Sampire.. Parrying or Spirit Speak?

[Valerin]

I'm pretty much set on these:
120 Bushido
120 Swords
120 Tactics
100 Necro
65 Chivalry
100 Resist

Which leaves 75 points.. and I'm between parrying and spirit speak.

Parrying is nice to avoid hits, but spirit speak is nice for the extra life leech with longer cursed weapons.

Opinions?

 

[Zalan]

Personally I`d exchange 100 Resist for 100 Parry, & go for 75 SS. Unless this is a PvP template. If you want to keep Resist I`d say go for SS. My opion parry less than 100 is not worth it.

 

[Valerin]

Personally I`d exchange 100 Resist for 100 Parry, & go for 75 SS. Unless this is a PvP template. If you want to keep Resist I`d say go for SS. My opion parry less than 100 is not worth it.

Reason for the resist is because doing something like a Fire champ spawn is horrendous without it (constant mana vamping prevents whirlwinds = death)

 

[Zalan]

The other option is Soul Stones are your friend ^^

 

[Valerin]

The other option is Soul Stones are your friend ^^

True, but I just started fresh after a 4 year break (new account) so don't quite have the money for soul stones yet. Maybe down the road =p

 

[Zalan]

You can buy them at uogamecodes.com if you want to spend $10 on one. Can also be claimed as a 1st year vet reward.

 

[Valerin]

Will consider getting soulstones, but was just curious overall which would keep me alive longer; parrying or spirit speak. I'm leaning towards spirit speak as of now.

 

[Picus at the office]

Parry. SS is a much better skill when doing a solo peerless monster but for a champ spawn the ablity to cast a effective evasion is far better.

This said with NO SS I believe you are not going to be killing the champ. My sampire has 36 total SS through jewels and 10 natural skill and while I have to spam CW often I have little issues killing any boss I come across.

IMO I believe 50 SS and 100 parry would be the ideal combination.

 

[Garm The Green]

Will consider getting soulstones, but was just curious overall which would keep me alive longer; parrying or spirit speak. I'm leaning towards spirit speak as of now.

Parry.

If your worried about third level spawn, you'll want evasion.

I'm not too keen on my necro sammy, prefer my vamp sammy at the moment. The reason is this; having to cast curse weap lowers karma, so consecrate lasts a much shorter time (as does divine fury and EoO to a lesser extent). I then end up frustrated casting consecrate every 5-8 seconds, then curse, carrying regs, having lower karma and in your position, also not being able to use evasion/counter attack/stam increase from confidence.

I find I'm casting these two spells (ConsW/CurseW) too often on my necro samurai, which remove special attacks (LS/AI etc) and also mean i have to wait to cast evasion/counter etc etc.
SS for me has a great deal of potential but the reality is that lower karma and casting corpse skin/curse (even if it is only once every thirty seconds) means that consecrate only lasts 5-7 seconds and the whole flow is ruined, mana is lower etc etc. Dont forget when you're casting your not hitting and therefore not healing/doing DPS.
You can either roll with FC/FCR with prot on and cast slower, and have to increase phys resist or with prot off and risk being interupted at the crucial moment, followed by a likely death....


On the plus side using SS you get to animate dead (skele dragons?) have the option of wraith form or vamp, corpse, summons (wolf/bat?), hellsteads, revenants etc etc which is always nice! Blood oath also becomes trivial with SS type leech (vamp +curse = 70%) though whether animates are really useful/suitable to be used on non-caster type templates due to the drain on mana they present alongside their ability to interfere with you honoring a foe due to them doing damage first etc is another debate.

It depends if you like to keep it simple or fiddly and varied. Neither is "right". SM seems to be super-succesful with his, maybe mine just has a poo suit! Mine necro sammy rolls with both parry and SS though, but has no M&S or HLA on weap, just the standard 45 dci. Maybe with some love he'd be unstoppable....

Either way, neither takes long to train, especially parry so just fiddle with them both?

Picus - yes that is a nice suggestion but he only has 75 skill points to play with, not 150!

 

[Thunderz]

Parry.
Reason being having to cast curse weap lowers karma, so consecrate lasts a shorter time, as does divine fury and EoO. I end up frustrated about casting consecrate, curse all the time, carrying regs, having lower karma, not being able to use evasion/counter attack/stam increase from confidence.


On the plus side using SS you get to animate dead (skele dragons?)

If you have elemental wepons you dont need to cast consicrate wepon, a BIG plus when fightign casters

also summons require corpses, most sampirees are solo boss hunters, so there is very few corpses to animate
Thunderz

 

[Garm The Green]

Unless you chose to have skill jewels with

+15 SS
+15 Parry
+15 Bushido

leaving two slots on each jewel for DI/HCI/DCI/etc

Those skills on ring and brace would put 90 extra skill points onto your plate...

 

[Garm The Green]

If you have elemental wepons you dont need to cast consicrate wepon, a BIG plus when fightign casters

also summons require corpses, most sampirees are solo boss hunters, so there is very few corpses to animate
Thunderz

But he's talking about champ spawns...

 

[Madrid]

But he's talking about champ spawns...

Doesn't matter if your fighting mongbats! Elemental weapons!

For almost all spawns I use an Elemental Weapon with Hit Area for the working the spawn and a seperate Elemental Weapon designated for the Boss.

The employment of Elemental weapons is probably the most underused advantage a warrior has control over in the game. It pays huge dividends!

 

[Stupid Miner]

Parry. SS is a much better skill when doing a solo peerless monster but for a champ spawn the ablity to cast a effective evasion is far better.

This said with NO SS I believe you are not going to be killing the champ. My sampire has 36 total SS through jewels and 10 natural skill and while I have to spam CW often I have little issues killing any boss I come across.

IMO I believe 50 SS and 100 parry would be the ideal combination.

But without Resist, SS will allow you to live when you get mana drained and can't whirlwind. Without Resist and without SS, there's no way you could survive, since 20% leech of hitting a single enemy isn't going to amount to a whole lot, whereas 70% will.

Not actually arguing against you, more skew-parallelish

 

[Nyses]

For Spawns, Parry.

All the champs can be done without SS on the template. Vamp form and the right weapon and approach is all you need. Not all Champ bosses are just stand there beating it with your super fast ornate axe, or Rune Blade. I do not even use those 2 weapons on my Spawn Sammy, ever.

 

[Stupid Miner]

Blood oath also becomes trivial with SS type leech (vamp +curse = 70%)

Not trivial, but not nearly as deadly.
Blood oath is weird, it applies damage after you leech.

So a 100 damage hit leeches 70 hp.
if blood oath does 40 damage. (not sure what are realistic numbers for oath, can't test since shards are all down)
then you leech 70-40 (or 30) HP to a maximum of 40 less than your max HP.

 

[Garm The Green]

But he's talking about champ spawns...

Doesn't matter if your fighting mongbats! Elemental weapons!

For almost all spawns I use an Elemental Weapon with Hit Area for the working the spawn and a seperate Elemental Weapon designated for the Boss.

Ahhh your taking things out of context - misquote! Not that it matters in any way, but my obsessive compulsive nature couldn't allow me to stay silent!

I was saying champ spawns give the opportunity for animating the dead u crazy horse! I wasn't even commenting on elemental weapons, which seem like a big PITA to me. But that's just down to personal preference/playstyle.

If i used elemental weaps, i don't think i'd even bother with Chiv. Hmmm.... what could i use 65 spare points for...? And then i'd make a load of super slayers or slayers in each elemental flavour using max SSI and POF and then i'd have....spent a ton of money ^_^

Plus the OP is asking about SS or Parry, how does this helP?

 

[Madrid]

Ahhh your taking things out of context - misquote!

I was saying champ spawns give the opportunity for animating the dead u crazy horse! I wasn't even commenting on elemental weapons, which seem like a big PITA to me. But that's just down to personal preference/playstyle.

If i used elemental weaps, i don't think i'd even bother with Chiv. Hmmm.... what could i use 65 spare points for...? And then i'd make a load of super slayers or slayers in each elemental flavour using max SSI and POF and then i'd have....spent a ton of money ^_^

Sorry Garm I should have read a little closer! I have a tendency to jump to conclusion and misconstrue things on ocassion.

You have to have Chivalry imo opinion...no way around it on a sampire template.

Trust me on the Elemental Weapons it's well worth the investment. With the right Elementals weapons you will become a world beater. Once you start there is no going back. Monsters and challenges that once seemed difficult will become a walk in the park. Spawns have become much easier than they used to be for me. The Big Dogs will still be a tough fight (Rikktor, Ilhenir, Meraktus) one on one even with the right weapon but that's how it should be.

Buy yourself some cheap low end runic hammers (Shadow & Dull Copper) and go to work with your blacksmith. It may take alot of hammers to get something workable that you can enhance, POF, and then imbue.

Thunderez is spot on! Those who aren't using them you have no idea what your missing. "You have no idea of the Power of Elemental Weapons!"...

 

[Garm The Green]

Not trivial, but not nearly as deadly.
Blood oath is weird, it applies damage after you leech.

So a 100 damage hit leeches 70 hp.
if blood oath does 40 damage. (not sure what are realistic numbers for oath, can't test since shards are all down)
then you leech 70-40 (or 30) HP to a maximum of 40 less than your max HP.

Good point dude.

I prefer that to where it could be applied before the leech though, and then trouble...

 

[Garm The Green]

Sorry Garm I should have read a little closer! I have a tendency to jump to conclusion and misconstrue things on ocassion.

You have to have Chivalry imo opinion...no way around it on a sampire template.

Trust me on the Elemental Weapons it's well worth the investment. With the right Elementals weapons you will become a world beater. Once you start there is no going back. Monsters and challenges that once seemed difficult will become a walk in the park. Spawns have become much easier than they used to be for me. The Big Dogs will still be a tough fight (Rikktor, Ilhenir, Meraktus) one on one even with the right weapon but that's how it should be.

Buy yourself some cheap low end runic hammers (Shadow & Dull Copper) and go to work with your blacksmith. It may take alot of hammers to get something workable that you can enhance, POF, and then imbue.

Thunderez is spot on! Those who aren't using them you have no idea what your missing. "You have no idea of the Power of Elemental Weapons!"...

ok dude, fair game I'll take you up on that. I've got about 50-60 low level runics to burn, so tell me what to make and I'll do it ^_^ My cynical side just doesn't see how they can improve drastically upon consecrate weapon; apart from making it redundant on long boss battles. My concern is surely some spawn are weaker to some resists than others - eg ophidians are weak to fire, dragons are not, so consecrate will be needed anyways for rikky....

Mind you, i have been making a set of elemental quivers (only have fire and poison - need white pearl for cold still...) for my archer for this exact purpose... so maybe!

Cheers for reply let me know dude!

 

[Zalan]

Keep in mind only 75 skill points are being used, unless he changed his orignal statement.

 

[Valerin]

Keep in mind only 75 skill points are being used, unless he changed his orignal statement.

that's true, but the suggestions to put some skill pts on jewelry.. I might consider. But only 75 natural points are free.

 

[Madrid]

I agree with Zalan and would do something along the lines he suggested. Soulstone resist and putting it back on on an as needed basis. Sounds advice imo.

120 Swords
120 Bushido
120 Parry
120 Tactics
100 Necromancy
50 Chivalry (80 Chivalry w/+15 Ring/+15 Bracelet)
70 Spirit Speak

Whoop Buttox Template!

 

[NickyDishes]

Sampire=no ss
whammy= ss

 

[Madrid]

Sampire=no ss
whammy= ss

Bollocks!

I go with vampire Embrace as a default and go wraith for against certain bosses like Semindar and Meraktus when it suits me.

What does that make me? A Necrampire? A Nercramurai?

It's a matter of semantics...

In the famous words of Popeye...

"I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam that I yam"