Casting Build

[Airemet]

I feel the right mix between Pal/MnS is going to be critical for post-cap hunting as I think they are making it so you can no longer wear spells beyond your profession’s spell circle.

*Talking to Naijin, apparently, SK items aren’t safe from this rule.

[Sorcasaurus]

Are you running 102 when hunting?

I did, yes.

[Sorcasaurus]

I feel the right mix between Pal/MnS is going to be critical for post-cap hunting as I think they are making it so you can no longer wear spells beyond your profession’s spell circle.

*Talking to Naijin, apparently, SK items aren’t safe from this rule.

Fair point, but until we see what those hunting hold, the rift/scatter is all I can speak to for self spelled only.

The 460 CS clip was 131 paladin ranks, 20 MnS and I was completely fine in the scatter.

[Tumbadoo]

Anyone feel like speculating on why we can 2x spell aim? Might we be getting a bolting spell eventually?

[Orthin]

Anyone feel like speculating on why we can 2x spell aim? Might we be getting a bolting spell eventually?

technically you already have two and they are a powerful combo. Web bolt (with the lore) and fire spirit. My cleric when he had 2x spell aim would group hunt with 111 for bandit tagging and use web bolt in bowels. With the changes to hinderance I could see this being a viable hunting method for someone high level enough to hang with that mana.

The only real question would be even with 2x spell aiming is your bolt AS going to be worth anything?

[Airemet]

technically you already have two and they are a powerful combo. Web bolt (with the lore) and fire spirit. My cleric when he had 2x spell aim would group hunt with 111 for bandit tagging and use web bolt in bowels. With the changes to hinderance I could see this being a viable hunting method for someone high level enough to hang with that mana.

The only real question would be even with 2x spell aiming is your bolt AS going to be worth anything?

Eh, I found bolt spells to be somewhat weak. I mean even the ones who are supposed to be using bolts shy away from them i.e. Wizards.

They should fix bolting at some point imho.

[Orthin]

Eh, I found bolt spells to be somewhat weak. I mean even the ones who are supposed to be using bolts shy away from them i.e. Wizards.

They should fix bolting at some point imho.

I mean one of my biggest concerns bolting was having to be in offensive. For some mobs my 306 was legit compared to 302. Where paladins would have a leg up is yeah they may be in offensive but they are in offensive in full plate and probably a shield/weapon combo or MBP. The bolt AS probably would not be worth it but in terms of getting hit it would be more palatable for a paladin to be caught in offensive versus a pure. That's why I wear brig and take 6-7% hinderance as a Cleric versus wearing something smaller. At least anecdotally I feel like I survive more if I am swept/forced offensive.

[caelric]

The only real question would be even with 2x spell aiming is your bolt AS going to be worth anything?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no, not really, not without a lot of enhancives and outside spells.

[Erous]

I was playing around with this now that I've come back from a hiatus. I haven't specced my capped Dwarf yet, so my Elf gets to be the dummy for this one. At 53 I was able to get the following:

Enough Armor use for plate
SMC 25
Paladin spells +21
CM 1x
2x Blunt and Board
35 MoC
PF 2x
HP 1x
Percept 1x
25 climb and swim

I mean, it's a pretty awesome battle mage type setup. I don't have the balls to hit train on this, but I'll try it on the dwarf. It's limited obviously, but we've always been limited with training early on, so the changes kind of compensate for all that mess to try something mutant. Remember too, 1603 is pretty epic, It's dmg is fairly poor, but additional training in SMC with this makes this + 1615 a beast setup.

EDIT: Wanted to add, that smaller paladin races, IMO have the most potential to be OP later on due to polearm speed. With their dex values, 111 becomes even more of an option but likely not until postcap at some point for 2x Spell Aim...but 1603 and 1615 are begging us to be a melee class with spells. I dunno. There isn't enough diversity in hunting grounds to determine if spell aim and whatnot is worth it, but if you wanna be a badass spiritual magic wielding weapon master nows your chance.

Edit 2: at early cap (8m exp) forget about spell aim. I can't train shit. I had to drop a bunch of stuff to get paladin +21 while maintaining 1x blunt and board and 2x PF for Sunfist and mana. Lores, combat man., Multi opponent all had to come down in order for me to train the expected spell cap for warding. This is with dwarven perfect stats BTW. Biggest hit was to minor spirit. Had to come all the way back down to 120 and drop wall of force to accommodate this build. I'm sure there's some opportunity to balance here with Lores that I frankly haven't spent the time on. I REALLY want to dump the rest of my TPs into SMC to see what 1615 does, but I'm not happy with what I'm seeing. I'm sure you have more flexibility at pure casting with plate if you go this route, but, IMO, it really gimps the class' utility.

[Erous]

Adding a quick note as I went on my first, full spell based hunt today alongside an empath. I had 1 failed cast due to hinderance and used a combination of 1603, 1615 and 1630 throughout the hunt. I remained at must rest through the entirety of the fight then went to go turn in my bounty and dropped to numb much more quickly than I thought I would. It looks like either the exp is somehow absolute dog trash for us using spells as a main source of attack, or, we're simply not capable of dishing out enough damage to fry ourselves properly.