New empath

[Tonic]

Looking to do an empath for an alt, I have never played one before or any of the magic users. I was thinking of just using max stats but have no clue about training. I was thinking of trying to do like a plague dr tyoe build if that helps with any thoughts or suggestions. Would like to use a cane/staff type weapon or one that has a hidden blade. I was also leaning towards half elf or dark elf as a race. Looking forward to your feedback.

[Nothing]

Warpaths are certainly possible, but I'd recommend against going the sword and board route with it. They're not bad below level 20ish, but by that time you'll either want a weapon with more oomph (like a polearm or THW) or be relying on your spells for attack and your weapon will be purely for defense.

In the later case, the TPs spent on OHE/Shield will be preventing you from getting the lores and extra spell ranks that could be making you a real force to be reckoned with if you were carrying a runestaff instead.

[Tonic]

I ended up finding a couple guides for a thw empath going to try that route and use a staff for now. I can get one with a 4x katana from Roblar if I continue on this route. With training in spells do you train for life or stop once you get to the spells you want?

[Orp]

capped spells for an empath are 67, 67 & 166, personally I would not worry about lores, but hey each to their own

[wetsand]

My empath did UAC til 20. Then I fixskilled into a pure build. I kinda wish I kept him as a warpath. Most people do +21 in empath, 215 and 120 to start with spells. If you continue down the warpath route I'd strongly suggest making 211/215 a priority. Those will both help a ton with AS.

[Nothing]

You're going to want to train for life in spells, but it's where your priorities are that's important. As a warpath, as much of your AS/DS will come from your spells as your training (if not more), so once you have all the spells that help there (1109, 1119, 1130, 211, 215, 219, 103, 120), you'll want to continue getting ranks in the Empath circle to boost the AS benefits from those spells (1109, 1119, 1130).

You'll also be using spells while hunting to disable critters and set them up for your melee attacks. 1106 can be used for this purpose, but it's not as reliable from a disabling perspective as the other three options empaths have (110, 118, and 214). So, you'll want to pick one of the spirit circles to continue putting spell ranks in as well to keep your CS up for whichever disabling spell(s) you think you'd prefer.

[Velfi]

With training in spells do you train for life or stop once you get to the spells you want?

It depends. Personally, I stopped without even being 2x in spells so that I could use my TPs more effectively for combat skills. You mentioned looking up THW empath guides, I'm assuming you mean Tsalim's. I mostly agree with his guide, it's how I set my THW empath up to start though I've made some changes along the way to accomodate how I like to play.

You definitely want all of your AS/DS improving spells like 1109, 1119, 1130, 211/215 etc as mentioned. Continuing spells beyond a certain point to me just depends on how much you want to be casting in the fight vs swinging your weapon. I try to save all of my mana for healing/sigils, maybe a 1120 if the room gets hairy, and do my work with my maul.

Having said all of this, I always have a wizard partner to hunt with so that definitely has changed my skill layout as I can rely on e-waves and stuff in tricky situations. If you're only gonna be solo, you probably want to be stronger with your casting options. This is my 11.1m xp warpath, for reference:


Velfi (at level 100), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 130 35
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 201 101
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 403 303
Arcane Symbols.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Elemental Mana Control.............| 102 24
Mental Mana Control................| 105 25
Spirit Mana Control................| 201 101
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 200 100
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 130 35
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 157 57
Perception.........................| 201 101
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 160 60
First Aid..........................| 302 202

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 43

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 43

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 105

edit: I'm currently saving for 2x SA, then more MoC, then I'm gonna work on my spells/lore some more.

[Tonic]

I was trying to come up with a combination of Tsalim and the other guide from the WIKI. This is what I did for initial stat placement and what I have planned thru 30 (still dinking around level 5). Not interested in doing fix skill or fix stat later on. Looking to squeeze in MOC up to 30 and more Armor up 50. Other than that I haven't planned much farther than that.

30
STR 88 92
CON 77 84
DEX 73 82
AGL 73 82
DIS 70 80
AUR 70 80
LOG 49 65
INT 49 63
WIS P,M 49 70
INF S,M 62 77

Armor Use 15 (0.5X)
Two-Handed Weapons 31 (1.0X)
Combat Maneuvers 31 (1.0X)
Multi-Opponent Combat
Physical Fitness 31 (1.0X)
Climbing 15 (0.5X)
Swimming 10 (0.3X)
Perception 16 (0.5X)
First Aid 62 (2.0X)
Harness Power 31 (1.0X)
Spirit Mana Control 31 (1.0X)
Mental Mana Control
Spell Research 62 (2.0X)
Major Spirit 19 (0.6X)
Minor Spirit 13 (0.4X)
Empath 30 (1.0X)
Spiritual Lore
Blessings

[Velfi]

I was trying to come up with a combination of Tsalim and the other guide from the WIKI. This is what I did for initial stat placement and what I have planned thru 30 (still dinking around level 5). Not interested in doing fix skill or fix stat later on. Looking to squeeze in MOC up to 30 and more Armor up 50. Other than that I haven't planned much farther than that.

I didn't look at how the stats end up, but 30 MOC is gonna be very expensive, and 50 AU is unnecessary unless you're trying to get into more than brig, which I don't recommend. You only need 35 AU for minimum spell hindrance in brig.

[Tonic]

ok sounds good, just saw where people were talking about getting into double chain, and 30 moc was far down the road. I'll keep plugging away. I appreciated the help.

[Orp]

my empath is sword and board in doubles, never had a need for high ASG armor than doubles each to their own

[Tonic]

Ok so I am still struggling with what to do with my empath. I have stats figure out, but i also have a parasite runstaff with rotflares and 7x acuity i am trying to factor into my training with necromancy lore. I also purchased a nice set of Doubles that i plan to stick with. So at level 10 this is where I am at if you could chime in one more time.

STR 88 89
CON 77 79
DEX 73 76
AGL 73 76
DIS 68 72
AUR 70 73
LOG 62 67
INT 38 44
WIS P,M 49 59
INF S,M 62 67

Traning.
Armor Use 5 (0.5X)
Two-Handed Weapons 11 (1.0X)
Combat Maneuvers 11 (1.0X)
Multi-Opponent Combat 5 (0.5X)
Physical Fitness 11 (1.0X)
Climbing
Swimming
Perception
First Aid 22 (2.0X)
Harness Power 11 (1.0X)
Spirit Mana Control 11 (1.0X)
Spell Research 12 (1.1X)
Major Spirit 1 (0.1X)
Minor Spirit
Empath 11 (1.0X)
Necromancy 11 (1.0X)

[Orp]

why would you do Sorcerous Lore or Necromancy? That doesn't even make sense

[bunnymustdie]

You don't need MOC at your level at all, I'd only consider it maybe past lvl 50-60 or whenever you start hunting in crowded late game areas. My THW empath is lvl 61 and still have never needed it. You can train more in armor until you have the points you need to settle in your doubles, and stop there. I'd strongly recommend 2x physical fitness, it's cheap and will improve your defenses. I also recommend doing 2x spells at least during your lower levels, this way you can get 211 and 215 quickly and boost your AS by a lot. Continuing to do 2x spells will also get you a lot more buffs sooner to protect yourself with, and 117 & 118. Once you've gotten most of your spells you can consider doing less than 2x to your own taste, but keep in mind higher ranks (up to your level) in the empath circle will give you more AS and/or DS from spells like 1130 & 1109, so it may give you reason to continue to do more than 1x in spells.

Overall, the most important things for you right now is to train your spells in such a way that you have 1109, and will have 211 when you hit lvl 11 and 215 when you hit lvl 15. This will give you a lot more AS to swing dat runestaff with. Trying to then get 117 & 118 as reasonably quickly as you can.

[Roblar]

why would you do Sorcerous Lore or Necromancy? That doesn't even make sense

Probably meant one, Necro lore.

To boost the rot flare potency:

https://gswiki.play.net/Rotflares/saved_posts

[Tonic]

Yes the necro lore is for the rot flares on my runestave. The moc, was so I could hopefully hit two foes with rot flares and one could rot away while in,dispatching the other. When casting bone shatter it will also flare from time to time. I went with 1x pt because I can heal myself and the runestave is also t4 ensorcelled. Hoping to get this figured out before 20. So I dont need to fixskills or fixstat anytime soon.

[Orp]

if you are swinging, what's the point of the runestaff? Moc is a post cap goal for an empath as well as dodge, make a decision either caster or swinger, you will not have the points for both

[Velfi]

10 MOC is not an unreasonable goal, and will eliminate the FoF penalty when fighting a 2nd opponent at the same time.

Also, only 1x PF on an empath? What is this world