Young bards, 1002, and manip lore

[Bobrobertbobson]

How much experience and lores are necessary before 1002 becomes a useful hunting spell? Can this be an effective mana-cheap spell for a young bard who's not quite a lord? My current hunting strategy is to swing with a sonic lance, setting up maybe half the time with 1005 and rarely with cman charge (3 ranks currently).

I know manipulation lore also helps with gem purifying, and pure bards use it to get the full benefit to 1030 without an instrument. For now, though, I'm just interested in the benefits to 1002.

[SolitareConfinement]

i've got 32 ranks with my bard and i still am using the 1005 then lance to the face combo. i use 1002 with creatures that can't be stunned that carry weapons. it blows up about 75-80% give or take (just a guess). actual kill shots? very rare still, about 1 out of 100 give or take a couple.

on the other hand as of this moment it seems i usually do a rank 2 crit, often a rank 3 and the ever rare for myself, kill shot

[Mogonis]

1005 and CMAN Feint are about all you need for awhile.

[Bobrobertbobson]

1005 and CMAN Feint are about all you need for awhile.

I don't know much about feint. Is it as effective with a large weapon as with a little one? Do you think feint is a better bet than charge for a lance user?

[ThatDamnTep]

The first 25(?) maip lore ranks drop the floor on the blow up effect by 1 per rank. I'm pretty sure it starts at 160 end roll. After that you get diminishing returns per manip rank as far as the floor goes. Creatures being stunned, etc also drops the floor some. But like others have said, it's not a guaranteed kill by any means. 1005 is the way to go.

[Bobrobertbobson]

i've got 32 ranks with my bard and i still am using the 1005 then lance to the face combo. i use 1002 with creatures that can't be stunned that carry weapons. it blows up about 75-80% give or take (just a guess). actual kill shots? very rare still, about 1 out of 100 give or take a couple.

on the other hand as of this moment it seems i usually do a rank 2 crit, often a rank 3 and the ever rare for myself, kill shot

Good to know about your success rate with 1002. This might be a dumb question, but when you say "lance to the face" you're not literally aiming, are you?

[SolitareConfinement]

no just seems to end up there a lot

[Mogonis]

I don't know much about feint. Is it as effective with a large weapon as with a little one? Do you think feint is a better bet than charge for a lance user?
Can't attest to its effectiveness with a lance. Charging sounds more effective though.

[AestheticLife]

I'm not familiar with sonic weaponry, or much of bard hunting patterns at all, but I've had tremendous success on a wizard (who should be a bit gimped in the AS department) using feint with his naginata. I also had the Ethereal Halberd for a period of time, and that worked nicely with feint aswell.

I would plainly assume that the DS pushdown accompanied by a naginata should work quite well, if you can even get a sonic naginata at that...

I don't trust lances with feint, but charge is nuts.