A Widow's Diary

[KaizenSoze]

To get the feel for an experienced, but returning player w/o resources. I am playing a Night Widow from level 1 on red side w/o double exp.

 

• Not an Ironwoman run
• I will not providing influence, recipes, or enhancements from other characters at least till 50
• I will use the P2W vendor and the auction house
  • I will try and game the market. See below.

 

 

[KaizenSoze]

Level 1-5

• Attacks are swipe, strike, Apprentice Charm, Sands of Mu, Black Wand (Origin Bonus)
• Athletic run
• I got the P2W free enhancements

Contacts:

• Alan Desslock gives you a mission at level one, then tells you to bug off till level 5
• Completed Operative Kuzmin and Fire Wire's arcs

Notes:

  Endurance is good, attack chain is good enough for 0x1. Avoiding run TT:Maneuvers, till I get higher and an end reducer. I feel slightly overpowered for the mobs. Due to how hard strike hits.

[KaizenSoze]

Level 5-10 Diff: 0x1, no bosses

 

Now, I am starting to see the squishiness. Even con Longbow Lts hurt if they get a few hits. I had my first death and several very close calls. Matthew Burke's snake hatchery mission was the problem. I accidentally aggro two groups of minions and my inspirations where not enough to save me. Also, snakes bosses downgraded to lts still hit hard and have dull pain. Endurance is not a problem so far. Usually, only running one toggle. Slow attack recharge is keeping thing manageable. Follow up is awesome, but I miss so much in general.

 

• Attacks are Follow up, Swipe, Strike, Apprentice Charm, Sands of Mu, Black Wand (Origin Bonus)
• Picked up fly, which helps a lot moving around Mercy Island.
• Total influence after completing every contact except Mongoose and Dr. Creed, selling all enhancement: 100K
  • Only purchase was, Reveal, from P2W for 10K
• Working through Dr. Graves arc. Now, forced to go to Port Oaks.

[KaizenSoze]

Level 10-13 Diff 0x1 no bosses

 

Multiple deaths, one to another down rated Snake boss, three to Arachnos. You never appreciate how nasty the -recharge is from Arachnos till you watch all six attacks slowly recharge. 😞

 

Level 13 kinda sucks, not a lot of contacts. Endurance is ok, but having to rest more, burn insps, and fights can go south quickly. I have forced to go to Cap Au Diable because of lack of contacts. Not a safe zone for a level 13.

 

Going to start playing the market. I got a bit lucky with recipe drops, so I will make some 15 IOs.

 

Total influence: 150K

Edited August 6, 2021 by KaizenSoze

[KaizenSoze]

Level 13-25

 

Flipping back for between red and blue. Completed the Dr. Graves arc. Got a really good Brickstown radio team which got me a lot of levels.

 

There were quite a few deaths, only a few solo. Demoted bosses to lts the biggest solo source. I had a horrible Posi 1, not blaming the group, the shadows had just the wrong combination of powers. Lots of -tohit and my shadow was throwing smoke grenades. 😞

 

The playing the market guide worked really well, 10 merits for 30 enhancement converter = 2,100,00 inf. I had 5.5 million inf before crafting my level 25 IO. The amount of influence you get from leveling is pathetic for your crafting needs.

 

It makes it worth it to finish the exploration badges and arcs to get those merits.

 

Attacks are poison dart, strike, lunge, spin, and slash. I took TT:Offensive, but I still seem to miss way too much.

 

If I had to do it over again, I would take poison dart and dart burst. Instead of swipe and strike. Strike from stealth with Slash and follow up. Hit and run with ranged attacks. I still used Black Wand into my low 20s. I am way to squishy to stand in there and duke it out in 0-1x8 groups. Hit and run my friends, hit and run.

 

A note about endurance, it was become a problem before IOs. Now, it manageable in groups at least. You have to slot your most expensive attacks, slash and spin with IO end reducers. The combo of slash and spin takes almost 30 end w/o reducers.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by KaizenSoze

[KaizenSoze]

Level 25-33

 

  I have decided to turn on double exp. The reason for avoiding it was that I wanted to see how much influence I would get compared to what I needed. Influence from drops are so low that it's a pointless test. Even with the lucky recipe drops that I crafted into 1-2 million inf. I might have had just enough inf at level 50 to craft all my needed level 25 IOs. As in stands now, I have 5.9 million inf mostly from merits to converters.

  Also, leveling even in groups had slowed down a lot. Around level 30 I really started to feel it.

 

  Night Widow specific notes. I crafted a celerity: stealth and Adjusted Targeting: Recharge to make things easier. I have mental training and hasten, so I have all the recharge I am going to get till full enhancement sets post 50. I still have gaps in my attack chain due to recharge. Every attack is used Poison Dart, Strike, Lunge, Spin, Slash, Eviscerate. This is that painful balancing issue that hits Widows around this level you want more recharge, but your endurance cannot handle it. I have gotten the 5 points of endurance accolade and using crafting stations for more recovery.

 

    Some folks will note this is a problem that many characters face, but keep in mind the VEAT inherit is supposed to give more recovery and regen. The inherit is not noticeable even with 3 slotting stamina. There have been many suggestions made to dev about this issue. I remember making my first Widow because I thought the inherit would avoid most of the endurance issue I was suffering on other chars.

 

  Defensive is coming a long decently, I can soft cap melee with mind link. On teams, I am often soft capped m/r/a due to buffs. Soloing though I am only running at 0x1 with bosses turned on. The attack chain gaps and endurance keeps me from taking on larger groups. I still feel squishy, mission alternates between blowing through mobs to suddenly taking 2-3 hits in a row and looking for health inspirations. If I miss too many times against a lt or boss, then I have to start watching my endurance.

 

  These are the doldrums that caused me to give up my Night Widow the first time around. Until I discovered Fortunatas a year later. Let's see if I can figure a way through them. 

[KaizenSoze]

Level 33-43

 

I got most of my levels through a kill most ITF, 37-43. I stuck to taking out the surgeons. Every time I would try and get into the scrum some AOE would crash my hp into the deep red zone. Pretty typical experience on an ITF when everything is +5.

 

Only two deaths, one to the EB version of the Envoy of Shadows. One on the ITF. 

 

Good news is that endurance is manageable with end reducers in attacks, two in the heavy hitters. Plus, SG recovery one hour buff. The buff is required though, end reducers will not cut it alone. Recharge could still be better, I can burn through all my attacks and have a tiny gap. This is including Gloom now.

 

Now, that I am in my 40s, carnies missions are available. And Widows eat carnies for lunch. Illusionist get three shot from stealth with just level 25 damage IO, my AOE defense is good enough to avoid most of the end drain. Psi resists take the sting out of many attacks.

 

Opened up Tina Mac's arc. Settling in for the home stretch.

[KaizenSoze]

Level 43-50

 

  Finished with the experiment. Endurance is back to being an issue due to new toggles. I cannot run both Leadership: Maneuvers and TT: Assault at the same time.

 

  That is even with base buff and double end reducers in most attacks. Obviously the VEAT inherit is not cutting it and needs a buff.

 

 I will update the FAQ with what I have learned.

[tidge]

On 8/8/2021 at 9:25 AM, KaizenSoze said:

 Some folks will note this is a problem that many characters face, but keep in mind the VEAT inherit is supposed to give more recovery and regen. The inherit is not noticeable even with 3 slotting stamina. There have been many suggestions made to dev about this issue. I remember making my first Widow because I thought the inherit would avoid most of the endurance issue I was suffering on other chars.

 

The VEAT inherent really feels like it it isn't doing much for the Blue Bar, but I had to run REALLY hot after level 25 to notice(*1). That is: there was only a relatively narrow range where I was really feeling the Blue Bar. It feels to me like the inherent Health/Stamina that everybody gets takes a little something away from the VEAT inherent. My random thoughts:

• P2W attacks cost Endurance, so filling an attack chain with them at low levels will drain the batteries.
• I don't use Hasten in my Fortunata. If you don't have it perma, a character with it will burn more Endurance from more attacks and suffer the Endurance drop when it expires. Once perma, you can avoid the drop, but you will still be making attacks at a boosted rate (unless you pace your attacks).
• I tend to reach for set bonuses (and accolades) that include +MaxEnd, Endurance Discounts as well as +Recovery. With the VEAT inherent and inherent Stamina, I feel that increasing Endurance and getting Global Discounts to Endurance costs offer a better return for the investment.

(*1) I have seen that running certain content at x8 definitely can burn down the Endurance bar, even for a full-kit build. The circumstances where I see this most frequently is on solo (exemplared) Mayhem missions.

[KaizenSoze]

4 hours ago, tidge said:

 

The VEAT inherent really feels like it it isn't doing much for the Blue Bar, but I had to run REALLY hot after level 25 to notice(*1). That is: there was only a relatively narrow range where I was really feeling the Blue Bar. It feels to me like the inherent Health/Stamina that everybody gets takes a little something away from the VEAT inherent. My random thoughts:

• P2W attacks cost Endurance, so filling an attack chain with them at low levels will drain the batteries.
• I don't use Hasten in my Fortunata. If you don't have it perma, a character with it will burn more Endurance from more attacks and suffer the Endurance drop when it expires. Once perma, you can avoid the drop, but you will still be making attacks at a boosted rate (unless you pace your attacks).
• I tend to reach for set bonuses (and accolades) that include +MaxEnd, Endurance Discounts as well as +Recovery. With the VEAT inherent and inherent Stamina, I feel that increasing Endurance and getting Global Discounts to Endurance costs offer a better return for the investment.

(*1) I have seen that running certain content at x8 definitely can burn down the Endurance bar, even for a full-kit build. The circumstances where I see this most frequently is on solo (exemplared) Mayhem missions.

I put off Hasten until 30 due to the endurance concern. I got the 5% endurance accolade as soon as possible. Now, I have all four accolades. Still can burn my end.

 

Now, I have T3 Ageless, so things are much better at 50.

 

If you're running on IOs and SO, you need to the P2W attacks. Otherwise, you sit around a lot waiting for attacks to recharge. I definitely made build mistakes, should have taken ranged attacks vs melee. Poison Dart recharges as quick as swipe, but gives you hit and run ability.

 

It's a nasty trade off, if you put a lot of recharge into attacks then you burn your end quickly sub incarnates. I am squishy as hell because scaling resists aren't enough at lower levels. You need those set resists to take the sting out. Once, you have the scaling resist piece, plus the max hp piece, then the scaling really holds up.

 

Even at 50 I am very squishy w/o sets. I'll be going along fine in a 54 misson or TF. Then boom, one hit from an EB or bosses and my hp plummets into deep red. All of this is fixed with sets, but until then Night Widows aren't that impressive.

 

Would be nice if the inherit fixed the end issue at least.