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colma86

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Posts posted by colma86

  1.  

    All that said, game balance still isn’t tuned to the point those stat points are going to make or break a run wherever they are.

    That's an impractical goal to have anyways. Having stats so finely balanced that not having the "right build" kills your run turns players away from the game. Especially in a game like this where building the character you like is so important. Cookie cutter build optimization is a part of what ruined MMO games for me.

    Oh for sure. Having a tank need X resolve or die in 3 seconds MMO style would be terrible for everybody. I didn’t mean that as negative as it sounded.

  2. I’m still in the “dump resolve, almost always” camp. There are a lot of interesting points here but I still don’t see it being worthwhile vs. other stats on PotD in practice.

     

    Say on a token herald tank, would 7 deflection (assuming base 10 vs. dumped 3) consistently be the difference of getting hit or not? Or further would the extra hits or debuff duration make a realistic difference on the outcome of the encounter? (In the game proper, not so much thinking about starter island)

     

    In my personal, anecdotal experience the answer is no, those points in or out of resolve do not make that difference in a noticeable or consistent way.

     

    I know that’s hard if not impossible to concretely answer given gear/levels/buffs/debuffs/party comp/enemy variables. Making that kind of consistent fight-in,fight-out difference in survival is sort of the only thing I can see making me not dump resolve though. In the end it hardly matters if your tank survives with 80 hp or 300 hp, just so long as the job is done...so it may as well churn out as much damage as it can and invest in other stats.

     

    All that said, game balance still isn’t tuned to the point those stat points are going to make or break a run wherever they are.

    • Like 1
  3. Has anyone tried out chanter/ranger?

     

    Yeah, once as a Beckoner back before the great nerfing, and my current run with a mc Ghost Heart/Troubadour (potd triple crown, just hit lvl 14). Ghost Heart gives an instant summon if needed and you've spent phrases on non-summon invocations and no pet when you don't want to deal with it lol.

     

    I play it as a ranged caster/summoner/pew pew. Early I just focused on summons and let my Herald take care of paralyze spamming, ~lvl10-13 the good ranged invocations start to open up and it gets a lot more interesting to play. I went with bows just for flavor but any sort of ranged weapon options work. For stats I dumped constitution and resolve, maxed dexterity/perception/might and put whatever was left into intelligence.

     

    Beckoner would work if you just want to summon as you can cast them right at the start of a fight most of the time anyway, otherwise Troubadour is generally better. Despite the Beckoner nerfs people tend to underestimate the power of summoning 6 of the sword things right on top of a squishy priority target like a caster.

     

    But in general Wildrhymer is ok...nothing earth shattering or highlight vid worthy but dependable ranged support and decent dps. I don't know about solo though, I never really considered it with this build.

  4.  

    I have a character using EI as a helwalker/Beguiler. It’s my “I haven’t ever used Beguiler or cipher in general outside of soul blade” character. Devoted and maybe berserker would be ok too.

    Between EI summons and the charm spells it’s pretty nice, and damage is fairly good with it sitting in the back using dance and flurry and the extra spell range helps keeps the dance going.

    Flurry doesn't work on ranged weapons. The other two do though.

     

     

    Ah, habit there...meant lightning strikes, probably the only time I've ever taken it.

  5. I have a character using EI as a helwalker/Beguiler. It’s my “I haven’t ever used Beguiler or cipher in general outside of soul blade” character. Devoted and maybe berserker would be ok too.

     

    Between EI summons and the charm spells it’s pretty nice, and damage is fairly good with it sitting in the back using dance and flurry and the extra spell range helps keeps the dance going.

  6. I think the main issue folks have is if your focus is shifting and melee, you really don't do much other than watch the character auto attack. I did potd as a tempest (berserker/shifter) and it worked ok, I never felt like it was lagging behind, but it was pretty boring all told.

     

    They at least need to let the shifter use the beast spells (and only those) and maybe get +1/+2 power level to them.

  7. Chanter level 8-9 abilities WEAK? I beg to differ.

     

    Chants, you gain the dragonslayer chant - okay, strictly speaking the beastslayer chant - and you get the +1 penetration chant, both very powerful. (Though the first is extremely situational).

     

    Invocations, you get the upgrade to the Eld Nary frost invocation taking it from 4 jump targets to 12, you get the upgrade to Braved the Horde alone that allows you to self energize for the longest time at half the phrase cost, you get the upgrade to Ancient Instruments and Swamp summons, you get the Dragon summon, you get the upgrade to the raw damage AOE that now also gives 25% action speed (and heals) nearby friends and there's the option of giving nearby friends +1 class resource if you really can't think of anything else. [EDIT: Okay, to be fair, you only get a selection of those and some of the other options depending on what you want to spend ability points, you don't get them all... I just mentioned those I consider most useful, though to be fair the +3 penetration invocation should probably have been in the list too.]

     

    ...And, of course, you get a higher Power Level than you would as multiclass (and can pick prestige for +1 as well).

     

    Now, Chanter is a class that multiclasses well with just about anything because it has so many good tools both active and passive that whatever role you intend for the composite, a Chanter can well support it, but a singleclass chanter is also very, very powerful at high levels: Its level 8 and 9 abilities aren't weak.

    I dunno about weak, but unnecessary or superfluous would be a better description. Like others have said, getting the level 8-9 skills you’re on the victory lap of the game. Who cares if you can summon a dragon when there’s basically nothing left worthwhile to summon a dragon against. There’s nothing like (insert powerful enemy) to try and fight late game. May as well just keep spamming Killers Froze Stiff while half afk watching some Netflix and call it a day. (An exaggeration, but still)

     

    That’s not at all specific to chanters. To me the biggest reason to multiclass is most builds are online and doing 90% of what you want in the 10-13 level range. Anything accessed higher than that has very little appeal as you’ve taken on and beaten most, if not all, challenges to get to that point. I don’t think single classes are all that weak otherwise.

     

    The next 2 dlc pretty much need to be all level 18-20 content to change this imo. There needs to be content to make me say “damn, I need/want a dragon for this”.

    • Like 1
  8. If you cheese the fights hard I’d say level 10 or 11. The fight outside the cave where you get sungrazer is worse than the fire nagas. It’s easy to sail around stealing superb and exceptional gear from places to make it easier.

     

    Outside fight I make sure to run down the ramp away from the naga caster as it won’t follow or leave the area of the trap thing.

  9. I'd definitely drop greater lay on hands, the +1 zeal cost makes it not worth. For armor I'd say DoC for more FoD spam, I doubt anyone else would get as much mileage

    out of it.

     

    Edit: I always use Magran's Favor on pally and it used to be Sun and Moon off hand, but since the nerfs there are a bunch of off hands that work just as well.

  10. Holy slayer was my vote.

     

    I don't see how the other two make up for FoD or lay on hands. Swashy is good but for pure min/max it won't touch holy slayer. Also HS is a bit more fun to micro.

     

    My standard usage is first 10-20s use a shield and then swap to dual wield after the initial pressure is absorbed and your party does its thing (works solo too more or less). Once the dual wielding happens its FoD spam time, bonus to set the AI to devastating blow at 50% target hp.

     

    Hunkering down with a shield all the time just hits the breaks on the pain train, and that makes the pain train sad. Choo Choo.

  11. I'm about 80% done with a full Magran's Fires run with a solo holy slayer (bleak walker/trickster). There's not an enemy or situation in the game that a holy slayer can't give a middle finger to and annihilate. All 3 you mention are strong, but holy slayer is on a different level.

     

    oh and unity console mod can change eder or anyone to whatever class, even watershaper or gunhawk if you want.

  12. Monk is always decent and worth considering ...has tenacious, swift flurry, duality.

     

    Monk/barb/fighter/rogue are all pretty much the same pure “pew pew” character. Going cipher (I’d go ascendant myself) adds a new aspect for buffs, debuffs, cc and damage spells...though you’ll probably out dps most damage spells just auto attacking.

     

    Edit: I don’t have any hard numbers to back it up, but I’d guess that best dps would go to ranger/Paladin (bleak walker) spamming flames of devotion with dual pistols.

  13.  

    Skald pretty much begs to be paired with berserker for it's 30% crit conversion. It’s honestly an absurd combo.

     

    But you're focusing on weapon dps that way, right? I mean I gotta hit stuff either way, so yeah might as well.

    If you’re not going the “melee and spam” route there’s really no reason to pick skald, troubadour will be much better.

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