Frozens VW templateguide

Frozensolid

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
659
Frozensolids Guide for making a Valewalker template:

Welcome to this template guide. After getting alot of questions on my server about it I decided to create this guide...
U can download the textfile if u wish here: Temporary FTP (contains same info as down below)
Hopefully it will awnser most questions you have about realising the template.
Keep in mind that I've written this purely from my own point of view and that english is not my main language ;)
Some ppl will have other opinions and I am aware that there will be a few items that slipped my mind.


Starting the template:

So you decided to make a new template for your (upcomming) valewalker? but now what?
1st think what u want from the template, most valewalkers make their template so they can solo effictively with it.
Another way is to make one with alot of HP/AF and with optimal mellee dmg (extra qui / maxxed mellee dmg ect) for running in an assistrain.
I personally made a hybrid template, I tried to combine the normal mellee bonusses with alot of cast bonuses.
As u can see there are alot of ways to build up your template.
Think about what you are planning to do with your valewalker and what bonuses you find important before you start.

There are some items where you cant go wrong with putting them into your template:

Guard of Valor: A must have in any template, a vwer uses every bonus there is on it. The mellee bonus on it are the only way to cap it to 10%.
Get the right stats of our Guard of Valor for VWers as it has for example no style dmg on it.
Snakechamber Scythe or Champion Scythe: Cant go wrong with either scythe.
Shades of Mist: A must have in a solo template, can soak up alot of HP (though it does overwrite our own ablamtive buff)
Gem of Lost Memories or Eerie Darkness Stone: GoLM offers additional mellee bonuses (which are otherwise impossible to cap 10%), EDS has a lovely utility.
Ceremonial Bracer: Str/HP cap and and it can be nasty when you combined with grapple.

Stats and Bonuses to go for:

Get your 4 primairy stats at 75 (str,con,dex,qui). You are not creating a blade BM template, you will need dex for casting (100%) parry (100%) evade (50%).
Cap your +11 Scythe (2handed dmg increases 0.5% for each point above 50) and atleast 200HP.
+AF which caps at 50 is nice to have but hard to get in and its not a must have in my opinion.
Parry is nice to have on a template aswell but generally hard to fit in. 1 point of parry is 0.5% chance to parry.
So maxxed parry on the suit will give you +5.5% chance to parry. In general the most vw templates dont have too much parry on it.
If you wanna do damage with your lifetap aswell you are gonna need int. However, alot of VWers choose the CL3 champion shield+blunt for int.
They switch to it when they cast.
Get as much str overcap as u can. Str affects 100% our mellee dmg and on top of that it affects our Proc dmg aswell.
Qui overcap is nice to have (but not a must imo), especially when you made a firebolg VWer.
As a celt with 0 qui at creation I reach the 244 Qui with aug qui2 and 75 on suit.
It should be possible to cap mellee speed at 10%. The other 2 mellee bonuses are alot harder to cap.
Mellee dmg can come from GoV (4%), Champ/Snake scythe (4%), ml10 / Energy scyte (2%) and GoLM (2%) so 8%+ should be possible.
Style dmg is harder, Champ scythe (4%), Ml10 / energy scythe (2%) and GoLM (2%). So its impossible to get more then 6%.
If u are planning on getting more cast orientated bonuses go for dex overcap combined with as much % cast speed as u can get.
And dont forget to cap the most importand resists aswell ofcourse !

Creating a good ballanced vw template is pretty hard as you can see. We have alot of area's which we need to cap.
Getting good high utility items on places where u can is generally a good idea. Further down I will discuss item options for each possible spot:


Choosing The Scythe:

I would suggest only 2 weapons, the Snakechamer scythe or the VW champion scythe. Both have their pro's and con's

Snake:
provides good utility through alot of resist and 4% mellee dmg + 3% mellee speed.
Is generally a good weapon to fit into ur SC. The charge gives a bit of extra absorb and the proc is lifetap which gets split into hp/mana/end for you.

Champ:
The champ weapon offers 9 str cap 4% melle and style dmg.
Its utility is lower then the snake, but the 4% style dmg can be found nowhere else for a vw. The scythe has no mellee speed.
It has a passive +5% mellee resists, the proc can either be an accuracy improvement or a disorientated proc (fumble), both are decent.

Other weapon options:

The Spear of Kings: The SoK is the 2nd (and last) arti weapon a VW can activate. It has 5% mellee speed and decent util.
It procs a nice style dmg absorb and the /use2 is a group af/hp increase.
The scythe however misses mellee and style dmg that are really hard to come by already.
Its a shame we cant active this artifact 1handed for the charge (with the CL3 guardian shield+blunt possibility)

The ML10 scythe: 2 style 2 mellee dmg. Offers 10 str cap and it has 2 DD procs on it.
I personally dislike the fact that the ml10 scythe a 10% missrate has where the champ & artie scythes have 5%.

The Sunscythe: The main thing why u would use this scythe is of his energy dmg. Alot of people gimp this resist and so it makes it sometimes really worth the effort to use.
It has 2 style and mellee dmg and 2 combat speed. It gives 5% bonuses against most armor.
The scythe is in my opinion more effective solo then for running in groups because a group has alot of ways to boost their elemental dmg through group resists and such.
The biggest disadvantage for using the scythe for me is that u need to summon it.
If u die at night u will loose the scythe and will have to resummon it (takes the belt to be equiped for 15 min and it to be at daytime).

Other elemental scythes: Not worth the effort at the moment with the dmg table nerfs. Especially when fighting in groups the resistances can can be horrible.

There are alot of other scythes out there, but from my experience none of them offer the same ammount utility/bonuses or procs as the above scythes do.


Choosing the Armor:

Generally u always have a few pieces left to Spellcraft. Cloth is the cheapest kind of armor so MP Cloth is often an option.
The only armorpart where I wouldnt take a SCed piece is the hauberk. Guard of Valor offers too much bonuses wich cant be found elsewhere.
There are other nice cloth pieces for a Vwer as I listed below so check out if there are pieces that fit into your template...

The Chestpiece:
The Guard of Valor artifact is by far the most used and the best chestpiece available,
It provides nice stat caps and additional bonusses like 4% melle dmg witch are very hard to come by for a VWer.
We have another artifact option for the hauberk, Nailah's robe. But we're stuck here with the casterversion, which is inferiour to the GoV.
And although i wouldn't advice anything but the GoV, the snakelords robe is a cheap decent util chestpiece alternative with some mellee speed (though it looks terrible)

Sleeves:
nothing much here. The VW epic sleeves are pure caster with 6% pp and 5 dex cap. Foppish sleeves are caster only.

Head:
Epic isnt much, medicore util and 5 int cap on it.
The silksteel Corroded Cap of Sutekh however has decent utility and has +7 dex cap if u wish to boost dex.

Legs:
The epic legs are pretty good with 5 str and 40 hp cap.
The vw DS legs are good aswell, they offer 7 str cap and 1% melleespeed (+12 AF).

Hands:
Valewalkers unfortunately do not have acces to the mellee version of Scalars. Though u could use the caster version for a hybrid template.
The epic gloves provide 5 str and int cap. The DS vw gloves (darkspire Velvet Glove) are pretty good, 1% mellee dmg and 8 qui cap.

Feet:
The vw epic boots have 5 dex/str cap so are quite decent. We get the casterversion of Flamedancer's Boots.


Not that much good vw armor options, now lets get on with the jewelry options:

Necklace:
Paindreans still offers an amazing 80 util (and costless through quest).
If the resists dont fit in u might want to check neclace of rapture or the charred pentaglyph.
For str cap the Teugmhail's Necklace of Terror / DS str necky / Sililia's Necklace. For casting nimbus strand / serpentine choker.
If ur really desperate to get more HP in ur temp u might wanna check the Necklace of Cyclopean Stature.

Cloak:
For soloing there is only 1 option, the Shades of Mist artifact. The som defensive proc can be a winner in a fight soaking up many times x200 hp.
There are quite a few nice util cloaks like feathered wrap / summoners / cracked stag hide / cetus skin / levitian.
Harpy's feathered cloak has ok resists, 5% mellee speed and a disarm proc (witch doesnt proc too often), the cloak is however inferior to the SoM.
DS cloaks offer stat caps (they are without a hood however).
Vwers can activate Cloudsong aswell, main thing it offers is 5% castspeed if want to build a hybrid template.

Jewel:
If u want util got for Eerie Darkness stone, it has an insane utility.
Another very popular artifact here is the Gem of the Lost Memories, it has a low utility but it has 2 mellee and style dmg that are really hard to come by elsewhere.
Dreamsphere & Atlantis Tablet have bad utility but offer a cool shapeshift (though they have offensive procs which will overwrite your own diseaseproc buff).
Another interesting jewel is the stone bone gem which has 0 util but gives 5% mellee and cast speed.

Belt:
There are really alot of viable belts for a Vw,
str cap belts: olgarish (grp ablamative doesnt stack with our rr5) / belt of the brute / plaited belt / Black water belt / DS belt
Mellee speed belts : belt of the brute / plaited belt / Duamutef's Belt of Dread / Astral Belt of Negative Energy / Fadrin's Belt of Havoc
Cast speed belts: Traldors / Belt of the Morai
Utility belts: Levatian & kraken belt / lava scorched / Belt of zephyr
Belt of the sun is nice to have if u want to play with the sunscythe (see scythes)

Rings:
Str cap rings: Darkspire ring / Levithian ring of the deep / Ring of the heavens / Krojers str ring / Ring of Deranged_Will
Cast/mellee speed rings options are limited, levi ring for mellee speed (3%) and ring of the torrent for casting.
Hp / AF cap rings: Ring of the morai / Ring of the brute
Utility rings: Ring of Elemental Conflict / Torrent / Band of Shadows / Underlings / Zahurs ring / Silent ring of oblivion / Phosphorescent Ring / Cenalon's Ring

Bracers:
Str cap bracers : Ceremonial bracer / Darkspire bracer / Naxos Ablamative Bracer / Warlord Alpha Bracer
Castspeed bracer: Bracer of Heavenly Bodies / Bracer of the deep /
Mellee speed bracer: Bracer of oblivion / Bracer of the rain / Cyclone bracer / Naxos Ablamative Bracer
Hp/AF cap bracer: Bracer of Heavenly Bodies / Bracer of the morai / Zahurs bracer
Utility bracer: Black water bracer / Bracer of oblivion / Bracer of thunder / Cyclone bracer / Ebon hide / Wormskin wraps / Zahurs bracer / Zilistiphle'bracer



Other questions:


How important are int and arboreal ?

Arboreal is not worth having in your template.
From the personal tests that ive done with int, it was about 22.5% more dmg on an average when i tested it in duel on someone with 25% energy resists.
On green mobs where i had no dmg variance it was around 26% more.
That is with a difference of 0 int on suit and with 85 on suit.


Shield + blunt for casting ?

Yes with the newest expension Darkness Rising thats a possibility.
When u achieve CL3 you can spend those points in the Guardian line and are able to wield a shield (small) with a blunt/blade.
Alot of vwers are using this opportunity to leave int out of their template.
Take 2 items with high int (like duskwood torn + enchanted runed defender) and switch to it when u are casting.
I personally am not a fan of this cause i hate switching all the time. But its a logical alternative when u have so much to cap in a template.


What are the most important resists?

From my experience:
Most importand: Slash/Crush (most tanks) Body (sorcs/caba) Cold (RM/SM)
Quite important: Trust (assasins/some tanks) Heat (Most wiz / tic)
Least important: Spirit (Air Theurg) Matter (WL) Energy (Mezzes)
But there are alot of point of views of ppl on what types are most and least importand as a hibernian.

See this link for an overview of most used DmG types: http://www.camelotseer.com/Gameplay/MagicResistances.aspx


How about a Celerity Scythe?

Celerity Scythes did drop at the the release of ToA. Unfortunately they stopped dropping right after that in a patch,
I still have no idea why mythic removed this. There should be some celerity scythes at each server.
But as far as I am aware there are only 2 celerity scythes on my server (I have one ;>).
A celerity scythe with good stats is pretty interesting but will be really hard to come by.


Is a weaponless template vialble ?

That will be hard. I have seen a few, but imo they are not as good as a template with a scythe will be.
VWers have a hard time capping everything in a template and dont really have the luxury making a good template without a weapon.


Can we see your current template Frozen?

No you cannot, sorry ! Its a secret till I moved on to yet another one ;>



Well that was basically it. I hope this guide was a bit helpfull and that you have enough information to realise your own template now.
But before you start it might be handy to check the premade templates on http://www.daoctemplates.net and http://template.innersphere.be .
The forum of VNboards -> Camelot Class Board -> Hibernia Forrester Professions will also contain VWer temps when u read back.

Have fun with your valewalker ! If you still have any questions you can always contact me ingame on Frozensolid/Solidly (excalibur/europe) or email me at ijskist@hotmail.com.

Good luck !
 

Raimo

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
1,733
Thx for the Guide,now can try to make a new temp for my VW :).

Great job m8 :worthy: :worthy:
 

Alexandrinus

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 23, 2005
Messages
477
hehehe and bring a long breath,we got alot of good thing with last patches,but till you got a decent RR you only fresh food for others.
 

Solari

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Messages
1,824
Maybe move it to the Game advice and walkthroughs sections though?

Doesn't really seem like an appropriate sticky in the Hibernia section to me :)


Nice guide though.
 

Xyslo

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
500
Frozensolid said:
What are the most important resists?

From my experience:
Most importand: Slash/Crush (most tanks) Body (sorcs/caba/BD/WL?) Cold (RM/SM)
Quite important: Trust (assasins/some tanks) Heat (Most wiz / tic)
Least important: Spirit (Air Theurg) Matter (WL) Energy (Mezzes)
But there are alot of point of views of ppl on what types are most and least importand as a hibernian.

I'm pretty sure that wl's insta LT is body also not sure, and on top of that there is BD's LT + they have a debuff for it, and most high RR caba's who are obviously going to be tri-spec
 

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