Sacred:Zinsho's Hunter-Seeker Seraphim

Originally posted at DarkMatters for review and discussion.

Hunter-Seeker Seraphim Hunter-Seeker Hybrid

Premise:

Up until now most Seraphim guides have recommended the use of Attack as the primary melee CA be it for a Hybrid or a Melee toon. Multi-Hit is too hit-or-miss with regards to it's hit ratio, Hard Hit is quite effective but is not the attack of choice for a Sera. Attack is because of the number of attacks you get per volley. Regardless of the weapon, a Sera positively shines with Attack, not to mention she looks great. If you want details about Attack and how to build a toon around it, you can look at almost any guide that has a melee component.

Hunter-Seeker is a unique CA, no other class has anything quite like it, although as I use it more I sometimes think that FotG has aspects in common with it. When using HS the Seraphim is immobile, if she moves the weapon jumps back to her hand and the attack is cancelled. Once she catches it she pauses for a moment before she can swing again, or use a CA. My guess is that this is to simulate her trying to resettle her grip properly.

Advantages:

Unlike Attack, Hunter-Seeker can hit multiple enemies at a single time. The arc of her thrown weapon is consistent, with practice it becomes almost intuitive to judge where it will hit. As well it has a greater damage increase. Unfortunately that cannot be clearly documented as the CA does not display the %increase to the damage, nor does it list the damage with any semblance of accuracy. But to give an example of the damage increase, a level 18 HS was dealing roughly 9k-12k damage per hit before criticals, a normal sword swing for the same Sera was dealing between 1.8k and 2.9k, give or take. Roughly estimating based on those perceived amounts of damage at level 18 the +% damage seems to be in the range of +400%, which I believe is roughly the same as a level 85 Attack. Another definite advantage of HS is dealing with archers. Archers have the most annoying tendency to dance back a few steps every time a melee toon moves up to attack them, often leading to a merry chase across the map, gathering all the more enemies and archers. On the other hand, with HS when the archer takes a few steps back you simply need to throw, the arc of HS is the same distance as the archer will back up from you, placing it right in line with the toss. A potential advantage of HS, although one that some people might call a disadvantage is the execution time. Regardless of whether you are planning to use Attack, a left-click swing or another throw of HS, the total execution time of HS is somewhere close to 3 seconds. 3 seconds means that much less regeneration gear needed to keep a manageable regen on HS, or that much higher a level.

Disadvantages:

Not counting the above paragraph, the main disadvantage of HS is the same as that of Multi-Hit. It can be extremely frustrating with regards to successfully striking enemies, particularly those in close melee range. This is the specific reason why I suggest making a hybrid if you are going to use HS, Attack will work quite well on the melee enemies but with that the issue becomes having to switch back and forth between them while also disregarding the archers and mages that stay out of melee range, both of which can be hit by HS, either on purpose or simply by their walking into it.

Stats:

In this regard I won't be overly specific, different methods work for different individuals. Physical Regen will speed up the regen on HS, Mental Regen will do the same but for the spells. Dex will improve fire damage, Abdiel being quite useful in conjunction with that. Strength increases life and physical damage, and so on and so forth. My recommendation though would be to put at least some emphasis on Mental Regen, it will both decrease your spell regen times and increase the magic damage that they deal. So put at least some points into MR, perhaps 3 out of every 5, the other two being at your discretion, although I suggest you keep them solely in one stat, rather than spread the other points between multiple stats.

Skills:

Since this is a hybrid you don't need to change the first two skills, you can start with Magic Lore and Weapon Lore without wasting a skill. On the other hand if you want to change them you can do so freely. There are two main ways to start a hybrid, either start out as a Magic Sera or as a Melee Sera and then as you start to survive that way expand into the other aspect. I typically start with Melee and so will write the skill choices in the relevant order for such. If you want to start out with the Magic side then simply swap around the relevant skills in the order they are taken.

   * Level 1: Weapon Lore – Increases your damage, pump it as needed to keep your damage up
   * Level 1: Constitution or Concentration – Constitution for more life, quite useful early on in HC
   * Level 3: Concentration or Constitution – Concentration to speed up your melee CA regenerations, keep it at a high enough point that you can manage your CAs.
   * Level 6: Sword Lore – Substitute for LHW if you prefer, I don't suggest DW because you only throw one weapon regardless.
   * Level 12: Heavenly Magic – More useful than Meditation. Meditation can be substituted with +RS for the exact same boost to regeneration, whereas Heavenly Magic cannot, not to mention it speeds up casting.
   * Level 20: Magic Lore – Increases Magic Damage, see weapon lore.
   * Level 30: Armor – Improves resistances, resistances are life.
   * Level 50: Your Choice although I suggest either Parry or Trade. Agility 'could' take the place of Parry since it boosts defense as well as AR, but
   * Parry has more of a boost and you already have SoF and your specific weapon lore. If you already have a trader that can transfer over gear then go with Parry. Do the same if you really dislike Trade, it is a subjective skill.

I won't say set them to a certain degree relative to your level because I don't follow such, I boost them as I feel like, going by feel rather than fixed increases to keep them at some ratio that isn't always relevant. Since it is near impossible to determine exactly what stats the items you use will have, it isn't worth focusing on fixed ratios and such, if you can survive with less Weapon Lore or Constitution then go ahead, if you need more then you need more. Base your spending of skill points on what your gear requires. The only skill I will say differently for is Trade (Or Forging for a Dwarf, but this is a Sera), it's most useful when it is maxed so you might as well do so (And you can afford the points).

CA Choices:

Hunter-Seeker: Obviously you need Hunter-Seeker, otherwise there's not really any point in even looking at this guide. Keep the regen somewhere around 2-3 seconds, that's roughly what you need for it. Attack: I'm not actually suggesting you use Attack after level 30 or so, but until you have a strong enough basis to your skills, damage and leech it is a very useful skill to use. After that you can phase Attack out, or keep using it if you like, even to the exclusion of HS, but then it's simply a Hybrid, not a HS Hybrid.

Spell Choices: Rotating Blades of Light: Pretty much the standard Magic Sera Spell, it also works quite well with HS. It keeps your life up when mobbed, it kills off those enemies who survive your throw or who don't get hit in the first place. It also gives you a way to deal with those enemies who get split, regardless of where they were when you hit them, the clone will get hit by the next pulse of the blades. Keep the regen somewhere manageable, just below duration if that's what you want although then you can't use other Spells, at some point lower so that you can use other Spells. As you see fit

Celestial Light: Another standard, works well for gathering enemies, or killing them for that matter. It can take the place of RBoL, something I've done more than once, the only issue being that with HS you do move around, trying to place yourself for the proper throw and so there goes your padding leech wise, or your split remover. There are two choices here, either get the regen down as low as you can, say 1-5 seconds as you like. The other choice is once more to get the regen close to the duration, which would increase the damage all the more. (Although with proper application of crit, +%magic damage and WIDD you can get similar damage levels, if not higher with the low regen, although using those on a high regen does boost them all the more regardless, just low regen does equal more damage, the more CLs you can have on the field, the more damage you'll be putting out.

Light: Same as RBoL, except only applicable to undead (includes Shaddar-Rims and Nuk-Nuks). If you want to hunt these things, then go ahead and invest in this Spell, same idea as RBoL as far as regen. Strength of Faith: I'm not entirely sure it is useful in this build, HS seems to hit quite effectively regardless of your Attack Rating. There isn't anything listed in this regard so there aren't any clues based on what the CA states. I suspect there must be a bonus because killing 5 mobs in a row, each of 5 DEs without a single whiffed hit when my to-hit was ~60% does make me suspect it either has a bonus or some other method used to calculate whether it hits or not. BUT: there are times where it will help. You will occasionally face enemies who you can't seem to hit, either the HS keeps missing, or it shows a hit-check flash (the sparks and such) and sometimes does make the blocking sound, but sometimes does not. Regardless in these cases you won't hit the enemy. Casting SoF and then once more trying to throw will hit the enemy as often as not if the sparks were showing. If they weren't... then they might now be hit, but they might not. In which case either reposition and try again, or just go after them with normal swings/magic.

Light Shield and Lightning Bolt are up to you, I personally have never really enjoyed the second, although one day I'll likely build a toon specifically to destroy things using it. Light Shield I can see being useful and will almost certainly end up using it later on, most likely through a combo where the durations of the relevant Spells are similar. At that point I'll likely also expand into other CAs and Spells, but we'll see when I get there.

Combat Jump I haven't said anything about, I happen to enjoy using it but because it currently (UW 2.28) can cause your Sera to freeze and so I'm avoiding it for the moment. I don't want to lose a toon to it.

Gear:

I won't get into gear choices, I happen to like Abdiels set and therefore Fire damage. The main details you really need are:

   * +Regen Special Move
   * +Regen Spell
   * %Leech
   * +Critical
   * (+Magic Find)
   * (+WIDD)
   * +Skills/Combat Arts/Spells, be they to all or to specific ones that are relevant for you.
   * +%Magic Spell/Damage as well as to your damage type of choice for melee.
   * +%Split

As I get to higher levels I happen to like focusing on Split and Critical, balancing my leech to an appropriate point to keep me alive, WIDD to be phased in later on but it's not easy to find in proper amounts at lower levels. (Aarnum's does provide both, even by just using the rings, which also happen to increase fire damage).

Damage is life. More damage means fewer enemies standing, meaning less damage for you to take. It also means more life leeched back to counter what damage you do take. So keep your damage up and as long as you have enough life and resistance you'll survive.