Hmmm.... Decisions...

[Pharcyde]

he's still got room for 1 more. None to be scrapped here

[Conradin]

To doubt Royce, is to doubt your sanity...

see my post royce... itsss sooo epic. its on the page before this

[WhoIsThis]

I rarely if ever use a mana pot, and use few health pots in full Mega Mage.
Edit: and as I said above, H/s won't save you from using health pots. There's no time as a low armor/ low health mage to wait around for health regen to slowly replace lost health. Do as you wish, but if you try out a low mana regen, high health regen setup, it won't be long before you're shopping for Mega Mage. That's what killed Int mages at the 40 cap. Elite Int gear at the time had high H/s and even armor and dodge but was terrible in practice and almost all mages turned pally (this was the dawning of the pally era) because Str gear had mana regen.

So pallies came about because of low mana regen? Wow - so was the previous era one of pure int/hybrid domination?

@Pharcyde:

I don't find myself spamming pots in the sewers a lot. I once tested it out - even with my mana shield depleted (I deliberately allowed those green things in the roach motel to do it), I did not need mana pots. At 47 M/S, it's really not needed. Of greater concern though was health pots. Of course, in most situations, it's unlikely that you'll find yourself out of mana as an int mage with int pinks these days. You don't really use that many pots as int mage either, even if you stay to the front.

There are some things I disagree with for the Sewers, but one thing I do agree with is that all possible builds have end-game equipment that could in theory, suit their needs.

Int mage/hybrid: Mega Mage
Pally: Fury Fighter (hopefully this one changes to Royal Sewer and gets patched)
Strength Mage: See Above
Dex Mage: Sewer King

I'm not sure which build benefits though from Sewer Queen. It seems Mega Mage is best for int mages.

[Pharcyde]

So pallies came about because of low mana regen? Wow - so was the previous era one of pure int/hybrid domination?

@Pharcyde:

I don't find myself spamming pots in the sewers a lot. I once tested it out - even with my mana shield depleted (I deliberately allowed those green things in the roach motel to do it), I did not need mana pots. At 47 M/S, it's really not needed. Of greater concern though was health pots. Of course, in most situations, it's unlikely that you'll find yourself out of mana as an int mage with int pinks these days. You don't really use that many pots as int mage either, even if you stay to the front.

There are some things I disagree with for the Sewers, but one thing I do agree with is that all possible builds have end-game equipment that could in theory, suit their needs.

Int mage/hybrid: Mega Mage
Pally: Fury Fighter (hopefully this one changes to Royal Sewer and gets patched)
Strength Mage: See Above
Dex Mage: Sewer King

I'm not sure which build benefits though from Sewer Queen. It seems Mega Mage is best for int mages.

Hmm... It must absolutely be my playstyle then. For as long as I could remember, I was known as the Int Tank. People in my parties would always complain about I must of hacked my speed, no it's just that I concentrate hard and focus on the game. That is why I take 100% aggro, 100% of the time, and that's why I am more concerned about h/s. I have absolutely no problem at all with mana, none at all. Which is EXACTLY why I am exchanging m/s for h/s. I just bought 5k of each potion, I have already used 1,500 health pots, and 800 mana pots. I also use mana shield whenever it is available. My problem is not that I can't take the damage, I can take it, I just want to counter the nonstop health potions. Then also being a power junkie, the 6-8 additional int is crucial to me. I am still quite upset that KEEPER is STILL better though... Have you guys seen the crit on Mega compared to Keeper set?.... I ran a test, running crush the keeper solo with both keeper and mega. I cleared on faster on average with keeper. Way more critical hits over Mega's min/max/base damage increase.

Edit: Also take in the additional +11 armor from the crown compared to the cowl? That is like +11 h/s per enemy, and when taking aggro from several enemies at once, it accounts into very large numbers of saved hp.

[Hullukko]

I am still quite upset that KEEPER is STILL better though... Have you guys seen the crit on Mega compared to Keeper set?.... I ran a test, running crush the keeper solo with both keeper and mega. I cleared on faster on average with keeper. Way more critical hits over Mega's min/max/base damage increase.

Unless I've made a serious mistake looking at the stats, no it is not. Comparing Cosmos II to staff Mega set and then talking about damage alone is unfair.

Change a piece or two into scubber/scraper. And the stats should make you think again. (and theoretically if you're all about hits then one mastemind, which I would not recommend). In any case, it is quite easy to combine a mixed pure int set for a 55 that deals waaay more damage with better armor and hit/crits than the cosmos II does. It's time is up, sorry.

I keep repeating this in many threads, but I can't get past it. Try as I might twidling with numbers in spread sheet and comparing those sets I cannot understand the fiftyfives I still see wielding the keeper staff for any other reason than it's cooler looks or nostalgy.

My guess is that this is what the devs wanted with the new gear (orange, greens and purps inclusive). They're very polarized in their stats allowing various cheap combinations that can be better for many uses, if not all, than simply the most expensive set might.

EDIT: and if by keeper's set you were referring to the keeper's shadow set (stick and doll) the same thing applies. Mostly mega gear with some scrubber (or even scraper) pieces yields overall better stats regardless of your preference.

[WhoIsThis]

Hmm... It must absolutely be my playstyle then. For as long as I could remember, I was known as the Int Tank. People in my parties would always complain about I must of hacked my speed, no it's just that I concentrate hard and focus on the game. That is why I take 100% aggro, 100% of the time, and that's why I am more concerned about h/s. I have absolutely no problem at all with mana, none at all. Which is EXACTLY why I am exchanging m/s for h/s. I just bought 5k of each potion, I have already used 1,500 health pots, and 800 mana pots. I also use mana shield whenever it is available. My problem is not that I can't take the damage, I can take it, I just want to counter the nonstop health potions. Then also being a power junkie, the 6-8 additional int is crucial to me. I am still quite upset that KEEPER is STILL better though... Have you guys seen the crit on Mega compared to Keeper set?.... I ran a test, running crush the keeper solo with both keeper and mega. I cleared on faster on average with keeper. Way more critical hits over Mega's min/max/base damage increase.

Edit: Also take in the additional +11 armor from the crown compared to the cowl? That is like +11 h/s per enemy, and when taking aggro from several enemies at once, it accounts into very large numbers of saved hp.

Judging by what you're saying, maybe bear would be more suitable for your playstyle. Of course, you'd miss the damage of int mages.

But lets think about this - how much does your heal regen each time? What's the range? Divide that by 3 for recharge. Assuming that you press the heal button as soon as it recharges (I'm guessing you do), what is the effect health regen there? Add that to the equipment regen and that's your health regen.

[Royce]

Judging by what you're saying, maybe bear would be more suitable for your playstyle. Of course, you'd miss the damage of int mages.

But lets think about this - how much does your heal regen each time? What's the range? Divide that by 3 for recharge. Assuming that you press the heal button as soon as it recharges (I'm guessing you do), what is the effect health regen there? Add that to the equipment regen and that's your health regen.

Heal is like 65-70 H/s for level 55 pure Int, and it comes in big chunks that tend to refill your health, making additional regen temporarily do nothing. And when heal is in cooldown an health gets low, you're not gonna wait for 30-something health per second to work, you're gonna hit a pot or risk instant death. You will barely save on health pots going with H/ gear, and will spend a fortune on mana pots.

[WhoIsThis]

. I am still quite upset that KEEPER is STILL better though... Have you guys seen the crit on Mega compared to Keeper set?.... I ran a test, running crush the keeper solo with both keeper and mega. I cleared on faster on average with keeper. Way more critical hits over Mega's min/max/base damage increase.

This is my build. Try the gem blast staff. Crit is down, but damage overall is up.

Edit: My build. I imagine Royce has something very similar (edit: I mean Royce's Fnordic character - please confirm Royce).



With Gem Blast Staff:



You'll find the new staff to be a significant upgrade over the Keeper's staff and the level 50 cosmos set. Likewise, the wand set represents a step over the shadow glowstick set.


If you do manage to get full Mega Mage Pharcyde, I STRONGLY recommend that you test it out as just mega mage before crafting. Note that both builds above have a set bonus (you can tell by the sparkles).

[Royce]

The Gem Blast is awesome, big upgrade over the keeper. In addition to higher average damage and faster weapon speed with the Gem Blast (which is an AOE fireblaster just like the Keeper), skill damage is huge, especially with the full MM set.

[WhoIsThis]

The Gem Blast is awesome, big upgrade over the keeper. In addition to higher average damage and faster weapon speed with the Gem Blast (which is an AOE fireblaster just like the Keeper), skill damage is huge, especially with the full MM set.

What is scary is that when you walk into the middle of a crowd with both blessings on and the staff, you can often kill the entire crowd, if you cast lightning and hot flash. This is especially true for bandit boys. It works too for gemstone staff (I think it has the same skill damage). For optimal results, have a bird cast thorn wall right before you enter into the crowd.

Edit: I think that the frost thing also works on gem blast like keeper's staff - where if you freeze a target, and you hit it with the gemblast, you get a damage bonus of some sort. It's only useful against bosses, as the AOE is more valuable against mobs who don't have the hp for you to take advantage of the effect.

[WhoIsThis]

I forgot to upload the gemstone staff config: