Adjust to parties proration?

Ok ever since someone mentioned to me that a party can ruin damage proration if not done right last night i started noticing it. I was trying to see if maybe I can adjust what I do during battle by watching the others and see if it gets better. Do you guys have any tips about this? Cuz in my party of 2 it was going good but once we got a 3rd person it took way longer from the start.

 

Kick the 3rd person
I hope I helped you

 

Wow it can be that simple huh ok thanks

 

Or tell them to prorate more. Assuming they're reasonable enough to converse with. Don't be the guy who simply doesn't teach people and kicks them instantly with no explanation. It's why we have SO MANY people that don't know how proration works at 200+.

 

I'm glad you said that cuz yeah it happened to me many times. I'll make sure I dont be that guy.

 

Whilst I don't exactly kick you, I can understand why people opt to just kick the bad prorator.

Talking to people in this game is rather... Annoying even if to just explain something simple and some folks are rather unreceptive, imperceptive and daft.

Owing to the daftness, I had a guy tell me prorate Iconos once even when it was explained that prorating Iconos doesn't work too well. The guy was lead, they disbanded the party. Keep in mind I'm using magic and the rest of the team is physical attackers.

Then another instance where a 'tank' is just spamming guardian and normal attacks on Venena nightmare. Yes this is a new one I experienced (thank you venena, you never disappoint!~). Had to tank venena on my no VIT mage.

I think the fundamental problem for most players coming to toram is the combo system. Many players simple do not understand combos to make the most efficient use of their combos whether for proration or MP efficiency which pisses off older players on advanced bosses (nightmare/ultimate) and gets them kicked.

 

Yeah that's one of the things that's elluded me was combos. I'm building my little combo right now but even that little one makes me open too much to aoe so I'm trying to figure out if I need a long combo or if this little one is ok for now. I had a 3 skill combo with one skill with swift and even that left me way too open to aoe too much

 

Well, when building a combo, you really should consider your own playstyle.

For example, in my case, I have a 9MP swift finale combo for enhanced evasive capability and to allow me to remain with 2 MP have busting a double finale for a small cost combo for either evasion, chip damage or defensive barrier. T

9 MP lets me use finale, burst and a small chip damage combo after MP Charge + Maximiser.

With that established, I need several situational small cost combos for various bosses or situations/emergencies, especially since I'm mainly a solo player.

For you, it depends. Do you party often? Do you roll solo? Does your main weapon fight in close range, long range or both? What skills execute rapidly for combo filler or emergency situations? After this you then look at:

Are the skills you're using needed on smite tag or can't you just consec tag them and use them more efficiently?
Eg: Smash > Combination (Smite) > Impact (Consecutive) > Rush (Consecutive)
* Maintains proration, stable damage of 70%, 1 MP cost.

VS

Impact > Rush (Smite) > Combination (swift)
* Proration still maintained but at 4 MP, the combo is less efficient for 150% whereas the first grants 70*4= 280% rush damage for the same cost.

VS

Smash > Impact (save) > Rush (Smite) > Combination (swift)

* Same 1 MP cost as the first one but Rush is now 90% damage, 360% for 4 MP.

Now you have a knuckle user with monstrous damage over time.

Now, you have this nice 1 MP combo but no where to really use it because you have a nice knuckle attack called Goliath Strike.

BUT

Goliath takes 6 seconds to charge and in that time, you need a way to either break boss defenses, prorate or deal some chip damage. That 1 MP combo comes into use here.

Your finisher combo or smite-no-save combo comes in the form of something like this:
Slide > Goliath Strike (Smite) > Combination (Swift)

Now the reason you won't put Goliath with a save tag is because it has a charge time and because you won't be using it as often as your other combos hence it's high MP cost shouldn't bother you as much (except Devs gave knux the stale finger on that front but that's another issue).

Point is, there's a lot you can do with combos and even months of playing can still let you learn something new from it.

This brings the next issue of why it's so hard to make a guide for combos or why many opt for simple combos and just try to 'hard-play' or 'mono-style' the game.

 

Use the longer combos when the boss is busy using an aoe or attack and it's safe to cast from the side or behind. Never use a long slow combo like a decoy combo if the boss has just finished a previous aoe, attack or auto attack etc and is ready to move onto a new attack, that's how many people get caught out, casting at a bad time without observing and waiting to see a bosses next move.
Also if you don't have agro and there is a tank play behind the boss or on the side if possible, that's usually safer, if you stand infront of the boss next to the tank that can be dangerous.
Many times I have been tanking and someone stands on top of me and casts finale or a long crazy combo and they get deleted by a laser or straight line attack, or an aoe directed at me when if they stood on the side or behind the boss they would still be alive.

 

Ok yeah I'll work on that then

 

Tbh, you should make combos based on which bosses you're fighting atm. If the boss takes time to cast his skills, then using mid-long combos should be fine, while at fast bosses it's better to use short combos.
Idk which skills you're using, but there is also mirage evasion which can be used with skills that have cast time, so you can avoid some aoes using it while casting magic, decoy, supp skills, etc.

 

Ok cool well recently I got a lot of help fixing my build cuz I badly screwed it up thinking I needed crit and crit damage everything and it was even laughable to some dps players even with a +s OHS. But someone here told me what I needed for a more balanced build and so it's already helping a lot. So far I think my playstyle is not your normal one cuz its centered around dark powers but I've been enjoying it. It's getting me through better now than it was. As far as my current combo I have astute first then bloody bite for damage and free HP healing right after. The past hour I've been trying out some bosses to learn about proration now and man I didnt know I was wasting MP all this time using a skill at the wrong time cuz it was weaker than it could be.

 

Ok thanks that helps

 

Astute > Bloody Bite?
Yeah you'd lose some damage to proration. But bloody bite isn't a damaging skill, for swords, high damage skills are:
- Meteor Breaker
- Buster Blade
- Enchant Sword (unsheathe, magic swordsman skill tree)

Only those three skills need Smite tag to maximize their damage, everything else is wasted effort on smite tag unless you're using save > smite. Though I say this, going full VIT and using shield + dark power can be pretty nasty too because instead of those skills above, you use:
- Shield Cannon
- Dark Stinger
Instead for high damage/smited finisher combos.

Reason I also don't suggest getting too much damage for bloody bite, if it's just for self heal is the lvl based heal cap, you don't need much.

From the dark tree, only demon claw really works for damage and it needs low hp (below 10% max) for highest efficiency so it's risky but you can abuse guard to get around that.

Finally, you might wanna use astute for something else to benefit more from the CRT bonus
Eg:
astute & dark Stinger, consec style combo

astute & strike stab, same as above but the benefit is greater because strike stab innately has bad crit rate.

You can use flash stab and bloody bite for a quick combo.

Won't be able to tell you much on that front but you do know about building combos so good luck ^_^

 

The 3rd was katana user

 

Alight I'm gonna try some of what you said. I didnt know certain skills in a combo can have a negative effect.

 

Good luck, just be sure to take skills you need rather than want.

At a certain point, having 100 attack skills means nothing before an attack buff.

 

Alright sounds good

 

Ok I'll remember that

 

Or they should have gone to the library in sofya and had a chat with that npc about proration in the first place. It's a hassle to explain things in that stupid chat log to someone who doesn't speak the same language as you or just doesn't care in general.