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!)

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.

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.

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.