There have been a lot of new/returning players asking about this recently so in order to compliment RF's excellent class guide (aimed at SoSe/end game characters) I thought I would chime in with some tips I've picked up regarding building SoS characters. Generally these are concerned with beasting rather than dueling. I highly recommend you read
RF's guide first.
This guide is aimed at new/returning players who don't necessarily have supers or DDs, or people deciding what to do with alt accounts they don't want to hurl a fortune at to make effective.
The guide generally assumes you have Scepter of Anullment, and are capped and transferred unless otherwise stated.
Ubers don't really seem to spawn any more due to the lower population, maybe Jeff will add them to the ash collector tables or something if we are lucky. Hypothetically if one was to ever spawn, here is how to build your characters to kill them.
I'll link the various help sites I used for reference.
Basic Theory
For all classes, the two things you need to kill Ubers are fairly obviously accuracy and damage. Accuracy should always be your first concern. Once you can hit reliably you then find ways to up your damage output. Once your damage is high enough, you find ways to see-saw up your accuracy then damage again. It's a balancing act.
Supers are generally pretty underwhelming so I won't really talk about them and DDs are beyond the scope of this guide. The time to consider supers is once you are capped and transferred, you have enough accuracy to hit consistently but you are finding your damage lackluster. They basically combine Shirt Ripper or Brain Swell, a hefty accuracy boost and DotB minus the relic damage.
It is worth noting that for basically the same price as a super you can upgrade an earthen weapon or spell to a shadow, which do far more for you but honestly if you are at this stage SoSe should be your next concern which will probably solve whatever problems you are having anyway.
All bonuses are stacking, so if you have a base weapon damage of 1,000,000 your first fire UT will provide 10% on top of that giving you 1,100,000 weapon damage. The second does the same, 1,100,000 * 1.1 = 1,210,000 and so forth. More to follow.
Accuracy
Each class (except for vamps) has an accuracy stat and an accuracy skill. The skill is simply a multiplier of the stat. The only person who knows for sure how accuracy and evasion stats work is Jeff. I have a pretty good guess what the formula is, but I won't share it here.
Essentially, what you want to aim for is 4b modded accuracy stat. This gives you something in the area of a 65% chance to hit an uber. You start getting big diminishing returns after this, with 10b being around 90% chance to hit.
Thanks to LA for the research on this.
Your class will get some huge multiplier from it's master quest, and further multiplied by up to 5 (6 with SP) by the accuracy skill.
Damage
There are lots of ways to increase your damage. The general gist of it is (
damage stat*
weapon or spell damage)/
opponents armour defence. Crits help enormously, and Sash of the Blood Rogue is needed to land many of those on beasts.
Getting a better weapon/spell increases your base weapon/spell damage the most. This gets multiplied by 10% for each fire/light UT you equip respectively.
Denial of the Believer (the only worthwhile approbation since the Lestat became annullable) contains Damage Capacitor which multiplies it again by 15% for each one you have equipped. Casters, Fighters and Archers enjoy a further 20% damage stat increase from Denial of the Believer.
The best place to test your damage is the Insane Dungeon (100,dun,200). Thanks to
Ehlmaris for the data on which beast correlates to which mob there.
- Regular - Abysmal Queen
- Uber - Waif Wanderer
- DE - Farg Farg
If you consistently 9x9x2 a farg farg, you can consider your self a 'finished' uber hunter.
The 'precision' skills only affect your minimum damage, and I am not sure the extent to which they help theurgs. Criticality is hugely important. Unless you are disgustingly overpowered by D*Ds you are going to rely heavily on critical hits for your damage.
Classes
Grandmaster Bowmen
These are cool for a number of reasons but with two (major) caveats.
Unlike the other classes who's master quests simply require transferring, these need APOS. Quickening is a requirement of APOS and can be a bitch to get. Without it, they can't get Archers Aide which allows them to equip spells and still get the 500x CNC bonus they would otherwise enjoy.
The second caveat is without SoSe they are ****ing slow. Personally, on my SoS archer I can't tell the difference between using TF (1b) arrows and Earthen Arrows speed wise.
What makes them great, however, is they are hilariously cheap to suit. There is absolutely no reason to give them demonic armour over DPP for beasting. DOTB is their best relic, and this can even be put on their bow (which should be at least earthen) for 2 billion from a sky hermit.
They can make up their lack of a Shirt Ripper/Brain Swell relic somewhat by training the Casting Accuracy skill, providing up to 5* damage at 99 or 6* at 125.
Don't forget, accurate spells further double your CNC. One accurate, One rapid is probably the way to go. Two accurate spells result in a silly damage 10 sec delay fiesta. Fun for a bit, but not for long.
You probably want all 16 relic slots to be DOTB. Stream of Conciousness looks appealing but remember it is annullable.
Fighters
Without SoSe, you (probably) want to be a berserker. Based on some feedback from Per; it is worth mentioning Magicians and Armsmen get twice the accuracy stat from quest items, but have the drawback of not being able to attack twice before SoSe. If you have only one demonic weapon/spell, using that with a heal/shield might be a benefit for you.
For these classes, there is a decision to be made. Do you want to absolutely have to hit twice to kill a beast or guarantee two albeit less reliable hits? For beasting on a budget, I prefer the latter he prefers the former and I will discuss them assuming you agree and go the two-weapon route.
Demonics provide roughly twice the damage that DPP does, so you absolutely want those. Your biggest problem is going to be accuracy, probably. Two precise weapons will help massively, each doubling your modified dex.
Like archers, you are going to suck balls until you get your final master quest item, the Warriors Warder. The Warder provides 100x strength and 5x dex bonuses. Berserkers need more dex than you think, 7m or so base should be enough to reach the 4b mark with two precise weapons and 99 attacking accuracy.
These are probably the easiest class to make into viable uber hunters. I like 15 Shirt Rippers and some form of kill relic on mine.
Casters
Much like fighters really. Without SoSe, you (probably) want to be a wizard. Demonics provide roughly twice the damage that DPP does, so you absolutely want those. Your biggest problem is going to be accuracy, probably. Two accurate spells will help massively, each doubling your modified CNC.
Casters suffer a bit for beasting, but make up for it in other, subtle ways in duels. The reason for this is the Casters Familiar provides considerably less damage and accuracy than the Warrior's Warder.
You probably want 16 Brain Swells. Whether you can get away with a kill relic and still throw down enough damage, I am not sure. Test this yourself.
A large (huge) redeeming factor for casters is Dragon Shards are ****ing cheap as casters are far from flavour of the month. It doesn't take many of these to make casters shine.
The coolest thing about casters is you don't need to cap and transfer to get the Casters Familiar. If you create a solon and only put points in CNC/NTL you will be a master from level 0. Unlike fighters who suck immensely until they are transferred you will be happily killing regs at least from really early on. With over 2000 levels of softcap these days, this will take a lot of the grind out of the RWK beasting game for you.
Monks/Theurgs/Vamps
I haven't got much to say about these in the context of SoS beasters. With SoSe and a decent relic collection Vamps and Theurgs are absolutely viable, if not exceptional for beasting. Monks, however I am sorry to say, got nerfed enormously back in 2004 and never really recovered.
Since they had Monk Discipline after 99 reduced to 1.1* damage per level instead of 1.3*. Since then other classes have enjoyed the introduction of crystal, then shadow weapons leaving them firmly in the dust. Reverting that nerf might be a start Jeff!
Building Beasters, SoS uber hunting guide
