Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/Pre-Ascension Stopping Points: Difference between revisions

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<div class="mw-customtoggle-bard mw-customtoggle-empath mw-customtoggle-monk mw-customtoggle-paladin mw-customtoggle-ranger mw-customtoggle-rogue mw-customtoggle-sorcerer mw-customtoggle-warrior mw-customtoggle-wizard1 mw-customtoggle-wizard2" style="color:#0000FF">'''(click here to open all collapsed sections on this page)'''</div>
=Monk (Future)=

'''Last Revised September 25, 2022'''

=Bard (Current)=

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Polearm Weapons....................| 302 202
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202
Dodging............................| 302 202
Arcane Symbols.....................| 70 15
Magic Item Use.....................| 302 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202
Elemental Mana Control.............| 201 101
Mental Mana Control................| 201 101
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 178 78
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 99 23
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 160 60
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 141 41
Survival...........................| 302 202
Disarming Traps....................| 150 50
Picking Locks......................| 150 50
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 75
Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 127

<div class="mw-customtoggle-bard" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-bard">

(skills with no ranks are: Armor Use, Shield Use, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Spell Aiming, Spirit Mana Control, all three unlisted Elemental Lores (Earth, Fire, Water), all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Transference, Transformation), Stalking and Hiding, Pickpocketing)

==Explanation==

Far enough post-cap, '''bards do everything''' and mine is no exception. The main unconventional play here is that mine wears robes, at least for now, for improved DS and maneuver offense compared to a conventional augmented chain bard. Almost every skill trained here is straightforward to boost offense, defense, or longevity. First Aid and Survival are for the Hinterwilds, as the skinning there is excellent. 78 Air lore is a breakpoint for the passive Dodging bonus from Song of Tonis, then the remaining 23 lore ranks went to Water to improve Elemental Wave's success rate against overleveled creatures.

I'll note that only base skills are shown. By using Ascension, her real Manipulation and Telepathy numbers are 75 and 46 respectively, so ''yes,'' of course she has a full-powered Song of Sonic Disruption!

Much about bards is up in the air with an impending review, so these plans are playing it safe and only training things that I think will be necessary regardless of what changes.

</div>

=Empath (Current)=

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................| 302 202
Spirit Mana Control................| 302 202
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 232 132
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 170 70
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 245 145
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 157 57
Survival...........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 201 101
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 403 303
Trading............................| 302 202
Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 67
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 67
Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 166

<div class="mw-customtoggle-empath" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-empath">

(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 along with 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 touch 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.
* I'll finish Empath Base if empaths ever get a profession service that requires ranks of it.

</div>

=Monk (Current)=


Skill Name | Current Current
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Armor Use..........................| 0 0
Shield Use.........................| 0 0
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Blunt Weapons......................| 0 0
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 0 0
Ranged Weapons.....................| 0 0
Thrown Weapons.....................| 0 0
Polearm Weapons....................| 0 0
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Ambush.............................| 0 0
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 290 190
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 290 190
Physical Fitness...................| 403 303
Physical Fitness...................| 403 303
Dodging............................| 403 303
Dodging............................| 403 303
Arcane Symbols.....................| 0 0
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Spell Aiming.......................| 0 0
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 200 100
Elemental Mana Control.............| 25 5
Elemental Mana Control.............| 0 0
Mental Mana Control................| 105 25
Mental Mana Control................| 105 25
Spirit Mana Control................| 50 10
Spirit Mana Control................| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Divination...........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 70 15
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 120 30
Survival...........................| 302 202
Survival...........................| 0 0
Disarming Traps....................| 0 0
Picking Locks......................| 0 0
Stalking and Hiding................| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 0 0
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 300 200
Trading............................| 302 202
Pickpocketing......................| 0 0
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20
Minor Spiritual....................| 40
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
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<div class="mw-customtoggle-monk" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-monk" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-monk">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-monk">

(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, all four Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Manipulation, Transference), Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)


==Explanation==
==Explanation==


Compared to most professions, monks finish every majorly important skill pretty early--not long after 2x cap. That said, the Hinterwilds are threatening enough that I instead settled on a build that needed roughly 3x cap. Conventional brawling monks are exceptional at killing individual enemies with focused mstrikes or Spin Kick, so my driving philosophy here was 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. It's more of a forward-looking idea, though, as monk AS isn't particularly high without going the Mental Acuity route. I'm hoping Ascension archetypes might open that up more in the future. It does work even now when grouping with AS-boosting professions like paladins and bards, though.
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:
Most of her skills should be self-explanatory since monks are very straightforward, but just to touch on the few that might not be:


* 15 Transformation lore lands a capped Dragonscale Skin monk at -6 CvA, which is a boon.
* 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.
* 50 Minor Mental is partly for better CS, but also in case I ever want to make use of Shroud of Deception.
* 40 Minor Spiritual is for Wall of Force--or, at least, it was before Divergence introduced hard cooldowns. I would no longer recommend learning Wall of Force on a monk and only have it because I already learned it before that happened. DS is no problem for monks in any hunting scenario other than the Hinterwilds, where I still don't cast Wall of Force because I consider it a bad habit to rely on something that can only have 33% uptime.


==Negotiable Skills==
==Negotiable Skills==


* Training Ranged Weapons--not Ambush, just Ranged Weapons--to have Volley is an option for enemies that are hard to kill with AS or UAF-based attacks alike, but so far I can't find any that are resilient to both.
* 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.


</div>
</div>


=Paladin (Future)=
=Paladin (Current)=

Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202 202
Armor Use..........................| 320 220 220
Shield Use.........................| 302 202 202
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202 202
Blunt Weapons......................| 302 202 202
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 201 101 101
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202 202
Dodging............................| 302 202 202
Arcane Symbols.....................| 201 101 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101 101
Spell Aiming.......................| 302 202 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202 202
Elemental Mana Control.............| 50 10 10
Spirit Mana Control................| 201 101 101
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 93 21 21
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 253 153 153
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 114 28 28
Survival...........................| 302 202 202
Disarming Traps....................| 201 101 101
Picking Locks......................| 201 101 101
Perception.........................| 302 202 202
Climbing...........................| 201 101 101
Swimming...........................| 201 101 101
First Aid..........................| 302 202 202
Trading............................| 302 202 202
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 40 40
Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 162 162

<div class="mw-customtoggle-paladin" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-paladin">

(skills with no ranks are: 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, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

==Explanation==

My paladin is my second highest exp character and 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.
* Shield Use is something I wanted to have in my pocket as an option, but in the relatively few places where I wish I had extra DS, I've not found using a shield to be __enough__ extra DS to offset weaker offense. Still, there might be a future area where I'd need the extra defensive benefits--now referring to block rate too, not just DS--enough to outweigh my preference.

==Negotiable Skills==

* Training 175 Ranged Weapons for access to Volley is a solid AoE option, though an expensive one. I could see myself wanting it one day, but for now I'm content with 37,747,500 exp looking like a pretty number.

</div>

=Ranger (Current)=


Skill Name | Current Current
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Armor Use..........................| 320 220
Armor Use..........................| 235 135
Shield Use.........................| 0 0
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Blunt Weapons......................| 302 202
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 0 0
Ranged Weapons.....................| 0 0
Thrown Weapons.....................| 0 0
Polearm Weapons....................| 0 0
Brawling...........................| 0 0
Ambush.............................| 0 0
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 201 101
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202
Dodging............................| 302 202
Dodging............................| 302 202
Arcane Symbols.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Spell Aiming.......................| 302 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202
Elemental Mana Control.............| 50 10
Mental Mana Control................| 0 0
Spirit Mana Control................| 201 101
Spirit Mana Control................| 201 101
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 54 11
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 190 90
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 0 0
Survival...........................| 403 303
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 93 21
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 253 153
Swimming...........................| 140 40
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 114 28
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 0 0
Trading............................| 302 202
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 0 0
Spell Lists
Mental Lore - Divination...........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 0 0
Minor Spiritual....................| 20
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 0 0
Spell Lists
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 0 0
Ranger.............................| 182

<div class="mw-customtoggle-ranger" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-ranger">

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

==Explanation==

Rangers don't have exceptional offense but do have exceptional defense, so my main concept here is to '''make use of flexibility'''. Nearly all enemies are highly vulnerable to ranger magic, but the few that aren't tend to have trouble against melee.

Key points to note:

* 10 Blessings are for Tangleweed. I'm only listing base skills here, but Summoning lore also hits 100 through ATPs to guarantee an extra cycle on Nature's Fury.
* Pushing Ranger Base so high is for Spike Thorn and Resist Nature. Even before Divergence, Wall of Force was relatively frivolous to rangers as a very high DS profession with probably the best set of disablers in the game, so after the changes go game-wide, it'll be even more frivolous with 33% uptime. There's a case for Spirit Guide, but my ranger is in Voln, so Symbol of Return suffices there.

==Negotiable Skills==

A lot will depend on what Ascension brings to the table for rangers. I'm in a holding pattern for now, though I'm ready to train Brawling at the drop of a hat for katars if need be. Still, who knows? Spell Aiming or learning Call Lightning could become appealing. They could push an archery path that would make me pick that back up again. Plenty of scenarios are possible!

</div>

=Rogue (Current)=

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 302 202
Armor Use..........................| 200 100
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Ranged Weapons.....................| 302 202
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Ambush.............................| 302 202
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 302 202
Dodging............................| 403 303
Arcane Symbols.....................| 105 25
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Spirit Mana Control................| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 191 91
Survival...........................| 302 202
Survival...........................| 302 202
Disarming Traps....................| 0 0
Disarming Traps....................| 403 303
Picking Locks......................| 0 0
Picking Locks......................| 403 303
Stalking and Hiding................| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 201 101
Climbing...........................| 201 101
Swimming...........................| 201 101
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 302 202
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Pickpocketing......................| 0 0
Pickpocketing......................| 302 202
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 76
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20

<div class="mw-customtoggle-rogue" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-rogue">

(skills with no ranks are: Shield Use, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Ambush, Spell Aiming, Mental Mana Control, all other Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Stalking and Hiding, and First Aid)

==Explanation==

A triple weapon build with maxed Elemental Targeting is reasonably achievable for rogues compared to warriors trying to accomplish the same.

The core idea is an '''agile, evasive, lightly armored rogue'''. She'll primarily swing katars and keep Evasiveness active from either Whirling Blade or Light Armor Proficiency procs, Spin Kick as she can, and supplement crowd control with Elemental Wave and Volley--the latter being additionally backed up by a rogue's phantom Multi Opponent Combat ranks.

Rogues are very multifaceted, so some key points are:

* 100 Armor Use is to learn maxed armor evasion.
* 101 Multi Opponent Combat plus three ranks from Ascension allows Volley to hit up to seven enemies with rogues' 50% benefit for crossbows.
* As far as I can tell, 15 Arcane Symbols is always enough to disarm scarabs. I went for 25 in case I ever decide to use things scrolls with 20th level spells, though.
* The mana controls for multicasting are sheer quality of life.

</div>

=Sorcerer (Future)=

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 90 20
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 10 2
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.............| 302 202
Spirit Mana Control................| 302 202
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 150 50
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 150 50
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 150 50
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 152 52
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 20 4
Survival...........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 77
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
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Spell Lists
Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 162
Sorcerer...........................| 186


<div class="mw-customtoggle-paladin" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-sorcerer" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-paladin">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-sorcerer">

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Edged Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Mental Mana Control, all three Spiritual Lores, all five Mental Lores, Necromancy, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)


==Explanation==
==Explanation==


Basically an '''archetypical sorcerer'''; there's not much leeway for going off the beaten path sans extraordinary gear. Most of my planned skills for her should be self-explanatory, but the more unusual ones include:
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.


* 20 Armor Use is to wear leather breastplate, which gives a noticeable increase in survivability over double leathers or especially full leathers.
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.
* The meager 2 ranks of Multi Opponent Combat and Demonology lore are both for increasing the number of splash targets for Balefire. Frankly, Balefire isn't worth using at the moment for any reason other than fun flavor, but I'm hoping that the sorcerer review or Ascension will turn that around.
* After getting 50 of each elemental lore for Dark Catalyst, the spare points go into Water to very slightly improve Elemental Wave.
* Compared to more conventional sorcerer spell splits, this one sacrifices 2 CS for somewhere between +16 and +27 power for Ensorcell.


The current lack of sorcerous lores is because of the pending sorcerer review, as I don't know where I'll settle.
* 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==
==Negotiable Skills==


If sorcerers get a way to learn weapon techniques, she'll pick up Polearm Weapons to use their sheer power to compensate for her lacking AS.
* 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.


</div>
</div>


=Warrior (Future)=
=Warrior (Far, Far Future)=


Skill Name | Current Current
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 0 0
Armor Use..........................| 300 200
Armor Use..........................| 200 100
Shield Use.........................| 0 0
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Combat Maneuvers...................| 302 202
Edged Weapons......................| 0 0
Edged Weapons......................| 302 202
Blunt Weapons......................| 0 0
Blunt Weapons......................| 302 202
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 0 0
Ranged Weapons.....................| 275 175
Thrown Weapons.....................| 0 0
Polearm Weapons....................| 302 202
Polearm Weapons....................| 302 202
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Brawling...........................| 302 202
Ambush.............................| 0 0
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 302 202
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 290 190
Physical Fitness...................| 403 303
Physical Fitness...................| 403 303
Dodging............................| 403 303
Dodging............................| 403 303
Arcane Symbols.....................| 0 0
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Spell Aiming.......................| 0 0
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Mental Mana Control................| 0 0
Spirit Mana Control................| 105 25
Spirit Mana Control................| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Divination...........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 0 0
Survival...........................| 302 202
Survival...........................| 302 202
Disarming Traps....................| 0 0
Picking Locks......................| 0 0
Stalking and Hiding................| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 0 0
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 301 201
Trading............................| 302 202
Pickpocketing......................| 0 0
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 81
Minor Elemental....................| 76
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
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<div class="mw-customtoggle-warrior" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-warrior" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-warrior">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-warrior">

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Ranged 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, and Pickpocketing)


==Explanation==
==Explanation==
Line 221: Line 425:
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!
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:
The core of this is being an '''untouchable light armor warrior''' and capitalizing on her ability to have an excellent 40% evasion rate (against like-level enemies): 15% from Dodging ranks, 10% from Light Armor Proficiency, 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.
* 200 Armor Use so she can handle at least two different fittings.
* Near-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.
* 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==
==Negotiable Skills==


* I could see stopping at 35 Minor Elemental ranks if the grind is too much to bear.
* I could see stopping at 35 Minor Elemental ranks if the grind is too much to bear, but that's a lot of AS lost.
* 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.
* 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.


</div>
</div>
Line 242: Line 441:
Skill Name | Current Current
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 0 0
Armor Use..........................| 111 27
Armor Use..........................| 111 27
Shield Use.........................| 0 0
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Edged Weapons......................| 0 0
Blunt Weapons......................| 0 0
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 201 101
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 201 101
Ranged Weapons.....................| 0 0
Thrown Weapons.....................| 0 0
Polearm Weapons....................| 0 0
Brawling...........................| 0 0
Ambush.............................| 0 0
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 5 1
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 5 1
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
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Harness Power......................| 403 303
Harness Power......................| 403 303
Elemental Mana Control.............| 403 303
Elemental Mana Control.............| 403 303
Mental Mana Control................| 0 0
Spirit Mana Control................| 50 10
Spirit Mana Control................| 35 7
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 167 67
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 167 67
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 235 135
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 235 135
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 0 0
Survival...........................| 302 202
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Divination...........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 0 0
Survival...........................| 201 101
Disarming Traps....................| 0 0
Picking Locks......................| 0 0
Stalking and Hiding................| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 201 101
Climbing...........................| 201 101
Swimming...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 0 0
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 296 196
Trading............................| 302 202
Pickpocketing......................| 0 0
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
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<div class="mw-customtoggle-wizard1" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-customtoggle-wizard1" style="overflow:auto;color:#0000FF">Click here for explanations!</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wizard1">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wizard1">

(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, and Pickpocketing)


==Explanation==
==Explanation==


This is my '''archetypical warmage''', who I feel comfortable saying is well and truly done with conventional skills at a bit over 4x cap. Key points:
This is my '''archetypical warmage'''. 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.
* 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.
* 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. A Pending Core Tap nerf will likely have me dropping to 102 Earth lore and 100 Air lore to max out Haste, though.
* 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.
* 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==
==Negotiable Skills==


I don't see training anything else unless wizards can eventually learn weapon techniques, in which case I'll re-evaluate.
I don't see training anything else unless wizards can eventually learn weapon techniques, in which case I'll re-evaluate. I'm fairly invested in her sledgehammer, though, and since assault and AoE techniques stop Celerity, I'd only be using Overpower even then, which means I wouldn't need more MOC.


</div>
</div>


=Wizard 2 (Future)=
=Wizard 2 (Far Future)=


Skill Name | Current Current
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 0 0
Two Weapon Combat..................| 5 1
Armor Use..........................| 0 0
Shield Use.........................| 0 0
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Edged Weapons......................| 0 0
Brawling...........................| 201 101
Blunt Weapons......................| 0 0
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 0 0
Ranged Weapons.....................| 0 0
Thrown Weapons.....................| 0 0
Polearm Weapons....................| 0 0
Brawling...........................| 0 0
Ambush.............................| 0 0
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 0 0
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Dodging............................| 0 0
Dodging............................| 201 101
Arcane Symbols.....................| 300 200
Arcane Symbols.....................| 302 202
Magic Item Use.....................| 300 200
Magic Item Use.....................| 302 202
Spell Aiming.......................| 302 202
Spell Aiming.......................| 302 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202
Harness Power......................| 302 202
Elemental Mana Control.............| 403 303
Elemental Mana Control.............| 403 303
Mental Mana Control................| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 91 21
Spirit Mana Control................| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 50 10
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 160 60
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 90 20
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 90 20
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 0 0
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 50 10
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 0 0
Survival...........................| 302 202
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 0 0
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Divination...........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 0 0
Survival...........................| 0 0
Disarming Traps....................| 0 0
Picking Locks......................| 0 0
Stalking and Hiding................| 0 0
Perception.........................| 302 202
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 0 0
First Aid..........................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Trading............................| 302 202
Pickpocketing......................| 0 0
Spell Lists
Spell Lists
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<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wizard2">
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" id="mw-customcollapsible-wizard2">


(skills with no ranks are: Armor Use, Shield Use, all weapon types except Brawling, Ambush, Multi Opponent Combat, Mental Mana Control, Spirit Mana Control, Elemental Lore - Earth, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)
==Explanation==


==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:


There's little to explain here since she's largely 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==


* Brawling is a rarely-used backup option for creatures that are difficult to hit with either Earthen Fury or AS attacks.
* I could see training Survival for protection against bandit traps.
* I don't see going beyond 2x Harness Power as necessary or especially beneficial on a wizard thanks to Mana Leech. My warmage trained those things only because she leveled that far before Ascension existed.
* Going for 2x or even 1x lores also seems unnecessary for conventional hunting. The lores here are only to unlock things like Cone of Elements Lightning and Minor Steam.


</div>
</div>

Latest revision as of 22:51, 25 September 2022

(click here to open all collapsed sections on this page)

Last Revised September 25, 2022

Bard (Current)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|     302     202
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Polearm Weapons....................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     302     202
 Dodging............................|     302     202
 Arcane Symbols.....................|      70      15
 Magic Item Use.....................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     302     202
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     201     101
 Mental Mana Control................|     201     101
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|     178      78
 Elemental Lore - Water.............|      99      23
 Mental Lore - Manipulation.........|     160      60
 Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     141      41
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Disarming Traps....................|     150      50
 Picking Locks......................|     150      50
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

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

Spell Lists
 Bard...............................|             127
Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Armor Use, Shield Use, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Spell Aiming, Spirit Mana Control, all three unlisted Elemental Lores (Earth, Fire, Water), all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Transference, Transformation), Stalking and Hiding, Pickpocketing)

Explanation

Far enough post-cap, bards do everything and mine is no exception. The main unconventional play here is that mine wears robes, at least for now, for improved DS and maneuver offense compared to a conventional augmented chain bard. Almost every skill trained here is straightforward to boost offense, defense, or longevity. First Aid and Survival are for the Hinterwilds, as the skinning there is excellent. 78 Air lore is a breakpoint for the passive Dodging bonus from Song of Tonis, then the remaining 23 lore ranks went to Water to improve Elemental Wave's success rate against overleveled creatures.

I'll note that only base skills are shown. By using Ascension, her real Manipulation and Telepathy numbers are 75 and 46 respectively, so yes, of course she has a full-powered Song of Sonic Disruption!

Much about bards is up in the air with an impending review, so these plans are playing it safe and only training things that I think will be necessary regardless of what changes.

Empath (Current)

 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................|     302     202
 Spirit Mana Control................|     302     202
 Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........|     232     132
 Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........|     170      70
 Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     245     145
 Mental Lore - Transformation.......|     157      57
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     403     303
 Trading............................|     302     202

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 along with 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 touch 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.
  • I'll finish Empath Base if empaths ever get a profession service that requires ranks of it.

Monk (Current)

 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......................|     201     101
 Elemental Mana Control.............|      25       5
 Mental Mana Control................|     105      25
 Spirit Mana Control................|     105      25
 Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     120      30
 Mental Lore - Transformation.......|      70      15
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

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

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, all four Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all three unlisted Mental Lores (Divination, Manipulation, Transference), Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

Compared to most professions, monks finish every majorly important skill pretty early--not long after 2x cap. That said, the Hinterwilds are threatening enough that I instead settled on a build that needed roughly 3x cap. Conventional brawling monks are exceptional at killing individual enemies with focused mstrikes or Spin Kick, so my driving philosophy here was 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. It's more of a forward-looking idea, though, as monk AS isn't particularly high without going the Mental Acuity route. I'm hoping Ascension archetypes might open that up more in the future. It does work even now when grouping with AS-boosting professions like paladins and bards, though.

Most of her skills should be self-explanatory since monks are very straightforward, but just to touch on the few that might not be:

  • 15 Transformation lore lands a capped Dragonscale Skin monk at -6 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.
  • 40 Minor Spiritual is for Wall of Force--or, at least, it was before Divergence introduced hard cooldowns. I would no longer recommend learning Wall of Force on a monk and only have it because I already learned it before that happened. DS is no problem for monks in any hunting scenario other than the Hinterwilds, where I still don't cast Wall of Force because I consider it a bad habit to rely on something that can only have 33% uptime.

Negotiable Skills

  • Training Ranged Weapons--not Ambush, just Ranged Weapons--to have Volley is an option for enemies that are hard to kill with AS or UAF-based attacks alike, but so far I can't find any that are resilient to both.

Paladin (Current)

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

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

Spell Lists
 Paladin............................|            162        162
Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: 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, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

My paladin is my second highest exp character and 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.
  • Shield Use is something I wanted to have in my pocket as an option, but in the relatively few places where I wish I had extra DS, I've not found using a shield to be __enough__ extra DS to offset weaker offense. Still, there might be a future area where I'd need the extra defensive benefits--now referring to block rate too, not just DS--enough to outweigh my preference.

Negotiable Skills

  • Training 175 Ranged Weapons for access to Volley is a solid AoE option, though an expensive one. I could see myself wanting it one day, but for now I'm content with 37,747,500 exp looking like a pretty number.

Ranger (Current)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|     302     202
 Armor Use..........................|     235     135
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     302     202
 Dodging............................|     302     202
 Magic Item Use.....................|     201     101
 Harness Power......................|     302     202
 Spirit Mana Control................|     201     101
 Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........|      54      11
 Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........|     190      90
 Survival...........................|     403     303
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

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

Spell Lists
 Ranger.............................|             182
Click here for explanations!

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

Explanation

Rangers don't have exceptional offense but do have exceptional defense, so my main concept here is to make use of flexibility. Nearly all enemies are highly vulnerable to ranger magic, but the few that aren't tend to have trouble against melee.

Key points to note:

  • 10 Blessings are for Tangleweed. I'm only listing base skills here, but Summoning lore also hits 100 through ATPs to guarantee an extra cycle on Nature's Fury.
  • Pushing Ranger Base so high is for Spike Thorn and Resist Nature. Even before Divergence, Wall of Force was relatively frivolous to rangers as a very high DS profession with probably the best set of disablers in the game, so after the changes go game-wide, it'll be even more frivolous with 33% uptime. There's a case for Spirit Guide, but my ranger is in Voln, so Symbol of Return suffices there.

Negotiable Skills

A lot will depend on what Ascension brings to the table for rangers. I'm in a holding pattern for now, though I'm ready to train Brawling at the drop of a hat for katars if need be. Still, who knows? Spell Aiming or learning Call Lightning could become appealing. They could push an archery path that would make me pick that back up again. Plenty of scenarios are possible!

Rogue (Current)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|     302     202
 Armor Use..........................|     200     100
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Ranged Weapons.....................|     302     202
 Brawling...........................|     302     202
 Ambush.............................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     302     202
 Dodging............................|     403     303
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     105      25
 Magic Item Use.....................|     201     101
 Harness Power......................|     201     101
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     105      25
 Spirit Mana Control................|     105      25
 Elemental Lore - Water.............|     191      91
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Disarming Traps....................|     403     303
 Picking Locks......................|     403     303
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202
 Pickpocketing......................|     302     202

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              76

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              20
Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Shield Use, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Ambush, Spell Aiming, Mental Mana Control, all other Elemental Lores, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Stalking and Hiding, and First Aid)

Explanation

A triple weapon build with maxed Elemental Targeting is reasonably achievable for rogues compared to warriors trying to accomplish the same.

The core idea is an agile, evasive, lightly armored rogue. She'll primarily swing katars and keep Evasiveness active from either Whirling Blade or Light Armor Proficiency procs, Spin Kick as she can, and supplement crowd control with Elemental Wave and Volley--the latter being additionally backed up by a rogue's phantom Multi Opponent Combat ranks.

Rogues are very multifaceted, so some key points are:

  • 100 Armor Use is to learn maxed armor evasion.
  • 101 Multi Opponent Combat plus three ranks from Ascension allows Volley to hit up to seven enemies with rogues' 50% benefit for crossbows.
  • As far as I can tell, 15 Arcane Symbols is always enough to disarm scarabs. I went for 25 in case I ever decide to use things scrolls with 20th level spells, though.
  • The mana controls for multicasting are sheer quality of life.

Sorcerer (Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Armor Use..........................|      90      20
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|      10       2
 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.............|     302     202
 Spirit Mana Control................|     302     202
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|     150      50
 Elemental Lore - Earth.............|     150      50
 Elemental Lore - Fire..............|     150      50
 Elemental Lore - Water.............|     152      52
 Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........|      20       4
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              77

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

Spell Lists
 Sorcerer...........................|             186
Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Edged Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Polearm Weapons, Brawling, Ambush, Mental Mana Control, all three Spiritual Lores, all five Mental Lores, Necromancy, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

Basically an archetypical sorcerer; there's not much leeway for going off the beaten path sans extraordinary gear. Most of my planned skills for her should be self-explanatory, but the more unusual ones include:

  • 20 Armor Use is to wear leather breastplate, which gives a noticeable increase in survivability over double leathers or especially full leathers.
  • The meager 2 ranks of Multi Opponent Combat and Demonology lore are both for increasing the number of splash targets for Balefire. Frankly, Balefire isn't worth using at the moment for any reason other than fun flavor, but I'm hoping that the sorcerer review or Ascension will turn that around.
  • After getting 50 of each elemental lore for Dark Catalyst, the spare points go into Water to very slightly improve Elemental Wave.
  • Compared to more conventional sorcerer spell splits, this one sacrifices 2 CS for somewhere between +16 and +27 power for Ensorcell.

The current lack of sorcerous lores is because of the pending sorcerer review, as I don't know where I'll settle.

Negotiable Skills

If sorcerers get a way to learn weapon techniques, she'll pick up Polearm Weapons to use their sheer power to compensate for her lacking AS.

Warrior (Far, Far Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Armor Use..........................|     300     200
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     302     202
 Edged Weapons......................|     302     202
 Blunt Weapons......................|     302     202
 Polearm Weapons....................|     302     202
 Brawling...........................|     302     202
 Multi Opponent Combat..............|     302     202
 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..........................|     302     202
 Trading............................|     302     202

Spell Lists
 Minor Elemental....................|              76

Spell Lists
 Minor Spiritual....................|              20
Click here for explanations!

(skills with no ranks are: Two Weapon Combat, Shield Use, Ranged 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, 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 excellent 40% evasion rate (against like-level enemies): 15% from Dodging ranks, 10% from Light Armor Proficiency, and 15% from Evade Specialization. Opting for light armor impacts nearly every other training decision:

  • 200 Armor Use so she can handle at least two different fittings.
  • Near-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, but that's a lot of AS lost.
  • 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.

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................|      50      10
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|     167      67
 Elemental Lore - Earth.............|     235     135
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     201     101
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 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, 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, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

This is my archetypical warmage. 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. A Pending Core Tap nerf will likely have me dropping to 102 Earth lore and 100 Air lore to max out Haste, though.
  • 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. I'm fairly invested in her sledgehammer, though, and since assault and AoE techniques stop Celerity, I'd only be using Overpower even then, which means I wouldn't need more MOC.

Wizard 2 (Far Future)

 Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                    |   Bonus   Ranks
 Two Weapon Combat..................|       5       1
 Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
 Brawling...........................|     201     101
 Physical Fitness...................|     201     101
 Dodging............................|     201     101
 Arcane Symbols.....................|     302     202
 Magic Item Use.....................|     302     202
 Spell Aiming.......................|     302     202
 Harness Power......................|     302     202
 Elemental Mana Control.............|     403     303
 Elemental Lore - Air...............|      91      21
 Elemental Lore - Fire..............|      90      20
 Elemental Lore - Water.............|      50      10
 Survival...........................|     302     202
 Perception.........................|     302     202
 Climbing...........................|     160      60
 Swimming...........................|     140      40
 First Aid..........................|     302     202
 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: Armor Use, Shield Use, all weapon types except Brawling, Ambush, Multi Opponent Combat, Mental Mana Control, Spirit Mana Control, Elemental Lore - Earth, all three Spiritual Lores, both Sorcerous Lores, all five Mental Lores, Disarming Traps, Picking Locks, Stalking and Hiding, and Pickpocketing)

Explanation

There's little to explain here since she's largely a straightforward, traditional wizard. Some key points, though:

  • Brawling is a rarely-used backup option for creatures that are difficult to hit with either Earthen Fury or AS attacks.
  • I don't see going beyond 2x Harness Power as necessary or especially beneficial on a wizard thanks to Mana Leech. My warmage trained those things only because she leveled that far before Ascension existed.
  • Going for 2x or even 1x lores also seems unnecessary for conventional hunting. The lores here are only to unlock things like Cone of Elements Lightning and Minor Steam.