Mind hunt
 

Did a search and none of the hits address a specific question:

Do mind hunt use S4 or S3 for penetration calculation?(assume soulslay is researched)what I'm getting at is, do S5 give you a +1 penetration or do you need S6 to do so, since Soulslay is S3 while mind hunt is S4?

Re: Mind hunt
 

Concentrate and ask again.

Re: Mind hunt
 

I...have never thought of that. I would guess S4, with the effect only being shared with soul-slay...but that is just a guess.

Usually I put up a dedicated Mind-hunter or two and just give them penetration items (and often a cap/RoS to get to S4)

Re: Mind hunt
 

That's kind of cruel. It seemed like a valid question to me.

Re: Mind hunt
 

Agree on the dedicated MHer, my circumstance is using Ryleth Spawns, which gets S3-S5 (most often S4), I've planned the standard +5 penetration gear on the base S4 variants, but at that point even an extra +1 pen would make a large difference, so I was debating whether a starshine cap would do it in boasting the pen. by one (only if going by soulslay S3 rather then MH S4).

thanks for the constructive comment too.

Re: Mind hunt
 

If no one has done a study, there's no way to tell except by brute force statistical analysis. If you're interested in doing that, I can develop an experiment, but I usually just go with... The more mind hunters you have, the better kill rate you have, so if you have an S4 and an S3 mage, it's better to put your astral booster on the S3 to give him access to mind hunt rather than on the S4 to give him a +1 penetration bonus (in general). The question you're asking only matters if you're using Astral Boosters to boost penetration, which is inefficient because they're more expensive.

Now, if you're trying to MH an SC, the best method would be to boost penetration to maximum on your most powerful natural mind hunters. The Void Eye will always be better than adding another point of astral...

So if you're boosting Mind hunters, do it in this order:

1. Advance S3 to S4 to increase hunt volume with a Starshine Skullcap.
2. Advance S4 (natural) mind hunter with Void Eye.
3. Advance Void Eye Mind Hunter with Rune Smasher.
4. Advance S4/VE/RS Mind Hunter with Ring of Sorcery (usually if you have the Forge of Ancients, Forge Lord, or National Astral Forgers [Hinnom]).
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 with your S3 + Skullcap hunters.

MA Arcoscephale, obviously, has the easiest time with this process.

Re: Mind hunt
 

It was a valid question. I was using a magic 8 ball, and that's the answer it gave me.

Re: Mind hunt
 

I was afraid a brutal statistical test is the only way to tell :p

Bringing S3 up to S4 would definitely be the way to go usually, except in my specific circumstance I have more S4 then I can possibly use to Mindhunt with, and surprisingly pearls is a limiting factor even at a cost of 2 since I'm burning it like crazy (how many luck pendant / void eye / MR amulet ....etc can you use? Infinity :D). Void eye is definitely the best item for MHer considering the MR penalty doesn't matter when you sit at home, I was thinking the standard void eye + Spell focus + Rune smasher (if only it could be easily accessed :doh:).

So the problem I face is whether I should deck the designated Mindhunters with a cap on top, the 10 gem would be worth it for bumping +5 to +6 if S5 gives another penetration to soulslay.

How I wish I have healing like Arco too :D

Re: Mind hunt
 

Yeah, the Rune Smasher is really easy to get in Arcoscephale because of Mystic (you just need one dude to make them), but definitely not easy to make in R'lyeh, nor is it easy to fix Feeblemind in R'lyeh, which makes Void Eyes significantly more expensive since they can't be transferred and anyone who gets Feeblemind can't be healed without weird (for you) magic.

Re: Mind hunt
 

Spell Focus/Void Eye is cheaper and better even if it's valuable to go from 5 to 6 unless you don't have your first 1S booster for your pretender or best astral mage yet.