21 replies to this topic

[Little Sara]

I tend to like extreme builds. After my "extremely melee" Seraphim, here is my "extremely hot" High Elf.

Arrant Pyromancer Focus 175
Arrant Pyromancer Lore 175
Armor Lore 75
Constitution 75
Concentration 36
Combat Discipline 150
Ancient Magic 75
Delphic Arcana Focus 10
Riding 75
Enhanced Perception 75

So it focuses *only* on Arrant Pyromancer, boosting its damage, regeneration time, some more damage and some more regeneration time thrown in for good measure.

The best buff to have is still Grand Invigoration for such a build. The Fire Demon's AI is sorta screwy, and he doesn't boost Arrant Pyromancer much. The second buff would be Incandescent Skin. For both buffs, regeneration penalty should balance its regeneration bonus. With the few points in Delphic Arcana Focus, the buff can be modded thrice.

Arrant Pyromancer Focus makes those runes give all they've got. It's important to keep the cooldown low enough still. Don't put too many runes in Ancestral Fireball, Blazing Tempest, Incendiary Shower, Incandescent Skin and Grand Invigoration - seeing as a high cooldown means your death. Try to keep Ancestral Fireball below 2-3 seconds, Blazing Tempest below 10 seconds and Incendiary Shower below 5 seconds. Given that, everything else is fine.

Arrant Pyromancer Lore boosts Damage, Execution/Casting speed and Critical chance. Note that the Execution thingy does not work in combos, but that's a minor point, we're taking this for the damage!

Armor Lore at 75 for the regenration penalty reduction increase at Mastery, and well, for the Armor of the High Elf to reduce damage some. It's still not good to count on that build to tank monsters though. Armor is best at low penalty and with good bonuses, rather than high armor value, for this build. Armor Lore is also picked to prevent the movement speed penalty of higher level armor.

Constitution at 75 or more, for the "regeneration during combat" found only at Mastery. This stacked with Grand Invigoration makes up for the High Elf's weakness greatly, and a higher HP is always good for a cardboard character.

Concentration at 36. Mastery is not needed as two buffs are sufficient. Fire Demon is screwy and ONLY has a penalty for Arrant Pyromancer aspect, while Crystal Skin can't be used at the same time as Incandescent Skin anyways. The skill is taken only to reduce cooldown of Arrant Pyromancer.

Next is Combat Discipline. Above 75, but not exactly for the Mastery, because of the higher damage above 75. Good idea to invest a lot in this skill. At Mastery is also makes combos 20% faster, even if the combo is only 1 Combat Art. Personally, for a two-part combo, I like Ancestral Fireball + Incendiary Shower. For a three part include Blazing Tempest to clear any survivors. For a four part (at Mastery), include Glacial Thorns.

Ancient Magic tops the damage off with...even more damage. Bring it high enough for it to be worth it, but 75 is fine.

Delphic Arcana 10 to give mods for Grand Invigoration. It will also boost the aspect's max level without penalty slightly.

Riding at 75 to get the bonus of speed (Mastery) and at all, to boost the unique mount's regeneration speed. Obvously, you should take the Arrant Pyromancer-type mount for best efficiency.

Enhanced Perception at 75 to get the "Chance to find Valuables" bonus. Any higher is unnecessary.

-------------------------

Main Combat Arts will obviously be the Arrant Pyromancer ones: Ancestral Fireball, Blazing Tempest and Incendiary Shower. Incandescent Skin as second buff once you get Concentration.

For Fireball, I suggest getting two fireballs homing-on-target that do splash damage. Good for single and multi-target mobs, and you don't shoot 'nothing' most of the time (because of the homing).

For the others, go as you see fit.

For Incandescent Skin I suggest: Inferno, Energy Focus and Arrant Pyromancer Expertise. Damage isn't what this build lacks, so extra cooldown reduction is always nice like this.

Grand Invigoration would unfortunately lack any mods, but keep investing runes in it up until you reach equal regeneration penalty for the bonus. You won't regret investing in it for the HP regeneration, making potions obsolete in the early game.

Edited by Little Sara, 04 December 2008 - 11:29 PM.

[Arperum]

Only problem with the last two is that they're both secondary skills... so you can't only take EP and alchemy. you have to take riding, Divine devotion or bargaining too... so no alchemy but one of the other three...

[Little Sara]

Only problem with the last two is that they're both secondary skills... so you can't only take EP and alchemy. you have to take riding, Divine devotion or bargaining too... so no alchemy but one of the other three...

That's pretty bad...considering the other three are not tempting one bit. Making a 30 min spell cooldown faster won't save me. I don't use horses, and I don't buy from vendors... Might take Bargaining instead of Alchemy (heh I'm not giving up Enhanced Perception).

[Llama8]

What was your reasoning on not taking the melee damage reflection mod on Incandescent Skin? If you're concerned about taking melee damage, this mod would allow you to get up close & personal with mobs (& it hits ~33% chance at a fairly low level, that's 1 in 3 melee hits not hitting).

I'm also surprised that you took Staff Lore, since you could then have used that spot to either take a General Skill (to allow you to take both EP & Alchemy), or the focus skill for Grand Invigoration (to allow you a higher level & pick mods for it), or something else entirely...

[Little Sara]

What was your reasoning on not taking the melee damage reflection mod on Incandescent Skin? If you're concerned about taking melee damage, this mod would allow you to get up close & personal with mobs (& it hits ~33% chance at a fairly low level, that's 1 in 3 melee hits not hitting).

I'm also surprised that you took Staff Lore, since you could then have used that spot to either take a General Skill (to allow you to take both EP & Alchemy), or the focus skill for Grand Invigoration (to allow you a higher level & pick mods for it), or something else entirely...

Well, it all depends on how much Staves actually help.

I'd probably replace Bargaining for Riding, keep Enhanced Perception. If staves are not worth investing in at all, then I might instead turn to 1h staff/sword/dagger and shield, and use them to mitigate damage/improve armor.

Having another skill would not let me pick mods for Grand Invigoration though. Only hard points count. Unless I went ONLY as far as I needed to to get 3 points (which I think is 9 hard points in Focus/Lore).

This is how I would envision a revision of the build then:

Edit: I was a bit off

Arrant Pyromancer Focus 175
Arrant Pyromancer Lore 175
Armor Lore 75
Constitution 75
Concentration 36
Combat Discipline 150
Ancient Magic 75
Delphic Arcana Focus 10
Riding 75
Enhanced Perception 75

Edited by Little Sara, 04 December 2008 - 05:22 PM.

[Schot]

Nice build write up Sara. I'm curious about your experience with the homing fireballs mod. Did you find it hit targets reliably? Or Does the mod only mildly home in on targets? Possibly missing targets if they change direction sharply? One other thing which I might suggest is to choose Armor Lore first. Something I find which has the greatest penalty to low level Character Combat Arts is the penalty from equipment worn. I chose Armor first for a character once before and noticed a substantial reduction in regen time for all my Combat Arts. Granted... They may have been in part due to a bad shopping spree at a half off sale of leaden designer clothes.

[Little Sara]

Nice build write up Sara. I'm curious about your experience with the homing fireballs mod. Did you find it hit targets reliably? Or Does the mod only mildly home in on targets? Possibly missing targets if they change direction sharply? One other thing which I might suggest is to choose Armor Lore first. Something I find which has the greatest penalty to low level Character Combat Arts is the penalty from equipment worn. I chose Armor first for a character once before and noticed a substantial reduction in regen time for all my Combat Arts. Granted... They may have been in part due to a bad shopping spree at a half off sale of leaden designer clothes.

Personally, I'll choose armors that tend to have low penalties at low level. Because high Armor isn't needed in early Bronze and High Elf characters can't expect to reach high armor totals.

I might take the melee-reflect mod on Incandescent Skin though as Llama suggested. After seeing the effect it has on my melee-Seraphim (Battle Stance reflects 20% of damage with one mod).

As for homing fireballs, while not chirurgically precise, they are indeed homing. If you shoot "in the air" and see the fireballs going anywhere but forward, you've hit an enemy (provided no obstacle is in the way, such as a tree, raised ground, a mountain side, etc). Similarly if you see the two fireballs converge together, they'll hit the same target (as opposed to only one hitting it). This is why 2 homing fireballs beats 3 non-homing ones.

Grand Invigoration mods I would take:
Bronze: Arrant Pyromancer Expertise - The regeneration time for the aspect Arract Pyromancer will decrease significantly. (10% decrease) - obviously
Silver: Life Energy - Additionally increases the hitpoint regeneration rate. (1.5% increase) - I got enough regen reduction, more life regen is always nice though.
Gold: Fleetness - Increases run speed while Grand Invigoration is active. (9.9% increase) - I have an inkling "detrimental effects" are more detrimental in pvp than they are solo. With my Seraphim, I've not had any issue with status effects.

First post edited to reflect changes in build.

Edited by Little Sara, 04 December 2008 - 11:29 PM.

[Llama8]

Gold: Fleetness - Increases run speed while Grand Invigoration is active. (9.9% increase) - I have an inkling "detrimental effects" are more detrimental in pvp than they are solo. With my Seraphim, I've not had any issue with status effects.

The Gold mod probably depends how much damage you're taking from poisoning/burning & how much you suffer from Weaken. I think that late game, detrimental effects might be more of an issue than run speed, though you can also take a "reduces detrimental effects" mod on Fire Demon IIRC.

[Little Sara]

Gold: Fleetness - Increases run speed while Grand Invigoration is active. (9.9% increase) - I have an inkling "detrimental effects" are more detrimental in pvp than they are solo. With my Seraphim, I've not had any issue with status effects.

The Gold mod probably depends how much damage you're taking from poisoning/burning & how much you suffer from Weaken. I think that late game, detrimental effects might be more of an issue than run speed, though you can also take a "reduces detrimental effects" mod on Fire Demon IIRC.

Unlike some games, you can use potions even while stunned, so unless those detrimental effects one shot me, or make enemies be able to one shot me, I could probably survive it. Though I'll consider detrimental effects when I play my Seraphim, see if it's all that bad, then act accordingly with my High Elf.

[Erling]

did you download a max level and experiment? or did you play it up.. because im curius as I am a HC player and the toon need to survive until it got all its skills and all that...

[Von Bek]

Question, would taking the Explosion mod, Globe, and Hot Pursuit be a good idea? Or would taking Greek Fire be better for that set up?

[Little Sara]

did you download a max level and experiment? or did you play it up.. because im curius as I am a HC player and the toon need to survive until it got all its skills and all that...

I never played HC so far. But I've experimented a lot. At first the descriptions and even the spells didn't work right, but they eventually did work as they do now, so I made myself an idea.

This build can probably easily survive, and overleveling is your friend when playing HC. Never hurts to have 10-15 levels above your enemies if you're going for stabilizing the build skill-wise. I'm used to play in under-level fast play fashion, and I can die sometimes from it.

[Flooxim]

overleveling is your friend when playing HC. Never hurts to have 10-15 levels above your enemies if you're going for stabilizing the build skill-wise.

I play a High Elf Pyromancer like yours and I've never been able to overlevel enemies. I'm level 33 and all the enemies wherever I go are level 38.
And I'm playing HC.


Max

[Little Sara]

What difficulty and region are they from?

I've yet to understand exactly how this range (of level) thing works. But now I do know how Survival Bonus works (how its calculated, but not its effect, sadly).

Bronze:
High Elf should be around 1-20
Human should be around 5-25
Orc should be around 10-30
Seraphim should be around 12-32
Dragon should be around 15-35
Swamp should be around 18-38
Desert should be around 22-42
Jungle should be around 25-45
Jungle Isle should be around 28-48
Wasteland should be around 30-50

Those are not necessarily exact values, but a range of levels. Survival Bonus may contribute to higher level enemies, but keep in mind, that while enemies adjust to your level (and are typically close to your own), if their range level minimum is above your level, they won't make you any gifts.

A test I did, inadvertedly. I was level 54 in the Jungle region, in Gold difficulty. Monsters in this region were about level 62 *minimum*. I became level 200, still in the same place. Now they were level 112.

So the range of enemies in Jungle, in Gold, would be 62-112. The range would be higher in higher difficulties - so overleveling is less and less likely. Being on par (or near the level) of enemies isn't unlikely though, given that if you do all quests, and kill all enemies you encounter as well, you would typically be overleveled at the end of this difficulty (a slow down would occur once the monsters show as green or grey cons though).

My guess is Siver, Gold, Platinum and Niobium work similarly, but have bigger ranges, perhaps also bigger minimums (but maybe not bigger minimums in Silver).

So it would look like this:

High Elf
Bronze: 1-20 Silver 1-40 Gold 35-85 Platinum 70-140 Niobium 103-200

Human
Bronze: 8-27 Silver 12-51 Gold 40-90 Platinum 74-142 Niobium 106-200

Orc
Bronze: 10-30 Silver: 18-57 Gold: 44-94 Platinum 78-147 Niobium 109-200

Seraphim
Bronze: 12-32 Silver: 24-63 Gold: 48-98 Platinum 80-149 Niobium 112-200

Dragon
Bronze: 15-35 Silver: 30-69 Gold: 53-103 Platinum 83-152 Niobium 116-200

Swamp
Bronze: 18-38 Silver: 34-73 Gold: 57-107 Platinum 87-156 Niobium 119-200

Desert
Bronze: 22-42 Silver: 38-77 Gold: 59-109 Platinum: 90-159 Niobium 122-200

Jungle
Bronze: 25-45 Silver: 43-82 Gold: 62-112 Platinum: 93-162 Niobium 125-200

Jungle Isle
Bronze: 28-48 Silver: 47-86 Gold: 66-116 Platinum: 96-165 Niobium 128-200

Wasteland
Bronze: 30-50 Silver: 50-89 Gold: 70-120 Platinum: 100-169 Niobium 130-200

Range of 20, 39, 50, 69 and 100. Yes pulled out of my *** but well, it gives an idea.
If the range is 50 in Gold, it certainly isn't in Bronze, as I fought my share of "the enemies in this region are too weak".

I typically, while rushig through with no sidequests, finish Bronze at 35, Silver at 46, Gold at 59, Platinum I haven't finished. If I *did* (all) sidequests, I'd probably reach totals like 50-55 in Bronze, 80ish in Silver, 110ish in Gold, 140ish in Platinum.

As for how Survival Bonus is gained, it's by being in combat a certain amount of seconds. The cap is 999999 seconds (which would be almost 100%). 3600 seconds (a whole hour worth of "being in combat") nets 25%.

Edited by Little Sara, 05 December 2008 - 08:55 PM.

[Flooxim]

A great post you made! Thank you!

By doing 420 sidequests, I finished Silver level 59 in 53 hours with my Shadow Warrior.

This is what I noticed from the survival bonus : For each 10% I got, every monster is one level higher than me. (That worked in SP, I had 70% and monsters were 7 levels above me. In MP, I'm not too sure about this, because I got 65% I think and enemies are only 5 levels above me.)

To answer your question, I've been doing several boss runs today (in the High-Elf Region, in the Human Region and in the Orc Region), and in each of these places, monsters were (and still are) 5 levels above me.


Max

[Little Sara]

A great post you made! Thank you!

By doing 420 sidequests, I finished Silver level 59 in 53 hours with my Shadow Warrior.

This is what I noticed from the survival bonus : For each 10% I got, every monster is one level higher than me. (That worked in SP, I had 70% and monsters were 7 levels above me. In MP, I'm not too sure about this, because I got 65% I think and enemies are only 5 levels above me.)

To answer your question, I've been doing several boss runs today (in the High-Elf Region, in the Human Region and in the Orc Region), and in each of these places, monsters were (and still are) 5 levels above me.


Max

I must admit my Survival Bonus kept resetting if I died.

Though it still makes sense if it works like that:

1. Minimum Level Range of enemy + Survival Bonus = Enemy Level if you're below their level. (The range is never less than 10, so even with 100% Survival, this would be true).
2. Maximum Level Range of Enemy = Enemy Level if you're above their level (maybe Survival Bonus can make them exceed it, but I don't know).
3. Your Level + Survival Bonus = Enemy Level if you're within their range, and the Survival Bonus does not make it go above their maximum (provided I'm right in 2.)


Alternatively:

1. Minimum Level Range of enemy + Survival Bonus = Enemy Level if you're below their level. (they can be significantly above you)
2. Maximum Level Range of enemy + Survival Bonus = Enemy Level if you're above their level. (they theoretically can be significantly below you)
3. Your level + Survival Bonus = Enemy Level if you're within their Level Range. (with 0% Survival Bonus, they should be your level)

The level ranges I provided before are theoretical.

The only situation I'm sure of if the jump from 62 to 112 level when going above enemies (from 54 to 200).
For example, I might have had Survival Bonus 20%, so it might be:

Level Range of Enemy 60-110
+ Survival Bonus 20% = 2 additional levels (min and max)
Resulting level range = 62-112

Additionally I went with the theory that enemies cap at level 200 like players, but this might not be the case. Mounts and items can be above level 200, as shown by Armor Lore, and all Weapon Skills, as well as Riding, that can make the maximum item or mount level reach 250 or 252 respectively.

In theory, enemies have no level cap (it's possible to spawn level 400 enemies). In practice they probably are limited, I just don't know those limits. Maybe level 210 with near-100% Survival and level 200. Maybe higher.

Edited by Little Sara, 06 December 2008 - 07:50 AM.

[Putrescine]

Id actually like to note you that... While the imp may seem useless for you... It might not be considering the insanely large extra ammounts of damage it can bring if modded correctly

[Little Sara]

Id actually like to note you that... While the imp may seem useless for you... It might not be considering the insanely large extra ammounts of damage it can bring if modded correctly

If his fireballs actually hit when he's shooting them, I might consider it (seem to miss 3/4 of the time). If he did *something* when he idles for no reason, I might consider it. If he fought physically too...I might consider it. As it stands the AI for it seems too screwy.

[Llama8]

Are you sure those level ranges are correct? In an earlier build, the minimum for Wastelands in Bronze was 21.

[Little Sara]

Are you sure those level ranges are correct? In an earlier build, the minimum for Wastelands in Bronze was 21.

I made them up except the Jungle Gold one, which I know for sure.

It gives you a general idea. To test them, one would need to or have a lv 200 character doing this. Go there at level 40 (with enemies higher), check enemy levels. Bring a lv 200 char there, check levels. Do this in single so levels are not affected by other players.