Discussion: Does affinity matter?

While looking for the "perfect" stone (not sure it exists), I generally try to find a lightning affinity on my solo/lightning dps stone. That said, I have heard some people don't care about the affinity of the stones at all.

So, I was wondering what most people believe. Does affinity matter?

If so ...

What affinity do you prefer for your solo stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your group dps stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your healing stone?

Envoyé par Bradd

While looking for the "perfect" stone (not sure it exists), I generally try to find a lightning affinity on my solo/lightning dps stone. That said, I have heard some people don't care about the affinity of the stones at all.

So, I was wondering what most people believe. Does affinity matter?

If so ...

What affinity do you prefer for your solo stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your group dps stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your healing stone?

It does not really matter. The affinity skills add tiny bonuses and flavor to your toon.

In dps, weapon of gives you a little bit of damage, worth having but if you have a perfect stone thats the wrong affinity, you can live without it. Armor skills all three have a use, its a preference thing, but here again few would turn down a great stone because they hate frost armor or something. Fall to type is a joke, my auto attacks add more damage.

Healing, it matters less, all you care about there is do not fall to type, and thats for maybe 5 fights in the whole game, if that.

It would be awesome if your solo stone had lightning (for the weapon of bonus, since lightning is best solo dps setup) and fire on the group dps weapon, and fire again on the healing stone for the handful of fall to fire uses or lightning for stun armor just in case you get heal aggro.

Envoyé par Bradd

What affinity do you prefer for your solo stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your group dps stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your healing stone?

It is situational, as you indicate in your questions. I like to have a stone for each role, as there is no perfect stone.

My solo stone is lightning Affinity, for speed of cast with no indicutions, and the ability to pop armor of storm, which can be great for CC or a getaway. I stack with +Tact of course, -attuned power usage, - fury of storm power, and any other damage things I can get out of the particular stone.

My group DPS Stone is fire based. There is debate on this right now, as to whether you need fire or lightning, or if it matter, post SoM, but I personally find the power usage is better on fire, and in a group, aggro should mostly be controlled so your inductions dont hurt you here. I stack similiar to above, but change out any storm related attributes for fire based.

Healing - imo, healing is again best as a lightning stone for armor of X reasons...if they rush or break through, it is nice to have the armor of X stun there to control it. However, I dont stack the damaging stuff on it. I do +Tact, as you will do dps sometimes even as a healer, but otherwise, it should have +healing %, - healing power cost, and attributes like that.

Now, that said, that is how I run my stones, but even when solo, and lighting traited on a lightning stone, I do mix in fire skills like WoF and others - there is no need to not do it, and I mix in some frost if I want some AOE. I am using the stone for the benefits of the weapon and armor of X, do not fall to X, and traiting to reduce my power usage for what I will use MOST of the time on the stone.

It doesn't really matter. If you get the "ideal" affinity on an otherwise good LI that's a bonus. If not just swap in a crafted stone to cast the appropriate DNF/Armor skill you're looking for. The crafted Lothlorien recipes have a metric ton of Morale too, so you won't lose anything in the swap.

I played around with different affinities for a month way back in the day, and I ultimately swore my allegiance to lightning. There is no better defense than the stun chance on Armor of Storm, and when you're running from too big of a pull soloing, the stun really helps take down the number of mobs chasing you.

Also, to me, its a real big pain to have to switch stones. I just try to find one with a good mix of legacies for both damage and healing and the stone I currently have has worked out fine for me so far. The only other stone I have in my inventory is a fire stone so I can get DNF to fire on my fellows when running instances. Otherwise, I am exclusively lightning.

But like others have said, it doesn't matter, really.

Envoyé par Bradd

While looking for the "perfect" stone (not sure it exists), I generally try to find a lightning affinity on my solo/lightning dps stone. That said, I have heard some people don't care about the affinity of the stones at all.

So, I was wondering what most people believe. Does affinity matter?

If so ...

What affinity do you prefer for your solo stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your group dps stone?
What affinity do you prefer for your healing stone?

It does matter. Those that say it doesn't, well, misguided.

"It doesn't matter" response reminds me of someone in another thread posting "having both a healing stone and satchel is a bit excessive, as our heals are fine even without legacies..." Small things add up to an overall efficiency. In the end of the day, the devil is in the details.

Do not Fall to and Armor / Weapon of X depends on the affinity. The only affinity that consistently makes sense is fire.

1) Do not Fall to flame gives you protection against fire, given the number of occurrences in the game and the intensity of it ... well , how many lightening damage mobs do you know of (i can think of 2, including the boss in SG). How many Frost mobs kill you in 1 shot like on-fire floors in HoC and SG? Do not Fall to flame can be used at any attunement -- if you want to be a bit more to the team other than straight DPS ... use it.

2) Weapon of X either boosts your damage by 1% or lowers resistance of the mob if you put it on your melee mate. In groups you use fire, if you have a team mate and long enough fight to worry about mob's resistance, you are pretty much guaranteed to use fire.

3) RKs kite well, I got into a habit of using armor of X in conjunction with kiting. Stun chance is fairly low for lightening version, Fire, however, does 90 dmg per tick (if i remember right).

Here is my strategy for spider nest moria run: (do it daily for settings) run in, self heal, armor of flame, let 10 - 12 of them pile on me, wait for 15 sec while self healing. Use a few bring-to-zero-attunement actions (stun, fall to flame etc..) Start kiting (HoTs are still on) kill all of them with lightening (takes about 2 shots per) .. half of the room is clear.


...

I just make sure I have one Fire and one Lightning that I can swap in for SG/BG Do Not Fall to X.. Other than that its not really that big of a deal.

Envoyé par KainXI

I just make sure I have one Fire and one Lightning that I can swap in for SG/BG Do Not Fall to X.. Other than that its not really that big of a deal.

I just wish there was a way to key the weapon swap to 1 key From time to time, I find myself fighting with a healing stone

My fire stone is lightning affinity, my lightning stone is fire affinity - that's just the way they've worked out. Works great for SG! No swapping needed when DPSing.

Envoyé par lariva

It does matter. Those that say it doesn't, well, misguided.

"It doesn't matter" response reminds me of someone in another thread posting "having both a healing stone and satchel is a bit excessive, as our heals are fine even without legacies..." Small things add up to an overall efficiency. In the end of the day, the devil is in the details.

Eh, the amount of time it takes to switch to another stone before you can cast DNFTX is so minimal I don't think it's worth worrying about. I absolutely prefer a fire stone for most things for the reasons you give, but if an ideal stone comes along you'd be crazy to give it up because it's a frost stone.

Envoyé par spiralsatori

My fire stone is lightning affinity, my lightning stone is fire affinity - that's just the way they've worked out. Works great for SG! No swapping needed when DPSing.

That's exactly how it turned out for me, and I agree that it's really convenient. The only problem is that if you're doing a damage contribution color on your FM, you have to remember to swap to your other stone before pushing it, because those default to the damage type of the weapon your using.

As for me, I took what I can get.

My healing stone is Frost. My DPS stone is Fire. I have non-LI stones for Lightning, unless I ever get a good Lightning-legacy Lightning stone.

It can make it more annoying when I DO need "Do Not Fall to Flame" but I've been tasked as the healer...

... but I just swap stones.

I am one who thinks it does matter, and I carry different stones for what I need to do. Do not fall to X is used all the time and I will swap stones if need to be to be effective. I disagree on the fire attunement being the best all round....I love armor of storm, and when used right, even the low stun chance is huge - when you draw too many, and you have 5 on you, and you arent going to break them - you run. If you are at 50% health, or so, and break for it, you are ok. You will get hit many times, and the chances are 1-2 of them will not be an issue, as they will fall off, stunned and wont catch up. Armor of X is superior, imo, for this reason, as it stops the attack. A 90 DoT isnt going to save you in time.

Envoyé par lariva

I just wish there was a way to key the weapon swap to 1 key From time to time, I find myself fighting with a healing stone

gamer keyboards ftw

You can put stones in the quick slots...so you can map them to keyboard commands that way....I either use them as a clicky, or map them to my keyboard, as I do have a gamer kb....but you can do it without. I clicky most of the time even as it is.