Curse

Pliskin MacReady · Aug 30, 2007, 09:56 PM // 21:56

A simple question. I was exploring The Falls with henchmen yesterday for the cartographer title, and I just happened to get a Totem Axe drop. I already have a Furious Axe of Enchantment (En+5) for myself, but Tahlkora is currently using an Insightful Protection Staff of Enchanting. I figure with the Totem Axe I could give her a focus and sell the staff.

I wanted to know if I could equip her with the martial weapon. I don't want her running up to enemies to engage them. Will she still be effective at protecting with the axe in "Avoid Combat" mode? I know the AI can be screwy sometimes.

Lafayette · Aug 30, 2007, 11:49 PM // 23:49

I equipped my hero monks with Totem Axes a while ago. On Avoid Combat it seemed to work fine, though they don't use any offensive spells so if you're running Power Drain and/or Leech Signet (I did for a while) they won't use them.

If they're on the Guard setting, they did indeed close and engage, as did other casters with melee weapons.

So yes, Avoid Combat works in that regard for me.

cellardweller · Aug 31, 2007, 01:51 AM // 01:51

If they are set to dove, they will not use their melee weapons, but they will also no use any offensive energy management. This is not such a big deal as they can easily be replaced by "passive" energy managment like Glyph of Lesser Energy.

"Well that sucks" I hear you say, but wait there's more to the story. The enemy ai decides what spells to use and what ones not to use based on the weapon being held by their opponents. For example, you can guarentee that Dunkuro will never ever have shroud of silence cast on him by giving him a melee weapon. Equally, you can make bad guys wast thier time casting ward against melee when there are no melee threats around.

IMO The benefits of given them an axe/sword outweighs the loss of powerdrain/leachsig.

Note: I haven't tested the AI with spears, but its quite possible that you could have the best of both worlds by using that instead of a sword/axe.

Pliskin MacReady · Aug 31, 2007, 02:44 AM // 02:44

Actually, neither of my monk builds utilize an offensive energy management skill, so its no loss at all. Thank you!