Returning mage

[Raliver]

So I came back a bit ago after about a 10 year hiatus. My mage at the time was mostly kept on a second account for spellups and periodic enchanting. I've done a bit of enchanting since coming back but am trying to get him out hunting more. I do well enough but I wasn't sure if there was anything I could change with my skills to be a bit more effective at hunting, not ready to turn him into an pocket enchanter so don't want to ruin his skills entirely but wouldn't mind being able to effectively enchant as well as possible. He's a halfling as well. Thanks in advance!

Spunker (at level 43), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 144 44
Arcane Symbols.....................| 144 44
Magic Item Use.....................| 188 88
Spell Aiming.......................| 188 88
Harness Power......................| 160 60
Elemental Mana Control.............| 144 44
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 144 44
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 90 20

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 43

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 38

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 30

If stats make a difference here they are:
Gender: Male Age: 20 Expr: 1976714 Level: 43
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 87 (3) ... 87 (3)
Constitution (CON): 71 (20) ... 71 (20)
Dexterity (DEX): 91 (35) ... 91 (35)
Agility (AGI): 53 (11) ... 53 (11)
Discipline (DIS): 81 (10) ... 81 (10)
Aura (AUR): 100 (20) ... 100 (20)
Logic (LOG): 100 (30) ... 100 (30)
Intuition (INT): 85 (27) ... 85 (27)
Wisdom (WIS): 97 (23) ... 97 (23)
Influence (INF): 52 (-4) ... 52 (-4)

[Tgo01]

Don't suppose you came back within the past 30 days?

[Raliver]

No, I'm assuming that's in reference to my lovely stats...Unfortunately I've been back for a few months but most idle on this guy.

[Nosh]

https://gswiki.play.net/Guides_by_Whirlin:_Pure,_Archer,_and_War_Mages_Gui de

This is a link to Whirlin's guide if you haven't seen it. I've used it with my new wizard and a lot of folks seem to follow it.

Looks good to me generally. You might want to take a look at air lores charts -- I'm seeing that 21 ranks gives you extra disk space and you get Tonis Bolt at 20. So 21 might be a good place to stop in lores for now, since most folks seem to recommend waiting until cap for lores after you hit certain thresholds for either Tonis Bolt and/or 20 fire ranks for steam bolt. There might be another threshold at 24 ranks that you're aiming for, i'm just not that familiar with Wizard lores.

I'd probably also stop training in Harness Power until it drops back down to 1x (with HP 1x should be ranks=level, not ranks=level+1, or else you're only getting 1 mana for that extra "level 0" rank). It's a lot of TPs to 2x HP, and at your level you should have enough mana to make it by fine with 1x. As Whirlin's player has pointed out a number of times here, make sure your mana is a even number before you stop training in HP to let it fall back down. It has to do with rounding and how mana is calculated or some other math crap I don't understand.

Then just focus on getting your minor elemental ranks up to level, which it seems like you're trying to do anyway, for the 425 bonus.

[Maerit]

There's a ton of e-lore changes, and pure wizards benefit nicely from being 1x in lores, or from going towards various thresholds like 20 ranks in air lore for tonis bolt and 20 ranks in fire lore for steam bolt.

Of course, holding out until the enchant item changes before setting your lores is another strategy, but you could be waiting a really long time...

[Versin]

Agreed with the other posters re: lores and HP. If you want to do more than 5x projects I would increase your wizard ranks. There will probably be a fixskill once they finish the lore changes, but do not hold your breath.

[Furryrat]

24 ranks of air lore is the threshold for a -1 RT from Haste, I'd keep it. If you don't plan to be an enchanting bot, you don't need the 2x MIU, I'd drop that for some more spell ranks or fire lore. Otherwise, looks good to me, should have a good bolt AS and any mana issues can be overcome by finishing hunts with wands.

[Whirlin]

24 ranks of air lore is the threshold for a -1 RT from Haste, I'd keep it. If you don't plan to be an enchanting bot, you don't need the 2x MIU, I'd drop that for some more spell ranks or fire lore. Otherwise, looks good to me, should have a good bolt AS and any mana issues can be overcome by finishing hunts with wands.
That's a lot of misinformation.

[Whirlin]

Your training is fine... depending on whether you have an even or odd number of mana at the moment, you may want to add in another rank of harness power to make it an even number for rounding purposes.
For more TP, you can let HP decrease to your level in ranks... or keep powering through to 100 ranks, obtain the mana early, and then never train in it again. +1 mana is worth a lot more when your mana pool is 20 compared to when it's 200, so fast tracking that training isn't a bad thing, but a subjective decision.

Your spell research is spot on.

Lores, you're fine, it's subjective. For pures, I recommend the eventual goal to be 55/60 Air, 35 Earth, 100 Fire. Not to exceed 1x training while leveling.... They're not THAT good.

No red flags. Training is fine, don't waste a fixskills.

[Furryrat]

That's a lot of misinformation.

Yup, appears a bit of that is a little ....dated. Especially pertaining to the air lore ranks and Haste. I'll yield to the almighty Whirlin and return to my booth in the corner.

[Raliver]

Thanks to all for the thorough and quick responses. I had pushed HP early and have been letting it catch up to 1x. Will keep this fixskills in my pocket for now.

[Raliver]

Actually one more thing, there are so many new types runestaves. If I were to invest 1-2 mil into something, what should I be looking for? I know that's not going to me anything too fancy. Right now I have a 4x morphing runestaff, fun and all but assuming there's something else out there I could get my hands on that may benefit me.

Thanks again as always!

[Whirlin]

Actually one more thing, there are so many new types runestaves. If I were to invest 1-2 mil into something, what should I be looking for? I know that's not going to me anything too fancy. Right now I have a 4x morphing runestaff, fun and all but assuming there's something else out there I could get my hands on that may benefit me.

Thanks again as always!
There are things like Acuity and Mana flares... but by the maths, they won't get you as high of a rate of return as typical, conventional, elemental flaring. +10 AS, once all the damage factors are applied and stuff, won't produce the same damage output as a random +25 damage flare.

NervStaves, imo, are the best of the best currently, but really only the top tier is worth it, and they run about 20m. Secondly would be Fusion runestaves (Flaring can be added), but that also has high costs associated with getting the orbs to use in the fusion runestaff, which can be expensive if you want anything nice.

In the 1-2m range... Don't bother investing in a runestaff. At 25 ranks in a single lore, you can e-blade a 1x item to change it into a 5x flaring weapon, so pick up a shoddy, off the shelf runestaff, enchant it up to 1x, grab that extra 1 rank in air lore (You're going to want 55 EVENTUALLY anyway), and you'll be able to e-blade it up to 5x flaring. Eblading mechanics rely slightly on what element you're attuned to, but there should be some good info on the wiki for how to get around if it if you're attuned to another element while trying to e-blade air.

[Tenser]

That is some good advice that applies to me too Whirlin. Do you know if a +5 runestaff with an enhancive bonus can be ebladed?

[Maerit]

That is some good advice that applies to me too Whirlin. Do you know if a +5 runestaff with an enhancive bonus can be ebladed?

It should be eligible as long as it doesn't have any scripts (i.e. fusion is a script). As well as it cannot already be flaring.

[Raliver]

Never thought that so glad I asked. Thanks again.