by The Avatar on Thu Jul 11, 2013 5:06 am
Yes! That happened to me even after I beat her the first time. I really play too fast. Anyways, back to work!
Part 44: The rematch begins. Yeah, you got cheated last time, per the normal. This shouldn't be too hard. The crystal ball is one of the strongest items in the game if you use it correctly. While you may not have realized you automatically get BURNDAYRAZ, at least you made the right choice. I hope you check your inventory. B2P. What luck! If only you knew how to use it. This could be so OP. You already have a good target in that level 2 naga. This is working together perfectly. And there it is. Wizards do automatically start with fireball. This ought to be a joke. You aren't accounting for burning. You can. If you are 3 damage short, you should be able to pull it off. The predictor already accounts for burning, so just trust the predictor. You can definately kill that goo. You aren't even accounting for B2P, although you probably wouldn't realize how to use it. Well done on seeing that level 4 opportunity. Eh, I would by that troll heart anyways. With your shop pool, the troll heart should be automatic at level 2. Keep on WONAFYTing! This is great so far. Taurog is definately a bad choice for your wizard. Dracul is terrible for Hexx. Every revenant is undead. YOU REALIZED THAT! Nice! NOOOOOOOOO! Dracul gives you 2 piety for every kill, so there is no reason to worship him immediately. Drac is best worshipped right before the boss fight 90% of the time (the other 10 being when you want to stack lifesteal or resists). That was a terrible choice, but you couldn't have known. Just remember, if you only want Drac for the healing, worship him when you want that healing. SCORE! That crystal ball is great. If you get IMAWAL you are saved. That will get rid of the revenants. That level 7 is killable. You get 2 BICEPed hits and 3 fireballs. That should be enough. At this rate you'll need blood tithe. A layer of lifesteal also is great for your piety. The first hit on every non-bloodless monster is 1 piety. You are over exploring a bit. You could almost kill that level 9 with your crystal ball, and that is the best choice. Bad choice. Unless it is strictly less efficient (as in it takes waaay more tiles), always attack the highest level target. Since you were leveling up anyways, it was totally more effective to kill the level 7. YOU LUCKY-- won't say that online, never mind. If you use this right, you can do so well. The badge of honor is terrible for conversion. NO! That level 9 goo is an easier and higher exp target. LOOK AT YOUR OPTIONS. You're IMAWALing the revenants?! You are doing everything I recommended last time! THIS IS AWESOME! It is a shame that was a wasted IMAWAL, but that's 5 less lost piety. You need to pay more attention. You have exploration space. NOOOOOO! Meatmen have 150% hp. A level 8 with 150% hp has waaaay more than a level 9 goo (which is only 100% hp). You have 19 mana. That means exploring one tile gives you a fireball. You should always do this. You could have killed the meat men that way. Sang-win, not sang-ween. Sorry, I'm a bit pedantic about pronunciation. That health potion was smart, except it pissed off drac. If you had bought the fortitude tonic at the shop it would have been smarter. KILL THE LEVEL 9! If there are higher level monsters, you should fight them. Don't go fishing for the boss if there are any high level targets.. You have forgotten the level 9. That's a shame. You never took blood tithe. Of course you aren't getting sanguine. You should kill the level 9, then the level 8, then the level 7, then be set up for a mid fight level up from 7 to 8. If you found the other level 9 it would be even better. You shouldn't have wasted so much exp. It's too late now. Now you're just throwing away a mid fight level up. You have no shot at beating that goo. You could have won with a very valuable lesson: PRECASTING! I'll do a mini write-up about it at the end. You don't have to kill everything. Leaving 1-4 guys is fine. Wow. That's amusing. You are playing very smartly. You've impressively salvaged your poor choice of joining dracul. They really should put a sign in there. You're supposed to kill the plants out of curiosity to get the item they hide. You won't need the extra mana for Stheno. She is wimpy. Your piety is about to go crazy. YOU NEVER TOOK BLOOD TITHE. Wow, very smart decisions. Despite that original poor choice, you've really made the best of this. That was a very good choice. If you had attacked Stheno then she would have assimilated 18 monsters for a total of 72(?) resist all. You should just IMAWAL all of the revenants and kill everything you can. That leaves 5 monsters for a total of 25% resist all, which is totally beatable. The problem is Stheno will assimilate all of these revenants for some huge resists. You are higher level than the level 8s. You only need one hit. Never forget first strike vs lower level guys (this can even be level 9s)! Good, now you remembered. All in all, despite some huge mistakes, this was very well played. You popcorn bowled a good amount, and made the best of some very bad circumstances. I have nothing to criticize here. You should petrify all revenants with your 20 mana, then use the crystal ball and just attack Stheno. You won't need any of this. You will crush this. You need to just petrify a few. Oh. She will absorb those revenants. FAIL. You are mis-playing this. You should have done 4 fireballs, then 4 fireballs with the crystal ball, then 4 more for Schadenfreude. Nice job. Hexx is a serious pain in the ass. Good job beating it. That was some of your best play ever.
Funny, watching you be way over prepared for a hard boss makes me realize how nasty the vicious stat modifiers are. If this boss had vicious stats you could kill it now. Then again, if monsters had the vicious stat modifier, he wouldn't be half as prepared. Just some food for thought, vets.
KEY POINTS: Don't worship drac until you specifically want one of his boons (HINT: this is usually right before the boss fight), as unhelpful as this sounds, try to forget less things, or do routine checks on the map and your inventory to make sure you haven't forgotten any items/targets, never go boss fishing. If there is a killable high level target and you are just exploring to find a boss, kill it.
Part 45: This ought to be interesting. I hope you play this right. Elven bloodmage isn't bad. Gnommish, orcish, and dwarven are best IMO. Elven boots are not a bad choice ever. I would take the pendant of health actually, for some crazy early B2P kills. No need to be sorry. It's smart to know what you're playing. Er... what?! Why are you prepping a fine sword? They make only mediocre fighters. The amulet of health is much smarter. B2P costs 3 health for 3 mana. The health cost scales per level, but so does fire damage, so it balances. It is a very well designed glyph. Good GETINDARE usage. It is great. You don't need to avoid it, just step on it when you have no health. Try to stick to your checkerboard as much as possible for WONAFYT. It keeps things less complicated. Crystal ball sucks for the bloodmage. That was a ridiculously poor decision. GETINDARE was far too important. Popcorn bowling is nice, but GETINDARE is unfairly good. If you had converted WONAFYT, you could have killed that wraith with precasting and 4 fireballs. Instead this isn't going to work. At all. WHY DO YOU NEVER ACCOUNT FOR BURNING?! This is not going to end well. Never just try things. Calculate, think, then make a smart, fact based decision. This could still work out if you restarted with full burning. It is worth a health potion. This is a good decision. I would not have done so, simply using burning, but you have already put so much into this fight it would be a severe wast of tiles to do otherwise. NO THANK YOU AT ALL?! The troll heart is an incredible item for your bloodmage. Also, the hp isn't tied into the item, so you can convert it later! WONAFYT should be W. The devs should add a tutorial for setting hotkeys. I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't even know you can. MA is nice for the bloodmage, but not incredible. Dracul is straight up better for your bloodmage. Also, every spellcasters best target (THE WRAITH!) is magic. You should go for a level 5 enemy. If you were a better burning stacker, you would be good for a weak level 6. The glowing guardian would be a very poor choice. Just think about it using common sense: dark magic and vampirism are not holy in the slightest. F U. The hotkeys, not me insulting you. I feel like that might have been intentionally. Funny, I never realized that until you said it out loud. I wonder if my bloodmage screams that as he hurls balls of fire at the wraith or whatever it may be.Just one warning about B2P. It uses a lot of exploration. A meatman is always a bad spiking target and always a good regen fighting target. I keep talking about what are good and bad targets. I'll add a list to my end notes. That makes 4 fireballs, not quite enough. Bloodmages are your least favorite?! You will learn. With more experience they are both powerful and fun. It's like playing any Dark Jedi in Starwars Battlefront. Sir, the luck you have sometimes ceases to amaze me. Why is it every spellcaster I have hits the iron man, and every berserker hits the wall of goo? You are really over exploring. This was not well done so far. You over explored for the meat man and have overused B2P. You're really running out of tiles fast. Mystic Balance could be your saving grace here (although frankly you could fireball the tormented one right now at level 4). If you think about it, you take flames and fireball as much as possible (with B2P), then level up with popcorn, fireball as much as possible (with B2P), then use bloodpools for more B2Ps. That is what makes the bloodmage so glorious. Combo stuff like that. If you use a bloodpool this is entirely viable. Oh, you explored. So much for that. I'm glad you realized you could have used sanguine. That itself is a step in the right direction. Seriously, just kill the boss. Always buy the spoon. So true. The devs picked up on are terminology. KILL DA BOSS! Actually, you really should. At this rate you won't have any tiles for B2P against the boss. ARGH! JUST KILL THE BOSS! There is one rule for normal dungeons that I use and I recommend you adopting: kill the boss as early as possible without potions. It really saves time and makes things easier. PLEASE KILL THE BOSS. I'm glad you overestimate bosses. It is much better than underestimating, and it will help you out in vicious when they are surprisingly strong. If you only have enough tiles for one round of B2Ping, save it for after the level ups, just like all potions and everything. You could have killed the boss at level 4. Well, good job. You see how strong he is. This was a very rough cut, fumbling and inexperienced bloodmage run, but it was your first real one, so great job. You understand the class, now you just need to refine your bloodmage skills.
KEY POINTS: Don't over B2P, don't always go for a very high level kill if it costs too many tiles, convert WONAFYT earlier than GETINDARE
Part 46: This is the second video named assassin's blade. I would change that. As I always say, there are two assassins, the super-spellcasting-totally-unfair-vicious-owning-cheater assassin, and the standard assassin. As you only know the standard strategy, go human. Wow. Why does BURNDAYRAZ always start next to you. Never take dracul until you want a boon from him. Ah. Itssssama Itsssa. I can't wait till you see Ick Swamp. That dungeon is NASTY. Personally, that is my third least favorite (the worst is the slime pits, then cursed oasis). The rule for the assassin is you can beat anything twice your level that doesn't have magic res or poison. The pendant of mana isn't very good at all for the standard assassin. You are regen fighting, and extra mana helps only for spiking. No. Stick to stuff twice your level unless your assassin can pull out some super spiking power. Undead make awful targets for your assassin. If you had saved the troll heart you could attack level 6's. APHEELSIK is far too good. What are you thinking. You are way overvaluing CYDSTEPP. It's nice, but it is like an overpriced GETINDARE for a worse effect. It says safe because you are swift hands-ing. Lord Gobb can be regen fought to death at level 7 using APHEELSIK. Don't forget your first strike. If you explore the tiles around your target you can save a hit. GOOD! You are casting APHEELSIK before your attacks. You don't need to use all of your APHEELSIK tiles if you can hit him off the bat. The great thing about poison is it doesn't go away unless it literally runs out. I like how you've totally forgotten your first strike. THis is hurting you so much right now. You don't need to explore all poison tiles to attack the monster. Keep working on that regen fighting. It seems a bit off. You are over exploring. You have left BICEPS on the ground the whole time without converting, mentioning, or touching it. Just get rid of it. Good, you got rid of it. Now if you'd just get rid of CYDSTEPP we'd be good. You can regen fight stuff twice your level. A meat man can be regen fought even more than that. A level 9 meat man at level 6 is easy pickings. YOU HAVE MAX HP! HIT HIM FOR PETE'S SAKE (whoever Pete may be). And you remember the first strike. Oh how that would have helped earlier. Just go for the boss. You just used the "I can, so why not" philosophy to a monster. Do this to a boss first. It speeds things up nicely. The strange thing about poison regen fighting is it make burning rather unimportant. Okay, this is straightforward from here, and you even have drac to rub it in. Have fun. You have swift hands, so everything is popcorn. Sorry, I zoned out there. You appear to be doing fine though. Just remember to take another level of blood tithe ASAP.
KEY POINTS: Seriously, work on checking/remembering your options. You frequently have a simple path and you don't even realize it (like you being able to first strike). Your regen fighting seems a bit off. Just keep working and focusing on that. APHEELSIK complicates things a lot...
END NOTES
PRECASTING!: You know the basics of precasting, but there is one main fine point that you have yet to get. This is for fireball only characters, especially bloodmages. Let's say you have 10 mana, and 36 hp as a level 3 bloodmage. That would be 3 fireballs, yet you could still kill a monster with 50 hp. How? By precasting GETINDARE. You are giving yourself a hit while still dedicating everything to fireballs, allowing you to score all 3 (or however many in real life) fireballs, plus your hit (which can by BICEPSed). If you can get this going, your bloodmage can score some serious kills.
GOOD KILL LIST: There are 3 catagories of monsters: ones that should be spiked, ones that should be regen fought, and ones where it doesn't matter. Here's my list for the 12 base monsters.
Spiked ones: Wraiths, Goats, Wizards (simply because high damage makes them worse regen fight targets), Goblins (see previous), Snakes (poisonous), Bandits (if you have resists)
Regen Fighters: MEAT MEN, Bandits (if you have no resists), Dragonspawn (high health makes them harder to spike), Zombies (see previous)
Irrelevant: Gorgon (weak attack is countered by death gaze), Golems, Goos (physical resists make both hard except a spell spike)
***BONUS*** SPELL RANKINGS: I rank spells by fighting capabilities, and utility capabilities.
Fighting Rank (Best is first): 1. BURNDAYRAZ (So all-round and the only way to deal with physical resists), 2. GETINDARE (saves a ridiculous amount of damage if used properly for very little cost), 3/4. HALPMEH/B2P (both very strong, depending on whether you are a spellcaster or fighter), 5. APHEELSIK (ridiculous regen-fighting power), 6. PISORF (Strong GETINDARE substitute), 7. WEYTWUT (a poor man's GETINDARE), 8. BICEPS (doesn't even always matter, but usually saves a few attacks), 9. ENDISWAL (a cheap substitute for most CYDSTEPP uses), 10. CYDSTEPP (a poor man's WEYTWUT), 11. LEMISI (only when out of tiles for regen fighting), 12. WONAFYT (very rarely matters in combat), 13. IMAWAL (no combat value)
Utility Rank: 1. WEYTWUT (clearing guys, popcorn bowling), 2. IMAWAL (gold, nice exp boost, minor drawback), 3. WONAFYT (superb popcorn bowling), 4. ENDISWAL (cost effective path clearing), 5. LEMISI (nice extra tiles), 6. PISORF (poor man's ENDISWAL), 7/8/9/10/11/12/13. BURNDAYRAZ/B2P/HALPMEH/GETINDARE/APHEELSIK/BICEPS/CYDSTEPP (no utility value).
Those are just my lists. Many people may disagree, and I'm actually interested in hearing what they think. Of course, it is hard to list when things may be great situationally, but I've done my best to generalize.
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