- Jan 22, 2019
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Extracted from Rune Finding League 2017: Final Results
NanoMist:
Completed all 20 hours with ES nova sorc. Fun build to play with, especially getting surrounded by large herds and mowing them down. In my opinion, ES is essential for comfortable running, given the close proximity needed for nova to do its work. Nova has no synergies, so there's plenty of points to spare in ES and TK. I found the best balance was to have around 2k mana to run comfortably, and putting the remainder into vitality to escape mana burn pack. Died a few times during the 20 hours, mostly to high damage boss packs.
Gear wise, it's a 105 FCR variant with self-wielded Infinity, which allows my combat merc to use Insight for the great mana and life replenish. Meditation to sustain mana pool for both ES and nova spam. I only had enough +skills to reach level 38 ES, which is 93% absorb. Life pool stayed topped off with Meditation/Prayer combo, so a lower level ES is viable, no need to reach level 40 ES.
The consequence of the 2 second aura check the game performs is that sometimes I'll static with conviction and sometimes without. In any scenario, 2 statics will drop cows to below 50% life with the massive -ELR from Infinity, then follow up with nova. Best is with conviction, with cow life dropping to almost 1/3 health in 2 statics.
Being able to put cows into hit recovery is also a crucial defensive measure along with ES. Nova, like most spells in the game, uses the 16th divisor for hit recovery calculations. At P5, my nova does enough damage to reliably inflict between 1/16 and 1/8 of max cow HP, which provides a 37.5% chance to put a cow into hit recovery every 8 frames during nova spam. At P7, with greater cow HP, my nova does not reliably reach 1/16 max cow HP, and consequently cows are able to freely swing at my sorc. This was very noticeable during P7 testing, my mana pool was taking a much bigger beating, and my equipment would need to be repaired every 3 runs or so from being hit so often. This resulted in extra time loss and is the main reason for choosing P5 setting. Could be possible to make it work in P7 with items like nova ormus, 2/20 ammy, and beta bkwb, but I don't have any of those.
As far as numbers go, I did a short 10 run sample using the exp. method to measure number of cows killed. Given the non-aim radial mechanics of SF and nova, I was able to count the actual number of boss packs and champion groups killed as I went along. This was important since I tended to skip those groups that had might/fanaticism that would kill my merc, or would just be stragglers left over due to having higher life.
At level 94, averaged 52999 exp per run with 11.8 minions and 1.8 champions killed per run. Regular cow provides 108 exp, so all this works out to 440 cows per run, or 147 cows per minute. The number of cows per run is on the high end, but I believe it since I clear Cow King's pen + I hardly skip any of the regular cow clusters.
NanoMist:
Completed all 20 hours with ES nova sorc. Fun build to play with, especially getting surrounded by large herds and mowing them down. In my opinion, ES is essential for comfortable running, given the close proximity needed for nova to do its work. Nova has no synergies, so there's plenty of points to spare in ES and TK. I found the best balance was to have around 2k mana to run comfortably, and putting the remainder into vitality to escape mana burn pack. Died a few times during the 20 hours, mostly to high damage boss packs.
Gear wise, it's a 105 FCR variant with self-wielded Infinity, which allows my combat merc to use Insight for the great mana and life replenish. Meditation to sustain mana pool for both ES and nova spam. I only had enough +skills to reach level 38 ES, which is 93% absorb. Life pool stayed topped off with Meditation/Prayer combo, so a lower level ES is viable, no need to reach level 40 ES.
The consequence of the 2 second aura check the game performs is that sometimes I'll static with conviction and sometimes without. In any scenario, 2 statics will drop cows to below 50% life with the massive -ELR from Infinity, then follow up with nova. Best is with conviction, with cow life dropping to almost 1/3 health in 2 statics.
Being able to put cows into hit recovery is also a crucial defensive measure along with ES. Nova, like most spells in the game, uses the 16th divisor for hit recovery calculations. At P5, my nova does enough damage to reliably inflict between 1/16 and 1/8 of max cow HP, which provides a 37.5% chance to put a cow into hit recovery every 8 frames during nova spam. At P7, with greater cow HP, my nova does not reliably reach 1/16 max cow HP, and consequently cows are able to freely swing at my sorc. This was very noticeable during P7 testing, my mana pool was taking a much bigger beating, and my equipment would need to be repaired every 3 runs or so from being hit so often. This resulted in extra time loss and is the main reason for choosing P5 setting. Could be possible to make it work in P7 with items like nova ormus, 2/20 ammy, and beta bkwb, but I don't have any of those.
As far as numbers go, I did a short 10 run sample using the exp. method to measure number of cows killed. Given the non-aim radial mechanics of SF and nova, I was able to count the actual number of boss packs and champion groups killed as I went along. This was important since I tended to skip those groups that had might/fanaticism that would kill my merc, or would just be stragglers left over due to having higher life.
At level 94, averaged 52999 exp per run with 11.8 minions and 1.8 champions killed per run. Regular cow provides 108 exp, so all this works out to 440 cows per run, or 147 cows per minute. The number of cows per run is on the high end, but I believe it since I clear Cow King's pen + I hardly skip any of the regular cow clusters.
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