Good links and info for scout/warden and warden/scout?

  • I'm still undecided which class to play and fairly equal on the scout/warden and warden/scout (I love this dual class thing!) I'm finding it a little difficult finding good, up to date information for the two classes. I'm a complete NEWB so I'm looking for updated information on everything, eg:


    - weapon (type, whether to tier or stat, what runes, etc). I think I should get a high tiered bow and a statted 1h sword, right?
    - equipment (what stats, runes) - for the rogue, I'd say dexterity, for the warden probably strength, but the scout/warden?
    - what buffs to use (this is very new to me) - I've seen different foods, potions, recipes, and don't know what to use.
    - what skills are best to combine with different combats, and can they be grouped together into one click/macro
    - are there any item set skills that I should get, and, do they ever sell on the auction house?
    - anything important I missed?


    Some of you are probably rolling your eyes, and I'm sorry. I could go to the original servers and learn, but I much prefer it here as questing is much easier and other benefits.


    If you have tips, links, anything then that'd be great and it'll be here for others (and for when I forget!)


    :cursing: ?( 8| :S

  • I would say if you want to be a damage doer then s/wd would be your best pick for sure. There is not much online in terms of guides that are up to date and helpful but I can do my best to give some pointers towards s/wd from a DPS standpoint that are based on my opinions and experience as a s/wd.

    - weapon (type, whether to tier or stat, what runes, etc). I think I should get a high tiered bow and a statted 1h sword, right?

    Ranged weapon you want a bow tiered to the highest tier that you can afford without breaking the bank.
    Stat stick you want to go with a dagger because it will give you the best in slot attributes and could also be used later as an offhand for rogue.


    Screenshots of my current bow & stat stick.



    - equipment (what stats, runes) - for the rogue, I'd say dexterity, for the warden probably strength, but the scout/warden?

    The beauty of this game is you can kind of do what you want when it comes to your gears.
    For scout you want to use Leather gears. For the stats as a DPS it is best to go with dexterity/phys attack and strength/phys attack. Again here I say you don't exactly have to break the bank... use the best stats and items which you can afford when you are just starting out. For the runes I will post another screenshot of the runes I use for both scout and warrior / warden I use same runes for the best p.atk and values in my opinion.


    I would say just ignore my stating because it is full endgame / hardcore stating lol
    Also tier x runes are 100% fine there is not much need for xii... maybe xi at most if your gear is perfect stated


    - what buffs to use (this is very new to me) - I've seen different foods, potions, recipes, and don't know what to use.

    There are a lot of buff foods ... I will give a list of ones used normally for scout dps
    Item shop foods - Featured Cuisine Delicacy(+4% all attributes), Soulmate Mixed Dessert(+7% Str & Dex + 3% P.atk & Crit dmg), Aged Realgar Wine(+30% Attack Power M.atk & P.atk), Hot Stew(+30% P.atk)


    Crafter foods - Hero Potion(+20% all attributes), Caviar Sandwich(+10% crit hit dmg) these can be crafted and gotten from your housekeeper, An optional potion - Touch of the Unicorn(+20% maximum Health points)


    Those are all longer term buff potions/foods but here are some short duration ones that are ~30 seconds are less time.
    Strong Stimulant(+25% attack speed), Extinction Potion(+650 crit hit rate), Laor Forest Tart(6 seconds immune to physical damage), Serenstum(6 seconds immune to physical damage),


    There are tons of buff foods and things in this game that you need later for the high content but they also helpful all around. Seems like a ton but you will get the hang of it I am sure!

    - what skills are best to combine with different combats, and can they be grouped together into one click/macro

    First the macro question... My opinion is I prefer to play scout manually with out any kind of combat engine or macro choosing my skills because there is always situational things that an addon will not know.


    Your main damage skills for s/wd are Charged Chop, Hidden Peril, Snipe, Shot, and Autoshot
    if you are doing AOE (Area of effect /multiple target) damage then it is good to use Gryphon Bash, Reflected Shot, Piercing Arrow.
    If you are just questing or dealing with easy mobs you can stick with using Charged Chop & Shot mostly to kill fast.


    Here is a list of skills I would recommend that you get to maximum level and I will try to prioritize them from most important to least important. (Will start from Scout general skills to warden general skills and then go into scout specific skills and this will be assuming that you have obtained all of your elite skills for s/wd)
    Scout General Skills:


    Blood Arrow, Shot, Swiftness, Speed Shooting
    Warden General Skills:
    Charged Chop, Savage Power, Briar Shield, Enhanced Accuracy
    Scout Specific Skills:
    Ranged Weapon Mastery, Natural Care, Snipe, Forest Guidance, Eagle Eyes, Target Area, Concentration, Hidden Peril, and then if you still have talent pts left over maybe max Gryphon Bash, Piercing Arrow, and Reflected Shot.


    If you do not have enough TP to max all of these skills I would not worry... it is easy to TP farm! just make sure you do goblin games every day with some + talent point buffs.

    - are there any item set skills that I should get, and, do they ever sell on the auction house?

    The most impacting ones:
    Archers Glory - Comes from Hall of Survivors Normalmode (Sacrifices movement advantage in exchange for faster attack speed and greater attack power. For 20.0 seconds, increases Ranged Weapon Attack Speed by 10.0% and Ranged Weapon Damage by 8.0%, but lowers Movement Speed by 80.0%.)


    Hunter's Advantage - Comes from Grafu Castle Hardmode (Permanently raises your Critical Physical Damage by 3.0%, but also raises the aggro you cause by 5.0%.)


    Other scout ISS:
    Keen Will is okay but not game breaking and is really a free set skill since it is easy to get- Comes from the Ancient Memento vendor in Dalanis (Received Physical Damage reduced by 5.0%.)


    Focus Enhancement is also a decent set skill to reduce focus cost for Hidden peril- Comes from Sardo Castle Normalmode (Permanently reduces all your skills' required focus by 10%.)


    Shatterstar Storm is an AOE skill but it is extremely weak - comes from Hall of the Demon Lord Normalmode(A hail of arrows rains down from the sky, inflicting 5 x 150.0% ranged weapon DPS to multiple targets within a range of 80.)

    - anything important I missed?

    Elite Skills are an absolute MUST HAVE in Runes of Magic.
    I will try to fill in more here later as this has already turned into a textbook 8o


    I think the best advice that I can give you is to be patient because there is a lot to learn in ROM just like any other game, but this server is great and there are a lot of knowledgeable players here as well. I'd also say to be patient when you are searching for a guild because nobody knows who you are yet so you might have to do a little work and put some time in to find a decent guild to join.
    Don't forget to just have fun too! The whole process of gearing up and running instances is a lot of fun. Don't try to rush that too fast to make crazy gears right away unless that is really what you want.


    If you have more questions my IGN is "Calo" and there are some helpful guys who lurk the forums here too.

  • I've done a couple of easy instances. It's such a fun class. I seem to like running around like a madman instead of standing there with an axe. I've experimented with what skills to use with the mobs and the bosses, and wondering what the optimal is.


    For mobs, I LOVE Gryphon bash. Shame about the cooldown. Reminds me of the warden's frantic briar. I think the cooldown's a bit long though. If there's anything I'd change presently it'd by the cooldown on that skill. Seems unnecessary. Gryphon and reflected shot gets me through most mobs. Shot cleans up. (Piercing arrow - to shoot in a line - sounds good, but I can't get that right).


    For bosses, there's probably a better way than what I'm doing. I'm not using potions and foods other than housemaids yet because I don't want to kill things too quickly and it allows me time to think about combinations and step by steps. What I think works is
    - combo shot (because it takes a few seconds and decreases their resistance)
    - autoshot then
    - charged chop
    - Joint blow (mostly to slow and root so I can run away), perhaps followed by wrist attack maybe. Boss is on me after I cast this.
    - hidden peril
    - snipe (which is increased due to hidden peril)
    - haven't used any skill after, but probably shot!!!


    Many of the other skills seem to be against another player. I need to experiment at some future time.


    Trying to look into how I can shoot with a bow much quicker. There's a housemaid buff called clear thought. I don't know if that helps with bows or if it's a magic class buff only. Curse X can't be embedded in a bow (he says after purchasing!!!)


    How can I shoot faster?


    Does natural care skill (to improve healing) apply to potions or only to healers that heal?


    Haven't got all my tp yet. I did the Hall of Survivals on easy and normal with it. Woohoo! There's a boss I can't do though with a horse and cart for the archery set there and that warden skill to call up a pet quicker which would be useful. I don't know how to make it work. I'll find out one day I think.


    i think these items skills sets are beyond me for a while. I got keen will which is good. There's a couple there that sound great.


    Ooh so good.


    I remember getting my level 60 skill but don't know where the level 70 is.


    I really think you put me on track with all this. I have two nice weapons and my equipment is lower but quite nice I think. Others I just threw really cheap mana stones on so I get more on my numbers. Disposable but helpful.


    Thanks again! I've learned more from your post than I have the last 8 weeks.

  • I forgot to mention Magic Lute(+25% attack Speed) and Magic Tambourine(+15% phsical dmg) these are very useful buffs too for soloing harder bosses and something you must have for a party running instances.


    I know some might disagree or have a better attack skill rotation but I personally use my attacks in this order when soloing a boss:
    Snipe, Autoshot (toggle it on during Snipe Cast), Charged Chop, Shot (spam shot... boss should be dead soon since Snipe + CC are your 2 powerhouse skills if both crit and you have cool downs running) Combo shot sounds nice with the target crit resist but Shot is more powerful than casting combo shot now after combo shot got nerfed.

    Trying to look into how I can shoot with a bow much quicker. There's a housemaid buff called clear thought. I don't know if that helps with bows or if it's a magic class buff only. Curse X can't be embedded in a bow (he says after purchasing!!!)


    How can I shoot faster?


    Most of the other skills compared to Shot are really weak now for scout besides Snipe and Charged Chop. Hidden Peril is nice for the chance of a 1 second cast Snipe but my personal preference is to cast snipe at the start of my rotation while solo. Some will disagree with this but as you saw in my screenshot I use a curse xii in my main hand stat stick which is +18% cast speed and I also use Arcane Potion(+15% casting speed for 20 seconds. can be bought for Ancient Mementos by HOS) which brings my snipe cast speed to about 1.9 seconds iirc correctly versus 3 seconds if someone does not use curse xii + Arcane Pot.
    When in a raid for a high end instance my rotation slightly varies depending on what support is in party.

    Does natural care skill (to improve healing) apply to potions or only to healers that heal?


    To me personally this skill is more for the +5.4% Ranged Weapon dmg you get when the skill is leveled to 55 but the +10.9% healing applied to healer skills and not your potions.

    Haven't got all my tp yet. I did the Hall of Survivals on easy and normal with it. Woohoo! There's a boss I can't do though with a horse and cart for the archery set there and that warden skill to call up a pet quicker which would be useful. I don't know how to make it work. I'll find out one day I think.


    The specific boss you are talking about requires 5 players to do the boss events or else you kill the boss and get no loot/can't go on to last boss.

    I remember getting my level 60 skill but don't know where the level 70 is.


    I am not sure if you completed the 60 elite skill quest or just bought the book from item shop? If you have your 60 elite you can buy another Proof of Progress book from the item shop to get your 70 elite for 450 diamonds... but I would not say the 70 elite is game breaking for you at this stage(Forest Guidance/70 elite makes your Snipe cause a target to take 10.8% more phys damage for 10 sec)
    If you rather do the 70 elite quests I think it starts in Chrysalia zone in the Sanctuary area but you have to be careful if you did not do the main quest lines because the fairy there will kill you as soon as you come near them.


    Glad to hear some of the information helped. Maybe if I find the time there will be some full in-depth guides in the future :whistling:

  • If you don't mind, I'm also going to put a similar question in the warden forum. I'm doing ok as a scout but I'm really drawn to the warden. Nature calls, so to speak. All I know is it's scout/warden or warden/scout. Maybe both in time. At least I can use leather for the warden!

  • Just two more questions ... sorry! All based on casting speed v physical attack


    1. So is it correct that "casting speed" all all casting buffs applies to a bow as well as staves? For example - the housemaid "Clear Thought" potion that gives an "additional 10% spell casting speed" - does it apply to the bow?


    2. Following on, the Curse rune is for casting speed for that particular weapon, and it's been put in a dagger. I'm not understanding why.


    ----
    edit:
    If it is casting speed, then what about normal attack speed, eg, strong stimulant, frenzy potion etc? Does it apply to the bow?
    ---



    And I did it again. I bought Curse X for the bow *facepalm*

  • Another issue I've had is arrows not reloading. I don't know if it's because my internet's bad (out of contract soon and moving on to another ISP). Should arrows auto-reload or is there a macro or something like that?