Healing Empath who wants to hunt

[lexbubba]

My elf empath is level 77, and has been healing practically his whole life (only has 2m fame). The few times I have hunted years ago it wasn't pretty (but was also specced as a warpath at that time). Society is COL. I am bored of healing on the time, and want to get into the action hunting, while still being a strong healer. I think I want to go pure and bolting and would love some feedback on my training.


Skills:
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 258 158
Arcane Symbols.....................| 120 30
Magic Item Use.....................| 120 30
Spell Aiming.......................| 258 158
Harness Power......................| 177 77
Elemental Mana Control.............| 5 1
Mental Mana Control................| 90 20
Spirit Mana Control................| 105 25
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 150 50
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 175 75
Perception.........................| 179 79
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 90 20
First Aid..........................| 258 158
Trading............................| 105 25

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 98


Stats:
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 5,192,944 Level: 77
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 97 (23) ... 97 (23)
Constitution (CON): 96 (23) ... 96 (23)
Dexterity (DEX): 94 (27) ... 94 (27)
Agility (AGI): 95 (37) ... 95 (37)
Discipline (DIS): 92 (6) ... 92 (6)
Aura (AUR): 92 (26) ... 92 (26)
Logic (LOG): 92 (21) ... 92 (21)
Intuition (INT): 71 (10) ... 71 (10)
Wisdom (WIS): 92 (21) ... 92 (21)
Influence (INF): 92 (31) ... 92 (31)

[Sile]

Your stats are fine as a warder. Using Wither to open and following up with a bone shatter or two (if they have bones).

Wither is very strong if you can consistently ward at 160+. Otherwise just stick to bone shatter.

I would skip spell aim, and just get extra empath spell ranks to bump up your CS.

You do want a few ranks in Manipulation for those spells, you can ignore it, but it gives you instant kills, which do make a difference when you are starting to get past 40 ranks, 40 is 5% chance to instant kill with both 1106 and 1115.

Summoning helps with extra damage cycles of 1115, which is nice, but i wouldn't worry too much about that until Cap.

You are fine as is with your training though, you'll just be specced more as a healer than warder.

I never bolted as an empath so I can't comment on that.

If I were you, i'd drop spell Aim, and your current lores, to invest in some more spells or Manipulation lore and maybe a little summoning if you decide to use wither more often. But I wouldn't really use a fixskill on it unless it was free. You'll still be able to heal, just will be a lot more rt involved.

[lexbubba]

Good feedback. I updated my training based on some great conversations on discord. Still sticking with bolting primarily for now, and with the warding option, but made a few sacrifices in healing to accommodate.

Haven't fixskilled yet so any further improvements would be greatly appreciated!

-major drops transformation to 57 ranks for 0 healing RT at cap, dropped mental mana control (didn't see really valuable), removed all transference so can't heal scars anymore
-major adds close to 2x HP (for expensive bolt spells), added 20 ranks of summoning (web bolt) and telepathy (empathic assault),


(at level 77), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 8
Physical Fitness...................| 158
Arcane Symbols.....................| 79
Magic Item Use.....................| 79
Spell Aiming.......................| 158
Harness Power......................| 141
Elemental Mana Control.............| 0
Mental Mana Control................| 0
Spirit Mana Control................| 25
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 20
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 20
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 0
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 57
Perception.........................| 79
Climbing...........................| 40
Swimming...........................| 20
First Aid..........................| 158
Trading............................| 25

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 99

[Nothing]

Here's my bolting empath's training, she's only 64 but might be useful for you. She's lore heavy, but between relying heavily on Fire Spirit (she hunted lots of trolls over the levels) and wanting other benefits of them (2x regeneration a day, yes please) I ended up with more then I intended. She's a beast in any hunting grounds I take her to... the only thing really holding her back is how mana intensive bolting is for an empath, though that's steadily getting to be less of a problem (she still burns through gold wands at a good clip though).

Her CS isn't as good as a pure CS user, which is hurting her a bit since things in the Citadel tend to have a high CS for their level... but she can still use bone shatter effectively when she needs to. Dumping all her extra points into spells since I got lores to a spot I'm happy with (wait til cap my ass.... I've been playing 25 years and never capped any character!), she'll always be a primary bolter but it never hurts to have options:

Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 5 1
Physical Fitness...................| 232 132
Arcane Symbols.....................| 99 23
Magic Item Use.....................| 146 46
Spell Aiming.......................| 232 132
Harness Power......................| 167 67
Mental Mana Control................| 166 66
Spirit Mana Control................| 166 66
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 150 50
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 25 5
Mental Lore - Transference.........| 150 50
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 150 50
Perception.........................| 166 66
Climbing...........................| 70 15
Swimming...........................| 50 10
First Aid..........................| 166 66
Trading............................| 166 66

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 28

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 31

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 79

[Nothing]

I should note, she's wearing an enhansive that boosts her Harness Power by several points

[lexbubba]

What does 66 ranks of mmc (and I guess smc) do for you?

[Maerit]

I'll be honest, I don't have a ton of Empath experience, but it seems like you're maybe overdoing it for Harness Power? You're 2x in HP, which is 640 MTPs or 1280 PTPs depending on whether you're converting it or not, and you're in CoL. If you're not depending on bolts, and can ward kill most targets, you should be able to wrack and convert a TON of those TPs into lores to boost your damage, or more spell ranks.

I usually save 2x & 3x HP for post-cap goals. It hasn't been a problem for my pure sorc/bard/wizard so far (Sorc was CoL until he finished 2x HP).

If you're going to bolt, I would actually recommend the same thing, but suggest you convert to GoS and get 60 blessing lore, dump more points into PF training for a ton of mana via Sigil of Power. Anyway, these are all just very subjective suggestions, and absolutely not based on a great deal of experience.

[TheLastShamurai]

I got to level 50 with my CoL bolter. It was a lot of fun, but more mana intensive than warding. I offset that with fusion gear instead of HP. I rocked two +1 max spirit orbs, and two +1 spirit recovery orbs. I miss that character. :(

[Nothing]

I think you're looking at the bonus, not the ranks, Maerit.... they're 77 ranks in HP, which puts them at 1x.

[Nothing]

It increases the mana gained per pulse, gives me access to MANA PULSE sooner, and allows me to use MANA SPELLUP more times a day. SMC also factors into reducing the severity of the sickness inflicted by 130 and factors into 1120, 1125, and 1150. EMC modifies the warding margins of the CS portion of 1110 and increases the target limit of 1117 and 1120.

[Maerit]

I think you're looking at the bonus, not the ranks, Maerit.... they're 77 ranks in HP, which puts them at 1x.

I was looking at this:


major adds close to 2x HP (for expensive bolt spells), added 20 ranks of summoning (web bolt) and telepathy (empathic assault),

[Nothing]

Ah, I see.... yea, keeping MMC and SMC at 1x will go a lot further towards keeping their mana up during a hunt then 2x in HP....a bit less expensive then that second rank in HP is too.

[lexbubba]

More good feedback. Ok here is the latest. Dropped a couple levels in HP (now roughly 1.5x), and dropped empath circle by two to 20 over 1x, bumped SMC to 1x, bumped MMC to 20 ranks.


Armor Use 8
PF 158
AS 79
MIU 79
SA 158
HP 122
EMC 0
MMC 20
SMC 79
SL - Blessing 0
SL - Summoning 20
ML - Manipulation 0
ML - Telepathy 20
ML - Transference 0
ML - Transformation 57
Perception 79
Climbing 40
Swimming 20
First Aid 158
Trading 25
Maj Spirit 40
Minor Spirit 40
Empath Circle 97