New Seraphim

[Zaraki 0]

I took off from this game for a long time but just decided to return to it. I want to make a new Seraphim and have a build in mind, but would like some input before I go ahead with it. It's going to be a Dual Wielding seraphim with a focus on survivability. So here is what I have so far:

 

150-200: Tactics Lore

75-150: Exalted Warrior Focus

75-150: Armor Lore

75-150: Dual Wield

42: Celestial Magic Focus

42: Revered Technology Focus

75: Constitution

1: Concentration

1: Warding Energy Lore

200: Enhanced Perception

 

 

1-50: 1 Stamina

50-149: 1 Stamina, 1 Willpower

150-200: 1 Stamina, 1 Willpower, 1 Vitality

 

 

Exalted Warrior

 

Battle Stance: Premonition, Flexibility/Drill, Retaliation

Pelting Strikes: Succession, Focus, Precision

Dashing Alacrity: Sprout, Delay, Impatience

Soul Hammer: Aim, Battering, Coup de Grace

 

 

Celestial Magic

 

Hallowed Restoration: Recuperation, Master Healer

Baneful Smite: Laggard/Disarm, Confuse, Chain

Radiant Pillar: Delude, Brightness, (Magnify)

 

 

Revered Technology

 

Divine Protection: Capacity, Boost, Improved Mirror

Flaring Nova: Impulse, Stun,

 

 

So as you can see, it's a build with skills in all aspects, but focused on exalted warrior. Like I said, I wanted to go for survivability (hence divine protection and hallowed restoration). Any advice, criticism, suggestions, etc. are welcomed.

[lujate 575]

There are a few things I do not understand.

 

Why Stamina?

Why Concentration at 1 point, with only 1 buff?

Have you used Baneful Smite and Flaring Nova before? I tried them but was not impressed.

[Scleameth 19]

For survivability I'd rather focus on armor. Hallowed restoration is something I never use, since I'm overloaded with health potions. Devine protection is a very useful CA, but I tend to never accept against bosses. Flaring nova works well for me - not for damage, but for the stun mod it offers. Sending out two pulses with stun chance normally saves my skin often in the desert against 'em scorpion champions.

The verdict is still out on baneful smite, but with all of my seraphim builds, I just never had the commitment to really see what I can accomplish with, since there are so many other CAs that deal a heck of a lot more damage early on. For ranged attack, the Archangel's snotball works best for me - the force is really strong on the light side there once you get your regen times under control and it's a quick cast time.

But I agree with lujate and reckon you can drop concentration and rather invest a few points in toughness. Also rather pump points into Dex - the boost in defence value is noticible within the 1st 5 lvls and the boost in attack is also welcome. I just started a High Elf in Silver and boosted Dex and Armour from the beginning and now at level 15, nothing can really harm me much. I stood toe to toe with Gahanka at level 10 just exchanging blows until he fell - which took a while since it's always my most dreaded quest to go with a pyro elf vs Mr. Inflammable.

[essjayehm 58]

I really cannot comment more than Lujate or Scleameth for Seraphim builds in particular, since I have not played too many Seras... but from my experience with Temple Guardians, using the shields can provide all the defence you need. Unless you play on console, and you don't know what your shield strength is 8/. Then you need some "backup" defence... just in case you get critical'ed 10 times in a row, by champions 20 levels above you (it CAN happen

 

I will assume you took Concentration for using both Battle Stance and Warding Energy buffs! If you don't intend on using WE, just DP... then abandon the rest of my post and continue on your merry way

 

Skills - So, if I take your build and playing on console into account, you will be wanting to get WEL mastery, but you will only need about 20 points or so into Armour Lore (mostly for regen penalty reduction and higher-level armour without penalty). Taking Constitution to mastery will benefit you just in case your sheilds go down so leave that as you have it now. To get some modifications on your Warding Energy buff, you will need to sink some more points into RTF, or abandon the mods you have chosen on DP or FN.

 

Attributes - all Willpower, all the time. Every point. (for a Warding Energy toon) This boosts the shield power, AND your spell resistance! Although, on console, "spells" are pretty wimpy... still getting immensely huge energy shields is the point.

 

Socketing - With Warding Energy, you will unlock amulets (not rings) that boost your shield strength. 3 or 4 of those are typically needed, hopefully you find them with All Skills as a 2nd mod, but there are lots of good mods to pair up there. Of course, you will need gold sockets for those bad-boys.

 

Playstyle - The Serphim's shields cannot regenerate "in-combat" like the TG's can... so you will have to be a little more careful when you start getting to the higher difficulties. Shields regenerate at a rate of 5% per second... so if you are completely depleted, it takes 20s to get back to full... that is a loooooooong time when you're playing so you may actually find a use for some trophies. Trophies? on console? Yup. Mechanical Parts or Accumulator trophies give you +x% shield regeneration, and after a battle, and you are waiting for your shields, you may as well gulp one of those... and you can half your 'waiting time'. 2 seconds to open the inventory, find and drink a trophy is not recommended when in the heat of battle, but 2 seconds to reduce your waiting time by 10 is "a good thing"^tm

 

Hrm... tough to relay everything there is to know about the shields, but if you have any other questions, fire away! Like I alluded to earlier, I haven't played many Seras so I am unfamiliar which mods on WE are best to take.

 

Hope that helps... Happy Hunting!

[lujate 575]

The benefits of Hallowed Restoration go beyond what heal potions can do. Prior to my current single-aspect, EWF-only build, I always kept a Pelting Strikes/Hallowed Restoration combo on tap for emergencies.

 

I am currently operating under the theory that says to keep your weapons skills at 1 hard point. I am pleased with how well it is working. You might consider that. It frees up a lot of skill points.

 

If you are playing on a console, IMO Divine Protection is so powerful that it renders Warding Energy irreverent.

[Zaraki 0]

Wow, thank you so much everyone for the input. I now remembered part of the reason why I liked this game; this community is really helpful and extremely knowledgable.

 

I'm going to try and clarify some stuff and see if people's opinions change.

 

When I said survivability, I meant specifically focused on shields. My understanding was that Divine Protection was really strong when it was leveled to the point where it could be cast constantly, combined with Dashing Alacrity. My hope was that Divine Protection, along with good Armor and High level of Armor Lore and Constitution with some points into vitality later would be enough to let me basically survive most situations. I threw hallowed restoration in there to help keep my hp up in difficult situation. Am I being over-optimistic here? Although I want survivability, I think part of good defense is good offense, so I still want to dish out heavy damage and get some LL to help with the survivability.

 

Also, I can't remember why I took Concentration...I think it was because of the increase in regeneration rate of combat arts.

 

Finally, the rest of the non-damage heavy spells are there to basically reduce the strength of powerful mobs and bosses/champions. I won't really be using them except for difficult situations in order to increase how fast I kill and reduce the damage that is being done.

 

So again, with that in mind, are there any other suggestions? Btw, I am on console (PS3).

Edited September 24, 2011 by Zaraki

[lujate 575]

I speak from personal experience when I say that Divine Protection is awesome on the consoles (which is probably why it was gimped in an early PC patch). I only lost HP twice during Platinum, against the Guardians and the Garganthropod on a reflect. I cannot say that for Niob because I switched to Ice and Blood before finishing Niob on ps3.

 

Both Divine Protection and Dashing Alacrity will be chain castable, but (at least for me) their cooldowns were too different for them to work in a combo.

[Zaraki 0]

After reading some more on the forums and playing with my toon, I have decided to change the build up a bit. I still am not sure about everything though, so any advice or input is appreciated.

 

150-200: Tactics Lore

75-150: Exalted Warrior Focus

75-150: Armor Lore

75-150: Dual Wield

42: Revered Technology Focus

75: Constitution

1: Warding Energy Lore

75: Toughness

X: X

200: Enhanced Perception

 

So I took out Celestial Magic Focus and went with a straight Exalted Warrior Build, with Rev primarily for DP and Nova for utility. I also took out Concentration, since I only use one buff and I'm not too worried about regen times in later levels when I start getting RpH items, but that leaves me with one more slot. I can't decide what to take. If possible, I would like to find some kind of one point wonder skill, if one exists, that would help this build.

 

Basically, I'm still focusing on survivability. I actually want to try and do something similar to what soldat said with damage mitigation, which is why I took toughness. I don't want to go past mastery with it though. Also, DP is basically there for mitigation purposes as well. Right now I only have 1 point invested in Warding Energy Lore, but I can put in more if people think it is good and will compliment toughness.

 

So basically, what else should I take? Is something like riding useless? Maybe sword lore to unlock weapon mods, but is it really worth it?

 

Also, how do dmg mitigation and DP work together? Is dmg mitigation applied first, and any dmg that goes through is then absorbed by DP or is it the other way around? Thanks.

[essjayehm 58]

Heya Zaraki... Damage Mitigation is applied before shields/health... except for Life Leech (cannot be avoided) and DoT damage (need to use -DoT modifiers).

 

A weapon lore will help quite a bit, if you "focus" on one particular modifier. Deep wounds is the "best" modifier for console melee builds... Sword weapons will give a nice 1-point wonder for that.

 

Damage Lore... maybe. Will help your Novas and when you use elemental-damage weapons (or converters). Not the best 1-point skill, it needs mastery.

 

Speed Lore -> I hate it but it it's a maybe...

 

Riding -> hard, hard skill to "use". Great when you are mounted, but you cannot ride in the caves... most bosses are in caves, so.... skip it. I will say it is great in the early levels for "run speed" and some protection from a 1-shot KO. But havingto pick it early also weakens your toon as well.

 

Combat Reflexes - a 1-point maybe as well... but I don't think it adds very much survivabilty to your toon.

[Zaraki 0]

Thanks essjayehm and everyone else for the help. I think I have my build now. Now, only two more questions remain :-p Sorry.

 

What does everyone think about Warding Energy Lore? You think 1 point is enough or should I put more in? If so, what skill can I take those points from?

 

Sword Weapons or Hafted Weapons? Which has better mods and/or which has the better weapons period? I feel like Officer's Saber is the best weapon, which Swords, but which also means I don't need Sword Weapons, since it doesn't have anything to unlock. So yea, just looking for opinions on this.

[lujate 575]

If you are looking for a 1 point skill, I would probably suggest Sword Weapons. You could dual wield Boneslicers and could also use a LL% two-handed sword (you do get the healing from LL%).

 

Honestly though, I would not take any in skills past Mastery. Maybe EP if you are hoping for a Legendary. That would free up points for Warding Energy Lore and Rev Tech Lore (to help with Flaring Nova).

Edited October 4, 2011 by lujate

[essjayehm 58]

Thanks essjayehm and everyone else for the help. I think I have my build now. Now, only two more questions remain :-p Sorry.

 

What does everyone think about Warding Energy Lore? You think 1 point is enough or should I put more in? If so, what skill can I take those points from?

 

Sword Weapons or Hafted Weapons? Which has better mods and/or which has the better weapons period? I feel like Officer's Saber is the best weapon, which Swords, but which also means I don't need Sword Weapons, since it doesn't have anything to unlock. So yea, just looking for opinions on this.

I will echo Lujate and say go for WEL mastery before sinking points past mastery for DW or EWF. DP can be made chain-castable, but if the shield itself is weak, it will drop too easily and won't be very good!

 

On console, I think Swords is the way to go... there are a lot more (uniques), and better "unlockable" mods as well. Unless you want to be a "stunner" (needs hafted) then go with swords.