Level 36, need help with gear and character build

[Slayer666]

Hey guys, been grinding it out for a week or two now. Im looking to improve my character build and gear but am not getting the full picture behind fighting style vs character AC, AD and BC. I first thought dual wield with high attack was the way to go but now i got the ElyR and feel like I am losing out on criticals and blocking.

Heres my currect gear: heavy steel skullcap, lightweight chainmail, JoF, ElyR, polished ring of backstabbing, villains ring, heavy plated gloves, and vacors boots of attack.

I went high in HP each level up at the beginning and think I may be suffering from it now. Any help would be appreciated.Also, whats the AP ratio significance i.e. mine is 14/14?

[Dolgan]

Please bear in mind I am also a new player when reading this post. Here are just my thoughts...

AP is action points. You start with 10 at level one and you have gained 2 from 2 levels in combat speed and the Elytharan redeemer gives a bonus 2 as well. the number after the slash is the AP's available still in the round (you will see this go down as you attack). The Elytharan redeemer uses up 5 action points normally, but with your JoF this goes down to 4 AP per attack you make.

The high hitpoints are currently a waste for me, especially with IF 3 taking care of your hit points. In future releases, they may change IF, so it might be useful to have taken hit points when levelling. There is a discussion on the forums regarding IF currently being too powerful (see here :- http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4565)

The low AC will hurt you a bit currently. Try to aim for it to be around 250%, so take this in your level ups. One thing I have found so far in this version is duel wielding is a lot better than using a 2-handed weapon at low to mid level. Purely because of the extra attacks you are doing, causing more damage on average, with a better AC when you put the second point into the duel wield skill.

If you do go down the duel wield route, have a look at going to the Iqhan caves. There is a nice drop at the end of it for a duel wielder. This, combined with a balanced steel sword and another skill point in Fighting Style: Duel Wield will help your AC in the short term. After that, you will have a better idea of where you stand in AC if you are going to Duel Wield. As an alternative, some people do the blackwater quest and use some items from there. If you search on the forums, there are a couple of blackwater builds on here. To give you an idea of a duel wielder, I am a similar level to you and you can find my adventurer log and current stats here :- http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4553. I am not saying what I have done is right, it is just to give you an idea of a duel wielder of similar level and my thoughts and goals going through the low to early middle levels of AP as a fellow new player.

Once you feel up to it, look at doing the Charwood quests and Blackwater, if you have not already done, then look at the long trip to Remgard for some nice items. Oh a quick hint, save the game in an unused slot before you speak to anyone at all in the Remgard area, just in case you have any problems with quests (i.e. mess up - I almost did, lol).

Also have a look at armour you can get and see what you think which ones you can go for. Try to plan ahead and do not get too greedy and get stuck somewhere.

Try to plan ahead with your skill point choices as well. See where you want to aim for and how to get there.

I do hope this helps in some way and I hope you continue to enjoy AP.

[Link]

Hi there,

Nice post Dolgan. You laid out some really good thoughts there. However, there is one thing I'd like to add concerning planning ahead: Criticals!

Later on in the game, you'll likely encounter many critical immune mobs and in order to effectively deal with them, you'll need a comparatively high base damage, besides reliable AC and BC of course. DR (damage resistance) I find negligible, as it comes more or less for free with decent equipment later on in the game and BC does a much better job in keeping you alive, at least when you sum up the received damage.

Nevertheless, critical capacity is a very nice bonus. Again however, good equipment will do the job and thus I see no need to spend skill points on it. Therefore, I'd aim for fast damage capacity, which means combat speed skill (2), with a slightly higher than average base damage, high AC (in order to make your hits count!) and possibly the cleave skill (2-3) in order to regain attack points as to keep on fighting.

Bottom line:
I'm in strong favour of a balanced fighting style, which translates into the one-handed-sword with shield fighter that I have created for myself. However, the dual-fighting approach might also serve the same purpose really well. The latter, I would just back up with a higher BC, just to gain safety.

Some more useful skills:
Corpse Eater (CE) - it's a brilliant skill to keep you alive and reduce the need of pots and the like
Increased Fortitide (IF) - already mentioned, but a total MUST HAVE - however, 5 SP should be more than enough, that said it should be clear that investing in HP during level-ups is a waste as you loose on higher AC, BC and AD.
Evade (EV) - very nice skill to ensure that you get the first hit. I highly recommend it for fast levelling and increased kill speed
Regeneration (Reg) - might be worth a thought, but has a major drawback, as it only works while standing around far from monsters

Complete waste skills:
Magic Find (MF) - The increase of chance is way too low, as to really help your hunting for legendary and extraordinary items
And some more, but those are rather obvious.

So, I hope I could help a little.
Cheers,
Link

[Slayer666]

Dolgan, very good advice. Definitely needed to save before choosing skills as i was completely undecided. This is what i chose. One handed sword and lightweight armor. Added my second point to dual wield and then geared up with a shadow of the dagger priests in one hand and the blade of the defiler in the offhand. This way i boost my AC and add critical value with a multiplier of 3. Also added second combat speed so with a 100% total speed of 4 minus 1 for the Jof I can attack with AP of 3 four times to my max AP of 12.

Link, thanks for the reply. Yes i started to add in criticals seeing how much i was missing out. Very much agree on the skillset aside from cleave given my AP and evade. Im thinking block chance for a while then more legendary items as i believe i have most of the quests completed on version 7 besides the 3 uncompleteable ones and lodars cave. Question, where is Remgard? **Good point on future "critically immune" enemies.

[Zukero]

Slayer666, as of v0.7.0, there are only 2 uncompletable quests:

Lost Treasures
Looking for Andor

Not sure about the names though, my phone's in french.

[Slayer666]

Now do i spend two crystals and $5000 to switch my proficiency from two handed sword to daggers? Or are there two better one handed swords for dual wield? And if so would their AP still be 4 each?? Thanx for all the help.

[rijackson741]

The best one handed swords for dual wield are Flagstone's pride and the Balanced Steel Sword. For monsters that are immune to critical hits I use 2 x BSS. For monsters that are not immune to critical hits I use DoSP + BSS, but I have proficiency skills in daggers and one handed swords (having both is very useful for dual wielding, because it gives a lot of possibilities). If you only want to spend on one proficiency skill you could go with FP + BSS instead.

Edit: both FP and BSS are 4AP weapons.

[Dolgan]

Great reply by Link. I had forgotten to add in the critical immune monsters in my post. It is a reason I have not committed to a critical build for my end-game goal.

As for where Remgard is...hmmm..... (bear with me on this one......)

First of all, save the game as often as you can on the way there first time around.

There are some Oegyth crystals on the way there. I will let you discover them.

Now, how to get to Remgard...

From the house at the crossroads (North of Crossglen), *takes a deep breath* ...... go......

north, north, north, east, east, east, east, cross the bridge and head east still, cross the bridge, cross the next bridge west, head out north, east, east, south, south, cross the bridge south and head out east, cross the bridge east and head out east, east, east, cross the bridge and head out east, cross the bridges and head east, cross more bridges and head out east, cross the bridge to the south and head out south, south, south, south, enter the cave.....

*takes another breath* .....

make your way through all the caves, lots of caves.....watch out for the.... oops, too late, reload the game...

*takes another breath* .....

Once out of the caves, head out north, then east, cross the bridge and head out east, cross the bridge and head out north, then east, cross 2 bridges and head out north, north, west, north, cross the bridge and head out west,

*save the game in an unused slot at this point, it is very much worth it in case you mess up any quests here*.

You can explore further at this point to the south. I would suggest looking up quests in the Remgard area at this point

We are almost to Remgard now, not far to go at all, all the hard bit has been done...

Remgard from here is west, cross 2 bridges and head out west, west, south and welcome to the entrance to Remgard.

I hope that helped and I hope you can enjoy the trip there and back.

[Link]

Great reply by Link. I had forgotten to add in the critical immune monsters in my post. It is a reason I have not committed to a critical build for my end-game goal.

As for where Remgard is...hmmm..... (bear with me on this one......)

First of all, save the game as often as you can on the way there first time around.

There are some Oegyth crystals on the way there. I will let you discover them.

Now, how to get to Remgard...

From the house at the crossroads (North of Crossglen), *takes a deep breath* ...... go......

north, north, north, east, east, east, east, cross the bridge and head east still, cross the bridge, cross the next bridge west, head out north, east, east, south, south, cross the bridge south and head out east, cross the bridge east and head out east, east, east, cross the bridge and head out east, cross the bridges and head east, cross more bridges and head out east, cross the bridge to the south and head out south, south, south, south, enter the cave.....

*takes another breath* .....

make your way through all the caves, lots of caves.....watch out for the.... oops, too late, reload the game...

*takes another breath* .....

Once out of the caves, head out north, then east, cross the bridge and head out east, cross the bridge and head out north, then east, cross 2 bridges and head out north, north, west, north, cross the bridge and head out west,

*save the game in an unused slot at this point, it is very much worth it in case you mess up any quests here*.

You can explore further at this point to the south. I would suggest looking up quests in the Remgard area at this point

We are almost to Remgard now, not far to go at all, all the hard bit has been done...

Remgard from here is west, cross 2 bridges and head out west, west, south and welcome to the entrance to Remgard.

I hope that helped and I hope you can enjoy the trip there and back.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha What a brilliant reply. Beautifully executed.

My explanation would have turned out a "little" shorter:
Go north from the cross roads until you reach the river. Follow it eastwards and slay what tries to stop you (some tough creeps there!). Enter the caves at the end of the river and fight your way through the very same until you reach another body of water, in fact, the lake of Remgard. Once reached, turn east again all around the lake until, at the very end, you will inevitably reach the City of Remgard.
Oh, did I mention that the way is reeeeeeeally long? No? Well, done now!

Cheers,
Link

---- edited ----

Uhhh, I just realised that this was my 100th post. Sweet

[randerthall]

Now do i spend two crystals and $5000 to switch my proficiency from two handed sword to daggers? Or are there two better one handed swords for dual wield? And if so would their AP still be 4 each?? Thanx for all the help.

Everyone's advice was excellent I just want to add that you should save your crystals because it could be useful later in the game. Going for the 1HSPro is not bad since the best items in the game right now IMHO are swords like BSS and ROL. Dual wield is enough to boost your dagger AC if you go that route.