Rate my Pvm build?

xodustrance

Apprentice
I'm getting my ass kicked by liches / lords even with my wife's gm Mage dedicate. Sure we can take one or two, but 3 or 4 and it's over.

I have gm:
Swords
Tactics
Anatomy
Hiding
Almost gm healing
Resist
Lumberjack

Maybe I just suck, I don't know. I get around 45ish AR from the chain / ring suits. I use good weapons and do over 100dmg on swings some times. Anything else I should consider for survivability?
 

thestand

Grandmaster
Maybe drop swords and lumberjack for archery/magery and get your wife to put music/Provo on her mage. Use silver weapons for lichs.
 

Enthalpic

Grandmaster
If you made a lumberjack character, no sense in changing the skills up. You said your wife is a mage... what are her other skills? If she were a provoke mage, that'd be a perfect duo. She provokes large mobs like liche lords and you wack them with your axe while they are provoked.
 

Mango

Grandmaster
I like the build, like Enthalpic said, what you seem to really be missing is a provoker to help out. If your wife is mage/prove then you two would be so powerful pvm
 

xodustrance

Apprentice
Ok - wife has magery, eval, anatomy, resist, inscrib, meditation, and that's it so far - so we should add music / Provo and drop resists or inscribing?
 

Enthalpic

Grandmaster
I would recommend one of two templates:

First Template:

Magery
Meditation
Evalint
Wrestling
Resist
Provocation
Music

Second Template:

Magery
Meditation
Evalint
Resist
Hiding
Provocation
Music

I prefer the first template, it is more of a pvp style. Which may work well with your lumberjack character. On the other hand, you can always drop wrestling for hiding. At GM hiding she can hide and not break provokes.
 

Wizx13

Grandmaster
I run all 3 PVM Bards love em all!! :)

2 bards of any build can slaughter almost anything in the game.

My Mage Bard is
Magery, Med, Eval, Hiding, Stealth, Music, Provo.

My Lumbard is
Anat, Heal, Tactics, Swords, Lumber, Music, Provo

My Archer Bard is
Anat, Heal, Tactics, Archery, Music, Provo, Hide

All three can solo very efficiently :)

Slayers are the key to fast kills. You do not NEED them as GM or Junk magic weapons will do just fine.

My advice on liches is use not only a silver weapon but also a silver musical instrument.

These are just my personal builds and not necessarily "the way" you should build yours :)
 

Yagyu

Adept
Ok - wife has magery, eval, anatomy, resist, inscrib, meditation, and that's it so far - so we should add music / Provo and drop resists or inscribing?
mage/eval/med/resist/hide/provoke/music build listed above is amazing, dont waste time with wrestling bard isnt a pvp char. drop lj! axes suck, its sad can do better damage with macing or fencing than you can with an and lj...axes even with the LJ bonus are completely underwhelming...gotta love the whammer and the other better macing 2 hander....they get damage and stam drain and stunning whatever they are called blows, whereas with axe you basically have less damage, less stuns (since you swing like once every 9 seconds or whatever) and you get no stam drain. Archery is amazing too, for something like liches you can just mow them down from range with a slayer bow and not have to get melee range and eat all that damage. A good archer can own basically anything. And if you decide to do some champions, you 2 will both do great.
Honestly you might have wife start a new char, it takes like no time to lvl provoke/music and doing hide and magery is even easier. That way you dont have to give up your gm scribe, its nice to have and a great base for any pvp char.

I hate to see people without resist, well not really because the die in like 2 nukes and always have such nice loot. A char with no resist, or even a melee/archer bard is a niche char...you arent going to have even near the versatility of a provoker/mage. Awesome char and a dexxer to finish stuff off, and to keep the mobs lifes even, and to pull stuff to the provoker makes this combo insanely effective. You can literally kill anything except possibly a solo high end dragon paragon.

ps- use gm instrument id never use a slayer instrument just not worth it! also with silver weapon you take double damage from pks, bring a back up weapon. If you want to know where to macro to gm music/provoke in a few hours safely just pm me. Did yesterday in about 4 hours from 40-gm not a death or a single switch of mobs.
 

Nanashi

Grandmaster
I'm getting my ass kicked by liches / lords even with my wife's gm Mage dedicate. Sure we can take one or two, but 3 or 4 and it's over.

I have gm:
Swords
Tactics
Anatomy
Hiding
Almost gm healing
Resist
Lumberjack

Maybe I just suck, I don't know. I get around 45ish AR from the chain / ring suits. I use good weapons and do over 100dmg on swings some times. Anything else I should consider for survivability?


Both builds are viable options for pvm. If you guys have gm resist I am quite sure handling provo isn't at all or shouldn't be an issue for you. Most provo characters out there do not run resist at all. If your having issues trying to provo mobs, maybe get some more practice on easier melee ones that do not cast magery. If you still have issues, jump ship to a provo archer build instead.

Survivability also relies on being prepared. Always have your character stocked with regs/pots/pouches(for mobs that paralyze)/slayer weapons/slayer instrument/and most importantly,attitude. It is used to scare most mobs that know you will slay them with your powerful melee skills!! Ignore the last thing, I just like to go out there knowing I might die because it is easy to get careless and a pk runs up on you unsuspectedly. Plus you have a partner that can resurrect if things get hairy. You should be working as a team! Your character is going to be the tank while she provo's mobs together, her part should be focused on keeping you alive and crowd control stray mobs that get too close.

I really hope that helps put things into perspective for you and your wife. The game isn't easy but who said it was? Once you get really rich, maybe switch up to the old cookie cutter tamer builds for killin liches. Err scratch that you will be way above those and killin hard things like paragon slayers,paragon ancient wyrms etc...Good luck my friends!
 

Yagyu

Adept
You really got that hyperbole thing on lock, huh?

Sent from Baja 1997 - ICQ 12013388
Dont know the difference between sarcasm and hyperbole? Or what are you even talking about? Because I said that axes have 9 second delay? Yes I play here, thanks for asking.
 

VFingerDiscount

Grandmaster
Yes, because you said axes have a 9 second delay. Your reading comprehension is coming along nicely!

Sent from Baja 1997 - ICQ 12013388
 

Khaleesi

Apprentice
Hey
mage/eval/med/resist/hide/provoke/music build listed above is amazing, dont waste time with wrestling bard isnt a pvp char. drop lj! axes suck, its sad can do better damage with macing or fencing than you can with an and lj...axes even with the LJ bonus are completely underwhelming...gotta love the whammer and the other better macing 2 hander....they get damage and stam drain and stunning whatever they are called blows, whereas with axe you basically have less damage, less stuns (since you swing like once every 9 seconds or whatever) and you get no stam drain. Archery is amazing too, for something like liches you can just mow them down from range with a slayer bow and not have to get melee range and eat all that damage. A good archer can own basically anything. And if you decide to do some champions, you 2 will both do great.
Honestly you might have wife start a new char, it takes like no time to lvl provoke/music and doing hide and magery is even easier. That way you dont have to give up your gm scribe, its nice to have and a great base for any pvp char.

I hate to see people without resist, well not really because the die in like 2 nukes and always have such nice loot. A char with no resist, or even a melee/archer bard is a niche char...you arent going to have even near the versatility of a provoker/mage. Awesome char and a dexxer to finish stuff off, and to keep the mobs lifes even, and to pull stuff to the provoker makes this combo insanely effective. You can literally kill anything except possibly a solo high end dragon paragon.

ps- use gm instrument id never use a slayer instrument just not worth it! also with silver weapon you take double damage from pks, bring a back up weapon. If you want to know where to macro to gm music/provoke in a few hours safely just pm me. Did yesterday in about 4 hours from 40-gm not a death or a single switch of mobs.
Hey I would love to know where you did it but cannot find the pm function on my phone. Can you please pm me ? Ty
 

edw3rdwood

Grandmaster
Your wife has anatomy + eval int for defensive wrestling I assume, I would drop anatomy because ideally she should just NOT get hit, EVER. Mages should work on avoiding getting hit. Especially if you can add provoke in there.

Provo is key. The trick to taking down liches like they're butter is distract them by provoking them onto something else. Also as a dexxer, even with 100 resist, liches will eat you up if they are attacking you directly. Dexxer vs. lich is like a lose-lose-lose scenario. You want to be attacking the lich when it is focused on someone else. So again, provo is key. Especially if you two play together often and farm as a team, provo will make the game 10x easier and more fun.

Have her provo, then just sit back and cast ebolt/gheal while you hack away with axes. If there is no other mob to provo onto, you should go 1v1 with the lich while she spams gheal to keep you alive. And silver weapons will give 2x damage against all undead.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

kurtis

Grandmaster
Your swords/LJ build is fine. I like it because it would be effective in PvM and if you PvP (or if you have to fend off PK's). I might personally drop hiding for Magery or Archery, but it really depends on your personal play style.

Truth is, you're not going to able to tank against 3-4 liches/lords with just bandaids and one mage healing you. It doesn't matter your build. Even if you had a defensive skill like parrying, you'd probably still struggle to survive. A single tank is not really meant to stand up against that kind of firepower. That's why liches/lords drop such good loot. If you two could work together to pull just 1-2 at a time, then you'd be fine. That's where archery would be really nice. It's great to pull out single mobs. Drag them over with your bow, then switch up to your axe while your wife nukes the mob from a distance.

The other option is to have your wife get Musicianship and Provocation. But then she's turned herself into a dedicated PvMer. If you two ever PvP, she's at a huge disadvantage. I guess it largely depends on how the two of you use your characters.

Also, if you have to drop GM inscribe, you're probably better off building a new character instead. Inscription is expensive and time consuming, and is incredibly helpful to have on at least one char. Especially since you don't currently have magery - she can provide you with unlimited recall scrolls.
 

edw3rdwood

Grandmaster
The other option is to have your wife get Musicianship and Provocation. But then she's turned herself into a dedicated PvMer. If you two ever PvP, she's at a huge disadvantage.

Well, she would be outstanding in PvM but can also provo other mobs onto any PKs which can distract them. And she will still have magery/eval int to cast gheal and debuffs against the PK. AND she has scribe, so she can magic reflect on you both. So I would just make her a straight provo mage, the only 1-2 skills you might take on a mage to make them PvP-viable are so niche you're better off just sticking with what you have.
 
When playing in pairs like I do, me and my friend usually both get healing. Healing another person is much faster than healing yourself. With 25 dex it takes me like 14 seconds to heal myself, but to heal my partner it's only 4 seconds. So you can get off basically 4 heals in the time it would take to heal once. We stack next to each other and just cross heal the other person. Keep in mind that dexterity also decreases the amount of time it takes to heal both you and yourself as well. Also, I would suggest carrying a fair amount of cure potions with liches. Usually the heals can keep up just fine but a poison flame strike combo can really take its toll on the heal being absorbed.
 
Top