Character advice

Corwyn

Hey everyone.  First of all I apologize for the wall of text - I can get wordy at times.  Probably like many of you I have different characters that I like to play depending on my mood.  One character I have developed that I really like a lot is my archer mage.  I was curious if you had any suggestions on how I can improve her over and above my current plans.

I have used a 20 point stat scroll for 250 stat points and an archery 110 power scroll

STR 120 (138 with items)
DEX 120 (147 with items)
INT 10 (32 with items)

Hit points 119
Stamina 191
Mana 90

Evaluate Intelligence 100
Magery 100
Anatomy 100
Archery 109.5 (I should get the last .5 this weekend when I get to play again)
Focus 100
Tactics 100
Chivalry 66.5

All resistances are 70 (75 energy for being an elf)
With an imbued bow I have 45 hit chance increase, 35 swing speed increase, and 100 damage increase
Lower reagent cost 100, Lower mana cost 41 and spell damage increase 15
Stamina regeneration 6, mana regeneration 4 and defense chance increase 15

Here is what i'm considering - I have power scrolls for 110 in magery, evaluate intelligence, tactics and anatomy.  I also have a 120 archery power scroll that was seriously mispriced on a vendor (bought it for 100,000).  I was going to use the archery scroll, take it naturally to 120.  That will put me at 720 if I go to 100 in Chivalry.  One of my rings has a bonus of 15 to anatomy so I can use that scroll with no worries).  I am thinking about only taking Chivalry to 80 so that gives me an additional 20 points to play with.  I can use the Tactics scroll and the Evaluate Intelligence scrolls to make up those 20 points.  Or I can use the Magery scroll and use either Soldier's Medal or Wizard's Curio to bump up the other stat (I have close to 400k points in clean up Britannia - largely due to Catskill's Wednesday night net toss).  Do you think this would be a tough character to fight more high end stuff?

Should I keep Focus or drop it?  I could pick up Inscription (10% SDI at 100), Alchemy (Bows with balance on them I can use potions), or another skill?  Any help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

TastyTreats

Well Im not sure how to change your temp but I would probably say most skills are a better option then Focus.

Pawain

The famous Archer/Chiv/Mage

What is your intent?  You plan on using EVs? The bow will out damage the mage spells on single target.  You don't need balanced bows, you need spell channeling. Your magery will heal you.

You need to explain what you want to use this on and how.  This just for scalis?

Pawain

TastyTreats said:

Well Im not sure how to change your temp but I would probably say most skills are a better option then Focus.

He is using focus for mana regen so he can use studded armor and get 55LMC.

Norry

the problem with magery on this is that to get a big boost to damage to those spells, you need sdi on book, and slayer books in your  hand, so you can't shoot at that time, and you lose out on damage. i would suggest dropping magery, focus, and eval.

take healing, chiv to 80, ss to 100, and necro to 40(340)
120 your tactics, archery and anat.(360) this leaves 20 points, can go into chiv, or healing.

get a vollem from the cleanup. this way you get the magery damage, and you can shoot more, and use speacials. (should also be able to have the wisp out while in wraith form for extra mana regen, and use mounts


this is the most effective i can see.

TastyTreats

Pawain said:

TastyTreats said:

Well Im not sure how to change your temp but I would probably say most skills are a better option then Focus.

He is using focus for mana regen so he can use studded armor and get 55LMC.

Well his suit only has 41 LMC so switching out the non med pieces to medable and picking up meditation would a better route. Resist would be more effective so you don't get constantly mana drained / paralyzed and poisoned. Would be better off trying to raise the mana regen on the suit instead of investing skill in focus.

It's hard to give feedback on a template someone wants to run for fun. It's not an optimal template at all but if this is what they enjoy playing then power to them. I'm not personally a fan of focus on this though.

Arnold7

This toon is pretty well balanced ether way skill wise but you need more mana if you are going to be casting direct damage spells one after the other. Faced the same problem with my first character.  You have to decide if you are primarily a fighter or a mage then the dec#ion is easy.  By the way archers cannot use best weapon skill melee weapons if that makes a difference.

Pawain

Its similar to a guy I have.  He has Necro and SS instead of Mage and Eval.
His necro and chiv spells enhance his bow damage. I took him to other shards to do Shrine Battles. He would get credit on the bosses.
But How will you use Magery and Archery at the same time? Other than EVs



100 Necro is on my sampire.

Corwyn

Hi everyone and thanks for the comments.  This character was designed to just go out and have fun. I wanted Magery on there as a supplement to the Archery part.  For example if I find an area I like hunting in, I can mark a rune there.  I really have no desire or intent to do anything other than have fun.  I work 2 jobs so I don't have much free time to play (although sometimes when my boss isn't around at my primary job I log on and do "safe" stuff like crafting in cities or my house).  Some spells I envision using are bless, teleport, mark, blade spirit, paralyze, invisibility, gate and energy vortex.  I don't plan on casting while shooting, and my idea for using balanced bows was so that I can drink potions if I get into trouble (greater cure and heal) and alchemy helping with those (yes I realize I can cure/heal with both magery and chivalry).  My usual hunting spots are the Fire Temple and Ice Dungeon (a couple of weeks ago I marked a rune to the Ice Daemons and have been killing them.  I would like to venture into other dungeons but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Because I don't get to play much, I only have around 5 or 6 million gold in the bank and to be honest that has come mostly from doing stash and supply treasure chests - I buy every one I see on vendors that are reasonably priced (for some reason they sell for around 2k gold and I get a minimum of 20k in the chest).  So I can't reallly afford the 120 power scrolls.  I admit I got very very lucky that someone mispriced the 120 Archery scroll for only 100k.  Other characters I have that I enjoy playing - true bard (118 provocation, 100 in the other bard skills and magery skills), Necromage (110 magery, evaluate intelligence, spirit speak, 100 meditation and inscription and 104 necromancy), bard archer, crafter and treasure hunter.  I have 2 accounts so I have other characters that I experiment with (working on a mystic mage and a fencing sampire).  Oh, and If I do decide to go mostly mage with the character I have a suit that will basically switch the stamina and mana.  I would like to be able to cast something like energy vortex and not fail (50% chance of failure at 100 magery - that is why I was considering using the 110 magery scroll).  Again thank you for the comments and advice.  I look forward to hearing more (and again sorry for the wall of text - I can get wordy <span></span> )

TastyTreats

Have you considered dropping eval int? I am not sure how much that affects the spells you plan to use but I believe it is minimal except for paralyze and bless. Your offensive spells will be worthless though but sounds like you want your damage to be primarily from a bow which makes inscription a bad choice.

If you don't want to do that maybe lower tactics to 60 so you can raise the other skills up a bit. probably lock chiv around 70-75.

you should take a screenshot of your suit pieces as well.

JohnKnighthawke

My feeling is that as soon as you make a character a mage, you should go Meditation instead of Focus and use meddable armor.  Accept the lower LMC cap.

Focus at this point is sort of a niche skill.  For example, I can only play fighters.  I have 2 active characters, one with Focus and one without.  No Magery on either.  The one with Focus I am constantly on the lookout for another skill that will fit my needs. 

Focus also helps with some other mage-type skill (Mysticism I think?).  But for a straight-up warrior it mostly is better to rely on alternative means of mana regeneration.  To say nothing of a character that uses mage spells!!

Arnold7

Not sure how you intend to use magery but if you intend to use it as support skill  you might consider dumping eval intelligence for mysticism since your focus is right where it needs to be at 100, Mysticism does not require mendable armor. You could substitute RC for EV in battle. Because of the difficulty in obtaining mysticism spell reagents, you would probably want 100% lower reagent cost.  Enchant would allow you to add lighting to your arrow strikes while the RC does its work.  However, you cannot be mounted when using RC so maybe that make a difference.  My gargoyle mystic thrower has a setup similar to yours and it works for him but he can continue to fly after casting RC.

Arnold7

Just a note.  You don’t need evaluate intell. to cast the spells in your last post