SK Leveling: Vindi BP and Fungi Tunic

[Jimjam]

Idk about the topic on hand but my first toon here was an sk. I got him to 52 and he has remained there!

I was messing around in Crystal Caverns on a ranger and found a BE helm on a random merchant. Switched to my sk for a risky hammer out from seb Jugs and a quick drop transfer of the helm later I can proudly report my troll is wearing a full set of Blood Ember!


Sorry for the non-post but I just wanted to celebrate!

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Idk about the topic on hand but my first toon here was an sk. I got him to 52 and he has remained there!

I was messing around in Crystal Caverns on a ranger and found a BE helm on a random merchant. Switched to my sk for a risky hammer out from seb Jugs and a quick drop transfer of the helm later I can proudly report my troll is wearing a full set of Blood Ember!


Sorry for the non-post but I just wanted to celebrate!

Congrats! Full blood ember looks great on a troll. I like how the red gets darker as you go from hat to boots. You'll get a lot of use out of the Boots, Gloves, Pants, and BP. Arms are good until 55. Helm is still nice as a junk buff if you need another junk buff.

[Jimjam]

Thank you! Ooh good tip! I hadn’t even worked out it is a click not worn ��

The real pita piece to get was the boots. I spent so much time in KC spawning and killing Knights of Sathir. The cast time is a bit high, but when it is worth it it is worth it.

Sathir is a follower of Innoruuk, not Thule. I still need to do more of that Knight damn mob on Red to get my innoruuk half elf war a runed blade.

Why are BE arms no good after 55?

[Danth]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why are BE arms no good after 55?

That's when you get Shroud of Death, a much more effective version of the same type of spell. Pre-Velious (and hence, pre-Shroud) I used the arms quite often even at 60.

Shamwowi tends to be more enthusiastc than I am about some of the other BE pieces, but he solo'd a lot more than I did so that explains the difference. BP is nice for the click buff although you can get the same buff, cheaper, if you're willing to swap a Stave of Shielding for procs.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thank you! Ooh good tip! I hadn’t even worked out it is a click not worn ��

The real pita piece to get was the boots. I spent so much time in KC spawning and killing Knights of Sathir. The cast time is a bit high, but when it is worth it it is worth it.

Sathir is a follower of Innoruuk, not Thule. I still need to do more of that Knight damn mob on Red to get my innoruuk half elf war a runed blade.

Why are BE arms no good after 55?

For the arms, you get a better version of the spell at 55. https://wiki.project1999.com/Shroud_of_Death procs for 50 damage and lasts for 20 minutes. You could still use the arms if you want to save the 100 mana casting cost, but I think the extra damage from Shroud is worth the mana cost. Since the buff last 20 mimutes, the 100 mana cost really isn't much.

Yeah the boots are quite rare. I am glad I bought mine before green came out, when KC was generally fully camped. I still use the fear boots when I need to save mana and I have plenty of HP. In dungeons you want to use your shortest duration fear anyway, so they don't run too far into the dungeon and another group of mobs.

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's when you get Shroud of Death, a much more effective version of the same type of spell. Pre-Velious (and hence, pre-Shroud) I used the arms quite often even at 60.

Shamwowi tends to be more enthusiastc than I am about some of the other BE pieces, but he solo'd a lot more than I did so that explains the difference. BP is nice for the click buff although you can get the same buff, cheaper, if you're willing to swap a Stave of Shielding for procs.

Good to see you again Danth! Yeah I didn't really use the arms past 55 because I like the extra damage/tap from shroud, and I am always running low on bag space via clickies, resist gear, weapons, etc. BP is certainly more convenient than SoS, sometimes the proc can take a while. But SoS does save you a good chunk of plat!

[Crede]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Making assumptions about my grouping and soloing isn't an argument. You shared your experience, and I shared mine. You can certainly provide logs from the Sebilis group, and we can see how much the Fungi helped. In your hole example where you have no healers at all, Fungi does indeed help. But I am talking about groups with a healer where you are tanking.

If you mitigate more damage on average in combat with Vindi, and switch to fungi out of combat, you save more HP per hour, even in your example group. Your example group is in Sebilis. Sebilis has casters, which makes Vindi even better.

I am not sure why people have issues with switching to fungi if they need to.

You're weighing Vindi's BP benefit based on AC/Resists, both which have proven unreliable with current p99 code. It's entirely possible that the extra resists from the vindi bp had little to no impact on incoming spell damage for an entire grouping session.

So unless you can provide some logs of Vindi BP out mitigating a Fungi in a typical grouping situation, it's really the Fungi's fixed benefit vs the perceived benefit of the Vindi BP. There might be some edge case grouping scenarios where you might want a Vindi BP to help with the cheal such as a low man Faydedar, but as Troxx indicated 99.9% of the time fungi is the way to go in group situations as it can adapt as needed to all types of different group compositions, which the Vindi BP cannot.

It's really that simple.

[Snaggles]

I’m all Team Fungi, especially solo. I think some folks might be overselling it in the high levels though. The max hit from a geo is 146. That’s basically one minute of ticks.

As for SV’s, it’s extremely tough 0 check resist benefits even in HoT. We all know the difference between healing someone with horrible SV’s and solid ones, so they matter. While the odds are stacked against us on p99, MR is still gold no matter what. I’ll drink my snake oil all day if it means resisting even an occasional dragon fear.

Hps, AoB, svs, passable AC. I mean…it’s not a ridiculous premise to just wear it when someone healing you. You can write them an IOU for 1/3rd of a chloroblast every minute.

[Troxx]

Regarding grouping, the best thing about getting a Vindi BP when you were otherwise using a fungi is that it lets you rationalize moving your fungi to a lower level melee alt [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Raiding? (And I include low man “grouping” raid targets in this category) - that’s a completely different monster.

For groups, mob dps is just not significant. In most places 52-60 people will be grouping, mob dps is going to be LOW (like 10-15 dps or less on a properly geared tank). It will be low enough that the extra 13 hp per tick will offset 15-20% of incomming damage during active fights.

Pretend you’re in a group and you had to pick between a buff that gave you 13hp/tick regen that stacks with all other regen …. Or a buff that gave you 10 attack, some resists, 150hp and a handful of ac. Which buff would most people prefer for longevity and ease for a prolonged xp session vs low dps mobs?

I bet most would take 13 extra regen. Vindi is a good bp, but fungi is laughably OP for group content in this era.

[Snaggles]

Presuming the SVs and AC have no effect, or an inconsequential amount where the extra 130hps is very noticeable?

This is on the tank right? Not the rando DPS backing up into rooted mobs? Lol. I’ve leveled four melees to 60 solo and grouping sounds difficult.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by Crede [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You're weighing Vindi's BP benefit based on AC/Resists, both which have proven unreliable with current p99 code. It's entirely possible that the extra resists from the vindi bp had little to no impact on incoming spell damage for an entire grouping session.

It's also possible you are getting healed enough to where Fungi Tunic Regeneration would never have saved your life or increased the kills per hour in your group. At that point Fungi Tunic literally did nothing the entire session. I am not sure why that hypothetical helps your argument, as it applies equally to Fungi Tunic.

Damage spikes from melee and spells are generally more dangerous at high levels, which is why you want to mitigate them as much as possible. Fungi Tunic isn't regenerating fast enough to counter damage spikes at high levels. You are usually getting hit often when tanking in a group. You may also be pulling as an SK. Wear Vindi during combat to reduce damage spikes, and wear fungi out of combat as needed. It's quite simple.

Originally Posted by Snaggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think some folks might be overselling it in the high levels though. The max hit from a geo is 146. That’s basically one minute of ticks.

As for SV’s, it’s extremely tough 0 check resist benefits even in HoT. We all know the difference between healing someone with horrible SV’s and solid ones, so they matter. While the odds are stacked against us on p99, MR is still gold no matter what. I’ll drink my snake oil all day if it means resisting even an occasional dragon fear.

Hps, AoB, svs, passable AC. I mean…it’s not a ridiculous premise to just wear it when someone healing you. You can write them an IOU for 1/3rd of a chloroblast every minute.

Agreed!

Originally Posted by Snaggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I’m all Team Fungi, especially solo.

Agreed. Fungi is generally better at all levels when soloing, as SK's will be fear kiting rather than face tanking. It's still nice to have Vindi for resists when doing things like pulling in areas with casters.