Light Armour EP Build

[Kahmeihameiha]

As most of you know, I'm a level 58 light armour EP. This shocked most of the people (especially the priests!) in my guild [Baroque] when I first joined, but over time I've shown myself to be quite effective. Despite ominous warnings about "ruining my heal" (i.e. not enough int) and being "too squishy" (i.e. not enough con/hp), I would rate my survivability positively and am often complimented on my ability to keep a tank or party alive. As I round the corner to 60, and the international release approaches, I've been thinking a lot about my build, so I'd like to post my thoughts here. Forgive me for this being quite long.


Over the course of my PW experience, I've learned that it's usually a bad idea to sack hp for pdef or mdef. Lately, I'm starting to worry that my build is just one giant version of this mistake. [Incidentally, anyone who wants to see just how lame extra pdef or mdef can be, let me buff you mid-fight so you can see just how crap an extra 60% really is.] A 62 MG with a good set of robes from our guild has around 8k mdef to my 2.5-3.5k. Although I drop from 2.1k pdef to just 900 [buffed in both cases, in case you're wondering] switching from armour to robes, I'm wondering if effective use of Plume Barrier in PvE doesn't mostly negate this, considering it negates 53% of damage even at first level.

I didn't level Plume Barrier early enough, nor did I use it very effectively in early PvE, because on my first priest (who I messed up by not giving enough INT) it burned so much mana I couldn't do anything, so I didn't like it. So how do you other EPs feel? I know most of the high level EPs I've talked to hated light armour. Most that have tried it restatted, and the only high lvl one I know restatted at 90. But do you find you can effectively solo both physical and magical mobs at your level? Have you had to ask for help? Do you have trouble healing for bosses with physical AoEs? Is Plume Barrier any good at all in PvE or only PvP?

[Kahmeihameiha]

WARNING: This post is just number crunching and crap about builds. Feel free to skip it, but if you're going to comment on my damage or hp vs. a robes-wearer, please read on, since if I've covered it here I'll be very annoyed with you.

Since I know I'm going to be barraged with opinions about the sacrificed INT and CON of this build (probably from a bunch of non-EPs), I'm going to go ahead and post some numbers I crunched. These figures are calculated using A Perfect Calculator v2.30. I'm aware of its flaws, so no need to tell me, but it's useful for providing direct comparison stats if you just use the same low-quality equipment on each build, which I did. I compared the stats I'm going to have (naturally, without gear) at level 61 with four robe-wearing EP builds which I will describe below. HP and MP values in each case are affected only by the highest level hp helm which each build can wear (white 1* of course); magic attack is calculated based on 2 NPC-grade lvl 58 matk rings and a white 1* lvl 59 jewel quoit.


Kahmei: Light Armour EP, no fixed build
STR 58 - AGI 58 - CON 24 - INT 180
HP: 1520
MP: 4200
matk: 635-837

Pure INT: Min STR for robes, all the rest INT (9 INT:1 STR)
STR 35 - AGI 5 - CON 5 - INT 275
HP: 1305
MP: 5530
matk:749-970

Low CON Hybrid: 4 INT/lvl, alternate remaining point STR, CON (8 INT:1 STR:1 CON)
STR 35 - AGI 5 - CON 35 - INT 245
HP: 1605
MP: 5110
matk: 713-928

Medium CON Hybrid: Min STR for robes, 1 CON every level, rest in INT (7 INT:1 STR:1 CON)
STR 35 - AGI 5 - CON 65 - INT 215
HP: 1905
MP: 4690
matk: 677-886

Full CON Hybrid: Min STR, Min INT, rest in CON (6 INT:1 STR:3 CON)
STR 35 - AGI 5 - CON 95 - INT 185
HP: 2205
MP:4270
matk: 641-844


The first build (Pure INT) is, in my opinion, a mistake. While doing 16-18% more damage at lvl 61, the low HP here is a nightmare. I struggle with my own hp and in reality it's over 1900 with all my gear. When you figure in that Whisht Heart [regen spell] only uses 30% of matk and Sapience Pour [quick heal] only 20%, this build just isn't worth it at all to me. I'm also not a huge fan of the full CON hybrid ever since I worked with an EP with this build against a physical AoE boss. Her 3k HP didn't matter when the boss hit her for 3200, and I lived through it (ow, though) and continued to heal the tank. Nonetheless, it's a painful reminder that I've sacked 700 hp to go down this path. <_<

It's the low and medium CON hybrid builds I'm really curious to experiment with. The low CON hybrid sports 85 more hp and a whopping 900 more mp than I have, meanwhile doing about 12% more damage. The medium CON hybrid, while only 6-7% more powerful, has 400 hp on me (and 500 mp). Thinking back to when I had 1.5k hp, that means a lot.

[Faustia]

I'd like to see what people say, because I've been curious about similar things with a werefox... there are similar arguments about sacking Int (because of your pet heal, etc).

Are there even any high level EPs on the forums?

[Senovit]

offtopic: I need you to test something for me. Go outside, and plume quill monsters 500 times. Tell me how many times you crit and what your current crit rate is. I'll give you cookies.

On topic: I wouldn't worry about hp for now. Later when you can focus on getting pure hp armor, the small difference in the low con build and your current one can be made up with armor and doesn't justify losing the 80%'ish pdef.

[Swore]

i noe its a long time since this was post but atk 500 times?! tats quite a lot

[Agerasas1]

I am a lvl 67 EP, Full INT. I like Full int though the amount of HP is very low. I use soulstones to get more HP and then all is fine, just remember that there are more ways to get HP then just add Con

[Faustia]

Kahmei should update this, because I've heard it's better to restat at higher levels if you want to be a LA EP...

[Kahmeihameiha]

As for the attacking 500 times, I didn't do 500 times. I did 200 times. I plume quilled exclusively while questing and ticked down crits and non-crits. And I critted the exact percentage of the time my crit rate suggested I would. The test was meant to determine whether or not there was something special about plume quill, as some high-level LA priest (lots of agi, high crit rate) claimed he was critting about half the time with it even though his crit rate was really only about 20%. When I'm not paying attention, I feel like I crit a lot at 6%, but it seems to me that over time the numbers work out. You just don't notice or commit to memory normal hits as well as the huge double-damage (I think?) ones that say "CRITCAL HIT!" in red over the top of them.


As for the point about restatting, I personally think the low hp of the light armour build makes it a tough choice for levels 1-60 at least. I will probably be playing the Medium CON hybrid on the INT-US version, though I haven't ruled out restatting into light armour at higher levels. The light armour build ultimately will pay off with the heavily increased crit rate, and having more hp through sheer levels and the increased benefit of mirages on higher-grade gear. Also, though I've heard it hasn't been implemented yet, Hell Metal Element Mastery is supposed to give +2% to magical crit rate. The Hell skills seem to me to mesh well with the LA build.

Also, for everyone's information, please don't imagine that I don't counter my weaknesses with good gear. I currently get about 900 hp from my light armour and should break 2.3k max hp by level 63.