Postcap Training: Defensive Goals (PURE BARD)

[nocturnix]

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.

[Tgo01]

If you're dying to CMANs then you would want to get your Combat Maneuvers skill maxed out, or at least 1x it.

If you're dying to skills that fall under the SMR system (maneuvers that aren't listed under the CMAN skill system) then the most important skill you want is physical fitness so you should 2x in that.

If you're dying to maneuvers that use the new SMRv2 system then dodging, Combat Maneuvers, perception, and physical fitness all help by an equal amount so train in any of them.

I always max out physical fitness first because that helps the most with SMR attacks and helps equally for SMRv2 attacks, then I max out perception because it's generally a cheap skill to train in and helps out with SMR and SMRv2 attacks. As a bard you can 2x in physical fitness or perception cheaper than you can 1x in Combat Maneuvers.

But if standard CMANs are what is killing you (like shield bash) then 1x in Combat Maneuvers first and get 5 ranks in cunning defense to see if that helps. If they're still a problem then max out Combat Maneuvers. Also since you said you still get warded if you get some CMAN points you can also put 5 ranks into combat focus which would give you another +10 generic TD, not much but every bit helps, and it's passive just like cunning defense so you don't have to worry about using it to make sure it's active or anything.

[Tgo01]

Also I just realized you only have 569 magical ranks, typically you want at least 8 ranks * your level with 12 ranks being even better, so you should have between 800 and 1200 magical ranks if you're using a runestaff. More magical ranks will give you more DS and also allows you to parry attacks more which can be really handy for deflecting ranged attacks because I don't think normal weapons can parry ranged attacks.

But if you aren't typically dying to AS/DS based attacks you can probably put this training on hold for a while.

[dzulthu]

You only need 50 Armor ranks to train off the penalty for augmented chain. There's a benefit to effectively move one AsG down at each 50 rank break point after that (i.e., you'd want to go to 100 directly once you have the TPs for it).

Also, if you drop 20 bard songs and put it in MnE, you get +10 DS and +10 Elemental TD and also get a minor boost to your Bard CS (+0.83 per rank from the extra spell plus 425 bonus, vs losing -0.75 CS from the spell song drop).

[dzulthu]

The runestaff thing is also probably not going to work until you are 2x (maybe closer to 3x) cap. I'd drop MMC to 25, take EMC to 25, drop MIU, and sink the excess into 2x weapon and 1x shield. And then work on taking PF to 2x, shield to 2x, dodge to 1x, and perception to 2x, in some order.

[nocturnix]

All really good tips, now i have alot of thinking and decisions to do. I'd rather not drop the bard ranks due to the bonus to CS. So i might consider to pick up more MNE next, then PF and Percep. Have to consider the order in which I do this stuff.

Right now i feel a bit like a glass cannon, i hope with training I can feel a little tougher especially considering I am wearing heavier armor (10x aug HCP) than my wizard (9x fulls HCP). He feels like a damn tank.

[nocturnix]

10 TD does sound nice, but for how many TPs?

An ethereal triton sentry points an ethereal, clawed finger toward you!
CS: +436 - TD: +425 + CvA: -24 + d100: +99 - -5 == +91
Warded off!

(WITH blues)

[Tgo01]

10 TD does sound nice, but for how many TPs?

An ethereal triton sentry points an ethereal, clawed finger toward you!
CS: +436 - TD: +425 + CvA: -24 + d100: +99 - -5 == +91
Warded off!

(WITH blues)

Combat focus would take 45 CMAN points to get rank 5.

If you get another 24 ranks of MnE spells you could get an extra +12 DS and +12 Elemental TD/+6 Spirit TD, but that would take about twice as many training points to get compared to 45 ranks of CMAN.

[nocturnix]

Hmm. so cheapest route to TD is the cman. HOwever, i get DS with MnE...is that spell DS or runestaff magic ranks DS as well?

[Tgo01]

Hmm. so cheapest route to TD is the cman. HOwever, i get DS with MnE...is that spell DS or runestaff magic ranks DS as well?

That's just the bonus from 430, another 22 magical ranks wouldn't do much for runestaff DS but it would give some points.

Also 22 MnE ranks would max out 425 which would give you another 11 CS.