soldats

1 of my 3 epics came from dryad island, so while not a majority, I DID find 1 there. haven't been hunting since 2.43

I don't like giving away what I consider cornerstones to my builds, but since no one on the sif has touched upon this subject in detail, I will try to explain why toughness/armor lore mastery/damage mitigation is mandatory for all classes and in particular, 2 classes firstly, what is damage mitigation? it is a % reduction of incoming damage. the % reduction occurs BEFORE the damage reduction from armor value[so far as I know without going into the game's coding, can anyone prove otherwise?] I will be calling it dm from now on for brevity's sake so why would you want this property on your gear? if it isn't obvious, a % reduction in damage becomes immensely powerful at end game levels[140+]. many players belong to the camp that thinks, 'the best way to mitigate damage is not to take any.' of course this is true, but there are going to be situations where you WILL be hit. especially those of you who play characters without a shield for cc/ca blocking, such as a bfg seraphim or a temple guardian or a dw something or other. evade and reflect are fantastic properties to have on gear, but they come with diminishing returns later on. so far as I know, I have not hit any diminishing returns for dm. the reason is simple: the rarity of this property ensures that it will never suffer from diminishing returns. and if you know how I play, I prioritize my gear in order of rarest property to most common. one disclaimer before we get started...keep in mind that dm won't be truly effective until higher level, which means toughness should be your 50 or 65 skill pick, UNLESS you want it mastered by 75. because it is % based, there's little reason to try and gain 5% dm or 10% dm. you'll want at least 30%+ to make this property worthwhile, through whatever means you find mitigation. it's like starting out with rings with +5% attack value. that won't help nearly as much as +15 attack value because of the low % having very little effect. there are 6 ways I know of to achieve dm, with 4 being the most effective/best bang for your buck. 01. **armor lore mastery unlockable- all channels[rare] 02. **native property- all channels[rare/set] 03. **toughness- all channels 04. **particular ca mods- all channels 05. native property- single element[rare/unique] 06. set bonus- single element/all channel[set] ##### 01. armor lore mastery unlockable aside from ancient magic and combat discipline and toughness mastery[by proxy], I believe that armor lore is one of the best skills to master. why? it allows for the use of higher armor without penalty, lowered regen penalty on Combat Arts, and best of all, all the unlockables armor lore mastery unlockables include- detrimental magic effects -xx.xx% damage mitigation xx.xx% we will not be looking at the detrimental magic effects as I haven't thoroughly tested that unlockable yet. however, the dm is very important to our discussion here. dm when unlocked by armor lore mastery on rare gear gives a scaling % mitigation to ALL CHANNELS[all elements] relative to skill level of armor lore, which means if you're packing heavy +all skills, your mitigation will keep rising without any more hard points being invested past 75. the servers are down, so I cannot provide you with pictures for an example, but the rares I've been finding with this property at skill level 225~ is around 14-15%. **note- there are ONLY TWO pieces of rare gear where this property can spawn- torso and shoulder armor. 02. native property- all channels this property that grants dm for all channels can occur natively[that is, without armor lore mastery] on certain set pieces and rare pieces as well. again, this property can ONLY spawn on shoulders and torso of rares and with two exceptions that I know of, can occur on shoulders and torso of set pieces as well. the two set pieces that are in exclusion are the greaves of the demiurge for the temple guardian and endijian's wings for the seraphim. what I've been unable to determine, however, is if you can find BOTH a natively spawning mitigation with armor lore unlockable on the same rare torso/shoulder armor. if so, that would make the character who wears it almost immune to damage with the right setup. 03. toughness well. most people gloss over the importance of this skill. as stated before, many players opt for avoidance over mitigation. well, as I've stated, you WILL be hit. there is no avoiding it. some get hit less, some more, but you will be hit. that being said, that is not a strong enough argument for toughness alone. what I suggest is that characters who want to get away with choosing less defensive skills for more varied and unique builds[players like myself], you can choose to take that damage all the time, but reduce it to an amount that is manageable. that means NOT picking combat reflexes and spell resistance. I laugh at both of those skills when in comparison to toughness and mitigation from other sources combined. for characters that cannot use a shield for cc/ca blocking, toughness makes up for the avoidance factor. bfg seraphim, dw characters, tg's will all benefit greatly from the use of this skill the rate at which mitigation climbs with this skill seems deplorable, especially after it was nerfed, but when used in conjunction with other sources of mitigation, toughness really shines. at skill level 250~[75 hard points only], it grants me 21.1% across all channels. 04. ca mods some ca mods such as the gold mods for jolting touch, archimedes beam, purifying chastisement, etc offer dm to all channels as well, and is added to your existing base mitigation when in use. I will not be going in depth on how to use these Combat Arts as they are situational in use and depend on your playstyle. just know that using these is what I consider icing on top of the cake...which is to say unnecessary in most cases, but fun to see incoming damage being reduced to 25% or less. 05. native property- single element these, while less effective, can be useful in certain situations. natively spawning mitigation properties are 99% physical. why? I don't know. but it makes their use particularly moot in niob, where enemies do 80%+ elemental damage. it is still useful, but not as useful as all channel mitigation. there are exceptions, as certain uniques and sets offer single element mitigation, such as fire on a certain amulet or set boot. 06. set bonus- single element/all channel there are certain sets that grant you single element mitigation of a hard to find natively spawning element. magic, poison and ice are 3 that come to mind with regard to these set bonuses. however, I would stay away from using these, as they limit your gear choices for just a single element. some set bonuses grant all channel mitigation and I am on the fence about those, so I am not going to argue for or against them. if you can fit it into your playstyle, then go for it. if it involves too much sacrifice, then don't. lots of reading, I know, but hang with me for just a little more... so you can see how dm works and where to get it...but I will elaborate a little more on why it opens up more skill slots because you can opt to take damage and lessen it. also, it does not suffer from diminishing returns so far as I know, with 52.2% and no sign of hitting a cap so far. I think this may have to do with the fact that I'm using different sources for dm. that is, from a skill and from gear. 50%+ might suffer from diminishing returns if it was from ONE source- gear alone. which I think is near impossible to achieve anyway, being that shoulders and torso are the only rare pieces with scaling dm, you will need to have armor lore at skill level 1000 before you see results over 50%. but that is the beauty in dm. you can stack a gear dm with toughness and achieve 50% quite easily and kiss damage goodbye. in my case, I've gotten several pm's and posts asking how I take so little damage on ms. grandcross' video. the secret is dm. in particular, how it applies to energy shields. since energy shields are MUCH easier to increase than hp alone, it would be prudent to apply dm to energy shields with a little absorption warding energy, you can effectively increase your hp almost exponentially. however, from playing experience, I wouldn't have my energy shields absorb 100% of incoming damage. the reason being that with constitution mastery, I can recoup some damage to my hp that's split between my energy shields and hp, so 80/20 seems more appropriate. also, by applying dm to energy shields, you can take mods other than increasing the total shield energy to allow for more flexible builds. I hope I have made a strong case for damage mitigation. this is the secret to a couple of my builds and why exploring what some people call worthless skills is necessary. [edit] also adding to my op... dm is quite useful for characters without a way to raise armor value other than through armor lore. for instance, a high elf with crystal skin is going to have armor in the 100.000's by 200, and the dryad with ancient bark can easily achieve 100.000 at much lower levels. these characters do not necessarily need dm, but I will explain how it would be useful in certain situations... now, the other 4 classes do not have Combat Arts that give them a huge increase to armor, so by default, they are going to take much more damage when hit. a good example is to take a dryad into the swamp and let 15 spiders hit you. even without ancient bark's hp regen, constitution mastery is probably going to heal you back 500% of what you're taking in for damage. now take a seraphim there. her hp will slowly decrease because there is no way to boost her armor value. you'll have to rely on hallowed restoration or potions to heal, slowing down kill speed, exploring speed, etc. with mitigation, there will be little need for healing, as your hp regen[with constitution mastery] will be more than enough to keep your red bar full. as for the ancient bark dryad...if you are experiencing difficulty with fire based attacks, then mitigation will make up for the sensitivity to those attacks. that being said, I would find it hard to believe that anyone in 150+ range would be having any sort of difficulty, but on the off chance something like a crit/widd that's fire based strikes your dryad...or in pvp applications, this might be worth looking into.

no word on epic items however, after farming the fg over 20000 times[yes, I counted], he drops the non aspect 2.34 sets most often. the most common set drops are the 3s mf/vr pieces with a few aspect sets now and again. he does has not dropped any 2.40 sets for me. the uniques dropped are usually rancuil's dark flame, serpent's tongue and unyielding wall, as I've found those at least once on every run with no exception. other uniques do not drop for me, and no epics neither. he's not worth running for experience, but out of 10 runs, I can expect to find a set piece 8 times. sometimes I get a double or a triple set drop. I do not use mf and I don't believe in using it. the best reason for farming him is not for sets...it is the rares that he drops. for those without bargaining, this is a sweet spot if you can nail him in under 30 seconds, pop in the cave and back out again. if you're really fast, you can usually get him 2-3 times in a minute, which is easy gold, easy sets and many rares to choose from. he's dropped double skilled amulets, many good lore unlockable armor pieces as well I would recommend using fire damage when possible and if you are melee, have some non reflect gear, though it isn't really necessary if your character isn't weak. I've never used any myself even when going melee against him some tactics involve: in the higher modes, don't bother hitting him until he heals once. he follows the pattern- vine>heal>double slap that happens in that order every time and increases in frequency of use the higher in difficulty you go. so in niob, which is the best farming time for him, wait until he heals first, then start pummeling him. stun, burn, life leech are important, but not necessary. also, you can prevent him using his healing ca if you DO NOT ENGAGE him within melee range. I've tested this extensively in 2.40[don't know if that's changed in 2.43], and he will not heal if you do not let him hit you physically. that means disabling any pets if you're a ranged dryad. no other character can achieve this so far as I know, because no one else has a mobility disabling ca. [edit] forgot to add defense... wear your poison relics, as his double slap ca is poison based. however, his normal attacks are all physical, so any physical mitigation you have is very important as this guy hits hard and fast. if you have a shield for cc/ca blocking, I would highly recommend using it.

define instantly. 1hit? 2hit? are you using a shield? if you aren't using a shield, I would seriously consider one

video: you can pm me with questions.

that's just it as of 2.4 you cannot find +allskill/+all ca on rare RINGS anymore. ONLY on this ring. which is why the second ring is good at higher levels since all skill/all ca spawns only on rare AMULETS Comments removed, please remain on topic

it was a drop from gar'colossus in free mode

I found a 105 second ring in platinum closednet hc [edit]

with cd mastery, mc is at .5sec just as chattius said, all of those directly increase mc damage. other mods that are important: chance to disregard armor[cda], -physical armor Edited by gogoblender: Please be careful with comments regarding other sites, pm me if you wish to discuss this. Cheers

copied from my post at sif: ms. rapture, the psywarden: all footage shot in hardcore in niobium at level 150 you want to see what is 'godlike' and awesome? no potion use at all...no running away at all... yes, she's a character with no general skills. and truly, my favorite character to play right now. she can handle 5man niob games as naturally as it is to breathe Edited by gogoblender: Comments on this topic, grrrrrrrrreat! Comments regarding personal preferences for our own builds, another topic please