70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style]

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Mujuuryoku
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70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style] Feb 13, 2014 9:30:25 GMT

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Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 9:30:25 GMT

Hi! This encompasses my proposed skill, accessory, heraldry, and equipment build for a Piggyback (High HP, not-so-meager defenses), Pure Ice (Debuff Support aka Saboteur in Final Fantasy XIII terms) build.

Key things to consider:

1. Jades - Since we are using the Jade system now, we can enjoy having uniform stat increase across all pieces of equipment (unlike the Suffix system, where the stats are concentrated on the Weapons, Robes and Tights). Use it to your advantage.

2. Role - DPS always comes third (since Ice skills lack the oomph of Fire, Dark, and raw Magic). Survival is your highest priority, along with the infamous Ice Stacking following the very close second. Elestras can be made into semi-DPS creatures, but I beg to differ. In addition, the party's DPS can be enhanced to greater heights since Freeze effect is independent from other damage increasing factors (Force Mirror, Bull's Eye, Elem Resist debuff from various classes, Armor Break from Pally boys, etc).

Given the Freeze effect made by an Alchemist's Slime, the Adept's Ice Beam, and a Saleana's right-hand skill tree, no one stacks ice better than one trained to do the said task - an Elestra.

3. Play style - Elestras are melee- to mid-ranged Sorceresses, having lower CD skills compared to a Saleana. This means you can rotate your skills better and have a smaller 'no-skill-to-cast' range. However, in contrast with her sister who can throw Fireball EXs everywhere, you need to mind the levels of your skills to utilize the Ice resist reduction effect durations of non-Freezing skills to prolong the ice stack. Descriptions will be included as you read.

FYI: The lower the elemental resistance and ice resist of the target, the longer it holds the Freeze debuff. A mere 10% reduction will boost the duration by approximately 0.5 seconds, plus it would make your ice skills deal more damage (as you can observe when casting any multi-hit non-Freezing spell; the first hit is always lower than the succeeding hits due to the ice resist reduction).

4. Class Synergy - Elestras can be friends with anyone; who doesn't love extra damage, na? To add, this babe welcomes a Guardian's Guardian Force (how redundant, but I digress) to spend less on putting her shields up and a Saint's Holy Shield for she will do point-blank range attacks most of the time. DPS-wise, though somehow inferior, she prefers enjoying a Bowmaster's Bull's Eye, a Force User's Mirror, and the attribute (elemental) debuffs of the Academic's Ice Pump Tower, Biochemical Missile and Alcohol, a Screamer's Curse Stack, and her sister's miniscule ice debuffs if she somehow managed to learn some chilling jutsu.

5. Eles-'tank' mode - We need to be up close and personal most of the time to utilize our long-Freezing spells. That's the reason why I opted for the Piggyback build. VIT-stacking is the key. The VIT stat is our secondary source of PDEF, far away from the defenses coming from our threads. Despite the almost-negligible amount of PDEF that it provides (1 VIT = 0.6 PDEF), one point of this translates to +30 Max HP.

6. Future Elestra skill balancing patch - You might have heard about the so-called Majesty and Saleana boosts in other DN clients, so this could be a problem: All ice resist debuffs are lowered to just 10% instead of the usual 30% of Frost Wind and Freezing Field in PVE situations.

Scary? Not that much. Freezing Field's damage will be increased by 30% and our Chilling Master passive will be at 20% instead of the usual 10% like we now experience. 20% additional Elemental FD sounds great, but don't forget your role babe! As good as it may sound, your DPS will be outshone by other classes. That sucks, unless you're planning to go Hybrid (and that's not my story to tell anymore).

Doing good so far? Alright. Let's get freezing.

Last Edit: Feb 13, 2014 13:33:46 GMT by Mujuuryoku

Cuteness is a CRIME.

Mujuuryoku
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Tralalala~

Posts: 36

70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style] Feb 13, 2014 10:06:36 GMT

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Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 10:06:36 GMT

Skill Tree

Reminder: This requires practice. Running dungeons with high-HP monsters can be used for training.

Sorceress Tree

Maxed all Evasions (Blink, Power Blink, Aerial Evasion) for dire situations.
Maxed HP passive, retained MP mastery at Lvl1 since we have innately high MP.
Maxed Mana Recovery passive for, well, mana recovery. (What else?)

Glacial Spike set at Lvl 20 for a 25% chance to freeze. Additional damage might sound interesting, though not really your focus. At this point, small target getting hit by a GS thrice can have an approximately 57.8% chance of freezing it. You can check the cumulative probability of this by visiting this binomial probability calculator and inputting 0.25 chance of success per trial (freeze chance), 3 trials (3 hits), and 1 for the number of successful trial (the successful hit). When the skill hits more than once, the freeze chance rises to ~0.578 or 57.8%. If the target is larger (like a Golem or a Manticore), the chance to freeze increases.

Given this binomial probability, you can now imagine how multiple hits of Blizzard Storm (10 hits) and Ice Sphere (68 hits - can be achieved when your target is very big e.g. a Golem or Karahan-turned-Green-Dragon-wtf) can induce the 'crashing ice' effect due to repeated Freeze procs of these skills.

Long story short? Lvl 20 will suffice.

Added Poison Missile at Lvl 6 for stressing small mobs, breaking SA of objects, and adding the minor Poison Dance debuff if you happen to stumble upon the PVP arena.

Shockwave at Lvl 1 for utility. Great to push annoying mobs away, like our GM's staple "Go away." line in Skype conversations.

Elemental Lord Tree

Here's where it gets interesting.

DN SEA's 70 cap skill descriptions will be used for the meantime.

General rule:
Ice resist debuff does not stack; it tends to be overwritten. High-leveled debuff skills overwrite the effects of the lower-leveled ones.
Freeze status from the same skill does not stack; they only refresh the duration. (Two Glacial Spikes from different Sorcs could only make one ice stack)
A Frozen target has a higher SA rating. Bear that in mind. (GN's Golem cannot be flinched by the right-click SA breaking cannon bullet when frozen, thus, may cause the poor thing to do high damage when it's charging its fatal skill.)

Freezing Field is set at Lvl 17 to provide you 12 seconds of 30% ice resist debuff. This is the longest possible debuff that can be provided by any non-Freezing skill of an Elemental Lord. That said, it is recommended that you have this as your highest-leveled skill. This ensures that whatever skill you throw in next, be it a debuff or a Freeze-inducing one, the ice resist reduction won't get overwritten and the freezing skill will have roughly 1.5 seconds of additional duration.

Icy Shards (Freezing Swords) and Frozen Spikes are set to Lvl 16 since this lets the debuff duration reach the peak (4 secs and 6 secs, respectively). They can deal decent DPS too, but not as great as the ones in the left tree.

Freezing Shield maxed at Lvl 5 for a chance of freezing an opponent at melee range and provides semi-mediocre damage reduction. One of my recommended skills to have a Heraldry Slot. When provided with a 15% hit damage reduction heraldry, you can gain 30% lesser magical and physical damage, much like Protection Shell from Priests. As a cherry on top, it strengthens your super armor, negating almost all interruptions from enemy attacks when casting your sought-after skills.

Update: Despite having 10000% (as stated in the skill tooltip) increase in Super Armor, you can still be flinched by a Fatal-buffed Champion Monster in Anu Arendel if you don't have the Ice Barrier active. Also, the shields can help you tank a bit from a Raging-buffed monster. I experienced a 1-hit KO before when I forgot activating it. Having this skill plated with an Epic heraldry really saved my poor life several times.

Chilling Mist is preferred to be at Lvl 13 for the debuff duration and damage. Its slow casting time and long CD might be your downfall; however, this might be your last resort in putting an ice resist debuff when all other skills are on cooldown.

Blizzard Storm ultimate skill is your 2-star Freezing skill due to its long CD. This is set at Lvl 2 for additional oomph in damage. Do note that for some reason, this skill has a freeze cap of 10 seconds, no matter what debuff you apply to the target.

Frost Wind is set at Lvl 1 for utility. It's good for having that quick 30% ice resist reduction before casting Glacial Wave for party damage boost or Shatter for a nice SA break with Slow status as a cherry on top. Plus, this skill and a normal attack makes for an instant knockdown in the Coliseum.

Glacial Wave, the 5-star Freezing skill is set at Lvl 11 for that 8-second damage amplification. Coupled with a debuff duration heraldry, that makes for 9.6 seconds of damage-fest, assuming that there are no elemental and/or ice resist debuffs on the target. Also, this skill's Freeze duration has no cap as observed from numerous runs, so imagine the possibilities on having the ice layer stay longer than your Ultimate's.

Shatter is at Lvl 14 for that 571%+13670 one shot damage with Slow effect for 7 seconds and has a decent SA break capability (though not as good as Ignite or Detonate). Furthermore, the damage is usually higher because its requirement is Frostbite (ice resist debuff) and/or Freeze status in order to be successful. The slowing effect is good to control some mobs. Just be careful when shattering things; it erases the ice resist debuff and Frozen status. I prefer to use it when I sense that the ice stack nears the end of its duration and there are skills ready to be released as soon as the ice layers break. Also, newly-Shattered enemies tend to be more 'freezable' by Glacial Spike for some reason. This needs further testing though.

Elestra Tree

You think it sounds stupid that I put Ice Barrier at Lvl 1? Yes, it somehow does. It tanks damage, which follows our Eles-'tank' principle. However, the barrier might be really flimsy unless you have an insane Matk rating. Its purpose goes into those times that it might be hard to dodge but "Hey Eles, ice stack now!" moments. The barrier freezes anything within melee range for 2.5 seconds after it bursts or if its duration expires. With that, once you get squashed by someone, that's a nice DPS window for less than three seconds. Better than nothing.

Ice Sphere at Lvl 7 can theoretically give 2040%+37468 (30%+551 per icicle) worth of damage assuming that all 68 ice drops will hit (which can be hard to achieve but not really impossible). However, what we aim here for would be the 6 second Freeze with a success probability of 40% per hit. Just 8 icicles out of those 60+ projectiles landing on a target can have a freeze success rate of ~98% (by means of binomial probability).

Icy Shards EX taken for increased range and better SA breaking chance.

Freezing Field EX expanded the AoE of the original skill, plus made the center inflict Freeze for 5 seconds (so it is now worth the name). Remember the general rules? Since the Freeze of FF EX is just an added effect. it is still taken as the normal FF debuff; have any higher-leveled non-freezing skill hit the target and the 5 second ice layer shatters. Also, if possible, cast FF EX before you cast ANY ice skill. This ensures the spells hurt more and the ice crystals last longer.

Frozen Spikes EX transformed the measly skill into a long, debuff-laden path to provide major pain when at least two walls reach the target's hitbox. The SA breaking capabilities of the original skill is retained.

Chilling Mist EX taken for better AoE and slightly increased damage. The additional spikes can flinch some mobs. Tests will be done later to see its efficacy.

Chilling Master passive taken for additional FD of ice skills. Since we deal near-mediocre damage already, it's a nice plus.

PS.

There are still two SPs left. You may pump those to Ice Barrier, get Hammer Strike and Flame Spark for PVP, acquire Mana Surge for mana payback, or do whatever you want. ^.^

If the balancing patch gets to SEA, all debuffs will be set to 10%. The duration and Frostbite effect still holds. However, mechanics on resist reduction still holds so there's no reason to stray away from the original build. Freezing Field will get stronger by 30% and Chilling Master improves to 20%. This also means the oomphed damage of FF EX + Frozen Spikes EX / Ice Sphere / Blizzard Storm still holds, however our Freeze duration will somehow be lessened by 1 second, given that we always take advantage of the 30% Frostbite debuff until the most recent patch (DN SEA v113).

Hm... But with a Screamer, Engineer, Adept, etc... Sounds like the world will open a whole lot of options. Haha. Hope that it gets to SEA soon.

Last Edit: Feb 25, 2014 5:49:42 GMT by Mujuuryoku: Updated Freezing Shield's apparent flimsiness in Anu Arendel stages

Cuteness is a CRIME.

Mujuuryoku
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Tralalala~

Posts: 36

70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style] Feb 13, 2014 13:17:00 GMT

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Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:17:00 GMT

Equipment (Old Items and Jade System Items, Heraldries, Talismans)

Now, time to gear up!

Armor Suffixes and Jades

Since 70 cap just came in recently, most of us are still using our 60A threads and weapons. Some of us might be aiming for 60S II equipment, others are aiming for an L-grade set, and of course there are some who want 70A sets.

As we observed from various patches over the years, the latest armors have higher DEF and MDEF stats compared to the previous cap. S-grade armors of the previous patch are slightly weaker in terms of defenses compared to the A-grades from the update. With this in mind, we somehow need to take a hold of 70A armors to preserve our dignity as piggyback Elestras.

I still haven't reached level cap yet, so I think I'm fine with these:

DDN Armors: [All Potentials INT VIT %HP]
Robe and Tights +6 (Vitality II), Tiara and Heels +6 (Intellect II), Muffs +6 (Iron Wall II; you may choose Health II for an increase in HP, though I don't think it's feasible since the HP recovery in PVE for the suffix is very low)

For 70A armors, it's highly recommended to have +8 enhancement or higher for a boost in HP and MP. Three Jade slots are applicable here: two hexagonal (stat increasing) and one skill (suffix effect) jade. Prefer using the highest possible VIT with Max HP hexagonal (green/blue/a cross between them) jades for each slot, then amplify your MP reserves and damage (along with Ice Barrier's durability) with Intellect ones.

Since we need to resist damage as much as possible, Guardian Jades (20% PDEF increase for 10 seconds) or Resistor Jades (10% PDEF and MDEF increase for 10 seconds) will be very much needed. The CD of armor skill jades is 30 seconds so I think they are way better than the suffix system (more than 1 minute for CD).

Weapon Suffixes and Jades

Here's a dilemma: Which one is actually better?

Weapon skill jades have 60 second cooldowns but they have 100% chance to activate upon a successful hit. Suffixes, on the other hand, is based on chance, but at level III, the CD is reduced to 20 seconds (except Mana and Health, both have a 5-second CD).

Since we don't aim for damage per se, it is strongly suggested to keep your Intellect III staff and main weapon of choice.

Do take into consideration that Intellect III has a duration of 10 seconds, and causes a 27.5% (13.75% for each weapon) Elemental resist debuff. This setup is higher compared to slotting two Pirate Jades (10% ice resist reduction for 10 seconds). The chance of suffix activation seems dubious but do recall cumulative probability: more hits, higher chances of activation. Using even Frost Wind can trigger Dual Intellect at your disposal.

If you don't have these old items, just opt for INT, MATK or %Ice jades, then slot in Pirate skill jades on both weapons.

Maintaining your shield for a long time can be taxing on your mana reserves. A Vigor staff might come in handy. Swap and do some attacks (even without a target) until it procs. Use it whenever needed.

Accessories (Potentials and Jades)

I'm still in the running towards level cap, so I'm still wearing these.

Healthy Lyrica Necklace and Earrings (INT VIT %HP Potentials, VIT INT stats)
Skills Lyrica Ring [Freezing FIeld] (Matk VIT option, STR INT %Ice Potential)
Severe Antique Ring (205 Vit option, 3.25% HP and MP potential)

I will probably update those accessories once I get a hold of better ones soon.

Anyway, we are able to max out the much-needed skills in our tree, thus giving us the chance to be free from Skill accessories. However, it might be a nice idea to get a Freezing Shield and Ice Sphere skill accessories for 3% additional damage reduction and 6.5 seconds of ice stack.

A-grade Healthy Downy Earrings and Necklaces with VIT INT stats look promising. Aim for Rings with VIT. Slot in VIT or HP hexagonal jades on the necklace and earrings, then opt for MATK or %Ice on both rings.

Heraldries

For those 8 stat enhancement slots, it is highly recommended that you choose heraldries with VIT as its third stat.

*Magician
*Wind
*Intellect
*Health
*Life Vitality
*Iron Wall
*Tent
*Fatal

Unique (Dragon Fellowship) ones are a mix, so if you're lucky to get something with higher HP or VIT and ones with VIT extra stats, then rejoice and do the Abracadabra dance.

Skill Heraldries - This can add a little more D in your DPS. Defensive and debuff-prolonging ones are prioritized.

Main Lineup

Glacial Wave - +20% debuff duration
Freezing Shield - +15% damage reduction
Frozen Spikes - +20% damage
Shatter / Icy Shards- +20% damage

Sideboard (if you have your extra slots activated, then you can equip some of these)
Blizzard Storm - CD reduction / +20% damage
Chilling Mist - +20% damage
Ice Sphere - +20% damage

Talismans

Choose the ones like your stat enhancement heraldries.

200% - Life Vitality, Health
175% - Iron Wall, Tent
150% - Intellect, Magician
100% - Wind, Fatal (or any other talisman that you might want, like Blessed or Will)

References:
Vaahneon's EL Thread
dn.duowan.com
dn.mmosite.com

Last Edit: Feb 16, 2014 3:03:37 GMT by Mujuuryoku: Updated Jade choices

Cuteness is a CRIME.

Mujuuryoku Administrator Tralalala~ Posts: 36	70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style] Feb 13, 2014 13:38:19 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:38:19 GMT reserved :3
	Cuteness is a CRIME.

Mujuuryoku Administrator Tralalala~ Posts: 36	70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style] Feb 13, 2014 13:38:31 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:38:31 GMT reserved :3
	Cuteness is a CRIME.

70 Elestra Pure Ice Build [Piggyback Style]

Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 9:30:25 GMT

Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 10:06:36 GMT

Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:17:00 GMT

Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:38:19 GMT

Post by Mujuuryoku on Feb 13, 2014 13:38:31 GMT

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