A Question of Bloodmagery

Well, a couple really.

Long story short is that with my dragon finally to the point where progress is no longer an OCD-like compulsion to make the number go UP, I'm finding myself more and more interested in working on a two-legger on the side. (Multiclassing is either going to be the best thing to happen to me, or the absolute worst.) However, while I'm decently competent at the fine art of Not Dying Before They Do as a Primalist, I have only the vaguest idea how everything mashes together for things that can't fly. So... hi biped forum! /wave

The foundation and assumptions behind my questions:

• I'm really, really not worried about the four or five or dozen tertiary schools I could derive some benefit from. Yes, I'm sure there's a ton of schools that could add something nice, and please feel free to mention them and why, but don't assume I'll bother leveling them before I sprout an understanding of what I need.
• I might have the patience to get one craft school to 100 before I go out and start hitting things. Maybe. If I do, it's probably going to be Blacksmith, and likely only far enough to be able to wear T5 jewelry. Any urges to craft are going to be satisfied by chipping away at Thickle's lair for a long time.
• I know a lot of general combat tricks-- critical techs, where to hunt, the fine art of advancing backwards-- but anything biped-only? I haven't a clue. I can't even remember what all the classes do.
• My ineptitude is a perfect inverse of how much I've been exposed to something. (Namely: some things I will just never, ever quite grok until I actually try it myself.)
• I can get my hands on pretty much any spell I could want. Armor and weapons, not so much. Not impossible, but trickier.

Still reading? Dang, I'm impressed. On to the questions!

Basically, I would really really like to be a Bloodmage. Or at this point I think I'd really really like to be one. However, this is based more on "well I'd play a druid except everyone and their mother already does" and "ooOOoo, light healing and sucking my enemies dry" than actual experience. I would have been contemplating Shaman (and just read another thread and spared everyone this post) but it seems that all nature-themed roads lead to Druid, and I cannot bear to do the same thing as 60% of the bipeds I run in to. Also, Blood Bolt!

However, what little reading I've done worries me that Bloodmage is a very... selfish class, for lack of a better term: it makes a good main school, but you can't retain all the good tricks if you swap to another. Which would make leveling things after Bloodmage obnoxiously difficult. I also, in a fit of insanity, have my heart fixed on eventually being able to cast all the t5 Gift spells, if only because ALACRITY OM NOM NOM. (Yes yes, I could just ask my local Cleric to buff me with it, but I don't want to keep reporting back to her every two hours.) So, very broadly:

• Is Bloodmage even a viable main school? It doesn't have to be hyper-efficient. I just did a Primalist dragon from 1-100 for pete's sake; the concept of efficiency scares and confuses me. However, it DOES need to be less of a joke than a Mage clubbing its way to 100.
• Assuming it is, is it the sort of school you can level first (once you meet the reqs to join), or do you need to go get something else to 100 so that leveling other schools later isn't a matter of "my rating says I'm 87 but I can barely fend off level 5 mobs" a la thread by Casyle?
• Is there any sane way to get a Bloodmage with at least T4 Gift spells without leveling more than 3-4 schools? Not that I'm convinced there is, but I have to ask.
• Do Bloodmages even care about the weapon they wield, or is it just an equippable pile of additional statistics and bonuses?

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Is there any sane way to get a Bloodmage with at least T4 Gift spells without leveling more than 3-4 schools? Not that I'm convinced there is, but I have to ask.

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You don't have to level 3-4 schools, just one.

Cleric is the easiest, it has no requirements, wears heavy armor, gives you a lot of Armor Use, and pretty good Health, and gives you Life -- access to Revitalize and Improved Revitalize, Gifts, and Raise spells.

MANY schools can use Revitalize and Improved Revitalize, which are useful too. You get pretty good HP out of leveling Cleric, and as I said before, Armor Use, One-Handed Crush (which you wouldn't use as a blood mage, but heh), and Shield.

There's also Druid and Healer too, not sure of the pros/cons of leveling them. I'd think Healer gets more Life skill than Cleric does, and I think druid gets Nature instead of Life. But yet, the Revitalize spells need more Nature skill to cast than Life...

To cast Gift IV spells, you'd have to level Cleric to 60. Leveling it to 80 would give you Gift V, as long as you are willing to put a few TPs into Augmentation, or, level a little past 80 (85-ish?) to get enough Augmentation. I believe Cleric gets either 8 or 9 per level. To cast Gift V at 80, you need 800 skill IIRC, or 10 per level.

Oh yes, Cleric also gives you Dispirit Foe. Awesome, awesome, awesome spell. Think of it as Negative Alacrity.

And yes, I _highly_ recommend Blacksmith first.

It is easy to level, you can go all the way on Stone Tools (as long as there's a stone cutter and stone pedestal, you got a straight shot all the way up), and if you do it _first_, you can receive Gift V spells even if you're only Level 1 adventure. It also gives you a buttload of Strength (nice for leveling cleric!), and if I recall, Dex.

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I would have been contemplating Shaman (and just read another thread and spared everyone this post) but it seems that all nature-themed roads lead to Druid, and I cannot bear to do the same thing as 60% of the bipeds I run in to.

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One of the reasons why I'm doing this whole warrior/cleric thing -- I like being different too, and I don't see too many heavy-armor, huge shield, and big hammer types out there. hehe. Not exactly the most efficient killing, but I like something that can heal itself and take damage. Clerics are very adept at that, with all that platemail, large shields, and _six_ healing spells (seven if you count the instant) and all.

My main has been a bloodmage for its entire existance on Order, so I'll give my two cents on the class.

Yes, Bloodmage is for the most part a main school class. Bloodmage with a high cleric backing is what I would suggest over anything else. Getting Mage up enough for Perfect spell and Conj. for multicast are also good. Cleric will give you the gifts and Dispirit Foes, which is great to be used alongside Ethereal Paroxysm.

Is it worth running around as a Bloodmage as far as adventuring goes? No. Its abilities are out-dated and the Reaver's Eviscerate life puts the Bloodmage's Exsanguinate to shame. (Exsanguinate does roughly 750 unresistable damage every hour. It can be multicasted, but even best case scenario puts a 5x multicasted exsanguinate at 4000. Which is very 'meh' for a 1 hour cooldown.)

The only really useful abilities that Bloodmage gets are Instant Transfer and Boil Blood. Stop Blood is also kind of 'meh'. It hits for roughly 350 damage and has a 50% chance to stun for a couple seconds. Great if it wasn't for the 10 minute cool down.

A bloodmage's weapon doesn't entirely matter, I use either the Bloodthorn or Demonskin staff depending on what I'm fighting.

I have Bloodmage as my primary class almost entirely for roleplay, honestly, because it's not a very good adventure class. Combined with cleric it can be pretty good at a support role, but I still think druids and healers are still a fair bit better.

That's not to say Bloodmage isn't fun to play, managing your health in a fight can get pretty intense, but it's just not that effective compared to your other choices.

Alright! Having read this thread, stared at spreadsheets swimming with numbers, carefully contemplated character flavors, stared at the spreadsheets again, run a couple numbers through the rating calculator, and stared at spreadsheets AGAIN, I think I'm slowly closing in on a plan.

As it is right now, my draft looks like:

0. Blacksmith to 100 for as much armor use as I can get my hands on, plus qualifying for jewelry.

1. Spiritist to 100: eventually my main class, I think, since it melds sucking my enemies dry with the potential, after some multiclassing, to be a decent healer.
-very good Focus
-perfect (ie as high as possible from class levels alone) Spirit, Magic Evasion
There's a chance I'll go Bloodmage to 100 instead. Not a very high chance, though. If I do, I'll probably try to level Alchemist to 100 to pick up the 9 Focus/level.

2. Healer to 100: loads me up with healing spells and abilities. Doing it second means that I have the Spiritist's repertoire of spells to work with, hopefully giving me some spell-based killing power instead of playing "swing-miss-heal-heal".
-perfect Focus, Augmentation, Life: Gifts early, Gifts often!
-adds almost every heal to my arsenal
-moves my base hitpoints from "binary" to "three-hit KO."

3. Mage to 100: the awkward one. Mostly I'd be doing this for the stats & rounding out my killing abilities, not because it makes any sense to level after two Mystic classes.
-perfect Power and Armor Use, so my spells and pajamas will be the best they can be
-Energy Bolt + Stun tech = cower before my Stun Bolt!
-assorted other damage-caster goodies (Perfect Cast, Multicast)

From there, I'm considering running another class or two to 100 if I'm still bored (hahahahaha) for perfect hitpoints, evasion and/or Nature skill; I'm sure the additional ability to take a horrible beating would be welcome, and picking up Regrowth would give me every healing spell that I know of. I'm trying to ignore/avoid melee classes as best as possible: I've yet to find a game where standing toe-to-toe with something and swinging at it didn't annoy me. (I know I can't avoid it if I want perfect hitpoints or evasion, but I'm doing what I can to put it off.)

So... any bad assumptions? Should I reorder my timeline somehow to make things easier? Pick a different class for a stated goal?

I personally would choose Cleric over Healer. Sure you don't get as much in the way of focus or life points, but the ability Dispirit Foes (An AoE that makes everybody 50% slower) which you can master at 96 is way more than worth it in my opinion. Dispirit Foes + Ethereal Paroxysm is a beautiful combo.

I personally havn't missed the lack of focus points or life points I lost with getting Cleric instead of Healer, you can use all of the spells otherwise. The rest that makes Healer more interesting than Cleric is class specific. (Cleric has its own class specific ability to wear plate armor, though.)

Points don't really seem to matter after a bit other than to meet requirements for techs. I can get Akrion's spirit magic to just short of 1800 and I see absolutely no difference between that and having his spirit magic at 1200.

ditto what akri sez, plus i would make one of your 'second tier' class monk....i cannot stress how awesome it is to be able to defend yourself well enough to recall even with no weapons or armour.......
plus, beating the snot out of low level critters with a dark green, triple socketed mith mining axe is soooo kikazz.....take that, you d*mned dirty bron gols!!!!! :rolleyes: :D :cool:

Ok, so after reading everything, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING LOL, heres my 4 cents:P

Guardian/Bloodmage/Healer - Heres my reasoning.

-GUARDIAN-
You don't want to do Druid because it's most used and thats understandable, but nature/spirit/life go so well together and the nature spells are really valuable if ya wanna do a stun here and there. So i suggest Guardian for 3 reasons.
1. Armor use is 10.
2. Access to nature nature spells, which both Bloodmage and Healer can use.
3. 2hand crush and 1 hand crush, which both Bloodmage and Healer can use.

Guardians fairly easy to level and has some nice Heal over times. And for someone who said earlier, Revitalize and Improved Revitalize can be used by ALL classes.

*On a side note, I despise Regrowth with a passion. Regrowth V is less that Field of Growth II that druid gets and is a masterable ability.


-HEALER-
Healers are very slow levelers if the have nothing to back it up. Guardian provides the 1 and 2 hand crush that it can use and provides nature spells which are great if you don't wanna solo and feel like mass killing.

You'll get 1080 life by the time your 100 and about 1k focus so thats great.

-BLOODMAGE-
I've got my Bloodmage to 90 or so and it isn't what I would use as default main, but it does provide a challenge since they are the only mystic class that cannot use Thunder Cloud and Shocking Blast. If you've leveled the previous 2 then this class is cake. Not only do you have all the heals you can use, you also have nature spells to assist while other things are cooling down, and you have armor and melee if you ever get bored.

Thats my 5 cents, yes i tossed an xtra in there:P An you also can level all 3 of these within a few levels of each to keep it interesting.

Nawkia

Quick addition to what rizo has said... Not to disagree, but perhaps consider Shaman instead of Guardian. You'll be using spells to do damage anyway, so I don't think the crush skills are necessary. Shaman gets so very wonderful masterable abilites as well as 10 nature AND blight per lvl. The nature spells are wonderful, even just for the two area effect spells (Thunder and Lightning Storm) as well as access to the epic spell Dark Cyclone. Since Guardian only gets 7 nature per lvl you won't be able to even start the quest for DC as you will need 750 nature.

So for my opinion to help Bloodmage along....
definately Healer... I know there are merits for cleric, but as healer you will be able to cast all the heals fully teched with no tps spend on life.
and as I mentioned I would go Shaman as well.

Now there are so many other classes that will also help with other abilites and stat increases as well, but those 3 there will give you a good head start ;)