Curse

Giro · Feb 03, 2010, 03:46 AM // 03:46

Hey, so I was going to mess around with a PvE shadow bomber build focusing on mystic sandstorm.

My question is, say I have enough enchants to max out the damage on mystic sandstorm (130). I have "By Ural's Hammer!" active, will that raise the damage past the cap, or will that not work?

Now for the build. So far I got this:

[sand shards]
[aura of displacement]
[aura of holy might]
[heart of holy flame]
[mystic sandstorm]
[other]
[other]
[other]

With 12+1+1 earth prayers and 12+1 mysticism.

It has 4 enchants which maxes damage from mystic sandstorm, 1 shadow step, and 3 damaging enchants.

For the 3 remaining skills, I was thinking about BUH if it does increase the damage. Other than that, maybe another shadow step (e.g. death's charge) and another enchant (Aura of Thorns?) to replace AoD during its downtime to run another spike. Or, just generic utility skills to spam during downtime (e.g. Asuran summon skill, pain inverter, battle standard, EVAS, heals?).

Thoughts?

Note: I know this probably won't work great in PvE, but I'd like to try it out.

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/User:Orphu..._Shadow_Bomber

Ariena Najea · Feb 03, 2010, 04:38 AM // 04:38

You could always throw in Wind Prayers and add Mystic Twister. Add in Mystic Healing, maybe Dwayna's Touch, etc and you have some party support before you tele in and spike. Also, you might want to consider Shadow Fang instead of Aura of Displacement. You may want to ditch HoHF for something more useful like Vital Boon. Make sure to add Mirage Cloak too for more damage. Perhaps throw in Grenth's Fingers to snare foes so that they better stay within the AoE of Sand Shards.

sonofthort · Feb 03, 2010, 04:52 AM // 04:52

i don't think "By Ural's Hammer!" will be effected by the cap. I'm pretty sure sandstorm caps itself at producing that much base damage, but any additional damage modifiers you have ontop of that will still have their effect.

Giro · Feb 03, 2010, 05:02 AM // 05:02

Mystic Twister, Mirage Cloak, and Grenth's Fingers would add too much energy to the spike. As it stands now, I will have just enough energy to complete the whole spike. And I chose AoD over Shadow Fang because AoD counts as an enchantment, where AoD doesn't.

Also, HoHF deals damage on cast and burn on removal, so it's pretty useful. I could replace one of the enchants with Aura of Thorn to cripple to prevent kiting, though.

EDIT: If you look at the 2 builds at the bottom of http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/User:Orphu..._Shadow_Bomber,

You precast Sand Shards and wait for the energy to regain. Then it takes 45 energy to complete the spike. With a +15 energy staff you have 40 energy. However, a high energy staff such as the Staff of the Forgotten also has the +5 energy above 50% inscription, giving you 45 energy, enough to complete the chain. You should be able to port in, spam skills, and port out without going under 50% health in most areas (hopefully).

The first of the 2 bars uses the cripple from Aura of Thorns to counter kiting, and adds weakness and bleeding. The second bar uses Tryptophan Signet to counter kiting and does more damage.

In both cases, when you cast Mystic Sandstorm, it strips the enchants, giving you 15 energy in the first case, 12 in the second, due to Mysticism, which is enough to cast EVAS to finish off whatever remains.

EDIT 2: Forgot about the 3 PvE skill limit, so had to replace AoHM with Dust Cloak in the second bar.

Nechrond · Feb 03, 2010, 08:16 AM // 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariena Najea

Make sure to add Mirage Cloak too for more damage.

This. Don't whine about the energy, it's a fantastic skill. Besides, you're getting part of the cost back from Mysticism anyway.

Giro · Feb 04, 2010, 07:37 PM // 19:37

It's not "whining". If I don't have enough energy to cast the whole spike, it won't work.

However, I forgot about the energy from Radiant insignias. I made changes to the build, and made a shadowstep-less Arcane Zeal variant.

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/User:Orphu..._Shadow_Bomber

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/User:Orphu..._Arcane_Bomber

Arrogant Bastard · Feb 04, 2010, 08:00 PM // 20:00

AoS over EVAS to reduce downtime.

Giro · Feb 05, 2010, 04:24 AM // 04:24

Sorry, but what is AoS?

Edit: Air of Superiority? That's a great idea. Thanks!

Lanier · Feb 05, 2010, 04:30 AM // 04:30

Don't use Aura of Displacement in a mystic sandstorm build. Pious Renewal is far better as it allows you to get back almost all the energy spent on performing the spike, thus allowing you to perform the spike sooner again.

I would do a three way attribute split into mysticism, earth, and wind prayers. Definitly use mirage cloak, heart of holy flame, sand shards, and aura of holy might. Mystic Twister will give some bonus damage before using mystic sandstorm. Therefore, I would recommend:

Pious Renewal
Sand Shards
Heart of Holy Flame
Mirage Cloak
Aura of Holy Might
Mystic Twister
Mystic Sandstorm
Optional

Giro · Feb 05, 2010, 05:32 PM // 17:32

Well, the whole point of the "Shadow Bomber" is to tele in, bomb, tele out.

However, that is why I made the "Arcane Bomber" variant which is very similar to what you posted, except using Arcane Zeal instead of Pious Renewal. It also used Aura of Thorns as a snare to keep the enemies from kiting in place of Aura of Holy Might and then for the optional used "By Ural's Hammer!" for more damage (hopefully, still needs to be tested).

Pious Renewal would give me 5 energy with an 11 Myst spread, or 10 energy with a 12 Myst. Arcane Zeal saves me 9 energy during casting with 11 Myst. Having 11 Myst (and 12 Earth) gives me a higher damage ouput and only one less energy than the 12 Myst (and 11 Earth) spread with Pious Renewal, so I would think that would work better.

However, Pious Renewal costs 5 less energy to cast than Arcane Zeal. So, under maximum damage conditions (12 Earth, 11 Wind, 11 Myst), Pious Renewal costs 5 less energy and gives me 5 energy after casting Mystic Sandstorm, for a total of 10 energy. Arcane Zeal saves you 9 energy during casting. The one energy is a negligible amount. So the only main difference is if you want to get the energy while you are casting the spike, or when it has finished.

Upon examing the spike set up, I'm not sure Pious Renewal would work. It would cost 5 energy to cast Pious Renewal, (you can precast Sand Shards so I'm ignoring the energy cost) 15 energy for Mirage Cloak, 10 for Heart of Holy Flame, 10 for Aura of Holy Might (for my build, 5 for Aura of Thorns and 5 for "By Ural's Hammer!", so 10 in total), 10 for mystic twister, and another 10 for Mystic Sandstorm. That is a total of 60 energy to cast the whole spike, which is more than the max.

With Arcane Zeal (after precasting Sand Shards), however, it costs 10 energy for Arcane Zeal, 10-2 for Aura of Holy Might (or 5-2 for Aura of Thorns and 5 for "By Ural's Hammer!"), 15-3 for Mirage Cloak, 10-4 for Heart of Holy Flame, then 10 for Mystic Twister and 10 for Mystic Sandstorm. That totals to 56 energy.

The dervish can obtain (with a high energy +15 and +5^50% staff, and full Radiant) 53 energy. So even with the Arcane Zeal build, after casting Arcane Zeal, the player has to wait until he regenerates 3 energy before rushing in. It may also be possible to use the Pious Renewal build and wait until 7 energy is regenerated, but by that time Pious Renewal may have ended.

So in conclusion, I believe that Arcane Zeal is better than Pious Renewal in this regard.

sportacus · Mar 08, 2010, 11:47 PM // 23:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonofthort

i don't think "By Ural's Hammer!" will be effected by the cap. I'm pretty sure sandstorm caps itself at producing that much base damage, but any additional damage modifiers you have ontop of that will still have their effect.

Just tested it, and the quoted post is correct.

sportacus · Mar 10, 2010, 08:08 PM // 20:08

imagine a team of D/A all with long-lasting enchantments on themselves with the last 7 maintaining recall on the one before him. When ones uses mystic Sandstorm, recall ends, and the one who casted it is shadow-stepped into range, uses mystic sandstorm, and so on. If it works, that could be one heckuva spike.