[Magician] Questions.

[Jade]

I have purchased a second copy of titan quest now for my second computer in my household. This way my br0 and I can LAN and play together. My main character before was a lvl 55 Ranger, but i wanted to play a class with more variety so i chose a magician. I do have a few questions that need to be answered about the class though:
1) does dex improve your throwing knife damage? ( I read it doesn't work on traps).
2) does blade honing really affect traps and throwing knives? (it says only swords and spears in the description).
3) will i need both flash dust and stone form?
4) will earth enchantment improve my traps very much at all?
5) since i am not using very many earth spells should i even take volatility? (only taking core dweller line earth enchant, and 1point in stone form)

yeah so basically i will be using the core dweller to tank as my traps eat enemies. only 1 point in wildfire though.
anyways an helpful hints would be appreciated thank you.

[Pogers]

1) does dex improve your throwing knife damage? ( I read it doesn't work on traps).

As far as im aware it will affect the pierce damage but thats about all as dex doesnt actually give physical dmg, could be completely wrong on that


2) does blade honing really affect traps and throwing knives? (it says only swords and spears in the description).

A question im eagre to learn the answer to also. But im about 75% sure it does

"blade honing activated. art of the hunt adds 62% pierce thats 48-52 bonus damage, much more than earth enchantment"

3) will i need both flash dust and stone form?

Need? no.. Want? Yes **IMO**

4) will earth enchantment improve my traps very much at all?

Nope, "The flaw with Earth Enchantment is that the buff radius is approximately 6 meters"

"honestly id never consider using earth enchantment over hunter skills for traps, the dps earth enchantment gives is not much isnt it 10-12 physical(i guess these will be cut by 3 due to mobs armor), and 10-16 fire damage? of course theres the chance to deal 116 burn damage but still they deal 77-84 base damge in normal"

5) since i am not using very many earth spells should i even take volatility? (only taking core dweller line earth enchant, and 1point in stone form)

Not really, but then where else are the skills going to go? IF the stats on what earth enchantment do for traps is correct, then even that huge + % fire damage is going to do nothing.

i would try this as a start :

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-1-0-0-0-8-0

the other skills for me, are all about choice

i dont play a magician so my knowledge isnt fantastic.

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...r1=6&master2=1 (just a quick link to magician build, for you to play with)
take a look anyway, it cant hurt.

EDIT : i'd follow up on earth enchantment / Volatility i find it hard to believe its THAT bad.. but could it be, possibly.. i guess. If its better than that then a definate yes to both skills.

[Jade]

kool thanks for the reply. i don't think there are that many magicians out there anyway:P. I really just didn't want to take hunting again even though i know it would rock with traps. I did try and use blade honing with a staff and apparently that doesn't go over so well.

[Xaece]

Blade Honing is NOT a +PierceDamage% Mod. It is a +PierceConversion% Mod.

The difference? A sword with 10% Pierce Conversion and Blade Honing gives +50%, that sword is now a 15% Pierce Conversion instead of 10%.

The +PierceDamage mod of Blade Honing (The Flat bonus, not the % Bonus), if you are wielding the correct weapon, will apply to all weapons (i.e. off-hand happen if dual-wielder, or to allies), and throwing knives for certain. So it 'should' effect Traps as well, the % will NOT effect traps because traps have 0 Phys damage, and instead deals raw Pierce damage (i.e. there is no damage conversion happening)

[EasymodeX]

1) does dex improve your throwing knife damage? ( I read it doesn't work on traps).

As far as im aware it will affect the pierce damage but thats about all as dex doesnt actually give physical dmg, could be completely wrong on that

Dex also adds a %Pierce damage to all Pierce damage your hero does. I assume that Throwing Knife damage is sourced from your Hero.

Reason why it doesn't work on traps is because they are counted as pets, aka separate from you -- the traps have no Dex, I think.

2) does blade honing really affect traps and throwing knives? (it says only swords and spears in the description).

Blade Honing ups the Pierce conversion of things it affects, as well as applies a small +Pierce damage. Traps and Knives have no base Pierce conversion, so it just adds some Pierce damage (modified by your Dex of course).

3) will i need both flash dust and stone form?

I have Stone Form and plan on picking up Mandrake when things aren't so easy ... shrug.

4) will earth enchantment improve my traps very much at all?

Generally, yes. Just watch the buff radius.

"honestly id never consider using earth enchantment over hunter skills for traps, the dps earth enchantment gives is not much isnt it 10-12 physical[...], and 10-16 fire damage? of course theres the chance to deal 116 burn damage but still they deal 77-84 base damge in normal"

Running around naked, sure. However, the Fire damage from Earth Ench is boosted by Int and other +Fire% and Elem% skills. Don't leave home without them.

Also, with the rate of fire and multi-hitting capability, the burn damage is *always* on.

5) since i am not using very many earth spells should i even take volatility? (only taking core dweller line earth enchant, and 1point in stone form)

Um ... it's a matter of how much of your damage will be coming from Fire spells, not necessarily how many Earth spells you use. If the answer is "not much" then ... probably not.