Misc questions on Skill selection

[iberci12]

1) Why would one ever buy a "Counterpart" skill(or upgrade) for the counterpart stanza when they usually come bundled with other skills for free?

2) What are the differences between the different armor types? I am not sure which line to concentrate in as a I am not sure of the bonus's of each one.

3) It seems like I am taking a hit in a skill line when I choose to upgrade an attribute instead of picking up a skill. If I am not carefull, will I be able to "gimp" a skill line?

4) I like playing defensive/support characters but observed that if I am to succeed in magic, I must start out with Acid (offensive) and use that all the way up to level 20 and I will be encouraged to upgrade it in order to keep up with mob progression. So I guess my question is that, is there any way I can bypass the offensive content in the magic tree.

5) Does a cost of a skill vary on what stanzas you already have for that particular skill? For example, if I see a skill that listed that comes bundled with counterpart lvl2 and I already own that counterpart, do I get it cheaper than if I didn't own it. I don't believe so and if this is the case, this makes skill picks a fairly delicate affair as you want to make sure you don't pick too many redundant skills with many stanza crossovers.

Anyways, I am enjoying the system and any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. I didn't buy the game shinkwrapped but opted instead for the d'load version so I didn't obtain a manual and everything I learned so far has been on this board and some fan sites.

Thank you

ilan

[thurgond]

1) and 5) The cost of a spell is based on which bricks you already know. Most base spells come with a time credit which you will seldom use, so it is generally better to buy the upgrades. Sometimes a credit may be available as part of a spell before it is available as an upgrade and half the heal bricks are available only as part of the life gift line, so you have to be search around a little for what you want.

2) Short armor answer:
Light armor is the onlything you will want to wear for spell casting, digging or crafting (unless you want to go naked which some do). You can wear any quality light providing you can afford and find what you want. Heavy armor provides the most protection from melee attacks, has the most malus, and you can wear only armor equal to your constitution. Medium is between the two - it has less protection and malus and you can wear quality up to 150% of your con which means you can have more bonuses (until your con approaches 250). Medium is good for a secondary tank as you use less stamina and you can heal the healer with less sap drain.

3) You can't gimp a line. There will plenty of skill points for the basics. Taking attributes or skills when you get to a new level depends a lot on your gear and level. At low levels it's generally better to get the attributes. Later when you have gear that gives attribute boosts, new skills are better choices. Eventually, you learn to save up a few points before you make a level divisible by 10 or 5.

4) You don't have to advance in elemental magic if you don't want to, but you don't hurt healing or affliction skills if you do. It's about the only magic skill you can solo (you can solo with madness, if you have plenty of hits from melee or another skill tree), and it's good to be able to kill something that's almost dead when your the only member of your team standing.

[glipe]

1) Why would one ever buy a "Counterpart" skill(or upgrade) for the counterpart stanza when they usually come bundled with other skills for free?

I think that's been covered but just in case....

Some counterparts are more useful to you than others. For example, hp and sap counterparts for magic spells are probably the most used. Normally, buy the ones you need along with the upgrades for the spells involved.

2) What are the differences between the different armor types? I am not sure which line to concentrate in as a I am not sure of the bonus's of each one.

This one has been covered indeed! Light for casting and harvesting (because you can still get enchantment bonuses from the armour), Heavy for melee fighting and taking hits, Medium for in between. There's also the style to be taken into account. A homin must look ones best.

3) It seems like I am taking a hit in a skill line when I choose to upgrade an attribute instead of picking up a skill. If I am not carefull, will I be able to "gimp" a skill line?

You'll have more than enough points to spend and attributes are very important, especially hp and sap. Focus can be augmented quite significantly with enchantments on jewelry and armour and since harvesting only involves that one stat, it's the only one you should consider not enhancing to it's fullest extent at the very start!

4) I like playing defensive/support characters but observed that if I am to succeed in magic, I must start out with Acid (offensive) and use that all the way up to level 20 and I will be encouraged to upgrade it in order to keep up with mob progression. So I guess my question is that, is there any way I can bypass the offensive content in the magic tree.

You don't have to start with acid, it's just the one that is given to you when you choose your starting packs. If you don't choose a magic starting pack you can save 50 skill points from another tree (Fighting, Harvesting or Crafting) and spend that on a defensive magic starter pack. Or you can make the points with the Acid spell. This will help your defensive magic as well, as the offensive and defensive magic skill trees don't branch for a while at the start.

5) Does a cost of a skill vary on what stanzas you already have for that particular skill? For example, if I see a skill that listed that comes bundled with counterpart lvl2 and I already own that counterpart, do I get it cheaper than if I didn't own it. I don't believe so and if this is the case, this makes skill picks a fairly delicate affair as you want to make sure you don't pick too many redundant skills with many stanza crossovers.

The skills get cheaper to buy when you have already bought one of the actions within it. You'll see for yourself as you level. But as we've mentioned, some counterparts are more useful than others so you might want to concentrate on upgrades most of the time.

p.s. I didn't buy the game shinkwrapped but opted instead for the d'load version so I didn't obtain a manual and everything I learned so far has been on this board and some fan sites.

Pfff, Manual-shmanual. Ah, that's not even a word. Sorry. The manual isn't half as useful as just chatting to someone on here or in game. *whisper* we know the secrets! *whisper*

Welcome to Atys.

[iberci12]

Thurgond, Glipe,

Thank you very much for the VERY detailed replies!!! The quality of the feedback was more than I expected. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.. I really appreciate it!

ilan

[iwojimmy]

The magic tree doesnt split til level 21, so all those acid spells are helping you learn Healing
From 21 to 50 you can improve Defensive magic (solo) by using the Fear spell to pull mobs, then finishing them the traditional way -melee or nuke- its nowhere near as fast, easy or fun as working with a team though

All the questions have been well answered so I wont add anything..except.. Medium armour LOOKS better

[mmatto]

You have to train offensive magic as long as you will get enough skill points to get one of heali life, life gift, sap gift or stamina gift spells. After that you can use act in support role and get xp out of it. You will get those heal spells quite fast like 10 mins.

[akm72]

All the questions have been well answered so I wont add anything..except.. Medium armour LOOKS better

Except medium fyros armour on men!

[borg9]

Except medium fyros armour on men!

Its ok if you want to look like Adam Ant!

[sprite]

Its ok if you want to look like Adam Ant!

Lmao there's a tatoo we can get to look like we just stepped outta the Prince Charming video too