ad2326 wrote:
hmm yeh
my thoughts too i dont wanna go too hybrid
anyone else with some experience of a hybrid lock?
Going hybrid is mostly for PVPing purposes. While soloing and partying PVE, pures should have no trouble surviving whatsoever even with mediocre gear. Monsters should not be able to 1 hit you; however, other players can and will. In PVE, you want the most damage possible- PVP demands that you can survive long enough to do any at all.
With that extra STR, instead of dying in 1 hit, there is a greater chance to tank 2 or more. With perfect alchemy and blues, a pure has 12.3k HP and a hybrid has 14.1k HP. That's a 15% increase in HP, like having a devil spirit- very significant for an INT build. Scenario: A pure that takes 13k from a surprise crit (which is a realistic damage number) will instantly die with no chance to counter. A hybrid has 1k left after the attack, so it stuns the enemy and proceeds to win the duel. Situations like this play out all the time. If you think this is happening to you too much, then going hybrid is your answer. Human error and the fact that it is impossible to have a 360 degree ninja vision range means that you can't always expect to catch someone before they catch you off guard. Think of it as insurance, and maybe even a bonus. Your rate of survival directly influences your rate of victory.
Don't be expecting to kill people any faster, because the extra STR is purely for the forgiveness factor and margin of error, in the off chance that your stun fails or they wake up from sleep too early. It might take an extra nuke or two to kill something. A good weapon can make up for the lost attack power and healing, and as long as you can survive long enough to use it, it's all worth it. Warlock builds are not the types to depend on heavy damage to win; instead, only needing a slip-up from the enemy or a small hesitation to turn the battle around. [For the record, I'm not against pure INT at all.]
Suggestions: Going 1:8 from the beginning is alright. Anywhere from 5 to 15 levels of STR (15 to 45 points) should suffice. Make sure to count it every so often.
