discuss my new character

[Claudius]

Hi I am thinking of building a new character. I already made a wizard/marauder and liked the decent fighting ability (dual wield/2 armor/heavy) plus 3 arcane and spellfire - nice.

How does it work out fighting mobs without the spell blast nova?

I am thinking of making a ?/adept/monk/shaolei master/valkyrie for 2 pole 2 ninjitsu 2(3 if fighter) heavy armor/ 3 celestial/ 3 rune

should I take mage or fighter? mage for access to blast nova, whirlwind, ice shards and fighter for access to heavier armor plus saving adv points on armor spending points.

I think fighter since I won't be able to get enough ranks in arcane for those spells to be decent (it might take 6 blast novas to clear death widows while my other char takes 1)

What spells are good for rune other than stone shards (eg how about the anti magic shield and spitting shield)?

What celestial spells are good other than solar ray lightning and guardian angel (or whatever)?

human or elf?

its hard to level elfs strength but the intelligence helps level other stuff....

[War-Wiz]

I did play through as a Shaolei Master once, but I must have played through three times as a Crusader That should tell you something

How does it work out fighting mobs without the spell blast nova?

The game will take alot longer to finish


Seriously, I like to use the nether spell "sleep" because it usually freezes the enemy in the immediate vicinity so I can take them on one at a time.

I am thinking of making a ?/adept/monk/shaolei master/valkyrie for 2 pole 2 ninjitsu 2(3 if fighter) heavy armor/ 3 celestial/ 3 rune

You seem to have your character planned out pretty well. The only advice I can give you about your class progression is to get Monk before trying for Valkyrie because of the need for light pole weapons. The mage/fighter question is up to you. How do you want to play? Do you want to try to play the game with only no arcane bonuses? Adepts are good at defence but not so hot when it comes to offence. The best offensive magic spell that an Adept can use would probably be "Lightning". Or you can get some help to fight by casting "Divine Intervention" to get a spirit (or two or ten) to fight along side you.

As far as Rune magic goes you can see my thoughts on that from the last post in this thread http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/du...lls-90522.html
The anti-magic sheild works similar to the relic, "The Shield of Retribution" as it causes enemy spells to bounce back at the caster. It only works for a short time though so I have that one assigned to a number on my "ready" spells.
Helps thin out the crowd before they get close enough to swarm you

human or elf?

You'll need to advance quite a few skills and whether you pick mage or fighter I'm gonna commit and say Elf.

Well that's about enough outta me....someone elses turn now

Da Wiz

[Claudius]

hmmmm

I don't know if I'm up to fighting 30 spiders with no blast nova. Maybe I'll make another wizard haha

[Scottg]

I've played almost this exact same character.. (it was my "ultimate character" )

With 1 *learning bonus* (Shaolei Master) in Ninjitsu you can get that skill up to 17-18 practically in a normal game. Past 12 however you won't notice a great deal of difference (its there, it just not great).

Ninjitsu works rather like dual-weapons.. maximum aggression, EXCEPT that you'll need to pull back after a bit and then "dive in" again (which is VERY similar to the fighting style of moonbeasts). You'll want a high parry skill level AND a fairly high heavy armor skill level (..though of course the same could be said for any character, but more so here). BTW, though I'm not certain, I *think* that a higher level of any armor than whats needed for that armor, provides a small bonus in damage reduction.

You can get blast nova via a chest "drop" without the mage class.. but you won't have access to it as early (the same goes for most spells), and having access to it at all is NOT guaranteed. In any event, poison cloud works great against large numbers of opponents, allowing you to cut through them with ninjitsu attacks (it isn't instant gratification like blast nova though).

The requirement to achieve 5 levels in light poles (even without a learning bonus) is pretty low for the Valkyrie.. so it doesn't really matter if you go for it first before getting the Monk class. Note that I found the Valkyrie class a LOT easier to obtain than the Monk class (especially because I was trying to kill the head monk guy at just the right moment to get the winter shurkien). What I WOULD recommend is getting the Monk class and the winter shurkien before entering the Elven trials - it makes knocking-off most of the elven masters a LOT easier.. BUT it requires a level 7 in magic weaponry.

The "killer app" for the Shaolei Master is Critical strike (with no learning bonus). Its difficult to move past 10 in this skill.. and frankly it isn't that great.