A what point in crafting a weapon does exceptional matter?

For example, if I craft a dagger, does getting exceptional on the blade or hilt do anything for bonuses, or is when the final dagger is crafted?

I want to know so I know when to involve another player with higher crafting levels.

 

No, exceptionals on components only gain extra xp. The actual component will be no different than a "normal" one. Truthfully, they probably should have just called them "critical successes" when making components or potions or cooking, to avoid people feeling like the results should have any sort of special properties.

 

Also, Exceptionals on the final result is much less important now than before, as it only provides +1% Durability modifier, so you can EASILY go without it!

 

Exceptional's USED to to give twice the durability, is that no longer the case ?

 

Wrong on both. They used to give +50 Durability. But that was changed recently. All items got their base durability bumped up by 50 or more, and exceptionals now get +1% durability resistance. Or whatever that new stat is called. Basically, they take durability damage 1% slower than "normal" items. Which feels kinda weak, but I think the idea was to not make players feel they had to have exceptionals to make good gear.

 

Some of you more savvy players than I may convince me to begin using weapons that cost way more than what I use.

I mostly use the bottom level non-lootable store bought stuff. I do have quite a few other crafted weapons, but I find that I don't get any more significant damage inflicted on anything no matter the weapons I'm using.

*I'm a slightly disabled player due to having a limited amount of buttons I can push until my hands give way to carpal-tunnel issues. So I'm most at leisure play using "auto-swing" and as few other panic buttons (strike and heal) as possible to extend my hunting ability. I can last quite a while, but if I'm playing/hunting hard with all the button mashing required, I can only last about 1-2 hours before paying for it for a few days in either pain, finger/hand disfunction and being confined to auto-swing.

It's buttons that make the only significant difference, not the weapon, because everything seems to be the same in auto-swing no matter crafted or not.

• Why am I wrong in that?
• What crafted weapons are going to make a difference increasing the damage dealt in auto-swing?
• Magic, music and tamed creatures rule, while anything melee is just for looks when it comes to damage, unless you're pressing the buttons.
• And Again: "Why and how am I wrong in all this?"

Just FYI: (I have some very powerful characters from long ago who don't come out much due to so many buttons and my age effecting my hands. I was a real life fighter back in the day which have caused my hands to turn into mush, but that doesn't stop me. Sometimes I do still drag out some of my super characters, but those times are becoming more rare).

And another FYI: Auto-Swing sux and eventually (quite early) the character will no longer be able to fight anything beyond low levels, unless you use the buttons, and the more buttons you push amplifies everything.

I'm happy to play at any level, even low ones, but weapons don't make a damage difference it seems.
Why am I wrong about that?
~TL~

 

I have a similar issue, but pretty much have worked around it. My deck is set up so that I only have to routinely press three keys (keys one thru three). My three fingers are active, but don't seem to bother me much. I have more issues with my mouse hand which I use mainly for camera and selecting potions and misc buffs as they wear out. I am 100 percent melee, adv level 133, solo player playing about 2 hours a day now. Let me know if you need ANY gear. The high level stuff makes quite a difference as does the button attack. Skills make a huge difference. IMO deck build is critical for saving your hands.

 

A good crafted weapon will do significantly more auto attack damage than a store weapon if it has a bunch of generic masterworks that work on auto/free damage. Melee auto damage just isn't very significant compared to glyph damage though. Ranged is much better for that.

My advice would be to make yourself a turbo button. There's lots of ways you can do that, but there are probably some game controllers that make it super easy. Then you could use damage glyphs by drawing them to a dynamic slot and mapping your turbo button to that slot. It's not exactly elegant, but you'll be able to get through a lot more content that way than you could with just auto attack.

 

Lazlo has pretty much given you the answer there, but here are a few more details to convince you :

Crafted weapons can use different types of materials, depending on your weapon of choice, this will impact many things, from Bronze giving you more crit chance (occasinal burst damage), to Meteoric Iron giving you more base damage (meaning consistently slightly higher hits), all weapons include this type of material choice!

Crafted weapons can be masterworked and enchanted. Masterworks include base damage increase, crit chance and crit damage, as well as Strength (which results in more damage), meanwhile enchants offer (for you) strength, dex, and even some nice choices of Gem enchantments, such as Drain life which will do a little bit of extra damage and heal you for that little bit more, or Banish undead which will deal extra damage to them. Most players would deem these special enchants useless, but for someone like you, those enchantments can result in a very nice damage increase or even survivability increase.


As for the skills, Lazlo idea is a good one, but another idea is Voice commands. Necronut has demonstrated on stream, And I've seen some people play games such as League of Legends with 1 hand and voice commands. Basically, the software would hear you say "2" and would activate your 2 key, allowing you to use skills without hurting your hands!

@necronut ping for the software name if it interests you!

Also, I've been looking a lot more at my damage numbers after big hunts lately, and Auto-attacks are still a BIG chunk of my damage, both as a blades player and a Polearms player, auto-attack usually deals as much damage as my 2-4 skills (puncture/Rend are just too good and surpasse all the other skills in terms of total damage), so auto attack is still very good, don't forget your Haste potions and Flurry/Berserkers stance when you can use them!

Ohh and I mean, you saw my video, my Pugilism build are 100% autoattack damage, and it's a very good one.

 

Maybe voiceattack https://voiceattack.com/ can be used to help you @Time Lord ? I have only used it in space games for much the same reason, two many options than fingers, but it does actually work well. But with Sota style combat, I am not so sure.

 

Conditional:
It's becoming more and more of an issue as time marches on (terrible pun intended), yet more specifically effected by the seasonal weather changes. The weather here in Thailand is forgiving in that way, yet during the rainy season, which it currently is, large changes such as the high wind thunderstorms yesterday changing to the totally clear skies of today (indicating wide swings in air pressure) are days I back away from the buttons.

That's an interesting statement. I'll have to devote some research time into finding which of what could best fit such a build. Is there some sort of "info page" where all that sort of stuff is listed?

This idea went viral in my head, then I pondered what that may sound like to my wife, then that idea morphed into a really messed up SOTA version of Billy Joel's "we didn't start the fire" and Mary Poppins "these are a few of my favorite things"... both very do'able I think.

Let me summon @necronut over here to see what he has to say,
(we share a mental illness, musical addiction link together )

 

Currently, voiceattack is like 10 USD, and I highly recommend it.

What I'm using it for: I say things like "Swap Main," or "Swap Buff," and have the software hear it, and tap one of the F1-F12 keys for that swap.

Voiceattack can definitely be used to do a LOT more than just that though, and I highly recommend you look into it. The macro system is quite feature rich, and will allow you to run full sequences including keypresses, keyholds, delays, combos, etc.

If one has issues using one's hands, voiceattack is the solution.

If you have any questions about how to use it, I'd be happy to share all I've learned.

 

There's a list of all masterworks and enchantments here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/ongoing-enchant-and-masterwork-list.61125/

Ones that would help auto attack are +weapon damage, +base weapon damage, +critical, +critical damage, and +strength.

Anything that adds haste also helps, and there are new imbued gems that give +10 base weapon skill each that are pretty cheap.

 

@Time Lord I just put together a short video showing you some of what you can do with voiceattack in SotA...take a look:

 

Yes I bought it, yes it works, yes it's fun, but it doesn't like my wife's voice when saying the same things and it doesn't like to be sung to... but maybe I'll try some rap, so I can then just play a rap song and have it12 o3pperate m4y character. <---do you see that? Try not to laugh... those type "Os" were voiceattack Now I gota' remember to turn it off

Again, "yes it's very fun!'
~Happy Time Lord~ (Now I have to do some weapons study )

 

It's good that software can help out where people have issues with their hands.

Grey zone to automated gameplay tho. not hating here at all, but poeple have been banned for similar software over the years.

Be cautious good sir!

 

This is the same software Alphaine used for deck swapping, and just about every Star Citizen player uses regularly. Even with all the potential there, the macros aren't capable of automating gameplay the same way ahk and mouse recording software are, in this case, you very much have to be at the keyboard to be able to issue the commands in the first place.

And the level of automation can in no way defeat a more dextrous player in terms of reliability and speed. It's, for me, as I stated in the video, just a way for me to swap decks. But for a player with carpel tunnel, arthritis, or any kind of dexterity issue, voice attack is a path to being able to play the game more accessibly.

 

Good Call, I'll check with Catnip!

Currently I've been messing around with just basic 1234567890 key bindings to voice command, but by batches.

• Yahoo = 1,2,3,4 with a 1.4 sec pause between
• Woohoo = 1,2,3,4,5,6 with same pauses between
• Slam = 7
• Buff = 8,9
• Help = 0

I think being above board is important when exploring such products. They don't touch the main SOTA programing other than through pressing the buttons on the keyboard for me on my end, in my computer's programing. Such things may even fall under Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act, as carpal tunnel is covered under it's provisions ... "as long as such things of assistance do not touch sota which are all on the disabled user's end, assisting with keyboard".

Pushing buttons using voice instead of fingers, as long as it's not a self running robot doesn't seem out of the question but who knows until it's asked about. If they have no reply, I'll just figure it's ok until they do have something to say about it.

This is totally correct!
In my current assessment of it's use, I don't think it's going to dominate anything. I'm still stuck with a fixed deck, which will win zero PvP duels. I've found that it has no blinding speed and seems a bit sluggish, "but better than using auto-swing alone".

If somehow all this is wrong or against any sota policy, maybe @Elgarion will let me know so I can "cease and desist" I have no idea how they feel about "voiceattack".

I'm still going to be terrible in heavy content, with just more ease at being terrible so maybe I can be terrible for just a bit longer. All the typing finding out and setting up voiceattack will take a couple Tylenol today for sure, but I think well worth it ~TL~

 

VERY COOL! Thank you for sharing.

 

Please let us all know what Catnip says. I too am curious.