Howdy all,
I just returned to GSIV this weekend after a long break. I'm basically having to learn the game all over again and many of the resources that were available to help with game mechanics are no longer available (Nilandia, Tsoran's, etc). So I'm a bit lost. Specifically, I am taking my lvl 31 elf Paladin out hunting and I am really struggling with creatures that are 5-10 levels below his level. I guess my question is, did I distribute my stats correctly? Will I be getting a decent amount of physical and mental training points? Could I just be suffering because of my low con from death's sting?
I am asking if I should just scrap this character and start over?
Here's my character's rundown:
>info
Name: Gairwindor Artanis Race: Elf Profession: Paladin (shown as: Arbiter)
Gender: Male Age: 31 Expr: 1106038 Level: 31
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Constitution (CON): 80 (15) ... 70 (10)
Dexterity (DEX): 82 (21) ... 82 (21)
Agility (AGI): 80 (30) ... 80 (30)
Discipline (DIS): 80 (0) ... 80 (0)
Aura (AUR): 80 (20) ... 80 (20)
Logic (LOG): 61 (5) ... 61 (5)
Intuition (INT): 64 (7) ... 64 (7)
Wisdom (WIS): 100 (25) ... 100 (25)
Influence (INF): 48 (9) ... 48 (9)
Mana: 105 Silver: 0
R>exp
Level: 31 Deeds: 0
Experience: 1106038 Death's Sting: Piercing
Exp. until next: 45962 Recent Deaths: 3
Mental TPs: 0 Fame: 1760247
Physical TPs: 8 Mana: 105/105 max
(284 Phy converted to Mnt)
>skill
Gairwindor (at level 31), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 126 33
Shield Use.........................| 166 66
Combat Maneuvers...................| 126 33
Edged Weapons......................| 166 66
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 25 5
Physical Fitness...................| 126 33
Dodging............................| 126 33
Harness Power......................| 126 33
Spirit Mana Control................| 102 24
Survival...........................| 122 31
Perception.........................| 58 12
Climbing...........................| 78 17
Swimming...........................| 78 17
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 2
Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 30
As a note, I do plan on moving my general skills over to my combat skills.
AHCHOO4U
PEREGRINEFALCON
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
09/14/2014 09:59 AM CDT
Paladins don't seem to have a lot of 'extra' training path early on. I don't see anything crazy on your training plan that would be a red flag. I chose to go heavier on armor training with no training in dodge at all but I think your training path should work as well.
Could you provide some additional details around how you are struggling? What are you hunting? How are you dying (if you are)? What is frustrating or difficult in your hunts? Which combat maneuvers (CMAN) have you trained in? Do you hunt with any outside spells or just your own?
A couple things you may want to be aware of that you may not.
SHIELD - This will give you information about Shield Specialization. For every point you train in Shield you get a Shield Specialization point to spend which will help you utilize your shield better.
ARMOR - This will give you information about Armor Specialization. For every point you train in Armor you get an Armor Specialization point to spend.
-- Robert
Could you provide some additional details around how you are struggling? What are you hunting? How are you dying (if you are)? What is frustrating or difficult in your hunts? Which combat maneuvers (CMAN) have you trained in? Do you hunt with any outside spells or just your own?
A couple things you may want to be aware of that you may not.
SHIELD - This will give you information about Shield Specialization. For every point you train in Shield you get a Shield Specialization point to spend which will help you utilize your shield better.
ARMOR - This will give you information about Armor Specialization. For every point you train in Armor you get an Armor Specialization point to spend.
-- Robert
ZENDADA
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
09/14/2014 10:21 AM CDT
Talk to the priestess wandering around the fortress about that death sting. It will cost you but I think you'll be better off once you get rid of the sting. Take a look at krakiipedia.org to read up about it. And get some deeds. Getting them in Ta'Vaalor is still a mystery to me so I always took gems over to Ta'Illistim where it seems to work like the Landing.
Like the previous poster said your training looks fine. His suggestion of checking out shield and armor is a good one. The smans are super useful.
Chad, player of a few
Like the previous poster said your training looks fine. His suggestion of checking out shield and armor is a good one. The smans are super useful.
Chad, player of a few
DAID
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
09/17/2014 06:40 AM CDT
Agreed with above, everything looks pretty much okay. At least, nothing is a glaring problem.
I also think you could live without Dodge. For a lower level paladin, I tend to think it's a decision between using a shield and getting dodge, in the most general terms.
I too love lots of armor. I had my paladin in double chain by level 20, and will be in full plate by mid 40s. Some chain armor or metal breast plate would be a good target, for sure.
You should be getting close to achieving DF redux, since I calculated you have 120.8 redux points. Go ahead and check in to a local Inn and then come back to the game. If you don't have redux, you'll get a message saying so, and if there is no message, you have redux. I'd keep adding one rank of Physical Training until you get redux, since you should be very close by now.
>As a note, I do plan on moving my general skills over to my combat skills.
Some of those general skills are good, others less so IMO. 15 ranks of climbing, 10 ranks of swimming, is generally going to be enough for you. The general skill discussion here is fairly accurate (well, I wrote it, so at least, I think so): http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Paladin but note that I haven't updated anything since the recent Paladin Base review, so particularly the section on lores needs some improvement, among other things, but you're probably not quite at a stage to do more than a few ranks of lore anyway.
You should also have the annual FIXSKILL. I don't suggest burning it right away, necessarily (it renews sometime around May), but that's a much better option than retiring the character.
The CMAN system was implemented much longer ago than the shield and armor systems, but worth checking what you're doing there, as well. People have quite varying opinions about which CMANs they really like (for instance, as a player of a halfling paladin I've lots of Surge of Strength and one Combat Toughness which others might see as a waste). It would be useful to see your output from CMAN INFO.
For the ARMOR specialization, armor fluidity is generally hailed as much better than armored casting.
Also, as stated, go ahead and let us know what you're hunting, and what the difficulties seem to be. I know that when I converted my paladin from a warrior at level 19, and then eventually started playing him last year, I had a lot of trouble hunting, particularly since krolvin warfarers I found to be quite a challenge for a paladin. But with a little testing, I could find some other creatures that I was able to kill much more quickly and efficiently. Personally I play a lot in River's Rest, and while it's a bit less populated and harder to get defensive spells from others, certainly around the 30s there are TONS of hunting options.
Knowing your society may be useful as well.
Also, make sure to be doing bounties for the Adventurer's Guild. There's one located in each town, and they will assign a task like, go kill X number of creatures, find an heirloom, forage some herbs, etc. You can read up all about it here: http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Adventurer%27s_Guild but importantly, if you turn in your bounty while fried, you'll immediately gain half the experience from the bounty, and the rest will put you into a saturated mode, which will usually last about 15 minutes, and you can sit on a node fried and get tons of experience. This is the usual trick for the weekly Gift of Lumnis (a 6 hour experience multiplier per week).
Please feel free to ask questions of any sort, too. Reading up on various things on Krakiipedia should help you to get back on your feet.
>An officer of the Sorcerer Guild arrives and glances around. "Ah, there you are, Vathon!" he says in a slightly agitated tone. "I have come to formally declare that your membership privileges have been revoked."
I also think you could live without Dodge. For a lower level paladin, I tend to think it's a decision between using a shield and getting dodge, in the most general terms.
I too love lots of armor. I had my paladin in double chain by level 20, and will be in full plate by mid 40s. Some chain armor or metal breast plate would be a good target, for sure.
You should be getting close to achieving DF redux, since I calculated you have 120.8 redux points. Go ahead and check in to a local Inn and then come back to the game. If you don't have redux, you'll get a message saying so, and if there is no message, you have redux. I'd keep adding one rank of Physical Training until you get redux, since you should be very close by now.
>As a note, I do plan on moving my general skills over to my combat skills.
Some of those general skills are good, others less so IMO. 15 ranks of climbing, 10 ranks of swimming, is generally going to be enough for you. The general skill discussion here is fairly accurate (well, I wrote it, so at least, I think so): http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Paladin but note that I haven't updated anything since the recent Paladin Base review, so particularly the section on lores needs some improvement, among other things, but you're probably not quite at a stage to do more than a few ranks of lore anyway.
You should also have the annual FIXSKILL. I don't suggest burning it right away, necessarily (it renews sometime around May), but that's a much better option than retiring the character.
The CMAN system was implemented much longer ago than the shield and armor systems, but worth checking what you're doing there, as well. People have quite varying opinions about which CMANs they really like (for instance, as a player of a halfling paladin I've lots of Surge of Strength and one Combat Toughness which others might see as a waste). It would be useful to see your output from CMAN INFO.
For the ARMOR specialization, armor fluidity is generally hailed as much better than armored casting.
Also, as stated, go ahead and let us know what you're hunting, and what the difficulties seem to be. I know that when I converted my paladin from a warrior at level 19, and then eventually started playing him last year, I had a lot of trouble hunting, particularly since krolvin warfarers I found to be quite a challenge for a paladin. But with a little testing, I could find some other creatures that I was able to kill much more quickly and efficiently. Personally I play a lot in River's Rest, and while it's a bit less populated and harder to get defensive spells from others, certainly around the 30s there are TONS of hunting options.
Knowing your society may be useful as well.
Also, make sure to be doing bounties for the Adventurer's Guild. There's one located in each town, and they will assign a task like, go kill X number of creatures, find an heirloom, forage some herbs, etc. You can read up all about it here: http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Adventurer%27s_Guild but importantly, if you turn in your bounty while fried, you'll immediately gain half the experience from the bounty, and the rest will put you into a saturated mode, which will usually last about 15 minutes, and you can sit on a node fried and get tons of experience. This is the usual trick for the weekly Gift of Lumnis (a 6 hour experience multiplier per week).
Please feel free to ask questions of any sort, too. Reading up on various things on Krakiipedia should help you to get back on your feet.
>An officer of the Sorcerer Guild arrives and glances around. "Ah, there you are, Vathon!" he says in a slightly agitated tone. "I have come to formally declare that your membership privileges have been revoked."
AHCHOO4U
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/13/2014 04:54 PM CDT
My apologies for seeming to abandon this thread. Thanks for the input, I've j
I think I am in a comfortable place now and most of the problems have gone away by changing hunting locations. I was hunting Sentries and Mammoth Arachnids on the Sorcerer's Isle in Ta'Vaalor. I was a higher level than most things on the Isle, but the crowd control from the arachnids and other creatures made it very difficult to hunt. I've taken to hunting the Kiramon in Illistim (which out level me considerably) and the Miasmal Forest in River's Rest. I've died to the Kiramon because I got cocky. As long as I take them one at a time, I'm good; I get fried so quickly there, so I don't need to kill that many. So far I have not died in the Miasmal Forest, which is saying something, I think.
Overall, I think the Weald and Isle in Ta'Vaalor are difficult locations to hunt in for paladins. Maybe other classes have more success.
>Knowing your society may be useful as well.
Gair currently has no society. He just left the GOS and has already used his reset. So if you feel like converting him to another society, it may be possible to convince him. For RP reasons, he definitely leans towards Voln.
>Also, make sure to be doing bounties for the Adventurer's Guild.
As I've hinted at above, I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at. In River's Rest, I have the bounty difficulty at the highest setting and have had little problem.
>if you turn in your bounty while fried, you'll immediately gain half the experience from the bounty
Quick question here: do xp multipliers from the Gift or RPAs also affect xp gained from bounties that leave one saturated? If so, does it reduce their overall time?
>Talk to the priestess wandering around the fortress about that death sting
I visited the priestess and dished out the coin to get rid of my piercing sting. I'm poor now, but, luckily for me, River's Rest is rich.
I've been slowly tweaking my character in an attempt to maximize advantages for both game mechanics/play style and role playing. Here's an update on what I've done:
skills
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 170 70 70
Shield Use.........................| 170 70 70
Combat Maneuvers...................| 128 34 34
Edged Weapons......................| 170 70 70
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 128 34 34
Physical Fitness...................| 128 34 34
Dodging............................| 78 17.337 16 21 hours, 57 minutes
Harness Power......................| 126 33 33
Spirit Mana Control................| 99 23 24 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 25 5 5
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0 5 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 25 5.753 0 2 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes
Perception.........................| 62 13 15 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Climbing...........................| 74 16 16
Swimming...........................| 66 14 14
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 2 2
Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 30 30
>I should have followed your advice on waiting to use my FixSkills. Whatever ;-) Since I don't plan on getting any spells for the next few levels, what are your guys thoughts on 1x perception? Would that be a waste; should I stick with 0.5x?
Armor:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Armored Fluidity fluidity 2
Available Armor Training Points: 20
Shield:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Medium Shield Focus mfocus 4
Shield Bash bash 3
Shield Strike strike 3
Phalanx phalanx 3
Available Shield Training Points: 4
Unlearning Shield Training Points: 2
Estimated time until next point conversion: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Total Points converted during your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 24
Number of days remaining in your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 6 days
>I think that once I master Bash and Strike, I'll get Shield Forward next. Thoughts?
>I have phalanx for RP reasons. Gair is a Crimson Legion reservist. However, I have no idea if I am ever going to gain a benefit from it. Thoughts on this as well?
CMans:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Specialization I wspec1 3
Surge of Strength surge 2
Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 7
Total Points converted during your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 3
Number of days remaining in your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 7 days
>I am probably going to focus on getting precision next. I am tempted to unlearn surge of strength as it is only adding about +10 to my AS in combat. However, it is helpful for swimming while carrying loot or dragging people, but does that really justify keeping it around? Also, if I am looking for an AS boost, would it be worth swapping SoS with Truehand? I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of Truehand, but it seems as if I am increasing my odds of fumbling with it.
Some final thoughts: I've been considering moving from a medium shield over to a large shield. What are your guys' thoughts on that?
Thanks again, guys.
-ahchoo4u
I think I am in a comfortable place now and most of the problems have gone away by changing hunting locations. I was hunting Sentries and Mammoth Arachnids on the Sorcerer's Isle in Ta'Vaalor. I was a higher level than most things on the Isle, but the crowd control from the arachnids and other creatures made it very difficult to hunt. I've taken to hunting the Kiramon in Illistim (which out level me considerably) and the Miasmal Forest in River's Rest. I've died to the Kiramon because I got cocky. As long as I take them one at a time, I'm good; I get fried so quickly there, so I don't need to kill that many. So far I have not died in the Miasmal Forest, which is saying something, I think.
Overall, I think the Weald and Isle in Ta'Vaalor are difficult locations to hunt in for paladins. Maybe other classes have more success.
>Knowing your society may be useful as well.
Gair currently has no society. He just left the GOS and has already used his reset. So if you feel like converting him to another society, it may be possible to convince him. For RP reasons, he definitely leans towards Voln.
>Also, make sure to be doing bounties for the Adventurer's Guild.
As I've hinted at above, I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at. In River's Rest, I have the bounty difficulty at the highest setting and have had little problem.
>if you turn in your bounty while fried, you'll immediately gain half the experience from the bounty
Quick question here: do xp multipliers from the Gift or RPAs also affect xp gained from bounties that leave one saturated? If so, does it reduce their overall time?
>Talk to the priestess wandering around the fortress about that death sting
I visited the priestess and dished out the coin to get rid of my piercing sting. I'm poor now, but, luckily for me, River's Rest is rich.
I've been slowly tweaking my character in an attempt to maximize advantages for both game mechanics/play style and role playing. Here's an update on what I've done:
skills
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 170 70 70
Shield Use.........................| 170 70 70
Combat Maneuvers...................| 128 34 34
Edged Weapons......................| 170 70 70
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 128 34 34
Physical Fitness...................| 128 34 34
Dodging............................| 78 17.337 16 21 hours, 57 minutes
Harness Power......................| 126 33 33
Spirit Mana Control................| 99 23 24 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........| 25 5 5
Spiritual Lore - Religion..........| 0 0 5 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 25 5.753 0 2 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes
Perception.........................| 62 13 15 ASAP (will rise when points are available)
Climbing...........................| 74 16 16
Swimming...........................| 66 14 14
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 2 2
Spell Lists
Paladin............................| 30 30
>I should have followed your advice on waiting to use my FixSkills. Whatever ;-) Since I don't plan on getting any spells for the next few levels, what are your guys thoughts on 1x perception? Would that be a waste; should I stick with 0.5x?
Armor:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Armored Fluidity fluidity 2
Available Armor Training Points: 20
Shield:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Medium Shield Focus mfocus 4
Shield Bash bash 3
Shield Strike strike 3
Phalanx phalanx 3
Available Shield Training Points: 4
Unlearning Shield Training Points: 2
Estimated time until next point conversion: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Total Points converted during your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 24
Number of days remaining in your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 6 days
>I think that once I master Bash and Strike, I'll get Shield Forward next. Thoughts?
>I have phalanx for RP reasons. Gair is a Crimson Legion reservist. However, I have no idea if I am ever going to gain a benefit from it. Thoughts on this as well?
CMans:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Specialization I wspec1 3
Surge of Strength surge 2
Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 7
Total Points converted during your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 3
Number of days remaining in your current 30-day unlearning cycle: 7 days
>I am probably going to focus on getting precision next. I am tempted to unlearn surge of strength as it is only adding about +10 to my AS in combat. However, it is helpful for swimming while carrying loot or dragging people, but does that really justify keeping it around? Also, if I am looking for an AS boost, would it be worth swapping SoS with Truehand? I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of Truehand, but it seems as if I am increasing my odds of fumbling with it.
Some final thoughts: I've been considering moving from a medium shield over to a large shield. What are your guys' thoughts on that?
Thanks again, guys.
-ahchoo4u
AHCHOO4U
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/13/2014 04:56 PM CDT
>Thanks for the input, I've j
Well... that's embarrassing. I meant to say, "Thanks for the input, I've Incorporated much of what you guys have said."
-ahchoo4u
Well... that's embarrassing. I meant to say, "Thanks for the input, I've Incorporated much of what you guys have said."
-ahchoo4u
FALAN
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/14/2014 11:12 AM CDT
Get 1635 as soon as you can. It's a life saver and makes a big difference at times. It will remove webbing, binding, stuns.
Otherwise.. Lore is your choice and I don't use phalanx nor sword/board (I'm a THW paladin). Hope this helps and maybe a sword/board person can give you answers on the shield portion.
_______________________________________________________
You swing a silver-edged black veil iron katana at Sevynne!
* Sevynne drops dead at your feet!
* Sevynne just bit the dust!
Otherwise.. Lore is your choice and I don't use phalanx nor sword/board (I'm a THW paladin). Hope this helps and maybe a sword/board person can give you answers on the shield portion.
_______________________________________________________
You swing a silver-edged black veil iron katana at Sevynne!
* Sevynne drops dead at your feet!
* Sevynne just bit the dust!
ZENDADA
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/14/2014 11:37 AM CDT
Looks right on with shield bash/strike and cman wspec1 and surge. Every Vaalorian sword and board user should learn Phalanx! I've got 5 ranks.
SMC and lores are something I really didn't train in until I had all the spell ranks that I wanted. Falan, is correct. 1635 is going to save you more times than you will be able to count. What he did not mention is that it drops curses like the itchy one.
Chad, player of a few
SMC and lores are something I really didn't train in until I had all the spell ranks that I wanted. Falan, is correct. 1635 is going to save you more times than you will be able to count. What he did not mention is that it drops curses like the itchy one.
Chad, player of a few
ZENDADA
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/14/2014 11:37 AM CDT
Also want to add that feint is another good cman to learn.
Chad, player of a few
Chad, player of a few
DAID
Re: Returning to GS with my Paladin
10/16/2014 12:43 AM CDT
>So far I have not died in the Miasmal Forest, which is saying something, I think.
Died in Oteska's Haven at least once to an unlucky Major Elemental Wave, but that was about it. The Miasmal and Marsh Keep I've found rather easy with my paladin.
>An officer of the Sorcerer Guild arrives and glances around. "Ah, there you are, Vathon!" he says in a slightly agitated tone. "I have come to formally declare that your membership privileges have been revoked."
Died in Oteska's Haven at least once to an unlucky Major Elemental Wave, but that was about it. The Miasmal and Marsh Keep I've found rather easy with my paladin.
>An officer of the Sorcerer Guild arrives and glances around. "Ah, there you are, Vathon!" he says in a slightly agitated tone. "I have come to formally declare that your membership privileges have been revoked."
