What now? (Advice on a template gone astray)

[zorrah]

So I had decided to base my pally's template on one I'd found here.. or so I thought. Turns out that I had two different templates bookmarked and I kept rechecking my progress against two different templates. It should be quite obvious by now that I am a very casual player.. I began playing during beta, and played off and on ever since. My most recent return has left me thoroughly confused and wholly lost as to where to turn next. This char will be used solely for PvM purposes.

My current template:
105/105 Anatomy
65.9 (75.9)/100 Chivalry
100/100 Focus
83/100 Healing
83.2/100 Parry
73.4/100 Resisting Spells
102.5 (110)/110 Swordsmanship
97 (110)/110 Tactics

All skills in parentheses are with jewelry/gear.

My questions are these:

1. It seems that most popular templates include Bushido. Is this a necessary skill when doing high level encounters, esp. if solo?

2. In PvM, how necessary is Resisting Spells?

3. Am I better off dropping focus to be able to get some of my other skills to 100/120?

4. Is archery a good addition to this template? At the moment I am totally screwed in situations where ranged combat is necessary/wise.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. I'm coming from the days of silver katanas of power and this shtuff is completely backwards/insane to me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Farsight]

1. While it's very nice to have, bushido is not mandatory.

2. If you're fighting creatures with necromancy, then resist spells is vital thanks to one spell, blood oath. Nine out of every ten of my deaths fighting undead comes from a poorly timed blood oath when I couldn't tab out/run away fast enough. (I have no resist on my samurai or archer) In PvM, maxxing out your resist isn't required. 80-90 should be enough to make all the difference.

3. Absolutely, but you'll need a stamina and mana leeching weapon to compensate. My swordsman uses a mana leeching axe most of the time and soul seeker (mana/stamina/life leeches) against repond monsters like cyclopses and titans. My archer has meditation in place of your focus.

4. Archery does have its advantages. The disadvantage of archery is that obtaining arrows and bolts can get expensive or time consuming. Also in areas where you lack the room to move (The Citadel, Deceit), archery can also be a disadvantage. Which skill you pick depends on how you like to play. Do you like getting down and dirty with the monsters or plucking at them from a safe distance?

 

[Kellgory]

I normally don't have focus or resist on my PVM chars. You can use trap boxes to break para spells, chiv to remove curses, apples for the blood oath, and petals for poison. I also usually cap my chiv at 65-70. I can handle the failure rate for EOO, and I don't go around holy light spamming or use Noble Sacrifice since I have healing for rezzes.

Bushido is nice, but if you put it on, then ditch the shield or it negates the parry. If you like running around with a two handed weap or a one handed weap and like to chug pots and don't like to disarm the shield every time, then add bushido. In my opinion, I would replace focus with Bushido, and try to get swords to 120. Then again when SA gets released, there may be a new must have skill to try to fit into your template.

 

[GFY]

Then again when SA gets released, there may be a new must have skill to try to fit into your template.

GOOD GOD I hope not!

 

[Connor_Graham]

Then again when SA gets released, there may be a new must have skill to try to fit into your template.

GOOD GOD I hope not!

Lord help us if there is. I couldn't squeeze anything else into my templates with a king sized shoe horn. I'd have to start swapping skills on my archer out for that.

 

[zorrah]

Thanks to everyone for excellent and helpful responses. I haven't had much dungeon experience due to mostly levelling this char up on Magincia (it's great for training a toon 90+ right now!). Your information and insight is exactly what I was looking for. I think I will ditch focus for bushido, if only just to try it out.

Thanks again!

 

[Wetherlocke]

Lord help us if there is. I couldn't squeeze anything else into my templates with a king sized shoe horn. I'd have to start swapping skills on my archer out for that.

Jeez... I've actually stopped working on a few of my combat characters just because I don't know how they'll have to change with SA. It seems like every expansion makes one or more characters of mine completely worthless.