Fixskilling advice

[nocturnix]

Yah I just made that verb up. About to reset my skills and want some tips. Here is what I have now, I am a pure runestaff user and plan to get 8 ranks of armor use for doubles. Thinking about dropping spell aming since i never use 111 anyways, maybe pick up more demo ranks for 740?

XXXXX(at level 39), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 10 2
Physical Fitness...................| 82 18
Arcane Symbols.....................| 124 32
Magic Item Use.....................| 128 34
Spell Aiming.......................| 170 70
Harness Power......................| 152 52
Elemental Mana Control.............| 120 30
Spirit Mana Control................| 120 30
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 128 34
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 25 5
Perception.........................| 128 34
Climbing...........................| 62 13
Swimming...........................| 25 5

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

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 33

Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 39

[nocturnix]

PS - i keep the spirit/elemental mana control for sending to alts, so i need it.

[subzero]

Seems like a waste of a fixskill to me. Just migrate the 2 MOC ranks to 0, take HP down to 1x or 1.5x via migration or just catch up while leveling, profit. I do not suggest dropping SA. Between FLD, FI, and the option to bolt, I've always felt you lose too much potential. Dunno what skill you have in mind to pick up in its place, but I can pretty much guarantee that whatever it is, the gains provided will be less than that of the SA training.

[Gompers]

I'd advise against dropping SA - trading off the ability to use Balefire as an opener, and aiming for specific limbs with limb disruption seems like a crappy deal for a small change in armor.

just my 2

[Murkshev]

Drop the Moc, keep the HP at 40 for now, and put the points where you need them. I say physical fitness, Keep the spell aiming at 1.5x or at a min 1.3x for now. I see that you are training a lot in spells. If that is your main focus, your other skills will develop slowly. Its just fact. Slow your spell training a little bit but keep sorc circle at level. If you want to train more in lores and other skills.

If you want to keep going as you have been, don't listen to a thing I have said.

[nocturnix]

Thanks for the tips everyone, I will incorporate this into a new training plan. I agree the current setup is not TOO bad to warrant use of a fixskill. But I just came back to the game, and my yearly fixskill is just sitting there collecting dust. So why not use it now?

Will post my proposed training plan shortly...

[nocturnix]

OK heres what i rolled up via the tsoran spreadsheet (based on lvl 40).

Am I missing anything? Improvements? Suggestions?

Armor 8
PF .5x
climbing 10
Swimming 5
Perception 1x
Arcane Symbols .5x
MIU .5x
HP 1.5x
SA 1.5x
EMC 30
SMC 30
Spells
ME 30
MS 30
SO 1x
Demo 1x
Nec 5


Armor Use 8
Shield Use
Edged Weapons
Blunt Weapons
Two-Handed Weapons
Ranged Weapons
Thrown Weapons
Polearm Weapons
Brawling
Two Weapon Combat
Combat Maneuvers
Multi-Opponent Combat
Ambush
Physical Fitness 20
Dodging
Climbing 10
Swimming 5
Disarm Traps
Picking Locks
Stalking and Hiding
Perception 40
First Aid
Trading
Pickpocketing
Survival
Arcane Symbols 20
Magic Item Use 20
Harness Power 60
Spell Aiming 60
Elemental Mana Control 30
Spirit Mana Control 30
Mental Mana Control
Spell Research 100
Minor Elemental 30
Minor Spirit 30
Sorcerer 40
Elemental Lore
Air
Earth
Fire
Water
Spiritual Lore
Blessings
Religion
Summoning
Sorcerous Lore 52
Demonology 40
Necromancy 5
Mental Lore
Divination
Manipulation
Telepathy
Transference
Transformation

[Queleri]

a lot of this is personal preference, but for me I'd prefer to find a way to boost my Sorc spell levels. I'm from the thought of the best defense is a good offense though. So 1.5x HP maybe a touch high, and at your train I can't imagine you're using Animate Dead much and while Necro Lore does help with 711 (which I'm a huge fan of) I'd say wait until later to work on that. 1x SO Lore might be a little high is all I think, I know 52 ranks is a big key, but damn I just like CS to be higher. I think I have 50 ranks in Demonology at ~86, and I'm a fan of Demonology.

Also how often are you going to be using 130? I seem to recall you perhaps MA and so have a Cleric which may help compensate for that. I find the 400 circle and 700 circle are much more useful, but again I like the CS from 425 more than the additional DS/TD from the 100 circle. So I would probably drop a few ranks there, and try to make it up in the Sorc circle, you want to try to get 21 ranks over your current level in the 700 circle in my opinion.

Anyway just my thoughts.

[nocturnix]

a lot of this is personal preference, but for me I'd prefer to find a way to boost my Sorc spell levels. I'm from the thought of the best defense is a good offense though. So 1.5x HP maybe a touch high, and at your train I can't imagine you're using Animate Dead much and while Necro Lore does help with 711 (which I'm a huge fan of) I'd say wait until later to work on that. 1x SO Lore might be a little high is all I think, I know 52 ranks is a big key, but damn I just like CS to be higher. I think I have 50 ranks in Demonology at ~86, and I'm a fan of Demonology.

Also how often are you going to be using 130? I seem to recall you perhaps MA and so have a Cleric which may help compensate for that. I find the 400 circle and 700 circle are much more useful, but again I like the CS from 425 more than the additional DS/TD from the 100 circle. So I would probably drop a few ranks there, and try to make it up in the Sorc circle, you want to try to get 21 ranks over your current level in the 700 circle in my opinion.

Anyway just my thoughts.


Thanks for the tips. While I agree with Offense being very important, I do love 130. :) Even though I have my cleric, and gold rings. I'm not sure why, but I dont think i could part with 130.

That being said, I could reduce some other things like you mentioned and pick up some more 700 ranks. Let me see how that looks.

[Delarock]

OK heres what i rolled up via the tsoran spreadsheet (based on lvl 40).

Am I missing anything? Improvements? Suggestions?

Armor 8
PF .5x
climbing 10
Swimming 5
Perception 1x
Arcane Symbols .5x
MIU .5x
HP 1.5x
SA 1.5x
EMC 30
SMC 30
Spells
ME 30
MS 30
SO 1x
Demo 1x
Nec 5



Couple questions-

Have you considered sacrificing some lores? At 40, I don't know where you'll really need to rift to. I'm with you on 130, I wanted it because it was cool to have, but it's redundant with 740.

Are you combat effective with 1.5x spell aim? It's been a while, and I was always 2x, but my understanding is that if you're not 2x, you might as well drop it.

Are you in Voln or GoS? I was in Voln, and as a human sorcerer, I rarely had mana issues 1x'ing in HP. Sacrifice and 1x in both mana controls helped a lot. If you are in CoL, you shouldn't even need more than 1x HP.

-Del

[nocturnix]

Couple questions-

Have you considered sacrificing some lores? At 40, I don't know where you'll really need to rift to. I'm with you on 130, I wanted it because it was cool to have, but it's redundant with 740.

Are you combat effective with 1.5x spell aim? It's been a while, and I was always 2x, but my understanding is that if you're not 2x, you might as well drop it.

Are you in Voln or GoS? I was in Voln, and as a human sorcerer, I rarely had mana issues 1x'ing in HP. Sacrifice and 1x in both mana controls helped a lot. If you are in CoL, you shouldn't even need more than 1x HP.

-Del


Good points.

I am CoL, I guess I just have the epeen for a big mana pool thing. So nice to see a big mana pool and I was excited to see it go up with a little more HP in this respec.

I do manage to run out of mana with 3 wracks. I know, you probably think i'm crazy. I guess I am. I like to fry fast as shit. So I abuse DC to the max. One hit kills means I can fry, and get back to whatever else I am doing at the time other than GS. Currently at Sheruvian Monestary I get alot of 1 hit kills, but the problem is as a CoL member I get a shitload of 5 second blank-outs which wastes 19 mana. Hence the needing to wrack 3 times every hunt.

I dont have the patience right now to plink away for 15 minutes to fry. It is much more efficient when I bring my cleric, but I dont always do that. I dont want to give up my ability to fry fast solo.

Good point about 130 and 740 being redundant, I didnt think about that. I am very close to 40, so I guess I could ditch 130. If I do that, how high do you suggest i go in the 100's? And I guess then with remaining points it should be Sorc circle until 21 ranks above level, then elemental? Dont think I'll have enough points to get 21 ranks above level and then bring elemental past the 30 ranks i have now.

As for spell aiming, I am not currently using it in hunting at all so I cant say. I mostly 719, or 702. The ocassional 410, or 703 for crowd control. But thats my current lineup, could change in the next hunting area.

[nocturnix]

If I drop 100s to 20 ranks (keep all defense spells which i need), then I'm almost at +21 ranks above level. and I gain 16 CS (including 425), which is considerable. Damn, I'm going to be a wrecking ball. Already am, but with +16 more CS...watch out you slimy monks.

[Queleri]

Yeah, I like that idea. When you triple in spells going forward you can start to bring the 100s back up slowly.

If you're in CoL and in your 40's I'm not sure how much longer hunting the MC will be sufficent, I would still consider dropping HP down and using Wrack/Sacrifice. You will be getting back some of those black outs when you change hunting grounds shortly. It doesn't help as much in the long term is all.

If you went with Fusion gear, get +Max Mana or +Mana Regen or a +Max Spirit/Spirit Regen orbs. You could also enhance these with your Adv. Guild Badge. You could quite easily pick up a +6 Max Mana or Mana Regen item which would equate to 6 ranks of HP if I'm not mistaken. You'd be better served doing that and utilizing the TP in other places.

Just my personal opinion.

~Q

[Delarock]

Sounds to me like you're more CS focused. Drop the SA, find a way to make up the ranks in other magical skills, you should be fine. I'd strongly advise picking up SA later in life if you intend on using FI. It's nice to be able to 1 shot the things that are dangerous, and to use bolts to hunt certain things.

My training was always 1x MIU, AS, EMC, SMC, Perception, HP; 2x+ Spells, 2x Spell aim. Put the rest in lores and whatever you want (PF is important, I learned that later in life). If I remember right, which I probably don't since it was a long long time ago, I went to 430 and then 140 and then back to MnE while keeping sorcerer spells as high as possible. I didn't know that people stopped EMC and SMC, but I also didn't have the purported mana problems that non-CoL sorcerers were "supposed" to have.

I was always the necro type. A little counter intuitive since I was always focused on having a well-rounded, do anything type sorcerer. Necro makes you a more efficient killer through 711, but Demon works into Phase and Planar Shift.

[Queleri]

Sounds to me like you're more CS focused. Drop the SA, find a way to make up the ranks in other magical skills, you should be fine. I'd strongly advise picking up SA later in life if you intend on using FI. It's nice to be able to 1 shot the things that are dangerous, and to use bolts to hunt certain things.

My training was always 1x MIU, AS, EMC, SMC, Perception, HP; 2x+ Spells, 2x Spell aim. Put the rest in lores and whatever you want (PF is important, I learned that later in life). If I remember right, which I probably don't since it was a long long time ago, I went to 430 and then 140 and then back to MnE while keeping sorcerer spells as high as possible. I didn't know that people stopped EMC and SMC, but I also didn't have the purported mana problems that non-CoL sorcerers were "supposed" to have.

I was always the necro type. A little counter intuitive since I was always focused on having a well-rounded, do anything type sorcerer. Necro makes you a more efficient killer through 711, but Demon works into Phase and Planar Shift.

I would HIGHLY discourage dropping SA, 2x is good but I'm slightly under 2x and still use FLD all the time. I find FLD to be one of the best spells to use as retribution, that or pain if the creatures can't be stunned. Puts a target on the ground and stunned if you set it to default target a leg, or if you default target the right arm you stop it from doing most anything. If it can't be stunned than the necro is handy for putting a creature in hard RT while you're stunned. Plus it's just great for crowd control. Even at 1.5x it will also help your DS as a runestaff user.

Also 140 is nice, and I got it for the sake of having it, but it's entirely situational. While you get additional bonuses from other 100s by increasing your ranks, I still find the CS/DS boosts from MnE to be a better option. Again this is just my personal preference, but I rarely ever seem to use WoF.

[Delarock]

I agree with you as to the fact that dropping SA is not a great idea. The reason that I'm advising this is that it's something that can either be picked up later or fixskilled into. In this particular case and timing, it's not something that's being used. It seems to me as if a sacrifice in balance makes more sense, even though it wouldn't be my choice.

My sentiment is that 711 is the best spell that we have. Everything dies in 3 casts and is completely disabled while we're casting at them. The only thing that offsets this power is the mana cost, which is not something anyone at 40 trainings could ever support. The second best spell is FI, but it leaves no treasure and has the downside of vaping items. I don't remember using FLD consistently, save pyrothags.

The long and short of it is that if you're using 719/705/702, maximize your CS/DS. Everything else will come with time. Spell Aim should def be a priority to get to 2x. And 1x PF, but that's a different story for a different time.

[Queleri]

I agree with you as to the fact that dropping SA is not a great idea. The reason that I'm advising this is that it's something that can either be picked up later or fixskilled into. In this particular case and timing, it's not something that's being used. It seems to me as if a sacrifice in balance makes more sense, even though it wouldn't be my choice.

My sentiment is that 711 is the best spell that we have. Everything dies in 3 casts and is completely disabled while we're casting at them. The only thing that offsets this power is the mana cost, which is not something anyone at 40 trainings could ever support. The second best spell is FI, but it leaves no treasure and has the downside of vaping items. I don't remember using FLD consistently, save pyrothags.

The long and short of it is that if you're using 719/705/702, maximize your CS/DS. Everything else will come with time. Spell Aim should def be a priority to get to 2x. And 1x PF, but that's a different story for a different time.

Agreed

[nocturnix]

OK i will keep 1.5x SA for now, and go for reduced 100s to bring 700s up to almost +21 above level.

Which circle should I start working on next? 100s or 400s?

at 39 I will be
Sorcerer - 60 ranks
Minor Spirit - 20 ranks
Minor Elem - 30 ranks


The only thing I am hesitant on now is: having second thoughts on training into doubles. 2% hindrance...I hate getting my spells blocked right now with the CoL space-out in monestary. Although hindrance is alot less common, I am wondering if I will really hate that 2%...
Thanks.

[Queleri]

As to where to train next, my suggestion is this. If you prefer DS/TD you will be better served training in the 100's circle. If you prefer CS/DS than I would train in the 400's to get additional boosts from 425 and 430.

As to doubles, I think you will find the advantage of being trained in full body coverage very useful in the long term. It also allows you to pick up some enhancives in the form of greaves, helm, etc. which can fairly easily boost your hunting skills. Although I can't deny that at times spell failure can really piss a person off. Especially when you're going to cast 703, you get hinderance, and than you're spike thorned and dead. Again, personal preference, if you find it's just not for you, you can always migrate those few armor use ranks out, and it won't take all that long.