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Finally hit 20K with CW...need some advice on how to advance power

prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
Finally...20K. Just for grins I got into the REQ and ended up in LOMM which never actually started since enough players couldn't be gathered. However, one player there noted there's no way I'd succeed in there anyway...fair enough. He noted I need to get to at least 120K in Power (I'm at about 85K now) and need better armor/weapons (Alabaster).

So, I'm missing a couple of items in the 960 level range (I think my orb and talisman...maybe something else...they're in 600+ range now). Not sure where to upgrade those. Everything else is in 960 range. Where do I get better stuff? I haven't seen anything handed out for higher anywhere. I might not be playing in the right places. How do I get Alabaster items?

TIA!

Comments

  • mentinmindmakermentinmindmaker Member Posts: 1,489 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    The challenge in LoMM is to kill the mimics in your corner at Arcturia. If you mess up those you mess it up for the entire team.
    You need enough dps to manage that to run LoMM.

    One tip for LoMM is exactly to run REQ's. Most PUG REQs end up as being Arcturia practice runs. Those that expect to complete LoMM joins preformed groups.

    Alabaster weapons are from running Master Expeditions in YP. You can run 3 each day, assuming you have completed the Undermountain campaign. MEs will also give you 950 armor and rings, and a chance at artifact drops from the Lost chests from Zok. So MEs will be your main upgrade activity for a while.

    Also don't forget all the other important things to upgrade: Orange augment main pet, bondings at highest possible level, mounts with insignias, enchantments, pets in general with +4000 power in all slots, boons, etc etc.

    The wearable gear is actually a very small part of your total setup.
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Interesting, I stopped doing the ME's because it looked like the drops were pretty minor. I guess I should try again.
  • thestiathestia Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 296 Arc User
    I agree with @mentinmindmaker. I would add that you need to make sure all your offensive stats are capped. You need 68k armor pen and accuracy to make sure you're doing the most damage possible to those mimics. You can get away with less power and a lower tier of weapons, especially as a Thaumaturge. It's possible as a wizard with Ebonized/cult/green rarity alabaster to pull your weight.

    Simply having 20k isn't enough for LoMM. I wish that was explicitly stated somewhere in the game. You *really* need to have those offense stats capped or you and your team are going to suffer unless they are strong enough to clear their own mimic, and help you with yours.
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Here's where I'm currently at. What are the caps I need to aim for and what should I avoid overdoing?

    Power: 85K
    Armor Penetration: 71K
    Defense: 65K
    Critical Strike: 70K
    Critical Avoidance: 42K
    Accuracy: 54K
    Deflect:40K
    Combat Advantage: 69K
    Awareness: 58K
  • casewoodshadowcasewoodshadow Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 25 Arc User
    prethen said:

    Here's where I'm currently at. What are the caps I need to aim for and what should I avoid overdoing?

    Power: 85K
    Armor Penetration: 71K
    Defense: 65K
    Critical Strike: 70K
    Critical Avoidance: 42K
    Accuracy: 54K
    Deflect:40K
    Combat Advantage: 69K
    Awareness: 58K

    Check out Rainer's Mod 16 Pocket wiki. The answer to your question is in the optimal stats tab but I'd encourage you to read the whole thing. There's a lot of great information in it. Here's the link:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fP_cUugHdsObvQDzLFijGA-mVm_qLmSy0MI62aTLkDM/htmlview?sle=true#
  • utookmynickutookmynick Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    prethen said:

    Here's where I'm currently at. What are the caps I need to aim for and what should I avoid overdoing?

    Accuracy: 54K

    Ya, read up on Rainer's spreadsheet as someone mentioned. Get your Accuracy up to 68k.

    Do MEs for Alabaster and use Seal of the Mountain to get gear that fill out your stats. Read Rainer's spreadsheet on Companions to get companions that give Power (ie. Deepcrow Hatchling gives 8k power at legendary). Get your Bondings as high as possible. Buy other companions in the same type as your companion to increase Bolster (takes your top 5 companions of same type). There are some cheap epic ones on AH. Get a mount with 5k power (I'm assuming legendary mounts are out of your budget).

    Augments also have an extra enchancement that gives extra stats. There are 4 that give power as one of the stats:

    Bulette Pup - Power, Defense, CA
    Star of Simril - Power, Crit Avoidance, Awareness
    Polar Bear Cub - Power, Critical Strike, Awareness
    Quasit - Power, Defense, Accuracy

    The amount granted is supposed to be affected by bondings, so it is 3100 extra power with 3 R15 bondings.




    Post edited by utookmynick on
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    I'm fond of my Owl Bear Cub!
  • solanaceae#5995 solanaceae Member Posts: 29 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    Just a note, Wizard (at least Thaumaturge) has several powers that are bugged and get deflects even with capped and above-the-cap Accuracy. Icy Terrain and its Smolder procs is the big one, but Oppressive Force does it too, so I recommend Furous Immolation for AoE instead. I have >75k Accuracy and I still get deflects plenty of the time. ACT shows effectiveness at around 70-80%.

    I run with about 100k Power as a Thaum and around 75-80k in the other offensive stats (to counter scaling), and I can handle LoMM fine (solo multiple mimics and kill Scaladars). My IL is around 20.5k, I don't have any Barovia or Chult gear, only had one Mythic (Decanter) until the x2 refining event, R11-13 bondings, etc. The most important thing is your build (encounters, feats, rotation) and knowing boss mechanics. Since I have <50k Defense, the hardest part for me is surviving the 2nd and 3rd boss nukes - but Shield takes care of that issue.

    The biggest improvement you need is your mainhand, since the damage range of a level 980 weapon is drastically higher than your 600-ish when in unscaled places like LoMM. You can farm for Alabaster, but it can be a pain in the neck, so Mountaineer is a respectable and cheap alternative.
  • utookmynickutookmynick Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    prethen said:

    I'm fond of my Owl Bear Cub!

    The Owl Bear Cub for your summoned companion is fine. You don't need to summon the Deepcrow Hatchling to get its power (6k at epic, 8k at legendary). It goes into one of the Offense slots under companions tab.

    They increased the drop rate of Alabaster main and offhand if you don't already have one. It's much less painful RNG now. This is anecdotal, but I did MEs on an alt since the last patch and got both within 6 days.
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    When doing ME's, is there a particular strategy to do them that will help me gain the gear quicker or more easily? I know there are options in starting out the ME and not sure if those matter.
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Also, where do I find a Crown merchant (one in YP only has shards) that has higher level gear?
  • namelesshero347namelesshero347 Member Posts: 2,109 Arc User
    prethen said:

    When doing ME's, is there a particular strategy to do them that will help me gain the gear quicker or more easily? I know there are options in starting out the ME and not sure if those matter.

    Do zero rune runs. They can be easily soloed. Doing them solo also means you get all boss drops.
  • utookmynickutookmynick Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    prethen said:

    When doing ME's, is there a particular strategy to do them that will help me gain the gear quicker or more easily? I know there are options in starting out the ME and not sure if those matter.

    Make sure you find all 9 relics. That's all you need for a chance for Alabaster.

    You don't need the starting options, but using at least one rune means you get to open the end chest which at the very least will drop a shard which you can trade for a chest from a merchant under one of the stairs in YT. The chest gives 5k AD (5.5k with VIP bonus) and a low chance for artifacts like Staff of Flowers.

    There are plenty of people LFG for 1 rune ME, so form/join a group to do the run. It's faster and the Chaos rune rewards AD and Sacrifice rewards RP. All of this is bonus while you wait for Alabaster to drop.
  • utookmynickutookmynick Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    prethen said:

    Also, where do I find a Crown merchant (one in YP only has shards) that has higher level gear?

    He's on the ground floor across from the bar on the other side of the well. Look for the seal icon above his head.

  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User

    prethen said:

    Also, where do I find a Crown merchant (one in YP only has shards) that has higher level gear?

    He's on the ground floor across from the bar on the other side of the well. Look for the seal icon above his head.

    I know about that guy, but the only thing he sells for Crowns is Shards and I don't want those. My gear is all higher than the first tab of inventory he has (I have no currency for second tab).
  • plasticbatplasticbat Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 12,184 Arc User
    prethen said:

    prethen said:

    Also, where do I find a Crown merchant (one in YP only has shards) that has higher level gear?

    He's on the ground floor across from the bar on the other side of the well. Look for the seal icon above his head.

    I know about that guy, but the only thing he sells for Crowns is Shards and I don't want those. My gear is all higher than the first tab of inventory he has (I have no currency for second tab).
    Did you check the campaign store in your undermountain campaign window?
    *** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
  • utookmynickutookmynick Member Posts: 206 Arc User
    edited July 2019
    prethen said:


    I know about that guy, but the only thing he sells for Crowns is Shards and I don't want those. My gear is all higher than the first tab of inventory he has (I have no currency for second tab).

    I see. When you said "Crowns", I thought you simply misspoke and meant seals because Seal of the Crown can't get you better gear. You can only trade for old level 70 gear (Crowns were 2 mods ago). There is a Seal of the Crown merchant in PE merchant area.

    The first tab is Seal of the Mountain 940 gear. If you already have better gear than that, then it just sounds like you need to work on your companion, companion powers and bondings. If you already have 950-965 gear, the highest 1,010 gear isn't going to add much to your stats.
    Post edited by utookmynick on
  • prethenprethen Member Posts: 137 Arc User
    Yeah...I gotta wonder how the heck to I get another 20K++ in Power. It seems like it will take a very long time and very expensive in AD to upgrade tons of enchantments. Oh well...that's why we play! I finally got my first piece of Alabaster. Ironically, it doesn't seem like a big deal as it only added about 15 to my item level (before next upgrade).
  • b4t1b4tb4t1b4t Member Posts: 275 Arc User
    I will add my two cents in this and say what most might have already said but in different ways.
    Yes 20K is the item level limit to enter Lair of the Mad Mage however if you only fixate and focus on item level only then you really are playing the game completely wrong.
    That means that yes item level does mean something but your stats means so much more then what item level you currently have.
    For a dps to actually be useful and be able to help the team instead of being carried thru that dps must have the stats required to put out enough dps.
    Armor Pen, Accuracy, Critical Strike, Combat Advantage and of course tons of power.
    The idea is to cap the stats you need like armor pen and accuracy and then stack power.
    This way when you enter your have the stats you need to put out the dps dmg that is required and will not be holding up a team.
    People for whatever reason gets so fixated on item level and they really miss the point of stats.
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