll actually have the time to put into playing, so a farm character and then some interesting other characters without being severely limited by finances.
After discussion with my theorycraft buddy, we settled on RF because why not. It's easy to level as SB, in theory. And doesn't really get lazier than RF. Maybe I'll do a CWS/CDT build in SC but I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate for HC.
RF - AoE/conc.e - IBD - IIR
Or something. I can usually afford a 1ex major item by level 60~ on a new character, so Phoenix is just about right.
For the new leagues after Ambush/Invasion, I want to make a MF farmer in the HC league. For once I'll actually have the time to put into playing, so a farm character and then some interesting other characters without being severely limited by finances.
After discussion with my theorycraft buddy, we settled on RF because why not. It's easy to level as SB, in theory. And doesn't really get lazier than RF. Maybe I'll do a CWS/CDT build in SC but I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate for HC.
RF - AoE/conc.e - IBD - IIR
Or something. I can usually afford a 1ex major item by level 60~ on a new character, so Phoenix is just about right.
Friday, 30 May 2014
What goes into a build?
Charan posts too much
Definitely worth the read, an analysis of why and how Charan does character builds. If you read nothing else, read the Assassin's Creed spoiler tag. I don't do exactly the same, but we all have similar definitions of success. Usually this involves bringing a build to whatever point we consider "winning the game" and moving on.
You'll see a lot more numbers and mechanics efficiency talk in my posts concerning building and playing characters, where Charan goes for style points instead. End goal is not too dissimilar though: this is my character, I made it, it works how I want it to, I win the game. Let's play again!
(Sometimes I lose. Oh well, RIP. Let's play again!)
Definitely worth the read, an analysis of why and how Charan does character builds. If you read nothing else, read the Assassin's Creed spoiler tag. I don't do exactly the same, but we all have similar definitions of success. Usually this involves bringing a build to whatever point we consider "winning the game" and moving on.
You'll see a lot more numbers and mechanics efficiency talk in my posts concerning building and playing characters, where Charan goes for style points instead. End goal is not too dissimilar though: this is my character, I made it, it works how I want it to, I win the game. Let's play again!
(Sometimes I lose. Oh well, RIP. Let's play again!)
Friday, 23 May 2014
Minion-on-crit, part two
thread link
I feel like this post is really long overdue. And I'll probably never learn to stop chatting in docks no matter how many deaths it leads to. But on with the plot!
Concept: lots and lots of minions, all augmented by auras. Went with RS, since arguably it puts out more minions than any other skill can, and quantity over quality because auras add quality all on their own.
How I got to this point: post 1 post 2 post 3 post 4 post 5
I made post 1 around the planning stage, and then threw one of my existing respecs in there. She was CI and I ran out of mana, hence post 2. Post 3 was made when I thought I wasn't going to get hold of a Torment, and indeed I didn't manage it in Invasion, but found a lucky claw on xyz allowing me to go RS after all. If with a much smaller margin of error. That claw is now in SC, yay me.
Switched to CoC at 58 though it could have gone earlier. Spent 10 levels with it, mostly in docks. If you're interested in how levels 1-60 went, see posts 4 and 5.
Died.
Now it gets interesting, since I was working on an incredibly small budget before, and taking less "risks" with it. By which I mean, although I was pretty sure the character was map-capable, I didn't put her through it because docks is still less risky than even lunaris and I didn't need to leave yet. Ah, the joys of HC.
First thing I did was finish running my A3M quests immediately, including Dominus, on the exact setup I died with just to prove I could. Second thing I did was shake up my gear. Replaced rings with Torment, replaced claw with a dagger I had on hand, moved gear around to cap resists. Those two changes (ring and dagger) were the absolute most significant. Except for getting a 5L, but that would've cost as much as everything else combined and then some.
A note on budget. Aside from leveling gear such as Shiversting, the total cost of everything I was using when I died was approximately 15-20c in invasion. Thief's Torment would've been 1-2ex, or more than my entire character was worth up to that point. A high crit high aps dagger with no other stats might have been a few c. My current SC dagger, at 200pdps, is probably worth somewhat more, but most of the damage still comes from my summons so the pdps is a wasted stat. (Replace RS with any spell of your choice or none at all, you'll see my point.)
In any case, I then proceeded to level up in maps a couple of times before getting bored and half-leveling an Ambush character. The few levelups I did make went to ias and hp, no surprises there. In effect, the character's progression ended at 70~ with the listed gear, and further improvements are merely incremental.
I'm thinking Alpha's, where did I leave my Alpha's Howl again. Actually, why am I not using Tabula? Oh, don't mind me, just thinking out loud here. And I have no minion nodes whatsoever. Didn't think them necessary, for the most part; I'd consider taking the one cluster down below EE, but that's it.
There's not very much of the aura-support idea left in here, is there? The auras do contribute a significant amount of dps, as measured by clear speed when I forget to turn them on, but it's not flashy at all. Might be I could try dual-totems again now that I have a Torment, but the whole point of dual totems was to avoid reflect/thorns, and I'm not having trouble with reflect/thorns. Plus, I'm pretty sure the shockstacks are mine, minions don't crit much. Shockstacks are good.
I feel like this post is really long overdue. And I'll probably never learn to stop chatting in docks no matter how many deaths it leads to. But on with the plot!
Concept: lots and lots of minions, all augmented by auras. Went with RS, since arguably it puts out more minions than any other skill can, and quantity over quality because auras add quality all on their own.
How I got to this point: post 1 post 2 post 3 post 4 post 5
I made post 1 around the planning stage, and then threw one of my existing respecs in there. She was CI and I ran out of mana, hence post 2. Post 3 was made when I thought I wasn't going to get hold of a Torment, and indeed I didn't manage it in Invasion, but found a lucky claw on xyz allowing me to go RS after all. If with a much smaller margin of error. That claw is now in SC, yay me.
Switched to CoC at 58 though it could have gone earlier. Spent 10 levels with it, mostly in docks. If you're interested in how levels 1-60 went, see posts 4 and 5.
Died.
Now it gets interesting, since I was working on an incredibly small budget before, and taking less "risks" with it. By which I mean, although I was pretty sure the character was map-capable, I didn't put her through it because docks is still less risky than even lunaris and I didn't need to leave yet. Ah, the joys of HC.
First thing I did was finish running my A3M quests immediately, including Dominus, on the exact setup I died with just to prove I could. Second thing I did was shake up my gear. Replaced rings with Torment, replaced claw with a dagger I had on hand, moved gear around to cap resists. Those two changes (ring and dagger) were the absolute most significant. Except for getting a 5L, but that would've cost as much as everything else combined and then some.
A note on budget. Aside from leveling gear such as Shiversting, the total cost of everything I was using when I died was approximately 15-20c in invasion. Thief's Torment would've been 1-2ex, or more than my entire character was worth up to that point. A high crit high aps dagger with no other stats might have been a few c. My current SC dagger, at 200pdps, is probably worth somewhat more, but most of the damage still comes from my summons so the pdps is a wasted stat. (Replace RS with any spell of your choice or none at all, you'll see my point.)
In any case, I then proceeded to level up in maps a couple of times before getting bored and half-leveling an Ambush character. The few levelups I did make went to ias and hp, no surprises there. In effect, the character's progression ended at 70~ with the listed gear, and further improvements are merely incremental.
I'm thinking Alpha's, where did I leave my Alpha's Howl again. Actually, why am I not using Tabula? Oh, don't mind me, just thinking out loud here. And I have no minion nodes whatsoever. Didn't think them necessary, for the most part; I'd consider taking the one cluster down below EE, but that's it.
There's not very much of the aura-support idea left in here, is there? The auras do contribute a significant amount of dps, as measured by clear speed when I forget to turn them on, but it's not flashy at all. Might be I could try dual-totems again now that I have a Torment, but the whole point of dual totems was to avoid reflect/thorns, and I'm not having trouble with reflect/thorns. Plus, I'm pretty sure the shockstacks are mine, minions don't crit much. Shockstacks are good.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Updates on CoC #2
Changed out one of the Ungil's Gauche knives for a Cybil at level 50 when I was running into survivability trouble. Part of that has to be because I went glass cannon, which is kind of a really bad idea when you have 1k hp at level 50 and are getting constantly oneshot. It got me through Dominus anyway, if only by zerging him, and A1M is easy compared to A3xC. Did I mention that I think something's overtuned there yet? Have 1.4k hp in merc ledge and mostly I'm doing fine, but adding HP nodes as I go along. It's helping.
Current play style: walk up and attack face. When critting, the combination of Cybil LoH and phys leech keeps my HP relatively high even with 20 stacks corrupted blood. On unlucky crit streaks (3 or more noncrit rolls in a row), which happens fairly often at 40% crit chance before PCs and 60% with them, well...I have a granite and a life flask. Both see almost constant use.
Most certainly not playable in current state in HC. For one, I wouldn't even be CoC yet. For two, I'd've routed below scion and through the life wheel, rather than above witch for the PC and AoE.
Been thinking of going CI, but that'll require a lot of tweaking. Project for SC then, I guess. Maybe I'll even be able to go Aegis.
Current play style: walk up and attack face. When critting, the combination of Cybil LoH and phys leech keeps my HP relatively high even with 20 stacks corrupted blood. On unlucky crit streaks (3 or more noncrit rolls in a row), which happens fairly often at 40% crit chance before PCs and 60% with them, well...I have a granite and a life flask. Both see almost constant use.
Most certainly not playable in current state in HC. For one, I wouldn't even be CoC yet. For two, I'd've routed below scion and through the life wheel, rather than above witch for the PC and AoE.
Been thinking of going CI, but that'll require a lot of tweaking. Project for SC then, I guess. Maybe I'll even be able to go Aegis.
Friday, 2 May 2014
Molten Strike shotguns.
It is glorious. As in better than dualstrike for single target, better than reave for multi target.
Something else of note, increased AoE radius seems to affect the visual representation of offshoot projectiles not at all, but I think the hitboxing is still changed. AoE radius also affects the area in which they land. I'm playing MS with cascade on crit, and when it lands, whoa. I think I might try out EE with it too.
Full concept post another time, seeing as I made pretty much every decision for this character on a whim. Oh hey, there's a new skill I get as reward, let's see how this goes. Mmm, shiny. Ah, I have enough crit chance to go CoC, let's do that 20 levels earlier than planned with a different skill than planned. Etc.
Oh, and RIP my summoner. I know better than to stand around chatting in docks with mobs on screen not dead yet. Except apparently I don't. So I'll finish testing on SC. One good thing coming of it, I have a Torment on SC and it really does work much better with it.
Something else of note, increased AoE radius seems to affect the visual representation of offshoot projectiles not at all, but I think the hitboxing is still changed. AoE radius also affects the area in which they land. I'm playing MS with cascade on crit, and when it lands, whoa. I think I might try out EE with it too.
Full concept post another time, seeing as I made pretty much every decision for this character on a whim. Oh hey, there's a new skill I get as reward, let's see how this goes. Mmm, shiny. Ah, I have enough crit chance to go CoC, let's do that 20 levels earlier than planned with a different skill than planned. Etc.
Oh, and RIP my summoner. I know better than to stand around chatting in docks with mobs on screen not dead yet. Except apparently I don't. So I'll finish testing on SC. One good thing coming of it, I have a Torment on SC and it really does work much better with it.
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