I’ve been gone for quite a while and have a few questions.
1. How do you determine the loot distribution when you join a group? I know starting a group the settings are done in the options menu, but what if you join an existing group?
2. I haven’t really been in many dungeons since in the past these were farmer havens and you died a lot it seemed. What dungeons would be good for a 33-34 Wizard? I saw the catacombs near the Execution Grounds but wasn’t sure if I should try swimming to the bottom. I need to re-read the controls for swimming I’ve forgotten them.
3. In a few levels I plan on hitting Cruma in hopes of getting the Soulless book to drop, (going PS). I’m under the impression from just reading the description that the Soulless is the main PVE summon a PS should be using?
4. I’ll be researching the PS class change quests soon, in preparation for the change of playstyle I should look to get the best C grade weapon I can afford and then add C grade light armor as I can?
5. Enchant armor scrolls at least up to +3 add 1 pt to pdef per enchant right? Same for enchant weapon 1 for patt and 2 for matt?
1. hover your mouse over the crown by the party leader's name to see what the loot distribution is, or type /partyinfo.
2. Try forgotten Temple, though you probably won't find many real players there. Peope are mosty in catacombs and necropoises nowadays. Try heretics catacomb (30+ dungeon by execution grounds). You need to be a member of dusk or dawn to enter a cata or necro. On most servers dawn wins most of the time, so you shoud probaby join dawn uness you want to fight "the man" :p Tak to people from your server to find out more.
Though as a wizard you might be better off soloing, especialy now after the introduction of buff herbs and mana pots.
3. Yes, Soulless is the main Pve summons for the PS. The book drops on second floor Cruma and you might want to bring a couple freinds with you. Unless you are very careful you could get in trouble on second floor. Some of the aggro there can be a bit nasty. If you don't know, the mob your after is the Liangma.
4. If nothing else make sure you get light armor, especially when you get to B-grade. You get very good bonus's from LA even at C grade, though you can use robes also. This is really your choice. At B-grade, IMHO, your only choice is Blue Wolf Light Armor. I might just stay in mine until I reach level 80!
When enchanted the P. Atk. of all D grade weapons will increase by 2 with the exception of bows, which will increase by 4. The M. Atk. of all weapons increases by 2. From +4, P. Atk. and M. Atk. bonus will double for all weapon types. It can be safely enchanted up to +3.
When enchanted, the P. Atk. of C grade weapons such as one-handed swords and blunt weapons, daggers and spears increases by 3. The P. Atk of two-handed swords and blunt weapons, dualswords, and two-handed fist-fighting weapons increases by 4. The P. Atk. of bow weapons increases by 6. The M. Atk. of all weapons increases by 3. From +4, P. Atk. and M. Atk. bonus will double for all weapon types. It can be safely enchanted up to +3.
When enchanted, the P. Atk. of B grade weapons such as one-handed swords and blunt weapons, daggers and spears increases by 3. The P. Atk of two-handed swords and blunt weapons, dualswords, and two-handed fist-fighting weapons increases by 4. The P. Atk. of bow weapons increases by 6. The M. Atk. of all weapons increases by 3. From +4, P. Atk. and M. Atk. bonus will double for all weapon types. It can be safely enchanted up to +3.
3. Yes, Soulless is the main Pve summons for the PS. The book drops on second floor Cruma and you might want to bring a couple freinds with you. Unless you are very careful you could get in trouble on second floor. Some of the aggro there can be a bit nasty. If you don't know, the mob your after is the Liangma.
No, the soulless is not the main PvE summon for the phantom summoner unless he has a buffbox or a group, both of which are out of the ordinary for summoners. The main PvE summon for 'normal' PSs is still, unfortunately, the shadow with its nastyugly 30% exp penalty.
4. Light armour vs. robe: Robes help keeping you out of pinches, and in a pinch, they allow you to save your butt. Light armour ... sorta doesn't. I've never felt comfortable in BW Light, the suckage is just too incredible. :p
For a weapon - get a C Grade dagger, but you won't be able to do too much damage until B Grade, when shots get light enough to pack for your summon and yourself without a dedicated mule.
But no seriously Maline is correct soulless will not likely survive a full summon round. Any time i've compared teh two unbuffed shadow wins out because he allows continuous hunting.
Light armor and transfer pain are the life blood of a PS right from the get go. robes won't help you noticably after lvl 48 or so. I recommend against daggers as a weapon till mid 50's Your accuracy is too low for the high crit rate to matter. A sword or even duals are a much better option because they actually hit.
For C grade armor choice is pretty open, i recommend drake for the mdef but plated leather is great for damage. B i always recommend doom, the physical abilitiesfar outstrip the casting benefits of BW.
Once you get higher up, especially if you plan on PVP i'd recommend a sword with health. Still does good damage and gives you the HP you sorely need.
3. In a few levels I plan on hitting Cruma in hopes of getting the Soulless book to drop, (going PS). I’m under the impression from just reading the description that the Soulless is the main PVE summon a PS should be using?
It depends. Shadow or Soulless. Shadow has VR, which means less healing, and Soulless reduces your MP regeneration to boot; you may run dry with it depending on where you hunt. I have soloed (self buffs only) with Soulless, depending on your mana herb drops you can go for a while. As long as you're getting full mana recovery herbs faster than you're depleting your entire mana pool you have no downtime. If you're at a level where you can no longer tank, and you're feeling like living on the edge you can take a conversion weapon, so you have a bigger mana pool (which still is totally filled by the full mana herbs), of course the downside is you have so little HP that you're really screwed if you do get aggro.
Soulless has better PATK so if you are capable of keeping MP up it's the better choice.
The new patch meaning HP herbs will heal Soulless as well (and it will get buff herbs) might make it viable to use all the time.
4. I’ll be researching the PS class change quests soon, in preparation for the change of playstyle I should look to get the best C grade weapon I can afford and then add C grade light armor as I can?
Light armor first; until the summon gets to higher levels you're tanking for it. Weapon is nice but armor is crucial. Once you hit B grade and above your gear becomes largely something you keep just for the bonuses; I have NM light and an AOBA +3 w/ Health. The overall damage difference between B and A is too small to really necessitate a change; I'll wait till I hit 76 and go for S grade duals +4.
Ok, if you say so! My son is a 54 PS and he uses, and has used, Soulless exclusively without any trouble. Perhaps your talking about solo? He uses Soulless solo as well without any trouble, though yes he does get good buffs from our buffers. Since we play together and we have our own in party buffers maybe we don't have the problem that you apparently did, assumming you're a PS. We party like crazy all the time along with our 53 ES clannie and we rock! Perhaps we are just lucky? Maybe this new PS will be as lucky? In fact, if he's on Bartz he's welcome to come join us. The PS has the very best mass summon cubic for large parties too!
My friend, use Soulless whenever you can, you will level faster taking a 10% XP hit than 30%. Also, you really shouldn't have any trouble getting parties, providing you run into people who know anything about the PS.
Ok, if you say so! My son is a 54 PS and he uses, and has used, Soulless exclusively without any trouble. Perhaps your talking about solo? He uses Soulless solo as well without any trouble, though yes he does get good buffs from our buffers. Since we play together and we have our own in party buffers maybe we don't have the problem that you apparently did, assumming you're a PS. We party like crazy all the time along with our 53 ES clannie and we rock! Perhaps we are just lucky? Maybe this new PS will be as lucky? In fact, if he's on Bartz he's welcome to come join us. The PS has the very best mass summon cubic for large parties too!
My friend, use Soulless whenever you can, you will level faster taking a 10% XP hit than 30%. Also, you really shouldn't have any trouble getting parties, providing you run into people who know anything about the PS.
for the phantom summoner unless he has a buffbox or a group, both of which are out of the ordinary for summoners.
The soulless is always preferable. It is not always feasible.
And yes, the potions have had an impact on this - hunting in the field with it now is no longer 'boring, risky and lucrative' and more along the lines of actually worthwhile.
Thanks everyone. So I take it the souless is not particularly a tank then like the shadow. Right now it's pretty easy but then I guess that's why there is a delay on the summons. I'll just have to test them out and see how it goes. I'll be soloing most likely with just my own buffs.
EWD scrolls seem too expensive to me then for just 2 more Matk but then if you have the top D weapon and have the money I guess it's worth it.
QFT
summons have, roughly, 2/3 of the pdef of robe wearer of the approx level. if it wasn't for the fact that their hit points are relatively high they'd get pounded flat by most mobs. it is one of the reasons summon heals are so powerful, they need to be.
it is also the reason why most summoners tank for their summons as much as they can.
True true. I guess I didn't really type that post the way I meant it. It comes from the fact that I have always seen this game as a party situation. I don't like to solo and I don't believe that this game was ever really intended for people to solo. But then, look what my first toon was, a BD. So I guess that says a lot about my play style.
None of our Summons are tanks, they are pretty dam good DD's though. Make sure you have a good weapon since for a while your going to do more damage than your servitor. That changes a bit later on. I'm at level 58 now and my Kai has over 1000 patk fully buffed. He does quite a bit of damage now. I still feel that, other than maybe the BD, Summoners are the most fun class to play in the game.
Well at lvl 33 my shadow tanks for me. I of course am doing the majority of the damage but he takes the hits until I pull aggro. Then again I usually don't fight mobs that I can't kill in in at least 3 attacks (the 2x hp mobs excluded).
If I'm the one tanking for my pet after level 40 or so then I would think a Souless would be fine since they aren't taking the beats. I would also expect to switch to LA by level 42 if I'm hunting white mobs as my spells would not hit as well being level 35 skills.
If summoners tank would it not make more sense to go sword and board instead of duals?
Do many of you use cubics? That will be one of the first skills I get at 40 unless they suck.
I also read the class change guide on stratics. What a PITA, I hope I can get some WW2 buffs from friendly healers on Gustin. Going to be a lot of running.
Your pet will pull agro from you about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the mob unless you're mowing trhough 1/2 hp ones. A shield is primarily good for PVP but won't help a lot in PVE. Duals will allow you to do more damage and keep the agro for one or two more hits. I use all of my cubics most the time since i tend to hutn yellows. If i go to greens or whites i don't generally use them unless they are at least 4X mobs. Basically if they take fewer than 5 hits to kill yoru cubics don't usually have time to fire or to matter.
I don't like to solo and I don't believe that this game was ever really intended for people to solo.
The summoner classes are tne noteworthy exception here - you haven't been playing yours for long, but the first summoners in NA to reach level 75 did so in a group - whacking things with their melee weapons to set off cubics, with no servitor in sight.
For three chronicles we had nothing to offer to a group, and little to gain from one except a leeching spot.
On a random side note - duals only out-DPS daggers if buffs are not available.
Soulless has better PATK so if you are capable of keeping MP up it's the better choice.
The new patch meaning HP herbs will heal Soulless as well (and it will get buff herbs) might make it viable to use all the time.
I agree with Arigato, soulless is not for every situation, but if you can tank and use CLD to drain most of your HP back, you can solo self-buffed with Soulless no problem, even without herbs.
Alternate who tanks depending on your HP/MP pool, low HP let soulless tank, low MP let yourself tank. Using SS will also let you keep aggro for longer when you tank.
Well at lvl 33 my shadow tanks for me. I of course am doing the majority of the damage but he takes the hits until I pull aggro. Then again I usually don't fight mobs that I can't kill in in at least 3 attacks (the 2x hp mobs excluded).
It'll change. Your PDEF will grow much faster than its. My unbuffed PDEF is 20% higher than my pet buffed with Shield3.
If I'm the one tanking for my pet after level 40 or so then I would think a Souless would be fine since they aren't taking the beats. I would also expect to switch to LA by level 42 if I'm hunting white mobs as my spells would not hit as well being level 35 skills.
You can't always tank for the summon; eventually its dps is just too high to keep the monsters on you. How you and your summon play together changes depending on level. Also the soulless drops your MP regen, so at the low levels it'll affect your ability to corpse life drain HP back after the monsters die. Though I don't have much problem anymore soloing with soulless.
If summoners tank would it not make more sense to go sword and board instead of duals?
I use blunt w/ Health and shield. The actual DPS difference, at the high levels, is pretty small. My damage compared to my summon's is a small enough fraction that even a 10% change in my own damage translates to a 2% change at best in overall damage. I dislike duals because I'm not convinced a cubic can trigger on the second swing of the duals; it's very hard to tell but I believe it only triggers on the first of the pair of swings. That means duals have the slowest cubic firing rates of any weapon.
I mainly choose my weapon for the SA. In S grade I'll go duals again because the S-grade duals are both the cheapest S grade with SA, and have a good SA.
Do many of you use cubics? That will be one of the first skills I get at 40 unless they suck.
Depends on the group. Both the PS cubics are quite good, but it depends if I need them or not for what I want to kill. On 1x monsters I generally don't use them, but on 2x HP and above monsters I generally do.