HentaiVerse Advice Advanced

Melee Builds

Melee Weapon

• Ethereal versions of weapons are always preferable, especially at higher levels.
• Rapiers/Estocs have the penetrated armor proc which lowers the enemy's damage mitigation by 25~75%: this is very useful.
• Maces can stun the enemy.
• Axes, Shortswords, etc only have the Bleeding wound proc which does very little damage.
• 1H: Rapier of Slaughter with a Force Shield with high Block chance.
• 2H: Longsword at low levels, Mace/Estoc at higher levels; always "of Slaughter" with high attack damage and proc chance/duration.
• DW: Rapier in your main hand for damage and Wakizashi in your offhand for the high parry chance. Preferably with "of Slaughter" suffix for main hand weapon and "of Nimble" suffix for offhand weapon. Other viable combinations include:

Club+Rapier

• Club of Slaughter + Rapier of Balance - Good offensive combination but lacks defense.

Rapier+Wakizashi

• Rapier of Slaughter + Wakizashi of Nimble / of Swiftness - Plays closer to 1H (less healing used). High Parry due to DW's Parry bonus. Good for Grindfest.
• Rapier of Slaughter + Wakizashi of Balance - The most offensive DW combo.
• Rapier of Nimble + Wakizashi of Nimble - The most defensive DW combo. Less damage due to low ADB.

Melee Armor

• Light: Leather "of Protection" or Shade "of Fleet/Shadowdancer" gears are suggested. If possible, Reinforced prefix on Leather and Savage prefix on Shades.
  • Shade is recommended only at higher levels as it is more difficult to repair and has lower damage mitigation. Once stats scale enough it offers a better defense/offense layer though.
• Heavy: Preferably with "of Slaughter", "of Protection" or "of Balance" suffix and with the "Savage" prefix if possible. "Ruby" and "Zircon" may be viable as well to provide a bit more safety against average pool of monsters.

Melee Stats

(Does not include stats from equipment).

Heavy armor players should use less AGI whilst Light armor players should use more. Int provides SP which is useful for Spirit Stance, but is not necessary.

Stat	Equal to	Priority
STR	Level + a bit	High
DEX	Level + a bit	High
AGI	Level ± a bit	(Mid-low/High depending on builds)
END	Level + a bit	High
INT	Level * ~0.7	Lowest
WIS	Level	Mid

Melee Abilities

• Recommended: Better Heartseeker.
• Optional: Better Silence.

Accuracy

• Should aim for 150%+ after level 200 against high PL monsters that have higher evasion.
• Accuracy above 200% has no use

Mage Builds

Mage Getting Started

• Step 1: The Grind

Equip some Exquisite+ Phase of an element and cotton of Elementalist, set Difficulty to Hell, go to the Arena, and spam elemental spells to gain proficiency. This may take a few weeks. Also buy plenty of Health Draughts/Potions and Mana Draughts/Potions on WTS.

• Step 2: Gearing Up

While spamming for proficiency go on the lookout for decent Legendary Phase of your element and either a Legendary your element Redwood or Willow Staff of Destruction on the auctions. Once you get an armor piece switch back to 1H and Item World it to get Juggernaut Potency (at least 3 stacks). Go back to Step 1. This is also the step where you should decide if you want to go with 4 Phase + 1 proficiency cotton or 3 phase + 2 proficiency cotton. End goal is to get to at least 0.68 proficiency factor.

• Step 3: Getting Somewhere

Once your effective elemental proficiency goes above your level it's time to actually do something with it. By now you should have some stuff from Step 2, so ramp up the difficulty a bit and include Imperil as you'll have to get up deprecating proficiency as well to be effective. Start each round with imperiling then cast a T3 spell. Finish off with T2/1 spells. Your MP consumption will steeply ramp up at this point (you're likely spending more mana on Imperil than damage spells), so check that you have enough potions. You'll likely gain more prof in deprecating than elemental per battle at this point. It is advised to get the proficiency Hath Perk for your element at this stage.

• Step 4: Looking Forward

You now should have at least 0.68 proficiency factor. You should have your base set bought and IW'ed with somewhere between 140-150% HP Bonus. Monsters no longer resist every spell you cast so go ahead and try what you can do. This is the point where Forging gets relatively expensive.

Mage Weapon

• EDB-suffix (Surtr, Heimdall, etc.) or Destruction staff. High MDB or EDB for the elements you use.
  • Preferably Willow/Redwood if you use elemental spells, Oak/Katalox for Holy spells, Willow for Dark spells.
  • Redwood is the cheapest alternative for new players.
  • MDB > EDB ≥ Proficiencies; proc chance and duration preferably be 30-40% with 3-4 effective turns.
  • Try to find a prefix, slot name and suffix combo that matches a certain element and its abilities. All prefixes are available for each type of wood, but suffixes aren't. Destruction suffix is considered as a jolly when possible.

Mage Armor

• Matching Phase gear of the element you use, with a prefix if you can get it. Recommended to stick with one element.
• Proficiency cloth (Demon-fiend, Heaven-sent, or Elementalist) to get the proficiency factor you need (0.68 for elemental mage).
• EDB > PAB ≥ Evade, generally speaking.
• Charged prefix increases survival chance, especially when playing imperil style

Mage Stats

(Does not include stats from equipment).

Stat	Equal to	Priority
STR	Can be kept at 0	Lowest
DEX	Level * ~0.2	Low
AGI	Level * ~0.9	Mid
END	Level * ~0.9	Mid
INT	Level + a bit	High
WIS	Level + a bit	High

Mage Abilities

• Recommended: Better Arcane Focus.
• Holy/Dark Builds: Dark Imperil, Holy Imperil, Spike Shield (type to your own taste). Spirit Theft is optional.
• Elemental Builds: Spike Shield; use one that benefits your spell cycle (e.g. if you cast Cold spells a lot pick Flame Spike Shield).
• Discouraged: Staff Damage, Staff Accuracy; you rarely melee and the damage is negligible compared to your spells.

Equipment

Principles for worthy equipment, in order of importance:

1. Suitability to the playing style (refer to Equipment Ranges for max/min base values)
   • High weapon damage (of Slaughter) for main-hand one-handed weapons (Rapier, Club) and two-handed weapons
   • High parry chance for off-hand weapons (Rapier, Wakizashi)
     • Alternatively, high attack accuracy so procs will occur more often
   • High chance/duration/damage for procs (bleeding, stun, penetrated armor, ether tap)
   • High MDB/EDB for staffs
   • High EDB for Phase armor
   • High Evade/ADB/PABs for Shade, high Crit rate for of Shadowdancer suffix
   • High ADB for Power armor of Slaughter
   • High mitigation (of Protection) for Plate and Power armor
   • High Block rate for shields and Shielding prefixed armor
2. Ethereal weapons
   • Rare and worth more than normal equips because of Void damage
3. Rarity
   • Rare equips: Phase, Shade, Power, Force
4. Prefix
   • Better quality produces better equips
5. Primary Attribute Bonuses
   • Make sure the equips have the best PAB for specific styles.
     • INT/WIS for mage builds.
     • STR/END/DEX for melee builds. Also AGI if the melee plays with Shade armors.

Hath Perks

Tank/Regeneration

Vigorous Vitality -> Effluent Ether -> Resplendent Regeneration¹ -> Suffusive Spirit²

EE/VV/SS increases your base HP/MP/SP, so restorative items will have a greater impact.

¹ -Gold Star gives comparable benefits

² - Mages can skip SS as it carries no benefit for them

Innate Arcana

• 1st: Spark of Life
• 2nd: Spirit Shield
• 3rd: Haste/Shadow Veil

Spark of Life is less necessary when playing on low difficulty. Remember that putting SoL and SS on IA has risks since they can dissipate if you fall below 10% mana. SoL will not be recast if you are below 25% and its effect is triggered.

Damage Perks

The first damage perk, Dæmon Duality, is a good investment if you play regularly. The other damage perks are useful for high level players with good gear and high income.

Proficiency Perks

For mages: Elemental proficiency perk for your element -> Evil Enchantress when playing Imperil style.

Crystal Perks

More valuable the more rounds you can survive in Grindfest (minimum 200+).

Other good Perks

After the ones mentioned above, you could consider (in somewhat recommended order, but other order is okay too): Postage paid (very cheap), Thinking Cap, Long Gone Before Daylight, Tokenizer I, Enigma Energizer, Dark Descent

Other perks aren't recommended, but feel free to get them if you want to.

Ring of Blood Strategies

• Universal: Weaken, Slow, Imperil, Silence (if available). If possible, keep Spark and Spirit Shield and Haste up at all times. Shadow Veil is also good, but is not a must for Melee.
• Mages:
  • Strategy: Don't play Ring of Blood as mage unless your build is complete. You can first switch back to 1h heavy for RoB. You can also use infusions to raise the spell's power.
• Melee:
  • Armor: Preferably mitigation armor with high mitigation bonus. Usual armor is also okay, but you'll receive more damage.
  • Weapon(s): Void weapon is recommended (either ethereal weapon or use a voidseeker shard). For Dual Wield a club for Main Hand and a rapier as Off-hand. For two-handed, either a mace or estoc. Use the weapon with highest weapon damage.
  • Strategy: Just beware of the health left. Always keep Silence on.

Grinding Proficiencies

Proficiency grinding is mostly only needed for Deprecating and Supportive proficiencies if they are below 50-75% of your level. Weapon, armor, and magic proficiencies usually keep up with you unless you are power-leveling. It is usually not necessary to grind proficiencies unless you are trying to change playstyles as they will eventually catch up to your level anyway. It is normal for your weapon/armor proficiencies to lag behind your level by a large amount until level 250 or so, and it is normal for supportive proficiency to be much lower than your weapon/armor proficiencies.

Proficiency gain is a random chance based on how many times you attack (for weapons) or are attacked (for armor, including parries and misses). Proficiency gains for magic are based on how many times you use the skill, the chance of increasing it is based on the current MP cost of the spell.

• Weapons - Use a weak weapon to increase the amount of hits it takes to kill a monster
• Armor - Fight as many monsters as possible, so that more will attack you.
  • Do not use Haste when training Armor; you want monsters to attack you as often as possible. Using Haste may allow you to play on a higher difficulty level however (due to increased survivability), which has it's own rewards.
• When grinding magic proficiencies it is recommended to change your equip according to your current proficiency level. Use cloth armor and mana-conserving staff at low proficiency to save mana, then gradually change to equips with high interference when your proficiency gain rate starts to slow down.
  • Supportive - Spam Cure. Protection is also viable.
  • Deprecating - Spam Weaken.
  • Elemental - Spam any elemental tier 1 spells.
  • Divine - Spam Smite.
  • Forbidden - Spam Corruption.

Training

Warning: Training is a massive credit sink and generally offers very little rewards except for Adept Learner and Ability Boost.

• Train Adept Learner to ~100.
• Train Ability Boost whenever you need more AP for your main abilities, as you will eventually reach a point where you have more abilities to train than AP.
• Train Pack Rat as your item consumption dictates. Same goes for Scholar of War and Tincture. An extra point in Pack Rat can be useful to allow you to use 1 draught and potion of each type (not including elixirs).
• Keep Scavenger, Archaeologist, LotD, and Quartermaster balanced cost-wise.
  • Note that Quartermaster slightly decreases the drop chance of Tokens and artifacts.
• Set Collector isn't useful unless you have enough equipment and want to try different play styles.

Monster Lab

• Do not increase the INT of any monsters without magical attacks unless it is to inflate their PL.
• Don't use happy pills instead of crystals until you have stronger monsters (PL 400+).
• For Chaos Upgrades: Scavenging > Fortitude > Swiftness > Brutality > Dissipation > (Everything Else)
  • Remember that all chaos upgrades slow a monster's morale drain rate.
• You can check for gifts as often as you want but remember that it takes at least 1 hour for new gifts to appear and weaker monsters likely won't have them that frequently.
  • Remember that monsters who haven't given you a gift in 3 days will acquire one automatically.
• Remember to name your monsters' special attacks or they won't be used in combat. Tip: Funny monster names are recommended. Do not use the same name with numbering for all.
• Avoid using food if it says it will restore less than 1,000 hunger; same with Pills restoring less than 6,000 morale as this is wasteful.

The Forge

• The first 5 upgrade levels don't require bindings (but may cost Rare Materials), thus making them relatively cost effective.
  • You will get 90% of the materials you used to upgrade an item when salvaging it, except for catalysts. Therefore, it is fairly inexpensive to upgrade items at a low level as you can salvage to get most of the materials back.
  • 5 levels of upgrade are worth roughly +8% increase for the relevant stats (+11% in case of ADB/MDB). This is most effective on large stats such as attack damage, or ones in which a small increase makes a significant difference (parry, mitigation, etc). Primary Attribute Bonuses usually do not see much of an increase at low levels.
• Do NOT spend bindings on upgrades unless you have amazing pieces of equipment, especially if it requires a rare material as well.
• Remember that stacking infusions increases their duration but not their effects.
• Salvage high quality common tier equipment only if its bazaar sale value is worse than the possible material(s) that would be gained.
• Low-grade materials and wispy catalysts can be used on fair quality equipment to get easy forge experience, but grinding Forge exp is not necessary as you can always get someone else with a higher forge level to upgrade an item for you (unless it is bound to you)
• Reforge equipment right away when it gets a potency you don't want as every level of potency requires another amnesia shard to remove.
• Soul Fragments should almost never be bought. They can be easily farmed by clearing Random Encounters (regardless of difficulty).

See also

• HentaiVerse FAQ
• HentaiVerse Advice