Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/Pre-Ascension Stopping Points

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Empath (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Armor Use..........................|     150      50
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
 Two-Handed Weapons.................|     201     101
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     403     303
 Dodging............................|     201     101
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     140      40
 Magic Item Use.....................|     302     202
 Spell Aiming.......................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     403     303
 Mental Mana Control................|     300     200
 Spirit Mana Control................|     300     200
 Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........|     232     132
 Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........|     170      70
 Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     245     145
 Mental Lore - Transformation.......|     157      57
 Survival...........................|     201     101
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     201     101
 Trading............................|     301     201

Spell Lists
 Major Spiritual....................|              67

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              67

Spell Lists
 Empath.............................|             166

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Edged Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Elemental Mana Control, all four Elemental Lores, Spiritual Lore - Religion, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Manipulation, Transference), Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

Empaths are arguably the most versatile pure, ahead of even wizards, but using all of their talents means they have a very long way to go with conventional exp before everything is "done" and it's definitely time for Ascension. The above build is a tough over 5x cap and arguably even that isn't complete.

In any case, this is my omni-style empath who does a bit of everything. Empathic Link is the glue to make it work, since neither bolts nor melee are especially impressive on their own at cap, but suddenly become so when you can turn single-target strikes into AoE strikes. In some contexts, warpaths at the high end are actually stronger than warmages when it comes to melee power.

• 50 Armor Use is for wearing chain mail with minimum spell hindrance, compensating for warpaths taking more hits than casting empaths.
• Dodging is a grind of over five million experience, but in the long run it's a must when giving up Spirit Barrier to make use of an empath's physical prowess.
• I consider 3x Harness Power unnecessary for wizards and sorcerers due to mana returns from Mana Leech and Dark Catalyst. I wouldn't quite call it unnecessary on clerics at cap, but I could at least see the argument because of Ethereal Censer. For empaths, though, I think it's absolutely worthwhile since Empathic Link is extremely mana-intensive while also being core to their offense. Guardians of Sunfist empaths can potentially make do with 2x Harness Power and 65 Blessings lore for Adrenal Surge, though.
• High Blessings lore is for a strong chance of auto-healing scars since, again, a warpath will take more hits than a casting empath.
• Likewise, 57 Transformation lore is for no hard RT when healing.
• High Telepathy lore is for Empathic Link, which simply improves everything an empath does.

Negotiable Skills

• You can get 4 more DS out of training Minor Spiritual to 70 and about 2 more DS out of training Armor Use to 85, but 6 DS is almost never the difference between life and death when wearing chain mail. Even if it were, I could instead train Dodging ranks and Agility in Ascension for slightly lower DS gains that also offer maneuver defense.
• If future capped hunting grounds make more use of skinning, maxing First Aid and Survival will be a must.

Monk (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|     302     202
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Brawling...........................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     290     190
 Physical Fitness...................|     403     303
 Dodging............................|     403     303
 Magic Item Use.....................|     201     101
 Harness Power......................|     200     100
 Mental Mana Control................|     105      25
 Spirit Mana Control................|      50      10
 Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     120      30
 Mental Lore - Transformation.......|     120      30
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 Trading............................|     300     200

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              20

Spell Lists
 Minor Mental.......................|              50

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Armor Use, Shield Use, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Ambush, Arcane Symbols, Spell Aiming, Elemental Mana Control, all four Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Manipulation, Transference), Survival, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, First Aid, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

Compared to most professions, monks finish every majorly important skill pretty early--not long after 2x cap. My monk's fairly close already and will get there before the end of the year!

Conventional brawling monks are exceptional at killing individual enemies with either focused mstrikes or Spin Kick, so my driving philosophy here is to improve her ability to battle swarms by training katars so she can rotate between Clash and Whirling Blade without having to sacrifice Spin Kick. Most of her skills should be self-explanatory since monks are very straightforward, but just to touch on the few that might not be:

• Magic Item Use is for small statues to shore up her TD weakness.
• 30 Transformation lore likewise lands a capped Dragonscale Skin monk at -7 CvA, which is a boon.
• 50 Minor Mental is partly for better CS, but also in case I ever want to make use of Shroud of Deception.

Negotiable Skills

• Training Survival for protection against bandit spike traps is a possibility, but I mostly rely on meditation resistances for that.
• Training Ranged Weapons--not Ambush, just Ranged Weapons--to have Volley as an option for enemies that are hard to kill with AS or UAF-based attack. That would only need 175 ranks to max out the strength of Volley since it's maneuver-based and I wouldn't use ranged attacks conventionally on a monk.

Paladin (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|     302     202
 Armor Use..........................|     320     220
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Blunt Weapons......................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     302     202
 Dodging............................|     302     202
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     201     101
 Magic Item Use.....................|     201     101
 Spell Aiming.......................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     302     202
 Elemental Mana Control.............|      50      10
 Spirit Mana Control................|     201     101
 Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........|      93      21
 Spiritual Lore - Religion..........|     253     153
 Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........|     114      28
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     201     101
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              40

Spell Lists
 Paladin............................|             162

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Shield Use, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Mental Mana Control, all four Elemental Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

My paladin is my second highest exp character, so even though these goals are a bit over 4.5x cap, she's closing in probably by halfway through Ebon Gate 5121.

The heart of my vision for her is strong anti-swarm abilities with two weapons trained, allowing steady rotation between Pulverize, Whirling Blade, and Judgment as her AoE abilities. She also wears metal breastplate, so Judgment has no hindrance. That said, she's giving up significant defense both in her armor choice and by not using a shield, but that's what Ascension and simply striking faster than the enemy are for.

• 220 Armor Use reduces metal breastplate armor penalty to its minimum while allowing her to fully train two armor specializations.
• Blunt Weapons are primary and Edged Weapons are a backup to keep the AoE and assault technique trains rolling when the others are in cooldown.
• Arcane Symbols ranks are a little frivolous on this build since so many of her attacks aren't coming from her bonded weapon, nor am I even good about maintaining a scroll supply to infuse anyway, but since I had them trained before Ascension was released, I decided to keep them. I hold out hope that something more will be done with the skill in the future!
• Spell Aiming is even more frivolous, but I figure that the dev team wouldn't have opened it up for semis if they hadn't at least considered the possibility of doing more with it in the future. My true goal for my paladin is actually to have her be very magic-heavy relative to other paladins, but that's not exactly a viable option at the moment. I hope that one day it will be.
• Minimum 150 Religion lore is crucial so that Divine Incarnation - Smite has a 100% chance of a double strike. Even though it can only be used ten times per ten minutes, it's a near-guaranteed kill on anything and an amazing ace to pull out when needed. From there, going to 153 Religion hit a threshold for Zealot.
• 202 Survival is the type of skill I wouldn't have trained if I didn't already have it by the time Ascension came out, but it's still useful for bandit traps.

Negotiable Skills

• Training 175 Ranged Weapons for access to Volley is another solid AoE option, though an expensive one.
• I have one high-quality quoit, which doubles as a handaxe when swung or works well as a thrown weapon. If I ever find another one, I'll at least consider training Thrown Weapons.
• Training Shield Use is a possibility if Ascension hunting grounds leave me feeling that keeping up Wall of Force and potentially Spirit Barrier aren't enough.
• There was a brief window where my paladin had 101 Disarming Traps and 101 Picking Locks. Maybe one day I'll want to go back to that.

Warrior (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Armor Use..........................|     200     100
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Ranged Weapons.....................|     275     175
 Polearm Weapons....................|     302     202
 Brawling...........................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     290     190
 Physical Fitness...................|     403     303
 Dodging............................|     403     303
 Magic Item Use.....................|     201     101
 Harness Power......................|     201     101
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     105      25
 Spirit Mana Control................|     105      25
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     201     101
 Trading............................|     301     201

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              81

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              20

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Edged Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Ambush, Arcane Symbls, Spell Aiming, Mental Mana Control, all four Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, First Aid, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

This is looking so extremely far into the future that I don't want to check the math on how post-cap it is, but nonetheless here's the plan!

The core of this is being an untouchable light armor warrior and capitalizing on her ability to have an absurd 50% evasion rate (against like-level enemies): 15% from Dodging ranks, 10% from Light Armor Proficiency, 10% from the Combat Mastery feat, and 15% from Evade Specialization. Opting for light armor impacts nearly every other training decision:

• Only 100 Armor Use to max armor support, but she otherwise doesn't need or benefit from these ranks at all.
• Brawling and Polearms have reaction techniques based on evading, making them a natural fit. They also complement each other in that it's rare to find an enemy who's simultaneously difficult to kill with both attack forms.
• For enemies who are difficult to kill with AS or UAF, Ranged Weapons are a backup since Volley is maneuver-based damage. Stopping at 175 Ranged Weapons and 0 Ambush is because I don't intend to use conventional AS-based archery at all.
• Magic Item Use is vital for small statues, as she'll need the TD to compensate for light armor.
• Survival isn't for skinning (barring any future capped hunting grounds with skinnable enemies, in which case she'll also max First Aid), but for avoiding bandit spike traps since those hurt significantly more in light armor than plate.
• Maxing spells is for extra AS and, more importantly, extra DS and TD. In light armor she'll also have no spell hindrance, which means she can let Elemental Wave or even Major Elemental Wave fly.

Negotiable Skills

• I could see stopping at 35 Minor Elemental ranks if the grind is too much to bear.
• Stopping mana controls at 7 ranks each for sharing purposes (that's perfect sharing with 200 rank characters) is an option rather than going for the multicast for quality of life reasons.
• Rather than training Survival, another option is just tanking bandit traps by training one out of slash resistance and puncture resistance through Ascension, which is more expensive for exp but also more broadly useful, while getting the other through fittings.

Wizard 1 (Current)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Armor Use..........................|     111      27
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
 Two-Handed Weapons.................|     201     101
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|       5       1
 Physical Fitness...................|     201     101
 Dodging............................|     201     101
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     302     202
 Magic Item Use.....................|     302     202
 Spell Aiming.......................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     403     303
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     403     303
 Spirit Mana Control................|      35       7
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|     167      67
 Elemental Lore - Earth.............|     235     135
 Survival...........................|     201     101
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 Trading............................|     296     196

Spell Lists
 Major Elemental....................|             100

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              75

Spell Lists
 Wizard.............................|             128

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Edged Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Mental Mana Control, Elemental Lore - Fire, Elemental Lore - Water, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, First Aid, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

This is my archetypical warmage, who I feel comfortable saying is well and truly done with conventional skills. Key points:

• 27 Armor Use is for leather breastplate, which is a pretty noticeable increase in survivability over full leathers. Brigandine would be even better with guaranteed access to armored casting, which I do have, but isn't what I envision the character wearing.
• 135 Earth lore is for three Core Taps per minute, which is only especially useful in the arena--but I always take her to the arena, so I just leave it in place to avoid needing to fixskill in and out. If I ever reach the point where Duskruin no longer interests me, then going to 100 or more Air lore for a more effective Haste is the move.
• 3x Harness Power is a bit extraneous, but she was leveled before Ascension existed, so it's there to stay now. Having that much mana is also why she doesn't have 20 Fire lore for Minor Steam.

Negotiable Skills

I don't see training anything else unless wizards can eventually learn weapon techniques, in which case I'll re-evaluate.

Wizard 2 (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     201     101
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     300     200
 Magic Item Use.....................|     300     200
 Spell Aiming.......................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     302     202
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     403     303
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|      50      10
 Elemental Lore - Earth.............|     160      60
 Elemental Lore - Fire..............|      90      20
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 Trading............................|     302     202

Spell Lists
 Major Elemental....................|             100

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              75

Spell Lists
 Wizard.............................|             128

Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Armor Use, Shield Use, all weapon types, Ambush, Multi Opponent Combat, Dodging, Mental Mana Control, Spirit Mana Control, Elemental Lore - Water, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Survival, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, First Aid, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

This is my pure wizard, who accordingly needs less exp than my warmage. There's little to explain here since she's a straightforward, traditional wizard. Some key points, though:

• Combat Maneuvers and Perception are strictly for maneuver defense.
• I don't see Dodging or going beyond 2x Harness Power as necessary or especially beneficial on a wizard thanks to Mana Leech and their already-high DS and maneuver mitigation. My warmage trained those things only because she leveled that far before Ascension existed.
• Going for 2x lores also seems unnecessary for conventional hunting. 135 Earth lore is great during Duskruin, but can simply be fixskilled into.

Negotiable Skills

• I could see training Survival for protection against bandit traps.