Mortal Skills 201

From NexusWiki

Welcome to Mortal Skills 201 - Skill Build Fundamentals. This course is designed to introduce new players to the concept of planning and designing a character early on to prevent buyer's remorse.

Skills may be purchased at any time by clicking the Buy Skills button. This will take you to a page listing skills that are available to you. Certain skills require you to purchase the prerequisite skill before they are unlocked. It is still possible to purchase skills from previous Tiers.

Spells may be learned at any time by clicking the Learn button next to the scroll's name in your Inventory provided that you have the Cast Spell or Tattoo of Sorcery skills. It is not possible to learn the same spell twice.

Skill and spell purchases are permanent and cannot be undone.

[edit] Introduction

If you followed the information from the previous course, you may have found yourself at Level 2. Or you may have peeked in on a lecture for HIST 421 - Local and Extraplanar History and sought out some Exploration Badges. Or overheard some students from STAT 321 - Statistics and Leaderboards and sought out some Achievement Badges. Whatever the case may be, you are now in possession of some Character Points and ready to make your first purchase.

Healers, Crafters, and Combatants will discover that they will not be able to progress through their respective skill trees on just 10 CP. At this point in your character development you can either choose to broaden your abilities by selecting another Mortal skill or patiently wait it out for another level to purchase a child skill and focus your abilities by climbing a specific skill tree.

You will encounter this situation many times as you level up in the Nexus. As the gap between levels lengthens and costs for purchases increase, there may be large spans of time between when you'll get your next skill. It may be in your interest to design a long-term plan to ensure that you get the skills and spells you want when you need them.

[edit] Limited CP

Bear in mind that you aren't going to be able to acquire every skill and spell. Dragon-hunting aside, the amount of Character Points available in the game is finite. It is possible to obtain 1070 Character Points - 555 CP from leveling, 40 CP from exploration badges, and 475 CP from accomplishment badges.

The amount of Character Points necessary to purchase every skill and spell is greater than this amount. Mortal skills alone would require 840 CP (minus the initial skill). A "jack-of-all-trades" mentality may result in you spending all your Character Points and discovering that you can no longer afford to purchase some of the more expensive skills.

[edit] Banking CP

Before you can change into a new class, you must not be storing more than a certain amount of Character Points. For Tier 2 this limit is 40. For Tier 3 this limit is 70.

A lot of players will opt for storing as close to this cap as they can in order to purchase a new skill after they change classes. The advantage of doing this is that they can quickly make use of a transportation, armor, or aura skill to compete with the other characters at their new level range.

Several players may still be unsure of what class they would like to become at levels 10 and 20 and will wait until later to make a decision. While you do not technically lose Character Points by doing so, you may limit the amount of Character Points to spend on advanced skills.

If you go to level 30 without purchasing any skills, you will have at least 555 Character Points stored. However, you will be faced with the task of spending 515 Character Points to access Tier 2 classes and then Tier 3 classes. That leaves you with a mere 40 Character Points to spend on Tier 2 and Tier 3 skills and spells. This is, of course, the most extreme example. There are still numerous practical lower-tier skills that a little waiting won't hurt.

Your build may also be affected by acquiring an accidental Exploration Badge or Achievement Badge. Once you spend the necessary Character Points to stay under the limit, you may wish to acquire more Badges to once again get as close to the cap as possible.

[edit] Builds

The term build is usually applied to these character plans. Let's say each character is like a house. The skills and spells are various rooms and features. The class is the foundation. Your build is the blueprint to designing a nice house that you'll enjoy.

You can either stick with a tried and true Ranch style or go all Frank Lloyd Wright and create something unique.

The best way to begin a build is to have an idea of your finalized character. This can be accomplished by looking at the Tier 3 classes and choosing the one that most appeals to you. Most of these classes have skills which can be improved with certain Mortal skills. Thus, if you wish to be proficient with those skills, you may wish to level up with the Mortal skills that will help you reach those goals.

If you're feeling creative, maybe create a backstory and persona for your character which dictates which abilities they should have. Was your character a wandering ronin in feudal Japan? A mob gangster from the era of Prohibition? A peace loving hippie from the 70s?

[edit] Build analysis

What follows is just an example. It should not be thought of as the only way to plan an Infernal Behemoth.

The author of this guide has no actual experience with this build firsthand and strongly advises against following it verbatim. This is provided solely as a teaching tool.

Let's look at the Infernal Behemoth. They have several skills which rely upon their proficiency with Hand to Hand Combat. An Infernal Behemoth that wishes to use Tailwhip or Caustic Horns, should consider leveling with skills that work towards supporting them.

All right player, what goals do you have in mind?

"I want an Infernal Behemoth that can play the role as meat-shield."

Very well, let's see what you got.

Level 1 - Hand to Hand Combat

Level 2 - Saved

Level 3 - Martial Arts

Level 4 - Saved

Level 5 - Saved

Level 6 - Advanced Martial Arts

Level 7 - Dodge

Level 8 - Strength

Level 9 - Saved

Leveling this character solely through Hand to Hand fighting will likely be a grueling process. Especially since it takes at least six levels to get the best possible accuracy. They could have considered starting their character with an alternative skill to increase their opportunities for earning Experience Points.

Note how this player did not consider Boxing as they rationalized in the long run it would not benefit them. They considered Dodge to take advantage of the defense bonus from Martial Arts. Strength is a prerequisite for Stamina, but other likely candidates at this stage include Sense Magic, Planar Protection, and Hide.

At this point, they will have 35 Character Points stored so as soon as they level up they can purchase a Pariah skill.

Level 10 - Blood Claws

Level 11 - Hellfire

Level 12 - Saved

Level 13 - Blood Taste

Level 14 - Stamina

Level 15 - Weaken

Level 16 - Planar Protection

- Sense Magic

Level 17 - Lesser Regeneration

Level 18 - Saved

Level 19 - Saved

They begin their career as a Pariah with Blood Claws which improves their damage and gives them the added effect of Unholy which isn't soaked by unenchanted Mundane Armors. This player is not interested in all of the Pariah skills so they select several Mortal skills to round out their abilities.

They followed through with their earlier Strength purchase and acquired Stamina. This time they have invested in Lesser Regeneration with the plan of acquiring Greater Regeneration later.

At this point, they will have 65 Character Points stored so as soon as they level up they can purchase two Infernal Behemoth skills.

Level 20 - Chitinous Armor

- Leathern Wings

Level 21 - Tailwhip

Level 22 - Saved

Level 23 - Bloodlust

Level 24 - Greater Regeneration

Level 25 - Fiendish Bulk

Level 26 - Burning Aura

Level 27 - Roar

Level 28 - Saved

Level 29 - Saved

Level 30 - Infernal Frenzy

They begin their career as a Behemoth with Chitinous Armor and Leathern Wings. The armor acts as a deterrent versus some of the lesser classes. The wings allow them to cover distance quickly to seek out suitable targets.

They follow that up with Tailwhip which they utilize with Weaken and Hellfire to pierce some of those nasty soaks utilized by other Tier 3s.

They begin to purchase skills which increase their longevity, such as Greater Regeneration, Fiendish Bulk, and Burning Aura.

After a ward is broken, they can proceed to Roar and wade through most pet damage with their defenses and Infernal Frenzy. Their high regeneration rate and Blood Taste claws coupled with an inventory of Potions could make this a very sturdy tank.

This build misses out on dealing stronger damage by avoiding Strong Attack, Elite Attack, and Stygian Bloodletting. Also, all this defense could be for naught without a Potion of Holy Immunity or Unholy Aegis from a smiting Seraph.

At this point, there are 25 Character Points left over (not including those obtained from Badges). The player might become a little lax about the focus of their skills and may pursue those that work toward Achievement Badges.

[edit] Final thoughts

Over-analyzing every little aspect of your character is a quick way to suck the fun out of the game. It's just important to be aware of what skills will be most useful in accomplishing your goals. Resist the urge to purchase a random new skill as soon as you level up. Think ahead of how the skills you purchase now will assist with skills you purchase later on.

[edit] External links

• Nexus War Character Generator by Siddhant "wcil" M.
• The Panopticon board on the official forums for build advice