Lvl 55 Fixskills

[DaCapn]

I've been irritated lately about how my halfling rogue operates. I was thinking of switching to ranged combat. Nothing like a change of scenery to spice up a relationship.

I was thinking of going from this:

(at level 55), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 180 80
Shield Use.........................| 157 57
Combat Maneuvers...................| 194 94
Edged Weapons......................| 214 114
Ambush.............................| 214 114
Physical Fitness...................| 157 57
Dodging............................| 214 114
Arcane Symbols.....................| 50 10
Magic Item Use.....................| 20 4
Harness Power......................| 30 6
Disarming Traps....................| 230 130
Picking Locks......................| 230 130
Stalking and Hiding................| 214 114
Perception.........................| 214 114
Climbing...........................| 130 35

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 4

your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Shadow Mastery smastery 5
Dirtkick dirtkick 5
Hamstring hamstring 2
Surge of Strength surge 5

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 3





To this:

(at level 55), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 180 80
Combat Maneuvers...................| 194 85
Ranged Weapons......................| 214 114
Ambush.............................| 214 114
Physical Fitness...................| 157 57
Dodging............................| 214 114
Arcane Symbols.....................| 50 10
Harness Power......................| 30 6
Disarming Traps....................| 214 114
Picking Locks......................| 214 114
Stalking and Hiding................| xxx 171
Perception.........................| 214 114
Climbing...........................| 130 35

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 4

your Combat Maneuver training is as follows:

Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Shadow Mastery smastery 5
Dirtkick dirtkick 5
Surge of Strength surge 5

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 0

My AS would go up 22 from the training. I wouldn't have a hard time moving to a 6x bow with ebladed arrows increasing my AS by another 20 over my 6x handaxe. Then there's not having to deal with legging. Would my RT as a halfling with surge of strength up (STR mod 26) bring me down to 3 seconds with a composite bow or is a short bow more advisable?

[Danical]

With 509, you'll knock off 2 more seconds for a total of 4.

Don't ever use a short bow. Ever.

Drop CM to 1x.
Ditch Hiding.

[DaCapn]

Drop CM to 1x.
The CM training is unusually high for a bow build just to build up my comfortable base of cmans. After that I will be taking almost no CM training.

Ditch Hiding.
I'm sorry, why are you suggesting this?

[nub]

The CM training is unusually high for a bow build just to build up my comfortable base of cmans. After that I will be taking almost no CM training.

I'm sorry, why are you suggesting this?

CM doesn't add to your range AS, plus you don't need to snipe, you'll crit just fine from the open with a bow.

Plus that will free up a lot of points to get e-wave! 410

Get it, rogue's are better with it. That's +50 to your AS (-50 to their DS) prones all critters in the room RT etc.

[Krayton]

Plus that will free up a lot of points to get e-wave! 410


From his training it looks like he wants to be in a metal breastplate, hauberk the least. 410 would be pointless.

I'd say keep the hiding, at least down to 2x. With shadow mastery you'll be fine hiding from 80% of like-level (even higher) critters. Use the extra points freed up from that to bump up your perception as it help with sniping and staying hidden while doing it.

[nub]

Then drop armor down to 35 ranks and wear brig.

[Krayton]

Which a lot of people do. Then there's a bunch more points for more perception, hiding, CMANs, spells, etc, etc.

[nub]

That's what I did at level 58, fixskilled from heavy armor, to brig and e-wave

My average hunt time was cut down by 75% to get to fried.

Deaths have remained about the same.

[Krayton]

Would also need to pick up enough Harness power for mana to sustain e-waving.

[nub]

How much mana do people usually have as an e-waving rogue?

I carry 81!

[SolitareConfinement]

stick with MBP. you'll do fine one shot killing in 3 seconds if needed...when you get to higher level areas where things have shorter RTs and swing harder with things like pole arms you'll be glad you're in MBP over brig

[Danical]

If you need 410, get ewave anklets made; they bypass armor hindrance and don't take mana.

[DaCapn]

I'd like more feedback about bow type if anyone has more comments. I can readily get 509 but I'd rather not be dependent upon it.

Also, do you basically need RG stealth to get an arrow from hiding or what? I'm close to rank 40 in gambits.

I thought the 3x hiding would be super nice for a sniper. I have a 0% success rate against anything perceptive as-is with smastery up. I thought it would be nice to have the extra leverage against them and be basically impossible to find for everything else. Maybe drop this to 2.5x?

Changing to brig/ewave just makes me nervous because I lose the benefit from heavier armor AND my redux takes a huge hit. I know it's good but maybe it would be better to fixskills into it even later, I don't know

If I did an ewave build these would be the changes:
Armor 80 -> 35
Hiding 3x -> 2x
Harness Power 6 -> 20
MnE 4 -> 10

If I got ewave I'd want to take 4 more ranks of MnE eventually and get 414 and be able to eblade my own arrows. I know that if I master fletching I can get the bonus good and high but I might as well go for the flares too. Unless people think that's not at all useful.

[Danical]

You aren't going to have enough stamina at 1x PF to sustain SM and Surge.

Sniping adds 1 RT. Get more dodge, and open eye-aim.

Get into MBP and eventually Full Plate. Get 3x dodge. 410 imbeds and maybe haste imbeds if needed.

Hiding is a waste of time but if it's an RP thing, go for it; You get a pushdown for sniping but no extra crit damage as if ambushing from hiding.

[DaCapn]

You aren't going to have enough stamina at 1x PF to sustain SM and Surge.

I already do sustain these full hunt (and sprinkle in dirtkick since it's so cheap). Unless you're talking about taking the stamina penalty while refreshing during cooldown. I definitely wait it out.

[Danical]

Unless you're talking about taking the stamina penalty while refreshing during cooldown.

Correct.

[SolitareConfinement]

when he gets to say 70ish he should be able to sustain shadow mastery up always and just letting surge cool down. its what i've done since the changes a couple years ago when they added the cool downs. and i was in my early 70s and sustained it just fine. *shrugs*

[Danical]

I honestly don't see why people waste time hiding as a ranged rogue unless it's for RP.

[Lucos]

I honestly don't see why people waste time hiding as a ranged rogue unless it's for RP.

Prolly due to being unable to ward critter spells, especially in spellburst areas.

[SolitareConfinement]

Prolly due to being unable to ward critter spells, especially in spellburst areas.

pretty much. sniping allows me to up hunt more than usual. like level creatures can't ward me but up hunt can. plus that extra second it takes to snipe is worth the staying in hiding in offensive but not being able to be struck :)

[nub]

pretty much. sniping allows me to up hunt more than usual. like level creatures can't ward me but up hunt can. plus that extra second it takes to snipe is worth the staying in hiding in offensive but not being able to be struck :)

How can like level critters not ward you?

Unless you're talking about getting TD from other means not normal.

[SolitareConfinement]

oh yeah buffs, armor and sign of dissipation ftw

[nub]

What type of buffs?

I think the heralds (they being 60, me being 60) had about an 85% chance to ward me. I think I would usually have the following spells on me.

101,107,401,406 (for TD) and dissipation
But I also wear brig, so maybe that's why.

[SolitareConfinement]

yeah i wear for TD buffing 401, 406, 414, 101, 107, sign of dissipation and i wear MBP.

plus i'm a dwarf so i get that elemental TD boost too.

im 87....and Dissemblers (base 94) when i have my armor on and fully spelled have like a 40 something? % chance of hitting me. radicals can ward me at about 60 something? %....but festering taints 86 (closest i could think of) can ward me at a rate of i believe it was 3% when i left illistim

edited to add:

You fire an arrow at a triton dissembler!
AS: +466 vs DS: +342 with AvD: +30 + d100 roll: +17 = +171
... and hit for 28 points of damage!
Well aimed shot almost removes an eye!
The triton dissembler is stunned!
A dark shadowy tendril rises up from a triton dissembler, writhes its way up an opal-inlaid feathered long bow towards you and lashes out malevolently...
CS: +400 - TD: +333 + CvA: -18 + d100: +36 - +15 == +70
Warded off!
A dull grey beam snakes out toward you, but dissipates upon impact.


so the actual number for THIS dissembler he has a 43% chance of hitting me but i had it about right though 40ish % for dissemblers etc

[nub]

It also seems that being an archer is > than OHE/board?

That's what I have been hearing from lots of people.

[SolitareConfinement]

with out a doubt...the only thing you get more of being a sword/board....is bolt DS my bolt DS is only 353 in defensive unfortunately. its one of the only sacrafices you have to make. i don't know what it did to my DS because well frankly i went from sword n board to TWC....then to ranged... and ranged so far is by far the deadliest way to go

[nub]

Not sure if you said this already, but are you sniping? or Open shooting, I might PM or IM you later, if you don't mind!

[SolitareConfinement]

in Nelemar im sniping if i hunt OTF i open shoot...and no prob have at it (pm's)

[Izzy]

It also seems that being an archer is > than OHE/board?

That's what I have been hearing from lots of people.

Archery is so fucking pwn. I went back to playing my ranger after about a month break from him (was leveling up a sorc/wiz combo for fun). It's insane how quickly I can hunt. I actually have a sound clip play when I crit something ("fatality", all mortal kombat style) that I had to turn off because it was irritating me. It was going off every other shot. Throw in a hasting wizard and gg mobs. 3 second/1 second eye crits ftw.

[nub]

I'm just scared to do the switch from OHE to archery... having to collect arrows/make arrows, I'm not sure how much work goes into actually.

[Stabbyrogue]

My training.....

Futtilo (at level 75), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 150 50
Combat Maneuvers...................| 177 77
Ranged Weapons.....................| 254 154
Ambush.............................| 254 154
Physical Fitness...................| 177 77
Dodging............................| 254 154
Arcane Symbols.....................| 25 5
Harness Power......................| 108 26
Disarming Traps....................| 263 163
Picking Locks......................| 276 176
Stalking and Hiding................| 254 154
Perception.........................| 330 230
Climbing...........................| 128 34
Swimming...........................| 130 35
Pickpocketing......................| 254 154

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 11

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 3
Training Points: 137 Phy 0 Mnt (520 Phy converted to Mnt)
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)


I've tried about every rogue build possible and this is my best effort at an all around (locksmithing) magic rogue.

I chose to get up to 103 in the spirit circle rather than 414 just because my td is low. I also HIGHLY suggest training up to e-blade and buying a 6x bow. It allows quick and cheap arrow restocking when needed.

For hunting, I would prefer ambushing with a maul\claid and 410, but that just isn't possible yet with the picking.

[Stabbyrogue]

I should also add that I did fine in brigandine, but just recently decided to get up to 70 ranks for double chain. It's nice to have added insurance that you won't get that rank 2 arm injury.

[DaCapn]

Yeah, maybe I'll consider taking just 2x in hiding. When I think about it, my major frustration is with warcamps where I have little difficulty remaining hidden as-is (and they're going to be my main hunting area from here on out it looks like). It's the fact that I sit exposed for 5 seconds in offensive that kills me.

I've already started mastering fletching. If I do it on my 3X time, I'll probably be able to level twice out of it, so that might put me a little deeper in TPs and I could do the whole ewave bit.

Stabbyrogue, why did you go up to 103? Doesn't 103 just provide +10DS and no TD? (102 is obviously a waste of time) Or are you shooting for some higher MnS spells? (There's something funny about Stabbyrogue being an archer)

And I just realized I was an idiot about the RG stealth thing. It's putting things away from hiding that gets you, not pulling your items out.

[CrystalTears]

Fletch when you're absorbing from a hunt. Don't waste your weekly gift on fletching, especially when you're close to mastering and you don't rank as often as you used to.

[SolitareConfinement]

eh free 10 DS for spellburst areas and between wearing that and 101 it frees up a total of 2 mana for him...allowing him to wear more spells...etc etc etc... atleast thats where my brain goes when i think about it...and i'm sure he hasn't stopped at 103 its just where he's currently at

[SolitareConfinement]

Fletch when you're absorbing from a hunt. Don't waste your weekly gift on fletching, especially when you're close to mastering and you don't rank as often as you used to.

eh if you have a script that checks your mind for you and stops when you're fried and starts again when you're muddled and you're at say rank 250ish? you can actually start it....get 4 uber quick ranks be toast and pause again until you absorb more making it nice for XXX. just my opinion

[CrystalTears]

In the beginning, sure, as long as it stops and all that. I was more concerned about the times when you don't rank as often and it's just hours of nothing.

[Stabbyrogue]

The plan is to get 107 eventually, though I haven't had too many problems so that could change.

[DaCapn]

Fletch when you're absorbing from a hunt. Don't waste your weekly gift on fletching, especially when you're close to mastering and you don't rank as often as you used to.

Well as of late my gift is going out the window anyway. I'm definitely not doing it thinking that I'm optimizing anything.

EDIT:


In the beginning, sure, as long as it stops and all that. I was more concerned about the times when you don't rank as often and it's just hours of nothing.

During that time between ranks your gift clock isn't running down anyway, though.

[SolitareConfinement]

yeah but its a waste on your gift is what shes saying to use it for 10 mins every 2-4 hours if you're lucky when you hit ranks 485ish

[DaCapn]

yeah but its a waste on your gift is what shes saying to use it for 10 mins every 2-4 hours if you're lucky when you hit ranks 485ish

Yeah, I agree. It's not an efficient way to level my character or have optimized exp absorption. I just don't feel like hunting my character anyway. So I might as well try to maximize the easy exp I get from fletching. You get 125,250 raw exp from it. If I can turn that into 313,125 (2.5x average) by just sitting on my ass I'm going to do it. Might as well do that if I'm not going to take my character out to hunt this week at all.

EDIT: I guess a weighted average of time is more appropriate, 2.33x makes 292,250 exp (which is only a 6.7% drop from the previous figure). It is 2 hrs of 3x and 4 hours of 2x, right?

[SolitareConfinement]

not sure...i thought it was 3 and 3 actually but either way i do now see your point...but if you're going to do that be careful on the AFK scripting thing they like to watch that

[DaCapn]

Yeah, I'm always there. Not that that really makes a difference, though, based on some of the posts I've seen about Itzel. I've only ever been tested for AFK scripting twice and one of the times I was AFK and scripting within policy (this is when AFK spellups were permitted). I got exp taken from me and stuff, despite being totally assured that I was not issued a warning, and despite the fact that I was following policy. I'm still waiting for when I get tested next and they say "since you've already been issued a warning once..."

I agree with the no AFK policy on EXP, money, and skill-building tasks, but with the amount of tedium there is in this game (just in leveling alone, much less things like guild skills), it's just absurdly excessive what some people end up dealing with.

[DaCapn]

How do bows work with cmans like disarm and feint work with a bow in hand?

[Izzy]

How do bows work with cmans like disarm and feint work with a bow in hand?

Both feint and disarm can be done open-handed once mastered, however until then you'd have to swap the bow to your right hand, or pull out another weapon, to disarm/feint. Arrows might work.

[SolitareConfinement]

i know this much when you are disarmed as a bow user, and if you have an arrow in your hand it will hit the arrow instead of the bow at first....tip for ya when you go running into otf or nelemar ;-)

[Hecates]

. Arrows might work.

they sure do, thats how i disarm now.

i only have 4 ranks, but i use my arrow to disarm, and if something actualy disarms (or trys to) they get my arrow not my bow... never empty hand, never.

[Izzy]

they sure do, thats how i disarm now.

i only have 4 ranks, but i use my arrow to disarm, and if something actualy disarms (or trys to) they get my arrow not my bow... never empty hand, never.

Awesome.

[Hecates]

>cman disarm ogre
[Roll result: 139 (open d100: 78) Bonus: 10]
You swing your arrow at a black forest ogre's rust-covered dhara and connect!
A black forest ogre's rust-covered dhara is knocked to the ground!
Roundtime: 5 sec.

[DaCapn]

How do you guys manage with arrows being blessed and e-bladed? I played an archer for a little while and remember it being just a pain in the ass how some arrows wore off before others and then they couldn't bundle or anything.

For e-blade it won't be a problem since I intend to fixskills into 11 ranks of MnE. It's a totally renewable resource. Blesses, on the other hand, I'll want to maximize.

It would be nice if the way it worked was you bless the bundle, giving it n shots, then when you pull an arrow out, n is decremented by 1, then the arrow is given 1 shot worth of a bless. You'd be able to add unblessed arrows to that bundle and then pull them out blessed, each time reducing your pool of blessed shots by 1.

[DaCapn]

>cman disarm ogre
[Roll result: 139 (open d100: 78) Bonus: 10]
You swing your arrow at a black forest ogre's rust-covered dhara and connect!
A black forest ogre's rust-covered dhara is knocked to the ground!
Roundtime: 5 sec.

What level is this character? Also does disarm take height into consideration? I think arm ambushing is affected by height, isn't it?

[Hecates]

How do you guys manage with arrows being blessed and e-bladed? I played an archer for a little while and remember it being just a pain in the ass how some arrows wore off before others and then they couldn't bundle or anything.

For e-blade it won't be a problem since I intend to fixskills into 11 ranks of MnE. It's a totally renewable resource. Blesses, on the other hand, I'll want to maximize.

It would be nice if the way it worked was you bless the bundle, giving it n shots, then when you pull an arrow out, n is decremented by 1, then the arrow is given 1 shot worth of a bless. You'd be able to add unblessed arrows to that bundle and then pull them out blessed, each time reducing your pool of blessed shots by 1.
well if im going undead, i just bless a load of cheap arrows, and the same for ebladed, i do not reuse them at all, it can be a pain to keep track.

so the easiest for me is; no undead, and use my mastered arrows for all living and murder.

im sure someone uses a script or something to reuse ebladed/blessed, but id rather just fire them once, and forget about them.

[Hecates]

What level is this character? Also does disarm take height into consideration? I think arm ambushing is affected by height, isn't it?

im 56, and human.

i know hieght matters when abushing with melee, but i aim my arrows, so hight does not matter

[Hecates]

It would be nice if the way it worked was you bless the bundle, giving it n shots, then when you pull an arrow out, n is decremented by 1, then the arrow is given 1 shot worth of a bless. You'd be able to add unblessed arrows to that bundle and then pull them out blessed, each time reducing your pool of blessed shots by 1.

it works like 2 blesses an arrow, regardless of charges casted on a bundle...

so when i :have to do unded: i bless a bunch of 50 bundles, rather then a few 100 bundles and have to worry if the bless was good for 200+ shots, even younger blessing types can do a 50 bundle just fine, and sure they will still last long enought to fire off the whole 50.

[SolitareConfinement]

thats interesting way to do it...how cost effective is that anyways? what I personally do is i'm a MA whore and while my main is off hunting or doing what ever...my empath is off in some nook or cranny that one one runs into fletching fresh faewood arrows for me. i go through about 100 arrows maybe in a month or so i rarely loose loose them because i've spent a majority of my archer career just getting by with 10 or so arrows on a hunt. so the only time i actually lose em is when they go off in the distance. HOWEVER if the cost difference isn't that much over all due to the cheap nature of just buying arrows from the fletcher and having them e-bladed and not even reusing them I would probably do that for the rest of my uncapped days :)

as far as undead is concerned. because of hating undead itself i attempt to RP a char that refuses to hunt "suffs dats already deads" to him its not the same as "spilling blood" which is actually my way of saying "fuck finding a bless"

[zhelas]

Master Fletched Arrows have a coolness facter. However I got tired of having to replace the arrows that sould streak off into the distance. So 6x composite bow and a bunch of ebladed arrows works just great. It is cheap and fast.

If the mechanics of the game makes me have to wait to gather my arrows, which I hate. Off i go to the next room to shoot.

For a while I would use blessed Fletched arrows while hunting undead, but I hate begging for blesses.

[SolitareConfinement]

I for one can understand and agree with that mechanic IF there is a critter in the room. said critter could block your way...etc from grabbing the arrow. or what ever you want to argue...but when its just you and your damn arrows walk over to the fucking thing and pick it up

[Hecates]

thats interesting way to do it...how cost effective is that anyways? what I personally do is i'm a MA whore and while my main is off hunting or doing what ever...my empath is off in some nook or cranny that one one runs into fletching fresh faewood arrows for me. i go through about 100 arrows maybe in a month or so i rarely loose loose them because i've spent a majority of my archer career just getting by with 10 or so arrows on a hunt. so the only time i actually lose em is when they go off in the distance. HOWEVER if the cost difference isn't that much over all due to the cheap nature of just buying arrows from the fletcher and having them e-bladed and not even reusing them I would probably do that for the rest of my uncapped days :)

as far as undead is concerned. because of hating undead itself i attempt to RP a char that refuses to hunt "suffs dats already deads" to him its not the same as "spilling blood" which is actually my way of saying "fuck finding a bless"

if you have a pocket mage, cheapo arrows are like what 200 coins for 100 arrows.. and eblades free.. if not, you can still carry a couple hundred and find someone willing to eblade, or learn to your self. it is very very cheap, and easy, i hate screwing with picking them up.. but thats only for certain areas, i still carry about a dozen master arrows in my quiver and about 50 in my kit for back ups, i go thru about 5-10 a week so its not that bad, i just flecth some up while im saturated from AG.

but the eblading is the easiest and cheapest, if you got a 6x bow.

[SolitareConfinement]

i was thinking of getting myself a 6x and since i have a pocket wizard who is also very young for shits n giggles i was going to eblade each arrow and write a little script for him eblading arrows for me while i hunt or something i dunno...i just hate the time it takes to fletch really

[Hecates]

i was thinking of getting myself a 6x and since i have a pocket wizard who is also very young for shits n giggles i was going to eblade each arrow and write a little script for him eblading arrows for me while i hunt or something i dunno...i just hate the time it takes to fletch really

i hope you mean eblade each bundle, doing each one is usless

[SolitareConfinement]

i meant like still keeping them until i got the pocket wizard to atleast 30 because hes only 22 ATM with 22 MNE ranks

[DaCapn]

Are rogues able to ATTUNE for purposes of 411 or is it pure-restricted?

[Stabbyrogue]

sure can