Perception

[BHawk]

The play net Wiki empath guide suggests a 30 lvl empath have 30 ranks of perception. That seems high to me and doesn't go towards DS using a runestaff. I mostly stay in town so it seems to be wasted training points that would be better invested in something that would help my DS with a runestaff. I would like to lower that 30 in perception and put those points into lores and harness power. But how much should I lower it by?

Any ideas on that?

https://gswiki.play.net/A_beginner%27s_guide_to_playing_an_empath#Skills_a nd_Training

[Orthin]

Perception plays a role in certain manueveurs. So if you aren't hunting regularly you should be fine dialing back.

I think it plays big role in bandit traps so if you are doing bandits I'd 1x

[Taernath]

I mostly stay in town so it seems to be wasted training points that would be better invested in something that would help my DS with a runestaff.

But why do you need more DS if you mostly stay in town?

Perception is a useful skill that I try to keep as close to 1x as I can on all of my characters. Like Orthin mentioned it defends against maneuvers, but but also helps with pickpocket defense and heirloom/foraging tasks.

[audioserf]

The entire runestaff ranks thing is overblown in my opinion. It isn't worth training any skill just for runestaff DS. Train in magical skills you'll use. I capped with less runestaff ranks than average and never had a DS problem. As for perception, I 1x on all of my characters, including the empath. It's relatively cheap and has a lot of benefits.

[khorpulent]

I mean, it seems like most pure spellcasters end up with plenty of skills that go into runestaff DS, anyhow. I guess not everyone is going to use AS/MIU, but they're so cheap I don't see why you wouldn't just 1x in them. The only skill I could see an empath not training in would be SA, but I can't imagine anyone trains that just for runestaff DS anyhow. I suppose some folks also don't 1x in both SMC and MMC, but I personally think every empath should be 1x in both.

But yeah, there's really no reason not to 1x perception. It's cheap and there are plenty of benefits. Even if you don't care about maneuvers defense, nobody wants to spend all day searching for hidden entrances and such.

And regardless of runestaff DS, you shouldn't really have a DS problem as an empath, considering you're hunting in guarded and have a ton of DS spells (unless you channel in offensive, which is more fun anyhow).

[BHawk]

Thank you for the replies!