Enoshu is the female long-range option. She attacks with spells, staves and wands.
With multiple skill damage boosts, a skill efficiency boost and the largest array of attack skills of any character Enoshu is fully intended for pure skill-based combat, relying on standard attacks as little as possible (which is good since in terms of raw damage output her standard attack is the weakest of the three characters). She can also be the most difficult to build; a bad build can really cripple her effectiveness early on, while a good build can give her a combined damage output and survivability that the other two characters can't come close to matching.
While the other two characters depend primarily on their normal weapon attacks with good Critical hits for their best damage output, and a combination of very strong armor and/or dodge chances to survive, at later levels every spell Enoshu fires can put out damage hits at a faster rate than the other two characters can strike, at damage percentages far above normal weapon damage, while staying at a long enough range that very few enemies will even be able to strike back.
A build guide, skill list and equipment suggestions will follow.
Build Guide[]
The following is a basic guide for how to build up Enoshu's skills and stats right from the beginning of the game to get the most effective character in combat.
- Use wands. Although the other characters have equally effective passive weapon skills with comparable bonuses, with Enoshu this just isn't the case. The Staff Mastery bonus to Critical Damage sounds good in theory, but unlike the other characters Enoshu doesn't have a single active or passive skill that boosts critical Rate. Unless you spend a LOT of time hunting equipment with boosts to crit rate and/or devoting a lot of stat points/crystal slots to boosting DEX (10 Dex points boosts crit rate by 1%), which will also hamper your ability to equip higher level Staves since they need INT to wear, the Critical Damage increase is a boost you will almost never benefit from since you will almost never critical hit. The only viable alternative is relying on the Ice Blade for a boosted critical chance but that comes with its own problems; without the mana steal of the Stone Blade you'll have to either guzzle expensive Mana potions like crazy or hold back on how fast you cast spells, dropping your damage output. Staves do have roughly 10% more base damage compared to equal level/quality Wands, but the skill damage boost in Wand Mastery will make Wand users cleanly surpass the damage output of Staff users before too long. The shield you can use with Wands is an added bonus for durability so you can better handle the odd attack that does actually get to you
- The Skill Damage passive boost is a multiplying factor on top of the standard damage values; a skill damage passive boost of 100 means your skill damage is doubled. The damage numbers you actually see on the screen as you fight won't necessarily mathematically match this against equal or higher level opponents; always remember that enemy Defense plays a big part in reducing the damage, as it does for everyone. Skill Damage boosts from multiple sources stack additively.
- For your 2 stat points per level, it is recommended to do 1 each in INT and VIT. You could do full INT but you should not be a total glass cannon; the odd attack will still get through to you especially from ranged enemies and bosses, and you don't want to be so fragile that you die in one or two hits. You also need VIT to unlock higher level shields and armor. Any bonus points outside of the ones from gaining levels (i.e. as quest rewards) can be focused purely into INT.
- Whenever you gain a level and a new Attack skill is unlocked, put a single point in it. Don't put any additional points into any attack skill until at least level 30. Try them out while the mana cost is still down; the skill damage boosts you'll be getting as you get to 30 will still make them hit hard. All of the skills are roughly comparable in total damage (damage per hit x number of hits) with the exception of Poison Cloud and Demolition Blast, which are the lowest damaging skill in her arsenal so feel free to put only a single point into them for unlocking others and skip them afterwards. Try the skills out, see which ones work well for you, pick out and quickslot maybe 5 of them and then at around level 30 start raising their levels and ignoring the others.
- When you gain a level and you do NOT get a new Attack skill unlocked, your first priority is levelling up and maxing Magic Wand Mastery to increase the damage of everything you fire. Memorize is also highly important, get it to at least 5 before you start increasing your attack skills past level 1.
- When increasing the levels of you rmain attack skills, increase them evenly to reduce the problems of cooldowns and also in step with Remind, to keep the mana costs manageable.
- Get a couple of points into Power Potion early, to boost your potion effectiveness and consequently, your strong self-healing.
- Leave the elemental Resist skills to dead last. They're the least useful skills in your entire arsenal
- The most critical skills to max first long-term are Wand Mastery, your five chosen Attack skills, Memorize, Remind and Power Potion.
- For the Blade, the first one you get (Stone Blade) also happens to be the best for Enoshu with both its mana-steal and the fact that it is a Melee fighter, so it will be up in front taking the enemy attacks away from you while simultaneously refueling you. This combined with careful control of her skill levels and Remind can let Enoshu put out an unrelenting onslaught of skills while taking very, very little damage in return. Run the Blade dungeon every single chance you get to increase its level; its effectiveness REALLY jumps when you start getting multiples of the Blades.
- For the limited number of Enchantment stones you'll pick up as you go, since your defense is your range there is no need to enchant any of your Armor. Find a good prospective Wand and enchant it no further than level 5; there's no degradation risk up to this level and any further will be a bit of a waste since it will be replaced by a higher level wand eventually, and you can't re-extract the used Enchantment stones.
Equipment Guide[]
When choosing equipment to wear, go for damage boosts whenever possible, as well as SP boosts for armor to get a decent energy shield. Don't worry too much about the raw armor values since you shouldn't be getting hit very often (far less than half of the other two characters), so go more for decent buffs. Note, Elemental damage boosts "i.e. Add Water Damage 150" does not feed into skill damage, only your standard attack, so ignore those completely. Normal damage boosts do feed into your skills by increasing the base value your skills multiply off of, shown by "Add Damage +X" (note that the Fury Set is a good source of this), and skill damage boosts are shown by "Add Magic Damage +X".
For weapon Crystal sockets, use Diamonds and only Diamonds for mana steal. Not only does it supplement your general mana income for more spell shots it can be a vital emergency backup if your stone Blades have died too fast and are in cooldown, and you're low on Potions. Nothing else will really help; you shouldn't get hit often enough for the pink diamond Health steal to be needed (and your attack is so slow that even a high level pink diamond won't return a worthwhile amount of health), the elemental damage boosts only affect your normal attack and not your skills so they're practically useless for Enoshu, and if you want more XP/Gold, just kill more stuff.
For armor Crystal sockets, there really isn't much that will help. The elemental resistance crystals give absolutely tiny bonuses and you shouldn't get hit often enough for it to matter anyways, and both STR and DEX are absolutely useless to you. The only ones that may actually help are VIT and INT, so choose as you see fit given how your gameplay is going and your stock of crystals.
Skill List[]
ACTIVE SKILLS[]
Lightning[]
Short narrow forward line, 5 hits, 70% +10%/lvl damage (350% + 50%/lvl total, 800% max).
Cheap, fast, reliable, decent damage. Almost no knockback so anyone hit with it is guaranteed to take all five hits (aside from dodging)
Ice Lance[]
A long-range, narrow ice bolt. Variable hits, 95% + 15%/lvl damage (Variable total, see below)
This is a very interesting one. Its damage output is highly variable depending on the type of enemy fired upon and the area the enemy is in. Its hit count is not shown in the game but given its damage numbers compared to others it is designed to put 3 hits into a target. If the enemy is against a barrier of some kind or cannot be knocked back the Lance will put maybe 2 hits into it, for fairly low damage (190% + 30%/lvl) compared to other skills. However, if the enemy can be knocked back and is in a wide open area, the Lance's knockback can actually make it "catch-and-carry" an enemy with it, knocking it clean across a screen and putting at least 6 hits into it (sometimes even more) if shot at close range making it the single most damaging skill in the game (570% + 90%/lvl, 1380% max at 6 hits)! This should definitely be one of your 5 chosen main skills, and look for those opportunities to make the most use out of it in wide open areas.
Chaotic Wave[]
Shorter range, wide bursts of fire in a forward line. 3 hits (but see below), 90% +15%/lvl (270% + 45%/lvl total, 670% max, but see below)
A very powerful skill if used in close range as it can secretly Overhit, like Ice Lance. The game lists it as putting 3 hits into a target and its damage values are set up accordingly, however if used at relatively close range it can usually put a 4th hit into a target. If used at the risky point-blank range (basically touching the enemy) it has been known to put 5 hits into a target! It has a wider area of attack than Lightning and it has a relatively fast cooldown, so this is a very solid addition to your arsenal. It also does a bit of Knockback.
Magic Energy[]
Short-to-moderate range glowing energy ball. 4 hits, 80% +12%/lvl (320% + 48%/lvl total, 752% max)
A reasonable skill, not all 4 hits are guaranteed unless fired at rather close range. It also does a bit of Knockback, has a reasonable cooldown and has an attack width between Chaotic Wave and Lightning. A fairly dependable middle-of-the-road skill
Meteor Strike[]
Short-to-long range explosive meteor with wide AoE. 2 hits, 120% + 20%/lvl (240% +40%/lvl total, 600% max)
A bit lower overall damage than several of your other skills but this has quite a wide area of effect, and partially self-aims into a target. If there are a group of enemies in front of you this will hit a larger number of them than nearly anything else you can fire, and it can even hit enemies a short distance behind you. Somewhat slower cooldown.
Demolition Attack[]
Very short range surrounding ring of blasts around you. 3 hits maximum, 88% + 8%/lvl (264% + 24%/lvl total, 480% max)
Nearly point-blank range, a series of explosions go around you in a ring. Given their positioning you'll be lucky to get 3 of the blasts to hit any one target making the damage output of this skill absolutely miserable, especially compared to the other surrounding blast skills, and a slow cooldown to top it off. One of the worst skills in the game.
Poison Cloud[]
Short range surrounding poison ring. 3 hits, 72% + 12%/lvl (216% + 36%/lvl total, 540% max)
Better than Demolition Attack, but still not great in terms of damage and doesn't have a very wide AoE.
Blizzard[]
Short-ish range surrounding whirlwind. 5 hits, 77% + 12%/lvl (385% + 60%/lvl total, 925% max)
Once you use this at least once you'll see why Demolition Attack and Poison Cloud are frowned upon. Much heavier damage, wider AoE, a very effective skill if you're surrounded or want to hit an enemy at a bit of an odd angle from you around a wall corner, which your forward line-type skills will miss. It does have a rather slow cooldown and is a bit more Mana intensive, but still a worthy option.
Magical Sword[]
Self buff, +3%/lvl weapon damage for 58 seconds
An effective damage boost well worth getting, but ideally only after your good permanent damage boosting skills have been maxed.
Magic Shield[]
Self buff, absorbs damage to MP instead of HP at 100% + x/lvl for 58 seconds
Effectively making your MP an additional hitpoint pool, this is quite an effective method of making you tougher. However, your main defense should be your range; you shouldn't be getting hit often enough for this to be a priority, so focus on other skills first
Contract of Iron[]
Self buff, increases chance of max weapon damage by 10%/lvl for 58 seconds
Useful, but doesn't actually increase your damage output by very much as Enoshu's weapons don't have a very large damage spread. This can be safely left until later
Spirit Barrier[]
Self buff, increases block chance by 20% + x/lvl for 58 seconds
Good at making you tougher but again, your defense is your range. You shouldn't be getting hit often enough for this to be a priority.
Dragon Fear[]
Debuff, decreases defense of surrounding monsters by 5%/lvl for 58 seconds
Only really useful against bosses since anything else dies too fast even without it, this can still have a decent effect at increasing your damage against them. However, given its much rarer situations of use, wait until later before investing skillpoints in it.
To be continued