Looking for some advice..

[mathom]

I recently came back to GS after a very long hiatus, found these boards and have been lurking a bit over the last month or so while I've been playing my free trial. I started up a wizard that I'm playing as a war mage, and am close to hitting level 16. Unfortunately, I'm closing in to when I have to lock in my stats and skills. I had a few questions before I do that.

Also, as far as gear I have access to, I have about a million silver total, some 4x full leather, and an invar claid Im using.

Here's my current setup:

Name: xxxxxx Race: Sylvankind Profession: Wizard (shown as: Wizard)
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 297035 Level: 15
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Constitution (CON): 93 (21) ... 93 (21)
Dexterity (DEX): 77 (23) ... 77 (23)
Agility (AGI): 75 (17) ... 75 (17)
Discipline (DIS): 73 (6) ... 73 (6)
Aura (AUR): 100 (30) ... 100 (30)
Logic (LOG): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Intuition (INT): 35 (-7) ... 35 (-7)
Wisdom (WIS): 35 (-7) ... 35 (-7)
Influence (INF): 35 (-7) ... 35 (-7)

(at level 15), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 10 2
Combat Maneuvers...................| 78 17
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 78 17
Physical Fitness...................| 78 17
Harness Power......................| 70 15
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 27

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 7
Training Points: 61 Phy 0 Mnt (146 Phy converted to Mnt)

I got the 24 air lore/27 MjE ranks so that I could get my RT down to 1 second with haste.

Looking for some suggestions regarding stat placement - currently there's been no need to not max out strength, aura, etc. But I realize later on this may have ramifications.

Next question is with respect to weapon choice. Should I stick with THW or switch to polearms? And is a claid the best choice as far as THW goes?

What combat maneuvers would you recommend? Ive used feint a bit, but it seems largely not that useful, at least not yet. I've been considering switching to using precision as I've read/heard that crushing seems to be better than slashing damage. What about dirtkick, subdual strike or disarm?

I was also wondering if anyone has any suggestions as far as armor choice goes. Currently I'm wearing 4x full. Should I be trying to get into doubles or something like LBP soon?

Also was wondering about ambushing/open aiming. How difficult would it be to get an open aimed shot down to 1 sec RT with a claid? At the moment it seems I can get it down to 3.. maybe with some stat fixing I could get it into the 2 second range by raising my agi/dex, and then shoot for more MjE ranks to get it to 1? Should I be even be considering attempting this? Is it/would it be worth it?

Thanks for any advice and more questions to follow as I can think of them..

[Izzy]

You're going to have a very hard time aiming a claidhmore with only 1x CM and no ambush, I'd think. I'd go with something faster/easier to aim.

[Gnomad]

Or just don't aim and stick with the 1 second claidh RT. You're not going to aim any THW with 17 ranks of CM.

[Khariz]

There's also no REASON to aim when you swing that fast.

[mathom]

I'm not talking about ambushing/aiming now - I'm talking about whether I should be trying to be able to ambush in 1 second down the road, and whether it's worth it/viable.

Any suggestions regarding which cman to take? Is precision worth it?

Any stat placement recommendations before I have to set them permanently?

[Drunken Durfin]

There's also no REASON to aim when you swing that fast.

Roger that.

[phantasm]

The goal of a warmage is not to deal 1 strike kills.
Your goal is to swing as many times as you can and deal a huge amount of damage from nicks.

So aiming will not be needed.

[phantasm]

STR 92
CON 85
DEX 65
AGL 73
DIS 82
AUR 46
LOG 62
INT 62
WIS 73
INF 20

Thats how I would set my stats for a warmage. I'd really tank the INF hard so I could boost my agi/dex and a bit more aura. These will grow into decent stats at 100

[AnticorRifling]

Everyone above has the right idea.

As far as CMANS I used feint and disarm.

[Mateius]

STR 92
CON 85
DEX 65
AGL 73
DIS 82
AUR 46
LOG 62
INT 62
WIS 73
INF 20

Thats how I would set my stats for a warmage. I'd really tank the INF hard so I could boost my agi/dex and a bit more aura. These will grow into decent stats at 100


how come u made int and wis what it is? i started mine with a far lower number like 30 int 55 wis

[Belnia]

You might want to pick up some Wizard circle spells. 905 and 913 both provide some decent DS boosts, though they grow with more Wizard ranks. You look fine on Major Elemental ranks right now. I would say the next focus should be getting Elemental Targetting right at 25. That's an extra 25 AS that grows as you train up the Minor Elemental sphere.

[Tolwynn]

Definitely aim for lbp, it'll serve you a lot better than doubles when you start getting hit with manuevers. Both feint and disarm are useful to have, even if only as countermeasures against having them used on you.

[AnticorRifling]

Definitely aim for lbp, it'll serve you a lot better than doubles when you start getting hit with manuevers. Both feint and disarm are useful to have, even if only as countermeasures against having them used on you.

I used the shit out of feint. It gives you the option of using a CMAN instead of mana so you can stay out even longer. I could keep up shields and haste until I couldn't carry anymore or I was getting retarded roundtime (like 5 seconds hasted..which is retarded for me). And I could still call wind, eblast, etc as needed and if I was getting tight feint was there.