Curse

Immortal Flame · Aug 08, 2005, 11:48 PM // 23:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ice Master

Redundancy?

Hahaha I didn't even notice it...that's pretty funny

Lews · Aug 09, 2005, 03:42 AM // 03:42

I did it with a Mo/W.

aB- · Aug 09, 2005, 06:11 AM // 06:11

You could get your HP down to 55, then try using protective SPIRIT, not bond. With a 20% staff wrap you're looking at 22, probably 23 second duration. The reason not to use protective bond is because you will be losing 1 mana a hit having it on using balthazar's spirit and essence bond.

Now with that, you're probably going to need some sort of interrupt, such as shield of judgement. Otherwise, you'll never get another protective spirit off because of the disrupt. Well actually, now that I think about it, you could probably use mist form to become invincible while using smiting skills, then once it is about to run out use protective spirit again. The skill list I would use would probably look something like this:

Mist Form {E}
Protective Spirit
Balthazar's Spirit
Essence Bond
Zealot's Fire
Symbol of Wrath
Balthazar's Aura

And as for the last slot, there are many possabilities. You could use a ward against melee to help give you evasion, eruption to blind your foes temporarily, or another damaging spell such as aftershock. I would test this out myself, but unfortunately, I no longer have an elementalist in my character slots.

Looking back over my post, I realized I neglected any healing. A +3 mending would counter the bleeding, and healing breeze would help with healing. I would probably switch zealot's fire with mending and essence bond with healing breeze for a more effective setup.

Upon further consideration, a divine boon setup might be more beneficial considering the extra mana in an elementalist build.

In addition, I would place attributes such as:

Smiting: 12
Water: 8+3
Healing: 7+3
Energy Storage: 8+3

Lasareth · Aug 09, 2005, 06:33 AM // 06:33

Unfortunately, you can't get your hp down to 55 without the focus item that -50hp.

I've examined cat's pictures, and came up with a build of my own, utilizing the same basic principles.

-Yes, you do get interrupted. A LOT. I've died a few times because of interruptions, but the problem wasn't the interruption. It was repeated interruption of the same skill (recast allows you to get 2-3 spirits in between casts). Something to note is that savage slash requires them to reel back and attack -again- therefore casting right after they attack leaves optimal time to not be interrupted.

-The underworld cannot be soloed without some sort of life regeneration. This is the purpose of getting your hp to 55. Mathematically, if you get hit for 20 damage a hit at 200 hp, you're no better off getting hit for 3 damage at 30 hp at the same rate. Health regen, however, ignores your hp restrictions and is constant. Healing skills do not go off fast enough to compensate, ESPECIALLY if you get interrupted on a key spell.

-This pretty much restricts you to very few options as to your attribute spread and skill selection. Keeping in mind that aatxes impart a -3 life degeneration most of the time, a simple mending cannot cover the loss of hp you take, therefore you'd need support healing. In my case, I use healing breeze for a total of 11 regen (4 mending and 7 breeze). That makes healing your primary attribute in this case.

-Smiting and protection skill are a must, you gotta have skill in both to effectively survive. I've found that so far I get the best benefit keeping prot spirit at 15 seconds duration and allotting the rest to smiting.

-Energy storage is a wild card for me at this point. I seem to regenerate energy pretty fast, but sometimes I run into situations where I need Ether Renewal. At level 14, I can get 5energy per enchantment per cast with it, effectively refilling my energy bar completely and giving me a free cast for Balth's aura.

This is as far as I've gotten in my own study. I'm glad to have been proven wrong in my belief that it wasn't possible. Sometimes you just gotta see it to beleive it

So far items of note that I personally enjoy from it have been a Ghostly Staff, Storm Bow, Sapphire, and 1 Ectoplasm.

I die a lot though. Mostly through my own lapse of judgement.

spiritofcat · Aug 10, 2005, 01:19 AM // 01:19

I still die sometimes, especially from the interrupts/energy drain of the Grasping Darknesses.
I use MEnding +3 and Breeze +7 to keep myself alive, and my HP is 55, due to the Cities of Ascalon item. Luckily, I also bought my sup runes before they were over 1k each

As to energy management, I can take on a single Aatxe, but it's very very slow.
2 is a bit better, and 3 to 5 is the best.
You need to find a balance between being hit enough to give you good energy, and being hit so much that your healing can't keep up.

When I play with the Griffons in Snake Dace I find that 7 is generally too many. 7 hits of 5 damage each is 35 damage and I can't heal all that fast enough to be ready for the next 35 and the 35 after that. Of course, there is a built in limit to Protective Spirit, that is, 10 enemie.
If you take 10 hits at once, each dealing 10% of your max life, that's 100%.

For me, smiting is the most important attribute. I have it up at 12.
Protection is less important, I just need it high enough that Protective Spirit lasts long enough that I can be interrupted and still cast it again.