Level 60: Defending the Darkest Foxholes

Ding level 60 Spirit Fox!

So it took me about a week to get from 50-60 with my current playtime schedule, and from my previous post, not much of my play style has changed. I'm still grinding up levels and trying to be the best little fox I can be.

The big thing for me personally is I'm starting to make the mental leap into "how could I make Fox work as a solo DPS?" So, lemme break down my mental processes here for you.

1- Not necromancer.  I looked at the necromancer mods and spells and I have to say, it doesn't really seem like a good fit for Fox at second glance.  Necromancers really only have one line of "dark damage" spells and the gear mods don't really seem to emphasize that damage type. From the outside looking in (admittedly I've never leveled necromancer), it seems to be all about building an undead army, NOT dark damage.

2- Possibly Fire Magic.  There are a few things that seem to blend well with Fire magic and Foxes. With a few gear mods you can change the damage type of a couple of your spirit fox spells to Fire based damage, but I'm going to consider this a back up plan.

3- The Necro Rat.  I've never really spent a lot of time looking into the Rahu Sewers dungeon.  Previously I only took a few footsteps in to the sewers before seeing the poison spitting vipers and going . . . NOPE! I hate those things. Dying to poison damage DOT from a snake is the worst, but I finally found something that made me get over my fear: The Necro Rat.

To be honest I didn't even know this thing existed. It's an Animal Handling tamable white rat pet that has a "special trick" called "Rat Darkness" that boosts the owner's Dark and Electricity Attacks by 25%.  BINGO!

So I went down into the sewers last night and wandered around until I gave up, and then I logged in in the morning and finally found where the necro rats were hiding.

It's a horrible maze of Rat People, Vipers, and Slimes. The perfect necro rat hiding place.

Soon I had a Friendly Ratsomancer pet of my own.

Who's a cute white rat of death? Hmm!?!?! YOU ARE FRIENDLY RATSOMANCER!

It came in as a level 60 pet. Sigh. 

He'll be better after . . . oh 30-40 hours of playtime.

Imma side rant here for a second.  I really hope that with the introduction of Animal Husbandry that they find us an alternate way to level pets to 80.  If I could be so bold, giving your pet its favorite item to play with seems perfect.  If I have a rat, I give him cheese.  If I have a cat, I give her string. If I have a bear, I give it a fish. etc.

I currently have two pets leveled to 80 and the ONLY way to level them is to fight with them out in combat.  That's it.  I don't even want to think about what it would take to get my level 37 freeze wasp up to level 80.  I'd have to grind the game all over again from mid game to top level. It's just not a very fun way to handle leveling pets. I need something that negates it with the ol' time vs. money equation. Giving my rat expensive cheese to level him seems reasonable. (end of side rant)

4- Animal Class basics. When you become an animal in Project Gorgon you get access to a spell called "Toxic Flesh" This makes it so when someone attacks you, they take thorns damage.  Also when you become an animal, you get access to animal drugs . . . aka Bounceweed.  Bounceweed is great. It increases the amount of damage your animal attacks do and for a fox, it also makes you run faster. Sure there's the downfall of losing damage for a while when you aren't using Bounceweed, but the answer is simply, never stop using Bounceweed!

After-effects Shmafter-effects . . . gimme that Bounceweed!

5- The Ratkin Shaman's Belt -- this was a fun discovery while running around in the Rahu Sewers.  This belt item increases direct Darkness damage by 6%. YOINK.

The additional two inventory slots is just a bonus.

6- Spirit Fox gear mods -- Specifically I'm interested in the following mods:

Head

• Spirit Fox Damage +40%
• Soul Bite Damage +50%

Chest

• Soul Bite Damage +50%
• Dimensional Snare Damage +90%
• Spirit Bolt deals +96 damage and there's a 50% chance it deals +55% damage
• Spirit Pounce Damage +35% and there's a 50% chance target is Stunned

Legs

• While Blur Step is active, Soul Bite has a 33% chance to deal +7 damage and hit all targets within 7 meters
• Dimensional Snare causes target to take +14% damage from Crushing for 15 seconds (for the animal handling pet damage increase)

Hands

• Spirit Pounce Damage +48 and ability hits all enemies within 6 meters
• Dimensional Snare causes target to take +9.5% damage from Darkness for 15 seconds
• Spirit Bolt Damage +94 and range is +5 meters

Feet

• Nip boosts the damage of Basic, Core, and Nice attacks +80 for 6 seconds. (This buff does not stack with itself.)
• Spirit Pounce Damage +70 and target is Knocked Back

Main Hand

• Spirit Pounce Damage +50%
• Dimensional Snare Damage +90%
• Spirit Bolt deals +96 damage and there's a 50% chance it deals +55% damage

Off Hand

• Direct Darkness Damage +96 when Spirit Fox is active
• Soul Bite deals +48 damage and boosts the damage of Nice attacks by +16% for 6 seconds

Necklace

• Spirit Fox Damage +40%
• Direct Darkness Damage +96 when Spirit Fox is active
• Spirit Bolt Damage +55%

Ring

• Spirit Pounce Damage +50%
• Spirit Bolt Damage +55%

7- Last (and probably least), additional Direct Darkness damage buffs from leveling the Lore skill. If I can get my Lore up to level 43, my character will have a permanent +6% direct darkness buff. That's a lot of nonsense though.  Apparently if I had played the game back in 2016 I could have leveled up the skill by just making Words of Power; now it requires a lot of running around the world and clicking on signs and offering sacrifices to alters, etc. Shouldn't be too tough though.

So . . . that's what I've been thinking about as I've been grinding up those Fox levels.  It's going to be a tough road getting past 70. The cost is SO steep.

Happy Dueling!