Advice for mana-poor early years

[flatlinez]

Hey all. I'm at level 11 and finding that it's pretty tough to hunt at level. Mana is hard to come by and so I can usually get to 50% (clear) before running out of mana. Then I go to a node to wait for some mana, and drop to 25%, then repeat the process without really going past 50% clear.

Is there something I am missing, or is this typical? Is it really ineffective to only hunt to 50%, without frying? If so, just how ineffective?

[Tgo01]

Running out of mana is typical at lower levels. Either swing a weapon for your first 30 days, invest in some wands, or deal with it :p

You'll level slower but it's not the end of the world.

If you're in Landing or Icemule I can start saving my wands for you if you want, I probably find dozens a day.

[Allereli]

Hey all. I'm at level 11 and finding that it's pretty tough to hunt at level. Mana is hard to come by and so I can usually get to 50% (clear) before running out of mana. Then I go to a node to wait for some mana, and drop to 25%, then repeat the process without really going past 50% clear.

Is there something I am missing, or is this typical? Is it really ineffective to only hunt to 50%, without frying? If so, just how ineffective?

it's very typical. using wands is very good advice. train in spell aim to use wizard wands

[flatlinez]

Hmm okay good to know. Just wanted to compare notes and make sure I'm not doing something wrong, and that I'm not wasting my time by not frying. I'm still able to fry while healing, so maybe that's my calling for now. I've got a bunch of wands saved up actually, it just feels like I shouldn't have to rely on them.

[Allereli]

that's pretty much the way it is for pures in the early going

[Alashir]

20-25 is a great time to go pure. If you're using CS based spells you will have mastered COL and can wrack by then effectively doubling your manas. Before then is recommend swinging and taking advantage of your first 30 days

[Jeril]

If you are within your 30 days, max WIS, learn up to 107/204, 2x HP, 2x PF, climb/swim as needed, which depending on where you are hunting could be 0, and dump the rest of your tps into empath spell ranks.

Turn flag channelincant on. Find a creature with bones, and preferably with no armor, wait for creature to attack you, put runestaff away, go offensive and then incant 1106, go defensive as needed. If you get enough outside spells you can skip it entirely.

Join a society, col is great for early levels because wracking doubles your mana pool, the others can be more useful later. Voln tends to be easier to master the higher level you are, while GoS can be more difficult. But choose which one you join more based on the RP you want for your character.

I forget what I hunted with my empath at your level, werebears on the VO trail would be easy not sure what else. Once you get a little bit higher, large ogres, fire cats, and fire rats. That is if you are around that area.

Do bounties, or at least try them and find out what is easy for you to hunt and what isn't. Do all the bounties you can even if it may take you a few hunts to complete one.

You could swing a weapon as others have suggested but after having done both, I liked casting better. You can collect all the loot you want without having to worry about rt, it is always 3 seconds and regaining mana is simple enough just eat bread and meditate.

[Androidpk]

1. Is there really any need for climb/swim in your first 30 days?

2. Empaths can meditate?

[Jeril]

1. Is there really any need for climb/swim in your first 30 days?

2. Empaths can meditate?

1. Some areas do require a few ranks of it, depends on where exactly you are hunting.

2. Yes, they can, I can't say how long they've had it, or if they always had it though.

[Velfi]

I'd recommend going THW for your 30 days and do the claid route. It's not necessarily the most exciting, but you never really have to wait on mana to hunt, and what mana you do have you can use on healing (if needed). You should be a high enough level by the end of your 30 days to then fixskill/stat into a pure empath if you want.

I'd say stay with weapons though. It's served me well from a baby empath to post-cap and gives a lot of flexibility in how/where/what you hunt. I started off from this: http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Tsalim%27s_two-handed_empath_guide_%28saved_post%29.

Ultimately, do whatever style you enjoy the most.

[Androidpk]

Makes me wonder even more why monks can't meditate for benefit.

[Jeril]

Makes me wonder even more why monks can't meditate for benefit.

Because nearly everyone hates monks, duh.

[Velfi]

Makes me wonder even more why monks can't meditate for benefit.

No one wants to win this prestigious award.

http://i.imgur.com/z5VNLf8.jpg

[Androidpk]

Because nearly everyone hates monks, duh.

I'm a 1%'er, sweet!

[Demgar]

I'm just wrapping up my 30 days on a wizard, so this is fresh for me. I disregarded the conventional wisdom to just grab a big sword and stick the pointy end in stuff for the first month. I joined GoS, and don't have access to the mana sigils yet (close now though!); it's definitely doable without wracking. Might have made things a bit harder for myself, but it worked for my character concept and I got to level 16 on a fairly casual schedule while also using the xxx on my main. Mana management was difficult, but that was part of the fun for me.

A few things that helped me with the mana struggle. I pulled all my ranks of tertiary skills (climb/swim/FA/etc) and pumped up my Harness Power. I also dumped all of my interlevel points into HP as I gained them, and pulled them back to invest in spell ranks, spell aim etc when I leveled. Climbing or FA/Surv as needed to gain access to hunting areas or skins bounties.

You get +1mana/pulse for each 10 ranks in spirit/elem mana control. Training ahead to grab that benefit as soon as you can is totally worth it, even if you have to miss a spell rank in your off-circle. For example, if you are 1xing mana control, go ahead and grab that 10th rank at level 6-7, and then skip it until your levels catch up.

Save up some silvers for a HP/mana regen enhancive. Can't understate how useful this can be. It should be very high on your gear priority.

Know where the closest earth node is, and watch your pulse timer. Most hunting areas have an earthnode in the vicinity. Find it and head there when your pulse timer is <15secs and you'll get a full node pulse and be able to get directly back into the fray. In my case, I got most of my experience warcamping and could chain cast and go through my entire mana pool and gain 3-4 experience saturation tiers in between pulses.

Buff when you're saturated. Always invest your saturated mana pulses into stacking buff spell durations up to the max. You don't want to have to have your spells drop and spend your entire mana pool buffing when you're muddled and ready to head back out.

[Versin]

Bounties are a great way around mana limits. My empath is my favorite bounty hunter for their great foraging bonus and skinning ability, plus minor sanct. Get a haste imbed and go nuts. Save your gems. Use calm for escorts.

COL will double your mana pool if you use CS-based spells.

Double harness power until you no longer worry about mana.





Do bounties, or at least try them and find out what is easy for you to hunt and what isn't. Do all the bounties you can even if it may take you a few hunts to complete one.