Shields VS Runestaves

[Proxy]

Question here. What kind of difference will I be looking at if I train my character to use shields and only shields(1x) for hard DS as apposed to rune staves offensive stance/defensive stance. My main character is lvl 54 at the moment.

I understand that the tps could be used else were, but I've finally kicked the habit of scroll infusion, and lores really don't do anything for my primary spells 702/705/710//720, and animate dead/minor demons are something of a joke.

So in short I'm thinking of picking up a few ranks of MoC and switching to Shields just to make my life easier...

[thefarmer]

MoC won't do much for you

[Allereli]

I understand that the tps could be used else were, but I've finally kicked the habit of scroll infusion, and lores really don't do anything for my primary spells 702/705/710//720, and animate dead/minor demons are something of a joke.

why would you want to kick that habit?

I SMELL A PLINKER

[Proxy]

will help w/ FI and the occasional use of 111. which is more then lores do a pressent.

Don't get me wrong. I do entend to keep some lore training. 20 or so summoning lore. enough demonology for 712 to be useable. Aside that. I'm currently 2.5x in lores overall and am not really seeing any gain for the way I play my character. So after i'm done migrateing/fix skill. I'll go from 1.5x AS/MIU and 2.5x lores to 1x lores & .5x AS/MIU, so I'll have plenty of points to play with.

Still curious to see if my characters DS will be any better w/ shield use. or if I should just tank the points into Controls/Harness. or maybe pick up lockpicking as a hobby...

[Proxy]

why would you want to kick that habit?

I SMELL A PLINKER

because as it was for ever 4 hrs I hunted my character w/ scrolls I was spending 1 hr in upkeep on my scroll collection. 2, the lack of all that crap his helping w/ encumbrance. 3, its saving me A LOT of silver. and 4, it makes my life simpler...

[Allereli]

because as it was for ever 4 hrs I hunted my character w/ scrolls I was spending 1 hr in upkeep on my scroll collection. 2, the lack of all that crap his helping w/ encumbrance. 3, its saving me A LOT of silver. and 4, it makes my life simpler...

then you're not unlocking them right.

[Proxy]

probably right, everything I know about 714 is self taught. but regardless. its all a moot point any more.

[bluefish]

I just fixskilled into a 1x brawl & shield from runestaff yesterday for a few reasons

1) Much higher (at least 100) DS in offensive + ability to channel in offensive without facing certain death
2) Like you I had tons of MIU & AS which I didn't use, every time I used a scroll I felt I didn't want to have to rely on outside spells to hunt. Plus carrying around tons of scrolls isn't my idea of fun
3) I'm a Voln master and though 1x brawl isn't really too useful at my level (64) it's still an option
4) I was able to put freed MTP into Sorc. circle so I am now overtrained by 20 yielding about net 12 more CS than before (I had to tweak MnE and MnS down some to make this happen). Though I also have less mana due to tweaking harness power to 1x, I don't really have mana problems since I am warding more often
5) I don't feel like I have an incredibly unbalanced character with 1000s of PTP converted to MTP. Now I just have about 100 PTP converted.

Overall, I didn't do exact math but my guarded and defensive DS seems around 20 points lower than what it was before. 10 points of this loss was from lowering MnS from 40 to 30 ranks though, impacting 102 and 120. The rest of the loss is probably because I was at the higher end of runestaff build (somewhere around 11x) and it was providing me with above-average DS. Since you aren't doing brawl, you will most likely see a loss in DS in guarded/defensive. Brawl adds about 40 to my DS in guarded when my hand is open vs. holding an item, thus without it, my DS would be significantly lower. But your offensive DS will likely be higher even without it. I also notice I am blocking more attacks outright with the shield.

The magic skills I did keep highly trained were 50 ranks of demonology for 704, 712 and 740, and maxed spell aim for aimed 708, 710, 720, 111.