Stats
STR 15
DEX 30
INT 80
CON 15
CHA 62
SEN 10
In the Common Tab, knowing roughly what sort of skill build I wanted to test for this solo Muse run, I took Spell Power (3) which adds skill power to all offensive spells, and Mental Focus (2) which is a self buff that enhances the damage from the spells.
In the Offensive Tab (and it might be helpful to note here that even though the skills on the top of the tab are for Staves, the non-AoE version of the elemental attack spells can be used by staff wielders and wand wielders alike) I've taken Voltage Bolt (1) at this point.
In the Supportive Tab I've taken Summon Training (2) and Summon: Phantom Sword (2), Sleep (1), Wallop Charm (1), Blessed Body Charm (1), and Resilience Charm (1). Similar to the Offensive Tab Skills, the single target buff skills can be used by any Muse whether using a wand or a staff. All of the Chant Skills (the AoE party skills) require a wand, as do Sleep, Soul Revive, and the two party heals.
Okay for those doing the math, I have 6 skill points remaining. I was going to put them all into Cure all at once, but I'm in the same quandry I was during the primary test phase with this -- it's not worth it. At level one, even with my Charm pumped insanely high (as Charm seems to affect only Cure spells) I go through an animation where I stop and let monsters close with me to heal all of 48 Hit Points. (Just for grins while writing this, I went ahead and allocated the skill points into Cure. At level five, with my Charm boosted as high as it is -- sacrificing HP from adding to Strength, Dodge from Dexterity, etc -- I get all of 178 HP. To help put this in perspective, a Kiwi, which one can use at level 26, restores 435 HP with no animation. A Woopie Glutton, which is blue to me, does 65 or so HP with a normal hit. To be fair, Cure (5) does have 1 Debuffs on it. Perhaps it is a weak skill at low levels and meant to be more effective when used by higher level characters.)
There's a 2 second cooldown, which doesn't seem long, but coupled with the animation -- two hits from a monster (faster ones get three) take away all the points you just healed and you hadn't done any damage to it. It's -- novel to be a Muse who doesn't even have the most basic cure and who relies on food, but it seems a shame that one of the core skills for this class is rather -- underwhelming. Honestly, with how many points I've pumped into Charm, the one stat that raises the effectiveness of Cure (and nothing else of a discernable combat or survivability nature) I don't think I'd ever bother to take the skill if this is how it will be in the live game. Food and ultimately potions are far superior in both the number of HP regenerated, and the fact that there is no animation -- you can even snag food on the run if it's in a hot-key. It's been the only thing that's saved me a few times today while waiting for the cooldown timer on Sleep to count down so I can get a monster to stop chasing me.
I have a simliar quandry with adding more points to the Charm (single buff) skills, too. Right now, Wallop Charm (1) gives me AP 10% +9. If I burn a skill point to take it to Wallop Charm (2) it would give me AP 10% +18. Using a skill point when you get only one per level to gain 9 AP seems rather dear, especially when I consider that if I add that point to Voltage Bolt it goes from skill power 126% +60 to 132% +80. Or there is Wand Mastery which has a more compelling AP 5% +5 at level one, then AP 10% +10 at level two. It seems that maxing out an attack spell, or maybe a few would serve better early on instead of maxing out the buffs. Resilience Charm is curiously weak in the same way -- level one is Defense Up 10% +18, level 2 is Defense Up 10% +37. One or two refines on one or two pieces of armor would give the same effect and then some without having to use a rare Skill Point (at low levels) and MP to cast the spell each time.
It was possible, barely, to go to level 30 with this build, using an intiguing combination of skills I'll detail in a minute, but then I hit a wall -- hard. I'm still in Breezy Hills, and have to be very careful wandering near the more aggressive Flanaes, even though they are green to me. If I have more than one Old Flanae attacking at a time, I'm in trouble (thankfully I can run away, but it's hard to level if you never kill any monsters). I can manage some of the monsters in the first part of the El Verloon Desert, Rackies, Turtles and such, but again, any sort of aggressive mob action is certain death as I'm not fast enough to run away from mobile monsters and the highly aggressive bee monsters and ranged attack monsters in the second part of the desert are absolutely deadly.
I do have to mention that I love~Love~LOVE the new Sleep spell. It has a long cooldown at 25 seconds for level 1 (and if the progression is steady taking it to level five would reduce the cooldown to 15 seconds) but it has an awesome effect. It's a 100% success spell that lasts for 5 seconds. I don't believe it has anything of a dreaded 'stun' effect to give PvP players any grief, but it's perfect for PvM. When a monster is hit with it, it goes to sleep (there are even little zzz's near its head
) which immediately stops any attack, and seemingly, any urge toward a hostile action after the spell wears off. As long as you don't re-trigger the monster (wander too close to a highly aggressive monster, or attack it) it forgets you are there, and to help with this, you immediately stop any sort of attack after you cast Sleep, so you can run away if you need. The monster doesn't follow you all over the place trying to kill you.And there's a really nifty combo you can pull with Sleep. I've been playing with the Phantom Swords. I can summon two of them, and buff them with Wallop Charm. What I discovered completely by accident is that Sleep will trigger the Swords to go and attack -- so it's almost a way to command the Swords to go into battle without the player being the primary target. I can stand 25m away (the casting distance for Sleep) and just watch as the Swords attack the monster. Now, their attacks are weak (I noticed no difference from Summon; Phantom Sword (1) and (2) in terms of their attack power or speed, and they cost more MP to summon) and it takes forever for them to beat down a monster (or they get killed and the monster wanders off again) so that's why I have Voltage Bolt to help speed things along. Interestingly enough, if I cast Sleep, and let the Swords deal some damage to the monster first, often it will concentrate on one of them, instead of coming after me, even if I start attacking directly. I think this little trick is the only way I was able to level this far on my own.
Spoiler
So, my conclusion is that it's not going to be possible for me to level at any sort of reasonable pace (I gained 30 levels last night, and only 4 today) with a solo Muse who's destined for the Cleric tree and this combination of skills. I might reskill and see if a more attack-oriented style (perhaps no summons and Sleep requires a wand so either no AoE, or I'll stay with killing monsters one at a time) can still level at other than a glacial pace, but I fear that Muses might be too weak and slow in PvM to solo play well under the new skill system.
