Can someone hit me with the numbers for mana cost of extend vs. pool size increase? I get that it has a limit where cost cannot exceed pool size, but that seems to suggest that the earlier you hit that limit, the less you will spend on extend overall. To me, it almost seems like putting no points in Focus, while frustrating at first, could be cheaper long run. I have to be missing something, right? 0 in Focus does get a higher mana per kill mult for cheaper though, right?
Actually wrong. Pretend (for the sake of this example) that your pool is 4,000,000. Your Focus skill allows you to raise your limit 5k. After 10 extends, your mana pool max is 4,050,000. It cost you about 38M.
Now, your focus skill allows you to raise your max mana pool by 20k. After 10 extends, your mana pool is 4,200,000. It cost you 38M (a little more, like 39.5 ish.) It would take 40 extends to increase the first pool by the same amount that 10 extends would take with the second pool. It's just the multiplier to get a bigger pool, so there are some advantages to a smaller pool. So, 152M>38M. Higher focus is better.
Okay, I can accept that the smaller pool increase counterbalances the lower cost, ie you have to cast the spell way more to get the same pool size.
What about the mana gain multiplier though? That goes up a set 5% per cast, so wouldn't many small pool extends mean a larger multiplier for less mana, since the the increase of the cost of extend hits the pool cap faster with low Focus? In the end, you pay more for the larger mana pool, but you end up with a much higher multiplier, which you could use to recoup the costs through O/L traps.
There's a balance, kinda. Medium pool needs a medium amount of extends, and has a mudium multiplier. High pool needs few extends but has a low multiplier. Low pool needs a lot of extends but has higher multiplier.
It's just a preferance. A really high multiplier is only needed if you're planning on getting like a 1B pool plus, or you're planning on using mana from kills the entire way. Overall, Higher pool is inevitable, because no one is going to get +800 damage and +1000 mana gain... It takes so much.
Specifically changed so you need premium to get past level 1000 or so. It's still endless on non-pylon levels lol.
Maybe someone will run a map with non-premium options and see how high of a score they can crank out with say a billion xp worth of skill points (say 20k skill points). At level 600, 100x multiplier isn't too bad on maps that have 3 or fewer entrances, but you need to get lucky on the number of giant waves--as many as possible, with a single giant around wave 8 or so.
I'm 5600 with only 20 maps done. (hard settings). You just wait til you get the maps with 2000+ base exp, that's like 80M--120M exp a map. I still raise like 140 levels with 90M exp.
Do you guys have any tips for a low level? :/ Im level 43 and having a **** hard time beating endurance. I usually get around level 100, 150 max and then **** just gets rough.
But then I also saw that someone beat it as level 3 on the Kongregate forums so there must be SOME trick that Im not getting..
