Newbie Depthswalker Questions

Edelin

So I recently returned and I had some class specific questions that didn't fit as well in my general questions discussion. So I thought I'd ask them here, since it felt like a more appropriate place. I'm considering making my new character a Depthswalker, and I wanted a bit of feedback on the class, since it's rather new and the information isn't as widespread here on the forums.

Which stats do they actually benefit from? How does the age mechanic work for their skills? Are there attacks balance or equilibrium based? I've taken a look at the skilltrees and Aeonics seems to be mainly a combat/utility path. Does that mean I should Trans Terminus for bashing after Shadowmancy? Trait recommendations? What sort of kill path do they have? I'm assuming it's moreso afflictions than limb breaks/damage? What artefacts would benefit them the most? 

Sorry for all the questions. I just wanted to be a bit more knowledgeable before I make a commitment to the class.

Zahan

Strength determines the power of your scythe attacks, which are balance based.

Dexterity determines your aeonics age stuffs.  Base is at 12dex, 1000 max years, -50 regression rate.  Every point adds 50 max years, 5 to regression.  Aeonics uses equilibrium.

Terminus is affected by intelligence and it'll definitely help you with hunting more than aeonics will, you're right about that.

All that said, if you just want to hunt, none of those stats are really going to make or break you and in that case, I'd focus on constitution.

Traits are meh.  Currently I'm using robust, nimble, and lucky for hunting.  Probably better choices for pvp but I don't bother.

They are not a prep class, you're right about that too.  They are a momentum class, either afflictions or damage.

I'm not really going to go much into artefacts since you're concerned about the order of transcing your skills.  I always advise to get your skills up before you start dumping credits into extra items.  But for sure you can't go wrong with a shield of absorption.


Definitely not a definitive guide here and hopefully people more familiar with the class add more or correct any mistakes.

Farrah

Con is the best stat, but they all provide some benefit, like Zahan described. Int is the least useful stat.

Depthswalker is primarily balance based. As Zahan said, Aeonics is eq, but you're going to want Nimble trait as Shadowmancy is your main attacks.

Age works like this: You start at 0, and each Aeonics ability can be used regularly for no age or boosted for a better effect + an age cost. Your age goes up by that amount, and slowly regresses back down. Your age can't go higher than 1000 (pre-dex modifiers), so that provides a kind of limit on how often you can use boosted Aeonics.

Shadowmancy > Terminus for bashing, as Zahan said. You could quick get some early Aeonics abilities too though, such as Rewind and Blur. Rewind is a health healing ability and Blur increases how fast you can walk.

I like Nimble and Health Inspector for combat traits. I would take Robust too if you're not going to be artefacted.

DW's main kill path is based on mana and afflictions. You can instakill if they're below X mana, where X changes based on the presence of certain afflictions. You use afflictions to drain mana, damage them out, or truelock them.

I'd probably focus on defensive artefacts first. Shield of Absorption and crit pendant would be the best for bashing. Add con belt and bracelet for both pk and bashing (SoA helps with pk too). The best Depthswalker-specific artifact is the dagger artie, but I would get a lot of artefacts before that I think. Defense, defense, defense, because Depthswalker offense is not really artie-based.

Vylin

Had a question regarding stats but didn't want to make a new thread so going to necro this one a bit. Trying to decide on which would be better for combat purposes. I have some defensive artefacts but nothing crazy. How important is dexterity over strength? Would hitting a little harder be better than regressing 5 or 10 points more per age tick? Trying to decide between Rajamala executioner with 15/13/14/10 as the setup or Rajamala striker with 13/15/13/11.

Antonius

Neither dexterity or strength are particularly important. Depthswalker has a lot of options for killing that have nothing to do with damage, and even without speccing strength the damage is still good. Dexterity just doesn't impact age cap and decay rate enough to justify speccing for it.

Spec for constitution.

Xith

No idea when this class was added but looks wicked. Haven't played since 2014 and unfortunately probably won't return until I have enough spare time.

Am I correct in assuming this class filled Hashan's RP combat race gap? What's their alignment?

Ryzeth

Xith said:

Am I correct in assuming this class filled Hashan's RP combat race gap? What's their alignment?

No, because it has nothing to do with Twilight. Nuff said there, really.

Depthswalker isn't faction-aligned, for reasons you'd have to read the event posts to find out.

Accipiter

@Xith come back! And no, it seems like something that would be Hashan RP but they are open to anyone

Vylin

How much health and mana damage does mutilate do without and with the artie dagger? I'm assuming it is percentage based?

Ahmet

@Vylin mutilate is 40%/40% without dagger, 43%/40% with dagger. 

Farrah

It's only 30% mana, iirc.

Kogan

Will throw my question here as well as to not make a new thread. I noticed earlier it was posted 12 dex = 1000 age cap. Is 1000 the minimum age cap or would being a dwarf miner (10 dex) decrease that cap even more?

Antonius

1000 is the minimum; dexterity under 12 doesn't impact age.

Kogan

Okay so I know everyone said focus con earlier, but I'm done bashing in lesser and was curious as to what you would do here. I can stay str spec and have ~5700h and 16 strength or go con and gain ~1300 health to 7000h but lose 4 strength or so. I'm trying to get an idea of how well everything scales with strength, because I just got smacked by @Dochitha with lvl 3 scythe (20 str) and it was absolutely insane.  I only ask because I'm not particularly squishy either way.

Dochitha

Bro, STR helps, a little bit, not a lot, not significant enough to be a selling point. Benefit from Dex for age is also minimal. It is better to go cons, unless you have con Artie's and don't really need extra cons. 

Kogan

Dochitha said:

Bro, STR helps, a little bit, not a lot, not significant enough to be a selling point. Benefit from Dex for age is also minimal. It is better to go cons, unless you have con Artie's and don't really need extra cons. 

I hear ya, but 12 str Dwarf miner is quite low. And its not like I absolutely need 7kh just to get by. I was thinking of trading some in some of that con for str. I have lvl 2 belt and bracelet as is.

Dochitha

Kogan said:

Dochitha said:

Bro, STR helps, a little bit, not a lot, not significant enough to be a selling point. Benefit from Dex for age is also minimal. It is better to go cons, unless you have con Artie's and don't really need extra cons. 

I hear ya, but 12 str Dwarf miner is quite low. And its not like I absolutely need 7kh just to get by. I was thinking of trading some in some of that con for str. I have lvl 2 belt and bracelet as is.

Could get higher str, I think 6-7K health is pretty good range, to survive most damage paths these days, and afford some momentum going before you get prepped and prone. DW damage output lies in attunes, shadows, tooros, capstones, prefarar. STR always come after Con, still.