12-06-2003, 04:49 AM
at lvl 20 ravens do about 20 dmg per hit and do 31 hits which presents a few questions about effectiveness:
1) how long does it take to score 30 hits?
2) how does that convert to damage per second?
3) Is that damage focused on a single target or distributed in the mob.
In my opinion each hit doing such low damage in hell means that it will barely counter thet heal rate. As a hardcore player I would much rather invest that into lycanthropy for life and transform duration to supplement my use of HOW.
In addition, in regards to the post regarding "pure" summoning to be effective. In addition to my questioning the benefit of large scale raven investment I'd also question complete commitment in spirit wolves. Currently my Summoner is in A5 hell and doing very well at slvl 15 in spirit wolves with plus skills. Perhaps I'll feel differently about it after playing A5 but right now it really seems like I could have invested less in that skill. AR and defense at least from a players perspective seems primarily based on level differential between player and monster. I suspect the same phenomenon exists for summons making the added defense and ar only really useful when at a 10 or more level disadvantage.
For hardcore players, transforming and gaining the benefit of shockwave are huge gains towards longevity. Those for me came at the expense of ravens and spirit wolves and so far i'd say its a great tradeoff. I'm certainly open to strong arguments against but thus far I've really seen nothing to convince me otherwise.
1) how long does it take to score 30 hits?
2) how does that convert to damage per second?
3) Is that damage focused on a single target or distributed in the mob.
In my opinion each hit doing such low damage in hell means that it will barely counter thet heal rate. As a hardcore player I would much rather invest that into lycanthropy for life and transform duration to supplement my use of HOW.
In addition, in regards to the post regarding "pure" summoning to be effective. In addition to my questioning the benefit of large scale raven investment I'd also question complete commitment in spirit wolves. Currently my Summoner is in A5 hell and doing very well at slvl 15 in spirit wolves with plus skills. Perhaps I'll feel differently about it after playing A5 but right now it really seems like I could have invested less in that skill. AR and defense at least from a players perspective seems primarily based on level differential between player and monster. I suspect the same phenomenon exists for summons making the added defense and ar only really useful when at a 10 or more level disadvantage.
For hardcore players, transforming and gaining the benefit of shockwave are huge gains towards longevity. Those for me came at the expense of ravens and spirit wolves and so far i'd say its a great tradeoff. I'm certainly open to strong arguments against but thus far I've really seen nothing to convince me otherwise.