Stasis

Stasis is the name given to any strategy which involves purposefully extending the duration of combat, usually for the purpose of MP gain, without sacrificing one's stat-gain and/or item-drop familiar.

When "stasis" is discussed here, it refers to using Jabañero Saucesphere in conjunction with other skills to gain MP.

Stasis is similar to "starfishing" (see Star Starfish Trick), a tactic in which a player waits for their Star Starfish to attack in combat, thus restoring their MP. Others have used an NPZR to gain meat, HP and/or MP. However, for speed ascenders, familiar-based techniques hold a huge disadvantage over stasis because they preclude the use of a stat-gain familiar.

Jabañero Saucesphere stasis

Jabañero Saucesphere stasis is the most-discussed type of stasis and is the focus of the remainder of this article. This strategy is largely employed by Hardcore players, and especially speed ascenders. This is because advanced Jabañero stasis provides the MP to maintain a heavy skill load, allows for Meat to be put to uses other than simply restoring MP, and allows players to sustain adventuring with higher Monster Level.

The entire basis of the strategy is the skill Jabañero Saucesphere, which replenishes a range of 1 to 5 MP upon a successful strike by an opponent. In addition, the opponent receives damage equal to MP gained. This offers what amounts to a conversion of monster HP to player MP, with a monster HP plus four MP to be gained per adventure as a maximum.

The efficiency of stasis depends on the following methods:

• Maximize enemy HP and ensure the enemy takes as much damage as possible from the saucesphere alone. Therefore, limit or prevent any other damage being done to the enemy.
• However, ensure that the enemy can be killed before exceeding the thirty round limit in each combat.
• Ensure that the player is consistently hit by the enemy, but minimize the damage being done to the player.
• Utilize skills and restore HP efficiently.

There is no single "correct" way to perform stasis, and much depends upon the player's preferred tactics and available skills. Listed below are a variety of techniques that some players have found useful to stasis.

Stat control

Because stasis relies on the player taking damage from an opponent, the most obvious strategy is to set the player's Moxie lower than the monster's attack level by a certain margin. That way, the damage the monster is able to deal is restricted, while still allowing the monster to strike consistently. Having player Moxie too close to monster attack results in a situation in which the player is not hit often enough for the saucesphere to deal lethal damage before the round limit is reached. Tight control of moxie versus monster level and a good understanding of the Game Mechanics is a necessity to optimize MP gained while still getting stat points.

In the "Hero stasis" strategy, players use the Hero of the Half-Shell skill. With this skill and a shield, Muscle instead of Moxie is used to determine the player's damage taken, but Moxie is still used to determine whether the player can be hit. Thus, the player raises Muscle while lowering Moxie to maximize the number of times monsters hit while minimizing the damage inflicted by each hit. This strategy is highly effective, especially for Muscle classes. See below for more details.

Limiting player attacks

For the saucesphere to grant maximum MP, the player should avoid reducing the monster's HP through normal attacks. The most common method of limiting attacks is to swing a melee weapon while keeping muscle sufficiently lower than the monster's defense rating. The same tactic can be used with a ranged weapon and low moxie. For other possible methods, see the Star Starfish Trick article.

If it becomes impossible for the saucesphere to kill the monster before the thirty round limit is exceeded, the player should also be prepared to deliver the coup de grâce. This can be done using an attack which always hits such as a spell or LTSynergy strike.

Healing and maximum HP

Because the strategy involves being hit, healing will be required both in and out of battle. As such, it becomes important to heal efficiently. In battle, the cheapest healing method is Saucy Salve. Saucy Salve will heal between 10 and 15 damage per round. To be used to its greatest potential, it should only be used if a player is likely to lose the battle within this range. However, with skill cost reduction Saucy Salve can become the most MP efficient method of healing.

Without skill cost reduction, in-battle healing should be limited because out-of-battle skills offer more efficient alternatives. Tongue of the Walrus is the cheapest healing skill on average up to 70 HP to be healed. After this, Cannelloni Cocoon becomes best. Because Cocoon restores all HP, Reptilian Fortitude and Spirit of Ravioli are often employed to increase its effectiveness. See the Cost Analysis of Restoring HP and MP for specific numbers.

Jalapeño Saucesphere is also employed in cases where a player would otherwise take too much damage from monsters. Jalapeño Saucesphere, though it reduces MP potential, may also result in the ability to kill monsters within 30 rounds that Jabanero alone would not.

Maximum MP

Often, when Stasising, the player may restore more MP than his or her maximum in a single adventure or before it can be used to its fullest potential. Because of this, skills which increase Mysticality or maximum MP are often employed. The Magical Mojomuscular Melody and Wisdom of the Elder Tortoises are the primary of these.

Damage reduction

All players will benefit from a reduction in damage taken. There are three main ways to reduce damage: Damage Reduction; Elemental Resistance; and Damage Absorption.

Damage reduction offers the most obvious results of these. Damage reduction, which removes a flat amount of damage from a monster's strike, is achieved largely through the Skin of the Leatherback skill and through shields equipped in a player's off-hand. The most commonly used shields are the two cola shields which become available at level 4. Due to the early time these can be acquired, as well as the relative speed with which they can be found (3 adventures, on average), it is rare to see a player employing Stasis without one of these equipped. Brawnee's Anthem of Absorption also provides powerful damage reduction, but takes up a valuable AT buff slot.

Elemental resistance is also an important part of damage reduction. Elemental resistance, though only viable against elemental attacks, offers a relatively easy to achieve percent reduction in damage. Intrinsic resistance skills, Elemental Saucesphere and Astral Shell will together reduce damage from elemental attacks by 50%. Various items will add an extra level of resistance to players. As a result, these skills make areas which contain only elemental monsters (The Friar's Gate, the Hippy Camp, the Cyrpt, and yes, the Icy Peak) veritable MP mines.

Damage absorption, though useful against all monsters, becomes more noticeable in great quantities. Hat, shirt and pants power is added directly to damage absorption. Intrinsic skills Hide of the Otter and Hide of the Walrus grant 20 and 40 damage absorption, respectively. Astral Shell and Ghostly Shell both offer 80. Tao of the Terrapin doubles the effective power of both hat and pants. The sum of these, though less effective individually, can reduce damage taken significantly. (See Damage Absorption for the formula.)

Monster level

Stasis also benefits from an increase in Monster Level. Monster level will increase the amount of HP possible to convert to MP, will increase stat gains from monsters, and will allow Stasis against monsters which might otherwise be too weak to battle properly. This makes Mysticality signs favoured by Stasisers thanks to the mind-control device, as well as the availability of jewelry components.

In battle, players often reduce monster level (or at least monster attack strength). Reduction in either of these results in less damage being dealt to the player. The skill most often employed for the purpose is Entangling Noodles due to its low cost and relatively high reduction rate. Also, this skill only affects monster attack level, and does not reduce monster HP or defense (meaning you won't accidentally hit it with your normal attacks afterward). The myriad Disco Bandit deleveling skills are not ideal choices because they reduce monster HP and are not as efficient, although they can be useful in specific situations (such as when another dose of Noodles would be too crippling). Note that reduction in monster attack level will, if done incorrectly, destroy any chance of gaining MP during the battle by dropping the monster's chance of hitting to near-zero levels.

Skill cost reduction

As Stasis benefits from extreme efficiency, items which reduce MP cost can greatly increase your effectiveness. The baconstone bracelet, stainless steel solitaire and plexiglass pocketwatch all impact skill costs greatly. Because these items remove a constant amount of MP from the cost of each skill, their effect is greatest on low-cost skills, such as Entangling Noodles and Saucy Salve. Mysticality signs are often employed by Stasisers for, among other reasons, access to the baconstone bracelet.

High level stasis

Though most players choose to abandon Stasis between levels seven and eight for LTSynergy, extremely high level Stasis is also possible up through and including the Hole in the Sky. Doing so requires some advanced skills such as Tao of the Terrapin and Hero of the Half-Shell. See below for details on how the latter affects stasis.

Hero stasis

The introduction (and "fixing") of the skill Hero of the Half-Shell allows an extremely powerful and efficient form of stasis which is often called "Hero stasis". Obviously, it requires a shield to be equipped. Doing so triggers the Hero skill, which means that while monsters use your Moxie to determine whether they hit you, they use your Muscle to determine how much they hurt you. So, by raising your Muscle much higher than your Moxie, you can ensure that you are hit nearly every round (fumbles will always miss), for minimal damage. A difference of even 10 points between Muscle and Moxie can be extremely noticeable when employing this technique -- you may observe monsters hitting you for 1-2 points of damage instead of 3-4.

Common ways to raise Muscle in order to maximize the efficiency of this technique include:

• Playing as a Muscle class (Seal Clubber or Turtle Tamer). Note that Mysticality classes can also do this, with a bit of effort, but Moxie classes will find it extremely difficult, if not impossible.
• Using the Accordion Thief song Power Ballad of the Arrowsmith.
• Using the Seal Clubber skill Rage of the Reindeer (as well as the "trivial" skills Seal Clubbing Frenzy and Patience of the Tortoise).
• Equipping a plexiglass pith helmet, stainless steel skullcap, Crown of the Goblin King, or leather mask.
• Using Blood of the Wereseal on a day when doing so is advantageous (its effect varies with the Moons).
• Using jewelry constructed with a hamethyst.

With Muscle raised very high, there is some danger of accidentally hitting a monster when equipping a melee weapon; therefore, many players will choose to equip a ranged weapon (such as a disco ball or a lead yo-yo) in order to ensure missing. With this tactic, if a monster must be killed on round 30, Thrust-Smack cannot be employed (since it does not function with a ranged weapon equipped); therefore, Stream of Sauce becomes the preferred coup de grace agent.

Familiar choice

It is a common misconception that players who stasis choose star starfish or mosquito type familiars. In fact, that refers to Star Starfish Trick-style play. Jabañero Saucesphere stasis allows the use of any familiar, and for speed ascenders, stat gaining familiars are the most favoured by far.

In particular, any familiar that damages or delevels the monster you're fighting undermines your ability to use stasis. Also, the plastic pumpkin bucket, which does frequent and potent damage to monsters, makes stasis extremely difficult.

For advanced stasis players: Often a Pygmy Bugbear Shaman is overlooked, due to it's high-MP-upkeep. But players employing a very efficient stasis skillset will often have so much MP that they will have too much MP, even after buffing all their buffs to absurd levels. In this case, if a Pygmy Bugbear Shaman is available to use, it becomes your best option in areas that you require item drops, but still want your stats to be increased. Some players have even chosen to go with a Bugbear as their primary familiar. Be warned: during the early levels, it is much harder to maintain a full-weight Bugbear, and another familiar may need to take it's place.

Greasemonkey scripts

Players using the Firefox browser often employ Greasemonkey scripts to assist with some of the tedious parts of stasis. In particular, counting the number of rounds of combat to ensure you finish off the monster within 30 rounds is quite annoying to do manually. The primary script used in stasis is Naltrexone's MonsterStats. This one counts the rounds of combat, as well as displaying the (estimated) monster HP, chance of dodging, and so on.

Notes

• Before May 23, 2006, you could click outside the combat window (for example on inventory or campground) to skip your turn and allow the monster to attack you again. Clicking outside the combat window now brings up the message, "You twiddle your thumbs".
• It was mentioned on one of Jick's radio shows that the Joybuzzer is still an effective way to do nothing for a turn.
• After it is obtained, the Dictionary could also be used for this purpose, as it does not damage most monsters.

Suggested Reading

• The Rye Stasis Chart gives an extensive list of skills and items that optimize Stasis performance.

References

• Stasis (or "Stasis Sphere") was the name of a strategy employed by many Magic: the Gathering players which used a mostly blue deck that controlled the rate at which your opponent could access his recources.
• Thorns refers to the Diablo II Paladin skill which damages all opponents who attack you.