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Welcome   by codezombie on 05-07-2010 01:55:58
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 Subject :Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 19-02-2012 01:43:06 
Jester5093
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So I had created a thread months and months ago to try and get strategies and builds, ideas and tips, all in one place.  It didn't get very far, but I honestly think there are so many more people now who have seen, tried, and enjoyed the genius that is this game.

I've been reading Leot's(sp?) posts in the expansion thread, and he has some great ideas, so I'll briefly touch upon what I'm currently doing, what his advice was, and hopefully others will jump in.

I'm obsessed with magic users, and I flock to them whenever possible.  Obviously magic is tough to start with in this game.  I had been making chars that pump int/agi and run around blasting things when possible...it was frustrating, and I died...a lot lol

So something Leot suggested was hitting 40 end on every character for that boost early game and onwards.  So I made a new "mage" with all points dumped into end at char creation.  I also threw on dual swords, again at Leot's suggestion.

Level 3 currently (just started it 10 minutes ago lolol) and I don't get 1 shot by sporelings, and my damage went from frustrating to wow!

I'm adding all further points to int.  Which leads us to useful skills/spells.

I'm still of the opinion that scale mail is the only armor skill worth taking.  magic resist is still so important.  health regen and magic regen (if you are a mage) also very important.  Whichever attack skill suits your char, also great.

From there, it gets kinda rough.  Leot came to the same opinion I did about berserk.  It is not great for anyone lol.  Magic stumps me every time.  I typically prefer growth to mend wounds, but it may just be a matter of taste.  I'm interested in opinions.  Frost armor I remain unconvinced of it's worth.  In DD, it's mainly take little to no damage and you are fine, or you are dead and in neither case would frost armor help.  Others may see things differently.

Charge sounds awesome, but I haven't had the points to put into it yet.  Overload is meh at first, but it may turn awesome, which was my belief all along.  Other than that, no magic has really shone as worth it.  What do you guys find is good with magic?

Please post your ideas, guesses, things we need to test, and let's help the noobs, help ourselves, and help code_zombie with his amazing game and development. Thanks guys!

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 22-02-2012 03:55:49 
Leot
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Well thank you. That was quite a surprise and a compliment. You will love the 40 endurance later on in the game. I recently played with a fire mage and I have a couple of thoughts about mage builds. 40 endurance is needed no matter what class you play, after which every other stat should be magic, though agility is wanted on items. With mages just equip the bow and put you first skill point in growth as it simulates HP regen at a better rate than the actual HP regen skill. Only one point will be needed throught the game as it stacks. Next point into attack skill of choice followed by two mo regen, one point in charge then max attack skill and mp regen as you feel it's needed. I say get charge right away as all basic attack skills add 50% to attack per skill point charge doubles it, for free. I actually don't put any points into staff or armor specialization until everything else (save growth) is done. Also: frost armor seems to trump scale armor (which you are right is the best armor in the game hands down). I will be playing an archer next.
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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 22-02-2012 21:04:06 
Jester5093
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Hey Leot, very glad you joined our community.

The growth stacking is something I didn't know, and is huge.  Thanks for that tip!

I don't see much point in 3 trees of 4 skills each, do you?  With points so scarce, it seems like fireball and to a lesser extent lightning arc are the only real attack skills worth it.  The fire/flame constant aoe's are a fantastic idea, but never really worth the mana cost for the damage they dish out.  Also am curious to see how charge works with those, as they are a constant effect and not a DD spell.

So you are left with 4 fireball (or lightning arc), 4 charge, 4 frost armor (possibly), 1 point in growth, 4 in mana regen, then staff and scale spec.  21 points and you're pretty well completed.  I think my highest char so far is 14, so I have more grinding to do in the expansion ;)

Archers are also fun.  Max multishot and bow spec, and you now have enough to survive and kill most creatures with little effort.  Only gets scary when you misjudge the walls, and kite yourself in to a corner.  You can throw in scale spec, then hp regen.  That's the core.

Fighters are equally simple, as you found out.  hp regen, weapon skill, scale spec, and possibly holy strike to taste, as mana pots are plentiful enough to give you a decent chance.  Stay away from berserk, and who uses shields anyway?  ;)

Hopefully the rest of the community wakes up too lol

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 23-02-2012 01:35:42 
Leot
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Actually I built my fighter quite a hit differently. I have never seen a point to using an attacking skill with them as it still doesn't do enough. I tend to place four points in HP regen, four in scale, four in frost armor (which is amazing right now), four in shield wall (armor on shields is awesome. Curiously enough as the game goes on the actual stats of the second sword matter less and less as your bonus damage from strength increases. Know what you can strength damage with? A shield. I never go above 40 endurance and I find stacking agility boosts, and magic resist items to completion. It works well, with the perfect balance being achieved in the new expansion area with the cannibals. The only downfall is the zombie and hydra stackable poison and desease damage (and the ghost attacks). Growth works like a reverse poison in this game, which I find to be interesting. Ive rambled enough for now, but keep posting. Oh one last thing: lightning spells are the best spells for the multi hit attributes.
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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 23-02-2012 14:16:42 
Jester5093
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Armor really isn't that important, unless that changes at the very highest levels now.  I've always been able to flourish with either 2 swords or 1 2h, until magic eats me alive.   Although I did try a concept build, all defense, end and agi, hp regen, scale armor, shields, shield wall, etc etc.  just make something that never took any damage, so it didn't matter how little damage I did.  While boring (due to the fact that I could take on 2-3 monsters and never have my hp drop, and it would take me 30 seconds to kill a reg monster) it actually worked REALLY well.

You can't just drop a statement like lightning is best and not back it up.  Out with the proof ;)

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 24-02-2012 21:09:58 
Leot
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Let us try to answer this, now on an actual computer with real paragraph breaks.

 

Lightning spells being the bestest? I essentially meant just with attacking, but I suppose we can in depth go into some of the more analytical aspects of it all. Build will be as such:

Str: One Million

Endurance: 40

Agility: 40

Magic: 100

Skills: 4 points in all ice, fire, and lightning skills.

 

Basic attacks:

Ice Arrow: 50% magic stat (50) plus 50% per skill level (200) plus 40% chance for 1/2 speed for 10 seconds.

 

The unarguable parts of all this are that the slow, while nice, doesn't help you as much outside of the final areas of the game, and certainly very little in enclosed corridors. Enemy attack cooldowns upon testing are independant of this slowing down effect. Total of 250 at magic 100.

 

Fire Arrow: 100% magic stat (100) plus 50% per skill level (200). No secondary bonus applied.

It does 300 damage for a small mana cost. I believe it costs the same as ice arrow.

 

Lightning Arc: 100% magic stat (100) plus 50% per skill level (200). Then does 50% total damage to any other creature occupying the same square (150). Total damage of a possible 300-450 dealt. Costs more than fire arrow.

 

 

These three attack skills all seem to have their strengths, but lightning arc truly starts to shine when looking at the later skills in other trees. For the most obvious effect we will look at fireball. It does as much damage to all creatures in the same tile for a 50% increase in mana cost. In the early levels this tend to be prohibitively expensive and does damage equal to a single fire arrow also maxed out.

Lightning arc does just as much damage, but loses 150 damage dealt to the secondary creature, for less mana. If you want to say that fireball is a better skill than lightning arc due to this I would gladly accept that point, and point out that fireball's redundancy removes the usefulness of fire arrow, still leaving Lightning arc up on on the damage per mana scale.

Lightning arc is superior to fire arrow, and will kill faster than ice arrow. Next time I will go further into secondary spells in each tree.

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 24-02-2012 22:32:29 
Leot
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Just tested fireball versus lightning arc. The man's cost is the same so fireball is the superior skill.
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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 24-02-2012 22:53:03 
Leot
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Single fire aid attack cost 7 at level 2 and 12 at level 3, and increase of 5 per level.
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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 25-02-2012 02:01:50 
Jester5093
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;)  This has made me giddy lol.  I am glad we can finally 100% finalize that fireball is the skill.  Charge is awesome btw.

I had actually made a lightning arc char, and let me tell you....it misses and bugs quite often.  It randomly wouldn't hit the second person, etc etc.  Fireball all the way.

So to recap, for mages end to 40 at char creation, all other points into int, with gear looking for magic resist and/or agi.  skill points as follows: 1 Growth, 4 Fireball, 4 Charge, 4 MP Regen, 4 Frost Armor, 4 Staff, 4 Scale Mail.  25 skill points pretty much max out the char, and even some of that isn't 100% necessary.

Warriors end to 40 at char creation, rest in 3str/2agi or some combo.  Skills: 4 HP Regen, 4 Frost Armor, 4 Scale Mail, 4 weapon skill (not 100% necessary), with shield wall and holy strike depending.

Archers end to 40 at char creation, rest in 3str/2agi or some combo.  Skills: 4 HP Regen, 4 Multishot, 4 Bow skill, 4 scale mail, and the rest to be fleshed out.

Sound good so far?

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 25-02-2012 02:37:54 
codezombie
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Well, Lighting Arc is better 1 on 1 versus creatures.  So, it would be better against bosses.  Fireball is better 2 vs 1, so it is better for the regular creatures.

Fireball does current magic damage to both creatures.  Lightning Arc does magic plus an additional 33% damage to the main target, and half of that damage to the other target.  Here is how the damage might work for both.

Magic: 50

Fireball

Creature 1: 50

Creature 2: 50

Lightning Arc

Creature 1: 67

Creature 2: 33

As you can see, both do the same total damage when there are two creatures.  Though, how it divides that damage differs.  In the case of 1 creature, Lightning Arc is more powerful than Fireball.

For 2 enemies in a tile, Lightning Arc will take more casts to kill both.  For 1 enemy in a tile, Fireball will take more casts to kill the single creature.

The guide is wrong about Lighting Arc.  I'll update it.

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Last Edited On: 25-02-2012 02:39:55 By codezombie for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 25-02-2012 05:29:21 
Jester5093
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So this actually makes lightning arc the best damage spell.  it does 133% of  magic to a single target, and 66% to the second target.  No single target spell does over 100%, and fireball only does 100% to each target.  if you wanted pure AOE fireball edges it out, but having 133% to 1 target and an extra 66% to the second really makes it the hands down winner.

 

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Last Edited On: 25-02-2012 06:05:09 By Jester5093 for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 29-02-2012 19:02:05 
lucasjung
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[Leot 21-02-2012 19:55:49]:

...growth as it simulates HP regen at a better rate than the actual HP regen skill. Only one point will be needed throught the game as it stacks.

What do you base this on? The first part is more or less true (except that it ignores the advantage that HP regen is "always on" and Growth isn't), but the second sentence I quoted does not match at all the description in the guide, nor does it mesh with my experience in trying out Growth. The guide says this about Growth:

Regenerates the same amount of health as Mend Wounds but over 10 seconds. Lower mana cost than Mend Wounds

In other words, it's a discounted version of Mend Wounds, with the downside being that you don't get all of the HP instantly. This exactly matches my experience using it. The guide says this about Mend Wounds:

Instant heal that heals for player level plus skill level multiplied by magic. hitpoints = player_level + (skill_level * magic)

Presumably, the formula for Growth is identical, but with the healing spread out over 10 seconds. There's nothing in that formula that "stacks:" a 10th-level character who took a level in Mend Wounds or Growth at 2nd level will heal exactly as many HP as a 10th-level character who took a level in Mend Wounds or Growth at 10th level. In other words, there is no significant advantage to taking either spell early, other than being able to use it sooner.

I haven't played much since 1.12 came out, so maybe Growth has changed significantly since then, but otherwise I don't think it's sound advice to take a single level early on, and then none afterwards.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I think the relationship between HP and level is broken. As you say, every character, regardless of build, should put all starting stats into End, and then (with few exceptions) completely neglect End forever after. When a particular character choice provides such an overwhelming advantage that all characters use it, there is clearly a balance issue. If the build system were properly balanced, then it would make sense for different characters to take different amounts of End at first level, and to add differing amounts over time. I think that an easy fix would be to make HP a fixed function of End and level, rather than an integration of HP over time. In other words, two characters with the same End and character level should have the same HP, regardless of how they got there. For example, Current_HP = ChrLvl*(10 + End).

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Last Edited On: 29-02-2012 19:25:28 By lucasjung for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 29-02-2012 19:15:20 
Jester5093
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After this was posted, I tried it on my mage.  It stacks.  It may not be meant to, but cast it 3-4 times on yourself, and you're full in a matter of a second or two.  it is immensely useful for countering some of the poisons etc in levels 16+.

HP Regen honestly sucks, if it wasn't that fighters and archers don't have the mana to cast growth all of the time, it would be required.  hp regen heals about 5 hp if you have 4 ranks in it and  250 hp if I Remember correctly.  This is pathetic.  that's about a minute to heal if you were at 1 hp.  Mend can do it in about 5 seconds if you only have 1 rank in it and a decent magic stat.

MP Regen isn't much better, if you have 250 mana and 4 ranks it restores 10 mana a second.  so 25 seconds to fully regenerate mana.  I wouldn't change this though, as my character at floor 20 rarely has mana problems.  Healh problems, yes, mana problems not really lol.

 

 

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 29-02-2012 20:04:20 
lucasjung
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Ahh: I was interpreting "stack" in a different way. Because he said that you only need one level in Growth, I thought he was implying that it somehow gets better over time the way HP integrates if you start with high End. If you just mean that multiple Growth spells stack when cast consecutively, yes, it's always worked that way. With that interpretation, however, there is still an advantage to putting additional levels into Growth: you get more HP for your mana.

I always take a single level in HP regen right away, because (especially at early levels) it gives you the option to get back up to full health by "resting." It's not really able to keep you alive in combat, it's meant to speed your recover between combat, and that works beautifully. Of course, ever since codezombie added mana regen at 1st level, I suppose that you could just use Growth for that in-between recovery. However, then you have to wait for your mana to rebuild before you're ready to press on, so it's still nice to have both HP and mana recovering in tandem. Also, I find that I rarely have to actually stop and "rest," but rather am able to continue exploring and my HP will be mostly restored by the time I encounter the next cluster of enemies.

You say that you have HP problems but not mana problems. That makes zero sense: when you boil it all down, Growth and Mend Wounds are tools for converting mana into HP, so if you have plenty of mana, you are literally just a few button-presses away from having plenty of HP. You should always run out of mana before you run out of HP, unless you get squished by a single hit (or several simultaneous hits).

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Last Edited On: 29-02-2012 20:05:19 By lucasjung for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 29-02-2012 20:20:11 
Jester5093
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I don't think we are saying that it isn't useful to have more than 1 rank... just that you CAN survive with 1 rank.  Skill points are very dear with a mage.  If you have extra, sure, throw them in, but you're probably better off building damage up first.

By HP problems I mean that as a mage, I take a lot of damage.  I also get 1hit killed way more than I like.  if it's a 1 on 1 situation, not even a boss can kill me unless I mess up.  If I get mobbed, and in the maze that's easy to do, I'm in bad shape.  that's when I run out of mana, and that's when I tend to have to pot like a mad man.

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 29-02-2012 21:04:28 
lucasjung
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I also like to play mages, and certainly understand the importance of picking your skills wisely. My personal preference is normally to dabble in a lot of different spells, but experience has shown me that in this game it is much better to pick a single offensive spell to maximize: you really only need one good way to do damage, but when you're getting clobbered, it actually pays to have multiple ways to restore HP. Generally, mana regen is the first skill I max out, then a single offensive spell (e.g. lightning arc), then one healing spell (usually Mend Wounds first, but that's mostly a matter of personal preference), then Charge, then the other healing spell (Growth if you took Mend Wounds first, or vice-versa), and only then move on to max out other stuff (Frost, CoF, etc.). It's a matter of maintaining balance between offense and defense. Mind you, that's not the order in which I take the first rank, it's the order in which I max things out.

If you're having problems with 1-hit kills, then you need more endurance and/or more armor. Although cloth armor grants a magic bonus, I actually prefer plate armor because it offers the most protection, preferably with magic resistance. Maxed out Frozen Armor is also very nice.

If you're getting surrounded and boxed in by mobs, higher agility makes a huge difference because it confers multiple benefits: First, your armor goes up. Second, monsters slow down (this is how the game represents the fact that you are faster); not only does this mean that your spell-casting rate (relative to the monsters) goes up, it also means that your rates of health & mana regen are higher relative to the monsters, and it makes it easier to dance around them to avoid getting boxed in. I keep my agility at least 50% of my magic, and that usually works out pretty well for me, but I suspect that at higher levels I'll need to bump it up to about 75-80%.

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 01-03-2012 20:13:55 
Leot
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Okay I have a lot to update since much was said in my absence. First starting with Lightning arc vs Fireballs:

 

Think about the charge skill, granting a total of an extra 200% damage when cast. It's cool down is the same as your normal spells without an increase in cost. The effects of lightning arc are actually (133% Magic stat) * 3 plus (33%) * 3 to any other creatures in the square. At 100 magic stat this means:

 

Primary target: 133 + (133)*2= 399

Tertiary targets: 33 + (33)*2 = 100

 

Fireball:

 

Primary Target: 100 + 200 = 300

Tertiary Target: 100 + 200 = 300

 

All calculations are based on skill level 0. At skill level 4 add an extra 200% base damage to each side.

 

As far as everything else goes:

 

Lucasjung, welcome to the forums. I hope you enjoy your stay.

 

First off, for mage based characters, growth is superior to hp regen. I used to place my first point in hp regen as well since growth was prohibitively expensive right from the get go. At mage level 10 and beyond with 4 points in mp regen you will never have to resort to a magic potion ever, and if you do it will be a drop in the well.

 

Growth simulates HP regen, but as your magic stat increases so does its effectiveness. While this can be said as well about the increased gain of hp regen based upon increased health levels you cant spam hp regen as a skill, looking beyond even the measly 0.5% of total health per level it grants. It hurts, but my mages play like really poor archers for the first 4 levels.

 

Now as far as the stacking argument, i meant it stacks with itself upon casting, and doesn't need the increase in skill level. Let us use another example:

 

Bill Blargiflarg level 10 Dude of Dudeism

 

Str: 10

End: 40

Agi: 10

Mag: 100

Max HP: 220

 

(Really cool mage to have magic that high at that level, but w/e)

 

Growth formula is as follows:

 

hitpoints = player_level + (skill_level * magic) Over ten seconds.

 

10 + (1*100) over ten seconds for a total of 110 or 11hp per second

Increase the skill level and it jumps to:

10 + (4+100) over ten seconds for a total of 410 or 41hp per second.

 

 

This extra amount is huge, but as your magic increases upwards of 200 to 400 your growth spell will heal all the needed wounds with mana to spare. One could simple cast the spell four times.

 

I however agree with the plate mail perspective. Once I can get find some nice armor I put that stuff on as soon as I get it. The staves seem to have the huge +magic stat, and hopefully by the end of the four levels it takes to max out the staff skill I've grown bored of my character and have started t play something else. If not then scale mail or frost armor FTW.

 

Agility is a tricky subject. While the monsters do move slower, aside from my agi only archer there isn't a way to really keep up with them, and the multiplicative affect of the mage spells show that every point you dont put into magic isnt a single point of damage, but 5 damage total that you are missing out on. Past the God Reams everything is moving faster than you, and even in Nitemare the best thing you can do for yourself is just kill them with greater haste.

 

Now the quality of this post has decrease in direct proportion to my ramblings so i will leave it here. To recap:

-Mages use Growth or mend wounds, preferable mend wounds due to poson (why did you get close enough to let them hit you?)

-Charge should be maxed out even before you skill levels to attack skill of choice as the boosts are the same (+50%) and it can be conveyed over all magic skills.

-Agility is meh, unless you are a fighter or archer.

 

Help with AGI is meh: A nice varied build of 3 Mag 2 Agi over the course of twenty levels grants a boost of 40 points to agility which is nice. the missing 40 points in magic skill equates to missing 200 Damage per shot. Agility is one of the prime two stats I look for on magic equipment and usually I have it well over 100 at level 20. I currently have a nice ring of +15 agi +15 mag.

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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 01-03-2012 20:21:30 
Leot
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MP Regen is great. With 400 mana and a maxed out mp regen skill +5% per second you get back 20 mana a second. Skill have a cooldown time of about 1 second so unless you are in a super epic battle you cant back out from by running upstairs or you really did feel the need to spam ALL those growth spells you shouldn't ever run out in practice.
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 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 02-03-2012 12:42:48 
lucasjung
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[Leot 01-03-2012 12:13:55]:

Lucasjung, welcome to the forums. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Heh...look back and you'll see that I've been on these forums for quite some time, so it is I who should be welcoming you, but the sentiment is appreciated.


[Leot 01-03-2012 12:13:55]:

First off, for mage based characters, growth is superior to hp regen.

...

Growth simulates HP regen...

Judging Health Regen and Growth against each other just doesn't make a lot of sense, because they are very different skills which serve very different purposes. As the guide states, Growth works exactly like Mend Wounds except that it costs less mana and spreads the healing out over the course of ten seconds. It's giving you a finite amount of HP over a finite period of time. So the real contest is between Growth and Mend Wounds. I believe that each has their place and that a mage at high levels would benefit from having both maxed out, but the question is: which to take first, and which to max out first? I used to favor Mend Wounds early, but now I lean more towards Growth first because you can always use healing potions when you need HP instantly.

Unlike Growth, Health Regen is "always on," providing an unlimited amount of HP forever; it costs neither mana nor attention. While I generally agree that a mage is better off putting points into Growth rather than Health Regen, I still find a single point in HP regen right at the beginning to be worthwhile. It makes the first few levels much easier, and remains nice to have even much later in the game.

This is mostly a matter of personal preference, but in general I think that your analysis is a little bit too focused on the numbers: you ignore less-tangible factors. For example, Health Regen saves me a lot of mind-share: it's always working, slowly ticking up my HP even when I'm focused on other things, like exploring. That's nice.

I do think that Health Regen could probably use a bit of a boost. Right now it's so weak that most characters will take a single point at first level and then stop there. However, it needs to be boosted carefully, in very small steps, because it could easily become so great that every character maxes it out early. I think there's probably a very narrow sweet spot where it's just right.


[Leot 01-03-2012 12:13:55]:

Now as far as the stacking argument, i meant it stacks with itself upon casting, and doesn't need the increase in skill level.

...

One could simple cast the spell four times.

I eventually figured out that this is what you meant, but it still doesn't follow that there is no advantage in adding levels to the skill. Casting the spell four times isn't simply a matter of mana, it's also a matter of time: there's a cool-down between each of those castings. It's also a matter of attention: you have to waste part of your thought process on smashing that button over and over, rather than paying attention to your situation and possibly maneuvering to avoid getting overwhelmed.


[Leot 01-03-2012 12:13:55]:

Agility is a tricky subject. While the monsters do move slower, aside from my agi only archer there isn't a way to really keep up with them, and the multiplicative affect of the mage spells show that every point you dont put into magic isnt a single point of damage, but 5 damage total that you are missing out on. Past the God Reams everything is moving faster than you, and even in Nitemare the best thing you can do for yourself is just kill them with greater haste.

You're neglecting two things here: damage integrates over time, and speed is relative. You mention that giving up a single point of magic means giving up five points of damage, but you forget that it's five points of damage per attack. If you're fast, you might be getting in two attacks for each of your enemy's attacks instead of 1.5, so increased speed could actually mean much more damage over time. Even when all of the enemies are faster than you, it still makes a difference because it's all relative: although the ratio is against you, improving it still makes a difference in the amount of damage you can dish out over time. For example, a high enough speed might give you 0.75 attacks per each of your enemy's, rather than 0.5.

Throw in the fact that agility also boosts your natural armor, and it's definitely worthwhile to keep putting points into it. I found in the past that at high levels, 2/1 leaves me too low on agility, so now I'm trying out 3/2. It doesn't seem to be hurting me appreciably at low levels, and we'll see how it works out for me at higher levels.


[Leot 01-03-2012 12:13:55]:

Agility is one of the prime two stats I look for on magic equipment and usually I have it well over 100 at level 20. I currently have a nice ring of +15 agi +15 mag.

Putting points into a skill vs. getting it from equipment is "six of one, half a dozen of the other:" either way, there is an opportunity cost. If you choose equipment that gives you an agility boost instead of a magic boost (or equipment which boosts both instead of giving a bigger boost to just magic), you're giving up magic just the same as if you had put those points into agility at level-up.

I personally prefer equipment which gives magic resistance, because I always found that no matter how high my magic resistance was, I needed more. Part of this may have stemmed from the fact that one of the ghost attacks wasn't affected by magic resistance in the past (which I had assumed it was), so I'll have to see how much magic resistance I need now that that's been fixed.

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Last Edited On: 02-03-2012 12:50:30 By lucasjung for the Reason
 Subject :Re:Character compilations, builds, and tactics - Take 2.. 03-03-2012 00:52:16 
Leot
Dungeon Master
Joined: 08-11-2011 20:07:07
Posts: 51
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Lucasjung, please stop. You are being antagonistic and condescending. This thread was for people who wanted to try out and test the limits of the game as a whole. The point of the thread is to be by the numbers to help push forward the understanding of codezombie and the players as a whole. To belittle a player by saying their llay style is "a bit too focused on the numbers", even preceded by "it may be personal preference" isn't enjoyable to hear, nor is it needed. Agility increases at a rate that the player has a hard time matching without severe dedication, especially on nitemare which is where I tens to play. In vanilla it would have a much more dramatic effect that begins to plateau around the god realms as leveling slows down by the newerr tougher monsters do not. On a second playthrough starting at level 16 the monsters become the more dangerous kind causing the player to slip further back. Growth works on ticks, which is the opposite of poison. They do negative damage to the player. What is hidden in the code is the fact that mend wounds works and then is done, should you be poisoned several times over growth will negate a certain number of these ticks. An example: I was poisoned 8 times which at the time was more than enough for me to go from full to dead instantly. Due to growth,.when I stood up (casual difficulty) my life stayed static at 3/4. After the ten seconds were up I instantly died again. Due to the way growth works it acts as an antidote to damage over time. This will be my final post in this thread, though I plan on continuing to conduct, and record, in seperate threads my findings about this game.
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