Offensive Farming Skills

Given the staggering amount of new skills etc, i am having a very difficult time choosing between different farming skills in the offensive houses. basically, why would i pick one over the other? i understand there are mana and damage differences but they seem very minor, and all basically equally effective. assume im going ranged agi, like either the drow or ranger.

yea, i was thinking the same thing, i personally think fire strike pwns all but recently ive seen almost everyone who gets a farming skill from the offensive house gets frost fall. i also used to think that fire ward was the shit, but now i see those who get a summon to get tents or wolves. im at school so i cant do the math to see the actuall diferences on each f them, but just some feed back and opinions would be cool. (i guess im just bumpong this post)

the differences between various farming skills is minor; but each one is set to a specific play style and item/hero build. If 1 skill does a little more damage, but costs a little more mana, they you don't want to get it on a low-mana hero. If you have a very fast moving, weaker hero; then you might want to get faster CD spells. If you are melee, get lower range spells.

Though there are all reasonably balanced, it is judged by your play style. Personally, I like shockwave, I use it on most of my builds. Breath of fire has almost 2X the AoE; frost fall has about 4X the AoE; and the damages between the 3 are very similar. Wave is a little less CD and mana cost; and can shoot 700 in a specific rage; this makes it better for pvp.

Best bet is to pick a few skills, and try them 3-4 times each; whichever one suits your play-style best, use it. Generally speaking, how well you can use a skill judges how powerful it is.

Well based on that Glorn do you have maybe two or three recommendations to try out with the Dark Elf or Ranger specifically? My melee characters i have fairly well sorted out but not the range lol. ty!

If you want a farming skill.. I suggest....
Shockwave:
Why? you are ranged, it hits from a good distance. Creeps will run at you in a straight line; so you will hit many of them. Also, the mana cost is low; good for a low mana hero.

Fire Ward:
Higher mana, but it is a type of summon; it usually doesnt draw aggo, so long as you attack once before casting it. The damage on it is really good; and it levels nicely.

Frost Fall:
Easy as hell to use. It can hit the whole creep spawn while you sleep. Worse CD and cost for its damage; but again... easy to use.

Summon Tentacles:
These will both deal damage for you, and tank for you. Find a good balance, you want them to tank about 1/2 the hits for you. if they take ALL the hits, they will die too fast. Lower mana cost also.

Thanks! Alright ill try these out. All your help is very appreciated!

ive always found Shockwave to be very good with ranged hero builds that you dont plan to make very mana intensive. when you shoot them they all run at you in a line. The low mana cost means that you dont have to use restore mana just to be able to keep casting it. r hero choice is also alot more diverse, because they dont need very large mana pools. These are just my observations

^^ yep, yep.

A good thing about learning to master shockwave, is that you can use it on 4 outta 5 ranged heroes. And as I said a few posts up; "Generally speaking, how well you can use a skill judges how powerful it is." If you use it a lot, in a lot of ways, it becomes a lot stronger.

Downside is, against a high int hero; who is using a high mana, large AoE spell you simply cannot outfarm them. I consider myself one of the best shockwave users, and a high mana flamestrike or DP user still outlevels me; or can easily keep up.

High mana Flamestrike users out mana almost everyone who doesnt have a flamestrike to match it, thats just how the game works atm.

Example: Number7, one of the fastest pubs ive ever seen. He has supersonic ring by the first duel and almost hits level 11 the only person i have ever seen succesfully rushing ring of the speed demon.

I have seen a lot of people rush speed demon what are the modes for the game ?

pfttt; those are bullshit modes. To do that, get the dark elf, and put all of your bonus stats into INT. Then start with a staff. You have disgusting mana, so can spam flamestrike, while getting the huge boost to AGI and damage from leveling and ring rushing.

Though, I dont consider bonus stats a real statistic when accounting for "skill" in a game. Bonus stats +extreme and fast=who can creep longer. Never seen a game with those idiotic mode combos finish due to a kill count...

The guy im refering to did this with the following modes, Extreme creep, fast lvl auto heal and unlim weps, nothing else. there was no Bstats or Super start

ohh, fast exp though. That is still quite a boost; so long as he keeps his mana up with items, he should be 1 shotting any creep spawn. On fast EXP flamestrike, DP, and acid rain are the best skills to get, because they can clear spawns in a single cast; giving you multiple levels from a single cast; then you can regen while the spawn comes back. though; much more impressive without the bonus stats on.

*tips hat