Getting past 10

[Prosperanna]

Hey folks, I've come back to the game from a long hiatus and I've got what's probably a very newbieish question. I just hit level 10, and I'm not sure where to go from here in terms of continuing to hunt and level with my empath. So far, I've just had her swinging her sword at rats, but I plan on having her be a caster/healer by the time my first 30 days are up in about two weeks. I know casting at low levels is rough - I certainly don't have the mana for it - so I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I continue swinging my sword at stuff? If so, what's easy for a not-very-strong Empath to hunt? Or should I start casting, and hunt... what?

[GS4Pirate]

As a pirate queen, I have gone two-handed weapon and using a claid. I think most of the scurvy dogs here on players corner would agree that you will have the most success doing the same.

[Prosperanna]

I do find using a weapon to be a lot easier to figure out than spell casting, that's for sure.

[audioserf]

The typical approach is to set your stats for combat and exp absorbtion (so STR, AGI/DEX, LOG) and train physical skills (THW, CM, Armor, lots of PF) and swing a claidhmore for the first 30 days. Shortly before your first 30 run out, set your stats and build to your "real" character. Is it doable without the claidh route? For sure. But if you don't have an RP issue with doing so, the claidh in the first 30 makes your life a lot easier.

[Buckwheet]

I found it is significantly easier now with 1700 to just go as a pure.

[audioserf]

1700 makes being pure easier, but is it better than a claidh? If I'm taking 5 seconds of hard RT I'd rather be likely to kill in a swing or two than plink away for a while.

[Buckwheet]

1700 makes being pure easier, but is it better than a claidh? If I'm taking 5 seconds of hard RT I'd rather be likely to kill in a swing or two than plink away for a while.

Its all situational. Swinging a claid on my halfling empath without the 211/215 spells was abominable. And his offensive DS was horrible. This was also F2P and I found that once I moved into hobs or thraks that I was getting hit fairly often from something that walked in. Also straight out parry sucked balls.

I just am saying that you can sit back and stance g with 1700 and for the most part nothing will get you.

[Vorpodu]

I'd recommend continuing to swing for sure. Empaths have great melee AS. Just keep cranking out bounties, skipping the ones that suck due to low monster spawn rate (like spectral fisherman) or whatever. Plus, being in your first 30 you have the luxury of just changing your skills to fit the situation. Need survival and first aid for a foraging or skinning task? No problem.

[audioserf]

Buck, you make a good point. And if you wanted to do that in your first 30, you could use it to augment 1101/1106. Pump WIS to the max, load up on HP and Empath Base ranks. Smash stuff with 1101/1106, finish off the hunt with the guarded version of 1700.

[Buckwheet]

Buck, you make a good point. And if you wanted to do that in your first 30, you could use it to augment 1101/1106. Pump WIS to the max, load up on HP and Empath Base ranks. Smash stuff with 1101/1106, finish off the hunt with the guarded version of 1700.

That is exactly what I did. Just pay attention to how much mana you have and what I found on a lot of things was 1 1106, then 1 1101 then 1 1700 killed things. Yeah it took ~10 seconds each time, but that was a decent enough rotation. Also you will find that at low levels 1106 gets a really strong TD push down. I run boneme to show how much damage the 1106 did and in many instances 1 1106 would do like 90 damage at low level so instead of that 1101 I used 1700 to finish them off. But just be aware of that TD pushdown because it made heavy armor opponents much more squishy to 1106 but then your 1700/1101 would barely ward them.

[audioserf]

And for sure channel the 1106, even if from guarded. It helps a lot. I still channel 1106/1115 from guarded at 68.

[Fallen]

Some good advice given here already. If you want to continue using your Claidhmore (or whatever you're swinging) past the first 30 days, feel free to do so. There is a fixskill that is going to be given out to all professions after the ELR is finished. The GMs look to be pushing hard to get it done, so expect it out in no more than a month or two.That way, you have a bit more of a cushion in levels before switching to a pure caster if you so choose.

After that one, the next Fixskills won't be available until May, so pick your build carefully from then onward.

[Prosperanna]

And for sure channel the 1106, even if from guarded. It helps a lot. I still channel 1106/1115 from guarded at 68.

Time for the super dumb question - what's the difference between casting and channeling?

I wasn't expecting so many great responses, thank you! It sounds like I have options. Should I be focusing on creatures at the same level as me, or below?

[Androidpk]

https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Channel

[Prosperanna]

I should have guessed to look there - thank you!

[Androidpk]

As for hunting I'd say stick with things a little bit lower than yourself.

[Luftstreitkräfte]

assuming whinebergernimers.. you can do cave gnolls/gnome area until like 8, then just do thraks n mants til 11 or so. by that time you can hunt with 1106

[audioserf]

Lesser orcs/lesser red orcs/greater red orcs (for sure get mass spells when you can for some more DS) is a better progression from a gen rate perspective in my experience. By the time I was onto greaters, I had wracking and was hunting with Boneshatter. 1700 didn't exist then, either, which would have helped a lot.

[Enuch]

another good hunting spot for swinging, with or without spells is Swamp Trolls on the trail to Solhaven (lvl 14). They have a high AS 170-200ish so spells are ideal, but there swing time is roughly 12 seconds or so, even swinging two handed if your RT is low enough you can get two swings in before they can swing again (just requires a little stance dance) and they tend to stun very easily. Just from personal experience. Slightly slower spawn rate, but juice is worth the squeeze for sure.

[Androidpk]

Claids are nice early on but naginatas are even nicer if your AS isn't all that high.

[Prosperanna]

I actually took the advice to try casting using 1700 as filler and I've been having a grand old time. :) And I think I'm all set for when my 30 days run out, after experimenting.