Another Returning Bard With Questions!

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HI!

Since this is the bard section, I'll do story-time before I bombard the professionals with questions! Yay!


Was depressed about some Gemstone chick, quit and deleted everything. Dumb move. GS girl quits, comes back & contacts me saying she plans on coming back and lets level together. Roll up a bard, since they're like the best team player. I level up the bard to 60, and the girl decides to quit. Thought I was being smart and learned from my mistake, so I sold my account. 6 Years later, the present, I bought my bard back(Still level 60)! Yay. The end. Sorry for the long-story, just had to get it out there.

So, now my question comes in two folds.

First the stats:

Name: Its Me, Mario! Race: Half-Elf Profession: Bard (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 135 Expr: 3465638 Level: 60
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Constitution (CON): 88 (19) ... 88 (19)
Dexterity (DEX): 94 (27) ... 94 (27)
Agility (AGI): 100 (35) ... 100 (35)
Discipline (DIS): 99 (19) ... 99 (19)
Aura (AUR): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Logic (LOG): 65 (7) ... 65 (7)
Intuition (INT): 53 (1) ... 53 (1)
Wisdom (WIS): 61 (5) ... 61 (5)
Influence (INF): 100 (30) ... 100 (30)

Level 0 Stats for Mario, Half-Elf Bard

Strength (STR): 80
Constitution (CON): 70
Dexterity (DEX): 70
Agility (AGI): 83
Discipline (DIS): 90
Aura (AUR): 91
Logic (LOG): 54
Intuition (INT): 21
Wisdom (WIS): 21
Influence (INF): 80


So, I know I have to fixstats him, but should I do it now at level 60 or should I wait ? Is it very urgent? I know the low logic bonus will probably make my leveling suffer. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Secondly, his current skills is basically a gem mule/purifier. What would be the best way to hunt him efficiently to cap, or to the very least 75-80? Previously, I had him swing a sonic lance. Would switching to a 1030 build be more efficient than a polearm build?

Thirdly, if I fixstats him, does anyone have a good min-max for half-elves? I already have the website for the maximizer from my gnome rogue thread, but I feel like theres probably an expert here who already number-crunched it? (Whirlin!?)

Lastly, I have a custom sonic armor on him, however, its only asg 13 (chainmail). Should I try to put him at 60 armor ranks and into augment chain asap? If thats the case, would it be better to get greaves/arm guards to go with his chainmail or to just buy a set of 7x?




Thank you, I appreciate all the help, and information you guys can provide.


And I want to say, thank you especially to Whirlin and everyone else who contributes to his guides. It truly is a great reference point/learning spot for new comers, and returning players.

[Whirlin]

I wouldn't fixstats. They're expensive, the market is kinda inflated at the moment, and I don't think the gains would be significant for a bard.
Lets think about the mechanics of fixstating. You're effectively lowering your prime skills down to growth tiers, for them to max out at 100. What that accomplishes is less TP at lower levels. While you will see higher TP gains at higher levels, it will not make up for the TP loss at lower levels. But why does that matter?

Bards are TP starved forever. Bards likely have one of the highest potential Training Point combat training CAPs, there is just so much that they can train in for continual gains. On the physical side, you can always dump into MMO, 2x PF, 2x CMAN, and still see returns from all of those. Concurrently on the magic side, there's always lores and spells, which will directly add to more AS/DS. Squares hit a fairly big diminishing returns on redux, Pures have pretty limited offensive gains after they max out spell research. Bards are best suited to turn training points into AS/DS for the long haul.

While it's something that you can seek out once you cap, I would hardly be concerned about it right now. I'm sure there are much better options available for 20m to strengthen to your character.

Second: That's entirely up to you, and how you want to play the character. Furthermore, it'll matter on your playstyle. If you want to just bigshot, I'd actually recommend sword/board or pure over polearm. If you're going to actively, manual hunt, then polearm or pure both work. The training plans in the guide should be sufficient to get you started either way. But realistically, Gemstone is not a terribly difficult game. There will be things that you can hunt easily at every level, regardless of build. What's "better" becomes subjective and skewed, and the answer could change from level to level, hunting ground to hunting ground. Hell, if a melee Sorc can make it to cap, anyone can!

Lastly, I'm unfamiliar with sonic armor alterations. Are you completely locked into ASG13? When I looked into the Sonic Weapon alterations, I thought it would just default to ASG13 if you used the incant verb, but you still had the option to "Prep 1014, Sing 15" to get ASG15 armor if you wanted to. If you wanted to pair it with greaves, that'd work just as well. If you want to buy physical, you're probably better off looking for hauberk than looking for chainmail and accessories. Since Bard isn't exactly an uncommon class, Hauberks are one of the more readily available armor types that are auctioned often. (Fulls, Doubles, Brig, Hauberk, Full Plate)

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Sweet! I got Whirlin himself to help me!

Your detailed post has really helped, but I still have a few questions...

Bigshot? What is that? Is it a lich thing that helps you hunt? (I don't have/use lich - which makes somethings very limited)

I know that GS overly difficult to make it to cap, I was just wondering what would be the most optimal form of hunting for the next 10-20 levels.(If possible, I would like to stay in Landing/Teras as much as possible) I was originally going to fixskills him as a pure, but I heard that they really don't mature until about 75ish, and I would be struggling for awhile.

Would my low wisdom affect my CS or is 1030 calculated off of INF instead?


Altered sonic armor is a lot like an altered sonic weapon. You can prep 1014 and sing whatever ASG. Just happens to be my ASG is 13(chainmail). Would it be more recommended to use sonic armor with accessories or a sturdier physical set? Or is that still preference? Would sonic armor protect equally as well as a physical HCP set of equivilent armor? Is solo-hunting in hauberk viable for a swinger, or would aug chain be best for hinderance?


Thank you again for your time.

[Whirlin]

Bigshot? What is that? Is it a lich thing that helps you hunt? (I don't have/use lich - which makes somethings very limited)
Lich script that automates basic hunting. Like, wander through these rooms, attacking such and such a critter this way and searching them. I do recommend Lich, if nothing else there's the Narost script which uses the old Tsoran maps and room descriptions to put a red circle around your current room on the Tsoran Maps. You can disable things like the universal chat in Lnet, and other scripts. But with the diminished player base of gemstone relative to 10 years ago, it can feel rather isolated, and having the universal Lnet chat can help (sometimes... othertimes it's just crude and annoying...)



I know that GS overly difficult to make it to cap, I was just wondering what would be the most optimal form of hunting for the next 10-20 levels.(If possible, I would like to stay in Landing/Teras as much as possible) I was originally going to fixskills him as a pure, but I heard that they really don't mature until about 75ish, and I would be struggling for awhile.

Not difficult, just time consuming. 75 manipulation ranks to allow a focused 1030 at reduced mana cost as though they were using a 2H Instrument. I've heard of bards starting pure as early as level 30. I think I may have even heard rumors of someone using stunning shout to attempt to be a pure in the teens level. But I can tell from the two posts asking about this that you're having some apprehension towards swapping to pure so early. If this is the case, then by all means, take a physical route until you hit 73 and can get those 75 ranks of manipulation. We get our annual fixstats in about 5 months or something... That should be enough time to gain quite a few levels, and use that fixskills for pure.

Efficiency when hunting is subjective for what's important to you:
Do you want to have the fastest sustainable kill speed, but be a bit glass cannon-y? Polearm
Do you want to have the fastest kill speed, but have hunts be limited by mana? Pure
Do you want to have a slower kill speed, but have the best defenses? Sword/Board
Unfortunately, it's comparing apples to oranges, and impossible to say definitively which is the 'best'.



Would my low wisdom affect my CS or is 1030 calculated off of INF instead?

Bard CS is Aura. You're good. Only three races with actually racial positives towards aura are Dark Elves, Elves, and Bhurghal Gnomes.



Would it be more recommended to use sonic armor with accessories or a sturdier physical set? Or is that still preference? Would sonic armor protect equally as well as a physical HCP set of equivilent armor? Is solo-hunting in hauberk viable for a swinger, or would aug chain be best for hinderance?

Preference, and slightly subjective on what you hunt: Sonic Armor does give natural resistance towards elemental attacks, but natural vulnerability towards crushing damage. So if you're hunting casters, sonic armor is good. Doubly good if you're a polearm build hunting casters, as polearm users have weak ranged (and bolt) defenses.

If you're going pure, I'd use physical armor, just to save some mana from the renewal cycle.

HCP Physical Armor is better 9/10 times, but that is still dependent on if you're hunting casters, how often you get hit, and any difference in DS/enchant of the sonic versus physical. If you have Physical 7x HCP ASG15, I'd use it.

I may have mispoken when I said Hauberk... I meant whatever ASG15 is. Stick to ASG15.

Sonic versus physical armor accessories to swap ASG13 into ASG15 is also dependent on hunting grounds. There are some odd mechanics of armor accessories and how they interact with resistences / padding. I'd check krakii for more information... but going off of memory, I believe that if your armor accessories have any special properties on them, the effectiveness of whatever resistence/padding you have on your armor gets halved and applied to the accessories, and the accessories' resistance/padding strength gets halved and added. So 10 point crit padding armor + 10 point damage padded greaves would be 5 crit, 5 damage padding on arm hits. But that's going off of memory, best to check the krakii article.

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Thanks Whirlin, I appreciate all your feedback.

I think I will just go with my original training plan of using a polearm. I can always fixskills in a few months or buy a potion if its needed that bad.

I still have a few questions left about armor tho. Would you recommend HCP brig or Regular Chain? For example, if I had a choice between 5x HCP brig and 5x Aug chain, which would prove more likely beneficial?

Lastly, can anyone recommend any good hunting spots for a level 60 polearm bard? Generally around Landing/Teras area if possible... Are illokes out of my league?

[Tgo01]

Lastly, can anyone recommend any good hunting spots for a level 60 polearm bard? Generally around Landing/Teras area if possible... Are illokes out of my league?

I think my pure bard decimated Illokes at level 60, I imagine they wouldn't be much different for polearm bards. Just remember Lullabye is your friend, and 1040 is your friend if you find yourself in a long stun. And friends are your friend.

[Whirlin]

I still have a few questions left about armor tho. Would you recommend HCP brig or Regular Chain? For example, if I had a choice between 5x HCP brig and 5x Aug chain, which would prove more likely beneficial?
Chain. Two reasons:
First, the damage factors are typically lower on higher tier armor, there are some anomolies based on weapon types, but it's widely true, anywhere from .05 and .1 damage factor lower. So you'll take less base damage. Secondly, Brig, in the hard leather class, has a crit divisor of of 7. Chain has a crit divisor of 9. But lets see this in action:

Lets say you get hit with an endroll of 150 from a Halberd.
Halberds have a .4 DF against scale, a .3 against chain.
So, against brig, you'd take 50*.4 = 20 damage.
In Chain, you'd take 50*.3 = 15 damage.

For the crit padding, that 20 damage gets reduced anywhere from 0-10 for critical calculations (that's the effect of padding). Then we apply the crit divisor of 7. 10/7 = 1, 20/7 = 2. So you'll take either a Tier 1 or tier 2 crit from that. Tier 2 also has a natural randomization potential to be reduced into a Tier 1, so in real Elanthian situations, you'll take a Tier 1 critical probably 80% of the time.

In the chain, you're dealing with a crit divisor of 9. So you take that 15 damage, divide it by 9, and at max, you're only taking a tier 1 crit.

So, getting hit by a halberd, in your HCP Brig, you're taking 20 damage, chance of either a T1 or T2 crit for an additional 1/3/5 damage. Compared to taking 15 damage, w/ +1 damage from a tier 1 crit.

Heavier armor almost always wins.


Ohh... and AvD... which is completely an afterthought... On the halberd example, a 150 endroll on brig would only be a 143 endroll against chain due to a better AvD. So... even better.

But if you can only afford 5x, you're better off going sonic... as Sonic is 5x at only 20 spellsongs. 6x at 30, 7x at 40.