skill check

[Enuch]

(at level 13), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Physical Fitness...................| 66 14
Arcane Symbols.....................| 66 14
Magic Item Use.....................| 66 14
Harness Power......................| 66 14
Spirit Mana Control................| 74 16
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 66 14
Perception.........................| 35 7
Climbing...........................| 50 10
First Aid..........................| 50 10

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 4

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 13

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 21

As you can guess I am pure. Any glaring deficiencies or minor tweaks that need to be made aside from percept not being 1x?

as a pure do I want to get to 120 or 130 and swap? or should I be pumping in the Major circle now and then transitioning over to Minor after such and such spell?

[Jeril]

Go up to 120 then swap, or 130 if you want to be able to fog people. For the major circle you probably want to go up to 240 before switching back to minor. I'd also suggest you switch the blessing lore for religion as that is where you get your damage from. But maybe you have a different goal in mind.

[Erous]

Starting pure is a tough road...not saying it can't be done, but you'll have better luck hunting and moving through levels at least to your 20s as a 2 handed cleric; but, there's nothing stopping you from 1x perception as a pure build.

For maximum CS you should be doubling down on Cleric Spells if training allows, then slowing down when you get to where you're +21 over your clerical research. You want you always be at cleric research +21 your level (at level 25 for example you would be training 46 cleric)
As Jeril said, and I've polled other spirit casters on this, minor to 130 is your best bet, then going Major till at least 225 and deciding what next.
You should be able to 1x Magic Item use and Arcane Symbols. Symbols if you want to scroll read/go to the broken lands, MIU for using embeddables.
You should be 1x perception
You should be 1x religion for maximum 302 benefit since you've decided to pure
You should be 1x PF
You should be 2x Harness Power because all you're doing is casting.
Armor use to 8 ranks only for double leather (you're missing any training here, you should already be maxed for double leather at your train)
You should be 1x Mana Control Spiritual...or as training points allow for more so you can reach 24 ranks by level 18 to rezz. If you don't care about rezzing, then 1x this should be sufficient.

Then your tertiary trains, like Survival, First Aid, climbing and swimming. I would single climbing and swimming if you can. First aid is good if you plan to field rez, but these come down to personal preference.

I went bolter for my cleric and sacrificed creating chrisms for being able to Max CS and bolt for more hunting flexibility. But that's an odd route to go, but in the end your training path is how you want to make your char.

Early on you need to ask yourself...do you want to maximize hunting, rescuing, or chrism making. Chrism making being the most specialized and requiring you to put points specifically to meet requirements for max chrism making at the earliest possible.

[Whirlin]

So, personally with my cleric, I went the spell aiming route at lower levels... predominantly due to my own personal cache of wizard wands... However, I'm sure a similar fate can be achieved through some selective esluting.

I went spell aiming due to the way that the GS3 to GS4 migration handled critter TDs... They're incredibly level based... and I've found TDs tend to be exaggerated at lower levels, until about 40ish... Whereas DS tend to run relatively low, and AS runs high.

For a spell aiming build, I prioritized MjS, rather than MnS (of course, grabbing 103), due to getting 211, 215 for the bolt AS.

I did not pick up ANY lore until after Cleric +21 was achieved for CS... While Lores are good... but, doesn't matter how hard you're hitting something if you're not hitting it.

I stopped SMC at 25 ranks, which I achieved around level 18 to be able to raise... and just to be 'done' with that training. This freed up more points to work on more Cleric Ranks! 25 rather than 24 due to the added bonuses of mana controls at 25 ranks... although, I think the bar may have recently been lowered.

I also echo the above 8 ranks for Doubles, but disagree on 2x Harness Power. Too much TP... you can consider additional HP after you've finished off spell circles, gotten your secondary circles up to 2/3rd level, and are keeping Cleric at +21... but I wouldn't consider it before.

Once I hit 40ish, I obtained my annual fixskills... dropped all of my spell aiming, and picked up ~2x Lores. By then, CS/TD had been relatively stable, had the CS to hunt effectively, usually enough mana to fry, and the 2x lores put me in a good position to be pumping out Chrisms shortly thereafter.

[Gnomad]

If you're a bane cleric, I'd drop the minor spirit down and focus on cleric CS for now. Hunt animals, their TD is generally 3*level and they almost always give 25 CvA. If you're a smite cleric, easily warded things are a little harder to find. Using 302 against its opposite target is very mana intensive for a young cleric; I think someone ran the numbers and showed that it does 2/3 damage but costs twice as much.

Also, just realize if you have 40 cleric ranks, your raise dead spell will cost 40 mana. That can easily happen at level 18 or 19 if you're pushing CS.

[Enuch]

Okay adjusted my skills as such for optimizing hunting, good tidbit to know about the level 40 thing. Once I hit the +21 cleric spells I will be bringing all my other skills up as possible to 1x per level and getting 8 ranks for doubles

Physical Fitness...................| 66 14
Arcane Symbols.....................| 66 14
Magic Item Use.....................| 66 14
Harness Power......................| 66 14
Spirit Mana Control................| 70 15
Perception.........................| 35 7

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 3

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 7

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 32

Appreciate all the insight folks and this will greatly help me grow.

[Soulance]

You already made the changes but I'd just add that I was a CS caster from the beginning. Sure, there were times I'd run out of mana and not be at must rest coming back in. Of corse now you can just use 1700 or whatever that is to finish up or alternate in occasionally to save mana.

I put most training into Cleric base to get the highest CS on 302. At young levels, you really only need up to 103 in my opinion. 102 is great for DS and doesn't cost you CS to use. Go to 107 of you want, but Cleric base is best for +20 over level.

And depending where you are, you probably don't need climbing or swimming for awhile. And, it is so cheap you could add it on the fly for the most part.

[Enuch]

Yeah I only kept to 107 for the potential TD boost, but I plan on getting to 21 ranks Cleric before boosting up my other circles, and as it stands with my current training I am +19 so next level I will hit +21 if I triple the cleric circle. I will be sprinkling in the new spells after that point because I will just single to keep pace with the 21 circles.

and yes 1700 is a godsend. I remember the bad old days where you were pigeon holed into sword and board and those god damned 10 second prep times. God sakes did prep time blow nuts.

[Soulance]

and yes 1700 is a godsend. I remember the bad old days where you were pigeon holed into sword and board and those god damned 10 second prep times. God sakes did prep time blow nuts.
The REALLY good ole days it used to be pretty viable for a Cleric to sword and board. Some of my best times. I had a cool tower shield "emblazoned with a cleric standing over a fallen comrade" and an eonake sword that took me years to get. But then they changed us over and ruined all the fun - like always. ;)

Hope you enjoy the build and at least they now give us a fixskill each year - or other options for doing it nowadays. Plus, with Wizards still nerfed up, there might be another one coming.

Oh, not the most conventional way I'm sure, but I made it all the way to cap with pretty much 302. I ended up tossing in 240 later on because I was just impatient and also because they started swarming more so quicker deaths were important. But really, you could 302 all the way to the top and then some. Still a cool go-to spell. And I changed deities a few times along the way. Bane to Smite to Bane.

[Erous]

My only concern with going pure early on isn't necessarily mana, it's lack of warding and options to hunt. I just found that early on, finding proper critters to ward CS with 302 was annoying, causing me to blow my mana pool. Lot's of folks here know more than me, hence the argument against doubling down on Harness Power, but I felt I didn't lose much of anything in the process...but in the end it's up to how you want your character to be.

I'm still confused though why you're not training any armor use. Are you using robes?

[Soulance]

Yea, the warding can be a pain. I remeber doing the same, but there are plenty of different critters out there to try. Look for those who are +25 on your roll and you're golden. Sure, you might not always get the best loot, but it GS and their treasure system sucks anyway.

Add that to your +21 over training and you shouldn't have trouble with anything. Grab a few quartz orbs and you are even better.