Emeraldwind Chronicle - Development of A War Machine! Part 2

I don't know if anyone really cares about my posts about the War/Mana C spec'd, Item trained mage that I'm working on, but I decided that I'd post every time I hit a big milestone for this character. I can see that there are about 7 or 8 different milestones for this character in her development life cycle. I just hit the second one (and the biggest) tonight.... turning level 16. So I wanted to give you some insight as to what happened between level 14 and 16, where I'm going with this template, and how I think my future will actually pan out:

If you remember, the template started like this:
Str - 60
End - 50
Coord - 10
Quick - 10
Focus - 100
Self - 100

Spec'd - War Magic and Mana Conversion
Trained - Item Magic
Life @ 16, Arcane @ 26, Creature @ 60

As of now, right after turning level 16 and dumping all of my points into Life magic, and any extras into Item, War, and Mana Conversion, I look like this:

Str - 80
End - 73
Coord - 10
Quick - 35
Focus - 135
Self - 135

War Magic - 137
Mana Conversion - 109
Item Magic - 104
Life Magic - 137
Run (yes, very important) - 55

As you can see, saving for two levels of Life magic REALLY paid off. With a level 2 buff, I can come out dropping level 4 protections and possibly debuffs (my trained mage has base 135 Life I do believe, is level 21, and has a Life 3 orb she carries and drops level 4 debuffs all the time). Let me explain some of my stats here and why I made them the way they were during my early development. Strength was risen due to my earlier armor requirements. I've since downsized to things that don't burden me as much (matte coat and some other gear from my trained mage) and it's safe to say that at 70% burden or so, I no longer have to worry about weight issues RIGHT NOW (that doesn't mean later, that's in the present). I will still raise it though, due to peas and other niceties that will ensure the longevity of my hunting experience. Endurance was risen due to the fact that I would be obtaining Life magic and having lots of stamina is nice for Stamina to Mana (more on this soon). Coordination stayed the same (don't need it). Quickness was risen slightly to ensure some quicker escapes. I'll still be working on this overtime, as I hunt faster game. And I did obtain my previous goal of having 135 Focus and Self by level 14. And this worked its way into my skills, as you can see. (I haven't compared other level 16s to myself, but I think that I'm very powerful for my level... give me input on this?). And the numeric values of my skills speak for themselves.

I'll explain my newest goals for this character up until the level of 26 and then I'll explain exactly what I did to get to level 16 and mention some people who greatly helped my getting to level 16 in less than 24 hours. (I'm sorry if this isn't as coherently written as my first Chronicle below... but I'm kind of excited right now).

My first goal, as of tonight, before I go to bed, is to learn all of my level 3s in War, Item, and Life magic. I've been neglecting this and it shows heavily in my spell tabs. No more. I will learn my level 3s (possibly 4s for Life magic, as they aren't that important for War magic right now) and be done with it. When that's accomplished and I head out for some fun times of hunting, I'll be busy pouring points into my Endurance and Stamina. The reason behind this is that I need a large pool of mana to draw from when it comes to Stamina to Mana. My other mage has a VERY large pool to draw from, which is one of her strong points... she's never out of mana. When I have succeed in getting around 133, I will let it stay like that for about 1 level as I'm dumping points into War, Mana Conversion (most important), and Item Magic (second most important) so that their costs are relative to Life Magic's (it's 10k to raise a single point now, whereas the others are about 2k-4k at the most to raise a point). And my single most important goal is to remain outside as much as humanly possible. This will now involve hunting low level Dires creatures (more on this below) such as drudges.

Getting from level 14 to 16 would have been hell if it wasn't for the fine people wanting me to succeed with this template. I'd like to thank Realm of Highland, Vlad Greymist IV, and Dirk Phoenix for the leveling help they gave me. The long haul to 16 would've been tedious without you. And, yes, this template is tedious for the first 16 levels, I can attest to that. That's why level 16 is such a big milestone. No longer do you have to rely on simply Mana Conversion to give you mana for battles, but you now have the added luxury of Life Magic. Increase your damage 2-3x as much as well as draining back and replishing Stamina and Mana, in that order. However, contrary to popular belief, this template doesn't call for Life Magic to be used as a wall monkey job. Instead, it is used in conjunction with War Magic to increase damage that War Magic is capable of, while protecting the War Mage in the heat of battle. (This was Life Magic's original purpose anyway... heh.) From level 14 to 16, we save for this precious skill, so that we can dump about 60+ points (I do believe) into it. This will give us a good base (mine was 137, I'd suspect others to be similar in nature) for us to work with. Hunting the mountains of Qalaba'r for 2 levels, both of which require anywhere from 60k-100k to obtain (I don't have hard numbers in front of me, sorry) can be tedious... especially if we can only kill Obeloth Lugians and Golems, all of which give, at maximum, 2.5k to work with. This is why it's important to know people capable of buffing you, your skills, and vulning, because it's time to move to the Direlands to complete your apprentice training.

I actually went on the Three Towers quest today. I would recommend attending that quest if you're able, for the 12k exp giving skull at the end. I was notified that the timer was online 5 hours, so if you're able to make a couple trips, do it. It will easily lighten your burden on you. Also, since the undead inside come in hordes, you can easily gain another 20k or so by killing things in there alone. Very good experience for this level gaining process, with a 12k exp reward at the end. Can't ask for any better. Other than that, I was in the Teth area fooling with the drudges near. This is a great place that you can use Sixth Sense, so you're able to pick out all the drudges around. I would highly recommend it. With base 137 War, I was able to hit Lurkers, Stalkers, and even Raveners, very well and 80-90% of the time. I also found out that acid works better than fire does on them, so have someone do acid vulns for you. If you hang around that area, you'll be able to achieve your two levels in less than 3 hours (it took me almost all day because I was fooling around with the Three Towers quest and kept dying there). And when you get that magical level of 16, your apprentice training is over, your journeyman training begins, and it's time to situate your new goals.

As I said, I'm now in the dires, near fort Teth (well, actually I got portaled back to Qalaba'r, but I'm going to be going back to the Dires here soon). From here until the magical level of 24-25, or 26 (whichever I deem necessary) I'll be strickly hunting the magical drudge creatures that like to scream like cats, dance, and die by Fire and Acid. They are great experience, they aren't too smart, and they die fast. You can't ask for anything better! (That and the fact that you can drain 78 stamina from a lurker off the first shot... god, that's beautiful!) I wouldn't suggest that you do dungeon hunting (simply from the fact that I detest it myself), but if you must, I'd suggest trying out a Disaster Maze or Dungeon of Corpses type of dungeon, where drudges are plentiful and there might be a few tuskers you can play with. Otherwise, I've been told that the coasts of Dereth in the Dires are very nice drudge capitals, and you'll eventually find a spot where there's even a lifestone nearby so that you can waste them as you deem fit, recall to town when you need to, and recall back to the lifestone. Beautiful!

As stated above, my new goals are to get my Stamina to 133 (actually, I would recommend going to 150, then stopping) and then bumping up my Item, Mana Conversion, and War magic so that the costs coincide with Life Magic's. Since I have 4 levels before level 20, I'm hoping to accomplish the first in two levels, and the secnod in the next two levels. During this time, I will, of course, be raising Focus and Self accordingly (I want them to cost as much as Life Magic as well) which will, incidently, raise my other skills. Isn't life beautiful? From level 20 to 24, I will be focusing on the upkeep of all my skills. My goal for level 24 is to cast my first Level 5 spells, whether they be War or Life magic. When I am able to consistently cast Item Level 5s, I will don a Faran Robe for several levels, before I'm off to get my Exarch plate (I hope to be casting level 6s by then of course!). Level 24 to 26 will be spent accumulating points in the same way as Life magic, for the famed Arcane Lore. With Arcane Lore (and yes, I have finally made my decision, thus Creature comes at level 60) I will be able to equip several nice and usable items that I wouldn't otherwise be able to touch. And the layering and buffs from these items more than make up for the lack of Creature Magic. And that's the next milestone - Arcane Lore. There after is the culmination of my Exarch Plate items, then getting the Plate itself, which leads into other goals and possibilities... but those are to come!

I hope you enjoyed reading. I enjoyed typing. I'm excited about this mage and it's prospects. I look at my friends hunting the Obsidian Plains at level 35-40 and I want to join them badly. And I will. My first milestone has been hit. Now it's time to hit the others! Wish me luck!