Lore suggestions

[Izzy]

I rolled up a little wizard, initially with the intention of making him an earth mage. However, after looking through the spell circles available to me again, I feel as though earth lore's benefits are few and far between. Not to mention the benefits that it does offer are pretty weak.

So, to the point of my post: anyone here have a higher level wizard that trains heavily in earth lore that can give me hope that it isn't completely useless? Or, conversely, I'd love to hear arguments for any of the other lores. I'm aware of the pwntacity of fire lore + immolation, but thats down the road.

Air is probably my second choice, with possible water lore to supplement it for ubar lightning skillz. And tonis bolt is sexy.

Another question, re: shield/brawl vs runestaff.
Any foresight into which is best both early on, and in the long haul? I've got an 8x shield(unconverted tower-would like to know if medium/tower would be better if I do take this route) and 6x leathers available to me, if that influences any suggestions.
Currently I'm pretty sure I can pull off:
1x brawl/shield
1x emc
1x HP
1x lore
~30 ranks miu/AS/PF
2x spell aim
3x spells

I'm not positive of this, because currently he's set up to pwn rats with a naginata. Is this going to give me a solid DS in offensive, or am I better pumping myself up with magical ranks and going with the runestaff.

Thanks ahead of time for any insight, help, etc.

[Askip]

<< or am I better pumping myself up with magical ranks and going with the runestaff. >>

It is basically a question of what you would enjoy, I think a shield at cap adds about +50DS over what a runestaff will get you. Mages do not lack in DS at high levels so I went with the staff and put the shield TPs elsewhere.

For Lore I went with fire for the splash with 908.

:D

[Izzy]

<< or am I better pumping myself up with magical ranks and going with the runestaff. >>

It is basically a question of what you would enjoy, I think a shield at cap adds about +50DS over what a runestaff will get you. Mages do not lack in DS at high levels so I went with the staff and put the shield TPs elsewhere.

For Lore I went with fire for the splash with 908.

:D

How does 907 stack up against 908 assuming equal lore bonuses?

[Ignot]

My mage is an earth mage too and I was hoping to use stone fist as his primary attack. After realizing that stone fist is a waste I dropped all my earth lore ranks and put it into spell ranks. I love no lore training.

[Izzy]

If I snag 20 earth lore ranks to attune, then just ditch them...do i keep the attunement?

[Askip]

<< How does 907 stack up against 908 >>

I never actually checked the Adv of one vs. the other, Fire Lore also adds to Immolation/519 damage so I went that way.

<< If I snag 20 earth lore ranks to attune, then just ditch them...do i keep the attunement? >>

ATTUNE is separated from Lore training now, no?

:D

[Ignot]

Yeah, attune is different then lore training. That way you can still role play an earth mage without any earth lore ranks.

[Izzy]

Oh, perfect.

[Askip]

<< I love no lore training. >>

I hear you. I went without lore until very recently but at 13m exp the teritary skills are pretty much the only place left for TPs. Lore for pures should be a secondary skill, let's hope the RSN update to lore is a good one.

:D

[Dothstar's_Seven]

Air is probably my second choice, with possible water lore to supplement it for ubar lightning skillz. And tonis bolt is sexy.


A little informative tidbit here, concerning lightning DF benefits.

The system takes the average of the two lores (Air and Water). What this means is that you can have all air lore, all water lore, or half and half, and still receive the same benefit to lightning spells.

(100 ranks of AL + 0 ranks of WL)/2 = 50
(0 ranks of AL + 100 ranks of WL)/2 = 50
(50 ranks of AL + 50 ranks of WL)/2 = 50

Basically, just training in AL will give you all the AL goodies plus full lightning benefits.

[DaCapn]

How does 907 stack up against 908 assuming equal lore bonuses?

908 heavily trumps 907 in terms of AvD and DF overall. Water lores only uniquely affect 907 and 903 (all others can be increased by air lores, as further detailed by Dothstar's_Seven). Oh yeah... and the ever-prevalent 512... ice patch. Air lores cover 505, 506, 511, 518, and also 912.

Being that my experience is Icemule, I have additional bias against water lores. I never cast 907 or 903. All around, I can't see much strength to be had by taking on water lores.

Plus if you want to consider 910 as a heavy-hitter bolt spell (which has a pretty amazing DF and the AvD is good against heavier armors), air lores benefit that.

Given my situation, fire and air exclusively.

I don't see any recorded benefits for some spells which really obviously ought to. Anyone know if 909 gets benefits from earth lores, for example?