How do I improve my damage?

I'm playing a viscanti nihilist and, although I've been told my damage should increase as I invest lessons in my relevant discipline my cosmicfire is still weaker than when I was using a claymore. I was even told during my guild advancement interview that I need to switch to cosmicfire as he was sure it would be doing more damage, but it's not.

Best Answers

Answers

  • As far as I know, the base damage of cosmicfire will never be as good as the claymore.
  • Gotcha. Appreciate the thorough response. I've got the symbol now but the damage seems to be less effective than cosmicfire, atleast against spectres and mutts.

    If cosmicfire will never be as strong as the claymore, then why even include the ability? The longer I play the more it seems like playing a warrior is the only sensible option.
  • AeldraAeldra , using cake powered flight
    Soveliss said:
    Gotcha. Appreciate the thorough response. I've got the symbol now but the damage seems to be less effective than cosmicfire, atleast against spectres and mutts.

    If cosmicfire will never be as strong as the claymore, then why even include the ability? The longer I play the more it seems like playing a warrior is the only sensible option.

    It highly depends upon your class choice and what you're targetting. Guardians in particular do not excel in hunting damage on their class skills, other classes do work rather well ( wiccans, chems, warriors, monks, some bards ) seem to do fine in terms of damage output. It's been a long questioned problem about why the newbie claymore is that good compared to class skills.

    Also, I want to note that a lot of the mobs in lusternia have actual damage resistances and weaknesses and they have a -significant- impact, so chosing the right ability to attack a mob can matter more then your base damage if their weakness/resistance to the damage type is high enough.
    Avatar / Picture done by the lovely Gurashi.
  • Gotcha, now that I'm probing more I'm finding the cause for the imbalance. It's still not as significant a difference as I was expecting (a moose dies with 6 strikes from my symbol but 7 from cosmicfire) but it is starting to make more sense, and I'm trying to kirigami and food and stuff but it's still not huge.

    I'm just trying to understand how you guys hit that next level of ability. Like, I'm level 67 and the game still plays virtually the exact same as level 15. I can take a bit more damage before dying, but even with reflexes, if I couldn't defeat an opponent at level 15 I can't defeat them now. The vast majority of my abilities can only be used against other players, but I still don't know when PvP is supposed to happen because there's apparently some vengeance thing that makes it a suicidal endeavor on the prime plane and there seems to be no reason at all to visit an opponent's plane. It just sort of feels like until you hit level 99 everything you do serves the city, but really it's serving the higher level players so they can ascend or whatever.
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    It should also be  noted that the newbie claymore is pretty strong as opposed to normal warrior weapons.
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • XenthosXenthos Shadow Lord
    edited September 2017
    Shaddus said:
    It should also be  noted that the newbie claymore is pretty strong as opposed to normal warrior weapons.
    I was going to say this too.  Don't consider going warrior because of that claymore, it has some buffs to it so that a newbie "does not have to worry" about figuring out appropriate skilling, lesson investment, etc. immediately.  Actual class damage has been reviewed multiple times and should be roughly similar (though not 100%, of course).  Different classes will learn different skills that can affect survivability in different ways, too.

    One thing that surprises me is the "if I could not defeat at 15 I can't now".  This reads to me as if you are not using many vital (health especially) buffs (BODYSCAN VITALS).  You should at the least get a life karma blessing.  The more health you have, the more effective a healing potion is.  They build on each other and can make you a lot stronger.  Can also look at other supportive healers like magic scrolls and sparkleberries.
    image
  • Getting in game help with your buffs can make a huge difference. I think I took someone on a hunt and buffed their health from about 4k to 7k after running them through a bunch of easyish to access buffs.
  • CyndarinCyndarin used Flamethrower! It was super effective.
    Hit someone smaller.
    image
  • I was going to say this too.  Don't consider going warrior because of that claymore, it has some buffs to it so that a newbie "does not have to worry" about figuring out appropriate skilling, lesson investment, etc. immediately.  Actual class damage has been reviewed multiple times and should be roughly similar (though not 100%, of course).  Different classes will learn different skills that can affect survivability in different ways, too.

    One thing that surprises me is the "if I could not defeat at 15 I can't now".  This reads to me as if you are not using many vital (health especially) buffs (BODYSCAN VITALS).  You should at the least get a life karma blessing.  The more health you have, the more effective a healing potion is.  They build on each other and can make you a lot stronger.  Can also look at other supportive healers like magic scrolls and sparkleberries.
    Well the problem is my damage now is only negligibly higher than it was at 15. That is to say, it takes the exact same amount of hits to kill something now as it did then. As you've pointed out, critical hits are the only thing helping, and those are so infrequent I'll be lucky if it's 1 out of every 40 hits, and even then it doesn't seem to be significant.

    Furthermore, although my health is higher I take the same amount of damage as ever. I mean, I could kill a grub or spectre paladin at level 15, I just had to sip health every time they attacked. Now I can be more neglectful about healing because I have a larger health buffer but a steel goat will still whittle me down, and if a second one comes in I die, no question.

    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?
  • Soveliss said:

    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?
    Skill levels helps! And as it was explained to me, skillsets in the same pool also benefit each other. And for what it's worth, while it may seem like you're not any better since level 15, I assure you that you are.

    Have you also considered using influence more instead of hunting? A lot of people find that faster/easier, and it's something that anyone can buff pretty easily.
  • Soveliss said:
    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?
    Basically (I'm assuming Lusternia is fundamentally similar to other IRE games here) you gain a fairly minor damage increase from increasing your core skill, but your damage output against mobs is basically governed by your level via critical hits, as you reach higher levels not only do the number of crits you'll hit increase, but you'll also start getting ones that do x2, x4 etc damage which significantly speeds up the hunting process.

    Training in various skills does impact hunting, but it's pretty much all in survivability rather than offensive capability.  Assuming Putrefaction in Necromancy functions at all like what I'm used to, it's a solid defensive buff for both pvp and hunting for instance, I'm sure others with more experience can point out others.
  • Soveliss said:
    I was going to say this too.  Don't consider going warrior because of that claymore, it has some buffs to it so that a newbie "does not have to worry" about figuring out appropriate skilling, lesson investment, etc. immediately.  Actual class damage has been reviewed multiple times and should be roughly similar (though not 100%, of course).  Different classes will learn different skills that can affect survivability in different ways, too.

    One thing that surprises me is the "if I could not defeat at 15 I can't now".  This reads to me as if you are not using many vital (health especially) buffs (BODYSCAN VITALS).  You should at the least get a life karma blessing.  The more health you have, the more effective a healing potion is.  They build on each other and can make you a lot stronger.  Can also look at other supportive healers like magic scrolls and sparkleberries.
    Well the problem is my damage now is only negligibly higher than it was at 15. That is to say, it takes the exact same amount of hits to kill something now as it did then. As you've pointed out, critical hits are the only thing helping, and those are so infrequent I'll be lucky if it's 1 out of every 40 hits, and even then it doesn't seem to be significant.

    Furthermore, although my health is higher I take the same amount of damage as ever. I mean, I could kill a grub or spectre paladin at level 15, I just had to sip health every time they attacked. Now I can be more neglectful about healing because I have a larger health buffer but a steel goat will still whittle me down, and if a second one comes in I die, no question.

    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?

    In a way. It depends a little on your skills as well for example wiccans get a basic attack nature curse early on but get their strongest bashing attack highish up in their totem.

    Leveling up will make your more resiliant to damage overall and will let you hunt stronger creatures which will give more experience and also different skills will help you survive more. Theres some self healing skills and buffs in some skill sets etc which can let you tank the harder to kill stuff longer etc.

  • Coretha said:
    Soveliss said:
    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?
    Basically (I'm assuming Lusternia is fundamentally similar to other IRE games here) you gain a fairly minor damage increase from increasing your core skill, but your damage output against mobs is basically governed by your level via critical hits, as you reach higher levels not only do the number of crits you'll hit increase, but you'll also start getting ones that do x2, x4 etc damage which significantly speeds up the hunting process.
    This is correct. Some class attacks are just better for hunting than others. Due to the way critical hits are rolled and the scaling of base critical hit chance with levels, you'll find that your bashing speed will get much higher as you enter the highest levels.

    Most people who bash even sporadically at end game will end up buying an artifact divinus whip for 275 credits because they offer much, much better damage output when bashing.
  • Falaeron said:
    Coretha said:
    Soveliss said:
    I think I've been misunderstanding how to play. The entire basis of becoming stronger is simply increasing your health and getting more critical hits, is this correct? And essentially no amount of training in any discipline will ever increase your ability to hunt?
    Basically (I'm assuming Lusternia is fundamentally similar to other IRE games here) you gain a fairly minor damage increase from increasing your core skill, but your damage output against mobs is basically governed by your level via critical hits, as you reach higher levels not only do the number of crits you'll hit increase, but you'll also start getting ones that do x2, x4 etc damage which significantly speeds up the hunting process.
    This is correct. Some class attacks are just better for hunting than others. Due to the way critical hits are rolled and the scaling of base critical hit chance with levels, you'll find that your bashing speed will get much higher as you enter the highest levels.

    Most people who bash even sporadically at end game will end up buying an artifact divinus whip for 275 credits because they offer much, much better damage output when bashing.
    10/10 my third favourite artefact.
  • Thanks everyone, you've all been immensely helpful. I'm seeing a serious improvement in everything, not just damage, now that I understand the system better.
Sign In or Register to comment.