Boura Hunter (Fun/easy template for starting on new shards)

[noshroud]

I'm trying a new template that is designed to be cheap, easy, and fun to build from scratch on new shards. Here's the template I'm trying atm;

Magery 110
Eval 115
Necro 100
SS 120 (ideally)
Hiding 30
Stealth 75
Animal Lore 80
Veterinary 90

Start as a Human on the enhanced client for extra initial skill pts and spend them as follows. 50 Taming, 49 necro, 20 Magery, 1 Vet. I spend the initial 1k buying magery up to 40, then the rest on lore and vet. Start the Magery, Necro, Eval, quests in New Haven. These will give you a full Necro spellbook, a blessed spell channeling mage staff, and a blessed ring w/fc1 fcr1. No need to finish the quests right away, just go tame some bouras!

I usually get four, 2 to bond and 2 to hunt with. And I get a mount at the same time. I usually kill some stuff around there to get enough gold to buy some bandages. Then it's off to hunt tsuki wolves. If you isolate these guys they are really easy with 2 lowlands. You can hunt these guys till you get your vet up to 90 and lore to 80 if you want. You can also build those skills while you train your boura against each other. Buy then you'll have a ton of loot, as the wolves drop about 1k and lots of magic gear. If you start a gargoyle with 50 imbuing and 50 tailoring at the same time you can unravel all of this gear and make yourself an lrc suit. You could also pay or trade someone to make one.

Another great thing for new characters is the solen hive quest for powder and the bags and balls along the way. This can easily get you enough cash to commission a nice suit and some jewels. With the LRC suit you're set to train your other skills. I make a macro like this

Cast Invis
pause 500
target self
pause 500
use skill stealth
pause 1000
cast (appropriate necro spell for skill level)
pause 2000-3000

I let med and focus rise and then lower them when I have to I lower them. The last thing I drop is taming.

Ideally you get a couple pair of sweet bouras, but if you need to get them again simple trade 30 hiding for 30 bought taming and jewel up to get some more.

All in all I think this is a fun character to make, though definitely not the most powerful. I typically run around 1000 gold of insurance, so if you do end up dieing it's no biggy. I usually play in Fel I've done the first couple levels of many spawns, but haven't tried too much. I'm sure it has it's limitations. I think it would be helpful to a group.

If anyone wants to start Boura Hunting Guild on any shard I am 100% down

On a side note, I only saw the Highland on the pet calculator chart, but I prefer two lowlands. I can't really tell....but I think they do more damage overall to most things. Anyways, I have one with 565 HP and 435 str. that I think is the best I've gotten so far. What are your experiences with bouras?

 

[[JD]]

do you pop out of stealth with only 30 hiding?

 

[noshroud]

You don't pop out of stealth; however, when invis ends you will be revealed if you have not used the hiding skill to hide permanently. It is very easy to hide while invissed, as no one can see you, but if you failed the hiding check you'll be revealed.

I usually don't need to hide for more then two minutes, and if I do I can usually take the extra second to properly hide (such as when scouting out a champ spawn or something).

While invissed, you have an extremely high probability of hiding while standing next to a house fwiw.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

Would smoke bombs keep you hidden if you had ninjitsu or does smoke bombs have a timer also? I don't have that skill but have been thinking of trying it.

The boura hunter template seems interesting. I might give it a whirl sometime when I am bored.

 

[noshroud]

I'm not certain, Ninjitsu may require a hiding check w/smoke bombs.

I usually have protection on, and am in wraith form. I just cast invis when I need to and walk away.

You could use those skill pts for other things. It is nice and easy to train up that stealth combo. Resisting spells is a consideration, and is easy to train in new haven. You do end up needing another powerscroll that way.

The Stealth part of the template is fun and useful, but not vital to my idea. I think there are lots of cool templates you could build around using bouras. I like how the pack bonus stacks with multiple peoples pets. Tons of HP too. Other kinds of mages can benefit from them. Fighters too, in particular archers I'd say. I've used them with disco and provo on a bard too. Not a lot to lose when you die with that template. I wish I new a faster/easier way to train the barding skills.

 

[[JD]]

fyi, lowland boura can be controlled with human JOAT, so you do not need 80 in lore - total waste. not sure if you could do it with 50 taming and JOAT lore, but its worth a try.

once you find your sweet boura you could prolly just get rid of taming and lore all together

 

[noshroud]

Yes thank you. I actually have the 80 lore so I can res them and heal them more.

You are correct in being able to completely control them with a human JOAT ability, which I why I have no taming on the final template.

Many templates could take advantage of the bouras with JOAT.

 

[noshroud]

I've been res'sing consistently enough with 85 lore, so I'm gonna try that. I'd put the extra points in magery or eval, whichever scroll was easier to get.

I'm also trying dropping stealth and eval for this;

Lore 80
Vet 85
SS 120
Necro 100
Magery 110
Music 120
Disco 120

This requires a few points on jewels, but might be pretty effective and requires little extra gear. I chose disco over provo because it's the tougher monsters that this template has trouble with; spawns and mobs aren't the problem. The original template used the necro spells in combination with magery spells to bring down stuff that's too tuff to kill with the bouras alone instead of a bard skill.

In the first template you have to cast your spells carefully to maximize your damage and mana usage. If you aren't casting the right spells you won't do enough damage to leech enough mana to keep casting spells.

To be successful you can't cast offensive spells till you're low on health and mana and then hope to spam invis, g cure, g heal and slap on bandies too.... You have to keep everyone healthy while doing damage the whole time; pets in particular become weak when they are damaged.

This bard version may end up being easier to play, though longer to train up and more scrolls to buy.