Bingain

This is for a walking trapper.

I finally made an Infinity in an eth CV for my trapper after
rolling a cold skiller and sold it for a Ber. It's among the
worst Infinity in terms of ED, but I don't think I can afford to
Hel-cube it.

Vipers, Night Lords, and most other LI monsters are no longer
LI, so I can now re-enjoy picking up gold during combat instead
of throwing Fireblasts myself. Killing speed is indeed faster,
but not exceedingly significant. Reason is simple: only the
initial stage is faster; as soon as some corpses are available
for DS, there is not much difference. It will make a much
significant difference on a sorc.

Even so, I would suggest that for a walking trapper, Infinity
rules.

For a teleporting Trapper, however, one will have to overcome
the mana issue. Since assassin doesn't have Warmth, unless she
carries loads of mana charms, she probably can't afford the mana
needed for teleport, even after BO. As the difference in killing
speed is not so huge, I think it's individual's calls about
Infinity vs Insight.

With or without Infinity, my merc always die on sight of green
clouds. He'd go down so fast there is no chance of feeding him a
fat purple. It didn't matter that he had maxed all resists.
Typically it'd cost me 100k-150k gold on a viper-trip. I'm a
chicken HC player, so I don't go anywhere without a merc.

I got fed up. I dug into my mules to find that Gladator's Bane
someone gave me for some low level stuff. With Bane, his resists
fell to 67% across the board, but he survived the clouds. He'd
walk in the cloud to jab the snakes, then run back to me --
shinny green. He'd lose some health but not to the stage I would
need to feed him a purple (I don't carry red pots).

I think Bane is one of the best merc solutions for viper happy
areas.

Bing

Mickey

Bingain wrote:

Which is exactly why I was hunting for an ethereal one for Kenny. I am
not the walking type of trapper, and the ability to teleport has saved
Kenny a bunch of times, but still the repiles get him now and again

Mickey

Jason

Bingain wrote:

I think Bane is perhaps the best armor for any melee char. Most people
seriously underestimate what a mere 20 physical damage reduction PER
FRAME will do. I have Gladiator's Bane and Gerke's Pavise. Total
physical damage reduction is 34 points. I can literally type while
surrounded by vipers (ok, I gotta type fast, and with spelling errors,
but I can type). Without this, I die instantly.

-Jason

Patrick Vervoorn

In article <BAjTg.37$F9.29@newsfe09.lga>,
Bingain <bingain@doYouYahoo.com> wrote:

[some snippage]


Well, it'd perhaps mean to dedicate at least 1 row of the belt to Super
Manas perhaps?


Well, I have Enigma on my Trapper, but I mostly walk; I only use the
Enigma to be able to teleport to safety. I'm not sure of my exact success
rate, but in about 50% of the encounters with Tomb Viper, I manage to
teleport the merc to safety, then have the Shadow Master 'Dragon Flight'
(or whatever it is) to the Tomb Viper(s) again, while I Fire Blast them.

It's a bit tricky, but it works. Enigma also freed up my secondary weapon
slot, so instead of a staff with Teleport charges, I put 2 x +3 Shadow
Claws there, for an even beefier Shadow Master. She can hold herself quite
well against Tomb Vipers.


OK, this story got me convinced; I'll try to dig up one of the ethereal
Gladiator's Bane I have, and try them as an alternative to the eth bugged
Duress my Trappers Merc is wearing now, and try not to teleport him to
safety anymore.

<rummage-rummage>

Pff, finally found it, it's not too hot, I'll perhaps try to find the
other ethereal one later:

189ed/16dr/17mdr. Total defense: 2139

I'll try it out and report back here.

Regards,

Patrick.

Patrick Vervoorn

In article <a9c26$451e4c11$82a1d3bf$20851@news2.tudelft.nl>,
Patrick Vervoorn <patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:

While refreshing some mules, I found the other one:

160ed/17dr/19mdr, total def: 1929.

I put that one on the merc and started doing some Nihlatak runs. On run #4
I encountered my first Tomb Vipers. The merc walked into the green
clouds.... And died. I resurrected him, found some new Tomb Vipers, he
walked into a green cloud again and promptly died. Other equipment:

Weapon: 258ed Insight eth CV: 98-884dmg
Helmet: Jeweled Tal Rashas Mask (ed/+str jewel)

So, I'm not so sure Gladiator's Bane is the sole reason yours survives;
what's his other gear, besides the Infinity?

Regards,

Patrick.

Mickey

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

Stuff a BER in that Tal's fugly and he will do MUCH MUCH better.

Mickey

Bingain

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

Heh, I thought mine was the worst at around 264%. You beat me
for a few percentile points :P


He has a Tal's mask with a p.amst in it. He's only lvl 85 and so
a +9 str jewel won't work.

I have no clue why yours died and mine survived. I did a couple
test runs, and I'm telling you: vipers love me -- I got them 95%
of the time.

Would it be that you simply let him do the win or go home game
while you watched? I helped him with my traps and blasts --
instinct for me as he goes I go. The difference between having
Bane and no Bane was he died ON SIGHT, every time, of green
clouds, and hasn't died so far after wearing the Bane.

Bing

Bingain

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

That should work, depends on mission types. Nilly runs should be
okay, baal runs may not. And you will have to get used to it and
refill the column afterward. This is how my sorc and many other
non-godly sorcs used to do for Meph runs in the past before the
insight era. Problem is, I often forgot to replenish the blues.
So now I've gotten used to treating my blues as emergency sources.


I have no teleport at all. I hope one day I can gamble a +3trap
ammy with teleport charges on it. I also have shadow claws on
switch as I only have slvl 12 or so shadow without those claws.
I have a few spare skill points saved, but I'm still looking for
claws. It isn't too much to hope that I can buy/gamble a pair of
+2skills +3shadow +3LS +3DS +30resists claws, right :P

Bing

jake lee

Bingain <bingain@doYouYahoo.com> wrote in
news:BlwTg.674$hM7.513@newsfe12.lga:


since Ive been enjoying nilly runs with the sole exception of losing
merc to vipers so much of the time, I was curious to try a similar
approach as well...I dont have mules full of useful gear, so I simply
shopped for a plain lo-def 'americae' 15DR armor and re-suited up the
merc.

Only been about 6-8 runs with it so far, but there is really a
noticeable improvement to be sure. I also fling FB/DS to help out as
much as possible, and so far no deaths to vipers....also no deaths as of
yet (close though) to enchanted council when amped,...another common
merc-dying mission for me.

He's just using a lo-budget non-eth reapers toll and a virgin tals
mask,...lvl 89 now.

Maybe i can trade a glad bane for cheap since there seems to so little
demand for non-runeworded armor these days