So...what next?

[sradac]

I have 3 characters, all stuck at the same point. I have a 14 skeleton mage, level 16 windy form (just evolved into lesser wind elemental actually), and level 20 demon High Mage. All of them are trying to get into the jindar castle / clear the crypt NW of Fidac. None of them stand a chance against the boss in the sewers, or the boss in the crypt.

Damage itself isnt much of a problem, they all have spells/attacks that do 50-75k dmg. They dont even get touched by any of the undead at the bottom of the crypt, but that Lich keeps summoning MEAN ghosts that one hit me, and the slime or whatever in the sewers takes me down in about 3 rounds. Its getting pretty boring farming level 20 of the crypt for XP.

So whats the next step if I cant do either of these places yet? They have decent gear, although I'd really like to find some blue rods for my high mage and skeleton mage. Just been finding a lot of artifacts in vaults, none of which really help me, they're all melee. Water Wall, Barbarian's Viper, Mail of the Healthy...
where's all the caster gear?? I have abjurer's cloak but its not that great.

[Gando]

First of all make sure if you are playing a mage that you don't short your mana by wearing any heavy armor. That includes leather. Mage gear should be: Staff/Rod, Rod, Ring, Ring, Amulet, Orb (if you can find/make one), Clothes/Robes, Cloak (not heavy), Bracers, Cotton Cowl, Cotton Gloves, Shoes, Ammo, Crystal. With upgrades for the cloth items being silk or gossamer silk. Daggers are a really good replacement for rods if you can't find a good one. They allow you a lot of small damage attacks and don't slow you down. 'Beesting' in particular is good because its an early leveling item. Also you may need to save up all your gold and buy scrolls of Magic Item, Eternal Object and Item leveling. Choose a couple particular items you think will do you the most good and maximize their benefits with these scrolls. If you get really lucky you can turn one of them into a leveler with a magic item scroll without using the item leveler. A pistol in the 2nd hand can also sub for the lack of a good rod. You can get a really good one from the gun maker in Jindar, if you bring him a bar of Mithril which can be found at the bottom of the Ancient Mines (about level 21 at the bottom.)

Ok now that you have the most mana you can get, you definitely need crowd control to deal with Zailab or a really really good spell. I just beat him again using a Bard/Soul Guardian and it was tough because I didn't just want to beat him (my bard music does 2x the damage of his hp) I had to deal enough damage to get him down to 5% of his hp without him killing me with his nasty spells. Not an easy trick. Basically Zailab has 110k hp so killing him is a matter of surviving an extra round. The problem is if you walk THROUGH the door he gets first strike and summons ghosts before his speech text even comes up. (Unless he just obliterates you with spells.) You definitely need some reflection and or Magic Defense to deal with that. If you (o)pen the door instead he talks to you then you get a chance to do your thing. This might give you the 2 shots you seem to need to kill him. The other difficulty is he almost always summons level 40+ Ghosts so if you can't get away after you kill him you will still be toast. High Agility helps here to get you a decent jump (a Ring of the Cat is a great tool here too. Sadly it is a bit too high level to find on low levels unless you are uber lucky. You might get one in the black market but it will be expensive.)

the Q is a lot easier to deal with if you stand at max range and shoot spells at him with alternating heal spells. Healing is so important in this game as without it you are at the mercy of attrition. If you can't manage spells try finding some potions. The only trick you need for Q is See Invisible or Telepathy. Telepathy only costs 3 points if you have a blue item.

Hope this helps.

[sradac]

I think it will actually. I never really considered just how much heavy armor was hurting me. I just thought "Oh a few points of mana here, a few points there." I didnt realize until taking off ALL my heavy armor that it was eating up over 400 mana! Also didnt think to enchant some more of my gear...

Question though, is The Bronze Mail of the Healthy which can 'a'ctivate for Healing worth loosing a little over 200 mana?

I think I got a suggestion though...how about when you 'T'weak an item, the option to add resists in the future?

[random]

Feb 20, 2010 15:32:41 GMT -5 sradac said:

I think it will actually. I never really considered just how much heavy armor was hurting me. I just thought "Oh a few points of mana here, a few points there." I didnt realize until taking off ALL my heavy armor that it was eating up over 400 mana! Also didnt think to enchant some more of my gear...

Question though, is The Bronze Mail of the Healthy which can 'a'ctivate for Healing worth loosing a little over 200 mana?

I think I got a suggestion though...how about when you 'T'weak an item, the option to add resists in the future?

I never do, but I suppose it depends on how often you get into emergency situations and what your strategy is. It's nice for a heal when you're almost dead, but it takes 20 rounds to recharge...at which point you might be missing those mana points. I'd suggest keeping it as a swap in/out, wearing lighter armor and donning the Mail when you need emergency healing (but not waiting so late that you can't afford to lose the round it takes to do the switch.)

And I agree, re the Tweak, though I would suggest, to avoid overpowering, only allowing pre-existing resists to be improved.

[sradac]

or maybe put a cap on it, 5 or 10% per item. Not a whole lot, but if you REALLY want to resist say acid, you can build a set for that situation. your gear might be lacking in other aspects, but acid wont touch you. Could really add a whole new dimension on bringing the right gear for the right situation.

[Gando]

Resists can already be added to items via alchemy.

[sradac]

Ah, I havent messed around with crafting or alchemy yet. It seems really cool but you got to put so many points into them to make good stuff you're left weak in other areas. I'm sure if I put the time into doing it I could make some really nice gear, I just havent done it yet.

[Gando]

Yes Crafting is an all or nothing skill. Alchemy not so much. 20 points is more than enough for most purposes.

[zekk]

Do you have magic defense? As far as I can tell, it is a necessity for any character, unless you have one of the spell reflecting abilities high.

Also..... rather than farming level 20 of the crypt for exp, have you tried random dungeons? These can be found in those over world areas that have nothing on them - if you look around, there's a > in one spot in the area. They usually start on a floor around your level, though it may be higher or lower. They're a few floors long and have a randomly generated unique at the bottom.

It's probably a good idea if you're stuck and get bored of doing the same area over and over again.

[random]

Feb 26, 2010 8:17:11 GMT -5 zekk said:

Do you have magic defense? As far as I can tell, it is a necessity for any character, unless you have one of the spell reflecting abilities high.

Also..... rather than farming level 20 of the crypt for exp, have you tried random dungeons? These can be found in those over world areas that have nothing on them - if you look around, there's a > in one spot in the area. They usually start on a floor around your level, though it may be higher or lower. They're a few floors long and have a randomly generated unique at the bottom.

It's probably a good idea if you're stuck and get bored of doing the same area over and over again.

An addendum -- I'm not sure what the exact formula is, but if the dungeon level is more than a certain number of levels below your character level, there's no point in farming it. You simple won't earn much -- if any -- experience. So check to see if you're getting experience (and check your kill list on your character ("C") page) to make sure you're on a sufficiently deep dungeon level.