Advice needed for Mr. Ketchup

[Tomato]

Species: Jetsam
Level: 24
Strength: 35
Defense: 20
Health: 35/35

I don't currently have a set.

Useful weapons in your safety deposit box: Von Roo Dice.

Budget you have to spend: None. I earn about 28k a day though.

1P or 2P: 1-Player only.
How do you train your pet?: Dubloons only.

Advise away,
Tomato.

[VermontHermit]

TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN - strength, defense and hit points. AT this point, it's your best investment. Start spending SMALL amounts of nps on cheap, but USEFUL weapons. Things that you can use now, and which will at least keep some situational value as you progress and which don't cost much. Things like a Leaf Shield, Scrab Ring (or two), Downsize!, Healing Scroll (I'd go with Greater), Purple Sticky Hand. Things that you're building the basis for a set with, but which are cheap enough to not interrupt your training

[WiltChamberlain13]

Train slow so you can save up for weapons at the same time. A cheap, but effective set would be:

Purple Sticky Hand
Downsize!
Leaf Shield
Greater Healing Scroll
Illusens Earth Potion
Scarab Ring
Scarab Ring
Obsidian Dagger

When you can, upgrade the Obsidian Dagger to Earth Faerie Slingshot, or you may choose to go for the Frozen Wand of Crystals and/or Cloudy Wand of Storms instead. The above set should not take you long to obtain if you stop training for a while, but train while saving up.

[Tomato]

Alright. Today I bought two new weapons. A Shaken-Up Can of Neocola and a Blue Scorchstone.
Can anybody tell me if those are good purchases?
I've never really liked the healing scrolls, so I bought a scorchstone. My favorite types of healers are percentage and single-use full(and, of course, Jade SS) but I don't have money to waste on single-use weapons right now, and percentage healers (except for the species ones) are all in the hundreds of millions of points range.

Also, DON'T SUGGEST SCARAB RINGS FOR MY SET!!!!! I can't say it enough. I hate that weapon with all my heart and soul.
That's it for now. Please tell me if you have anything to say about my purchases.
Thanks.

[rabid_schnauzer]

Tomato Wrote:I don't currently have a set.

Advise away,
Tomato.

Well then my advice is: Get one.

Serious reply forthcoming in a day or two.

[Nightwind]

shaken is very random, but with you hatting the primary weapon for the group your in...

lets just skip you a set, take you a few days to save up for each of these, maybe a week...

Nha, just take wilts advice and put the two wands in for the two scarab rings, the scorch stone in for the greater healing (since you have it) and your soda where he's got the dagger.

Oh, drop the earth potion. Grab yourself a frost cannon, as epencive of one as your willing to buy.

[Tomato]

Thank you nightwind. Finally some advice I liked. (No offense, Vermont and Wilt!)

I think this is what your suggesting though. Tell me if I'm right or wrong.
Purple Sticky Hand-1000 NP
Downsize!-4500
Leaf Shield-7000 NP
Blue Scorchstone-11000 NP
Rainbow Frost Cannon-290000 NP
Frozen Wand of Crystals-110000 NP
Cloudy Wand of Storms-99500
Shaken-Up Can of Neocola-In Posesssion
Total Set Cost: 523k in NP.

I would make one correction to that set, which is replacing the LS with Earthen Scorchstone since I already have Water and Earth Defense from the wands. Other then that minor quirk, I like your thinking.
Thank you, and I'll be back later, Tomato

[rabid_schnauzer]

Tomato Wrote:Species: Jetsam
Level: 24
Strength: 35
Defense: 20
Health: 35/35

I don't currently have a set.

Useful weapons in your safety deposit box: Von Roo Dice.

Budget you have to spend: None. I earn about 28k a day though.

1P or 2P: 1-Player only.
How do you train your pet?: Dubloons only.

Advise away,
Tomato.

First, sell those Von Roo Dice. My testing indicates that they're fractional and only average 6.46 real icons. And while I like dark and air for that level of 2p, in 1p, you're better served by upgrading to the 7 constant icons of Battle Ready Pencil Box, or at your stats Fighting Folder. Eventually upgrade first to Enchanted Wooden Bow. Earth Faerie Slingshot and/or Tyrannian Lupe Tooth and then after that to Ice Club and/or Stone Club Unless you're doing 1p tournies, don't even thing about upgrading past those clubs until you're at least 85 boost. It will actually cost you over 10x as much to to get the same damage result by upgrading past clubs as it would be training with clubs equipped (looking at dual 9 iconers at the 35 boost and 85 boost)

Alternately, if you are still training Defense, you could go with one of the not-quite-as-good-as-scarab-ring dual duties. If you had even defense and were fighting 2p, I'd tell you to get Jade Staff since it beats scarab ring in matchups there. Superior Shovel and Winged Hammer are similar and sell for reasonable prices. Not quite the bargains that those are, but still worth considering are Tooth of Terrask, Carved Sansetsukon, Staff of Impenetrable Gloom, Ice Dagger, Thief Dagger, Zapatron 2000, and Brilliant Wing Amulet.
Since you seem to be planning for longer term, the higher-end buyable dual duties are also well worth it. Cloudy Wand of Storms, Frozen Wand of Crystals, Sword of the Dead, Amulet of Inevitable Betrayal, Wand of the Moon and maybe even Golden Compass if the price keeps slinding)


Next, get a freezer and a healer. At current prices, Blue Scorchstone is a steal you can't pass up.

Having no budget, your best freezing option is the Snowglobe Staff, which is pretty lame, but at least not a complete waste in 1p battling. Save towards upgrading this to a decent Frost Cannon and eventually a 100% freezer.

At lower-budget 1p, Purple Sticky Hand and Downsize! are of course obvious choices.

I'm not a fan of shields in 1player, (unless they are full blockers or you have a pet with a substantial enough defense boost for blocked icons to matter once you get the opponents to 700 str) But if you must use a shield Leaf Shield, Earthen Scorchstone, Shiny Shoal Shell Shield, Patched Magic Hat, Virtupets X-514 Super Shield are your options. There's also the chance that those rumors I keep hearing about Sopies Magic Hat defending earth icons that aren't in the current IDB stats - if those rumors turn out true, it's worth considering once the price drops to buyable. As you indicate above, it's important to consider what icons your dual duties already block, as it's very easy to end up with redundant icons here. Those are only going to be useful when blocking snowballs or other large single shot attacks from 1p challengers, so go for defensive variety instead.

So here's my suggestion for the "starter set", you should be able to afford this with less than 3 days of income, and it will work well enough:

Snowglobe Staff
Blue Scorchstone
Downsize!
Fighting Folder
Fighting Folder
Shaken-up Can Of Neocola (since you already have it, and the random chance to hit high can help in 1p)
Leaf Shield
Purple Sticky Hand

[WiltChamberlain13]

Personally, I would prefer Tyrannian Lupe Tooth over that Shaken-Up Can of Neocola. The Tyrannian Lupe Tooth costs about 20K more, but that should take you a day to make. Less if you sell the Von Roo Dice, which I suggest. Since you hate Scarab Rings with your heart and soul, you can use Bone Sceptres in their places as they are sold for less than 30 NP, but does not block anything unlike the Scarab Ring. Use your Earthen Scorchstone or Leaf Shield as a shield, and in this case I would use Leaf Shield. A freezer really is not necessary since you do not have a bomb. Keep training your stats as balanced as possible. With low HP, use Blue Scorchstone. Only start training HP when your strength and defence are at least at 85. I think that is allowed in the Swashbuckling Academy. The only rule is that you cannot train any other stats apart from level when your health is more than twice your level, and you can train your health up to thrice your level. Your set:

Purple Sticky Hand
Downsize!
Blue Scorchstone
Leaf Shield
Bone Sceptre
Bone Sceptre
Tyrannian Lupe Tooth
Fighting Folder

[Tomato]

Actually, Wilt I first thought you had gone nuts thinking I could buy a TLT, but now that I just found a 38k item on the floor, I'm ready to agree that it might be a good idea. However, I won't really consider selling the SUCON.
It could be useful.
So to make sure, Rabid, this is what your saying I should have, right?

Snowglobe Staff
Blue Scorchstone
Downsize!
Fighting Folder
Fighting Folder
Shaken-up Can Of Neocola
Leaf Shield
Purple Sticky Hand

And Wilt, this is what I should have according to you, correct?
Purple Sticky Hand
Downsize!
Blue Scorchstone
Leaf Shield
Bone Sceptre
Bone Sceptre
Tyrannian Lupe Tooth
Fighting Folder

Well, to be honest I really do like my SUCON. I would, however, consider Wilts idea a few months from now, when I get tired of Rabids set. But for now, I think I'll go with Rabids Set.

I'm outta here for a little while. Gotta go to bed. See y'all tomorrow.
Tomato

[WiltChamberlain13]

Yes, that is correct.

You can always replace one Bone Sceptre with your Shaken-Up Can of Neocola, but I do not really suggest that, unless you are so lucky that it does maximum icons every time you use it.  You never know, that luck of finding a 38K item on the floor can last for a lifetime! Believe me, that Tyrannian Lupe Tooth will come in handy when you can afford it.