Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/Ascension Progression

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Last Revised January 5, 2023

Bard

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         6/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Aura                 aura            10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dexterity            dexterity       4/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Logic                logic           20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Mana Regeneration    regenmana       5/50  Passive        Common          Regen           
 Mental Lore - Manipu mlmanipulation  14/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Mental Lore - Telepa mltelepathy     6/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Polearm Weapons      polearmsweapons 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Porter               porter          5/50  Passive        Common          Other           
 Stamina Regeneration regenstamina    10/50 Passive        Common          Regen           
 Strength             strength        12/40 Passive        Common          Stat            

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was Agility to 6, Aura to 10, Telepathy to 6, Manipulation to 14, Mana Regen to 5, Logic to 10, Strength to 10, Porter to 5, Polearm to 10, Stamina Regen to 10, CM to 5, Dodging to 5, CM to 10, Dodging to 10. I hoarded a points for about four and a half months afterward while waiting to see how the bard review turned out, but then it got delayed, so next I went for Logic to 20, Dexterity to 4, and Strength to 12 in one fell swoop.

Agility first to reach an Agidex threshold. (4 Agility and 2 Dexterity would be 1 ATP faster at the same thing, but I preferred the extra DS on a build in light armor with no shield.) Aura for the bard's current strongest option, Song of Sonic Disruption. Telepathy and Manipulation were done in that order, but were part of the same plan as I switched normal skills to have 41 Telepathy and 60 Manipulation from base skills. Going to 46 and 75 allowed me to reach a new threshold for Kai's Triumph Song while keeping full benefits for Song of Sonic Disruption. Mana Regen isn't particularly helpful in combat, but slightly eases long gem purifying sessions. After that point, nothing seemed especially appealing, which was my cue to train Logic!

After that, I very intentionally took a path that wasn't the most efficient for improving AS (which would start as Polearm to 5, then Strength/CM to 4, the other of Strength/CM to 4, Polearm to 10, Strength/CM to 6, the other to 6, Polearm to 15). This is because bards already have very high AS while also having faster swings than everybody except warmages, so I was more interested in reducing encumbrance than increasing AS. That's likewise the reason for taking Porter! The stray Dexterity to 4 and Strength to 12 were to reach a threshold for weighting, as are her next goals of Strength to 14 and Dexterity to 10.

After that she'll be back to hoarding ATPs despite the bard review being on hold, as there aren't any quick wins left that I know of.

Cleric

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         6/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 24/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Constitution         constitution    4/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dexterity            dexterity       10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Edged Weapons        edgedweapons    50/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Elemental Lore - Ear elearth         4/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Logic                logic           20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Porter               porter          5/50  Passive        Common          Other           
 Spiritual Lore - Ble slblessings     9/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Spiritual Lore - Rel slreligion      11/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Stamina Regeneration regenstamina    15/50 Passive        Common          Regen           
 Strength             strength        24/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Trading              trading         4/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Two Weapon Combat    twoweaponcombat 20/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Wisdom               wisdom          14/40 Passive        Common          Stat      

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Don't want to make anyone's eyes glaze over by listing the order I trained these skills in, but the gist of it is that Leafi's a war cleric and needs all the help she can get to make that work, so that's the Edged, Strength, CM, TWC, and Stamina Regen. It's also the reason for the 4 Constitution after H2U alerted me to its role in the stamina formula and I checked the math to find out that 4 ATPs would hit thresholds for two more points of stamina regen. (It's another 17 ATPs before the next threshold, though.) The Earth lore is to hit the 105 Earth threshold for rock flares on her main weapon.

On the magical side that's probably more interesting to most cleric players who would read this, 9 Blessings via Ascension allowed enough leeway to get Religion to 40 via normal skills while keeping Blessings at 150 for various thresholds of Manna, Heroism, Condemn, Symbol of the Proselyte, and possibly other things I'm forgetting. 40 is the breakpoint after which skill ranks convert 1:1 to with bonus, so the point was to follow up by taking 11 Religion, reaching the 51 threshold for Divine Wrath.

Trading because making more silvers is great and Porter because encumbrance reduction is also great!

Finishing Edged Weapons was more to say I finished a single 50-rank Ascension skill than anything else, as I think the best options would have been either Religion for the next Divine Wrath threshold, TWC for more consistency against bandits, Spell Aiming for a stronger Condemn in the Hinterwilds and Moonsedge, or (her probable next step since it's among the quickest) a bit more Strength and Dexterity for another weighting threshold.

Empath

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Crush Resistance     resistcrush     10/40 Passive        Common          Resist          
 Dexterity            dexterity       4/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Logic                logic           20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Porter               porter          5/50  Passive        Common          Other           
 Puncture Resistance  resistpuncture  10/40 Passive        Common          Resist          
 Slash Resistance     resistslash     10/40 Passive        Common          Resist          
 Spiritual Lore - Ble slblessings     10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Spiritual Lore - Sum slsummoning     8/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Strength             strength        10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Two-Handed Weapons   twohandedweapon 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Wisdom               wisdom          10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was Summoning to 8, Wisdom to 10, Strength to 10, Porter to 5, CM to 10, THW to 10, Logic to 10, Blessings to 10, Puncture/Slash/Crush Resist to 10 in that order, Dodging to 5, Agility to 4, Dodging to 10, Agility to 10, Logic to 20, Dexterity to 4.

Summoning is just a quirk of her skill from base exp being 70, so getting 8 more ranks hit a new threshold for Spirit Slayer while also being the maximum threshold for Spirit Slayer when she fixskills into 202 Summoning for the arena. I'll have to re-evaluate after the impending nerf, though.

Wisdom for CS, Strength and Porter for encumbrance, CM and THW for AS. This isn't the most efficient order for AS, but the encumbrance reduction and maneuver defense were important enough to me to outweigh that. As usual, Logic comes next whenever I reach the point where nothing else seems especially interesting.

Blessings for minor improvement to auto-healing scars. Resistances are marginally more useful for empaths than others because every reduced wound can save that much more mana on healing it down. Dodging and Agility are about maneuver defense, so they're not done in an order that prioritizes DS efficiency, which would involve Dodging to 15 before Agility goes above 6. I'm actually not 100% sure that this was even the most efficient improvement to maneuver defense, but toying around on the test server has shown me that Agility bonus outweighs Dodging bonus on that front--but too many variables are involved for me to cleanly figure out whether it's twice as efficient. There were times when it seemed that it actually is and others when it seemed not.

More Logic because nothing else seemed compelling, then a small touch of Dexterity for a weighting threshold even though it's pretty rare that she swings with her maul anyway.

My empath has a couple dozen hoarded points and is in a holding pattern for the spell disabler review before committing any further.

Monk

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         6/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Brawling             brawling        10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Edged Weapons        edgedweapons    7/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Influence            influence       4/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Logic                logic           10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Stamina Regeneration regenstamina    10/50 Passive        Common          Regen           
 Trading              trading         8/50  Passive        Common          Skill           

Order of learning was Agility to 6, Brawling to 5, Logic to 10, Stamina Regen to 10, Trading to 8 and Influence to 4 simultaneously, Brawling to 10, Dodging to 10, Combat Maneuvers to 10, Edged Weapons to 7 (and moving on toward 10). Like usual, I train Logic once nothing else seems appealing. Unlike usual, that point came really quickly for my monk because they frankly don't need much when they're already exceptional at UAC.

Trading and Influence because monks are among the best item sellers in the game due to Shroud of Deception and Glamour; each week, my best gem sacks go to my elf monk (turning into a human to sell in Solhaven), then my human ranger (making use of Assume Aspect Lion), then after that it's more open-ended as my half-sylvan cleric, elf empath, and elf paladin all sell for identical amounts in neutral cities.

Edged Weapons are just for the arena, then she'll pick up Dexterity to 2 for a weighting threshold, then it's right back to a long grind for Logic to 20 because, again, monks don't really need much on top of their base toolkit.

Paladin

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Blunt Weapons        bluntweapons    15/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dexterity            dexterity       11/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Logic                logic           20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Porter               porter          10/50 Passive        Common          Other           
 Spell Aiming         spellaiming     10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Spirit Mana Control  spiritmc        9/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Spiritual Lore - Rel slreligion      7/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Stamina Regeneration regenstamina    10/50 Passive        Common          Regen           
 Strength             strength        10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Two Weapon Combat    twoweaponcombat 15/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Wisdom               wisdom          20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was Blunt to 10, Strength to 4, CM to 4, Strength to 6, CM to 6, Strength to 10, CM to 10, Wisdom to 10, Logic to 10, TWC to 10, Blunt to 15, Porter to 10, Dodging to 10, Stamina Regen to 10, Spell Aiming to 10, SMC to 3, Agility to 10, Religion to 7, SMC to 9. At that point, I hoarded over 100 ATPs waiting on the Divine Intervention system, but with it not finished yet, I took Logic to 20, TWC to 15, Wisdom to 20, and Dexterity to 11 (currently heading for 12) in one fell swoop.

Started off here with the basics of improving AS in the most efficient fashion for a while, then broke away from it; Blunt to 15 before Strength/CM to 10 would be the proper order there, but I liked the round numbers. Wisdom for CS, then nothing else seemed appealing, so I went for Logic.

Unlike with my above characters, though, I misjudged. In hindsight, I would have put off Logic longer, but more on that momentarily. TWC to 10 because extra ranks are very helpful in the Hinterwilds, then back to more Blunt ranks for AS. Porter came later for my paladin than most, but also pushed further on her than most (to 10 ranks instead of 5) because avoiding encumbrance is more important for a low DS profession that spends a lot of time in offensive stance. Shoring up DS even slightly is also why I went to Dodging next.

Stamina Regen should have been far sooner in hindsight--it's a huge boon. Spell Aiming wasn't me just toying around, as it was one of her most common infused spells in her bonded weapon. I realized afterward that I could infuse one more charge of Fire Spirit if I went to 104 SMC, so I did that! Agility for more DS, then Religion was enough to hit a new threshold for Zealot. Lastly, more SMC allowed for one more charge of Repentance, her other most common infused spell.

Like Stamina Regen, Dexterity should have been sooner in hindsight, but I didn't realize the effect it would have on her CER! Once she finishes Dexterity to 12, though, I'll be at a bit of a loss what to do. We'll see what Divine Intervention brings.

Ranger

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ambush               ambush          2/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dexterity            dexterity       10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         8/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Logic                logic           10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Ranged Weapons       rangedweapons   20/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Spiritual Lore - Sum slsummoning     11/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Trading              trading         3/50  Passive        Common          Skill           

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was Trading to 3, Logic to 10, Summoning to 11, Ranged to 5, Dexterity to 4, Ranged to 10, Ambush to 2, Dexterity to 6, Ranged to 15, Dexterity to 10, Ranged to 20, Dodging to 8 (and moving toward 10).

Rangers are absolute machines in the Hinterwilds with normal exp alone since Moonbeam into Spike Thorn beats everything. So, not needing anything mechanical out of Ascension, I took Trading immediately to hit a threshold in conjunction with Assume Aspect Lion, then took Logic because nothing else mattered anyway.

11 ranks of Summoning via Ascension allowed me to move 11 ranks of Summoning via normal exp into Blessings, hitting a threshold for Nature's Bounty to get better skin values. There's also the Tangleweed AS boost at 10 Blessings, but I don't need that when Moonbeam and Spike Thorn exist. Afterward it's mostly just a bunch of boosting ranged AS for the arena, then Dodging just as very basic DS after raising AS further became really expensive.

Logic to 20 will be after Dodging since, again, Moonbeam into Spike Thorn just beats everything. After that I don't know--maybe Mana Regen?

Rogue

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Brawling             brawling        10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dexterity            dexterity       14/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Edged Weapons        edgedweapons    10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Influence            influence       5/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Logic                logic           10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Picking Locks        pickinglocks    30/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Porter               porter          10/50 Passive        Common          Other           
 Stamina Regeneration regenstamina    20/50 Passive        Common          Regen           
 Strength             strength        10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Trading              trading         11/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Two Weapon Combat    twoweaponcombat 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was Dexterity to 6, Logic to 10, Trading to 11, Influence to 5, Strength to 10, Porter to 10, CM to 10, Edged to 10, Dexterity to 10, Stamina Regen to 17, Brawling to 10, TWC to 10, Dodging to 10, Stamina Regen to 20, Picking Locks to 25, Dexterity to 14, Picking Locks to 30.

Or, at least, that's kind of the order of learning! She actually had 15 Picking Locks very early on, but dropped them after players were reporting, early on, that Ascension skills weren't affecting the range of boxes from the locksmith pool. (Either this was mistaken or it was fixed later, as Ascension definitely affects that now.) She also had 15 Ranged at point, but the release of PSM3 flipped her archery to a backup option only used for Volley, which doesn't use AS.

She initially learned Brawling, Two Weapon Combat, and Dodging before taking any Stamina Regen, but the release of PSM3 again shifted me in a different direction as I found that somewhere between 15 and 20 Stamina Regen was enough for sustainable rotation of katar weapon techniques with the occasional Volley mixed in.

All that said, despite myriad fixskills to move things about, it's still true that Dexterity, Logic, Trading, and Influence were all early at some point. Dexterity hit a new Agidex threshold while also improving ranged AS (done before PSM3 was out) and improving her locksmithing. Logic was to absorb exp faster to locksmith longer. Trading and Influence were to sell scarabs for more.

Strength and Porter because encumbrance is death to a rogue in robes. CM and Edged because AS matters sometimes even when you do have TWC Hamstring, one of the greatest combat maneuvers ever by a long shot. More Dexterity for locksmithing and phantom crit weighting, then Stamina Regeneration, then Brawling. I have absolutely no idea why Brawling came so much later than Edged since I don't think there was any period where I had her using short swords instead of katars, but maybe I'm wrong.

TWC to hit overleveled, Dodging is great with Light Armor Proficiency, finished up Stamina Regen to relentlessly spam edged and brawling weapon techniques, and finally it's back to the races with endless Picking Locks because a lot of those Hinterwilds boxes are brutal. Her next goals are Dexterity to 16, Picking Locks to 35, and Dexterity to 20. We'll see if I still have the willpower to keep going on the locksmithing front after that.

Sorcerer

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Aura                 aura            10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Spirit Mana Control  spiritmc        2/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Wisdom               wisdom          14/40 Passive        Common          Stat            

Not much to see here. Just efficiently improving CS until I lost my mind over how slow it was and went back to training normal exp. Did that for a while and came back to take SMC to 2 for Ensorcell, but then the Hinterwilds quickly proved that I needed 50 of each elemental lore and 303 Harness Power. I have the former, but it'll be months and months before I'm done with the latter and get back to something--I don't know what--with my sorcerer in Ascension.

Warrior

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Logic                logic           10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            

My warrior's going to learn a boatload of spells (if she even remains a warrior after all is said and done with profession reviews and/or Elite and Legendary Ascension) and that takes eternity, so I just threw all my milestones at Logic, gained just enough Ascension exp to finish taking it to 10, and went back to normal exp. Simple as that! For as many years away as a 76/20 split of spells is, nothing in Common Ascension even comes close to how much I'm interested in 98 DS, 68 elemental TD, and 45 spiritual TD.

Wizard 1

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Agility              agility         10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Combat Maneuvers     combatmaneuvers 10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Dexterity            dexterity       14/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Dodging              dodging         10/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Elemental Mana Contr elementalmc     9/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Influence            influence       2/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Intuition            intuition       10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Logic                logic           20/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Porter               porter          10/50 Passive        Common          Other           
 Spell Aiming         spellaiming     15/50 Passive        Common          Skill           
 Strength             strength        16/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Trading              trading         5/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Two-Handed Weapons   twohandedweapon 15/50 Passive        Common          Skill           

Click here for explanations!

Explanation

Order of learning was EMC to 5, Logic to 4, Intuition to 4, Logic to 6, Spell Aiming to 10, Dexterity to 6, EMC to 9, Logic to 10, Intuition to 10, Spell Aiming to 15, Strength to 10, Porter to 10, Dexterity to 10, THW to 10, CM to 10, THW to 15, Dodging to 5, Agility to 4, Dodging to 10, Agility to 6, Trading to 5, Influence to 2, Agility to 10. Then I hoarded points for a long time while waiting for the wizard review, but it could be a while, so I took Logic to 20, Dexterity to 14, and Strength to 16 in one fell swoop.

The early flurry of skills before Spell Aiming were for enchanting purposes before I got bored and took a detour for bolt AS. Then I resumed improving enchanting, then back to bolt AS, then Strength and Porter because encumbrance reduction is awesome. Dexterity for more bolt AS, then the Hinterwilds made it onto the test server. All my bolt AS meant little there without enhancives, but casting Earthen Fury and swinging a sledgehammer with 1 RT seemed pretty good, so I pushed her warmage side harder instead with THW and CM ranks. Dodging and Agility provide a bit of maneuver defense, though I briefly diverted once I realized I was within a Trading/Influence threshold.

Logic because nothing else is especially compelling and upcoming reviews could change things. Dexterity and Strength to reach weighting thresholds because I figured that was better for the ATP cost than just pushing THW ranks further. Her next goals are Dexterity to 16 for another weighting threshold, then Wisdom to 10 for a bolt spell weighting threshold, then afterward I don't know.

Wizard 2

 Skill                Mnemonic        Ranks Type           Category        Subcategory
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Dexterity            dexterity       4/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Elemental Mana Contr elementalmc     5/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Intuition            intuition       6/40  Passive        Common          Stat            
 Logic                logic           10/40 Passive        Common          Stat            
 Spell Aiming         spellaiming     7/50  Passive        Common          Skill           
 Trading              trading         2/50  Passive        Common          Skill           

Order of learning was Trading to 2, EMC to 5, Logic to 6, Intuition to 6, Logic to 10, Spell Aiming to 5, Dexterity to 4, Spell Aiming to 7. Trading reached a threshold, then EMC, Logic, and Intuition for enchanting power. Spell Aiming and Dexterity for bolt AS. She was going to push to 10 Spell Aiming, but the Hinterwilds release made me stop sitting on the fence about whether she'd ever 1x Dodging and Brawling. The answer was a resounding yes! I am, however, going to take Wisdom to 4 for a bolt spell weighting threshold.