Spell Research Goals - Interpreting the guide? Pitfalls?

[Remo]

Working on a pure wizard. Before I deviate from the guide too much, I want to be sure I know what choices I'm making.

Minor question:

"Major Elemental and Minor Elemental until Major Elemental 18" - I have to be honest, this doesn't make any sense to me and that worries me. 516(or 520) seems like a more obvious stopping points. What am I missing about 518? Similarly 414/420 seem to make sense as stopping points, but I don't see 418 as vital day to day at all.

I know the guide isn't supposed to be a cut and paste follow, but I can't even figure out why these would be the suggestions and that makes me worry I'm missing something obvious before I deviate! Note: I've never used most of these spells in practice.

Bigger question (I.E. If I get the order wrong who cares long term):

Keep Major = Level, Try to get Minor Elemental = Level
Any additional spell ranks go into wizard circle


I'm really quite enamored with 917. My understanding is that to use it often and well, I'd need to aim for 1X Wizard. And that if I do that it's better to drop MnE than MjE due to the Mana Leech CS. But I'm not sure that I know what else I'll be missing out on if I swap MnE for Wiz.

Thoughts?


P.S. Final random question: My plan for lores is to hit 20 fire for steam, then 20 air for tonis and then back off of them entirely for awhile. I'm pretty confident that's viable, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

Thanks in advance!

[Stumplicker]

Your continued minor elemental is generally for 425 and 430, which grow in power with your ranks. That's the main reason you don't want to stop that. You can fall behind at points to get other spells early, sure. Just catch back up later. And yes, that lore plan is viable for a while, or really forever if you're determined enough. Frankly one or the other is fine for leveling for a good long while. You don't even really need both.

[Murrandii]

Until level 19, you can migrate asap, so it's not of much consequences since you can move to get that spell and then go to that circle and so on.

All and all, you want to enchant at level 925 because it means cash and or a better armor for yourself? (7x full leathers if you start from a 4x at level 25 is doable with the levels you'd gain here and there)

So, IF YOU WANT TO ENCHANT ASAP: you want 1x in 900 and 1x in 500. Rest is 400 until 75-76. That path means you won't get 425 at level 25. You'll get it later. Consequences: you'll get 425-430 in your 30s. Easy hunting to get there, so I wouldn'T worry.

Otherwise, go classy 1x 400 until 75-76, 1x 500 for life, rest in 900.

At cap, normally you're:

76-400
100-900
100-500

rest either 500 or 900. Most go in 500 for mana leech. I did 900 for enchanting. It's totally a matter of what you want man. 917 post cap is a STRONG spell and you benefit from more ranks in 900. You don't need mana post cap, so mana leech CAN be overkill. It depends on what you want to do!

You want 20 fire lore for steam. You want 100 combined fire and water to max DF damage for steam, rest is up to you.

I did: (air with 535 and blurs and disk is great)

Elemental Lore - Air...............| 160 60
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 142 42
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 150 50
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 150 50

[Remo]

Thank you both! That is clarifying on a number of fronts and I feel like I see the big picture much better now.

One subtext of both of your comments that I think I see, but wanted to double-check is this: From a hard numbers point of view, 917 isn't good enough/impacted enough by wizard ranks to be worth 1Xing at lower levels when compared with the losses in AS/DS from the MjE/MnE. Or at least not until around lvl 75 (by which point I'm sure I'll have more well developed opinions).

[Stumplicker]

Mana's really your hindrance early on for a spell like 917 (or any higher level spell). You just don't have enough of it to sustain any useful amount of casts for a while. To preface, I'm bad at wizarding, but to give you an idea, I used 502 well into my 30s (with others), even with minor steam available, because I hate wands and thinking and it didn't cost a lot of mana.

[Murrandii]

I throw this from a BIG general path:

You steam for death until 20 (if you Don't 506 claidh)

From 20-30, you 502-steam
from 30-40. you 505-502,steam
from 40-60, you 505, 516-502,steam
from 60-70, you rapidfire and use the routine of 40-60
from 70-100, you 917 (if you 1x 900), 502, 516, steam otherwise use before routine

917 becomes your opener as it can kills, stun, make prone therefore making you protected in case of manoeuvers and so on. Since it's cycling, you have good chance of saving your life more than less.

Before, it's overkills to use it unless you manually hunt and use it here and there.

[drumpel]

I only hunt with 917 and 502 with one of my wizards. I made the official switch over from bolting to 917/502 around level 27. His MjE was low (still is), but I had to sacrifice spell ranks somewhere at the time. Now that I've been slowly building it up it's much more useful for mana leech.

I went with heavy air/water lore. Right now 59 Ware Lore ranks I have a 11.8% chance for each crit cycle of 917 ICE to trigger a second damage cycle.
So if a creature lives through all 6 crit cycles, each cycle has that 11.8% chance to get a bonus damage cycle, so if extremely I could get all 6 cycles to have 2 damage cycles each. It can be powerfully devastating if that bonus crit cycle triggers on the first two cycles.

I love having the use of 950 and blasting everything in the room with 1 cast of 917 (34 mana) and then 5 casts of 502 (20 mana). Almost all targets die from the initial cast and anything still alive the next one or two crit cycles of 917 finishes them off. Just let it be known that using 917 with 950, it will default to FIRE, regardless of your lore ranks or if you try to specify ICE. So if you plan on blasting everything in the room with 950 and you're using 917, everything will be hit with 917 FIRE. I've complained about it on the officials and asked if it can be fixed, but so far after months have passed, nothing has come from it. I should probably bring it up again....

I kept up with ranks into Spell Aiming until level 58, even though since around level 30 I haven't actually used a bolt spell. I kept up with it just because it's a cheap ability to go towards magic ranks for runestaffs. I find better use of those few unspent TPs now and put them towards helping on building up my spells. Once I get MjE up to 550 I'll switch back to MnE so I can build up the added DS/TD benefit of 430.

Here's his training at level 72:

(at level 72), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 173 73
Arcane Symbols.....................| 191 91
Magic Item Use.....................| 191 91
Spell Aiming.......................| 218 118
Harness Power......................| 226 126
Elemental Mana Control.............| 178 78
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 189 89
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 159 59
Perception.........................| 140 40
Climbing...........................| 144 44
Swimming...........................| 128 34

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 80

[Methais]

Working on a pure wizard. Before I deviate from the guide too much, I want to be sure I know what choices I'm making.

Minor question:

"Major Elemental and Minor Elemental until Major Elemental 18" - I have to be honest, this doesn't make any sense to me and that worries me. 516(or 520) seems like a more obvious stopping points. What am I missing about 518? Similarly 414/420 seem to make sense as stopping points, but I don't see 418 as vital day to day at all.

I know the guide isn't supposed to be a cut and paste follow, but I can't even figure out why these would be the suggestions and that makes me worry I'm missing something obvious before I deviate! Note: I've never used most of these spells in practice.

Bigger question (I.E. If I get the order wrong who cares long term):

Keep Major = Level, Try to get Minor Elemental = Level
Any additional spell ranks go into wizard circle


I'm really quite enamored with 917. My understanding is that to use it often and well, I'd need to aim for 1X Wizard. And that if I do that it's better to drop MnE than MjE due to the Mana Leech CS. But I'm not sure that I know what else I'll be missing out on if I swap MnE for Wiz.

Thoughts?


P.S. Final random question: My plan for lores is to hit 20 fire for steam, then 20 air for tonis and then back off of them entirely for awhile. I'm pretty confident that's viable, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways.

Thanks in advance!

How to do your spells while leveling is more of a preference thing than anything, but at cap...

Minor Elemental...75
Major Elemental...127
Wizard Base.......101

My 917 does fine and MjE CS is 13 points short of max, which I pretty much never notice.

[AnOrdim]

Just let it be known that using 917 with 950, it will default to FIRE, regardless of your lore ranks or if you try to specify ICE.

You might have something setup wrong somewhere. My 950 macro 100% uses the ice version of 917:

You struggle to recall the correct way to prepare the Core Tap spell, but manage to stammer out something passable...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture.
Tapping into the elemental core of Elanthia, you seize part of its energy. Swirling ribbons of fiery red, deep blue, earthen brown, and airy white energy rise up from the floor and surround you. They linger for a brief moment, then explode into a shower of sparks!

You struggle to recall the correct way to prepare the Earthen Fury spell, but manage to stammer out something passable...
You gesture at a bloodthirsty Silent Investor marauder.
The ground beneath a bloodthirsty Silent Investor marauder rumbles with renewed vigor!
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a bloodthirsty Silent Investor marauder!
[SMR result: 103 (Open d100: 13, Bonus: 28)]
... 15 points of damage!
Minor puncture to the back.
Glacial stalagmites erupt from the ground, impaling her!
... 20 points of damage!
Strike pierces upper arm!


I'm glad to see the 917 love in this thread. I've been using it since the change and it's basically easy mode hunting. Opening with 410 into a room filled with critters not only gives you CC but critters hit by 410 also get a penalty applied to their defense of 917.
Mana can still be a huge issue at cap/early post cap with essence generation so having a strong 516 helps you sustain your damage output over a long period of time.

[drumpel]

You might have something setup wrong somewhere. My 950 macro 100% uses the ice version of 917:



I'm glad to see the 917 love in this thread. I've been using it since the change and it's basically easy mode hunting. Opening with 410 into a room filled with critters not only gives you CC but critters hit by 410 also get a penalty applied to their defense of 917.
Mana can still be a huge issue at cap/early post cap with essence generation so having a strong 516 helps you sustain your damage output over a long period of time.

I haven't had to make use of 950 for a while, I generally only cast it if I encounter 4+ targets. 3 or less I just callwind and while they're all pinned just toss an individual cast of 917 at them all.

Last use of 950 with 917 kicked out fire for me. My wizard is attuned to AIR. Are you by chance attuned to ICE/WATER? If so, that may be why it utilizes water.

For me, I can't get 950 to work with ICE. It always defaults to FIRE, but as I said, it's been a while since I last used 950 with 917 - perhaps they fixed it?

For a single target I will INCANT 917 ICE - casts ice every time.
For using 950 I've tired INCANT 950 917 ICE 502 502 502 502 502 - always defaulted to fire
I've tried INCANT 950 917 ICE - just to see if it used ice, but always resulted in fire.

I'll have to try again some time just to see the results I get.

[Methais]

I haven't had to make use of 950 for a while, I generally only cast it if I encounter 4+ targets. 3 or less I just callwind and while they're all pinned just toss an individual cast of 917 at them all.

In those situations, one cast of 950 will usually wipe out the whole room and you'll spend less mana.

[drumpel]

In those situations, one cast of 950 will usually wipe out the whole room and you'll spend less mana.

True, but with only 1 use of 950 every minute, sometimes you just don't want to go blowing your whole wad in case you need it right away for a more crowded room. Generally up to 3 creatures is easy enough to handle without a massive AOE spell being needed. Anyway, 1 mana point (17 x 3 =51 instead of just 50 mana for a cast of 950) won't make or break a hunt for me - I don't always bother with a cast of ewave or callwind...just target 1, incant 917, target 2nd, incant 917, target 3rd, incant 917. Using 410 or 912 is if something overly threatening is in the room (caster that can easily ward me, for example).

I'd say that 80% of my encounters die on within the first 3 crit cycles of 917. Out of the remaining 20%, half die by the end of 917. The last 10%, half need 1-3 casts of 502 and the other half require a second round of 917 if I just got piss poor rolls on the first cast of it.

I hunt till I fry, then use a LTE, hunt till I fry, use another LTE, hunt till I fry and then go rest. I've usually expended mana leech to a point that I'm getting very little in return and I've also wracked so I need to rest up. At level 72 and uphunting 4-6 levels, I can fill my enchanting essence in 9-10 hours of hunting. It's a helluva lot faster that the initial release of the updated 925 spell where 45 hours of heavy hunting got him about 1/4 of the way through his total essence.

[Methais]

True, but with only 1 use of 950 every minute, sometimes you just don't want to go blowing your whole wad in case you need it right away for a more crowded room. Generally up to 3 creatures is easy enough to handle without a massive AOE spell being needed. Anyway, 1 mana point (17 x 3 =51 instead of just 50 mana for a cast of 950) won't make or break a hunt for me - I don't always bother with a cast of ewave or callwind...just target 1, incant 917, target 2nd, incant 917, target 3rd, incant 917. Using 410 or 912 is if something overly threatening is in the room (caster that can easily ward me, for example).

I'd say that 80% of my encounters die on within the first 3 crit cycles of 917. Out of the remaining 20%, half die by the end of 917. The last 10%, half need 1-3 casts of 502 and the other half require a second round of 917 if I just got piss poor rolls on the first cast of it.

I hunt till I fry, then use a LTE, hunt till I fry, use another LTE, hunt till I fry and then go rest. I've usually expended mana leech to a point that I'm getting very little in return and I've also wracked so I need to rest up. At level 72 and uphunting 4-6 levels, I can fill my enchanting essence in 9-10 hours of hunting. It's a helluva lot faster that the initial release of the updated 925 spell where 45 hours of heavy hunting got him about 1/4 of the way through his total essence.

60 (might be 50, I forgot which is for 550 and which is for 950) earth lore is amazing for 950. 2x per minute makes a huge difference for me.

[AnOrdim]

I haven't had to make use of 950 for a while, I generally only cast it if I encounter 4+ targets. 3 or less I just callwind and while they're all pinned just toss an individual cast of 917 at them all.

Last use of 950 with 917 kicked out fire for me. My wizard is attuned to AIR. Are you by chance attuned to ICE/WATER? If so, that may be why it utilizes water.

For me, I can't get 950 to work with ICE. It always defaults to FIRE, but as I said, it's been a while since I last used 950 with 917 - perhaps they fixed it?

For a single target I will INCANT 917 ICE - casts ice every time.
For using 950 I've tired INCANT 950 917 ICE 502 502 502 502 502 - always defaulted to fire
I've tried INCANT 950 917 ICE - just to see if it used ice, but always resulted in fire.

I'll have to try again some time just to see the results I get.

You might be right on the attunement, I am water attuned. I thought there was a feature added that let you set the element version of certain spells though to the default? I'll have to poke around later tonight.


30 second core tap
I wouldn't mind getting earth lore up to the point where I could core tap that often, but I really like the free mana from water lore. I tend to stack 910 or invoked 904 into 1710 casts with my taps though.

[drumpel]

You might be right on the attunement, I am water attuned. I thought there was a feature added that let you set the element version of certain spells though to the default? I'll have to poke around later tonight.


I hopped out into the wilds quick with my wizard and 950 does let me use ICE now. Must have been one of those quiet fixes they didn't tell anyone about.

>incant 950
You trace a series of glowing runes while chanting the phrase for Core Tap...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture.
Tapping into the elemental core of Elanthia, you seize part of its energy. Swirling ribbons of fiery red, deep blue, earthen brown, and airy white energy rise up from the ground and surround you. They linger for a brief moment, then explode into a shower of sparks!

Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Earthen Fury...
You gesture at a lesser minotaur.
The ground beneath a lesser minotaur suddenly frosts and rumbles violently!
The earth cracks beneath a lesser minotaur, releasing a column of frigid air!
[SMR result: 24 (Open d100: -34)]
He dodges out of the way!

You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Chromatic Circle...
You channel at a lesser minotaur.
A lesser minotaur is suddenly surrounded by a small whirlwind.
CS: +348 - TD: +299 + CvA: +8 + d100: +28 == +85
Warded off!
The whirlwind slowly swirls around the minotaur once, then drifts away.

You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Chromatic Circle...
You gesture at a lesser minotaur.
A lesser minotaur is suddenly surrounded by a small whirlwind.
CS: +348 - TD: +299 + CvA: +8 + d100: +26 == +83
Warded off!
The whirlwind slowly swirls around the minotaur once, then drifts away.

You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Chromatic Circle...
[ Core Tap Recovery: +0:01:00, 0:00:59 remaining. ]
You gesture at a lesser minotaur.
A lesser minotaur is suddenly surrounded by a small whirlwind.
CS: +348 - TD: +299 + CvA: +8 + d100: +40 == +97
Warded off!
The whirlwind slowly swirls around the minotaur once, then drifts away.

You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Chromatic Circle...
You channel at a lesser minotaur.
A lesser minotaur is suddenly surrounded by a small whirlwind.
CS: +348 - TD: +299 + CvA: +8 + d100: +12 == +69
Warded off!
The whirlwind slowly swirls around the minotaur once, then drifts away.

You intone a phrase of elemental power while raising your hands, invoking Chromatic Circle...
You gesture at a lesser minotaur.
A lesser minotaur is suddenly surrounded by a small whirlwind.
CS: +348 - TD: +299 + CvA: +8 + d100: +74 == +131
Warding failed!
The whirlwind quickly swirls around the minotaur, causing 12 points of damage!
... 10 points of damage!
Eye swells under sudden pressure loss!
The whirlwind leaves the minotaur off balance and exposed to the elements.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
(Forcing stance down to guarded)
>
The earth cracks beneath a lesser minotaur, releasing a column of frigid air!
[SMR result: 107 (Open d100: 47, Bonus: 1)]
... 15 points of damage!
Brrrr! That was a good hit to the right leg! Knocked the lesser minotaur silly.
>
A lesser minotaur swings a curved silvery white greataxe at you!
AS: +391 vs DS: +462 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +9 = -24
A clean miss.
>
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a lesser minotaur!
[SMR result: 211 (Open d100: 150, Bonus: 2)]
... 50 points of damage!
Strike punctures thigh and shatters femur!
The lesser minotaur falls against the ground with a solid thud.
The lesser minotaur is stunned!
Glacial stalagmites erupt from the ground, impaling him!
... 45 points of damage!
Bladder impaled, what a mess!
>
Icy stalagmites burst from the ground beneath a lesser minotaur!
[SMR result: 299 (Open d100: 155, Bonus: 85)]
... 50 points of damage!
Shot to back shatters bone and vertebrae!
A low gurgling sound comes from deep within the chest of the lesser minotaur as he falls slack against the ground.
The ground beneath a lesser minotaur suddenly calms.

[Fortybox]

Until level 19, you can migrate asap, so it's not of much consequences since you can move to get that spell and then go to that circle and so on.

All and all, you want to enchant at level 925 because it means cash and or a better armor for yourself? (7x full leathers if you start from a 4x at level 25 is doable with the levels you'd gain here and there)

So, IF YOU WANT TO ENCHANT ASAP: you want 1x in 900 and 1x in 500. Rest is 400 until 75-76. That path means you won't get 425 at level 25. You'll get it later. Consequences: you'll get 425-430 in your 30s. Easy hunting to get there, so I wouldn'T worry.

Otherwise, go classy 1x 400 until 75-76, 1x 500 for life, rest in 900.

At cap, normally you're:

76-400
100-900
100-500

rest either 500 or 900. Most go in 500 for mana leech. I did 900 for enchanting. It's totally a matter of what you want man. 917 post cap is a STRONG spell and you benefit from more ranks in 900. You don't need mana post cap, so mana leech CAN be overkill. It depends on what you want to do!

You want 20 fire lore for steam. You want 100 combined fire and water to max DF damage for steam, rest is up to you.

I did: (air with 535 and blurs and disk is great)

Elemental Lore - Air...............| 160 60
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 142 42
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 150 50
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 150 50

Bad advice, as usual. You can enchant up to 7x with 925. You’re going to have a better time lvling up with 1x major/minor elemental. Worry about tougher enchants later on.

Stopping at 925 I have been able to do 7x and some other enchanting work (6x with flares for example) just fine.

[Murrandii]

I give both options, 400 path or 900 path. It can,t be a bad advice, as usual, when you get options.

[Remo]

I only hunt with 917 and 502 with one of my wizards. I made the official switch over from bolting to 917/502 around level 27. His MjE was low (still is), but I had to sacrifice spell ranks somewhere at the time. Now that I've been slowly building it up it's much more useful for mana leech.

I went with heavy air/water lore. Right now 59 Ware Lore ranks I have a 11.8% chance for each crit cycle of 917 ICE to trigger a second damage cycle.
So if a creature lives through all 6 crit cycles, each cycle has that 11.8% chance to get a bonus damage cycle, so if extremely I could get all 6 cycles to have 2 damage cycles each. It can be powerfully devastating if that bonus crit cycle triggers on the first two cycles.

I love having the use of 950 and blasting everything in the room with 1 cast of 917 (34 mana) and then 5 casts of 502 (20 mana). Almost all targets die from the initial cast and anything still alive the next one or two crit cycles of 917 finishes them off. Just let it be known that using 917 with 950, it will default to FIRE, regardless of your lore ranks or if you try to specify ICE. So if you plan on blasting everything in the room with 950 and you're using 917, everything will be hit with 917 FIRE. I've complained about it on the officials and asked if it can be fixed, but so far after months have passed, nothing has come from it. I should probably bring it up again....

I kept up with ranks into Spell Aiming until level 58, even though since around level 30 I haven't actually used a bolt spell. I kept up with it just because it's a cheap ability to go towards magic ranks for runestaffs. I find better use of those few unspent TPs now and put them towards helping on building up my spells. Once I get MjE up to 550 I'll switch back to MnE so I can build up the added DS/TD benefit of 430.

Here's his training at level 72:

(at level 72), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 173 73
Arcane Symbols.....................| 191 91
Magic Item Use.....................| 191 91
Spell Aiming.......................| 218 118
Harness Power......................| 226 126
Elemental Mana Control.............| 178 78
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 189 89
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 159 59
Perception.........................| 140 40
Climbing...........................| 144 44
Swimming...........................| 128 34

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 80


I find this concept fascinating - particularly that you started on it at 27.

It has me toying around with the idea of a build that leans on the 917/502 entirely started at level 19 and thus skips on spell aiming to try and help make up some of the TPs. I'd love any and all opinions about pro/cons.

I imagine it would be mana intensive/painful from 19-30, but workable with wracking.

Questions I have include:

Does spell aiming have intuitive syngery's I might be missing (for example, in sorc's it's needed for focused implosion).

Does this significant limit hunting areas? Are there big groups where bolts are more versatile?

What about MjE vs MnE. - This is really what stumps me.

MnE near level seems vital for CS/DS. Mana Leech seems vital for making so much 917 going. Thoughts on which would be better to sacrifice at lower levels?

[drumpel]

I find this concept fascinating - particularly that you started on it at 27.

It has me toying around with the idea of a build that leans on the 917/502 entirely started at level 19 and thus skips on spell aiming to try and help make up some of the TPs. I'd love any and all opinions about pro/cons.

I imagine it would be mana intensive/painful from 19-30, but workable with wracking.

Questions I have include:

Does spell aiming have intuitive syngery's I might be missing (for example, in sorc's it's needed for focused implosion).

Does this significant limit hunting areas? Are there big groups where bolts are more versatile?

What about MjE vs MnE. - This is really what stumps me.

MnE near level seems vital for CS/DS. Mana Leech seems vital for making so much 917 going. Thoughts on which would be better to sacrifice at lower levels?

Spell aiming for wizards is solely for bolting.

The best thing about bolting at low levels is that so many creatures have a low bolting DS. It's not until around the mid 20s do you start running into creatures using more defensive spells to protect against bolting.

If you want to forego bolting, 425 isn't as important. But 430 is nice to have for the DS/TD gain. It's a toss up if you want to go 917/502 and where you take MjE and MnE spell ranks. From level 24 through mid 30s I only had 18 MjE ranks. It was a bit gruelling keeping mana up to solely rely on 917. I decided to focus on water lore to give a little extra help, you get a small % to get an extra 20 mana for any cast of 516, so instead of only get 17 mana on the initial few casts, one would generally get me that extra 20.

I got up to 430 as soon as I could after 18 ranks of MjE. I made sure I kept my Wiz spells at 1x. I tried to keep my Harness Power at 2x and my EMC at 1-1.5x to help with that little extra mana gain on pulses. I did bolt as back up to 917 for a cast here and there until level 34, but I rarely did that - maybe once or twice every 10 thousand exp gain. At level 34 I never cast another bolt spell with him.

With my MjE being a bit behind my level, I tend to need a roll of 40 or better to ward my targets, but that gap is slowly shrinking as I focus MjE 1x every level now and throw an extra spell rank on it when the TPs are there.

I found that using 917 opened up a few hunting spots that lot of AS and bolting hunters avoid because a creature has natural crit padding and it's a pain in the ass to hunt them. Otherwise, hunting pretty much stays the same as a bolting wizard would follow.