I got an interesting message in two parts today. This particular friend of mine comes up with weirder builds than I do,
but I have more that reach endgame. I suspect this has to do with what
we consider finished - he just drops characters when he's bored of the
concept, and I push it through to either success at lower maps or
failure somewhere along the line. Please note that I am not saying
either style is better or worse: I'm pretty sure he's also played more
different builds than I have, and I have this whole backlog of things I want to do but can never find the time to...
This is the second part of the message. Commentary on the first part in another post, but there's more data for this one.
Current Storm Call Tree
Storm Call Crit Tree I've come up so far
Level 80 scion, EB dual totems using storm call, considering respeccing into crit.
Relevant stats from first tree: 168% HP, 80 dex 220 str 140 int, 140% mana regen, 48% mana, 52% aoe radius, total about 130% spell damage.
Relevant stats from second tree: 184% HP, 40 dex 170 str 210 int, 100% mana regen, 40% aoe radius, total about 90% spell damage, total 405% spell crit and 50% spell crit multiplier.
Some points, in no particular order of importance.
- good luck with your dex requirements mate
- totem range node wasn't worth much anyway
- yeah 140% mana regen is probably overkill
- consider getting a Divinarius
- also consider using ice spear pcoc during downtime between casting totems
- is unwavering stance really necessary? that's a lot of points.
- also what's up with taking out that HP cluster near CI/EB?
- small 15% crit nodes are really, really small and I'd think twice about getting those immediately, how badly do you need them?
94 points build with US removed. Also added the Coordination node near shadow for +20 dex and 3%cspd, and removed the small cluster of spellcrit stuff near templar (55 crit, 30 multiplier) because it took a whole 4 travel points to get there. For 2 travel points below RT you can get 40% multiplier in 2 points, and for 3 points you can get 45% crit just on small nodes, and I believe I've already made my stance on small nodes clear. In short, the reason I removed it is that that was the most inefficient cluster and I needed to cut points.
Relevant stats: 160% HP (suggest keeping that HP/str cluster below CI, by the way), 60 dex 100 str 180 int (did you know that HP/str cluster is a whopping 50 str?), total 350% spell crit and 20% multiplier. You can probably tell what the 101 point build I would go for is like.
Spell crit has some really spectacular numbers available from wands/daggers and shields, and this is a pretty decent position to run ice spear pcoc from. Multiplier is perhaps a shade harder to get from gear than passives, relative to spell crit (the position, incidentally, is reversed for weapon crit and multiplier) so I might consider taking out the small nodes in favour of multiplier ones too.
I hope this helps.
Tuesday, 31 December 2013
Thanks a bunch for the aura changes, GGG
So I was respeccing my ranger to an Aegis Rain build. Pretty standard, I know. But the point was to make a reliable build that could get her to level 90, and there's nothing more reliable than Aegis Rain.
I plugged in (level 19) RM - Grace - Determination and turned them all on. Oops, I have 85 mana left. Big whoop, now I can't run Hatred or Tempest. No reduced reservation nodes on this tree, after all.
Current status: 33 points unassigned, level 86. Cleared a3x in merc, though because said points were unassigned I was using an Astra. It's a really good cheat during testing. And as a result, no Lazhwar = zerg Dominus. He died eventually, but I had to stay the @#$% away from the lightning and when I didn't I died. Using BM Cyclone in Rain, yes, I know, how standard. The DPS was actually pretty significant, though my 320dps claw skewed that a little for sure. Comparable to the doublestrike build at least.
Resolution, what resolution? The solution is simple, spend a couple of passives on shield block and give up the idea of running Hatred. That one's a fairly common aura to find in parties anyway, I understand, and it's not like I lack DPS, see above. Hatred would be nice but not actually necessary.
I still don't know what my main skill will end up being. BM cyclone with a claw was just plain convenient to do the testing with. Considering the mana thing, I'll probably end up staying with BM. Hm.
Next up, an aura bot build. Because I think it would be funny to run Ephemeral Edge.
I plugged in (level 19) RM - Grace - Determination and turned them all on. Oops, I have 85 mana left. Big whoop, now I can't run Hatred or Tempest. No reduced reservation nodes on this tree, after all.
Current status: 33 points unassigned, level 86. Cleared a3x in merc, though because said points were unassigned I was using an Astra. It's a really good cheat during testing. And as a result, no Lazhwar = zerg Dominus. He died eventually, but I had to stay the @#$% away from the lightning and when I didn't I died. Using BM Cyclone in Rain, yes, I know, how standard. The DPS was actually pretty significant, though my 320dps claw skewed that a little for sure. Comparable to the doublestrike build at least.
Resolution, what resolution? The solution is simple, spend a couple of passives on shield block and give up the idea of running Hatred. That one's a fairly common aura to find in parties anyway, I understand, and it's not like I lack DPS, see above. Hatred would be nice but not actually necessary.
I still don't know what my main skill will end up being. BM cyclone with a claw was just plain convenient to do the testing with. Considering the mana thing, I'll probably end up staying with BM. Hm.
Next up, an aura bot build. Because I think it would be funny to run Ephemeral Edge.
Monday, 30 December 2013
How to make money in this game
What would you do with an ex drop? If you're like most people, you'll just spend it on something you want, and that'd be the end of that. Or maybe you'll lament how the only people who earn currency are the no life market flippers, and then spend it on something you want. But you know, there's more to it than that.
I'm going to sort this by methods, and of course you can do each at different levels of intensity. Pretty well everyone I know who's got significant ingame currency uses at least one of these. With a side of larceny on one memorable occasion*, but that was in addition to this, not instead of it.
1. Playing the game
At its most basic level, this involves selling magic/rare items for chaos and alterations, or even transmutes. Slow but steady. Alternatively, getting a couple of Perandus rings and selling id scrolls to people. One level up, and it involves selling drops for currency. The majority of saleable drops are from maps in the 72+ range, and most of the better drops in that set are from i75+ items. Which is just as well, because at that level, it takes a lot of currency to feed a mapping habit. One other method, though, involves running all maps from 72-75 and selling anything that drops both above and below that range. Between that and good drops, it's possible to break even on solo mapping and then some. If running 76+ maps consistently, the sale of ilvl whites for crafting is a good side income.
But wait, what about MFers, you might ask. And sure there are some people who farm Piety/Dominus with MF and play with the chaos recipe. But a dedicated MF support character isn't in the business of alterations - a typical map run with one of those involves a stack or two of id scrolls per person, rares dropped on the ground as you run once it's established that they aren't good rares, and multiple uniques per map. The good ones get sold, the bad ones get dropped, and yes, people leave uniques behind.
2. Playing the market
Buy low, sell high. The best way to do this is on currency and uniques, because the demand for those is guaranteed. You can do this the regular way, which is to know the market well enough to establish a range of prices - and do note that prices change by time zone: ex are 26-27 chaos at US prime time on Nemesis, but 28-29 at EU prime time. Then buy low and sell high. You could start small, with chaos/alt/fusing flipping, and move on to bigger game with Andvarius flipping, and at the end of this line are mirror and shav flipping.
Or you could find and exploit a hole in the market. In early 2013, 20q FP gems sold for 2 ex during the FP craze, but below that (in the 13-18 range) for several gcps. People made exalts per day upgrading and reselling gems. During the entire time Onslaught was active, death rush rings were in the range of 2-4 chaos on OS...and 1-2 ex on SC. I made exalts per day on that and the cross-trading forums (1 OS = 4 SC). I will not post any current exploits.
This is where I'm going to classify "running Dominus for people" - there's a market, you fill it.
3. Playing the slots
No kidding, crafting is a really big earner, once several conditions are fulfilled. One, you have sufficient currency to start and to ride out streaks of bad luck. Two, it's done on large enough scale that item sales take place relatively often. Three, effort has to be made to actually sell items. Once these conditions are met, however, one realises that others will pay them to bet against the RNG. The chance of spending 2-3 times someone's asking price on crafting a usable item for yourself is too high if you're going to just craft the one item, so it makes sense for you to just buy said item. The guy crafting said item, on the other hand, is rolling enough items that his luck averages out. For every bad luck streak, he's getting a good one - and his asking price is rather more than the average amount he spends. And ta-da, instant profit, both sides satisfied. (Yes, good luck streaks exist. I once spent 6 chaos rolling two pairs of ES gloves for about 3ex value each. I've also spent 4ex of chaos on a helm and gotten absolutely nothing worth selling. Go figure.)
This has gotten long enough, so I'll analyse the effects of this...and why I don't much favour SFL...in another post another day. But you can probably already tell from here.
*Don't ever trust Hauntworld with anything you can't afford to lose. He's a pretty cool guy to talk to, and really good at PvP, but don't trust him with your stuff. I've also heard some things about his guild, and from observation it seems to be more than plausible, but have no personal experience there.
I'm going to sort this by methods, and of course you can do each at different levels of intensity. Pretty well everyone I know who's got significant ingame currency uses at least one of these. With a side of larceny on one memorable occasion*, but that was in addition to this, not instead of it.
1. Playing the game
At its most basic level, this involves selling magic/rare items for chaos and alterations, or even transmutes. Slow but steady. Alternatively, getting a couple of Perandus rings and selling id scrolls to people. One level up, and it involves selling drops for currency. The majority of saleable drops are from maps in the 72+ range, and most of the better drops in that set are from i75+ items. Which is just as well, because at that level, it takes a lot of currency to feed a mapping habit. One other method, though, involves running all maps from 72-75 and selling anything that drops both above and below that range. Between that and good drops, it's possible to break even on solo mapping and then some. If running 76+ maps consistently, the sale of ilvl whites for crafting is a good side income.
But wait, what about MFers, you might ask. And sure there are some people who farm Piety/Dominus with MF and play with the chaos recipe. But a dedicated MF support character isn't in the business of alterations - a typical map run with one of those involves a stack or two of id scrolls per person, rares dropped on the ground as you run once it's established that they aren't good rares, and multiple uniques per map. The good ones get sold, the bad ones get dropped, and yes, people leave uniques behind.
2. Playing the market
Buy low, sell high. The best way to do this is on currency and uniques, because the demand for those is guaranteed. You can do this the regular way, which is to know the market well enough to establish a range of prices - and do note that prices change by time zone: ex are 26-27 chaos at US prime time on Nemesis, but 28-29 at EU prime time. Then buy low and sell high. You could start small, with chaos/alt/fusing flipping, and move on to bigger game with Andvarius flipping, and at the end of this line are mirror and shav flipping.
Or you could find and exploit a hole in the market. In early 2013, 20q FP gems sold for 2 ex during the FP craze, but below that (in the 13-18 range) for several gcps. People made exalts per day upgrading and reselling gems. During the entire time Onslaught was active, death rush rings were in the range of 2-4 chaos on OS...and 1-2 ex on SC. I made exalts per day on that and the cross-trading forums (1 OS = 4 SC). I will not post any current exploits.
This is where I'm going to classify "running Dominus for people" - there's a market, you fill it.
3. Playing the slots
No kidding, crafting is a really big earner, once several conditions are fulfilled. One, you have sufficient currency to start and to ride out streaks of bad luck. Two, it's done on large enough scale that item sales take place relatively often. Three, effort has to be made to actually sell items. Once these conditions are met, however, one realises that others will pay them to bet against the RNG. The chance of spending 2-3 times someone's asking price on crafting a usable item for yourself is too high if you're going to just craft the one item, so it makes sense for you to just buy said item. The guy crafting said item, on the other hand, is rolling enough items that his luck averages out. For every bad luck streak, he's getting a good one - and his asking price is rather more than the average amount he spends. And ta-da, instant profit, both sides satisfied. (Yes, good luck streaks exist. I once spent 6 chaos rolling two pairs of ES gloves for about 3ex value each. I've also spent 4ex of chaos on a helm and gotten absolutely nothing worth selling. Go figure.)
This has gotten long enough, so I'll analyse the effects of this...and why I don't much favour SFL...in another post another day. But you can probably already tell from here.
*Don't ever trust Hauntworld with anything you can't afford to lose. He's a pretty cool guy to talk to, and really good at PvP, but don't trust him with your stuff. I've also heard some things about his guild, and from observation it seems to be more than plausible, but have no personal experience there.
Earning currency in solo self-found
Cross-post from this thread. Will post actual opinion when I wake up tomorrow, this one's for the calculations.
My total net-worth in Dominion was 4 chaos and 2 stacks of alts plus a couple of miscellaneous orbs, at the time I lent them to a friend. In addition, I had bought about 4 stacks of transmutes (1alc per stack), leveling weapons (3chaos + 2chaos), Sunblast (8chaos), Karui Ward (1chaos) and Deerstalker (1chaos). Total of about 23 chaos. Two characters, level 47 and level 30. Can't use /played because there's a lot of dead-time where I AFK for lunch or just chat, but you can draw your own conclusions from the character levels. Ratios are assumed to be 20 alts to a chaos, 20 chromatics to a chaos, and everything following from it. I sold no items but I did freely convert currency in trade chat.
This is including picking up every blue item so I can id and vendor it - the average return, buying 160 ids to 1 chaos, is that I end up with about double the amount of currency I bought the id scrolls with when I run out of scrolls. I make close to zero if I don't pick blues, simply because rares and orbs drop so rarely. With a Perandus ring and no significant MF, I don't need to buy id scrolls even when picking up blues.
I can only do back-of-envelope calculations, but bear with me here. Clearing normal difficulty is about 3 hours on a fresh start (check the most recent 3 hour race). We'll say my level 30 cleared normal difficulty, since he pretty much did, so 3 hours there.
I'll now take some numbers from someone else's thread: level 65 in 10 hours at the highest clearspeed with a leveling build and all best gear available. I have used said leveling build, as well as others, and I can reasonably say the normal difficulty clear time is 2 hours, give or take 0.5. On the level 47 character, for all intents and purposes I started using a leveling build at level 28 (Geofri's Baptism) and have cleared the entirety of cruel with it. More or less. That's 3 hours, plus we'll just say half the time between a1c and a2m, so 4 hours. Would have been longer if I'd leveled with my final build.
So that comes out to about 3 chaos per hour, rounded up, playing solo self-found without MF gear and identifying every item. I'm not including the time taken going over vendors for chromatics, or going back to town to sell items, which are both fairly significant time sinks. It's likely to work out more around 2 chaos per playing hour.
I can make the figures per hour mentioned by someone else (80 alts, plus a few chaos from recipe, plus drops, adds up to about 8 chaos per hour) if I run a high-clearspeed MF build in endgame Piety/Dominus or maps. Goes through id scrolls at a fantastic rate too.
Thus, 2-8 chaos per hour without trading. There is an alternative - buy a pair of Perandus Signets and sell id scrolls for 200 to the chaos - I'll probably test it some other time, but this method is severely curtailed if you also want to find usable blue items. Blue items are really significant when you don't have much else. And, y'know, it kind of assumes trading.
My total net-worth in Dominion was 4 chaos and 2 stacks of alts plus a couple of miscellaneous orbs, at the time I lent them to a friend. In addition, I had bought about 4 stacks of transmutes (1alc per stack), leveling weapons (3chaos + 2chaos), Sunblast (8chaos), Karui Ward (1chaos) and Deerstalker (1chaos). Total of about 23 chaos. Two characters, level 47 and level 30. Can't use /played because there's a lot of dead-time where I AFK for lunch or just chat, but you can draw your own conclusions from the character levels. Ratios are assumed to be 20 alts to a chaos, 20 chromatics to a chaos, and everything following from it. I sold no items but I did freely convert currency in trade chat.
This is including picking up every blue item so I can id and vendor it - the average return, buying 160 ids to 1 chaos, is that I end up with about double the amount of currency I bought the id scrolls with when I run out of scrolls. I make close to zero if I don't pick blues, simply because rares and orbs drop so rarely. With a Perandus ring and no significant MF, I don't need to buy id scrolls even when picking up blues.
I can only do back-of-envelope calculations, but bear with me here. Clearing normal difficulty is about 3 hours on a fresh start (check the most recent 3 hour race). We'll say my level 30 cleared normal difficulty, since he pretty much did, so 3 hours there.
I'll now take some numbers from someone else's thread: level 65 in 10 hours at the highest clearspeed with a leveling build and all best gear available. I have used said leveling build, as well as others, and I can reasonably say the normal difficulty clear time is 2 hours, give or take 0.5. On the level 47 character, for all intents and purposes I started using a leveling build at level 28 (Geofri's Baptism) and have cleared the entirety of cruel with it. More or less. That's 3 hours, plus we'll just say half the time between a1c and a2m, so 4 hours. Would have been longer if I'd leveled with my final build.
So that comes out to about 3 chaos per hour, rounded up, playing solo self-found without MF gear and identifying every item. I'm not including the time taken going over vendors for chromatics, or going back to town to sell items, which are both fairly significant time sinks. It's likely to work out more around 2 chaos per playing hour.
I can make the figures per hour mentioned by someone else (80 alts, plus a few chaos from recipe, plus drops, adds up to about 8 chaos per hour) if I run a high-clearspeed MF build in endgame Piety/Dominus or maps. Goes through id scrolls at a fantastic rate too.
Thus, 2-8 chaos per hour without trading. There is an alternative - buy a pair of Perandus Signets and sell id scrolls for 200 to the chaos - I'll probably test it some other time, but this method is severely curtailed if you also want to find usable blue items. Blue items are really significant when you don't have much else. And, y'know, it kind of assumes trading.
Added a new page to the site
I keep on promising to do things. Like build concepts. Also I have the skilltrees for some of them in my phone already, give or take a couple of points. But the list is growing, so I've added a page where I keep track of them. It's called accountability.
Someday I'll also clean up the rest of the pages. Someday.
Someday I'll also clean up the rest of the pages. Someday.
A collection of semi-random points
I'm tired today, and it occurs to me that I haven't written one of those opinion pieces for a while, so here's a compromise and expect to see some of these written in more detail somewhere down the line.
- Playing HC when distracted is as great a way to die as playing while half asleep
- Someone I bought something from is of the opinion that races should give 3x more points but occur 1/3 as frequently; it'd be as hard to reach 1k as ever, but the time investment is less. Also, I metagame races for points.
- NotRegret's quest to beat the game on Nemesis without using rares is commendable. He also has a bunch of essays written on assorted different points, some of which I disagree with, but definitely worth reading even so.
- I'm not particularly in favour of SFL. This from the perspective of end game mapping. This thread is also a good read on the subject.
- Not every build is equal in clearing all content. Case in point, I absolutely hate first form Dominus, but second is a cakewalk; my dual totem buddy reports exactly the opposite.
- I really need my previous forum posts in list format.
Oh, and Munchkin is a great card game.
- Playing HC when distracted is as great a way to die as playing while half asleep
- Someone I bought something from is of the opinion that races should give 3x more points but occur 1/3 as frequently; it'd be as hard to reach 1k as ever, but the time investment is less. Also, I metagame races for points.
- NotRegret's quest to beat the game on Nemesis without using rares is commendable. He also has a bunch of essays written on assorted different points, some of which I disagree with, but definitely worth reading even so.
- I'm not particularly in favour of SFL. This from the perspective of end game mapping. This thread is also a good read on the subject.
- Not every build is equal in clearing all content. Case in point, I absolutely hate first form Dominus, but second is a cakewalk; my dual totem buddy reports exactly the opposite.
- I really need my previous forum posts in list format.
Oh, and Munchkin is a great card game.
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Back to Searing Bond
Cyclone + CMK + SB + culling?
Or CMK anything really, using culling to get around the dual totems no-self-damage thing, but it'll only really work with casting a totem because otherwise the spell still deals no damage.
To no one's surprise, self casted RF deals no damage on a dual totem build. Burn animation still plays though.
Or CMK anything really, using culling to get around the dual totems no-self-damage thing, but it'll only really work with casting a totem because otherwise the spell still deals no damage.
To no one's surprise, self casted RF deals no damage on a dual totem build. Burn animation still plays though.
Aegis, Lightbane Raiment, and Viper Strike
got an idea from this thread
The question is whether desecrated ground is affected by DoT/chaos nodes? My guess is no. Pity. I mean, I've got a Rain and everything, but Rain + Aegis builds are so overdone, and X-on-block is a cool mechanic.
I'm thinking Abyssus, to offset using a 1h weapon for damage. Aegis should be good for the damage taken thing, not to mention it has a reasonable amount of armour. In addition, crit multiplier, which means I should go crit for even more damage.
I'll post a complete concept once I've shaved it down to 100 or so points and figured out Lightbane's ground effect.
The question is whether desecrated ground is affected by DoT/chaos nodes? My guess is no. Pity. I mean, I've got a Rain and everything, but Rain + Aegis builds are so overdone, and X-on-block is a cool mechanic.
I'm thinking Abyssus, to offset using a 1h weapon for damage. Aegis should be good for the damage taken thing, not to mention it has a reasonable amount of armour. In addition, crit multiplier, which means I should go crit for even more damage.
I'll post a complete concept once I've shaved it down to 100 or so points and figured out Lightbane's ground effect.
Sunday, 22 December 2013
Traps and totems, really?
So there's this friend of mine, he wanted to see if he could get around the "less" modifier on totems. And of course, he hit on the idea of trapping them.
I'd always figured that the summon time would be a bit too much, that throwing a trap which then threw up a totem only if it was hit and then totem cast speed...yeah, not going there. But then he mentioned Sunblast.
Oh snap.
Imagine the possibilities.
I asked, and he wasn't double dipping Reduced Duration (it was storm call totems) but I imagine that's definitely something one could do.
It does make me want to throw lightning warp totem traps now, too.
I'd always figured that the summon time would be a bit too much, that throwing a trap which then threw up a totem only if it was hit and then totem cast speed...yeah, not going there. But then he mentioned Sunblast.
Oh snap.
Imagine the possibilities.
I asked, and he wasn't double dipping Reduced Duration (it was storm call totems) but I imagine that's definitely something one could do.
It does make me want to throw lightning warp totem traps now, too.
Friday, 20 December 2013
Light at the end of the tunnel
moving away from you at speed c.
It gets a lot better after lightning trap! (play tested as witch trapper in 2h solo race)
It gets a lot better after lightning trap! (play tested as witch trapper in 2h solo race)
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