Empath DS

[Gan]

My empath is 99 (20k from capping) and I've been thinking about modifying his training at the next fixskill assignment.

He's currently maxed in OHE/Shield for the defensive capabilities hunting OTF. He's also got 50 ranks of CM for assisting with griffins, scouts, and janissaries.

His open DS in guarded with all the spells in his circles (not including 140 WOF) plus the 400's, 503, 509, 911, COL signs, and a statue is 620+ (using a 5x shield and a 4x ebladed knife). His ambush DS when attacked by a scout is 467. This is with just 1 attacker in the room. DS pushdown is considerably more when there's a swarm.

Unless I hunt him beyond the melting of his spells or if he gets tag teamed in a large swarm of constructs and griffins, he rarely dies and is one huge loot monster with regards to carrying out between 5 and 9 boxes not to mention the the usual 5 to 7k in coins and assorted griffin talons, gems, and crystal bladed weapons found on Ithzir.

What I'd like to know is if I were to switch him over to a training path similar to Nakiro's using a runestaff and keeping my 50 ranks of CM:

1. What would my open DS be in guarded?

2. What would my ambushed DS be in guarded?

Ideally, if I could get other capped/close to capped hunting empaths to post their DS open and ambushed and what their training is (runestaff, brawling/shield, ohe/shield, pure brawling, etc), it would help me in deciding the optimal training path for my empath hunter.

I'd like the greater spell CS ability by having more magical ranks than what I currently have (that is eaten up by ohe/shield training) but I do not want to sacrifice alot of my DS.

My CS with boneshatter is 474 without the orbs.
I do not use 1110 due to no spell aiming training.
My 50 ranks in CM allow little to no success for the janissaries disarming me, and the ebladed knife does not get picked up if I do get disarmed.
I also have no rt healing, so I can heal while hunting if I do get wounded without suffering long roundtimes.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[StrayRogue]

You'd most likely lose DS if you went to runestave. Let me finish cooking my dinner and I'll try and work out the exact numbers for you.

PS, my cleric suffers the same fate. The solution I've found is wearing Wall of Force. At that level I easily have enough mana to maintain it.

[StrayRogue]

Additionally, if you go brawling, you can afford to drop those 50 CM ranks as Disarming won't be an issue.

[AnticorRifling]

My empath is shield and brawl, I plan on hunting in guarded with a shield and open hand.

[AnticorRifling]

Do the crystal bladed weapons sell for anything at the pawn? I always pick them up and put them in the basket because I don't want flaring weapons laying around for critters (scouts in particular) to pick up.

[Gan]

My sylvan empath gets 1425 for each crystal bladed weapon in Illistim and he has no trading skills...

The shield brawl does look attractive.

Although, I wonder if the CM training helps avoid the griffin's grasp as well as reduce the amount of damage when they do fly/drop you. I've yet to die from a griffin fall but I dont know if thats from the FGB or if thats from the CM.

I'm thinking since I can hunt OTF now with very little trouble, and can really haul the loot in I'll not change until they nerf boneshatter and or make any other radical spell adjustments like losing the 200 circle I heard rumor of them eventually doing.

I'll also see if I can walk around with another empath thats a runestaff user and see how they handle OTF.

[StrayRogue]

Its the padding that reduces the damage.

[Dwarven Empath]

Ganalon, who is your empath. If you want to, you can hunt with Medi and watch him hunt.

[Nakiro]

Don't worry about CM, just get spells. 81/81/141 MJS/MNS/EMP and 10 ranks/lvl magic skills for a runestaff. Not much can kill you except for bad luck.

[Nakiro]

Oh yah, 2x Harness Power is pretty freakin' sweet too.

[Kerrydwen]

My empath receieved no damage at all when she was picked up and dropped by a griffin, she died a few moments later from trying to fog back to her hunting party though not realizing that you go random places with 225 out there. lol


She's a runestaff user and if I remember I'll post her DS later, but when she's in guarded pretty much nothing touches her, that's not even with a ton of spells on. I dont need to be a tank, I can heal myself. I love empaths spells and I'd never give up the ability to hunt with them, 1106 is good and I adore 1110, that spell is amazing.

[Gan]

Originally posted by Celember
Ganalon, who is your empath. If you want to, you can hunt with Medi and watch him hunt.

Jaken is my empath.

My laptop is down this week so my ability to be in game is hindered by the fact that without it I've got limited access to the internet (which is good because I've got alot of work to do this week).

I'll look up Medi next time I've got some time in the game to hunt and pair up in OTF. Thanks for the invite.

[Gan]

Originally posted by Nakiro
Don't worry about CM, just get spells. 81/81/141 MJS/MNS/EMP and 10 ranks/lvl magic skills for a runestaff. Not much can kill you except for bad luck.

Thanks for the info Nakiro. I'll add that to my notes for the next fixskill rollout.

[Killer Kitten]

I haven't had access to my character for about a year so I don't remember numbers.

At cap, she was max trained in shield, edged, brawl and spell aim. She had 2x spells and 2x first aid. A bunch of lores, I can't remember which ones or what rank tho. I had 8 ranks of Multi Opponent, 6 of armor (wore 5X full leather and a coif for head and neck) and no combat manuvers. Only 1x in Harness, but I never seemed to run short of mana.

She was Voln, which meant she could Fu pretty well, and had no problem kicking undead, particularly if they were bound and unbalanced. She used wands and scrolls very well.

I'm sure she didn't have the highest CS for empaths her age or the exact perfect Bone Shatter, but she was very versatile and the only reason she ever died near the end of my playing career was because of my stupid hands. I couldn't type quickly or accurately enough to get her out of any kind of jam. Her training was more than adequate, but her player was falling down on the job. <g>

I enjoyed her so much because she was versatile. I rarely got bored hunting her, because I could vary attack styles or switch to different types of critters with ease.

I did find being capped to be very boring, though. I could still fry and gain training points, but I used to enjoy having a 'birthday' and gaining a bunch of new skills and spells at once.

Accumulating points and spending them on a skill as soon as I had enough? Big yawn! Though I think somebody told me there's no 'training' as such anymore, all ages of characters now spend as they go and all another level means is that you can go up a notch in previously maxed skills. Not a change I would have liked, my friends and I used to like celebrating when one of us trained, buying birthday cake, etc. Oh well...