Returned for a bit, skills advice

[undernolights]

Hello. I am just back after a while away again, and find myself dying repeatedly while hunting. I am level 86 and mainly hunting in the Ithzir area of OTF. This has been a problem on and off my whole tenure at this character, in part because I didn't pay attention to starts early on. Anyway, I gain all of my experience hunting and bounty tasks. I don't heal very often. Any ideas about things to tweak to help my defense when hunting? I generally boneshatter when I hunt, I don't use too much else at this point so open to other ideas. Here's a list of my skills.

Thanks!

(at level 86), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 130 35
Physical Fitness...................| 274 174
Arcane Symbols.....................| 130 35
Magic Item Use.....................| 190 90
Harness Power......................| 232 132
Spirit Mana Control................| 188 88
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 152 52
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 152 52
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 220 120
Survival...........................| 120 30
Perception.........................| 186 86
Climbing...........................| 130 35
Swimming...........................| 140 40
First Aid..........................| 186 86

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 40

Spell Lists
Empath.............................| 115

[Zoeybeth]

I fine tuned my empath for being a pure hunter with group hunting capabilities. She's 83 and hunting in OTF as well. She rarely dies now and usually only if I'm being lazy. Two questions, what armor are you in and what society? First off, most importantly is getting that Physical Fitness to 3x. It makes an obscene difference. Your Harness Power should be at 1x if you're struggling with points for 3x PF. That's a lot of points wasted to only get 1 Mana per rank. With bone shatter being so cheap and our Mana recovery in societies you're putting stress on yourself by doing more than 1x. Also you're wasting a few points in empath circle by not staying at +21. I know the temptation to beef up our spell circle is great but it's really best left till after cap since you're already so close.

[undernolights]

Thanks for the info! I am in brig and CoL. I'm going to tweak the PF and HP and I'll look at the spells too.

[Ricer]

I'll offer a different point of view.

You're using a shit ton of TP's on lores. I would drop that down to 1x and switch to Telepathy for 1117/1120. I would use those points (and the points from dropping HP to level, and armor use to 8) to add more spells. I don't think level+21 is enough, and you do get great benefits from continuing to over train to 60 over level (0.5 CS per rank).

Not worrying about spells not hitting due to armor hindrance or creature warding is nice for a pure CS caster. Disable them before they can disable you.

[audioserf]

I agree with Ricer. You know what's a good defense? Never missing a cast at like-level or even 5-10 over. Max CS all the way, imo.

[Soulance]

Might want to hunt the Aquaducts a bit longer before going after the Ithzir. The gremlocks will garrote you which isn't fun, but they only steal coins and gems. Ithzir take whatever they want!

[Zoeybeth]

I agree there is no one wrong way for gaining CS with your personal preferences. I do see that you picked up Blessings lore which is really good if you are GoS instead of CoL and honestly that is what I recommend above anything else. If you're wracking while hunting you've lost that spirit and it lowers your defense. Instead you should be using your wasted resource with stamina. Because of our high PF our stamina recovery is increased and Sigil of Power converts stamina to Mana. If you have 65 Blessings lore, anytime you cast adrenal surge you get full stamina back. (5 min cooldown so after that first muscle pop you don't want to blow all your stamina again but can still use Sigil of Power.) CoL was for the little puffs but now that you're playing with the big boys it's time to become a guardian. In order.. GoS>Voln>CoL.