Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/11/2013 12:40 PM CDT
I am thinking it is time to move my cleric to a Pure Caster. It is getting harder for her to hunt at her level. Still doable and I could probably draw it out but I am thinking I might just as well do it, I think. She is level 35. What should I drop and what should I pick up? She wears fusion studded leathers so I need to keep my armor ranks. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 120 30
Shield Use.........................| 130 35
Edged Weapons......................| 134 37
Physical Fitness...................| 114 28
Harness Power......................| 134 37
Spirit Mana Control................| 132 36
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 70 15
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 105 25
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 70 15
Perception.........................| 50 10
Climbing...........................| 58 12
Swimming...........................| 50 10

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 25

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 24

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 35
Race: Sylvankind Profession: Cleric (shown as: Cleric)
Gender: Female Age: 185 Expr: 1377662 Level: 35
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 95 (22) ... 95 (22)
Constitution (CON): 78 (14) ... 78 (14)
Dexterity (DEX): 72 (21) ... 72 (21)
Agility (AGI): 87 (23) ... 89 (24)
Discipline (DIS): 63 (1) ... 63 (1)
Aura (AUR): 99 (29) ... 99 (29)
Logic (LOG): 82 (16) ... 84 (17)
Intuition (INT): 76 (13) ... 76 (13)
Wisdom (WIS): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Influence (INF): 50 (0) ... 50 (0)
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/11/2013 02:20 PM CDT
Two things you'll definitely want to do is get your PF up to 1x and pick up around 30 ranks in MIU. Maneuver attacks are the bane of pures and being 1x in PF will go a long way towards helping minimize their danger. The MIU you'll want because mana tends to get spent QUICKLY when you're hunting without a weapon and you'll want to be able to make use of whatever wands you find to help.

After getting those and 2x in Spell Aiming (trust me you'll want that, hunting solely with CS spells can be anything but fun in a lot of hunting areas), distribute whatever points you have left from dropping OHE and Shield Use either into lores that will help whichever spells you plan on using the most or into getting more ranks in Harness Power.

Once you make the switch, I'd suggest heading out to River's Rest and trying out Miasmal Forest (lesser moor wights, skeletal soldiers, bog trolls, and bog wraiths). My empath kicked major butt hunting there with Fire Spirit and gold wands at your level and it should be at least as easy for a cleric since most of their spells are geared towards hunting undead.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/11/2013 03:40 PM CDT
Standard advice for CS hunters is to get to level +21 in your primary CS casting circle for amximized CS without hitting the diminishing returns too hard.

-Taakhooshi, and Me

For the Story of Taakhooshi:
http://www.gsguide.net/index.php?title=Taakhooshi
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/11/2013 04:56 PM CDT
It really depends what you are trying to train for. You look like you are putting a heavy emphasis on chrisms and getting fogging spells at the expense of hunting ability, doubling lore is expensive and a swinger needs CM by your level. It'll still hurt your hunting ability if you keep that when you switch to pure.

These are a couple of fairly extreme builds but they show the things that are relevant to pure hunting at around your level.

A bolter looks something like this. Lore is heavy on summoning. Enough MIU to activate any wand anytime (though it was only really before level 20 that mana was a serious issue). Cleric spells at or not much above level yet. The advantage of bolting is that critters that are susceptible to bolts are very susceptible and its a lot easier to take part in group activities if you have an AS attack. If you are GoS you won't want to leave home without fire spirit.

(at level 30), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 124 32
Arcane Symbols.....................| 102 24
Magic Item Use.....................| 140 40
Spell Aiming.......................| 164 64
Harness Power......................| 124 32
Spirit Mana Control................| 124 32
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 20 4
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 105 25
Perception.........................| 120 30
Climbing...........................| 74 16
Swimming...........................| 20 4
First Aid..........................| 66 14

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 18

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 32

A pure CS caster looks something like this. Primary lore is religion. Cleric spells to level+21 as soon as possible. The advantage is being rather more efficient for most like level solo hunting. The disadvantage is that CS efficiency drops off much faster when critters gain levels on you than AS efficiency does.

(at level 32), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 128 34
Arcane Symbols.....................| 90 20
Magic Item Use.....................| 66 14
Harness Power......................| 128 34
Spirit Mana Control................| 128 34
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 50 10
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 120 30
Perception.........................| 128 34
Climbing...........................| 70 15
Swimming...........................| 5 1
First Aid..........................| 70 15

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 20

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 50
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/12/2013 04:44 AM CDT
Sword and board is harder than THW or polearms, IMO, because of the lesser damage these smaller weapons generally do. I actually capped my cleric using THWs. Then one day I realized I was using mainly spells to hunt, and converted to a pure caster. I kept the CM, PF, and shield/brawling which I also had, purely for defensive purposes. I can still feint and disarm, so I guess she isn't totally a pure caster (I only dropped the THW part of her training). She uses only CS based spells to hunt, no bolts or weapons. She isn't totally trained in spells yet, but close; current CS is 513.

As a pure caster you will be converting PTPs like crazy; don't let that worry you. Current skill set (way post cap). She's using FGB armor, hence the 35 ranks. 2x in HP gives an extra 101 mana at cap, which generally comes in handy. Current skill set:


Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 130 35
Shield Use.........................| 201 101
Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101
Brawling...........................| 201 101
Physical Fitness...................| 201 101
Arcane Symbols.....................| 96 22
Magic Item Use.....................| 105 25
Harness Power......................| 202 102
Spirit Mana Control................| 120 30
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 53 10
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 160 60
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 90 20
Perception.........................| 140 40
Climbing...........................| 150 50
Swimming...........................| 170 70
First Aid..........................| 180 80

Spell Lists
Major Spiritual....................| 67

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 67

Spell Lists
Cleric.............................| 163
Training Points: 45 Phy 0 Mnt (1490 Phy converted to Mnt)

The bells of Hell
go ting-a-ling-a-ling
for you but not for me
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/14/2013 12:26 PM CDT
Kind of late chiming in, but if your cleric is Smite-aligned I can't recommend enough Rathboner's CS caster build and Starchitin's advice to go to the Miasmal Forest in River's Rest. Mana will not be an issue because you'll be using 302 nonstop. River's Rest is pretty much a cleric's playground until 67.
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/14/2013 04:57 PM CDT
<River's Rest is pretty much a cleric's playground until 67.>

Which is exactly why I can't figure out why RR is always in so much need of clerics (esp when you need one). We've got rangers, rogues, wizards, and sorcerers galore but clerics, empaths, and bards seem to avoid the place like the plague (bards I can understand, but the other two should be pwning the place by level 35).

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/14/2013 09:05 PM CDT
>> clerics, empaths, and bards seem to avoid the place like the plague<<

They hate you. As soon as you leave, they are all over the place.

The bells of Hell
go ting-a-ling-a-ling
for you but not for me
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Re: Moving from Sword and Board to Pure Caster? 10/15/2013 04:03 AM CDT
<They hate you. As soon as you leave, they are all over the place.>

If yer talking specifically about the gnome... it wouldn't surprise me in the least. He's got a good heart, but he can be rather challenging to get along with.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
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