Welcome back! Since you asked for low maintenance ideas for a casual template, I'm gonna toss in my two cents cuz I enjoy the challenge of Minimalism on Siege. For me it is not about fear of losing my gear, it's all about avoiding the grind involved in getting the materials, gold, and time to keep up with a high maintenance lifestyle. This leaves me more time to do the things I actually enjoy in game such as deco and chat
The lowest maintenance of all, in my opinion, is by minimizing your need for equipment and supplies. Instead, rely on skills, your one Siege Blessed item, a thorough grasp of your template, and the ability to pay careful attention so that you know what is going on around you. There are also the small buffs from Trade Deals, luck statue, the Virtue system, etc. Most play styles can benefit from this concept, but some more than others.
My favorite template is:
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving with lvl 6 focus and lvl 3 Mastery active
100 Meditation
100 Resisting Spells
100 Chivalry
100 Hide
80 Stealth
I do recommend 120 Resisting Spells and 80 Chivalry, but in my case keeping them at 100 lets me swap out for other skills much easier. I use very basic LRC, and sometimes 100 luck per piece - shrooms are easy to farm. If I am running on extreme minimalism, I use no gear at all except some clothing for modesty, a blessed event spellbook with SDI and LRC, and a Siege Blessed jewel with SDI and LRC. The LRC is mostly to cut down on my tithing use, but also gives me 1 in 3 chance to cast mage spells. SDI is mostly for Spellweaving. GM Hiding only needs 8 tiles of space to break a target lock and shake a critter off my tail. 100 Resisting Spells = 40 resists across the board; not great but enough to take a direct hit or two from an average monster, dodge poison, and break free from paralyze while I make my escape. Chivalry can heal, cure, remove curse, and rez, among other useful things. And Spellweaving, well that is a power unto itself and it needs no reagents (or LRC). I can solo all the keys for Melisande, Travesty, and Shimmering Effusion without ANY gear or supplies with this template, and all the keys for Dreadhorn except Irk. Irk is very irksome. Have not tried the others yet. It can farm most crafting and imbuing materials, as well as run most quests. I can kill all the guardians of a level 7 t-map in malas or ter mur, farm the Doom Guardian room, and most basic farming spots. It is also usually sufficient to earn loot rights at an EM event for a chance at the drop. Overall very effective template for me.
My second favorite template, used for higher end combat:
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving
100 Meditation
100 Tame
100 Animal Lore
100 Hide
80 Stealth
I usually run with basic LRC for this template because it has no real means of healing or curing myself without magery, and no resists at all. I can and do sometimes go naked tho. If I get poisoned, it is typically a slow, embarrassing death where I try to find a secluded corner to die in and self rez with Spellweaving. I focus more on letting the pet do its thing and staying out of the way. I keep Spellweaving's resurrection spell active on myself and the pet at the same time, so if I am paying attention I can usually get by without veterinary skill. A well scrolled and trained Cu Sidhe needs very little help from me. I have an alt that can pet rez if it comes to it. I use my Siege Bless on a jewel with +15 Taming, +10 Animal Lore, SDI, LRC. Sometimes I swap out the Magery for Chivalry. Most tamers use the taming mastery, but I keep to the Spellweaving mastery for this. The mana shield is more useful to me than the lil boost to the pet.
You won't be soloing the Dark Father with these templates, but they are very effective and extremely low maintenance for casual gaming on Siege. I make use of ship gating, various travel house items, and Siege's extensive travel hub system to get around. And my feet.
As has been mentioned, I would invest in a few soul stones so that you can swap out your craft and combat skills as needed. This allows your combat template to use more skill in a fight, and rely less on equipment and supplies. The most lucrative craft skills are the ones used in making armor and weapons, so tailor, blacksmith, arms lore, and imbue are your best bet. If you just want to be self sustainable, and plan to use fairly basic, low maint gear, all you actually need is imbuing. You can buy NPC gear and beef it up. Mystic with Imbuing is great for PvM and then you can get soul stones later for other crafts.
