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Your Ideal Inventory Set
Wololo
Member, Phoenix Initiative, Hero of the People, Kickstarter, Alpha One
After the recent changes, What type of items do yall look for in the BR ?
My setup is mostly the same since it seems to work in every situation:
Chest = invisibility
Leg = catfall
Slot 1 & 2 = melee wep (preferably silencer and bonesmasher)
Slot 3 = range wep (preferably firefrost)
Slot 4 = health pots
Slot 5 = a second armor piece like darkpact/arcane power or anything red for more HP
My setup is mostly the same since it seems to work in every situation:
Chest = invisibility
Leg = catfall
Slot 1 & 2 = melee wep (preferably silencer and bonesmasher)
Slot 3 = range wep (preferably firefrost)
Slot 4 = health pots
Slot 5 = a second armor piece like darkpact/arcane power or anything red for more HP
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Comments
Right now, my setup is as follows:
Dark Pact Breastpate - vital for fights with the last 4-8 people, most things aren't particularly useful for scoring wins, invisibility can be useful for when you want to go for a lot of eliminations early on
Blink or Catfall Legs - also vital for final fights, but also has the benefit of ganking/escaping
1st slot - Hemorrhage or Lifebringer or Haste, in that order of priority, these abilities are hugely powerful right now
2nd slot - Lifebringer or Haste, in that order of priority, the Hemorrhage -> Lifebringer melee combo is top tier I would say
3rd slot, Potion launcher or Grimoire or Sceptre, in that order of priority, these are used to flush campers or snipers out of positions I can't advantageously return fire on which makes a risky situation much easier to deal with, the scepter also being useful to spam at targets rushing you down while the potion launcher is a free 2 eliminations on people melee fighting in any situation
4th slot - Nightfall shortbow, the longbow is too cumbersome to land successive headshots and xbow is not good for spamming while stamina is low against a player using a Silence or Stamina Drain weapon (xbow can sometimes be preferred when I have a scepter in my 3rd slot)
5th slot - small or large potions, I generally prefer small potions simply because I can drink them faster, I'm almost never in a situation where I've taken non-armor damage and have the time or need to restore more than 40HP (killing a player in a remote area restores most of your HP while in final circle battles you must be INCREDIBLY lucky to be left alone long enough to wait the full cast time of a large hp potion)
Weapons and load-outs I avoid:
Bulwark - garbage, there are 2 or 3 POIs on the map where this ability is even remotely good
Polymorph - only fools noobs and if you're running from a noob you have bigger problems
Invisibility - not bad honestly but I play for wins and the freedom of being in the corruption to heal is very much preferred
Wands - very situation, I've seen them used to great effect at medium-close range, especially when the user has a high ground advantage, but utterly falls apart to a good melee gank or proper headshot placement with a stronger weapon, the ability is probably better for squads
Silence - DPS on even a red silence great ax is not great and my melee weapon spots are limited to 2, I would rather have other abilities that do more rather than take away what my opponent has
Spirit drain - can be good if I get the jump on someone but ultimately fails to stand up to someone smart enough to swap to a ranged weapon mid-fight
Arcmage companion - I've seen a pretty interesting build where 3 of these are used to completely own anyone trying a rushdown melee composition due to the ability to chain the knock-back effect, but requiring 3 inventory slots is not worth it IMO, a single standalone use of the ability is super situational and I'd again prefer something that is always going to be useful (hemorrhage or lifebringer etc.)
Longbow - as mentioned before, it's cumbersome to use, it has decent 1-hit potential however
Xbow - if it weren't for the targeting reticle this would be a top-tier pick due to it's insane 1-hit potential, though if I used it I'd never opt to use a grimoire in my 3rd slot due to the necessary weapon to fight at mid-range being a sceptre or potion launcher
Chain lightning - actual hot garbage, probably would be useful in squads, but you're better off just using a potion launcher for solos/duos
Sword and buckler - good against noobs who can't click head and literally nowhere else
Stillblade - I think it is somewhat underrated but I've not effectively used it or come up with a strategy for using it, I think the binding ability can really shut down people who aren't prepared to deal with it
Website: https://joinaxiom.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/Axiom
Been doubting between taking 2 ranged wepons too or having a extra armor piece, but i find find recovering armor quickly in the final circle a must. kinda like a quick heal of armor. This saved me alot of times alrdy and it works great since the first version of the BR.
I do have to say though, silence and archmage are rly underrated weps. Silencer because you just have to hit once and swap. The staff for having 1 ability to use when out of stamina with nice range
The shield/sword sure isnt that usefull but i wonder if it also reduces damage even when not using the ability? Someone mentioned it on discord yday but i did not notice much damage decrease without the skill tbh.
Paladin's Might is pretty weird. There is some generic tiny projectile protection box (with independent HP) when not activated but applies a total body 50% damage reduction while active on top of a much larger projectile protection box.
Website: https://joinaxiom.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/Axiom
Aegis of Invisibility
Catfall Boots
1 - Greatsword of Haste
2 - Bonesmasher
3 - Potion Launcher
4 - Boots of Arcanic Power
5 - Small Health Potion
Invisibility is good for fleeing or advancing. Yes, you can see the shimmer, but few people spot it fast enough to properly retaliate -- chase or defend.
Catfall boots are for defensive play. Pop the skill and jump up, completely removed from melee combat and also from ranged combat for the first two jumps (good shots adjust to your jump speed by the third); combine with lunge to reposition quickly when jumped, then swap to Arcane Power.
Arcane gives breathing room, but also damages. Given the general difficulty of leaving a melee trade at half stamina or less, these are invaluable in creating space to flee. The damage can also be used to punctuate your combo and disorient the enemy.
Greatsword of Haste is to be used outside, where the speed boost can be taken full advantage of. Initiate with it and feel free to swap. As long as you don't go deep into the combo, you can quickly start running after cutting and make major distance in a second or two. Your opponent will either keep swinging and waste stamina, or lunge after you, wasting more stamina. Either way, I swap to the Bonesmasher or Potion Launcher once I've disengaged.
Bonesmasher's the highest damaging weapon in APOC. The damage per hit is comparable to other weapons, but the ability Hemorrhage is what propels it so far above everything else. Most people don't know how to handle Hemorrhage so they bleed out quite fast after having their health chunked by the maul. Hemorrhage only ticks while you're moving
The Potion Launcher is my goto ranged weapon. I have a preference for melee combat and highly atrophied shooting skills, so this is the only one I can reliably hit anything with. It also can deal 60 damage per shot, which is quite good ...and I also use it to double suicide if I'm losing a 1v1.
Small Health Potion over regular size because it's used so quickly. If your HP was low, it'll be mostly restored by the kill pickup so there's rarely a time where you get most of the benefit from a full restore and even rarer do you have the time to actually drink it all.
I've been experimenting with other weapons.
Lifebringer is great when you have low armor, as it can restore your HP in a tradefest faster than you lose it.
Silencer... I'm not sure what it's full benefits are, but I assume it prevents ability usage.
Thundering Mace is for team fights... It unleashes chain lightning on hit, which is useless in 1v1s and therefore rarely seen at all in Solos.
Longbow of Miasma is solid damage and even better if you land a direct hit with the Q for DoT damage, but slow draw time makes it a poor choice for a mid-close range switch when backing off.
Wand of Light is amazing, but it has high damage drop off and fire delay, making it next to useless at range ... it really shines at just out of lunging distance, where the wand deals 30-40 damage per hit at rapid fire. The Q is for marking targets, which is it's only use at range. Should be useful in team fights for pointing out enemies to allies, but in Solos is only useful for tracking targets while breaking LOS.
Stillblade seemed useless at first, but it almost completely roots your target. I'm not sure if it prevents lunging and rolling too. The Stillblade would work best paired with a mid-range weapon like the Wand of Light, Potion Launcher, Meteor Tome, Nightfall Bow, etc. You whack 'em a few times, back off and take your time shooting a still target.
I'm working on using Paladin's Might, but I'm only finding blue variants.
I think the silencer can be compared alot to the bonesmasher; You hit once with it and swap. Dunno how exactly it works besides preventing some usage of skills but i notice everytime the enemy stands there just 'autoattacking' for a moment.
Then I wear Invisibility and Catfall.