Capped Pure build advice

[Khelbaen]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice on my build at cap (7.6 mil xp)

I do very well in Ithzir, but the banditos tend to take me out with their maneuvers and subsequent ambushes. I was thinking of losing the telepathy, air (sonic runestaff flares nice, but not necessary to hunt), MIU and AS (dont use scrolls or statues much if ever) ranks along with about 5 minor elemental to fully train out CM then get to about level 3 in the bandit CM's for extra protection.

or

I do the same as above, but lose 12-15ish minor elemental to go 2x shield and 1x brawling.

I think i can still hunt well with the CS drop associated with either path...does one seem more intelligent for survival purposes against those cursed bandits?

current skills:

Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Dodging............................| 201 101
Arcane Symbols.....................| 111 27
Magic Item Use.....................| 111 27
Harness Power......................| 200 100
Mental Mana Control................| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 122 31
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 175 75
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 82 18
Perception.........................| 302 202
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 150 50

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 50

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 101

thoughts?

[Donquix]

if you switch to shield you'll still probably want the air lore, the thing that makes sonic shield so great is the size reduction. using a tower shield but with small shield EBP/DS penalties is pretty good. turns out. 20 ranks is the first breakpoint so you could drop down to that and at least sing a medium shield with small shield hindrance.

[Ricer]

CM, dodge, 2x perception, extra lores, and MIU/AS are much cheaper to train in than spells. I would probably go heavy on spells and 2x shield / 1x brawl for a recently capped pure bard fixskill, and then work towards improving the cheaper skills. Maybe avoid bandits for a million exp. Just something to consider.

[Zarston]

If you want to win against bandits alone, you want to drop ranks of dodging/AS/MIU/Air Lore (even bring perception down to 1x if you need to) to pick up 2x shield, pick up either 10 or 25 ranks of Multi Opponent Combat (You'll see a big difference in solo endurance even with 10 ranks), and the rest of your free points into Combat Maneuvers (Maximum 1x, you can get away with less) for defensive ranks of bandit CMANs (Only do 2-3 ranks of each, since it is better to have a spread than specialize if you're training defensively).

Just in general, solo runestaves don't work so hot for bards because of training costs, especially when it's so easy to just pick up an ensorcelled shield for not only DS but also CvA.