Returning after 7 years and extremely lost

[Asylum]

I decided to come back to the game that started my addiction and well I find myself a lot more lost than I'd thought I'd be (cant even remember what spells to use). When I left it was still GS3 if that tells you anything. My wizards lvl 30 and I'd like to stay pure, but I'd like to know if there is anything I need to change or work on. So any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Race: Half-Elf Profession: Wizard (Post name shown as: Battle Mage)
Level: 30 Gender: Male Age: 54

Experience:
Experience: 1038368 Next level at: 1086500 exp. Exp. until next lvl: 48132
Fame: 1443631 Deeds: 11 Deaths this level: 2
Your mind is as clear as a bell.

Wealth:
Silvers: 0 coins

Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Shield Use.........................| 128 34
Edged Weapons......................| 124 32
Physical Fitness...................| 124 32
Arcane Symbols.....................| 146 46
Magic Item Use.....................| 147 47
Spell Aiming.......................| 164 64
Harness Power......................| 124 32
Elemental Mana Control.............| 147 47
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 40 8
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 40 8
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 40 8
Elemental Lore - Water.............| 40 8
Perception.........................| 124 32
Climbing...........................| 93 21
Swimming...........................| 93 21

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 15

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 27

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 20

Training Points: 35 Phy 0 Mnt (150 Phy converted to Mnt)

223 days remain until the annual FIXSKILLS is to be granted, on 05/20/2011.

Your 30 day migration period will begin when you choose to degrade a skill.

Spell Ranks:
Minor Elemental :27
Major Elemental :15
Wizard Base :20

Stats: Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 57 (3) ... 57 (3)
Constitution (CON): 52 (1) ... 52 (1)
Dexterity (DEX): 100 (30) ... 100 (30)
Agility (AGL): 61 (15) ... 61 (15)
Discipline (DIS): 78 (9) ... 78 (9)
Aura (AUR): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Logic (LOG): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Intuition (INT): 65 (7) ... 65 (7)
Wisdom (WIS): 87 (18) ... 87 (18)
Influence (INF): 65 (12) ... 65 (12)

[Fallen]

I gotta run soon. Hopefully someone will come along and help you out. Here is where you would post on the officials: http://www.play.net/forums/messages.asp?forum=102&category=31&topic=16

[BriarFox]

Well, let's take a look. First off, if you just came back, you should have a free 30-day migration period where you can instantly move skills around and change your stats 5 times. This gives you a lot of room to play.

From the looks of your skills, you were an OHE/Shield mage who cast bolts, and you were probably using 425 to boost your AS a bit. This path, while viable, does not make the best use of what's available to you these days. A "pure" caster now typically uses a runestaff, which gives you DS based on the number of magical ranks you have and which can deflect bolts. There's no need to train in any weapon skill for DS as a result. The "war mage" typically uses weapons (often a claidhmore or maul) and sets up his kills with magic, then uses haste and the weapon to finish things off. A war mage may or may not train in bolting depending on his style.

If you want to be a pure, I'd drop the shield/ohe and probably use a runestaff (at later levels, you might want to think about shield/brawl instead, but that's an argument for later). I'd also refocus all of your lore ranks into air lore, because at 20 ranks, you can use a bolt version of 505 that does great knockdowns (Tonis Bolt, from Hand of Tonis) and which is a great setup move. At 24 ranks of air lore and 27 ranks of MjE, you can reduce your RT by another second with Haste. If you do choose the pure path, I'd probably try to keep MjE and MnE ranks at least at level, for MjE CS and for CS benefits from 425. Your wizard ranks would probably suffer a bit as a result.

Now, if you want to be an enchanter (925), you'll have to do some different things, but that, too, is another argument.

[WRoss]

I have to ask, did Felicia Day's post make you return?

[Fallen]

http://www.play.net/gs4/info/spells/

I would read through the descriptions of all of your spells.

[Asylum]

Yeah actually I'd forgotten all about GS until Felicia's post. I saw that and made a comment that I wondered if my old account could be reopened next thing I knew I got a email from a GS producer letting me know my account was still there and they offered me a free 30 days to check it out again. Even with being totally lost and my wizard naked I can tell already I'll be sticking around and uping to a premie account so I can reactivate some of my others. Of course now I'm really kicking myself for giving everything I had away when I left including 4 higher level characters that probably aren't even around anymore.

Briar that sounds like what I'm after as much fun as a war mage sounds I'd rather stay a caster. Enchanting I'm sure would be a great money maker or at least it use to, but I'd rather build a stat sound wizard for hunting so any help putting together a training plain would be great.

[BriarFox]

Yeah actually I'd forgotten all about GS until Felicia's post. I saw that and made a comment that I wondered if my old account could be reopened next thing I knew I got a email from a GS producer letting me know my account was still there and they offered me a free 30 days to check it out again. Even with being totally lost and my wizard naked I can tell already I'll be sticking around and uping to a premie account so I can reactivate some of my others. Of course now I'm really kicking myself for giving everything I had away when I left including 4 higher level characters that probably aren't even around anymore.

Briar that sounds like what I'm after as much fun as a war mage sounds I'd rather stay a caster. Enchanting I'm sure would be a great money maker or at least it use to, but I'd rather build a stat sound wizard for hunting so any help putting together a training plain would be great.

Sounds good. Here's my basic advice:

2x Spell Aiming
2x MIU
2x Arcane Symbols
1-2x HP (you can let it drop back down to 1x later if you want, but you might like the extra mana for now)
1x EMC
1x Perception (more important for higher levels)
1x Physical Fitness (more important for higher levels)
24 ranks of Air Lore
15 ranks of Armor for double leathers (I notice you don't have any armor training in your old skills?). You could do fulls instead if the 2% spell hindrance is too much.
20 ranks of climbing
5 ranks of swimming

Put everything else into spells, and try to keep MjE and MnE at 1x. Wizard can lag behind a bit, but you'll probably want at least up to 913 for DS.

We can tweak from there.

As far as stats go, drop the 100s down just a bit to 85ish, and boost the STR to at least 80, and more is better. You can google and use the GSIV Stat Maximizer to set your stats for growth for cap or whatever level you want, or you can download Tsoran's training spreadsheet to do the same (tsoran.com).

Good to hear the Felicia Day bit was successful!

[diethx]

Good to see that all that money didn't go to waste!

[DCSL]

Yeah, welcome the hell back! It's also great to hear that they reached out to you after that post on Felicia Day's FB.

One of the better things about GS4 is the viability of a lot of different builds. Being a pure bard a while ago would have been ludicrous. I'm sure you'll find one to suit you. I'd help but I know as little about pures as I can get away with. I need to save valuable brain cells for semis.

[Asylum]

Thanks and everyone here has been great I've gotten lots of help here and in game so far. It's just as friendly as it use to be way back when. I'll have to warn you I'll probably be looking for help on my rogue and ranger once I reactivate them too :)

[phantasm]

Wizards are so much fun to play from 30 on up

[DaCapn]

I crunched some numbers when I was trying to optimize my ranks in spell research. Assuming you know all spells, bonuses you get from from your spells scale roughly as follows:

MjE: +0.75 DS, +0.5 AS per rank
MnE: +0.5 DS, +0.5 AS/CS per rank
Wiz: +1.25 DS, +0.33 TD per rank

Anyway, MjE is basically the most important for pure wizards. Also, the important CS spells are in the MjE circle so that's another reason to prioritize ranks there.

EDIT: Somewhere on the PC is a post where Methais gave a more detailed breakdown. Somewhere on my hard drive is a similarly detailed breakdown. I think this is a decent start, though if you're not sweating a couple ranks here or there.

Also, BriarFox is giving sound advice. My own personal variations are as follows: I don't train in PF or perception but at around level 50 I'm starting to take hits on maneuvers so I might change up there (I've been tending to just use haste more while hunting creatures that use maneuvers and have been fine, though). Currently I've got him set up as a fire mage. I went 2x HP until 30-some and am letting the ranks cool off to 1x. Trained for full leather.

[Asylum]

Nice to know Phantasm he was originally an alt (I'm a big altaholic) I had planned on using for enchanting, but since he's probably the highest level I have left (wont know for sure until I reactivate a few others) I plan on focusing on playing him for awhile.

Thanks for the numbers DeCapn and I'm working on a training plan using Briars suggestions and Tsoran's excel sheet. I'm just coming up 34 PTP points short trying to fit it all in, but I'm thinking I can drop some of the armor training to make it work and pick it up later down the road. Umm how many trainings for full leather? Theres so much I need to remember again I forgot all about things like gold rings, crystal amulets which herbs heal what you know all the little stuff. It's not as bad as just starting for the first time, but it's probably close lol.

Oh and I've had a couple people ask, I first started playing when GS3 was still on AOL and remember it moving to the web. I started out first playing a ranger named Abaine, but switched to Prophete a cleric as my main and ran around as Daeroth another cleric, Trevilyn a sorcerer and Rysk a rogue. I still have Abaine, but passed along the others when I left so I'm not sure if they're even still around sadly. I could usually be found around Icemule I liked the smaller less crowded town.

[DaCapn]

For the armor:
http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Armor_Use

Krakiipedia will almost always be more useful than the official docs on play.net.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if you get one thing right in your 30 day trial, get your stats set right because you don't get to keep the stat re-allocations like you did in GS3. I Can't remember if someone else mentioned that but it's worth double-plus mentioning.

[Asylum]

Anyone a number cruncher? I came up with this for redoing my stats...

Start at 30 at 100
STR: 93 97 100
CON: 89 95 100
DEX: 27 56 88
AGI: 84 91 100
DIS: 69 77 94
AUR: 80 94 100
LOG: 94 100 100
INT: 31 56 86
WIS: 70 80 98
INF: 23 49 78

Anyone see a problem or something that should be changed?

Also Voln or CoL for a pure I'm not sure if they're still the same as they use to be. He's currently Voln step 1 but if I remember right you can reset or change it somehow.

[Mindiloish]

i'm pretty new as well, but from what i've read CoL is the way to go for a wizard, either batter or pure.

[BriarFox]

Anyone a number cruncher? I came up with this for redoing my stats...

Start at 30 at 100
STR: 93 97 100
CON: 89 95 100
DEX: 27 56 88
AGI: 84 91 100
DIS: 69 77 94
AUR: 80 94 100
LOG: 94 100 100
INT: 31 56 86
WIS: 70 80 98
INF: 23 49 78

Anyone see a problem or something that should be changed?

Also Voln or CoL for a pure I'm not sure if they're still the same as they use to be. He's currently Voln step 1 but if I remember right you can reset or change it somehow.

Everything looks good except for your Dex. That's your base stat for Bolt AS. Sacrifice a bit of INF and INT to boost it some more, perhaps.


As for CoL/Voln, there's also a new society, now, Guardians of Sunfist, which offers some nice benefits. Compare them on krakiipedia.

[Jace Solo]

Crit weighted bolts...

and you can definitely get away with singling HP with 30+ ranks of MjE because you'll get a decent amount of mana back for leeching.

And wizards are a TON of fun past 30. Each level gets more and more fun.

[Asylum]

Bolt AS ok I missed that I'm glad I asked and thanks for pointing that out. I did some moving around.

Start at 30 at 100
STR: 93 97 100
CON: 89 95 100
DEX: 68 83 100
AGI: 84 91 100
DIS: 89 96 100
AUR: 80 94 100
LOG: 80 90 100
INT: 29 55 85
WIS: 23 47 75
INF: 25 50 79

[DaCapn]

Crit weighted bolts...

and you can definitely get away with singling HP with 30+ ranks of MjE because you'll get a decent amount of mana back for leeching.

And wizards are a TON of fun past 30. Each level gets more and more fun.

Plus, for a bolt wizard, I think sigil of power can be better than sign of wracking. Maybe you only get to use it for another 50 mana or so but you don't ruin your AS from wracking with CoL. Also, sigil of concentration has a more efficient stamina to mana conversion on average so that is good option too.

But yeah, the crit weighting paired with the insane DF of most bolt spells is strong.

Ball spells in warcamps are also sweet.

[Donquix]

Ball spells in warcamps are also sweet.

Yeah that. 908 + troll warcamps = win

[BriarFox]

Sacrifice something other than WIS; that's your stat for spiritual CS/TD, and as a wizard, you'll need it. Perhaps DISC, INF, or INT.

[Asylum]

Sacrifice something other than WIS; that's your stat for spiritual CS/TD, and as a wizard, you'll need it. Perhaps DISC, INF, or INT.
Just when I thought I had it figured out lol. Ok retrying again....

Start at 30 at 100
STR: 90 94 100
CON: 88 94 100
DEX: 65 80 100
AGI: 84 91 100
DIS: 67 76 88
AUR: 80 94 100
LOG: 80 90 100
INT: 25 53 84
WIS: 60 70 100
INF: 21 48 77

Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 122 31
Arcane Symbols.....................| 162 62
Magic Item Use.....................| 162 62
Spell Aiming.......................| 162 62
Harness Power......................| 122 31
Elemental Mana Control.............| 122 31
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 122 31
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 25 5

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 13


You know I'm old and only have so much hair left I don't wanna start pulling the rest of it out ;P

70 WIS ok at lvl 30 or should I keep pulling points?

CoL vs GoS I'm still looking into and trying to find out how to quit Voln

[BriarFox]

Just when I thought I had it figured out lol. Ok retrying again....

Start at 30 at 100
STR: 90 94 100
CON: 88 94 100
DEX: 65 80 100
AGI: 84 91 100
DIS: 67 76 88
AUR: 80 94 100
LOG: 80 90 100
INT: 25 53 84
WIS: 60 70 100
INF: 21 48 77

Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 70 15
Physical Fitness...................| 122 31
Arcane Symbols.....................| 162 62
Magic Item Use.....................| 162 62
Spell Aiming.......................| 162 62
Harness Power......................| 122 31
Elemental Mana Control.............| 122 31
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 122 31
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 25 5

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 13


You know I'm old and only have so much hair left I don't wanna start pulling the rest of it out ;P

70 WIS ok at lvl 30 or should I keep pulling points?

CoL vs GoS I'm still looking into and trying to find out how to quit Voln

Looks just about perfect. You could get all 100s with one exception if you wanted to max for cap, but you're striking a nice balance. To resign, just go to the grandmaster and say, "I resign from the society."

[BriarFox]

Have you tried hunting and such yet, by the way? How do you like the build?

[Asylum]

Well the only hunting I've done so far is through the forums all weekend trying to get all the info I can. I tried checking in to change my stats and it wouldn't let me with the 30 day trial so I went ahead and signed up for a premie account.

I'll play around tomorrow with the numbers and see what they look like maxing for the cap, but I don't want to pull to much from somewhere and make it hard at 30.

I'm planning on trying out hunting tomorrow any suggestions on easy spots till I get the hang of it again?

[BriarFox]

Well the only hunting I've done so far is through the forums all weekend trying to get all the info I can. I tried checking in to change my stats and it wouldn't let me with the 30 day trial so I went ahead and signed up for a premie account.

I'll play around tomorrow with the numbers and see what they look like maxing for the cap, but I don't want to pull to much from somewhere and make it hard at 30.

I'm planning on trying out hunting tomorrow any suggestions on easy spots till I get the hang of it again?

When you check in at the front desk of an inn, you don't have an option to reassign stats?

Easy hunting at 30 for a wizard. Hm. Try the Lake in Solhaven. Underhunting just a bit, but not a bad place to start. It has centaurs, fenghai, cougars, and pra'eda.

[phantasm]

Since I saw you say you are in Icemule, go out the west gate and warm up the frozen battlefield. Great hunting until around 35.

Or you can try EN and hunt in Black Moor off Sylvarraend road, great loot at one time, but I'd wait a few more levels for that.

[DaCapn]

I prefer the Ice Plains to the Frozen Battlefield but they're both great spots at that level. I just hate all of the slipping. Also, snow crones and frost giants are good.

And of course if you're in GoS, you have decent hunting everywhere.

[Asylum]

Oh yeah love all that Ice, I can't remember how my people I raised from the gorge on my cleric and I did a lot of hunting around there and Pinefar.

Hey I did remember I had a locker and found I left a few things behind I'm just not sure where they're from ...some silver-inlaid brigandine, some black diamond-trimmed leathers and some rolaren studded hunting leathers. The leathers are enchanted I'll have to test them out to see what they are.

I think I'll hold off on joining CoL or GoS until I get in a little hunting. I still have to figure out what spells to use and set up some hotkeys.

[BriarFox]

Oh yeah love all that Ice, I can't remember how my people I raised from the gorge on my cleric and I did a lot of hunting around there and Pinefar.

Hey I did remember I had a locker and found I left a few things behind I'm just not sure where they're from ...some silver-inlaid brigandine, some black diamond-trimmed leathers and some rolaren studded hunting leathers. The leathers are enchanted I'll have to test them out to see what they are.

I think I'll hold off on joining CoL or GoS until I get in a little hunting. I still have to figure out what spells to use and set up some hotkeys.

Those rolaren leathers might be 4x somewhat crit padded, if I'm thinking of the right set. You can check at the Abandoned Inn crystal in Wehnimer's or ask a bard, and then have a warrior assess them for the amount of padding if they are padded.

[Asylum]

Those rolaren leathers might be 4x somewhat crit padded, if I'm thinking of the right set. You can check at the Abandoned Inn crystal in Wehnimer's or ask a bard, and then have a warrior assess them for the amount of padding if they are padded.

I'll have to do that since I have no idea what they are, but when I took them out they must have been altered too ...some rolaren studded hunting leathers with a moon and stars tooled on the shoulders

[BriarFox]

I'll have to do that since I have no idea what they are, but when I took them out they must have been altered too ...some rolaren studded hunting leathers with a moon and stars tooled on the shoulders

Looks like one of the Spitfire/Juggernaut auto-alters. You could pick a design and a location and a machine would add it automatically.

[Asylum]

Ok I remember that I also logged in my ranger and have a lot more I think I was using him for storage lol

Some interesting things I found...

a cobweb-covered jet black spidersilk cloak edged with silver silk trim
a pair of black leather boots buckled with silver-chased onyx crescents
some sleek black pants cinched with a silver chain dangling an antique cross
a tooled black leather pouch edged with a veniom inlay
and about 150 more items to go through ...ugh

He's lvl 25 I need to redo all his stats and skills too he was my first character.

[BriarFox]

Ok I remember that I also logged in my ranger and have a lot more I think I was using him for storage lol

Some interesting things I found...

a cobweb-covered jet black spidersilk cloak edged with silver silk trim
a pair of black leather boots buckled with silver-chased onyx crescents
some sleek black pants cinched with a silver chain dangling an antique cross
a tooled black leather pouch edged with a veniom inlay
and about 150 more items to go through ...ugh

He's lvl 25 I need to redo all his stats and skills too he was my first character.

Spidersilk cloak is attuneable to a character, poisons the non-attuned, and has scripts for opening and closing. Raise it to attune/unattune. They've been going for a good bit - 1m+.

[awol0509]

Just adding a welcome back! My character is in Icemule, just about the same level as your wiz, if you want to hunt sometime. :)

[GS4_HappyTimez]

Just wait till you see monks, man. They'll make you want to reactivate 3 accounts.

[Asylum]

Just wait till you see monks, man. They'll make you want to reactivate 3 accounts.

Well I use to have 3 accounts, but I keep telling myself nooo just the one...for now anyway lol

[Asylum]

Tried hunting and it wasnt a pretty sight while trying to decide what to cast I had an ice troll remove my head.... ok back to my wizard 101 search lol