Need some PVM advice please

[Beer_Cayse]

My Paladin is PvM only. His "vitals" are below. I would like to know a few things, but those questions come after the info.

Skills - Cap / Current / Lock
Anatomy - 100.0 / 100.0 / up
Chivalry - 110.0 / 101.2 / down
Focus - 110.0 / 100.0 / locked
Healing - 100.0 / 100.0 / up
Resisting - 100.0 / 93.8 / up
Swordsmanship - 115.0 / 115.0 / up
Tactics - 115.0 / 110.0 / locked

Total current skills: 720

Suit + jewels + weapon
Uncapped: 73-98-80-83-81, so caps at all-70
Suit is Barbed Leather
Weapon is Dragons End (Dragon Slayer, on loan)

Stat buffs
STR - 12
DEX - 0
INT - 4
HP - 0
Stam - 13
Mana - 7

Battle stats
HP - 109
Mana - 49
Stam - 117

Other Buffs
HCI - 11
DI - 102 (60 from sword)
Dmg%/Type - 100% Cold (from sword)
LMC - 6
Ref Phys Dmg - 25
Regens - none
Luck - 335

Here come all the questions ...
What do I need to survive a GD solo? What tactics in battle do I employ ... joust or what? EoO is not needed in this case as damage is capped at the 300%. I do use Consecrate Weapon to stack added cold damage.

Suit mods - what should I add or increase? I am assuming HCI is one. Anything else?

64K gp question ... for any Imbuers out there in the 110+ range ... do you think you can add in what I'd need and what would it cost? I have limited amounts of standard and mining gems, however 700+ residue and decent amount of essence (from unraveling). Also have some gold available if that is also needed.

Okay folks, now is your chance to abuse this noobish one. Thanks!

 

[Basara]

Here come all the questions ...

I do use Consecrate Weapon to stack added cold damage.

With your 100% damage in its worst resist already, you don't need consecrate, either. All Consecrate does convert all damage to 100% of whatever is the target creature's weakest resist - it doesn't actually ADD anything.

On the other hand, Divine Fury does add 10% DI and HCI, at the expense of a penalty to your defense chance.

Suit mods - what should I add or increase? I am assuming HCI is one. Anything else?

HCI, DCI, some mana regen. You'd be much better off replacing Focus with Parry, and using Mana Regen and casting Divine Fury (which refills your stamina), for that kind of pure Paladin build.


Stat block wise, other than the focus/parry swap, you need to get your Stamina up to over 120 max, as your swing speed is based on a formula as follows:

( Current Stamina Remaining + Swing Speed Increase*) / 30 = number of 0.25 second "ticks" of the server clock that your weapon's base speed is increased.

* SSI is just a number now - the "%" is a leftover from the previous method of calculating swing speed. Now, SSI is just a bonus to your stamina number that is only used for calculating swing speed. So, for example, 95 Stamina + SSI 25 = 120 Stamina for calculating speed (-4 ticks)

You are better off keeping STR at around 100. You will need to find some way using equipment to raise your Intelligence without penalizing the other skills (or raise the others with equipment, and take the points saved from real total and move them to INT).

Try for something where (with equipment) you are something like

STR / HP 100 (the point where the two are the same in the formula)
Stamina 120+ (but try to keep Dex an even multiplier of 10 or 20, as that is where the breaks are for healing bandage speed; so Dex 100 and Stamina 120+ would be fine)
INT/Mana 60+ (and get some mana regeneration into your suit).


As for imbuing parts of a suit, one would have to see what is already on each suit piece to see what areas can be improved with a replacement piece of armor.

GD Strategy - untill you add Parry to your skills, Jousting is your only option as a Melee Paladin. With Parry, you can still hit and run, but will be able to stay by it for 2-4 swings before having to back off, from attacks getting through Parry + Breath weapon.

 

[Delbrie]

Just some observations i have made over the years that work well for me. take what you want from them and throw the res out as you see fit.

Drop focus and add bushido (and take advantage of honoring your target). Add mana and stam regen to your suit. Get stamina to 160+. Have dex at 146 so you can get a 4 sec heal (140 min required) and the extra incase you get cursed. Add mana leech, stam leech and life leech to your weapons. Always have a good whirlwind wep in your poack for when you get mobbed (using whirlwing with a high life leech is like having another player x heal you). Add as many stat modifies to your suit as possible. Use high end arties on your suit whenever possible.

My suit is mace and shield reading glasses, jackal collar, storm grip, leggings of bane, cc, ring of vile and resiliant bracer. also use conj trinket and the other tally that is similar but no uindead slayer.

Stay away from artie weps (they are ok if you need a slayer), better to make your own. Pay attention to slayers and their anti (if you ar hunting repond dont use undead slayer as you take 50% mopr damage).

Only use eoo if you are in a similar class of mobs. Decrease chiv to 65-75. increase tactics, resist and wep skill to 120. Bush at 100, healing at 90, anat at 100.

If you have high mana leech you only need about 40-45 mana (and alot of that you can get from mana or stat increases on armor).

Set macros. have close wounds on macro for back up healing. Play around with different weps to get find the one that yields the most damage with fastets swing speed. Remember ssi helps but your ultiamte swing speed is determined by your stamina (thats why having stam regen and stam leech is important).

Pay attention to what monsters are weak to (fire, cold...). Collect a variety of 100% weps to have on hand and slayers. Using specific slayers yields more DI than superslayers.

Carry orange petals, trinsic petals on you at all times. Also have enchanted apples and grapes on you and use them. Enhanced bandages help.

buy a +25 stata scroll.

Increase str to 125 (many times i have survived attacks with 1 hp left) as every hp helps.

Use every armor slot

When in doubt ask for help in game. Hunt with others and watch how they play and see what set up they use.

If it works for you and you like it then stay with it no mateer what others say.

And most importantly, have fun. Wow this is my longest post ever. Dark Angel better read this.

If you need help setting up armor or your template, ask for sampson in game. Take care

 

[Basara]

To counter Delbrie in a couple aspects -

Bushido is fine, but only an archer should take it without parry, and it makes you much more vulnerable to attacks if you use a 1-handed weapon with a shield (you get negative parry chance!). If you want to use 2-handed weapons, consider Bushido & parry in place of Focus and Resist. My only character with Resist is my mage, and I've never missed it on my others.

I consider Chivalry below 80 suicidally low, if you ever plan to cast Enemy of One or Holy Light. The skill seems to fail about 2-3 times what its expected chance of failure should be.

Otherwise his advice is pretty decent, and you can compensate for some skill changes with equipment choice.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Re: Here's what I'm thinking

Based on Basara and Delbrie I **think** this is what I need to do:

Skills: Drop Focus, add Parry (Dupre's Shield for Parry bonus early on?); adjust skills to something like:

Anatomy - 100
Chivalry - 110 (take it to cap)
Healing - 90
Parry - 100
Resist - 80
Swords - 115 (capped; 120 if I can locate PS)
Tactics - 115 (capped; 120 if I can locate PS)
​

Stat/Skill scrolls: I have a better chance of winning the lottery than seeing +25 stat or 120 swords/tactics for a reasonable price. <sigh> I have a few mil (emphasize few) however I might need that for imbuing costs and I CERTAINLY need it for insurance.
If I can locate 120s for Swords/Tacs, then Resist to zero, Healing to 100, swords/tacs to 120 with 70 points left (Bush? <shrug>)

Stats: getSTR/HP to around 100, DEX (Stam) to even boundary 110+. Question: is the formula for HP = INT( ( ( STR + Bonus ) /2 ) +50 )? In other words is the STR bonus from the suit added to raw STR? If so I can easily shift base STR points to DEX for something like this:

STR - 88 (bonus is +12 STR on suit) = ((100/2) + 50) if above is true

With current bonuses (exc STR) this then gets me to 100 HP, 133 Stam, 52 Mana ... if my calcs are correct. Points I drop from STR go to INT and DEX.

Battle Tactics: Use Divine Fury > Consecrate Weapon for stam recovery

Suit: Need more HCI, DCI (for sure), Regen - Mana at least +10? Try for HCI and DCI 80+? Any Imbuers up for a challenge?

Again, my ultimate goal is to be able to solo a GD. I know others have most likely done it, but this is a "personal thing" for me ... RP as well as RL. Call it a life target!

Thanks, guys ...

 

[Dark Angel XXXX]

Well....all of that sounds really great...But, I think when you take your char out to fight, you will adjust your skills even more....Me, personally, don't think chiv needs to be any higher than 85..I took focus on my char to 100 and so far it is working great alot better than zip lol...
Sampson helped me with my char and so far I have yet to kill him lol....(me thinking his weapon is better or he is just a much better player than I am)....
But, seriously, it is all in practice once you have your char template like you want even then I can see you changing template the more you fight.....
Have fun, enjoy the game, and don't be surprised if I see you in fel !!!

P.S. Hehe Sampson, about time you posted on here !!!...It is great to have players that help us trammies improve our skills..Oh, and yes, I read all of the post ........

 

[Beer_Cayse]

I'm positive tweaking will happen ... this character can do well (solo) on dragons (2 decently, 3 with run/heal), balrons, but GDs are a different beastie.

 

[Delbrie]

Well....all of that sounds really great...But, I think when you take your char out to fight, you will adjust your skills even more....Me, personally, don't think chiv needs to be any higher than 85..I took focus on my char to 100 and so far it is working great alot better than zip lol...
Sampson helped me with my char and so far I have yet to kill him lol....(me thinking his weapon is better or he is just a much better player than I am)....
But, seriously, it is all in practice once you have your char template like you want even then I can see you changing template the more you fight.....
Have fun, enjoy the game, and don't be surprised if I see you in fel !!!

P.S. Hehe Sampson, about time you posted on here !!!...It is great to have players that help us trammies improve our skills..Oh, and yes, I read all of the post ........

Just remember when you attack someone (me) you have the right weapon equipped

 

[Delbrie]

I'm positive tweaking will happen ... this character can do well (solo) on dragons (2 decently, 3 with run/heal), balrons, but GDs are a different beastie.

Good luck to you. Just be open to new things, that is the key.

 

[Delbrie]

Also, you may want to post in the warrior forum as there are some good people there that can give you additional ideas.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

<nods> I just thought of something. This character is Human. Would there be an appreciable adjustment difference if he became Elf? Mana +20 might be the kicker.

Ohhh, the possibilities could be interesting!

 

[Delbrie]

remember you can substitue parry with capping out dci and have another 120 skill points to play with. Also 120 anat gives you a damage bonus (unless they changed it). Since damage is tied to tactics (unless they again changed it) it is best to have that skill at 120. 120 weapon skill will determine your accuracy, so higher is better. 120 resist in my opinion is necessary, especially if you want to go against targets like a gd or higher. you really need to get a +25 stat and monopolizes on stat mods of your item. Really try to get dex to 146 as that equals a 4 sec bandage vs 5 sec (and yes that is the difference betweens survival and death). Focus is good, but i just dont use it on my pvm onl chars (only on my pvp/pvm chars). Bushido is powerful and if you use a two handed wep you get the benefit of parry like effects (again allowing you to drop parry as it only gives you a 35% chance to evade and imo that is a lot of skill point investment for little gain). With bush you get the benefit of achieving perfection which dramatically increases you damage. I was not a believer in bush until Dark Angel talked me into it, and now I have it on all my warrior pvm chars.

My skill template (i get extra skill points from items i equip like resiliant bracer gives +15 resist)

Weapon skill (fencing or archery are my choices) 120
Tactics 120
Resist 120
Healing 90-100
Anat 100
Chiv 75-85
Bush 100

on my pvp/pvm char i drop bush and add focus

Hope that helps

 

[KingX]

(all this information is pre SA but it is still relevant on theory)

This build is a little different if your willing to pick up necromancy then it is the thing to pick.

Skills/Stats/Race

Elf - the 20 extra mana is essential
Dex 125 - Swinging fast is the most important thing you will have going for you.
Int 10 - your a elf 30 mana is plenty
Str - everything else, so big hits wont take you out all at once

120 weapon skill -
120 bushido - These if you cant afford 120s just do 115 and bump
120 parry - whatever you feel like, not a big deal.
100 tactics
100 anatomy - If you want resisting spells you can trade this for it
100 necromancy
60 chivalry

Ok now Armor

(in rough order of importance)
Resists 60 in everything at the least with 85+ in fire as that resist is going to have a -25 on it so you need 85 to keep it above 60.
DCI 45 - this is essensial to your survival you will get hit alot less.

the rest of the mods it depends and what you feel you need, play with it a little.
the good mods for armor are - SSI, Stamina, Mana, Lower mana cost, Mana regeneration, Dammage increase, Dex, Str

Weapon

The important thing is you want to swing at cap so the slower the weapon the more SSI you need, this is your most important mod when things hit you your stamina goes down but SSI will help you forever.

Hit Stamina Leach - for the same reasons as SSI, you need to swing at cap this will keep your stamina up.

Hit Mana Leach - Will keep you mana full so you can use more skills allowing you to do more damage to leach more ect.

Final 3 mods you can really do what you like get a slayer, dammage increase, hit lower attack ect

For the weapon itself you will probably want a radiant scimitar to start with so you can learn to keep your stamina up because it already swings fairly fast, you could in theory solo peerless with this weapon so its not only for beginners its important.

Strategy

Ill just lay out the basics the rest ill let you do what you want and figure out what works

Necro - cast vampires embrace, or what ever its called. This will provide your healing almost exclusivity. Keep this on all the time.

Honor your target when your going in for the attack.

Enemy of One if there isn't anything else that will attack you.

A great spell in the Bushido book is Lighting strike you don't need to use this if you would rather do something else but I am a fan of it. A increased chance to hit and a chance at a critical strike (hitting them as if they had no resists) is nothing to scoff at.

Thats all you will need that I can think of right now without making it way more complicated.