Common Skills Rank Pool
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Combat Expert Melee
Resilience Fabled Fitness
Discernment Expert Intellect
Magic Apprentice Arcana
Planar Transcendent Mysticism
Discipline Fabled Willpower
Environment Fabled Communion
Influence Fabled Magnetism
Beastmastery Adept Magnetism
Arts Capable Finearts
Lowmagic Virtuoso Arcana
Aethercraft Adept Mysticism
Dramatics Adept Performance

Trade Skills Rank Pool
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Herbs Transcendent Communion

Guild Skills Rank Pool
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Knighthood Transcendent Melee
Blademaster
Rituals Transcendent Arcana
Sacraments
Athletics Mythical Fitness


Basically I've got 489 credits (can buy more from credit market to bump to 500) to spend on either upping my skills or getting some artifacts. I'm looking for what to best increase my fighting prowess most cost efficiently. I've already got level 2 wounding runes on my 66/235/162 scimitars, 3 arti pipes and gloves of harvesting.

I was thinking some level 1 weapon stat runes, a level 1 health/mana/ego rune, getting a rune of absorption, converting the credits to lessons and dumping them into some skills or a combination of the aforementioned.

Any and all advice would be awesome, thanks!

Trans combat and athletics? You probably want to remove your runes from the scimitars and use them for something more useful because I don't think they are much good nowadays. I definitely don't regret transcending resilience for physical damage reduction and poison shrugging or discipline for faster focus body times, focus spirit and faster power regen on prompt. Could get someone more experienced to give their opinion about those scimitars you have and what you want to learn.

Assuming you're up to Surge in Athletics, that's 35 credits to trans. If you're at Head in Combat, 200 credits to trans (?). Fabled 0% to Trans is maybe 134 credits? That's how I would spend 500 credits I suppose.

EDIT: Reason I suggest removing the runes is because of the stats you have on the scims.

I'm usually a strong proponent of skills before artifacts, but the Rune of Absorption can be quite good for hunting and PKing.

I wouldn't trade in the runes. Consider it money already spent, since you might end up buying them again in the future anyway.

I would say the most important skills to you right now are athletics, combat, resilience, and discipline. Resilience maybe a little less so, since you're a knight and may have tons of HP already, but more resistance never hurts (trans resilience is about 25% physical damage reduction). Discipline for faster power regen, focus spirit, and faster focus body. combat for better stances and more accurate parrying. Athletics for surge/puissance.

Then as you get extra lessons to spend, low magic for serpent, and then maybe magic.

I also adore the poison-shrugging at trans resilience.

You are forgiven for not knowing anything about weapons my son. Having runed scims is pooptastic, trade in is the only answer. Ask Catarin if you don't believe me.

Pull the runes off the swords, trans your two guild skills.

If anything is left, put it in discipline, combat, resilience, magic, discernment.

Runed scimitars are just dead weight for a few reasons. For one, tempering any wounding weapon enough to rune it pretty much wrecks the weapon, because of the rather high minimum floor for damage on them- you can't dump enough out of damage, so you wind up having to take a bite out of your desired stats to the point that you waste the effort of runing them.

Secondly, and most importantly, for whatever reason the admin have seen fit to make precision pretty freaking worthless. Which fairly sucks for my poor speed wounder, but there you have it.

I should have put a disclaimer that I actually do not know anything about weapons, weapon runes, or weapon stats.

I just assumed that if he had plopped down all those credits on them he had done some research and bought good ones on good weapons.

For what it's worth, the general consensus when I was actively playing my knight is that once you get to Surge in athletics, you may as well stop. Puissiance was not considered to be very good of a skill.

That said: It's been a long time. Maybe that has changed?

Only terribads believe puissance is worthless.

Only terribads have ever believed that. Nothing changed with the skill, people just finally figured out that hitting for 2500 wounds on your first swing can be a "good" thing.

Alright so the general consensus I'm getting is to up my skills some more and to drop the runes off my scimitars.

Also along with Isuka's question: I have been gone for quite a long time and just got back and was wondering too ... is puissance a viable skill now because I already have surge and is upping to trans athletics really going to help me out alot?

And also do max precision scimitars still make viable fighting weapons or what is the typical fighting weapon for blademasters now?

Speedwounding rapiers around 199/230

Well I got these runes a long time ago and I think wounding scimitars were viable back then ... I might have been mistaken back then too but I think I wasn't ... just as an fyi.

Were being the key phrase. Yes, wounding scims WERE viable back in the day and I'm sure viable to some extent to this day but not as viable as speed/wounding weapons or speed/damage.

Alrighty, well thanks everybody for the great advice, hopefully I shall not disappoint.