Playing Fallen Sword

True Friends

2010-08-12T20:57:00.001-07:00

I know I had signed off on the blog, but I have to add this one thought.

Today, TEW declared relic war on us (PANIC).
They took out a relic we had kept for a long time, Krul Pyramid.
I went over to take a look at retaliation, against a relic they had been keeping, Ethereal Pillars.
When I got there, I saw that a friend, FallenAnn, was already there.
Mind you, she may be in a guild named 'Imaginary Friends', but she's not imaginary, she's for real. :)

TEW's defense was good, I have to acknowledge that. I was struggling to get my group stats and my calculation straight. Before I could do so, I realized that the Pillars were knocked down.

Imaginary Friends hits The Eternal Warriors for 1 damage. The Eternal Warriors hits Imaginary Friends for 20408 damage. Last Ditch activated on death restoring 20% HP to . Imaginary Friends hits The Eternal Warriors for 3573 damage. was stunned. used reflection to increase damage by 3572. Imaginary Friends were victorious! Control of the 'Ethereal Pillars' relic has been taken from The Eternal Warriors!

And that was not all .. I also learnt that there is yet another friend, and no, it was not imaginary.

FallenAnn says: UveBinHad says: Get Force Shield and give it a try , your attack is high enough all by your self. lol. Have a 10 person or better group. Tell me 2 others in your group and I'll hit them with Fortitude, that will give you a ton of extra HP

UveBinHad, someone who had contributed so much to the guild, and yet so greatly misunderstood. When time comes and PANIC is in crisis, he's here, silently to the rescue.

FallenAnn says: Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Last Ditch' (Level: 175) on you. [ Reply | Trade | ST | Buff | Attack ] [Notification] 03:18 13/Aug/2010 [ Ignore ] Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Enchant Shield' (Level: 175) on you. [ Reply | Trade | ST | Buff | Attack ] [Notification] 03:18 13/Aug/2010 [ Ignore ] Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Fortitude' (Level: 175) on you. [ Reply | Trade | ST | Buff | Attack ] [Notification] 03:18 13/Aug/2010 [ Ignore ] Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Iron Fist' (Level: 175) on you. [ Reply | Trade | ST | Buff | Attack ] [Notification] 03:18 13/Aug/2010 [ Ignore ] Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Shockwave' (Level: 175) on you. [ Reply | Trade | ST | Buff | Attack ] [Notification] 03:18 13/Aug/2010 [ Ignore ] Player UveBinHad activated the skill 'Stun' (Level: 175) on you.

True friends do not have to be in the same guild, and they will help, without prompting, without needing acknowledgement, but I feel the need to acknowledge them.

Thank you FallenAnn, UveBinHad. I miss both of you.

Playing Empire Craft

2010-08-07T16:49:00.001-07:00

This is my last post on this blog. I have started on another game, and I had fun writing this blog in the last 2 and a half years, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I writing it. But time has come for me to move on.

If you want to join me in this new game, my referal link is :

http://in.ec.hithere.com/r.html?tg=759997

I've also started blogging on the new game, and that blog can be found on :

http://sislandec.blogspot.com/

The game is Empire Craft, and I am playing on World 5 (w5.hithere.com).
My ID there is the same as my ID in Fallensword : sisland.

... signing off.

New Potion Recipes

2010-07-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

7 new recipes were recently introduced.
All of them are recipes for potions.

1. Bottled Dragons Breath
Level 250 - Ignite - Duration of 120 mins - Min level 5

Since ignite isn't too useful a spell, and a higher level ignite does not give more damage (just higher chance of activation), I don't think this potion will be worth making.

2. Caged Imp
Level 400 - Summon Shield Imp - Duration 120 mins - Min level 5
(WAS)Level 200 - Summon Shield Imp - Duration 120 mins - Min level 5
(WAS) Level 100 - Summon Shield Imp - Duration 90 mins - Min level 5

This potion was upgraded twice after it was introduced. Now at level 400, it is higher than a skill buff, and will offer 11 blocks. By value of stam for the buff, this is worth at least 4 fsps. But its usefulness as 11 blocks will mean it is probably worth more than.

3. Marbled Fizzing Shield
Level 300 - Force Shield - Duration of 120 mins - Min level 5

Even though the name says shield, it is referring to the effect of the potion and not a shield you can equip. Force Shield is a useful buff, and can be a life saver, especially in PvP. A level 300 buff gives a 30% chance of activation. Prior to this, the highest one can get is the Potion of Shielding, level 200 buffs, and very short duration.

4. Potion of Ensnaring Grasp
Level 250 - Shockwave - Duration of 90 mins - Min level 5

This translate to a 25% chance that your opponent will forfeit their next combat turn. Again, this can be useful in PvP.

5. Potion of Nullifying Draft
Level 250 - Spell Breaker - Duration of 120 mins - Min level 5

At level 250, this gives 25% chance to remove a random buff from PvP opponents. Again useful in PvP scenario, especially if you are hitting the target multiple times.

6. Potion of Reinforced Will
Level 50 - Avert Gaze - Duration of 60 mins - Min level 5

This potion is below the level of a skill buff, making it quite useless. However, the skill is only available to level 900 or higher. UveBinHad pointed out that this potion can be useful in hunting the Colossus Titan. That titan has Hypnotize and can be a bit difficult to hit when the skill activates.

7. Potion of Waking Hypnotism
Level 100 - Avert Gaze - Duration of 60 mins - Min level 5

Same as above, but level 100.

8. Crippling Poison
Level 100 - Poison - Duration of 60 mins - Min level 5

This potion is also below the level of a skill buff. Again, since this buff is available only to level 900 or higher, it might find its use among lower level player/guild.

9. Deadly Venom
Level 50 - Poison - Duration of 60 mins - Min level 5

Same as above, but level 50, so definitely less useful.

Thanks to Tully for getting me the recipes for the first 7 potion.
Thanks to Scathian for alerting me to the potions that Tully missed. (Tully, you can blame Scathian). :)

Iron Fist and Enchant Shield

2010-06-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

Iron Fist and Enchant Shield are 2 level 900 buffs recently introduced.

Iron Fist is in the Offense Skill Tree, Enchant Shield is in the Defense Skill Tree.
But both skills really enchants an item you wear, and for the matter hunting, those items will be damage items, and in a way, both are offensive skills, regardless of where game makers place them.

Iron Fist description :
+0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped gloves. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Require level 900, 25 stamina, and last 60 mins.
Offense Skill Tree

Enchant Shield description :
+0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped shield. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Require level 900, 25 stamina, and last 60 mins.
Defense Skill Tree

Compare them with :

Enchant Weapon description :
+0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped weapon. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Require level 25, 10 stamina, and last 90 mins.
Offense Skill Tree

Enchant Armor description :
+0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped armor. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Require level 75, 10 stamina, and last 90 mins.
Defense Skill Tree

So the new skills require a higher level, more stamina, and last for a shorter duration.

For hunting (at level 820), the benefits are listed as follows ::
#1 : Enchant Weapon
(Reborn Elemental Blade of Fire) - 1740 damage
Level 1500 potion gives 2610 damage.
Level 1000 potion gives 1740 damage.
Level 175 buff gives 304 damage.

#2 : Berserk
It'll depend on your base damage, based on my stats :
Level 350 potion gives 1149 damage.
Level 175 buff gives 574 damage.

#3 : Fury
It'll depend on your base damage, based on my stats :
Level 175 buff gives 287 damage.

#4 : Enchant Armor
(Armor of Jutindou) - 1108 damage
Level 200 potion gives 221 damage.
Level 175 buff gives 193 damage.

#5 : Enchant Shield
(Shield of Caldoura) - 1170 damage
Level 175 buff gives 204 damage.

#6 : Iron Fist
(Volkers Gauntlets) - 740 damage
Level 175 buff gives 129 damage.
(Yes, this is not the highest damage glove, but this is probably what you will be using.)

That's the order of things, and getting enchant shield is less important than getting the lower level enchant armor, and iron fist is probably the least important among the damage enchancing buffs.

Reckoning

2010-05-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

This is another level 900 skills that was recently introduced.

Description :
+0.2% per point chance of doubling a random skill level for the battle if you initiate the combat (Note that this skill does not work with Doubler, Summon Shield Imp or Counter Attack.).

So at level 175, that translate to 35% chance of doubling a random skill.
Now, the description is thrown up for interpretation. If you have 10 skills activated on you, do you have a 35% chance of doubling the skill level for EACH skill (which means each combat has 3-4 skills with doubled levels), or do you have a 35% chance of doubling the skill for one of those 10 skills?
My guess (and I will update this blog if I got it wrong) is the latter, and the algorithm goes like this :
#1 Roll a dice to determine if the 35% is activated.
#2 If activated, roll a dice again to determine which of the activated skill has its level doubled.

Given the above, that means the usefulness of the skill really depends on what skill was doubled.
For levelling, the most useful skills to have its level doubled are :

Adept Learner
I usually hunt with either a level 175 buff or a level 200 activated with guild RP.
At level 175, it gives 35% more xp, so if the skill level is doubled, you get 70% more xp!

Librarian
I usually use a level 225 potion, Potion of the Bookworm. That gives 22.5% more xp.
If the skill level is doubled, that means 45% more xp.

Conserve
With a level 175 buff, you have a 8.75% chance that the attack uses no stamina.
With Power leveller pack B, you can get a level 200 buff, increasing that chance to 10%.
Doubling those odds are great.

Now, if my guess on the algorithm is right, we really don't want the skill doubled to be anything else. In fact, if we can choose the skill, it'll always be Adept Learner. But we probably cannot choose. So here's now what I think will positively impact the way players play. Because the odds of activating one of those 3 skills above diminishes as we have more buffs, we now really want to hunt with minimal buffs. Each additional buff will compete for the doubling of levelling, and therefore reducing the odds of those 3 skills being doubled.

Distraction

2010-05-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

No, this blog is not about me being distracted from FallenSword.
Which I am. I am playing another game (Empire Craft).
Since I did mention it, might as well give my referral link :)
http://in.ec.hithere.com/r.html?tg=759997

This blog is about a new skill, introduced today.
Distraction is a level 900 skill.
Description :
+0.2% per point chance to obtain no gold from a successful combat. +0.05% per point chance to inflict double damage in each round of combat. Note this skill has no effect in PvP.

So, the skill is an exchange of gold for a chance of double damage.
If you are 1-hitting, this is clearly not something you want.
However, if you are 2-hitting, is it better to simply save the gold and use that to buy stamina?

At level 175, you will be losing 35% of the gold for a 8.75% chance to double the damage.
If you are 2-hitting, I'll assume that you will be using Wither potion and Shield Strike.
Those 2 will give you a 75.25% chance to 1-hit in a 2-hitting setup.
With Distraction, that chance will only go up to 77.4%.

So you gain 2.16% in stam, losing 35% in gold.
At level 800 and up, each creature gives about 320 gold.
So the trade off is 112 gold for 0.0216 stam.
That means, to get 25 stam, you need to kill about 25/0.0216 = 1157 creatures.
At that rate, you would have lost about 129k in gold to gain 25 stam/1 fsp.

At first glance, it may seem like for 2-hitting, this is a buff to get.
But wait, the buff itself cost 25 stam and 1 fsp.
So assuming you kill 1157 creatures, you're trading 129k + 1 fsp for 1 fsp.
Clearly this is NOT the buff to get, not even if you're 2-hitting.

Hunting Setups for level 800 and above

2010-05-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I write on hunting setups.
Partly, because there's so many new items that I cannot catch up.
Also, it is no longer as straight forward as getting maximum damage.
In many cases, you can get enough damage AND enough defense.
Shield Imps now also do not kick in if the damage is not enough to kill you.
This means that armor setup is also feasible.

This post is on using defensive setups, not armor.

Level 792 : Armor of Jutindou
(I missed this one, and was not using this)
Volkers Set + Ormarrs set + Armor of Jutindou + Shield of Nouiban + Ring of Gasrel + Boots of Aeroni + Rune of Teuio
For some levels where you need more attack, trade Ormarrs set for Reborn Elemental Blade of Fire and Helmet of Comizhar.

Level 796 : Shield of Caldoura
This is an upgrade to the Shield of Nouiban. This will be the shield for 54 levels.

Level 801/811/830/831/836 : Amulets
These are nice amulets. However, since the hunting setup calls for Volkers set which include a gloves, these ugprades are useless.

Level 802/810 : Pailfe Gauntlets and Gloves of Rocuia
These are upgrades to the Gloves of Gialle, and like the amulets above, shadowed by the Volkers set.

Level 804 : Helmet of Houral
Since Ormarrs is still the preferred setup, this helmet only replaces Helmet of Comizhar in the alternate setup.

Level 806 : Rune of Yuahe
This replaces the Rune of Frokjas

Level 810 : Dimcriee Roc Rune
An alternative to Rune of Yuahe. This rune has damage/attack stats instead of damage/attack/defense. Can be useful when you need the extra attack.

Level 812 : Boots of Grovalke
Thanks to AndyPearce for spotting this one.
It's after 173 levels that we get an upgrade to the Boots of Aeroni.

Level 816 : Ring of Heppitor
The Ring of Gasrel gets an upgrade after 209 levels

Level 823 : Armor of Feldishja
Thanks to Tangtop for pointing out this one and the Rune of Chalbm.
This is an upgrade to the armor and has damage/defense stats.

Level 825 : Ring of Zarelk
This one's not as good as Heppitor.

Level 828 : Rune of Chalbm
This rune can increase the damage, but its stats is attack/armor/damage.
Compare with Rune of Yuahe, you are tradining 188 defense for 57 attack + 129 armor + 42 damage. Even if you don't care about the armor, that trade-off is probably still a good one, unless you need the defense.

Level 831 : Amulet of Ferhoal
This amulet upgrades the maximum damage, but we're still using the Volkers set.
However, this is the final amulet before level 850.

Level 837 : Ring of Gedaile
This ring can be crafted. A perfect ring will have 1394 damage after forging.

Level 850 : Archerons set / Chronos set
These 2 sets changes the setup quite significantly.
I can see 3 major setups :
1) Archerons set + Gloves of Rocuia + Amulet of Ferhoal + Reborn Elemental Blade of Fire + Armor of Feldishja + Ring of Gedaile + Boots of Aeroni + Rune of of Chalbm
2) Archerons set + Volkers set + Reborn Elemental Blade of Fire + Armor of Feldishja + Ring of Gedaile + Boots of Aeroni + Rune of of Chalbm
3) Archerons set + Volkers set + Chronos set + Reborn Elemental Blade of Fire + Armor of Feldishja

Setup #1 avoids any crystals. But setup #2 has the best damage among the 3 setups. Setup #3 has less damage, but a lot more defense. If the damage in setup #3 is sufficient, it is probably the best choice. If more attack is needed (but I doubt so), The Dimcriee Roc Rune can substitute the Rune of Yuahe.

Level 852 : Amulet of Dariila
This upgrade is only for setup #1, since the other setups use Volkers set.

Level 859 : Boots of Baliora
An upgrade to the Boots of Grovalke

Chests and Keys

2010-04-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

On the home page today, Hunted Cows had this post ::

Posted: 15:49 26 Apr 2010

Chests have been hidden all over the lands, waiting to be found by you!

If you find a chest you will know as an icon will appear on the actions for location bar - so look for the chest icon.

The Chests contain various items and potions to help you on your adventures.

To open chests you find, you will need the correct key. These keys can be obtained on the Loyalty page for either Allegiance Tokens or gold.

Also, we have added 4 new medals which can be obtained by opening the chests.

~ The Fallen Sword Team

The above description is so vague, and I was annoyed when everyone who saw it just assumed that it is 'understood' and go no further in describing it. Thanks to Tru3K1ng, for his patience and clear explanation, I can put this in clear for everyone else with the same curiosity.

When you enter a room that contains a chest, it will appear in the same panel where you see creatures, relics, shops, doors to other realms. It will indicate what type of chests it is.
It does NOT say bronze, silver, gold or crystal chest.
Instead, it says (?, ?, steel or ?) chests. (Still trying to figure out the description of the other chests).
You do NOT and CANNOT pick up a chest.
Instead, you have to buy the corresponding keys (bronze, silver, gold or crystal).

Steel chest requires a gold key.
(Still trying to figure out the correspondence between chests and keys)

The keys do take up a backpack space and are bounded.
Once you have the key, you can click on the chest icon to open it, you get the items within it. Upon which the chest should disappear.

You will get a message such as this :

You opened the chest and received 1 x Armor of Astraio. This item can now be found in your mailbox!

(Thanks Darmass)

The

So I mentioned those keys. Those keys can be found on "Upgrades->Loyalty" page. Not exactly the page you expect to find keys. I have talked about the other 3 items on that page in my previous posts. With this new announcments, you should see 4 new items :
Bronze Key : 50 Allegiance Tokens or 250k gold.
Silver Key : 200 Allegiance Tokens or 1 mil gold.
Gold Key : 500 Allegiance Tokens or 5 mil gold.
Crystal Key : 1000 Allegiance Tokens or 10 mil gold.

For the Bronze and Silver Keys, the value of the Tokens are at 5k gold.
For the Gold and Crystal Keys, the value of the Tokens are at 10k gold.
So if you are going to use tokens for keys, start with the Gold and Crystal Keys.
If you are going to buy it with gold, start with the Bronze and Silver Keys.
But if you start comparing, 1 token = 10k gold.
150 tokens for the Potion of Intensity (25x doubler) = 1.5 mil = 11 fsps (approx).
Depending on your stam, that potion may be much more valuable.
Of course, if you have many tokens to spend, that's a different discussion. :)

Alliegence Tokens

2010-04-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Hunted Cows introduced Alliegence Tokens. Everyday that you log on earns you 5 token. Every dollar you spend also earns you 20 tokens, and this dollar spent token reward was backdated. In a way, this event lets you know how much you have donated to this game.

The tokens can be exchanged for one of these 3 items :
1. Potion of Intensity (150 tokens)
2. Everlasting Potion (500 tokens)
3. Fleeting Potion (750 tokens)

Potion of Intensity
This is a 25x doubler potion. This potion has the buff level as the Enlister Potion and Santorks Stocking. Its duration is the same as the Enlister Potion, 120 mins. Santorks Stocking, which was a gift from the Cows for Christmas 2009 has a duration of only 60 mins. The value of the doubler has been discussed on my previous post. Its value depends on the amount of stam you are burning and can range from 8 to 44 fsps.

Everlasting Potion
This is a potion for the Unbreakable buff. At level 200, it makes items indestructible. This is the same effect as the Potion of Indestructibility, which was found by scavenging. However, cave creatures no longer drop those potions, and instead drop only the Potion of Resilience, which is only a level 190 buff, and items can still get damage a little. The Potion of Indestructibility is still being traded in AH at about 7 fsps. The value for this Everlasting Potion however has to be higher, since its duration is 300 mins (compared to 60 mins for Potion of Indestructibility). Depending on how long you need to hunt, its value will be from 7 to 35 fsps.

Fleeting Potion
Unlike the other 2 potions, this potion is unmatched by any other. It produces a level 1250 Lightfoot buff. This result in a 62.5% reduction in stam used on walking. For me, it is 140 steps to relic and back, 120 steps on average to get to starting realm. 60 steps per realm. I can get through 4 realms in a hunt. That means I would use about 500 steps, and will save 312.5 steps with this potion. The value of this potion to me will be 12.5 fsps. Someone burning 3 times my stam will value this more. Assuming the same 'overhead' as I, 60*12 + 140 + 120 = 980 steps, and potion will save 612.5 stam, value of 24.5 fsps. So this potion value ranges from 12 to 25 fsps.

Putting a value on these potions isn't exactly meaningful, since all these potions are bounded and cannot be traded. If you have enough tokens, you should consider getting all 3 of them for your hunts. But if you have limited tokens like I do, then the best value for the tokens will be to use it on the Potion of Intensity, since it requires fewer tokens.

Above only considers the use of potions in levelling hunts. I'll quote my guildmate's comment on the use of Fleeting Potion for titan hunting.

013L1V10N says: I just wanted to comment on your blog. The LF potion is more valuable when used tot titan hunt, or completing old quests. Best example i can give is a titan. Assume it takes 10 stam per titan kill i.e. 9 steps and 1 hit. It also takes around 150 steps to get to the realm and then you back as well as walking through one map +60. On a normal Ogalith hunt i get 250 kills, Skal 400, Fuvayua, 600. So for an Ogalith hunt 2460steps, skal 3810, Fuv 5610. Therefor LF1250 saves 61.5FSP, 95FSP, 140FSP. Of course this all depends on how much running you do as a titan hunter.

The value of Doubler

2010-03-22T19:01:00.001-07:00

Recap the blog I wrote exactly 2 years ago, of the same title.
http://sisland83.blogspot.com/2008/03/doubler.html

Things have changed quite a lot since then.
We now have :
1. Potion of Supreme Doubling (10x doubler)
2. Potion of Greater Doubler (16x doubler)
3. Christmas Present 2008 (21x doubler)
4. Enlister Potion or Santorks Stocking (25x doubler)

So let's add to the table a few new columns. The math remains the same.

	2	3	4	5	16	25
0.2	71%	125%	167%	200%	357%	400%
0.4	56%	91%	115%	133%	203%	218%
0.6	45%	71%	88%	100%	142%	150%
0.8	38%	59%	71%	80%	109%	114%
1.0	33%	50%	60%	67%	88%	92%
1.2	29%	43%	52%	57%	74%	77%
1.4	26%	38%	45%	50%	64%	67%
1.6	24%	34%	41%	44%	56%	59%
1.8	22%	31%	37%	40%	50%	52%
2.0	20%	29%	33%	36%	45%	47%
2.2	19%	26%	31%	33%	41%	43%
2.4	17%	24%	28%	31%	38%	39%
2.6	16%	23%	26%	29%	35%	36%
2.8	15%	21%	25%	27%	33%	34%
3.0	14%	20%	23%	25%	31%	32%

So for most levels, the observed average number of creatures is between 2 and 3.
Other benefits not included in that computation are :
1. Lower chance of getting killed/losing an imp.
2. Lesser chance of losing durability on crystal items.

So, this question was actually asked by my friend UveBinHad.
And I missed having him in PANIC.
What's the value of the Enlister Potion?

From hunting stam perspective, it's only about 1%, and it's actually less since we now have Lightfoot. But 1% is 1%. If you have 13.5k stam, that is 135 stam, and 5.4 fsps in value. Now, if you consider that you will use fewer imps (16/25). If you usually use 3 imp buffs in the hunt, you will now use (16/25)*3, about 2 imp buffs. That's 50 stam, or 2 fsps.
If you're using UB 200, you lose no durability anyway, so I'll discount that.
All in all, that Enlister potion should not be worth more than 8 fsps for a regular hunt.

But hold on to that. If you are burning say 3 times that amount of stam, that value to you will be 24 fsps. And wait, if you needed to re-buff, you can probably burn the stam faster, and maybe you won't have to rebuff. And if that's the case, then you need to add the rebuff stam cost to its value. And a full buff itself can be about 20 fsps. So its value may then be 44 fsps.

Shield Strike vs Potion of Fatality

2010-01-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

Shield Strike gives a 17.5% chance of 1-hitting a 2-hit scenario.
Wither buff at level 175 gives a 35% chance, much better than Shield Strike.
Potion of Fatality gives a Wither buff at level 350, and therefore a 70% chance.

Shield Strike = 17.5%
Wither 175 = 35%
Wither 175 + Shield Strike = 46.375%
Wither 350 = 70%
Wither 350 + Shield Strike = 75.25%

If you shop for wither potions, you can usually get them below 300k (2 fsps).
For that value, using the Wither potion alone is probably greater value than Wither 175 + Shield Strike (when you consider their stam cost).

But why am I even comparing them when you can really have both?
I am seeing many players, asking for Shield Strike buffs to go with their Wither buffs, and that to me, does not make sense.

Volkers Set

2010-01-02T19:24:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year.

So I just completed my first levelling hunt for 2010. I was less well prepared than I liked to, and when I reached level 710, I realized I still have yet to buy the Volkers set. The guild's set was in use, so I bought them in a hurry (108 fsps total), and forged them (20 fsps + 6.6 mil). Equivalent of 173 fsps total. Each item has a durability of 160, so that leads to a little more than 0.5 durability loss. I expect to lose 2 durability on each item for a single hunt, using UB 190, and that still works out cheaper than using a UB 200 potion of indestructibility (which now cost 11 fsps). This 2 durability loss per hunt and 3 levels minimum per hunt also means that this single set should get me all the way through level 950, so I am satisfied that I won't need to buy a 2nd set.

So now we get the cost out of the way, let's compare this with other sets. From level 475 to 710, there are 4 sets that consists of Gloves + Amulet pair. All stats below refer to perfect items (if craftable), and fully forged (unless otherwise noted).

Ornates of the Lamia set (level 475)
Ornate Bracers of the Lamia (262 attack, 502 defense, 402 damage)
Ornate Choker of the Lamia (402 attack, 212 defense, 552 damage)
Ornate of the Lamia set bonus (325 attack, 225 defense, 375 damage)
Total (989 attack, 939 defense, 1329 damage)

Cadeyrns set (level 475)
Cadeyrns Battle Grips (372 attack, 502 defense, 332 damage)
Cadeyrns Battle Gorget (672 attack, 212 defense, 322 damage)
Cadeyrns set bonus (240 attack, 235 defense, 450 damage)
Total (1284 attack, 949 defense, 1104 damage)

Polar Spine set (level 650)
Polar Spine Grips (84 attack, 964 armor, 659 damage)
Polar Spine Neckpiece (522 attack, 426 armor, 759 damage)
Polar Spine set bonus (450 attack, 650 damage)
Total (1056 attack, 1390 armor, 2068 damage)

Volkers set (level 710)
Volkers Gauntlets (930 attack, 740 damage)
Volkers Amulet (500 attack, 1170 damage)
Volkers set bonus (440 attack, 1020 damage)
Total (1870 attack, 2930 damage)

So Volkers set has more total stats than any of the other 3 sets. This can be expected because it is a higher level set and a crystalline set too. But because its stats is divided only between attack and damage (no defense like the Ornate of the Lamia and Cadeyrns, or armor like Polar Spine), it is so much more desirable than any of the sets above. Even if you need to go defensive, it will be better to use this set and switch one of the other damage item to a defensive item. I'll illustrate it by comparing Ornates with damage boots and Volkers with defensive boots.

Ornates of the Lamia set (level 475)
Ornate Bracers of the Lamia (262 attack, 502 defense, 402 damage)
Ornate Choker of the Lamia (402 attack, 212 defense, 552 damage)
Ornate of the Lamia set bonus (325 attack, 225 defense, 375 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 47 hp, 1105 damage)
Total (989 attack, 1176 defense, 2434 damage)

Cadeyrns set (level 475)
Cadeyrns Battle Grips (372 attack, 502 defense, 332 damage)
Cadeyrns Battle Gorget (672 attack, 212 defense, 322 damage)
Cadeyrns set bonus (240 attack, 235 defense, 450 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 47 hp, 1105 damage)
Total (1284 attack, 1186 defense, 2209 damage)

Volkers set (level 710)
Volkers Gauntlets (930 attack, 740 damage)
Volkers Amulet (500 attack, 1170 damage)
Volkers set bonus (440 attack, 1020 damage)
Boots of Yelaow (185 attack, 1126 defense) *not forged
Total (2055 attack, 1126 defense, 2930 damage)

The small difference in defense is traded for a lot of damage and attack. Since armor is mostly useless in hunting setup, and Volkers set has more attack and damage than Polar Spine set, it is preferred. In summary, at level 710, switch to Volkers set and stop using any of the other 3 sets, even for defensive setups.

(Credits : Thanks to robotussin for showing me the Cadeyrns set for their stats).

Power Leveller B

2009-12-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone reading this blog.
Thank you for reading, even though I have written sparingly this year.

Power Leveller B is a buff pack that a guild can activate using guild reputation points (RP), along with other buff packs. So let's start with listing what they are :

Battle Pack A (cost 5 RP) :

Rage (level 150)
Berserk (level 150)
Fortify (level 150)

Battle Pack B (cost 15 RP) :

Deathwish (level 200)
Death Dealer (level 200)
Wither (level 200)

Power Leveller A (cost 10 RP) :

Adept Learner (level 150)
Librarian (level 150)
Doubler (level 150)

Power Leveller B (cost 20 RP) :

Adept Learner (level 200)
Librarian (level 200)
Doubler (level 200)
Conserve (level 200)

Fortune Pack A (cost 10 RP) :

Quest Finder (level 150)
Merchant (level 150)
Four Leaf (level 150)
Find Item (level 150)
Treasure Hunter (level 150)

All the packs will have those buffs applied to all members in the guild, and the duration will be 12 hours. Since all the Pack A are only level 150, I'll discount them as quite worthless. Battle Pack B may look interesting at first glance, but once you realize that there's Wither level 350 potions, and that Death Dealer does NOT give more damage at level 200, the only useful buff will be Deathwish level 200. It does not appear to be worth the 15 RP, especially if you are 1-hitting.

Now, that we get those distraction out of the way, we can get back to Power Leveller B. In this pack, Librarian is really not needed, since the Potion of the Bookworm provides a level 225 buff. The Doubler is also not needed, since potions can provide a level 750 buff, and the Christmas present (Santork Stocking) provides level 1200 buff. That leaves 2 useful buffs, Adept Learner level 200 and Conserve level 200.

Adept Learner level 200 gives 40% more xp from creature kills, compared to 35% more xp when using the buff at level 175. Effectively, this is a 3.7% improvement (1.4/1.35-1). Conserve level 200 gives a 10% chance that an attack will use no stamina, while Conserve level 175 gives a 8.75% chance. So effectively, this is a 1.15% improvement (1.1/1.0875-1). Together, that result in a 4.9% improvement ((1+5%)*(1+1.15%)-1).

So, if you are hunting with 10k stam, you effectively 'gained' 490 stam using this pack, compared to regular buffs. And you also saved 20 stam from not having to buff Adept Learner and Conserve. So that buff pack is worth 510 stam (or 20 fsps), for even a single player burning 10k stam. Multiply that by the number of players hunting in the 12 hours period.

The other side of the equation is the value of RP. RP can be gained in 2 ways :

Winning a GvG conflict
Titan hunting (rewarded for 2nd through 5th place)

The cost to initiate a GvG conflict varies, and averages around 3 fsps. The cost is higher if the the target guild has a lower GvG rating. Each conflict require a minimum of 50 attacks. Each attack will require at least 10 stamina. So each conflict will need at least 500 stamina, and let's say you win 50%, each conflict win averages 1000 stamina. Each conflict win translate to 10 RP, so each RP cost 100 stam. The Power Leveller B pack, at 20 RP therefore cost 2000 stam to activate (if RP is acquired via conflicts). Using this, the break-even will translate to about 40k stam used in levelling, totalled across all members in the 12 hours period.

For titan hunting, the winner is rewarded with an epic item. The runner-ups (up to 5th place) receives RP.

1st place : Epic Item (Actual item depends on the titan killed)
2nd place : 100 RP
3rd place : 75 RP
4th place : 50 RP
5th place : 20 RP

Calculating this is not as straight forward. Looking at the titan log right now I got the following :

Fuvayu (1547/1376/1132/689/442)
Tsukiyaomo (3326/2440/313/312/48)
Tsukiyaomo (3483/903/792/770/549)
Fuvayu (2989/676/561/478/441)
Ogalith (1614/600/228/194/192)

I know that 5 titans aren't exactly statistics, but I'll just use this as an example, and you can be the statistician. The numbers in the brackets represent the number of kills for the 1st through 5th place. Now, yet another assumption. Each kill takes an average of 4 stam for 1-hitters, and 5 stam for 2-hitters. The Tsukiyaomo titan will require 2 stam, and the others could require only 4 if you are of sufficient levels. The best result for the above will be the 48 kills getting 5th place and 20 RP. Each RP in that case cost only 12 stam! The worst case is surprizingly also a 5th place Tsukiyaomi titan kill, 549 kill, and result in 137 stam/RP. This worst case result is worse than GvG, but the 'average', if you can even average such a diverse result, is 51 stam/RP. The lower titan (Ogalith) appears to be the most favorable for stam/RP, with an average of 22.52 stam/RP.

I hope the above gives you an idea of the value of the Power Leveller B buff pack, both the cost of it, and what the value to you when you hunt.

Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm

2009-12-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

First of all, let me retract one of my previous assumption. That assumption was that if you cannot 1-hit, there are no defensive setups that can allow a 1-hit with Spectral Knight activation. That assumption was valid (for me at least), until I hit level 594. The Blade of Panethor was the item that changed that assumption. Also, the new relic bonus now allow for up to 20% more attack/damage/defense, so that may invalidate my previous assumption prior to level 594 also.

Now, let's back to the topic for this blog.

Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm is an Epic item, awarded to the guild for having the most kill on a Tsukiyaomos Titan. A perfect and fully forged helm gives 710 defense and 1035 damage. It's minimum level is 550 and is the highest damage item for its level. Only until level 660 can you find a helmet with higher damage (Helmet of Comizhar). So clearly, this is the ideal helm from level 550 to 659, but what about 660?

The perfect and fully forged Helmet of Comizhar gives 293 defense and 1193 damage. So at first glance, the trade off is 417 defense for 158 damage. If you are aiming for 1-hit, the Helmet of Comizhar at first glance looks better. But you will want to have Elite Hunter. Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm gives the Elite Hunter, so you don't need to use another set. While with the Helmet of Comizhar, you will need to get it from another item. Let's compare a few setups at level 660.

Setup #1 : Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm
Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm (710 defense, 1035 damage)
Gloves of Sarlonde (412 defense, 1062 damage)
Amulet of Phalla (204 attack, 1184 damage)
Axe of Malquan (243 attack, 1189 damage)
Armor of Fellaphel (343 defense, 1035 damage)
Farn-org Shield (422 armor, 1063 damage)
Ring of Gasrel (204 defense, 1142 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 1105 damage)
Rune of Autpel (343 defense, 1093 damage)
*Gloves and Shield above are excellent stats

Setup #2 : Helmet of Comizhar with Fuvayus Vortex Stone
Helmet of Comizhar (293 defense, 1193 damage)
Fuvayus Vortex Stone (376 defense, 875 damage)
Gloves of Sarlonde (412 defense, 1062 damage)
Amulet of Phalla (204 attack, 1184 damage)
Axe of Malquan (243 attack, 1189 damage)
Armor of Fellaphel (343 defense, 1035 damage)
Farn-org Shield (422 armor, 1063 damage)
Ring of Gasrel (204 defense, 1142 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 1105 damage)
*Stone above is excellent stats

Setup #3 : Helmet of Comizhar with Polar Spine set
Helmet of Comizhar (293 defense, 1193 damage)
Polar Spine Grips (84 attack, 964 armor, 659 damage)
Polar Spine Neckpiece (522 attack, 426 armor, 759 damage)
Polar Spine set bonus (450 attack, 650 damage)
Axe of Malquan (243 attack, 1189 damage)
Armor of Fellaphel (343 defense, 1035 damage)
Farn-org Shield (422 armor, 1063 damage)
Ring of Gasrel (204 defense, 1142 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 1105 damage)
Rune of Autpel (343 defense, 1093 damage)

Setup #4 : Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm with Polar Spine set
Tsukiyaomos Benighted Helm (710 defense, 1035 damage)
Polar Spine Grips (84 attack, 964 armor, 659 damage)
Polar Spine Neckpiece (522 attack, 426 armor, 759 damage)
Polar Spine set bonus (450 attack, 650 damage)
Axe of Malquan (243 attack, 1189 damage)
Armor of Fellaphel (343 defense, 1035 damage)
Farn-org Shield (422 armor, 1063 damage)
Ring of Gasrel (204 defense, 1142 damage)
Boots of Aeroni (237 defense, 1105 damage)
Rune of Autpel (343 defense, 1093 damage)

The only 4 items that differ are Helm, Gloves, Amulet and Rune, so let's add only those.
Setup #1 : 204 attack, 4374 damage, 1465 defense
Setup #2 : 204 attack, 4314 damage, 1081 defense
Setup #3 : 1056 attack, 4354 damage, 636 defense
Setup #4 : 1056 attack, 4196 damage, 1053 defense
So setup #2 pales in every way when compared to setup #1. It is still worth mentioning, especially since the Tsukiyaomos helmet is not always available.
Now, setup #3 when compared to setup #1 is a trade off. The trade off is for 20 damage and more than 800 defense for more than 800 attack. That damage is difference is in a way insignificant, and the comparison basically becomes defense vs attack trade off.
Setup #4 compared to setup #3 is a trade off of damage for defense. The question on which setup to use will depend on the creature.

On many levels, setup #1 will NOT provide enough attack. So one has to consider setup #2 and #3. Other items worth considering are :
Ornate set : When compared to Polar Spine, it has 78 attack and 749 damage less, but gains 938 defense. It is useful only in 2-hit scenario.
Gloves of Renshar : Has attack stats
Ring of Aeslam : Has attack stats
Shield of Stalia : Has attack stats
Shield of Deffale : Has defense stats (Farn-org Shield has armor)
Armor of Huraal : Has attack stats

Upgrades past level 660 includes :
Gloves of Gialle (669) : Useful only in setup #1, since Polar Spine, Ornate or even Volkers set has a glove.
Guardian of Meidos Armor (710) : Damage upgrade, but has armor stats
Arkl Axe (712) : Damage upgrade, attack stats

Krul Pyramid

2009-10-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

Krul Pyramid is a relic. As per my previous blog entry on Ethereal Pillars, I will document here how to get to the Pyramid, how to get to the nearest portal, as well as the stamina used.

To the Pyramid :
Portal to Krul Island : 25
Enter Krul Beach - leads to Krul Beach Forest West : 1
(2,2) - (11,9) : (E,4S,E,2S,W,2S,5E,4N,2E,5N,2E,8S,W) : 38
Enter Krul Beach Forest East : 1
(22,2) - (7,21) : (4W,(enter tunnel),E,2S,(enter tunnel),5E,N) : 15
Enter Krul Small Cave : 1
(2,2) - (4,16) : (4E,14S,2W) : 20
Total = 25+1+38+1+ 15 + 1 + 20 = 101

Krul Beach Forest East is a maze.
To help visualize it, LordOlaf made a map, and you can find it here :
http://www.brownbox.mrolaf.com/newrelic.jpg

Compare to Pillar, this is 4 steps further.
But the comparison won't be complete until we know how to get out to a nearest portal.

The nearest portal is in Krul Beach Forest East.
Again, the map above can help visualize it.
Here's the path to nearest portal :

(4,16) - (2,2) : (2E,14N,4W) : 20
Enter Krul Beach Forest East : 1
(7,21) - (8,15) : (S,5W,(enter tunnel),2N,W,(enter tunnel),2E,3S,(enter tunnel),E,2S) : 20
Total = 20+1+20 = 41.

Compared to Pillar, this is 14 steps nearer.
So the net distance is 10 steps nearer than Pillar.

Shield Strike

2009-07-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

When I wrote the entry "Strategy for Tough Levels", my guild mate Andypearce pointed out that Shield Strike can improve the efficiency of the Wither + defense setup.

Shield Strike is a level 700 skill and was not generally available until relatively recently. It is under the Offense tree, cost 20 stamina to buff and has a duration of 45 mins. Its description is :

0.1% per point chance that your defense stat is reduced to zero and your damage is doubled.

So, at level 175, it gives a 17.5% chance of activation.
While we are at it, a level 175 Deathwish has 5.25% chance of activation.
Wither at 350 has a 70% chance of activation.
Critical strike also has a reported chance of 3% activation if max'ed. If you have statistics to show otherwise, please let me know.

All the above skills enhances the 2-hit defensive setups. When any one of those activates, it will turn the 2-hit situation into a 1-hit. Some players mentioned Spectral Knight. I beg to differ on the usefulness of that buff. If the creature is easy, then you can 1-hit without the need of armor reduction. If you can't 1-hit and need to use a defensive setup, chances are that you won't be able to 1-hit even if Spectral Knight is activated.

Now, do NOT add all those percentages.
So the chance that none of them activate is (30% wither, 82.5% shield strike, 94.75% deathwish, 97% critical strike), multiply those, and that will be about 22.75%. That gives a 77.25% chance of 1-strike, and the efficiency is about 1.23.

Note that below assumes 16x doubler, and the Wither setup includes the use of Shield strike and Deathwish.

Efficiency	Setup
1	1-hit
1.06	CA-25
1.13	CA-50
1.19	CA-75
1.23	Wither 350 + Defense
1.25	CA-100
1.25	Back-level (1-hit)
1.3	Wither 350 + CA25 + Defense
1.31	CA-125
1.33	Back-level (CA-25)
1.35	Wither 350 + Imp
1.38	CA-150
1.39	Wither 350 + CA50 + Defense
1.41	Back-level (CA-50)
1.44	CA-175
1.46	Wither 350 + CA75 + Defense
1.48	Back-level (CA-75)
1.56	Back-level (CA-100)
1.64	Back-level (CA-125)
1.72	Back-level (CA-150)
1.8	Back-level (CA-175)
2	2-hit

FI 800 vs FI 1000

2009-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Potion of Greater Discovery gives a Find Item buff of level 800. It is relatively cheap. At the time of writing this blog, the lowest is going for 44,000 gold buy-now price.
Potion of Supreme Luck gives the same buff, but level 1000. Its can be found in the Special section of Auction House. The items are bounded and you cannot resell them. The minimum bid is 24,000 gold but bidding often go above 200,000 gold or even more during events.

But what is the Find Item buff? The description says :

+0.1% per point increase of creatures current drop rate.

So the FI 800 potion gives 80% increase of creatures current drop rate.
The FI 1000 potion gives 100% increase of creatures current drop rate.

Let's say the drop rate is X, then FI 800 will increase it to 1.8 X, while FI 1000 will increase it to 2.0 X. Therefore, the FI 800 drop rate is only 10% less than FI 1000 and not 20% like some thought it to be.

In scavenging, that 10% can still matter a lot. If you are spending 2 mil, that 10% amounts to 200k, and you should break even if you have to pay 200k more (ie, 244k) for the FI 1000. And if you are hard core and spend 10 mil, your break-even will be 1 mil for the FI 1000 potion.

Fuvayus Vortex Stone and Polar Spine set

2009-06-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

4 months ago, I wrote a blog entry on Octo-Spine set. Recently, 3 new items have been introduced.

The Fuvayus Vortex Stone is an Epic item. It is award to the guild with the most hits on a Titan. As with all other Epic items, the item alone has 100 Elite Hunter, making it a "1-item set". The Vortex Stone requires minimum level 400 to equip.

In a recent legendary event, a new legendary creature was introduced. The Polar Spine Chomper can be found in the caves via scavenging. They drop 2 items that form a set, much like the other spine chompers. These items are crystalline, like all other spine items. The items are Polar Spine Grips (gloves) and Polar Spine Neckpiece (amulet). This is a level 650 set.

The Vortex Stone has 880 damage when perfect crafted and fully forged. The Vortex Stone does not add to attack stats. The Octo-Spine set with Shield and Stone has 1686 damage and 561 attack, including set bonus. So for the Vortex Stone to beat the Octo-Spine set, the shield must have at least 806 damage. Such item comes only at level 577. So that is the level where I shall start my analysis.

Level 577 (Octo-Spine vs Fuvayus Vortex Stone)
The maximum damage items at this level are :
Gloves of Li Shang, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Master of Magic Spear, Armor of Kithdor, Shield of Roljill, Ring of Limjarrin, Sthenos Slither Boots, Fuvayus Vortex Stone.
Using that setup, the total damage is 7778, with 1142 attack and 897 defense.
With Octo-Spine set, the total damage is 7747, with 1518 attack and 280 defense.
The trade-off is therefore 31 damage for 376 attack. In fact, the trade-off for attack is more, since Keen Edge can give another 273 more attack with the Octo-Spine set. Keen Edge gives no bonus when using the Vortex Stone and the other max damage items.

Level 578-599 (Equal Improvements)
In these levels, the maximum damage can be improved with these items :
Level 578 - Boots of Abknar
Level 581 - Rune of Cralze (Higher damage, but does not add to Elite Hunter) (not applicable)
Level 582 - Ring of Reakel
Level 584 - Gloves of Corpia
Level 590 - Gloves of Renshar
Level 594 - Blade of Panethor
But they improve both the Vortex and Octo-Spine setups equally, so the comparison and trade-offs remain the same.

Level 600 (Adventurer set)
At level 600, the Adventurer set has 2 items that have the maximum damage for that level. They are the Aging Adventurer Breastplate and Looted Adventurer Tower Shield. The Shield actually shares the same maximum damage. The other 2 items that make up the set are the Looted Adventurer Gauntlets and Looted Adventurer Boots.
Using the Looted Aventurer set the accompanying items are : Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Ring of Reakel, Rune of Cralze. The total damage adds up to 7617, with 1290 attack and 2662 defense.
Using the Vortex Stone, the other items are : Gloves of Renshar, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Aging Adventurer Breastplate, Shield of Roljill, Ring of Reakel, Boots of Abknar. The total damage adds up to 8196, with 1125 attack.
Using Octo-Spine set, the other items are : Gloves of Renshar, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Blade of Panethor, Aging Adventurer Breastplate, Ring of Reakel, Boots of Abknar. The total damage adds up to 8165, with 1501 attack.
So the trade-off for Vortex and Octo-Spine still has not changed.

Level 600-649 (Damage upgrades)
Level 609 - Rune of Howbale
Level 612 - Helmet of Grunthar (After 232 levels, finally a helmet upgrade)
Level 616 - Ring of Gasrel
Level 618 - Weapon of Shalok
Level 625 - Boots of Banevor
Level 629 - Rune of Staveal
Level 632 - Ziprael Amulet, Armor of Fellaphel (After 233 levels, finally an amulet upgrade)
Level 633 - Amulet of Lihhal
Level 635 - Weapon of Acualle, Rune of Eassel
Level 636 - Amulet of Tinale
Level 637 - Amulet of Phalla
Level 639 - Boots of Aeroni
Level 647 - Shield of Stalia

Level 650 (Polar Spine set)
Other than the polar spine set, the Gloves of Sarlonde also increases the maximum damage at this level.
Using the Vortex Stone, the other items will be : Gloves of Sarlonde, Helmet of Grunthar, Amulet of Phalla, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Shield of Stalia, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni. The total damage is 9448, with 947 attack and 1917 defense.
Using the Octo-Spine set, the other items will be : Gloves of Sarlonde, Helmet of Grunthar, Amulet of Phalla, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni. The total damage is 9289, with 1069 attack and 1537 defense.
The Vortex Stone - Octo-Spine trade-offs has increased to 159 damage for 122 attack (and another 195 attack in Keen Edge).
Using the Polar Spine set, the other items will be : Helmet of Grunthar, Weapon of Acualle, Armor of Fellaphel, Shield of Stalia, Ring of Gasrel, Boots of Aeroni, Rune of Eassel. The total damage is 9394, with 1799 attack, 1124 defense, and 1765 armor. This setup clearly out shines the other two.

Conclusion
The Vortex Stone was not a big boost. The reduced attack was huge, and the best way to increase the attack is to go back to the Octo-Spine setup. As the level increases, new damage items get introduced and Vortex Stone setup begins to out shine that of the Octo-Spine. But at level 650, the Polar Spine gets thrown in. Even though it has less damage, it has a lot more attack. The trade-off at level 650 is 52 damage for 852 attack.

Thanks to andypearce, UveBinHad, grimnok, and SirJamez for helping me gather the stats of some items mentioned in this blog. Thanks to andypearce who did a sanity check on my initial calculations.

Strategy for Tough Levels

2009-06-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was planning ahead, and it is not the first time I encounter levels where 1-hitting is impossible, not even with Death Dealer and high level CA. The Lao Xan Merchant Guard need even conservatively 18117 damage to 1-hit, and the maximum I can gather is 18048. 18117 is simply Armor + HP for that creature.

So as usual, I consider the option of staying back. The previous level requires CA 75. That has an efficiency of 1.48, which is worse than using the Potion of Fatality. That assumes that you can 1-hit when wither activates, as well as having enough defense not to get hit when wither did not activate. There's also another assumption that CA is not needed in this setup. If such a setup is possible, the efficiency would be 1.3.

I could not find a combination that has enough defense without the use of CA. The best I came up with was a setup that require CA 25. That adds a 1.0625 multiplier and the efficiency becomes 1.38. This is still better than staying back with CA 75.

That's when I thought about another possibility. What about simply going full damage, and use the shield imp 30% of the time. What's the efficiency of that? It turns out not to be such a good idea. Each imp used is about 8.3 stam. That means 30% of the time, you will not only be double hitting, but also use an imp block. That means the efficiency is 1.46. It is still slightly better than staying back with CA 75, but not as good as a defensive setup with CA25.

So why am I documenting this? Even though it is not the best setup for level 548, this is a viable strategy. If a level is so tough as to require CA 50 with wither in defensive mode, then this setup is no worse. Also, if you can get Imps at below stam cost, that will make this setup more efficient. That can be due to players selling imps below stam cost, or having a friend use Buff Master to buff the Imps.

Below table assumes 16x doubler.
It does not account for Shield Strike, Deathwish and Critical Hits. Please see updated table in my blog on Shield Strike.

Efficiency	Setup
1.00	1-hit
1.06	CA-25
1.13	CA-50
1.19	CA-75
1.25	CA-100
1.25	Back-level (1-hit)
1.30	Wither 350 + Defense
1.31	CA-125
1.33	Back-level (CA-25)
1.38	CA-150
1.38	Wither 350 + CA25 + Defense
1.41	Back-level (CA-50)
1.44	CA-175
1.46	Wither 350 + Imp
1.46	Wither 350 + CA50 + Defense
1.48	Back-level (CA-75)
1.54	Wither 350 + CA75 + Defense
1.56	Back-level (CA-100)
1.64	Back-level (CA-125)
1.72	Back-level (CA-150)
1.80	Back-level (CA-175)
2.00	2-hit

Dark Realm and Vision

2009-05-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Secret Kingdom (Thicket), the level 523 Realm introduces something new to the game. That realm is a dark realm. What does it mean by a dark ream?

On the world screen, we can typically see a 5x5 grid showing us the areas around us. However, in a dark realm, you can only see the square you are standing on.

Vision is a level 500 skill. It is listed under the defensive tree. The official description :

Lights up dark realms. More skill points allow more vision on the 'Map' screen. (Vision radius increases every 50 levels.

However, the description is not clear on what is the 'initial' vision?
What if there is only 1 point in the skill? Does the vision radius increase?
Here's the deal :
Level 1-49 : Only 1x1 grid is shown.
Level 50-99 : 3x3 grid is shown.
Level 100+ : 5x5 grid is shown.

So, the first question, is level 1-49 even useful?
On undocumented aspect of a dark realm is that your attack is halved.
With vision, that penalty is removed.

What about level 150? Are there any advantage?
With level 150+, you can view 7x7 on the realm map.
It does not affect the world map.
Since most player use fallen sword guide or the wiki for their maps, I'd say level 100 is probably sufficient for most.

In fact, level 1 is probably enough, just to remove the half attack penalty, and any higher levels is more for convenience.

Path of the Dread Mist

2009-05-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am upset at the surprises I have today, but there were no information on them. So I thought I should document it, so others can learn from my mistake instead of having everyone make the same.

After so many levels, especially a tough level 533, I was looking forward to a rare Undead level 534. I looked at Mowglik's map and found that there are 2 level 534 realms with 2 different level 534 creatures. The Lower Beach has Glaucus Pirate which required a CA 50 to 1-hit. The Path of the Dread Mist is where I want to go, since the Loom of Shadow is an undead and will be an easy 1-hit without CA. And that's where things go wrong. I went through the Gloomy Vale, but could not enter the Path of the Dread Mist. To do so, I must complete the quest Gate to the Darkness, and for that I need a Shroud Key which I must make from a recipe from another quest, which requires me to reach the top of a lighthouse and that requires that I complete yet more quests before I can proceed up the lighthouse. So it's all a big mess, and I'll lay out the dependencies below in a clearer fashion.

To enter 'Path of the Dread Mist' : Require completion of quest 'Gate to the Darkness'.
To complete 'Gate to the Darkness' : Require a Shroud Key.
To get the Shroud Key : Require Shroud Key Recipe, Strange Mans Rune, Shroud Icon, Fishermans Heart.
To get Shroud Key Recipe and Fishermans Heart : Complete quest 'Marked by the Hag'.
To complete 'Marked by the Hag' : You will need quest 'Clash of Magics' (level 495) {to enter LightHouse Middle} and quest 'A Potent Brew' (level 503/510) {to enter Light House Upper}.
To get Shroud Icon : Complete quest 'Kidnapped Citizen' (level 529).
To get Strange Mans Rune : Complete quest 'A Potent Brew' {which you need to enter Light House Upper}

Summary ::
You should check that you have completed the following quests before beginning your hunt for level 534 ::
Clash of Magics (level 495)
A Potent Brew (level 503/510)
Kidnapped Citizen (level 529)
Marked by the Hag (level 533)
Gate to the Darkness (level 534)

There might have been more dependencies that I missed because I have already completed them and was not alerted to the requirements. If you encounter them, let me know and I will share it with everyone on this blog.

Light Foot

2009-05-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have been asked this many times, and have done the calculation many times. Now that we actually have players who are level 700 and can have this buff, I thought I should add it to my blog.
Also, it has been 3 months since I wrote and I must acknowledge that I feel a little guilty for not writing after getting so many positive feedback.

Light Foot is a level 700 skill. It requires 15 stamina, and the official description is :

0.05% chance to use no stamina while moving on the world map.

I believe the description is wrong, and that it is actually :

0.05% per point chance to use no stamina while moving on the world map.

Since it is level 700, we can presume that the buff will be a level 175 when used.

So, is that buff worth it?
Let's compute the breakeven.
At level 175, there is a 8.75% chance to use no stamina.
That means, even 11.43 step you take, you should save one stamina on average.
Since the buff takes 15 stamina, the breakeven point is 171.43 steps.

At a regular realm for level 500, and using 16x doubler, an average hunt should take about 60 moves at least. If you go back to defend your guild's relic, this buff at stam cost is almost definitely going to be worth it.

A potion version is also available.
The Potion of Lesser Light Foot is a level 25 buff and cost about 2 fsp in AH.
Being more expensive than the stam cost for the level 175 buff, I will definitely suggest not getting the potion.
Also, at level 25, it is only a 1.25% chance to use no stamina.
That translates to 1 stamina saved in 80 steps.
At the cost of 2 fsp, you'd have to take 400 steps for break even.
Otherwise, you're better off using those 2 fsps to buy 50 stam.

Buy stam or buy xp

2009-02-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

If you have fsps and want to use it to power level. Should you buy stamina or buy experience?

The 2 upgrades that I am comparing are :

+25 Current Stamina (cost 1 fsp)
+1% Experience towards next level (cost 2 fsp)

Some players frown upon the second option, but I think it is fair game. There are reasons why you will not buy experience, such as buying experience will not add to your guild experience. It will also not get you any creature drops, if there are any that you wanted. Setting those aside, is it better to buy stamina to kill creatures or to buy experience?

So at level 431, I took 10 samples of average creature xp. I got it as 32567 (halving when librarian activates). Assuming you hunt like me with 16x doubler, level 175 Adept Learner and Level 225 Librarian, the librarian should activate 22.5% of the time, giving an average of 39637 xp per creature attacked. Assuming 2% misses and 50/6 stam used for shield imps when you miss, the average stam per attack comes to 16.4867. That means, for each fsp, you can buy 25 stam and gain 60105 xp. 2 fsps can buy 1% xp, and at level 431, that is 55599 xp. So it is definitely better to buy stamina than to buy 1% xp, at least at level 431.

Even with CA 100, 2 fsps of stamina an still buy 96362 xp, significantly more than buying xp. Even if creature xp does not increase (and it does), that is more than 1% for level 567. Added with the the advantage of getting gold and possibly item drops, and xp contribution to guild, one should clearly buy stamina instead of xp. There are some instances where it may make sense to buy xp. One such possibility would be where that 1 % gain means you don't need a higher buffs to kill a tough level, or perhaps that 1 % puts you over a level so that you don't have to walk to a far realm. But those upgrades should be used sparingly, and buying stamina is almost always a better option.

Arterial Strike

2009-02-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Arterial Strike is a skill in the offense tree. It is a level 500 skill, and has dependency on Spectral Knight, which in turn has dependency on Shatter Armor. However, until Shatter Armor and Spectral Knight which reduces or eliminates opponent's armor, Arterial Strike is more like Adept Learner or Librarian and gives extra xp for killing creatures. The skill uses 20 stamina, and has a base duration of 60 minutes. Here's the official description :

Gain additional 0.1% xp per point for every additional round of combat. (Note that this does not activate if conserve activated)

So, if you have been following my blogs, you will know I am a big proponent of 1-hitting. Note the word 'additional' in the description. That means you do not get any extra xp if you 1-hit. So what use is it if you are 1-hitting?

Well, even if you are 1-hitting, you will miss, at least 2% of the time. And that was why we need the shield imp. Each time you use an imp, you get 17.5% more xp (than you would in a single attack). So assuming you are using the 16x doubler, and no CA, then that 17.5% translates to 2.8 stam in xp. Since the buff uses 20 stam, the break even will be 20/2.8 = 7.14. If you use CA, then you can reach the breakeven even sooner. Refer to the chart below for the breakevens. Note the breakeven number 7.14 is not limited to imp blocks, but should include dodges, shockwave, or any other incidences that may require you to go 2 combat rounds.

Doubler and CA	Breakeven
16x Doubler with no CA	7.14
16x Doubler with CA25	6.72
16x Doubler with CA50	6.35
16x Doubler with CA75	6.02
16x Doubler with CA100	5.71
16x Doubler with CA125	5.44
16x Doubler with CA150	5.19
16x Doubler with CA175	4.97
11x Doubler with no CA	10.39
11x Doubler with CA36	9.52
11x Doubler with CA72	8.79
11x Doubler with CA109	8.16
11x Doubler with CA145	7.62
11x Doubler with CA175	7.14

Does that mean AS is better when you use 16x doubler, or when you use CA? Actually, that's a little misleading. A hunting session is not defined by a fixed number of hits (and therefore the ratio of misses), but typically defined by the stam used. When you use 16x doubler or a higher CA, you will be killing fewer creatures. Assuming you are 1-hitting smoothly, and misses only 2% of the time, then the breakeven is about a 6000 stam hunt. That said, if you are encountering tough creatures, with nullify, dodge, first strike, and the 2-hit rates are higher than 2%, then it might even be worth getting it for a shorter hunt.

Octo-Spine Set

2009-02-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

So today, my guildmate andypearce exclaimed on guild chat that we needed a 2nd Octo-Spine set.
He just realized that the Octo-Spine set is still the best set at level 563. Up to today, everyone was using the Brides set. So I thought the change might be due to the upgraded Potion of Greater Enchant Weapon which provides a level 1500 Enchant Weapon buff. At that level, the weapon statistics is multiplied by 2.5. I then looked at my older blog entry on 1-hit setups, and noticed that the best setup, even at level 400, was not the Argus set (which has no weapon), but the Octo-Spine set. Just how good is that set?

Level 400 (Argus set vs Octo-Spine set)
Using the Argus set, the other items will be : Sphynx Helmet, Sword of Ursa, Octo-Spine Shield, Ring of Arzmil. The total damage will be 6937, with 1243 attack. Using the Octo-Spine set, the other items will be : Crushing Fist Gauntlets, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Sword of Ursa, Argus Armor, Ring of Arzmil, Argus Boots. The total damage will be 6978, with only 812 attack. Trading 41 damage for more than 400 attack appears to be good, but perhaps unnecessary, especially with Keen Edge buff and Potion of Black Death. Many players also choose to use the Crushing Fist Ring over the Ring of Arzmil, myself included. This is trading 8 damage for 260 attack. This comparison is regardless of the EW potion, since the weapon used is the same. At level 408, that weapon can be upgraded to the Double Axe of Demrhyle. At level 420, the weapon can be further upgraded to the Master of Magic Spear, giving a final damage of 7153.

Level 440 (Argus set vs Octo-Spine set, rematch)
The same 2 sets, but at this level, new boots with more damage becomes available : Sthenos Slither Boots. The boots offer more attack and damage than the Argus Boots. So using the Octo-Spine set now will give a total damage of 7188, with 977 attack. The attack-damage tradeoffs now become trading of 76 damage for 266 attack. At level, it'll probably be much more compelling to use the Octo-Spine set.

Level 470 (Hunters Edge upgrade)
Both Argus and Octo-Spine sets do not include a ring. The ring was to be either the Ring of Arzmil, or the Crushing Fist Ring as mentioned earlier on. At this level, Hunters Edge becomes available and has better attack and damage than both rings. The Octo-Spine set now gives a total damage of 7232, with 1375 attack.

Level 484 (Brides set vs Octo-Spine set)
This was the main comparison that prompted me to write this entry. At level 484, the Brides set, introduced as a Halloween event last year, has very attractive stats. This set will be used with : Crushing Fist Gauntlets, Sphynx Helmet, Dazmorr Amulet, Hunters Edge, Sthenos Slither Boots, Rune of Roh. It'll have a total damage of 7408, and attack of 1971. The Octo-set also gets an upgrade on the armor, using the Brides Crackling gown, and will have damage of 7302, with 1647 attack.
Here's where it gets interesting. The armor is the same, so enchant armor gives the same bonus. But the weapon is different. Using the Potion of Truth (EW 1000), the Brides set will have 8204 damage with 2349 attack. The Octo-Spine set will have 8292 damage with 1647 attack. The damage-attack trade off is trading 88 damage for 702 attack. With the new Potion of Greater Enchant Weapon (EW 1500), Brides set will have 8602 damage and 2538 attack, while Octo-Spine set will have 8787 damage and 1647 attack.
So if you have enough attack, the Octo-Spine set (from level 350), is still the best set!

Level 540 (Rune of the Minion)
There might be upgrades between 484 and 539, but not for the items that differentiate the 2 sets. The Rune of the Minion provides an upgrade to the Brides set, but not the Octo-Spine set. At this level, if using only the Potion of Truth (EW 1000), the Brides set will have 2 damage more than the Octo-Spine set. But using the Potion of Greater Enchant Weapon (EW 1500), the Octo-Spine set still gives 95 damage more than the Brides set.

Further Upgrades that matter
At level 560, the Octo-Spine set gets an armor upgrade with Armor of Shonia. This armor, though having a higher damage, has a lower attack. At level 563, the Armor of Kithdor adds almost 200 damage more, skewing in favor of the Octo-Spine set even more. At 581, the Rune of Cralze comes into play, but not enough to skew the 200 damage added by the armor. At 594, the Blade of Panethor further enhances the Octo-Spine set. And the ultimate armor damage comes at level 600 with Aging Adventurer Breastplate. At level 609, the Rune of Howbale adds another 11 damage to the Brides set, but that hardly does anything.

Conclusion
So it seems that the Octo-Spine, a level 350 set, is the ultimate set! Well, that might be jumping to conclusion. As new content comes in to play, I am sure there will be new sets that will be better. In fact, the level 600 Adventurer set might just be that, but I don't have all the stats of that set to compare.

Killing Super Elites

2009-01-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am talking about the Super Elite creatures, and not players like jmaisc or zenji. I am not a SE hunter, but as I approach level 420, the quest "A Sorry Tale" will require that I kill one. So I might as well plan for it.
In training, I typically equip my gear, and then figure out which buff and buff levels I will need. But when attacking with a group, this procedure has to be reversed. You get your buff, and then figure out how big a group you will need. So save the stam of your guild mate, one should lock the group when the group has sufficient stats to kill the creature you want, maybe with a little buffer, just in case one of the group member switches gear.

Let's start with buffs. Which buffs are most useful?
Super Elite Slayer is naturally useful, since that is its sole purpose, to help with killing a Super Elite. One can get that buff from a potion also. Potion of the Slayer offers a level 125 SES buff with a 60 mins duration.
Any buffs that affect the opponent is more useful than a buff that affect yourself. You are forming a group, of maybe 10 members. A buff that increase your ability means increasing 1 out of the 10 members. While a buff that affect the opponent affect it as a whole, and that applies whether it is a super elite or a relic capture.
So what are the buffs that affect the opponent?
Dark Curse can dramatically reduce the defense of your opponent, and that means a big reduction in the attack you will need. Potions can give a buff higher than the levels a player can cast, and they include Sludge Brew (DC 200), and Potion of Black Death (DC 225).
Flinch, a buff that was pretty much unavailable until recently where AzUK became the first player to reach level 600. It reduces the attack of your opponent, and therefore useful, but only when you want to attack in defense mode (which is the preferred mode).
Terrorze, can reduce opponent's damage, and can be useful in armor mode. However, we are still waiting for content to allow players to reach level 700 to get that buff.
Wither halves the HP of your opponent, but its effect depends on a roll of the dice.
Mesmerize can also reduce the creature stats, but also depend on the roll of dice. This is yet another buff that is still unavailable due to lack of content.

Therefore I wrote a small script to compute the effects with those buffs (excluding Wither and Mesmerize).
http://sisland83.bravehost.com/superelites.html

To use that script, select the creature you want, enter the level of the buffs you have (or plan to get), and hit the 'Calculate' button. It will show you the stats needed in your group. As with any creature hits, you don't need defense nor armor if you have the attack and damage to kill in 1 hit. However, if you need more than 1, then you will need either defense OR armor, but not both. Guilds with the Military Advisor structure can view the stats of the group and determine if it is sufficient to kill the SE.

However, there are buffs that do not show up on the stats.
Buffs that does additional damage based on lead attacker and not shown in group stats includes Blood Thirst, Ignite, Holy Flame, Death Dealer, Savagery, Chi Strike, Assist, and Counter Attack.
Constitution can increase defense, and Sanctuary can increase armor. Sanctuary is a potion only buff.
Shield Strike looks risky, especially if you need 3 or more hits to kill the creature. Nightmare Visage reduces attack, and is not shown on the stats, so beware.
Since I am not an SE hunter, I am not 100% sure that all those buffs apply in group attacks. Please let me know if you have experimented with them. Thanks.

Xinderoth - The path I took

2009-01-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

Xinderoth, the realms from level 400 - 420. Considered as a nightmare for some players. I'm nearly done with it, and many guild mates are just about to enter this stage. I won't say what I did was perfect, but I will share my encounters and experience, and some suggestions.

Level 400
Level 400, the City of Xinderoth, is a big realm. There are 10 different creatures in that realm, some harder to 1-hit than the others. There are 5 different quests in this realms, and some has mentioned in forum that they could not advanced to the next realm due to uncompleted quests. So what's needed, and what are not?

The quests are, in a way, designed to be completed in this order (counter clockwise) from where you enter.
1. Filthy Animals
2. Festival Revelers
3. Lead Astray
4. The Heat of Ambition
5. Bite the Hand

I have completed only ONE of those 5 quests. The quest that I completed is Filthy Animals. Doing quests can be fun for some, and I am not suggesting that you follow in my footstep.
Another suggestion on creatures to attack is to select a CA level that allow you to kill at least 5 of those 10 creatures, and simply pass up on those you cannot 1-hit with that CA level. I selected CA 36 with 11x doubler.

Also, the level 401 quest will require a Summoning Seal, which can be found on Xinderoth Watcher. Xinderoth Watcher is one of the 10 creatures found on this level. So I recommend getting the seal on this level.

Level 401-409

These levels are pretty straight forward. The realms are large, so the creatures are sparse. For level 402 and 403, you may have better luck finding creatures in Sanctum of Doth Realm, and Circle of the Fiend Realm respectively. I needed a low level CA for 407 and 409. There is a path from the world map to level 410, so I actually ended level 409 early and let XP gain do the job to complete that level. Since 409 is a relatively tough level that requires CA, the XP gain was worth more.

Level 410-420

I needed a low level CA for level 414. When I hit level 416, I stayed back on the 415 realms. The level 416 creatures requires a CA level higher than 100, so I was better off just staying back. Looking forward, I will need a low level CA for 419, and CA75 for 420.

Equipment

I used the Argus set, Sphynx Helmet, Sword of Ursa, Octo-Spine Shield, and Crushing Fist Ring. At level 408, I switched my weapon to the Double Axe of Demrhyle. From 410-413, I was using Pharaohs Sarcophagus instead of the Octo-Spine Shield. For level 419, the creature has a higher defense, so I am planning on using the Doth Blades set. And finally, at level 420, the weapon of choice will be the Master of Magic Spear. All my gears are perfect and fully forged.

Items to Hunt for

For most items mentioned above, I want them before I start on the level, so that means I bought them. However, at level 408, the Opticor set is a very nice standby set, so I hunted for them. I got only 1 drop, bought the rest. The Sarabaite set at 415 have nice attacks, and probably more useful when used in PvP and SE hunting.

Hell Forge Cost

2009-01-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

I have been writing rather lenthy blogs, so I thought I will write a short one this time.
In the game, you can hell forge an item. Official Description ::

The Hell Forge contains the fire of hell itself. Known to contain great power, the fires of hell can be used to unlease the true potential of any item, increasing its statistics permanently (except for hourly 'Gain' stats). Each time you use the forge on an item to increase its forge level (see the guide below) costs 2 FallenSword Points plus an amount of gold depending on the items level.

Now, the question to answer in this blog is, what is that amount of gold?
The gold required for the first forge is [Item level] * 150 gold, subjected to a minimum [Item level] of 50. That is, all items below level 50 are treated as level 50 for the purpose of computing hell forge cost. The gold for subsequent forge is double that of the previous.

I have also written a script to compute the cost, and it can be found here ::
http://sisland83.bravehost.com/forgecost.html

PvP Arena

2009-01-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to write this a long time, so here it goes.
I have won quite a few PvP Arena tournaments, so I get a few questions here and there on Arena and how to 'do' it. Unfortunately, there are no sure way of 'doing' it. If there is such thing as a 'best' setup, then every player who figure it out (and it should not be hard), will have the same setup, and your chance of winning one will be the same as everyone, 1 in 16 (or 1 in 32 if it is a 5 round tournament). So have patience, have confidence that you have 'the' set, and keep trying.

Now, as I said, there actually probably isn't one 'best' setup. Let us assume a contest of an arbitrary level. A player with attack = J, damage = K, defense = L, armor = M. Assuming you cannot beat the sum of the stats, which otherwise will be moot, you can still beat it by having attack = L+10, damage = M+10, defense = 1, armor = K+20. That way, your opponent deal only 1 damage to you, while you do 10 damage on average to your opponent. That assumes J attack is greater than 40, or you will need a higher total stats. But now, I can beat that by having attack = 10, damage = K + 30, defense = L+40, armor = 1. In that setup, I will be able to hit you (my attack 10 is higher than your defense 1), but you won't be able to hit me (my defense is higher than your attack. And my total stats is lower if M is greater than 40. And there's a setup that can beat : attack = L+60, damage = 1, defense = 20, armor = 1. So in a way, it is like playing rock, scissors, paper. No wonder players don't like to share their setup.

But the point is not to beat a single player. You can always do that. The point is to beat 4 players, all potentially having different setups. If you know that all of them will be showing 'rock', you will use 'paper', and the odds will favor you. So you want to be different! I have seen level 202 winning a level 438 tournament, because he was different. So does that mean you can put on anything and expect a fair 1 in 16 chance to win? Unfortunately, not exactly. There is a chance that you can win, but it could be very low. Assuming the rock scissors paper game, you have to win 4 in a row, and that means 1 in 81, not 1 in 16. How can it be that everyone only have a 1 in 81 chance? That does not add up. Well, not everyone has a 1 in 81 chance. When both players show a 'rock', then the setup now matters. If both are armor/damage setup with minimal attack/defense for example, then the sum of armor/damage matters. If both players get knocked out, the judges decision is first by total damage dealt, before tossing a coin. So if you have a 'better' setup, then you're more likely to win when both players show the same symbol.

But above was assuming contests without moves. Arena combat moves add a new dimension to that rock scissors paper game. The choice of moves should not be dependent on an opponent. Your objective is not to beat one opponent in particular, but to win 4 random ones. Instead, it should be chosen to match the type of setup you have. You want moves that add damage or chance to hit if you have a hitting setup, but moves that reduces opponents chance to hit if you have defensive ones.

I'll list a few categories of setups, but please do not let these limit your imagination.

Defensive setup
In this setup, one attempts to maximize the defense. The objective is prevent being hit. You also want to be able to hit your opponent, but not necessarily doing a lot of damage, just 1 damage will suffice. In this setup, the first priority is defense, and the second priority is attack. Armor, Damage, HP are of no importance. If you have combat moves and the tournaments allow for it, you will want to use Defend, Block, Dodge, or maybe even Deflect. Those reduces the chances that you get hit even further.

Armor setup
In this setup, this is the exact opposite defense. The objective is reduce all damage done to you to 1. The first priority is armor, the secondary priority is damage and hp. Attack is not as important, since you aren't likely to get an attack higher than the defensive setup anyhow, might as well not have it at all. You are going to rely on the 2% chance to hit. However, you want enough damage, so that when you do hit, you should be able to make a knock-out. Why hp? There are 40 rounds of combat. The defensive setup will be hitting you for 1 damage in each round, so you will want 40 hp to last 40 rounds of combat to give you 40 chances to hit. If your hp is only 10, 2% chance in 10 rounds is only 20% chance of winning. But if you have 40 hp, then you have a 80% chance to win. That excludes combat moves, and the actual chance might be lower. This setup almost does not depend on combat moves to combat the defensive setup. But combat moves come into play when you are being matched up against a similar setup. In those cases, you will be hitting, and don't be surprised that your opponent will be hitting also. So you want to use moves that increase damage or even the chance to hit. Those moves will include Critical Hit, Power Attack, and possibly even Spin Attack.

Another tip on Arena. The tournaments to win moves are usually easier to win. The top Arena players would have won 3 of those moves and can no longer take part, so those taking parts are those who are still experimenting. The top Arena players also have more resources and the confidence to take part in all tournaments. The cheaper tournaments are a good way to experiment for many players, and hence easier to win. Having said that, do not be afraid of the top arena champions. I have beaten all of them in at least one tournament. Even they are not infallible, and lady luck has the final say in many cases. What you can do is increase your odds by using the best gears and choosing the correct moves to go with it. If you are winning 1 in 16 tournaments you take part in, you are doing above average.

XP Gain

2009-01-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

XP Gain is a great attribute that can help players advance faster in levels.
At level 150, a player can gain more than 30% of his level a day without having to use a single stam, just by XP Gain.

Every player starts out with +2 XP Gain.

There are items that can increase that XP Gain

Shield of Bakmar (craftable, can increase up to +5 depending on craft)
Fire Dragon Ring (+1 XP Gain)
Jara Rune (+1 XP Gain)
Writhing Ward (+1 XP Gain)

Set bonus can also include XP Gain

Maximus Set (+1 XP Gain)
Gurgriss Set (+1 XP Gain)

Relics can also give XP Gain bonus

Despair Crystal (+200 XP Gain)
Ethereal Pillars (+200 XP Gain)
Krul Pyramid (+200 XP Gain)
Searing Orb (+100 XP Gain)
Unholy Shring (+200 XP Gain)

Finally, a player can apply an upgrade on his character for "+25 XP Gain (per hour)".
Each upgrade cost 15 fsps, and a player can apply up to 50 upgrades.
At 50 upgrades, that will add +1250 XP Gain.

On the character upgrade page, XP Gain is defined as such ::

Note that your 'xp gain' is allocated, plus a bonus of your xp gain times a multiplier equal to your level minus 50 divided by '25' (rounding down).
Note the actual value is always reflected in the quick display at the top bar xp mouseover. Note also at lower levels this value is then scaled down up to a reduction factor of 10 to stop it potientially being too overpowering. Below level 25, no additional bonus is applied.

That description is not concrete and wrong. As described above, the XP Gains are added up. A multiplier is then applied, and the multiplier is actually [Player Level]/25 + 1 (rounded down).
Note that there are no subtraction of 50 level as described on that page.
Also, the description of a reduction factor is vague. I will appreciate if any players below level 150 reading this page can let me know the values they observed.

I wrote a calculator to compute the XP Gain, and the value has been observed to be correct for level 150 and higher. The calculator can be found on the URL below :

http://sisland83.bravehost.com/xpgain.html

So above describes XP Gain, but what's the value of such attribute?
Many players will agree with me that Stamina Gain is probably the most important upgrade.
And XP Gain will come in a strong second. When that upgrade is maximized, it contributes about 10% of a level for level 400 players (and more for lower level players).
The 750 fsps needed to maximize the upgrade could have been spent to buy stamina for levels, but that will only get you about 10 levels (at around level 400). So you get to break even in 100 days. That sounds like a reasonably fair tradeoff. However, its value can be higher, especially if you plan and rest to recover on difficult levels (levels that will require a higher level CA to 1-hit).
But how does it compare to Stamina Gain, is it even better than Stamina Gain? For a level 400 player, each upgrade earns 425 XP per hour, while a creature kill gets you about 2200 XP per hour. So it is clear that Stamina Gain is much more valuable to a level 400 player. I believe that comparison holds true for lower levels also.

What about relics? Is it worth more than Stamina Gain relics? Those relics that provide +200 XP Gain effectively gives 8 upgrades worth in XP Gains, worth 120 fsps in value, compared to Stamina Gains upgrades that are worth 25 fsps per upgrade. However, that is the wrong way to compare. Instead, for a level 400 player, +200 XP Gain with the multiplier actually earns you 3400 XP per hour. While a single stamina earns you a single creature kill, worth about 2200 XP. Of course, the Despair Crystals has both +200 XP Gain and +1 Stamina Gain, making it the most desirable relic. OK, so it is moredesirable than a Stamina Gain relic. But is it really worth all the walking? Assuming one needs about 120 stamina to return to the relic and back to the hunting grounds. That is 264k XP. To break even on the XP gained, one has to stay on the relic for 3.24 days. That clearly is valuable to some players with enough maximum stamina. But what if not all the players need to return? Let's say, only half needs to return (with players taking turns perhaps). Then it should be clear that the relic is very well worth defending.

What about items with XP Gains? The Shield of Bakmar adds +5 XP Gain. But at level 400, that adds 85 XP per hour. Those +1 XP Gain items add only 17 XP per hour. But that XP is much less than a single creature kill. In fact, the Shield of Bakmar only add 2040 XP per day, and a single Stamina earns you more than that. It is still all nice, better than nothing at all. However, if you have to spend 120 stamina to walk back to a relic, you really should be willing to give that up. Assume 9 players with 9 slots for defense. If you use the shield, there's really only 8 slots for defense. Instead, if only 8 players return (the 9 players can take turn on who can stay out), and not use the shield, they can get the same total defense, and save 120 stamina. Compared to all 9 players returning and getting 1 stamina worth in XP every day, it'll take 13 days to break even against the 120 stamina.

Unbreakable

2008-12-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

This is not the first time I have used a crystalline item during my hunt. Crystalline items are items that cannot be repaired. I have used the dark spine flail early in my levels, but they were relatively cheap then, since the events just occurred and there were many such items available. Now, after more than 6 months, those items were mostly used up, and the price of those items have went up tremendously. Above level 350, many of those levels require the use of the Octo-Spine sets for 1-hit setups. Some require the Green Spine Boots too. Those items are best used fully forged in my opinion. But how do you value them? The Octo-Spine Shield cost probably around 120 fsps for a one that has full 200 durability, and another 27 fsps to fully forge it. So if you take away the residual value (players still get them with low durability for Arena use), I'll estimate it will cost about 50k per durability lost. The Octo-Spine Rune might cost about 25k per durability lost, while the Green Spine Boots cost around 75k per durability lost. Quite a rough estimate I'd say, and this value will be changing as the items get rarer.

So where was I? Oh yes, the title was not about crystalline items, but about the unbreakable buff. Unbreakable is a skill under the Defensive tree. It is available to players level 200 or higher. Here's the official description :

+0.5% per point chance per point of equipment not taking durability loss during combat.

First off, the equipment do not automatically take a durability loss. I estimate that one in 20 rounds of attack that a specific item take a hit without the buff. Now, a level 100 buff will reduce that to 1 in 40 rounds, a level 150 buff will reduce that to 1 in 80, and a leel 175 will reduce that to 1 in 160 !! The benefits are increasing almost exponentially. During Valentine's Day, a level 200 'potion' disguised as chocolate were given out, and that garantees no damage to any items.

Note also that the damage depends on the rounds of attack and are not multiplied by the doubler. So you will want to use a high level doubler when using the crystalline items. The cost of using a 3x doubler vs a 10x/11x doubler will be more than 3 times !! Using a 3x or 4x doubler, you might be better off double hitting with wither, and use the cost saved from using non-crystalline items to buy stamina.

So here are some numbers to ponder upon. A 4000 stamina burn with those 3 items above and a 11x doubler has 363 rounds of attack. That means without the unbreakable buff, you will lose about 18 durability on each of the item. That's 2700k in cost, 27 fsps !! A level 100 buff will reduce that to 9 durability loss/14 fsps, and you can get the potion from Auction House at 25k that gives a level 100 Unbreakable buff to save you 13/14 fsps. A level 150 buff will reduce that to 4.5 durability loss/7 fsps. A level 175 buff will reduce that to a little more than 2 durability loss/3.5 fsps. It should be clear that looking for a higher level unbreakable buff will almost pay for itself.

Buff level	Chance	Durability Cost	Normalized Cost
0	0.00%	2700000	100000
100	50.00%	1350000	50000
150	75.00%	675000	25000
155	77.50%	607500	22500
160	80.00%	540000	20000
165	82.50%	472500	17500
170	85.00%	405000	15000
175	87.50%	337500	12500

Above table illustrates the value for each level. You should be willing to pay 70k more for a level 175 buff vs a 170, or 140k morefor a level 175 buff vs 165. Since the items you use may be difference, the table also include a normalized cost, so you can mutliply it for based on the value of your items, as well as the number of rounds of attacks you will have in your hunt.

Update : Potion of Indestructibility
With yesterday's (Dec-19 2009) update, players can now scavenge for items. One of the items is the "Potion of Indestructibility". It lives up to its name and provides a level 200 Unbreakable buff.
At level 200. It is garanteed that all items will not take any durability loss. Demand and supply has it that there are ample supply (since not all players use crystalline items), that the potion is probably going to be cheaper than buying a level 175 unbreakable buff. It'll definitely be worth while to use this potion instead of the buffs.

Buff Master

2008-11-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

Buff Master is a skill under the Specials Skill Tree.
It has a dependency on Brew Master, meaning that at least 10 points must be placed into Brew Master before you can have any points in Buff Master.
It is available to players of level 500 or higher.
Here's the official description :

0.2% per point chance to half the stamina cost (rounding up) when casting skills on other players. (Does not work on self!)

First to note, that does not mean that a player cannot cast the Buff Master buff on himself.
It means that the chance to half the stamina cost does not apply when the player with the buff cast skills on himself.
Since the skill is available to level 500 players, it is safe to assume that players will this skill will have it at the maximum level (which is level 175, with maxed Fury Casting).
That means there is a 35% chance to half the stamina cost.
Ignoring rounding, it is saving 17.5% of the stamina.

The buff itself cost 10 stamina and has a duration of 60 minutes (90 minutes with maxed sustain).
So if you are a level 500 or higher with the buff, and casting more than 60 stamina of skills on other players (within the duration of the Buff Master), you should first cast this buff on yourself.

If you need to buy this buff, then you have to figure out how much your stamina worth, vs how much are players charging you for this buff. The same ratio of 17.5% savings apply if you buy a level 175 buff. That means, if you will be using 100 stam in buffs (on others), you will be saving 17.5 stam. If you will be using 150 stam in buffs, you will be saving 26.25 stam (which is a little more than 1 fsp worth in stam). The going rate at the time of writing this blog appears to be 1 fsp to get this buff from a level 500 player.
There is also a Potion of Skills Master which you can buy from the Auction House.
That potion has a minimum price of 25,000 gold. Which I have often seen it as not being purchased at all. Maybe things will change after players read this blog, or maybe not.
That potion is a skill level 100 with a duration of 60 minutes.
That means it is a 10% savings in stamina.
So now, consider the following ::

100 stams used in buffing others
Option 1 : Buff yourself, 17.5 stam saved on average, 10 stam used on buff, 7.5 stam total savings.
Option 2 : Buy the buff, 1 fsp. 17.5 stam saved on average. (Not good, better to use the fsp to buy 25 stam).
Option 3 : Buy the potion, 25k. 10 stam saved on average. (Good deal, probably better than option 1 even for level 500 players).

150 stams used in buffing others
Option 1 : Buff yourself, 26.25 stam saved on average, 10 stam used on buff, 16.25 stam total savings.
Option 2 : Buy the buff, 1 fsp. 26.25 stam saved on average. This is better than using the fsp to buy stam.
Option 3 : Buy the potion, 25k, 15 stam saved. (This is a better savings, since it is cheaper than 100k/25stam rate. Level 500 players are probably better off using option 1, saving more stam without paying the 25k).

250 stams used in buffing others
Option 1 : Buff yourself, 43.75 stam saved, 10 stam used, 33.75 stam total savings.
Option 2 : Buy the buff, 1 fsp. 43.75 stam saved on average. (Assuming rate of 1 fsp = 25 stam, you saved 18.75 stam).
Option 3 : Buy the potion, 25k, 25 stam saved on average. (Assuming rate of 100k = 25 stam, 25k = 6.25 stam, you saved 18.75 stam) (This is the breakeven point if you use the current buff buying rate vs potion rate, as well as stamina valuation, and that means above 250 stams used, option 2 is probably the best option for players below level 500 or without the skill).

What if the price changes?
What if I value stamina differently?
This is especially true since it is 25 stamina is really worth less than 1 fsp (or 1 stamina is worth less than 4k). Players still buy stamina with fsp, but usually only when they are fully buffed. It makes sense to save the stamina and then to use it all in a bigger block. It is this same argument that players hunt with full stamina insted of daily. Consider selling buffs at 1 fsp per 25 stamina, that's like banking your stamina into a reserve, as you can buy the stamina at a more convenient/strategic time. Now, if the stamina bank allows you to withdraw only 25 stamina for every 30 stamina banked, will you do it? Maybe. But if you will, then the value of stamina just went down to 3.3k. Everyone will measure this differently, since at different stage of the game, you may want more fsp (for upgrades, equipment or otherwise), or more stam (when hunting and so close to finishing off that tough level and you're all buffed up).

So here are the variables :
Value of stamina = V(measured as gold per stamina, above examples were using 4k/stam)
Price to get the level 175 buff = B (in gold)
Price to buy the level 100 potion = P (in gold)
Amount of stamina used on others = S

Option 1 : 10 stamina used, .175 * S saved. Total savings = (.175 * S - 10)*V
Option 2 : Buy the buff, B. .175 * S saved. Total savings = .175 * S * V - B
Option 3 : Buy the potion, P. .1 * S saved. Total savings = .1 * S * V - P

Now you can plug in your own values and decide which option you use. Option 1 may not be available to everyone. Have fun buffing.

New 1-hit setup

2008-11-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

Previously, players were limited to 2-hitting after level 186.
However, the introduction of death dealer and counter attack changes the game play.
Let's compare the 2 most common setups.

Wither setups
In this setup, the player require 2 hits to kill a creature.
However, when wither activates, the creature's HP is halved, and it can be killed in 1-hit.
Because the highest level of wither one can get is level 350 using a potion, there is at least a 30% chance that 2-hits will be required.
As such, the setup will require armor or defense.
The armor setup was preferred primarily because it was garanteed to be safe.
However, creature enhancements now take effect and can do piercing strike, so now, the choice of armor or defense becomes quite subjective. It will also depend on the creature's attack and damage.
But I digress. Using such a setup, and with the wither 350 potion, the average number of hit is 1.3. That number might be a little lower with deathwish.

1-hitting setups
Death dealer introduces a new method that could be more efficient. With a high enough kill streak, one can get 20% more damage. That usually is sufficient for most levels to 1-hit if the maximum damage gear is used. DC potions and Keen Edge are nice buffs for creatures that require more attack. Counter Attack is added, but only as needed. So here's a simplified procedure to determine what you need. Finally, you'll need shield imp to protect the kill streak and keep Death Dealer at 20%.
0. Have a kill streak of at least 60. If not, kill some lower level creature without doubler to build up the kill streak, perhaps on your way from relic to portal.
1. Equip gears to maximize damage (ignore defense and armor).
2. Buff up with Berserk/Fury/Enchant Weapon/Enchant Armor.
3. Use spreadsheet link below to determine Dark Curse level needed.
4. If level needed exceeds 225, get a Keen Edge buff.
5. If level needed still exceeds, switch an item to increase attack. (In my case, I usually switch my rune to the Rune of Gamwala).
6. Use spreadsheet link below to determine if Counter Attack is needed.
7. If level is 0, no Counter Attack is needed. You can use any doubler level.
8. Use the chart below to determine which potion is needed and amount of extra stam used.

CA Level	Doubler potion recommended	Extra stam used
0	Any	none
1 - 36	Potion of Acceleration (level 500)	1
37 - 40	Potion of Supreme Doubling (level 450)	1
41 - 72	Potion of Acceleration (level 500)	2
73 - 80	Potion of Supreme Doubling (level 450)	2
81 - 109	Potion of Acceleration (level 500)	3
110 - 120	Potion of Supreme Doubling (level 450)	3

Finally, if the extra stam needed is 3 more than the previous level, it'll be better to hang back at the previous level instead.

Update : With the Google Spreadsheet, the formula was repeatedly deleted/overwritten.
Instead, I wrote a Google Gadget to do the calculation instead.
You can view the gadget here.

FAQ
After posting this blog, there were a few frequently asked questions, so I thought I'd post them here with answers of course.
1. Must I use the 10x or 11x doubler potion? Can't I use the 4x or 3x doubler buff?
Shield imp is more expensive than those doubler potion. Assuming you get hit 2% of the time (can be more due to dodge and nullify), each shield imp with 6 blocks last 300 attacks (in my experience, it is more like 200 attacks average), then with a 3k stam run will only require 1 buff with 10x/11x doubler, but will need 3 buffs for 4x doubler, and 4 buffs for 3x doubler.

2. Is the Death Wish buff useful in the new setup?
Death Wish can reduce the chance of misses due to no combat. But at 4.5% chance (assuming level 150) to save a block (which is about 8.33 stam), you need to have missed 22.2 times to save the 8.33 stam. But the buff cost 20 stam, so you need to have missed 53.333 times to break even on stam. Again assuming the 300 attacks, you need to have done 16000 attacks, or burn 160k stam to break even.
Short answer : No, not useful.

3. Is the Wither buff useful in the new setup?
Wither however triggers more often. A level 150 wither triggers 30% of the time. But it does not protect against the 2% misses nor of dodge. It does protect against Nullify, or if you don't quite have enough damage. Hard to know if it was a real save, but if you have 6 hits where the creature does not die in your run, then you should have used wither.
Short answer : Maybe, but only if creature has Nullify, or if you are a little short on damage.

4. Is the Force Shield buff useful in the new setup?
Shield Imp activates before Force Shield. Only in the vary rare event of you missing twice when you only have 1 block remaining on the imp will it have a chance to be useful.
Short answer No, not useful.

5. Is Shockwave useful in the new setup?
Shockwave activates only if you hit. So it does not protect against misses, but can protect against Nullify, much like Wither. But it activates only 15% of the time at level 150. It cost 10 stam, also less than Wither. Using the same Math, if you have 8 hits where the creature does not die in your run, then you should have used Shockwave.
Short answer : Maybe, but only if creature has Nullify, or if you are a little short on damage.

6. Is it better to stay back one level if I need to use CA?
When you kill a creature a level below you, you take a 20% xp penalty. This translate to you needing 25% more stam to gain a level. Now, if you need to use CA72 vs no CA for the previous level, CA72 uses only 18.2% more stam, so you should use the CA. However, if you need to use CA109, you will be using 27.3% more stam, so you're a little better off killing the lower level creature, xp wise. But you are killing more creatures (25% more) and therefore gets more gold. What about CA109 vs CA36 on previous level? You'll be using 36.4% more stam vs 27.3%, you should use the CA109. CA145 uses exactly the same 36.4% more stam. So CA145 vs CA36 is the same xp wise, but killing the lower level creature has the bonus of getting more kills and hence more gold.

7. OK, so what gears should I use to get the maximum damage?
I'm going to assume you have enough stam (about 4k is my guess for breakeven) to make it worth the while for buying a Potion of Truth (EW1000), and that you will be getting a level 175 Enchant Armor buff. All items listed will be considered as fully forged, and if perfect crafted if craftable. I'll start listing from level 186, what was previously considered the level where you can no longer 1-hit. I could be wrong, so feel free to message me if you find a better setup. I have never used some of these setups, since the buffs that allow for this were not available then. Berserk and Fury buffs are not considered, since they depend on your level up stats, not your gears. (Thanks to Tangtop for alerting me on my error with Ragnok set. Inferno Hammer + Witches Catseye Shield is better, and the Inferno Hammer alone has Elite Hunter 100).

Level 186 : Cu Sith set (1322) + Banshee Helm (222) + Axe of Brettal (406) + Marpolo Armor (313) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Pelacroz (333) + EW (406) + EA (54) = 3491
Level 200 : Lezhal set (658) + Feral Gauntlets (333) + Banshee Helm (222) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Marpolo Armor (313) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Pelacroz (333) + EW (599) + EA (54) = 3898
Level 210 : Lezhal set (658) + Feral Gauntlets (333) + Helmet of Phoal (330) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Marpolo Armor (313) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Pelacroz (333) + EW (599) + EA (54) = 4006
Level 225 : Feral Gauntlets (333) + Helmet of Phoal (330) + Red Spine Amulet (515) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Armor of Swalhaven (314) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Pelacroz (333) + Glowing Diamond of Kozyu (374) + EW (599) + EA (54) = 4238
Level 227 : Feral Gauntlets (333) + Helmet of Phoal (330) + Red Spine Amulet (515) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Armor of Swalhaven (314) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Hellmoor (428) + Glowing Diamond of Kozyu (374) + EW (599) + EA (54) = 4333
Level 235 : Steep Nojor set (1337) + Helmet of Phoal (330) + Red Spine Amulet (515) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Hellmoor (428) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (23) = 4651
Level 245 : Steep Nojor set (1337) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Red Spine Amulet (515) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Iron Ring of Fenaz (435) + Boots of Hellmoor (428) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (23) = 4886
Level 255 : Steep Nojor set (1337) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Red Spine Amulet (515) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Ring of Ignoal (438) + Boots of Hellmoor (428) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (23) = 4889
Level 274 : Steep Nojor set (1337) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Amulet of Laugeh (538) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Ring of Ignoal (438) + Boots of Hellmoor (428) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (23) = 4912
Level 275 : Steep Nojor set (1337) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Amulet of Laugeh (538) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Ring of Ignoal (438) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (23) = 5037
Level 276 : Gloves of Servala (501) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Amulet of Laugeh (538) + Inferno Hammer (599) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Ring of Ignoal (438) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (599) + EA (94) = 5145
Level 280 : Destroyer set (2218) + Gloves of Servala (501) + Amulet of Laugeh (538) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Ring of Ignoal (438) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Validar (385) + EW (115) + EA (94) = 5363
Level 300 : Destroyer set (2218) + Sabertooth set (1362) + Lord Valks War Gauntlet (575) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Libitalia (440) + EW (115) + EA (94) = 5878
Level 325 : Sabertooth set (1362) + Lord Valks War Gauntlet (575) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Libitalia (440) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 6092
Level 339 : Sabertooth set (1362) + Lord Valks War Gauntlet (575) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Witches Catseye Shield (352) + Green Spine Boots (533) + Rune of Kanthos (525) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 6177
Level 350 : Sabertooth set (1362) + Octo-Spine set (1686) + Lord Valks War Gauntlet (575) + Helmet of Xenix (565) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Green Spine Boots (533) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 6986
Level 380 : Sabertooth set (1362) + Octo-Spine set (1686) + Lord Valks War Gauntlet (575) + Sphynx Helmet (895) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Green Spine Boots (533) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 7316
Level 390 : Octo-Spine set (1686) + Crushing Fist set (2204) + Sphynx Helmet (895) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) + Green Spine Boots (533) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 7583
Level 399 : Octo-Spine set (1686) + Crushing Fist Gauntlets (745) + Sphynx Helmet (895) + Dazmorr Amulet (908) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Armor of Shoratal (541) +Ring of Arzmil (654) + Green Spine Boots (533) + EW (815) + EA (94) = 7686
Level 400 : Octo-Spine set (1686) + Crushing Fist Gauntlets (745) + Sphynx Helmet (895) + Dazmorr Amulet (908) + Sword of Ursa (815) + Argus Armor (590) +Ring of Arzmil (654) + Argus Boots (685) + EW (815) + EA (103) = 7986

8. What if I cannot get Green Spine Boots (or any other items)?
Well, above is for the maximum damage setup. You may not need all of them to 1-hit. You may require a higher level CA if you don't have enough damage. For me, from level 350-379, I hardly have to use the Green Spine Boots, and have been using Boots of Hellmoor. Just use whatever highest damage equipment you can find for your level.

9. Do I always use the highest damage gear?
No. What is listed above is highest damage. But sometimes, you need to trade damage for attack. eg. Saurus Shield vs Witches Catseye Shield, Boots of Hellmoor vs Green Spine Boots.
Sometimes, I trade a high attack boots too, like Boots of Styillpon for the Green Spine. The highest damage gear set is just a reference.

10. Is there a checklist, so that I know I have got all I need?
Checklist :
1. Death Dealer buff/potion and kill Streak (60 for level 175 buff, 400 for potion)
2. Summon Shield Imp buff
3. Dark Curse buff (use the gadget link above to determine the level needed)
4. Counter Attack buff (use the gadget link above to determine if needed and if so, which level)
5. Holy Flame buff (check also that creature is undead)
6. Nightmare Visage buff (check that this buff is not activated)
7. Unbreakable buff (not needed, but very highly recommended if using crystalline items)
Other offensive buffs show up on your profile, check those numbers are good against what you entered in the gadget.

Death Dealer

2008-10-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

Death Dealer is an offensive skill available to players level 500 and above.
Here's the official description :

For every 5 kills in a row, without dying, you gain +0.01% extra damage per point (Max 20% and vs. creatures only).

Since all players level 500 will probably have 100% Fury Casting, a player buff will almost always be a level 175 buff.
This buff is also available as potions.
The "Potion of Lesser Death Dealer" provides a level 25 buff and can be invented from plants and bottles bought from stores, except the Blood Bloom Root. However, the Blood Bloom plant is generally extracted for its flowers, so this potion is sort of a by-product and sold for a relatively cheap price.
There is also a "Potion of Life Stealer" that provides a level 40 buff.

The introduction of this buff, together with that of counter attack means you can possibly 1-hit some creatures that used to require 2 hits. However, this buff is a little tricky, since it depends on your kill streak. If you fail and die, your kill streak will be reset to 0, and the buff will provide no additional damage at all. If you have a long kill streak, you can get up to 20% more damage, and that can put you above the damage required for 1-hitting. So what's the difference between the player buff and potion buff? Well, the difference is the streak required to get 20% damage.

Kill Streak	Level 175	Level 40	Level 25
0 - 4	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
5 - 9	1.75%	0.40%	0.25%
10 - 14	3.50%	0.80%	0.50%
15 - 19	5.25%	1.20%	0.75%
20 - 24	7.00%	1.60%	1.00%
25 - 29	8.75%	2.00%	1.25%
30 - 34	10.50%	2.40%	1.50%
35 - 39	12.25%	2.80%	1.75%
40 - 44	14.00%	3.20%	2.00%
45 - 49	15.75%	3.60%	2.25%
50 - 54	17.50%	4.00%	2.50%
55 - 59	19.25%	4.40%	2.75%
>=60	20.00%
100 - 104		8.00%	5.00%
150 - 154		12.00%	7.50%
200 - 204		16.00%	10.00%
>= 250		20.00%
250 - 204			12.50%
300 - 304			15.00%
>= 400			20.00%

For the level 175 player buff, you only need 60 kills to get the 20% extra damage. For the level 25 potion buff, you will need 400 kills to get the 20% extra damage. But regardless of your attack, you can still miss (2% chance), and creatures can also have dodge capability. So if you can have armor/defense and still 1-hit, that'll be ideal. If you cannot, going suicidal will mean that you will probably lose your streak, unless you get defensive buffs to protect you from dying when you miss. Force shield and last ditch can give you a chance of surviving when you miss, but shield imp will definitely protect you and your kill streak.

If you don't have a long kill streak, but need the extra damage, you can do a few things. But in this scenario, you'll want the player buff, not the potion. First, if you are walking from relic to hunting grounds, you can kill a few easy creatures on your way. You don't have to kill 60 if you don't need 20% damage. Use the table above, if you only need 10%, you can just kill 30. You can also get a Counter Attack buff (see my previous blog entry), for extra damage, and then turn it off when you have enough on your kill streak.

If you have a kill streak of 400 or more, you can use the potion since it is likely to be cheaper than a player's buff.

And finally, if the death dealer does not give enough damage, you should also consider using both the death dealer and counter attack.

Ethereal Pillars and Portal

2008-10-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

Ethereal Pillars is a relic. My guild (Panic), usually try to capture and defend it. But we will not go to the extend to claim that it is our relic. I think guilds whom make claims like "Owners of Krul Pyramid" are just too arrogant.

Most members go to the relic to defend it after their hunt. So the first question becomes, how many stamina does one need to reach the relic? So let us count.
Instant Teleport back to Krul Island : 25
Enter Mountain Path : 1
(2,2) - (25,4) : (6D, 9R, 4U, 14R) : 33
Enter Ethereal Gateway : 1
(2,2) - (7,7) : (5R, 2D, L, 3D, R) : 12
Total = 25+1+33+1+12 = 72

That means in general if you get 4x doubler or higher, you should have enough stam to reach the relic after a hunt. That was not what prompted me to write this blog entry.
After sitting at the relic and stamina is full, you're now ready to hunt. Where's the nearest portal? I've got various answers, so let's see what they are :

Option 1 : Krul Island Teleport, walk to portal at Cathedral Ways (not recommended)
Instant Teleport back to Krul Island : 25
Enter Mountain Path : 1
(2,2) - (8,16) : (12D, 6R, 2D) : 20
Enter Cathedral Ways : 1
(6,10) - (6,2) : (8U) : 8
Total = 25+1+20+1+8 = 55

Option 2 : Krul Island Teleport, walk to portal at Varas Dungeon (not recommended)
Instant Teleport back to Krul Island : 25
Enter Krul Beach Forest West : 1
(2,2) - (7,9) : (R, 4D, R, 2D, L, 2D, 4R, U) : 16
Enter Varas Dungeon : 1
(17,17) - (9,8) : (R, 4U, L, 5U, 2L, D, 6L, U) : 21
Total = 25+1+16+1+21 = 64

Option 3 : Walk to portal at Cathedral Ways
(7,7) - (2,2) : (L, 3U, R, 2U, 5L) : 12
Enter Mountain Path : 1
(25,4) - (8,16) : (14L, 4D, 3L, 8D) : 29
Enter Cathedral Ways : 1
(6,10) - (6,2) : (8U) : 8
Total = 12+1+29+1+8 = 51

Option 4 : Walk to portal at Ethereal Graveyard
(7,7) - (2,6) : (L, U, 4L) : 6
Enter Ethereal City : 1
(2,2) - (3,15) : (5R, 5D, R, 7D, 5L, D) : 24
Enter Ethereal Graveyard : 1
(2,15) - (14,4) : (R, 6U, 9R, 5U, 2R) : 23
Total = 6+1+24+1+23 = 55

Surprisingly (or not), the fastest way is NOT to use the Instant Teleport. Option 3 walking to the Cathedral Ways is shortest. But the portal prices are more expensive in the Cathedral Ways. Walking to Ethereal Graveyard is only 4 stam more. How do the prices differ?

Destination	Level	Price at Ways Portal	Price at Ethereal Portal
Azlore Plains	100	15,000	3,400
Meyra Coast	206	30,900	7,004
Rhoi	301	45,150	10,234
Xinderoth	400	60,000	13,600
Teotal	511	76,650	17,374

So if you take the difference, and ask yourself, will you sell a 4 stam buff for that price, that'll help you decide which option to take. For destinations not show above, use the formula below :

Price at Ways Portal = (Destination Level) * 150
Price at Etheral Portal = (Destination Level) * 34

Counter Attack

2008-10-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Counter Attack is defensive skill available to players 400 and above.
Unlike other skills, putting the maximum skill points on this one is not necessarily good.
Here's the official description :

Uses 0.25% extra stamina (per point) to add 0.25% to both attack and damage. (Both values are rounded up, vs. creature only)

Without doubler, that simply means 2 stamina per round of attack. That means this buff is completely useless without a doubler. Since it also means it uses extra stamina, this buff is useless if you are already 1-hitting without the buff. It is only useful when the extra attack/damage allow you to 1-hit, when without the buff you would be 2-hitting. However, selecting the level of the buff you will want can be tricky.

3x doubler
With 3x doubler, up to a level 133 CA, 1 extra stam is used, making each round of attack using 4 stam instead of 3. With a level 165 Wither, you have almost a 1/3 chance of 1 hitting, so that makes it an average of 5 stam per attack (2 attacks will use 6 stam, while 1 attack will use 3 stam). This means this buff is still very useful if it can convert the 2-hit into a 1-hit. But the extra 33.25% attack/damage must allow you to 1-hit. Since the level 165 Wither is 5 stam per attack average, that makes level 134 or higher CA quite useless.

Level 1-133 CA : 4 stam / round of attack (Level 133 = 33.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 134-175 CA : 5 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 5.01 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 3.9 stam average / creature

4x doubler
With 4x doubler, up to a level 100 CA, 1 extra stam is used. 5 stam per attack, compared to a level 165 Wither which will use 6.68 stam on average. Even using the level 350 Wither potion is still inferior because that averages 5.2 stam per creature. Above 100 CA, 2 extra stam means 6 stam per attack, still better than a level 165 Wither.

Level 1-100 CA : 5 stam / round of attack (Level 100 = 25% extra attack/damage)
Level 101-175 CA : 6 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 6.68 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 5.2 stam average / creature

7x doubler
7x doubler comes from the Super Doubler Potion. These potions were dropped by creatures found in Scavenging (I cannot remember the name of the creature). These potions can be traded.

Level 1-57 CA : 8 stam / round of attack (Level 57 = 14.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 58-114 CA : 9 stam / round of attack (Level 114 = 28.50% extra attack/damage)
Level 115-171 CA : 10 stam / round of attack (Level 171 = 42.75% extra attack/damage)
Level 172-175 CA : 11 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 11.69 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 9.1 stam average / creature

10x doubler
10x doubler comes from the Potion of Supreme Doubling. These potions are sold in the Auction House under 'Special'. These potions once bought are bounded and cannot be traded or given away. Now, this gets tricky, as you will want to determine how much extra attack/damage you will need to 1-hit.

Level 1-40 CA : 11 stam / round of attack (Level 40 = 10% extra attack/damage)
Level 41-80 CA : 12 stam / round of attack (Level 80 = 20% extra attack/damage)
Level 81-120 CA : 13 stam / round of attack (Level 120 = 30% extra attack/damage)
Level 121-160 CA : 14 stam / round of attack (Level 160 = 40% extra attack/damage)
Level 161-175 CA : 15 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 16.7 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 13 stam average / creature

11x doubler
11x doubler comes from the Potion of Acceleration. This is a potion you can make from a recipe. Many level 400 players opt to get level 36 counter attack, making this setup probably the most useful, especially if that 9% extra attack/damage allow you to 1-hit. Also, note that since you will be 1-hitting, you can consider the suicidal setup and forgo defence and armor, but do remember, you can still miss (2%) or creature can dodge, and you can die. But the 1-hitting vs 2-hitting pay off is so great that usually it is worth the risk, especially if you can find some place to stash the gold as you hunt.

Level 1-36 CA : 12 stam / round of attack (Level 36 = 9% extra attack/damage)
Level 37-72 CA : 13 stam / round of attack (Level 72 = 18% extra attack/damage)
Level 73-109 CA : 14 stam / round of attack (Level 109 = 27.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 110-145 CA : 15 stam / round of attack (Level 145 = 36.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 146-175 CA : 16 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 18.37 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 14.3 stam average / creature

16x doubler
16x doubler comes from the Potion of Greater Doubler. This is a potion comes from scavenging, and it used to be 11x. HCS made a recent change and it is now 16x.

Level 1-25 CA : 17 stam / round of attack (Level 25 = 6.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 26-50 CA : 18 stam / round of attack (Level 50 = 12.5% extra attack/damage)
Level 51-75 CA : 19 stam / round of attack (Level 75 = 18.75% extra attack/damage)
Level 76-100 CA : 20 stam / round of attack (Level 100 = 25% extra attack/damage)
Level 101-125 CA : 21 stam / round of attack (Level 125 = 31.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 126-150 CA : 22 stam / round of attack (Level 150 = 37.5% extra attack/damage)
Level 151-175 CA : 23 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 26.72 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 20.8 stam average / creature

21x doubler
HCS gave a bounded item, Christmas Present 2008. It is a level 1000 doubler with 240 mins duration.

Level 1-19 CA : 22 stam / round of attack (Level 19 = 4.75% extra attack/damage)
Level 20-38 CA : 23 stam / round of attack (Level 38 = 9.50% extra attack/damage)
Level 39-57 CA : 24 stam / round of attack (Level 57 = 14.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 58-76 CA : 25 stam / round of attack (Level 76 = 19.00% extra attack/damage)
Level 77-95 CA : 26 stam / round of attack (Level 95 = 23.75% extra attack/damage)
Level 96-114 CA : 27 stam / round of attack (Level 114 = 28.50% extra attack/damage)
Level 115-133 CA : 28 stam / round of attack (Level 133 = 33.25% extra attack/damage)
Level 134-152 CA : 29 stam / round of attack (Level 152 = 38.00% extra attack/damage)
Level 153-171 CA : 30 stam / round of attack (Level 171 = 42.75% extra attack/damage)
Level 171-175 CA : 31 stam / round of attack (Level 175 = 43.75% extra attack/damage)

Compare ::
Level 165 Wither : 35.07 stam average / creature
Level 350 Wither : 27.3 stam average / creature

Now that we have so many different doubler level, I thought we should have a table that compares them. Comparing stam is unnatural, so we have to divide that by the doubler multiplier, since the xp given is multiplied by that. That'll give us the xp per stam compared to straight 1-hit. I also added comparisons for staying back one level, for those tough levels that may require high level of CA.

Buff \ Doubler	3x	4x	7x	10x	11x	16x	21x	Bonus
CA19							1.05	4.75%
CA25						1.06		6.25%
CA36					1.09			9.00%
CA38							1.10	9.50%
CA40				1.10				10.00%
CA50						1.13		12.50%
CA57			1.14				1.14	14.25%
CA72					1.18			18.00%
CA75						1.19		18.75%
CA76							1.19	19.00%
CA80				1.20				20.00%
CA95							1.24	23.75%
CA100		1.25				1.25		25.00%
Back level (1-hit)	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.25	NA
CA109					1.27			27.25%
CA114			1.29				1.29	28.50%
CA120				1.30				30.00%
Wither 350	1.30	1.30	1.30	1.30	1.30	1.30	1.30	NA
CA125						1.31		31.25%
Back level (CA25)						1.33		NA
CA133	1.33						1.33	33.25%
CA145					1.36			36.25%
Back level (CA36)					1.36			NA
CA150						1.38		37.50%
CA152							1.38	38.00%
CA160				1.40				40.00%
Back level (CA50)						1.41		NA
CA171			1.43				1.43	42.75%
CA175	1.67	1.50	1.57	1.50	1.45	1.44	1.48	43.75%
Back level (CA72)					1.48			NA
Back level (CA75)						1.49		NA
Back level (CA100)						1.57		NA
Back level (CA109)					1.59			NA
Back level (CA125)						1.64		NA
Wither 165	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	1.67	NA

So what's really better? Is it better to use 11x or 16x doubler? I've been asked this question quite a lot, so perhaps I should write it down here. My typical hunt usually use about 1800 stam in hitting, and 150 stam in walking while using 11x doubler. Yours may differ. If CA is not needed, then clearly, the 16x doubler is better. I would have used only 103 stam in walking, saving 47 stam. If CA is needed, and CA25 works, then I would have used CA36 and 1964 stam hitting, while CA 25 will use only 1913 stam, saving 49 stam (in addition to the 47 stam in walking). If CA 36 is not enough, and CA 50 works, then clearly 16x doubler is better again. Now, the tricky part comes when CA 25 is not enough, but CA 36 is enough. With 11x and CA36, I'll still be using 1964 stam in attack, but with 16x and CA50, I'll be using 2025 stam in attack. So I use 61 stam more with 16x, minus the 49 stam saved in walking, I still use 12 stam more. But wait, there's one more saving grace. I would have hit fewer times with 16x, so I will use less blocks on an imp. I'll say I use 1 block less, worth 8 stam, so I am down 4 stam. Unless all my levels are as such, that 4 stam probably don't justify the cost of changing doubler potion between levels. Another intangible on the 16x doubler is the time you need for your hunt is reduce by 30%. That could mean to some, no rebuff, or fewer rebuffs.

Assist Buff

2008-09-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

So today, I was trying out the assist buff. Players level 250 and above can gain the skill to cast this buff. It is under the Defensive skill tree and cost 30 stamina (very costly) to cast this buff. But the base duration of this buff is 120 mins, more than sufficient for most. The buff is also available as a potion, which can be bought in the Auction House. The potion will be a level 150 buff with a duration of 30 mins. A level 150 buff means it should activate 7.5% of the time, quite nice if that activation can convert a 2-hit into a 1-hit.

Here's the description

+0.05% per point chance of one of your allies assisting in combat vs. creatures. (Ally is randomly selected and adds 50% of their attack, defense, damage, armor and hp - note this also excludes allies whom are more than 25 levels above you.).

Note that ally is randomly selected and adds 50% of their stats. The description says it excludes allies whom are more than 25 levels above you. However, Laughsalot in guild chat said he had used this buff and never observed any players below 25 levels assisting. I decided to test it out on my own. I had help from UlyMe and rhann123, UlyMe is more than 25 levels below me, while rhann123 is just 1 level below me. I used the potion buff, and had rhann123 assisting me. I have not observed through my hunt any assist from UlyMe, sufficient for me to conclude that players 25 levels below are also excluded.

I also wondered what happens to the buff when I have no eligible ally. Will there be a message indicating activation, but got no assist due to lack of eligible ally? So I removed rhann123 and never got any message. So when there are no eligible allies, the buff just stays passive silently.

Now for the strategies in using this buff. It does not make sense to have an ally randomly selected. So to make full use of this buff, one should have only ONE eligible ally. That ally will have to be equipped to serve a purpose.

Offensively, that ally could have additional damage, to convert a 2-hit creature into 1-hit when it activates. Note that since this is not a separate attack, that means the damage that needs to be added is [Creature HP/2]*1.053, ignoring armor, assuming the player has just enough damage for 2-hit. But since only 50% of the damage is added, it is quite hard to get add that amount of damage. Instead, the player probably will have to have a lot more than just enough damage for 2-hit, and use assist to make up the difference. So here are the equations :
[Ally Damage] > ([Creature Armor]*1.1053 + [Creature HP]*1.053) - [Player Damage])*2
This use of the assist buff is probably the most useful, but could be hard to achieve in terms of ally damage.

Defensively, that ally could have all armor, to protect against creature piercing. This is the part that bothers me a little. Does the ally armor (50% of it) get added before the creature does its piercing, or after? What's the difference one might ask. Let's say the player and ally both have 2000 armor. If the armor was added before piercing, then the damage done will be based on (2000 + 1000)/2 = 1500 armor. If the armor was added before piercing, then the damage will be based on 2000/2 + 1000 = 2000 armor. This was the case in my test with rhann123 as my assist ally. The actual numbers were a little higher, but if it ws the latter, I should receive only 1 damage when both assist and piercing event occurs in the same combat. However, I died, showing armor was added before piercing is computed. As such, for defensive use of assist to be useful, the ally will need to have double the armor of the player, assuming the player have just enough armor to defend against a non-piercing strike. Like the damage setup, that is again unlikely, so maybe it can be used to make up the difference if the player was closer to double the needed damage. So here's the equations for armor setup to be useful :
[Ally Armor] > ([Creature Damage]*1.1053 - [Player Armor]/2)*4

Having the ally gear up for attack or defense does not seem to make sense.

New Offensive Buffs

2008-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Some of my previous blog might be outdated and needs update.
HCS has recently turned on creature enhancements
This means creatures can now do piercing strike, critical attacks and other enhancements.

However, new buffs have also recently been introduced.
Two buffs I'll like to get my thoughts out on are Spectral Knight and Death Dealer.

Death Dealer adds damage based on your kill streak, but max out at 20% damage.
For a level 160 buff, a player will need a kill streak of 65 to max it out.
For level 170 or 175 buffs, a kill streak of 60 is needed to max it.
For the remaining of this blog entry, I'll assume the kill streak requirement has been met.

For 1-hitting, the damage needed was [Creature Armor]*1.1053 + [Creature HP]*1.053
For most players, this used to stop at level 186.
But Death Dealer allows for an additional 20% damage, so together with other buffs, it might be possible to continue to 1-hit.
With Death Dealer, the damage needed is reduced to [Creature Armor]*0.9211 + [Creature HP]*0.8775.

Other damage buffs adds damage based on stats or items but can be used in conjunction with Death Dealer :
Berserk : With potions, adds up to 70% of your base damage stats.
Fury : With a max level 175 buff, adds up to 17.5% of your base damage stats.
Enchant Weapon : With Potion of Truth, adds 100% of your weapon's stats.
Enchant Armor : With a max level 175 buff, adds 17.5% of your armor stats, and armor can have damage stats too.

The following buffs/enhancements are rather similar.
Piercing, reduce creature armor by 50%
Shatter Armor, reduce creature armor by 75%
Spectral Knight, reduce creature armor by 100%

However, they do not always activate.
Piercing, enhancement. At 100% enhancement, it activates 66% of the time.
Shatter Armor, offensive buff. At buff level 175, it activates 8.75% of the time.
Spectral Knight, offensive buff. At buff level 175, it activates 17.5% of the time.

These are useful when you cannot directly 1-hit a creature with full armor.
These skills should be used together with Wither buffs.
To 2-hit (or 1-hit when Wither activates), the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.
To 1-hit when Spectral Knight activates, the damage required is
[Creature HP]*1.053.
Since above level 186, the creature HP will be more than twice that of its armor, the damage requirement is higher.
To 1-hit when Shatter Armor activates, the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053/4 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.
To 1-hit when piercing activates, the damage required is
[Creature Armor]*1.1053/2 + [Creature HP]*1.053/2.

Example :: Level 186 (Cacti Cat)
Creature armor (max) = 655, Creature HP (max) = 3104.
1-hit : 3992 damage
1-hit with death dealer : 3327 damage

1-hit when wither activates : 2358 damage
1-hit when spectral knight activates : 3268 damage
1-hit when shatter armor activates : 3449 damage
1-hit when piercing activates : 3630 damage

So depending on what you can achieve with your damage, you may or may not benefit from the new buffs. Count your damage before buying those buffs.

(Anyone wants to write a calculator for this? Please let me know and I'll post a link to it).

Attack Groups

2008-07-13T03:50:00.000-07:00

Today, a guild member asked me to join a group to take on an Elite. So I checked and found that the group already have enough attack and damage. When I posted the stats needed, he was more than willing to learn and asked me how to get the stats. I felt that what I explained is probably useful for everyone, so I'll post this entry and perhaps elaborate on it.

First thing first, when you form a group to kill Elites or Champions, the purpose is usually to get a drop. You are also using not only your stam, but those of your guild mates. As such, I strongly recommend getting a Find Item buff at the least, and possibly even a Four Leaf buff.

Now, how do you determine the creature stats? Well, if you're already in the same room as the creature, you can view it. Otherwise, this link provides the stats for most creatures (if not all) : http://fallenswordguide.com/creatures/

First stats, you must be able to hit the creature, so the group needs attack. Note that the leader's buff counts towards the group attack, so it will be nice to get a DC buff which reduces the creature defense.
1. Group Attack >= Creature Defense * 1.1053

Your damage needs to be at least higher than creature's armor, otherwise, you'll be doing only 1 damage when you hit.
2. Number of hits = Ceiling [(Group Damage - Creature Armor * 1.1053) / (Creature HP * 1.053)]

If you can kill the creature in 1 hit, then that's all the stats you need. However, if you need more than 1 hit, then you need to survive an attack. You can have either defense which means avoid getting hit, or armor which reduces the damage you take.
3a. Defense > Creature Attack * 1.1053
3b. Armor > Creature Damage * 1.1053

You only need defense or armor, not both.

Now, you can view your group stats if your guild has the Military Advisor structure. Otherwise, the group stats is the sum of the group leader's stats, and 20% of the stats of every other member. Note that the group stats is dynamic, and is the stats of the member at the time of the attack.

Value of Wither

2008-07-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

I had questioned myself on the value of doubler 4 months ago. At that time, I was still 1-hitting, and Wither had no value there. Now that I have past the stage of 1-hitting (it stops at level 186), I had been getting Wither buffs. But what's the value of wither?

Without wither, I'll need 2 hits to kill a creature. With wither, when it activates, I kill the creature in 1 hit. A level 150 wither gives a 30% chance of activation. Is it worth getting a higher level wither? Does a level 155 wither make a big difference? Does the level 350 wither potion make a big difference?

If you face 10 creature without wither, you'd use an average of 20 stam. With a level 150 wither, on average, 3 of the 10 creature will require only 1 hit, while 7 of the 10 creature will require 2 hits, making a total of 17 hits. So the average hit per creature will be 1.7 hits.

The true value of wither is a little more complicated, since telling you the average hit still does not translate to something easy to measure and comparable to Adept Learner or Librarian.

Now, consider the case where you face an average of 3 creatures in a room on average. Without wither, you'd use 7 stam to kill 3 creatures (6 to hit and 1 to move). With a level 150 wither, you'd use an average of 5.1 stam (1.7 hit per creature as discussed earlier) to hit, and 1 stam to move into the room. Your effective gain is (7/6.1)-1. Expressed as percentage, that is 14.8%. This makes it comparable to getting a level 148 Librarian buff.

In terms of stam, that means if you used 1000 stam, you have gotten an additional 148 stam worth of xp and gold. This is like getting a level 148 librarian AND a level 148 merchant together!

Average \ Wither	150	155	160	165	170	175	350
0.5	8.1%	8.4%	8.7%	9.0%	9.3%	9.6%	21.2%
1.0	11.1%	11.5%	11.9%	12.4%	12.8%	13.2%	30.4%
1.5	12.7%	13.2%	13.6%	14.1%	14.6%	15.1%	35.6%
2.0	13.6%	14.2%	14.7%	15.2%	15.7%	16.3%	38.9%
2.5	14.3%	14.8%	15.4%	15.9%	16.5%	17.1%	41.2%
3.0	14.8%	15.3%	15.9%	16.5%	17.1%	17.6%	42.9%
3.5	15.1%	15.7%	16.3%	16.9%	17.5%	18.1%	44.1%
4.0	15.4%	16.0%	16.6%	17.2%	17.8%	18.4%	45.2%
4.5	15.6%	16.2%	16.8%	17.4%	18.1%	18.7%	46.0%
5.0	15.8%	16.4%	17.0%	17.6%	18.3%	18.9%	46.7%

Since everything is a percentage, its value really depend on the stam you'll be using. If you need to pay 30k more for a level 170 buff than a level 150 buff, and will be using 1000 stam. Assuming an average of 3 creatures in each room, you'll need to ask yourself will you pay 30k for (17.1-14.8 = 2.3) 23 stam?

With the blog entry on doubler, I had maintain a list of buffers. But really, I am just repeating what others had done better, so instead of listing the buffers here, I encourage players to use this tool provided by the Fallen Empire guild to find players selling the wither buffs (or any other buffs) :
http://fallen-empire.wzarlon.dk/find-buffers.asp?sorting=buffprice&skillbuffID=18

My base stats

2008-03-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

I have been telling my guild mates to put all their base stats into damage.
I have all my base stats in damage (minus a few ignorant early levels).
Here are the reasons :

1. Attack items are generally cheaper than damage items. It is much easier to make up for lack of attack, and much cheaper also.
2. Berserk buff works on base stats. This means I will never need Rage buff to get the same buffing effect as those who split their stats between attack and damage. I use the Berserk buff when I am low on damage.
3. And when I am absolutely low on attack and cannot find gears to compensate, dark curse is a great buff that comes in handy.

The value of Doubler

2008-03-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

So recently, I have questioned myself, what is the value of doubler? A 3x doubler allows you to kill a creature using 3x the amount of stamina, gain 3x the experience, 3x the gold. If you lost the battle, you lose only 1x the amount of stamina, the xp and gold lost are also not multiplied.

For those using the 'suicidal' style, where one only has attack and damage, no armor and defense, then effectively, you have lowered the death rate by 3x.

For those using crystalline items, the loss in durability is not multiplied, so again, you gain an effectively level 70 unbreakable spell.

On top of that, it is like walking into a room with 3 times the amount of creatures. But what do you gain in having 3 times the amount of creatures? Can it be measured? Well, that answer depends on the average creature you see in a room to begin with. So, if you see 2 creatures in a room on average, you would normall use 3 stamina (1 to walk into the room, 2 to kill each of these 2 creatures) for killing 2 creatures. Now, you use 7 stamina (1 to walk into the room, 6 to kill each of those 2 creatures with 3x doubler) for killing 6 creatures. Your effectiveness went from 2/3 to 6/7. That's a 29% increase (((6/7)/(2/3))-1). Again, all these depends on average number of creatures in each room, as well as the level of the doubler, so below is a short reference table :

Average \ Doubler	2	3	4	5
0.2	71%	125%	167%	200%
0.4	56%	91%	115%	133%
0.6	45%	71%	88%	100%
0.8	38%	59%	71%	80%
1.0	33%	50%	60%	67%
1.2	29%	43%	52%	57%
1.4	26%	38%	45%	50%
1.6	24%	34%	41%	44%
1.8	22%	31%	37%	40%
2.0	20%	29%	33%	36%
2.2	19%	26%	31%	33%
2.4	17%	24%	28%	31%
2.6	16%	23%	26%	29%
2.8	15%	21%	25%	27%
3.0	14%	20%	23%	25%

So as expected, the doubler is more valuable when the average number of creature is less. The gains from higher level doubler is diminishing, as expected.

I used to keep a list of doubler buffers here, but this tool by Fallen Empire is doing a far better job in updating buffer list :
http://fallen-empire.wzarlon.dk/find-buffers.asp?sorting=buffprice&skillbuffID=18

Stats needed for beginners

2008-03-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

So, there was a walkthrough for beginners. But everyone's equipment differs. So what are the stats that can let you do 1-hit kills, so that you can level up quickly?

[Level 1] Native - Attack 3, Damage 8, Armor 3/Defense 3
[Level 1] Lost Sheep - Attack 6, Damage 6, Armor 2/Defense 9
[Level 1] Rat - Attack 2, Damage 4, Armor 2/Defense 2
[Level 2] Ragdoll Thief - Attack 10, Damage 17, Armor 4/Defense 3
[Level 2] Scorpion - Attack 5, Damage 11, Armor 4/Defense 5
[Level 2] Zombie - Attack 9, Damage 13, Armor 4/Defense 4
[Level 3] Ogre - Attack 7, Damage 21, Armor 6/Defense 10
[Level 3] Snow Leopard - Attack 9, Damage 19, Armor 8/Defense 12
[Level 3] Troll - Attack 7, Damage 22, Armor 3/Defense 10
[Level 4] Goblin - Attack 7, Damage 26, Armor 7/Defense 14
[Level 4] Skeletal Mage - Attack 12, Damage 28, Armor 9/Defense 9
[Level 4] Skeleton - Attack 9, Damage 29, Armor 7/Defense 7
[Level 4] Lesser Goblin Shaman - Attack 10, Damage 20, Armor 6/Defense 15
[Level 4] Vampire - Attack 10, Damage 24, Armor 7/Defense 15
[Level 5] Succubus - Attack 14, Damage 36, Armor 14/Defense 15
[Level 6] Desert Snake - Attack 17, Damage 43, Armor 23/Defense 24
[Level 8] Sand Golem - Attack 42, Damage 46, Armor 28/Defense 27
[Level 8] Djinn - Attack 33, Damage 50, Armor 18/Defense 23
[Level 9] Shambler - Attack 34, Damage 50, Armor 33/Defense 27
[Level 10] Ice Witch - Attack 36, Damage 70, Armor 26/Defense 41
[Level 10] Rock Golem - Attack 39, Damage 49, Armor 39/Defense 26
[Level 11] Serpentine - Attack 35, Damage 75, Armor 31/Defense 34
[Level 11] Nomad Warrior - Attack 31, Damage 81, Armor 47/Defense 39
[Level 12] Nomad Magi - Attack 39, Damage 80, Armor 39/Defense 38
[Level 13] Valsar Vampire Overlord - Attack 41, Damage 136, Armor 34/Defense 34
[Level 13] Vampire Lord - Attack 34, Damage 86, Armor 33/Defense 55
[Level 14] Slime Golem - Attack 28, Damage 140, Armor 25/Defense 81
[Level 14] Fire Snake - Attack 46, Damage 75, Armor 45/Defense 67
[Level 15] Fire Imp - Attack 30, Damage 104, Armor 56/Defense 36
[Level 16] Fire Golem - Attack 35, Damage 63, Armor 67/Defense 70
[Level 16] Goblin Mage - Attack 56, Damage 108, Armor 47/Defense 67
[Level 18] Orc Warrior - Attack 55, Damage 112, Armor 56/Defense 59
[Level 18] Lesser Fire Demon - Attack 45, Damage 102, Armor 64/Defense 68
[Level 19] Skeletal Ice Mage - Attack 67, Damage 101, Armor 62/Defense 51
[Level 19] Abomination - Attack 57, Damage 116, Armor 56/Defense 56
[Level 19] Orc Brute - Attack 67, Damage 126, Armor 65/Defense 65
[Level 20] Wild Cat - Attack 45, Damage 143, Armor 20/Defense 113
[Level 21] Raptor - Attack 36, Damage 191, Armor 19/Defense 136
[Level 22] Fell Demon - Attack 60, Damage 128, Armor 65/Defense 68
[Level 23] Demonic Frog - Attack 114, Damage 109, Armor 52/Defense 72
[Level 24] Nightshade - Attack 60, Damage 129, Armor 69/Defense 50
[Level 25] Ramdal Stalker - Attack 93, Damage 113, Armor 39/Defense 67

You may be better off fighting creatures a level below if you do not meet the requirements to do a one-hit kill.

My Thoughts on Buffs

2008-03-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

When I first started, I play all my stamina every hour. However, after I learn about buffs, I realize this game is not about playing every hour. Buffs, also called skills, require stamina to cast, but they can help you gain XP faster. So when should you buff?

Let's take an example when you have 120 stamina (so you can use 100 stamina). Adept Learner at skill level 100 lets you gain 20% more xp. So if you cast it, you only have 90 stamina remaining to kill creatures. But the 20% gain means you'd get xp equivalent of 1.2 * 90 = 108 stamina. Therefore you should cast the adept learner. Librarian at skill level lets you gain 10% more xp statistically. So after casting the Adept Learner, if you cast Librarian, you'd have 80 stamina remaining. But now, you get 30% more xp. But 1.3 * 80 = 104, so you are better off casting only Adept Learner.

What if you don't have the buff, or that your skill level is low?
There are many players selling buffs. Those you see advertizing in the shoutbox are usually very expensive. Those players are out there to make a profit, so as to justify the fsp used to advertize their shop in the shoutbox.
However, there are may players offering value buffs.
Nicram Duel (link was also given in my first blog post) has this post documenting value buffers :

http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=45574

Think of it this way : Are you willing to spend (5k) to gain 26% more xp (example for Adept Learner level 130)? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and buy the buffs. Next, is probably Libarian, are you willing to spend (5k) to gain 13% more xp (example for Librarian level 130)?

Treasure Hunter is another common buff, and its value is even easier to measure. Above, you're trading gold for xp. But Treasure Hunter is trading gold for gold. First you have to have an estimate of how much gold you are making. A level 25 typically makes about 10000 gold (assuming you do a 1-hit kill), when using 500 stamina. Treasure hunter gives you 20% more gold. So a treasure hunter is worth about 1700 gold. If you can get a buff for that price, you will break even. If it cost more than that, you are better off not buying it. At level 50, you get about twice as much gold, and the break even value for that buff is about twice that also, so you will be willing to spend 3400 gold on a Treasure Hunter buff.

Note, all the above also points to not using all your stamina immediately, but saving and then getting buffed and using it all at once.

When getting free buffs from guildmates, the buffs are free to you, but they cost your guildmates stamina. So please be considerate, and use it well. I am usually very upset when I buff my guildmates and they leave without using all their stamina.

Here is a list, not as comprehensive, but useful for starters (more as a reference fro my guildmates):

Adept Learner (AL) / Librarian (LIB)
SuperWave - (AL level 140 - FREE), (LIB level 140 - FREE)*
Niohoggr - (AL level 135 - FREE), (LIB level 135 - FREE)*
rhann123 - (AL level 130 - 2k), (LIB level 130 - 2.5k)**
lilsicko - (AL level 135 - 0.8k), (LIB level 135 - 0.8k)
Mccoyn - (AL level 130 - 1.2k), (LIB level level 110 - 1k)
kendi - (AL level 135 - 1k), (LIB level 135 - 2k)
ken88kin - (AL level 135 - 2k), (LIB level 135 - 2k)
Marbunz - (AL level 135 - 2k), (LIB level 135 - 2k)
PWIII - (AL level 135 - 2k), (LIB level 135 - 2k)****
shutuplos - (AL level 135 - 2k), (LIB level 135 - 2k)
mospeada - (AL, LIB, TH, MERCH level 124 - 7k for all)*****
bewslayer - (AL, LIB, TH, MERCH level 140 - 10k for all)

* : donations accepted
** : price reflects 1/2 price discounts for guild "A K A T S U K I", and players below level 15
*** : free for players below level 25
**** : free for players below level 20
***** : price is for guild "A K A T S U K I".

Newbie Guide

2008-03-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

A lot of new players join a guild asking for help. Granted that it is in the interest of the guild to help, a player should also learn to be independent. A guild (such as ours) providing 2 basic structures (Weaponsmith and Battle Totem of at least level 3 each), should provide sufficient help, at least until level 30, even if guildmates do not provide any further help.

This post by darkarchon provides a walkthrough on how one can progress from level 1 through 30, on the Frostbite set alone. If you get help beyond that Frostbite set, you should do even better.

http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=39559

The guide goes on to level 65, but the Girath set mentioned in the post at level 30 now cost 6 fsps (market price), and will not be easy for a level 30 to accumulate. Perhaps at that time of posting, it was not that expensive.

So moving on from level 30, you may want to learn to plan your own equipment. If you have been following the guide above, all your level upstats (or at least 90% I hope), should go to damage. But how do you plan your equipment? What attack, armor, damage is needed?

maegglin posted this

http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=32263

In summary, these are what you need (according to his post).
1. Armor >= Creature Damage * 1.1053
2. Attack >= Creature Defense * 1.1053
3. Damage >= Creature Armor * 1.1053 + Creature HP * 1.053

The principal is to survive occasional misses (and partly praying creature do not do piercing damage), but to 1-hit 98% of the time.

There is another thought, which is to simply have an overwhelming attack against creature defense. They never miss indicating that attack vs defense is not limited to 98% chance as discussed above. Reference players : zapwacker and Ishie (can be found in my ally list).

I have also seen other players choosing a defense style, where a high enough defense reduces the chance of creature hitting, instead of using armor to take that damage hit. This could be a better style at higher level, since creatures start to have piercing attacks at level 80s. Reference player : JoetheRat (can be found in my ally list).

Useful Links

2008-03-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

In this first post, I'll post the links that I use regularly.

First, this link documents (though not always accurate or complete) the quest, creatures, items, locations, realms and enhancements in the game.

http://fallenswordguide.com/

I read the forum sometimes, but there are a few particular posts that I find useful.
Link to the forum : http://forum.fallensword.com/

Though the guide shows the various realms, it is not easy to visualize how they are linked.
This post is very useful in navigating between the realms in the game.
http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=27569
(Thank you, Mowglik).

When I first started, I have always wondered where is the best place to go train.
This post provides such a list (and there are other such lists that differ a little).
http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=8634
(Thank you, crace).

Finally, I also realized the importance of buffs.
Buying buffs can be expensive, but if you shop around, there are reasonable buffers.
http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=45574
(Thank you, NicramDuel).