Bot in a Bubble on a Bike

[essjayehm 58]

Hello, all!

 

Back with more insane (inane?) build ideas for characters.

Oops.... this is actually the first "concept" that I've actually put to paper... er whatever

 

Anyway, it all came about as I was wondering how best to use/abuse the "mounted double-hits" via Battle Extension. For those who just went "what?", the TG has a little exploit when he is riding on his unique mount. If you activate Battle Extension while mounted, then whenever you hit with a regular weapon attack, you get 100% chance for a double-hit. Keep in mind, the combat art does not actually have to be used; if the "third arm" has disappeared (mostly due to using another combat art), it can be brought back just by activating Battle Extension while no enemys are nearby... and the drain-cleaning tool will pop out of his left shoulder. :trans:

 

So... how best to abuse this feature? I've used it for speeding thru the campaigns, and occasionally for the couple of bosses that are not in a cave.... waitaminute... bosshunting! Hrm... how many bosses are there that are acessable with the mount? On console, we have: Ghanka; White Griffin; Bloodclaw; Raging Boar; Gar'Collossus; Octogolomus; Flame Lord; Dark Prince; Swamp Dragon; Desert Dragon; Swirling Mist of Miasma; Kraal; Forest Guardian... 13 if I've remembered them all. So I started scribbling down the basis for a build, and found that actually very little is actually "required" to play out this toon.

 

Skills:

Tactics Lore - all of our attacks will be "left-click" or regular weapon attacks, and this is the only skill that assists our damage)

Devout Guardian Focus - To increase the levels of our buff and minibuff.

That's it. 8 optional choices. 7 if you consider Warding Energy Lore as necessary as I do

 

Combat Arts:

Combat Alert - modified for Assault and Riposte. This is the only needed combat art... without it we'll have issues with chance to hit and incoming close combat damage.

T-Energy Shroud - modified as you see fit. Console energy shields are very frustrating (not having a display of shield strength anywhere), and I am still tinkering with the best way to use them, so I do not have suggestions yet how best to mod TES.

That's it!

 

Attributes:

Strength - Put points only if you're using Str-based weapons.

Dexterity - 1 point per level, every level. It gives a small increase in attack value (boosted a lot by assault-mod combat alert) and a large defense value (boosted a little by combat alert, mount) and weapon damage if you are using shortswords or daggers, which I actually suggest.

Willpower - 1 point per level after level 50. Increases the strength of our energy shield.

Vitality - not needed with shield characters in general. The main reason, is that vitality gives you a flat +x hitpoints... and is never multiplied by anything. Willpower (I think) gives you +x shield strength, and multiplied by Warding Energy Lore and Max. shield strength +x%. Mmmmmm... multipliers

 

Mount:

We want the generic mount, the one with the shield regeneration.

 

Gameplay:

The first toon I started by running Ghanka quest over and over starting at level 1 (with Niob-equipment / wheel). Since I got my wheel in Niob, it has a high shield regen. rate, and is the main reason I could boss-farm right away; although niob-quality gear is always helps . With the second, I ran the campaign up to the Octogolomus ASAP (level 12-ish) and then started farming Ghanka, Griffin, Gar, Octo, Boar and Bloodclaw. About level 25 I went back to campaign and sped thru to Dryad Isle, and have been farming the previous 6 plus Kraal, Dark Prince, Forest Guardian and Swamp Dragon since. It is a nice varied run that also happens to travese some well-populated areas that are OK (experience-wise) to stop and slay some mobs between bosses to keep things interesting for me. With the first toon, I moved to Gold at about level 37, and got promply eaten by Bloodclaw in my first visit to him (yeah, he has "enraged" alright ><). So, with the second, I plan on staying with the current run until level 50, then run Gold campaign up to dryad isle again and go back to farming.

 

Portals: Here are the portals I use for the bosses that I run & advice for the one resurrection monolith that you can have activated. Note that on console, only Ghanka has a quest attached to him and I am unaware of where the quests are on PC.

Gahanka: Sloeford portal for the start/end of his quest. The quest experience is very high and always worth finishing, IMO

The White Griffin: West Tyr-Lysia portal.

Gar'Colossus Boss: Grunwald portal. Can use the resurrection monolith if you do not want to do Kraal.

Bloodclaw: Griffinborough portal. Use the cave thru the mountains for a small shortcut (and a champ Minotaur!)

Octogolamus: Za'Zurich portal. Can use the res. mon if you don't want to do Kraal.

Raging Boar: Kufferath Castle portal.

Dark Prince: Central Swamp portal.

Hissil'Ta Swamp Dragon: SE Swamp portal.

Kral of the Winged Demons: Resurrection Monolith.

Forest Guardian: Na'Fian portal.

Flame Lord, Bengaresh Desert Dragon: Bosses that I don't farm because no reasonable nearby portal.

Swirling Mist of Miasma: Boss I don't farm. At all. Ever. 99.9% of the reason I play evil campaign is so I only fight this guy once per camp. Anyone not clear how I feel about this guy?

 

Suggestions (addional skills, how to advance difficulties, )

Weapons lores - really helpful with attack speed, and highest item level without penalty, and bonus unlocking scaling modifiers. AVOID ranged weapons, as they do not double-hit with this eploit.

***Sword Lore - on console, most useful for stacking deep wounds effects, but opponents' chance to evade -X% and disregard armour are not bad scaling mods as well.

***Hafted Lore - on console, most useful for chance to stun opponents mod. If you use Deathly Spears CA, Opponents' armour: Physical is good as well.

General Skills:

***Enhanced Perception / Bargaining - good skills to keep your equipment up-to-date.

***Divine Devotion - required for anything to drop for you in-game. IDK about this, so please ask Barris or Woody OK, OK, I'm joking. Useless skill (for this toon).

***Riding - not required. We're not using any combat arts while mounted, so the regeneration time penalty from the mount is never an issue... infact, this is the one build where you want to keep your mount alive as long as possible, and push its level as high as you can. The stats will increase, ie higher regen penalty, riders max HP, defense value, and shield regeneration (most important for me!).

Defensive Skills: pick as many as you can on console. You get NO warning that your shields will drop, so the next best thing is to be a regular melee toon on top of a shield character as well. WEL (obv), Armour Lore, Toughness, Constitution, and Combat Reflexes is my preference order.

Combat Art Skills: Whatever tickles your fancy... mostly you would expand into another aspect for a trick (Lost Fusion for Jolting Touch) or a debuff (Source Warden for Primal Mutation with helpless mods), but the indoor bosses can be beaten with DG combat arts, with either a Dedicated Blow (Bedaze,Intent,Wounding) strategy or Deathly Spears (a la Chattius' DZM-1 build); so >1 CA skill is not actually needed. Wow... did I just make a build with 1 CA skill?

 

Enjoy!

Edited January 10, 2011 by essjayehm

[Dobri 55]

Wow. That little exploit opens up a swarm of possibilities. As soon as I sit on a good PC with my S2I&B on it, I will certainly give this a go. Quite honestly, I get water in my mouth just imagining the possibilities and the numerous options to build this char. This exploit also makes the TG the best utility char ever - sacrificing minimal firepower for all the utility skills you need.

 

The only question is how far this exploit goes. All double hit, or we can get Extension to produce even more? If it's only guaranteed double hits, one could mod for max damage BE (Hydraulics - Impairment - Intent) and just enjoy the damage increase. That would work even better with a Kal'Dur's Legacy + Combat Modules set handy... Oh, boy. That would make a boss fall in a few seconds.

[essjayehm 58]

Wow. That little exploit opens up a swarm of possibilities. As soon as I sit on a good PC with my S2I&B on it, I will certainly give this a go. Quite honestly, I get water in my mouth just imagining the possibilities and the numerous options to build this char. This exploit also makes the TG the best utility char ever - sacrificing minimal firepower for all the utility skills you need.

 

The only question is how far this exploit goes. All double hit, or we can get Extension to produce even more? If it's only guaranteed double hits, one could mod for max damage BE (Hydraulics - Impairment - Intent) and just enjoy the damage increase. That would work even better with a Kal'Dur's Legacy + Combat Modules set handy... Oh, boy. That would make a boss fall in a few seconds.

 

Mmmmm LL%... Oh, such a tease you are... But you will probably need that LL% with your super-HP bosses. Super-allskills seems to be good enough for my wimpy ones Kal'durs on teh console is... not going to happen (to put it nicely)...maybe if I put a million hours into it I could maybe find one. I will warn console-users that haven't read Lujate's tests... LL% does not seem to work properly - it does not do the proper amount of damage, althogh the healing amounts seem to be correct (based on my own very limited testing).

 

If the stupid Blacksmith skill wasn't borked on console, I would've published a 5-general skill build DD FTW!

 

Dobri, I don't know about actually using the CA... if you keep your mount alive the regen penalties might be too big to keep the combat art balanced enough to use properly. For now, I keep it unmodified at level 1 (although level is insignifigant, actually).

Edited January 10, 2011 by essjayehm

[wolfie2kX 528]

Wow. That little exploit opens up a swarm of possibilities. As soon as I sit on a good PC with my S2I&B on it, I will certainly give this a go. Quite honestly, I get water in my mouth just imagining the possibilities and the numerous options to build this char. This exploit also makes the TG the best utility char ever - sacrificing minimal firepower for all the utility skills you need.

 

The only question is how far this exploit goes. All double hit, or we can get Extension to produce even more? If it's only guaranteed double hits, one could mod for max damage BE (Hydraulics - Impairment - Intent) and just enjoy the damage increase. That would work even better with a Kal'Dur's Legacy + Combat Modules set handy... Oh, boy. That would make a boss fall in a few seconds.

 

Interesting stuff... Just one question with regards to the BE mods...

 

Wouldn't the double hit mod make more sense on the Bronze mod? Let's say BE does 500 damage per hit 2x that is 1000 damage. According to the wiki, it's a 25% boost per hit. Taking our example of 500 damage, that would only boost it to 625 per hit.

[dreeft 9]

 

Interesting stuff... Just one question with regards to the BE mods...

 

Wouldn't the double hit mod make more sense on the Bronze mod? Let's say BE does 500 damage per hit 2x that is 1000 damage. According to the wiki, it's a 25% boost per hit. Taking our example of 500 damage, that would only boost it to 625 per hit.

I don't know for sure, but possibly because the double hit mod is only a 15% chance. I'd probably choose the guaranteed 25% increase if I knew I was going to get 100% chance of a double hit anyhow.

 

I didn't know BE did this. Very cool.

 

If you added a handful of defensive skills (Armor Lore, Warding Energy, Spell Resist, Combat Reflexes, Toughness) and fill the rest with support skills (Bargain/Blacksmith/EP) you would have an awesome utility toon... and if you had Dobri's suggestion of Kal'durs and CC10, boss destroyer.

[Elwin 2]

I noticed the same when fighting bosses .. kral or octagolamus fall like a flies in matter of seconds even on gold for me. Andi am at utiliti build not boss fighting.

I always say to myself "why other bosses are underground I wanna slice them with battle extension "

I have LL from devout guardain suit, and octagolamus dropped me nice ll shuriken with nice+experience value . But shurikens are use in caves. NO need for it on surface BTW - Miasma doesnt count for that its a bit different boss type.

Gold Bloodclaw wasnt problem for me, he falt down as well as others.

 

But I never wrote about it because I thought everyone here knows that ;p

 

And deathly spears pushed as much possible to that

Edited January 10, 2011 by Elwin

[essjayehm 58]

Yeah, Elwin... Bloodclaw is pretty squishy for a boss! But if you are taking long time beating him, and he gets some hits on you when he has low health, he does a lot of damage because he has an ability similar to "damage of enraged players". He took 2 hits to kill me - one to kill the Mobilicum and even though I drank a potion, his next attack killed me instantly.

[wolfie2kX 528]

 

Interesting stuff... Just one question with regards to the BE mods...

 

Wouldn't the double hit mod make more sense on the Bronze mod? Let's say BE does 500 damage per hit 2x that is 1000 damage. According to the wiki, it's a 25% boost per hit. Taking our example of 500 damage, that would only boost it to 625 per hit.

I don't know for sure, but possibly because the double hit mod is only a 15% chance. I'd probably choose the guaranteed 25% increase if I knew I was going to get 100% chance of a double hit anyhow.

 

I didn't know BE did this. Very cool.

 

If you added a handful of defensive skills (Armor Lore, Warding Energy, Spell Resist, Combat Reflexes, Toughness) and fill the rest with support skills (Bargain/Blacksmith/EP) you would have an awesome utility toon... and if you had Dobri's suggestion of Kal'durs and CC10, boss destroyer.

 

Well.. I've got most of that.. Tho I do have a few skills changed - I don't have Blacksmithing - swap in Source Warden focus and I've also got Lost Fusion focus and Lore. Mine's a bit more of an all around kinda guy. I now have a full set of the Combat Modules on (nice 1.2% life leech bonus for that).

 

Now then... I have been trying it out. I'm not seeing any double hits with a simple left click BUT, I am seeing some rather amusing stuff when I right-click using BE... The TG starts spinning in his mobiculum. It's definitely a vomit-comet type ride. I think most beings built like humans would likely wind up losing their lunch. Think sitting in a dryer and have it rotate with you going head first. Good thing Temple Guardians don't seem to need sustenance...

 

Now then... Most of the mobs I'm up against now are fairly weak (white rings). I can one-shot most anything shy of a champion level Undead (the buggers regenerate more often than not) and boss critters. From what I can tell, with Double Hit, Impairment and Intent, the wheel does 4 full rotations (assuming each one to be a hit). Furthermore, when the first target drops dead, and if a second is in the general area, the mobiculum turns toward the new target and even if the new target isn't within reach, the attack turns into a RANGED attack and does damage anyhow...

 

Yes, that's right - a ranged attack. I was in the swamps, just north of the town north of the Marigold Fields. I was using BE to whack an undead warrior and he went down in about 2 spins. The mobiculum swung around maybe 10, 15 degrees, and a life leech line started coming from one of those annoying bats that was maybe 10 odd feet (game scale feet, anyhow) away before it dropped dead on the 3rd rotation.

[essjayehm 58]

 

Now then... I have been trying it out. I'm not seeing any double hits with a simple left click BUT, I am seeing some rather amusing stuff when I right-click using BE... The TG starts spinning in his mobiculum. It's definitely a vomit-comet type ride. I think most beings built like humans would likely wind up losing their lunch. Think sitting in a dryer and have it rotate with you going head first. Good thing Temple Guardians don't seem to need sustenance...

 

Now then... Most of the mobs I'm up against now are fairly weak (white rings). I can one-shot most anything shy of a champion level Undead (the buggers regenerate more often than not) and boss critters. From what I can tell, with Double Hit, Impairment and Intent, the wheel does 4 full rotations (assuming each one to be a hit). Furthermore, when the first target drops dead, and if a second is in the general area, the mobiculum turns toward the new target and even if the new target isn't within reach, the attack turns into a RANGED attack and does damage anyhow...

 

Yes, that's right - a ranged attack. I was in the swamps, just north of the town north of the Marigold Fields. I was using BE to whack an undead warrior and he went down in about 2 spins. The mobiculum swung around maybe 10, 15 degrees, and a life leech line started coming from one of those annoying bats that was maybe 10 odd feet (game scale feet, anyhow) away before it dropped dead on the 3rd rotation.

 

Vomit-comet, lol. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

 

For the double-hit left-click exploit, you have to make sure the battle extension is "armed". Hehehe. That is to say, you can see the BE-attachment protruding from his shoulder. Then any left-click should be a double-hit, BUT, if the enemy dies on the first, you won't get 2 LL lines, I think. Try some tougher enemies! You should definitely see 2 LL lines when a double-hit happens.

 

That "ranged attack" is kinda standard fare for multi-hit combat arts. Pelting Strikes, Frenzied Rampage both do the same thing. The weirdest thing is it doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it does happen a lot.

[Elwin 2]

I understimated golden garganthopod and he killed me. Hate fighting underground ;p Es essjayhem left click on mount with BE es passive gives some kind of double hit, or I would say it gives dual wield. There is much difference in having dedicated blow arm and battle extension arm as passive and left clicking

[wolfie2kX 528]

I understimated golden garganthopod and he killed me. Hate fighting underground ;p Es essjayhem left click on mount with BE es passive gives some kind of double hit, or I would say it gives dual wield. There is much difference in having dedicated blow arm and battle extension arm as passive and left clicking

 

I'd have to disagree. Triple-wield would be more appropriate. The TG has his right arm for a sword, axe or whatever and his left arm (unless you're using Dedicated Blow) fires bolts, lasers, fire, ice and other CAs. The Battle Extension gives him a 3rd "arm" - a weapon really.

 

@ essjayehm -

 

Vomit-comet, lol. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

 

For the double-hit left-click exploit, you have to make sure the battle extension is "armed". Hehehe. That is to say, you can see the BE-attachment protruding from his shoulder. Then any left-click should be a double-hit, BUT, if the enemy dies on the first, you won't get 2 LL lines, I think. Try some tougher enemies! You should definitely see 2 LL lines when a double-hit happens.

 

That "ranged attack" is kinda standard fare for multi-hit combat arts. Pelting Strikes, Frenzied Rampage both do the same thing. The weirdest thing is it doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it does happen a lot.

 

Yah.. Well.. I'm fairly certain, that kind of motion, repeated often enough would likely make pretty much anyone lose their lunch..

 

Maybe a bit better comparison would be a sort of limited version of the Death Blossom from "The Last Starfighter":

 

 

The battle extension is visible if I zoom in close enough. More often than not, I'm playing a bit further back so I can see where I'm going. I'll try more difficult baddies - though I'm not so sure there's any left in the swamp at the moment. I'm off to collect my buddy, the adventurer who's gonna show me the way to the desert so we can whack the mist and move on. We'll see what's waiting for me in the desert...

Edited January 10, 2011 by wolfie2kX

[Elwin 2]

Since I play similiar style with my TG, I wanted to test how my level 66 utility TG wil manage against first bosses in platinium a level 79 colosus or wild boar (13 level higher than me) stood no chance. A 200k hp garcolosus felt down in aprox 15-20sec. Mounted TG is awesome killer ^^ IT could be done evne better. I use just level 20 office saber, my CC set is also with low levle parts so I guess I could have better LL% too, I could bring some higher levle parts but that would need resocketing ;p

Edited January 10, 2011 by Elwin

[Stormwing 40]

This one's a good find indeed. ^^

Been neglecting TG far too long. The other builds weren't really my cup of tea. This way I'll be able to do another utility build which seems to breeze thru levels. May as well be the next one I'll be taking to Plat and beyond.

Still far off the Mobiculum, but normal mobs are going down without much effort.

 

Editto: Got the monowheel. And looking really good.

Might be a bit plain in the long run, but I'll try to mix and match some other CAs in case things get too bland.

Edited January 11, 2011 by Stormwing

[essjayehm 58]

I am quite proud of myself now... I managed to hold off advancing to Gold difficulty until I dinged level 50, instead of trying at level 35 or 40 as I usually do, and it was a cakewalk (not hard at all). The 'fire' guardian went down in 4 hits but that was somewhat lucky with crits and deep wounds, IMO. Mr #4 was a more reasonable battle, about 20 seconds I Niob-quality equipment.

 

I decided to go with a Dedicated Blow strategy for my indoor bosskilling... as a consoler I do have to beat those pesky Nameless Guardians to advance the difficulties so I had to figure something out. Beep (my first attempt at this toon) had planned on using the ubiquitous "Jolting Touch + Deathly Spears" combo, but when I did some testing with JT around level 35, I was not fully impressed enough with it... the mitigation levels are insane (with multiple casts), but with DS at only level 16 (any higher and I couldn't spam it) the damage was quite low. Maybe JT+DS is more of a higher-level thing, IDK. Anyway, I mod DB for stun, +critical chance, deep wounds, and I had a lucky drop of a Desert Saber to give a good base damage (increased by Combat Alert, ofc).

 

I still have the dilemma to choose either Sword Lore or Hafted Lore, but I think the final decision (for me) will be to have both; who is to say I cant have my BBQ and eat it, too It is kinda weird for me to take 1 weapon-lore, nevermind 2... but there is some method to the madness. A third General skill is out - Blacksmithing is borked, and DD sux. Combat Reflexes is the only other Defensive skill to consider for console, and maybe I should have that instead of Constitution, but I reasoned that if/when the shield does go down, I would rather have more HP's than a little evasion and a "chance" to avoid a critical. Speed Lore is useless (due to combat alert) and Damage Lore would be more appealing if the mastery effects were working on the console, which I believe they do not. As for those beautiful Combat Art skills - well, I'm not delving into another aspect so only Concentration and Combat Discipline remain for consideration. This build will lean very heavily on stacked Combat Alerts, so we will never turn that into a buff, thus eliminating Concentration. Our main damage source (regular weapon attacks) is completely unaffected by CD, so I discount it as well. It may be nice for boosting my DB-damage for indoor bosses (esp. Plat/Niob), but I have another plan for those guys.

Taking both weapon-lores will give me some good versatility for the randomness of the drops or the items available in the vendors. If I see a hafted weapon with double-"chance to stun" mods, cha-ching! Double-"deep wounds", Either one I can use (er, I mean abuse) Officer Saber or Orc Shock, won't matter which one drops, I can use both equally well. The same thing goes for Deathblow - if I have hafted lore, I will only see 2-slot DB swords in the shops, and vice versa. So, that desicion is set!

 

My skills look like this, at the end of the Silver campaign: (running about +35ish +allskills... )

50 EP

50 Tactics

20 Warding Energy Lore

20 Devout Guardian Focus

1 Bargaining

1 Armour Lore

1 Constitution

1 Toughness

1 Sword Lore

@65 (Hafted Lore)

 

25 points leftover - I will romp around in Gold campaign for a bit and see if he has any weaknesses before dumping my sandbagged points into either Toughness (if Def is needed) or my Focus if he is firing on all cylinders.

 

My gameplan for the Gold difficulty is to run the campaign as far as I feel comfortable... I hope to get at least as far as Kral and can beat him without worry so I can start farming him. I think I will skip out on farming the Griffin and Dark Prince, as I now have a buff-suit to cast my bubble and those guys like to de-buff. I don't plan on advancing to Platinum until after level 75 or even 80, depending on how easy/hard the minibosses become at those levels

[Elwin 2]

I have done tries how strong my character is, I can trash plat forest guardian at level 77, but plat guardians were tough ^^. But since I play softcore I beat them and went niob. Wanted try if I can fight with niob octagolamus with level 78 but I cant reach him mobs kill me ^^

 

But I have my niob shopper now !

Edited January 12, 2011 by Elwin

[essjayehm 58]

I have done tries how strong my character is, I can trash plat forest guardian at level 77, but plat guardians were tough ^^. But since I play softcore I beat them and went niob. Wanted try if I can fight with niob octagolamus with level 78 but I cant reach him mobs kill me ^^

 

But I have my niob shopper now !

Very good, Elwin! Congratulations on your achevement

 

My fist adventure in Niob was similar, a level 82 Seraphim who was OK to kill the kobolds, but the undead tore her to shreds. To beat the Platinum Nameless Guardians was over 200 potions used!

[essjayehm 58]

Well, I have pretty much finished playing around with this guy. He was fun, but like most fun things in Sacred, he played a little "dirty". By that, I mean that most of his power comes from a bug/exploit... 100% double-hits is very, very powerful, even if it only applies to regular weapon attacks. BUT, that is a debate for another time/place.

 

So, final notes time. First and foremost, the modifications for T-Energy Shroud. I took the "absolutely wrong" choices of Power-Recharge-Power, and I had no issues; my shield only dropped when I tried to let it drop (usually just by letting combat alert run out) and I am of the opinion that the Recharge mod actually saved my toon in a couple of places. Most notabley, when I was scooting through caster-heavy areas without stopping and fighting, I feel that I took enough hits that should've dropped the shield if I didn't have that modification on the buff. The North end of Dryad region in Niob was particularly "iffy", I had my eye on the HP bar and a thumb on the potion the whole time, but he made it thru without any dramatic rises in blood pressure/heartbeat.

So, I have imagine that different builds can use the mods a little differently, but for the console/Fallen Angel versions my opinion for the mods goes as follows:

 

Bronze and Gold Power modifications add 10%+1%per CA level of Maximum shield energy. With un-nerfed allskills, the Max. Shield Energy offered by amulets at the merchants are better.

 

Bronze - Derogate is correct almost always. Without Tactics Lore or WEL, then Power would be correct.

 

Silver - Recharge - gives in-combat shield regen of [(3+1*CAlvl)*bonusfromTacticsLore] points per second. I have found it useful (or better!) early and mid-game as long as Tactics is being pumped. Late-game it is no good, and the all-channel Mitigation is much, much better.

 

Gold - Chance to Reflect: Combat Arts is nice, but from my experiences on the console, not absolutely necessary. I think that weapon-based Combat Arts are controlled by Chance to Reflect: CC or Projectiles (depending on weapon). The spell-based Combat Arts in FA are not overly worrisome... yeah, they can kill you if you are reckless with your toon; but moderate-good armour can easily handle most of them. So either choice is fine, but with WEL and allskills, the Power mod is not optimal, and a better all-round defense is offered by the reflect magic mod.