Series EV Overview (Click Here If Your Thinking Of Buying It)

[The Owenator]

OK, so Series EV came out today (a few hours ago, in fact), and I had the glory of picking it up. I'm just gonna do a brief overview for those who are unsure if she's good or not (since the store page and video don't do her justice). Here's a basic overview

Weapons:
Can use Apprentice and Huntress weapons
Duel Wield System: Series EV, in similarity to the Barbarian, can wield two weapons. Although, instead of using them both at once, EV can switch between two weapons at will (which can be an app/huntress combo, two huntresses, or two staffs). By pressing X, you'll switch weapons. The weapon functions remain the same (You can use the App weapons right click, the Huntress guns reload, etc.)

Structures:
Series EV has a unique structure system. You start by placing one "coil". Once you pick where it goes, you place another, and after a second, a plasma field generates between the two coils. There are five different types, a damage one, 3 "Unique" ones, which I can't find out the purpose of, and a structure boost field

Edit: The Three I didn't touch on are as listed:

One is a reflective wall, which healthwise works like auras but only blocks projectiles, making the projectiles turn friendly and fly back depending on the angle fired. If it hits any mob, the reflected projectile does damage. Pretty useful for defending tight areas where projectiles can fly, without using a barricade, or combined with defenses to block ogre spit or arrows. Picture the sides of the stairs during Warping Cores for a good example.

Next is essentially a beam 'trap' like the huntress. Stretch it out, and then it shocks any mobs that cross it over time. It works via charges and does some better damage then the physical beam

The last one is the wall, which is basicly an alternative to Spikes or Magic Cades. It can stretch pretty long, and gets more HP as it goes longer. Maxes out at 3 DP but can cover a good distance.

-Credits to Gratuitous Lurking for the summaries-

Hero Abilities:
Series EV has two different, interesting abilities. The first is a holographic dummy (if you've played the game Bastion, this functions almost the same as the dummy ability in that). When you use it, a holographic dummy is summoned at your location, and enemies are all drawn to it. When it reaches 0 health, it violently explodes. The other is a "charge" function, when you use it, Series EV raises her cannon arm, and slowly starts charging. You have to run around and get mana, and when you feel like you have enough, all you do is shoot, and she releases an extremely violent beam.

Summary:
Series EV is, in much aspects, is a good character. She works well with the three archetypes of character builds. Although, I think where she really shines is when she's put to use as a Hybrid. Utilizing two weapons, she can easily use a DPS staff/gun, and have a tower stat'ed staff/gun sitting in her inventory. As a DPS, she can wreak two different kinds of destruction. This is perfect for those people who like having different options when being a DPS, as she can have a crossbow and a gun, or a staff and a gun, or a staff and a crossbow, etc. As a Builder, I don't think she could really solo, but she'd make a great companion ability to a apprentice builder. She can make "walls", and stuff, while an apprentice builds towers, so this would make a great "Yin-Yang" relationship if you have a friend with an apprentice builder, who are forshadowed over squires. All in all, Series EV is worth the money, especially with it on sale. I hope this helps you decide whether you want to get Series EV or not

Edit:

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask

[Vesper]

+1 to this.

[The Owenator]

When the heat over Series EV dies down, admins, you can just close/move this topic over to the Series EV section

Oh, and I call the title "Series EV Master"

[Dark3nedFaith]

How is her HP compared to that of a Hunter?

[flaming_cows]

2mil away from 74. From what ive seen it is slightly weaker than hunter, hp and dmg wise. But, tower hp is off the charts! I have a 300 hp stat and with no ups it has 25k hp. (The base wall)

[poisonyanni]

How is her HP compared to that of a Hunter?
much, much lower lol

E: but not as low as adept.

[Gratuitous Lurking]

For the 3 'uniqe' towers you 'can't find a use for', I'll elaborate:

One is a reflective wall, which healthwise works like auras but only blocks projectiles, making the projectiles turn friendly and fly back depending on the angle fired. If it hits any mob, the reflected projectile does damage. Pretty useful for defending tight areas where projectiles can fly, without using a barricade, or combined with defenses to block ogre spit or arrows. Picture the sides of the stairs during Warping Cores for a good example.

Next is essentially a beam 'trap' like the huntress. Stretch it out, and then it shocks any mobs that cross it over time. It works via charges and does some better damage then the physical beam

The last one ya didn't elaborate on was the wall, which is basicly an alternative to Spikes or Magic Cades. It can stretch pretty long, and gets more HP as it goes longer. Maxes out at 3 DP but can cover a good distance.

[The Owenator]

Put it in, and credited it to you, Gratuitous, thank you

[Dingle]

Note: Post assumes the second weapon slot's using the same stat totals as every other gear item on series EV, so she gets around 16% more gear stats (not considering set bonuses, unfortunately, but the tests I ran used those anyways) than squire/apprentice. Health totals I gathered were from Nightmare.

At 2 DU, physical barrier is roughly the size of 2 Magic Blockades, and just barely smaller than 2 Spike Blockades. It has about 68% more health than a single Magic Blockade (16% less than two combined.) Of course, 2 magic blockades can both take damage at the same time from an AoE attack.

At 3 DU, physical barrier is roughly the size of 3 Magic Blockades, and has about 15% less health than a single Spike Blockade. So, it's much larger, but dies slightly faster.

At 4 DU and 5 DU the size is again roughly equal to the same DU in Magic Blockades. The health/DU ratio is never as good as either Magic or Spike Blockades, but it covers a lot more space when need be, and can't be multi-hit by attacks.



Shock Beam's... well, the way it interacts with stats bugs me. Health and Damage on it scale fine - in fact, damage scales so well that without its glaring weakness it would outDPS every other defense in the game (5 times the damage of a DST considering EV's extra weapon!) The problem with Shock Beam is that it has a fixed animation speed. You know all those arguments that increasing the RoF on squire defenses doesn't help because their animation speeds are fixed, which isn't true? It is for Shock Beam. The animation's got a minimum length in place so it doesn't perma-stun anything, but that means that scaling rate of fire for it isn't useful - the animation always lasts at least 2 seconds. The other issue with Shock Beam is that it gets an entire tower stat to itself, but that stat scales poorly; it very quickly takes an incredibly higher amount of stat points to raise. 360 to 720 stun gets 0.15 seconds added to the stun time, which is less than 10%.

Shock beam scales by about 20% in Nightmare. Photon Beam (her other damaging defense) scales by about 10%. The physical beam gets a 60% health buff in NM like all physical towers, and the other 3 get the same health nerf as auras and traps.

Buff beam, as far as I can tell, doesn't scale in Nightmare. Most noteworthy factor of it is that the buff percentages are relative to your points in that specific stat, so more health increases the damage resistance bonus, and more damage increases the damage bonus. It doesn't compare to an animus, and the buff never reaches x2, so you really want to cover more towers than the DU could buy you.

[Zinn]

Tested both the Ranger and EV with 1518 hero health. Ev has 20,571 health in the tavern and does 71,388 damage per projectile with a retribution. Ranger has 18,184 health and does 78,973 with the same retribution.

On NM Ev has 96,940 health and does 11,065 damage. Ranger has 85,692 health and does 12,240 damage.

[Lipucd]

Something I REALLY want to stress over here what I think is critical of her usefulness is her Tower boosting beam.

For starters it increases ALL of the stats/values of ANYTHING that crosses it, including her own material, and it' does this off of a MULTIPLIER. Just an example: Currently I sit at ~200 tower attack rating, this at base will give 1.33 attack, 1.23 Health, 1.09 Range, and 1.16 RoF.

This doesn't sound like much, till you take into account that this is in essence ANOTHER upgrade on top of all the towers upgrades, that makes large numbers only that much larger. It's not so effective in the small amounts, but something tells me get an EV at +1000, or hell even +2000 and slap that over +2000 towers and you'll never again worry about damage output on nightmare. The attack, and Health seem to get the biggest changes per point, and I could foresee at +1000 it giving at BASE something along the lines of 1.5 or 1.6 attack damage boost...I doubt even upgrading a tower normally to a * would give you such a boost, and here's a simple beam that can effect many towers at once with such power.


Outside of that insanity, she's got a GREAT wall ( acts just like the other walls if you turn them around, most stuff will not even attack it if aggro-ed by things behind it. ) with some INSANE HP gain on it ( only +100 HP with more wall health then an apprentice's at +500 what? ). Her other beams...don't seem as useful. The Shocking trap can be useful as it's high damage, but it's charges do not grow well per health unlike huntress' traps. Her normal damage beam as well goes down in hp SO FAST that it's kinda retarded. The Projectile one seems sound on paper, yet I've not seen much luck with it outside of placing it so an ogre hits himself with his orb. Might be more useful on Nightmare for spiders and djinn ( no clue if it effects djinn's beams...would be great if it did somehow! ) otherwise I would figure an ensane does it's job better.

Her DPS side's pretty nice, but her HP gain is...PRETTY bad ( better then adept...but I don't think that says much... ). Others chances are can get good enough using her where getting hit isn't an issue.

[Dani]

Why do you think you can fairly summarise a character if you haven't even tried out all the character's abilities? You said it yourself.

How about giving her a fair shakedown and coming back with a more informed opinion.

The two videos today will give you a better and more informed overview of the character.

[Finnien]

I'm personally not a fan of the Series EV so far. It may turn out that her walls are slightly cheaper in terms of DU and the buff tower is a good efficiency-booster, but as far as fun gameplay goes, she's sorely lacking. The beams are FRUSTRATING, primarily because of their extremely small effect range. If you place the beam close enough to a wall to hit general mobs, ogres will stand too far back and never get hit. Place it for the ogres, and everything else will quickly pass it by taking little or no damage. The damage is elemental (fire for one, lightning I believe for the other), and therefore they're not a cheap way to cover less used routes. Overall, as far as tower damage goes, I'm horribly disappointed. Additionally, they do nothing to wyverns or djinns. I'm sure with further testing, specific uses will be found for her, but in terms of her overall feel of playability, she's a major disappointment.

Personal Verdict: Support character with a few beams that will prove useful, but also weighed down by dps tools that are obsolete for anyone with even a mid-level squire or apprentice. May have utility but isn't much fun.

(Edit: Testing so far: Level 73, have used in a number of ways supporting traditional insane and nightmare glitter builds. Tried one pure-EV build to horrible results.)

[Dingle]

I place the beams so that monsters pass over them as they walk down the lane, unless there's a really wide area for them to line up at in front of the wall. Place the beam directly in the middle of a medium size wall, and the ogre stops on top of it...

Plus, shock beam should AoE. Just a shame the attack rate on it caps at around 2 seconds.

[fitty]

Good review. I hated the barb, I like the EV. It's worth the purchase no question. At worst it will have some support build usages but it's just pretty fun to play. It's unique enough it's well worth $2.99. I've gotten a few hours of fun out of it so I'm already pretty happy with it. =)

[The Owenator]

Why do you think you can fairly summarise a character if you haven't even tried out all the character's abilities? You said it yourself.

How about giving her a fair shakedown and coming back with a more informed opinion.

The two videos today will give you a better and more informed overview of the character.
I DID try out all her abilities, and this isn't supposed to be some sort of expert review in series EV, this was just supposed to be a light, brief summary of Series EV for people who weren't sure about getting it to have some insight from a guy who's been playing DD since the PC release. If you don't like it, please keep that to yourself. And I don't think you could do any better, anyway

[K3vX]

Just a quick question : I tried the EV and I'm loving it so far ( Around lvl 30 ). I only have one problem. Let's say there's a narrow corridor, and I put a Proton Beam ''blocking'' the corridor, and I put a wall behind it, with a little gap; Is it normal that some mobs, especially Orcs, are directly attacking the Proton Beam node, thus destroying it and getting no damage at all ? How can I ''force'' them to attack the wall and getting damage from the beam ?

[dragonmaster0283]

Be careful with the reflection beams. They seem like they are either bugged or OP'ed. Used one in UMF1 and a reflected poison ball one show my 300k+ barricade. Seems like whatever the damage the ball would do is multiplied by the damage factor of the wall. My Star'ed reflector had a 37 damage factor. Had to delete the thing as it was doing more harm then good.

The boost beam really has to get a nerf. Even with modest low end stats, the boost is just too much. At 3 star, it was more then doubling Damage, 1.6 rate of fire, 1.5ish resistance and around 1.3ish range. With a 6 DU line you can fit 5 harpoons side by side. Pretty much turns 5 harpoons into 10+ harpoons considering the damage being put out. I was just mowing UMF ogres (with 15mil+ life) like a hot knife thru butter with 500 in the tower stats.

The wall, stun and damage beams I haven't played much of yet.

The dummy is extremely useful as it like to aggro the kabobs and they blow up away from everything.

The proton beam is just sick. Extremely high damage values and lasts an extremely long time fully charged. (When i was leveling with a 1500 damage staff, it was doing 200k dps on the dummy). Also it scales off the number of projectiles it seems or does more damage with staves. With an equal damage staff and gun, the staff was doing nearly double the damage with the proton beam.

She is a bit fragile in HP (much like the huntress).

[Toprem]

Something I REALLY want to stress over here what I think is critical of her usefulness is her Tower boosting beam.

For starters it increases ALL of the stats/values of ANYTHING that crosses it, including her own material, and it' does this off of a MULTIPLIER. Just an example: Currently I sit at ~200 tower attack rating, this at base will give 1.33 attack, 1.23 Health, 1.09 Range, and 1.16 RoF.



That low of a tower attack is able to boost other stuffs attack by 33%? That seems pretty good even if it doesn't stack with guardians, that could possibly help me out trying to do OMF. If a guardian begins boosting a tower being buffed by the beam, does the guardian's boost take precedence? Hrm, tempted to buy her now instead of waiting for a sale in July.




I DID try out all her abilities, and this isn't supposed to be some sort of expert review in series EV, this was just supposed to be a light, brief summary of Series EV for people who weren't sure about getting it to have some insight from a guy who's been playing DD since the PC release. If you don't like it, please keep that to yourself. And I don't think you could do any better, anyway

No offense, but I gotta agree with the other guy. You pretty much just summarized the videos that were posted in the past day before she got released, some of the replies gave much better and useful information.


Be careful with the reflection beams. They seem like they are either bugged or OP'ed. Used one in UMF1 and a reflected poison ball one show my 300k+ barricade. Seems like whatever the damage the ball would do is multiplied by the damage factor of the wall. My Star'ed reflector had a 37 damage factor. Had to delete the thing as it was doing more harm then good.

The boost beam really has to get a nerf. Even with modest low end stats, the boost is just too much. At 3 star, it was more then doubling Damage, 1.6 rate of fire, 1.5ish resistance and around 1.3ish range. With a 6 DU line you can fit 5 harpoons side by side. Pretty much turns 5 harpoons into 10+ harpoons considering the damage being put out. I was just mowing UMF ogres (with 15mil+ life) like a hot knife thru butter with 500 in the tower stats.



How did a reflected shot end up killing your own defense? I guess thats gotta be some kind of bug that would cause that. But that is interesting that the reflected shots get damage boosted, going by what was posted in the past day or so it didn't make any mention that it boosted their damage, which made me think that they would be a total waste in just about any kind of situation. Still not great without more DU to use on a tower like that, but certainly better than what I was thinking it would be like.

If the boost is that good, I definitely want to buy her if its not going to get nerfed hard.

[Zinn]

I absolutely love the buff beam. I doing Mistymire survival and the buff beam is like having 20-30ish app and huntress guard buffing my harpoons. Also when I buff with my app I still get the increase attack rate bonus combined with my full app guardian buff.

[MitchellW]

I think Ogre Balls can damage friendly units. Most enemy AOE effects can. So if they become player based, they may still have the friendly fire property?

[dragonmaster0283]

How did a reflected shot end up killing your own defense? I guess thats gotta be some kind of bug that would cause that. But that is interesting that the reflected shots get damage boosted, going by what was posted in the past day or so it didn't make any mention that it boosted their damage, which made me think that they would be a total waste in just about any kind of situation. Still not great without more DU to use on a tower like that, but certainly better than what I was thinking it would be like.

Basically I'll set it up.

I have a spike barricade blocking a single wide lane
Behind the Spike barricade I have the reflection Wall
and then behind the reflection wall I have my harpoons.

Monsters
|
|
V
Spike Barricade
Reflection Wall
.
Harpoons

Because monsters like Ogres are right next the spike barricade (weather its attacking the barricade or not). They decide to shoot off a poison ball at the harpoons. The ball will bounce off the reflection wall back at the ogre. The ball hits the Ogre and because the poison ball does an AOE splash, it hits the spike barricade which the ogre is standing next to. The reflection wall multiplies the damage of returned projectiles. So that poison ball that does 10k to you if it had hit you, bounces off a 30 damage factor wall and hits the ogre and everything around it for 300k damage. So the ogre, the spike barricade and everything around the ogre will take a 300k splash effect.

On everything below nightmare this isn't as pronounced as both the tower and monster damage doesn't get the bonuses. But on Nightmare, its a royal pain.

As for the damage returned value, the wall itself under the advanced stats show the damage multipler. It scales very quickly via the ingame upgrades from 1 chevron to 3 stars. Also its unknow what the life factor means on the wall. In the UMF it seems like it only took 100 hp away from the wall with 10K+ hp every time it reflected.

[Black Mamba]

Hmmm seems fine the Series EV thing...but 2.99$ :s :/ :wyvern:
But is it better compared to the Barbarian?

Ehhh anyways, I think I'll get it via TF2 trading, lol >:-D :warrior:

[Dani]

If you don't like it, please keep that to yourself. And I don't think you could do any better, anyway

Your opinion isn't sheltered from criticism. =)

[Shinka02]

Here's what a 3 star boost beam look like with 1175 tower attack.
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045443783/screenshot/560937726251777639

Combines very nicely with 2000+ HP barricades and also helps out with any other towers when your guardian isn't close by.

[The Owenator]

Your opinion isn't sheltered from criticism. =)

But I can tell the difference between criticism and trolling

[Warmonger]

Well, I have 159 tower attack currently and the resulting damage boost is 1.98. If you add 1000 attack just to increase the boost by 0.2, it's not quite spectacular.
Still, appears quite potent with... Traps and Auras. Each of their damage, rate and RANGE is boosted and you can spam quite a lot of them under short beam. Certainly allows new strongpoint strategies, must try it on OMF.

[prostheus]

Because monsters like Ogres are right next the spike barricade (weather its attacking the barricade or not). They decide to shoot off a poison ball at the harpoons. The ball will bounce off the reflection wall back at the ogre. The ball hits the Ogre and because the poison ball does an AOE splash, it hits the spike barricade which the ogre is standing next to. The reflection wall multiplies the damage of returned projectiles. So that poison ball that does 10k to you if it had hit you, bounces off a 30 damage factor wall and hits the ogre and everything around it for 300k damage. So the ogre, the spike barricade and everything around the ogre will take a 300k splash effect.

This sounds like yet another bug. The reflected shot should be "friendly" and not damage you OR your defenses. Obviously yet another thing over-looked. C'mon beta-team, you can test better than this surely!!!

[Shinka02]

And here's what EV's wall HP looks like compared to the countess. EV has 1828 tower Hp and countess has 2026. Both have been upgraded 3 times on nightmare. Note that EV's barricade uses up all 5 DU.
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045443783/screenshot/560937726252028387/
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045443783/screenshot/560937726252027048/

The extra HP is fantastic for some layouts with DU leftover and can probably take the spot of 2-3 spike barricades.

[Warmonger]

3DU wall is enough to cover each of stairs on Glitter. However, I extend them to 4 DU just for extra hp. This replaces 3 mage walls (3 DU) or Spike Barricades (6 DU).

These walls are much better also because they block only enemies, while players and, most importantly, mana tokens, can move through them freely. Repairing has never been so easy!

[Shinka02]

The only problem I see is that this one wall will be taking all of the damage compared to the 2-3 walls that layouts normally use per choke point. You also can't turn em around to avoid the ogre's physical attacks.

[Reginault]

These walls are much better also because they block only enemies, while players and, most importantly, mana tokens, can move through them freely. Repairing has never been so easy!

This is far more amazing than it sounds, getting caught outside a wall because of a glitchy jump will never happen again.

[Cherry]

Does the Tower Buff Beam mean that DPS pets will be a little more viable in Nightmare?

[Shinka02]

Just tested the wall in UMF2 on nightmare and got 728k HP fully upgraded with 1828 in tower hp. The buff beam fully upgraded doubled the resistance with roughly 500 in attack. Couple that with reflection walls for ogre ranged attacks and your towers are safe to say the least lol.

The buff beam might not be worth the extra DU if everyone's got the guardians and is properly geared. Awesome for solo mana runs though.

[Urza]

My series ev with the same set as my ranger has more hit points....intended?

[NacrusDark]

The only problem I see is that this one wall will be taking all of the damage compared to the 2-3 walls that layouts normally use per choke point. You also can't turn em around to avoid the ogre's physical attacks.
You have to turn around spikes so they will not do any dmg so agro will not increase cuz of it. But if ur towers cant do much dmg mobs will stake agro on wall either way. As SEV wall dont deal any dmg it acts like turned spike.

[Ceron]

Well, I have 159 tower attack currently and the resulting damage boost is 1.98. If you add 1000 attack just to increase the boost by 0.2, it's not quite spectacular.
Still, appears quite potent with... Traps and Auras. Each of their damage, rate and RANGE is boosted and you can spam quite a lot of them under short beam. Certainly allows new strongpoint strategies, must try it on OMF.

Not necessarily a bad thing. It makes the Tower Buff Beam (arguably her best beam) useful even on hero EV assuming you incidentally pick up a couple hundred tower attack.

[Zinn]

The buff beam is fantastic for solo.

[Urza]

So are ppl going to make a buff ev and a dps ev now?

[Zinn]

Maybe. She would make a good dps replacement for Huntresses and Rangers or at a refreshing alternative to those who may still want to play ranged but with a different character. I think at least for now everyone is focusing on her towers.

[Bearthez]

Just ran some numbers and tested it.

Wall EV is now 100% viable for survival, much better than squire walls.

Tower EV is not viable really. The reflection wall is so situational, the stun beam mechanic cant beat the gas trap and the tower beam is only viable for soloing, but not survival due to the du cost and having to have all your towers in straight lines. We may see some situational builds with the tower boost beam on certain maps. (Foundrys rings bell)

Like others have said, EV is good for soloing, but diminishing returns the more players with guardians u add.

DPS EV is also viable with conal AoE doing real nice damage. But for survival... it remains to be seen but everyone knows HP and resistances are everything and its similar hp to huntress so...

This is only for the survival min-maxing number crunchers. Series EV is alot of fun and cool effects :)

[keda009]

How's Series EV damage scale on towers?

[zingfharn]

Survival - going to test shock for antispider. Replacing the trap combo/bouncers on misty is the only vague application I can think of.

[The Owenator]

I'm still thinking of whether making a pure DPS EV, a builder one (and scrapping my app), or a hybrid, but I think I'm leaning towards a hybrid, because of above stated situational structures

[Arroyo]

I'm still thinking of whether making a pure DPS EV, a builder one (and scrapping my app), or a hybrid, but I think I'm leaning towards a hybrid, because of above stated situational structures

I didn't think you can make a hybrid, I thought the game only allows it so you can only go one way or the other when it comes to building a character.

[Alshain]

I'm still thinking of whether making a pure DPS EV, a builder one (and scrapping my app), or a hybrid, but I think I'm leaning towards a hybrid, because of above stated situational structures

Don't scrap your Apprentice. EV has absolutely no realistic ability to damage as a builder. Proton Beam (the attacking beam) sucks and won't be effective, you will need a tower class to work that way. The best build I've found so far is to put points in Hero Damage, Hero Attack rate, and Tower Health and just use the physical beam with your own DPS. Personally, I don't see the point in doing that either when there are better characters to choose from. I think I will be scrapping the Series EV and going back to my Apprentice.

[Tastic]

Laser gun is pretty epic in multiplayer mode when you can have people dump their mana on you.

[schexter]

I love the game, and for a low price of $2.99, I'll try any new character. I was not a big fan of the Barbarian at all. That might be because I enjoy pure-strategy mode the best. Barbarians not having towers is a bit of a minus. The Series EV has some pretty cool beams. I have only ran some low glitter runs to get the levels up with my apprentice building, and then went back and ran ramparts on hard at about lvl 50 with the Series EV. It was madness. The reflective tower takes care of some anti-air, but it is easily stated that this character isn't suited for solo, unless of course there are no wyverns to deal with. Bring your apprentice for some anti air towers, and you'll have some fun.

[schexter]

I didn't think you can make a hybrid, I thought the game only allows it so you can only go one way or the other when it comes to building a character. Just respec and get different gear. I currently have two apprentice characters and a monk. One apprentice is DPS while the other is tower. I use the monk purely for auras, but the ranged dps is actually decent as well. Harder difficulties are dealt with by using a well planned blend of defenses from different classes. I still have a lot to try. Mana just doesn't come to me fast enough lol. Working the S.EV. into the mix will hopefully prove to be worth it. Time will tell.