Cheaper to raise Dex or Wis?

[Ixiola]

I agree that as a ranger, dex is far easier unless you plan to do a lot of tradeskilling. If the latter, then investing in wis gear isn't a bad idea, as it will cover all tradeskills regardless.

Something that I don't think was mentioned was Boon of the Garou. IF you know a nice level 44+ enchanter, have the enchanter hit you with this buff in PoK. You won't be KOS in this zone. (Note, you must be grouped to get the buff). The nice thing is that the last patch just REMOVED the level restriction on this, so now anyone should be able to get it. Although it only lasts 2 minutes, it's +100 dex while it's on. I had my husband do boon on me during my training run with bows from 200 - 235 or so, and it made a huge difference. Boon + shammy dex = 255 without much effort.

Another thought is dex food. Even if you don't need it to hunt, you could equip the food whenever you're training. And if you force feed yourself foraged junk, it will last you a long time. Justice Fruit pies are +15 dex, and the Obadah truffles are +6 I believe. You can probably find both for sale in the bazaar or just ask around for a baker.

And personally, I like velium fire emerald rings to hunt with as a ranger, as it gives both str and dex. (+6/+6 per ring). So that's a good one to invest in for both reasons if you have the money. They typically sell for about 700p each retail on our server.

[Xenephex]

Well, I haven't quite made it but I thought I'd post the results of my 2 nights of skilling.

I got to 186 and I've burned through about 550 plat of the 700 I had allocated for this attempt, which seems high from what I've heard from other folks in this regard. My CHA when buying and selling is 114 and I'm doing this in PoK. I believe I'm getting the best prices, but I haven't actually verified that. My understanding was always that 115 cha would get you the best prices.

With my equipment, my dex was at 162. I did from 77 to 105 unbuffed. From 105 to 162 I had a buff that took my dex to 202. After 162 I had two shaman buffs that maxed my dex (255). The vast majority of the plat has been spent since 162. I did have a couple of unusually bad streaks. It took me over 200 combines to get from 177 to 179, and after I hit 185, I've done over 80 combines with just the one skill up to 186. I quit when one of the buffs dropped.

I also made the longest gap in the skill up progression even longer - I misread a line and ended up doing bone vanes from 122 to 162.

One other thing that probably hurt in terms of plat was not being high enough level to dual wield. I had bought a planing tool (for 30 pp), but I can't equip both the tool and the glowing black sword at the same time, so I've gone with the sword. I'm sure that has cut down on successes.

All in all, I"m pretty happy. I'll probably burn through what I have left, until I can't afford to buy a full stack of steel shafts anymore, and then come back and finish up later this week. I think I'll spend a little time in Steamfont to see if I can gather any micro-servos.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

I also wanted to ask - what are popular arrows that I might make to sell in the bazaar?

"When prairie dogs are outlawed, only outlaws will have prairie dogs."

[Morani]

There are two type of arrows that sell better than any other and they are based on what the buyer is looking to accomplish. One thought is Range; longest range you can get, forget the damage. The other is Damage; best damage for the price, forget the range.

For range I recommend; wooden shafts, field tips, small nocks, and parabolic fletchings. End result is a 1 damage, 150 range arrow. The range arrow will cost 1.58 plat per 20 combines and yield 5 stacks (assuming no fails) or 0.32 plat/stack to make.

For damage I recommend; Silver tips, bone shafts, shield cut fletchings, and small nocks. End result is a 5 damage, 50 range arrow that can hit mobs that require magical weapons to damage. The damage arrow will cost 85.5 plat per 20 combines and yield 10 stacks (assuming no fails) or 8.55 plat/stack to make. You can make higher damage arrows but the cost goes up dramatically. Highest damage arrow will cost nearly twice as much to make and adds 3 points of damage (not counting condensed substance arrows).

[splunge]

Because of the spell fix, youll have to get lower level dex buffs. If lvl 49 and lower spells will still land on a lvl1 then ask for these spells:

Infusion of Spirit - 55 dex - 49 Shaman
Boon of the Garou - 100 dex - 44 Enchanter

Boon only lasts 6 mins or so so be ready to do a flurry of combines when it lands, or get it from a friend.guildie who is already tooling around in PoK or wherever and will be there for a while.

Not sure what crace of ranger you started but Humans start with the lowest dex at 75 so thats 230 dex right there with no dex gear. Halflings have the highest starting dex at 90, so thats the 255 cap right there.

[Lothay]

FYI as of the patch on June 11, 2003 Boon of the Garou has had it's lower level limit cap removed.

Used to be it only worked on people 44 and above. Now it works on everyone. You must be grouped with the caster.

~Lothay

[Xenephex]

Hi all.

I got to 196 (and level 11) over the weekend and will probably not make any more serious attempts to skill up until I hit level 17 and can dual wield the planing tool and the sword. Even then, I think I will make some arrows to sell for a while and just let the skill ups happen as I do that.

I did get two buffs at one point from a Shaman that added over 100 points of dex total. One of those was pure dex and the other was a combo spell. I was too dumb to think about noting what the two spells were, but there was no problem landing them on my low-level guy and I wasn't grouped.

I had gathered enough stuff for 4 trueshot attempts and succeeded on my first two attempts. Put one in the shared bank and am using the second one. I figure I'll wait until after I hit 202 to do any more trueshot attempts.

One note - as a halfling, I had to go kill some CB orcs for faction before I could get wooden shards from Jyle Windshots. Not a big deal, but I hadn't seen that mentioned anywhere. I don't know if I would have had an issue with Maelyn Trueshot or not, as I didn't talk to him until after I had raised my faction. Also - I don't know if this is just a coincidence, but I had about 30 or so small lanterns to hand to Jyle. When I handed him the very last one I had, he gave me back a wooden heart and then de-spawned. ?

Thanks again to everyone for all the help, and good fletching!

[lonewylfe]

He despawns with the wooden heart now? That stinks.
The heart is for the upgrade to the trueshot, raincaller.