Shield use?

[Greng]

I have a recently capped empath in GoS that I was thinking of retraining to use a shield instead of a runestaff. I'm not really sure if it's the way to go but I'm curious if anyone else out there does this. I plan to hunt in Nelemar or OTF (using Wither and Bone Shatter), likely changing locations just for variety. Here is what I think I should take for skills:

8 Armor use
1x Shield
50 Brawling
2x PT
50 Climbing
60 Swimming
1x Perception
1x First Aid
.5x Arcane Symbols
.5x Magic Item Use
1x Harness Power
12 Elemental Mana Control
1x Mental Mana Control
24 Spirit Mana Control
40 Major Spirit Spells
40 Minor Spirit Spells
155 Empath Spells
60 Blessings Lore
.5x Summoning Lore
57 Transformation Lore

If this looks good (or is even viable) what skills should I focus working on now that I'm post cap.

Thanks!

[mgoddess]

I have a recently capped empath in GoS that I was thinking of retraining to use a shield instead of a runestaff. I'm not really sure if it's the way to go but I'm curious if anyone else out there does this. I plan to hunt in Nelemar or OTF (using Wither and Bone Shatter), likely changing locations just for variety. Here is what I think I should take for skills:

8 Armor use
1x Shield
50 Brawling
2x PT
50 Climbing
60 Swimming
1x Perception
1x First Aid
.5x Arcane Symbols
.5x Magic Item Use
1x Harness Power
12 Elemental Mana Control
1x Mental Mana Control
24 Spirit Mana Control
40 Major Spirit Spells
40 Minor Spirit Spells
155 Empath Spells
60 Blessings Lore
.5x Summoning Lore
57 Transformation Lore

If this looks good (or is even viable) what skills should I focus working on now that I'm post cap.

Thanks!

Looks decent from what I know of empath training, though I'd possibly switch the SMC and MMC training around, as it seems like SMC may prove more useful than MMC is (they removed the MMC component of Bone Shatter not to long ago).

[Maerit]

Shield Use has some advantages vs certain maneuvers (which are not all identified), and prevents disarm from both the Champs in OTF and the Defender/Combatants in Nelemar.

That being said, I would consider the alternative training route of getting 40 points into CMAN and picking up Cunning Defense (for extra defense vs all CML attacks), using a runestaff, and dumping all your extra TPs into the pursuit of 3x PF. 3x in PF is one of the strongest Empath training options for defense, and while Shield Use can be handy in certain environments, your natural DS will be higher with a runestaff (even when forced into offensive and prone) as long as you can keep your grip on the runestaff.

Since the recent disarm changes, I haven't been disarmed in Nelemar for a long time on any of my pures using a runestaff. I think my wizard might have been disarmed once about 3-4 months ago? Either way, it's far less of a liability than it used to be, and you get a lot of benefits from the runestaff (flares, especially acuity, and ensorcell) that a shield won't have.

[Greng]

I've just been made aware that my cat avatar received a response from another cat avatar and I neglected to notice how cool that was. It's cool.

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up sticking with a runestaff and if I ever get far past cap someday I'll look into a shield again. Here's what I went with:

(at level 100), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Combat Maneuvers...................| 140 40
Physical Fitness...................| 304 204
Arcane Symbols.....................| 201 101
Magic Item Use.....................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Mental Mana Control................| 102 24
Spirit Mana Control................| 201 101
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 165 65
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 190 90
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 157 57
Perception.........................| 201 101
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 170 70
First Aid..........................| 201 101

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

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

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 153

[khorpulent]

Looks decent from what I know of empath training, though I'd possibly switch the SMC and MMC training around, as it seems like SMC may prove more useful than MMC is (they removed the MMC component of Bone Shatter not to long ago).

The main benefit of MMC is to increase the number of targets for 1117. You get 5 targets with 24 ranks, 7 with 100.

And Maerit is right, you wanna get to 3x PF, especially since you're in GoS. You should also consider getting some stamina recovery enhancives if you don't already have them. You can generate a lot of mana with sigil of power if you have a nice set of enhancives (my empath gets ~50 stamina/pulse without enhancives, ~160 with).

At some point, you'll probably want to consider telepathy lore so that you can hit undead stuff with 1120. It's not a huge deal in Nelemar, but if you want to move to SoS or the Scatter at some point, it'll definitely come in handy. Only problem is, you need around 100 ranks to make it useful.

If it were me, though, I'd max out my spell ranks before training in other stuff.

[Greng]

Good to know, thank you. I was considering pumping up stamina to about 2.5x until I move on to spells just for a little extra mana capability. Should I still move to spells first?

[Asrial]

I went brawl/shield as a cleric and my only nuisance is there's never any cool brawling/shield gear for casters. It's all runestaves that get the love.

[Erous]

Good to know, thank you. I was considering pumping up stamina to about 2.5x until I move on to spells just for a little extra mana capability. Should I still move to spells first?

As an Empath, you should be 3x PF for life and ever and ever. It's so cheap for you and it's your main defense against combat maneuvers and general survivability. My opinion, if you're a pure caster, you're giving up valuable TPs on really no gains aside from ranged DS vs. additional CS advantages, OR CM training to CDEFENSE rank 5, which, with your 3x PF makes you basically unkillable.

Additionally, you take a reaction penalty for the shield in hand for size of the shield you decide to go with. Now, if you're brawling like others have said, which it doesn't seem to be the case via your training path, then shield would be the wise choice. This is all assuming you're looking to min/max your combat effectiveness. If you're looking at this from an RP perspective, or some other reason, then everything I said is void.