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Ethereal string

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An ethereal string is an auction-quality item that can be attached to an unscripted thrown weapon to apply a unique scripted ability, which allows the weapon to return to the hand of the person when HURLed at a target via thrown weapon combat. The resulting weapon is sometimes called a "returner" due to how it behaves. Attaching an ethereal string to a weapon is permanent.

An ethereal string will only work on an unscripted dagger, handaxe, war hammer, quoit, discus, javeline, throwing dagger, throwing axe, or spear.

String

By itself, the ethereal string is just a prop. It serves no mechanical purpose until applied to an appropriate unscripted thrown weapon. Attaching the ethereal string to a weapon is permanent. You can attach it to ANY weapon that is suitable for the returner script, and thus make it a returner. Presuming you attach it to a powerful weapon, you can make a correspondingly powerful returner before you even activate the attached ethereal string script, which has its own additional benefit.

An ethereal string will only work on an unscripted dagger, handaxe, war hammer, quoit, discus, javeline, throwing dagger, throwing axe, or spear.

Analyze

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SHOW

The string appears to waver, alternating between being solid and insubstantial.

Usage

Verb First Third
PUT You decide to permanently attach the ethereal string to your hatchet.
The ethereal string wavers for a moment, shimmering as it fades in and out of existence. After a bright flash of light from within the string's depths, the entirety of the string fades into the hatchet, and the weapon appears substantially different.
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Attach the ethereal string to a weapon. This is permanent.

Weapon

Once attached to an appopriate thrown weapon, the ethereal string can be activated via RAISE. When activated, the strung weapon's enchant goes up one enchant when swung or hurled at a cost of 3 more mana and stamina. Upon each successive attack, the enchant continues to go up by one, and the cost goes up a corresponding +3 mana and +3 stamina until such point that you reach the highest enchant that you can hold for your level, or, alternatively you've used RAISE again and thereby shut off the script.

If you are level 100, 40x enchanted will be the highest enchant weapon you can hold for your level, and therefore the enchant will go no higher although the mana/stamina cost continues to exact a heavy toll if you continue to attack. At this point, if you put the weapon away, after a brief pause it will automatically cycle back to its base enchant. If you put the ethereal string on a 10x weapon, your first enchant brought about by the ethereal string script will be 11x and continue onward until 40x. If you put it on a lower enchant weapon, you can continue to pay an increased cost until you reach 40x enchant; it will simply cost more mana and stamina to get there.

When attached to an appropriate weapon, the ethereal string adds the following onto the weapon's LOOK description:

Attached to the end of the haon-hafted ora hatchet is an ethereal ethereal string, wavering in and out of existence with flickering dots of light. It extends from the grip of the hatchet to your wrist, wrapping around the flesh. The hatchet glows faintly with a pale blue light.

Analyze

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Usage

Verb Status First Third
RAISE Activating You thrust your haon-hafted ora hatchet into the air, and it emits a strange glow that trails down your arm and over your chest. The ethereal string connected to it trembles with a sudden surge of power that begins tugging on your very existence. This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!
De-activating You thrust your glowing haon-hafted ora hatchet into the air, and as the luminescence fades, you feel much more comfortable. The tugging on your very existence ceases. This section has not been added yet; please add to it now!

Additional Information

Ethereal String Mana and Stamina Costs

If starting weapon enchant is 10x:

Enchant AS
Bonus
Mana
Cost
Stamina
Cost
11x 55 3 3
12x 60 6 6
13x 65 9 9
14x 70 12 12
15x 75 15 15
16x 80 18 18
17x 85 21 21
18x 90 24 24
19x 95 27 27
20x 100 30 30
21x 105 33 33
22x 110 36 36
23x 115 39 39
24x 120 42 42
25x 125 45 45
26x 130 48 48
27x 135 51 51
28x 140 54 54
29x 145 57 57
30x 150 60 60
31x 155 63 63
32x 160 66 66
33x 165 69 69
34x 170 72 72
35x 175 75 75
36x 180 78 78
37x 185 81 81
38x 190 84 84
39x 195 87 87
40x 200 90 90

In practice, the result is that if you have access to good amounts of mana and stamina, you can cycle the string from one extra enchant up to five extra enchants continuously throughout a normal hunt. Alternatively, during an invasion type event, you can cycle the weapon upwards to, as an example, 30x enchanted and then hold it in reserve. When faced with a particularly dangerous foe, you pull it out and hit them with an extra +100AS, then +105AS, +110AS, and maybe one last shot at +115AS, in addition to your starting 10x/+50AS. This makes for a very powerful attack. As if that weren't enough, presuming you are HURLing, though not necessary to activate the ethereal string's enchant raising feature, you are also getting a certain amount of parry DS bypass and the relatively low RT of hurling.

See Also

Ethereal string Information
Type Mechanical
Item Classification Weapon
Item(s) Applied to Weapon
Alterable Yes
Light/Deep
Legendary Yes
Item Verbs
PUT RAISE