I'm levelling a WK as my sub, and I'm almost 57 now. At 61, I plan to wear DC robes. My main, is a bishop, however. I see a lot of summoners in Maj Light, so there must be something to it, but I can't figure out what it is. As for Tatts, I'm prolly gonna go +4wit/-4men (I already have this one), +4dex/-4str and +4con/-4str. Not sure if this is the "golden" set up, but I think it'll work for me. I use a dagger for a weapon, and so far, it has worked exceptionally well for firing off the binding cubic. In A grade, I plan to continue using a dagger.
In olympiad, (as it exists today, this will change when warlocks can pimp empower next update), if you fight summoners having -8 int is really really gonna hurt you with betray.
So if you plan on doing olympiad before next patch tat yourself up just like a mage
+4 int -4 men
+4 with -4 men
+4 con -4 str
I know it sounds odd, but you'd be suprised how many summoners still like to compete with -8 int.. compare that with a summoner who has +4 int, thats a 12 int difference.. thats a lot of matk for your betray landing. the -8 men doesn't hurt you at all.. mages are a joke in olympiad as it is right now, you're going to get nuked for 300 dmg with tp up even with -8 men.
(but again this is your sub so who really cares about oly tats)
As for armor, +6 bw light if you're a light armor junkie
otherwise dc robes, your survivability depends on your ability to heal quickly more than you realize.
If you want to waste money use your cubics in PvE. If you want to save money don't use them.
Post 52 use a dagger. duels are too slow for 1: healing. for 2: atking. U'd have to wait till that second swing goes off, before you can heal, sometimes it wont stop between and carry on for another hit before it stops swinging and you can cast a heal.
Dagger is faster atk, and higher Crt rate then duals!
With that being said. You can nuke with your summon 40-52 (hell up till 56). DD along side your summon till 76, by then your summon (kai) is so strong that you have nothing better to do then to direct it's atk and maybe heal it once and a while.
I newest to party all the time with Emina (former Kain hero). he had gotten to lvl 80 by the time I left Kain.
Right now Im 57, use a dagger with focus and ava robes and fight alongside kai soloing. In parties queen is usually out, binding cubic out when were fighting mobs that don't die right away.
A grade I have a som availabe, should I use that, stick with a dagger or what about using a bow? I will be wearing DC robes in A if that helps.
How do you compensate that fact that you'll miss alot with the dagger? Or you must not land the hit for the cubics to go off? You must attack to get them to go off right?
To be honest i never paid attention to see if the cubic landed on a miss...good question. The focus SA on the dagger seems to do pretty well, I don't notice that I miss any overly amount
I spoke to one of the Arcana Lords on the server, and was told that people use Maj Light because of the pdef of light, and the + weight limit of Maj. But, he told me that if I already had DC robes, they would work well too. Weight limit isn't as huge a deal for me, because I can summon my wife's dwarf, after I load her up with shots and stuff.
Summons Kai the Cat, a servitor. Requires 1 Crystal: C-Grade. While active, 10% of earned Exp will be consumed, along with 1 additional crystal at 14 regular intervals.
How long is one of those intervals?
Or how much time is the summon out actually?
Thanks.
So around 45000a an hour in cry consumption. Considering C cry is about 3000a. (if you buy, noone is selling for so little >.<).
And this is the least you have to consume considering you're not using pots or shots for you or your summon and no cubics (lol..). But can you actually kill anything like this? Or are you as about effective as a fighter same level with the same setup (no shots/pots). And also you have no special damaging skills on any of the summons (afaik), so is it even worse ?
Hmmm, I'm really considering how expensive it is to play one of these warlocks, I musn't waste adena >.<.
On of the realities of this game I have found is.....
You can level cheap, or you can level fast. The only way I've found to do both is with the queen out, in a dd party. While you probably -can- hunt with no shots for you or the cat, no potions and no external help, you'll most likely gain xp incredibly slow, because of the slow kill rate. If you have patience, however, it might just work for you.
Not trying to sell anyone on any particular set-up but I'll throw mine out there. Keep in mind I'm Arcana Lord Sub so no need to worry about Oly, and I rarely fight other summoners as there are so few around.
Tats: +4 Con -4 Str, +4 Dex -4 Str, +4 Wit -4 Int.
Armor: Arcana Robe Set
Weapons: Arcana Mace/Acumen & Angel Slayer/Haste & Staff of Evil Spirit/Bodily Blessing & Hell Knife/Mental Shield
I will preface my reasons with repeating what someone here already said in that you cannot underestimate how important it is for you to be able to heal fast. Keeping your pet alive is far greater than you having a little more attack power or pdef etc...
For the tats. +4 Con is pretty obvious - more HP, more carrying capacity which I sorely need with all the junk and shots I carry around. +4 Dex - I could probably take it or leave - however the extra attack speed and run speed (albeit only +1 speed) does actually make a noticeable difference for me. +4 Wit no explanation needed - I took from Int as I rarely have trouble landing betray (usually always have emp), and during mass pvp and seiges I tend to have mp issues from casting banes constantly while having Transfer Pain up all the time.
Armor: I have used extensively +6 BW Light, Tallum Robes, DC Robes, Majestic Light as well as what I use now. Light can be nice in mass pvp and a lot of xp where you don't need necessarily to cast fast (I say mass pvp as I personally am mor often than not support in archer groups for seiges, mass pvp and rarely needing to heal my pet or others). Especially with Maj Light you can carry more, you've got stun resist, and a little extra pdef (and mdef if compared with the -men of dc robes). However Light doesn't work so well in small pvp or 1v1 pvp as well, or if you get into trouble while xping. Here you need cast speed to keep your pet alive.
I personally don't notice a huge loss in casting speed going from dc robes to arcana. I do however love the extra weight limit, the stun resist, the lesser chance of casting being cancelled - I notice all of that in a big way. Plus I still have the run speed bonus of DC - which if you are running support for archers at times you definitely want. So for me the Arcana Robes are the best all around set - I get a great balance of Casting Speed vs other usefull bonuses (weight, stun, casting cancel, speed).
Weapon: I think most summoners would agree that you need two weapons - more so at lower levels even. An acumen weapon is a must, as is a melee weapon (imo a dagger is best). As you get higher you do less and less damage relative to your pet and can become more and more straight healer/buffer as opposed to helping your pet fight. However if you can afford it meleeing with your pet even at the highest levels with cubics out makes a not insignificant difference to the kill speed.
As a final note - I carry a BTB staff so my pet always has BTB - which also isn't bad anyone if you're in a group with a warcyrer/doomcryer instead of a prophet - you can give your entire group btb5. I also carry the Mental Shield Dagger - you can't underestimate the importance of this vs - erase and probably betray as well although for some reason almost no-one ever tries to betray my pet...... >.>
Anyway like I said - not trying to sell anyone on anything - just saying what I use. I'm very happy with my set-up now. Before I had the arcana robes I used both Dc Robes and Maj Light. I would use the light for solo xping and seiges, and the dc robes for group xp and pvp. I went back and forth a lot between the light and robes at seiges - was never really happy with either. For the first time ever with the arcana robes I feel that one set covers me in all instances.
Now my main is a Spoiler and I'm in a clan that raids heavily and farms epic bosses so my acquisition of gear is a lot easier than many. In that line of thought I would suggest that based on my experiences if I could only afford one set for A grade and one weapon it would hands down be a DC Robe set and an acumen weapon - and I would probably even then go with an sov or something with acumen and use the difference between that and an som to get a mental shield dagger or a kris focus.
Thanks dwarfy! that was very insightful. I will stick with my original plan of using the DC robes and som that I already have available with the dagger as my second weapon. I do think I need to adjust my tats though...I think i got +wit /-men ones.
Valley of Saints, Forsaken Plains (??), Forest of the Dead (Near Entrance), Tower of Insolence (TOI), Catacombs/Necropolis, DVC, etc. are some good places.
Summoners are very hardy, and can solo almost anywhere :p
So around 45000a an hour in cry consumption. Considering C cry is about 3000a. (if you buy, noone is selling for so little >.<).
And this is the least you have to consume considering you're not using pots or shots for you or your summon and no cubics (lol..). But can you actually kill anything like this? Or are you as about effective as a fighter same level with the same setup (no shots/pots). And also you have no special damaging skills on any of the summons (afaik), so is it even worse ?
Hmmm, I'm really considering how expensive it is to play one of these warlocks, I musn't waste adena >.<.
Yup it gets quite expensive in crystals, ( i have been playing with one on the side) but I try to compensate by not using Graded BSPS unless its to heal the cat (or PVP) and not to use Graded SS either, just swing with a dagger to fire the cubic and use pet SS for the cat... helps a little with the cost..