#piety torva scythe rancor avernic

[imunbreakabledude]

lmao @ reddit comments on echo boss reveals being like "wow a lot for melee" "sad there's not much for mage or range" like. the reason there is a lot for melee and not as much for the other is because range and mage are already stupid OP based on what's gone down in past leagues. Melee DESERVED more fun options to feel competitive at all. it makes me almost a bit sad I did melee last time so will stay away from it this time...

but they're also missing that like.. range didn't get MANY echo items but having a fang-accuracy blowpipe, in the DESERT, so it only requires 1 region for the pipe+darts access+masori, is already pretty insane value for ranged. Also upon closer inspection the DKs echo drops are also INSANNE to combo with that, they give 15 range str EACH, which stacks INSANELY with a blowpipe, even before the possibility that it MIGHT get a relic buff to 1t attack speed. Like. Ranged doesn't need crazy exciting bonuses because it already has amazing options in the base game.

ditto for magic. Shadow is already insane and now available from 3 separate regions, so it makes perfect sense to me that multiple other relics are trying to offer other viable mage paths (ahrims with echo bgloves might be really strong, the hespori-salamander could function as a pseudo trident for people who don't pick kand, pre-shadow, and the thermy elemental drop makes elemental stuff somewhat viable against shadow and could potentially stack strongly with harmonised staff and/or smoke battlestaff)...

like of course they weren't gonna add big-ticket mage or range weapons when shadow is already just insane and ranged has tbow/blowpipe/zcb that are all insane and then bowfa as a semi-insane rival. but it's nice that they added some different gimmicks/flavors to cool melee endgame weapons so it's just literally forced into torva+scythe (or bulwark/justiciar if the defense buff melee relic returns). even still, melee is a bit limited by the fact that you basically really need to pick both Kandarin (for Piety) and Asgarnia (slightly lesser extent, for the vast majority of strength bonus armor and defenders, though the latter is semi mitigated in some combos by stuff like the wildy echo drop replacing a defender). I honestly hope they add even MORE perks that make melee more flexible such as potentially making piety unlockable another way. and that's with me still not planning to go melee focus this time!

additionally, I'm getting the vibe from these echo drops (as well as from the way they've been very vague about what 'combat masteries' entail) that this leagues might be way less of a single-combat-style focus and might encourage specializing in two styles or possibly getting to fully tribrid. Tbh, I kinda hope the masteries work in a way where there are several choices that you can combo with each other to EITHER minmax and make one style incredibly OP or make a really threatening but slightly less "big numbers always" tribrid build. i think that would be really sick and also help this league feel more distinct from past leagues.

currently I'm leaning towards a range focus (if it's still a one-style vibe) but I think what we've seen so far really does a lot to try to make multiple styles viable for most people.

[imunbreakabledude]

wait the more I think about it the more I realize the tiranwnn echo drop is actually a bit lackluster/less impressive than I thought. i mean it'll still be strong i'm sure. and convenient in the sense of crystal could be your melee/range hybrid armor, just doing a weapon swap from bowfa to scythe or blade+defender or w/e would be super chill while having great DPS.

however, I just realized it is gonna have a similar issue to melee void. which is that, because it boosts by a PERCENTAGE of current bonuses, you're limited by the fact that crystal armor itself has 0 melee strength and accuracy bonuses. i mean, for melee MOST of the bonuses come thru the weapon, true, but... you're gonna really want to make sure you have good boots/jewelry/gloves/offhand slots for melee bonuses or it'll be... kinda limited.

i suppose if you're using this for a melee build you'd really want kandarin (for piety, torture) but then it's like, wtf do you do for a third region. You could do morytania for scythe + rancor + your only viable glove slot (echo bgloves), but then you're not able to get avernic which is a bummer for any weapon besides scythe. I guess it's fine if you just camp scythe. and you could have blood fury. and aranaea boots exist now so you don't feel so bad not having dboots. i guess this combo isn't too bad.

on the other hand, you could go T+K+A and get your best boots and (almost) BIS defender and (almost) BIS neck slot still from torture, but then asgarnia feels somewhat wasted as you can't take advantage of Bandos or Torva at the same time as Crystal armor. and you can't get scythe here, and your best melee weapon is blade, or soulreaper axe, which is like, still good I guess...

or you could go T+K+F to get the insannnnne boosts from the echo amulet and ring, which would stack super nicely with the crystal armor % bonus; I haven't done the math here but I think those 2 together would be better than any other combo of neck/ring/boots/gloves slots that are otherwise possible. but fremmy doesn't give much else good for melee, which stinks. I guess TKF is pretty solid for a melee/range hybrid build, seeing how the DKs echos are super insane for blowpipe from Tiranwnn too. You'd have bowfa, venator, (no blowpipe without desert to make the darts, which is annoying); insane ranged+melee bonuses from the jewelry, the crystal +% bonus on your bowfa and your blade/soulreaper, and piety. but no rigour. Alternatively you could do TZF to get rigour, but lose piety. Which tbh may be a better tradeoff seeing how this build wouldn't care about losing zenytes from kandarin, and Zeah(Kourend) would also provide Tbow and Scythe (and shadow+ancestral!), plus elder maul, dclaws, etc....

anyway this all circles back to... percentage bonuses are tough because they either stack SO insanely or with lackluster results depending on the flat bonuses you have available, and that melee still feels bad in needing kandarin for piety, bc even though range/mage need kourend for their prayers, kourend offers SO much more than kandarin with all cox drops AND shadow and scythe. and fremennik is now a viable alternative to not only replace zenytes, but flat out surpass them.