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Messages - Firebrand
61
« on: 23 January 2018, 19:24:05 »
Not to start an argument there, but I find a few things I read here weird. I'm a bit confused by the unpopularity of Act II. Lots of yellow, lots of sand, yes. But it has prettier parts, too, like the flood plains, the buildings, the tombs, all of which emanate incredible atmosphere like few things in the game do. It really feels like exploring Egypt to me, which is special in a way. Even from the perspective of a game taking place in antiquity, Egypt is literally ancient - even back then, treading the sands of Egypt is walking upon thousands of years of history. I think that the game manages to capture the feel of that, and as a result Act II is easily one of my favorites. By the way, has someone looked up the Temple of Hatshepsut, for example? Act V certainly has its flaws, but I think the judgement here is a bit too harsh. I especially don't understand the complaints about the foggy areas. It's something I meant to bring up for a while. There are annoying foggy areas in Act I, mainly the swamps, where it's difficult to see anything. In Act IV, Paseron is nearly unbearable for me, at least on the computer I play. The fog is so thick that I practically don't see the Keres, don't see where I'm supposed to go, barely anything. It's incredibly frustrating. I had no such issues with Act V. Visibility was always good, and personally I really liked the dense forests and the snow. Act III does something similar, but it's different. I think it's also about atmospheres, and that of their respective mythologies. Norse mythology is a lot bleaker than Greek, Egyptian or Chinese - it makes sense to me that the areas themselves would reflect on this a little. That said, in case it's not been clear, I'm a huge fan of both Celtic and Norse mythologies, so consider me biased if you will. I like the snowy areas of Act III all the same, but I wouldn't call them superior; they're different. And that's okay. In my book, at least; I understand that not the same things work for everyone, and that's okay, too. In fact, it's better that way. I honestly don't see the issue with the Northern items. I've seen quite a few of them, and call me blind, but I didn't notice inferiority. In fact, I welcomed them in a way, as personally I was never fond of Act IV's items which often felt like they had exaggerated proportions (warning, I'm not saying all of them are bad, or that a majority of them, there are really good-looking ones, but I wasn't fond of their look in general), especially when considering the more realistic, down-to-earth design of items in Acts I-III; I thought that Act V items were a step back towards those, which I personally liked. That said, I wholeheartedly agree on water spirits. They're not particularly difficult, but they sure are annoying. Along with a few other kinds of enemies in Act V, and a few other things. But as a whole, I enjoyed the setting.
62
« on: 20 January 2018, 20:34:39 »
Some progress report, as I've just reached legendary Act IV.
Act III was a breeze, almost like I was going through it on normal. I once caught Jun-Shan, Warrior-Monk with a stray projectile from Thunder Strike and he soon died. I didn't even notice he was a hero until a moment before his death. Do you remember when tigerman heroes were scary?
Dragonians also aren't scary anymore. Well, at least Deathlances still are. There's something freaky about the way they jump at you all at the same time with that speed. But they go down like anything else.
I've always been scared of the Dragon Liche. There isn't a lot of space to run around when fighting it, and it has a lot of attacks affecting a wide area to make it worse. It died to Seal of Fate and two Thunder Strikes, though (I've maxed Aftershock, though, so I'm sure that helps a little).
Typhon likewise. Basically, my fights with him on legendary go like this: - I enter the battlefield, he activates the reflection aura and takes a few lightning shots and a firebreath at me, which I try to dodge (though at 80% elemental resistances and Heat Shield it isn't all that important) - He turns to my Core Dweller, I put Seal of Fate under him and attack (if reflection aura is still active, oh well, 80% elemental resistances) - As soon as aura is gone, Thunder Strike; he generally dies before he can take a swing at me.
And that's on legendary. With my current setup I die to his poison projectile on epic, so I imagine it'd be even worse on legendary, good thing he usually has no time to use it.
Edit: Small correction, Core Dweller also needs to have the full Energy Armor to survive long enough while distracting him. Learned the hard way... (Still doable, but much harder, due to having to dodge all the poison and life leech attacks.)
I found a Chakram of the Moon in a bone pile in the Forest of the Ancients. That thing is... weird. I honestly wish it had +2 to Storm instead of Dream (Dream already has Blessing of the Moirae, after all), but we can't all be that lucky. I found a use for it, though; I switched my Prometheus' Gift out for it, so now my secondary slot has Chakram of the Moon with Golden Shield of Pelaron. Together with Polaris I can now cast Energy Armor on maximum level, and then switch back to double Chakrams of the Sun for burning everything. I tried out of curiosity, though, and going Sun and Moon instead of double Sun doesn't even cause much of a drop in my DPS; I guess the +10% intelligence instead of strength is its saving grace.
Second edit: While I found a formula for Eye of Ra and crafted it, it's oddly ineffective (haven't tried the skill on it, though). I suppose that flat burn damage on Dragontongue was really good - on the other hand, the Tongue of Flame I crafted in the process is much better. It's like someone took Dragontongue, removed bonuses on it I didn't need, and then put other bonuses on it I did! Bonus to all elemental damage, the same flat burn damage, but percentile increase to intelligence, poison resistance, and as completion bonus... More poison resistance! Between that and Völva's Foot Wraps, now it's 11%, which is nothing to write home about, but at least positive. I didn't expect to ditch a divine artifact for a lesser one, but this game is full of surprises. My Conjurer will like Eye of Ra, though, along with Eye of Osiris and Eye of Flame... interesting.
63
« on: 20 January 2018, 20:21:37 »
Haven't voted yet, but I'm really curious about the results, actually.
It's a tough choice. Earth is probably my favorite right now, and with this username I don't think anyone expected anything different. Rune and Storm are the runner-ups. But then I've found all of them pretty fun, so it's a pretty close contest in all respects. There are also a bunch of things I haven't tried, so things might change. I don't find it likely, though.
Who knows? Maybe eventually I'll even cast my vote.
64
« on: 20 January 2018, 20:17:55 »
After lots of browsing through the boards, I found no better place for this. I got into Act IV legendary, and look what the very first merchant greets me with! By the way, on the subject of the original topic, just after I posted in this thread before last time RNG decided it was vital to prove me right and gave me a Wrath of Jörmungardr from a Royal Coffer in the Tomb of Ramses. That thing actually looks pretty neat.
65
« on: 19 January 2018, 18:52:14 »
I had a few ideas for builds I thought were crazy, but I always felt like trying them. I don't know how many of these I'll follow through with, and when if I do, but here goes.
Poison Ternion Warlock: So... I found Apophis Serpent. It deals base poison damage now; I think that's great. I like the newfound variety among staves. So I thought - what about maxed Envenomed Weapon tree, Ternion Attack and Arcane Lore? Add Poison Gas Bomb if you need to, and you're good to go! Poison everyone! Except undead and constructs, hmm. I'm not sure what's up with them. Of course you'd get the Liche King for resistance reduction, but it's not all that reliable. I guess Spirit Bane with Throwing Knife takes care of undead. I'm not sure about constructs and devices, though, fortunately they're not very abundant and usually not very dangerous.
Trickster Fortress: I remember seeing somewhere that traps are now affected by pet bonuses. I don't know about Guardian Stones, but I thought of using both for deploying a veritable fortress in the middle of any battleground. I found Wraithlord's amulets and rings in legendary Egypt, those seem promising. Throw up some additional Menhir Walls to block incoming enemies, and you really have a stronghold! I guess the main issue is the long recharge time of Guardian Stones, but even with my Stonespeaker's 55% recharge reduction it doesn't look that bad, let alone at 80% (I imagine). Both Rune and Rogue have plenty of skills left to support the build; I imagine the Trickster would be busy throwing Seals of Fate down for that sweet resistance reduction to make the job much easier for the stones and traps. Who knows?
66
« on: 19 January 2018, 18:40:46 »
So now that's Ragnarök is out, there are five acts to choose from! Do you have favorites? Are there ones you just don't like? Go ahead and share!
To lead by example, I'll do. I'm in a bit of trouble with favorite, though. Whenever I leave Egypt with a character on legendary (it hasn't happened very often, mind you, but I've had a few characters there), I always feel a bit disappointed that I'm not going back there (at least with that character) again. I really like the atmosphere that was built up for Act II, and the fact that it's most likely the shortest of the five by a long shot doesn't really help, either. On the other hand, Act V is hard to contest with. Celtic and Nordic themes are both great, and the deep forests and snowy wastelands are both very evocative. The soundtrack is superb, and there's some unique feel to the Dvergr ruins, too.
My least favorite is much less of a question, I think it's always been Act IV. Don't get me wrong, the atmosphere is pretty greatly done, usually (I particularly like the eerie Tower of Judgement), but something about the whole act just makes me want to get out of there as quickly as it's possible. I could never really explain why that is, but somehow the whole act has a rather oppressive feel, I think.
On that note, I'm not a huge fan of the start of Act III, either, but by the end it really grows on me. I'm not fond of the random prehistoric monsters, either; I guess I think that with its rich mythology and history, China really would've deserved an act on its own, and before that Babylon, Persia and the Silk Road could've been rolled into another. Thinking about it, I'd really have liked to see how that'd have turned out!
67
« on: 19 January 2018, 04:00:21 »
Energy Armor is deceptive.
It's easy to dismiss it as useless early on, but as you keep putting points into it, with some bonus to skills its damage absorption reaches epic proportions. (It took me ample amount of +skills and a Shrine of Mastery to find out about this.)
At ten points, it absorbs 3076 damage. It does have an energy cost of 1538, which is a hindrance, but if your energy pool is big and/or you have a lot of cost reduction, it might work out. It's not the same thing as Heat Shield or Energy Shield, but I find it has its applications. It can give you a lot of extra time to finish some opponents off if you know they're coming, and if you apply Energy Armor (which has no duration, mind) and then proceed to play and watch out for enemy attacks as usual, it can last for quite a while and serve as a very useful safety net should something go awry. The fact that it has a quite audible sound effect and accompanying visual for breaking also helps, as it sends the signal that it's time to retreat, reapply the skill, or just be more careful.
Prohibitive and cumbersome? I'll agree, it is. But I wouldn't consider it useless.
68
« on: 19 January 2018, 03:09:58 »
Oh, by the way, belated remark on the Symbol of the Polymath - it did catch my eye, but it doesn't seem to drop until Act II legendary, and by this point I have the strength and dexterity I need, so a lot of things on the item seem superfluous. I might check it out nevertheless when I get it.
I found a few new items I'm considering. While I'm not too keen on the health regeneration penalty, Mindrage Robe otherwise drives a pretty hard bargain. Some elemental damage bonus, some energy regeneration, bonus to all skills, and a decent improvement to casting speed, which is always welcome. I assume that with the absurd amount of attack damage converted to health I shouldn't have a problem making up for the regeneration penalty, but still... I guess I'd need to find an additional +1 to all Rune skills if I want to keep them up to +4.
Alternatively, I could equip Vestment of the Overlord. It provides no offensive bonuses, but a whopping +2 to all skills, some much needed pierce resistance and even some physical resistance, which is hard to come by (although between that, Heat Shield and Seal of Hephaestus I could become quite resilient to physical damage, in fact).
Or just staying with Falcon Cape. It's pretty nifty itself, but I don't know much about the worth of its innate damage conversion to elemental - my maxed Transmutation gives me 99% of that already, and assuming that they stack multiplicatively, I don't see much room of improvement on that.
I've also managed to finally find myself a coveted Archmage's Clasp (and right afterwards a second and a third). The casting speed is tempting, though I already have a lot of recharge reduction (and more expected in the form of Polaris, once I finally get my hands on that), so I'm not sure if it's needed. I also assume that while it only has a 6% chance for resistance reduction, the probabilities add up quickly with a lot of attacks.
69
« on: 19 January 2018, 02:29:07 »
Farming generally bores me greatly, too. There are just always a few items I'd really like, either for my current character or another I have planned afterwards, and I just want to get them for later. And I prefer to be done with the less pleasant tasks before I go on to the ones I enjoy more, so I tend to get stuck farming a particular boss for a while before proceeding. But no matter, once I find what I'd like it suddenly starts dropping everywhere. It seems to be the way of things!
More importantly, I've seen items with affixes they were not supposed to have. Thinking back, when giving epic Surtr some runs for his loot, I remember an Eldjötunn dropping a piece of either arm or leg armor that had the Mountaineer's prefix. Later on when going at Aktaios I saw a Herculean Liuyedao - I think that's only on shields. I definitely have the Mountaineer's stored away, I'm not sure about the liuyedao, but I'll check.
70
« on: 17 January 2018, 20:48:45 »
Yes, by the way, another thing regarding drops.
First, I got a Thorny Maul from a Bone Pile just outside the Tomb of Ramses. From what I remember, Thorny Maul drops only in Act I and Act III, so that was curious.
Later, a Majestic Chest inside the Tomb dropped... Sun Lu-Shan's Armor. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it as I never had it before and looks decent for melee and ranged characters with Hunting or Rogue, but... I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to drop in Egypt. I've noticed that Majestic Chests in Egypt usually have Act I loot, but I think Sun Lu-Shan's Armor is Act III only. So I don't know what's going on there.
Similarly, I've gotten Act V items in the Tomb of Ramses, occasionally even from a Royal Coffer (like Cloak of Fimbulwinter, which I similarly appreciated because I wanted one for another character I'm planning but just didn't have the patience to farm Surtr any further). So other than what I said above, I tend to see lots of out-of-place drops like that, too.
71
« on: 17 January 2018, 15:36:20 »
I know I'm pointing way ahead, but if anything, it might be motivation to continue.
I remember it being mentioned that Throwing Knives count as weapons, and get the Transmutation bonus as well as other things. In that case, I'd say you could keep an eye out for Falcon Cape: along with +2 to all Rune and +1 to all Rogue skills, it has an additional bonus of converting 50% of base weapon damage to elemental, which I assume affects the knives, so you won't necessarily have to charge the Rune Weapon up to get some conversion! I think it's a legendary and only starts to drop in Act V epic, so sadly there's a way to go for it yet.
72
« on: 17 January 2018, 15:27:05 »
It took me a while to consider creating this thread, but by now I'm nearly convinced that either I have some really peculiar luck, or something's not right with the game's loot system.
It goes way back, in fact. Even when I first started the game, a good four-five years ago I think, I noticed that in Normal sets the torso armor tends to drop much less than the others (or not at all). Even now it still seems to be the case; I have the full Labyrinthine, Theban and Obsidian sets - all three are only missing the torso armor, while having multiple copies of the bracers and the greaves especially.
I've spent more than an entire character level now farming Aktaios on legendary (there are some things I'd really like for other characters, including a few things that only drop in legendary Egypt). I have three Alexander's Bracers; no other pieces of Alexander's set have ever dropped.
I have over ten Gorgon's Edges now from random drops like Bone Piles and Sepulchers. It's like the game really likes giving me that item for some reason. In Act V epic and Act I legendary, it was the Dwarfbiter I found everywhere similarly, I have six or seven pieces of that, too. Interesting, both are poison-focused.
According to the database, both epic Typhon and legendary Aktaios have the same chances to drop Eye of Flame and Polaris. I have seven of the former and none of the latter, and all Eyes of Flame I have have dropped from either of them.
I know that probability can produce some interesting things, but I can't help but think that the statistical odds of this kind of thing happening are nowhere near significant.
73
« on: 17 January 2018, 15:16:00 »
Thanks, everyone!
Transmutation doesn't affect Thunder Strike? I find that hard to believe. Correct me if I'm wrong (keep in mind that I haven't tested this rigorously), but in my understanding, the charged attack skills like Onslaught and Rune Weapon basically apply a buff that then acts like any other buff you have, rather than inherently boosting the base attack only. I know that Energy Drain boosts Thunder Strike; the Stonespeaker healed from it quite much even when wielding only two Neith's Wills, which have no bonus to attack damage converted to health. Transmutation states that a percentage of base weapon damage becomes elemental, so naturally it doesn't do anything with Volcanic Orb or Eruption, but Thunder Strike uses your weapons, so I believe it should be affected.
In that vein, however, Chakram of the Sun has 146-156 physical base damage, but its 146-156 fire damage is also listed as base damage in the game. Does someone know if that gets converted, too? (And if we're already there, I'm not sure what's up with the pierce ratio.)
The Storm version sounds nice, too. I was actually hesitating between them, as Storm is very high up there among my favorite masteries, but in the end decided to go with Earth. Lightning Bolt sounds like a good synergy; I personally enjoy timing to hit groups of enemies with Volcanic Orb at the same time I hit them with something else, but Lightning Bolt is most likely more useful, objectively. Storm would have a better synergy with Thunder Strike (Unleash), while Earth helps Runeword: Burn and Runeword: Explode more.
Looking through the database, though, one objective advantage to the Stonespeaker compared to the Thunderer is that Thunderers don't seem to get anything as powerful as Chakram of the Sun is for Stonespeakers. Chakram of the Moon looks good, but sadly it boosts Dream instead of Storm (I still don't know why, it goes poorly with the cold damage), and Blessing of the Moirae... also boosts Dream. Puzzling. Of course, that's not a priority, but I find that Chakram of the Sun is pretty much a jackpot.
Two Betrayer's weapons with Shen-Nong's medicine sound quite good to me. I might try that, though currently I have no trouble one-shotting regular enemies and wiping bosses out in seconds (still farming Aktaios, admittedly, there are a few items I'd like to get for my other characters, my Conjuror in legendary would love that Archmage's Clasp for example). Currently my secondary slot has Prometheus' Gift (which I can't equip without Rune Weapon - at least there's a marginal advantage to my strength) and Pelaron's Golden Shield, which I use to cast Energy Armor, and sometimes I switch to it to regenerate energy between battles when it's low after fighting through hordes of enemies with no energy to leech from them. While Prometheus' Gift (a new find) has a better DPS than the Chakrams (exceeding 10000 without Rune Weapon bonuses if I have Moon Disc equipped), I find the latter still a much more viable option due to the attack damage converted to health.
Another thing: Thunder Strike practically heals this character to full. With the Chakrams, even a Runeword: Burn does. Unless you're shooting at someone with high damage reflection, in which case the result might be the opposite. I haven't tried it lately, though, once I get Polaris I should have 80% resistance to fire, cold and lightning each, but yet I'm unsure.
74
« on: 15 January 2018, 21:49:49 »
The list perplexes me, too.
I remember mentioning it before, but for one I'd like to see Flame Surge and Ice Shard assignable to the left mouse button; especially since Anniversary Edition made it impossible to have -100% recharge on most skills, those two are some of the select few with which it's still possible to do that, and as such I've always seen them as a replacement for the basic attack for their respective caster classes. It's a bit peculiar that Volcanic Orb can be assigned to the left button, but Flame Surge can't, and same goes for Lightning Bolt and Ice Shard.
75
« on: 15 January 2018, 21:16:07 »
Thanks for the questions and the interest!
Stat distribution, according to profile page (before any bonus from Runic Weapon): Strength: 146+115 (261) Intelligence: 418+277 (695) Dexterity: 258+129 (387)
I have a feeling these say more to you than they do to me.
As you can see, I made the mistake of putting too much in strength. Keep in mind, my idea used to be that I'd use melee weapons, which usually need more strength and less dexterity; early in the game, when I didn't have Runeword: Feather maxed out, I often needed to put a few points into strength to be able to equip some of them I found. Only later did I transition to thrown weapons, so I ended up adding points both to strength and dexterity, while in fact the latter only would've sufficed. With Runeword: Feather maxed and no other requirement reduction, my weapons need less than 120 strength to equip. I wish I could redistribute the points put into strength into something else, but sadly there's still no option for that in the game. (I'd welcome any information on opportunities I might have missed. If there's a third-party program to do it, I might use that after I'm finished with the playthrough to see how deadly the Stonespeaker would've been if properly developed.)
You need a dexterity of 385 to equip Chakram of the Sun, and that's what you should be aiming for. It's much, but it isn't prohibitive, and it's nowhere near the 400-500 you need for high-end bows.
In case you're interested in how I distributed my points as I levelled, due to the concept shift I can't really help with that right now. I imagine that if I'd been planning this out since the beginning, I'd have invested in dexterity to keep up with the requirements of thrown weapons and put the rest into intelligence.
I haven't tested it, but I believe that while strength boosts the physical component of your Volcanic Orb and Eruption, with the intelligence boosting the fire and burn components, not to mention the elemental damages you deal all across the board (and Runic Weapon giving a percentile increase to your intelligence), you're likely better off that way. I like the idea of Transmutation, though probably it's possible to go heavier on strength and physical damage and forgo it.
I have a single point in Core Dweller and its upgrades each. Currently I have +6 to all skills in Earth, which increases all of them to a fairly respectable rank of seven. The Core Dweller seems fairly reliable; the only things it seems to fall to (other than a select few bosses like the Hydra) are sustained barrages from archers, and melee enemies if I let them wail away at it for too long (which I usually don't).
However, if you're looking for more CC, I can recommend Guardian Stones. The stones are stationary, but I find that they usually attract enemies to attack them, even bosses, and when you get the spell the first time they even have phenomenal damage output. I imagine that keeps up if you put points into the skill, which I neglected in favor of others.
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