High Level Wizard Guide?

[ctcassiel]

I'm fairly new to playing Gemstone, I started late last year.

I have acquired a high-ish level wizard (mid 90s) that I am having trouble hunting.

I have reviewed the Comprehensive Wizard Guide on the wiki but I don't have a clear picture of what late game builds look like-- does one exist?

Other than being able to gain XP through hunting, I'd also like to be able to enchant. Here are my current skills, I'm not sure where I've gone wrong:

Armor Use - 15
Physical Fitness - 45
Arcane Symbols - 90
Magic Item Use - 181
Harness Power - 192
Spell Aiming - 192
Mana Control: Elemental - 288
Major Elemental - 40
Minor Elemental - 35
Wizard Base - 115
Elemental Lore - Fire - 10
Elemental Lore - Air - 10
Climbing - 50
Swimming - 75
Perception - 45

Virtually everything in my level range is instakilling me, except for creatures 8 levels below me.

What does a good Wizard's skill goals look like at this level?

[Tgo01]

You using a runestaff I take it?

You'll want to keep physical fitness maxed out.
Keeping perception at 1x is a good idea.
If you need some extra training points you could probably dial down harness power a bit. Same goes for elemental mana control, it helps a lot with enchanting, but if you can't finish a hunt then it's gonna be difficult to max out your juice every week anyways.
If you can then keeping combat maneuvers maxed out is a good idea as well. It helps a lot in defending against critters' attacks and also the CMAN skills you can learn can also help a bit.
You'll probably want your spells closer to 2.5x.

What armor are you wearing?

[Methais]

I'm fairly new to playing Gemstone, I started late last year.

I have acquired a high-ish level wizard (mid 90s) that I am having trouble hunting.

I have reviewed the Comprehensive Wizard Guide on the wiki but I don't have a clear picture of what late game builds look like-- does one exist?

Other than being able to gain XP through hunting, I'd also like to be able to enchant. Here are my current skills, I'm not sure where I've gone wrong:

Armor Use - 15
Physical Fitness - 45
Arcane Symbols - 90
Magic Item Use - 181
Harness Power - 192
Spell Aiming - 192
Mana Control: Elemental - 288
Major Elemental - 40
Minor Elemental - 35
Wizard Base - 115
Elemental Lore - Fire - 10
Elemental Lore - Air - 10
Climbing - 50
Swimming - 75
Perception - 45

Virtually everything in my level range is instakilling me, except for creatures 8 levels below me.

What does a good Wizard's skill goals look like at this level?

Where are you hunting? And what's your typical spell rotation?

[ctcassiel]

You using a runestaff I take it?

A crook, but yes

You'll want to keep physical fitness maxed out.

You mean 1x? Of my current skills, what is over leveled? i.e. What do I sacrifice to get there?

Keeping perception at 1x is a good idea.

Of my current skills, what is over leveled? i.e. What do I sacrifice to get there?

If you need some extra training points you could probably dial down harness power a bit. Same goes for elemental mana control, it helps a lot with enchanting, but if you can't finish a hunt then it's gonna be difficult to max out your juice every week anyways.

I have 0 extra training points right now. When you say dial down HP and EMC, do you mean to say, 1.5x and 2x respectively or not that conservative?

[QUOTE=Tgo01;2304271]
If you can then keeping combat maneuvers maxed out is a good idea as well. It helps a lot in defending against critters' attacks and also the CMAN skills you can learn can also help a bit.

What combat maneuvers do you recommend?

You'll probably want your spells closer to 2.5x.

The comprehensive wizard guide suggests:

"100 Major, 75-78 Minor, rest in Wizard"

Which at my level (95) leaves 62 ranks of Wizard base-- is this correct? Why does the comprehensive guide suggest Major Elemental at 100 anyway?

That said, the previous owner clearly was prioritizing Wizard base, presumably for enchanting? If I do go 2.5x, should all the rest of the points go into Wizard base or is there value in upping Major/Minor?

What armor are you wearing?

spiked golvern-reinforced mottled thrak hide leathers

[ctcassiel]

Where are you hunting? And what's your typical spell rotation?

Gremlocks in Ta'Illistim, I'm using huntpro which is choosing earthen fury (917) and minor water (903) at the moment.

[Tgo01]

Of my current skills, what is over leveled? i.e. What do I sacrifice to get there?

For physical fitness I would just keep it maxed at all times.

I think you could probably reduce elemental mana control down to 1x. It helps with a few spells but for the most part it is for offensive aspects and you could use some more defensive skills. You can focus on upping elemental mana control after you cap.

Harness power you could also probably get away with 1xing, maybe 1.5xing.

As for CMANs, I prefer the passive abilities because I'm lazy, plus pures don't have a whole lot of choices anyways.

Get 5 ranks of cunning defense for the extra defense against cmans, and 5 ranks of combat movement for some extra DS.

Not sure why the guide recommends 100 ranks in major elemental. I'm sure there is a reason for it though.

[Realk]

the reason for it is 513.. either way i'd trade MIU and HP for more spell ranks in both the 400's and the 500's because that's hurting your bolt and your defenses.. what good is 400 mana if you are dead. and also getting to 1x pf..

[Realk]

also gremlocks are under you.. but getting 505 to work as an airbolt requires 20 air... it's a knockdown pretty much all the time. and it's a great starter.

[kutter]

It might be simpler if someone just shows what a typical build should look like, full disclosure my pure wizard is capped so somethings will look higher than you can get right now:

at level 100), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 10 2
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Arcane Symbols.....................| 272 172
Magic Item Use.....................| 271 171
Spell Aiming.......................| 310 210
Harness Power......................| 225 125
Elemental Mana Control.............| 302 202
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 90 20
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 111 27
Perception.........................| 241 141
Climbing...........................| 151 51
Swimming...........................| 151 51

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 102

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 76

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 125

So as far as I trained him before cap, it was 1X in PF, AS, MIU, HP EMC, Perception and Climb/Swim, with my priority on climb to about 30 then mixing climb and swim since there are more tough climb than swim areas. You need to 2X in spell aim until maxed. As for spells I was about 2.5X if I recall with focus on minor elemental till 75 for the AS.

Since something like 25 trains his primary hunting spell is minor water/steam. I open at times with earthen fury or major e-wave, and if I am not hunting in Nelemar then sometime use 518. As fore lores, get enough to use minor steam, then opinions vary. Air is good for disk, earth is good for defense although you should not be getting hit that much, maneuvered yes, but out and out hits, no. Do you have macros setup to go offensive/cast/go defensive? If not you need them.

Ok, need more coffee before I can think this hard anymore.

[kutter]

Oh, before I go here is one other thing just for fun for you:

(at level 100), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 5 1
Armor Use..........................| 30 6
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Brawling...........................| 223 123
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 5 1
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Arcane Symbols.....................| 147 47
Magic Item Use.....................| 195 95
Harness Power......................| 204 104
Elemental Mana Control.............| 209 109
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 120 30
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 185 85
Perception.........................| 210 110
Climbing...........................| 151 51
Swimming...........................| 150 50

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 77

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 76

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 94

This is my brawling wizard build. I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS. It makes ice skating up hill seem a simple thing, but I have a really hard head. He has been a brawler since day one, I went through a LOT of deeds. I only list it so you can see that unconventional builds are clearly possible.