solo: some newbie/general questions

[Legolas73]

Hi guys,
after a very short time of playing Wiz8 I have begun to experiment a little. The thing that has interested me most right from the start is a solo game. I am trying out a faerie, which I am planning to build up as Monk/Bishop. Right now the character stats are like this:

Char lvl 5, Monk 4, Bishop 1 (for healing spell)

STR 35
INT 58
PIE 58
VIT 40
DEX 61
SPE 68
SEN 64

The most important skills are:

Close Combat 70
Critical Strike 55
Staff&Wand 58
Martial Arts 47
Stealth 97 (had two excellent encounters - one with two Noxious Slimes, one with 4 Seekers which were trapped and couldn't retreat - to bring up my Stealth skill)

Some questions regarding the rules and stats of Wiz8:

1. When training Stealth I gained points quickly when the skill was still low, but it took ages to advance from say 94 to 95. That supposed to be so?

2. My AC is 13/14, but sometimes during battle it shows 15. What's going on here? Also, is 15 good enough to survive Arnika road?

3. I guess the AC will go up once I level and pump DEX and SPE, right? Any other ways (apart from items) to improve AC?

4. I guess the combat skills are fairly decent, but the character does very little damage (so that I am always running low on Stamina). I know that I am a bit short on STR but won't high skill values make up for it? What are the base damage values for kick and punch once the Martial Arts skill reaches say 80+?

5. I was hoping I would not need that much damage because of the Critical Strike skill. However, instant kills hardly ever happen even though the skill seems to be fairly high. Any idea what percentage of instant kills is behind a skill value of 55? When thinking of critically hitting, is it more advantageous to attack with the staff or with bare hands, or does the Critical Strike skill apply equally to any melee weapon?

6. The last question is of a general nature: I keep reading posts which glorify Alchemy as THE source of financial income in the game. How do you use the Alchemy skill to make money? Is it only be grafting better, i.e. more expensive items out of cheaper ones, or is there anything which I have missed?

Thanks in advance for all replies!

Legolas73

[Raziel666]

Hi.
I used to play a solo Faerie Bishop (single class), so I can tell you sth about it. Although your your questions are rather general.
1. Yes, it`s normal. Wait and see how long it will take you to advance from 95 to 100.
2. Using defend option gives you +2 AC. If your character doesn`t have a target he automatically defends.
3. You get +2 AC if your speed is 100. When you reach 100 DEX you gain access to Reflection skill, which gives you 6 AC when maxed.
4. IMHO, not increasing STR from the begining is a very big mistake. High strenght gives you more stamina. I`ve read on our Polish site that Martial Arts gives you 0.85 dmg per 1 point. But I`m not sure of that. Seems a little bit too much.
5. I think that with 55 you get 3% instant kill chance (or 4 % or 2 %). Try to get Staff of Doom ASAP (Mountain Wilderness).
6. You earn money by mixing for example Light Heal with Mod Heal. After selling Heavy heal you get 300 clear profit.

At what difficulty are you playing ?
Although you char is better fighter than mine (only Bishop - no stealth, I also never train my skills - the game gets too easy with that) you still might find Road to Arnika very difficult. Just run as fast as you can.

Good luck.

[ 02-23-2005, 06:39 PM: Message edited by: Raziel666 ]

[Scatter]

CORRECTIONS:

3: 80 SPD confers one AC; 90 confers the second. No need to go to 100 unless you want Snakespeed.

5: Critical Strike is 1% chance if you have it at all and 1% more for each 25 Skill points thereafter. If you're developing Martial Arts, Doom won't be good for you.

6: Save the Heavy Heals you mix to mix them with other potions to make MUCH more profit. (spoilers below)

Recommendations:
Build DEX 3/level, STR 2, and VIT 1. When you get Haste there'll be no need for more 'natural' SPD; SEN only helps with ranged combat; INT would be nice for Powercast, but survival is more important, and your Martial Arts will be much more deadly if you follow the above plan.
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Mix H Heal with CLC for Cure Disease, then add another HH for Renewal if you want the most profit. Even more profit from powders: Flash plus Sneeze = Pandemonium.

[Raziel666]

5. His Staff&Wand skill is higher than Martial Arts, so I thought he wanted to fight with staff. Also Legolas has been hoping to benefit from high instant kill chance - Staff of Doom - 15 %.
6. If you play solo you don`t need a lot of money. My solo Bishop had money problems only at the begining. Creating some Heavy Heal potions helped a bit. When my Alchemy skill will was high enough to mix better potions I wealthy enough, so I was didn`t need to make any potions.

SEN helps your Critical Strike.

---> Legolas
Are you planing to play as Monk and gain levels as Bishop only for magic ?

[ 02-23-2005, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: Raziel666 ]

[Krull]

I soloed with a Dwarf Monk with enough Bishop levels to get the level 2/3 major buffs. Dwarf damage resistance and Monk damage resistance combined very well.

Ended up with MA as the primary weapon and the Zatoichi Bo in the secondary slot and magic for ranged combat.

Needless to say, but if you do go as Monk as your major class, there's lots of decent weapons and armour you will be coming across which can be frustrating as you can't use them!

[Raziel666]

It will be frustrating anyway beacuse he`s a faerie.

[Wereboar]

0. very high skills that early in the game. So i assume you play easy.

3. Bless spell/potion or armorplate spell/scroll imporves AC too.

4. You do very litte damage because of your low strength.
I think the martial arts damage not only depends on skill, but on character level too.

5. If instant kills happen every now and then, you are very lucky. In two games (small groups, not solo), my first critical was against the hogar on route to mount gigas (after having cleared arnika). Chances for kill are much higher when fighting monsters with a lower level than your character.
Base critical chance is the same for staff and martial arts. To max your chance, choose the attack form with highest number of attacks.

6. As a solo fairie monk, you won't need money.

[Legolas73]

Hello all, and thanks for your replies. Re your questions:

1) I play mostly on normal, switching to easy every now and then.

2) Actually I wanted to go more for the bishop than the monk, but I find that in the early game the monk is more useful than the bishop. Nevertheless, I wanna play bishop to try out all the available spells.

3) Therefore, I am not sure where to develop from now on. I am char lvl 5 but I have enough XP to advance to char lvl 8 or 9. Actually I experimented yesterday, raising Bishop by one (to get the stamina spell - from the book of course) and giving the other levels to monk. I increased Speed and Senses. Now I did this BEFORE going to the Upper Monastery, and I found encounters there to be rather easy. I even ventured into Arnika Road, and the few encounters I had (it was surprisingly empty) were ok: After killing two wasps the four Crimson Poppies decided to beat it, probably for fear that I would have their smelly blossoms for a salad with my dinner...

4) In the above setting I had four attacks (2 kicks, 2 punches) after the levelling, but I wonder whether that depends on char lvl or PURELY on skill values?

5) I am thinking of money to be able to buy all the cheap spell books in Arnika. Good idea or not?

6) From what I gather relying on Instant Kills is probably not that great an idea...?

7) My staff skill is higher right now as I depended on the sleep spell of the faerie staff in the beginning. It seems though that hitting with the staff consumes more stamina, right?

Legolas73

[Klutz]

4: I believe it's been pretty well established that number of swings/attacks is dependent on character level as well as skill level. To what extent Monk vs Bishop levels would impact that I'm not sure... like anyone I'd guess the more Monk levels the more attacks, but as to how that concretely works out and whether it would be worth the lost spell levels in your other 3 spell schools I have no clue.

5: You should definitely be able to accomplish this. Without adding spoilers, you can be pretty confident in your ability to buy up base alchemy ingredients in Arnika, mix them, sell them at a profit, rest 24+ hrs for vendors to restock, and repeat ad nauseum until you have all the money/spellbooks you need.

6: Ironically, the most reliable way of getting Instant Kills for a Monk or Bishop is the Staff of Doom. As pointed out earlier in this thread, its critical hit chance dwarfs your base chance you get from even maxing the Monk critical hit skill... plus that Monk skill will be cumulative with the Staff's ability. But even with the Staff of Doom, I wouldn't rely on the instant kills if going the combat route... specifcally if I wanted to kill things in combat I'd want high Strength.

That's going to be one of the toughest decisions for this character... how to focus/spread attributes. It would be really nice to neglect Strength entirely, but in addition to its combat benefits Strength also contributes stamina which is especially valuable for this character. Right now, my inclination would be to stay away from Dex & Spd, despite the AC assistance they will provide. Not that Dex and Spd are bad, but that I think every one of the remaining 5 attributes can make a case for being better bang for your buck. INT especially I'd want to max ASAP for Powercast, along with probably one of the stamina attributes (STR, PIE, VIT). Then probably SEN for initiative and your second and third stamina attributes.

7: I've never seen any tables or statistics on the topic, but generally speaking the heavier the weapon the more stamina it costs to attack with it. The Giant Sword is well known as one of the worst stamina-draining weapons in the game, and daggers like the Stiletto minimize stamina drain. I believe the Faerie Stick causes pretty minimal stamina drain. Martial Arts tends to drain a fair amount of stamina just due to the sheer number of attacks you get, but I think on an attack-by-attack basis Martial Arts is fairly stamina efficient.

[Scatter]

DO NOT waste points on SEN! If you want high INIT, cast Haste for that. Swings/Attack/Round will increase with Haste on, too, as your SPD determines a lot here.