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Jonnyx
08-03-2005, 11:15 AM
I've not posted this before just in case I failed miserably and died lots....but since I haven't (made level 78 now) thought it time to post.

As some of you may recall I built an EB sera in Plus and posted my build. My conclusions then were:

Put all attribute points into Dex, Dont take heavenly magic, Items with EB in are very very rare and its damn annoying you have to have weapon lore

Well thanks to UW i can build a better Sera now!

First thing to do is change your starting skills and ditch Weapon lore, I took Magic lore and Meditation as starting skills. Since you'll never use a weapon with this build there is just no point bothering with weapon lore - or sword lore or lhw lore.

Because you dont use a weapon you can pretty much take all the other skills - its a question of preference when you take them. Here's my list:

Magic Lore
Meditation
Constitution
Armor
Dual Wielding
Agility
Trade
Parry

I kept Magic lore and Meditaion maxed, constitution at half my levelm one point in dual wield and the rest spread around.

Attribute points should now be spent in Mental Regen instead of Dex. This is because they fixed it so EB damage is no longer increased by Dex.

I dont recommend taking Heavenly Magic - at early levels you'll have to watch the regen time and duration length of EB but as soon as you find decent items with Regen Spells you'll be home free. Currently my EB is level 100 with a duration of 77secs and a regen of 68secs and I think my Regen Spells is about 200%. Although the text seems to suggest that HM increase attack speed it doesnt. It increase the casting speed of EB only and as its a duration spell that doesnt really mean a great deal.

Why dual wield - not required but I didnt know what else to take. I took it so i could dual wield the Prototype swords and think it well worth it. In gold the swords give +80% to magic damage each. Thats a lot of damage! Other option would be to use Solwemeyers staff for the defence and regen spells. i have one as a back up weapon. This would mean you could read more EB runes to increase the damage.

Items with EB are now available (at last!) and thanks to Tipsterdad I have a few goodies waiting - Armor with +25 to EB, Wings with +10 and my Glad found two rings with EB on with +15 and +13. So you're no longer totally dependent on runes. Hurrah!

I think the EB Sera in UW is a lot stronger than it was in plus. EB seems to fire faster and do more damage, even against magic resistant monsters. The VoT isnt too bad either - because EB is duration the Celebrepods Stun effect doesnt really bother you at all. You just keep blasting it. (Unless you are unlucky and EB runs out at a bad time).

The only disadvantage with this build is you're a one trick pony. To be effective you need a good investment in EB and because you dont use weapons most of the CA's are useless. The only other CA I use is RBOL and thats not very often either. I dont find this a problem but some people may get bored.

Llama8
08-03-2005, 01:43 PM
The only problem I have with your build is the use of Dual Wield, as weapons aren't counted when you've got EB running, the mods on the finished prototypes won't count (the stated damage should drop significantly from pre-EB, when the finished prototype % magic is counted & when you've got EB running).

'Course I've not made an EB Sera in UW, so I may be wrong, but if I'm not, it leaves you with 1 more skill to take & I can't really think of one.

Tipsterdad
08-03-2005, 01:52 PM
I have to agree with Llama on this one. Since weapons don't count when EB is cast, why not take HM, and not put any points into it, and let items boost it naturaly. Makes more sense to me to take that as oppsosed to DW which really does you no good except between castings. But the rest of the build is right on.

Also, if you feel like carrying concentration pots around, you can use those items that boost EB lvls to make combos, and then wear higher resistance and defense items. That is an option that would be up to the induvidual. Might help if you make niob.

Jonnyx
08-03-2005, 02:33 PM
Damage is calculated at time of casting and then it is fixed for the duration of the spell.
Although the stated damage drops the actual damage doesnt. Try it out.

To test this I had a slot empty and a slot with two prototype weapons. My EB level was the same (so no runes in the wepon slots). When I cast with the empty slot the damage stated remains the same and actual stays the same. When I cast with the dual wield slot with the Prototype weapons the stated damage drops by 400 but the actual damage remains.

sinclsw007
08-03-2005, 03:26 PM
I found the same thing as Jonny on this - it corresponds to what I find with blazing disk and infernal power, you get the boost to fire damage if ip was on when you cast bd, even if ip runs out while the disk is still running.

Tipsterdad
08-03-2005, 05:20 PM
So if you are using a shield and a weapon, does the same hold true of defense and resistances, and leech.

I wasn't aware of this, thanks for the heads up guys.

Jonnyx
08-03-2005, 05:23 PM
as far as i can tell only damage works like this.

i was using a shield with LL on it but my LL would drop after I cast. Now all i socket in weapons and shields is EB items or the Magic blacksmith art. All me def and res stuff goes in me main items.

Might be worth testing though

Jonnyx
08-15-2005, 10:05 AM
made a few alterations to her. Now managed to create a lvl 234 EB combo (ok so its 1614 sec regen is a little steep) but this combined with the +crit and +shock opponent has meant I can now do 30k on a crit hit per bolt!

yum :)

Sanny
08-20-2005, 09:42 AM
Well i made a new Sera n i realy liked my Plus EB sera so iva made a brand new UW EB Sera :D had it with the Daemon she broke my heart but alas in the spirit of DA i will scrape meself of the floor and venture of on a journet through the land brutally taking down anything and everything in my way!!

O yeah Jonny if ya got any bits like around lvl 5 with EB's i sure would like em :D

Im at lvl 5 and so far not dished any points out yet not sure how ima gonna do her yet but NIOB I'll be back ...one day :D

Jonnyx
08-20-2005, 10:39 AM
way to go sanny :) I'll make sure i keep all my EB stuff to pass onto you.

sinclsw007
08-20-2005, 01:45 PM
Hey Sanny, I'll keep an extra keen eye out for sera goodies for ya :) .

Suicide_Eagle
08-20-2005, 08:38 PM
Is it possible to cast EB from a horse:)?

(in that way you could make a mounted EB-er:) yet you can't realy use bridles anyway since they drop off once and a while)

Sanny
08-20-2005, 09:00 PM
Doh!! did check that out coz i thought that would be kool too but cant remember. If ya can i will if not then i wont :p

Jonnyx
08-31-2005, 10:11 AM
Eagle - you cant cast EB from a horse....wish you could that would be cool!

Bit of an update - made lvl 120 with my EB casting at lvl 206 (not in a combo) and I average 14-16k per bolt and 30-35k on a critical!
I added a bit more widd and dropped my life leach down to only 3% to make the WIDD usable and it really make a difference.

Niob here i come!

Catscradle
09-28-2005, 06:08 PM
I restarted my eb sera yeasterday. Took DW and got me 2 of those nifty prototype swords. I know it has been said that damage is calculated at the time of casting, but honestly, dw 2 proto swords did not change my damage that I was dealing. Both were silver lvl swords.

Ex - Lvl 29 sera, lvl 18 eb did 258 damage against orc chieftains on an empty server. This was when I cast eb while equipped with the proto swords. Swtiched to an empty slot when eb ran out, cast and damage to orc cheiftains was 258. Same lvl sera, eb and orc chieftains.

As a result of my findings on this, I ditched the build and restarted her last night. She is now lvl 28 with eb lvl 23 (with room to boost atm). I am using same equipment from the other sera, except no weapons at all. I replaced dw with heaven magic. Imo, it is much better to keep heaven magic and get rid of dw, since in my case dw the proto swords changed nothing. Doing the build this way has allowed me to have a higher lvl eb without worrying about regen times and to deal more damage at a lower lvl.

Catscradle
09-29-2005, 02:03 AM
Sorry for the double post.

Jonny - As far as damage being calculated at time of casting, have you checked this since the patch came out? Just trying to figure out why dw the swords didn't make any change in my damage that I was actually dealing.

Jonnyx
09-29-2005, 09:34 AM
to be honest no. but then i stopped worrying as i tend to do upwards of 30K per bolt now with my max on a crit being around the 60k mark.

I will have a look later tonight to see if the damage is different.

Catscradle
09-29-2005, 03:19 PM
OK, thanks.

At the lvl your eb sera is, can't say that I blame you on not worrying about it any more.:)

Dobster
10-01-2005, 12:01 AM
Wow jonny this build sounds cool. I really wanna build one now. Would love to know if Cats is right about the patch changes before i start, do you think trade would help this build to find good EB bonus items? Seeing as EB doesn't need wepons, can you just use an empty weapon slot all the time? seems kinda weird, must try it out

Catscradle
10-01-2005, 01:52 AM
I usually just use an empty weapon slot when casting. With this build, trade can definitely help and I have never had trouble squeezing that skill in on a magic only sera.

Keebelf
12-07-2005, 06:22 PM
Okay, I know this is an old thread but am resurrecting it.

Chris started an EB last night and found a pair of gauntlets that do 15% LL. and it is leeching even when EB is activated. **ETA: Talked to Chris and he said when he played this morning that they were only working some of the time.**

Any updates on the Prototype/DW "controversy"?

What about a complete Sols set, would that still work with the snow and the cold damage when in EB form? Also, does Sols need LHW or no??

FrostElfGuard
12-07-2005, 06:42 PM
Why dual wield - not required but I didnt know what else to take. I took it so i could dual wield the Prototype swords and think it well worth it. In gold the swords give +80% to magic damage each. Thats a lot of damage! Other option would be to use Solwemeyers staff for the defence and regen spells. i have one as a back up weapon. This would mean you could read more EB runes to increase the damage.


Okay, I know this is an old thread but am resurrecting it.

Chris started an EB last night and found a pair of gauntlets that do 15% LL. and it is leeching even when EB is activated.

Any updates on the Prototype/DW "controversy"?

What about a complete Sols set, would that still work with the snow and the cold damage when in EB form? Also, does Sols need LHW or no??

Reading through the thread...and keeping the Jonny's initial post in mind, combined with gogo's sera guidelines:

Others are saying that in effect the weapon doesn't count...so they leave the weapon slot empty on a EB sera.

The prototype damage boost would come into effect if you used CL as a backup...or just plain variety. It could be socketed with "regen spells" amulets...to boost the regen time a la gogo.

Too bad you can't have a weapon to boost the level of the EB in that socket. Or can you?

Sol's staff does not require LHW.

Snow & Cold damage: isn't that from the WE set that Tip's favours?
M'eg An-Enid's Blizzard:
M'eg An-Enid's Enchanted Plate
M'eg An-Enid's Frosted Greaves
M'eg An-Enid's Glacias Footwear
M'eg An-Enid's Healing Grip
M'eg An-Enid's Sweeping Embrace
M'eg An-Enid's Visor

Good luck Keebs!

Keebelf
12-07-2005, 07:27 PM
ah, that's right, that did come from Meg's didn't it? okay. Nevermind then about that part. LOL.