Totally Lost

• Skye wrote on 2012-03-04 04:33
  Usually I'm really good at figuring out what skills to rank up next, but at this point, I'm clueless. So some advice'd be nice.
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii107/LOVE__gaara_of_the_desert/Vindictus/Untitled-1copy.png]

  [/SPOILER]
  That's what I've got so far. I'm a level 63 hammer Fiona. I don't really know what other kind of info you guys'd need, but I'll answer questions if it'll help. :>
• Kaino wrote on 2012-03-04 05:35
  Critical Hit to at least A
• Invertex wrote on 2012-03-04 05:58
  Critical hit isn't too important for a Fiona. It is fairly cheap to get to Rank A (if I remember things correctly), so it might be worth the investment as all of Hammer Fiona's attacks can trigger a critical.
  
  You can rank Heavy Stander more now (to cap maybe), as you're getting into the 60 Raids. Heavy Stander will murder your shield if you don't have campfire buff active. Time and deaths both become an issue and you never want to have a broken shield. Having to split SP between Shield Charge/Slashing High and Shield Repair is far from ideal.
  
  Get Rank F Int mastery, it gives you a few free points which might shave a second or two off your meditation time. It's small, but it's only 14k.
  
  Smash Mastery is worth ranking further, due to it's relatively cheap AP requirements opposed to the other two major skills I'd get (Strength Mastery and Battle Respiration).
  
  Also rank up your Slashing High for future spin2win/trans. Repeated Butterflies for 15 seconds nonstop (at maximum rank) is really what makes Hammers deadly. You need quite a bit of Defence for it, but that's what you should be striving for right now.
  
  - - -
  General Analysis on why you shouldn't worry too much about certain skills.
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]Irrelevant for Now
  
  -Shield Mastery
  -Counterattack
  -Downward Counter
  -Heavy Stander Counter
  
  This block of skills are Small Shield only. As much as I hate to say it, they aren't too useful. The problem is that most 60 Raids don't have a normal that they use often enough for it to be worth using the Small Shield over the Large Shield. These skills aren't bad, but they won't get much use in the Large Shield heavy endgame.
  
  -Ivy Sweep
  -Longsword Mastery
  -Blossom Blow
  -Rose Thorns
  -Amaranth Kick
  -Petal Toss
  
  Sword based skills. While a lot of these skills are great for Sword Fionas, you don't need to worry about them.
  
  -Meditation
  
  Not really worth it, due to all those time calculations. It won't hurt you though.
  
  -Cloth Armor Proficiency
  -Light Armor Proficiency
  
  Unless you plan to be a Raider's using Fiona, which most Hammers don't bother with, avoid these two.
  
  -Int Mastery
  
  Useless~
  
  Might be Useful Later
  
  -Combat Mastery
  
  Your normals are very weak (relatively), especially as a Hammer. Focus on your smashes before you work on something like this.
  
  -Stone Skin
  
  Doesn't really make up for broken armor. You really should try to sneak in a repair if things go that badly (or after Trans). You don't use cloth either. It's useful for slight mitigation of armor breaking, but it can't really compensate (I still lose ~500 per piece with this maxed).
  
  -Honeybee Sting
  
  It's a fairly useless smash, as Crushing Arc (one smash) is faster and does more damage. But it does come out by accident quite often, so it might be worth ranking a bit.
  
  -SP: Shield Bash
  
  This is actually a very gimmick based SP skill. It's used in certain scenarios where knockdown is key. Two prime examples are Titan breakoff and Lionotus cliff drops. But, it is a very gimmicky skill, so get it later on when you have the key skills maxed.
  
  -Life Flare
  
  It activates a lot of the time at max rank, but it's not a reliable fall back. It is better than nothing.
  
  -Heavy Armor Proficiency
  -Plate Armor Proficiency
  
  Based off what type of armor you use, these offer a bit of bonus defence. BUT the cost is absurd and the gains are minimal, so get it later on.
  
  -Guard
  
  You won't use Guard too much, as an extension of what I said about Small Shields. But it still comes up often enough (Colru has about 5 moves that can be normal blocked). Might be worth ranking later on.
  
  -Weight Endurance
  
  I highly doubt you'd need any more of this, but go ahead if you need it.
  
  -Non Str Masteries
  
  Not too important, the bonuses are nice though
  
  -Secondary Weapon Proficiency
  
  Fine weapons are okay, but it's not too important.
  
  I ran out of header ideas
  
  -Health/Stam mastery
  
  Both of these are great skills, but still only give somewhat minor benefits. I'd get them when you feel a bit of HP/Stam would help.[/SPOILER]
• Skye wrote on 2012-03-04 06:09
  Okay. I've got a ton of AP but I was looking through my skills just totally blanking out. I appreciate the input. :)
• Invertex wrote on 2012-03-04 06:17
  Oh, I just edited my prior post with a breakdown of skills I haven't mentioned.
  If you want to know why I didn't go for some skills, that might help.
• RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-03-04 06:27
  Yeah, I was looking at Heavy Stander and Slashing High personally. Do what you feel is immediately necessary for the raids you need to run because they're probably what you're going to be doing for a while, at least until the dragons come around.
• Skye wrote on 2012-03-04 07:05

  Quote from Invertex;795638:

  Oh, I just edited my prior post with a breakdown of skills I haven't mentioned.
  If you want to know why I didn't go for some skills, that might help.

  
  
  Oh wow, thanks. That really helps a ton!
  

  Quote from RebeccaBlack;795645:

  Yeah, I was looking at Heavy Stander and Slashing High personally. Do what you feel is immediately necessary for the raids you need to run because they're probably what you're going to be doing for a while, at least until the dragons come around.

  
  
  I've actually not had the opportunity to do too many raids on my Fiona yet, due to not being able to play nearly as often as I'd like. Maybe that's why I'm having problems on this character.
• Eyrion wrote on 2012-03-07 00:04
  Get Heavy Stander to rank 9 first of all. Next get Smash Mastery maxed. Get Stamina Mastery to rank A. Max Life Flare, it's very useful. Max Battle Respiration. Max Health Mastery and Defense Mastery. Once all your main priorities are out of the way go ahead and try to max Critical Hit, it's not very useful for a Fiona, but it is extra damage. And after all of those skills are good to go just dump in Strength Mastery and Willpower Mastery.
• RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-03-07 09:42
  Life Flare is probably not a priority for Fiona, who has the best survivability of any character. I'd put it on the lower end of what's needed. I'd even mess around with armor, HP and defense-related skills first, probably.