"Chance on hit" character build

Grumolch · Post by **Grumolch** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 10:21 pm

I've just reached Aman'lu in my first Vet run, and thus far I've been focused primarily on building my main's 'magic find' up. I'm finally at around 400%, and now the goodies are dropping like crazy. My party consists of the half-giant from Eirulian as my dual-wielding tank (pure fighter); the two dryads from Eirulian (Deru and Ta'ar?), one of which is a Fist of Stone who uses dual-wielded weapons and acts as a secondary tank, the other is an assassin who uses her ranged weapon primarily (I've -never- cast a combat magic spell yet, except maybe to open a sanctuary on occassion), and my main is a pure nature mage human, with an expertise in ice magic, who I use as my magic find 'dummy'. All this has been working well for me so far, but I'm noticing the bosses are now having -tremendous- amounts of hitpoints, and I'm wanting to start building my party individually to maximize performance.

One thing I'm considering is making the Fist of Stone a shield-wielder. I've heard many folks say that this makes for a good tank who may become nearly invincible, though the damage output is much lower, and makes battles somewhat long-winded (not unlike my posts..sorry

) However, I've found many good items for Fists of Stone characters that have many, many "chance on hit" damage modifications. So many, in fact, that I believe I could have her equipped with each piece of armor having three such "chance on hit" bonuses.

All this being said, I am wondering about what this "chance" actually is. Does anyone have a character similar to this? How effective is it? What is this mysterious "chance", anyway? Is it a 1% chance? Is it level dependant? And if I can create this character with (perhaps) 33 chance on hit bonuses, and she 'provokes' in a mass of enemies, will I see a fabulous pyrotechnic display of retribution damage from her equipment?

Anyway, if I can get some feedback on this, and some hard facts on what the percent chance is, it would be a great help. I'll probably give it a try, regardless, because it seems to have some really nice "cool" potential. If I don't get any feedback, I'll post on my findings later.

Thanks

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:05 am

Grumolch wrote:All this being said, I am wondering about what this "chance" actually is. Does anyone have a character similar to this? How effective is it? What is this mysterious "chance", anyway? Is it a 1% chance? Is it level dependant?

I believe the chance is usually around 3%, but it depends on the item.

SWC

JessicaElytis · Post by **JessicaElytis** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 6:25 am

While I'm unable to verify (I can't rip apart code), I'd hazard the guess that the % "chance" is based off a mathematical equation where the item's level is the main factor. I also believe that the more "effects" the item has, the lower the overall "chance" off that OnHit. (Theorized that there is only so many "levels" in an item based on it's level)

This theory is based solely on observed battles with such items and not on any direct data, nor upon any systematic investigation of such.

Personally, I do not much rely on the "chance" effects. I tend to look them only if two items are similar, but one has the "chance on hit" I will take the chance on the "chance"

With Lothar as a dual-wield, I would build him up with "life steal" items. Preferably that which returns health per % of damage done. Dual-wield do quite a bit of damage, so the returns are nice here. With a nature mage that has a bit of healing magic to stand in the back and heal him, none but the heaviest hitters will pose a problem. An addition to this would be items that deal out damaging spells when the character is hit (yup, another "chance":laugh

and those that return damage to the enemy.

Shield bearers are very nice (I personally prefer them), but their overall damage is actually laughable compared to dual-wield or two-handers. The Provoke skill is what is nice here, as you can draw enemies to your Shielder while mages and archers pound the living daylights out of the bosses. Return damage items, and regen items are nice here, as is that healing nature mage again, though less on the mage as with the right armor, the shielder becomes very very hard to damage.

I've yet to play a Fist of Stone, so am not sure of the impact of that class on tactics. If in doubt, run with it and try different things. You might find the right "click" for you and come out the gate like an arrow

~Jessy

Grumolch · Post by **Grumolch** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 6:35 am

Thanks for the replies. Apparently, the exact formulae for some of these effects are unknown to the player base, and I wouldn't know where to start in examining the code of the game, either. Unfortunately for me, the combat itself is so rapid, I doubt I'll be able to pull away any substantial or definitive information, but I'll do what I can.

Another question, though. In chance on hit, is it a chance when 'getting hit by enemies', or a chance when the player scores a combat hit? If this is common knowledge, it will probably help me a little.

Thanks again

Edit: "Just noticed that some pieces say 'chance on hit' and some say 'chance -when- hit'. That helps a bit.

Draxian · Post by **Draxian** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:00 pm

An interesting thing you can try sometime (if you find the right weapons - which is near-impossible though) is use chance 'on' hit weapons with magic skills. For instance, I have a dual-wielder that has two identical swords: 50 to 120 Dmg, +30 to 48 Lightning Dmg, + 2 to chant of stone, + 3 Tremor, and Chance on Hit: Fireburst for 380 to 420 Dmg. So each sword is dealing 80 to 168 with the lightning added. When fireburst hits (and it does often, about 1 in 3 or 1 in 6 hits, id say) adds another 380 to 420 and it also hits nearby enemies. Plus I have 27 points in ignite and decent intelligence which gives a 32% chance to ignite the enemy for over 100 Dmg per second, which then ignites all nearby enemies too. It's quite fun, but those are the best and only suitable swords i've found for such a build; they dropped from a boss and another player threw his down.

I'm still on the lookout for better ones.

Could do the same with lightning burst and arcing, or deathburst and vampirism, etc.

Vai'Lutra · Post by **Vai'Lutra** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:35 am

ShieldTank

About the shield making someone almost invincible;its true.
My main is a half-giant fighter with shield&heavy armour and I have been killed zero times and only knocked out twice in my whole career (once by Xheihoranth and once by red barrel in mines of kaderak).

DarkDain · Post by **DarkDain** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:08 pm

At the last shop on BW in elite, the dwarven merchant sells a nice Stormcaller axe or something. I was thinking about making a thunderstorm melee character, because that axe has high chances of using many AoE lightning attacks. You would duel wield them, but also have high skills in lightning and chaining, so they would have more damage on proc and bounce around more. Would look sweet.