Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 14 of 14
  1. #11
    Aspiring Master Aphexii's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    103
    Well Rocoto my D&D War claimed his spot in the top 10 this time, without getting to many easy wins and getting totally walled by other wars. Most of the time she is in fact "breakdancing" on the ground, sometimes 2 or 3 times in a single fight.(so D&D is often enough "active" to count as usefull in most fights)
    I cant say that D&D is better than "armored fortress", but a viable alternative for offensive Wars. And more important, it provides a wider diversity in BloodGods.

    Sadly I couldnt gather much info about howl fights on the ground, because she always "breakdance" only for 1 turn. My hopes are high for the next month to get at least into the top 25.

    Maybe it was buffed some time ago and no one noticed it.... maybe its time to brew around with "forgotten" skills like "D&D,War Cry,Juggernaut," or Rocoto was just lucky this time >.<

  2. #12
    Slave
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Phoenix
    Posts
    12
    So I've been following this thread for the past month with the intent of providing some insight on my Shadow Form glad Hongi Hika. I started a response post a couple of weeks ago, but since I had just completed reallocating some skill points I want to wait until the end of the BG season and analyze the results before posting. Good thing I held off, because a couple weeks ago I was of the opinion we were unlikely to see any purely offensive shadow forms glads crack the top 10 slots of BG, and right now I would be eating those words. HH finished 7th overall and as the #1 shadow glad, and I assure you that there is likely no one as surprised as me.

    Hongi Hika is a purely offensive, full level 55 orange gear (accept for off hand weapon, it's level 54 because I haven't found a level 55 I like yet), exotic weapon, shadow form glad. I can also confirm resoundingly that yes, shadow form definitely been stealth upgraded recently. HH is my first BG glad and while he's performed well (I currently consider his final ranking a statistical outlier), I had always kind of seen him as the red headed stepchild of my stable since he didn't confirm to the more common and highly successful spec touch/entangle/chill aura Shadow glad build. I had even considered retiring him before this season because I felt he had pretty much reached his ceiling. But before any newbies rush off to build a Shadow Form glad here are some thoughts to consider:

    -I never see any sexy purple armor deflect text, even historically

    -Shadow Form is frustratingly complicated, as aphexii and kreegan have both noted the main issue with shadow form is it's effectiveness is completely dependent upon an opponents armor, something that in BG you have no control over

    -though recently improved, it's a flawed build strategy, as individual players our primary goal is to control as many variables as possible to ultimately effect the outcome of our matchups, and to essentially give away that control to a "niche" top skill isn't a solid build strategy

    While I have seen a notable increase in average hit damage across the board regardless of class the truth is that the shadow form is absolutely a "niche" build. I do believe that HH has now hit his ceiling, and for that very reason. I will continue to experiment with him, but from an overall perspective the spectral touch/entangle/chilling aura build is a much more effective build strategy because of it's universal effectiveness.

  3. #13
    Aspiring Master Aphexii's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    103
    Im excited to see how Hongi Hika will perform this season, hopefully again reaching top 10. I dont think he reached his full potential, sometimes a simple weapon change is enough for incredible results. I mean your offhand kris, its to weak in my opinion and you are already fast as a snivler, maybe with the "blazing speed" skill. It is sad to see your "Dual Strike" being wasted/crippled by a offhanded strike with a kris.(offhand handicap and minimum damage output weapon) There is always a place for niche builds if the meta is to stale. Sadly we are limited to only 5 glads at a time...so its my guilty pleasure to follow Hongi Hika's fights.

  4. #14
    Slave
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Phoenix
    Posts
    12
    So I spent about the first couple of weeks of this season experimenting with different stat and weapon configurations on HH. I picked up both a claw and a saber to experiment with and while both were higher damage being level 55 the results for the claw were mehhh, but the saber was downright disastrous. I mostly ran it during week two and I think I only won 3 fights that whole week. In the past I mostly ran HH with a saber and trident, pretty much all the way through the Primus bracket, but I wasn't able to get him over that last little hurdle and make it to BG bracket until I swapped to the off hand Kris. I believe this was because of the initiative penalty for the saber being a larger, slower weapon because once I switched to a Kris I went from averaging 1-3 hits per round, to averaging 3-5 hits per round. These results almost exactly mimicked the results when I switched to the saber this time around. With the saber I averaged 1-2 hits per round (maybe 3 if I was lucky), this lower hit rate directly correlated to lower opportunities to trigger dual strike. I think it was triggering at an average of maybe once per fight, if even that much, (it'll call it .7 or .8 trigger rate per fight) and even when it did trigger the damage output was negligible compared to the damage output of the Kris.

    I'm now back to the lvl 54 Kris and back on track. As of posting this HH is sitting at #6 overall, but I know I left at least 6+ wins in the arena while putzing around with the saber and claw. Currently I think HH is averaging about 1.5+ dual strikes per fight. I know of at least one fight this week where dual strike triggered 3 times. So for next season I'll think I'll leave off the experimenting and just see how he handles things. Who knows, he could just prove me wrong about shadow form.
    Last edited by Tyrst; 12-04-2017 at 04:44 PM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •