Hello all,

Don't know if I am going to even post this, as it is more for my own organization than anything, but I might like it enough to share, and you guys can share your experience with me! (Is it weird to start a post like this? Probably)

Ok, here's my situation:

I've got a tamer that is at
85.5 lore
85.2 taming
89.5 eval int
100 focus
96.4 magery
100 med
85 vet

However, I am strongly considering moving him to a new shard, to try a new experience there. Should I decide to make this move, I am going to be moving a bunch of his skills around. I want to make him a bard/tamer with discord for most hunting situations and peace for taming situations (to be stoned in and out as needed) However, do keep in mind a couple of suituations:
This is a new account, and I have a very finite supply of soulstones (two, to be exact, and the ability to get 1-2 fragments if strongly recommended to add on the ability for provoke)
Also, my skill cap is only 700.

Here is what I want to make his final build look like:
120 Lore
115 Taming
120 Discord/120 Peace
120 Music
110 Vet
115 Magery

Unless excel doesn't add properly anymore, this should add to 700 (Just checked it, so unless excel and I are experiencing concurrent epic fails, it should be right)

I guess my first question to you would be, is this a fairly viable build? Would it be worth training up provoke for special situations (I've read on this board that it can be very useful in Doom and a few other places) Also, I know that there doesn't seem to be a reason for 115 magery... And there isn't. Any suggestions on filling this build out a little more? Obviously 15 points does not a skill make, but I'm open to all suggestions.

Either way, I guess the way I'm going to progress with this build is thus:
1)Move to new shard, skills intact.
2) Stone off Eval int, med, and focus, to a toon that I am building as a mage/scribe
3)Use the skill mule idea (Thanks for this idea... uh... whoever posted it here. Good idea for getting gains in the slow part of skill development.) to train up first peace, then possibly discord, then provoke, as I decide what I want to do with provoke. However, I can see a problem with this, in that you would presumably need some real targets to train dis. and prov. and having very limited skills might make that more difficult. Do you think it would be worth all the OOOooOOO's to go out with a friend and train these skills, or should I just work them on my more developed toon?
4) As skills become developed, move them onto tamer toon and enjoy!

Furthermore, thank you to all the contributors to the Tamer forum. Invaluable information to be had here.

Thanks in advance for your time to look at this, and give me some suggestions!
Kellerman

Sounds alot like template. Two suggestions. 1) carry a tome of enlightenment. This will lower your magery requirements 15 points which can be added elsewhere. 2) If you can afford it, get a crystalline ring. This will lower your magery requirements by 20 more points. This in turn lets you put 35 skill points somewhere else. I would also suggest you keep your eval. Comes in handy when fighting casting spells for fighting harder enemies. i.e. Peerless, Vanguards, Beserkers...etc...

That's a thought I had, as far as eval. but I just don't know where to squeeze it in. Any thoughts?

Would ~35 points be worth investing in eval? Any dmg increase at this range?

sorry thats tome of lost knowledge..not tome of enlightment that gives you the +15 magery. But was wondering what kind of jewelery you wear. Any skill gains from jewelery can be subtracted from the template and save points. Another point is, with vet being at 110 eval heals pets faster using greater heal. Usining a combination of aids and spells, I can solo para balrons and vanguards with vet at 115 and eval at GM. Keep in mind, using greater dragons requires greater healing.

So, what you may be suggesting is something along these lines?

105 Lore (jeweled and talisman'd up to 120)
100 Taming (Jewled up to 115)
105 Discord/105 Peace
100 Music
100 Vet
100 Magery (booked up to 115)
100 Eval

Am I reading you correctly? Or would you suggest something slightly different?

If that's what you mean... I need to know if losing the music and discord/peace points are going to make that big of a difference? I would imagine so, but I'm a bit under experienced in that area.

Also, you say that "using greater dragons requires greater healing."
Do you mean that they do not allow you to vet, or simply that you have to have more healing, because they have more HP? Sorry for the newb question.

Thanks for the quick replies!

The higher your vet, the quicker and more HP you can heal.

Greater dragons require more healing because of hit points. Sorry for not making it clear. But I would take magery down to 85 can carry the tome of lost knowledge and put that 15 points to vet.

Hadn't thought of that, for some reason.

Thank you.

Can someone weigh in on how much I am going to miss the extra bard skills?

Let me give you some advice. DO NOT go with bard skills UNLESS you can get 120 scrolls for music and the skill.

Music scrolls are rare (at least on GL). And, you won't be able to disco/peace any of the big meanies without the 120 scrolls.

Sad day, then, because according to what I've heard from everyone else here, I need the Eval... Which means there is not room for the full 120 dico/peace/music.

Well, considering that, I suppose this is what I'm shooting for:

120 lore
115 taming
115 eval int
100 magery (w/book to 115)
120 med
120 vet

In case you are wondering, the main reason I have 115 in some areas and not 120, is because 120 scrolls are silly expensive, and I can't see spending 10x plus the money for 5 more skill points. Also, this build leaves me 10 points shy of the skill cap. I guess I may just hold onto those points until my lucky day when I pull a 120 magery and 120 taming scroll. (Yeah, right)

I'm sure the classic mage/tamer is still a big bread winner out there, but it seems so cookie-cutter, so that makes it not as fun for me. Any ideas how I can spice this up without losing functionality? Or should I just bite the bullet and play it out?

Also, thanks for the awesome replies in a timely manner!
Kellerman