Power Shifting

with 6 Comments

“Vae Victis! Woe to the Conquered one!”

Good day fellow bounty hunters, this post will be providing a brief discussion of a equipment strategy that I’ve termed ‘Power Shifting’. From my experience, power shifting only comes into play when your character is high enough leveled with a couple sets maxed and you wonder ‘why am I not 6k stats?!’.

5751301741_aa8463e472_bPower shifting is a strategy that can be used to unevenly increase one side (offense or defense) of your global stats whilst of course decreasing the other side. Simply think of it as a scale with marbles (see that scale on the left…without marbles however) and you’re redistributing the load.You take stats from your offense and add it to your defense or vice versa depending on what your needs are. Currently in this meta (Adamant Alliance patch), I would suggest shifting power to your defensive tree to survive raids as well as Trial of Elements. Powering up defense is also worthwhile doing since later on with T4 trinkets, you gain weapon bonuses that further empowers your offensive stats. On a couple of my sets, I have shifted power to offense and I will say that I have regretted that decision thus far, especially since the introduction of vorors in raids providing reflect of ranged attacks and insane damage output (nerf this please). Ranged weapons right now for performing raids really quite useless due to these reflects but can be used to great effect against the keeper after clearing the room.

How it’s done

It’s all in skill variations. Typically, all skills have three (3) variations which can be viewed on the Dungeon Hunter Wiki (Do note that the wiki isn’t updated frequently so that newer skill details may not be present). Take a look at the example below for Lingering Orb, noting the base stats that they provide.

variations_1

haste

Typically before attempting pursuing Power Shifting, players would mainly concern themselves with the last two (2) properties and selecting a variation based on that property. However, take a look at max base stats can be obtained from this skill. The typical max values are 360, 432, 468, 504 and 540. Do note that the sum of the armor (defense) and attack stat values is always 900 for this skill. Typically the summed value is the same for all skills obtained in solo missions at 900, but skills from Gear Chests have base stats that add up to 972 (see example of haste on the left).Lingering Orb as a skill can provide a huge amount to global offense stats, being able to add 10% death attack bonus as well as 540 base attack stats. Comparing the haste and lingering orb base stat contributions, they both provide 540 attack bonus but differ in armor bonuses. Haste provides 432 armor bonus whereas lingering orb provides a much lower 360 armor bonus. This difference is the 72 extra as haste being a skill only obtainable from gear chests.

Putting to Practice

So in practice, what players will want to do is first identify whether they wish to scale up their global defense or offense stats. Secondly, they would need to identify which skills they think are best for their sets. Thirdly is identifying which variation they require and fourthly of course is acquiring and maxing these skills. For example, my currently light set is balanced towards attack stats (which I am currently regretting) but I can remove some of that attack power and put it onto my defense tree by switching out Dash strike (Att: 540, Def: 360) with Chain Lightning (Att: 468, Def 504). An interesting tidbit to note here is that it appears that my variation of Chain Lightning is unique and NOT listed on the Dungeon Hunter Wiki. The variation I have currently sums up to 972 as a gear chest skill would. See the listed variations of chain lightning here. See below for the difference in stats upon swapping skills.

comparison_light_armor

And there we go, a neat little introduction to Power Shifting. In the case of my light armor, I usually put on Dash Strike to look cool on global chat and switch to chain lightning when actually playing missions and raids.

I hope this post helps players in putting together their sets and as before, do comment and let me know if I’m spewing garbage or what strategies you guys use.

6 Responses

  1. MIJ
    |

    Thanks for information Raz. My Lingering Orbs actually has 468 or better armor bonus. The article compared Haste with the first variation of Lingering Orbs which has the weakest armor/defense bonus. I noticed if you use skills even from different elements that changes stats for both attack and defense. However, the best skills are those that match the set’s element. Also if you get lucky and have all three skills with high defense or with same needed variation like “fear” for example that makes a huge difference in raids. Good luck my good old horned troll.

  2. LuLuChan
    |

    I still find your girl toon strange Raz

  3. Chekko
    |

    BTW Razi, my chain lightning also has 972 stats 😛

    • Raziel619
      |

      yours as well? I’m not sure how we got that variation from a normal missions but im certainly very glad for it 😀

      • Sméagol
        |

        You obtained Chain Lightning from a Mission??? 😮

        • Raziel619
          |

          Yea i did. I think Chain Lightning is a random drop on some missions but isnt listed under potential loot.