Mage Fan 0 Share Posted December 2, 2009 (edited) Hello everybody. How's life treating you? That's good to hear. Have fun with that. On to the character Alright before I really start off just two little disclaimers. 1) I'm playing a completely unpatched console version (if there's been patches released) I don't play on live so if there's any changes been made, I don't have them and I don't know about them lol. 2) I'm very sensitive and I cry easily don't be mean. (Just kidding about the second one) Alright so a while back I was sitting there considering what I wanted to do with my good ol' High Elf. I always enjoy the Mage classes the most in RPGs (*looks at username* go figure right?) so it was about time I tackled the High Elf. So I looked around some builds, took a look at the Pyromancer build. Well that's a lot of damage looks good to me. Then took a look at the ice build. Now that's some impressive armor and GT hits like a tank. WHAT IS SOMEBODY TO DO!? I wanted both. So I took both lol. Thusly we are left with my girl here. Oh please note that this was basically me just winging it as I went along so in no way am I claiming this to be the end all be all of anything lol. Just want to see what people think and if somebody wants to try it out I had a hell of a lot of fun with her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First Attribute point distribution. Pretty simple. For the first 50 levels I put all the points into Stamina. For the last 150 Intelligence. Now I'm doing some testing (a.k.a. playing through as a new HE) and I'm thinking it might ultimately be more beneficial to stick with nothing but stamina the whole way through. The reasoning is pretty simple. The lower the regen time, the more runes you can use. Now if you're sticking with the default three buffs like I have the penalty from Imp/Crystal Skin can get pretty high so a high stamina is just what is needed to counter balance that. I'll update as I go along/other people weigh in their opinions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok onto the skills now I've thought about ways to change her here so I'm going to give you three different options. Only the last two change so I'll list the last two separately. 1st) Mystic Stormite Lore 2nd) Concentration 3rd) Mystic Stormite Focus 4th) Arrant Pyromancer Lore 5th) Arrant Pyrmancer Focus 6th) Delphic Arcania Focus 7th) Armor Lore 8th) Ancient Magic Now for your options. With set A if you're worried about staying alive(though if I can put your mind at rest I play HC, console though so you know I'm just honorbound to delete the character and I've survived all the way through) and not about finding shiny things you can go with this 9th) Constitution 10th) Shield lore Now option B. If you're like me and just like finding shiny things and don't have characters with these skills already 9th) Bargaining 10th) Enhanced Perception Now with option C we compromise to get survivability and still find cool stuff in shops for those of you without a shopper yet. 9th) Constituion 10th) Bargaining Now though there's been some questions about endgame damage. If you're really worried about your damage output in the end there's two options you can do. The first is to drop one of the last two skills from the options I give you for Combat Discipline. The other is to drop the fire imp altogether to leave concentration at 1 and max out both lores. Alright whatever set you go with my numbers for what you raise the skills to don't change so onto where I ended up putting all my skill points. It goes a little something like this Mystic Stormite Lore - 175 Concentration - 75 Mystic Stormite Focus - 100 Arrant Pyromancer Lore - 160 Arrant Pyrmancer Focus - 100 Delphic Arcania Focus - 75 Armor Lore - 75 Ancient Magic - 75 Constitution - 75 Shield lore - 75 That leaves you with 1 unused skill point. In case you didn't notice, I like clean cut numbers so I didn't spend it. >_> <_< yeah I'm anal like that. Also obviously this only applies if you didn't want to drop the fire imp. If you do want to drop him your endgame numbers should look like this. Mystic Stormite Lore - 200 Concentration - 10 Mystic Stormite Focus - 100 Arrant Pyromancer Lore - 200 Arrant Pyrmancer Focus - 100 Delphic Arcania Focus - 75 Armor Lore - 75 Ancient Magic - 75 Constitution - 75 Shield lore - 75 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright combat arts. Fun fun fun. If you'll excuse a random made up expression that doesn't make any sense, this is where the potato meets the pancake. Arrant Pyromancer Ok to start off, once you're high enough all you're really going to use in this is Blazing Tempest and Incendiary Shower for big boys and crowds inside. Also you will eventually be using Fire Demon as a buff once you get concentration to 75. But I'm going to list the upgrades for all of them since you get enough points to upgrade them all anyway. Ancestral Fireball 1st) Explosion. Why? Because the only time I ever used this was when I was alternating it with GT while surrounded by enemies. 2nd) Globe. More damage is delicious. 3rd) Fusillade. Because when I'm using it to hit a guy that's busy smashing me in the face. What do I need tracking for? Blazing Tempest 1st) Scorch. You're going to be right in there mixing it up, who cares how fast it moves when the enemy is right next to you? 2nd) Conflagration. More damage is more damage is more damage. And you'll get the regen time low enough, and with this build it doesn't need to be absolutely minimum time so that you can spam it. 3rd) Ambition. Critical hits baby wooooo. Incendiary Shower 1st) Skull Smash. This is part of my boss combo so them not moving is great. Also if the guy in there gets stunned he's not going to run away from the rest of the meteors. 2nd) Smoking Rock. When you can spam the spell duration doesn't matter to me. 3rd) Devastation. Critical hits are delicious too. Fire Demon ooo scary. 1st) Power. Neither of the options mattered to me. So level over health regen. 2nd) Lively. This this this. It adds so much regeneration time to have him active thank god we can take some of it away. 3rd) Modesty. Same reasoning as lively amigos. Incandescent Skin Do whatever you want you're never going to use it. Mystic Stormite Frost Flare 1st) Freeze. You're going to have a low regeneration time anyway 2nd) Frost. Me likey damage, me likey damage. 3rd) Icy Circle. More people frozen the better. Glacial Thorns 1st) Fusillade. They both increase damage, but I'd prefer to have more thorns then more damage per thorn because of the next one. 2nd) Devastation. Who cares about piercing. Kill the guy getting hit and just use it again on the next guy lol. You're going to be able to spam it either way. 3rd) Fusillade. Damage is a girls best friend. Raging Nimbus 1st) Hurricane. Since you'll be able to spam this. Having multiple attacking faster will ultimately out damage just increasing the damage. IMHO. 2nd) Momentum. The slower they move the longer they stay in it and the more the get hurt. 3rd) Extended Nimbus. The larger the radius the better. You can spam this so why bother with increased duration. Cascading shroud 1st) Mist. Your armor is already going to be really high....so why not make it better!? 2nd) Inconspicuous. Could be useful to get out of a tight situation I suppose. I mean I honestly don't use this spell at all. 3rd) Facileness. Why not? Crystal Skin 1st) Glacial Mirror. If they're already in close combat, I don't really care how slow they're moving lol. 2nd) Feel cold. Since apparently Focalize is broken on consoles I went with this. Obviously Focalize would be better so if you're on the PC go with that. 3rd) Mystic Stormite Expertise. Helps make up for that penalty from having crystal skin active. Delphic Arcania Grand Invigoration 1st) Arrant Pyromancer Increase. You're already getting the hit from Crystal skin reduced by the spell itself. Use this one to help out Pyromancer. 2nd) Replenish. Spam spam spam spam spam. It's good for you. I swear. 3rd) Fleetness. I don't really worry about detrimental effects. And I absolutely hate the mount for the high elf. The only one I don't like. So I don't use it. Ok now that we've discussed how we're going to mod the arts lets discuss Rune usage. With fireball I kept this around a 2 to 2.5 recharge rate because if I did use it I was alternating that and GT so it's guaranteed to be ready to use again by the time I'm done casting GT. Blazing Tempest I kept around 5 seconds. Why? That's a lot of recharge time to some people. But unlike in the usual pyromancer build I don't spam this continually. Use like two or three GT's hit them with this, rinse repeat. Incendiary shower I keep around a 3 second recharge time. That's around just the right amount of time before you need to cast it again. Fire demon I kept it around whatever I felt was a good trade off damage vs. recharge penalty wise. Use your discretion on this one you're a smart fellow. Glacial Thorns I kept floating between a 1.0-1.5 recharge time. Spammed this between BT's so always need it ready to cast again right away. Raging Nimbus is my outside crowd control so like Incendiary shower I keep it around 3 seconds. Probably could get away with moving it up to 5 if you feel you need some extra damage. Crystal skin always keep as high as you can. Grand Invigoration the same as crystal skin. Alright I briefly mentioned the combat tactic I used in that mess. Basically I'd sit there spamming individuals with GT's and then using BT once its' recharge was done which would be like two GT's. If I'm outside and there's a boat load of enemies like with Kobolds. I'd pretty much spam Raging Nimbus until everything was dead. Inside small confined areas Incendiary Shower does better at crowd control, and it's less annoying then Raging Nimbus lol. Against bosses I created a combo of Raging Nimbus then Incendiary shower. Could constantly use that. Sometimes I'd just use Incendiary shower in between bouts of GT's. Depended on how I'm feeling. Basically play how you want to play her. This was all about instead of locking myself into one grouping being able to do what I wanted to at the time and still be able to survive. Not have to worry so much about whether my enemy is fire resistant or ice resistant because I've got both. So just have fun. That's what gaming is all about anyway. So thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. That you'll either leave some feedback or give her a try yourself. And if you give her a try yourself YOU BETTER HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS I DID OR ELSE! (Edits 1: Forgot to put crystal skin mods in there. Also left out Grand Invigoration name) (Edits 2: Added alternatives for those concerned about endgame damage) (Edits 3: Added speculative alternative in attribute distribution. Edited December 4, 2009 by Mage Fan Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Don't you need riding to take bargining or ep? It seems I find riding included in many builds that have either of those skills. Link to comment
locolagarto 15 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Don't you need riding to take bargining or ep? It seems I find riding included in many builds that have either of those skills. Every Char has different requirements In the Case of HE Bargaining in a primary choice, meaning no other general skill is required. many Char's bargaining is a secondary Skill, an many players like EP or riding, blacksmith, or ........ for there primary. Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 Don't you need riding to take bargining or ep? It seems I find riding included in many builds that have either of those skills. No bargaining is unlocked from the beginning for High Elves. Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Don't you need riding to take bargining or ep? It seems I find riding included in many builds that have either of those skills. No bargaining is unlocked from the beginning for High Elves. wow ok. Is it same for ep and high elves? Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 Don't you need riding to take bargining or ep? It seems I find riding included in many builds that have either of those skills. No bargaining is unlocked from the beginning for High Elves. wow ok. Is it same for ep and high elves? Nope you need to unlock EP. Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Ok thanks for clarifying. So how does option B work? Does bargining open up ep? Sounds like a mighty sick build ! At what level do you finally complete all skills meaning all 10? Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 2, 2009 What makes this a "console" version? I am doing ice Mage now and find that targetting is a pain with some spells (gt for example) Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 (edited) Ok thanks for clarifying. So how does option B work? Does bargining open up ep? Sounds like a mighty sick build ! At what level do you finally complete all skills meaning all 10? Yes bargaining opens up EP. Also do you mean have them all selected or get them to the points that I have listed? If you mean get all that I have listed you get the last skill selection at 65. If you mean up to the levels I have listed that's at the max level, 200. What makes this a "console" version? I am doing ice Mage now and find that targetting is a pain with some spells (gt for example) Just as my disclaimer said. I'm playing on an unpatched console version. So if anything has changed on the PC or been patched on the console I don't have it. Edited December 3, 2009 by Mage Fan Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Thanks Mage fan I started the char and she is now lv 13. So far she seems quite powerful and survivable with large groups of mobs on me. She rarely heals with 20+ kobolds on her. With a fully modded nimbus and burning tempest, everything goes down by the time refresh is ready. I look forward to seeing the build at higher levels. It seems to have higher Dmg than invincible ice build and same or more survivability at lower levels with the usage of 2 buffs. Thanks! Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 No problem at all! I'm just glad you're enjoying her ^_^ Hope you have fun with her all the way through! Link to comment
kianis 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I have been playing a ice elf buld similar to 'the invincible elf' with a couple of variations up to around level 35 and toying with the idea of a remake to a hybrid build however I am worried about the damage output at later levels. The build I had in mind was very similar to yours, I swapped out one general skill for shield lore and didnt intend running 3 buffs (dropping fire imp) to give more points into the damage boosting skills. Can you confirm how far have you taken this build ? level / difficulty completed ? I play multiplayer PC Ice & Blood so if anyone else has tried a similar build feedback would be appreciated, my main concern is... will she be packing enough damage at max difficulty / level in multiplayer games to be effective. Cheers Kianis Link to comment
infinity_at_end 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I have been playing a ice elf buld similar to 'the invincible elf' with a couple of variations up to around level 35 and toying with the idea of a remake to a hybrid build however I am worried about the damage output at later levels. The build I had in mind was very similar to yours, I swapped out one general skill for shield lore and didnt intend running 3 buffs (dropping fire imp) to give more points into the damage boosting skills. Can you confirm how far have you taken this build ? level / difficulty completed ? I play multiplayer PC Ice & Blood so if anyone else has tried a similar build feedback would be appreciated, my main concern is... will she be packing enough damage at max difficulty / level in multiplayer games to be effective. Cheers Kianis As long as you will reach mastery level with : Ancient Magic, Combat Discipline and those 2 skills from the build(Pyromancer Lore+Focus or Mystic Lore+Focus or Delphic Lore+Focus) you will do just fine in later difficulties, all depends on your own play style. Keep the Lore and Focus Skills at your level, the other 2 reach Mastery (Ancient Magic and Combat Discipline) and you will do enough damage. The rest of the skills : Armour, Concentration, Constitution will just imbue even more your Character. And if you still have room for aditional Skills you have plenty to chose from : Bargaining, Riding, Enhanced Perception, Shield Lore, Sword/Staff Lore for those who plan going melee. Is all about your own play style and what spells you like the most. You can be a shard elf, storm elf, burning elf, shower elf, melee elf ...... you get the point Link to comment
kianis 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I have been playing a ice elf buld similar to 'the invincible elf' with a couple of variations up to around level 35 and toying with the idea of a remake to a hybrid build however I am worried about the damage output at later levels. The build I had in mind was very similar to yours, I swapped out one general skill for shield lore and didnt intend running 3 buffs (dropping fire imp) to give more points into the damage boosting skills. Can you confirm how far have you taken this build ? level / difficulty completed ? I play multiplayer PC Ice & Blood so if anyone else has tried a similar build feedback would be appreciated, my main concern is... will she be packing enough damage at max difficulty / level in multiplayer games to be effective. Cheers Kianis As long as you will reach mastery level with : Ancient Magic, Combat Discipline and those 2 skills from the build(Pyromancer Lore+Focus or Mystic Lore+Focus or Delphic Lore+Focus) you will do just fine in later difficulties, all depends on your own play style. Keep the Lore and Focus Skills at your level, the other 2 reach Mastery (Ancient Magic and Combat Discipline) and you will do enough damage. The rest of the skills : Armour, Concentration, Constitution will just imbue even more your Character. And if you still have room for aditional Skills you have plenty to chose from : Bargaining, Riding, Enhanced Perception, Shield Lore, Sword/Staff Lore for those who plan going melee. Is all about your own play style and what spells you like the most. You can be a shard elf, storm elf, burning elf, shower elf, melee elf ...... you get the point As long as you will reach mastery level with : Ancient Magic, Combat Discipline and keep lore+focus at own level That was kind of my point, with the build above there is no points in combat discipline and the lore / focus skills are not at char level. Also using 3 buffs will reduce the amount of runes you can eat due to cooldowns. worried the skills will be spread to thin at later levels and damage will tail off. Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 I've taken her all the way through to 200/Niub she handles just fine. If you're really worried about damage I'd drop shield lore for combat discipline. Drop Fire Imp and leave concentration at 1 and boost both lores up to 200. I just like the little guy that's why I keep him around. I'm weird in that I don't really go for optimal I like to just enjoy the gameplay experience. Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I've taken her all the way through to 200/Niub she handles just fine. If you're really worried about damage I'd drop shield lore for combat discipline. Drop Fire Imp and leave concentration at 1 and boost both lores up to 200. I just like the little guy that's why I keep him around. I'm weird in that I don't really go for optimal I like to just enjoy the gameplay experience. Shows there are many alternatives. I am taking option B (Bargaining and EP). I really have never played a char with either skill set but believe one or both of those would make game play more enjoyable with the access to nice loot As you suggest, however, I might also follow the alternate and leave concentration at level 1 and invest more in lore to boost damage further. However, first I need to finish a Silver game Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 3, 2009 Shows there are many alternatives. I am taking option B (Bargaining and EP). I really have never played a char with either skill set but believe one or both of those would make game play more enjoyable with the access to nice loot As you suggest, however, I might also follow the alternate and leave concentration at level 1 and invest more in lore to boost damage further. However, first I need to finish a Silver game Since you're going with bargaining and EP that's probably the best if you're looking to get a little more damage. Hmm, time to update this to v1.5 lol. Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Mage Fan which Mount do you recommend for this build? Hard to decide if the Fire specific or the ice specific mount would be better since we use both Another question for you regarding leveling up on the build. By lv 75, it is possible to have 3 skills at mastery level. Typically I would go for a focus, a lore and XXX. What do you recommend since we are splitting our points between 2 main disciplines (fire and ice) and both have Lore to go with that? Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 Personally like I said I absolutely hate the mount for the high elves. Not positive why, but it bothers me so I don't use it. So really your call. I'd go with what you plan to use more. Or go with the resistance mount lol. I'd probably go with mystic stormite since I use GT so often. Also since we are spreading ourselves out between two disciplines I wouldn't worry about having three at 75 by the time you get there. I'd get two and spread the rest out. Either go with a focus/lore from one of them as the two (I'd go with Mystic Stormite as to keep crystal skin at a high level.) Or you could go with both lores to keep damage for both trees up with your level. Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 If you look under attribute distribution I've added a little paragraph there. Basically I'm playing through again as another HE and I'm thinking it might ultimately be more beneficial to spend all attribute points in stamina. Lower the regen penalty the more runes you can eat the higher the damage balancing out the loss of intelligence. Theoretically. I'll keep everybody posted as to how everything is turning out with that and if anybody has any input on that situation always looking for opinions on the build. Link to comment
infinity_at_end 0 Share Posted December 4, 2009 If you look under attribute distribution I've added a little paragraph there. Basically I'm playing through again as another HE and I'm thinking it might ultimately be more beneficial to spend all attribute points in stamina. Lower the regen penalty the more runes you can eat the higher the damage balancing out the loss of intelligence. Theoretically. I'll keep everybody posted as to how everything is turning out with that and if anybody has any input on that situation always looking for opinions on the build. Spending all attributes on Stamina is good if you are planing not to reach mastery with Concentration and want to take your Combat Art levels high as possible. Put some points into Inteligence is good too. All depends on your play style since the High Elf doesn't lack regeneration because of Grand Invigoration, damage from Combat Discipline and Ancient Magic Mastery, survivability from Constitution and Pyromancer/Mystic Buffs(high chance to reflect or huge armor bonus). Actually you can spend your Attribute Points in anything and you won't be making a huge mistake, all depends on every player, hit fast but easy(spammer) or hit slow but hard(Truck Driver). I also have an Ice Elf, level 42 and I spend all my Attribute Points into Inteligence and Vitality, I find points in stamina useless because I have Grand Invigoration and don't using 3 buff, I have Combat Discipline and taking it to mastery so I have another 20% regen reduction. Link to comment
Mage Fan 0 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 Well I am using three buffs that's the thing. Obviously it's possible without doing just stamina as I have done it lol. I'm just curious if I'll end up out damaging the other high elf because I would be able to use more runes in the end or if I'm actually sacrificing attack power like that and gimping myself. It's good to know that it's not going to gimp the HE though so I shall continue and find out lol. Link to comment
infinity_at_end 0 Share Posted December 4, 2009 and in the Expansion they added the rune limit, you can't eat more than 199 runes in Grand Invigoration because it will restart the count, I didn't try it on the other Combat Art but I think the 200 is the rune limit everywhere and this means no point in pump up Stamina for eating more runes or anything, so for my opinion Stamina should be pumped up only in the first 20-30 Levels and no more. Link to comment
confusedxx 0 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Oh wow did not know that abt expansion. It comes out in march for playstation. If only stam for 30 levels where do u suggest rest of points? Intel, vitality, etc! Link to comment
Ansgar 0 Share Posted December 4, 2009 and in the Expansion they added the rune limit, you can't eat more than 199 runes in Grand Invigoration because it will restart the count, I didn't try it on the other Combat Art but I think the 200 is the rune limit everywhere and this means no point in pump up Stamina for eating more runes or anything, so for my opinion Stamina should be pumped up only in the first 20-30 Levels and no more. The rune consumed count no longer resets if you eat too many runes in patch 2.65.1. Oh wow did not know that abt expansion. It comes out in march for playstation. If only stam for 30 levels where do u suggest rest of points? Intel, vitality, etc! Unfortunately the expansion is not currently planned to come to either console. Link to comment