Uber Noober Doober

[Leeny]

Hello everyone! First just wanna say great job on the shard, good times thus far!!
Even if it is slowely sucking away my real life ; )

I'm Leveling a weapons for Relayer and about to completely overhaul my gear.
Got some question for you Excelsior Gurus, thanks in advance for any replies.

1. Does anyone use Counter Strike?
If so, is it true it's best to keep your DCI zero? As incoming attacks first have to get through a defense check before having a chance to parry?
If you take into account the DCI loss with Divine Fury, where should your DCI be..20ish?

2. Divine Fury. It raises your hit chance also, so no need to cap HCI to 45 correct?

3. A Bone crusher Relayer has 75% DI, the DI cap for equipment is 100%. Other than the 10 strength, why have more than just one BC relayer? Lower defense doesn't apply on non weapon slot right?

4. Anyone use Feint for damage mitigation on heavy hitters?

5. Am I right to assume that if you use Vampiric Embrace your just s#*t outta luck when it comes to the duration of Chivalry spells (consecrate wep) due to karma?

6. Is there a way to get functioning buff/debuff bars?

7. And last but not least. I find a pack of pets to be irritating; am I insane for wanting to reach a point where I can solo EVERYTHING w/out pets? What percentage of Excelsior can do this?

[Alex]

Regarding 3), yes the cap is 100% and only the damage increase and strength carry over to a relayer. Lower def as you state does not count when relayered. Now this shard is a lot about DPS (damage per second) and high hit points, so the higher your strength is, the higher your base damage is and the more hit points you have. 1 Bonecrusher might not make the difference but when you have 16 of them or whatever number, it makes a difference.

My personal opinion.

[Leeny]

Hey Alex! Didnt you sell me that fresh BC?!
Thanks for the info. Any BC after the first is strictly for the 10 strength.

Ok one question down 6 to go

[Sandor]

Hello and welcome to the shard leeny I am very new myself being around for 2 months but done alot of reading and working on my 2nd BC relayer as we speak.


1. I don't use Counter Strike but I would recommend you max both your DCI and HCI and maybe go over your DCI cap some to compensate for Divine Fury debuff. I know some vets don't have DCI so that they can take advantage of RPD but you need the high HP to be able to take the hits. I am adding RPD to all my relayers but will have DCI and HCI maxed as soon as posible too.

5. I use Vampiric Embrace all the time and my Karma is maxed at 15k, remember you only cast it once and it will stay on till you recast it again. I only reapply when I die so not hard at all to be a Vamp and stay at glorious

7. Once you have some relayers, GoC and a decent lvled wep you can pretty much solo most of the content that is out atm even tho 5 fully ointed Imps can speed up most of does fights by alot

Don't overlook mistvale cloak, sash, and Reaper quest they are great items you can use till you replace with relayers, I myself am using the leggings as well since 6 months will give me more than enough time to replace with something more permanet. Enjoy the road and don't be in a hurry to get to end game there is alot to do in this shard

[Pariah]

6. Is there a way to get functioning buff/debuff bars?

I think Yoda has some of these in the dev forums. Check those out.

7. And last but not least. I find a pack of pets to be irritating; am I insane for wanting to reach a point where I can solo EVERYTHING w/out pets? What percentage of Excelsior can do this?

Not insane, but not really possible either that I am aware of. There are certain mobs that are one hitters such as the flesh eating dragon that still one shot me even though I'm over 500 HPs unbuffed. However, there are only a handful of times I have to use pets, either from these mobs, or to assist with the GOC quest. I'm not sure what the percentage of players in this group is, but there are quite a few.

A note on the RPD thing and DCI. It is true you can kill low level mobs with high reflect when you get to a large number of relayers. However, the use cases are pretty limited (gauntlet, etc.). Plus, I've noticed when I kill mobs solely with RPD I can't loot them right away. As a result, I would say it's my opinion to max DCI, but others will suggest otherwise.

[Leeny]

Thank ya so much for all the info Alex, Sandor and Pariah!

[Ilsanor]

Personally, I use counterstrike all the time. It's just another attack if it can proc, which in turn increases your DPS. Only drawback is the increased mana drain, but that can be countered easily with high ML on the weapon and good equipment. And same as those before me said - I keep my DCI high as well. While you may get more procs out with a low DCi, it also increases the overall damage you take - if you get ganged up by a lot of mobs, the lack of DCI might get you killed.

Never used feint though - it's very costly mana-wise, so you can't keep it up consistently during a fight, and there are no monsters that hit hard enough to warrant it and that can be killed in the 5s Feint lasts. It *might* be of marginal use when fighting paragon ancient wyrms to survive their first breath salvo.

[Leeny]

Thanks Ilsanor : ) yeah I was trying to think outside of the box, hoping maybe feint would help mitigate a Fire Ruby Red Dragons breath. I've added a few SoT's but it still nearly one shots me. Grind leveling a couple BC's now so.....ONE OF THESE DAYS DRAGON, TO THE MOON!! : P