Returning after 12ish years

[DmNerd]

It's been a really long time since I last played. I've spent the last two days reading forums, Nilandia, lore benefits, and of course Karkiipedia. The cleric class feels completely different to me but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. I'm aiming to go a pure CS cleric. This is what I started with:

Armor Use..........................| 82 18
Shield Use.........................| 102 24
Combat Maneuvers...................| 111 27
Edged Weapons......................| 143 43
Brawling...........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 122 31
Arcane Symbols.....................| 90 20
Magic Item Use.....................| 96 22
Spell Aiming.......................| 114 28
Harness Power......................| 143 43
Spirit Mana Control................| 154 54
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 66 14
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 66 14
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 66 14
Survival...........................| 74 16
Disarming Traps....................| 30 6
Picking Locks......................| 40 8
Stalking and Hiding................| 40 8
Perception.........................| 108 26
Climbing...........................| 86 19
Swimming...........................| 82 18
First Aid..........................| 138 39
Trading............................| 66 14
Pickpocketing......................| 45 9

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 25

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 30

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 31

And this what I'm at now.
Name: Hiddon Fireslap Race: Half-Elf Profession: Cleric
Level: 41 Gender: Male Age: 72
Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 141 41
Arcane Symbols.....................| 150 50
Magic Item Use.....................| 140 40
Harness Power......................| 143 43
Spirit Mana Control................| 140 40
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 90 20
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 105 25
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 90 20
Survival...........................| 70 15
Perception.........................| 105 25
Climbing...........................| 50 10
Swimming...........................| 50 10
First Aid..........................| 140 40

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 30

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 30

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 50
Training Points: 10 Phy 0 Mnt (1250 Phy converted to Mnt)

The goal is to use a runestaff (I don't have one yet). I still have about 30 days to adjust anything. I'm level 41 very close to 42. Also primarily I'd like to focus on being a rescue cleric. Any advice is welcome.

[Narthsin]

It's always funny to see old builds and how strange they were before the runestaff days.

Your build looks fairly solid, and it is easy to see you did your research. Fortunately a runestaff wull be easy to come by. If you need help finding one, send me a PM and I'll dig one out of a locker that you can have.

Tips?

I'm not sure you need 41 in physical training. You might consider dropping that down to 23-25, just enough to get full health. I'm not sure how much those extra ranks contribute to critter maneuver defenses.

Everything else is more a personal preference. I know some people may also suggest trying to get your Cleric spells to 21 ranks over your level for Max CS or something, but that's a lot of extra training points at that level.

[Allereli]

keep the PT, they add greatly to maneuver defense. Drop the armor ranks to 8 for double leather. maybe put the summoning lore into blessings to get to full chrisms faster. Might want to start working on your climbing/swimming (I like 40 ranks per).

[DmNerd]

Narthsin:
Thanks for the advice. So much of my previous build was done as spur of the moment changes. This is literally the first character I had ever made on Gemstone (back on AOL days). I had rogue friends who speak time picking locks in the east tower, so I decided to put some ranks in so I could sit there and pick with them. I had no sense of a "long game" back then. It was really just this looks fun so lets do it. I found a cheaper 350 silver runestaff at the weapon shop and I've just been using that.

Allereli:
My armor is at 8? Are there areas that need the higher climbing/swimming skill? Or does it factor into an equation somewhere else?

[Allereli]

Allereli:
My armor is at 8? Are there areas that need the higher climbing/swimming skill? Or does it factor into an equation somewhere else?

sorry I was looking at the top one when I wrote that.

Yes, there are a lot of that areas will you need climbing or swimming. I guess if you're a voln master you won't need as much swimming. did you set your stats for cap?

[DmNerd]

I am a Voln master. My stats are whatever they automatically got transferred to once I logged it and it converted everything from Gemstone 3.

[Whirlin]

Allereli's advice is solid.

Definitely keep 1x PF, and keep perception to around .5x. Both are good for maneuver defense. Which really won't impact you for now, but you're pretty hard pressed to fight critters without maneuvers at 55+.

May want to balance out MIU / AS... just keep them to 1x, not sure why AS is at 50 ranks rather than just 42. Also, not sure about Survival. Is there some hidden benefit I'm unaware of associated with that? I'd drop those points, even out the AS/MIU/SMC, and spend additional points into Spell Research.

Going forward, Narthsin brings up a good point, CS maximizing occurs at Level +20 Cleric ranks. So over the next few levels, I'd recommend ignore additional lore training until you reach Cleric = Level +20 Spell Ranks. Tripling in spell research when possible. After that, continue working on lores and such. Then you can also branch out additional spell research into the other spheres if you want to go any higher.

Lores are awesome... but if it becomes a difference of +1% damage versus hitting 1% more often, the increased chance to hit will almost always outweigh the additional damage.

[Whirlin]

And yeah, current recommended practices are to have 50 ranks of climbing/swimming by level 80ish or so for some of the higher tier areas... but you have plenty of time to worry about that.

[DmNerd]

Thank you all for the great feedback. Also ignore my very poor sentence structure. Reading my post up there was painful. The benefit right now so that I can freely adjust my stats. So would it make more sense for me to max CS right now at the cost of some other stats? I put points into MIU and AS because I'm using a runestaff and I wanted to make sure I had enough ranks for level 41 (8x per level right?).

I put ranks in Survival because a guide suggested rescue clerics would benefit from having a 'few' ranks in it. It never said why. Is First Aid okay? Is there a suggested amount for clerics to have?

[SHAFT]

Welcome back! I advise you stay out of the social part of this forum. They're all nuts down there

[Jeril]

As far as runestaff defense goes, don't worry about it. Train in skills for other reasons and your defense will take care of itself. It is also cheaper to gain DS through spell ranks then runestaff ranks. If you find your defense lacking either pick up outside spells to augment it or train in MnS as this gives you 2 DS every 2 levels, 1 from the bonus to 102 and another from the bonus to 120. My CS using empath is up to 46 and he still doesn't even use a runestaff, I do provide him with wizard spells when I take him out to hunt. If I was hunting him self spelled I'd certainly pick up a runestaff though.

[DmNerd]

Thanks for the info. I have spent the last day or so hunting solo. I ventured underneath the graveyard to look at Pooka's and Mares. I just wanted to see how I stack up against them. I miss being able to repel them into nothingness but 302 is still a pretty fun spell.

[DmNerd]

Playing with my build in the mines. Pookas no problem. Shadow Mares no problems, Shadow Steeds no problems. Night Mares....yea not so much.

*Hiddon just bit the dust*

Unfortunately that brought back memories. I did enjoy running around my old stomping grounds (no pun intended).