Pure smite lvls 55-80 = Fail?

[Dystopia]

Hey guys. I'm doing fairly well with my Lorminstra cleric right now. I'm starting to wonder if I fucked up by going for spell aim. I'm doing great in the Citadel as is, and have enough summoning lore to have 111 be pretty badass when it lands.

Usually just the basic web/306/wand and have my buddy finish em off. Always play gs together.

302, open-handed and channeled, is really leaving a lot to be desired. If I go pure smite will that change? I can see it being one of the spells that just gets marginally better if you put all your focus into it.

But I'm wondering mostly how long bolting will be viable. Some people have said there'll be a gap before 80 in which I'll wish I didn't have spell aim. Others have said I'll be bolting my whole life, which is fine by me.

Any input appreciated.


[I pretty much always hunt with my wizard friend, which is why I've got the EMC. Working solely on 240 and 300's as I gain TPs.]

Dystopia (at level 55), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 120 30
Arcane Symbols.....................| 146 46
Magic Item Use.....................| 186 86
Spell Aiming.......................| 203 103
Harness Power......................| 185 85
Elemental Mana Control.............| 70 15
Spirit Mana Control................| 153 53
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 54 11
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 120 30
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 93 21
Survival...........................| 90 20
Perception.........................| 145 45
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 90 20
First Aid..........................| 155 55

Spell Lists
Major Spirit.......................| 29

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 40

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 55

[Rucca]

Honestly all I ever used spell aim and bolting for was the swordsmen I believe in the Citadel there. Using 306 on them worked great. Everything else died pretty fast from smite/bane. Bolting takes up a lot of mana in general vs smite.
Now at cap, I still use 302, 317, and 319 for groups. I usually can kill things in Nelemar with one shot of 302 and have zero spell aim now since I rid myself of it when I was about 70 trains (maybe even earlier, I forget) and focused mostly on the cleric circle.

[Dystopia]

Thanks.

I remember some other people saying it was around 70 when they had to drop it.

Just saved me from doing it much too early (60).

Thanks.

Any more input appreciated for 55-70 training issues.



:blndwhip:

[ViridianAsp]

After 50.. bolts spells for clerics really start to suck and bad. I dropped spell aim completely and put my points into building up my casting strength.

It makes it a whole lot easier to kill things. At 50+ bolt spells really aren't a good option if you are a pure. It sucks because at lower levels I could hunt about 10-15 levels over my head (With a group, mind you.) and still hit things with 306 and causing some considerable damage.

[Asrial]

Here's the path I went...

55 to ? -- wind wraiths on Teras with 302

? to 60'ish -- ogres/boars/vipers in Ta'Illistim with 317

60'ish to 67 -- hierophants/supplicants/dogmatists in Ta'Illistim with 317

67 to ?80? -- moulis (317), goleras (317), shricken (301 into 302) in Ta'Illistim; I had to radically alter my training plan at this point; I dropped weapon training and bulked up my mana to power 240 use

?80? to 85 -- that safe gremlock/taint area in OTF

85 to cap -- the 3rd floor of Nelemar (317 on everything except defenders which get 301/302)

[Dystopia]

Sorry for thread necromancy, but better than starting a new one I suppose.

~~~

I feel like I'm about to screw up my cleric slowly but surely.

I don't like using fixskills until I reach a level gap or area where a character absolutely has to change their style to make it easier.

Here's me now. I know not a lot has changed in the last month.

Mana isn't really an issue, but then again I'm not using 240 yet. I'd still rather bolt a lot with 306/111/wands than use 302.

I'm hunting Citadel and heralds are rough to ward. I don't like hunting if I have to roll 50+ to land a strike.


I am beginning to see how spell aim is going to be outdated by 65.

That being said, what to do now?

Pump mana for 240 like mentioned above, fixskills to pure Smite when I'm done with the Citadel?

Sitting on nearly 300 TP's and would rather avoid that fixskills. If I can keep spell aim in my pocket for a few more levels as a backup that'd work.

MjS and Cleric base until cap, right?


Re: Lores --- I hate nerfing my training for the benefit of others (read: blessings lore for chrisms). I'd rather just buy them and have em replaced by coin. Keep going with religion until at least 40 ranks?


I feel like I should have more than 240 mana with enhancives on.


Dystopia (at level 60), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 120 30
Magic Item Use.....................| 200 100
Spell Aiming.......................| 203 103
Harness Power......................| 185 85
Elemental Mana Control.............| 70 15
Spirit Mana Control................| 160 60
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 70 15
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 120 30
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 93 21
Survival...........................| 90 20
Perception.........................| 145 45
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 90 20
First Aid..........................| 155 55

Spell Lists
Major Spirit.......................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 40

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 60


Thanks folks,


Dystopia


:blndwhip:

:love:

[Asrial]

Go play with hierophants and supplicants in Ta'Illistim and see how it works out for you before making any changes.

Hierophants will die easily to 317, but be fast because they spikethorn.

Supplicants are easy, but watch your spells because they hit hard and mstrike.

Dogmatists put up this warding against cleric spells so ignore them.

You can also probably get a few more levels out of vipers/boards/ogres in the Black Forest.

I hit a brick wall with Maaghara Tower because I was 2x'ed in spells and I couldn't overcome their higher TD properly. I've always been against 3x'ing spells and so I went the route of supercharging 240.

[Dystopia]

Any other options besides Illistim for smite that would be equivalent in effectiveness?

[Asrial]

I somehow didn't notice these questions.




MjS and Cleric base until cap, right?The 'best bang for your buck' path for a 2x CS cleric is to get CLERIC BASE to LEVEL + 21 ranks. Those 21 ranks will get you 16 CS.

For Major/Minor? Just focus on getting the spells you want. You can leave off getting 140 until OTF (don't really need it in the temple if you stick to between the arches on the 3rd floor) and 135 is more fun than functionally useful. 130 is useful of course. 225 is useful of course and 230 has it's uses and is a viable option if you don't want to train for 240 (you just will have to bypass creatures that you can't ward and aren't wearing any spiritual spells).




Re: Lores --- I hate nerfing my training for the benefit of others (read: blessings lore for chrisms). I'd rather just buy them and have em replaced by coin. Keep going with religion until at least 40 ranks?Yeah, religion lore to 40 ranks is a good general amount.

..and it may FEEL like you should have more than 240 mana, but you're in the general range for clerics your level.

The only thing you can do to increase your mana (with training) is to train harness power and you're almost 1.5x in it. Most clerics are less than that.




Any other options besides Illistim for smite that would be equivalent in effectiveness?Unfortunately, I don't know of any, but this is partly because of them not being available when I was at that level.

The reason I recommend the areas I do is not because it's Illistim, but because it was so easy.

[Dystopia]

Ah wonderful, thank you so very much.

I've had some stacked RPAs and Lumnis and am sitting on so many TPs now its absurd.

Thanks for the spell help. Was under the impression the devs totally nixed anything above your level *completely*.

Cheers!

[Dystopia]

Go play with hierophants and supplicants in Ta'Illistim and see how it works out for you before making any changes.

Hierophants will die easily to 317, but be fast because they spikethorn.

Supplicants are easy, but watch your spells because they hit hard and mstrike.

Dogmatists put up this warding against cleric spells so ignore them.

This is some of the best hunting advice I've ever received. With the cleric/wiz combo they're dropping like flies. 2-3 casts (or wanding) total and they drop. Glad I didn't have to fixskills either (or go to teras). Haven't even died yet. Absolutely amazing thank you sooo much!

[Asrial]

I'm glad it's working out for you :)

The next stop is going to be Maaghara Tower.

(this advice is towards solo hunting)

- Shrickhen are undead and have major e-wave; 301 them asap

- Dhu Goleras are living and have all sorts of nasty sorcerer crap; don't mess around with them

- Moulis are living and annoying and I usually ignored them unless I had a bounty or couldn't find any shrickhen/goleras; they're annoying because they're difficult to crit kill and thus will waste your mana (I'd probably 312 them and let your wizard do all the work); they have some maneuver (non-CM) based attacks.. and if you die in front of one.. don't get rescued immediately ;)

..after this..

There's an area in OTF that contains JUST Beings/Gremlocks/Taints with a nice gen rate. No Ithzir pop in. I can't remember off hand where it is, but I can look it up on a map.

I just 317'ed the crap out of everything. They're like hierophants/supplicants in terms of being crittable.

..and after that..

I went to between the arches on the 3rd floor of Temple Nelemar on Teras.

I recommend at least scouting the area as, in my opinion, it's the easiest of the 3 capped hunting grounds. I was pretty capable in OTF at cap, but sometimes you just get unlucky and get stuck in RT in front of a seer who decides to drop all your spells. The only time I die in Nelemar is if I intentionally mess around with two creatures that can implode (can't remember their names off the top of my head; you rarely encounter them between the arches) or a cman charge eye crits me.