Rare Bolts??? (in General)

I checked the transfer log and only 7 stacks of rare bolts have been generated in the auctions in the last 24 hours. Seven!!!! Rare arrows, on the other hand, are plentiful (about 50 stacks).

It looks a bit unfair to me.

Is it completely random or are rare bolts being phased out?

Of course, right after I posted this message, a few stacks magically appeared in the auctions... Murphy's law.

And in the minute after your post, 2 more stacks of seeker bolts appeared.

But seriously, who uses specialty bolts?

A) Rare bolts dont really matter, those who use crossbows are (hopefully) not doing so for the damage output, so slayer bolts are kinda a defeated purpose, IMO. and the Hxbow and Lxbow are useless. Anyone who wishes to dispute that fact, please do so, as I would like to see any point to them. and Axbows and Exbows are anti tank, you don't want seekers in those...

B) I'm pretty sure the auctions spawn the rare ammo when the store spawns ammo of that type. Example, i go in and buy all the bolts in the store, 2 minutes later, there are slayer bolts in auctions, someone buys all the arrows in the store, and everyone is jumping on the seeker arrows. :)

I beg to disagree...

The point of AxBows and ExBows is to reduce stats to 0. Since DX and ST reduction is directly proportional to amount of damage, every little bit of damage counts.

A base Slayer Bolt (18) as a modifier almost twice as high as a Bolt. Add 1 x, and the x2 Slayer Bolt has a modifier almost 3.5 times bigger than the 2x Bolt.

I am building my char so that it will eventually have to slay mages before tanks. It will do this with a BoTH boosted buy a ton of x's and as little +'s as possible. Targeting Evasion mages with an AxBow heavy on the +'s will reduce the Evasion effect when/if the fight reaches combat rounds.

Right now, in my building phase, when my AxBow equipped with Seeker Bolts, I win more fights then when it is equipped with Slayer Bolts.

I've been testing all types of bolts for over a month now, so I think I know what I am doing.

'Since DX and ST reduction is directly proportional to amount of damage, every little bit of damage counts. '

This is incorrect.

Nightstrike has proven that the drain is independent of the damage but is only dependent on the strength of the user of the xbow.

IE, with my character and his 2.6M EC, when NS hits my tank and PL does not apply anymore he drains my str from 3M to about 600k. All the while doing a whopping 3 damage. Yes, that is THREE damage.

However, with the elevated damage of all missile weaopns, using an axbow or hxbow with seeker bolts is a viable alternative to elb/seeker arrows since the damage can be just as good (enough to kill) and the seeker bolts are cheaper.

I was under the impression that DX/ST reduction depends on the X of the bow, not the amount of damage.

Well the drain is due to the x of the weapon and the str of the user. The damage is not a factor as long as it is at least 1 point of damage.

From the AxBow Wiki page: "Drains DX: 1/33% of the target's DX plus some unknown constant for every 'x' on the crossbow."

Does this need to be modified?

Instead of starting my own thread for this question, it kind of fits on topic with what has been discussed in this thread:

Say I have an EX that drops a str of 1 mil to 500k, and an exbow that drains 50% per hit. Will the first hit drain the remaining 500k (since the original is 1 mil), or will it drain 50% of 500k, then 50% of that...etc.

Thanks for any help :D

EC not EX...for clarity

EC gets applied at the start of the battle before any damage occurs, so the opponent will go into that battle with 500k ST and work from that. So, it'll reduce 50% of 500k, leaving his ST to 250k.

From what I understood from previous posts, EC gets applied at the beginning of every round.

Why? Because of defensive DX. Since defensive DX has a multiplication factor depending on the ranged round being fought, EC is applied at the beginning of each round.

Speaking of defensive DX...

Although it was confirmed by Jon that AxBows do diminish defensive DX, I haven't read anything clear on how the effect is applied.

For example, what if you hit an Evasion mage in the first round of range. How is the effect applied? There are many possibilities. A few examples of post first round effects:

1: Remaining defensive DX = ((Defensive DX * 5) - AxBow effect) / 5
2: Remaining defensive DX = max(((Defensive DX * 5) - AxBow effect), Defensive DX)

There are many other possibilities I could think of. Try to integrate the EC effect into the formulas and it becomes a total nightmare to figure out.

Jon is truly an evil genius!

EC gets applied before any combat begins, just like Haste or Giant Strength.

The resultant remaining "defensive dex" is subject to the multipliers.

I found a whole bunch of threads that agree with your statement and completely destroy my assumptions.

So, if understand this correctly...

a. EC is applied before the combat starts
b. AxBow effect on defensive DX is applied to the actual level and not on the multiplied value.

This makes me very happy. :D

a. Yes
b. Yes