E/Mo Solo UW

Quote: Originally Posted by LightningHell

Actually, after looking at it again, I think you have to throw Aura away for Essence Bond. You just won't be netting enough Energy, IMO.

I'd second lightning, when running 9 heal 8 prot (which is, imho, the correct stats to use), it really helps to have dual energy boosts. Especially as all your damage is energy based.

As for stats... 8 prot, 9 heal, 16 earth, 5 more to whatever would work.

What do you think of a proffesion to be a E/MO? I think they work quite well, because you have the ability to heal and to do some other cool things with them as well. BTW guys, do you know where the preist of Bathalzar is? It says my account has free unlocks and i dont know where the preist is, i already crossed the ascalon wall. Any advice?
SAM

The free unlocks are only for your PvP character; that means, it is only available to your PvP character when you unlock the specified unlock skill/rune/item. Go to any PvP Arena, and you will see one.

The E/Mo is my overall buffer, 55-er, Heal Party spammer. I love playing one of those.

Quote: Originally Posted by mountaindew

thats my problem too ... to stay alive is np but the dmg :-/

anyone any ideas?

I liked the idea of a 55 E/Mo, so I took a spare set of armor, bought extra superior runes, and equipped a stashed -50hp offhand. Now properly equipped, and armed with just enough information to be a hazard, I found I had three concerns to work through: energy management, damage output, and survival.

I'm certainly no expert; these are just some things I've been working up to. I haven't gone to UW yet, since I still haven't capped Obsidian Flesh, so I haven't tried to test on Aatxes. Thus far I've tested only on Trolls outside Droks for what that's worth.

Energy Management: This turned out to be pretty simple. I found I had to run both Essence Bond and Balthazars Spirit, otherwise I would run out of energy and could barely maintain Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze. Blessed Signet was an option, but energy return wasn't very good, and it was subject to interrupt. The various "attunement" skills helped, but not enough, and they took up a slot I needed for other skills.

Damage Output: I finally settled on Aftershock and Crystal Wave, which I felt had the best combination of damage vs. cost, cast and recharge time. I tried a variety of combos from among the various elements. Inferno and Flame Burst did nice damage, but seemed a bit slow. Whirlwind and Aftershock does great damage, but the monsters flee the AoE, which I felt didn't help (and this could get your partner killed in a 2-man UW run). Water skills were not effective, since Frozen Burst has lower damage output, and Deep Freeze with 3sec cast was interrupted (plus what good is slow movement when you are intentionally standing there and taking hits).

Survival: I run Mending and Protective Spirit always (of course), and I need Healing Breeze almost always as well. I also settled on using Ward Against Melee, which takes the heat off when I'm getting beat down, but still let's enough hits through to give me energy from Essence and Balths. This is where I truly missed having Bonetti's Defense on my skill bar. I tried a few different options, but none really worked out well. Mist Form held promise, but I found I lost my energy return from Essence and Balths while Mist Form was active (resulting in death from no energy). I haven't tried Kinetic Armor, but I have read it is a good option provided you can cast spells frequently enough to refresh it.

I've been procrastinating on going out to cap Obsidian Flesh, but when I finally get it, I'm gonna try some UW runs. The only option I see is to give up Ward Against Melee so I can equip Obsidian Flesh, so it looks like I'll have to lose my ward...

Well, that's about it for now. Again, I'm no expert, and this obviously doesn't directly apply to UW (yet). These were some of my thoughts and experiences, though I'm still very early on in the project.

Some quick reactions:

Flameburst casts more often than Aftershock, for more damage, and Inferno casts as often as Crystal Wave, so I don't understand that point at all.

I also don't see the point of Kinetic Armor if you're going 55 HP.

When you go to cap Obsidian Flesh, remember that if Maxine Coldstone spawns, Harm Coldstone won't. And the text descriptions of where he is are screwy. Find an actual map with an actual X on it to guide you to where he'll be. And take a full set of henchies, And plan your own skill bar for the fact that he runs Obsidian Flesh. (But not Permanent Obsidian Flesh.)

I didn't understand whether you'd tried Ether Prodigy as your elite.

Erm, you do realise that the very first words of Ether Prodigy read 'Lose all Enchantments'. Do that and your...erm... dog meat?

I've been using Mark of Rodgort + Immolate (for nightmares) and Ether Renewal as my elite to go E/Mo in UW. Never had energy problems vs Aatxe since i can cast a barrage of spells and end up with 72 energy. Its a sure fire way of getting through the aatxe...the grasping however.... only ever killed 1 group of them and that was sheer luck of them not interrupting MoR and Ether Renewal letting me kill em before they fear me spammed me to death.

Quote: Originally Posted by Francis Crawford

First, thanks to all who posted about my comments... I certainly wasn't trying to be definitive about what would or wouldn't work; just wanted to offer my seat of the pants impressions.


Quote: Originally Posted by Francis Crawford Flameburst casts more often than Aftershock, for more damage, and Inferno casts as often as Crystal Wave, so I don't understand that point at all. Well, I can't say you're wrong... I initially went with Flame Burst and Inferno, since it certainly looked better on paper. However, once I started experimenting, I found the fire combo just didn't seem quite as effective. Maybe fire is better; I can try a stopwatch next time to get no-b.s. kill times. In the end, both combos were good, I just like the earth combo better.


Quote: Originally Posted by Francis Crawford I also don't see the point of Kinetic Armor if you're going 55 HP. No argument from me on this; I simply brought it up as something that might be worth trying. I think my approach on this was to use Kinetic Armor to mitigate damage when you are really getting beat down. I still haven't tried it though...


Quote: Originally Posted by Francis Crawford

I'm not quite sure if this is accurate, but when i was testing out earth magic without using Obsidian Flesh as elite, i picked Stone Daggers. If i remember rightly they could instagib Dying Nightmares saving you the elite slot.

They do?

I don't think so...however, a few wand attacks can kill them, so 2~3 Daggers would kill it.

Anyone have armor stats on them?

Quote: Originally Posted by LightningHell They do?

I don't think so...however, a few wand attacks can kill them, so 2~3 Daggers would kill it.

Anyone have armor stats on them? Armor = Crap
Health = Crap

2 Wand Shots from my max dmg customized wand on my necro kills each of them, so I would imagine that Stone Daggers should be able to nail at least one of them... but if you get 2-3 of them at once, you're screwed ^^

sooo i finaly had some time today for some more try outs with my e/mo, here my results:

my basic skill setup is, [55hp ofcourse ]:
Obsidian Flesh [Elite] (Earth Magic)
Protective Spirit (Protection Prayers)
Healing Breeze (Healing Prayers)
Balthazar's Spirit (Smiting Prayers)
Mending (Healing Prayers)
Essence Bond (Monk other)

so i have 2 slots open for dmg skills

i´ll just post my 2 "best" attempts:

first tryed Lightning Touch + Ice spikes ( lightning touch dmg increases cause of the water hex for ~30 so touch = 80dmg + 30-40 ice pikes)
this would have been enough dmg, problem here was i always got interrupted while casting the hex

next try was: obsidian flame, crystall wave + kick out obsidian flesh for glyph of engery
enough dmg, some interrupts on obsidian flame and the glyphe but it worked quite well. first aaxte died, but after that my energy was so down cause of the exhaust (glyphe cause of 15secs recharge only at every second or third flame possible) i just died.

now i spend too much platin and i´m realy tired (and near creating a monk for soloing :P )

anyone any ideas / improvments on how for example not get interrupted at the water hex + lightning build, or any other possible water hex then ice spikes which got faster cast time or more dmg, or any other help, i would be realy happy

Why not use Whirlwind+Aftershock?

aftershock= area effect = enemies run away
whirlwind = area effect = enemies run away

not very good idea :P

You need 2 AoE attacks in the spance of 3 seconds to trigger fleeing, so used sparingly those an work fine

What does it matter if they run off anyway, whirlwind/aftershock wont have recharged before they come running back so you've lost nothing. All the damage comes and goes before they flee, unlike Balth Aura etc.