8/19/2011
-I'm writing this part from a mobile device, sorry for any problems.
-GOT 4TH IN LADDER RACE!!!!
-Played a Shock Nova witch duo'd with Manoka who was a Shock Nova Templar.
*we have practiced our duo for two days. trying out multiple different strategy but it was always a tank + witch. The strategy that we decided to use was something we didnt practice. I was skeptical at first but from a duo stand point, it was brilliant. You had the raw power of witch then you have the hybridized tanking power house of the Templar.
*With this combination, not only did we had no troubles with single bosses (which is why we decided against double witch) we could also create a lovely dead pile of bodies around us.
*The main strategy was to kill many monsters higher level than us as fast as possible. This was done in one of two ways.
*The first way I'll name the ball. It called for a combined spam of ice nova and shock nova while the both of us were very close together. This simply abused the fact that both of us have heavy amounts of aoe damage. We would kill all the monsters running towards us without ever needing to actually take damage.
*The combination of the two skills is what made this strategy truly powerful. Ice nova could cover for the weakness of Shock nova while Shock Nova covered the weakness of Ice nova. Shock nova would take apart weaker enemies attempting to get to us. then the monsters that do reach us will get frozen and still take a considerable amount of damage because of shock.
*Our second method involved the templar's superior power to tank. The templar would take the lead and get the attention of the monsters while I would try to maximize the damage output of my shock nova keeping them at a distance. This would involve much kiting on my part but once again Ice Nova helps with my need to need to move away from the enemies.
*In an act of pure genius my partner specced into getting power charges. From what I heard of him requesting me to use ice nova more often I assume it had to do with shattering enemies. From my perspective his character got turned into more of a support caster. Rather than the pure damage I was specced into he had more conditional damage.
*Double nova was the core build but we had a couple of other skills to act as utilities or bridging points. For me these skills were: Ice Pulse ; this was my early game power, it was continually spammed until I obtained shock nova, Cold Snap ; this was taken as a long range disable to deal with pesky ranged monsters slightly out of reach of our other skills.
*From my observations of my partner he used nearly the same skills but in a different manner. Ice Pulse; once again a bridging skill but also a boss killer. The skills superior disabling and damaging capabilities made it an obvious choice. this was chosen over ice spear because of its superior power earlier in the game because of its bridging capabilities, Shield Charge?; Manoka had picked up this skill purely for utility he could get in front of me and to different locations faster.
*I do not know how Manoka's skill tree looks other than knowing that he gained power charges.
*My own skill tree was based on pure damage. Starting from the left choice of blue I went up and grabbed the elemental damage plus the electrical damage bonus. Then ignoring everything up ahead and took the most direct way up to the electrical part of the web. Incidentally along the way there were quite useful things there especially the energy shield stuff. In the Electric tree, I tried to take evertything that wasnt Shock weapon damage and resist self shock. Generally everything there was useful considering the nature of shock.
*Our equipment was beautifully set up. None of our equipment (other than potions) were needed to be shared. Both of us were looking for different things. He looked for armor. Because he was a templar he could wear all of the heavy armor giving him heavy amounts of tanking power. he had a shield to further increase his tanking power and then I think either a dagger or wand for more damage. His role was to soak damage and be a conditional damage dealer. This set of equipment helped him do that.
*What I needed was survivability and continual pure damage output. This was achieved by collecting only energy shield armor. Energy Shield allowed me to constantly cast spells even when being damaged. This allowed the kill strategy "The Ball" to work out better. I picked up wand and focus for the obvious reasons.
*Our strategy was practiced and simple. It involved multiple check points and quick thinking.
*Hillocks had to be done solo. The idea was to kill just enough to reach level 2 after killing hillock. It involved running at hillock killing things along the way. For me as a witch it required me to kill the rock spiiter that could jeopardize my life.
*We killed things when they begun to mob up as we run past them. With our powerful aoe damage this was the most effective way. We did not clear any areas just enough to finish quests and be on the same level as the monsters. When we were the same level as the monsters we moved area to maximize xp.
*We actually started out as a group of 4 but we quickly found that our new found members were holding us down. We immediately split out of the group and back to our duo. I'm not sure if 2 people is the sweet spot or simply because they were unpracticed.
*We kept killing without stop until our first check point, Brutus. After killing, looting the chest, and reaching the waypoint outside we returned to town to collect our rewards from all previous quest. This should put us right at level 10. Starting our shock novas.
*Our next checkpoint was forest encampment. We skipped the award for Merveil because I already got a Cold Snap gem from drop but this is where we could've gone back and get it.
*Our kill order for the bosses here were Alira, the Bandit, then Oak. Between Bandit and Oak we dropped by at thicket to take the major exp there because of the easy monsters. We kept our levels below the monsters we were fighting continually to maximize xp.
*Rinse and repeat in cruel. We made it nearly to merciless as level 30 in 4 hours.
*The biggest bug we encountered was that I didn't know my partner crashed going into cruel and thought I had to kill hillock solo. I went ahead and did so but to find out I have bugged the instance for him and he was stuck outside. We had to reset the section to get him through.
*Our crash problems was mainly countered by a practiced way of regrouping. If either of us crashed the remaining player would wait for the party to reform then create a portal for the other to use never stopping killing monsters.
*I truly believe better players using our build could do better than duo witch that beat us.
In the end it was a good and fun race. But it was intense, so intense I dont think I would do it again. Too much for a newbie APRG player like me. Good Night.
