Anyways, I rolled up an Elf (now a lvl 23 Elven Oracle), and I am trying to play her as a sort of "Battle Oracle", of sorts.
I have been running her around with a big 2h sword for her first 20 lvls, then went D grade duals. I carry lots of D-SS and D-BSpS on me, so I am shooting things and meleeing, and healing myself alot.
I am having fun with her, but am wondering if my buffs I get going Oracle (and later Elven Elder) will help give me enough "ooomph" to be effective. Any recommendations on what D grade armor to wear?
Oh yeah, I am also working on a human female fighter that wears robes and beats things up with mage staffs... since I found that robes look better on the human female fighters than they do the human female mages.
gearing yourself improperly will result in a comparative loss of potential functionality.
all mystics are focused on cast speed. the faster you cast, the greater the speed of your heal/nuke. with greater speed comes greater killingpower in all cases. greater killingpower means faster EXP,which means faster to get to high levels and new/better skills.
all fighters are looking for Critical hit chance and power. properly buffed, some classes can attain a 1-in-2 chance of crit with almost 9x critical damage. this is tremendous killing power and attainable only at the highest levels in gear you have no idea exists yet.
in short, gear yourself for cast speed. try to get into a clan with an academy roster; this will help you get Academy robes (5% boost to cast speed) and is the fastest casting D grade robe set. in later levels look for a weapon with Acumen ability (armor bonus built into the weapon - acumen has 15% boost to cast speed), and Karmian robes (15% boost to cast speed).
I can't tell you how EE fairs after 40, but I can tell you about the SE and melee leveling.
Plated leather set, +4 str from tats and duals. I did from roughly 42 to 52 solo¨.
1. You kill.... sloooowly. And killing slowly in L2 is not only bad exp, but dangerous. Now the SE could survive on sleep and root. (Sleep now nerfed beyond semi usefull.)
2. Soulshots. You'll need them and blessed.. and you'll need ALOT. You will most likely use the double amount then any decent melee toon pr mob. Isanely exspensive.
I had fun with it, but I would not reccomend it. This was however before the heal pot drops etc. At 52 mobs got even tougher and I couldnt be bothered to keep going.
EE is different tho, you can play a semi nuker with your might of heaven skill or what its called. But you can only grind on Undead mobs.
Melee past 40 will be slow and ineffective at best, especially if you are relying on your EE buffs alone. Your best bet is to hook up with mages, or an aoe party for xp. But if your gonna stick with melee through 40, I would go with a manticore set. You should really never solo an EE past 40 unless its your *only* option. If your looking to use MoH to level later on, your better off to reroll a mage tbh.
Really the only class that can get away with this now is a bishop, because we can receive recharges from EE/SE and an EE cannot.
Leveling with might of heaven is weaker than say, a sps and goes through mana just as fast, without the ability to increase INT through tats and you don't get clear mind. Plus MoH has a really short range which generall pulls aggro before you get a cast off :/
Anyways, I rolled up an Elf (now a lvl 23 Elven Oracle), and I am trying to play her as a sort of "Battle Oracle", of sorts.
...eventually your going to need some more 'oomph' to kill mobs via melee. (If you want to keep soloing.)
If you want to keep going, get yourself a pet. (Wind Hatch or Wolf) The wind has more durability while the wolf has more patk and is cheaper to gear. You need to select your mobs and hunting area/method more carefully, but it can be done. (I make no claims for the other hatchlings...)
You can get pretty far as the pets are now. (You WILL have to rez occasionally though.) Come a future update (CT1?!) NC has given us a glimpse that pets WILL be getting a boost. And if your level your pet now, just think how much better it will be when the updates hit. =D
As for pure solo? Painful past L40 if my OL was any indication. (Got a wolf permanently attached to it when soloing these days.)
Wear Manticore armor, and if you can afford the set for the MP bonus, that's great. Maybe get yourself some 107's (Top D-grade Duals) for leveling. As for the manticore, get the light armor mastery, going to need that p.def and Cast speed.
As for the Human Fighter... Bad Idea :p. Making her run around with caster armor, even weapons! is not good. She doesnt have the masteries for them, and not playing the class right, but for the looks (I went for the looks on my EE for picking Karmian set and Mysterious Sword) but it's not AS bad as making a Fighter going around in mystic armor.
I am having fun with her, but am wondering if my buffs I get going Oracle (and later Elven Elder) will help give me enough "ooomph" to be effective. Any recommendations on what D grade armor to wear?
Melee setup is very good for an Oracle from 25 tol 40, but as an Elder you will want to switch to nuker setup. As an armor, banana robes (Elven Mithrill set.. or even without the gloves, if they are too expensive for you) are good enough for you even if you melee solo.
Oh yeah, I am also working on a human female fighter that wears robes and beats things up with mage staffs... since I found that robes look better on the human female fighters than they do the human female mages.
*anyways*... any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Make a Warlord, level as fast as you can, and then subclass a Necro :p
Advice, don't do the battle EE. Unlike the person who mentioned an SE above you have only 2 offensive buffs, where the SE has 5 or 6. If, however, you enjoy punishing yourself, go plated leather, get a 1 handed weapon and shield. If you're self-buffing go with a Yaksa mace to do the most damage. Use your shield buffs, and only hunt undead with your holy weapon buff. (preferably skeletons that are weak to blunt too)
You'll have to find for yourself if nuking or melee'ing is better. Both are painfully slow for a self-buffed EE. Nuking you'll run out of mp in a few mobs, meleeing you'll take forever to kill anything. EE's belong in groups, they are possibly the worst toon (excepting possibly dwarves) for soloing.
My EE has worn light armor since Dg. I like the style. It is not very popular though.
20-39 - Duals and Manticore/Salamander
40-51 - Start thinking about a Sword/Blunt and shield setup and Theca/Drake
52-80 - Top Sword/Blunt and shield and BW, you can try to use AG armor after 61 but I recommend OE the BW since it has +cast speed. My BW set is +25 over the 4 peices. I have somewhere between top and bottom AG for p.def.
You will get a lot of grief from some people who don't agree a healer has any business in light armor, but I always enjoyed the p.def.
Arguments Against:
Lower Cast Speed - With BW I cast the same as robes that don't have cast speed bonuses.
Lower Max MP - If I had more MP I'd just have to wait longer when I run out. If I am managing my mp correctly this shouldn't matter.
Lower MP Regen - I have tested this. I find that I regen at the same rate, by maybe 1 mp per buffset or so, as majestic robes and BW robes.
I do not use might of heaven and never have for serious leveling. It costs too much even when we could recharge ourselves. If you use mp potion drops and invocation you may be able to do this now though. If you do that use robes and a staff.
SA's If you go for a fighter weapon stick with Health or Focus. Health if you ever pvp. If you use a mage weapon go for Acumen. If you use a mage weapon just to nuke maybe get that m.atk boosting SA but for heals cast speed will outweigh the small amount of hp extra from the bonus m.atk.
How to Fight in Melee: Simple, Start hitting. You can use wind shackle if you have mp to spare but don't go overboard. If you are in a good area you will be able to go nonstop. Watch your hp. When you have lost enough for a heal to restore you to about 100-200 below full, heal yourself. If you are low enough try rooting the mob, since sleep is now useless, and heal if you get interrupted a lot. however you shouldn't need to do this at higher levels as much. Trance works well once you get it.
Where to Hunt:
Try to find mobs that are weak towards the weapon you use, sword or blunt most likely, and holy weak point helps too. YOU WILL NEVER BE A TRUE DAMAGE MACHINE. You can however use your defensive buffs to last long enough to kill mobs. Thus why I recommend a shield after 40 is because you start getting shield buffs.
Since EE is an elf, it's not really wanted in exp parties, so I'll answer your question in two ways:
1) No a battle EE is not an efficient way of leveling up. It will be slow, dangerous and expensive.
2) Yes soloing will most probably be how you will get most of your exp. The classes who level fast have no use for an EE (nukers need only a SE) (Archers need a REAL buffer)
In the lower levels you can get away with having non-optimal equipment (like robes on a tank), but as you go up in level the downtime will become worse and your overal leveling rate will just plainly suck. The tank in heavy armour will maybe get 1 level per hour while the tank in robes will get 1 level per 3-4 hours and the one in robes + mage weapon will get 1 level per 6-8 hours.
Then higher up in level when it takes 100 hours to get a level, it'll take you 800 hours. And to get from 79-80 when it takes a tank probably upwards of 800 hours, it'll take you upwards of 6400 hours.
For your EE, you'll definitely need some robes if you want to do ANY grouping, as well as either a conversion or acumen SA weapon once you hit c-grade.
For soloing you'll most probably want some light armour and a nice melee weapon. Dualswords are the flavor of the grade weapons, but once you hit c-gade or b-grade you may want to look into something that lets you take advantage of your shield block skills.
Yes, you could make macros to switch gear, but be realistic, you can't carry 2 weapons and 2 armor sets and still have room for any shots. Switching weapons is feasible, but 2 sets of armor is not going to work.
In a-grade, I'm convinced the fastest (though EXPENSIVE) way to solo is turn undead against 4x mobs. The damage it does is far more than any other damage an EE (or bishop) can do.
Btw, never, ever put heavy armor on a healer. Stick to light armor.
I did carry 2 robe sets when i was soloing undeads near devastated castle.
My Demon, so i could 2 shot mobs
My BW, so each time i saw mp herb drop, i switched to get the best amount of mp.
That + invocation + herbs and i could solo almost non-stop with might of heaven :)
Its not that impossible, just expencive and not THAT effective :)
Your BEST way to level is find a mage. Most mages box an SE... but only one SE! Sorcerer or Spellsinger would love to have another recharger, and even Necro or Spellhowler might need another depending on where they are hunting. If you can't find a group... I would probably suggest trading in Giran to make money. If you pay for half of the shots the mage uses to level, they will invite you back every time :)
Your BEST way to level is find a mage. Most mages box an SE... but only one SE! Sorcerer or Spellsinger would love to have another recharger, and even Necro or Spellhowler might need another depending on where they are hunting. If you can't find a group... I would probably suggest trading in Giran to make money. If you pay for half of the shots the mage uses to level, they will invite you back every time :)
The problem with that are mp herbs. My Necro would benefit as much from an EE as from a dwarf to help pick-up my drops. Going 40-70 on my necro sub, my SE ran out of mp 0 times. It has to invoc a good 3-4 times total, but oh well, that's as close as I got to running out of mp.
Which is why I said it depends on where the person is playing. I have played two mages to 76+. On my Muse I need two rechargers to make it worth playing, and I can use the mana from 4 total. On my Necro it is 1 and 2. You can go somewhere like the swamps and only need 1 recharger... but you won't get as much as if you went to FoD and killed a while field, where you would need two.