[Pickapart] Female Beastkin (Rabbitkin) [Level] 1 [Health] 240/240 [Mana] 800/800 [Stamina] 55/55 [XP] 0/10,000 to level 2 [Class] Dark Weaver [Subclass]

Locked.

[Talents]

Locked.

[Primary Statistics] [Physical]: [Physique]

12 (= 11 + 1 + 0)

[Reflexes]

12 (= 12 + 0 + 0)

[Hardiness]

11 (= 11 + 0 + 0)

[Mental]: [Acuity]

16 (= 14 + 2 + 0)

[Force]

18 (= 15 + 3 + 0)

[Stability]

15 (= 13 + 2 + 0)

[Unspent]

1

[Secondary Statistics]:

Pickapart closed the menu. The reason for her vast differences in health, mana, and stamina compared to Gearme was due to her class; every class had three ranking multipliers, from E to SSS, for each of Health, Mana, and Stamina. Gearme's ranks were B in Health, D in Mana, and C in Stamina, while Pickapart's were a C in Health, A in Mana, and D in Stamina. D provided only a 5x multiplier to the companion stat, while C provided 10x, B provided 25x, and A provided 50x. Health received an additional 2x multiplier on top of that. The companion stats were, of course, Physique for Health, Acuity for Mana, and Hardiness for Stamina.

Dark Weaver was a class which would gain only 1 unspent point per level, which was the lowest possible, lower than even the True Totem Demon. On average, the magically focused classes tended to have fewer unspent points than physically focused ones. Mental stats were vastly more important than physical ones for a Dark Weaver, so for most it was a question of “What mental stat would you like to focus on?”

Acuity would increase base mana pool and the base duration of buffs and debuffs the caster applied, with a slight bonus to casting speed at higher levels.

Force would increase damage, healing, and all around potency with spells and other magical effects.

Stability acted as defense against magic attacks, would increase the caster's control over magic attacks to make it easier to land attacks and harder for the enemy to dodge, and could slightly increase debuff resistance at higher levels. It was also the only mental statistic to have an impact on physical combat, as it added critical hit chance for both physical and magic effects.

Of Dark Weavers, most focused on Force. It was simply the only one that had any sort of reasonable impact on the class, as adding the point into acuity would not increase casting speed for their weaves. Dark Weavers did not cast spells, their ‘weaves’ were not considered physical or magical effects, and were completely unaffected by their statistics, only their levels. It was only when the AoEs based on these weaves triggered would Force play a part. Acuity only mattered due to the mana intensity of the class, and eventually buff and debuff duration, but the base amount was enough. Meanwhile the AoEs could not be dodged, so Stability was only useful for its defensive properties, most Dark Weavers did not bother. It was all about increasing the damage and effect of AoE through Force!

[Skills] could roughly be divided between Physical and Magical, but there were also mixed-type skills. Physical used Stamina, Magical used Mana, and mixed-type used both. Depending on whether [Skill] was Physical or Magical changed how its damage was calculated.

For physical, with a few exceptions such as martial arts [Skills], it would key off weapon damage, being expressed as some % of weapon damage or weapon DPS, which in turn was determined by the weapon's statistic multipliers and bonus damage, and also base attack speed in the case of DPS.

Meanwhile, Magical [skills] would have a ‘base damage’ completely independent of the wielder's weapons and stats, being based on their character level alone. Then, this base damage would be multiplied by (100 + [Force Multiplier * Force])%. The Force Multiplier was another grade from E to SSS, but dependent on the spell itself. E was 1/100th, meaning it would take 10000 Force to double the spell base damage. D was 1/50th, meaning it would take 5000 Force to double. C was 1/20, meaning it would take 2000 force. B was 1/10, it would take 1000 force. A was 1/5, it would take 500 force. S was 1/3, 300 force. SS was 1/2, 200 force. SSS was 1, only 100 force!

While the huge multiplier on SSS seemed very strong, it tended to be the case that the lower the multiplier, the higher the base damage, and the higher the multiplier, the lower the base damage - most spells with SSS rank scaling would still be far superior to ones with E scaling, but not the 100x better that the multiplier difference suggested.

[Skills], regardless of the type, could also have arbitrary additions and multipliers from other statistics. The most common was Reflexes being added to the damage of certain physical skills. This was why the True Totem Demon needed some Reflexes, to go along with their Force focus, in Chan Si's use case.

Mixed skills would of course be a % of weapon damage or DPS, plus a flat level-scaled bonus that would be multiplied by Force. Many of these skills were quite powerful as a result, but also costed large amounts of both Mana and Stamina - without proper ranks in both, the resources would be unable to meet the expenditure.

A Dark Weaver's weaves had no cooldowns, they could weave nonstop as long as they had the mana. Each weave took precisely three seconds to create, and a Dark Weaver needed five weaves before AoE effects would begin. That was fifteen seconds of nearly non-contributing to combat, as Weaves would do very small effects in very tiny AoEs around them, again only scaled by level. Once they reached five weaves however, that fifth weave and every additional weave after that would trigger an AoE effect, putting the class on what was effectively a three second pulse. The class could also choose to perform another action at the same time it was weaving, with whatever was in its main hand or off-hand; it only needed one hand free to weave, but this would increase the amount of time it took to weave from three seconds to five seconds, it wasn't something most Dark Weavers would bother with, it was an option that existed so Dark Weavers would not be one hundred percent useless solo, only mostly so.

Indeed, outside of desperate situations, Chan Si did not plan for Pickapart to take advantage of this feature, as Pickapart would always be paired with the monstrous character at minimum.

Dark Weavers worked as such: A Dark Weaver would first need to make their base weave connecting themselves an enemy. This meant Dark Weavers could not begin weaving without initiating combat. The base weave had set length, all weaves were the same length; if the enemy was closer than the maximum length, it would extend in a straight line past them. This would appear as an intangible black-and-gray line on the battlefield. After creating the base weave, the next four weaves would form a pentagon, with the base weave being the bottom of the pentagon. The weaver would have to choose the direction of their pentagon in their second weave, pointing either left or right, determining which way the tip of the pentagon would point when it was fully constructed. Once the pentagon was fully constructed, the first AoE effect would trigger, and the specific effect would be based on the exact five weaves that were used.

There were just three weaves total, and the Dark Weaver gained access to all three at level 1. The pentagon could be formed from any combination of the three, from all five of the same weave, to two of two and one of one. Each of these corresponded to one of 21 different combinations. The order did not matter for these first five, but they would matter for the next five, as the AoE that would trigger would always be based on the latest five weaves cast.

This meant once that first AoE effect was determined, the next AoE effect only had three possibilities; it would need to be the same effect, or it would need to be one of two other different effects. Thus, Dark Weavers had to plan very carefully if they wanted to make sure they cast specific AoEs at specific timings.

The next five weaves would form a pentagram in the pentagon, each line triggering a new AoE effect. Once the fifth and final line of the pentagram was formed, ten lines total, the symbol would have no more room, but the Dark Weaver could choose to begin weaving a new pentagon without an issue as long as they had an enemy in range to form the base.

The pentagon and pentagram they had already made would expire when the base expired. The base of the pentagon would last for a span of thirty seconds from the time it was created, giving time to create the nine additional weaves, with three seconds leftover. Once the base of the pentagon expired, it would trigger a special effect so long as at least the pentagon had been been formed and a single AoE effect had been fired: It would instantly retrigger all AoE effects that had already occurred, all at the same time.

The Dark Weaver also had the ability to, by using an ability with a half-second of casting time, cause their pentagon to forcefully expire early. In any case, this was a powerful effect, as it could trigger up to six already powerful AoE effects at once! The AoE effects would originate from the pentagon in all cases, anyone with even a pinky toe in the pentagon would be affected.

These six AoE effects, there was nothing preventing all six from being the same spell, but this was inefficient, as each unique spell would only trigger once when the pentagon expired, so one was typically encouraged to create six different effects to use the pentagon to its full potential. Otherwise players of the class would merely spam out the same type of effect over and over, then get a super big effect of the same type. There was also a second form of encouragement, as each AoE effect would gain a slight bonus over the last for each different AoE effect before it, equal to 5% additional power. So the first would be at 100%, the second at 105%, the third at 110%, the fourth at 115%, the fifth at 120%, and the sixth at 125% - followed by the six effects retriggering all at once, all at 125% effectiveness.

The three weaves from which the AoE effects were composed of also had pseudo-AoE effects, but they were nowhere near as good. The first was the [Light Pulling Weave], it dealt only 1 damage per second per character level to any enemy touching the line. Any ally also touching the line would receive healing equal to the total damage enemies were taking. Each weave added of this type would stack the damage of the effect, so weaving all 10 as the [Light Pulling Weave] would, at level 1, deal 10 damage per second, it was truly abysmal. There was no Force scaling on the effect either, the same as all three weaves. It was mostly used for the healing property, as facing ten enemies could provide any number of allies in the pentagon 100 healing a second at level 1, for example, though due to experation of the base pentagon this state could last at its maximum for three seconds.

The Aoe effects of the three weaves would only ever affect someone touching the lines of the weaves until the pentagon was formed, at which point it played by the same rules at the true AoE effects, anyone touching the lines or in the pentagon would have it affect them.

The second was the [Gravity Binding Weave], it dealt no damage at all, instead slowing enemies. Each copy of the weave would slow enemy attack, movement, and casting speed by 2%, meaning at its maximum could reach 20%, which was not bad for an effect that couldn't be resisted within its AoE, but not great either, especially because its maximum possible effect would again last for only three seconds.

The third and final was the [Dark Charging Weave], it would reduce the Mana and Stamina cost of [Skills] for allies touching the weave by 1%, with the minimum reduction being 1 Mana or Stamina.

The size and length of the weaves and therefor the pentagon was always the same. If one wanted to stack a maximum number of individuals into the pentagon such that they all still had room to use their abilities, it could fit around fifty individuals.

However, because the base weave required an enemy, it would likely be a mix of enemies and allies, which would be more chaotic and could realistically hold thirty individuals at maximum, if they are all roughly the size of a humanoid character. Chan Si's party was five characters, so they would be able to fit up to twenty five enemies into the pentagon at once, at realistic maximum. Fighting twenty five enemies at the same time, with only a five character party, it wasn't realistic for your average party. Even with a Dark Weaver, the enemies would swarm around, not enough would be able to be engaged by the tanks.

Even in Chan Si's case, with effectively three tanks between the two elementals and the True Totem Demon, at least a few enemies would manage to slip around and would attack the others. But who was she? She already planned for this, it was part of the reason Gearme was getting all the gear. Between that and the good mix of Physique and Hardiness, although Gearme would not be able to tank properly due to a lack of taunting or damage mitigation [Skills], he would at least be able to act as a stop-gap, giving time for the Dark Weaver to build up, at which point the Dark Weaver would manage to take care of the worst of things. Of course, all of this was the worst case of Chan Si's party fighting on a fair battlefield, which she did not plan to do while farming. Like in the case of the Toxic Mountain Lions, she would exploit the terrain to her utmost advantage.

The Dark Weaver had other [Skills] that were not weaves, most related to the Dark element as the name implied. The one the class received at level 1 would be its only non-weave, non-passive [Skill] for a little while, however.

It was the Grasping Shadow spell, it took two seconds to cast and would both damage an enemy and pull them towards the Dark Weaver. Level 1 dealt 30 base damage and had a B force multiplier, so would double in damage at 1000 force.

With the Dark Weaver's starting 18 force, it dealt 101.8% damage, which wasn't enough to reach 1 extra point of damage at level 1. It was mostly useful for the pulling effect, to pull an enemy outside the weave into the weave. It was expensive on mana, costing a whole 100!

Pickapart did not plan to use it unless prudent. Most of her mana would go towards the weaves themselves, which were a much more reasonable 20 mana each, each full ten weave combo would only cost 200 mana, meaning she could do that four times total. Not counting down time between killing of groups, that would be two minutes of casting, she would only regenerate 2% of her maximum mana in that time, or 16. Although Chan Si planned for her group to have access to plenty of consumables to restore mana, consumables spent were still money and time lost.

Which was why, without hesitation, Pickapart placed her 1 unspent point into Acuity! Although on the surface it seemed like Force would be the better choice to allow the group to hunt stronger packs of monsters, thus making up for the difference, the group's hunting speed would be limited by the weakest link on the team, which was likely to be the two tanking elementals. Too many enemies of too strong a power level would rip through them, it would be better for Chan Si's group to fight a constant stream of enemies they could actually handle. Thus, minimizing downtime and expenditure was essential. This bumped up her mana to 850/850.

It wasn't much yet, increasing her regeneration over 2 minutes from 16 to 17, but it also meant additional weaves before she ran out of mana in the first place. As Pickapart continued the level, the choice to place the extra point into Acuity would shine even more.

A growth rate of 4 meant 200 more mana per level, but the weaves would increase in mana cost by 2 per level. At level 101, weaves would cost 220 mana, and Pickapart would have 20800 mana, it would be enough for nine full weaves. But with one more acuity per level, Pickapart would have 25800 mana, it was enough for eleven full weaves, twelve after natural regeneration, a solid six minutes of farming at maximum pace, and that was without any gear.

Plus the mana restoration effects she did gain would be more effective, as they typically had both a flat restore competent and a % restore component. Common potions of mana restoration, for example, always restored 1% of the user's maximum mana on top of the flat bonus. Uncommon potions could range from 2-4%, Rare from 5-10%, and Legendary from 11% to 20%, though the flat bonus on a Legendary potion would be so high as to fully restore almost any player's mana by itself.

Of course, Chan Si wanted to limit the use of potions due to their inefficiency, and planned to mainly make consumables which would increase the per-minute rate of mana regeneration, such as food items. A high level food item, even at common, could raise mana regeneration per minute by several percent, and last for hours. It would be perfect for the farm-crazy Chan Si, though she needed to reach that level first. At the moment the best food item for mana regeneration that Gearme could craft would increase mana regeneration per minute by only 1%, and last for only ten minutes. It was still more efficient than the potions, but it was not yet good enough to be used by itself.