Ranger Spell Training Advice needed

[Dendum]

So, I am wondering how much utility and sheer mathematical bonus comes from the minor spiritual line of spells, and if that bonus is worth the loss of keeping ranger base at 1x.

My main skills are
Ranged 2x
Ambush 1x
Perception 2x
Dodge 1x
Ranger base 1x
Minor Spiritual .002x
Stalking/hiding 2x
PF 1.5x
Mana 1x
a bit of cman
+ various other utility skills

Right now I have the Ranger Base at 1x and 101,102,103, and 104...I kind of regret picking up 104 to be honest as I could have spent those TP's on lore which I currently only have 1 train in summoning. I have no trouble hunting anything but undead (because arrows), my spike thorns hit things my level and slightly higher and mobility gives me enough dodge to survive, for a bit, in the open in offensive. I would like some of the utility of minor spiritual, water walking would be great...fogging would be nice, but I am unsure how much combat ability I would loose to get those.

Is minor spiritual something I should save for post cap? Or is it worth the tp's I would need to spend in dodge and the loss of offensive powers from the ranger base to pick it up earlier?

[Jeril]

Most train up to 640 then switch to minor spirit if they are only training 1x in spell research. 120 is the most common goal with some training further to have 130 before switching back to ranger spells. You do get 15 DS from 120, which is the same Dodge DS you'd get from 20 ranks of ranger ranks, you'd still be missing a bit of DS because you'd lose out on bonus from 613 but that only applies to melee attacks and usually isn't an issue for rangers. Training up to 130, you'd get another 5 bonus from 120 which would be less then the 7.5 DS you'd get from 618. I also realize you'd have a bit less from dodge because of your armor but I'm too lazy to go into that fine of detail about it. I haven't heard anyone complain about their spike being a bit less effective because of their training in MnS.

[BriarFox]

Generally the utility of the MnS balances out the loss from not training in ranger ranks. Most common pattern I've seen lately is to overtrain in spells to get 120/640 by level 40, then let them balance out. A lot of old-school rangers stop at that point anyway, or at least at 130/650. The newer style is to 1x spells to cap and then 1.5-2x.

[Dendum]

Thanks for the info, both of you.

I will probably keep training ranger base until I can fixskill straight to 120/650 and not have to suffer the DS loss while working to 120. I wish I had the TP/MP to overtrain but...it would mean loosing something I need I am sure.

[radeek]

Generally the utility of the MnS balances out the loss from not training in ranger ranks. Most common pattern I've seen lately is to overtrain in spells to get 120/640 by level 40, then let them balance out. A lot of old-school rangers stop at that point anyway, or at least at 130/650. The newer style is to 1x spells to cap and then 1.5-2x.

Yep, I'm old school, with the exception of I grabbed 140 for the use in invasions. I'm at 650/140 at cap. Hasn't seemed to hurt me at all.