Seraphim Dual Wield or Pole Arms?

[Scrappy McSlap 6]

I'm playing on console, single player, hardcore rules... Just hit level 25. My skill choices so far are as follows:

 

Rev Tech Lore: 14 points

Tactics Lore: 5 points

Enhanced Perception: 5 points

Bargaining: 5 points

Armor Lore: 5 points

Constitution: 25 points

 

7 Skill Points remaining

 

I currently have +11 to all skills

 

I'm thinking I'll probably take Warding Energy, Combat Reflexes, and possibly Toughness as my remaining 3 skill choices. Therefore, I feel like this might be the right time to choose a weapon skill, I just can't make up my mind on what to go with.

 

Dual Wield is nice as it gives you a ton of variety of weapons to choose from, allows for very fast attack rate and gives access to potentially 6 gold sockets (siiiick!)... Problem I have with it is it it doesn't unlock weapon modifiers... Which makes me feel like I'm "missing out" by not locking myself into a specific weapon type.

 

Pole Arms are awesome when using weapons with +chance to hit multiple opponents, as well as anything with a decent amount of life leech... It feels REALLY good to smoke a bunch of monsters with one swing, and there are some pretty fine pole arms out there.

 

Also, it's worth noting that I plan to use my class mount as well... Not sure if that makes a difference at all for a weapon class like pole arms though?

 

So that's my dilemma. Discuss! :-)

Edited August 2, 2011 by Scrappy McSlap

[lujate 578]

Let me start by by saying Divine Protection with the Capacity and Boost mods, then spam the runes.

 

What kind of build are you going for?

 

Also, in case you have not already heard, LL% on the consoles is healing only. The damage is 1/1000 what it should be.

[Scrappy McSlap 6]

Wound up taking Combat Reflexes as my level 25 skill choice. With the +Skill stuff, having the extra evade for crit hits is too good to pass up for another 10 levels! Gives me more time to make up my mind on a weapon choice as well...

 

Although I'd still be interested in opinions on the question of which choice people prefer and why... :-)

[Scrappy McSlap 6]

Hi Lujate. I didn't have a specific build in mind, so much as I want something that can go the distance solo all the way up to Niob... So lots of defensive skill choices.

 

Yeah, I'm using Divine Protection as you mentioned... It's really good (too good?). Anybody want to tell me what the difference is between %LL and items with +X points of LL?

[snacksmoto 0]

Anybody want to tell me what the difference is between %LL and items with +X points of LL?

 

LL +X is a straight-up HP number that will damage/heal, regardless of how many HP the target originally has. (Although I don't know if you can LL more HP than what the target has left.) So, if you have LL +6, you'll cause +6 HP damage to your target and it will heal you +6 HP. It won't matter if your target has a maximum of 100 HP, or 100 thousand HP.

 

LL +X% (as it's supposed to work, but is bugged on consoles) leeches a number of HP based off your target's maximum HP. So if you have LL +2%, vs. a target with 100 HP you'll leech 2 HP and heal 2 HP. If you're against a target with 100 thousand HP, that same +2% will damage 2000 HP and heal you 2000 HP. If I've read the study right, on consoles, the damage is reduced by a factor of 1000 with LL +X% therefore, with the 100 thousand HP target, you will damage 2 HP but you'll still be healed 2000.

 

-----

 

As for your character, I can assume you're kind of going with a melee based build with Rev Tech supplementing? (I'm no expert, so somebody please chime in if my perception is wrong.) If so, with both Bargaining and Enhanced Perception taking up skill slots, the melee direction may be spread thin on the damage output in higher difficulties since you won't have high level Exalted Warrior CAs. Perhaps an option would be to go with Ranged Weapons as your weapon skill, supplement with Rev Tech Focus in order to increase that aspect's maximum CA levels, and pump up BFG. When you have the BFG buff active, you should get the bonus to Ranged Weapons from the buff even if you're not actually using the BFG itself. That would mean an even higher soft level Ranged Weapons skill. Then you can also use a 1 rune Pelting Strikes in order to have a very low regeneration time, thus "increasing" the attack speed. Since you're not centred on the Exalted Warrior aspect, you'll probably want to keep Pelting Strikes and Soul Hammer low to keep the regens down for more frequent use.

 

With the (now) 1 skill choice left, from your original choices, would leave only Toughness left. Warding Energy Lore requires Warding Energy buff to be active to be effective and you'd need Concentration to have the second buff active.

 

Optionally, you could go with the Warding Energy buff instead of the BFG buff swapping extra attack for extra defense. In that case, Ranged Weapons skill will be on par with the other weapon skills since you won't have BFG helping it along. In that case, I would still suggest Rev Tech Focus to increase your Warding Energy buff CA penalty level and improve the regen times, Warding Energy Lore, and your Weapon Skill of choice, although you'll want the Weapon skill before Rev Tech Focus and Warding Energy Lore.

 

I think...

[lujate 578]

The developers must have thought that Divine Protection was too powerful, because it was weakened in an early PC patch. IMO, on the consoles it is so powerful as to render Warding Energy irrelevant.

 

Snacksmoto, per the wiki Warding Energy Lore should affect Divine Protection. Your LL% explanation is spot on.

[Scrappy McSlap 6]

Yes, so far I have been playing this as a mellee character with low level exalted warrior Combat Arts modded via Tactics Lore, and Rev Tech Combat Arts as backup. Pretty effective so far when using regen per hit items, but I'm beginning to wonder about damage output vs regen times at higher difficulty levels. As per the suggestions here, I might have to look at taking a focus skill just to allow me to eat more runes without too much of a penalty to regen times...

 

That's what I like about this game: so many character customization options. :-)