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Zero Sampire

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Here is a zero thought required walk through for fighting 95% of the game without any difficulty.

Pick these skills:
120 Swords
120 Tactics
120 Anatomy
120 Bushido
60 Parry
100 Necro
80 Chiv

Get at least 10 skill points on your equipment in either: Tactics, Anatomy, Bushido, Parry or Chivalry. For the purpose of having Chivalry at 90. A good simple way of doing this is to use the Soldier's Medal talisman.

Get a level 3 Swords Mastery primer.

Get a 25 stat scroll and a +5 valiant scroll.

On your suit if you can only reach 150 Stamina you will need 35 SSI on your suit or equipment. If you can reach 180 Stamina you will need 20 SSI on your suit or equipment. This is to swing Bladed Staffs and Double Axes at 1.25s (the cap). Ideally try to reach this Stamina/SSI entirely on the suit and not the weapon as having SSI on the weapon will reduce the amount of leeches you can Imbue.

Pick either Stamina protection or Lower Mana Cost bonus from your armour type:

-Platemail, Ringmail, Chainmail, and Dragon armor will provide a high level of Stamina Loss protection.

-Studded leather, Hide armor, Stone armor and Bone armor will give 3 LMC per piece up to a total of 15 LMC.

Personally I use LMC, most people go for Stamina Protection.

On your armour you will want these resists:
70/95/70/70/70 standard
+5 energy for a Elf
+5 in all if planning to use Armour Refinements

You will want 100 Damage Increase. (Assume that you will have 40 on your weapon.)

You will want 40 Lower Mana Cost.

You will want 45 Hit Chance Increase.

You will want 45 Defence Chance Increase if you are not refining your armour. Or 20 if you are.

Plan your stats so that in your suit your Stamina reaches the level required above. Strength should be as high as possible and an even number. What's left put in Intelligence.

25 Strength Increase and 25 Hit Point Increase are also good to aim for on your suit.

When planning your suit unless you are reforging (in which case you don't need this guide) you should work from the assumption that you are using Mace and Shield Reading Glasses and have five crafted Imbued pieces. This makes it simple for each piece that can have 5 mods to have a resist, LMC, Stamina, HP and Mana. You will need to recraft your base pieces repeatedly before using Powder of Fortification and Imbuing as you will want to Imbue over the lowest resist.

You will likely end up with at least 40 Mana Increase.

That is all you need on the suit. With this setup you will likely need Damage Increase on the weapon. Plan to use 40 there. As Imbued weapons can also have 5 mods plan for Damage Increase, Hit Mana Leech, Hit Stamina Leech. The remaining 2 mods can be Slayers, Hit Area (on your Double Axes), Hit Life Leech, or Hit Lower Attack. If possible you should try to reforge 100% elemental damage on your Double Axes to take advantage of Onslaught with Double Strike and Counter Attack primed. Do not bother with 100% elemental damage on your Bladed Staffs as you will only be using them for Armour Ignore.

Avoid Hit Spell on your weapon until you are proficient in the template and game mechanics as many monsters have counter attacks of their own. This makes triggering those attacks with low damage ticks counter productive.

If you are using this for Champion Spawns you will want a Double Axe that also has Spell Channelling and Hit Area as Spell Channelling weapons do not get splashed with acid by Slimes.

Get and bond a Swamp Dragon to use with Dragon Barded armour. This reduces the damage you take.

You will want your preferred way of using the following spells/stances/attacks:

-Evasion
-Confidence
-Lightning Strike
-Counter attack
-Momentum Strike
-Primary attack
-Secondary attack
-Consecrate Weapon
-Divine Fury
-Enemy of One
-Close Wounds
-Cleanse by Fire
-Remove Curse
-Dispel Evil
-Equip Last Weapon
-Invoke virtue - Honour
-Open paperdoll
-Attack nearest hostile

Three simple attack patterns:

-(for groups) Hit Area Double Axe equipped. Run around flagging everything by 'rubber banding' yourself (Open paperdoll). Once you have a sizeable following prime Counter Attack and Whirlwind and get to the center of a mass of monsters. Hit Attack nearest hostile. If they are casters off-screen as you gather then use Evasion before running back in. Depending on the strength of the monsters you may want to also use Consecrate Weapon before running in.

-(for monsters with lots of hp but a low resist) 100% elemental damage Double Axe. Honour the target if possible. Enemy of One. Keep Counter Attack primed. Use Onslaught followed by three Double Strikes and repeat.

-(for when the above aren't working) Bladed Staff. Honour the target. Counter Attack primed. Armour Ignore repeatedly. If it is something that summons (I.e. Barracoon) use Equip Last Weapon to swap to a Double Axe and Whirlwind.
 

Manfred

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Thank you so much! I'm an old player, recently returned, and this is extremely helpful.

Way back in the day I was told to spam Lightning Strike after honoring, setting enemy of one, consecrate, etc. In reading your guide you list it third on things to use but I don't see mention of it in the tactics portion of the guide.

In what circumstances would you use lightning strike instead of say Armor Ignore or Double Strike?
 

Max Blackoak

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
lightning strike is a bit of an old school approach that was used when people ran out of mana too quickly. these days it is possible to chain armor ignores/double strikes and do more damage over time. The only time people use lightning strike todays is when they don't have enough mana to do ai/dbl strike.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Thank you so much! I'm an old player, recently returned, and this is extremely helpful.

Way back in the day I was told to spam Lightning Strike after honoring, setting enemy of one, consecrate, etc. In reading your guide you list it third on things to use but I don't see mention of it in the tactics portion of the guide.

In what circumstances would you use lightning strike instead of say Armor Ignore or Double Strike?
Exactly as Max said, when out of Mana, if you use LMC bonus armour and have 55 I think it only costs 3 Mana for a LS, which if you're lucky might give you a critical and refill your Mana pool.
 

Arcades

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Great basic guide for the sampire...I remember your guides from years ago! Since I havent played in like 4-5 years, but still interested and maintain an active account. Is there a dexer template that can handle the remaining tougher 5% of content?

I currently have:
Sampire Thrower
Sampire Dexxer / Discorder with max luck
Max SDI mage/weaver/mystic/necro
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Most of the remaining 5% of top-end content you cant run with a samp purely due to tainted life force.

I think throwers are really the most versatile template content-wise, they just often take more skill to play than a sampire. Then as you mentioned, your thrower utilizes VE so tainted life force would still be an issue.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Great basic guide for the sampire...I remember your guides from years ago! Since I havent played in like 4-5 years, but still interested and maintain an active account. Is there a dexer template that can handle the remaining tougher 5% of content?

I currently have:
Sampire Thrower
Sampire Dexxer / Discorder with max luck
Max SDI mage/weaver/mystic/necro
(Not directed at you...) This post was made because there are players who want/need telling what to do at every stage as they can't cope with the abstract creation processes gleaned from reading multiple posts. They want to skip experience/learning/thinking and adapting and just want to jump ahead, and with how expensive rebuilds can be, that's not necessarily wrong of them or a bad thing. I'd say the vast majority of people posting their templates/tactics in this forum are far beyond that, and will have templates/gear set ups beyond this post, and will have built their templates around far more expensive gear (aka min/maxed) to squeeze use out of every point. I'm not bashing either way of doing it.

In answer to your question, yes, undoubtedly, but (as with part of the problem of why this post was made) who's 5%? It's a problem of variables, one person's last 5% may include different bosses to another. This is where it crosses over into building for specific encounters and having multiple ways of doing the same thing. Also the best way to beat specific bosses may not be this (warrior) class which makes it (another variable) further complicated on what to advise. In other words it's kind of impossible to write a post like this for every boss because a given boss might be a hugely laborious task on this type of character while a complete breeze on another. I personally think if you can play this (basic sampire) to a point where you don't die anymore then you should be advanced enough and aware enough (of the game/it's mechanics) to not need to ask how to build for those last few encounters. (...again, that's not directed at you.) I'm also of the opinion that for the last 5% you can't skip ahead (i.e. buy an account/character/suit/read someone else's method) because you will need that experience and situational awareness to know when things are going south.

The templates you have sound like you know how to min/max, whether they (or you) are fit to do x boss, is as above a question of too many variables to be answered. That said, I like and have played those you mention, except the caster which I believe is spread way too thin for a solid max SDI character (as Mysticism and Spellweaving are hugely defensive skills), I would remove both for Anatomy and Inscription, as Necro has the best synergy with Magery and this combination will cover the most important damage types. I would look into adapting your Sampire/Thrower to be able to use Wraith Form (get at least 60 SS), and/or the use of bandages or Ninjitsu, as these measures would allow you the versatility to deal with some of the tainted life leech encounters. Or if you're after something entirely different a Mystic/Dexxer can be good in that regard.
 

Shannow

Adventurer
UNLEASHED
Hi,

It's been very interesting reading your post. And yes I see how it can kill pretty much anything. Basically stay alive by dealing as much damage as fast as you can.
I've only been playing a little while, so class myself as newish. As a result I am unable to obtain much of what you suggest is needed to create the uber kill all build.
As a result I feel it might be beneficial to offer up a build that anyone can create, and use to begin obtaining the stuff mentioned. It would be nice if others could offer something similar, that they use/d.

Because i am poor and can't do champ spawns, I buy 110's or 115 Power scrolls - so my build is:
110 swords
110 bushido
100 anat
100 tacts
100 parry
100 resist
100 heal

I have 2 crafters that have imbuing, blacksmithing etc. So this is the limit of what I can obtain in imbuing ingredients and also craft. (I have never obtained a legendary loot item, so have to craft everything I need atm.)

Complete BODS (blacksmithing) for 450 points to get POF (powder of fortification) - enough POF to get all these to 255 durability.
GM exceptionally craft verite or valorite metal armour, legs, tunic, helm, gloves, arms.
Using carpenter, gm exceptionally craft heartwood woodland gorget with 10 damage increase.
You'll need to make several of each piece and work out the best combination of pieces, so you only have to imbue each one once, to reach the max resists.
So now you have a suit of armour with max resists and max durability. 70/70/70/70//75 (in my case)

Now imbue each piece with:
lower mana cost 8 (on the 5 metal pieces of armour) - needs essence of order, relic fragments
Stamina increase 8 on all 6
mana increase 8 on all 6
depending on what weight is left (500 is max when imbuing) Hit point regen of either 1 or 2 on each piece.

My stats are 125 strength
10 intelligence
95 dexterity

On jewellery I imbued:
8 dexterity on both (blue diamonds from mining)
25 damage increase on both (crystal shards from chopping down every damn tree near royal city)
15 hit chance increase on both (essence of precision)
15 defence chance increase on both (essence of singularity)

For the weapon I gm crafted an exceptional agapite wakizashi (for the cold and energy damage distribution - seems these are good against most I encounter atm)
as gm exc it already has the 40 damage increase I need to reach 100.
I then imbued (after maxing out durability with POF):
max life leech (think it was 65%)
max mana leech (same 65%)
50 hit lower defence (could have been 15 hit chance increase or 15 defence chance increase I guess)
rest went into stamina leech ~ 35%
That was my 500 imbuing weight limit.

As a result I have enough dex to swing at 1.25 seconds
Enough mana to spam cast any special move, bushido spell
Enough leech, healing, HPR to keep stamina up (5 metal pieces minimizes stamina loss), mana up and stay alive.
With bushido/parry I block ~27% of the time too, plus I have 30% defence chance increase.
With frenzied whirlwind, double strike, momentum strike, counter attack and evasion I do enough damage to kill or leech or both.
I intend to try whirlwind with a radiant scimitar, i think this will be a better weapon. Other than that I'm happy with this, for a newbie.
 

Arcades

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
(Not directed at you...) This post was made because there are players who want/need telling what to do at every stage as they can't cope with the abstract creation processes gleaned from reading multiple posts. They want to skip experience/learning/thinking and adapting and just want to jump ahead, and with how expensive rebuilds can be, that's not necessarily wrong of them or a bad thing. I'd say the vast majority of people posting their templates/tactics in this forum are far beyond that, and will have templates/gear set ups beyond this post, and will have built their templates around far more expensive gear (aka min/maxed) to squeeze use out of every point. I'm not bashing either way of doing it.

In answer to your question, yes, undoubtedly, but (as with part of the problem of why this post was made) who's 5%? It's a problem of variables, one person's last 5% may include different bosses to another. This is where it crosses over into building for specific encounters and having multiple ways of doing the same thing. Also the best way to beat specific bosses may not be this (warrior) class which makes it (another variable) further complicated on what to advise. In other words it's kind of impossible to write a post like this for every boss because a given boss might be a hugely laborious task on this type of character while a complete breeze on another. I personally think if you can play this (basic sampire) to a point where you don't die anymore then you should be advanced enough and aware enough (of the game/it's mechanics) to not need to ask how to build for those last few encounters. (...again, that's not directed at you.) I'm also of the opinion that for the last 5% you can't skip ahead (i.e. buy an account/character/suit/read someone else's method) because you will need that experience and situational awareness to know when things are going south.

The templates you have sound like you know how to min/max, whether they (or you) are fit to do x boss, is as above a question of too many variables to be answered. That said, I like and have played those you mention, except the caster which I believe is spread way too thin for a solid max SDI character (as Mysticism and Spellweaving are hugely defensive skills), I would remove both for Anatomy and Inscription, as Necro has the best synergy with Magery and this combination will cover the most important damage types. I would look into adapting your Sampire/Thrower to be able to use Wraith Form (get at least 60 SS), and/or the use of bandages or Ninjitsu, as these measures would allow you the versatility to deal with some of the tainted life leech encounters. Or if you're after something entirely different a Mystic/Dexxer can be good in that regard.
I really do like my thrower sampire, she's very versatile and can kill much more difficult content due to ranged attacks. One question I have is in regards to Tainted Life Leech. If it affects VE's ability to heal, will it also affect casting Curse Weapon? I've been toying with the idea of making a super suit with 100% LRC along with all dexer mods so I can also cast Curse Weapon. Although carrying some regs is just as effective and less expensive. Or is the only way around Tainted Life Leech the use the Healing skill?

Totally understand your stance on my SDI mage. She's more a group player, sits back in wraith form casting Colossus or high damage magery/mystic spells and finishing with WOD. Pure offense, no defense, but I run Protection and with a 6 Casting Focus, my GH or mystic heal will cure and heal like 70+ HP. Pretty nice, in a pinch or an invis.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Hi,

It's been very interesting reading your post. And yes I see how it can kill pretty much anything. Basically stay alive by dealing as much damage as fast as you can.
I've only been playing a little while, so class myself as newish. As a result I am unable to obtain much of what you suggest is needed to create the uber kill all build.
As a result I feel it might be beneficial to offer up a build that anyone can create, and use to begin obtaining the stuff mentioned. It would be nice if others could offer something similar, that they use/d.

Because i am poor and can't do champ spawns, I buy 110's or 115 Power scrolls - so my build is:
110 swords
110 bushido
100 anat
100 tacts
100 parry
100 resist
100 heal

I have 2 crafters that have imbuing, blacksmithing etc. So this is the limit of what I can obtain in imbuing ingredients and also craft. (I have never obtained a legendary loot item, so have to craft everything I need atm.)

Complete BODS (blacksmithing) for 450 points to get POF (powder of fortification) - enough POF to get all these to 255 durability.
GM exceptionally craft verite or valorite metal armour, legs, tunic, helm, gloves, arms.
Using carpenter, gm exceptionally craft heartwood woodland gorget with 10 damage increase.
You'll need to make several of each piece and work out the best combination of pieces, so you only have to imbue each one once, to reach the max resists.
So now you have a suit of armour with max resists and max durability. 70/70/70/70//75 (in my case)

Now imbue each piece with:
lower mana cost 8 (on the 5 metal pieces of armour) - needs essence of order, relic fragments
Stamina increase 8 on all 6
mana increase 8 on all 6
depending on what weight is left (500 is max when imbuing) Hit point regen of either 1 or 2 on each piece.

My stats are 125 strength
10 intelligence
95 dexterity

On jewellery I imbued:
8 dexterity on both (blue diamonds from mining)
25 damage increase on both (crystal shards from chopping down every damn tree near royal city)
15 hit chance increase on both (essence of precision)
15 defence chance increase on both (essence of singularity)

For the weapon I gm crafted an exceptional agapite wakizashi (for the cold and energy damage distribution - seems these are good against most I encounter atm)
as gm exc it already has the 40 damage increase I need to reach 100.
I then imbued (after maxing out durability with POF):
max life leech (think it was 65%)
max mana leech (same 65%)
50 hit lower defence (could have been 15 hit chance increase or 15 defence chance increase I guess)
rest went into stamina leech ~ 35%
That was my 500 imbuing weight limit.

As a result I have enough dex to swing at 1.25 seconds
Enough mana to spam cast any special move, bushido spell
Enough leech, healing, HPR to keep stamina up (5 metal pieces minimizes stamina loss), mana up and stay alive.
With bushido/parry I block ~27% of the time too, plus I have 30% defence chance increase.
With frenzied whirlwind, double strike, momentum strike, counter attack and evasion I do enough damage to kill or leech or both.
I intend to try whirlwind with a radiant scimitar, i think this will be a better weapon. Other than that I'm happy with this, for a newbie.
What you have is sufficient to do champ spawns.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
I really do like my thrower sampire, she's very versatile and can kill much more difficult content due to ranged attacks. One question I have is in regards to Tainted Life Leech. If it affects VE's ability to heal, will it also affect casting Curse Weapon? I've been toying with the idea of making a super suit with 100% LRC along with all dexer mods so I can also cast Curse Weapon. Although carrying some regs is just as effective and less expensive. Or is the only way around Tainted Life Leech the use the Healing skill?

Totally understand your stance on my SDI mage. She's more a group player, sits back in wraith form casting Colossus or high damage magery/mystic spells and finishing with WOD. Pure offense, no defense, but I run Protection and with a 6 Casting Focus, my GH or mystic heal will cure and heal like 70+ HP. Pretty nice, in a pinch or an invis.
Curse Weapon won't work against tainted life leech either.

Why do you play in Protection if you're at the back of a group?
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
I think carrying around some pig iron and maybe a pair of arcane boots is a much better option than working 100% lrc into your suit, especially if the only spell you cast is curse weapon. Use some VE scrolls so that doesn't use up your arcane charges, and it should last a while. Or just carry curse weapon scrolls, too
 

Arcades

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Curse Weapon won't work against tainted life leech either.

Why do you play in Protection if you're at the back of a group?
I play in protection because my suit is 156% SDI or so but i cant get 2/6 casting and full resists. So protection helps me cast consistently as I'm not at the faster casting cap.
 

Innoxicated

Journeyman
Well hell id say go 2/6 over full resists if need be. You even mentioned tuning that particular character into more off a glass cannon. With WoD you may even end up doing more damage over time with 4/6 for SW than maxing your sdi. only in situations where you are able to chain cast it, obv.

I've found that for interruptions FC is key, but for stacking dps FCR is really the most important. But I'm of the belief that even 1 fc is better than none, and I do use prot quite a bit, especially in wraith form.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
I play in protection because my suit is 156% SDI or so but i cant get 2/6 casting and full resists. So protection helps me cast consistently as I'm not at the faster casting cap.
Agree with above posters 2 posts. Forgot to say, on a Wraith Dexxer I'd just carry the regs too. I did build a very solid 100 lrc Dexxer suit for my mystic Dexxer, but that is a character that frequently casts all spells.

Also completely agree with the FC/FCR comments. Especially at the back of a group. Its better to be able to combo with Evil Omen and cast full speed. Even with a 6 focus empowerment is barely going to cover 2 spells in Protection as cast times will be too long. The window for WOD is pretty small (as you're unlikely to be the only one firing WOD) and being slower during the time you need to be fast isn't great. So yeah lowering SDI and having max resists and casting is better imho.
 
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