Tempted to do something stupid.

[Shari]

So. I hate being a wizard. I can't hunt anything my age, and when I do, it kicks my ass and I die. Maybe I just have Jesae rolled up really shitty, but I'm highly tempted to roll her into a bard. I love the profession and I'd like to keep the name because I like the character she's turned out to be.

Any thoughts?

[Shalla]

Bards are awesome!

[Shari]

Yeah I know. I have one and she totally rocks. Thing is, I LIKE playing the character of Jesae. The bard I have is really far too serious and not much fun to play unless I'm pms'ing. :D

Jesae's 27..if I busted my butt I could probably have her back up there in a year. I don't know! I'd hate to have to get her damned tattoo remade and all her feature alters as well. <grumble>

[Edaarin]

Keep her around and find someone to help you allocate her to be a better hunter? I don't know. I've always regretted rerolling my characters (except my first few who were quick gens, heh).

I personally think it's a little dull to play two or more characters of the same profession.

[Scott]

Originally posted by Jesae
So. I hate being a wizard. I can't hunt anything my age, and when I do, it kicks my ass and I die. Maybe I just have Jesae rolled up really shitty, but I'm highly tempted to roll her into a bard. I love the profession and I'd like to keep the name because I like the character she's turned out to be.

Any thoughts?

Post your stats and I'll see if I can help you out. I find hunting a wizard to be pretty easy so maybe that's the problem. Just post what you are hunting, your stats and skills and maybe you won't have to reroll into another profession.

[Shari]

Strength (STR): 53 (1) ... 53 (1)
Constitution (CON): 57 (3) ... 57 (3)
Dexterity (DEX): 83 (26) ... 83 (26)
Agility (AGI): 79 (19) ... 79 (19)
Discipline (DIS): 94 (17) ... 94 (17)
Aura (AUR): 93 (26) ... 98 (29)
Logic (LOG): 81 (15) ... 86 (18)
Intuition (INT): 81 (15) ... 81 (15)
Wisdom (WIS): 96 (23) ... 96 (23)
Influence (INF): 46 (-2) ... 46 (-2)

Jesae is a pure caster. Her casting strength right now is 242 the problem is, her defense SUCKS. I think when I have her fully spelled (with just her own spells) Her defense is 165. She is wearing 4x fulls and usually carries a blunt and a shield simply for defense. I know having extra spells from rangers, etc will help improve this but damn, don't wizards have all those spells to effectively hunt without having to beg for more spells?

Any help would be GREAT.

[Edited on 1-5-2004 by Jesae]

[Scott]

skills too

[Shari]

Oh and I was hunting warfarers but they take awhile to learn off of, so I moved to cyclops and those are pretty decent, except I'd run out of mana before I was even pink.

Tried the glacier, died.

[Shari]

Skill Name | Bonus Ranks Goals Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 58 12 12
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 105 25 25
Physical Fitness...................| 102 24 24
Arcane Symbols.....................| 117 29 29
Magic Item Use.....................| 117 29 29
Spell Aiming.......................| 158 58 58
Harness Power......................| 158 58 58
Elemental Mana Control.............| 117 29 29
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 45 9 9
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 45 9 9
Climbing...........................| 50 10 10
Swimming...........................| 50 10 10

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 20 20
Minor Elemental....................| 14 14
Wizard.............................| 25 25
Training Points: 8 Phy 0 Mnt (280 Phy converted to Mnt)

She doesn't HAVE to train in two-handed weapons. I had her using a shield and a really great whip, though the whip was mostly for effect:D But whatever is more beneficial I will use.

[HalflingHeretic]

Race, skills, and order would be required to see what you are possibly doing wrong.

My placements are still 1999 informed, beware.

I would suggest killing armor down to 4 rankings along with killing two-handed weapons all togethor. From there, you need to decide staff or shield/blunt.

Along with another suggestion, physical training seems kind of high as well.


[Edited on 1-5-2004 by HalflingHeretic]

[Shari]

Damnit, I keep forgetting stuff. She's sylvan.

[Scott]

Well your huge problem is that you have 2 handed weapons trained for and your use a blunt and a shield. First off, would you rather use a shield and weapon or a runestaff?

[Shari]

Yeah, I have two-handed trained because I am using a runestaff right now. I wanted to see if it would help my defenses more over a blunt/shield combo. PERSONALLY I would prefer to use the blunt/shield combo. But if I gain more defense from the runestaff, I will use that instead.

[HalflingHeretic]

If you are going to use a Runestaff, runestaff defense comes from magic ranks I believe. Kill the two-handed and go magical items/arcanes/spells.

[Scott]

Oh boy, I see why you have a problem. Send me an IM at Stargate84, it'll save us the delay.

[HalflingHeretic]

Do her a favor and get her 425, it would be worth killing off 520 to 513.

You can AIM me as well, but I am up for only another thirty minutes.

[Edited on 1-5-2004 by HalflingHeretic]

[Parkbandit]

It's not because wizards suck.. it's because you train for one thing and do another that you are not trained for. Using a shield with no shield training is rather pointless and that whip is probably a blunt weapon and you trained for 2 handed.

If you want to use the whip, I would suggest you train in blunt and shield.. and lower the armor down to probably 4 or so for double leather. Also, if you want to hunt, I would certainly have 425 by now instead of 925 and 520.

[Soulpieced]

In a short note, not to hurt you or anything, but your skillset is terrible. I'm sure anyone here can give you better advice on a more sound training path. After looking at it again, not terrible, and just pump all the extra points from two handed weapons into magic skills and use a runestaff.

[Kitsun]

Please, try going here...

http://www.dreamharvest.com/GS/

Under the guide section, there's a Runestaff using Wizard guide.

Your defense problem comes from a few departments. Soulpieced covered one.

You have WAY too much armor use. You do NOT need two-handed weapons. Your too far overtrained for HP.

You ran up the wrong spell lists for DS. By level 30 you'll probably want Elemental Barrier. You definately can't accomplish it with your current path.

Your also at about 9 magical ranks per level. Should try pushing to 10, at ten, you'll want quite a few tripled spell ranks to make up for the DS loss with a runestaff.

[Wezas]

Nowhere near optimal, and I still need to convert him to be a bit more GS4-friendly (less armor, etc.) but fun:

Name: XXXXXXXX Race: Giant Profession: Bard (shown as: Bard)
Gender: Male Age: 46 Expr: 452056 Level: 19
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 96 (38) ... 96 (38)
Constitution (CON): 69 (19) ... 69 (19)
Dexterity (DEX): 69 (4) ... 69 (4)
Agility (AGI): 66 (3) ... 66 (3)
Discipline (DIS): 74 (12) ... 74 (12)
Aura (AUR): 96 (18) ... 96 (18)
Logic (LOG): 63 (1) ... 63 (1)
Intuition (INT): 66 (8) ... 66 (8)
Wisdom (WIS): 84 (17) ... 84 (17)
Influence (INF): 49 (5) ... 49 (5)

XXXXXXX (at level 19), your skill bonuses and ranks are:
Skill Name | Bonus Ranks Goals Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 40 8 8
Shield Use.........................| 90 20 20
Combat Maneuvers...................| 90 20 20
Edged Weapons......................| 140 40 40
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 25 5 5
Physical Fitness...................| 90 20 20
Arcane Symbols.....................| 25 5 5
Magic Item Use.....................| 25 5 5
Spell Aiming.......................| 50 10 10
Harness Power......................| 90 20 20
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 62 13 13
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 35 7 7
Disarming Traps....................| 90 20 20
Perception.........................| 90 20 20
Climbing...........................| 5 1 1
Swimming...........................| 5 1 1
First Aid..........................| 5 1 1

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 10 10
Bard...............................| 10 10
Training Points: 96 Phy 0 Mnt (166 Phy converted to Mnt)

4x gear (armor is only 2x I think)
258AS (offensive)
149DS (offensive)
250DS (defensive)

And he disarms/pops his own age without problem.

[Anebriated]

Jesae, here is how i trained my half-elf blunt/shield wielding wizard. He casts around 266 and his DS in offensive is around 260-300. I know im lacking in the wizard sphere, i am doubling until i catch up. Just wanted to keep 518 for pookas and getting 425 over 900's gave me more AS. Also, drop some armor training. You only need 6 ranks of armor to wear doubles without the added spell hinderence.

Name: ******Race: Half-Elf Profession: Wizard (shown as: Battle Mage)
Gender: Male Age: 1358 Expr: 1067200 Level: 30
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 80 (15) ... 80 (15)
Constitution (CON): 77 (13) ... 77 (13)
Dexterity (DEX): 84 (22) ... 84 (22)
Agility (AGI): 73 (21) ... 73 (21)
Discipline (DIS): 74 (7) ... 74 (7)
Aura (AUR): 85 (17) ... 85 (17)
Logic (LOG): 82 (16) ... 82 (16)
Intuition (INT): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Wisdom (WIS): 84 (17) ... 84 (17)
Influence (INF): 57 (8) ... 57 (8)
Mana: 137 Silver: 3
s>skill
****** (at level 30), your skill bonuses and ranks are:
Skill Name | Bonus Ranks Goals Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 30 6 6
Shield Use.........................| 70 15 15
Blunt Weapons......................| 70 15 15
Physical Fitness...................| 70 15 15
Arcane Symbols.....................| 122 31 31
Magic Item Use.....................| 162 62 62
Spell Aiming.......................| 162 62 62
Harness Power......................| 162 62 62
Elemental Mana Control.............| 122 31 31
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 90 20 20
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 54 11 11
Perception.........................| 105 25 25
Climbing...........................| 25 5 5

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 18 18
Minor Elemental....................| 25 25
Wizard.............................| 24 24
Training Points: 54 Phy 0 Mnt (680 Phy converted to Mnt)

[Edited on 1-5-2004 by Elrodin]

[Soulpieced]

Double is only 6 now? Thought it used to be 8 for most professions.

[Wezas]

Originally posted by Soulpieced
Double is only 6 now? Thought it used to be 8 for most professions.

It was 8 in GS3, thought it had gone down to 6 for GS4 for some reason.

[Anebriated]

well i looked it up on Gahread's QRS script and it said double took 6 ranks to work off 2% hinderence. Of course now that i go back and check again i see that its 15 ranks for wizards to work off 4% hinderence... ok, my bad on that one. keep your armor training Jesae.

[Anebriated]

for sorcerers 6, for wizards 15. From the QRS script:

8 Double Leather 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 0 4 2 | 6

1% 10 2
2% 30 6
3% 50 10
4% 70 15
5% 90 20
6% 110 27

Note: the above is for casting penalties, the physical penalty would take 8 ranks for double leather. Most wizards dont need to worry about that part because they are casters.

[Edited on 1-5-2004 by Elrodin]

[Kitsun]

Originally posted by Jesae
Yeah, I have two-handed trained because I am using a runestaff right now. I wanted to see if it would help my defenses more over a blunt/shield combo. PERSONALLY I would prefer to use the blunt/shield combo. But if I gain more defense from the runestaff, I will use that instead.

A runestaff will NOT provide more defense than a One Handed Weapon and Shield route.

This is a very common misconception.

As a runestaff user, your defense will always be LOWER than if you chose the OHE/Shield route. The benefit of a runestaff is that it can provide adequate protection for the user while allowing them to train in magical skills. You get to more accurately represent the profession you chose rather than run around like a bad hybrid class. That is the CHOICE. Runestaves were not meant to provide MORE defense, otherwise there wouldn't be a choice in the matter; everyone would grab a staff.


"Double is only 6 now? Thought it used to be 8 for most professions." - Soulpieced

It is 8 ranks for double.


Actually after reading a bit, the problem may not be all training related.

As a wizard, you can NOT stand in front of something in stance offense and try to bomb the living daylights out of something before it kills you. You'll win some fights but you'll lose an equal amount. Offensive DS isn't supposed to be THAT big an issue if your dancing properly.

You also need to pick the right creature to hunt. Every span of levels, wizards have one hunting ground where they absolutely ROCK at annhilating. With the shift around, I can't say I'm sure what it is at your current level.

In short: If your not stance dancing - do it. Use macros/script for it, typing it out will get you killed. Try another hunting ground. If all else fails, find a sorcerer to imbed air wall for you - cheap, fast, easy defense.

[Anebriated]

It is 8 ranks for double. as i said a post or two back. Its 15 to work off the casting hinderence, 8 to work off the physical. so if you stop at 8 youll still have roughly an added 2% hinderence.

I can stand in offensive in my hunting ground all day as long as my spells dont fall. Im 3 trains under them and they cant touch me.

[Kitsun]

Originally posted by Elrodin
as i said a post or two back. Its 15 to work off the casting hinderence, 8 to work off the physical. so if you stop at 8 youll still have roughly an added 2% hinderence.

About the doubles...I know, I know. I was busy typing up my post when yours went up.


Originally posted by Elrodin
I can stand in offensive in my hunting ground all day as long as my spells dont fall. Im 3 trains under them and they cant touch me.

And being able to do that depends upon the hunting ground.

If you CAN do that, its terrific. However if you can NOT, then you need to make adjustments for that fact. Not being able to hunt exclusively in offense doesn't mean you have to keep dying to simple attacks.

[Anebriated]

my point with the last part was just that the DS is there. Wizards have the most defense spells out of any profession, there are 2 circles dedicated to wizards alone. with the added DS if you are trained decently you should be able to survive a hunt with minimal damage done to your body. But you are right, it does depend on the hunting ground.