Postcap Training: Defensive Goals (PURE BARD)

[Maerit]

Thanks, as mentioned though I prefer Runestaff for RP reasons. Is the defensive bonus with shield brawl massive compared to runestaff at capped out skills? Would love to keep my runestaff but if its that big of a difference I may have to consider it.

1. No disarm to worry about (though sonic RS is also immune, but not immune to SoS snake maneuver)
2. Shields do help vs specific physical maneuvers and SMR defense
3. You can block more attacks with a shield than with a rune staff
4. Better DS in general all around for 1/4 the TPs since you will never have the lore, spell ranks, or mana controls of a pure.
5. You gain offense options vs magic immune targets (UCS them)

Sonic runestaves are awesome, you can still use one with a shield too, but at some DS loss.

[nocturnix]

That is indeed alot of benefits but my character is pure for RP reasons mostly. So don't want to go down physical path too much. It might be a reasonable post-cap target though to see if i can keep my CS maxed and still do shield+brawl enough to get the defens.

[Fortybox]

Hi all. I'm kind of all over-the-place in my postcap training and have not really had much of a focus yet.

I started out getting a bit of ascension +AUR to work towards full CS cap (min/maxing player here). However, I realized I am still dying a fair amount (much more than my wizard).

SO I was wondering on suggestions of the best defensive skills to work towards capping, or like what a good amount/goal would be for certain defensive skills. Do I focus on maxing out my DS? Or do I focus on defending against maneuvers? Maybe there is a healthy middle ground to start working towards? I am a runestaff user (for style points mainly), so perhaps I should check out the DS formula for runestaves again and see if I am at max DS.

Armor Use..........................| 165 65
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 5 1
Physical Fitness...................| 200 100
Dodging............................| 166 66
Arcane Symbols.....................| 5 1
Magic Item Use.....................| 200 100
Harness Power......................| 200 100
Elemental Mana Control.............| 86 19
Mental Mana Control................| 200 100
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 175 75
Perception.........................| 200 100
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 170 70


Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 53


Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 121


Current skills. I wear aug chain and use a 6x nervestaff currently.

What skills should i focus on so i die less? Mostly get hit by maneuvers and can still get warded in nelemar. with self + spirit spells. random implosions get me alot, but then again, they get my wizard too who has insane self-spelled DS.

Cheers.

Get rid of the dodge and do shield use.

You don't need all that mental mana control or magic use skills. Here's my 9m pure bard for reference:

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Shield Use.........................| 302 202
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Harness Power......................| 201 101
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 175 75
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 175 75
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 108 26
Perception.........................| 201 101
Climbing...........................| 150 50
Swimming...........................| 201 101

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 75

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 117

[vantho]

You can go open hand brawl with a neat sonic shield alter to keep more of a magical / pure vibe if you don't want to be be lugging around the sword and board, unless it's the runestaff specifically that was the draw.

Keeping 121 bard ranks is nice, but honestly it's a bit of a luxury. You could drop those back a bit and still rank 3 crit every time you hit with 1030. Build up some defensive skills and then bring bard ranks back up a little later.

[nocturnix]

Yeah, i'm a sucker for maxing my CS have near max Aura, just missing some more ascension.

The staff look is the draw for me, if only i could alter my sonic shield into a staff ;-)