L90 and beyond:)

Bows are not effective on a BM ever, vit is handy for PK and if your refines are low but otherwise not much use, stick to elemental ornaments when possible, and... a lot more I can't get into detail on due to my own time constraints.

Ambisagrus - Lost City wrote: »

I'll let saku cover this one, my brain is screaming at me for some reason due to this guy posting on the archer instead of bm :X

Lol... alright.

So, for level 90 gear you're on the right path by planning out your tt99 -int pieces and working towards them now since you need tt90 green for a soul edge. I like that you're going LA wrist and boots, I consider this better than using LA ornies. You'll have slightly less hp than an evasion ornie but plenty more defense to make up for it so you won't be as squishy. So what HA pieces are you using?

I like HA belt and chest, saving the neck space for a nice magic defense neck. Some people use HA belt and neck because they can transfer it to a sin, but if you do this consider going HA Nirvana chest plate soon to make up for some mdef you lack by not having a mdef ornament.

Diminishing returns on gear is largely false. I suppose there is some truth to it but here's why I consider it false. If you have 75% phys resistance from 12k pdef it may only take 600 more pdef to get 76% phys resistance (+1% more). If you have 80% phys resistance it'd take you more like 1000 pdef to get to 81%. Again, its +1% more but this time it took you 1000 pdef to get there instead of only 600. So people claim diminishing returns. But, if you look at it, when you had 75% phys resistance you were taking 25% damage and increasing by 1% meant you started only taking 24% damage, which is a 4% overall increase (24/25=.96). If you had 80% and went to 81% you went from taking 20% to taking 19% damage, 19/20=5% more reduction. So there probably is a reduction in the effects of physical defense but its not significant enough to avoid pdef. Also reduction works in fractions, so if you have 16k pdef and it shows 80% reduction and you increase that by 500 pdef but it still shows 80% reduction, you actual are experiencing more damage reduction even though its only showing you the whole number integer.

K, so should you get LA wrist and boots now? I'd say go ahead unless you want to try to sell your tt90 LA and then rebuy tt90 HA with that coin. There are alot of sins wanting to buy tt90 so they flip easily, the same with tt90 HA. You can use tt90 HA and when you are near level 98 watch the AH and pick up a pair of tt90 LA and sell your tt99 HA. Also, consider taking the time to farm tt90 gold HA or LA (here's a link to LA. It gives str which adds to your pdef and damage and you can stash it for a sin). If I remember they run about 3 mil to make, bind to your character, but then you'll have -.1 HA/LA wrists for level 90-99.

Yes, HA refines the best. LA refines less. AA refines the worse. If you are only +3 ing gear its not much to worry about. 30 hp or something.

Swindler's neck is a nice neck to use until you get a cube neck. I also carried a Sky Demon's Pearl and would hotkey them both and swap depending on whether I needed pdef or mdef. Its a good way to experiment which marrows to use when.

Speaking of marrows. You've got the right idea on how to use them. Because we're an HA class we tend to have good pdef and use magic marrow more to make up for it. I usually recommend people leave them at level 4-6 to experiment and learn timing with them. When you change them to demon they'll become less suicidal because they don't hurt the opposite defense as much. About 90% of damage we take is physical, but what really hurts is magical, and on bosses they tend to do a 4 normal attack then 1 magical attack combo so learning how and when makes a bm much more survivable.

I actually recommend dex tomes for BMs. The reason is with the 3str/2dex BM build we end up with over 200 dex, with gear and everything its around 230 dex. So having a dex tome is a nice way to stat more strength instead of dex and then remove the tome for a str/vit or a -int tome rather than restating if you have too much dex.

I'd argue bows have their occasional use, but only about as often as a sword has its use. But Kossy was right that vit isn't needed much on a BM in PvE but its handy for PvP. I myself got to 100, decided I wanted to pk more, so I restated min str and min dex for fist/axes and put about 75 points in vit till I could afford better refines. Later on after I refined I restat back to 200 dex with gear, the rest in strength (around 400) and magic and vit down to 3 points.