Re: The Exposure Tournament
kestegs said:
Yea I don't understand the normal attack either. Personally I like to go with at least a level 4-5 Dragon talon, because you really need the AR bonus so that you can actually hit.
This is an interesting suggestion. The AR bonus sure gets big fast with this skill. Since I plan on having several +skills (there is already +4 on my stashed gear for Hell), the AR for DTalon will be at least on par with Phoenix Strike.
I decided to try it out in the last part of Bloody Foothills. For the first time ever, I mapped a kick skill to the left button, so I could use it like I use Attack with PS. Result: I ran out of mana
really fast...
Well, OK, I have mana steal on my claw, and upgrading my rare boots to exceptional for the next session made DTalon much better at not gobbling up all my mana. I mapped back Attack to the A button, but put DTalon on the S button (replacing Tiger Strike that I´m not using anymore) so I can have quick access to either skill. For taking out Fire Towers and such, Attack is far superior because you can´t leech from the towers, I need about 6 Meteors to take them down and they have no Defense (so Attack hits just as well, needing only 4 mana for a cycle instead of 14...).
What´s my verdict for PS-DTalon now? In short, I do not like it.
I don´t know, it just feel so...
messy (for the lack of a better description). Not only do I need to cope with the crazy screaming and the different attack speeds, I also have to either freeze the pack first (granted, something I often do anyway for safety reasons), make sure something is behind the monster I kick, or I need to follow after the knocked back monster to attack it again. If I happen to knock back the monster twice, it´s no longer in the radius of the initial Meteor flames. Not good.
In most other tournaments (where you have Shadow and merc), this could maybe have worked, but not here.
In short, using DTalon adds so much micro-management and so many little things I need to keep track on that it gets much harder to maintain my overall control and feel for the situation. It gives me less time to keep track of things like:
"Are there more monsters arriving?"
"Did that one get frozen by ice shards or not?"
"About one second to go until it´s time for a CoS recast."
"I should move over and hit
that monster instead for better placement of my next lightning burst!"
"I will soon need a Mind Blast to push that boss back because it looks really painful to tank."
Phoenix Strike and Attack look and feel exactly the same. Same swing, same attack speed. I am sticking with this. I was wrong in my last post. AR with Attack was 1900, not 1200. If I can add another 1000 AR for the late game, I will be fine in this department. I know some players think 8000 AR is low, but 3-4000 is plenty good enough for me. I guess my whole way of handling the fights takes the risk of substantial whiffing into account.
Horror Archers in Abbadon are some of the most dangerous critters in the game. They chill and do heavy poison damage. CoS and PS freezing were crucial here. I still had to do many quick retreats, and go back for potion refills.
This dude was the worst of the bunch.
I have a new BF switch weapon: The Meat Scraper. Decent damage (but I know I only get 3/8 of it), big OW and some MF. I had to wait for a level-up to use it, as I needed one more point in STR.
Faith had a nasty situation in Crystalline Passage. She got cornered by two early Champion Infidels, the ones that use Zeal and do cold damage. I tried desperately to use Mind Blast to break free. After consuming half of the potions in my belt, I realized I had spammed MB on the wrong spot. Moving the cursor two centimeters did the trick. I ran back up the stairs and cast a TP next to Thresh Socket (I killed him last session, so I had just run past him this time). When I got downstairs again, only one of the Infidels found me. I had now buffed with thawing potions, but it was still a tough fight.
"Good choice of claw type, Anya, but that´s clearly the wrong skill tree."
I found a decent rare Greater Claws, though. Some good AR bonus and +2 to Phoenix Strike.
The little obstacle between Faith
and this boss was great. The boss can´t hit her, and it is too stupid to go around the obstacle. I backed away and took his last bit of life with BF. Appropriate boss name - getting caught in the explosion could have been a Doom Bang indeed. I don´t know how much FE explosion have been toned down in the current patch, but why take chances if you don´t have to?
I brought too few potions to the Ancients fight. Not too few to make it through, but too few for comfort. I had my Teleporting staff, which got me to a one-on-one fight with Spectral Hit Talic. He hit pretty hard with his whirling. When he was defeated, I had only 3 healing potions and 4 rejuves left. LE Korlic demanded the use of the healing potions, and Stone Skin Madawc must have had strong weapons because I needed 3 of the rejuves against him. Phew!
I realized I had forgotten my Strength claw in the stash, so I stopped at the last waypoint. The distance from WP to exit isn´t too long, but it may be a tough gauntlet to get past the monsters now. I hope to use semi-fast but controlled progress, with CoS, Mind Blast and Dragon Flight to make my way past them.
[Highlight]Destoyer Faith, dual claws Phoenix Striker, level 73, NM Worldstone Keep level 3 next[/Highlight]
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