Spellbreaker: Many Spirit Skill questions

[AngelicPenguin]

Sorry to cross-post this, but I thought maybe this would be a better place for it...I originally posted this in the Skills forum

I have been working on a spellbreaker and had used this post as sort of a guide:http://www.titanquest.net/skills/173...llbreaker.html

My first question is about Life Drain. I only have one point in it and so far have barely been able to use it since the mana costs so much, but the guide I was looking at had it (and cascade) maxed. I looked at TitanCalc and saw that maxed they both do a decent amount of Vitality Damage, but since it's fixed damage rather than % damage, does this really work well in late game? Is putting this many points in it worthwhile? It seems to me it'd be better just to suck down potions and have the 22 skill points back, unless it can put on a serious hurt (possibly by using the other skills that decrease vitality resistance, but it still seems like the fixed max would be what shows in the skill.)

Second, how about Death Ward. The guide recommended maxing this, and I know in late game the penalty for death is severe, but that still seems excessive to use 8 skill points in something just to get you health when low. (Again the gulping potions idea.)

Third, the guide recommended putting only 1 point in Spirit Ward/Spirit Bane and NO points in Dark Covenant/Unearthly Power. It would seem to my (very) unexperienced eye that these skills are right up the Warfare's alley. While Dark Covenant doesn't seem to get you much, Unearthly Power increases your damage substantially. I see the health cost seems pretty severe, so maybe that's the reason not to use it, but sure looks strong. Really the same holds true for the Spirit Bane/Ward. I know undead are not the predominant creature you face, but the increased damage and protection from undead seems very strong.

I was going to follow that guide pretty closely on the warfare side of things, but I was probably going to skip the warwind tree. I liked the idea of maxing all the dual wield tree, ignore pain, dodge attack, ardor, and onslaught and putting in 1 pt in War Horn, Doom Horn, and Battle Rage. The only real question I had was on Battle Standard

I see 5 points in Battle Standard. Is this skills main purpose to get the +1 Skill point? Obviously the damage resistance is nice too, but I'm wondering if 5 points is too much to put in here. Also just offhand, it looks like the massive damage reduction to your enemies for triumph might be better than the increase in damage resistance to yourself(?) I'm also not 100% sure what the decrease to Damage Resistance is on your enemies from triumph.

Well that was long-winded, but maybe someone can give me some pointers on how to make this guy decent. (I know I'll probably get creamed at the higher levels b/c melee is a bit soft in the latest version, but I'm assuming warfare will get beefed at least a bit soon.)

Thanks for any tips!
Matthew

[Nexus]

unearthly power is ridiculously powerful if you have decent life regen...thats like 68% more damage... thats insane!

[AngelicPenguin]

decent life regen

Is this having a lot of % damage to health? B/c life leech doesn't seem to do much.

-Matthew

[Nexus]

I dunno about that, I dont melee or really...attack at all ;) Go pets. But with my weird ammy, i have 22.4 life regen. Im guessing it means i recover 22.4 health/second.

Dark Covenant is what? 30? + Unearthly power, which is 20? Im not sure. But with my amulet, i cut the "life loss" of these two skills nearly in half. Thats a big deal. But then again, I have heal and Heart of oak plus pets. So i dont get hit much anyways.

[Rhym]

Dark Covenant (18) + Unearthly Power(10) = 28 hp/sec

[AngelicPenguin]

Dark Covenant (18) + Unearthly Power(10) = 28 hp/sec

Saying that's too steep a price?

[Kiyoko]

Saying that's too steep a price?

i think it just was an informatory post=)

i have a spellbinder that just started epic and dark covenant kick major butt. of course, i only use it so far when adrenaline kicks in (with the -recharge it actually makes me able to use it more often) and with rally I still have a net gain in HP. when I get better gear with -recharge i'll probably try using it even more often.

to OP: I have a hard time justifying putting any points at all in death ward. it has a cooldown of 5(!) minutes and the amount of HP healed is pretty lame. for me to put any points in it, it would have to have a cooldown of ~20 seconds tops. my health falls below 15% all the time (i don't drink potions unless it does) which means those 8 skill points would save me one potion every 5 minutes = eh?.

[Frostbane]

Forget about deathward it's not worth it even when maxed.

[CycloneJack]

Spirit Ward/Spirit Bane are pretty decent skills. I'm not sure how many poijnts I'd put in them. To give you an idea, my pure Theurgist who has 5 points in each of those (3 points plus +2 gear), stood laughing at the giant Undead Dragonlings in the Obsidian Caverns as they attempted to hurt me. I think the baby Raptors were doing more damage than them! Combined with Ravages of time, they were doing 50% less damage to me. Add onto that all of my +damage to Undead and I was two-shotting them *without* Ternion.

So, while I'm not sure how many points I'd drop in there, but it is most definately worth getting a dropping a few points into.

With Life Drain, I still see very good use of this, but I am just getting into Epic Greece. The plus is that a Warfare build would get greater use from this by combining it with Necrosis and Unearthly Power.

Death Ward isn't bad, but I need to do more testing on it. It has saved my Theurgist a few times, but I'm usually hitting Life Potion just as it goes off so...

This (http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Spellbreaker&master1=2&master2=3&m1=32-6-12-0-8-0-8-10-6-0-6-0-8-0-0-8-0-0-0-0-0-0&m2=32-6-0-8-6-6-6-1-6-0-3-1-6-0-0-6-1-1-6-6-5-0) is what I plan on diong for my Spellbreaker, eventually (too many characters to play!).

Cyclone Jack

[Synr]

I have a lower level spellbreaker (around lvl 12) and have a tough time assigning my ability points each level. I can't help feeling like I'm not properly using them since I'm not totally sure the value of each ability.

So far I've spent the majority on Strength with about 1/3 going to Int. Should I be upping Dex though? Does dex factor into dual wield? I notice when I equip single handed weapons, my dps is higher than any combo of 2 weapons I try. I'm guessing I should be focussing on Dex instead.

Can someone point me in the direction of a resource that describes how Str, Int, and Dex factor in to the combat equation?

[AngelicPenguin]

So far I've spent the majority on Strength with about 1/3 going to Int. Should I be upping Dex though?


For my spellbreaker I haven't put anything into Intelligence. I think the spirit mastery points will take care of that. You need to put a decent amount in DEX for items (and to increase OA, which gives more critical hits.) Armada mentioned that he did something along the lines of 40% STR, 35% DEX, 25% HEALTH.

Does dex factor into dual wield?

Sure, in that it affects your OA or if you have weapons that pierce...check out the knowledge thread I linked to at the bottom.


I notice when I equip single handed weapons, my dps is higher than any combo of 2 weapons I try. I'm guessing I should be focussing on Dex instead.

I've read numerous times there are issues with dual wield and the DPS display (read: bug). I generally just put in two weapons that individually have the highest DPS (at the lower levels this seemed to invariably be linked to a Veteran's weapon or something similiar with +% damage and +% attack speed.)


Can someone point me in the direction of a resource that describes how Str, Int, and Dex factor in to the combat equation?

Yup...
http://www.titanquest.net/spoilers/1159-knowledge.html