Hi all. I can't seem to solo things that other people can whack without issue. I've copied my stats and brought them here for advice on redistribution/modification. I appreciate any thoughts you might suggest to improve my ability to -survive-. Thanks!

REAL SKILL (not improved with items, what have you)
Anatomy: 89.6
Arms Lore: 7.9
Chiv: 76.7
Focus: 79.7
Med: 90.8
Parry: 86.8
Resist Spell: 54.9
Swordsman: 100.8
Tactics: 91.8
Lockpicking: 26.0, set to reduce. Not going to be a treasure hunter

Current Resists
P: 70
F: 64
C: 70
P: 61
E: 70

Str: 124
Dex: 53
Int: 84

EQUIPMENT
Soul Seeker Sword
Sentinels Guard Shield
Voice of the Fallen King Gorget
Royal Leggings of Embers
Gauntlets of Nobility
Valorite Platemail Arms
Agapite Platemail Tunis
Valorite PM Hatusbi(sp?) (helmet)
+11, Dmg Inc 7% Swords ring
+15 Chi, +7 Med, fire & cold resist +9 Bracelet

EDIT: I also want to buy a Swamp Dragon and put on it an Exceptional Dragon Barding deed I have...

this suggestion was originally posted by Ezekiel for pvm fighters:

If you are coming back from scratch, Id start with a Samurai Paladin. They are much quicker to train and do very, very well against the hgher end mobs.

110/115 Swords/Bushido/Parry
100 Tactics/Anatomy/Healing
the rest in Chivalry

Thanks, merth... I am not going to start over (I like my guy), but I will start shifting some of my skills around. It seems Focus is not really needed, so I can salvage nearly 80 points out of that, and I can trim a few other areas. Being able to avoid getting hit in the first place would go a long way towards not getting killed on some of those tougher monsters...

I agree with Merth. I run a samurai paladin, and with the lightning strike ability, Enemy of One, Consecrate, and Honor abilities, I have no trouble with most mobs. I dropped focus long ago, seeing as how the Paladin spell Divine Fury fully restores stamina in one cast. I personally would lose the Arms Lore and Meditation. With a good mana leech weapon, you will leech back enough mana to keep using your abilities, and save yourself 90 points. Good luck!

My PvM template is:

120 Swords (not necessary 115 is fine)
120 Parry (see comment above)
110 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Resist
90 Healing
80 Chivalry

Can't exactly remember stats, but something like 130 Str, 143 Dex, 31 Intel. With the leeches on the Soulseeker, you don't need the Med, Focus, or even high intel. This guy does very well against most mobs, though high end bosses still come down to skill and or using groups of peeps. You can also, as mentioned, substitute Bushido in there if you like.

Where do you get a soulseeker or mana leach weapon?

Soulseekers drop off of Mel I know. They may drop off of other stuff as well, probably other ML nameds.

Bush is amazing for a swordsman, and I would recommend it if you're running swords and parry. Using a shield is pretty bad compared to the parry % with swords/parry/bush. Its something like 40% at 120 bush/parry. Add in 45% DCI and your char is gold.

If you're running a PvM only char, you really don't need resist magic, and although it can help with mana vampires and curses. It does nothing for damage taken though.

Also, I never take anatomy or healing over 90. Maybe anatomy if I had some extra points, but at 90 anat/healing you have 100% success at healing and pretty decent success at cures/resses.

Definitly would drop arms lore, med, and focus. With a soulseeker, and its mana/life/sta leech and the swing speed, I don't think you'd need any of these skills.

GET HEALING. For a warrior, healing is amazing because you can use it and still do other stuff at the same time.

Also with chiv, I wouldn't suggest putting it over 65. Maybe 70 for better success with EO but at 65 you can cast all of the really useful spells and if you're going to raise it past 65, then you should think about putting it 105 so you can use noble sacrifice and the damaging spell. The effectiveness of Chiv isn't based on skill level either, its based on karma, so having more chiv won't make your skill work better, just the success of actually casting them. Most of the combat skills don't have a spell cast/recast either until you actually cast them.

Last thing I would do is raise your dex a lot and lower your int a lot.

soulseeker sources
1) Paragon monsters in Ilshenar. (drops into your pack)
2) Named Mondain's Legacy Monsters. (drops into your pack)
3) Peerless Bosses (drops on the corpse)
4) Inside a Level 6 (ingeniously) treasure chest.
5) Player vendor. (On LS they go for 100k ish or less)

Mana leech is a property that has percentage chance to be attached to any weapon looted from any monster. The harder the monster, the higher the intensity.

Are there any benefits to using healing instead of close wounds/noble sacrifice, aside from saving up mana?

One benefit is the ability to use enhanced Bandages, since they basically give you a Healing skill point bonus (5 or 10, I'm not sure). If you are using Bushido and Chiv, you will be using your mana for other things, and every little bit helps.