I'm back from a fairly long hiatus and I started a new wizard. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something vital or being a complete idiot (at least with training, I'm sure that's the case elsewhere) before my training grace period ends. Aelotoi wizard. Thank you for any help.

Taero (at level 12), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Armor Use..........................| 20 4 4
Physical Fitness...................| 62 13 13
Arcane Symbols.....................| 108 26 26
Magic Item Use.....................| 108 26 26
Spell Aiming.......................| 108 26 26
Harness Power......................| 58 12 12
Elemental Mana Control.............| 62 13 13
Perception.........................| 62 13 13
Climbing...........................| 40 8 8
Swimming...........................| 40 8 8

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 12 12

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 11 11

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 10 10

No Mauls? No Cmans? You're doomed!

Additionally, you might want to post your stats, since you still have (presumably) one or more of your reset options.


::This space for Rent::

I am pretty sure even f2p get the 5 stat allocations during their first 30 days, Easy enough to check by visiting the local inn and checking in.

They look decent... Nothing immediately maxing out, but definitely not set for growth to cap at cap. A good, solid, middle-of-the-road stat placement. Good, balanced approach.

Your training looks good as well. Spell training looks properly allocated and everything, just a couple things I'll chime in with, that you very well could have evaluated, but I just want to bring them up to make you consider them if you hadn't:
While you're still so incredibly low level, you can consider reducing your spell research training slightly (maybe after you've hit 913/414/513 though... you're so close to so many good spells!), and instead dedicate those points to training in more harness power. Now, I know that going over 1x HP is both horrible returns and expensive, but while you're so low level, that +1 mana is marginally more important than 20 levels later. I've seen many wizards who will simply go 2x HP until level 50, and 0x from 51-100. Just a way to recognize the mana benefits a little sooner. But hey, spell aiming is awesome too!
The only other thing to consider would be pulling back a little bit on Arcane Symbols. When we consider Runestaff DS, the first rank is so dirt cheap, that the first rank ends up being advantageous compared to spell research for DS growth... However, the second rank becomes surprisingly competitive on the return of TP to DS. Then if we consider the skills that utilize arcane symbols for wizards... well... There's a lot more justification for 2x MIU than 2x AS.

Just things to consider. All in all, your build appears solid, and you should do well.

~Whirlin

I personally don't feel it is worth it to get 913 early on. 911 either really but it is nice being able to cast that spell for the masses. With a level 15 wizard I had 513, 414, and 913 following the basic wisdom. My DS was excessive, there wasn't a need to have quite so many spells that early on and TD was never an issue. I was also only 1x in MIU/AS/EMC. Rarely using wands and only using wizard wands when I did, I didn't need more MIU. Also wasn't using scrolls for anything so I didn't need more then 1x there.

Having 2x HP at lower levels helps a ton and even later on can still be quite useful. Being able to use your higher level bolts more often, or more disabling spells, or running haste and wizard shield throughout entire hunts is nothing to sneeze at.

At 15 I set my wizards stats for growth and never had any issues with it. You don't need a terribly high dexterity once you get to where you can hunt fire phantoms. In placing stats for growth the only stat you may wish was higher from time to time is aura because that is your CS and it sucks to miss a cast of mana leach. You can raise your aura up a bit higher by setting influence down to 20 and placing the remaining points in it.

Having just leveled up as a pure, I didn't have that much trouble. Once I'd learned enough MIU and I was able to use wands to supplement. I doubt if I used more than 50 wands total. This was all before 1700. I hunted rats until 7, various orcs until 12ish. Joined Voln and hunted Vereri and other assorted undead in the Landings until I could kill the undead in Zol-Logoth, then on to Ta'Illistim and the undead there. After that I hunted the Bog in Vaalor and am currently hunting undead in RR.

I might have died 4 times or so by level 25 and really only had a few deaths after that until I came to RR. Here in RR you run into nasty CMs like shield bash and such in Marsh Keep and the Citadel. If you want to hunt undead as a pure boltcaster then just look at the age range and uphunt by a few levels. Once you get to the Citadel level critters you can actually way up hunt, some of the critters are 62 and I was bolting them at 48. These were the ones that wandered in to the lower leveled critters though. Not a good Idea to hunt th level 62 exclusively.

With extra harness power and a few wands you can still easily fry I don't remember exactly, but I think I haven't used a wand since Zombies. Double spells in major and minor to keep them at level for the AS and DS. Train wizard circle up to 919 at least for shield. 1700 was not needed as much by wizard pures as some of the other casters.

Extra harness power also makes leeching all that much better.

Just an elf about town...

AS is probably one of the least useful magical skills for a wizard. Scrolls are a crapshoot as far as containing useful spells, and unlike sorcerers we can't unlock and infuse them, so their uses are limited. MIU is far more useful IMO. Not only can we imbed our own items, but Clerics are able to bless a lot of spiritual spells into orb gems for you, for example, if you want those at your fingertips. Being out of our speheres, spiritual spells require more MIU to invoke reliably.

Nor should you rely on MIU and AS ranks to supplement runestaff defense; most DS producing spells yield more benefit the more ranks you have in that circle, so picking up more spells will be the best way to increase your physical DS.



"So, what does that green line on the graph represent?"
"Oh, that's the projection of a hypothetical offspring from a union between Sauron and Cruella de Ville; we use that as a baseline for determining character alignment."

As mentioned, mana at low levels is in short supply. Later on various other factors can ameliorate this problem. Being in a certain Society, being able to leech well, having a good supply of wands ... these can let a wizard gradually ease back down to 1x in HP. On the other hand, there's noting wrong with training 2x in HP forever, either. While not as efficient as far as the TP:Mana benefit ratio, doing that does yield an extra 100 mana at cap. Nice extra cushion to have when you are hunting level 110 stuff/invasion critters that you may not be able to reliably leech from.


"So, what does that green line on the graph represent?"
"Oh, that's the projection of a hypothetical offspring from a union between Sauron and Cruella de Ville; we use that as a baseline for determining character alignment."

A lot of people seem to be stuck on the 1X this and the 2X that.

My strategy has been to train all but the very core in clumps. My core group is spells 2X and Spell Aim 2X, HP 1X. The rest floats. Early on I trained in MIU until I could wave wands well, then I concentrated on having spells at 1X for Major and Minor Lists, and the bolt spells. After that I made sure I had the key spells in all three circles when I was at the training to use them. Swimming,perception, climbing, and trade I did in spurts as needed.I don't like falling or drowning so as soon as I run into being a bit under trained I concentrate on them. Currently at 57 with the set of skills below and having no problems. Its pretty hard to mess up training as long as you have the spells at the right time and keep spell aim at 2X...

Armor Use..........................| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 105 25
Arcane Symbols.....................| 159 59
Magic Item Use.....................| 159 59
Spell Aiming.......................| 236 136
Harness Power......................| 214 114
Elemental Mana Control.............| 159 59
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 143 43
Climbing...........................| 150 50
Swimming...........................| 150 50
Trading............................| 174 74

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 57

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 57

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 25

Just an elf about town...

Back to Trouble: So... Encumbrance is a factor in a lot of game mechanics. Evade DS (which we get from Blur, mobility, other stuffs). Maneuver Defense (Both SMR and CMAN), aiming if you're using a bow, and just other stuff.. Ohh, and the MIU equation, and of course enchanting. Being encumbered is bad.

Rroy's approach is one that I recommend for Bards, who tend to be able to 'complete' training and have a LOT more longer term completable bonuses compared to wizards. With all of our spell circles scaling with continued training, marginal benefits become rather moot as early as level 30 for a pure build. You're not really 'finishing' anything except for maybe Armor use and Elemental Lore: Air. Rroy's build itself lacks 1x PF, and 1x Perception... which is fine up til the mid 50s... but post 60, SMR and CMANs will be prevalent in pretty much every hunting ground. And taking those points from trading and reinvesting more heavily into MIU/Wizard circle would probably create a viable enchanting build, which would likely generate more silvers than the additional trading skill.

I would NEVER recommend a full 2x HP for life. While +15 mana a pulse can seem awesome, at the TP cost it's equivalent of 1/4th of a spell. Additionally, once the game starts to stabilize in the 40s level range, you'll be able to utilize mana leech (516) to a much higher potential, and should no longer really have any mana problems. Even if I were to hunt purely casting, as an archer mage, I probably wouldn't burn through all of my 300 mana in a hunt at cap. I'd much rather +25 DS/+8 ETD from Wizard circle, or +17 CS in MjE if you're already at level for MjE.

+1 mana when you have 200 Mana is not, and should not be, weighted with the same priority as +1 mana when you have 20 mana.

Ohh, and before I stop the HP discussion... If you're at like, 129 MP... definitely overtrain HP to get 130, or whatever value would end up resulting in an additional pulse in/out of a node... Or dumping an extra rank into EMC to get +1 Mana/pulse early.


To Throgg... By the maths, the 1st rank in either MIU/AS is incredibly advantageous compared to spell ranks... (I'm sure you knew this... it was just a little ambiguous based on the animosity of AS in your post). Since you're dealing with 32 ranks of MIU/AS to 1 spell rank. Going off of memory from when I last did the math, The second rank is DS advantageous dependent upon stance, assuming that you're not putting the rank into MnE (which otherwise would favor AS/MIU, due to low DS/LvL in MnE). AS also factors slightly into enchanting cast success, and scrolls can really buff you if you're moving to a new hunting ground. But yeah, 2x is not a hard or fast rule, and comes to personal preference.

~Whirlin

SMR is short for Standard Maneuver Roll. This is anything from 'creature' maneuvers to spells like boil, spike thorn, and ewave. Pretty much anytime you don't see an equation when you are attacked it is an SMR, there are some exceptions but they are usually easy enough to figure out.

I disagree that 300 mana is "enough" at cap. I think most wizards would struggle a bit in the Rift with only 300 mana, especially in the scatter. But I also think even a new player is quite capable of determining for themselves how much mana is enough. That's why I advise minimum 1x/maximum 2x harness power (until post cap, of course). If 1x is getting you through and you don't feel the pinch on mana, then stick with 1x. If you want more, I feel the cost is worth it up to a point. The difference between 1x and 2x is up to about 33%. Keeping in mind that this applies not only to a larger mana pool, but also to your mana leech cap as well as your pulses. It's a significant difference, even if the point cost is high relative to the return on 1x training.

~Taverkin

One of the wonderful things about this game is that you can fluctuate. I 2Xed HP until I had leech, then I cut off training in it to build up climb and swim. Then I started dumping all my points after 2X in SA and 1X in MIU,AS, and EMC, into HP again. Now I'm getting enough SMC so I can send for the spells when I ask for them. Once I have that adequate. I'll go to the PF and get that up to 1X since it will help with CM attacks. Even without fixskills you don't have to be rigid in training. You can be 1X now 2x later then drop back to 1X again.


My last character was more than double cap, and thus training is even more flexible. That's why I stated in a different thread that FixSkills is a lot more powerful then FixStat regardless of the price and especially now we have all the enhansives.

I'm looking forward to all the new areas since I played a long time ago. The RIFT basic, and OTF were the only choices then. When I'm at the cap I'll decide which area I prefer and adjust my skills into what works the best there. Everyone will have the core set by cap, and then its just a matter of whats important to you. If 1X in HP gets you fried and you like short hunts that will be good enough. If it takes more than 1X HP or you like extended hunts you can 2X or even 3X.

Its pretty hard to screw up training as long as you 2X SA and spells, and even then fixing is just a few Simucoins away.

Just an elf about town...