StiCk's ALL Magic Seraphim

[StiCk_eM 1]

To start this build is quite fragile in the early levels. I think I died 2 or 3 times (between levels 1-12) before I became "successful" so to speak.

 

The point of this build was to give people another build option for seraphim besides a melee focused build. Now before I get flamed I know not all people play a melee based seraphim, but that is how this all started for me because all the seraphims I saw around were DW or sword/shield hybrid using revered technology. So, I really wanted something a little unique and chose the tree that seemed to be the least used.

 

She is level 60 and while she might not kill as fast as a melee character I think she is quite durable and has good mob control. She has taken on many bosses, but her least favorite was the Prince in the swamp for obvious reasons.

 

Skills Taken (not in order):

Concentration

Armor Lore

Combat Reflexes

Constitution

Toughness

Combat Discipline

Celestial Magic Lore

Celestial Magic Focus

Exalted Warrior Focus

 

Final Skill:

Shield Lore OR Spell Resistance

 

Why these skills? How much do I put into them?:

Concentration - To allow us to run two buffs. Is still at level 1 even at level 60, but I may pump it some to lower regeneration times even more.

Armor Lore - Lowers regeneration penalty from armor. Has just some extra points put into it here or there or when needed.

Combat Reflexes - So that we don't get killed in one shot! Has just extra points put into it here or there.

Constitution - So that we don't die in one shot! Has just some extra points into it here or there.

Toughness - Good combo with Armor Lore to increase resistances. Has the most points into it of the defensive skills so far because it needs the most to be effective.

Combat Discipline - increases damage on all combat arts in or out of combos. Maxed for maximum damage.

Celestial Magic Lore - increases damage, critical chance, and cast speed for all our combat arts. Maxed for maximum damage.

Celestial Magic Focus - decreases regeneration times for all our combat arts. Maxed for lower regeneration times.

Exalted Warrior Focus - raises level without penalty for Battle Stance. The number of points depends on how many runes you want to put into Battle Stance.

 

The choice:

Shield Lore - In the original build because it will reduce damage and increase defense when using a shield which is always.

Spell Resistance - A new possibility because I have heard that casters are a big deal in the upper levels.

 

My Choice:

In short my choice is Spell Resistance. I decided that I rather be protected from all things rather than lopsided towards melee considering I already have Combat Reflexes.

 

CAs:

Radiant Pillar - Crowd control obviously. I have only read one rune and the rest is pumped by equipment. I modded mine Hypnosis, Conserve, Ordeal (Up, Down, Down). I use this CA in basically all situations unless I know that Baneful Smite will take care of it in one hit. Regarding the mods, if I were to do the build again I would change the bronze mod to Delude (Down).

Baneful Smite - Strong single target spell. Once again I have only read one rune and the rest is pumped by equipment. I modded it Laggard, Potential, Chain (Up, Up, Down). As said before, I use this mainly on weak small mobs.

Hallowed Restoration - Increases durability greatly. I have only read one rune of this as well and is pumped up by equipment. I modded this Recuperation, Master Healer, Solidarity (Down, Down, Up). I like using this right before I start a fight unless I am just going to use Baneful Smite once. It is an amazing CA and since I had it fully modded I have not needed a potion.

Cleansing Brilliance - Extremely helpful early on to get the build going. It damages T-energy and Undead quite effectively. Most recently I was able to walk through areas with Undead and they die as I walk through. This is modded Distract, Cleanse, Eagerness (Up, Down, Up). It works great!

Battle Stance - Helps out with durability. I modded this X, Flexibility, Retaliation (X, Down, Down). I forget what the first mod I took, but honestly it doesn't really matter because we really want the last two mods more.

 

Why These Mods?:

Radiant Pillar:

Bronze - I chose Hypnosis because I thought it would be effective in gathering my opponents more easily rather than me having to circle them up. I now regret that choice and would rather have Delude because it would become not only an offensive skill, but also a debuff at the same time by reducing my opponents' attack value.

Silver - Conserve is superior because this allows you to have more radiant pillars out at the same time. If you take the Delude mod for bronze then the reduction of attack value stacks making it even better and even more of a reason to increase the duration of radiant pillar.

Gold - I chose Ordeal because it was going to be more effective against bosses than the damage increase from taking Magnify. It is just an all around solid choice, but I really think that either way you can't go wrong on this mod.

Baneful Smite:

Bronze - I chose Laggard because I thought it would be useful to slow down my opponents as they ran towards me seeing as this can be a long range CA. I can't really comment on Disarm. In all honesty, neither of these mods is really important its just a way to get to the later ones.

Silver - I took Potential because from the tool tip I thought it was going to have a DoT, but I think it really just "weakens" the opponent as the magic element does. Reducing a single opponent's attack value with the mod Confuse seems less superior to the above.

Gold - It seems pointless to take Electrocute after taking Potential above. And it seems even better that we can take Chain and deal a large amount of damage to two targets at a time rather than one. So I choose Chain here.

Hallowed Restoration:

Bronze - This is the most important mod because it makes this spell instead of just one instant heal it makes it over time. That is why we take Recuperation. No arguments.

Silver - I chose Master Healer here because I like to be able to use it often and not have it effect my other spells too much. Prevention might be good as well, but I prefer the low regeneration time instead so that it doesn't effect my offensive side so much.

Gold - I took Solidarity because I just wanted to share my awesome healing powers with my friends! Just like in the silver mod, I'm sure Antidote is good, but I wanted to make my char more party friendly.

Cleansing Brilliance:

Bronze - Since we aren't hitting our opponents to death with our weapon the Blind mod is no use to us so I took the Distract mod because it makes us less vulnerable.

Silver - I took Cleanse because I found that I was killing Undead much faster than T-energy monsters. Now that I have that mod though T-energy monsters die much faster, but either way I don't think it really matters.

Gold - Since we are an incredibly mobile character it is not of much use to increase the range with the Illuminate mod. I rather kill those pesky Undead and T-energy monsters faster by increasing damage with the Eagerness mod.

Battle Stance:

Bronze - Either works. Your choice really I think I took that damage mod, but doesn't really matter just a stepping stone to the next two mods.

Silver - I took Flexibility mod because it is doing exactly what I want Battle Stance to do: increase our survivability. We get hit less when our chance to evade is higher. It might seem that you would want to reduce the energy cost with the Drill mod to keep the regeneration times on our spells low, but that is just a deception. The evade mod is what we want.

Gold - Once again we are trying to increase our survivability by using Battle Stance and so we want to take the Retaliation mod. The other mod, Idol, might seem party friendly, but if we don't survive then we can't heal our buddies with Hallowed Restoration.

 

Attribute Points

Intelligence and Vitality 50/50.

The first increases damage and spell intensity.

The second increases our HP and it's regeneration.

 

Equipment

Armor:

I have been using the Revelation of the Seraphim set, but I have not found many of the new patch sets so I can't comment on them. The wings of the Revelation of the Seraphim set do not give enough protection so I do not use them at all because the full set of the bonus is not that great anyway.

Weapons:

I have been using any weapons that have decent bonuses and a lot of sockets. For the longest time I was using Rancuil's Dark Flame because it lowered my regeneration time nicely and has a good amount of sockets. Currently I am using an Officer's Saber which works quite nicely. My shield is a Stalworth Safeguard which is great.

 

Let me know if you have any questions or if I left anything out,

 

Would love some feedback,

 

StiCk_eM

Edited December 25, 2008 by StiCk_eM

[Flooxim 49]

This guide is interesting, a great change to the melee-focused Seraphim.

 

I also hate that Sinister Prince in the swamps, always have a hard time killing it with my Pyromancer High Elf.

 

A few questions about the guide :

 

-Is Battle Stance really saving your life at some point? You said you were level 60, do you really die less often when this buff is active?

 

-How many points in the buffs (Battle Stance, Cleansing Brillance)? I think you'll answer me "As many as you can".

 

 

And about the choice between the two skills, I think I would go with Shield Lore, since I think I'll always play with a shield like you do.

 

 

Max

[StiCk_eM 1]

I can't really say if I die less often with battle stance because I don't die at all...I would think if I went without this buff the road would be more difficult because the reflect and the evasion mods are quite nice for the battle stance.

 

And as you said with the buffs it really is as many runes as you can afford...you kind of have to decide on your own because its about how high or how comfortable you are with regeneration times.

 

Thanks for the questions,

 

Nice to know that someone reads it,

 

StiCk_eM

[Erling 3]

in ohter words he is hard core, yeehaw. anyway I played a little with you on christmas island with that seraphim, and I wondrerd if you were able to post a little video? I am intrested in the style you choose to play with it.. like collect mobs for pillar or pull away one for lightning or whatever... and ofc.. how fast you kill, hehe

 

and I agree with spell resitance

[StiCk_eM 1]

So 1 for Shield Lore

And 1 for Spell Resistance

 

I would love to look into this debate more,

 

Thanks for reading,

 

StiCk_eM

[Erling 3]

I guess I will say the reasons I say spell resistance then

 

1) the avrage weapon got better bonuses than the avrage shield (so I say DW for a caster)

2) if you like killing bosses (like I do) spell resistance is the diffrence of life and death

3) a shield is mostly melee defense and a caster (should) kill without melee contact wich makes ranged spells a greater threat

4) I have no more reasons worth reading but I want 5 arguments

5) another useless argument to accomplish what I stated in argument #4

 

Spell Resistance

Edited December 23, 2008 by Erling

[StiCk_eM 1]

Added two new sections to the guide:

 

Attributes and Equipment

 

Hope this helps,

 

Let me know if there are other sections you might like,

 

StiCk_eM

Edited December 23, 2008 by StiCk_eM

[Schot 407]

Gratz on your build Stick!

 

I was reading through your build and it does sound fun. One thing that I thought might be a nice touch for you to add is to explain each mod you have applied to your Combat Arts. For myself I don't really know those Combat Arts and modifiers that well and could use a little explaining. Linking the CA modifiers on the wiki would definitely help the reader.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing her online Stick. Nicely done.

[StiCk_eM 1]

Sounds like something I will have to add because mods are important to any build. I'll work on it when I can.

 

Thanks for the advice,

 

StiCk_eM

[Antitrust 32]

Looks very interesting

 

Are you just using Baneful smite and Radiant Pillar, or is there more to it?

[StiCk_eM 1]

Nope that's pretty much it; no hidden secrets

 

Simple, but effective.

 

Hope it works,

 

StiCk_eM

 

I added two new sections:

My Choice

Why These Mods

[StiCk_eM 1]

Okay,

 

So I've been playing this char more lately and I was getting annoyed with kill speed of it and all so there is going to be a huge overhaul I'm starting over and I've got a new strategy...this guide will work to some extent, but I think this new build is gonna be even better!

 

Live and learn,

 

StiCk_eM

[Flooxim 49]

Do you mind if I create your guide with my program and submit it to my Guides Database?

 

 

Max

[StiCk_eM 1]

I rather you wait and let me update this guide...I'd actually prefer this guide to be removed until I put up the new guide because it will be a much better build than this one (points to Mods!) and people won't complain about the faults that I already know about this one

 

Thanks all,

 

StiCk_eM

[Dobri 55]

Having played through a magic-oriented Seraphim, I'd have to say that this build, as it is, will come to 1 serious problem - Combat Art regeneration times. Even if you play with + all skills ring and amulets socketed wherever you can, the regen times remain quite high and you will hardly be able to maximize the CA at all.

 

My personal opinion is that buffs for this build should be modded for reduction of their cost in order to make them effective. Investing in exalted focus (I'm sure you have better places to put your skill points after modding Stance) will reduce the buff penalty on CA, but it will hardly allow you to read a lot of runes, because the increase of CA levels will easily destroy the effect your invested points may have. In addition to that, my opinion is that Warding energy (modded for resource to reduce the cost) will be much more effective buff. For that reason I took Revered tech instead of Exalted warrior and added Warding lore to improve the shield capacity.

 

Besides, being unable to invest heavily in battle stance will reduce its parameters. Reflection is 20% + 0.1% per CA level and Evasion is 20% + 0.2% per CA level. Really low gains.

 

One other skill can help the regen times - Riding. You can take a unique mount that reduces the regen time of Celestial magic tree and with its improvement (combined with added points in riding) will further reduce the regen times and will allow you to add a few more runes to your main 2 combat skills. It will still not be enough to maximize the Combat Arts levels, but taking it does transform into some extra damage.

 

Finally, I would have to comment on the attribute picks. 50%-50% Intelligence-Vitality is not going to cut it through the later difficulties. At some point you will need some investment in Stamina, in order to further reduce the regen times of the Combat Arts. As for the equipment, a good idea is to have a weapon with Phys to Fire and Phys to Ice conversion. A lot of mobs in this game seem to be magic resistant and even more are magic + physical resistant. This will further reduce the damage this Seraphim is inflicting on the enemies, which is a serious setback and must be taken into account.

 

To summarize:

 

I propose the following skills to pick:

level 2 - Celestial Lore

level 3 - Concentration

level 5 - Celestial Focus

level 8 - Armor lore

level 12 - Riding (if you don't like it, substitute for something else, like spell resistance/combat reflexes/toughness/revered lore)

level 18 - Revered focus

level 25 - Combat Discipline

level 35 - Constitution

level 50 - Shield Lore (Stalworth safeguard with artamark's star in the socket can offset quite a bunch of levels in spell resist, although it will not reduce the chance of getting crits... But this is why we have Warding energy + lore)

level 65 - Warding Energy Lore

 

Buffs should be modded for reduction of cost, in order to refrain from hindering the regen times (Power->Magic Mirror->Resource for Warding energy) and cleansing brilliance should be used only when needed at first, and constantly when your char improves the regen times.

 

Attributes should be improved at:

50% of the time - Intelligence

30% of the time - Vitality

20% of the time - Stamina

E.g., for 10 levels you should put 5 points in Intelligence, 3 in vitality, 2 in Stamina. Things change when you get more attribute picks per level. Then you can alternate: 1 Int, 1 Vit, the next time 1 Int, 1 Stamina, and so on.

 

You should have 3 weapons - one unmodded, 1 with conversion to fire, 1 with conversion to ice. This will augment the Seraphim's Baneful Smite/Radiant pillar for the diversity of mobs she encounters. We don't have godly levels in Arrant Pyromancer like the HE to compensate for the resistances, so this is the way to do it.

 

To conclude - this build is all about balance and regen times. Since this is not a HE with buffs that directly reduce the regen times, we will need to find other ways to do it. This writeup is based on just that... Making use of the most options to reduce the times AND still do some considerable damage.

Edited February 20, 2009 by Dobri

[StiCk_eM 1]

As already said this build is extremely flawed I am going to update the guide and this one will be thrown out my new one is much stronger than the latter...

 

That being said your input is appreciated, but I don't see how the weapons with converters will do any good because I know that it says it changes the damage on the display but it truly does not. It is a display bug I believe, I guess I should test it just to make sure, but I have never noticed my damage change when I switch between my weapons that I have even with their different elemental sockets.

 

But, I will check just in case.

 

Thanks for your input,

 

But I already know this build is flawed,

 

StiCk_eM

[Dobri 55]

Please test it to confirm what I've seen from experience so far. For example, if an enemy is magic resistant and I switch to a fire weapon, the damage does increase slightly (if I was doing 540 out of 750 with magic-based attack, now it's about 650 out of 750), so there may be a certain conversion that does help.

[StiCk_eM 1]

I've never seen that large of an increase that I can remember from switching elements, but I will test it to make sure because it would be useful for any magic user to know if this works or not.

[Erling 3]

does the cleanins brilliance mods only affect T-energy monsters and ..''evil'' beings whatever that is?

[FrostElfGuard 9]

Unfortunately I can't test this...but I don't want to forget it either:

 

Concentration in S1 only affected melee (and ranged) combat arts. It was an RSM booster back then. Now, I'm thinking Concentration also affects the regen of spells.

 

So, do you keep Concentration at your character level?

 

To both guide builders:

 

In the old guides they suggested things like Skill x, keep at your level, Skill y, keep at 1/3 level, Skill z: take to 10 only. Do you have suggestions along those lines.

 

 

Further, could you include a link to the ladder representation of your character that uses this build? It would be a really sweet link so we could look at your current stats/skills/etc . The new ladder is SWEET sweet Sweet!

 

And: Thanks to both of you for taking the time and effort to help us others players out!

[Dobri 55]

@Erling

 

Cleansing affects only those 2, but it's powerful enough to just run around undeads, for example, and watch them die in a few hits Things change as levels progress though. You really need to keep this up if you want some nice damage from it, however, it burdens the regen times of baneful smite and radiant pillar, so one should use a lot of common sense here

 

@FrostElfGuard

 

I did not make any suggestions in my idea for such a build, because I believe it to be a matter of personal preference. Since I'm sure everyone will go + all skills crazy, points don't actually matter. Common sense dictates that Celestial Lore/Focus and Combat discipline should be maxed at all times, Concentration may stay at 1 point for some time, benefiting from + all skills (but there should be some investment later on, since this is one of the only means of reducing regen times), Consitution must reach 75 by all means, armor lore should be as high as possible, shield lore may remain at 1 point for quite a long time (benefiting from + all skills only), Revered focus may go up to 9 just to mod warding energy (and probably archangel's wrath, it's your call, add points of needed), and riding should be raised at common sense basis - when you see that regen times are starting to increase with the level ups of the mount, add points. Otherwise, distribute the points where they are needed.

 

If you go for revered focus instead of riding, you're going to have some tough time trying to keep all 4 of these skills maxed - Celestial Focus/Lore + Revered Focus/Lore (since you'll want the best Combat Arts there is). Yet, if you go for Revered focus, I wonder how long will it take to just switch to the BFG weapon and simply click & kill with a shot... Dumping all those cool spells we've been supposed to use so far

Edited February 23, 2009 by Dobri

[StiCk_eM 1]

When I edit this guide I will include the link for the char on the ladder and yes cleansing brilliance only affects undead and t-energy beings.

 

Thanks for the interest,

 

StiCk_eM

[wilgecko65 1]

I wonder how is this build going so far, and if it survive in niob?

[Flooxim 49]

I just got an idea : Will Ice & Blood with its "Expert Touch" concept be able to fix some of the flaws of this build?

 

Also, will the fact that staffs now shoots bolts help this build?

 

This idea makes me want to try it right now.

 

 

Max

Edited October 13, 2009 by metal_max64

[DarkKnight 0]

I was thinking of an unique pure celestial caster as well, but let me ask you, is Exalted Warrior Focus REALLY helping with defence? Running up buffs seem to hinder too much on regen if you want decent defence from BattleStance. Can the build survive without buffs? I was thinking instead of Exalted Warrior Focus, take Riding instead to help with defence and decrease regen to allow maximum spell damage. Btw, I am using ONLY radiant pillar for attack and that's it. I like to use Radiant pillar follow by Hallowed Restoration and nothing seem to hurt me, since I am constantly on the run casting RP and HR.