Warrior question

[Rocklin]

I would normally put this in the Warrior forum, but I posted this question earlier, and it has yet to be answered. When building a Warrior that uses Necromancy and Bushido (I hate the term "Sampire"), I am wondering what is better for a chest piece. Is the Runed Beetle Carapace or the Heart of the Lion a better item to use? It seems most favor the Runed Beetle Carapace, but the Heart of the Lion has better resists. Any thoughts?

 

[Viper09]

I think it will depend on what your other armor pieces are or will be.
While the heart has better resists, you may not need all those resists depending on your other pieces.
If you want the MR, LMC, and mana increase over the defense chance, then go for the Carapace. If you are lacking in resist perhaps go for the heart.

 

[Rocklin]

Thanks Viper. Sounds like I need to have both, and wait to see what I can craft. My jewelry, Talisman, Arms and Weapon have yet to be acquired. I plan on making the weapon from Bronze or Gold Runics I have. I expect to use many charges to get something passable. Thank you for your advise.

 

[Harlequin]

My PVM samurai girl uses violet courage (female version of the heart of lion, it has slightly different resists, but other stats are the same. bonus - doesn't make her look fat...).

LMC and MR I can get on most armour pieces, including runic armour. BUT DCI is only available on a few arties and jewels. My setup:

Violet Courage +15
Fey Leggings + 20
Quiver of Infinity +5
Twinkling Radiant Scimitar +6

Total = 46 (DCI cap is 45)

Both jewel slots are now free for customization however you wish - eg +HCI/+damage/+dex/+LRC/+LMC or even +DCI if you want to overcap.

Other considerations:
1) I prefer to get hit less compared to having more usable mana

2) I can leech mana back from my weapon

3) Killing an honoured mob gives you back hp/mana/stam based on the damage you have dealt to the mob. Tip: After I die, I will honour a couple of weak mobs and kill them to regain my hp/mana.

4) My warrior doesn't use alot of mana, main weapon move is lightning strike, which costs only 5 mana. The only special I ever chain is whirlwind when I am swarmed. However, this seems to trigger my weapon's mana leech more often (probably because there are multiple opponents), so I seldom run out of mana even when I get the double mana penalty for chaining.

5) The most mana intensive spells I use are Vampire/wraith form, EoO and Evasion. Neither of these requires/can be chained. Form changing spells lasts till death. EoO lasts several minutes. Evasion lasts much shorter, but can't be chained back to back anymore.

6) Only time I run out of mana is when I get mana drained/vamped. MR is potentially more helpful than LMC in this situation.

 

[Divster]

I would hazard an opinion stating that if you have a weapon with good enough mana leech you can afford to be less concerned about the mana properties of the carapace, the 15 dci is very helpfull for a samurai and can free up dci slots on your jewels or elsewhere, so if you have a good mana leech weapon then i would suggest you use the heart, and use the other armour pieces for lmc, mi, mr, if you are relying solely on your armour for mr personally i would suggest you keep looking for a better wep as the sampire (srry know u hate the term) template usually means ure mr from armour etc will not be sufficient by itself. Then again if you have a weapon with 15 dci mana leech hld hla hsl then yuo might want to go with the carapace, its all a matter of balancing out all your pieces and maximising all the attributes you need!

 

[Rocklin]

Thank you Harle and Divster for the replies. This sounds like a fun character to build. Still working on her.