I have read in several spots about how it becomes increasingly hard for warrior mages to learn TM because of defense terts and secondary. Granted first off I am not a warrior mage but I would like to know when this starts becoming an issue since as another magic prime guild I am goin to have to deal with it sooner or later. Does this become a major factor at 300 ranks of TM, 400 or 500 ect? I am curious because I want to know what to prepare for. As a cleric I still hold myself to the warrior mage TM requirement of at least 4 ranks per circle. Granted in my guild we don't have to train it but many of us do. I know my skills are no where near most warrior mages but where does defenses really begin to hinder TM learning? I figure before i get to that point i can invest in a couple months in backtraining. I have the same skill set up you folks do so I figure when it becomes a major issue for you folks, I can probably deduct 20 or 30 ranks from it and that is where I will have problems with it also. Not trying to start back up the whole major defense thing but wandering when it will become a factor for me.


Just A Cleric

>I still hold myself to the warrior mage TM requirement of at least 4 ranks per circle.

Our TM req is a little heftier than 4 ranks per circle. At higher circles especially.

Player of Tessaa

<<Our TM req is a little heftier than 4 ranks per circle. At higher circles especially.

Player of Tessaa>>

A little off-topic but out of curiosity when does it change? 30th circle?

<<General magic and the occasional lore are the bottle necks for me, not TM.

This is true for several other high circle mages as well.

Trebber

Having been a warrior mage in prime... and experiencing this defense gap before, I was ready when I came to plat and began training. For starters I took up lockpicking and disarm traps. This let me run into goblins and kill a few (locking my defenses), and then gave them time to drain while I picked away. Additionally I picked up shield and Light Crossbow. Shield is a good skill to have especially in multi opponent situations. Using a shield with LX continues to work evasion and armors and MO. You could substitute brawling in for light crossbow and just do a circle bob weave combo with 2 or 3 baddies on you also. Then you'd lock brawling and the others all at once. Finally, train multiple weapons. Right now I have 2 primary weapons of equal ranks, and 2 secondary weapons (10 ranks lower than the first). It takes about 20% longer hunting per weapon to get it MLd, and this equates to less time spent training TM and more time letting defenses rank up while learning a variety of weapons.

There is no easy way around it. We need defenses to survive, and they take a while to train. The trick is to make learning the defenses seamless in your normal training routine. This keeps things interesting and reduces the anxiety from overhunting. Lastly, knowing what monsters to hunt is CRUCIAL. By the time I was circle 15 or so I was ready for bloodwolves. They attack SO fast every defense MLs in no time. Shield was lagging, and so the closeby rams were perfect. Bloodwolves also teach amazing TM. Back in prime I muddled around in Rock Trolls like a noobie.. Rock trolls swing oh so slow..causing pitiful armor learning. Rock trolls also teach very poorly I've found (thicker skin than bloodwolves, take longer to kill). Tingling them for the faster attack helps..but the delay as they cast isn't worth it.

Once bloodwolves stop teaching I found vines/maras to be excellent armor teachers. Personally I don't like being swarmed all the time, so I chose to go to young ogres starting at circle 22 I believe. Tingle is your friend. With frost scythe and tingle I can ML TM, all my weapons, and make nice money from the boxes all at once. Using the bloodwolves in the area is key to keeping your defenses moving. By circle 27 I could handle an ogre with a bloodwolf block stopped on me for good MO training. This worked for me, but again,,,different playstyles call for different tactics.

Now I am hanging out near the gate of souls. For some reason FRS is wicked against the sprites. I think the cold damage is helping :P In any case I can get 2 learning levels off every sprite using about 9-11 mana Frost Scythes. Half a dozen sprites later TM is MLd, and I can go focus on everything else. Getting 2 on you will ML all your defenses in seconds...

In the end I've found it good to have Evasion rank at the same pace as your primary weapon, parry to rank 10% FASTER than TM, Shield to rank about as fast as your highest lore, and so on.. Just how I do my thing and its working quite good. Later on, who knows. I still think finding the right hunting spot is key. This gate of lost souls saved my frosty butt! Ahh well, maybe someone can use for ideas.

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