DRK Absorbs [M.acc/INT/Skill]

[Gadritan]

So I finally got around to getting my drk finished up and I'm confused about m.acc/int/skill for my absorb spells. Tried asking LS which resulted in nothing but conflicting answers.

So the simple question. How does magic accuracy, int, and skill affect absorbs? Our blms did their best to answer this, but they kept talking about how to increase dmg and such, which is completely irrelevant to a drk...we don't fucking nuke...ever. I want to know how to maximize my absorbs for hnms. I have abyss cape and w.bod amongst other little things that make high m.acc, int, or skill builds possible, but I don't want to be that retard who uses gear without really knowing what it does. "hay it's kinda rare so it HAS to be good!" yeah...one of those.

Suggestions for gear would be appreciated. I'm lucky enough to have a LS that makes nearly anything obtainable, I just need to know what I'm looking for. Not to mention that there's often times very cheap gear that's a better option and is overlooked far too often.

Much appreciated

~Deh Galka

[Kirschy]

There hasn't been a ton of testing on this kind of thing because it's just extremely hard to get accurate results. For the most part you want to use Dark Magic Skill and Magic Accuracy when casting Abs Spells. INT probably adds magic accuracy, but it's not practical to keep INT around to macro in. You'll find that for absorbs it's going to be hit or miss. Either you're gonna land it consistantly, or it's gonna resist you to hell.

For Drains and Aspir, Dark Magic Skill is going to be more important than Magic Accuracy which is more important than INT. Dark Magic Skill is the primary factor in deciding resists and potency.

I had a Dark Magic Skill set that consisted of 8 merits, AF+1 Helm, W Hands, AF2 Legs, Abyss Cape, and Dark Torque. Obviously there's more items to get, but I found that I rarely ever got resisted on my Drains/Aspir/Abs-Acc or the occasional Abs-MND. Anything that resisted me, like Khim or Cerb wasn't going to benefit from the extra skill/acc I could have added anyway.

[Gadritan]

Good to know INT isn't high on the priority list...my inventory is already bad enough between everything else.

Helm is what brought this up for me too though. I'm assuming af+1 vs homam is pretty much a toss up as far as skill vs m.acc. Correct me if I'm wrong there. If that's the case I think I'd lean towards homam just for a little bit of a lower recast.

Guess I'll try messing around with Dark Seal for int and skill builds when the opportunity presents itself, but no point in doing extensive testing if what you're saying is correct, which I believe it is. Makes a lot of sense.

[orson]

Generally Drks just focus on dark skill I'm not 100% whether other things don't affect absorbs but that's just what I tend to see people doing. I think the reason there hasn't been much testing is absorb spells usually are not even worth the time casting if you have a good haste build. Even Absorb TP is situational. Really as much as Drks can use there magic I wouldn't worry too much about working your butt off so you can land -7 vit on Byakko. It's definitely an optional thing and with your base skill, acouple easy to obtain gear pieces and/or merits you should reliably land your spells on trash mobs.

[Kyreth]

If it's anything like Drain/Aspir, Dark skill is paramount. M. Acc comes second, Int (as a secondary for adding accuracy) a distant third. Since Dark skill is pretty much it for determining how much you leech off someone in HP/MP, my guess would be it's also the determining factor for ABS spells too.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Generally Drks just focus on dark skill I'm not 100% whether other things don't affect absorbs but that's just what I tend to see people doing. I think the reason there hasn't been much testing is absorb spells usually are not even worth the time casting if you have a good haste build. Even Absorb TP is situational. Really as much as Drks can use there magic I wouldn't worry too much about working your butt off so you can land -7 vit on Byakko. It's definitely an optional thing and with your base skill, acouple easy to obtain gear pieces and/or merits you should reliably land your spells on trash mobs.

I completely disagree. A DRK that never uses its dark magic is basically a gimp WAR. There are situations where it isn't useful but that is no reason not to make good use of it when you can. Absorb-TP's situation is basically whenever you can land it, time it right, and you aren't going all out Hasso /SAM. You need a ton of haste to make not casting abs-tp more worth casting it. Landing abs-tp generally gives me 30-40 TP, a boost that is very nice and potent. Drains are always helpful to bolster your defensive capabilities and make yourself less of a drain (plus drains are decent damage on their own.) Abs-Stat are quite situational.

Obviously, if you are only using DRK in a zerg, things are different.

As far as how to gear for it, I generally think like this: For drain and aspir, Dark > all. Period. For Abs spells, Dark=Macc=2 INT. That makes INT just barely good enough to make me bother cast a lot on a velum cell in salvage.

[Gadritan]

Yeah, Maxx nailed it. One of the biggest advantages my drk has over my war on hnms is it's magic. It makes it far more versatile allowing me to gain TP without giving TP. It's the exact same reason ppl love sams for endgame. There's also stun of course, and small debuffs through absorbs. My war can potentially do more damage than my drk, but at a greater cost.

And I'm looking more so at TP, acc, dex, str absorbs. I guess if you still enjoy sushi on HNMs then you don't need to worry about using dark magic. Personally I like att food and boosting my acc through dex/acc along with drk's meditate, absorb-tp.

I was worried I might not get any useful information posting on here for the simple fact that 99% of drks seem to have Orson's same mentality.

Edit: Or maybe you just didn't pay attention to the OP Orson. I'm not talking about "trash mobs," I'm talking about HNMs. I don't merit on drk...

[Albatross]

Generally for Drain/Aspir I'll go full on Dark magic gear on any slot I have gear, and M.acc if you don't have skill for that slot. Abs are a bit different though, as I think, don't quote me on this though, that the amount of stat boost you receive works in a tier, needs to be tested thoroughly though and I just don't have the time. For abs TP though I mix in haste gear with Dark skill and macc, since your skill doesn't effect how much you absorb directly, just if you get resisted or not so I would have to say homam head would be better for Abs-TP, but not Drain or Aspir.

Edit: Also for abs spells, other than TP, switch in Black Cuisses or a piece similar to them if you have them, since they increase the duration of the effect.

[Gadritan]

Yep, I always do Alb^^ I just tried a full skill swap with Dark Seal up and did a fucking 609 Drain II....highest previously was around 430. Going to continue testing to see if that wasn't just blind luck. Be nice if I can get consistency on that for zergs as it would put me at about 2.8k hp.

[Albatross]

Probably not blind luck, considering it's not too hard to hit a 500+ Drain II on Dynamis Lord using Pluto's Staff and other gear. Highest I've Drain IIed off him was 518 with 325 D.magic, still missing blood fng gnts, +1 af2 legs and merciful cape as well.

[Therin]

Just go full Dark magic skill unless you're talking about a slot which has none or has a much stronger MACC option (i.e., Abyss Cape).

[Albatross]

Shit is situational!

[Gadritan]

Yeah. I just wanted a better understanding of exactly what the stats were really doing so I could make better decisions gear wise. Like you can just tell someone as a melee to stack haste/acc/att for TP and str for WS, but it still doesn't mean they understand why. Which can lead to them looking like a fool.

[kayn]

Explain to me again why we're using abs spells on HNMs?
You really don't need a whole lotta gear to land stuff on faf/behe level mobs.
Anything higher generally requires you to use dark seal.
It just seems most stuff either you can land stuff or you can't. There's very little in-between.
Of course this assumes you're using minimal +drk skill gear (af2 hands/legs, af1 head).
Yes w.hands are better but af2 is a lesser option and more likely a drk will have.

I guess mostly I'm curious as to what fights you bring your drk to and why?
(outside of zergs)

[Gadritan]

Kayn...learn2read...then scroll back up...kkthx.

[Thorny]

You learn2read then scroll back up, you didn't name a single mob where this is applicable.

[Gadritan]

That's because there's absolutely no reason for me to. If you don't know which mobs I'm talking about, then you have no business pretending to know anything about this topic to begin with.

Edit: Maybe that was a bit mean. I'm talking about about Leaping Lizzy. Dude keeps owning me.