302 Casting Pure Cleric Help

[WayfaringWanderer]

Sorry to have to start yet another topic looking for help. I need to place my stats for good on Wednesday. I've been through most of the threads and there is a lot of great training advice and first 30 day advice. But I need help placing my stats. I'm not terribly concerned with having perfect stats at cap and willing to tank a few if people think it is in my best interest(especially with fixstats now available)

I'm a Human lvl. 22 runestaff pure 302 Voln Cleric

Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 102 24
Arcane Symbols.....................| 102 24
Magic Item Use.....................| 102 24
Spell Aiming.......................| 102 24
Harness Power......................| 102 24
Spirit Mana Control................| 102 24
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 102 24
Climbing...........................| 50 10
Swimming...........................| 50 10
First Aid..........................| 102 24

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 4

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 30

When I redo my stats I may tweak skills as well. I might drop some of the Minor Spiritual spells to do the +21 Cleric spells then work on Minor Spiritual, though the added DS of spirit shroud is hard to pass up. As for training Lores I was told to do 25, 15, 15. A few more training questions. When do I stop training Physical Fitness? Do I stop training in anything else at a certain point? Am I missing anything?

Thanks in advance for any help. It will be much appreciated.

[Whirlin]

Well, the one thing that strikes me as odd is the 1x spell aiming. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish with that. Either you're going to bolt, or not bolt! Given that the title of the thread is a 302 build, I'd say drop the spell aiming entirely.

Don't believe the hype about the runestaff defense argument... more often than not, you're better off getting additional spell ranks... especially at low levels, where those ranks can be used to unlock more defensive spells.

With that in mind, we can now discuss lores. If you want to be able to make chrisms, then yes, 25, 15, 15... But here's my thoughts on this topic... People like 100% Chrisms. People get extraordinarily whiny about low tier chrisms. The reason is that if they're on Lumnis, their mind will be completely empty (and thus a net loss) by the time the stat loss from death's sting wears off with a low quality, low % chrism.

With that in mind, I do recommend picking up the religion lore ranks, but I wouldn't make it an absolute priority. Hitting a creature will always be worth more than doing a little extra damage WHEN you hit... If you ever played WOW, FFXI, or pretty much any other MMO, you know the first thing you do is max out hit rating.

Physical Fitness you're going to want to train in for life, as well as Perception, which you don't appear to be currently training in. Those will be your main defense against creature maneuver attacks.

Other than that, looks good.

[WayfaringWanderer]

Well, the one thing that strikes me as odd is the 1x spell aiming. I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish with that. Either you're going to bolt, or not bolt! Given that the title of the thread is a 302 build, I'd say drop the spell aiming entirely.

Don't believe the hype about the runestaff defense argument... more often than not, you're better off getting additional spell ranks... especially at low levels, where those ranks can be used to unlock more defensive spells.

Thanks. The runestaff defense thing was really the only reason I did it. I will drop it and pick up the perception ranks instead.

[Methais]

What about brawl/shield for the open hand bonus? How much of a difference does that make?

I just stack rapid fire on my cleric with Meth and then go nuts.

WTS 4 hours of rapid fire

[Whirlin]

Without doing calculations, I can tell you that you'd likely have a higher offensive DS with open hand/shield, but a lower defensive DS than a runestaff. Parry calculation is pretty ridiculous on lower stances.

I'm not sure if it has been that heavily documented on the difference between offensive runestaff casting versus brawl/shield open hand casting... Fairly certain runestaff counts as two handed for the channeling, but not sure the damage difference.

[Jeril]

Yes, shield/brawl gives you a higher DS then using a runestaff, but runestaff DS is free basically. Of course I hunt my empath empty handed with wizard spells. If you only hunt self spelled I'd suggest you use a runestaff. If you want to get the maximum benefit from double open handed casting you can always stance dance and stow your runestaff while casting. Whirlin when using a runestaff it counts as 1 empty hand only. I'd see nothing wrong if they ever did change it to treat holding a runestaff as having two empty hands for channeling, never happen though.

As far as the OPs more pressing question about stats, I'd suggest you place them for growth. On my cleric I actually tanked INT because while its a prime stat it doesn't have much use beyond that. I know most people tank INF but its at least useful for 340 when you get to casting it. I know one who tanked CON to get everything else up to 100 and has never regretted it. If you've got no patience you'll want to place your WIS high though.

[Ceyrin]

As a giant cleric who tanked con, I can say I didn't regret it. I still have 84 (27) at cap, which is more bonus than a large swath of races have with 100's.

[Rolis]

I'm pretty certain that I recall GMs mention one open hand is equal to a phantom +20 to endroll and two open hands being +40. Pretty significant bonuses.

[Whirlin]

I'm pretty certain that I recall GMs mention one open hand is equal to a phantom +20 to endroll and two open hands being +40. Pretty significant bonuses.

Without a consistent correlation between endroll and damage, it's difficult to determine if it's worth the cost. It also comes at the cost of both conventional flares and ensorcell flares.

I did an evaluation yesterday on the Sorc thread... here's the DS table:

Shield|Runestaff 6|Runestaff 8|Runestaff 10|Runestaff 12|Runestaff 15
Offensive|84|51|61|71|79|86
Guarded|119|74|84|94|102|109
Defensive|128|80|90|100|107|115

[Methais]

Without a consistent correlation between endroll and damage, it's difficult to determine if it's worth the cost. It also comes at the cost of both conventional flares and ensorcell flares.

I did an evaluation yesterday on the Sorc thread... here's the DS table:

Shield|Runestaff 6|Runestaff 8|Runestaff 10|Runestaff 12|Runestaff 15
Offensive|84|51|61|71|79|86
Guarded|119|74|84|94|102|109
Defensive|128|80|90|100|107|115

What does 6, 8, 10, 12, and 15 represent on the runestaff columns?

[Whirlin]

The number of magic trainings per level that you're at...

So 6 per level, 8 per level, 10 per level... etc.