Warmage or Pure?

[Jace Solo]

Hey guys
thinking about going from a ohe/shield war mage to a 2hnder warmage OR a pure.

Dunno how challenging either would be but right now warcamps slaughter me and I'm guessing without a shield they'd do the same? Maybe I'm just not dropping things fast enough with my sword.

Anyway...here's the stats and skills...any help would be appreciated!

Race: Dark Elf Profession: Wizard (shown as: Adventurer)
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 605654 Level: 22
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 92 (21) ... 92 (21)
Constitution (CON): 65 (2) ... 65 (2)
Dexterity (DEX): 91 (30) ... 91 (30)
Agility (AGI): 77 (18) ... 77 (18)
Discipline (DIS): 76 (3) ... 76 (3)
Aura (AUR): 86 (28) ... 86 (28)
Logic (LOG): 82 (16) ... 82 (16)
Intuition (INT): 71 (15) ... 71 (15)
Wisdom (WIS): 67 (13) ... 67 (13)
Influence (INF): 41 (-9) ... 41 (-9)
Mana: 28 Silver: 0

(at level 22), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use.........................| 20 4
Shield Use........................| 102 24
Combat Maneuvers.............| 30 6
Edged Weapons..................| 102 24
Physical Fitness.................| 96 22
Arcane Symbols.................| 96 22
Magic Item Use..................| 96 22
Spell Aiming.......................| 144 44
Harness Power...................| 96 22
Elemental Mana Control........| 96 22
Elemental Lore - Air.............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 58 12
Climbing............................| 40 8
Swimming..........................| 40 8

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

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 16

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 5
Training Points: 125 Phy 0 Mnt (24 Phy converted to Mnt)


Also, I'm near 23 and plan on 925 by 25. Past that though I'm not sure on my training plan. If I got THW I got a 5x fire flaring flail and a regular old claid to use for the time being. 4x runestaff for the other side of it.

Thanks,
Ruty

[Celephais]

Your biggest mistake is sacrificing 913 to get 527 right away. The 2 seconds instead of 1 seconds of RT isn't as important as having the proper defense (as clearly you've stated defense is your problem). Edit: just looked it up, I thought it was 20 ds, not 10... so I guess that's not too crucial.

I have a mage about your level who'll be 516, 425, 913 by 25 (He's been in leather breastplate for a while, despite not having it fully trained off, it will be at 25). He's a polearm user and doesn't have any difficulty, but doesn't fight grimswarm. How are your tactics, are you 909ing rooms w/ multiple monsters? (er, don't have 909... 410ing?), stance dancing? You've got tonis bolt, it's very useful as a disabler.

ou could also consider a more balanced route: You fight like a pure but still train OHE/Shield (you don't even need to 1x shield use, just get 1 rank), which gives a better DS than runestaves, an alternate attack method (again not 27 ranks of MjE just yet), and the killing power of a pure (turn the shield ranks into more mana or more spells).

The combat manuevers is probably a waste at this point too, get into at least double leather (aim for leather BP), and you can keep some wands as backup. You could also likely back EMC down to 20 ranks for now.

[Jace Solo]

Ok, to be clear. I don't have issues with any fighting minus grim camps. I can stand full offensive and swing away at a room if I put them on their butts first and rarely worry if they get up(...putting them down is mainly so I can hit them/not for defense). I get hit if I'm unlucky enough for them to hit me with a disable or something.

If I train down to one shield rank and bring down my MjE to level it gives me enough to bring MnE to level and Wizard to 913.
Dropping air lores to level and the CM's gives me 8 trains in armor and I think I would still be at two seconds on haste with 1 second on the horizon at 27.

As is I'm efficient now at staying out and keeping haste up with Ewaves, Tonis and Mana Leech as the rest of the rotation with Cone if I have an excess to kill. I think it's just that I'd like more stopping power out of the weapon but I don't have the money to spend on a crit weighted weapon...and it wouldn't do that much good because I don't get high end rolls anyway.

So, what would make me viable in grim camps knowing that I can't use ewaves and the like? The shield definitely allows me to stand up better but I have a friend that's a full pure that mastered GoS by 20, just wondering why it was such a challenge for me.

I guess the problem should have been more plainly stated: What build would increase my viability while climbing through GoS. I'd like to be mastered by 30.

[Celephais]

I'm willing to bet you've been spoiled by the 1 sec RT, and if you're viable infront of normal mobs then I wouldn't mess w/ things too much. If you can simply drop shield use to 1 rank, get rid of CM and get 913 you'll come out ahead (Shield use provides very little DS in offensive stance per rank). 425 should be your next goal, and then if you want to stay more warmage instead of hybrid pure get into heavy armor as your next goal (and 430 @30).

Did your friend solo GoS? It's supposed to be meant to be a group promoting society, have some friends help you in a camp, I bet you could find a few people who'd love to have a hasting wizard w/ them.

[Jace Solo]

I'm not sure, I went with him a few times. I suppose my roll in the camps would be to haste and bolt. Which I can certainly hold up that in with the spell aim I have and the mana supply at current. Wouldn't need to move too much out of Ostance. I really wish you got credit for disables/hastes etc..you're still helping to down the mob. THat aspect I never understood about GS. I guess it would make power hunting too easy. *shrug*

So you don't think Two Handers is a good route? It seems to be the favored child of warmages...I'm like the mutant even more than a warwizard normally is.

Do I really need that one rank in shields? Does that give me the ability to block or something that I wouldn't get if I just held the shield with no ranks?

[Celephais]

I've never tested it, but I've heard again and again that one rank is what gives you the basic bonus for having a shield out (20 ds or so).

Polearms or two handers, both the same really, personal preference (I like polearms because you can just get a vanilla naginata and eblade it).

You can also try 908 in warcamps, as you'll tag more guys and get more credit that way.

[RelentlessJew]

4x heavily crit weighted katanas sell for 1mil or less, all the time.

That said, I have no idea what would help you power through GoS.

A little sense tells me that wizards make fire, and trolls hate fire, and trolls have warcamps. I'm not sure how good you are at making trolls burn, but I would maybe stick to troll warcamps, so when you can/do/need to bolt you get more out of it.

I know my warmage uses a 5x HCW katana and can easily switch to using a runestaff if and when it makes sense for him to, like hunting undead for instance.

Little known fact : 1x THW training will give you an equivilant amount of DS with a runestaff, so you don't even NEED to have 8x or greater magical ranks to use a runestaff and a THW. You CAN get better DS if you are over 8x ranks a level, but if you want to have THW training, you'll always have the minimum DS calculation based on being 1x in a THW (which is by no means terrible).