Magician Weller Guide.In this guide i will outline the basic strategy used by a good magician weller. These are the strategies that i have used on my own character through hundreds of wells, and they have worked to good effect, despite my mediocre gear.
Basics:Firstly, i will go over the basic build i used for my own mage weller, and the items that you should look for when equipping this character.
Stats:First 5 into vitality, the rest went to intelligence.
(again, this is the build that I used, not necessarily what you should use. Depending on your gear or comfort level, you might use anywhere from 0-10 vitality at the beginning of the climb. More than 10 is, in my opinion, a waste.)
Items:Dagger or staff w/ 20+ intelligence (I currently use a 25 int staff)
Robe or padded Robe w/ 20+ intelligence (I currently use a 36 int robe)
Lvl 45-55 charm w/ 100+ ee (if you have a lvl 45 charm id say 130+ee. I currently use a lvl 55 fire w/ 106ee)
Lvl 40-55 heal charm 100+ee (if you have a lvl 40 id say 140+ee. I currently use a lvl 55 wild heal w/ 169ee)
Again, on the gear, it all depends on your preferences (when choosing the type of heal or charm) and what you can afford.
For the damage charm, Ice is generally accepted as the "best" because it deals steady damage which is very helpful when deciding when to heal and when to keep attacking when doing wells.
For the heal charm, Focused heal is also generally accepted as the best for many of the same reasons. consistent heals are very helpful in wells.
But, you can use whatever gear you wish and have success. The above stats are just guidelines and based on the items that i am currently using.
Level:
There are 2 strategies you can use when choosing when to do your wells. Strategy one suggests you do them at lvl 64 or lvl 65. The way the well system is setup currently, monsters spawn either at the level your character currently is, or at the level that the item is, whichever is highest. Since items with a lvl req of 55 can only be dropped at lvl 65+, if you put a lvl 55 item in the well, and you are below level 65, the well monster should spawn as a lvl 65 monster. So, by choosing lvl 64-65 you are maximizing your level when compared to what level the monster will spawn as, while limiting the level of the monster. If you go any higher, the monster will spawn at your level, and paul seems to have added massive amounts of life for well monsters above lvl 65, making it much more difficult to defeat them.
Strategy 2 involves getting your character as high as possible, at levels 75+ before welling. This strategy works under the theory that well monsters are capped at lvl 74, so every level you gain over 74 gains you an edge on your enemy.
I have tried both strategies and to be honest i haven't seen much of a difference. It is all up to your preferences.
Battle:Know your enemy:When paul released the update that made well battles what they are today, he stated that every item you drop into the well will actually be used by the monster. Now, this may be deceiving, because you could assume that if you dropped a tier 1 wep into the well it would hit you for 0-10 damage, but this is not true. However the well system works, it isnt that simple. While only paul can know exactly how the item is incorporated into the monster that spawns, i have noticed a few corollaries between the damage that i take, and the item that i throw into the well.
When you are battling weapons or charms, the higher damage range weapons or charms tend to deal more critical strikes, which suggests that the well monster uses, if not the item that is thrown in, at least the same type of item. So when you are facing a sword or a wind charm, typically you can expect many more crits than when facing an axe or an ice charm. When facing armors i haven't noticed much of a difference.
Approaching the battle:The thing to remember about a mage weller, is that Mana is your life. Your life bar will go up and down, but it is your mana bar that you should watch. If you run out of life, you can heal yourself (if you aren't dead ofc) but if you run out of mana you've lost the well. For players with better gear, this may not be a problem, but for others, you have to learn to manage your mana efficiently.
Now, depending on what item you throw into the well, you typically can anticipate the amount of crit strikes you will face, but the strategy i like to use is this:
When i hit half life, i will heal myself. This is just a general rule of thumb, but typically it works. If you have seen a crit that is greater than half of your life, add a few hundred to the amount of the hit, and heal yourself every time your life goes lower than that number. Ect, you see a crit for 1,000. Your life is 1,800, so normally you would heal at 900, but since you saw that 1000 crit, you now heal at 1,200. Again, this is just a suggestion, and you can change it to fit your tastes, but it works well for me.
Another strategy i employ often is this:
When i am facing a monster that is doing consistent, but substantial damage, i will often attack 3-4 times, and heal once, attack 3-4 times, and heal again. repeating this until either i drop below my comfort zone and have to heal more, or the monster is dead. This strategy ensures that your life stays at a high point.
Now, there may come a time when you realize that if you continue to heal yourself and keep yourself above half life, you will not have the mana to kill the monster. At this point you have a choice: you can keep attacking, and hope that you don't get crited, or you can run. If this is a lvl 55 item that you don't want to lose you should go for it. but if you are welling lower levels, or if exp is important, run. Your choice
Also, if you go into a battle, and after a few hits you are sure you are going to lose, just run. So much of this game is based on time saving, and losing exp for no reason wont help you. If you run, you save yourself a death, and also cut down on the inevitable regen that follows. If you aren't going to win the battle, staying until you get to low life or die doesn't make much sense.
Summation/closingThe overall ideas to take from this guide is mana management and that heal charms are very important. If you cant use mana, you cant heal yourself, and if you cant heal yourself, in many wells, you've already lost.
Remember, Wells are VERY difficult, and you really cant hope to win 100% of them. There will always be 1 or 2 that you could never win going into them. But using these strategies will improve your chances greatly. I hope this helps.
This post was edited by ItsLotd on Sep 27 2008 11:19pm