After a long time in testing, I have decided to change...

Drylox · Post by **Drylox** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:37 pm

My base bow skill is 355 -- cost 101 mil to raise and creatures are still evading like crazy since the missle d boost patch for creatures. I can only raise the skill 26 points more to 381 at a cost of several billion, but the rate of evades are too high to make that much of a difference.

I have looked at melee, but starting all over with imbueing weapons would take too long. Besides, I started at 100 focus and self so I am a full blown life mage now (life specialized - 340 base). Creature is 300 base, item 290, mana c 250, so everything is in place to switch to war.

Now switching over to a Battlemage would take months, but I have a plan that will allow me to get over the change easier since I am not accustomed to being a mage. One thing that I don't like about a pure mage is getting hit almost 100% of the time. Some mages train melee d, but starting at 10 coordination and quickness does not help it much. My toon started at 100 coordination. So my melee d will be 30 points higher. This is what I have planned for the change:

Untrain bow (16) and train war (16) in 2 weeks (already have the first bow gem

This will make me a 4 school mage with spec life and melee d.

In 4 weeks I will untrain fletching, then in 6 weeks healing.

+++Another skill I want much higher is creature (helps at VoD and other high level places so I will specialize it in 8 weeks leaving 2 skill points. This will make me a Tank/Og mage.

By now I will have gotten used to getting hit more often since melee d is pentalized using a magic item - staff. So when I am ready to proceed to the next step, I will unspec melee d at 10 weeks and spec war at 12 (holding both gems for use at 12 weeks).

I have requested war scrolls on the Armory section.

If bow ever gets fixed, I would have the option of reverting to bow or remain where I am.

Rathgryn · Post by **Rathgryn** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 9:04 pm

Wow! That's a very long term change, and I hope everything works out well. It is true the Missile characters have gotten the short end of the stick as of late, but the sheer damage potential for missile characters is still high. I've watched very high level archers hunt (Dangerous Lady for example) and they almost always get most of the kills in VOD or anywhere. The simple fact is, you're only as good as the team you hunt with, and everyone in the team has a job to do. A group of pure archers or meleers would do little in VoD, and while a group of mages can do well on their own, if you add one good archer or melee fighter into the mix, and they kill things much faster, especially if the mages drop an imperil occasionally. I think the game is very balanced at this point, and would have no desire to play it if it wasn't. The high level creatures resist spells and evade attacks all across the board, so if you're upset with them evading your missile attacks, just wait till they start resisting your war spells. If there was one character class that could annihilate everything, everyone would play it and the game would be no fun. Well, that's just one noob's opinion anyway. Good Luck in sorting all this out, and remember, the point of the game, at least in my opinion, is to have fun playing a character that you enjoy.

Flanker · Post by **Flanker** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 9:15 pm

Drylox, just a tid bit of adivce on mages and melee d.

with the attribute redistribution, I am in the process of changing my starting stats of
55/50/10/10/100/100

to
10/10/10/100/100/100

I chose to raise quick since I am aluvain and dagger is my racial weapon, effected by coord and quick. I also chose it to increase my run skill, so I can get away from Panz, when he is mad at me for spray painting the mansion.

I am now starting to evade a good bit more now. I think I buff melee to around 380 or so.

So my template is now
Spec
war
life

Train
critter
item
mana c
lockpick
melee d

Nakamuro Zataki · Post by **Nakamuro Zataki** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:37 pm

Are you really sure about this? Go hunt VoD and ask a mage to debuff missile defense, to get a feeling for the boost 20 points would do. Get up close and personal with the mages... monsters I mean. Sorry, sleepy here.

If you decide to take the mage road, then 100 coord is more useful than 100 quick (unless you talk to Panzer

). If all you do is hunt at VoD then you probably dont need melee defense, but if you go to other places it is quite nice to evade.

Drylox · Post by **Drylox** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:46 pm

Flanker

You might think that 100 quick is good because it helps dagger, run and melee d, but you are missing out in a big way if you do that -- here's why:

The damage modifier for dagger is coordination. Every 10 points of coordination over 55 points gives you 8% more damage. All quickness does for dagger is help to raise the skill. Extreme magic dagger guys are either 10/10/100/10/100/100 or 10/10/100/100/100/10. The latter is the most common cause a dagger guy rarely debuffs a creature before attacking it. It takes to long to go from the wand to dagger and shield that often. They just use the high magic attributes to buff with high level magic more quickly.

The archer can debuff more often cause they only switch out from bow to wand (and that is slow too). A mage doesn't have to switch at all.

Drylox · Post by **Drylox** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:55 pm

As I said earlier, my base creature is 300 and buffs to 365 at VoD. I can't land everytime with that, but I can sometimes and cast broadside on them and still get the evades. I could lower their coord and quick as well, but all that takes too long.

I have been an archer for almost 4 years on ac and play everyday. I have never left ac (taken a break) in all that time. I know all about the combination of having mages there with an archer.

Btw, mages kill faster than archers. This has been tested recently. By the time I have finished the debuffs and about to shoot, the mage is already on the next creature. I thought the wind-ups on the war spells were slow, but it was just as slow as a bow.

Yes 12 weeks is a long time, but then so is 4 years

Flanker · Post by **Flanker** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:55 pm

Dry, your right I completly forgot about the coord mod....I need to switch it up then hehe

Oof · Post by **Oof** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 2:02 am

Aero, are you planning on easing into the mage business, or try to gather all of your gems while you are learning your war 7s, and make a big switch to the final product all at once?

Aero · Post by **Aero** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:20 am

I will be easing into it. I have one bow gem now and get the second 12 days. Then will use them both to get the 16 points needed to train war. With the billion xp from bow, my trained war base will be about 320ish.

I do not have any level 7 war spells now, but even if I can just get one, like fire, I will hunt tuskers until I get more, or use level VI's until I get the rest.

I already have all the level 7 spells from the other schools.

Phade · Post by **Phade** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:54 am

I would go 100 end/focus/self.

Phade has melee d .. 310 base.. and doesn't evade anything other than low level critters.. nothing in VoD..

but more hlth helps a lot =D

Pee-Wee · Post by **Pee-Wee** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 2:34 pm

Ummm as far as your comment on Mages and Melee Def... Talk to Culticon. It still blows me away that I get killed in the assailer dung, when, at the time, I had 334 base Melee Def, Major Armor Shield, Fully baned BASE al 416 armor.... and, Culticon is in there with no melee def.

If he survives, that sorta ruins your reason for thinking you need melee def.

And, are you telling me you were/are and archer without melee def? Well, in that case, you too must get hit 100% of the time. Otherwise, your style of attack is to shoot at long distances, which could serve you the same with a battlemage.

I look at it like this, if you are doing fine without a shiled (Archer) and without melee NOW, you should do fine without a shield (Mage) and no melee.

Of course, Melee is the first thing I ever train/spec. But, after the "Culticon incident", I'm beginning to wonder if I need to sink as much xp into it as I have.

Culticon · Post by **Culticon** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 2:45 pm

Mages don't need Melee D its a waste its all Health Stam Endurance Mana.
then spec magic D it will cost less skill pts to have spec magic d then spec melee D. And besides magic hurts a heck of alot more than melee does

Pee-Wee · Post by **Pee-Wee** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 3:06 pm

Culticon wrote: And besides magic hurts a heck of alot more than melee does

Alas, it is for this reason Melee people have a grudge against mages.

Oof · Post by **Oof** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 3:12 pm

Yes, but let them run out of their little tapers Pee-Wee, and see who has the last laugh then!

Aero · Post by **Aero** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:44 am

Since some of you are thinking my skills are different then they are, let me show you what they are at the present:

Base Primary Attributes
Str: 160, End: 160, Coord: 270, Quick: 170, Focus: 260, Self: 260

Base Secondary Attributes:
Health 210, Stamina 310, Mana 400

Specialized Base Skills:
Bow - 355
Life Magic - 340
Melee Defense - 360

Trained Base Skills:
Assess Person - 323
Creature Enchantment - 300
Dagger - 147
Fletching - 307
Healing - 317
Item Enchantment - 290
Jump - 340
Loyalty - 230
Magic Defense - 245
Mana Conversion - 250
Run - 300

Pure mages go with 100 end or strength or a combination of both. When they train melee d it does not do very well. I started at 100 coord so my melee d is quite high. With my magic staff engaged around Assailers, hits are very rare. Without melee d a mage gets hit almost everytime. When there are a lot of mobs around a mage, the health drop can be incredible. I tried playing Balkoth (a friend's battlemage) when he was in his 90's. I didn't like playing him because of all the hits.

My melee d does a lot better than just evading the small critters. I evade 98% of all creatures 100%. I was toying with a diamond golem the other day. He can't touch me physically and I resist 99% of all his spells.