Looking for some answers and if anyone has tried skinning, disarming or foraging testing on a wizard. Specifically how many ranks I would need to become somewhat passable in any of these. Mostly interested in foraging for herbs as I'll be playing around with alchemy awhile. Anyway heres the questions, im level 77.
#1 Disarming, how many ranks would i need to get scarabs. Also what number of perception ranks would be recommended to spot the traps. Haven't had any issue finding the traps via Piercing gaze, but I imagine i'd have to manually see it to disarm. I've run across that arcane symbols do help in disarming glyph and scarabs, but how much?
#2 Currently I have 50 ranks of perception, but foraging for herbs is still something of a nightmare. Super rolls are needed to find the majority of the herbs (100+). How many ranks of first aid and survival would I need to see improvement in this area, or should i just continue to increase percetpion? Or is it a lost cause?
#3 I guess I don't care too much about skinning, goes hand and hand with foraging for the most part but would be nice to know the amount of ranks i'd need to skin stuff at this level.
Skieh, thanks
NJRUSH
GRYPES
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 09:21 AM CDT
#1 Disarming, how many ranks would i need to get scarabs. Also what number of perception ranks would be recommended to spot the traps. Haven't had any issue finding the traps via Piercing gaze, but I imagine i'd have to manually see it to disarm. I've run across that arcane symbols do help in disarming glyph and scarabs, but how much?
#2 Currently I have 50 ranks of perception, but foraging for herbs is still something of a nightmare. Super rolls are needed to find the majority of the herbs (100+). How many ranks of first aid and survival would I need to see improvement in this area, or should i just continue to increase percetpion? Or is it a lost cause?
#3 I guess I don't care too much about skinning, goes hand and hand with foraging for the most part but would be nice to know the amount of ranks i'd need to skin stuff at this level.
Skieh, thanks
You're not going to like my answers.
1. It's pretty much an all or nothing thing. You either 1x to be able to disarm your own boxes or you don't. By the way, glyphed boxes are still anti-magic even after disarmed manually. So for glyphs you'd have to also train in picking.
2. Foraging is based mostly off of survival, there's rumors that I haven't confirmed that perception helps. Assuming that those rumors are false, just for argument sake, you should notice a huge improvement in foraging by going up to .5x your level. If you're greedy with your TPs, I'd stop at 40 ranks total. You should notice a marked improvement. However, mages can do fine simply by using haste to forage. So if you're really greedy then don't get any, grab a 603 scroll and keep yourself hasted.
3. 1x FA and Survival, or 2xing FA, or 2xing survival will make you a decent skinner. It's rather pricey for a mage though. I haven't actually ever bothered with training in either skill on my mages so it may not even be possible to 2x them.
Dgry
#2 Currently I have 50 ranks of perception, but foraging for herbs is still something of a nightmare. Super rolls are needed to find the majority of the herbs (100+). How many ranks of first aid and survival would I need to see improvement in this area, or should i just continue to increase percetpion? Or is it a lost cause?
#3 I guess I don't care too much about skinning, goes hand and hand with foraging for the most part but would be nice to know the amount of ranks i'd need to skin stuff at this level.
Skieh, thanks
You're not going to like my answers.
1. It's pretty much an all or nothing thing. You either 1x to be able to disarm your own boxes or you don't. By the way, glyphed boxes are still anti-magic even after disarmed manually. So for glyphs you'd have to also train in picking.
2. Foraging is based mostly off of survival, there's rumors that I haven't confirmed that perception helps. Assuming that those rumors are false, just for argument sake, you should notice a huge improvement in foraging by going up to .5x your level. If you're greedy with your TPs, I'd stop at 40 ranks total. You should notice a marked improvement. However, mages can do fine simply by using haste to forage. So if you're really greedy then don't get any, grab a 603 scroll and keep yourself hasted.
3. 1x FA and Survival, or 2xing FA, or 2xing survival will make you a decent skinner. It's rather pricey for a mage though. I haven't actually ever bothered with training in either skill on my mages so it may not even be possible to 2x them.
Dgry
ZIZZLE-ZEARL
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 09:55 AM CDT
#1 Disarming, how many ranks would i need to get scarabs. Also what number of perception ranks would be recommended to spot the traps. Haven't had any issue finding the traps via Piercing gaze, but I imagine i'd have to manually see it to disarm. I've run across that arcane symbols do help in disarming glyph and scarabs, but how much?
In my personal experience you are not going to want to pick up disarming traps. It is far too costly TPs wise, and most of the time you will not be able to 407 the box anyways, as many are going to be magically resistant to unlock. Any box enruned, mithral, or glyphed cannot be unlocked via magical means. Thus, you will need a locksmith anyway.
But as for the difficulty of disarming scarabs (assuming you mean after the bug is off the box) is noticeably easier than the difficulty of the original trap difficulty. My locksmith can do up to -400 traps at level 66. He also nearly triple trains in disarming, and uses 404 to get those traps. However, when he disarms a scarab of that difficulty, he seems to always get the "scritch scritch" messaging which indicates that the scarab was disarmed (on the ground) very easily.
Foraging is soooo pathetic for pures in general, and wizards specifically. Again, your training points will be better spent elsewhere in my humble opinion. I once tried to get 40 ranks of survival to see if it helped improved my foraging. If it did help, I sure didn't notice, as it still took the same endroll as before to forage for the same herb.
Perception I am sure will help, but as like survival I didn't seem to notice any great improvement in foraging with extra perception. However I would at least get 30 ranks anyway for other uses.
Ditto for skinning. If you are picking up FA or survival for the AvG skinning tasks, forget it. Not only must you successfully skin the creature, but they have to be at least a minimum quality for them to count as well. However if you are doing it to make extra silvers...then train in it as much as you can.
Zizzle
The Elementalist
In my personal experience you are not going to want to pick up disarming traps. It is far too costly TPs wise, and most of the time you will not be able to 407 the box anyways, as many are going to be magically resistant to unlock. Any box enruned, mithral, or glyphed cannot be unlocked via magical means. Thus, you will need a locksmith anyway.
But as for the difficulty of disarming scarabs (assuming you mean after the bug is off the box) is noticeably easier than the difficulty of the original trap difficulty. My locksmith can do up to -400 traps at level 66. He also nearly triple trains in disarming, and uses 404 to get those traps. However, when he disarms a scarab of that difficulty, he seems to always get the "scritch scritch" messaging which indicates that the scarab was disarmed (on the ground) very easily.
Foraging is soooo pathetic for pures in general, and wizards specifically. Again, your training points will be better spent elsewhere in my humble opinion. I once tried to get 40 ranks of survival to see if it helped improved my foraging. If it did help, I sure didn't notice, as it still took the same endroll as before to forage for the same herb.
Perception I am sure will help, but as like survival I didn't seem to notice any great improvement in foraging with extra perception. However I would at least get 30 ranks anyway for other uses.
Ditto for skinning. If you are picking up FA or survival for the AvG skinning tasks, forget it. Not only must you successfully skin the creature, but they have to be at least a minimum quality for them to count as well. However if you are doing it to make extra silvers...then train in it as much as you can.
Zizzle
The Elementalist
VUWH60A
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 01:06 PM CDT
I would forget disarm since mages can only 1x the skill and you will not be able to do like-level boxes.
I do not know if it is the Perception or Survival skill needed for foraging, since my mage does 1x in both. He usually needs a 70-ish roll to find an herb, but that is with a runestaff in hand.
My main income is pelts, I find that 1x each in SU and FA is more than enough to get a good proportion of quality pelts.
Askip
I do not know if it is the Perception or Survival skill needed for foraging, since my mage does 1x in both. He usually needs a 70-ish roll to find an herb, but that is with a runestaff in hand.
My main income is pelts, I find that 1x each in SU and FA is more than enough to get a good proportion of quality pelts.
Askip
DRUMPEL
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 01:33 PM CDT
>#1 Disarming :
Like others have said, you're pretty much screwed if you want to disarm your own boxes. Once wizards kind of hit the 25+ levels, it's starts to be extremely difficult to disarm our own boxes, even with the help of 404. My level 33 rogue finds traps ranging into the -160 and up on boxes from mid 20+ creatures.
Now, if you do happen to actually disarm a scarab and get it out of the box and on the ground, I've been told you want at least 10 ranks in AS (Arcane Symbols) to make sure that you pretty much don't fail disarming the actual scarab.
>#2 Currently I have 50 ranks of perception, but foraging for herbs is still something of a nightmare:
I hear perception only helps a little. You need to train in Survival to get a noticable difference in your attempts. I've got 42 ranks in Survival with my wizard and honestly, I don't see too much of a difference between what my main wizard can forage and what my little wizard can forage without any survival training. It is known that wizards take a hugh professional hinderance when it comes to foraging. Wizards (and maybe one other profession) have the hardest times with foraging....luckily we can make up for a little with our Haste spell.
>#3 I guess I don't care too much about skinning, goes hand and hand with foraging for the most part but would be nice to know the amount of ranks i'd need to skin stuff at this level.
Best us wizards can do is try to 1x in Survival and First Aid. They both add to your ability to skin equally. If you want to be a half-way decent skinner, you want to do your best to 1x in both this skills. Any less then that and you're pretty much wasting your time. One advantage wizards tend to have over some other professions is that a high Dex. helps in your ability to skin. So with my wizard he's got a 35 bonus to his Dex and he's 1x in FA and just over .5x in survival. I do a pretty good job at skinning with him.
-Drumpel
Feel free to browse my shop in Solhaven (http://playershops.com/Kurut)
Like others have said, you're pretty much screwed if you want to disarm your own boxes. Once wizards kind of hit the 25+ levels, it's starts to be extremely difficult to disarm our own boxes, even with the help of 404. My level 33 rogue finds traps ranging into the -160 and up on boxes from mid 20+ creatures.
Now, if you do happen to actually disarm a scarab and get it out of the box and on the ground, I've been told you want at least 10 ranks in AS (Arcane Symbols) to make sure that you pretty much don't fail disarming the actual scarab.
>#2 Currently I have 50 ranks of perception, but foraging for herbs is still something of a nightmare:
I hear perception only helps a little. You need to train in Survival to get a noticable difference in your attempts. I've got 42 ranks in Survival with my wizard and honestly, I don't see too much of a difference between what my main wizard can forage and what my little wizard can forage without any survival training. It is known that wizards take a hugh professional hinderance when it comes to foraging. Wizards (and maybe one other profession) have the hardest times with foraging....luckily we can make up for a little with our Haste spell.
>#3 I guess I don't care too much about skinning, goes hand and hand with foraging for the most part but would be nice to know the amount of ranks i'd need to skin stuff at this level.
Best us wizards can do is try to 1x in Survival and First Aid. They both add to your ability to skin equally. If you want to be a half-way decent skinner, you want to do your best to 1x in both this skills. Any less then that and you're pretty much wasting your time. One advantage wizards tend to have over some other professions is that a high Dex. helps in your ability to skin. So with my wizard he's got a 35 bonus to his Dex and he's 1x in FA and just over .5x in survival. I do a pretty good job at skinning with him.
-Drumpel
Feel free to browse my shop in Solhaven (http://playershops.com/Kurut)
THROGG
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 01:43 PM CDT
>>I would forget disarm since mages can only 1x the skill <<
Hah! I have 5 ranks of disarm, and can disarm just about any critter my own level!
Oh wait, you are talking about boxes ... my bad :)
"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."
Hah! I have 5 ranks of disarm, and can disarm just about any critter my own level!
Oh wait, you are talking about boxes ... my bad :)
"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."
NJRUSH
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 04:38 PM CDT
Thanks for the information guys, definetly saved me a fixskills and cursing for 200+ days. Guess its more spells, lore and EMC.
VUWH60A
Re: Foraging, skinning and disarming OH MY
08/01/2008 08:16 PM CDT
>Best us wizards can do is try to 1x in Survival and First Aid.
Err...mages can 2x FA.
:D
Err...mages can 2x FA.
:D
