Notching Dodge over 20 skill is BROKE!!!

[Sesexe]

Hey all you melee phreaks,

So where's the best place to notch dodge? Wutchya need to be safe doing it?

Ya see I got me two mages that just don't want to get their last 5 dodge notches. I've apparently hit the skill plateau. Eep! So maybe me fighting 15+ hasted -10 level mobs just isn't cutting it.

Any suggestions? ;)

[rylan]

split shield. with crappy ac theres enough of a mix of mobs in there that can hit a mage.

[oteb]

You must be tanking mobs that actually can hit you.
My warrior maxed dodge after a couple trips to seelie as MT but i wont recomend that for caster for quite obvious reasons.
As for rogue a couple ppl were practicing at buffalos. they are high enough level to hit level 50 person
My mage got max dodge from old age. Never practiced it actually.
Besides dont expect miracles. 25 dodge on mage isnt really worth time investment. Like practicing 1h misc on rogue *bird pava*

[Sesexe]

I just want to max all the skills out that I can.

I got the time.

[Sesexe]

Ok. I had to rename this thread.

I believe dodge is fuct once you hit 20 skill as a mage. The cap is 25. Yes yes I've been told about the whole plateau thingie with skills.

But this is absurd.

Llaaldara had a 19 dodge. So I ran around DK and nuked all the slaves so until they pretty much all loaded in one room. I then unwielded my staff, turned vic off, and started spamming soul shackles.

Well pretty soon I was fighting about 15 mobs. (Think it's 17 total, but I'll go with 15 to be safe for the sake of argument).

Well, I decided I'd haste them too. So 15 mobs, 2 attacks a round. Sometimes they hit, most the time they didn't. I even got my ac pretty crappy (didn't make any difference from what I observed). So I dressed normal, kept on hasting, and then about 5 mins later after that I notched dodge to 20 skill.

So I was like.. cool. I'll max this puppy out tonight. Cool cool.

No.. no cool. I haven't been able to notch it at all since then. Sesexe has a 20 skill, and she has the same problem.

Ok.. so maybe the mobs are too low.. they aren't hitting enough. I need mobs like Splint Shield that can hit me right? Okie. I'll try that.

I systematically lure over 60 undead mobs into one room. Little here, a little there at a time. With some worm hole help from a squid from time to time I pack a slave room in DK full. With my normal 15 slaves again. They're levels range from 1-15 I'm imagining. We're looking at close to 80 mobs in one room. Yeah. it's totally that spammy. When you look in, your screen scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.

So I'm like. Cool. This should do it.

I spam soul shackles again. I got every single mob in that room hacking away at me. It's approximately 15-40 hits a round I'm taking. I'm getting hit. I'm taking damage. Did you get that part? Lemme say it again. I'm getting hit and taking damage. I have to keep healing myself. It's about 45- 70hps a round. varied a lot. There was a lot of dodging going on.

Eventually I run out of heal undeads. Flee out. memo and heal back up. Then it's back into this insane battle again.

I did this for about an hour straight late last night. (Was probably longer, but I'll say an hour cuz I'm sure of that much. Coulda been two actually. Thought I started at 1am and stopped at 3am.)

You know what happened? Do you think I notched?

Well I sure didn't. Nope, not even once.

Either the plateau is too high, or it's just busted. Perhaps the platuea should be incremental slightly? I Don't agree that a mage trying to get 25 dodge should be as ungodly hard as a warrior trying to get 90 (or wutever the cap is, I dunno guys. Correct me if you can. Thanks)


Please look into this.


PS.
Hey Sservis, feel like joining me to do this again? Maybe we could get some real factual data?

[rylan]

It took a long time for me to notch dodge as a cleric from 45 to 50, and that was before the melee skill changes, so I can imaging how difficult it is now... as you've demonstrated.

Along the same lines I think double attack and dual wield notching are busted also, at least for bards.

[Delmair Aamoren]

You think that is bad? i finally got my second to the last notch on apply
poison approximately 1 year after the previous. Wonder if we will wipe
in the next year or so before i max....

Its NOT worth the time sesexe. Even if you do get that 25, i guarantee
you won't notice the difference.

[fotex]

Yep, mage dodge at 25 sucks no matter how you cut it. It might kick in maybe once in 50 hits.

[Lenefir]

But that 1 in 50 might save you just when you need it, but yes, more often than not it doesn't...
Max for dodge (for this class) is 25... I guess perhaps it's a little easier for an enchanter to max dodge, as I can fight a little higher level mobs that will hit me with every hit, and still not get very hurt. I seem to recall I maxed my dodge fighting bugbears on Evermeet quite a while ago.

Intelligence Based Skills:
meditate (very good) (90)
scribe (above average) (64)
quick chant (master) (99)
spellcast generic (master) (99)
spellcast invocation (master) (99)
spellcast illusion (master) (97)
spellcast healing (bad) (20)
spellcast teleportation (master) (99)
spellcast summoning (bad) (20)
spellcast protection (bad) (20)
spellcast divination (master) (99)
spellcast enchantment (master) (99)
spellcast spirit (bad) (20)
spellcast nature (bad) (20)
specialize enchantment (very good) (90)
spellcast elemental (bad) (20)
sorcerous spell knowledge (very good) (90)
...
Agility Based Skills:
dodge (poor) (25)

What I kind of find more annoying is the rate of which I with these values in skills fail quick chant, my 10th circle spells (I lub failing quick chant on time stop, then fail the concentration when one * is left, and of course the fail on scales when the tank of course needs it the most), and not to forget relocate... :(