Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Pirate101 Subclass: Spending Practice Points

As I mentioned on this blog, I play a buccaneer in Pirate 101.  As soon as I got my first Practice point (the points that allow you to train abilities from other class trainers on your pirate, the first being awarded at level 8), I ran to the Privateer trainer and immediately got the ability to heal myself.  This seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a while, I started to wonder if, perhaps, there might be a better option.  I decided to see what I could find out, as I haven't read much discussion on this particular topic. 

After having looked at all 4 other classes and what abilities I could get with my 4 ability points (2 from leveling up and 2 from completing Prospector Zeke quests), I bought the first 4 abilities from the Witchdoctor class trainer (besides bonus to Staffy weapons).  The thought process was that I could turn what was essentially a paladin (healing tank) into a dark/death knight (black magic/poison tank).  Now, I'm only level 15 (going on 16), but this seems to work a lot better.  The Privateer ability that I had been using the most, an multi-target bomb drop, was replaced by a multi-target magic spell, the healing ability was replaced by a drain-style self heal, and the buffs I never used were replaced by direct damage spells and a debuff.  For my play style and level, this seems to be working out a lot better.  What I always hated about the healing spell was that it didn't heal for a whole lot, since as a buccaneer I don't have very high Will, and I didn't like wasting a turn with one of my heavy hitters in order to heal a companion.  This way, I can just heal myself while doing damage and the battle is over faster, so I don't take as much damage anyway.

It may be different at higher levels, but I don't see any downside to using the Witchdoctor skills.  Also, I couldn't see much advantage in subbing swashbuckler or musketeer.  If anyone has any compelling reason or awesome strategy that involves Bucc/Musk or Bucc/Swash, let me know!

5 comments:

  1. extra accuracy, or extra dodge, a few bonus hit abilities along the way

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    1. So do you just pick and choose from each trainer? I got in the mindset that I should focus all of them to get as many abilities as I could from 1 other class. Maybe my other MMO experience is tainting my opinions!

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    2. Someone was very helpful and put all the "sequences" together on how to train different cross-class abilities.

      http://pirate101.centralforums.com/forums/showthread.php?9702-Guide-Practice-Points-and-Skill-Sequences

      So for the example of getting two dodgy abilities from swashbuckler, you would get the stabby weapons, fast, and rough abilities (two of each of those). That's probably a lot for dodge, but all of those abilities would complement a melee style buccaneer.

      Conversely, the magic you've learned gives you more versatility.

      The accuracy isn't exactly clear from that sequence guide, however.

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    3. As I'm in the game right now, I'm looking over the buccaneer abilities, and it looks like you already have dodgy and accurate in your class list.

      I guess if you wanted rough (extra damage) and fast, that might be worth the synergy for combat. But that looks to be a lot of other abilities just to pick up a little extra damage.

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