I have done numerous climbs solo climbs on samurai & Paladin. I did not have an issue obtaining shrines to regen the whole climb. Leveling speed was 3 mins/level.

Off-casting is gear dependent & how much determination you have to stick it out.


Melee: 1-20
Cast: 20-mq.
Stat: int
Abilities: power cast & salvation

Edit: if you lack shrines, try to invest in regen gear.

This post was edited by GimmeCoffee on Dec 21 2018 07:36am

Unfortunately my gear isn't anything decent. For anyone thinking of doing it, you need to realise you're basically forsaking 40ee.

By this i mean "if" you went daggers, you already start with 50 dex, which is 40 more than your intelligence. This means the entire climb if you went all dex compared to all int for charms, you will remain 40ee ahead.

Also bear in mind that you will lack a heck of a lot of mana by comparison to a mage.



Given the equipment i posted above, i will try melee instead ^^

You need to re-evaluate how to make your build work for YOU and for those that you MAY join after solo'ing at certain levels etc.

Samurai abilities:
... Multistrike (group/attack to charge) = Single handed weapon (1 sec delay)
... TwoHitBack (solo/Damage taken) = Single or Two handed (1 or 1.8 sec delay)

Solo Ability:
... Salvation (solo only/ Damage taken) = Heal self (1 sec delay)

Now, you have to ask a simple question, is it better to be a Melee / Caster hybrid that can occasionally heal when solo'ing or in group? Do I want to assist with Melee / Heal in a group and no casting? Is there a Healer in group where I can use both Melee and casting to minimize their use of mana? ETC.
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To give you more of an idea, I only speak for myself and playing LS from a SOLO ONLY HARDCORE viewpoint.

My stats are basically 100 vita (HC), you can opt for 85 (SC), now the rest is basically Intelligence up to a MINIMUM of 60-75 base (character dependent).
If I know I am ONLY going to solo on this character, I ONLY use Salvation ability, BUT, if I am to fill a spot, I will SAVE ability points to help the extra person/people.
I ONLY use HEAVY weapons, calculating averages will show that HEAVY weapons ARE superior compared to previous patches for solo play.
I use INT armor (0 enhanced effect) and my heal type is in main slot since the INTELLIGENCE needed to compensate for the negative 25% in ACC slot is horrific.
NOTE: if Melee/caster, I would assume that your cast charm be in your main slot, so you will want it to have MANY add ons.

Personally, you would need a weapon with good to great Enhanced Effect AND intelligence, as for your armor, it would be best that it has HIGH int and ALSO a stat that increases your WEAPONS damage, forget Enhanced Effect for defense (faster killspeed is always better), now your main charm would have EE and either a stat to increase your Melee damage or Int for casting... the OPTIMUM would be Dual stat.

Hope this helps.

you are entirely incorrect on some of your presumptions.
To clarify. The plan was to use entirely Melee (no casting whatsoever, except possibly healing if i enterred a group) but put points into intel.
Then at level 30, remove all of my melee gear and change into casting gear and start 100% casting/healing.

All i can say is that casting with a samurai with 85 vita is a hilarious suggestion for SC. Also are you not contradicting yourself when you say " forget Enhanced Effect for defense (faster killspeed is always better)" then suggest you get 85 vita? in SC we dont care so much when we die. losing prof % is annoying but better than a HC death

I am sorry for pointing this out as you're only trying to help and i thank you for posting but this is absolutely unhelpful for any SC player thinking of casting with a samurai. for SC casting samurai literally all points need to go Intelligence. Melee is recommended at low levels as it's 100% going to be faster than casting as you dont need to worry about a terrible mana pool/terrible intel until you reach a level your gear allows you to begin casting.


What you've suggested is basically how to play a guardian and a reasonably good one for HC. I still think in SC his starting vita is probably enough, 65 as a maximum.

OMFG, what is the title of your thread?

Caster Samurai

It does NOT say anything to do with HEALING... you can say "Hybrid" it still does NOT reflect the difference between "Healing" or "Casting" ... Yes, casting can mean either, but, 75% of the time it means to cast damage, not to heal.



Where in your post did you mention HEALING???

Now you say you are NOT casting.... OMFG, REALLY... you failed... completely, I quoted your initial post, your thread title and you call my information wrong... OMFG I actually gave you advice based on what you stated and you fucking give me shit about it, I guess you are more of a failure in responding or even posting... good luck, I play all my unlocked characters upto Warlock like a guardian nowadays, they don't die on hardcore unless I am drunk and walk away from the computer while engaged in combat.

Everyone else figured out what i was on about. All i can say is casting after going for 85 vita is not even worth attempting and i cannot believe you suggested it. There would be 0 point in attempting to cast as getting 85 vita on a samurai would mean a mana pool of about 600 at level 30. enough for about 8 casts.

If you had read my first post it asks 2 simple questions:
Do you melee at all?
If so, what level do you stop melee and start casting?

you answered neither of these questions.

I am sorry that i appear to have wasted your time. All the best

OMFG, no, everyone did NOT realise you were talking about healing, otherwise they would have given you better advice instead of saying better gear.

So to answer your questions.

1. I melee from level 1-MQ
2. I Heal from level 25 upwards DEPENDING on the EE of my heal charms.

Example: I use my level 25 Focus Heal all the way up to 55 in my main slot.... (Guardian / Samuai / Paladin / Monk / Ninja)
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Now... if you want to know why I can do this, then re read what I posted earlier and get a clue.

i'm not going to continue to converse with you as again you've misunderstood me and i can see from the other topic you are super stubborn so I would prefer to bash my head against a wall than argue with you.

However the best advice from the thread was basically this:



To clarify he suggests it's better to buy a new set of gear than to try and cast with very mediocre gear. As it will be significantly faster unless there is a massive difference between your melee gear and your caster gear (i.e you've spent 1k on melee gear and 50k on caster gear, you may be better off casting, but not by much!).

The only time you want more than base vita on caster in SC is if you play mage or alchemist

If you play solo you should start with 35 vita and go to 50vita later in the climb (after you killed sneaky)

The only other occasion is when doing mirror maze, then you should aim for 85 vitality, but start investing around level 50

Pretty much.

@ level 1 with 50 base vita and pumping Int to level 31 (excluding objectives) = 50 base Int as well.

Personally, as a Samurai and having better armor choices for defense, I would buy crappy Int based items to increase healing and use abilities that charge with Hits Taken, like TwoHitBack and salvation while solo'ing, now if he needs a 3rd ability, then Retribution. People ask why, well if you forego the defense aspect and include 1-2 or 3 spawn, you charge up faster per second compared to 1 sec per your attack.

Example: 2 monster spawn, they both attack @ 1 sec, you have twice the chance to charge up vs your 1 attack during that second. (Note: only if damage is taken of course)

Retribution = same damage as powerstrike but charges with damage taken.
TwoHitBack = Attack 2 monsters @ 100% divided between 2 and charges with hits taken
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Personally, when I was playing SC... I went with a minimum of 60 vita, wouldn't consider anything under 75 on SC, especially with the loss of Prof after rank 20.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on Dec 22 2018 08:34am