Recently capped training advice

[Ricer]

I'm sitting at around 8.3m exp now, and I just finished my 2nd post cap goal (1x CM and then 2x PF)..

I had originally planned on delving into additional spells right away, but at 68 PTP per it puts tedium at an all time high for me.

So I'm looking for the most efficient skill to train in next which doesn't take for fucking ever to get 1 rank in.

I have no problem killing things with a 500 CS; my TD is acceptable with 4 ranks Focus, T3 ensorcelled aug chain, and blues via scrolls when needed; same story for DS, though bandit pushdown nicks me up a bit.

I was thinking about either starting dodge, air lore for the shield size mod, or continuing with brawling ..
At some point I plan on fix skilling to either more spells or a weapon user.

Thanks in advance.

Armor Use..........................|     160      60
  Shield Use.........................|     302     202
  Combat Maneuvers...................|     201     101
  Brawling...........................|     201     101
  Physical Fitness...................|     302     202
  Arcane Symbols.....................|      70      15
  Harness Power......................|     200     100
  Mental Mana Control................|     102      24
  Mental Lore - Manipulation.........|     175      75
  Perception.........................|     201     101
  Climbing...........................|     140      40
  Swimming...........................|     160      60

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

Spell Lists
  Bard...............................|             107

[Jeril]

I'd say to max dodge then your air lore. But I do tell most people to train dodge because I am a horrible evil person like that.

[Ricer]

Thanks asshole! Oh, and Jeril, you should know .. how much would getting 50 additional ranks in armor above the RT req (100 ranks for asg 15) help me comparatively? I have seen the numbers, and am looking for personal opinion. PTPs come eazy.

[Whirlin]

It wouldn't help as much as air lore.

[Jeril]

You'd only get -3 AP for those 40 ranks, that's only 1.5% of your 60 phantom dodge ranks from 1019 back. So, not really worth it as Whirlin said.

[Suppressed Poet]

Definitely air lore.

If you were not a pure bard, I'd say go for armor to 100 ranks. 90 ranks will max you out in spell hinderence with MnE, helpful because ewave is such a cheap and useful crowd disabler, and the extra 10 gives you a reduction to the action penalty for augmented chain (makes it same as brig I believe so slightly more dodge DS and maneuver defence). It's not huge gains in either, but it's a total investment of 120 PTPs to finish.

But...you probably don't need to use 410 and it isn't worth it otherwise.

[Suppressed Poet]

Also, I'd say after you have 50 ranks in air lore, you should change brawl to shield and use a sonic large shield. You should have more DS in most stances if not all of them, and much better against ranged/bolt attacks. That is unless you want to keep brawling as an attack choice, which will nearly always be inferior to spells if it is not magically immune.

[Ricer]

Well my 2x shield use seems to be enough for me ... and I tend to use a tower shield

Thanks for the advice/analysis all

[Tenlaar]

Telepathy for renew/1035/1040 bonuses. Air lore for sonic shield/1035. MMC for 1040. 2x brawl. Those should keep you busy for a while.

[Whirlin]

Thanks asshole! Oh, and Jeril, you should know .. how much would getting 50 additional ranks in armor above the RT req (100 ranks for asg 15) help me comparatively? I have seen the numbers, and am looking for personal opinion. PTPs come eazy.

Aug Chain Natural Penalty is -16. If you get to 50 ranks overtrained for the action penalty (100 ranks), that penalty will decrease to -13

Armor Penalty is halved (rounded up), and used in the evade part of the DS equation. So, for those extra 50 ranks of Armor Use, you'll end up with 1% extra Dodge.
This will cost 500 PTP to accomplish.

Training in Air Lore reduces the size penalty of the shield at 20/50/100 ranks.
Size Size provides 8% dodge bonus.
Air Lore costs 0/8, So you're look at 160 MTPs, 240 MTPs, and 400 MTPs for 8% Dodge.
Even in PTPs, that's 320 PTP, 480 PTP, 800 PTPs, but for 8x the potency.

With minimally trained armor, and untrained sonic shield, Each rank of dodge is only producing .3726 DS in offensive, and .472 in Guarded.
After training off the shield, it will produce .538 in Offensive, and .682 in Guarded.

I'd need to do out your bonus Dodge ranks to figure out if it's better to get Dodge or Air lore first... It'd probably end up 50 Dodge > 100 Air Lore > 100 Dodge... or something weird like that because of maths. But, I just got incredibly unmotivated to continue.